Well. Monday weigh-in day was NOT fun.

+1.4 :(

But yep. He's right. It's alllll gonna be okay. :)

I wish this text would just pop up whenever I was annoyed. :)

glamour

30 things every woman should have and should know by the time she is 30

By 30 you should have:

one old boyfriend you can imagine going back to and one who reminds you of how far you've come. 

a decent piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in your family.

something PERFECT to wear if the employer or man of your dreams wants to see you in a hour.

a purse, a suitcase and an umbrella you're not ashamed to be seen carrying.

a youth you're content to move beyond

a past juicy enough that you're looking forward to retelling it in your old age.

the realization that you are actually going to have an old age- and some money set aside to help fund it.

an email address, a voice mailbox, and a bank account- all of which nobody has access to but you.

a resume that is not even the slightest bit padded.

one friend who always makes you laugh and one who lets you cry.

a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra.

something ridiculously expense that you bought for yourself, just because you deserve it.

the belief that you deserve it.

A skin-care regimen, an exercise routine and a plan for dealing with those few facets of life that don't get better after 30.

a solid start on a satisfying career, a satisfying relationship and all those other facets of life that do get better.

By 30 you should know:

how to fall in love without losing yourself

how you feel about having kids.

how to quit a job, break up with a man and confront a friend without ruining the friendship.

when to try harder and when to walk away.

how to kiss in a way that communicates perfectly what you would and wouldn't like to happen next.

the names of the secretary of state, your great grandmothers and the best tailor in town.

how to live alone, even if you don't like to.

where to go- be it your best friend's kitchen table or a yoga mat- when your soul needs soothing.

that you can't change the length of your legs, the width of your hips, or the nature of your parents.

that your childhood may not have been perfect, but it's over.

what you would and won't do for money or love.

that nobody gets away with smoking, drinking, doing drugs or not flossing for very long.

who you can trust, who you can't and why you shouldn't take it personally.

not to apologize for something that isn't your fault.

why they say life begins at 30!

thought this was kinda fun, from this month's Glamour magazine :) happy friday :)

Sick dawg, sick

"there is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood."

-Charles Dickens

this has been my favorite spot in the house all week.  i like to curl up sideways and cover my sore throat with lots of blankets. and my whole head. haha. weird. but yes, that sleeping position and Lemonade Vitamin Water Zero have been my new-best friends. I have been sick. blaaaaah.

i think it was life and God's way of saying "sloooooow down girl, you ain't that special"

I thought that everything was just cruising.

Work was busy but good, hitting up the gym for cardio and abs/weights

almost every night, cooking healthy meals, trying to be a good girl and not go shopping, planning a wedding like it was a piece of cake. Waking up early for church, going to our group on Thursday nights I was kinda pulling it all off actually. AND still managing to lose weight in the process. :) AND I was starting to even get kind of EXCITED thinking about taking wedding pictures.

i was cruising right along and was getting pretty darn good at this thing called life. or managing it at least :)

psshh. when will I ever learn?

well. it's pretty hard to run three miles when you are sick in bed with doctor's orders.

it's pretty hard to eat organic granola when your throat is sooo sore it hurts to breathe.

ehh. really? all that sounds good is milkshakes and lots of sleep. not quite my plan.

it's SUCH a weird feeling that I always seem to get when I am laying in bed with my medicines and Seven-Up and realize that even if I WANTED to, I couldn't get up, put on my running shoes and go for a jog. Heck, I couldn't even probably go for a walk.

i bash my body and what it CAN'T do SOO much of the time (but really? all I want to be able to do is cartwheel. is that so much to ask for?) that I NEVER focus on all the amazing things it CAN do. Or even just know my body FEELS without aches and fever chills all over.

it's a bummer that it takes feeling sick to remember how much we are blessed.

not because I HAVE to run 3.2 miles in 23 minutes because I have to burn off x amount of calories, but because I actually FEEL good when I exercise.

all it takes is a box of Kleenex and a red nose (they were clearly not the Puffs with lotion tissues, thanks mom :) to realize just why we should lace up those running shoes.

because we can, not because we have to :)

lay in bed with day time TV nowadays (seriously though? New Day? Seattle-ites? WORST SHOW EVER!) and tell me what you wouldn't give to have your healthy body back. even with a couple extra pounds of muffin top :) i have realized i would take that over coughing up phlegm anyday :)

side note:

this might look like a regular doughnut, BUT.

it is not. it is HUGE. ONE doughnut takes up the whole doughnut box. It looks like a bundt cake. It is seriously the coolest thing ever. and meg got it for her birthday this week. <3 I just kept wanting to tell people, "hey do you know what I have in my car right now? A 12 inch long cake doughnut. for real." ohh the little things :) or the big things, I suppose :) 

Effortless

i have been a crazy lady lately. to-do lists EVERYWHERE, the best was on the back of a CHECK that I needed to deposit at the bank. umm airhead, Lindsay?

i feel like i am always on the go go go, from who to call for the wedding to who to email to what time to be at work to how many miles was that workout? to oh hey grandma etc etc.

i say this Joyce Meyer quote the other day, and I was determined to think of it this weekend.

and it was a fabulous weekend ;)

 "today can be

effortless,

as you depend

on God's grace

to do what

He has called you to do."

Loren had prom, the first self-serve frozen yogurt show in town opened up, the weather was BEAUTIFUL and baby ford was laughing away. oh. and i was greeted with a skinny lattee and a doughnut from Drew when he picked me up for church. :)

it's weird how when I didn't really plan anything this weekend, it just fell into place ;) effortlessly :)

I wish...

I wish that I could design my own fabric instead of spending like half of my week wandering up and down the fabric store aisles. Only to pay TEN dollars for a quarter of a yard that I didn't even end up liking. Those artsy workers look so nice and innocent but beware. They get ya :) "ohh hi there young lady, yes i can cut you off a little snippet to take home and play around with..." "okay that will be 15 DOLLARS!"?!?!

I wish that ANY of the flowers that I like and want for my wedding were in season in August. :( I am about ready to say whatever and go with fake flowers. (this may also be partially due to all the time I have been spending in the craft stores looking for flipping' fabric :)

I wish that I had girlfriends or my sister in town who I could drag around and do wedding errands with:( drew wishes that too :) and now Jen is leaving too :( like really. on saturday I asked a lady that was shopping at Michael's which ribbon she liked better. she seriously ignored me. okkaaaay then. she won't be coming to MY wedding. pshh....

I wish that I had this. seriously. I am in a constant struggle whenever I eat pizza about if I want to cut it into pieces with a fork or pick it up and eat it. this would make the decision easy.

I wish that I had fruity pebbles in the kitchen. I would so go make these. move ova rice krispy treats. :)

but like my grandpa always said,

 "if wishes were horses, we'd all own a stable..."

and really?

Whatcha Weigh Monday?

happy monday :)

So this week was not so great with the cardio but I still tried to do a little but of weights and my lovely an crunches. We went out to eat Friday night and Sunday but I am feeling more comfortable making better choices. Wait. And we went out Wednesday night too :) I had a turkey burger.

I was totally expecting a small gain or just to stay the same at weigh in...

Dun dun dun....

Down -0.6 :) I'll take it :)

Snappy Sorbet

So remember those color palets that E found for me? So yeah. the wedding is going to be in light pinks, corals, dark pinks and kinda orange sherbert color?

so needless to saaaaay, my eyes have been kind of drawn to those colors lately. I don't think I had realized how bad it had gotten.

Friday night, Drew and I ran into Target because I needed something? I think that was how I tricked him into going... :) Anyways...

It all started when we were driving to the mall, and we passed the Country Feed and Seed Store. I said, "ohhh they have little duckies in! look!"

Drew looked at me and said, "oohhh maybe you should get each of your bridesmaid a duckling for their bridesmaid gift and dye their feathers wedding colors."

little sassy boy, that he is. I just glared and kept on driving :)

but then in Target, it started out with me seeing a tank top that was striped in coral, light pink and orange and I was debating for about 15 minutes about if I wanted to get it for my bridesmaids to have as PJ's the night before the wedding. 

normal, right? ;)

then Drew chipped in, "hey Linds! Look at plastic toy boat! it's in the wedding colors! Put it in the cart!"

we turned the corner towards the clothes,

"hey Linds! workout dri-fit shorts in the PERFECT wedding color! You HAVE to get it; throw it in the cart!

From ACROSS like five aisles I hear,

"LINDS WHERE ARE YOU????? IS THERE ANYWAY WE CAN INCORPORATE THIS PURSE INTO THE WEDDING?? IT'S THE WEDDING COLOR!

little rascal was mocking me the ENTIRE target trip.

but the best was when he stopped dead in his tracks, turned to me and said,

"LOOK! Loofah's in the wedding color! you should get one for each of your bridesmaids and they can use it when they shower the morning of the wedding!"

okay fine. I get it. I need to tone down the coral/pink radar.

 but i did make it out of our shopping trip with this. snappy sorbet. take that, drew :)



It's official. I go through a pack a day. Of gum, that is. Three days, three entire packs of gum. Gross and weird. It calms my stress :) that is an alarming statistic that i probably shouldn't say in public? TGIF :)

And April showers bring May flowers :) so bring it on rain, I'm ready :)

The Hatch household is in full wedding planning mode. Especially my dad. That man can graph like nobody's business.

Rest assured the tables will be on even ground. As for the men's attire?? Pshhhh minor detail. :)

Whatcha Weigh Monday?

and here we are at another lovely Monday :)

so, this week I REALLY tried to up my workouts. Over the past few months I had realized something, since running was pretty much my ONLY workout I ever did, my body was soooo weak.

Core muscles? Umm what are those?
arms? pssshhhhh.
ABS?? hahahah.

but man could I run a 12 minute mile pace allllllllllllllll day long.

and then I wondered why I never gained weight in my legs, but usually in my core/stomach and arms. hmm...

maybe because there is absolutley NO muscle there. :)

i was first introduced to the bosu ball a few years ago by the lovely krislyn. :)

now? I try to make it a part of my workouts. Drew and I have been trying to do some workouts with jumpropes, bosu balls, crazy ab stuff and even.... dun dun dun... power cleans. haha.

it's AMAZING how your heart rate gets up even though you don't think of these things are typically "cardio".

and this is how I ended my Sunday evening :)

and dun dun dun....

weigh in?

-1 pound :)

6 more to go :)

Leadership Smedership?

I was in leadership class in highschool. Ya know the class, the one where you plan the fun assemblies and MC them or you talk at the food-drive assembly about why it is so important to donate.

and yep. I actually ran for Senior School President. (ran is the key word. I didn't say, I was ;)

I always pictures the good "leaders" as the ones who LIKED to voice their opinions, who didn't mind standing up in front of groups or being the "loud" one. In fact, I used to kind of think that most "leaders" that I had known were somewhat obnoxious. That loud, boisterous type of personality. Definitely an extrovert.

In our pre-marital class, we have done lots of studying on the "leader of the household." This role should go to the man. I had a minor freakout.

Ummm... Drew is the shy one. Drew sits back in the group and takes it all in. Drew never makes requests of where we all go for dinner. Drew never is particular about what movie we go see.

HOW IN THE WORLD WAS HE GOING TO BE THE LEADER OF OUR MARRIAGE AND EVENTUALLY OF OUR FAMILY? honestly? I thought we were doomed.

Drew possessed barely ANY of the "leadership" traits that I thought leaders needed to have.

Loud? NOPE.
Bossy? Totally not Drew.
Likes hanging out in large groups? Not so much.
Has a calendar pinned on the fridge of the month's activities? Nah.

I learned something that rocked my world. seriously. our relationship has NEVER been better since I grasped this concept.

A leader by NO MEANS is loud. A leader doesn't have to be bossy.

A leader influences the movement from point A to point B. that's it. plain and simple.

The leader does not have to scream at you until you run to point B.
The leader does not have to be strong enough to carry you to point B.

our class teacher actually called Drew's style of leadership "calm and collected. Like a silent assassin..." hahahaha.

ya know what? He also informed me that Drew's style of leadership was pretty darn effective and efficient, while I was just trying to change him into typical "leader" personality-types.

I totally thought that there was one way to be a leader. The "head" of our marriage had to be older than me and more "spiritually" mature and consistently pointing out our relationship deficiencies.

Nope. I was wrong. Being the "leader" doesn't mean Drew gets to be bossy and make all the decisions. Leader? Difference between that rowdy politician and "servant leaders". Drew doesn't get to govern what is in the fridge or decide every Saturday which restaurant we are going to for date night.

and the best part? Drew doesn't even WANT to make those decisions. my man is SUCH a great leader and I am so excited and confident in the direction we are heading and will head after August 18th... and he doesn't even have to be bossy. ;) i just had to realize leadership can take many different forms.

calm and collected? that can help just as much if not even MORE than frantic, go-go encouragers.

Sensible and realistic? Sometimes that can be what we need at the time, as opposed to big time dreamers and big goal-setters.

I was AMAZED at how once I realized the ways in which Drew was a great leader, what a better direction we were headed. :) and we are having a WAY more fun time heading there :)

"a role of leadership means you are responsible for cultivating love."

such a great reminder for all the places in our lives we are "leaders." not bossy, not rude, not mean, not loud, not needy for attention.

too bad I wouldn't have learned this when I was like 8 years old. :) I thought my leadership role as a big sister was to be bossy ;) sorry mandy :)

crazy days

My brain is so tired. There is sooo much going on; I literally might be losing my mind :)

Random things I think you should know/see on this saturday evening:

God talks about money more in the bible than he talks about heaven and hell COMBINED. Is that interesting or what.?!!?!

we went to the Mariner's home opener yesterday. we Seattleites boast our Garlic Fries at the stadium. well. marcus and i went to get nachos. CRAZY line. we waited for twenty minutes just to get to the front. then she informed us the debit/credit machines were down.
okay. so then we went to the hotdog/garlic fries booth. waited for 37 minutes to find out they RAN OUT OF GARLIC! ummm???? okay.

THEN. they ran out of drink carriers so we were each trying to walk through the HUGE crowds balancing hotdogs, hamburgers and three beers each. (they weren't all for us of course :)
THEN. we find out they ran out of BEER CUPS in the beer garden?

opening day. run out of garlic for your famous garlic fries, plastic cups in the beer garden for beer and no credit/debit cards? I think someone may be getting fired today :)

and we went out after for M's birthday and didn't get back home until 3AM! like as in THIS morning. latest I have been up in like 10 years?!?!

I got my wedding band... Dun dun dun ;) it is sooooooooooooooooo pretty. and heavy ;)

side note: Thursday at work I took off my engagement ring so I could use some hand sanitizer. I turned in my seat, grabbed the hand-sanitizer and when I turned around... my ring was gone. After about five minutes of frantically searching I had burst into tears and was sobbing on my hands and knees crawling around the whole office. About 15 minutes into my AWESOME gang of co-workers helping me hunt, I found it.

it was actually in a great spot. I had put it around the straw of my plastic tumbler cup. but the diamond had spun around so I couldn't see the dark band against the dark pink of the plastic waterbottle. oh my gosh. it took another hour for my heart beat to return to regular.

Moral of story: don't shake my hands. they might be germy. i am never using hand sanitizer again.

Drew and I saw this shopping cart in the parking lot at Best Buy. it was in the middle of NO WHERE and had a PURSE in the front part. I started walking over to grab it and see if there was an ID or anything, but Drew stopped me. He wouldn't let me go check it out because he SWORE it was a set-up. hahaha. what would you do if you saw a shopping cart with a purse in the middle of an abandoned area of a parking lot? i thought maybe we were going to be on PUNK'd or something :) like i really pictured ashton kutcher filming me from the creepy van parked closest to the cart.

(i may or may not have ran and looked in the purse. and redid my ponytail before. i don't wanna be on TV looking sloppy :) the purse was totally empty. interesting.)

i really love this look. my mom so kindly informed me that I PROBABLY won't be able to get hot pink chairs for the wedding reception. so then I don't think it would be near as cool, would it? lame.

my amazing friend erin has a little SUITCASE thing full of the real life pantone color swatches. like all the real "official" colors of the world. my mom was getting sick of tired of hearing about my 7 wedding colors, so e helped me out ;) i literally accomplished more with her and her mom in 3 hours then I have the last 2 months :) thanks ladies!!!!! i also don't think the papa murphy's pizza and wine hurt the wedding planning process either ;)

if i don't get AT LEAST 9.5 hours of sleep I can't function. Not kidding. I got like 5 last night and I am acting like a zombie. soo. 8:45PM on a Saturday night and I am off to bed :) i used to never admit that because it was totally like the cooler you were, the less sleep you needed. but now admitting I usually go to bed around 9PM on Saturdays?

so what? ;)

Funny things that brides say

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8kwaKvZc0

I don't see what the problem is... ;)

This ish is bananas

I cannot sleep. Wedding stuff is racing through my mind. I have very little patience. I almost cried when drew didn't seem ecstatic to wear a skinny tie at the wedding. Like 4 hours of deliberation went into that decision. Like really.

This almost caused a mental breakdown/ tantrum in the middle of the grocery store.

Don't make it difficult for a bridezilla to get her bananas. You will be sorry . I purposefully set the nail polish I was going to buy near the toothpaste section when I changed my mind about $8 nail polish. Take that.

That will teach ya to mess with my fruit.

;)

Caught Ya!

i could NOT tell what that beeping noise was in the car. it was drew. :)

Whatcha Weigh Monday?

Easter weekend. I was a liiiiiiitle nervous. Lots and lots of lots and food and chocolate.

So I gave myself a little break.

"OK Lindsay, you don't need to LOSE any weight this week, but just don't try and gain any."

I can handle that. So yeah I had fancy dessert on Saturday and Sunday and ate some mashed potatoes and bacon and some rolls. throw in some brownies and a couple rum/cokes (did you know that Coke Zero is EXACTLY the same as Diet Coke but it was made to be more marketable to men????)

so with this plan, I wasnt too excited for weigh in.

dun dun dunnnnn...

Down 1.6 pounds.

Trusting myself actually worked ;)

easter

I got the "tye-dye" egg coloring kit. It was so intense. You put the egg (which is wrapped in strips of this foamy-cloth stuff) in this plastic contraption that has little holes, and then you use the injector to pick a color and put in the hole. I seriously felt like a mad scientist concocting a cholesterol free egg or something.

Like really? What would my dear old granny say if she saw me dying eggs like this? It was kind of the same way all week.

I hadn't even CHECKED to see if there were any special church times on Sunday for Easter Service, or if there was going to be a Good Friday service, but I sure had stressed out over the fact that I didn't have a new outfit/know what I was going to wear for Easter Sunday.

I was so worried about making sure I had finished Drew's Easter basket and if the Butterscotch egg nests I was going to make for work would have the RIGHT type of peanut butter eggs on top. (Reese's pastel eggs are the best FYI. and FYI Haggen does not sell them) that I don't think I prayed ONCE this entire week. Nope. Not even once.

this week was so go-go with wedding stuff and work stuff and "Easter stuff" that I didn't take a SINGLE second to slow down and think about what this was really all about.

Buuuut. I had to go to FIVE stores on Wednesday because I HAD to have the red plastic burger baskets to serve the fish and chips that I was making that night for dinner. (seriously though, cute right? with that checkered red and white paper liner?)

So busy trying to make everything perfect.

that I completely missed the point.

Easter isn't about fancy glittering Martha Stewart eggs or big full Easter baskets.

Easter is about God sending his PERFECT son to die for us, so that we no longer needed to worry or feel guilty or stress about not being perfect. because we aren't. we won't be. and we aren't meant to me.

"but he said to him, why do you call me good? There is none good except God alone." ~matthew 19:17

my chewy ooey gooey brownies are not perfect. nope. not my 6 mile run or my relationship with Drew or the way I write my blog posts.

i make it so much more difficult than it is. it's not complicated. yes, it's difficult and nerve-racking and embarrassing and scary at times. but it's not complicated.

Love one another.

and ya know what? I happened to like the un-complicated, plain and simple Easter eggs even BETTER than the fancy expenseive Tye-dyed glittery ones.

and that is what I think Easter is all about. Not the new dress and the new TOM wedges that I REALLY wanted or the calories in the cadbury creme eggs.

it's about an imperfect mess that is ONLY made perfect by loving.

no matter how hard I try and clean up my mess on my own. or how much money I spend or how skinny I get.

yep. it's about messy manicures with 6 year olds and mismatched nail polish. one of my most favorite Easter weekends so far :)

Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there.

-Clarence Hall

Wahooo... I am going to be an auntie :) drew's brother and his wife are having a baby!!!!

Bermuda, Bahamas?!?

I had a bad day. Well, I thought it was bad. But probably not so bad in the imagine-what-Jesus-was-going-through stuff that was happening when He was nailed to the cross for our sins.

So blessed to be loved even though i don't deserve it. Even on the "bad" days.

I can't lie; this kinda cheered me up too. ;) In four months where are we going???

Tricky, tricky

I tricked them.

I told them I wanted to start up Wednesday night dinners again where I cook something for my parents and Drew.

Little did they know it was a plot to get them to dye Easter eggs with me. Hehe. And it worked like a charm. You should have seen Drew's face when I told him there was no dessert and instead we would be busting out the secretly stashed vinegar and egg kit.

Welllll at least I won't have to cook dinner for a few weeks. They don't trust me ;)

shower!

i had my very own PERFECT bridal shower this weekend.

hosted by the PERFECT hostesses in the whole wide world.

like seriously. i am going to force them to open up a party planning/event planning/consignment furniture store business. just you wait. :)

the beautiful hostesses with the mostesses :) do ya think cute genes run in this family? :)

i decided to make the fancy schmancy white dress a little more fun. i added my neon GAP ballet flats and a fun belt :)

they had precious girly decorations everywhere.

coconut macaroons, sugar cookies and CAKE from the new dessert boutique downtown.

mexican themed snacks. margaritas and steak tacos :) homemade guac and salsas.

we played some LOVE bingo, with necos as our bingo markers. :)

ummmm.. i got the most SWEET presents ever in the whole entire world. and look at all that gift wrap. it was too pretty too open. but i got over that ;)

okay the CAKE was PERFECT. simple, bright colors and SO good. like seriously. I even had a dream about it last night. it was too pretty too cute. but i got over that, too ;)

how sweet are these party favors???!

me and my maid of honor :) hehe i still love saying that. I can't believe that I am GETTING MARRIED!

the cake table! They turned it into a chalkboard table! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

I did an AWFUL job of documenting all the sweet friends and family that came :( but here are some! :) clearly we are talking about my new cutting board :)

it was so much fun and even baby ford partied too hard. :)

love you ALL! i am SO blessed :)