Category Archives: Liz’s Life

Work Hard, Play Hard

Posted in Daily Musings, Liz's Life by

Phew! What a week.

The past seven days have been filled with some long hours at work preparing for a presentation that took place yesterday. It was one of those projects that really tested my ability to multi-task, keep track of details and maintain composure under stressful situations.

I’m happy to report that the presentation went off without a hitch and I learned A TON throughout the process. It’s pretty cool to have a job where you’re constantly being pushed to do new things and test your capabilities.

Although the past week has been stressful, it really couldn’t have come at a better time since we have a wonderful vacation coming up next week!

We’re jetting off to San Francisco to visit my sister and her husband for a week. We’re planning to spend some time in the city by biking over the Golden Gate bridge

Exploring the cute beach town of Sausalito.

Driving up to the nearby Redwoods.

and of course eating at the awesome restaurants they have.

That weekend, we’re driving down to central Cali to Pasa Robles for some hiking, winery visiting and just some general relaxing.

Finally, Luke and I are taking a day to ourselves to visit Napa Valley.

We found a great driver to be our chauffeur and wine guide for the day.

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this vacation. I haven’t taken a day off since our honeymoon and am looking forward to disconnecting from the daily grind and going into full relaxation mode.

I promise to take a lot of pictures and report back on our trip here. I’m also trying to round up a few guest posters while we’re gone. If you’re interested in contributing a post, shoot me an email! [email protected]

I hope you’re all having a great week!

Up and Away We Go

Posted in Daily Musings, Liz's Life by

Beyond all the awesome food we sampled last weekend, we also had the opportunity to ride in a hot air balloon! I had never been on one before, so I was pretty excited to hop on board.

We had to get up bright and early (6:00 am) to catch our sunrise ride. When we got to the field I was surprised to see that there wasn’t just one balloon, but a ton! They came from all over to attend the Blueberry festival.

We (meaning I, while Luke watched) got to work helping spread out our balloon so it could get blown up with air.

The propane tank is terrifyingly loud! I jumped out of my skin the first time they used it.

Pretty soon we were in the basket making our way up into the sky.

If you ever get the chance to ride in a balloon, definitely try to do at sunset. The light was amazing.

How many balloons do you see?

A huge house I felt compelled to take a shot of…

Riding in a hot air balloon isn’t scary at all. It really feels like you’re just floating along with no bumbs or sudden drops in altitude.

Landing is the hardest part because if you don’t have it mapped out, then you need to find an open space to land that isn’t near power lines.

There’s a “chase van” that follows your flight and helps direct you on where to land. They also help deflate and pack away the balloon.

After our safe landing, Luke decided to finally pitch in and help his Dad put the balloon away. ;)

We celebrated our first flight with a champagne toast with our Cheri, our pilot.

It was an awesome way to start the day! I highly reccomend you ride in a balloon sometime soon. It was so fun and the views are amazing.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I have EIGHT college girlfriends staying with me for the weekend. Luke is on a boys camping trip, so it worked out perfectly with have the ladies in town.

I’m sure there will be some funny posts/pictures from the shenanigans this weekend.

Setting Boundaries

Posted in Dating, Love by

Last night I grabbed some dinner with a couple friends and we got onto the topic of setting boundaries in relationships.

One of my friends is in a new long-distance relationship that’s going fabulously. They’ve been taking turns visiting each other and the time spent has been wonderful.

The guy is moving to Chicago soon and while she’s elated to have him so close,  she’s worried about how their relationship will change once they can see each other whenever they want. She doesn’t want to become one of “those” girls.

You know how it goes…girl has a full life with hobbies and friends….girl meets guy….girl falls in love with guy….guy takes over girls entire life….girl ignores her friends and stops doing things she once loved….guy dumps girl because she’s too needy.

It’s a sad cycle that I’ve seen happen to too many great girls! I applaud my friend for realizing that she doesn’t want her relationship to take a turn towards constant-togetherness.

When Luke and I were dating we made a concerted effort to support each other’s separate interests. On average, we’d see each other 3-4 times per week, which seems like a lot when I type it, but is pretty average/ low compared to other relationships I’ve been around.

We would rotate seeing our friends separately and together- making sure that when we were “together” we weren’t making our friends uncomfortable with excessive PDA. We also kept doing the things we loved, like play volleyball or rock climb, before we become a couple.

I know, I know….good for you Liz! The point, I tell my girlfriends,  is that the reason these guys are attracted to you in the first place is because you’re interesting, have tons of friends and have built a full, complete life on your own.

When he sees that you start losing that independence, ignoring your friends, avoiding things that make you YOU, then he feels overly depended-upon and ultimately annoyed that your happiness is so wrapped up in him.

I think when it comes to a new relationship, although it can be tempting to spend every moment together, you’re better off setting some boundaries. It will help make the moments you have together even more special!

What do you think? How often do you guys see your significant other? What interests have you kept up outside your relationship? Do you think I’m full of it and it’s completely ok to spend 24/7 with your love?