Grump Alert!

Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like pulling the covers up over your head, staying in bed for the day and not coming out?

Ever had one of those days when you should have?

I've had both today.

I was awesome this morning, I was up early, my gym bag was packed and I was off to the gym. Then, at about 5:45 am, my car died. I was pretty far away from anything that resembled help. After unsuccessfully trying to wake my hubby up with repeated phone calls (love him to death but he sleeps like a rock) I called my daddy and he came and rescued me. Back to get Gareth. Back to the car. Couldn't get it going, so we had to call a tow truck. Wait for the tow truck. Go home, shower and get ready and all that stuff that I do at the gym in the morning, and got to work an hour late.

That DRAINED me! So annoying, so unnecessary, and so exhausting.

Now, after pumping myself full of coffee and chocolate (don't judge me, I'm back on caffeine) I tripped at work and landed hard on all fours-to the point that there are marks on my pants.

I'm just reminding myself that everyone has bad days, and someone has had a worse one than mine. Having a bad day? I probably just made you feel better!

Is it time for bed yet?

To better days ahead,

Shauna

Post Wedding Blues

Hello friends! Happy Monday.

How was everyone's weekend??

Mine was pretty good. Sadly, I don't have my camera with me, so no weekend pics for you! Gareth and I did have an engagement photo session on Saturday though (Gareth is a photgrapher, I pretend to be too) so I will share some of those once they're finished and edited.

This does mean that some more plans & intentions were followed through, as we have been having lots of picture days! Gareth has been taking photos nearly every day, and he's even commited to sharing a picture a day for 365 days on his blog. I love it! I think others will do, as he's pretty awesome.

Check out some of Gareth's work at his blog. He's pretty amazing at it!

I seem to be in better spirits this weekend. I think for the past little bit I have had a bit of post-wedding blues. I didn't think I was the kind of girl to suffer from something like this, because I wasn't all crazy about things being perfect or anything. But I think it's because I had a pretty big day lined up, arguably the biggest day of my life, and I had something really big to look forward to, to work towards, and to prepare for. And preparations there were, a plenty.

Now...I don't have something specific to look forward to. I'm so happy with the way the day went, and I loved every minute of it, and I wouldn't trade anything for the world. I just think that after having the majority of my time focused on this one event, there is a let down going on now because it's come and gone and now I have a lot of free time on my hands. Free times that has filled up very quickly with plans and friends and commitments I neglected leading up to the wedding, so it's a bit of a tradeoff I suppose.

Gareth thinks we need to plan a trip to Mexico or Costa Rica for this winter to have something else to look forward to. I won't complain ;).

This is me on our honeymoon...perhaps I'll look like this again soon??

Anyway, I think I'm getting over this feeling. I had a nice weekend, it was really chilled out and I was okay staying in my pj's all day on Sunday. And why not, right?? I think it's pretty normal to have these feelings after the wedding right? I know it's all about the marriage and not the day and la de da, but come on, who isn't going to feel a bit lost after months of being busy every single night after work, ordering flowers, going to dress fittings, finishing invitations and mailing them, and anticipating the happiest day of their life so far? Now that I've had it, I'm so happy and I feel so lucky to have Gareth, but back to real life it is, and sometimes that can be scary and the unknown can be frightening, not fun and exciting.

C'est la vie, take every day as it comes. I'm just excited to be living it with my man :)

Shauna xox

Hurt & Love

Gareth and I decided it would be an awesome idea yesterday to perform jumping squats AND dynamic lunges all in the same workout. This has equaled me hobbling around looking like I'm 80 today at work. Every time I sit for a while my legs seize up and...I hurt. I went on the elliptical today, nice and slow, to try to stretch it out. Still hurt. On a positive note, I've been to the gym 4 days this week already (6 times, weights at lunch). Yay!

Remember the post I wrote recently about friendship, and how friendships change and hurts us and we have to accept it and move on? I would like to let you know that I have experienced the rebirth of a great friendship. After having an amazing friend in high school-someone who laughed with me, cried with me, was my biggest cheerleader and helped me follow my dream of going to Australia-we lost our bond and our closeness slipped through our fingers.

Fast forward nearly 5 years, and I still have love in my heart for this girl. Our friendship is nothing like what it used to be, but it is great. I am still comfortable with her, I am still proud of her, and she still makes me feel like she's on my side.

Everything has to change and evolve and move forward with us as we walk our life path. And if we're lucky, the good peole we meet along the way will pop up and remind you how amazing life is.

Shauna xox

Love!

I would like to direct everyone's attention to an article I just read. I might have a new girl-crush on the First Lady. I liked her before, I love her now. Check out this quote:

"The American people remember the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Health insurance reform must make health care more than just sick care."

I'm not American, and I'm not overly interested in their health care system, but this is how I want to live my life. Preventative rather than curative.

Wouldn't you rather take the steps to live a healthy life rather than struggle out of a hole of sickness?

I'm done my mini rant. Read the article. Click here.

We Need to Talk...

Have you ever wanted to break up with a friend?
Have you ever felt the distance growing wider and wider and decided that trying to make the relationship work felt more like beating your head up against the wall than maintaining a friendship?
Have you ever wanted to call it quits?

Most people have felt like this before. But most people never "officially" call it quits. Most people lose interest and put less and less effort in, and then get hurt and upset when they run into the almost ex-friend and things are awkward.

It's too bad we can't accept that not everyone is meant to be in our lives forever. It's too bad we can't remember the good times fondly, say a civil hello when we see the person and just appreciate what they were in our lives for the period of time they were there.

But we can't, can we? There are very few people I know who can remember someone fondly who they have fallen out with. We can't because we invest ourselves in people, and when the relationship changes and it looks like our investment is slipping away, we get hurt and angry and sometimes question our self worth. Did we stop being friends because they don't like me anymore? Did I do something wrong to drive them away? What made them stop caring? Bottom line, we don't get closure from relationships because no one knows how to break up with a friend. Instead, we choose to avoid the subject, sometimes letting it eat away at us over the hurt and pain we feel.

I recently had to "break up" with some family friends. No sense in giving you all of the details, but the gist of it was that I had to make a very difficult phone call to effectively end a 24 year relationship. No one else had addressed it (none of the "adults"), and I had to be the one to say the words, due to a position I was put in. It made me realize, no one knows how to react in these situations. So with shaking hands and a false casual tone in my voice, I left a voicemail (cowardly?! I dunno...) to end all future contact. Hopefully.

It's not that I wanted to be mean, but everyone had been fairy jumping around these invisible lines for two years now. The relationship had changed, the boundaries had been moved, and no one knew where they were anymore. Everyone was experiencing hurt and confusion over the sitaution in their own ways.

Someone needed to make a decision on where they stand, and that someone had to be me. Was it easy? Not at all. Will I know what do you if/when I run into them in the future? Absolutely not. But neither will they, right? I think the thing that everyone forgets in these awkward situations is that the other party is probably feeling just as uncomfortable as we are.

I shall do my best to be thankful for the many years we shared, to remember fondly the many memories I hold with them playing a part. Life is too short for bitterness, and life is way too short for regret.

Why can't we tell people when we have changed, they have changed, and we're no longer benefitting from the relationship? How come we can't take that news well, even when we know it's true?

Relationships are constantly changing and evolving, and when we don't move forward to a common way of thinking, the relationship gets lost.

Friends Forever? Rarely ever....

Shauna

Weekend Fun

Hey peeps! Happy Monday!

Ok...not so happy for me. I think I'm getting sick! So forgive me that my post won't be full of whit and humor and be the best post ever, because, well, it just won't be.

I had a good weekend, spent time with friends, with family, with wine ;) it was a good time. Sunday night was the family get together, for my dad's birthday (Happy birthday old man!). In my push for us to get creative and live outside the box, I suggested that Gareth try cooking some indian food for dinner (I know, I love it too that my crazy schemes always end up involving Gareth).

To put it mildly, he did a fantastic job. It was an amazing! Dinner.


This is the butter chicken he made. He said it was fairly easy to make, it just had a lot of ingredients. I forgot to get the recipe, I'll post that soon. He also made a shrimp curry, which I forgot to take a picture of.

Hard working hottie!



Gareth also made some naan bread. He practiced once during the week, tweaked his technique, and he had yummy bread for dinner.
This is some of them rising.


Does that t-towel look strategicaly placed to you?? It does to me!

I decided to lend a hand and whipped up a strawberry, cashew, tomatoe feta spinach salad.

I wanted it to be really light, to complement the main dishes, so I decided to make my own dressing. I muddled strawberries in our mortar and pestle, added some lemon juice and pepper, and it was great!


Once the family arrived, the camera was forgotton, so now pictures of our plates or anything, sorry! But it was a success, with some lovely white wine to go with it.

Tonight I think I will veg at home, try to feel better.

Until tomorrow!

Shauna

Money Money Money!

Everyone thinks about it. Most people earn it. Everyone spends it. It drives our decisions on what to buy, what to eat, when and where to go out, where to travel, when to travel, what we wear, and countless other factors in our lives.

Money can ruin friendships, great loves and business deals. It makes people do things they never dreamed they were capable of. Money drives our lives.

Most people can say with certainty that they don't make enough money. Most people say that if they get a raise everything would be better-debts would be paid off, bills would be paid on time, they would dress better, eat better, socialize more...be a better person?

Money drives our decisions, our social lives, our living arragements, our transportation. And these decisions make up the basis of who we are, because every decision we make determines how we see ourselves, how others see us, and how we spend our time.

No one wants to admit it, but money is a constant presence in our day to day. I hate making decisions based on the thought "can I afford this?" or "do I have enough in the bank for this?" and especially "I shouldn't be doing/buying/ordering this because it's too much money". Have you ever been at a restaurant and decided not to order that side salad to start because it's just more money, or one more glass of wine, or a dessert? I know I have. Maybe it's silly, but I believe that every dollar I spend counts, and even if I order a water instead of a soft drink, it's going to add up and I'll be better off.

I can't say I'm the best at paying bills, or budgeting for a trip, or or setting up a general budget to follow, but I'm good at following the rules once they're made. I have been fortunate enough to be in a good financial situation for my whole life (except when I was backpacking in Australia and was so broke I had to borrow toothpaste), but I really believe there is always room for improvement. The question is, how to improve? How do those people who have everything together financially get that way? Are they cheap? Smart? Lucky? Why is it that some people can go through life debt free, travelling and having fun, while some people struggle to stay above water their whole lives? How do I become the kind of person who wants for nothing and doesn't have to sacrifice financial security to get there?

I have been thinking about this a lot, and I have come up with some good ideas, as I have some big dreams that will require a good amount of dough to get me through (such as New Zealand!). Luckily my man is a bit more of a whiz with numbers than I am, so he is going to craft us up a budget. I have put myself on a "cash only" allowance that gives me a certain amount of money a week to spend on everything from drinks to gas to hair cuts to clothes shopping. If I don't spend it all in one week, I am simply tucking it away for a shopping trip! That way it all adds up.

Will this work? I'm not sure, as I've tried it once and I fell off the wagon. But this time around I am determined to spend my money wisely, and remember the big dreams that I have to spend my money on.

I also don't want to become one of those people who measure their success and their happiness by the possessions they have or the money they make. I want to be the kind of person who finds happiness in myself, and in money-free situations, such as a nice walk in the sunshine, or sitting on the dock at the lake with my feet in the water. None of that costs money, and it always puts a smile on my face.

I have been thinking about some challenges to give myself (and probably, inevitably, give to Gareth), such as not eating out for a month, not eating candy for a week, not buying a drink for a week. Things like that to test my will and keep things interesting. When something like this starts I will let you know!

The bottom line is this-money should set us free to do the things we love to do, not weigh us down, depress us and cause us grief. Gareth and I have been discovering fun "date" ideas that don't require money and have given us a chance to talk and hang out together. This has included packing a picnic and going somewhere nice for a meal, and going for walks in different parts of the city.

My thought? Money can't buy us happiness, but using it wisely sure can ;)

Shauna
I'll keep looking for one of these, just in case.

p.s. I am officially one week into no coffee!! I've had a couple decafs, but I'm getting away from the caffeine, so woop woop!