Visit from Mom

This post is looooong over due. My mom came to visit 3 weeks ago. It was a blast. I loved taking her around Tucson and being the "tour guide" - it made me feel like a real local! Friday night after we picked her up from the airport we ate at Mi Nidito. It is an authentic Mexican joint (authentic as in we are only an hour and a half from the border). It is in the original downtown of Tucson, and can be quite scary at night. But the food is awesome, as seen by the hour plus wait every night.

Saturday I took my mom and Brad to lunch at Canyon Ranch. Brad had never seen 'the inside' of the ranch - it is very high security! I gave them a mini-tour of the resort then we had a scrumptious healthy meal.

The rest of the day was spent playing with the pups, shopping, and eating dinner at one of our favorite fun spots - Kingfisher.

Sunday we took my mom to the Sonoran Desert Museum (photos below). I hadn't been before, and according to most Tucsonians, it is a must see! And I have to admit, I loved it. They had all kinds of desert animals, plants, landscape, etc etc. It was so cool, and reinforced my love of the Sonoran Desert!

And finally the photos:

Meet Midori

No....we did not get another puppy. We aren't crazy

Brad's mom is training a puppy through Canine Companions. She will raise/train Midori for 15 months, teaching her more than 25 commands (it's intense) with the goal being that at the end of the 15 months, Midori will 'pass the test' and move on to a more intensive training before she is matched as a service dog. See the resemblance? :) Midori is half lab, and half golden retriever. Brooke is all lab.

We are so happy to have Midori around, so finally Brooklyn can bite on something other than our hands and toes.

Exhibit A: (no puppies were harmed in the making of this blog post)

Midori's ear is green from a special 'stamp' she received right before she boarded the plane and headed all the way from San Jose, to Seattle, then to Phoenix.

Midori and Brooklyn love love LOVE to play with each other and roll around all over the back yard. No words are necessary, I will just post pictures.

Tomorrow, I will post the story of Brooklyn, the Houdini Dog.

Street fairs and airplanes

Last weekend Tucson was a happenin' little big city! It was the spring-time 4th Avenue Street Fair and the annual air show at Davis-Monthan AFB. The weather was a-mazing, and luckily, fortunately Bradley and I were able to get out and experience both events! It was so fun, and reminded me how happy I am to be in a community that has fun things like that to do over the weekend. I am sure there are things like this in Las Vegas, but nothing ever caught my interest.

The most exciting part of the 4th Ave. Street Fair was riding the electric streetcar (trolley). It was only 50 cents - and it was so authentic.

The vendors at the street fair were sub-par, but I still enjoyed being out and about and people watching. The food vendors, however, were amazing. Brad had a smoked beef (I think?) sandwich, and I had a wonderful slice of pizza from Brooklyn Pizza. Yum-O. Here is a shot of the crowd on the street. It was packed!

On Sunday we headed over to the air show. An interesting fact about Bradley...he loooooves airplanes. Anything with an engine, really. His grandfather flew planes in WWII, and Bradley learned a LOT from his grandfather. I will admit that I would never have gone to the airshow by myself, but it was very interesting tagging along with someone who knew what each plane was, what it was used for, where it came from, etc etc etc (more than I could even remember).

We waited in line to check out the inside of an E3 - and much to our surprise, we got to sit in the cockpit! Like a kid in a candy store....

Before and After

Believe it or not, this entry is not about the cutest puppy in the world.

I have debated on whether or not I wanted to blog this entry for a few weeks now...I am approaching this with very cautious intentions.

Let me preface this - working at a destination health resort makes you a lot more 'open' about weight, weight loss, and weight gain. Canyon Ranch used to be a 'fat farm' that would limit guest's calorie intake to 800 calories! That isn't the case anymore, we are much more about the integrative approach - medical, behavioral, nutritional, and of course exercise physiological (is that a word?)

I have about 8 photos in my new offices of me with a variety of people that are important in my life. There is a photo with some of my high school friends, with my college friends, with my boyfriend, with my Vegas friends, and of course with my mom. It has been very interesting to watch my new Canyon Ranch co-workers come into my office and ask permission to look at my personal photos. Of course you can look!

About a week ago, someone was looking at them for the first time and said "who is that girl in all of your photos?"

Me: "huh?"

confusion

Me: "that's me!"

"ohhhhhhhh, wow. It doesn't even look like you."

awkwardness

Me: "well, I had brown hair in that one, and in the other 5 of them, I am about 25 pounds heavier."

Thoughts in my head: "Holy crap! Twenty-five pounds heavier?"

It hadn't really sunk in until that moment, that I had made a significant change to my outward appearance. So significant that a co-worker couldn't even recognize old photos of me? Naw....

I am not exactly sure when I was at my peak...there were several times in college when I would start Weight Watchers, only to lose 8 pounds then gain back 11. Then after college there were still several times I would join Weight Watchers to lose 6 pounds and gain back 9. Then, I thought that training for a marathon might help get me to my 'goal weight,' NOPE! That's a negative, I just over-compensated with more and more food.

I'm not even sure what my tipping point was. Or when I had this 'a-ha' moment (That is a Canyon Ranch reference...we often refer to our guest's "a-ha" moment of when they realize that something in their life has to change, for good).

It wasn't that I started thinking "I am going to loose weight, and this is how I am going to do it."

It was more "this is my body for the rest of my life, I can either choose right now to consciously make it a body I enjoy being in, or I can continue these toxic eating habits and complain that my jeans are always too tight."

Before I knew it, I was eating less (still the foods that I liked, just less of them), obsessing and thinking about food less (I still think about what I am going to eat for dinner when I am eating breakfast, but that will never change), and weighing less. I didn't notice it until other people noticed, and when someone would ask me what I "DID" to lose the weight, I would come up with these ridiculous "excuses" that really didn't give me any credit. Ready for these?

• My boyfriend moved to another state, so I didn't have anyone to wine-and-dine me anymore. (I had plenty of wining and dining with girlfriends and through my job!)


• My boyfriend moved to another state, so I was sad (dumb...I was definitely sad, but not sad enough that I didn't want to eat!)


• I was stressed out at work and just too busy to over-eat (what? was I too busy to partake in doughnut-Wednesday? no)


• I wasn't drinking as much (ok, this is partly true. I was drinking lower-calorie drinks, still just as many!)

Just recently I have been able to give myself full credit for taking charge of what I wanted my body to look like. Do I think there was something wrong with how I was before? No way...it just wasn't ME.

I am really enjoying learning about healthy eating and healthy habits. There are several "healthy food bloggers" that blog about their weight loss journey, and if this entry wasn't so long already, I would plug them here :)

I still feel like there are a few pesky pounds that are lingering on - but I'm ok with that. Doesn't everyone want to lose 5lbs? :)

Before

After

Marley and Me

I hate to admit it....as cute as she is....she exhibits qualities that are all too similar to Marley. Granted, she hasn't eaten a phone, or an answering machine, or jumped out of a car window....yet.

She has officially had her first visit to the E.R. Vet. At the ripe ole age of 8 weeks.

At the end of last week, Brad and I noticed that her, ahem, "number twos" were getting a little too runny. TMI? Welp, sorry! She wasn't drinking much water, and she was having major accidents inside and in her crate. By Saturday night, she was extremely lethargic, going to the bathroom every 30 minutes, and wouldn't eat her dinner. I was in Phoenix visiting a friend, and Brad...being the awesome puppy daddy that he is, took her to the E.R. The vet said she was severely dehydrated. Sadly, many puppies die of dehydration - their little bodies and immune system have a hard time fighting back.

They did a few tests (including one that meant sticking a huge Q-tip in her bum), and luckily it wasn't Parvo or a stomach parasite. Phew. However, something was still severely wrong.

The vet wanted to hospitalize her, and when Brad found out it would cost $950 to do so, we politely declined, and inquired about alternative options.

The vet suggested a subcutaneous fluid injection. Basically, they put a huge needle full of fluids in her shoulder. I wasn't there, but Brad said she looked like Quasimodo.

4 hours at the vet, one huge melon-sized fluid injection, two q-tip swabs and a vile of antibiotics later....she is healthy! We hope....

At least she is back to her spunky and obnoxious self, that is for sure!

I've been reading a lot on the internet about feeding dogs carrots. Not only are they a great and healthy snack, but it also helps with their teething.

Best Friends

I and Love and You

This song is where we got Brooklyn's name from:

It's such a great song - and I really think Brooklyn loves it, too. How do I know? Because she falls asleep every time we listen to it.

Brad tried telling me today that she isn't as innocent as I think she is. Apparently she "discovered her voice" today, and loved showing Brad all the different high pitched barking noises she could make. I don't believe him.

Brooklyn

Name: Brooklyn
Birthday: January 15, 2010
Weight: pudgy puppy
Length: small enough to curl up on your lap
PRECIOUS....

Hiking in Sabino Canyon

Ever since I started thinking about moving out of Las Vegas, I have been making mental notes of my life "bucket list" in whatever new city I would land in. For instance, a couple of things that I want to do in Tucson:

1. Hike
2. Go to the farmer's market
3. See more concerts in smaller venues (very college-esque)
4. Take a class at the community college (photography, photoshop, pottery....)
5. Eat at the locally/independently owned restaurants - Tucson has an awesome site for this: www.TucsonOriginals.com
6. Learn to cook - cook more - try different recipes

Anyhow - so far, we have been doing pretty well on knocking a few things off my list. Last Sunday we checked out the Tucson Farmer's Market, and even bought some yummy goodies, we love to eat out...and have been making a concerted effort to not eat at silly chain restaurants that I had in Vegas, on the other hand, we have also been really good about cooking at the house during the week. Brad 'humors' me and turns the cooking over to me a few nights, and then humors me even more when he says it is tasty.

Yesterday, I went hiking through Sabino Canyon. This particular canyon is only about 3 miles from where I work. I went by myself because Brad was working on a paper all day.

What was supposed to be a 1-2 hour hike turned into a 2.5 hour adventure of me not always knowing where I was headed. It was a perfect day, and a great way to get out and get some fresh air.
My favorite cactus! - the Saguaro Cactus



The only way to get started on my hike was to wade through this .... this is run-off water from the snow at the top of the mountain. It was coooooooooold!

Home

I wanted to share some pictures of our new home! Brad was very very VERY adamant on getting everything unpacked/purchased/settled/organized within minutes of us moving in. It wasn't gonna happen...it took about a week, but before we knew it, we had this:





This is our brand new dining room table. You can't really tell, but there is a bench on the left side. And we are VERY proud of it. Not only proud of how it looks, but proud of what a killer deal we got on it. It is huge, and we are excited for the ability to feed many people at one time.


This is our brand new bedroom furniture. We are VERY proud of it. Mostly proud that we didn't get arrested while buying it. We are pretty sure Mr. Craigslister who sold it to us got it straight off the back of a truck somewhere. We didn't ask any questions.


This is the silly putting green in our back yard. It is fun....and it is fake grass so we don't have to water it or cut it, and it looks pretty!

Come visit. We have a guest room. And I make awesome scrambled eggs in the morning.

The big picture....

Literally, the big picture. This is a test post to see if I have figured out (well, with the help of Rach and Vic) how to make my awesome photos BIGGER.

Sam Champion and Brooklyn Decker

Completely unrelated to each other...as far as I know.

One of the major holiday initiatives my team has been working on is the Good Morning America holiday window. Three cities were chosen to decorate a window space in the GMA studio - that can also be seen from Times Square. In addition to the branding exposure that the cities get just from the window, GMA also sent Sam Champion to that city for a day to officially "unveil" the window.

Today was Las Vegas day.

Just a side note.....GMA starts on east coast time. I live in west coast time. Think about it. Yep - that means the lives shots started at 4:00a.m.

Our 'colorful' Mayor Goodman went to NYC to do the in-studio segment with GMA, and Sam Champion broadcasted live from Fremont Street with special guest Wayne Newton. Welp - I was told by the producer that they needed someone in the background to 'do something' - I wasn't quite sure what he needed me 'to do' - but I went and stood there, and before I knew it, the cameras were rolling. Here, you can watch it for yourself - I'm just behind Wayne's left shoulder. Thanks Rhonda for finding the clip!

Wayne Newton's Las Vegas

Well, about 4 hours before this clip, I was at a private cocktail reception with SI Swimsuit model and wife of Andy Roddick, Brooklyn Decker.

Las Vegas is hosting the 2nd Annual SI Swimsuit Party in February, and the SI team was in Las Vegas for a partner summit and special party with NASCAR. So, after cocktails at a suite in Mirage, we headed to a private party at Pure.

Moral of the story? I didn't sleep at all last night. I left Pure, and went home to change into WARM clothes (it was FREEZING), and headed down to see my favorite weatherman.....

Here is my new pal Brooklyn:

Cowboy boots - Wedding at the ranch

This weekend I met the DG girls in Big Spring, TX for Morgan and Matt's wedding. Morgan lives in Dallas, but her family has a ranch (Morgan Ranch) outside of Big Spring. And it is beeeaaaauuutiful. It is so peaceful and serene, and it truly was a picture-perfect setting for Morgan's wedding.

Friday night we tried to find some local 'joints' to eat and and then enjoy some cocktails...it was pretty apparent that we were the outsiders anywhere we went :) We finally found Wesley John's Pick Pocket Billiards. They serve two types of beer and two types of wine and two types of wine coolers. I am pretty convinced that the wine and the wine coolers were one in the same, but who knows....


Saturday morning we checked out Ward's Boots - again, it was obvious that "we weren't from around here...."

Saturday was a perfect Texas day for a wedding on the ranch. The colors were beautiful, the weather was fantastic, and the cowboy boots were a-plenty. I started the evening out in my heels...but quickly had to turn them in for my way-more-comfortable cowboy boots.

We had a great time at the reception - I taught Andrea/Mike and Laura/Dave how to two-step. I would like to think that I did my midwestern-civic-duty. I told them to take those skills and love of two stepping and pass it along. We owe it to society.

Arizona Wine Country

Thanks to Nevada Day...I had last Friday off. Pretty ironic that Nevada Day falls on Halloween weekend...it seems pretty fitting for Las Vegas. Three day weekends are perfect for going down to Tucson to visit B. So even though I was going to miss out on a few Halloween parties (halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays anyway....sorry Rhonda!), I took a much anticipated trip down south.

B doesn't have school on Friday, so we had the whole day to play in Southern Arizona Wine Country . Yes....there are vineyards in southern Arizona. The more south you go from Tucson, and the closer you get to Mexico (obviously), and the Arizona desert landscape morphs into more rolling hills and green trees and plants (as opposed to cacti). When we were done with wine country, we drove to the border of Mexico in Nogales. Interesting fact about Jess: she has a weird obsession with the Mexican border and immigrants. I got really excited anytime we saw border control. I'm weird.

Moral of the story, we were pleasantly surprised by what these wineries had to offer. We left with 4 bottles of wine, and two of them were gone by the end of the night. Woops.

Stop #1 - Callaghan Vineyard

Stop #2 - Kief Joshua

(Midget) sheep from the vineyard:


Stop #3 - Canello Hills Vineyard

Break for lunch - we were the only ones in the cafe....


Stop #4 - Dos Cabezas Winery