Ramblin' Bears!

Photo by Darren Campbell

Howdy Ramblers! Today, November 13th, 2012 marks the two year wedding anniversary of us bears. This day in 2010 was wonderful from start to finish, and we couldn’t be more happy to see what the future has in store for us. The first year seemed to fly by, however our second year together had a couple hurdles that came along with it. With the loss of my Father, the loss of Eric’s Grandmother, and my random stint with Bell’s Palsy, we seemed to be treading water sometimes when it came to nerves. We made it through though, and are happy to report that we can’t wait for 2013 to start so we can begin a new year of happy memories and awesome adventures!

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In our quest to be more healthy, we’ve had to reinvent the way we do our meal planning. We ended up changing our ways with the help of a creative website we never thought we would use for something like this, Pinerest! Through Pinterest we have found a way to share meal ideas with each other in an organized way, without the help any spreadsheets, google docs, or in-person meetings. Instead, Eric went ahead and created two boards that we now use regularly. One for favorite meal ideas, and one for meals we’d like to try. We each take a few minutes over the weekend to cruise our favorite food websites, and just pin the recipes instead of writing them down. We supplement this with a week long food calendar, aaand PRESTO…we have a week long meal plan!

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A special thanks to our friend Nareg for the Einstein carving.

Happy Halloween, everyone! These photos are from our very first halloween together back in 2006. We handed out candy and carved awesome pumpkins. Click on the photo above, or the link below, and check out all the fun designs we carved that year! 

Check out the full set: Artsy Jack O’ Lanterns

Recipe time! Ready for a steaming hot bowl of pure comfort food?  Eric has been making this wonderful tortilla soup for so long, he’s got the recipe memorized!  This is a great go-to with winter coming on, but it’s also got a refreshing flair that can work great in all seasons.

We’re including both stove-top and crock pot instructions, but you’ve gotta try it in the crock pot.  As with anything getting a nice dose of chili powder, this dish really shines when it gets the extended cooking time needed for the flavors come together.  (That and the fact that this is an amazing dish to come home to pre-prepared after a long day).

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Image by -Paul H- via Flickr

Howdy and welcome to another Fitness Friday! This week we were pretty good! We got to the gym twice, and were able keep our food plan in check. When we finally weighed in this week, we both realized we have shedded 10 lbs! YAY!

This has been a great inspiration for us, because we weren’t sure if any of this was even working. After loosing my initial 5 lbs, I gained a couple before loosing more, so it was a little off putting at first.  We also cheated a couple times when visiting my Mom and while on the road traveling. Over all though, I feel like we have actually made some progress, and feel comfortable continuing with our plan of food journaling and watching the carb intake. I also love the new notch I use on my belt now.

What steps have inspired you in your fitness and food regime?

The tunnel that leads out of Santa Barbara

Back in 2007 when we had just started dating, we used to take drives as a way to explore our area. This photo set was taken during one of those first drives, and little did we know, would lead to a lifetime of adventure together. Check out all the photos we took from the road by clicking the photo or below. We even found snow!

View the entire set: SB Up- County Drive