Day TWENTY!! Going backwards and forwards

HELLO Bloggers! So... last night when it was time to blog, I was too tired to think about blogging and so I wrote you a little bloggy love note and went on to sleep. However, today, at this very moment, Dr. Hempel & the Hempel children have gone to hit golf balls. The house is silent. It's just you and me. So let's discuss what went on yesterday, what's going on today, and who our WINNER is for the FitFlops! (isn't that why you're here, anyway...?)

I was challenged by my good friend Jodi to attend HER gym for a spin class. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while may remember that spin class is not my favorite thing.  Unfortunately, I can't resist when someone goads me into doing something... thinking I'm going to be all wimpy and stuff... NO... not me. So I showed up for the class and I was simply HEARTBROKEN that they cancelled that day. SO sad. (please note sarcasm.) Jodi and I decided to use the gym equipment & do a circuit, instead, but (this may be hard for your head to get around) the Hempel children were being bad in the childcare room and I was distracted by this.  Jodi suggested we strap the kids to some bikes and hit a trail. Now THAT sounded like fun & something I had not done before. With the kids in tow, we completed almost 2.5 miles so our workout was complete. Then we decided to take all of the kids to Reames & enjoy the pool. We had not been at the pool for 30 minutes before this HUGE thunderstorm came out of nowhere. Jodi, the kids, and I ran into the bathroom to try to wait it out. The rain kept coming and coming. It's rare to see it rain so hard, around here - we quickly packed up and headed to the cars.


The girls were wanting to play for a while longer so Jodi was kind enough to take Lauren to her house for the afternoon. I offered to pick Lauren up at 4:30 & Jodi said "why don't you just come over for dinner?" Now... here's some history about dinner at Jodi's... Jodi's husband, Marc, is an avid hunter/fisherman. This means they have the most AMAZING selections of meat and fish. I recently told Jodi that Eric & I have never had salmon that we liked... we just don't prefer salmon. Jodi said we had to come over to HER house for salmon before we could forever dismiss it from our lives. Fair enough... we'd come eat her fish... make her happy... & go home still hating salmon....

Oh my... I can't begin to tell you how good dinner was. The marinade that Jodi made for the fish was so tasty. It's making my mouth hurt just typing about it. This wasn't just any old fish, either. This was a spring Chinook salmon off of the Rouge River. What does all of that mean? IT'S FISH THAT IS SO GOOD IT MAKES YOU WANT TO CRY. Do I hate salmon anymore? No. Will I order it in restaurants? No- because it will NEVER be as good as what I had at Jodi's house last night. So they've pretty much ruined future salmon consumption for me. Except, at their house. Which I will happily eat fish or any other kind of meat at the drop of a hat. (are you listening, Jodi...? My favorite friend...?)

And moving on to today...

I certainly had an "outside of the box" experience this morning! Jodi & I wanted to visit our farmer's market (does your community have a farmer's market?) and she invited me to her home so that we could WALK downtown. I showed up at 8:30AM & we headed out, on foot. It was a nice, cool morning & it took us about 30 minutes to reach our destination. There wasn't a lot of fruits and vegetables, yet, but I did get a beautiful salad mix & some garlic chives. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the garlic chives, yet, but they smell SO GOOD. We live in a smaller community & walking to the Farmer's Market made me realize that I'd like to do something like this again. We went through an older neighborhood called Pacific Terrace and it was nice to look at the homes, face to face, that I usually zoom past in my car. I enjoyed taking in all of the landscaping & varieties of plants. (now I want to plant some poppies... is it too late?) And, of course, visiting with a friend on a nice walk is always fun.





That's IT! That's my Friday/Saturday.... What a nice weekend! Tomorrow it's going to be 90 degrees (HOT for those of us in Oregon) so I've already called my friend who has A/C and an in-ground pool- we're invading their place for the afternoon! (meaning I won't be exercising tomorrow... you may want to come back here & win something...)

OH!! That's right! Contest... the WINNER of the free pair of Fit Flops is.... (drum roll.......... and please don't pay attention to my exercise/working in the yard hairdo...)

CONGRATULATIONS, Drea K! You've won yourself a pair of FitFlops! Please email me at rebuildingamy@gmail.com with your address & shoe size. (they only come in full sizes and if you're a half size, size down. Trust me!)

I'll be posting tomorrow with more FUN and sadly, less salmon.