"Swing" of things

I am a self-proclaimed sports enthusiast as well as is most of my family. I love sports and always have. Growing up I played basketball, soccer, softball and I also did clogging. I would have done more sports but there are only so many hours in a day and only so much money!

Other than volleyball, one sport I wish I would have gotten in to in school is tennis. Tennis wasn't really a family sport so it never crossed my mind to try it. My brother Cameron picked it up in high school and did really well. He continued playing and even played a little in college. Then my other family members started picking it up to the point where we usually have a little tennis tournament at our family reunions. The problem is because I don't play it often at all, I'm not that great so I usually don't get too involved in the tournament.

Once I moved to Mesa with my sister, I wanted to change that. I wanted to learn to play well. We lived less than a mile away from a person's private court in their back yard who gave us permission to use it for lessons. We hired a local kid and Kara and I took lessons once a week together. It was so much fun and I loved playing with her. Unfortunately, I moved back up to school and was left tennis-less again.

That is, until this week. I have a friend up here, Whitney. We met through our clogging class up here, but she was actually my sister's roommate/best friend when they went to school here. We hit it off and hung out a bit. We didn't ever live with each other so we didn't really create that same "bond" but we are friends. I saw that she posted online looking for someone to play tennis with her before the tennis season started up here. Could this be my chance? Yes. I emailed her letting her know that if she didn't have anyone else I would be more than happy to go play. Unfortunately she's really good and I'm not, but I know we'll still have a good time.

It'll be nice to get back into playing once a week and change up the scenery just a bit and get my swing back!

Failed attempt

I don't know how many people actually try the recipes they pin from Pinterest, but I like to try one every once in a while (poor Ethan, if it was just me I would live off of yogurt and Grapenuts and celery with peanut butter). But alas, it's like he needs to have real meals.

Both of us love Panda Express. We both get its chow mein with orange chicken. I found a recipe on Pinterest that everyone claimed tasted "just like Panda." I was up to try it! We went grocery shopping a couple weeks ago and got the stuff we would need. Last night I decided I was going to make it. I was so excited. I started cooking the chow mein noodles and while those were cooking, I started on the sauce. Once the noodles seemed done Ethan rinsed them off while I put the oil in the skillet to finished off the sauce and noodles together.

Ultimate fail. I took one taste and I threw the stuff away. It was awful! Either these people had never had Panda's chow mein or they were on something strong! It tasted like soy sauce and ginger. Disgusting. Luckily, I was doing a sweet and sour chicken that turned out decent so Ethan didn't starve. Never again will I attempt those so-called chow mein noodles again!

The little things

I have come to the realization a few different times that my life is not grand. I didn't grow up in luxury or accomplish huge things. But that doesn't mean I haven't had a great life. More and more I come to realize how much I appreciate the small things in my life. I married an amazing man, I have a job that supports us and then some, I graduated college in the top 10% of my class, and I'm able to still play basketball. These all seem like menial things to some, but these are the types of things that have helped me develop into the person I am.

I've also realized how much I appreciate the small things other people do for me.like I said here, our house was a disaster. I came home from work and I was going to get through dinner and then tackle the house. Much to my surprise, Ethan had gotten home a little bit before me and had already started by taking out all of the trash. I couldn't help but smile knowing that I know that it was probably the last thing he wanted to do after being in school and doing homework all day, but he knew it would make me happy.

We got done with dinner and it was down to business. Ethan had a few things for school he had to get done and I started on the kitchen. He got done with his homework, came in to the kitchen and asked what he could do. He went upstairs to work on the bathroom while I finished the kitchen. I got done and went upstairs. That bathroom was sparkling! He was scrubbing that place like crazy and it looked awesome.

Those are the things that I appreciate. I don't need to be rich with money because my life is rich with the little things.

Disaster

Our house is an absolute disaster. Our room, the kitchen, the living room, you name it, it's destroyed. For some reason neither one of us is taking any initiative to clean it either. I don't know if we're just busy or lazy. Combination of both? This week that'll all change. We're going to deep clean and it's going to feel amazing again. It's not that I don't like the feeling of a clean house, I just don't like the cleaning for a clean house. But like I said before, we'll get it done.