Author: Faith

New York!

photo by *AnjaRoehrich

Guys, I’m so excited!  Soon N and I will be taking our first trip without the kids and will be heading to New York for a few days of awesome food and sights.

Have you been to New York before?  This will be our first time.  I’ve already pumped family (Mindy and Ken) and blog friends (Julia) for recommendations but if you have any, I’d love to hear about them. 

Recent Adventures

Things have been busy around here.  Last Saturday N and I went to BYU’s homecoming game (and left at the end of the 3rd quarter when things started to look sad).

There’s been a definite snap in the air which has meant drinking hot cocoa and eating butternut squash soup.

N surprised me with some very thoughtful birthday presents.  The kids and I have been blasting K-pop as we putter around town in the car and I’ve been studying the manual of my new camera trying to figure out all its features. I can’t wait to start shooting with it!

And since I’m a glutton for punishment, I painted the kids’ bathroom over the weekend.  There were so many things to tape off and so many awkward edges to paint around–ugh.  Fortunately, we all liked how it turned out because I am definitely not repainting it.  I still need to paint the bathroom cabinets but you know, baby steps 🙂

My Vegan Birthday Cake

my slightly-smushed vegan birthday cake

Because of E’s food allergies he can’t eat traditionally-baked goods but there’s a great bakery in Salt Lake, City Cakes, that specializes in vegan items. We stop by whenever our family is up in Salt Lake and it’s become a family tradition to order our birthday cakes from them.

When I ordered my cake over the phone it when a little something like this:

Store clerk: “Do you want anything written on the cake?”  
Me: “Happy birthday Faith.”   
Store clerk: “And what’s your name?”
Me: (long pause) “…um…Faith?”
(Awkward laughter.) 
And…scene!

The cake was worth that little bit of social awkwardness though because it was DELICIOUS!  Dense, moist lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream.  Better than most normal store-bought cakes I’ve had.  Their buttercream icings are great but, word-to-the-wise, don’t get their “cream cheese” frosting.  Real vegans are probably fine with it, but to anyone who likes normal cream cheese it’s just not worth it.  Buttercream is the way to go.

Birthday Weekend

So I know that I just posted about watching what I eat…but tonight N and I are eating dinner here.  I can’t wait!  In my defense, it’s to celebrate my birthday.  🙂

The funny thing about this birthday is that I get an extra year of being 32.  You see, somehow I got mixed up and for the last year I’ve been telling people that I’m 32 when I was actually 31.  (I know–I sound like a complete moron.)  But I think I can trace my confusion back to spending my 30th birthday in an airplane flying over the international dateline to Korea.  The anomaly apparently threw off all subsequent birthdays.

Anyway, so this weekend we’re going to fit in a little celebration with the kids in between watching sessions of my church’s worldwide conference on tv.  There are two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday.  I like listening to the messages from our leaders and prophet and it’s also a relaxing break from our normal weekend hustle.  The little nap I usually manage to take is also very relaxing (shhh!)  🙂

When I was growing up we had to get dressed in our Sunday clothes and go to our chapel to watch conference via satellite broadcast.  But now thanks to technology and living in the heart of Mormondom, we get to stay at home and watch in our pajamas.  Hooray for progress!

Stronger, Fitter, Thiner.

As you’ve probably noticed, I love food.  However, I live a pretty sedentary life so my weight has gradually crept up over the last ten years–lame.

I’ve made various efforts to lost weight (some more successful that others) but recently I’ve really rededicated myself to living a more healthy life.  I want to be in stronger and in better shape and, vainly, I would like to look better in (and out) of clothes.

I signed up for a women’s weight training class at my local rec center (and roped my my friend Linnie who happens to be an amazing artist into taking it with me) and it has really helped motivate me.  It meets for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it KICKS MY BUTT.  Every week we focus on a variation on a weight-lifting workout.

Last week we cross-trained and ran a lap around the track, then lifted weights for a minute, then ran and lifted again, repeated for an hour.  We ran a mile and a half which is the most I’ve run since the mile “fun run” I did in sixth grade.  (Super lame, but true.)  By the end of class I felt like throwing up and I was so sore the next day.  But then when we did the same workout two days later it felt just a smidge easier.  So that’s progress, right? 

On Mondays and Wednesdays when there’s no class I work out on the elliptical for 45 minutes and watch Netflix streaming on my iPad (so far I’ve watched a few different Korean dramas but right now I’m working my way through season 2 of Doctor Who…mmmm…David Tennant–yum.)

Foodwise, I’ve been tracking what I eat and have been staying in the 1500-1600 range for net calories (i.e. I eat have an extra snack on class days).

So I’ve been doing this for a little over a month.

“This is great, Faith!” you might say.  “How much weight have you lost?”

ABSOLUTELY none! 

We weighted ourselves and had our body fat measured when class started and we just did it again.  I weigh the same AND somehow my body fat % has gone up and my lean muscle mass has gone down (Gah!!!!!!!!)

Needless to say, it was pretty discouraging.  I’m working out more than I ever have before and somehow loss muscle mass?  If I was a guy I would have lost 10 pounds by now.  Bleh.  My instructor told me to keep a detailed food diary and that we’d figure it out.

On the plus side, I’ve learned that I actually like exercising and that I don’t mind running as much as I thought I did.  I don’t even mind perpetually being a bit sore because it reminds me that I’m getting stronger.

More circus photos

Here’s a few more photos from our trip to the circus. It was exciting to watch and fun to photograph.

If you’re curious about the details, these were shot on an first generation Canon digital Rebel with a 35mm f1.4 lens (which I love, love, love).  800 ASA at 1/250 and f2.2. These were shot in RAW format and then I converted them b&w and adjusted the shadow/highlight levels.

Serendipitous Saturday (2 of 2)

So on Saturday when we got out of the car at the Squaw Peak overlook we noticed a few people unpacking paragliders.  The weather was gorgeous so we decided to stay and watch what happened.

When you’re driving around in Utah county you see paragliders high in the sky quite often but we had never seen any up close like this. They were only about twenty feet from where we were sitting.

E was intrigued by the people unpacking their parachutes but Mimi was much more fascinated by all the cigarette butts on the ground–gross.

It was really interesting to watch the gliders take off. It happened so fast that I missed it the first time.  They would just start running downhill and then the wind would grab the sail (you could hear the loud SNAP of it catching the wind) and they would in the air.

This guy below had a rougher takeoff than his friends, though.  The wind blew him back into the mountain and he bounced off the ground a few times before getting airborne.  It was a little scary–he was fighting for control and for a second it looked like he might crash into the observers. Just watching him made my heart race; I wonder what his felt like.

 But then just like that he was off like a bird.

If we had gotten to the overlook 30 minutes earlier we probably wouldn’t have waited to watch the gliders take off and 30 minutes later and they would have been gone already.

It was a special family outing, one that I’ll remember as a little bit magical because of our good luck.