productivity

hey all. there has been quite a hiatus from this blog and i intend to correct that in this glorious 3 week break i am currently in. i finished my finals last week (insert loud screams and applause here) and amazingly passed (another round of applause and sigh of relief). so today hails the first day of freedom from physical exams and cram sessions. i can not believe how productive i can be when there is no homework to be done. now these things might not sound monumental to most, but for me it is truly amazing.

1. wash, clean and detail the truck

seriously it never looked so good. i think i pulled out 50 gajillion receipts and found some pretty gross things like an old mcdonald's hamburger wrapper and several of my nice forks left from someone who shall not be named (scott). it feels so wonderful to have a clean car. i even organized the coins. i know, it's wild.

2. clean the kitchen

during the entire course of the last three months, never have the counters been clear or the sink empty. so this is pretty much amazing as well. don't mind my retro kitchen. it's not retro by choice. and as you can see, i actually went grocery shopping by myself without moaning, whining and buying ungodly amounts of ice cream, gushers or soda. stress... it's a killer :)

3. make a home cooked meal

these babies are on the menu for tonight: philly cheesesteak stuffed bell peppers. i'm basically salivating. and i know, bad wife for not cooking for three months. good thing scott is such a patient man and great chef.

i have also washed, dried and folded massive amounts of laundry and organized the above mentioned 50 gajillion receipts. so the word for today would be productivity. 

pro·duc·tiv·i·ty

  [proh-duhk-tiv-i-tee, prod-uhk‐]

noun

1.

the quality, state, or fact of being able to generate, create, enhance, or bring forth goods andservices: The productivity of the group's effort surprised everyone.

i hope this productivity lasts at least until august 26th. and i hope my readers have not totally abandoned me :) thanks for waiting!

revisiting 2012 resolutions

one year ago today, i listed my new year's resolutions. today i thought it might be fun to revisit them and see just how faithful i was. enjoy!

1. pay off the truck - we were successful with this goal and now have absolutely no car payments. it's amazing how much money it saves you to get out of debt!

2. remodel the bathroom - not so great with this one. we have been in our home for three years and have managed to landscape the yard and semi-remodel our bedroom. so no bathroom was demolished, but we are planning on gutting the basement in the near future.

3. cut out soda completely - this was an epic fail! i think i lasted two months cutting out soda... i just love me some coca-cola too much! i'm amending this resolution for 2013 (see below).

4. eat healthier and at home more often - the bostwick household did much better with this resolution this year. me and my crockpot became better friends. we cooked with all the abundance of eggs and beef we received from the bostwick family farm. and we cut the amount we ate out for dinner in half.

5. by completing the above two mentioned, participate in a mountain bike relay - this totally did NOT happen. i did however go on a few more mountain bike rides with scott encouraging me the whole way. it's hard stuff!

6. make more time for each other - this was completed! with scott's change in work departments, he now has a little more time at home. we've tried to turn off our electronics more and actually have meaningful conversations. i love that man more than ever!

so in a way, i completed half of my resolutions. that's way better than i usually do (yippee!). for this year, i have only a few goals in mind.

1. cut DOWN on my soda intake. I've decided that cutting something out completely for myself causes the complete opposite reaction. I binge on said thing! So I'm limiting my soda for special occasions and if i'm sick.

2. drink my 8 glasses of water a day. i tried this for a while and was amazed at how much better i felt. so here's the official statement of my goal to continue.

3. attend the gym at least three days a week. i joined planet fitness last august to combat the weight surge that everyone told me was inevitable in grad school. didn't attend very much so i am making this goal to keep myself honest. exercise (although i hate it) does help me with my stress levels and i know someone (scott) appreciates it when i keep it in check.

so there you have it. my 2013 resolutions. ta-da! best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!

cali 2012

hey all. a couple of weeks ago, scott surprised me with the best trip ever over fall break. i've been nagging mentioning for 3 years that i would love to visit disneyland with just me and him. no kiddos. scott has never been to the happiest place on earth and i thought he needed to experience it once sans crying, whining and temper tantrums. lo and behold, i was gifted this awesome vacation to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary. we threw in some motocross riding and vegas for scott so it wouldn't be too unbearable for him :)

we decided to drive to cali to save a little money (little did we know that california was experiencing over 4 dollars per gallon for gas). scott is so financially savvy, i wouldn't know what to do without him. he knew exactly where to fill up so that we wouldn't have to give our firstborn for a gallon of gas. haha.

 

ready for the roadtrip.

scott drove the whole way. what a stud.

we stayed in a really nice hotel in henderson, nv for the first night. i think it kind of spoiled the other hotels for the rest of the trip. we left bright and early for california the next day. we spent some time at huntington beach and i decided that after my retirement, i'm relocating there. it is beautiful! and there are all kinds of cutesy shops, restaurants and beach homes. my kind of living right there.

catching rays while scott body surfed.

disneyland was on the agenda for the next THREE WHOLE days! wahoo! i'm such a kid and i'm not ashamed of it, guys. we spent our first day mostly in disneyland. it was decked out in all its halloween finery and i wished i would have gotten more pictures (especially of the haunted mansion). i guess we were too busy skipping hand in hand from ride to ride (more like me dragging scott behind me to beat all the little kids to the line). we were able to see fantasmic that night and the fireworks in front of the castle with great seats both times. that show was probably the highlight of my trip. so cool! the second day, we spent more time in california adventure which is a little more of scott's cup of tea. we rode the roller coaster many, many times and i almost lost my lunch on the tower of terror twice (ah the things we do for love). we rode my personal favorite ride, soarin' over california. i want that ride in my basement. such a good stress reliever! they had a preview of frankenweenie in 3D that we watched in one of the theaters and i want to see the rest soon. scott's favorite show was the bug's life one where all manner of things are shot, sprayed, dropped on and crawl under you. so creepy, but fun! we also loved the new cars land. it was so amazing that they could replicate the town from the movie with such attention to detail. we were so dead tired every night from walking/standing that even our scary hotel's hard, lumpy mattress felt like a cloud from heaven. by the way, we survived staying in a very shady spot in buena vista with locked gates surrounding the entire hotel. no axe murderers for us!

scott on the teacups

teacups with an awesome view of the parade

part of cars land. you guys thought i was in southern utah, huh?

our splash mountain stolen photo

after the glorious days of disneyland had come to an end, it was time to leave anaheim and head to glen helen raceway. this is a motocross track that hosts some of the biggest names in the sport. scott was so stoked to go ride where all the legends go. he rode for most of the day and saw a couple of riders training for the monster energy cup. yeah, we're pretty much famous by association now. i should have gotten some pictures of him riding, but he's so dang fast! i mostly enjoyed a book and treats in the truck as it was raining that day.


we spent that night in vegas where our handy smart phones alerted us that there were flash flood warnings throughout the whole city. they weren't kidding! there was water about 2-3 inches deep everywhere and it would just cascade off the casinos like waterfalls. we got an anniversary dinner at the cheesecake factory in caesar's palace and stayed at the hard rock hotel (my favorite place!). in the morning, we were determined to find the gold and silver pawn shop to catch a glimpse of chumlee or the old man. we didn't see any of them, but apparently they were filming while we were in the store. like i said, we're famous.

shrimp pasta at the cheesecake factory

love pawn stars!

look familiar?

 overall, we had such a great trip (besides me getting lost in disneyland with no phone and navigating the extensive california freeways). i love how relaxing vacationing is and i felt so rejuvenated coming back. although i do love disneyland, this trip made me grateful to live in utah where i am sheltered, have beautiful mountains and people aren't trying to make me spend money left and right. thanks scott for such a wonderful getaway!