I Confess

I have a confession to make. I have been avoiding my blog like the plague. This is entirely due to the fact that I want to post about all kinds of random things but have been feeling like I can't post about anything new until I catch up on vacation posts (which are both daunting and overwhelming). So since almost all of my few followers are friends with me on facebook and have already seen my 6,000 vacation pictures, I am going to ask that you forgive me but I am stopping the vacay posts.

On another note entirely I have been loving so many healthful things lately!
-Last Friday Zach and I rode about 10 miles on the Cardinal Greenway and made the trip to Hunnicutts (a local gem) and back
-We have started playing tennis/disc golf/going for walks quite a bit more
-I have positively cleaned up at the Farmer's Market the past couple of Saturdays with everything from banana peppers to juicy peaches to candy onions to red potatoes
-I have become a regular once more at our Y's Saturday morning strength training classes
-I am stoked to take Zach to his first Core Blast class tonight!
-I am also thoroughly enjoying making my weekly menus.

Here's what's on the menu this week...
Monday- red potatoes, Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu, Mixed veggies
Tuesday- buttered green beans (fresh beans of course), cranberry dijon pork roast, fruit
Wednesday- Ravioli and cheese bake, salad, fruit
Thursday- grilled veggies, orange roughy Italiano
Friday- lemon couscous, corn on the cob, baked chicken breasts


JORDAN

Day Four Contd.

Day Four Sunday Contd.: After our picnic lunch we headed into Arches National Park. I love Arches. Such beautiful colors, interesting formations and plenty of rock to climb on! :) We got to see Balancing Rock, the Three Gossips, the North and South windows and Double Arch. From a distance the arches don't look very large, but when you get up close man are they impressive. We climbed all over most of them (we being mostly Zach and I) and we would get as high up as we could climb and have the most incredible views. You can see for miles and miles and my favorite part is being able to see snow-capped mountains as the backdrop for these desert formations. So surreal.

The North Window from far off

Balancing Rock

Double Arch

Looking up underneath Double Arch

After a day of exploring the Arches we checked into a hotel in Moab, Utah and rested for a bit. Then we all went to dinner at the Moab Brewery and went back into the park. This time we did an extremely strenuous hike to catch the sunset at Delicate Arch. It is the most popular spot in the park to watch the sun set because as it goes down Delicate Arch takes on the most fiery red color. It was a really beautiful spot and completely worth the tough hike!

Petroglyphs we saw on the way to Delicate Arch

Barely starting our hike and seeing all those people up ahead made us realize just HOW FAR we had to go

Delicate Arch getting fiery red

Zach and I under the arch

The view of the mountains from the Arch

JORDAN

Days Three and Four

Continuing on in the thread of vacation posts...


Day Three Saturday: We had great morning on this day having breakfast and a lot of laughs. After a late start and a workout we got ready and went into Idaho Springs to eat at Beau Jo's. Let me say, NO ONE does pizza like Beau Jo's. It is such an incredible place in a gorgeous setting surrounded by the Rocky Mountains.

No worries, we shared :)

After Beau Jo's we all packed up and got ready to head out of Denver but first Mom and I went to The Shoppe. It's an adorable little cupcake place and we got cupcakes for everyone.

Mom with the miniature cupcakes we bought for everyone

in The Shoppe

 Then all of us (me, Zach, Mom, Dad, Greg and Dan) all left Denver on our way to Utah. We stopped for dinner in Glenwood Springs.

The majestic Rockies on our drive

Mom and Dad at dinner

We made it as far as Grand Junction and then stopped there for the night.

A beautiful sunset on our drive with a jet stream through it

Day Four Sunday: This morning we got up and drove into Utah. Our first stop was at a neat picnic area right outside Arches Natl. Park that had a very cool bridge. We always eat lunch out of our cooler when we are visiting parks.

Okay, guess I should have called this Day Three and PART of Day Four. Whew! This is more work than I thought it would be so this is all for today. Next Up: Day Four contd. and Day Five!


JORDAN

Current Life and a Bit of Vacation!

Several things making me a happy girl right now...
1. Having my refrigerator/pantry finally re-stocked with lots of healthy food
2. Finally getting back into a routine at the gym!
3. Having a planned menu for my entire week of amazing things to cook
4. Pretty much anything and everything about my incredible husband
5. The multiple fun and successful parties of this past weekend (which included Christine who got to come visit for a whole four days!!!!)
6. The Bachelorette is on tonight (everyone is allowed a guilty pleasure :) )
7. The fact that I got to spend literally all day laying by the pool on Saturday and I plan on doing that multiple times this summer!

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend because mine was pretty stellar. We had a completely random impromptu party that turned out to be one of the best ones we have had in a long time! I got to enjoy a lot of time with my BFF including brunch, pool time, camera shopping, and just hanging out catching up. Now I am taking on this week with a lot of confidence and can honestly say I am PUMPED to hit the gym after work!

Now, I need to start tackling the big task of vacation posts. Where better to start than...the beginning!

Day one Thursday: This was a total driving day. We took off from Muncie around 3:30 in the afternoon and headed West. We stopped in St. Louis for dinner and discovered the oh-so-awesome St. Louis Union Station where Zach had his first experience eating at a Hard Rock Cafe. We had a great little stopover there before heading on.

Our view from dinner

Officially vacation :)

We continued driving, through the night, so I guess that turns this into...

Day two Friday: We arrived at my Uncle Greg's house in Denver, CO a little after 8am and positively crashed. After only an hour sleeping though we had a surprise. My mom and dad were supposed to be leaving for Denver this Friday night so we weren't expecting to see them until Saturday, then suddenly they are waking us up to say hello! I was so confused I sat up and said "What day is this!?!?!" Ha! They had been keeping it a secret for months that they were going to fly instead of drive and they had wanted to beat us there but we were too fast. After we caught up on a little sleep we went to lunch with Mom and Dad at the Cherry Cricket (actually one of our travel channel places, but that is for another post!).

 After lunch we all hung around outside Greg and Dan's (including their sweet dog Dexter)

Then went to dinner at El Diablo and to an art walk. The art walk was very...interesting. Haha! Some of the art was really cool while some was just plain weird. We had a good time though and it was an excellent place for people watching!

Colorful flags at the art walk

Some of the interesting "art"

My mama and I

Well, I can tell this is going to take a while since I only did TWO days today. But never fear, it will all get posted! Stay tuned for days three and four tomorrow!



JORDAN

Deepest Apologies

Hello my lovely blogging world! I know I have been completely remiss lately, but with a fabulous 16 day vacation topped off by my three year wedding anniversary can you blame me? The good news is I am back and ready to share! I promise that I will get around to posting some vacation pictures and stories, but I can't promise that it won't take a bit of time. We had an absolutely incredible trip and got to pick up so many new states (The World Travelers page has been updated). As much as I needed and enjoyed time off though, I am ready to get back into a routine. Whenever my daily routine is broken even for a short period of time I realize just how much I rely on it. Not to say I am boring and set in my ways- I am very spontaneous (at least I think so) but I see how crucial certain parts of my routine are to being financially on top of things, physically fit and active, healthy, organized, etc. So for those reasons it is good to be home but I would be lying if I said I wasn't already greatly looking forward to the next trip! There are so many wonderful adventures and things to do that we have planned between now and then that I refuse to be accused of wishing time away.

On another note entirely, yesterday Zach and I hit the three year mark! We have now been together for 8 years and married for 3. I am so, so grateful to be married to such an amazing man. Zach is the sweetest, most kind-hearted guy I know. He does so much for me, I know that he would literally do anything I asked of him. He is the perfect complement to me in so many ways, more than I could list. There is nothing like the feeling of being so loved and so secure in that love. Too often I forget how lucky I am and I have to work everyday not to take this great guy for granted. I pray that we have many, MANY years ahead of us!

JORDAN

Nothing but Nine

I keep running my thought engine for blogging ideas because I know it's beyond time for me to post, but I just can't think about anything except for vacation!! And the fact that it is in NINE days! And four of those days aren't even work days!! And we are going to pick up SEVEN new states! And see amazing things and eat amazing places, and oh yeah, GO TO VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!

*Deep Breath*

Can you tell I am just not really all that excited? ;)

On another note though, I am also completely pumped for this weekend!

Leah and I are headed to her grandparent's lake house at Lake Cumberland, Kentucky for the whole memorial day weekend. So far our forecast is looking like hot temps and blue skies so crossing our fingers that it stays that way! I am extremely ready to soak up sun and lay around in a boat and top off our evenings with wine and cards.

So last night we watched the Biggest Loser finale over at my parents house, and what a finale! It was incredible the amount of weight people lost this season. There are people I am always definitely impressed with, but last night I was floored with some of the transformations. Completely shocked. For the first time a woman won the at-home prize and a woman won the show! Talk about girl power! Olivia Ward, the one who took it all, went through the entire show with her sister Hannah. They were the first ever sister duo to make it into the top three so they were competing with each other for the prize! They both looked absolutely fantastic, but Olivia beat her sister in a race separated only by pounds.

Olivia and Hannah starting out

Hannah and Olivia at the finale with the other top three contestant Irene on the far left

Olivia ended up at just 133 lbs...and she is like 5' 8"!!!

What an inspiration these beautiful women are! It is so great to see people taking charge of their lives and changing them for the better. All the people who came back to the finale were positively radiating happiness and good health. It is just a testament to how important and vital taking care of your body is in every aspect of life. God gave us these bodies and we need to treat them the right way! Don't look at exercise as something you HAVE to do, but rather something you GET to do! Whenever I am doing an intense workout I try to remember to be thankful that my body has the strength and stamina to accomplish something like that. I think of how much more I will be able to do and enjoy with a body that is fit and healthy! All we have to do is get moving :)

JORDAN

European Style

Yesterday the current senior class from my alma mater (high school, not college) left for Europe. I went to a small Christian high school (I graduated with only 18!!) and the absolute highlight of the entire highschool career is by far the Europe trip. Any senior who elects to raise money throughout the year gets to go and it is an unforgettable time of great food, amazing destinations and bonding with your class. It has been five years since my class went on our European journey but I still have very fond memories and it is something we will never forget! Sometimes the countries visited vary based on the travel arrangements for the year but our year we were very fortunate to be able to visit SIX different countries. We started out in Germany and then went to Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France and ended in England. I thought it would be nice to share some pictures from our trip with all of you!

On the way to Europe, just a pic to show you how young Zach and I look!

Castle Neuschwanstein in Germany

Hillary, Kori and I in France

Gardens at the palace Versailles in France

Good ol' Big Ben

All the girls on the trip crammed into the stereotypical phone booth in England

Millennium Bridge in London

Our very first and most favorite foreign meal was in Munich, Germany!

All of our class that went to Europe- 14 of our 18

The view from Mt. Pilatus in Switzerland

 

It was an incredible journey and Zach and I definitely are looking forward to traveling overseas again but next time we are thinking more along the lines of Greece, Italy, and Southern France :) Hope you enjoyed that little trip to Europe!

JORDAN                                                               

The Barbarian Way

Found a book today that I haven't picked up in a long, long time- The Barbarian Way. Just wanted to share a little something that caught my attention from it:

"God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life."

JORDAN

Something New

Tonight at the gym I am attending my first ever Core-Blast Class. I love trying new things and finding new ways to make my body fit and feel powerful. This class is only fifteen minutes long, which sounds like nothing; but for a class ENTIRELY devoted to abs, I have a feeling it will seem like a lifetime! Leah and I are going together and I am totally looking forward to the soreness I am sure to be experiencing tomorrow.

This past weekend was lovely involving a Saturday night out with my girls and a Sunday night in with my husband. Two totally different things that are both great in their own ways! Tonight Zach and I are watching The Green Mile which is a movie I haven't seen in ages and he has never seen before. Since I am in the habit of getting overly excited about what most people consider to be a small thing, I am completely pumped for our three and a half hour movie tonight!!!!!! :) Enjoy your Monday!

JORDAN

Skydiving: Part Two

The whole week before skydiving I was getting pretty nervous. I even had my parents over for dinner on Saturday night for what we were jokingly calling (sort of) our last supper. We (Leah, Grant, Zach and I) set out early Sunday morning to make the six hour drive to Fort Atkinson, WI and made it with time to spare.

The second we got out of the car we spotted skydivers coming down and I immediately just felt more peaceful. Actually seeing people accomplish (and live through) what I was about to do was a great calming thing for me. As we went through the training and got suited up I only became more and more excited and less and less afraid.

Zach practicing

 My tandem professional's name was Patrick and he was absolutely wonderful. I was his 794th dive! Zach and I went up first in the plane and I was actually the first one to jump. The plane ride to altitude takes about 20-30 minutes but it did NOT feel that long. Despite being in a rickety prop plane that didn't even have seats and ascending to over 11,000 feet, it just really wasn't near as frightening as I expected. It felt completely unreal and I was just so pumped to jump! As soon as you jump out of the plane you are just free-falling for a full minute- just spiraling towards earth and it is so exhilarating. It was the perfect day to jump too, perfectly blue skies and nice warm weather. After that minute of free-fall the parachute was pulled and slowed our descent by far allowing me to just see for miles and miles and miles and take everything else in. I even got to steer! Patrick showed me how by pulling one arm down and raising another you could turn and if you keep holding it in this position you start doing spirals, very fun :) The absolute best part though was pulling both arms down at the same time and you just stop. Just stop falling, stop moving, stop everything and you are just hanging there in the sky. Breathtaking.

The landing was smooth and just like that we were skydivers!

This is definitely an experience I would love to repeat. I really have a strong desire to jump in a tropical location where I can jump over the ocean, I think that would be so spectacular.

"DON'T LET FEAR CONTROL YOUR LIFE, YOU CONTROL YOUR FEAR! DON'T LET ANYTHING OR ANYONE (ESPECIALLY YOURSELF) ALLOW YOU TO MISS OUT ON AN OPPORTUNITY OR YOU MAY REGRET IT THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. DON'T THINK-JUST DO IT!" - Jordan Rabenstein ;)

JORDAN