Week 1

The Whole30 community has created a timeline for the 30 days.  I planned to compare and contrast to see if I felt the same way.  Since life is busy and I couldn't do this in the moment, I am using my food diary to compare after the fact.  Pretty interesting to do...

Day 1: What's the big deal? 

After Day 1, I definitely matched the timeline.  This seems to be manageable, just might take a little more planning than I am use too.

Day 2 and 3: The Hangover

During these two days, I craved sugar.  I had to retrain my brain not to think about sweets.  That should've be simple enough right? Being a behavior analyst and all :-) hahaha

Day 4 and 5: Kill ALL things

All I can say is poor Tommy, for having to deal with me during these days, hell though the whole thing.  Nothing seems to go my way.  We may or may not have had an in depth discussion about having better communication Day 5.  I blame the food challenge :-) Better communication on my part might have been, "hey I am miserable leave me alone".

Love you babe.

Day 6 and 7: I want a nap

Today my food diary read, "I am so tired".  I guess we are right on track

Let's see what week two has in store

#whole30 strong

Let them eat cake

Wedding planning is going smoothy.  Who wouldn't love picking out all the things you love, with the person you love, for the people you love to enjoy :-)

Right before Christmas we were focused on cake.  Cake was on the top of our priority list, right next to Christmas shopping of course.  Wedding planning had been pretty easy so far, so who wouldn't be looking forward to eating sweets?  We all know Snackie was, and for those of you that don't know Tommy doesn't really like sweets :-).  Regardless he seemed to be enjoying himself during both tastings.

We tried out two spots, just to look at our options, but there was always something that lead us back to the daughter and mom company, Ruze Cake House.  They were so nice, friendly, and were always listening to me change my mind 600 times.  Also they were creative and seemed to fit our style perfectly, so we finally sealed the deal.

Here is just some of their artwork.  Who would have guess that after 10 cupcakes, and a handful of desserts we could finally make our decision.  I wouldn't have guessed that the cake would be the hardest decision thus far, but we had to do our research ;-)

Check, on to the next big decision

Let the madness ensue

Some ladies at work, I call them the crazies, decided we should do a Whole30 challenge.  After preparing ourselves for a few weeks, we decided to start after the new year, January 2nd to be exact.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Whole30 challenge, here are the basics...

So really the Whole30 means no fun.  I thought it would be a great idea to get in shape for the wedding and what better way to do it then with the support of some of the most amazing women you know.

So I set off to the grocery stores, yes multiple stores, a few days before the big day to get all my supplies.  I spent a few hours, cutting and prepping food for the week.  I was determined to figure out how to make these 30 days possible.

Doesn't it all look so good???

Who wouldn't want to eat like this??

Cheers to the Whole30, Oh wait, never mind

Cheers with a big glass of cucumber water

Happy New Year

From the future Mr. and Mrs. Mann

Since Will and Julie were in town visiting it only seemed necessary to celebrate 2014 with the college gang.  We met up for dinner and drinks at San Tan Brewery, one of Tommy's favorites.  I love this group of people.  I am continuously reminded how much I love everyone as we spent our night laughing and having a great time.  My abs were even sore the next day.  We can't wait to see everyone again in May.

Success

Today was another extremely successful day in the world of wedding planning.  While we continue to work on checking things off the to do list, today we met up for a little bit of girl time.  Ali, my mom and I met at Nordstrom, typical Sunday, while the boys watch football :-)  

Before we new it we had found bridesmaid dresses, bridesmaids shoes, jewelry, shoes for the bride, dresses for the welcome party and shower, and even some wedding decorations.  Sunday shopping turned out to be way more successful then we could've even imagined.

We topped off our day with lunch at Nordstrom Cafe to purchase my favorite special treat to celebrate all our progress.

Check!

Bite of Creme Brulee

Check!

Bite of Creme Brulee

Check!

Check!

Huge bite of Creme Brulee

Check!

Happy Birthday to Lucy!

Also known as dog torture

I blame Tommy's strong love of ASU

#ILoveWhereIWork

Hanna, Jillian and I at the SARRC holiday party.  

So much fun.

That is all.

Merry Christmas.

The gang was back together

Recently Will and Julie Heher were in town for the holidays, so we got a small chunk of the college gang together.  We met at the Yard to eat and play some games.  As all the wives and fiances caught up, we heard a huge group of cheering men.  To none of our surprise, we look over to find our guys celebrating a foosball table victory.  

It was great to see everyone.  Even though time has passed, it always feels like nothing has really changed.  We helped close down the Yard that night and finalized our New Years plans for tomorrow.

Julie, Me, Sarah, Mark G, MPole, Gillean, Will, Eric, Adam, Paul and Tommy

Football Birthday Party

It's really sad when your getting to you're football fall post and the football season is over.  Like I always say better late than never. 

After another ASU win, we headed over to Meg and Kev's on Sunday to surprise him for his birthday.  It was great to relax, veg out and celebrate Kevin, even if he wasn't surprised :-)

We were lucky enough to meet Meg and Kev through our mutual friend Tyler.  We have got to know them better and better as the years have gone by.  Meg and Kev are always so supportive and caring, and have known us since we first started dating.  They were even at Barret Jackson with us when Tommy and I first held hands.  Nerd alert!

Anyways... Happy Birthday to Kevin!  We can't wait to see what amazing things you accomplish this year, cheers!

And she nailed it

In early December, Rachel took Tommy and I to get our engagement pictures taken.  To say that Tommy was dreading this would be an understatement.  By the time the sun set Tommy looked at me and said, "I can't wait to get those pictures back".  Rachel had him hooked. 

We felt completely at ease, and couldn't wait to have Rachel take our pictures again.  I can't get enough of these photos and try to not look at them everyday, in case that would be extremely vain :-)

Just thought I should share... Happy Saturday!

Click Here

http://blog.rachel-solomon.com/2014/12/18/the-farm-at-south-mountain-engagement-photos/

Florist Glorist!

While wedding planning, a good friend recommended a florist. I was nervous about having anyone else be my florist besides Serendipity Flowers, due to knowing Sarah my entire life.  Since Sarah is plenty busy having her third baby, I had to look elsewhere for flowers and man o man did I get lucky.  I reached out to Malori Maeve at Hoot and Holler, and we met up immediately to see if our styles matched.  Malori was sweet, kind, creative and oh so talented.  I knew I had to book her for May 16th.

A few days later, I was looking at pictures on Instagram and stopped dead in my tracks when I came across this gorgeous photo.  I absolutely LOVED the flowers, and quickly looked at the hashtags to figure out who was the florist, and low and behold it was Hoot and Holler.  Perfect!

I knew then that we had picked the best florist for our big day, with a little help from Alex of course ;-)

http://hootandholler.co/

Check another item off the wedding to do list.

This wedding planning thing is easy!