Return of Saturn in Flux (It Doesn't Rhyme, But It Fits)

I turn 29 today. Yesterday, I had quite a hard time with this. See, when you turn 30 at least it's a new decade, a new chapter, something to exclaim about and claim as your own. But 29? Well, it's just one year before 30 where you don't quite feel 30, but you sure as hell don't feel like a young 20-something any more either. You are, in fact, 29. (Not to mention that I have a history of disliking odd numbers--see birthdays #28 and #27 here.)

While yesterday, I had a good four hours of feeling generally sorry for myself and my soon-to-be 29-year-old plight, I've reversed that mug today. I'm 29 dammit! I have really, really good friends! A hot, loving husband who cooks (cooks really friggin' good ish!). A good family, who's just crazy enough to keep me entertained and loving enough to feel supported. A paying job! My own business where I spread the fitness gospel!

And--this is probably the most important of all--I have freedom. To be me. To love. To learn. To grow. To be challenged and to challenge. I AM 29!

If you follow any hippity-dippity ideas, you'll know that when you turn 29, you're entering into the final year of the Return of Saturn. An old coworker hipped me to this concept and Gwen's album sealed the deal of me buying into this phenomenon. The past few years have been pushing me in a general direction, and the last 30 days definitely had some turmoil from work, family and FBG drama. But I am being pushed in the right direction. I just know it.

They say that in your 29th year, whatever you ask the universe, it will give you. And I'm only asking it good things. My reality may be in flux, but my future is not.

Tempting Fate at 28

Tomorrow I turn 28. Like other years when I've been either super excited for or even somewhat dreaded my birthday (or looked for hidden meaning/had an existential crisis), this year is different. I feel very calm with my life and where I am. In fact, I've never felt more sure that I'm doing this dang thing my way, and it's the right way. Shit, have I grown up? Or am I just delusional? OR am I just tempting fate? At 28? (Catchy, eh? Well, it's better than "Oh God, I'm 27.")

This year, I've decided to go with "Tempting Fate at 28" for a number of reasons. First, I feel like for the last 10 months or so, my life has changed dramatically and even though I work really, really hard, it's all totally worth it. FBG is kinda my baby, and Erin is the other parent. Not to mention that I recently landed a new, more rewarding day job where I'm respected, complimented when I do a good job and just generally valued. It rocks.

In addition, Miss Siena has been a joy to have in the house and watch her grow and change. It's really hard to imagine that at this time last year, she was just a fur ball. And while the Nut renovations are by no means complete (failed to meet a lot of these resolutions, whoops, lol), I love our house, and we've made great strides.

I also have the best family and friends possible. From a hot, loving husband to super supportive parents to friends I can't thank the universe enough for, I'm a lucky, lucky gal. Throw Obama in the mix and it's almost too much! [Head exploding with hope and happiness!]

However, I feel like things are only going to get better in 2009. FBG is gonna be bigger and better this year (read: profitable!), Siena might actually stop destroying things and the atrocious daisy wallpaper in the bedroom could get removed. I'm seriously so thankful for every moment and for every person in my life. And at 28, I'm only tempting fate to continue the mad love and grow it.

Since I never did an obligatory New Year's resolution post here, I thought I would do a combo resolutions/new-year-of-life goals to coincide with my birfday. Here goes:

1. You've probably already heard, but I'm vowing to run a 1/2 marathon this year. Running has always been my workout nemesis, and it's going down Saturday, March 28 in Olathe.

2. Eat more local fruits and veggies. The garden will continue and be expanded, as well as Ryan and I's consumption of produce from the KC area. I'm planning to join a CSA and hit up the farmer's market often.

3. Drink less. I love wine, so this one will be challenging. lol.

4. Play more. The computer must be off 30 minutes before bed. No exceptions!

5. Read more novels. I read an ishton on the computer and in the news, but there's nothing better than a good novel. A secondary goal to this is finishing Gone with the Wind. Only 100 more pages to go...

6. Replenish my soul/build creativity. These kind of go hand in hand, but this year I'm gonna love myself up by taking more breaks, doing less, buying less, taking more long baths and watching bad TV when I need to. Life isn't a to-do list. 

So, with that, I embark on 28, renewed, happy and very excited. Bring it fate. Bring it.

(My next post will look at my dream board...how darn near everything I put up there last year happened and what new things I've added to the board for this year. Stay tuned.)

Two Interesting Items

1. This is the strangest thing I've seen in at least a week:

DEAR JENNIPHER SHAVER, Offer good at Kansas City area stores only.

A hardware store giving out fruits and veggies as a promotion? Are they free? Are they snacks? Is Sutherlands now a grocery? I'm confused, but it's healthy, so I'm not going to complain. I'm just going to scratch my head.

2. I'm insane. I signed up for a 1/2 marathon. Yep, all 13.1 miles of it. The insanity will ensue on Sunday, March 29 in Olathe. I begin officially training on January 4, but goodness knows I'm getting my ass to the gym to run plenty before then.

We Baracked the Vote!

Thanks, Erin and Tish for hipping me to the coolest phrase/blog title ever. I apparently was living under a rock and never heard it. Love it though! And I loved Tuesday night. LOVED it. Almost can't believe it. Now, as usual, a photo essay. You can see how happy we were.

Sarv and Ryan gleefully make blue Kool-Aid/vodka/sugar water for us to shoot when states go blue.

First state called, take one down! (We took 26 by the night's end, but no worries, they were weak, people. WEAK! We knew what we were in for.)

The boys watching the results come in. 

And it's called! The happiness/shock of its awesomeness sets in. Fastest election to be called since I started voting.  

Can you believe it?! Yes, we can!

Everyone got stickers! And smiles!

Peace, love and a whole lotta Obama!

We have a future! We can still live in the US! We can be proud of your country's president! Hooray! 

Celebration double-fist pump.

Ryan's pours glasses of champagne for all. With an extra bit of sauciness of course.

Gosh, it's so awesome. I can't wait to see how this country changes...

Siena Takes a Dip

Not only can she jump four-foot fences, she can also swim. It took about 20 minutes for her to get up the courage, but she did -- alligator chomp and all. God knows how much lake water she ingested. Enjoy and happy late Labor Day!

Summer Lovin'/Domestic Bliss

Although we celebrated Memorial Day a few weeks ago, this weekend is the first one that felt like it was really summer. I wore shorts and flip flops all weekend, and I went to a pool party (without even getting burnt!). That's a recipe for summer right there.

This weekend, Ryan and I also did some outdoor upgrades to the Nut, including the planting of five native grasses along the backside of our neighbor's fence. Previously, nothing had grown here except weeds, so this was a major improvement.



Each grass plant is supposed to grow five feet tall. They don't take a lot of water, either, so they're quite eco-friendly (and require little commitment from us, which rocks).




After we were done planting, Ryan moved some of the extra dirt we had to a wheelbarrow. While I was taking pictures, I captured Siena in the wheelbarrow. How she got up there without tipping the whole dirt-filled thing over (the wheelbarrow has a very wobbly tire situation going on), I have no idea.


If fact, she was actually quite content in the wheelbarrow.

Although, I haven't come up with a nickname for Siena's love of gardening, her most recent eccentricities have landed her three new nicknames (in addition to these mentioned earlier this year). There are as follows...

1) Scooter Paws: Siena LOVES sliding around on our wood floors. Ryan and I can stand with our feet hip-distance apart at opposite ends of our living room, and she'll run from person to person, sliding under our legs. I really should try to get video of it sometime...

2) Frito Lay: On certain days, Siena smells just like America's beloved corn chip, Fritos. It can be a day or two after a bath, and she'll smell like this. It's not really a bad smell. It just makes me want to eat chili. It's weird, and I can't explain it.

3) Puppina: One day, I said Siena was acting like a puppy princess, and then this came out of my mouth. Sometimes, for extra fun, I call her Pumpkin Puppina, as she is the color of pumpkin.

Four Awesome Things

1) My friend Mike was published on McSweeney's. Read it. Even if you don't follow the Royals and have no idea who Jon Lester is, you'll find it hilarious.

2) Call off the Orbit search party. I found the Sangria Fresca gum mentioned in a previous post.

I would give you a full review here about how it's good but not as good as I thought it would be (I really, really like sangria), but I found this other blog post that sums it up better than I could. She's as obsessive about new flavors as I am, apparently.

3) On Monday, Jim hosted the first-annual Yard Beer Invitational. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any photos of the event, but it was glorious. There's nothing better than blind tasting cheap beer (with the help of Wonder Bread to cleanse the palette). Below was my beer of choice. It's smooth, easy to drink, watery and oh-so-inexpensive, a perfect beer for me. I shall drink copious amounts of it this summer.

4) And most awesome, my cousin done and got married yesterday evening. And it was beautiful. Congrats to the newlyweds! I should have a photo or two to share soon!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I hope all had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. Ryan and I spent lots of time with friends, family and the backyard. In our attempts to "go green" and save money on produce, Ryan and I spent five-plus hours in the hot, hot sun Sunday, planting our very first vegetable garden. We did some serious manual labor, but we're anticipating our sunburns and extreme soreness will be well worth it in a few months when we have fresh tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green bell peppers and two varieties of basil. BLTs, cucumber salad and pesto abound this summer.

I've been slacking on the blog and photo front lately, so I made sure to document our 16-foot by 4-foot backyard transformation. (Taking photos also gave me a good excuse to take a break. hehe.)

First, Ryan and I started strong, removing the grass from our area. Then our wheelbarrow's tire went flat and Ryan broke the hoe (too many jokes). Here's the state of the "garden" before going to Sutherlands for the third time this weekend:



While there, Ryan and I upgraded our work gloves. They make purple ones!


It reached 90 degrees while we were out there, and Siena figured out that the coolest spot to be, of course, was in the middle of our workspace.


All of this tilling was done with love/cursing and sweat. No machine can do better, although next time I think we'll investigate our rental options...


Finally! We get to plant.


Tomatoes, yum.


And the payoff: leisurely watering the garden.


This weekend, Siena also learned a few things. First, her love of ice cubes continued to blossom. I've learned that if I fill her water dish with ice cubes and water, she'll stick her nose in and bob for them like you would for apples. Here you can see her cheating with her paws.

And, Siena made a buddy! Below is our neighbor's dog Izzy. She's half Whippet and insanely fast. Siena tries her best to keep up for the first five minutes or so of playing. Then she just flops down and wrestles around with her.

I love how dogs look up at you when they're happy.

Here they are patrolling the backyard.


Memorial Day weekend isn't over for me though. I've taken today off to get some things done around the house this morning, and this afternoon the hubby and I are cruising down to Springfield to see my cousin marry his high school sweetheart. I have to give them both a shout out. Drew's my only cousin and, having no siblings ourselves, we've always been more like brother and sister than cousin. So congrats Drewbaby, and welcome to the family Brandi!

Back from Sabbatical, for the Moment

Today marks a special day. First, it's my mom's birthday, which is awesome cause she's a pretty wonderful chick. I think I did a good job of spoiling her today with Pei Wei, cupcakes and a mosaic-coaster-making kit, too.

Here are the cupcakes:



In addition, today also marks the first day of this really cool blog "I found." You might want to check it out, nudge nudge. Sorry that I've been busy lately. But, I think it's been worth it, don't you?

p.s. Siena is still growing. Big surprise, right? Here she is, sacked out in the back of the car after spending a night at my parents and playing non-stop. She loved her little puppy vacation. (Thanks again, Mom!)

Happy 100th post to me!

Today is a historic day for PH Balanced. This is its 100th post! Woohoo! That's a lot of blogging about random stuff. In honor of this joyous occasion, I'm posting about two of my favorite things: sheep and sugar-free gum.

One of my friends recently sent me this article, which features the below insanely cute photo. All together now, aww.


Now that our cute quota has been filled for the day, on to the gum. Orbit is probably my favorite brand of sugar-free gum because they're always coming up with new fun flavors. For example, about a year ago they released Mint Mojito, which I adore:


Recently, I stumbled upon two new flavors of Orbit Gum: Fabulous Fruitini and Strawberry Mint. Fabulous Fruitini wasn't exactly fabulous, but it was pretty tasty and tasted very similar to old-school FruitStripes gum, so it had that nostalgia thing going for it. Strawberry Mint was also pretty good, although both didn't keep their flavor long. (If anyone from Orbit stumbles upon this, work on that, OK?)

The new flavors got me curious though...what other flavors are out there or about to be released? The Orbit site wasn't very informative in that department, but wiki, as usual, came to the rescue. According to this, Sangria Fresca should be out and about. I MUST find it. If you see it, buy it for me, please. I'm good for the $1.33.

And, if you happen to be traveling in Russia, Germany, Israel, the Czech Republic or Bulgaria, keep your eyes peeled for even more fruitier flavors. Grapefruit Mint...Orange Berries...Fruit for Kids (really interested to know what that is...I'm guessing fruit punch)...it's an exciting sugar-free gum world out there, and I must sample it!

Renovations at the Nut

This weekend Ryan and I did a ridiculous amount of work on the house. Here's a few shots of the progress:

Living room windows before....



And after!



Bamboo shades up look good, too.



Siena "helps."

No before shot of the other window, but just imagine mini blinds. Upgrade!

And the painting in the office continues...almost done with the first floor!

Impromptu Fabulousness

I seriously had the best, most relaxing weekend. We only had a few things really planned and the rest of the weekend just unfolded awesomely. Friday night we hit up an open house at our friend's new design firm. The place was swanky and the food was delicious. (Not to mention that our friend had brewed some tasty beer for the event.) If you're looking to get some graphic work done, Lagom Designs in the place to go!

Saturday afternoon we drove about 30 miles south to "the farm." My friends Alli and Gabe have the sweetest country set-up. With a beautiful home, land, a pond, a barn and a bunch of animals (3 dogs and 2 cats, plus lots of other visitors, including goats, more dogs, horses and cows from their neighbors' land), there's always something interesting going on. We spent the afternoon, chatting it up, enjoying the nice weather and feasting on bbq and margaritas. Can't beat a Saturday afternoon like that.

Here's a few shots of their nanimals:

Of course, Ryan and I brought Siena along to enjoy the country with us. After a couple of hours of playing/tormenting Alli and Gabe's dogs, Alli decided to see how Siena would do with some agility exercises. First, Alli and her dog Cheyenne showed us how it was done, easily jumping over and through an obstacle course. Next it was Siena's turn. Although I wouldn't characterize Siena's attempts as particularly graceful, she did catch on pretty quickly.

Look how long her legs are getting:



She's becoming quite the jumper. Check out that look of determination:

The boys, neighbor dog Buddy and Cheyenee watch on:




Next, Siena and Alli tackle the hoop. Cheyenne gives Siena advice:




It's amazing how focused Siena can be when there's turkey given as a reward:


Finally, success!


After our excursion to the country, we returned back to "the big city." Siena was quite pooped and decided to rest in her backyard spot of choice:


Later that night, we watched KU destroy UNC and then had friends over to play some Wii and drink some Keystone Light. I NEVER drink beer--especially beer like Keystone Light--but I managed to drink three of them, and I kind of enjoyed it. (Must have been a total mood thing. I don't think you could get me to drink three of them again.)

Sunday, Ryan and I watched the Royals win, cleaned the house like a mo-fo and then randomly decided to grill out with some friends. (I'll have to post more pics of this later. It was Siena's first encounter with the grill, and it was pretty funny.)

The whole weekend was just so relaxing. I've always said that fall is my favorite month, but spring is giving it a run for its money this year. There's really nothing better than being outside and enjoying sunshine and warmth after a horrendous winter. Plus, it's really fun to see Siena experience spring for the first time. So many new plants to destroy!

What we be up to

Seeing that it's already Wednesday, this weekend update is a tad late. But, as they say, better late than never, right? Here's the weekend roundup, photo-essay style:

Friday afternoon was gorgeous weather-wise. I slipped off my flats...

And actually ran around the backyard barefoot playing with the dog. Ryan had recently picked up poo, so it was safe. While I was out, I noticed that the mystery plants had grown a considerable amount. I'm beginning to think they may be some sort of bush rather than actual flowers. I say that because I looked outside again today and they are probably two feet tall, which seems tall for flowers other than sunflowers, and I know what sunflowers look like -- these aren't it. Maybe they're mutant flowers. We did have radon in the basement...

The next outside attraction is our new composite pile. Thrilling! Please contain your excitement. But it is a green effort, so I'm patting myself on the back.

After Siena and I's play and photo session, she crashed, finding a sunny spot in her bed.

Later that weekend, I continued transforming our drab office into office extraordinaire, with a strong MU theme. Here I am amazed by what, at the time, I thought would be the last coat: a coat of gold leaf paint. Too bad there aren't pictures of me after the fourth coat of the shimmery stuff; believe me the charm wore off pretty quickly.

Here's a sample of the gold paint trim on top of "bundled rye." Seems innocent enough, right? Looks are deceiving. This paint rolls so that you can see every single imperfection in your rolling and trimming. Although the gold effect is cool, it's not a quick project. (We basically have the room done now--thank God--but I'm saving my before and after pics for our housewarming party.)

While I was battling the office, Ryan was ripping carpet off our stairs. Siena "helped," too.

After a hard weekend's work, Ryan and I enjoyed this fantastic bottle of wine. It was one of the bottles we took back home with us after the honeymoon. It was just as delicious as we remembered (the winery was amazing by the way), which made us...

Happy as clams!