Let's see how long this will last

So, as part of my new resolutions, I am trying to take control of things I can change.

First: How much TV I watch.  
I watch a lot, well sort of "watch".  I have the TV on when I'm cleaning, blogging, doing menial tasks and especially when I come home exhausted.  I just want to crash on the coach for a few minutes, have a snack and not think about life.  I don't really watch watch TV, I'll watch 20 minutes then get bored with the show halfway and go on doing other things while the TV is still on.  It's kind of a weird habit to explain.  I just have it on to keep me "busy".  Does that even make sense?  My first question however is, whyyy are all the shows I wanna see on during the school year?? Conspiracy anyone? There's never anything on during the weekends or during the holidays.  Anyways...so I have decided that I will denote 2 hours of TV watching a week and then catch up with my other shows later on the weekend (hello On Demand!).  What does this mean?  This means that Monday through Friday, the TV is only on for 2 hours.  Let's see how long this lasts.

Secondly:  Exercise...Pure Barre is back.
I had to take a break from Pure Barre a few months back because of feet pain.  Yes, they incessantly have some issue they like to torture me with.  I got new orthotics and life seems to be back to "normal" for now.  I have signed up to get back into lifting, toning and burning starting tomorrow night.  I am hopeful that this time I can keep with it and also incorporate some cardio (ie gym), but we'll see.  I'm not going to get ahead of myself just yet.  For now...I'm going to take it slow...let's see how long this lasts, HA!

Third:  Eat better.
I am going to try to cut out my sugar intake.  I have a crazy sweet tooth...I die for chocolate.  It's bad.  So, I am going to try, once again (I've done this before...lasted 2 weeks) to have only a few pieces of something sweet during the week (if any) and leave the weekend to treat myself to frozen yogurt or something delicious.  I am also going to try to have more salads for dinner.  Just salad and not a BIG hunk of a meal.  I will have to break this occasionally when I go over to my in-laws for dinner...for many reasons.  I am also going to try to eat less rice.  This has worked and I've managed to keep this up for the past year.  I don't make rice at home unless I need to or we have guests over.  So, in essence there are weeks where we go without eating rice.  I think it's much healthier and has really helped me keep my weight...although the sugar has not :D so, really I'm just picking sweets over rice :D

Fourth:  Focus focus focus on school.
It's been hard to really focus and get motivated.  I drag myself to lab, force myself to pretend i'm interested and it's not going so well.  I don't know...maybe I'm still burnt out, maybe I just don't care for school anymore, maybe all the other things that I think about are weighing me down.  I have loads to read and I get so bogged down in the details and lack of understanding that it kills me and I give up.  I really don't know how I got through college and my master's and even the first year of this PhD program.  I was really motivated.  What the hell happened?? Now all I want to do it read all the home/decor/organization blogs i've come across, check out pinterest and find new things to blog about.  Not so good...it's definitely not helping me or anybody else, and in fact, makes me more depressed.  Everyone seems to have a perfect house, perfect family, and loads of money to spend.  Obviously, that's far from the truth...but it's amazing how you start to live your life through others.  Anyways...I'm going to see if I can change this bad brain habit.  I don't know how...but I'm going to try to find a way for myself to get back into the swing of things.

Maybe exercising, eating better and less TV will help????  Maybe I should really slap in less blogging too...hmm...it really takes up a lot of time.  

I really should have been born a cat.  Sleep all day, play for a few hours, sleep some more.  That's the life.

Under Kitchen Sink Organization

I hate nothing more than a messy area under the kitchen sink.  I store a lot of stuff under there, from kitchen towels to cleaning chemicals and plastic bags. When it's messy, not only can I not find anything, but I also get the feeling that everything under there gets dirty and needs to be sanitized (don't know why!).

So, I finally got around to cleaning it all up.  I got a larger drawer to store all the towels.  I also got rid of cleaning solutions that I never use and bought an over the door rack to store the plastic tablecloths we occasionally use to eat on (when sitting on the floor Persian style).  I even (finally) found Command clips to hook up the dishwashing gloves.  I had been looking for these everywhere, and the reason I never found them was because they are not in the "hook" aisle, they are in the stationary asile.  Um, makes noooo sense to me.

BEFORE

AFTER

Large ice tray I use for storing plastic bags.  This does not fit in our freezer...I mean...why waste all that space for ice.  

My hubby bought me this to store all our cleaning stuff, and it's been great.  Easy to take out, easy to carry around and stores everything we need to clean the place.    

Oh Command Clip, how have I lived without you for so long.  

The tablecloths stay clean and organized in this over the door tray.  

YAY for tidy spaces!

Over the Break

I finally got around to organizing the photos from my break.   Here are snapshots of some of our adventures. Enjoy :)

It had been a while since I had been to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (and my hubby had never been) and it was such a beautiful day in the city, that we decided to take advantage of it.  

Coffee and bagel at our favorite place with our favorite people pre-adventure.

Yes, there is a dude surfing the waves in freezing water.

Later that evening we went out with my family and aunt to see The Hobbit at the new Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater at the Tech Museum.  The screen is huge and wraps around half of the theatre for a really major in your face kind of experience.  It was much better than I thought it would be, but the screen was pretty fuzzy at times and I did have to close my eyes to prevent getting dizzy during the major heavy camera action battle scenes.  I don't think the movie was made to be seen on such a huge screen, but nonetheless it was a cool experience (not sure I'd do it again though), but the movie was great. I didn't know it was part 1 of 3??? Sheesh...the hobbit was one book.

Tea and sweets at Bijan Bakery after the movie :)

We went back home the next day, an almost 7 hour drive...the worst part of my vacation is always having to head back to reality.  But we had a nice surprise on our drive down when we entered the grapevine.  Living in California, you NEVER see snow (mountains don't count), so when I do, I get sooooo excited and become a total tourist snapping away to get all the snow pictures I can.  I would have made the hubby stop so I could play a bit, hehe :), but there wasn't a place to stop and I just wanted to get home after driving for 6 hours, well, I didn't drive, but the moral support as a passenger is exhausting too :D

 

Pasta Salad

Here's a recipe for a quick and easy cold pasta salad.  You can add anything you like, but I used what I had in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Pasta 

Bell Peppers

Olive Oil

Mayonnaise

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Parsley

Directions:

• Cook the pasta
• Dice up the bell peppers
• Add oil, 2-3 big heaps of mayo, a dash of garlic, salt, pepper and parsley to taste.

Super easy, super fast and uber yummy! My kinda lunch!

STEAM...woooh!

It was delicious, the only bad part, I can't just have one bowl :D

2013 Resolutions

This year brought with it some great joys and many hardships and even some shocking heartbreaks. I made new friends, learned a lot about myself and my ability to handle various situations and made a very big decision as to my future. Something I never thought I would do, or would happen to me.  Isn't that always the case??  I remember starting my PhD program hearing about people that had to switch labs halfway and thought to myself, oh, that won't happen to me.  I'm going to be on top of everything and I'll make it work.  And so, here I am, preparing myself to start a new lab and a whole new graduate school future.  I still have doubts, lets get that out there for the world to hear...I HAVE DOUBTS...and think I always will, but if I've learned anything, it's that I really want this to work, not just to prove to myself that I have it, but to make my husband and parents proud and to also prove to the world that this crazy girl over here has what it takes to be a scientist.  SO IN YOUR FACE WORLD!  Humph.  That sounded better in my head...but that's ok...you get the idea :D

As with all my resolutions in the past, I rarely manage to keep with any of them, sigh.  But, that doesn't mean I'm giving up.  I just have a whole new set of resolutions to make. I thought about making it real simple this year, but there is so much I want to do, so with that being said, here are my new New Year's resolution:

1) Be a better person.  Learn to forgive, forget, be patient and less judgmental.  It has been really hard this year, with so many unexpected things slapping me in the face, but I'm hopeful that with the help of God I can learn to manage my inner anger towards so many things.
2) Become more in touch with my spiritual side...there's always room for improvement and I have lots to make.
3) Keep up with a regular exercise regime (Pure Barre!!!!).
4) Finish reading the Quran (I got far, but not that far...)
5) Better time management (less tv, more studying, more cooking, more time for family and friends).
6) Work on my Seattle scrapbook (it's been over a year in waiting).
7) Train myself to wake up early (cough...good luck with that one, if it didn't happen last year...it ain't happening this year...ha!)
8) Get a really good grasp of PhD work and stay motivated and focused on my new research path.

And of course, last but not least, keep this blog going :)

Ballet Zaida

All in all, this was a year with crazy ups and downs, but here's to a new year filled with many more surprises, (hopefully good ones) and much success for all those whom I love and cherish dearly (you know who you are) and for all those out there struggling with doubts and inner demons, remember you can do anything you set your mind to, and don't forget, put your trust in God.  

Happy 1 Year Blogiversary

Today is the 1 year blogiversary of Cherry Blossoms and Chai. YAY! Congratulations to me :) I can't believe I kept this blog going for a whole year.  I think this was the only part of my new years resolution that I actually kept, haha (well almost, it wasn't a post a day, but I tried!).  I'm really glad I did though, it taught me many things and has given me greater appreciation for those who truly blog (it's not easy!).  Blogging really opened up my eyes to many new possibilities and opportunities and gave me a place to be myself. So thank you :)