Day 15 - Yee hawww!!

Troy and I are out of town for a two day swim meet that he is participating in and I am in charge of being his cheerleader and taking pics. Today was his first day and he did awesome! In the middle of taking pics, this gentleman came into view. The immature 14 yr old in me could not resist. The best part of the whole thing was the cowboy hat in um...the front of his suit.

I laughed like a kid for a good ten minutes after seeing the pic and Troy was just looking at me like, "I can't take you anywhere!". Nope!! So out of nearly 100 pictures, I choose to blog a pic (totally pixelated because I had to blow it up to get the full awesomeness effect, sorry) of a total stranger with a Yee-Haw on the back of his suit. Yup.


Till next time!
Romy
Olympus E-30

Day 14!

All this rain!! Well, we do live in WA state so I should not be surprised. Troy and I are going away tomorrow morning until Sunday eve and I can't wait! With spring/summer coming, we will be heading out of town about two weekends a month and I love it! I am always open and loving any new adventure.

Troy likes to do his own clothes packing but I am responsible for putting together our toiletries. Thank God because I doubt he would remember that I need TWO hair ties (what if I lose one and need to put my hair up??), two different under eye creams (Shiseido and Neutrogena), an entire pack of fresh contacts (it could be windy and what if one falls out?), clear nail polish (I like a fresh coat every day) night cream and day cream (Erno Laszlo - day one is spf), flavored lip balm (I like something on my lips alll the time, right when I wake up till I go to bed - soft lips, babbby!) teeth flossing things (I floss a lot *don't judge me!*), body lotion (if it is during the day - CeraVe and Chanel for night)and last but not least...iNDEX eau de perfum by Fresh. I am beyond obsessed with perfume in general but I really love anything by Fresh. The iNDEX perfume line is lovely, I think I have nearly every scent. Right now I am loving fig apricot. Love!

So aside from the typical stuff (toothbrushes/deodorant, razors,etc.) that's it for toiletries. If you think that seems excessive, you would choke at how much makeup and clothes I take. I can guarantee that my husband will utter the words, "it is only for one night" at least once before tomorrow morning. Oh well, he knew I was a girly girl before we got married. :)


Till next time!
Romy
Droid

Day 13

Another Rainy Day

We're getting ready for a weekend away and the rain keeps falling down.  Thankfully enough, the weekend will involve swimming so I'll be wet anyway.  

 

Stay dry,

Troy

Samsung Epic

Day 12

Slow day today. Woke up feeling not to great so I decided to take it easy, wash some laundry and read.

I love to read and will read just about anything I can get my hands on. My Kindle Fire was one of my favorite Christmas gifts and I use it nearly every single day. I have a habit of reading about four books at a time and I read very quickly so the Kindle is perfect, especially for our frequent trips. Love!

This is going to be short and sweet because I still feel kinda yuck. I promise to try to be more exciting tomorrow!

 Till next time,
Romy
Droid

Day 11

Decisions decisions! On our way home from dinner tonight we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things. Troy looked adorable trying to decide what type of ice cream he wanted. I have zero interest in what he picked because I won't be eating any. My interest was elsewhere!

 I have to admit that even after being married for the last (almost) five years, I still have a monster crush on him. Check out those swimmer's shoulders he has! Nice!! You should see them in a tshirt. :))

Oh, he went with Dreyer's Low Calorie something or another. :)



 Till next time,
Romy
Droid

Day 10

Today was a wonderfulll day!

Driving home from an appointment in Kennewick, I pulled  over on the side of the road to take a few pics. I was so bummed out when I realized I had left the camera at home! I grabbed my cell phone instead and luckily it didn't come out too bad!

Check out the man on the bottom left that was there fishing. I wonder if he caught anything?

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I am not feeling super chatty today so that's it for today's post!

Till next time,
Romy
Droid

Day 9

What a gorgeous day today! Sunshine and clear skies. The moment we woke up, we were on the go. Troy went swimming and I went off to the track (I was asked why the track vs running on a trail and it is mainly bc the flat surface is good for my knees right now. I will eventually move back to trail )  with my iPod. We both got home around the same time and once again we were on the move. Troy went on a bike ride and I grabbed the three pugs and took them to the dog park.

                                                   Gracie chasing a Labradoodle twice her size. 

                       Dudley with a Retriever that he chased around the entire park for about 20 minutes.

                                                        Hudson's face is awesome in this one!

Fresh air, exercise for all of us, early dinner out with Troy, exhausted snoring pugs and quality time with the love of my life.  Fantastic.


Till next time,
Romy
Olympus E-500

Day 8

Today, like every Saturday, we woke up early, went to the track and spent the rest of the day having an awesome time together. After dinner tonight we decided we both needed a new mouse for our laptops so off to Staples we went!

As always I gravitate to the pens and journals section. I can't help it!

I love to write. I started writing in diaries when I was just a kid. I think I have completed/written in/doodled/drawn in 15 journals during my life, possibly more. Journals were the keepers of all my secrets, I could and did write about everything and anything freely. Never any judgement and they never told on me, unlike my siblings.

Several years ago, my journals were replaced by blogs. I've had countless blogs and have written about everything you can imagine. Everything from major heartache, exercise goals to things I wanted/hoped for or even feared. Blogs are so much easier. You can type and type away, hit a key and start over. Save to keep for yourself or hit publish and send it into the universe.  Easy, but never the same. There is just something about a pen put to paper while my thoughts flow that I don't think I could ever give up.


Maybe I will take out my journal and write in it tonight. :)



Till next time,
Romy
Droid

Day 7

Every four weeks I wait for a very important delivery. To call it important is not even a big enough of a word, because this delivery gives me the ability to wake up in the morning and swing my legs over the bed, to hold my toothbrush, to lean in to kiss my husband, to wrap my arms around him, to walk down the stairs to greet my pugs...to even be able to hold my morning glass of water to my lips. The delivery is freedom, movement, hope and a whole lot of prayer thrown in there for good measure.

Let me show you what I wait for every 4th Friday.

Enbrel Sure Click Autoinjector. 

I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis June 2008. I was positive that my life was over. I was sure that I would end up a crippled mess of a woman living with a nurse or even worse...living with my husband who would have to take care of me while giving up aspects of his own life. I literally fell apart and refused to speak to anyone in my life with the exception of my husband. Troy spent a lot and I mean a lot of time trying to remind me that RA was not the end of the world and that I needed to fight harder than I ever had in my life. Nothing seemed to sink in. I heard the words, I understood what he was saying...I heard my dr. telling me that my RA was caught so early that I would never suffer any disfigurement or become crippled. It didn't matter. All I knew was that I was in the worst pain of my life and I refused to leave my own pity party.

The day I decided to forget everything I have ever heard about RA, to define it MYSELF and to try not to pay attention to any commercials, negative articles or even worse - pictures of patients with RA, is the day my life changed. I started to fight but like with every battle ever fought I needed more than just will power, prayer and a strong support base of family and friends. 

Enbrel was not the first medicine I tried, far from it. The road to figuring out it was the perfect med for me  was a pretty scary one that nearly cost me my life. It was so worth it. One little shot once a week and I am good as new. I won't lie and say I am always comfortable.  My pain level is still higher than most people, I am usually running a bit of a fever, a simple cold can put me in the hospital with full blown pneumonia if I am not careful but..I can do everything you can do.

I wake up thrilled to be alive. I don't take for granted being able to bend over and tie my shoes, I live for going to the track nearly every single day, I count the days until I am able to complete my first triathlon at my husband's side and more than that...I live. Every single day. I live. 

Till next time,

Romy

Droid

Day 6: Winter Or Spring

Woke up this morning to a couple inches of fresh snow.  What happened to spring?  To make things worse, I had water quality samples to collect out in the field. 

The two images below were taken this morning about 3 hours apart.  

Till next time,
Troy
Olympus E-30

Day 5 - Happy Hour!

Troy made me cry today. Yep. Tears, actual tears. Before anyone thinks he is a bad guy, let me explain why. Troy would love for me to teach him Spanish but well, I am terrible at being a teacher. I teach him bad words, crazy phrases and things he will never ever need. We went to dinner tonight at a Mexican restaurant that always plays romantic Spanish ballads. A particular song came on, I looked at him and he was doing his own version of the song. Troy believes that all he has to do is close his eyes, look like he is in love and wiggle his eyebrows while humming loudly to sound like he is singing in Spanish. It is honestly hysterical. I may or may not have snorted. Just once though.

Today was another rainy and very cold day for us in WA state and I had little to zero desire to cook. Luckily, Troy agreed that Mexican sounded good. Happy days when we walked in and realized it was still happy hour! Margarita that size for $4.00? Happy Dance!!!

Just one for me though. Two and he would need to carry me to the car while I laughed hysterically at every little thing.

We try to split one meal between us because of how ridiculously large portions are. A huge pet peeve of mine that I won't go into! Today he didn't want to split anything with me because he wanted left overs for lunch. So, one margarita later and two to-go boxes full of vegan burritos later we are home, curled up on the couch and I am randomly laughing for no reason at all. Life is good.


Till next time,
Romy
Droid

Day 4

Today was a rainy and cold day that didn't really make me feel like leaving the house. I played around with taking a picture of myself but I just wasn't feeling it. Troy teased me and told me that all you can see in my pic that I showed him was how prominent my lips were in red lipstick. That was the end of that.

I stopped playing around with a picture and decided to make dinner. Dinner time is always a bit of a struggle, mainly because the list of things I refuse to eat is very long. The main one is no meat. I decided a while ago that for my health not eating meat was a must. I have never regretted it and will never in my life eat another animal again. Troy is great about eating whatever I make and he is pretty much up for anything. Except when I mentioned that I was planning on going gluten free. He pretty much was not down for that. I am not pushing it but slowing making changes and he doesn't seem to mind much.

Back to the picture...tonight I made vegetarian chipotle nachos and they were pretty good! I have made them before and I always say to myself that next time I need to add more lettuce. I am a lettuce fiend!

1 chopped green bell pepper 

1 chopped onion 

1 (12-ounce) package meatless fat-free crumbles - I add garlic, adobe and a few other spices 

Chipotle chili diced - add as much as you want! 

2 cups of pinto beans 

2 diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

8 cups baked corn tortilla chips 

2 cups shredded romaine lettuce  -- mmmm

1 cup diced peeled avocado -- Troy refuses to eat avocado so more for me!

3/4 cup vertically sliced red onion 

4 large black olives - sliced

3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese -- vegan cheese is just as good! 

6 tablespoons fat-free sour cream - I would not eat sour cream even on a dare but the husband likes it!

salsa on top :)

Till next time, Romy

Droid

Day 3 - Afternoon Commute

Wheat field along the cycling commute home, it's almost spring!

 Images from my Android.

Cheers,

Troy

Day 2

I wish today's picture had sound. If it did you could hear the rush of water trickling over the rocks as it makes its way down stream. So calming and beautiful. I am a typical Pisces in that I adore anything that has to do with water. It just seems to soothe my soul.

I took the picture in Oregon at Harris Park this afternoon and while the sky was not truly cooperating, I kind of like how it came out anyway. I used to drive to this spot quite often with and without Troy when we lived in Oregon. We would go together for a hike, picnic and a few times Troy had to work taking samples of the water and I would tag along. I used to like to go on my own and sit on the huge rocks scattered around and read for a bit during lovely days.  I haven't been there in a while so I thought today would be perfect. I took Dudley, one of my three pugs, and he was going nuts the entire time! The road there is quite long not to mention windy so between trying to keep two hands on the wheel and keeping Dudley from trying to jump on my lap - exhausting. Worth it though once I stopped the truck and let him out. He was just pleased as anything to run around and he started to bark at the rushing water. Great way to spend a few hours on a lovely Sunday afternoon.


"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi



Till next time,
Romy
Olympus E-500

Day 1 and Introduction!

Yah for day one!! I have been wanting to do a 365 days of images for a while now, I asked Troy if he wanted to be a part of it and then well...I procrastinated. The other day he hit me up about it so I thought I better get it started before he backed out! The site isn't complete yet but this is a good start. 


One of us will be posting an image once a day for the next year and just depending on our mood, we may write a bit about it (I tend to ramble) or just post an image (Troy is an AMAZING photographer and his images don't really need anything else) with a brief summary. 


Now let me warn you. Like I said before, Troy is a fantastic photographer and I on the other hand am not! I tend to just think something looks pretty, point and click. Lighting, POF, blah blah blah...I don't think too much about that stuff. Maybe that will change over the next year, who knows. We will be using an Olympus E-30, Olympus E-500 and occasionally our cell phones. Just depends on when the mood strikes and what is handy!

Our very first picture is one I took and it is of a place where I spend well over 10 hours a week. Borleske Stadium/Martin Field track might not look like much, but to me, it is pretty awesome. You can find me there nearly every day, going round and round the track while I listen to my iPod. The entire time I am plotting running world domination, or maybe just thinking about what to make for dinner. 

It may seem silly that a track could mean a lot to me but it does. The sense of peace it gives me to be out there, whether it be in the sun, heavy wind, cold, warmth or whatever the weather may be is just an impossible feeling to describe. I wake up every morning excited about going to work out. There are times I turn off my ipod just so that I can get lost in the rhythm of my feet as they hit the gravel. The constant motion for an hour or nearly two a day is pretty close to heaven for me. Bliss.

So that's it for our first post! I warned you all that I ramble, right?

I really hope you guys join us for the next 364 day journey of our life through images.

Till next time,
Romy
Olympus E-500