Tag: love

Trip to southern California

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, travel

It’s been a minute since I posted, a lot has been going on here so there will be a few posts coming.

First let’s talk about food. Found some food carts near my work.

Can you say flipping delicious!!!!!

Then it was off to cali!

We did some beach walking

And some friend visiting

And some drinking lol

The main reason we were in Cali was the wedding of my oldest friend! I was honored to be a bridesmaid.

Getting all done up for the wedding

How amazing is that dress!!!!!

I can’t believe I’ve known her since i was 2!!!!!

Then we did some family visiting. He met several family members for the first time.

My family loves to play tile rummy.

Then it was back home and back to real life.

Night in Box

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life, Uncategorized

This is the other date subscription box I bought called “night in boxes”

The theme this month was Blind Date

This box sends an email ahead of time with suggested menu choices (you buy and make it all yourself). It suggested small meat, cheese and bread like items and I added the mac and cheese in case we were still hungry.

 

Have I mentioned he hates taking pictures lol.

Once again I had a lot of fun but overall this date box was lacking in my opinion. It came with 2 blindfolds, a small dry erase board and some cotton candy (if you can call it that) and a link to a website with voice recordings telling you what to do.

The concept was great. You did some talking to each other, 1 person put the blindfold on and had to draw something then draw it again with directions from the other person and vice versa. Then 1 person put the blindfold on and the other created an obstacle course and led the blindfolded person through it with commands and vice versa so it was great for communication. Then there were 10 questions you both had to answer. Then there was a part that had the potential to get a little sexy or just really messy, you both put on the blindfolds and fed the (terrible) cotton candy to each other and put some on a body part, such as your shoulder and had them lick it off and so forth. But the cotton candy was TERRIBLE!!! it wasn’t light and fluffy at all, it was all compact and crappy and had no flavor………though maybe cotton candy has always had no flavor and I am just now old enough to recognize that.

Overall I had fun but this box was definitely not worth the $30 something I paid for it. But I will never think that spending quality time with my man is a waste. So far DateBox is winning over Night In boxes.

We will see what next month holds!

Date Night! Box

by Ariana Peters, posted in House/dating/life

I put on a dress for the occasion, nothing fancy, tonight was all about a comfortable night in. He wore pajamas hahahahaha.

Date Box is a monthly subscription box where (almost) everything you need is delivered to you in a box for a fun date night in (or out if they have arrangements in your city and you choose that option).

The inside of the box.

Kettle corn was one of the snacks provided in the box. I had a lot of fun popping the corn, though once it started popping it was really hard to get the sugar and salt in there without losing a bunch of corn popping out of the pan! I ended up only putting in like 3 of the 7 sugar packets which worked out well anyways, Brandon prefers salty to sweet.

Apple cider for a drink (we also shared a coke zero)

Caramel apples were a bust, probably because I have no patience to cook the sauce correctly and it is difficult to keep a specific temperature on an electric stove, so I did a little improvising and made a caramel sauce to dip some apple slices in, though I ended up not really liking it but Brandon dipped his popcorn in it to make it caramel corn hahahaha.

The completed (kettle)popcorn

Our final food spread, we added the corn dogs, they seemed to fit with the theme.

After bring up the playlist for the night (more on that below) there are a few “conversation starters” they were totally corny but I actually really liked them. They made us think about what we liked in the other person, what about with each other made us better, what we like about having each other as support. I think even though its corny it is good for couples to take a few minutes and think about that kind of stuff, even if you end of laughing at the answers.

We laughed and joked and had a good time. He even sort of posed for the picture!

Overall we laughed and had fun and talked a little bit so I think it was a total success, but to be objective……the caramel apple sauce was pretty crappy and I read other reviews where people had issues with it too.

The escape room game was fun and cheesy but way easier than a real in person escape room (we did one about 2 months ago). Brandon didn’t like how easy it was, I will say I liked that they had a website to go with it that kept you honest about the hour time limit to the game and gave some hints as the time went on. We might not have figured out the first clue without the hints lol.

I liked that a spotify playlist came with the box to “set the mood” creating a playlist would have taken a lot of time and if I did it on my free Pandora there would have been ads. The playlist was also nice and long, it consisted of 42 songs, more than enough to fill the entire night with music.

You do need a few things for the box so be sure to flip through the directions and recipes before you sit down to do it. Since we just moved in and haven’t fully stoked our pantry Brandon had to hit the store on his way home from work for the few last minute things we needed (like the correct oil to pop the popcorn in).

Overall for the price, around $34 for the box, I think it was worth it. Going out would have probably added up to a lot more than that and this was snacks and an activity alonf with some bonding stuff. It was a little cheesy for Brandon but I think he had fun too. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next month. (I bought a 3 month subscription) At the end of the 3 months I will evaluate if I want to do another 3 months.

If you would like to try DateBox here is a link for $10 off your first box.

*This is not an ad, I paid for the DateBox subscription myself and am not getting paid for this post.

House Hunting: It’s so much worse than I thought

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle

My boyfriend and I have taken the plunge and decided to buy a house together……YAY!!!! Our monthly rent payments will now go toward mortgage payments and we can do whatever we want decoration wise to the house and really take care of our house and have pride in it, and of course get to see each other every day (we currently live an hour apart). What they don’t tell you is how stressful home buying is and that it can really test your patience and possibly your relationship.

Image result for house buying Image result for house buying memes

First things first, we are both adamant about not only sticking to our budget but trying to be as far under it as possible. We agree 100% on this which is wonderful. What we don’t agree on is patience and mind over emotional. I do not have patience, I try soooo hard then 5 minutes goes by and I am frustrated and he is drag his feet McGee so we are polar opposites. I understand that buying a home is a HUGE step but at some point you have to bite the bullet, no house is going to be perfect (especially not in our price range) and you can never guarantee that something wont go wrong the day after you buy it, the week after, 6 months after and so on.

Image result for house buying memes

I like to think that on this we are balancing each other, I am nudging him forward a little faster and he is reigning me in so I don’t sign papers on day 1.

Mind over emotional……….The 2nd house we saw I was in love. It was cute and charming and on some land and almost 90 years old which brings a whole new set of fun things to deal with, and in a rural area which has much less guidelines on bringing things up to code. All in all I still love this house, it would require a little work but it has charm and character and is on the lower end of our budget, a total win right???? He doesn’t think so. All he can see is the work that needs to go into it and I would sign the papers today if I could. So once again we are balancing each other.

Image result for house buying memes

The other joy we are facing is that months ago when we were still deciding if we were staying in Oregon or going and if we would buy or rent I told my roommates I would be out by the end of January, now here we are in November with limited time and options. This is also causing me to feel a little bit resentful toward my love, he does not have this time constraint so I don’t think he feels this time pressure as much as I do, which means his dragging his feet, examine everything from every angle is driving me more mad than usual. Breath in, breath out.

Image result for house buying memes

And that is just the interpersonal issues! Now factor in the actual houses themselves! More than half of which are sold for cash only because there is so much work to do on them, or the ones that are so gross I am not sure we could even live in them while we slowly fixed them up. It is maddening. Buying houses is maddening, I have a new respect for people who flip houses and don’t know how you don’t all have ulcers; on the other hand I hate you all a little bit because you buy the half way decent ones in our price range, flip them and sell them for 50-100k more and now I can’t afford anything.

Image result for house buying memes Image result for house buying memes

I just need to remember patience, not to take my frustrations out on my partner and to pray we find the right house in time.

Grandparent’s day!!!

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, Uncategorized

Shout out to my amazing grandmother!!!! Just like my amazing mom that I talked about on mother’s day my grandma is one for the books. She is the matriarch of our family in the true sense of the word, we all visit and gather around her. For someone who has been alive for 90 years she is surprisingly forward thinking, like my mother she does not judge people she only supports. It is no wonder that I have such an amazing mother when she was raised by such an amazing person.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a very warm, loving family and I think it is in most part to this wonderful woman who had a hand in raising us all, either directly or indirectly.

Remember that life is fleeting and you never know what tomorrow holds, tell the people you love how you feel, reach out to someone today and tell them that you love them.

Day on the farm!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle

Brandon and I headed out to his grandparents small farm in northern Oregon to hang out for half a day and had such a great time! It was so relaxing and wonderful.

From the moment we got there Brandon was in front of the blueberry bushes snacking away while we talked to his grandfather. Artemis enjoyed the flavor of the pigs trough water hahahaha. This is the only pig they have left and it is much more of a pet than something intended for a meal. It is getting old and grumpy though. It likes having its belly rubbed hahahaha!!!!! It was a little wary of Artemis but surprisingly she was not afraid of it!

I spent some time talking to his grandfather about their Israel trip which sounded amazing. Then we all went out to lunch and a teriyaki burger hit the spot.

When we got back from lunch Brandon, Artemis, the grandparents dog and I all set off to explore the property. 1/4 of their property is basically a little forest area that is super beautiful, the cows graze down there in the heat and there are blackberry bushes going wild. We wandered down there and explored and snacked on blackberries hahaha. Definitely getting our fruit quota for the day. Have you ever had a yellow raspberry? Now I have! they are pretty amazing right off the vine and according to his grandfather that is how you have to eat them because by the time you have them in the house they are starting to go bad.



At this point we were both super hot as it was the hottest part of the day so we headed back instead to talk some more and look at pictures and cool down.

Around 5:30-6 as the sun was starting to move toward the horizon and a lovely breeze started we headed out to feed the cows!! Got some hay from the barn and some treats for the cows and they slowly wandered over. We fed them some treats as well, their tounge feels like sandpaper like a cat! Again it took a minute but Artemis wasn’t afraid! Though they were a little wary of her hahaha.




Once the cows were chomping away happily we headed back down to the wood area and spent about an hour picking blackberries! 



We went home with probably a good 8lbs of blackberries! I am so making a blackberry balsamic reduction to freeze to put on some amazing stuff this winter (that post to come). At that point the temperature was perfect, I could have stayed out there for hours, and the space and joy of the country was just everything. It was such a great peaceful day. I can’t wait to go back!

In a month or 2 their trees will be hanging low with Apples!!! Can’t wait to make some apple desserts and some great slow cooker meals with apples!

Huckleberry half**Race Review

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

This last Saturday my boyfriend and I ran our first race together. We didn’t have high hopes going in since neither of us had trained enough and there were going to be some hills.

We are not fans of getting up early.

What can I say about this race except that it was small which was nice and off the main road so we didn’t worry too much about cars. Their fuel stations were just ok in my opinion but I am used to bigger races with bigger sponsors so in the future I would just need to plan better.

The race was on sort of back mountain roads so trail running shoes would have been better because the roads were all chewed up from snow. I got blisters on my blisters.

The course was beautiful and shaded which made all the difference.

Our pace was ok, not great but not horrible for a hilly run for me.

As you can see I started off strong and really faded toward the end hahaha

Oh the hills!!!!!!! The entire race was a series of ups and downs. There was no flat, this race just wiped me out.

Fun wood carved medals, though Brandon is disappointed we didn’t get t-shirts, he likes those more than the medals.

Overall it was fun and I am glad we did it but I wanted to cry the last 3 miles because I was so tired and my body hurt so bad.

We know to train better for the next one!

Oh and if you are a slow runner and don’t like being at the back of the pack don’t run this race, We crossed the finish line with only 4 people behind us….yes only 4. This was a small race of fast runners hahaha.

Day 6 of 28 and hiking review of salmon river trail

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, training

Happy Saturday morning!!!

Yesterday the BF and I headed out for a little hike. We slept in and had smoothies for breakfast, I worked a little bit on flashcards for my Medical terminology class and had the last little 1/4th of a cup of smashed potatoes before we headed out. It was just over an hours drive to the trail so we stopped just before we got there for something to drink and cookies hahahaha. The trail was nice, mostly shaded and not too many people, we passed maybe a dozen people so I was able to let Artemis off her leash for about 3/4 of it.

Most of the trail meandered near the Salmon river, which was pretty shallow.

Lots of trees equaled lots of shade. Though being near the river it was a bit muggy.

We did an out an back trail so we stopped at mile 3.3 to turn around and head back. I brought a tortilla, 2 pieces of ham and some cheese and we shared a tortilla roll up for some energy to get us back.

It was a lot of rolling hills so we ended up running back about 2 of the 3 miles, maybe a little more. We made it back to the car pretty quick which was really nice. We decided to go out to Red Robin for dinner for some big juicy burgers, but I was good and got a side salad instead of fries. It was delicious. That was my day!

I really like the trail. AND Artemis went into the river!!!!!! She has never done this, normally I have to stand really still by the edge and coax her down and scoop handfuls of water for her to drink, this time she actually got in the water! More than once! Breakthrough!!!!!!

Summer Hiking series 2017: Smith Rock State park

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, training

Howdy!

I mentioned last week that the BF and I went hiking at Smith Rock State park so I thought I would do an actual review and talk a little more about it.

Smith Rock state park is out near Bend, OR. Weather wise it was almost perfect, after many days of dark dreariness we entered the land of the sun! Bend gets a lot more sunlight than Portland and this particular park looks more like it belongs in Arizona if you ask me. It was probably about 70-75 degrees with sun and a few clouds so it was amazingly beautiful. Of course there was a storm rolling in and we hit the beginning of it but I’ll talk about that later.

It was a Friday morning and I happened to not have lab so we decided a hike farther away would be ok. We did get a little bit of a late start though, by the time we were up and ready, hit the grocery store for snacks and really got on the road it was about 10am.

It was just under a 3 hour drive for us so by the time we got there, got situated, bought a $5 parking pass and headed out it was about 1:15pm.

I took a few pictures of the area before we started. The surroundings were so unlike the area of Oregon we live in!

That is what we are about to hike up??!!!

It was an aptly named trail, at least the ups and downs were but I would say only about 1-1.5 of it was difficult. The rest was pretty flat.

Gotta get a nice picture before we get all sweaty and gross.

The view from the top was great, very pretty.

That is what we had just hiked up. There were actually quite a few stairs, it felt like I got a major step up workout hahaha

The information shop area place had a nice little map that was free that showed you all the trails.

We did Misery Ridge which was the most elevation wise but was only 4 miles. We would have added on a smaller hike but about half way through our 4 miles the wind started kicking up and the clouds started rolling in. We drove the rest of the way into Bend and had dinner at the Deschutes Brewery and restaurant. I had an amazing burger after all that hiking hahaha. I may have also had a beer sampler but being as I was tired and had worked out it only took 3.5 of the 6 to hit me so the BF finished the last 2.5 for me hahaha, I am so not a heavy drinker anymore.

On the way home the clouds really started rolling it and we even hit a little snow going up over the pass back to Portland. It was 34 degrees so the snow wasn’t sticking yet but it probably stuck later that night if it kept going.

Overall I really enjoyed this hike, I wish the clouds hadn’t rolled in so we could have hiked longer. There was only the one difficult part of the hike though going up and over the ridge, Brandon was a little bored the rest of the way and we even ran a little on all the flat parts. Maybe 3/4 of a mile to 1 mile. Smith rock state park is very big with rock climbers, there were A LOT of them, it was fun to watch them but terrifying to think of being up there. There is also mountain biking and on the flatter, rolling hills parts that could be fun.

As far as dogs go, they are allowed but sometimes Artemis pulls and I would have been terrified that she would have pulled me off balance and I would have fallen, there are some definite drop offs. Thankfully I did not bring her on this hike. Also I prefer to hike with her in less populated areas so I can let her off leash and she can go at her own pace.

Overall I enjoyed the hike but it is way to far of a drive for what we got out of it hike wise. I did very much enjoy myself though.

Until next time, have fun trailing the blonde…………

Weekend Wrap-up

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, school/studying, training

So I ran 5 days in a row last week then took Thursday off, Artemis and I took a little walk

It was cold but beautiful 

Anatomy studying 

Enjoyed a cup of coffee out of my new Starbucks ‘You are Here’ mug. I went to Peru 6ish years ago but didn’t hit a Starbucks while I was there because I wasn’t collecting these mugs yet, so my awesome roommate brought me one back when she travelled there over the holidays. 

Friday the boyfriend, the dog and I set out for a 2-3 mile run but i hadn’t waited long enough after a big lunch which resulted in me dry heaving on the side of the road. So the BF dropped me and the dog off at home and he headed out for another 3 miles lol. 

Saturday it snowed so instead of running we headed out and played in the snow with the Artemis. She loved to run. 

Saturday night we cooked and watched some movies. 

Today is a lovely lazy day before I start cramming for the personal training certification exam. I need to take it in about 2 weeks and in other news……

I start back to school tomorrow!!! I am only taking 1 class this quarter, Biology 101. My plan is to go to school part time for the next 2 years so I can still work while I do all my prerequisites then I will apply to a doctorate of physical therapy program. 

I’ll keep you posted. 

How was your weekend?