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BLEND Sunday + B&B + Monday Hike

chimes — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Guys. I am almost too tired to write one last recap post. Everybody else did a glorious job. And once those are all compiled, I will give you the link to read everybody else’s posts. Because there are some really hilarious recaps out there.

Sunday morning we woke up again for some boot camp action. This time Chobani Fit crew ran the show. It was hard, but not hard in the same way that Saturday’s boot camp was. After the previous day’s workouts and booze … I think we were all interested in something a little less intense.

After bootcamp, we had another great breakfast bar. This time there was Chobani and Love Grown. And other stuff. But I mostly went for the Love Grown granola. I wish we had some here. Because I’m jonesin’ and I’m already out. Not sure how I’m out, because I grabbed a few more sample packs than my fair share …

No. Judging.

During breakfast I snapped a couple of photos of some gals that I spent a good chunk of time with during the weekend. Christine, from Oatmeal in my Bowl …

… and Kelly from No Sugar Sweet Life (you’ll meet her soon!)

We all entered our names in a raffle for some great prizes. And I managed to win a reallllllly fantastic prize: A Chobani Fit gym bag. I seriously needed a new gym bag. Wish granted.

[ super cheesetastic photo from Lauren ]

When the raffle and breakfast were over (BTW everybody won something in the raffle — best kind of raffle!) we all ran outside for a group photo. We took a serious one and a goofy one. Obviously I’m going to show you the goofy one.

[ photo from Lauren — look at her guns! ]

We gathered for one giant team huddle before breaking to pack and leave the park. So. Sad!

[ photo from Lauren ]

I packed and sat around in the lodge for a while to see if anybody needed help or a ride to the airport, since it was on my way. I managed to snap a photo of Kim and I, since she is a fellow Iowa native.

Finally, I managed to drive away. It was hard. I know. But I found a Lululemon shop down the road, to the dismay of my wallet.

I had to get the pants that Janetha had on for our Saturday bootcamp. I’d seen Katie post about them a while back too and had pinned them to my guns and buns of steel board on Pinterest. I had to have them! They had them in purple, black and gray. Of course, I’m an oddball, so I got them in purple. Though, I should have gotten a size bigger, and they only had that size in black.

I’ve worn them almost every day since I got them. I even wore them to work on Thursday. People just thought they were fancy leggings.

I picked up a few other essentials too …

I made it to the bed and breakfast I was staying at in northern Nebraska. They had an interesting assortment of movies. To my surprise, they had Serenity AND the whole series of Firefly. It made me giggle a bit.

Though, I didn’t watch either. I was drawn to something a little more cheesy. Yeah. Hello Leo. Titanic and tea for me. An evening of winding down commenced.

Before I hit the sack, I skyped with my two boys. One of which missed me more than the other. I’ll give you a hint. It was the one without a tail. Barney is definitely Mark’s dog. Though he is technically my dog. He seems to forget who pays his rent, feeds him and (yes) clothes him.

I ended up driving on Highway 30. Which sucked. Because it was 2-lane road most of the way and there was construction, which turned it into one-lane for some stretches. This made for an extremely long day.

I was almost home, but called Mark to see how he was doing on cleaning and such. He had promised he’d clean while I was away. But, like a true procrastinator, he had waited until 2 PM the day I was returning to even think about it. So I made a pit stop for a hike at a park that’s about 15 miles away from home.

And yes. I’ve lived here for almost 10 years … but I’ve never been here. I’m completely kicking myself now.

I spent about an hour or an hour and a half exploring and running up stairs — I had ultra-energy from being in a high-altitude environment. I felt like I could run up a ginormous flight of stairs on Monday (I did — ran up the stairs in the first photo I included of the park).

Finally made it home.

I can’t begin to explain how incredible this weekend was. So many girls that have the same interests as me. ~~Nobody~~ almost nobody was cliquey, snobby or Mean-Girl-esque (sadly, there are a couple of blogs I quit reading after this trip. I know that’s just as snobbish of me to do, but I couldn’t read anymore!). Everybody was welcome to hang out with whoever, and nobody spent time talking about how my blog could benefit your blog or that so-and-so’s photos really sucked. Everybody took photos of food — not just me. And we all enjoyed getting sweaty in the AM. It was pure fun. And I so want to do this again next year!

Are you taking any trips this summer? Have you gone hiking before?

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BLEND Half-Assed Recap

chimes — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

In case you forgot, I was at Blend this weekend. It. Was. AWESOME.

These people are my people. In short? I learned:

Sarah from the Smart Kitchen wants to come to Iowa because she has a (secret?) love of musicals and one takes place at the Iowa State Fair. I told her she can crash here and we can get fried pickles on a stick for ISF 2012.
There are people shorter than me. Seriously. They exist. I think I met them all this past weekend. One of them is Janetha, who I’ve definitely mentioned (I swear, if Janetha does it, I do it. I feel like a total creeper, but apparently I wasn’t alone because she’s super #fitfluential) and was one of the three lovelies who put this whole shabang together. She’s BARELY shorter than me. So there. But she is far more badass than me. Also? Ashley, from Freckles and Spice — she’s 4’11″ and absolutely adorable. And awesome.
You are never too old for Hello Kitty. Or in my case, Care Bears. So says Katie from Healthy Diva Eats — who, by the way, might like Calee Pink ™ more than I do.
Driving by yourself for hours on end is actually fun when you haven’t had time to yourself in ages.
Ulysses is an interesting name for a husband — namely, Gina, one of my roomies’s hubban’s name (seriously, check out her blog. she takes amazing pix of her food and makes great stuff!)
I have a new blogger girl crush (sorry Janetha — I promise I’m still reading!) — Laura from Sprint2theTable — seriously. Read her bio and tell me that she doesn’t sound a little like me? Except FAR more badass. She ACTUALLY did roller derby. And broke her jaw. I sat down next to her at dinner on Friday because she was drinking a Manhattan (ladies? My mantini!).
I can do one-handed pushups. Yup. I am officially a fucking superstar. Sorry about the F-bomb. I am drinking a GF beer currently on about 9 hours sleep total since Wednesday.
Speaking of pushups, apparently I can do 72 in a minute. I should have gotten on my knees (we were doing a group rep competition) so I could have done way more and pushed our group to win the competition. But I don’t remember if there was a prize …
THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT TAKE PHOTOS OF THEIR FOOD BEFORE THEY EAT IT.
Most importantly — hanging out with a group of girls for the weekend wasn’t as painful as I thought. I actually miss ~~some~~ a lot of them (Lauren? Heather? I am excited you were as cool IRL as you are online!). And hope that I can visit them (you all are welcome to visit but Iowa is kind of boring, in case I forgot to mention — except we do have a Chinese Pizza joint that you get to wear a helmet when taking shots).
Also? I’m ending on eleven because I’m turning it up to 11 — Spinal Tap Style. One of the (first) and most important things I learned is that MY HEALTHY LIFESTYLE can rub off on YOU. Or my future (hypothetical children). Christine, from Oatmeal in my Bowl, told me that her 12-year-old said to her friends (who are all going on some freaking fad diet), “Um, you shouldn’t do that. It’s not good for you. I know from watching my mom.” Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

Okay, so actual recap coming soon! I’m hoping that there will also be a place I can direct you all to read everybody else’s recaps, because everybody else is far more interesting than me, ya know.

Here’s the whole shindig via twitter.

Also … here are my instagram photos (I know Steph is going to love this — just imagine … 70 women all instagramming their food at once!)

[ my windows are covered with bugs by this time, but here is my first view of the mountains ]

[ largest bag of swag in the history of bags of swag ]

[ seriously. swagtastic. and yes, i brought my body pillow with me. ]

[ cupcake spread at dinner on Friday ... look — GF and vegan options! these ladies thought of everything ]

[ pre-hike breakfast by xagave and chobani on saturday ]

[ hike — yes — I made it to the top. also, I totally look like my gram in this picture with those glasses ]

[ best GF beer I've had to date ]

[ an ... um ... fine assortment of glassware. and heena tattoos. yes. heena. not henna. ]

[ met two awesome dobermans — doby and daisy — at avery brewery ]

[ may have taken a ton of the love grown granola samples at breakfast on Sunday ]

[ ahem ... ]

[ um, thank god we don't have one of these here. might have dropped $200-300 ]

[ mostly on these pants. in purple. ]

[ who would do that? watch this from portlandia. also, cute dog — at the mall in boulder ]

[ bye bye boulder! ]

[ stayed at a B&B on the way back ... they had a fine assortment of movies. and the entire series of firefly. ]

[ finally skyped with my boys — ign0re my arm ]

[ finally ate my simply bar. kind of want more. filling, low cal. low sugar. whole foods. will be contacting them to see if i can do a giveaway or something awesome. ]

[ almost home. trust me. not as happy as i look. or do i even look happy here? no. ]

[ this is how i know i'm back in Iowa. though apparently they have branched out to CO. i didn't see one. so Iowa. ]

More to come later!

What did you do this weekend? Anything fun? I want to know!

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FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Kelly Presents: A Photographic Retrospective of the Top 15 Calee-Kelly Moments

kelalea — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:00:25 +0000

While I’m out at BLEND this weekend, I scheduled some pretty primo guest bloggers for your enjoyment. Today’s guest blogger is Kelly from [ insert clever title here ].

It’s been a while since I’ve done a flashback Friday. When I asked one of my best friends, Kelly, to guest post, she immediately decided to do a photo post. Of course. This girl takes a lot of pix. And she’s got some great ones from our younger years. Many more adventures to come, I’m sure.

Also, we are almost too much cute to handle. I selected my honorable mention from the photos she uploaded for this post (sneaky!) for the featured image. It was us at the I-80 truckstop on our way to our friend Meredith’s wedding in 2008. This was right before we both got a desperate call from her asking if either of us had a camera because her photographer sucked. Why yes. Of course. We both had a camera.

Sit back, and enjoy. She’s an excellent writer as well. If you like, head over to her blog. She also writes the Cook It Yourself (CIY) section on Twenties Hacker — the same website I write Fit Your Fancy (FYF) for — we like acronyms.

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I don’t quite remember when or how I first met Calee. I’m sure we had some freshman design classes together, but I don’t really REMEMBER meeting or knowing her until our sophomore year. At first, I only knew her as The Girl That Sat In The Front Near An Outlet In Art History And Took Meticulous Notes On Her Laptop (I can, to this day, remember the exact spot she sat in the design auditorium… and it wasn’t until a while later that I realized that bringing a laptop to art history was brilliant, for more than just taking notes. HELLO, INVENTION OF FACEBOOK.)

Then I think we did some time together on our residence hall student government council. Then we had more design classes together. Then we just hung out all of the freaking time and have been rather inseparable ever since. It drove our professors crazy because we always sat by each other and our names were so similar (not to mention that we both had long, curly blonde hair for most of our college careers), and they always got us confused.

For my post today, we decided it would be fun to do a retrospective of old pictures. Because nothing is more awesome than putting old (and frequently awkward) pictures of yourself out there for all to see.

This was really hard, guys. I have a LOT of pictures of myself and The Chimes. (I mean, I have a LOT of pictures, period.) I scrolled through as far back as Facebook would let me, and landed somewhere in 2005.

I decided to narrow it down to our Top 10 15 Moments in Photographic History. Which… roughly translates to My Top 15 Favorite Photos of Us, as of today.

#1 – The time that we met Chip Kidd

Year: 2007

#2 – The time that Calee’s roommate taped us together

Year: 2005

#3 – The time we showed off our skillz at ISU Senior Portfolio Night

Year: 2007

#4 – The time we got photobombed by a small child

Year: 2011

#5 – The time we had an 80′s themed New Year Eve party

Year: 2008

#6 – The time we dressed up for Halloween

Year: 2009 (left) – Robin Sparkles & Little Red Riding Hood
Year: 2010 (right) – Catwoman & Poison Ivy

#7 – The time we had the traveling birthday tiara (where the hell did that thing go?!)

Year: 2008

#8 – The time with the crash helmets and Kamikazes at Fong’s Pizza.

Year: 2010

#9 – The time our friend Steph got married

Year: 2011

#10 – The time we took an adorable picture at VEISHEA

Year: 2010

#11 - That time we made/ate homemade pizza for my birthday

Year: 2007

#12 – The time we were both a lot shorter than our friend Shelly

Year: 2010

#13 – The time we posed because we were adorable.

Year: 2005

#14 – The time we posed with a statue on Calee’s 25th birthday

Year: 2009

#15 – The time we went bowling and on a double-date.

Year: 2012

HONORABLE MENTION – The very first picture I have of us:

Year: 2005

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Do you have a friend, or friends, that no matter WHAT you’re doing or where you’re going (even if it’s to the bathroom), you have to get a group photo?

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dear 4th grade self

chimes — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

I had a post about my double date on Saturday night scheduled for today, but my mom finally scanned this photo that I’ve been wanting her to scan for a while. So instead, you get the worst photo of me ever.

A post on The Lunchbox Diaries entitled “Dear Self” prompted me to look for this picture. I had all of my other pictures from years of school picture day, but not this one (there was a reason … scroll down and you’ll see). I thought of this photo because I wanted to tell my 4th grade self:

Dear Self:
You don’t know how to use the brakes on this 10-speed bike you just got for your birthday.Though it PAINS you to say you don’t know something, you should probably ask for help before you crash into your neighbor’s yard at the bottom of the hill mere days before school pictures. And no, mom is NOT going to let you get retakes. Or wear makeup.
Sincerely,
27-year-old self

PS Your hair is naturally curly. Own it.
PPS Quit letting mom dress you.

^ yeah. This was also before I discovered blow drying doesn’t work with thick wavy hair.

Anything you’d like to tell your younger self? Or future self?

PS Speaking of photos, I have to share this one. My friend finally posted the photos from her wedding. And I didn’t see this one before … hilarious. This was our table. Well most of it. Just the people brave enough to be in the photo.

[ photo copyright McClanahan Studio ]

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Sunday Brunch: More Breakfast Quinoa + My Run-in With a Seahorse

chimes — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I randomly had the most fun I have had in a long time. I’m not talking about the patchwork class I’m teaching — though it was a hoot — or biking home from campus after hitting the gym for 2 hours (ugh).

I’m talking about Sexual Selection Prom. I got called in at the 11th hour to do hair and makeup for my friend while my other friend was sewing her dress. And I don’t know what the deal is with all the proms that my friends and I go to, but there are a lot of them around here.

I, unfortunately, did not get to go to said prom. However, my friend Cat (Mandikat) was going with her hubby who I believe is working on a PhD in animal ecology and evolution. The idea was to dress up as a pair of animals and show their sexual selection colors (eg. cardinals — male is obviously very red, and the female is boring brown). Since most female animals are bland colors because they get to be choosy and pick which male they want, my friend chose to be a seahorse, so she could dress in pretty colors.

[click for source ]

And somehow, my friends magically found a dress at Goodwill at 4 PM [ prom was at 8 ] that was seahorse orange. My friend Molly [ the same one who lost her doggie earlier this week ] spent the next few hours modifying it to look more seahorse-y. She’s kind of a genius. If there’s anybody in my group of girlies more crafty than me, it’s her. I don’t have a picture of the dress in its final form because Cat was getting sewn into it as I had to leave, but it was beyond seahorse-y — there was a fin in the back and a tail in the front.

You can barely see her hair here, but it’s a faux-mohawk updo with curly spikes.

I think her lips are my favorite part. That was her idea — and it was a great one. We used foundation to downplay the outer lip and a lip stain + gloss to draw the inside.

Seriously, Molly, how the hell did you pull this off in 2 hours (I got there at 6ish)? That is definitely a freaking tail. I’m pretty sure the other parts were made from other Goodwill finds. Mindblowing. This is why she’s getting a masters in fine art.

So another surprise yesterday was that when I was done with my patchwork class, I came home to this:

Homemade bread. Unfortunately not gluten free and I have no recipe to share — the boy needs to be better at writing these things down! But seriously? It tastes as good as it looks [ yes I had a bite. and I'm feeling it today ]. He just did this by throwing stuff together. Yeah. What the hell? I’m thinking we need to open a gourmet pizza shop / sandwich shop / bakery at some point in our lives. And the menus will not feature papyrus or comic sans.

Oh and, did I mention that I’m obsessed with quinoa?

No? I didn’t?

Are you sure?

I mean, I’ve been eating it for breakfast … and stirring it into my chicken salad (which I owe you all a recipe for — it’s to die for — well, as far as chicken salads go. It’s not cheesecake!). It’s gluten free. Whoop whoop!

Well, here’s another thing to do with it. Toast it! Like a granola.

I came across this little recipe from Healthy Tipping Point a while back and made myself a giant batch.

The first time I made it, I didn’t realize it called for UNCOOKED quinoa. Just so you know, that’s kind of an important detail, unless you want to bake all the water out.

But, eventually it turned out okay. And I ate it on my berries + yogurt all week.

YUM. I need to make another batch soon.

I’ve also been eating peaches and cream quinoa. I accidentally overcooked a big batch last week. We’re talking mashed-potato-like consistency [ I ALMOST got Mark to try it. But he doesn't like the quinoa flavor ]. So I’ve been scooping it out and putting almond milk and frozen peaches with it, nuking it, then adding a drizzle of honey.

Did you have any crazy surprises this weekend? And I’m curious, do you always eat breakfast, or do you skip it?

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Check out my moves … workout moves that is.

chimes — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Head on over to Twenties Hacker today to check out my lunch crunch workout. I made it myself.

I’m not supremely awesome at videotaping myself. So enjoy that awkwardness. But seriously, try my workout. It’s a killer.

Speaking of killers, my friend Molly’s dog, Tucker, got hit by a car last night.

I know that was a terrible segue, but It’s 5 AM. I woke up to receive the news via text. He was a really sweet dog and I’d totally bonded with him since he was pretty much scared to death of all other humans.

Send her some good vibes! She’s not taking it very well because she’s an amazing dog owner and really loves her doggies. She’s holding her other dog, Bailey (who is an awesome running partner!) in this picture here.

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Nerdboner

chimes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000

So I have this awesome friend that I met through twitter.

I know. I’m a socially awkward geek. So sue me. But he’s an even bigger one, which is where he gets the moniker: Nerdboner.

I met him in person a while back and we got some pizza … and he had a bunch of awesome geek swag from ComiCon for me.

He came down to hang out last month, and it got pretty out of hand.

Tomorrow he’s going to be here for a Doomtree show. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Especially because we’re getting margaritas and Mexican at La Fuente beforehand.

I can’t wait!

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Happy Baby Day!

chimes — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:30:00 +0000

One of my besties just gave birth to her first baby at 5:26 AM. Little miss Stella Rose … I can’t wait to meet her!

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Time Warp: College Roomies

chimes — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I recently attended the wedding of the first of my 3 college roommates to get married.

For those of you who don’t know, I lived with boys. And one of my long-time girlfriends. She informed me that I need to get on that engagement thing because my other male former-roommate is now engaged. Just us two single ladies left.

Anywho … FLASHBACK to 2005

[clockwise starting on the left: Danielle, me, Joe and Nick]

This was from Nick’s 22nd birthday party — the first party we had in our new apartment as roomies. He and Joe were at the ISU game earlier that day and Nick got SUPER burnt. I’d like to point out that I have pink hair in this photo. And I apologize for the mesh cutoff sleeve shirt I have on — I was in a band at that point and was seriously into finding my own “metal” style. AND I have no clue whot he girl behind Joe is but she seriously looks like Robin Scherbatsky.

…

Moving on

…

So this is 2007, the year we all graduated college. This is one of my favorite roomie pix! Thanks, Danielle for digging this up.

[Danielle, me, Nick and Joe]

Yeah. This was at the Bali Satay House, which, sadly, no longer exists. We used to go see our friends’ bands play there. And my boss informs me that they apparently had incredible food.

…

Fast forward 4.5 years: 2011

[photo by McClanahan Studio — from left to right — Joe, me, Nick and Danielle]

This was November and Nick got married. Joe was his best man. Danielle and I were the queens of the dance floor. I’m amazed at how much we’ve changed in four years.

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Two Years

chimes — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Five years ago today I posted this photo on Facebook:

And two years ago today we went from close friends to being nearly inseparable. I’m going to be disgustingly sappy, but I’m so thankful I found everything I ever dreamed of and more all rolled into one amazing guy. And he’s mine.

Here’s a photo from the first night we went out in public as a couple. Steph and Nathan just got engaged so we went to The Lift and Fong’s to celebrate (where else?).

Here we are at Welch Ave. Station in Ames (again … where else?). One thing I love about Mark is that I’m not the only one geeking out over 80s tunes when he’s around. Full-on belting occurs when “Come on Eileen” or “Take on Me” is played.

February 2010 — Night of the Living Prom — this is our Billy Idol pose. Rock.

New Year’s 2011 (man I looked bad with RED red hair!). This is an ill-advised hair moment for both of us. Advised by who? Me. Of course. I kept dying my hair red while telling Mark he should grow his out again because it’s so cute … [thanks to Justin for the pic!]

Spring 2011 (I may have put this one in just because I love my hair and earrings combo here). For the record, I LOVE BEARDS. I didn’t like facial on men before I fell in love with Mark. Now I realize that fur on the face makes the man.

And at Steph and Nathan’s wedding in May of 2011 (yeah we came full circle here!). Thanks to Kelly for this pic. I included this because Mark looks awesome in a suit and I absolutely adored the flowers we got to carry.

July 2011. Last photo of us together … most likely because we haven’t gone out forever. Mark bought a car in August and I’ve been pretty much worked to the bone since July. We’ve been hitting up La Fuente like nobody’s business, but otherwise have pretty much spent our nights at home with Netflix and Buffy, Kevin Arnold and zombies.

Happy two years, babe. I hope we have many many more.

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