10 Day Challenge - 2!

I had a lot of fun doing my first 10 day challenge and keeping myself in check that I thought I'd go for another 10! There is still a lot of food I want to try, exercises I need to push myself to do and just activities that I'm lazy and don't do haha this makes it written in stone and more of necessity to complete. 

Check out my new 10 day challenge, I hope some of you are trying this!



26. Try 10 new wines COMPLETE

This was one of my favorite goals because I really didn't have to try haha wine is a custom in my life now that all of my friends drink wine and everywhere I go I am usually able to try a sip of something new. 

I have officially tried 11 that I have kept track of since beginning this goal. Eight of them I have previously posted about and I'm here to finish the last two necessary to finish this goal - but I have three to share!

9. Turning Leaf

Merlot

You may have remembered me posting about another Turning Leaf wine, it was a white wine that I tried with my sisters and the boys that was yummers.. this one was also very tasty! I brought it to contribute to dinner with Lauren and we loved it!! It has a bit of a stronger taste, but not so much that you can barely drink it.  We had a couple glasses and then I share with David last night and we finished it off and he liked it as well!

10. Blue Fin

Viognier

Jessie served this at our dinner together the other night and it was very good.  We dusted this in one night between us so it must've been pretty good! I didn't really pull anything exotic or super fierce out of this wine other than that I really liked it.  It was an easy drink that had flavor to it but wasn't taking over my tastebuds.  I'd purchase again!

11. Macaron

Moscato

Last but not least.. Macaron! Erin purchased this at our last get-together and was excited for me to try it to add to my list!! This was a favorite at the party, I'd say.  It was very light, easy to drink and was a good party, mingling drink.  We had pasta that night and it didn't clash with the food necessarily but could do without any!

DONE!! 78% COMPLETE!

Challenge #6 - Take a HIKE!

Goal #6 - go on a hike!

This was a bite challenging because we had quite a few bumps in the road before we actually made it on our hike.  I have a book of hikes, but I have already gone on the local ones and the others are about 45 minutes to over an hour away.  Therefore, David and I thought we'd go to Irvine Great Lake and hike around there... we drove down just to find out that the hiking trails aren't built yet.

BUMMER!

Then we decided to conquer the 1,000 steps in Laguna Beach.. and on our way there traffic was so terribly bad that David and I are now in an awful mood and this isn't fun anymore.  I turned my little car around and headed home.  We laid on my bed for about 5 minutes and then said ok lets go! and we set off to Santiago Canyon.

I have done this hike in the past, but that didn't stop the fun because there are so many different routes that there was no way that we went on the same exact trails as I had previously done.  We had so much fun! It took us about an hour or so to hike around the entire loop that we chose to follow.  It was definitely cardio for the day and we got a nice little tan while we were at it!

Challenge #5 - Meatless for a day!

Goal #5 - go meatless for the day

Well.  I thought this one would be easy, even though I was going to the fair.  I was convinced that staying away from meat would be no big.  But then my darling Mackenzie got herself a foot and a half long corn dog and with the hilarious-ness of it all, I had a bite. And then another. And then realized what I just did and was so annoyed with myself! But you know what, I am doing a "challenge" and thats exactly what I was faced with.  I didn't want to get myself down and ruin the day, so I decided that I would "Charge it to the game," as David and I would say, and let it go and pick up on this challenge the next day.

and I did! Sunday was a great day full of YUMMY meals that didn't involve meat AT ALL! I made David and I eggs and toast for breakfast, we had an early dinner at Olive Garden where I had minestrone soup and Linguine alla Marinara, and we had homemade cheese pizza for dinner! Challenge accepted!

[No pictures for this goal as I was very focused on getting through the hike that I missed a photo session with my breakfast food, I was too hungry at lunch to remember to pose for a shot with my Linguine and David served me my pizza just as I was waking up from a nap that I wasn't even thinking straight to even know what I was eating haha]

Challenge #4 - Try a new tea

Goal #4 - replace soda with a new tea

This may be hard to believe, but I have never tried Green Tea before Friday.  And Friday may have been the worst day for this challenge.  I fell asleep at 8pm the night before, but still woke up with a SLAMMING headache.  I'm not sure why but it cursed me and took me through the entire day.  On top of being insanely busy at work and not being able to eat a full meal until dinner time.  By the time David and I sat down at Thai Cuisine for dinner, all I wanted was a soda because I've always known a tall class of Coke-a-Cola to take away my head pounding.  But I really wanted to complete my challenge and go the healthy route.. and then David orders himself a gorgeous looking class of soda! Needless to say, I almost gave up, but stuck it out and had my green tea.

IT WAS DELICIOUS! It tasted like flowers and smelled amazing!!!

Here is a picture of my adorable little setting of green tea and my teapot!  Next, I want to try the green tea from Starbucks that has been raved about! Courtney has told me that they have a green tea-lemonade that is just like an Arnold Palmer, but green tea instead!  Pumped to continue this challenge!

26. Try 10 New Wines

One wine down, nine to go!!!

1.  Bitch - I bought this wine for my sister some time ago thinking that it would be a fun bottle to share on a girls night that we could laugh about!! It definitely was all I hoped, but the taste was not one that I would recommend.  The bottle was so fun to keep around and is totally adorable.  But we probably won't be buying this for ourselves in the future.



97. Try making a new recipe every month

This is an ongoing goal throughout the 1001 days for Day Zero Project.

At the beginning I was posting each month of the new foods, recpies and goodies I was making.  More recently, I haven't posted any of my delicious findings and new creations!! I thought I would give an update of all the recipes that I have been making :)

Lets see...

- Pesto, Avocado Pasta

I made this with my friend Mackenzie.. it was definitely different and was an awkwardly cool dish as oppose to a hot dish you would expect with spaghetti noodles.  It was a good expereince :)

- 5 Minute Chili (Trader Joes Recipe) 

This was my first recipe out of my NEW Trader Joes cookbook from Mackenzie.  It was pretty easy! Not 5 minutes easy, but didn't require much and was very tasty!

-Stuffed Peppers (Trader Joes Recipe)

I made this one with my BFF Lauren.  We were starving and a little impatient as we did not cook the rice fully, not knowing how long it took to make rice, and so it was a bit harder than it should've been.  But the peppers were fabulous!

- Mini Strawberry Pies, Davids FAVORITE!

I recently made these for David and my engagement party as a request from my fiance.  SUPER easy!! But still a new recipe :))

- Chicken breasts in bulk

To be honest, I have never actually cooked chicken.  David usually does it for us if we have chicken with dinner.  My mama taught me how to cook chicken in general, but I also learned how to cook it in bulk and perserve it to eat throughout the week.

-Homemade Apple Sauce

This was not as bad as it looks.  When all said and done it was warm, which was a bit weird, and it didn't have much taste.  You boil apples and then peel the skin off, mush it together and top it with a little cinnamon. Not difficult at all!

- Salsa

I have learned how to make salsa in a variety of ways in the past but my sister makes a fabulously amazing salsa by boiling the ingredients and then dropping them in the blender.  It is so easy and even I can do it!!!! I LOVE her salsa that I had to learn how to make it! And it was well worth it :)

- Baked Breaded Avocado Slices (I'm sure there's a better name for these)

This was interesting!! You basically take slices of avocado, dip them in eggs and bread crumbles and bake them.  Sounds fabulous!! But were lacking in taste.  We doused them in hot sauce and ate a few of them, but over all we need to figure out how to add a little more flavor next time.

- Panini Sandwiches

I really enjoy a good panini sandwich, but I have always thought they took a ton of effort and we're more than I would bargain for.  But, yet again, Erin whiped out the ingredients for an array of different paninis and away we went.  We made them on the George Foreman grill and put everything from ham/turkey in them to avocados and grilled veggies.  SOOO easy and a lot of fun to make!

-Homemade Ice Cream!

This was a MESS!! hahaha Erin had a goal to make homemade ice cream.  While at Target I saw a mini ice cream machine on sale and bought it.  This thing was so small and the directions were so vauge that although we made ice cream it was super watery! It never fully thickened like ice cream should, but still tasted really good!

- Icing a cupcake!

A little random, but I learned how to make the concoction and beautifully ice some fabulous cupcakes for my godsons first birthday.  OK Shannon did most of the work, but I still learned how to do it!!!  It's super easy! You just need a plastic funnel, a tip to go in the funnel that the icing will come out of, food coloring and vanilla icing and WA-LA! Goregous cupcakes with very little effort!

- Hard Boiled Eggs :))

Haha this one is kind of pathetic, but I never knew how and as Shannon, Erin and I were making Easter eggs we all learned how to boil an egg! Which will come in handy with deviled eggs, salads, or for a good snack!

- Alcoholic Infused Gummi Bears

Shannon taught me this one! They were strong!!! It was pretty basic, but needed time to sit and soak.  The result was quite a show...

- Chocolate Dipped Cookies

These were WAYYY easier than expected!! I thought I was going to have to dye the chocolate and make a major mess and none of the happened.  I bought the colored chocolate from Michaels, melted them down and dipped sugar cookies into them half way.  Stick these puppies in the fridge so the chocolate will harden and DONE!

- Deviled Eggs

This one is a little premature as I will not be learning to make these until this weekend, but I am very excited as my mom as an AMAZING recipe that my sister will be using to make goodies for my bridesmaid get together on Sunday... Check back for the results of these littl babies!

TIME!

15 recipes and still counting!!!!



ANOTHER Mud Run!

After the last mud run I instantly said that I would do it again and as the year went on I regretted that decision fully! Even the day before, David and I were trying to find reasons not to go, but couldn't think of anything that was good enough to give up $60+ race... so we went. 

In the end we were happy we did.  David beat his time from last year coming in at 1 hour 15 minutes (Last year 1 hour 31 minutes).  I was right around my time last year coming in at 1 hour 34 minutes (Last year 1 hour 34 minutes).  We were happy! And this time we stuck around for a little bit to get a bite to eat and feel a bit of the sun.

Alex, Shannon, Madalyn, Lauren and Jenn did well and we all were proud of our times! It's always a good time, but we will not be signing up again next year! It was too difficult to build up enough steam to want to do it AND we'll be getting married around that time and DO NOT want to think about this race. :)

Here are our Before and After pictures..

31. Go wine tasting

I have been wine tasting a few times, but this one will be PUBLISHED, what what!

Groupon had a great wine tasting deal where you could go wine tasting for two and take your favorite wine home in a personalized bottle.  I took Erin on this trip with me and we had an absolute blast.  The winery was not too far from home at all, we could have actually walked (but we didn't).

We tried 6 wines, 4 of which the winery creates themselves.  *OH and I would love to tell you the name of the winery, but since going they've changed it and I can't remember either names because they're drastically different.

But anyway, we took home a dessert wine that was really good and we thought would be great at home for a little girls night in at some point in the future.  As it turns out, we get it home and didn't like it as much as we did the first time.  It's a fabulous wine, but the atmosphere, or the other tastings we already had, influenced this one and it just wasn't the same.  Regardless, it was a great time!



Riding over with the top down!

 

 

34. Another concert :))

This is total a double wammy for this goal because I did already complete it long ago, but I also posted about Woodstock and that I was going! So I wanted to put a little update up wtih pictures.  Now, We 've been going for two years now.. These pictures are from our first trip!

This concert is so much fun! It's all cover bands from the Woodstock days.  We lay on a big lawn with our camping chairs and blankets, drink beer, try food and just chill.  It is a really good time.  Usually, we soak up A LOT of sun while we're at it! It's generally in August and it is scorching! But so worth it :)

My woodstock look :) PEACE

Erin and I getting a hold of a beach ball being popped around up by the stage.

The boys... enough said.



4. Go on a double date with David, Erin & Smelly

Although we hang out on a pretty regular basis, Erin and I rarely get a double date with our boys.  One night we were sitting around and mentioned wanting to go see a movie and I screamed out "DZP Double Date!!!" and Erin was SOLD! We convinced the boys and off we went!

We ate at Alcapulo Restaurant, where they didn't have rice for some insane reason! This was a major topic of conversation during dinner...

And then saw The Hunger Games at Century Theater.

We had a blast and the movie was fabulous! (It was my second time seeing it :))

Here are some pictures..

I went all out and bought a ton of munchies for us to enjoy during the movie (after dinner, contradictory - I know:))

Erin and I, SUPER excited that we're actually completing a goal, unexpectedly!

The four of us.. as you can tell the boys cannot take a real picture.  I think this was our third try at a group shot and.. well.. yaaaaaaa

101. Get engaged :))

Biggest goal! Number 101 is complete!!!!

David and I are engaged and couldn't be more excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is our story...

Lets just start by saying that David is not a planner! When we go out or do a day-trip somewhere you better believe that I generally have thought of the idea or took an idea from a conversation of ours and do the research that goes along with.  And for the record, I am in no way complaining about this, but that is just the way it is with us!

So, David tells me that he wants to take me to a restaurant down by Crystal Cove and I say "OK, when are we going?"  He nonchalontly says, "Whenever we're free I guess" and so I look at my calendar and suggest a date I see open and tell him "How about Sunday, May 20?" and he agrees and so it is set.  In the mean time I'm asking him what the plan is and he says that we'll have a picnic for lunch, hike around and then go to this restaurant for dinner so bring a change of clothes.

The date comes around, about two weeks or so later, we get everything together - I packed a picnic basket and David looked up directions and off we went! Once we got there we picked a parking lot, gathered the picnic basket and blanket and headed down to the beach.  It was quite a hike down but once by the water we parked ourselves on our blanket and started eating.  There were these cute little squirrels everywhere and I decided to feed them - as David is yelling at me not to :)

After lunch we put the food and basket back in the car and hiked around a little more just looking at the gorgeous view! Upon arriving we received a map of the cove so we took a look and David suggested going to this little spot on the far side of the beach.  We hiked over and I was getting pretty tired.  The sun was blazing right on us and we had climbed up and down trails for quite a while.  We came to a cave that we believe our good friend Dan Kintz took an award winning photograph at, so we decided to park ourselves for a while and play in the water and look at the tidepools.

While playing around with the sea life David asked if we wanted to do an exercise that we learned in counseling, we finish the phrase "When I say I love you I mean...." We took a seat on some rocks right off the water and did this exercise.  David was very into it and giving these long elaborate phrases while mine were pretty short.  We did this for a few times back and forth and David asks me if I want to play a game... I was not entertained by this idea, but I said sure.  He told me that I would have to stand up.  So I do, and as soon as I looked up at him I knew.. I completely started balling as he got on one knee and said "Will you marry me?" as he popped out that little black box and opened the lid.  I was so taken back that I didn't even see the ring and fell straight into his arms forgetting to answer his question.  I said yes and the rest is history!

This picture was taken after the proposal by a beachgoer that was walking behind us as we continued hiking up to an viewpoint.  We told her that we were just engaged and if we could do it over again so we could capture the moment! She was happy to and gave us this beautiful memory!!!

And here is a first look at our engagement shoot.  More to come..

Park Date with Ryan and Mommy :)

Last Saturday, after Miss Shannon got her hair chopped, I spent the day with her and her fabulous little monkey Ryan.

I wanted to share a few pictures that we took at the park.  I can't get enough of this kid!

Caution! You are about to see the cutest kid in the world.  You may let out an "aww" or "ohhh." That is expected.

 And we're off to the park! Ryan didn't like that Auntie was trying to put a flower in his hair.

Hey I can't help it that I sometimes want to treat him like a little girl :) hahaa

This kid LOVED the swings!

And the slide even more!!! Auntie kept putting him on the slide, so when Mommy picked him up he'd hold his hands out to me.  Little did he know that Auntie gets tired QUICK and was not about to take him on the slide 500x. 

But I did share my Jamba Juice with him, feeding him by the straw! Now that is love.

Best picture of the day!

After coming home, Ryan and I played a little ball on the new hoop that Tio David and I got him for his birthday! He was so good at it!!! All Star already.  Mommy, look out for this one!



Happy Easter

I know I am a bit late, but nevertheless

HAPPY EASTER!

He is Risen!



14. Dye Easter eggs

The conversation between Shannon and I literally went like this:

Shannon: What do you want to do tonight?

Me: I kind of wanted to dye Easter eggs.  It has been so long since I've done that.

Shannon: Ok, we can do that tonight.

Me: REALLY!? WE CAN?!

Shannon: Yeahhh, we can go buy the stuff and make them tonight.

Me: OK! LET'S GO!

Then, I called Erin and had almost the exact same conversation full of excitement.  And that is how we came to the great idea last Saturday evening to dye Easter eggs and knock something off of all our lists :)

Shannon and I went to the grocery store and bought all the goods.  We purchased the traditional dye kit and an extra little goodie box that gave us little bowls, shaped like eggs, to dissolve the dye in.

When we got back to the house we started unpacking everything and Shannon :) had the brilliant idea to punch out the holes on the back of the packaging to set our eggs in to dry after we had designed and dipped them.. little did she, or Erin and I know, that we hadn't read the instructions first and no one knew how exactly to dye Easter eggs.. HAHAHAHAHA

It was so funny!

Therefore, here is another funny conversation of the evening:

Erin: I think it says to put blah blah blah of vinegar in the bowl and then blah blah blah dissolve one tablet of dye and blah blah blah...

and it carried on like this because the "blah blah blah" was where the information was missing due to the missing holes on the back of the box :)

See the hole punched tray sitting there..BAHAHAHAA

Never a dry moment with us!

And the dyeing begins..

Erin getting her dyeing on..

Hahahaha so many funny stories this evening!

I, being a helpful baby sister, decided to check on one of Erin's eggs in the dye.  Well since I haven't done this in YEARS and haven't handled the egg dyeing tools, probably ever, I accidentally dropped her egg and squished the bottom :(

It was still beautiful, but lets just say I wasn't allowed to touch anyone else's eggs than my own after that.

Shannon! Rocking her totally gorgeous new hair cut! Proud to say I was the first to see it after she left the salon :)) (I didn't ruin any of her eggs :))

And this would be me and a concoction I made.  I put a pink dye tablet with a blue one to try and make purple.  Instead I got a very interesting mix of both colors which was a favorite amongst the group! They yelled at me when I did it, but then couldn't help but put one of their eggs in this crazy color mix!

I love these girls :)