Welcome Home Taylor

Dissecting My Time

Do you ever wonder how you spend all your time? Well, I definitely do and because I love making infographics so much, I decided to make one of how my week breaks down time-wise.

I'm a little stunned to see that in the long run, I don't spend that much time doing any one thing. I work two jobs (an internship and I work as a kitchen assistant in one of Sur la Table's kitchens) and although at times it may feel a little hectic, breaking it down in this way makes it seem so...simple. I couldn't believe how much of my week is eaten up by sleep (8 hours a night)! All of my extra hours are dispersed by what I have going on that week; this week it's mostly packing up and cleaning our apartment before our big move on Saturday.

How does your week break down?

Flying with Anxiety

Recently, we went to California for a wedding. And I was terrified. When I say that I was terrified, I don't mean a deer-in-the-headlights, I mean that I shook; my stomach twisted and turned; my eyes stayed wide-open at night as my mind raced and my mouth watered in a rotten way. I spent four months in agony. Whenever I wasn't thinking about work, school, this blog, or the few things that kept my head above water in other parts of my life, I was thinking about this flight.

I can't tell you where my terror came from, but come it did. And it enveloped me whole. The anxiety came in waves and at times I could breath and at others I seemed to drown in it. I knew that I had to go through with it though and after months of struggling with this horror, I was finally able to find a few things that helped.

I'm not sure what changed, but all of a sudden, I was able to think of things other than flying. I was able relax a teeny bit and when I thought I flying, I didn't get the sudden urge to run away from my fear, but I had a calm feeling in the pit of my stomach. A few things had helped me during my flight (along with some prescription medication) and I wanted to share them with some people that may struggle with the same thing. I'm not sure if these will work for other people, but I hope that they do because they sure helped me.

1. Take a math-related distraction with you such as Sudoku or a small workbook of math problems. I was once taught that math helped to force the mind to think of something else by using separate parts of the brain. I can honestly say that this was my saving grace when things got rough. Even though my medication helped, I was still really anxious and while we were taking off, I just focused on Sudoku and it calmed my entire mind.

2. Bring music or your favorite t.v. show. I still own an old iPod (you know, pre-Wifi) and so I was able to watch some episodes of The Office during take-off, which helped. Focusing on things that are funny always help ease my anxiety so I made sure to fill up on those. I also brought some movies to watch on my laptop during the flight.

3. If you can, go with someone who understands your anxiety. Seriously. I pretty much hit the jackpot with David because he is the most patient and loving man I have ever met. During the three months when I was a wreck, David was always by my side to comfort and calm me. He is my breathing safety blanket and so I was extremely fortunate to have him not only on the plane with me, by all the time before that when I spent nights wide awake in fear or minutes that felt like hours because of anxiety.

I know these tips are few and there is a lot of really great advice out there that may help you out. I wanted to share a bit of my personal life on here that I don't normally talk about. Anxiety is a thing that people either completely understand or it makes people look at you like you're insane. I would love to share more about my anxiety and my sixteen year journey (yep, I've been dealing with it since I started having panic attacks at the age of six) with you if you'd like to hear it. I've become more aware over the years the amount of people that share this struggle, and I'd like to add my own story to the mix. Maybe it will help others and maybe you will just be able to understand me more. If you have any tips for flying, leave them in the comments below!

p.s. packing essentials for a carry on.

Our Trip to L.A.

Monday, David and I came home from a quick trip to Cali. We left on Thursday to visit his family and see his big sister get married. It was my first trip to the west coast and I'd never even been on a plane that long before (more on that later). We weren't able to do much sight-seeing things since we were there for a wedding, but it was great just being in the sunshine. One day, we visited Venice Beach. Let me tell you, it was not my jam. The beach itself was gorgeous, but everything else -- the outside gym, the "Green Doctors," and the crappy food were not really things that I enjoy. Nonetheless, it was interesting!

Another day, we headed to Santa Monica pier with David's brother to watch the sun set and walk about. Guys, I'm a huge Forrest Gump fan so I was thrilled to see the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I picked up a pack of trivia cards and a postcard there (my only two souveniers from the entire trip) and we walked along the pier and munch on some fresh churros. mmm!

I didn't take many photos as we were either busy doing wedding things or I was working on homework (I know, the worst!). I love this last one though! It was a hotel off of the Santa Monica pier that reminded me of something that belonged in a Wes Anderson movie. We have plans to go back to California soon-ish. What are some places that you love in LA?

xoxo

 

Sister Sleepover

This past Saturday night, David was out of town so I had myself a little sister sleepover at the apartment. My sisters Amanda, Madie, and Riley came over and we had ourselves a little party. We started the night out with delicious dinner (that Amanda only liked a little and Riley didn't like at all, but I sure did!), then we watched the Roger & Hammerstein's Cinderella, while muching on s'mores dip (I'll post the recipe later this week). The following morning I made cinnamon pancakes with cream cheese frosting and took a long walk around my neighborhood. It was so much fun and just what I needed!

Sammy also enjoyed the party!

Riley had never seen this version of Cinderella, and she loved dancing to the ballroom scene. It was adorable.

Even after a long night of rest, Madie was still a little sleepy the next day. ;)

Cinnamon pancakes! My favorite. Just add a teaspoon of cinnamon to this basic recipe.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Workout Update + A Giveaway

About a month and a half ago, I shared my workout regime and how I was feeling about fitness lately. Now I wanted to share some progress with you! Since my last update, I've gone from doing about a half hour of yoga three times a week, to doing yoga about five times a week and sometimes more! I started using the site yogaglo.com for videos. I really have loved it as it has videos that range from five minutes to an hour and a half. So, even on the days that I don't wake up extra early, I still do at least a ten or fifteen minute video to wake up my body. I've also been doing an extra ten or fifteen minutes before I go to bed. I've actually found that it helps me sleep a lot better. You can also search for a particular use. I've used videos for when my hips are especially sore, or for when I'm PMSing and bloated, and even for when I had sinus pressure that needed to be relieved.

After my sister's wedding and while trying to get over a cold, I was thrown off a little bit and was only doing about twenty minutes three times a week while I recovered. I noticed a huge difference in my overall mood. I was more tired, my hips hurt a lot more, I found that it was a lot harder for me to sit at my desk all day and I had less motivation to take my hourly walks around my building. Not only that, but I was much more anxious and wasn't sleeping as well because I kept waking up with crazy dreams. I'm not sure if all of that was related to not working out, but I could definitely tell that some of it was. I'm getting back into the swing of things now that I'm feeling immensly better and am all rested up!

Today, I'm partnering with YogaOutlet.com to offer a giveaway for one special reader to receive a free yoga mat! So, if you haven't gotten started on your yoga journey yet, you can start now by getting a mat (which is really all you need!) I bought a mat, yoga block, a new strap, and an awesome water bottle from there and it all got to my house super fast and I've loved all the things I received, especially the yoga block which has helped me out in some difficult moves.

To enter the giveaway all you need to do is:

1. Check out YogaOutlet.com
2. Come back here and tell me what you would really love to add to your workout regimine and if you don't have one yet, what you would like to start with!

The givewaway will be open until August 18, 2014 when a winner will be randomly chosen. Good luck to all!

You can also get 15% off any purchase using the code "bridgepose" at checkout!

Five Years

Yesterday David and I celebrated our five year anniversary. We've never really celebrated an anniversary before because it just seemed a little silly (they're dating anniversaries, not wedding anniversaries), but we figured that five years is pretty awesome and that we wanted to do something special together. I told David that he had to plan our day together on his own, so he chose for us to go bike riding in Ann Arbor, get some delicious lunch, and catch the movie Boyhood playing in downton Ann Arbor. By the time we were done with lunch though, we were getting a little sleepy and decided to skip the movie and go eat ice cream instead before heading home to watch Before Sunrise (which is the same director, so we figured it was like we didn't skip it at all).

I love love love bike riding, so I was really happy that David chose that. Actually, he gave me two options to choose from which were bike riding and canoeing. When I was really young though, I was in a canoeing mishap that has pretty much scarred me for life and I'm still getting over it. The funny thing is, that mishap was pretty minor, but I'm just an anxious mess and I'm still a little nervous when I go canoeing. Next time though! Biking was so much fun because it was absolutely gorgeous outside. I think we ended up biking about three miles or so, which isn't very long when you're biking at all.

After we were done with biking, we were both pretty hungry so we headed to this French restaurant downtown that my sister suggested called Cafe Felix. David ordered a club sandwich with an egg on it and I got myself a fried egg, bacon, and cheese sandwhich with a giant side of delicious fries. That sandwhich sounds really lame, but it was sooo delicious and perfectly seasoned! I woud love to go there one day for a fancy dinner!

After lunch, we had plans to head over to Royal Oak to catch a different screening of our movie (our original plan was to go to the theater in Ann Arbor, but David wanted to stop at Michigan's largest pro-discing shop, so we would have missed the time for that showing). By the time we got there though, we were both a little sleepy and so we just decided to go get a quick ice cream bite and head back home. We went to our favorite ice cream shop in Rochester called Oberweiss and then went home for naps before watching our movie that night.

Also, on a last note, let's just talk about how LUCKY I am that I get to stare at this face for the rest of my life! He is dang handsome, is he not? Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Did you do anything fun? xoxo

 

T+D Favorite Things

David and I were inspired by this post that the ladies over at A Beautiful Mess did. We made our own take on it with our favorite things! Can you guess who's on which side? The one above is our favorite guilty please snack: nutella with ice cream & graham crackers; chocolate chips.

Favorite Movies. Rushmore & Catch Me if You Can; The Royal Tennenbaums & Lord of the Rings.

Favorite Hobby. Reading cookbooks; Disc golfing.

Favorite after-workout drink. Chocolate milk; Gatorade.

Favorite book. The Great Gatsby; The Harry Potter series.

Favorite cat. Louie; Sammy. (Just kidding! We love them both equally!)

If you didn't already guess, I'm on the left and David is on the right. We had a blast doing this together and I'm actually considering printing some of these to hang in our house. What are some of your favorite things? xoxo

A Quick Trip

Over the weekend, my mom and I made a very quick (one-night) trip up to Traverse City to see my grandmas and my Aunt and cousins. Two short days is just never enough time to squeeze in enough laughter and hearing stories about my grandmas' lives and how they grew up. We had a spectacular couple of days though! Once we arrived, we headed off to a near-by farmer's market to stretch our legs and buy some cherries and mint brownies, because why not? We had a wonderful time walking around downtown and on the beach for a bit before heading back to the house to have the most delicious grilled turkey I have ever had. And yes, it was the only grilled turkey I've ever had, but it was wonderful none the less. We stayed up until midnight giggling and telling stories!

My grandmas have the most beautiful garden! The daisies that they have are absolutely gorgeous!

I love this picture of my mom, aunt, and grandma. They're the sweetest people I know!

The next day, we spent a long morning talking and relaxing around the house before we drove off to eat lunch. My grandmas brought us to this awesome place right on the water (I actually forgot what it was called though!) and I ordered the best turkey sandwich with bacon and cherry chutney on cherry wheat bread. There's no pictures of it though because it was just that good.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!  xoxo

Beach Babin'

A week ago, David and I headed out to Port Huron & Lexington with our friends Jessica and Omar. We had planned the trip a month prior, but as the weekend approached, the weather was looking not too good. When we left in the afternoon, it had spend the entire day beforehand raining and being all sorts of gloomy. Despite the weather, we headed up to one of my favorite little cafes, The Raven, in Port Huron. Sure enough, half way through our lunch, the weather had cleared up and became sunshiney and beautiful. We drove up to Lexington to walk around the the beach that evokes more childhood memories than an afternoon can live up to for me and had a wonderful time. It was dreadfully humid and a little suffocating, but right by the water, things were perfect. We ended the day with some ice cream down the road and by the time we were all back at the house, we were exhausted and ready for bed! Sun-tired is the best kind of tired if you ask me.

The Raven has the best frappes made with yogurt! I'm dying to recreate them!

David and Omar spent most of the time on the beach looking for stone to skips. I'm always impressed with people who can skip stones beacause I'm terrible at it!

That swan was GIANT! Maybe all swans are that big, but this one was really up close and it's crazy to see how thick and muscular their necks are! Also, we didn't go to Sweetwater, but I wanted to so badly! When I was young, that place was just a small little cafe that didn't serve very good food, but had water in beautiful glass bottles that we would always buy. Now Sweetwater is there and it's a little cafe and bakery. Next time I make my way to Lexington (which will be before the end of this summer!) I'm definitley going to try it out!

Amanda's Wedding Shower

Amanda's shower was this past Saturday and it went beautifully! We had it outdoors at a local Metropark and we honestly could not have asked for better weather. It wasn't too hot with a gentle breeze keeping it just cool enough without having it be windy. We played a few fun games such as homemade madlibs, which were hilarious, and a game calle "He-said, She-said," (hint: Riley won that one). One of the best things that I think we did was to have everyone bring their girls unwrapped sot hat we didn't have to spend a lot of time on that. Amanda just did a quick read-through of what everyone brought her and who it was from, which only last 10 minutes or so. We brought in a taco bar and then had donuts and homemade, honeycomb-shaped cookies for dessert. For favors, Amanda and her fiance's aunt made homemade beeswax chapsticks with their own label on them, some honey sticks, beautiful tea, and some cute little taffy pieces in a paper bag that were handstamped by Amanda. I can't say it enough, it turned out great!

^ We kept the desserts under some pink tulle so that we didn't have to worry about bugs

^^ We also made giant Jenga which some people had a blast playing.

The photos from here on down, were all taken by my sister's very talented soon-to-be mother-in-law, Cindy. If you're on the east side of Michigan, and need a photographer, definitely ask her!

Cute photo, right?

Too bad this one showcases us wayyy better.

The happy, weird couple.

xoxo

p.s. Don't forget to sign up for our giveaway!