Wine and and a good book?

I feel like kind of a loser sitting at home drinking a glass of red and reading a little of "The Catcher in the Rye", but you know what? I'm perfectly at peace with that. :)

P90X

And so it begins.

I am officially beginning P90X tomorrow morning and I am scared to death.  I know this is going to be a huge challenge for me.  Considering this program was designed for seasoned athletes who want to push themselves further and I am not an athlete whatsoever; this is going to kill me.  Hopefully not literally.  :)

Have any of you out there in my blogosphere done P90X?  If so, give me your thoughts and comments, please!

Also, I am really going to need some motivational pull through this one... rather push, I suppose.  I know that I am going to complain and I'm sure a lot of that will be done to you, my lovely followers.  :)  So PLEASE, keep me motivated!

Does everyone know what P90X is?  It is an exercise program that lasts 90 days (or however long you want to repeat the program for) and is focused around "muscle confusion", thus allowing your body to never get used to it.  Which is both good and bad...  It is good because you will constantly see the effects of the program, BUT you will also constantly be sore from it.  :(

Okay, that is all for now because I have a feeling you will be hearing a lot about this from me in the very near future.

Free Produce!!!

So, In the past I've told you a few of the reasons why I like going back to my home town.  Mostly all because of the people.

Let me tell you about another MAJOR (seasonal) reason I love it.

FREE PRODUCE!!!

I mean seriously folks.  The generosity of my family is amazing.  Check out the cornucopia below!  YUM!

This is really only a tiny portion of what I brought back with me and it is only a minuscule amount of what I COULD have brought back with me.

Check out some more YUMS thanks to my 'rents!

I've always loved finding the "ugly" carrots because they are the beautiful ones.  Sometimes you can prop them up on their "legs"; sometimes they don't even look like carrots in shape.  Amazing.  The only thing that is more beautifully hideous than Schwartz carrots are Schwartz potatoes... and I have plenty of those as well!

I hand plucked those babies (pun not intended) from the chicken coop myself!

Then of course, there are the joys of my little brother moving back to Iowa and running a farm:

Peppers!  Lots of them!

Black Raspberry Jam made with honey!  It is SO delectable!  He is my parents' son!

Last, but not least, TOMATOES!  I only add them last because some of them are from my parents, some are ours (from our Topsy Turvy!) and some are from Jack's Grandma!

I love summer produce.  I can't wait for the fall produce! 

(I'll be home again in September, Mom!)

The Perfect(?) Trifecta

Isn't it funny how life never quite works out the way that you imagined it would?  I know this seems a cliche way to start out today's blog, but I've been doing some soul searching this morning.

"Life", or what you pictured for your life, continues to get pushed further and further down the line.  (I guess it also comes a lot sooner than planned for some people, but not me.)

As a child, I thought I would be in a house & married, with a puppy at home and a child on the way by the age of 25.  As I got older I still wanted all of those things; it just got pushed back to the age of 28.  In January of 2009 (25 years old), I had a steady boyfriend, but other than that I was in no way on my track to make it by 28.  Now I'm 27 & it appears as though I'm almost there.

I've got the house:

The boyfriend has proposed:

I've got the puppy (In front of our refrigerator.  So tiny!):

who is now a dog (95 lbs. of dog!):

Yet it's still not right.  Why is it that everyone continues to strive for perfect when perfection is nearly impossible?  I've got the house.  I've got my fiance, Jack.  I've got my "puppy", Kaiah.  (I guess it's time to start calling her my dog, huh?)  The only thing missing is the actual marriage itself and the child (which, thank God, we are in no way ready to make that goal).  And yet, I still feel so far from where I wanted to be another year from now.

I guess as a kid you don't think about things like financial stability, job security & stress (Oh, the stress...) or even general happiness.  You think that those things are just an automatic bonus that comes with the territory.  I mean, if you have a house, you must have a job and you must be financially stable, right?  And you have the "perfect life", so you must be happy and stress free, right?

Is it just me?  Am I being completely pessimistic?  I mean,  a lot of people are in the same boat as I am, right?  RIGHT?!?! 

It's that strive for perfection.  It's being goal-driven.  It's making the decision to go down that path that you've always wanted since you were a little girl, even if, in retrospect, you were a bit hasty about the leap.  It's forcing all of those things into the last year (or so) of my life.  Feb. '09: Engagement.  May '09:  House & Puppy.  May '09 - Present:  Dealing with the aftermath of all of those decisions.  The perfect trifecta.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my fiance, Jack.  I love my house.  I love my dog, Kaiah.  What I don't love is people constantly asking me about wedding plans (since we have been engaged for 16 months and haven't made a single plan), paying bills (or stressing over whether we can pay the bills), & barking and slobber.

The funny thing is, it's all worth it.  I love Jack.  We fight, as every couple does, but we also laugh.  A LOT.  I get stressed paying more for a house and having all of those extra expenses that you don't have with an apartment, but it is so worth it.  I get sick of listening to barking and cleaning up slobber, but it is nice to know when someone is coming to the door, and it is wonderful to get the little girl puppy kisses.

Life is funny like that...