Currently [v5]

>>> Down to my last few days at work which meant turning in an extra time sheet today so I can get all my checks on my last day next week! I love that my company is able to do that for someone who's leaving but also kinda sad that it'll be my last pay check for a long, long time.

 >>> Trying to make the massive headache I've had all morning go away! I'm prone to getting headaches easily because my jaw isn't aligned right and I grind my teeth at night and today is no different. Its seriously pounding and all I want to do is nap.

>>> In awe that our trip to the beach last weekend might have been our last trip before the move which means from now on we'll have to make a vacation out of every beach trip instead of just a Sunday afternoon. I admit that we haven't been to the coast as often as we should/could have but I'm so glad we were able to go this past weekend.

>>> Starting to get the process started with packing up our house. There's no longer anything hanging on the walls in the whole house, rooms are starting to get emptied out and the stacks of boxes are growing. Two weeks from today and we'll hopefully be on our drive to CO.

>>> Really looking forward to the weekend. We have dinner with J's boss tonight, our last Padres game tomorrow night and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in San Clemente with my favorite people in Southern California on Sunday night. All these "lasts" sure are sneaking up fast!

>>> Happy to announce that I've jumped back on the MyFitnessPal wagon this past week and it's been going really well. After coming home from Ireland a little heavier that I'd like to be (thanks to all the potatoes and whiskey) I decided I needed to prep for summer and start counting calories again. And I'm already down 3 lbs since my post-Hollandmoon weigh-in!

>>> Thankful for the musical inspiration I got on my drive to work today. The right song played at the exact right moment and was seriously a sign that I'm in exactly the right place I'm supposed to be in life right now.

I'll be back next week with more Hollandmoon Recaps so don't worry!

My Husband's Year of Fitness

My husband is an amazing man, hence the reason I married him right? Duh. He is supportive of me and my dreams, encourages me in every aspect of my life and is my biggest fan. He's always telling me how much he loves me and I often hear of him talking about me to other people. Well, now its my turn to brag about him and his motivation, his dedication, his strength just for a little while.

Its no question that weight has been an issue for J throughout his life. He has a big appetite, loves food, hates being hungry and quite honestly, has lived with a girl who eats like a slob (hangs head in shame) and maintains her weight. Over time he ended up putting on more weight than he would have liked, reaching his highest right around the time when we got engaged in 2011.

I hated that J felt the way he did about himself. It got to the point of dismissing some of my favorite engagement photo pictures, negative self-talk and just plain feeling crappy. I knew I would love him for the rest of our days, regardless of weight or hair loss or anything else that is physical but I wanted him to be confident in himself too.

Spurred by the upcoming wedding and a general down-feelings, he spent an entire year changing his life. Changes that aren't small either. Getting up at 4:30am (also known as the horrible-hour) to get in a cardio workout every single day before a full day of work. Then spending close to 2 hours each evening doing strength training. Counting calories of everything that went in his mouth and consistently being at a deficit. We're talking lifestyle changes here.

Now, one year later and 60+ lbs down he's done it. 

The process was not easy, that's 100% sure. He pushed his body to it's limits, made sacrifices and to be honest, it even caused some tensions in our relationship. But it is all so worth it in the end. His attitude about life has changed. He is much more happy, has goals to push himself towards and is so much more healthy which can't be discredited at all.

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J: I am so incredibly proud of you and your accomplishments in this huge moment in your life. I look at you each day, at the motivation and dedication you've shown me over the last year, and can't help but fall even more in love with you. I think you are the most handsome you've ever been and I know that this lifestyle change has given us both so much. I am so happy to be your wife, so honored to stand beside your buff self ;-) and so excited for all the years to come.

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To read more details about his journey (numbers, workout plans, calorie limits, etc) go here where he's written it himself.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly [V4]

[The Good]

1. Progress with our wedding is in full swing and I couldn't be more excited. Between buying shoes that will hopefully be perfect with my dress, sending out Save the Dates on Monday, bridesmaids going shopping for their dresses soon, and working on a gift registry for a shower in the fall, this wedding really is starting to become real. Thanks to The Knot for keeping track for me, we are officially in the hundreds (198) for days until the BIG DAY and I'm loving every minute of it.

2. J and I have been hitting the gym hard in the last few months and I am pretty proud. (definitely more of him than of myself but hey!) We joined a small gym by our house and it seems to be the perfect place for us. It's not huge in the sense that it's always crowded and no one's friendly but not too small either because there are still classes for me to take and plently of equipment to go around. We're motivated by the wedding and figured it was time to start now. My goal was to get into better shape in general and have more muscle but in the process I've lost around 5 lbs so far. J is the impressive one though and has lost close to 50lbs! I am so, so proud of him and so happy that he is living a healthy and active lifestyle. Now I really can't wait to see him in that tux!

3. My poppies are finally blooming and I absolutely love them! It took way longer than I thought for them to actually start making flowers but they're here now and they're the perfect shade of orange and every day I swear there's another 10 flowers blooming out there. And to think they just grew from seeds from Home Depot! Maybe I do have a bit of a green thumb. Let's hope my newly planted herbs do as well.

[The Bad]

1. Application cycle is in full swing again this summer which means lots of writing, talking about myself, editing, editing and more editing, stress and hoping that this time I will finally be on my way to med school. It's been a long process getting to this point and I'm hoping that I have what it takes this time around. Finding the motivation after a full day at work and an hour at the gym is definitely tough but I just have to keep telling myself it's all worth it in the end.

2. June Gloom is in full effect here in San Diego and I'm already over it. For some reason living closer to the ocean sets the onset of summer back a ways. While other people back home are enjoying 80 and 90 degree weather, we've had fog, sprinkling rain and 60's. I was cold enough in work today that I went to my car to get my sweatshirt this morning. I'm ready for summer, hitting the beach, starting on my tan and enjoying fruity drinks! (Not that I'll have time for all that but I can dream, right?) This bev is definitely one of the first ones I want to make soon...

Source: delightfully-tacky.com via Jayme on Pinterest

[The Ugly]

1. Yesterday I had one of the most horrible doctors appointments of my life. I had to go in for a regular physical and some standard tests and left the office crying. I will admit that I did go into the office a little crabby hesitant because of problems I've had connecting my medical records from Colorado to California but the Nurse Practitioner I had my appointment with was horrible. She told me I couldn't have certain things done "because I wasn't using the health system like I was supposed to" and it wasn't her fault I wasn't responsible. She refused to give me tests because "why would someone your age need them?" She wouldn't listen to what I had to say, didn't care when I told her about previous symptoms I've had and left the room after saying "well I guess we're done here". I was completely and utterly shocked.

2. The raccoons are in full force around our house lately. After something got attacked by them Sunday night, we've been taking note of any and all commotion in the back yard. Well we finally saw them all; momma and her four babies. And boy is she mean! J went out on the patio to look at them and she froze in her tracks and gave him a look like she meant business. They're kinda hard to see since I was trying to take pictures at 10pm in the dark, with scary raccoons hissing at me and a dog that just wanted to get out and play with them but if you look closely you can see all four babies to the right of momma! Normally I don't care about things like this but raccoons can be so nasty that I definitely don't like having them around.

Hiking in So Cal

J and I have found a new hobby. 

It's something that we've done a few times before (both together and apart) but now it's something that's adding to our efforts of being healthier and more active. 

This is how we spent most of our Memorial Day Weekend.

(J just about peed his pants when we came up on this guy) 

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In total we hiked for about 5 hours, totaling near 12 miles on the two trips. Who knew there'd be hiking like this in Southern CA. It might be a few weekends till we're able to get back out but I can't wait for more adventures with my love. 

Life Lately

Things around here have been busy, busy, busy! Plus there are a few random things I wanted to share that didn't deserve their own posts so this is a bit of an update/random things I'd like to share. 

[+] J and I have been trying to get our butt's in shape for the last few months. Between wanting to be healthy and preparing for our wedding we've had some good motivation going. I'm actually very impressed with how often we've been hitting up the gym and how well we've (especially J) have been doing. I do some lifting workouts occasionally with J but most of the time I take one of the classes they offer, for free I might add. I go to at least 3 Zumba classes each week and I'm totally loving my yoga on Thursdays and Sundays. 

[+] The weather in San Diego has been hit or miss lately. Some times it's chilly and overcast with the occasional rain (which I despise!) or some times it's close to 80 degrees and I sit on the porch all day. I can't wait for the warmer weather to be here to stay. But it has been at least warm enough on average to allow my garden to start growing! When we were at Home Depot a few weeks ago I picked up some packets of seeds, two different types of orange Poppys, and they've finally started to sprout out of the dirt. I can't wait to see how they grow and hopefully they'll be easy to take care of. On the gardening note, we were blessed to have a rose bush just pop up in our yard. Our neighbors have rose bushes lining the fence and I guess one wanted to sprout on our side. At first we thought it was a weed and I'm so glad we didn't kill it. We've been nurturing it as it's been kinda scraggly but it's starting to grow too. The neighbors roses are the size of softballs(!!!) so I hope ours are the same. Can you say gorgeous!?

[+] Our Ollie dog is so sweet and so cute and has brought such joy to our lives lately. Especially for me after losing my sweet boy, Basil, I've really been cherishing every game of fetch and every snuggle this big guy will give me. His favorite yard toy ever is his Ollie-ball and it just cracks us up every time we watch him gallop through the yard with it in tow. When J was out of town last week for work I even let him sleep on the couch (which he's not usually allowed to do) in the evenings to keep me company. He is seriously the best dog and I am so happy he's in our lives.

[+] Wedding planning is still trucking along but now that we've gotten a lot of the big parts set in stone there's no rush or stress to be constantly planning, planning, planning. I'm very thankful that we got a lot done as early as we did so that there's not negativity surrounding our big day. Now that we have the files for our engagement pictures I have been playing around with different sites like MyPublisher and Shutterfly to make a photo book of all the images. I want to design a book with a simple layout and lots of white background space to use as our guest book. That way people can flip through our photos, sign some sweet words to us and we can kill two birds with one stone with the guest book. 

[+] We are expecting some visitors in the next few months and I am so thankful that our families are able to come visit us out in SD. First is J's grandparents are coming in this weekend, then J's mom and step-dad are coming in May and then my mom in June. Being away from family is one of the few negatives of living where we do so we are both very excited to have everyone come. Plus we've made some changes to the house that we can't wait to show off.

[+] If you couldn't tell, all the pictures on this blog are from my Instagram. I recently got a new Android phone that finally has the app and I love being able to share pictures so easily and hope to some day use the photos as magnets, photobooks, etc etc etc from the sites that I've seen floating around lately. But more importantly, if you have Instagram... follow me! Username: jaymeeryn