Grain-free.

That's right, I'm going GRAIN-FREE!!! I'm nervous posting this on my blog for all to see, because this means that now I have to stick to this to a T! But that's a good thing.. That's the point. I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish, and I have been reading up on this a lot, and YES IT IS HEALTHY. Any benefits you can get from grains, you can get even more of them from other, healthier foods. So, I'm going to do it!

WHY, you ask?

Because it has a lot of health benefits. 

Because I want to finish what I started in 2007 when I lost all that weight.

Because I'm not all that hooked on grains anyway.

Because I want to start good eating habits while I'm young I'm not stuck in a rut after I have kids.

Because I don't always have the time to burn off these grains in the gym.

Because I want to FEEL BETTER. 

So, goodbye to this... 

And hello to this...

And this...

Posting it on my blog for EVERYONE to know and see will help me stick to it, although I'm confident in my abilities to do this! Wish me luck! 

Philadelphia/NYC!

Nate and I got to go out to visit my brother Sterling, sister-in-law Sarah, and nephew William in Philadelphia over President's Day weekend!!! Our flight was FREE, thank you American Express Skymiles... and we had a BLAST. It was so much fun hanging out with family and seeing baby William! Nate loved the east side and it was fun for him to see it for the first time. We are looking to move back someday! I grew up in New Jersey and, after going back, I can't help but miss it!
The day after we arrived in Philly, Nate and I took a 2-hour bus ride to New York City!! It was so much fun, and we didn't even get lost! We found it pretty simple to find our way around, and it was fun walking around all day with the hubby! We went shopping at H&M (p.s. wayyy better in NYC than in Utah..), ate the famous New York pizza, saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, rode the subway, had an interesting conversation with Mustafa (story to come), saw a homeless man play an AMAZING drum solo on restaurant pans, stayed in Times Square, went to Chinatown and Rockefeller Center, walked 5th avenue, and ate tons of Lindt chocolate. All in one day. It was so much fun but we were SO tired!! Pictures are all on my facebook, I see no reason to post them twice.
After we got back, we got to spend the whole weekend with the family. We went to King of Prussia mall, which is the biggest mall in the USA, with all kinds of high-end stores. It was a beautiful place. Now if only I had 20,000 dollars to spend. The next day was Sunday, and we loved going to their church. It was different, but the same. :) The next day we went to downtown Philly and got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We didn't spend much time there, but it's a good thing to see at least once in your life! Especially if you're within a half an hour of it. Then we went to Reading Terminal Market which is a BLAST. It was Nate's first time there and he thought it was awesome! It's HUGE and has awesome, exotic foods and little shops. So much fun. I want to go back. Right now.
We got Sarah and Sterling hooked on Prison Break while we were there.. except it scares Sarah ;) We played games and talked and laughed and played with baby. We ate to our hearts' content - Philly Cheesesteaks, AMAZING turkey sandwiches at the market, pasta, fajitas, a whole bunch of deliciousness.. let's just say I did not stick to my original diet plan while we were there! We loved every second of it. THANK YOU Sterling and Sarah and William!!! Love you!

Finally some drama in our monotonous lives..

So Nate and I have been in school and working for what seems like forever. All we do is wake up, go to school/work, come home, I make dinner, sometimes try to get in a workout, try not to procrastinate homework for too long and go to sleep. Basically I feed off drama, I love it. It has kind of sucked that the past few months haven't had any dramatic events in store for me. Well, I know this isn't SO dramatic, but it was for us. And also worth documenting because it was our first thing we kind of had to "get through" as a couple. Sounds cheesy for such a small thing, but I was scared and really relied on Nate to help me through. Don't worry, he did.... Now for the dramatic event...
So I've had this infection on my finger for like 2 weeks now. I get little ones quite often because I bite my nails but never one that actually makes my finger look like huge red hot cinnamon candy (sorry, that's the only metaphor that came to mind). So I decided I'd just wait it out, see if I can't pop it myself within a few days, give it some warm soaks, put Neosporin on it, etc. So I did that, and it went away for a while! I was thrilled because I HATE going to the doctor. So scary! My mom told me I should go but I didn't really listen because I wanted to see if it would just heal on its own. Well... bad move, Hales. The infection came back a little bit after I thought it was all better, and it spread FAST. I woke up at 3 am this morning with a throbbing, dangerously infected, HUGE left index finger. I woke up in a sweat, and was also freezing... fever. Not good. I went out to look at it and it almost made me faint. It was so dramatic I even started crying and I couldn't figure out why. I was just scared and tired and sooo sick. So I woke Nate up and cried to him and told him what was wrong and he jumped right up and said, "We're going to the emergency room, I don't want this thing bugging you anymore!" So we got dressed and went. When we got checked in and were waiting for the doctor, Nate was so sweet. He tried to calm me down as best as he could, he said a prayer with me that the infection didn't spread so much that anything drastic would have to be done. He was very calm and so sweet and held my hand the whole time. Pretty sure I've never found him more attractive than I did last night. So our doc comes in and it's this familiar fellow!(Quick - Name that show)

Jk wasn't really but he looked exactly like him! I was like babe I think I've seen that guy before... and we figured out he's on The Office! Anyway, so David Wallace tells me that he's going to numb my finger and then cut it open to get the infection out. Ya. Sounds scary, huh? Well it is. So he puts the shots in the base of my finger and DANG that hurt!!! I just squeezed Nate's hand and thought.. "Ok Haley, just breathe through it. It hurts but it's definitely not as bad as when Sydney used to pinch you." Funny that of all things, that's what I thought of. So I got all numbed up and he cut it open, couldn't feel a thing. THANK YOU ANESTHETIC. So Doc says that nothing's coming out of my finger so the infection must have spread to the muscle in my finger!!! Ya, bad. So basically all that numbing and cutting open nonsense was for nothing. Yay. So he gave me antibiotics and we were on our way.
Scary, but also good. I felt bonded to Nate afterwards for some reason. Maybe just because I couldn't believe how much he would do for me at 3 in the morning ya know? And he had work at 9 this morning too! What a husband, eh? Such a sweet, perfect guy. He never complained, he focused on me and getting me better and making sure I wasn't scared.
So there's our little dramatic life event! Our first semi-disaster in our marriage! Feels great. I like that it happened now that it's over with, except that it cost us 85 bucks total with the prescription. Also, if you had asked me on the way to the emergency room if I still wanted drama in my life, I for sure would have said no way.
Other than that, we're doing great! We're getting really into school and are both really loving our classes! We've been thinking about some really exciting future plans.. We'll see what happens! Happy Saturday!
p.s. If you see an infection on your finger, go to the doctor within the week.