Truly, It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year.

Hi people, it has been a while since the last blog post. I think it is a combination of blogs going out of style, Dani have less than zero time to write, and me not really liking to write as if I am talking to you when I am really not. Who knows who actually reads this so I feel like I'm talking to myself. But here are some pictures from our latest adventures...

So a couple months ago, we were watching the Australian Open tennis tournament and we got the crazy idea to try to go to a tennis tournament. So lo and behold, the BNP Paribas Open was naturally the place to go. It is the 5th largest tournament out there and was this past weekend in Palm Springs/Indian Wells California. So we drove down on Friday, watched the semifinals on Saturday, and drove back on Sunday. We got to see Federer v. Doglopolov, Isner v. Djokovic, and the Bryan brothers win the doubles championship.

Dani loves the sun and palm trees...

We stopped at our favorite gourmet burger place in Vegas, Bachi Burger. No words necessary.

Found one my size...

It was smokin hot in the sun but well worth the sunburn to see Federer dominate.

Again, Dani loves palm trees...

MORE IMPORTANTLY- As you can see by the blog title, today marks the official start of March Madness. Please do not contact me with anything other than basketball related news/questions/comments from every Thursday-Sunday for the next 4 weeks. Thanks. Make sure you fill out your brackets.

New Year’s Resolutions

Well, here I am. In January. I feel like one of THOSE people that is back a the gym in a brand new matching outfit that has never been worn before. In January. But, thankfully for my own sanity, I am not one of those people. Either in the gym or on the blog. Because believe it or not, blogging did NOT make my goal list for 2014. Didn’t even cross my mind actually. So it is kind of ironic that I’m even writing any of this.

Anyway, I do love setting goals. Mostly because I love accomplishing goals. And again for my own sanity I have always called them goals, not resolutions. I feel like this is one of the best things that was ingrained in me from my volleyball career. And it is true what they say: you NEED to be specific, and you NEED absolutely NEED to write them down. I love it.

That being said, Brad is also great at setting & accomplishing goals. So when we have these conversations we feed off each other. So this is not our complete list, but a few of the things we did accomplish in 2013 include:

Couple

• Temple once per month – We only missed July when Brad was in Seattle.
• Date night every week – Let’s be honest, we don’t have kids yet so EVERY night is date night. Check this one off.

Brad

• 350 hours studying for the MCAT – He far surpassed this one.
• A in Organic Chemistry – Check!
• Find & Apply to 25 best Med Schools – Check, now just waiting…

Dani

• Run in an official Half Marathon Race – Check!
• Host a dinner Party one a month – Didn’t keep exact track of this, but however many it was I want to do more :)
• Get my Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification – Check!

I don’t list these out to brag, I only document them because it is good to celebrate our accomplishments! There are a handful of things we didn’t quite complete, but they have rolled over into the 2014 list. It is good to set aggressive goals :) Here’s a few of our new goals we are striving for in 2014… It’s a big year for us!

Couple

• Buy a House!

Brad

• Get into Med School
• Ride a century in under 6 hours
• Magnify calling in Young Men’s

Dani

• Journal once/week – electronic? – I used to be VERY good at this, it has slipped the last 2 years. I want to get back to it.
• 100% Visiting Teaching – Hey, I’m trying here people
• Learn to play (at least) 8 songs flawlessly on the piano
• CROSSFIT queen – lots of specifics on this one :)

Lots of goals which means lots of things to work towards and lots of things to look forward to. It feels so good! 2014 is HUGE for us, so might as well be improving ourselves at the same time. Here’s to 2014! We’ve been waiting for you for a long time…

And just for fun here is some proof Brad is already working hard toward one of his goals:

Long Time, No Blog

Hello People. It's been a while. I blame that on a) an amazing summer's worth of adventures b) butt-killing bike rides and boating c) crazily hikes and Cabo d) delicious dinners and discovering new restaurants e) estupído (portuguese for stupid) studies and silly sight-seeing f) fast-approaching fall and farmers markets g) grand golf outings and our garden h) horrendously old carpet, a half-marathon (for one of us) and hide-n-seek and n) nephews. As I am not one for many words and I know all of you faithful blog followers are dying to hear about our lives, here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

Love: The Browns

Bright Perspective

Time flies. But isn’t that a funny thought? Don’t the days seem endlessly long? Or is that just my to-do list?

So much has happened in our lives since the last post. New jobs, new semesters, new books to study, new ages for both of us (24 & 26), new checks on our life bucket lists, new found love for weekends, new goals and ambitions. The MCAT is behind, Med School applications are ahead. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you are too busy for everything.

All happening while time is literally just flying by.

We are in the thick of summer which is BY FAR the best time of year. My garden is booming, my bike is well used, my tan lines are crazy and everything seems to be slightly sun-kissed. I’m in heaven. Our dinners keep getting later and later because of all the plans we have to be outside and enjoy this glorious weather. I’m determined to master new things including, but not limited to, golf, tennis and Dutch ovens. Nothing is better than the sun being out and the world is your oyster. Or something like that.

We take the saying very seriously of: work hard, play hard. Brad’s 500+ hours of studying for the MCAT? Naturally that is followed up by a few appearances of tee times 5 days/week. My new job has demanded pretty much all I have to give for the last few months, so again a week is Cabo is the only logical move :) Brad and I have been swinging for the fence on pretty much all aspects of life lately. I’m so proud of the hard work we’ve put in and the fruit that we have begun to see and will continue to see over time. We are putting in the time and enormous effort to set ourselves up for a bright future. My dad always taught me to be mindful. He taught me to not to be impulsive, but to save up for the really good things in life because those are the things that will last and will make you more happy. I couldn’t agree more, Dad.

So in the midst of all the chaos, I couldn’t be happier. I am going through each of these new days with my very best friend and the love of my life. We are knocking things out of the park and becoming better people every step of the way. The future is bright and so is the sun outside. Let’s enjoy it.

Life Through My Eyes...

Well hello blogging world, it is the husband, Brad, once again. After a long hiatus from my ever-faithful blog followers, I have decided once again to come out of blog-hibernation and type a few words. Admittedly, however, I am only typing because I have been sitting in this chair at my desk far too long the past few days and need something else to do than review Acid/Base chemistry and other science-themed topics in preparation for the test of all tests, the test that will determine our future as a family, the dreaded MCAT. More on that later....

So here are some picts I have taken and how I see life:

Dani is going to kill me for posting these pictures but I can't help it. She is so darn cute.

 Now that basketball season is over, we will be doing much less FaceTime. Thank goodness.

Kitchen renovations really took it out of her...

I married the cutest IT nerd ever. Look at that bushel of Apple's she has...

#lies

Ah yes, the MCAT. I think as of today, we are t-minus 83 days until Test Day. I modified a gift from my sister to countdown the days (instead of count up the days our doorways have been bonked free). It cannot get here fast enough and it cannot get here slow enough. In just over two (2) months, I have logged just south of two hundred (200) hours for this bloody test. Its a good thing I don't have Organic Chemistry, Physics, basketball (well, I did), husband duties, etc etc...

Sorry, I had to vent about the MCAT for a minute....

Kitchen Reno

Alright, let me just begin this post by saying how excited these little projects make me. I’m 100% sure I get this from my dad. We had a blast, and as a bonus our kitchen looks WAY better. So! Let’s get to the good stuff.

My ideas:
1. Sliding pantry – more on this below.

2. Tile Backsplash – my dad is a master.

3. Update our cabinets. Let’s just say they all had the finish of a wooden spoon – which is literally my worst nightmare.

4. Create more storage in our small space.

Let’s Get to work! PS don’t ask why we chose to cut tile and use the table saw in the very coldest part of the year. Not a great idea.

First item of business- let’s paint. Here’s some action pics Brad took haha.

 

And my personal favorite of the painting/foot-rub combo. Workin’ hard! 

Old Yeller!! It had to go… It was literally taking 60+ minutes to pre-heat. A chef in training cannot work in those conditions!!

Once we got all the painting done – we started building the shelf! The idea was – utilize the 6” of space we have and turn it into storage! So we built a sliding pantry! Genius I tell you. And we now need to patent it.

 

Backsplash

So let’s look at the after pics!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

This is the coolest pantry ever! Slides in and out perfectly and is just awesome, turned out better than I thought!

 

BEFORE

 

This is the stove my parents bought when they lived in this basement apartment 30 years ago. They bought it used haha. My grandpa lovingly named it “Old Yeller.”

AFTER – Is this the same place?

A new range!!! Yay!!! Plus an awesome tiny LED light to light up the stove. Brad said we stole these lights off the headlights of an Audi.

BEFORE – bye bye old yeller+hood.

AFTER

Putting up this little tiny spice rack saved a TON of counter space. Haha it’s all relative I guess. It’s a ton for me!

Let’s just say I didn’t have much counter space to work with. Now that I look at this picture, I am wondering how I cook in this kitchen at all?? We’ve lived here for a year and a half already! Haha.

The tile looks so good! I love it! Oh and bonus, we put in a bench seat for our little corner table, which also has storage.

And then I just started getting crazy.

Our basement kitchen renovation was definitely a success! My new oven takes exactly 4mins to pre-heat. It even has a countdown timer on the pre-heat. It’s a dream. I think my cooking will seriously improve now :) Now if we could only do something to raise the ceilings……..