Where did June go?

(POST FOR JUNE 22nd late because I keep having computer issues)
So since yesterday was the longest day of sunlight in the year I thought it seemed funny that June feels like the shortest month of the year. To me it has literally FLOWN by. Probably it has to do with Kristin (my suite/house mate from university) has a wedding fast approaching and I'm excited to get back to the Midwest to see family and friends for a split second.

The window washers are here!

Twice a year we get our windows washed for this luxurious high rise.  SSA takes up 17 floors in this 26 story building and Department of Defense and Justice take up and share the rest. Of course they have plenty of other locations too. The agency doesn't pay a whole lot of rent to park ourselves in this building but rather they charge $120 PER month (which the price is suppose to rise again soon) for parking in the underground garage.  Thank goodness we can walk 25 minutes to work and if we have to drive there's street parking about 10 mins walk away. Shooo I wish I owned the parking garage because that's a ton of cars!

We've been eating spinach like crazy lately! Basically we've been going through 2.5 LBs a week! A few months ago we discovered CostCo's huge spinach sucker and it has made life SO easy when it comes to getting some greens in the good ol' belly.  Popeye would be so proud! (Whatever happened to the sailor man anywho? I haven't seen him pop up for a long while now.) Since we go to the Korean/Indian "Lotte/Assi" market every two weeks I stock the cart full of delicious toppings for salads and such.  We scored a bundle of dill for $1.49 and I've been putting it in everything. I made dill pickles, and a homemade yogurt dressing that tastes even better than any ranch dressing on the market. At any of the big name grocery stores here (Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter) it'll run you about $2.99 for a small package of dill (small meaning probably thickness of four fingers put together) and at Lotte you get a bundle almost the size of your head. (Ok a bit smaller but SO much more for the buck.) I'll put my Dill Dillyogurt recipe up. This has been my lunch for three days in a row at work: 

I love veggies and fruit together in salads and we grilled this weekend so I had leftover chicken with delicious Rudy's Rub everywhere.  ANG SARAP SARAP! (Filipino saying for tasty) If you don't know Rudy's BBQ it's from San Antonio Texas (where Mark is from) and it is the best out there by far.  The seasoned rub has a deep smokey flavor already and then you grill it and POW! Right in your face! Whenever his Mom comes over we always ask her to bring some for us.

A few weeks ago our scuba gear arrived! So exciting. I'm taking lessons in July once we get back from DECATUR ILLINOIS! YAY- I can't wait to go home!!!!!

And the Beautiful Weather Came Back!

Since Tuesday the weather here has been ridiculously HOT! For much of the country I guess it's been like that but boy I was sure glad to see that rainstorm roll in last night. Now it's cool and Mark and I are going to go for hike.  This time we're not going clear out to the Shenandoah area and we're going to stay local to DC and visit the Great Falls area. 

Towards the end of my time in Korea I went hiking every weekend with some girlfriends and I came up with a delicious treat that not only tastes delicious but fuels your energy.  I call it my Hika-Wrap. Now we did some pretty intense all day hikes, that including climbing rocks and ropes so we needed something that was going to boost us to the top. I've been debating whether to make it because it has a lot of calories and I don't think we're going on a very strenuous hike tomorrow but here's the recipe anyways:

Hika-Wrap
Serves 4 Hungry Hikers

 HINT: This tastes SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good if it sits in your fridge over night! All the flavors become best friends!

What you need:
2 C. Pear or apple chopped (you can peel if you want, I like roughage)
2 C. Granola Cereal
1/4 C. Chopped nuts

2 Tbsp Honey
3-4 Tbsp Lemon juice (half a lemon)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 Soft Large Flour Tortilla Wraps
8 Tbsp Nutella
8 Tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter 

What you do:

In a medium mixing bowl combine chopped pear, granola and nuts.
In a small bowl mix honey, lemon, and cinnamon until well mixed.
Slowly fold the honey/lemon mix into the pear granola mix.

Spread 2 Tbsp of each Nutella and PB on each wrap making sure you work from the outside edges in. Then plop 1 Cup of the delicious filling in the middle.

roll like so:

Fold left part of circle in at the same time as right to meet in the middle. Hold with fingers then with thumbs take the bottom of the circle and fold up and roll. Press the edge together and secure with a toothpick.

Wrap in wax paper and keep in fridge until hiking time.

Enjoy with nature and after eating some sliced veggies!
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Please no complaints if this sounds high in calories. I warned you at the beginning. Besides it's basically a nutella treat! :)

Now since I'm hiking tomorrow I'm having second thoughts about going to my exercise class tonight... so I can get an early start making these suckers!

YAY FRIDAY!

Routines

(That word just makes me want to fall asleep... maybe I need to get my priorities in check)


I can't say I have ever been very great at routines. Unfortunately success comes only with routines therefore I need to change and get ROUTINED! YEAH Routine!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!

Blogging requires routine. That's not really my forte as you can see with my sporadic postings but it is on my list of future routines that I'd like to keep up! Right now Mark and I are waking up early and jogging so hopefully that routine sticks better than blogging. So far two days out of three we've managed to find our feet on the dewy morning pavement. We'll see come the weeks end what this new routine brings.

For me it's easiest to be come obsessed with something rather than get in a routine. Perhaps it's my inability to multitask unless it's for one outcome or goal. When I lost a bunch of weight in Korea I was obsessed with running. That was a "one goal" sort of moment in my life. Living alone in another country toke me away from typical distractions, such as fast food driving and eating at the same time and getting persuaded by those late night chocolate commercials. (It helped to live in a country where I didn't understand "smooth, rich dark chocolate" when they say it.) Everyday was scheduled around my jogs and I would even pray for it not to rain and I had a full face mask while wearing 4 pairs of socks for the winter time jogs. I know I was obsessed but  it did lead to success and I lost a ton of weight. One of the best things my obsessive behaviour brought was my success with music. While playing flute or piano I'm concentrated on so many aspects; timbre, tone, positioning, posture, and the list goes on. Nevertheless, I can seem to manage that type of multitasking as it is for one outcome, great music.

For right now I'm trying to break my obsessive behavior over one thing and get into a routine of multiple goals. This is a challenge for me but it's got to be done.

So far the goals are:

• Exercise for at least 30 minutes/ 6 days a week -Thank God for Zumba to help me with this!
• Prepare healthy meal ideas a week in advanced - Mark is helping with this one
• Cut and use more coupons -And believe it or not he's helping with this one too!
• Read one book a month
• Keep in touch with family and friends more
• Study Spanish
• Keep current with German news (don't want to lose what I know of that language)
• Play my flute and piccolo
• Save money for a piano
• Write in this blog
• Spend more time outside -Soak up that vitamin D Jen!
• Enroll in school to get my Masters in Education

I'm going to print this out and keep a copy up at home and at my desk to help me stay focused and hopefully I can get myself obsessed with more than one of these goals at a time. Routine baby! Here I come!!!