I married a younger man!

A few weeks ago Jacob and I took the real age test. Considering that we both eat healthy foods, we exercise, and we don't experience too much stress in our lives, we expected our real ages to be younger than our calendar ages.

Jacob took the test first and sure enough he was younger (by 5.3 years).

Then I took the test and I turned out to be older (by 1.5 years)!

I was shocked! Sure, I complain about the disgusting double fiber bread that Jacob buys, I sometimes choose to eat the easy to open candy bar over the pain in the rear to peel orange, and I usually stay home when it's too cold to walk but I had no idea that these few decisions would impact my age by so much. As result, I started drinking more water, choking down more double fiber bread, stocking our house with more convenient fruits (it helped that cherries were on sale last week), and exercising more by incorporating weight training and more rigorous cardio back into my workout.

Today, I modified the responses to my real age test and based on my improved healthy lifestyle, my age went down (a little). My real age is now 28.1. Yep, I'm still married to a younger man.

Norman

We've been adopted.

Sometime last Spring, we started noticing that a lonely bird would hide in the corner of our back patio. He tends to arrive around dusk, depart around dawn, and is always alone. We think it is quite sad that a bird would sleep in our patio corner all by himself. Something that made him look even more pathetic was the way he would tuck himself into the corner with his back and tail facing our back window. Yes, it's a very pitiful sight (see for yourself in the picture below). As a result, we've welcomed him to our home and done our best to keep curious cats, an oblivious dog, and our noisy selves out of his way. We named him Norman because, well, he looks like a Norman.We've come to accept that Norman's schedule is unpredictable; sometimes we'll look out the window and he won't be there and other times he'll surprise us and appear again. We look forward to seeing him because when we see him we know he's okay, but it also saddens us a little because it means he hasn't found a long-term nest mate, yet.

Norman

A Day at the Park

On Saturday (Jan. 3) Jacob and I hit the trails at Friedrich Park. Since my lung capacity was still low from the flu, we decided to "take it easy." However, because we hadn't been to the park for a year or so, we ended up taking a pretty good hike up and down several steep and winding trails. As a way to casually catch my breath, I would pull out the camera and suggest that we take a few pictures. Unfortunately, Jacob caught on to what I was doing and became a little annoyed that I kept stalling. However, because I had insisted that I was healthy enough to take a hike, I tried to hide my exhaustion as much as possible.

Jacob making the steep climb while I took a short break. :)

Friday Fun

On Friday (1-2-09), my sister, my brother, Michelle and I went out to shop for bridesmaid dresses. Before our shoping began, my sister treated us to a refreshing snack at Orange Cup. It's a lighter and healthier alternative to Marble Slab. :)

Brittany

Manuel & Michelle

We explored phase II of La Cantera, picked up glasses for my brother, then headed to the dress shop. We tried on several dresses in many different colors. Michelle is armed with information to coordinate with her sisters and decide on final colors.



Next, we headed to Kona Grill for another snack. We split tacos, pizza, and sushi (I didn't have any sushi).

It was a fun Friday!


ps
It turns out that my sister really is a good driver (most of the time).

:-)

M&M Visit

Today I was finally well enough to see my brother and Michelle (a.k.a., M&M).


This evening we went to my mom's house for dinner and games with M&M. It was nice to see both of them and to hear about how their wedding plans were coming along. We enjoyed dinner; however, it did get a little tense when I asked my brother about his visit with my dad and my dad's family...I know it's a sensitive subject but they are still my family and yes, I'm just plain nosy at times.


After dinner we played the game "Hear Me Out" which my mom and my sister had given us 3-4 Christmases ago. This was the first time we actually played the game and when my brother informed us that it was a drinking game we finally realized why the game didn't make much sense the last time we tried reading the instructions. So, with bottles of water, cups of cocoa, and glasses of tea in hand, we started playing the game. It is quite a fun game (even when alcohol is not involved) and we're looking forward to playing it again sometime.