april foodie penpals and april wraps.

April has been incredibly busy. A how-am-I-suppose-to-get-all-this-done kind of busy. While it's all been good stuff, it also makes me feel like a nap.

"Hey dude, do you know what a rundown is?"

So I thought I'd give you a rundown of April. I know you're incredibly interested.

I turned 26. This means I have less than four years to take care of the stuff on this list that I haven't done yet. Fortunately I have taken care of most of them already. One of my favorites is that you should learn how to live alone, which I think is important. I think you learn about yourself when you live alone, and it's a key step to knowing who you are as an individual. You don't have to necessarily think it's the greatest thing ever, but it's at least a good healthy experiment.

Because I turned 26 I also ate cake. Yum.

I went to the Golden Bee twice. If you're ever in Colorado Springs you need to go there. The food is great, but the highlight is really when they throw bees at you. I have a growing collection on my television.

I went to Alabama and Arizona for work. We hosted national championships in those states, and I serve in a media capacity at events. This really kicks off my travel season, which is taking me to places like San Diego, Austin, Boston, Reno, Michigan and more. Traveling can be tiring but I love seeing new places (or revisiting favorites from past trips) and when I get to see my friends on these trips, it's even better.

Plus, I just really like flying.

I decided that even though I love running, I need to swim more. I still haven't yet, because I don't belong to a gym with a pool, but this week I'm going to cancel my current gym membership and sign up for one with a pool. I could go swim with a masters team but 5:30 is really early, and I don't always want to swim 2 miles. So I will just go back to doing it on my own.

I quit online dating. And I'm not sad about it.

I got a haircut. This is kind of boring but I haven't had my hair this short in at least two years (probably more) so it was worth mentioning!

I also participated in Foodie Penpals again this month. I won't be able to do it in May (schedule just won't allow it) but I love this program. It was started by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean and has grown exponentially over the past few months!

Brittany was paired with me this month, and she sent me some great stuff! I haven't had a chance to try everything yet, but there is a great selection of bars that she sent, as well as some homemade granola from her home state and what sounds like an amazing chocolate bar (pear and almond!) that I might dig into later today...

I think this penpals program is exciting because it's a chance to receive items that other people love, and that you might not have tried yet. Before this month, I hadn't had any of the things Brittany sent me, but I am guessing I will have some new favorites after I try everything!

Here are some details about Foodie Penpals  in case you’re a interested in participating in the program:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions. 
•  You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination! 
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!) 
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
• Foodie Penplas is open to U.S. & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from U.S. to Canada and vice versa. So Lindsay keeps the two countries separate.

If you’re interested in participating for May, CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. You have to submit your information by May 4.


And that was April. It went fast, and tomorrow is a whole new month with new challenges and places to go and things to do. Do you have anything fun coming up in May?

why i'm quitting online dating.

online dating makes me feel like a bummed out gumball.

Today, I official quit online dating.

I'm over it, quite honestly. A while back I wrote a post about how I was trying it because it seemed like a reasonable option to meet people. I know people who have met their significant others online, and they are very happy. Online dating can work.

But for me, it does not.

I have done what seems like all of them - eHarmony, OKCupid, Match, Plenty of Fish. I have gone on dates (although not as many as some), and nothing has really gone anywhere. I have had conversations with men via text that consist of one-word responses. I have friends who have gotten more than their fair share of photos that were wildly inappropriate (note to everyone ever: sending naked pictures of yourself to someone you have never met is just grounds to be made fun of for all time).

I have spent money and time sending messages. I never get responses. I never get messages from people either. And maybe it's me. Maybe my online-dating self is not charming like real-life me. Maybe admitting that the most important quality I'm looking for in another person is kindness is just too much for some folks. Maybe saying that I am into sports and love my career and also enjoy reading is just not what men in my city or my state want in a woman.

But for me, if I am being honest and I am still not seeing any return on my investment of time and money, why am I continuing to care?

There has got to be a better way.

People meet in all kinds of ways. People, long ago, before the internet, didn't have online dating. They had to meet through traditional methods. You know, like, face-to-face. People meet in bars and libraries and through mutual friends.

For me, online dating has just become an annoyance. A nuisance. I don't want to spend time getting to know someone online, only to meet him in real life and find out he is nothing at all like he appeared to be, because in my experience, it's too easy to be dishonest.

This is not meant to offend anyone who is online dating or who has had success. But for me personally it's just not working. It's not something I care to dedicate any more time to.

I quit.

How did you meet your significant other? Was it online or by some other means? Just curious how people meet other people (to date) these days...

thankful thursday: thanks, mom and dad.

Some of my favorite bloggers write Thankful Thursday posts. And I'm thankful for a lot of things but I don't always tell you all what they are. But today I feel like I want to say thank you. To two very important people. For no reason except that I really like them a lot, and they are the reason I am here.

our family at "our" presque isle lighthouse.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

My parents are my best friends, my number one supporters and probably two of the coolest people you'll meet. Not everyone has the type of relationship with their parents that I have with mine, and that's okay.

But then, not every family is the same. Some families don't have a mom and dad. Some families have divorce and remarriage. Some families have two moms or two dads. Some only have one parent. Some families don't have kids (because they don't want to or because they can't - judging people for not having kids is just wrong either way). No family will ever look the same because it doesn't have to. Family does not have one set definition.

But I'm going to tell you a little about mine.

When I was growing up, I think we had it pretty good. Right after I was born we moved into the house that my parents still live in now. It's an old farm house, and it needed to be fixed. We lived in the house while it was being remodeled (or partially rebuilt, since they added a whole extra floor and the porch as part of it). At times there was pokey, raw wood on the floor instead of carpet. One summer our living room was in our garage. The house looks beautiful now. My parents did some of it (painting, wood trim, etc.) on their own. A lot of it, actually. But then, I believe them to be part of a generation that doesn't just throw things away to get new.

my dad and me

My parents both worked. My entire life, they have both worked to support our family. My dad worked in construction, which sometimes meant that he was working in a different city, hours away. Sometimes he'd be gone all week long. Sometimes he would be staying at home, but he wouldn't get home until 9, and he'd eat dinner and go to bed just so he could get up and do it all over again. To this day, if we drive over a stretch of road or past a building he worked on, he will say, "I made that."

My mom taught first grade for 36 years. Considering that I coach swimming for 7-8 year olds about 3 hours a week and I sometimes go crazy, you have to understand that my mom is one of the most patient people you will ever meet. If you don't believe me, spend most of your year with 30+ 6-7 year olds and see how you feel when you're done. Plus, for those of you that think teachers don't work in the summer, believe me - the good ones do. My mom was always prepping things for her classroom or taking a class herself.

I know my brother and I were brought up differently than some kids. We didn't have an allowance - we were expected to do chores and help around the house as contributing members of the family. We didn't get paid for grades. We didn't just get things because we wanted them (at least not all the time). We didn't get a birthday party every single year. Maybe we had McDonalds sometimes - it wasn't an every day or even every week thing but a once-in-a-while treat. And you know, we had to go to a babysitter after school sometimes. Which really just meant we had another chance to interact with kids, and to try out toys we didn't own.

my mom

We also got to participate in a myriad of activities - scouting, t-ball, dance, hockey, soccer, swimming, band, school plays, science olympiad. We got to try different things. Sometimes we'd get home from school, only to immediately eat dinner so we could go to a practice. But as I have gotten older, I believe it's these situations that have allowed me to learn how to balance my time. Some people still don't know how to do that, but maybe it's because they've never had to.

There may have been times we did too much. And maybe there were times when my parents thought they were giving us too much. But I promise you, both my brother and I turned out okay - or more than okay.

You see, I went to college, picked my own major, graduated, and knew exactly what I wanted to do. When I got my internship (and then my job) in Colorado, my parents didn't dissuade me from going. They wished me luck and drove me here. My brother has figured out what works for him in his life, and while that isn't the exact same thing as me, it works for him. My parents have supported my decisions (and my brother's) and have allowed us to become independent, functioning adults. I live on my own, I make my own choices.

My parents taught me the most important things in life. They taught me to always be honest, and kind, and to work hard. They taught me that it's important to try hard and do your best. They taught me to get along with others and to be respectful, but to be assertive if something isn't right. And really, they have taught me that it's okay to be myself and have my own beliefs.

While I am incredibly grateful for my family and the lessons I have learned in life, I know not everyone has the same upbringing as I did. But the thing is, we don't need to compare ourselves to others or try to one-up the person next to us. I'm not going to pretend I work harder than someone else, and I'm not going to say what my parents did was right and everyone else is wrong - I don't know what other people are going through. I am just going to do the best I can for me, and one day for my family.

And my parents taught me that.

What did your parents teach you?

hello, i'm 26.

If you follow me on any of my various social networks, you know that yesterday was my birthday.

I know you're jealous of my delicious birthday cupcakes (thanks LH!)

I was thinking about making this list of 26 things I want to do while I'm 26, and believe it or not, it's hard to think of 26 things. Then I realized I kind of already did this in my 12 in 12 post (which was excellent, by the way)... so I won't bore you with that again. I will say that some of those things have changed a little, so this is a fluid list.

That's okay.

So instead of giving you a bunch of stuff I've already said before, I'll just add a few things to my list (and maybe reiterate some important points from the original list...).


Things like: 

Say thank you more - in letters, in person, however. Show people I am grateful for them. We don't do this enough.

Run. Seriously, it's going to be that simple. This was on my 12 in 12 but I'm changing it, because I'm not going to put some qualifier of races or pace or whatever. I just want to run. I also want to swim a lot. I have had dreams about swimming lately, so I guess that means I need to go to the pool.

I guess on that note... I will follow my heart. The heart wants what it wants when it wants. Listen to it. Be happy.

Visit a new place. It's going to be a few new places, considering those trips to New Zealand and Australia. I sometimes don't feel like this is real life.

Start my master's degree classes. It's gonna happen. For no reason other than I want to.

Be more mindful of what I'm eating. No, I don't mean go on a diet, and I am not going to give up hamburgers or cheese or cake. I want to be healthy and happy and I don't think those two things have to be mutually exclusive. This really just means eat what I think sounds good but stop before I'm so full I have to unbutton my jeans when I walk in the door.

Read. Look, I can't be the only one with a million books in my house (seriously, I have so many) and I want to read them. I don't have cable anymore. I have time for books.

And because this one is so important (at least to me), I will post it again exactly as I did before:

Be better. Smile more. Be a better friend. Be smarter. Be caring. Be someone that people respect and want to emulate, just because you're you and they like you for it. (That sounds kind of Mister Rogers but I don't care.)

I think birthdays help you to realize how wonderful some of the people are in your life. I have some pretty amazing friends (you guys know who you are) and I think this sentiment from yesterday summarized how lucky I am to have made the friends I have made:

"...Just so you know, I celebrate you every day because you're an awesome woman, person and friend. So I just consider this another normal day of appreciating Lindsay, except now everyone else is doing it too."

I hope you all are lucky enough to have friends that celebrate you everyday for who you are, whether it is your birthday or not.

I will wrap this up with something another friend wrote to me yesterday: 

"Here's to another year of awesome trips, fabulous insights and taking life by the horns."

i wish.

Here are some thoughts I had today, this week, recently.

I wish that running felt as good as it did a few months back. I have never been able to go very far or very fast but at least I could run without my legs feeling like my muscles were all tangled up in there. I'm not sure what to stretch or how to fix it. But I'm going to keep trying different things until it goes away. I know I said I was going to take a break from running but it's hard because I really do like it. I miss it when I go just a few days without it. So I'll keep trying.

I wish there were more flat areas to run around my apartment, instead of these rolling hills. Some may argue that it makes no difference but believe me, when you're already at 6,500 feet, hills are not really your friend. At least, they're not my friend.

i wish i could be closer to here, and i wish colorado was this green!

I wish I had time to see all the people I want to see and do all the things I want to do when I go back to Michigan. Fortunately I am going to be there 5 times between late-June and Christmas. So if you're reading this, I promise that if I don't see you on one trip, we'll make it work for another.

I wish I could have a real birthday party like I did when I was 8, and we could all wear leggings and headbands and baggy sweaters and go ice skating and eat pink Lisa Frank cake. (Except we didn't go ice skating because the MSU hockey team was using the ice instead open skate, and we went to a museum instead.)

I wish there was more time in the day to play games. Not just like, Words with Friends or Draw Something but stuff like kickball and floor hockey. There might be adult rec leagues for things like that but lately (and upcoming-ly) I haven't had time in my schedule!

I wish advertisers would stop wasting paper and sending me ads I am never going to read and coupons I am not going to use. Why isn't there an unsubscribe option for things like that?

I wish I had more bookshelves for all my books. And I wish I had more time for reading!

I wish I had known how great it was to go without cable. I dropped my cable last week and now I only have internet in my apartment, and I haven't missed the cable one bit. But then, the internet is pretty glorious.

I wish more people wanted to go sing karaoke and go to baseball games. There's probably other stuff, too, but these are some of my favorite things.

I wish the outdoor pool would open, so I could go swimming. I don't like the indoor pool quite as well and it's never open at a convenient time (for me) anyway...

I wish all of you a happy Thursday - hopefully it's a great prelude to what promises to be a great weekend!

be yourself.

These days I think it's too easy to think we have to change.

People are coming at us in all directions telling us how we should look (thinner, taller, sleeker), how we should eat (paleo, vegetarian, no dairy, no carbs, low carbs, high protein, organic only), who we should date (or who we shouldn't), when we should get married (because if you're single at 25 what the hell is wrong with you?), how much we should work out (a kazillion hours each week) and how we should think (like me, duh).

I'm not sure if it has always been like this, but somehow I feel like social media has made it easier for this to happen. We see people in relationships or having children or losing weight on Facebook and Twitter and we see pictures of too-skinny women on Pinterest and Tumblr (and they are labeled "healthy" and "thin-spiration" and shit like that). We see what other people are doing and we think it should be us.

But why?

i am okay with being a little silly sometimes.

Are any of us really happier when we are comparing ourselves to someone else? Should I feel bad about my life because I don't have a boyfriend or a husband or a child or a house or even a dog? Should I be super bummed out because I don't look like a girl in some picture online that someone else has labeled as "the healthy body" - especially when there's no way my body composition would allow for me to look that way? Am I going to feel smarter if I think like someone else thinks, instead of having my own opinion?

The only time I think it's appropriate to emulate someone is if that person is proving you can be who you are, and that it's okay to be you.

We're all unique, and we all have our own interests and quirks and abilities and strengths. Instead of comparing ourselves to someone who we think is better, why don't we just try to be our own best self? We don't have to fit a cookie-cutter mold to be successful in our relationships, our careers or in society. I am different from you, and you are different from everyone else.

It seems like we've forgotten the lessons we once learned on Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It seems like we've gotten so caught up in what others are doing that we've forgotten that it's okay if we don't look and dress and act and think like everyone else. And we've also forgotten what it's like to respect the differences of others. Just because someone looks or acts or thinks differently from you doesn't mean he or she is a bad person. Maybe instead of putting people down we should respect what makes us different, and learn from it.

Maybe this is more for me than for you. Maybe I am just realizing that it's okay to be me, instead of who somebody else thinks I should be, and I just thought you should know. But I think we've got to stop comparing ourselves to others and learn to truly be happy in our own skin.

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."  -- e.e. cummings