Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy Hump Day Everyone!  I was on such a roll!  I had a week where I had a post 5 out of 7 days, then last week I had zero posts!  What can I say, it was a rough week.  Here's this week's hodgepodge, and don't forget to go and visit Joyce so you can join in our fun!

1. Aloha! On August 21, 1959 Hawaii officially became a US state. Have you ever been? Upon arrival would you prefer an orchid or a hibiscus to tuck behind your ear?

• I haven't made it to Hawaii yet, but if things go as I'd like them to, I'll be making my way there next year.  I've been wanting to go for ages, but plane tickets are just so dang expensive!  As for the flower, can I have one of each?  They're both so pretty!

2. Since we're talking tropical...what's your favorite food or beverage made with pineapple?

• There are so many!  Pineapple fried rice...pineapple upside down cake...Malibu & Pineapple Juice...smoothies....

3. Do you believe in soul mates? Explain.

• Yes, but I don't believe in the traditional definition of "soul mates."  Not only do I believe that you can have more than one, but I believe you soul mate(s) don't always come in the form of a significant other.  They can also come in the form of your best friend.

4. Share a memory about the house you grew up in.

• I feel like my childhood was rare in that I lived my entire life in the same house.  I guess one of my fondest memories are from when I was a kid, and we would all sit on the couch in our living before we went to bed and our mom would read to us.  I always loved that.

5. Are you comfortable with silence?

• Not particularly.  My mind races when it's quiet, so I always try to surround myself with some sort of noise.  I fall asleep with the TV on solely because I need the background noise to tune out whatever's floating through my brain.  I listen to the radio all day at work for the same reason.  Noise actually helps me to clear my mind and be able to concentrate.  It must be the musician in me.  

6. You spot a giant spider on your bedroom wall...what's your next move? (all spiders are giant, right?)

• Smash it with a shoe before it can move and hide and lay eggs somewhere.

7. My idea of fun does NOT include ______________.

• Phoenix in the summer....seriously....if I could live up north from May to October I'd do it.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

• I'm currently watching the movie "You Again."  It's one of those movies that I can watch repeatedly and not really get sick of.  It's pretty funny.

My Heart Belongs to San Diego

San Diego is my favorite city (For now anyway.  I have a lot of traveling left to do in life).  I've loved it since I was young, and every time I go back my love grows just a little bit more.  The last time I was in San Diego was nearly 10 years ago when I went on a family vacation before my senior year of high school.  After that I went to college, and money to travel with was non-existent.  After college, I moved to the east coast and all money was spent on trips home to AZ to see my family.

Needless to say, I was long over due for some quality time in my favorite place.  I have had to take a cut in hours this summer while my hotel undergoes some much needed renovations, so I convinced my sister (and by convinced I mean I mentioned it and she was immediately on board) that taking a super short, two day trip was a phenomenal idea.  Our cousin moved to San Diego recently as well, so that was another excuse for us to go.

The trip started out a little rough.  We stopped in Jacumba, California to get gas, and about a mile away from the gas station my sister's truck stopped working.  It completely died, and I had to carefully coast us across the highway (thank goodness there was no traffic!) and into the shoulder.  We got to hang out in the grossly hot desert for two hours while we waited for a tow truck.  Unfortunately, after everything was said and done, we lost about a half a day in San Diego, but it wouldn't be a Clem vacation without some sort of mishap!  We eventually made it to San Diego (a huge thank you to my cousin for rescuing us from the auto shop and being our driver for the remainder of our trip!), and had an amazing time!

Here is a picture recap of our time once we finally got there!

This sushi & Kirin Light tasted SO good after spending 2 hours stranded in the desert!

Our view from our hotel room

Sisters

There's not much in life that's better than my feet in the sand with a cold beverage and a good book

Cousins

Sunset at Mission Beach

It's Okay...

I've just recently started reading Neely's blog, and decided to join in on It's Okay Thursdays.  Enjoy!



It's Okay....

• To end a friendship that's become toxic
• To wish it was October so that I can be spending my life at Jobing.com Arena watching my Coyotes
• To feel a little anxiety because I realized the other day that if I want to go to culinary school next fall I should probably start figuring out where I'm going to go and how much it's going to cost me
• To still wish I could be an Olympic gymnast when I watch it on TV

Hodgepodge Wednesday!

Happy Hump Day Everyone!  I hope you enjoy this week's Hodgepodge.  Head on over and visit Joyce to find out how you can participate too!

1. In an effort to combat obesity, the mayor of NYC has plans to ban the sale of large sugary drinks (anything over 16 oz.), initially in restaurants, movie theatres, and street carts. Corner stores would also be affected if they are defined as food service establishments. You can read more here . Your thoughts?

------ The part of me that is saddened by how severe our obesity problem is in this country thinks this is a great idea.  However, a bigger part of me thinks that it's not the mayor's business to be telling people how much sugar they consume.  I may not agree with people's destructive habits, but that doesn't mean it's my (or anyone else's) place to interfere and tell them how to live their lives.

2. Art festival, music festival, food festival...which would you most like to attend?

------ Oh jeez, that's a tough one.  Ideally I'd love to attend a music and food festival combined!

3. What are you irrational about?

------ I think in general, I'm an overly rational person.  I don't think there's really one specific thing that I'm always irrational about.  My mom may be a better person to ask about this.

4. Do you feel confident you'll have a comfortable retirement?

------ Not at the moment, but I'm still young.  I have plans for a great career, and I'm sure my feelings on this will likely change a lot in the coming years.

5. What's been your favorite Olympic moment so far?

(Not ever, just in the 2012 Summer games)

------ I think it's got to be watching Michael Phelps finish out his career in an epic way.  Watching him race and blow away the existing medal records has been a great thing.  I also loved watching Gabby Douglas win her gold in the women's all-around gymnastics competition.  She's just so precious and talented.  I also just watched one of the best comebacks ever.  Misty and Kerri just made an insane comeback against the Chinese to make it to the gold medal match where they'll play our other American team.  Crazy.  I just love sports...and the Olympics....

6. What would you label as the messiest room in your house?

------ As to not throw my parents under the bus, I'll go with my bedroom.  I've lived here about a year and I just can't seem to get it organized enough to my liking, so it just gets messy.  It's much smaller than I'm used to living in, and I haven't dealt with that very well!

7. Do you follow your heart or your head?

------ Oh jeez.  I would have to say more my head.  Like I said before, I'm a really rational person.  Being spontaneous and taking leaps of faith scare me.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

------ I don't want to go to the dentist tomorrow.  I love my dentist, but I'm not too fond of his hygienist.  She's better than his last one...but not by much.

July Was Awesome...

July was a ton of fun, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments...

It started out with the Clem Family getting a new addition.  Meet Tiger...

We adopted Tiger from one of my co-workers who was recently relocated to Chicago

Tiger is a sweet cat, but she might also be the oddest cat we've ever had.  She doesn't like to be held very much (which drives my dad bonkers), she's very talkative and she's terrified of ceiling fans (I'm not joking).  It's been a while since there's been a pet in this house, so we're all pretty glad to have her around.

Then came 4th of July!  I love this holiday.  I get to celebrate how awesome it is to live in America, plus it includes fireworks.  Fireworks are one of my favorite things in the world.  This year, I spent the day with my family at Chase Field taking in some baseball.  Did I mention we got to watch batting practice from the field?  No?  Well, we did...and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done!

Our view of batting practice from the field

Diamondbacks Catcher Miguel Montero signing autographs right next to me.  Dad got his autograph, and he stopped and talked to us for a couple of minutes.  He's super nice!

Diamondbacks 1st Baseman Paul Goldschmidt.  I love him.  I love that he's a great player, and I love how hot he is.

Family photo during batting practice

Fireworks after the game

This was how the month started.  There were a few more baseball games in the middle of the month, and the month ended with a mini-vacation to San Diego!  However, I love San Diego so much that you'll see that in a whole other post on Friday.

PCOS Update

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Back in February I talked about how after 4 useless doctors, 1 semi-helpful doctor and nearly 10 years I finally found a miracle doctor that actually knows what PCOS is and how to effectively treat it.  A couple of weeks ago I had my three month follow up with Miracle Doctor.

In three months time I have lost a total of 21 lbs.  From my heaviest weight about 2 years ago, I was down 31 lbs.  Personally, I was amazed by this as it has actually been super easy, and prior to seeing this doctor it would have taken me well over a year to lose that first 20 lbs.  I felt as though I'd been doing really well with the program.  I take my meds every day when I'm supposed to, and I follow my diet very strictly except when I'm on vacation (doctor's orders...he doesn't believe in trying to diet on vacation...one reason on a long list of reasons why I love him!).  That being said, I was still nervous to find out what he thought about my progress with our program.

To my great relief, he was just as thrilled with my progress as I was, if not more so.  He says I'm right on track for where he thinks I should be.  I've actually lost more weight than he had estimated I would in the first three months.  He's very impressed with my will power and ability to stick with the diet (I guess most of his patients aren't as ridiculously stubborn as I am!).  In fact, I'm doing well enough that he wants to change our follow ups to every six months rather than every three.  I'll see him again in January, and I fully intend on impressing him once again.

I'm still shocked that I've finally found a doctor who knows how to treat me.  I'm blessed to have found him when I did, because mentally I was in pretty dire straights by that time.  I'd spent years fighting my body's chemistry.  Doing everything I could think of to try and lose the weight that I shouldn't have gained in the first place.  My body image was the most negative it's ever been, and I was so close to just giving up and giving in to it.  I felt like I was never going to find anyone that could help.  It's miserable feeling like you're trapped in your own skin.  When most of the time the way you see yourself in your minds eye is nothing like the way you look in the mirror.  You start avoiding mirrors...especially full length ones...because you're still shocked every time you see that gross heavy person looking back at you.

Things are different now.  I was telling a friend just today that I am finally starting to see the difference in the mirror.  For weeks now I've noticed the difference in my clothes (I had to stop wearing all of my work slacks because they are ridiculously large and look super stupid on me), but it's really just been in the last week or so that I really see the difference when I look in the mirror.  This is the best I've felt about myself in years, and I can't even fathom at this point how I feel when this process is finally done.

For anyone out there that might be in a similar situation, DON'T GIVE UP!  I've always believed that everything happens for a reason.  It took this long, and I had to go through what I went through in order to get to this point and finally find Miracle Doctor.  Keep at it.  It will all work out the way it should in the end.  Hopefully for the better.  If nothing else, take comfort in knowing you aren't alone, and that others have gone through what you're going through right now.

Thanks for listening, and have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Happy Hump Day Ladies & Gents!  I hope you enjoy this week's Hodgepodge.  Don't forget to visit our wonderful Hodgepodge Host, Joyce!


1. I'm joining my daughter1 in the 101 in 1001 challenge. Essentially you create a list of 101 things you hope to do or accomplish in the next 1001 days. What's one thing you'd put on your list?

• Start culinary school.  I'm shooting for more like the next 400 days on this one, but it would be near the top of the list just the same.  It's something I'm dying to do.  I think about it every day, but the practical adult in me won't let myself do it until the credit card debt is gone and I've gotten my life a little more stabilized than it is now.

2. How many remote controls do you have in your house? What's one item in your home you wish could be operated by remote control?

• I personally have 3.  One for the TV, one for the DVD player and one for my AppleTV.  Now...if I were to count all of the remotes that the rest of my family has throughout the house..there's probably at least 12-15.  I wish I had the remote control ceiling fan/light and blinds in my windows.  Mostly because I can be lazy sometimes and I'd like to be able to control those things from the comfort of my bed.  :)

3. What does having it all mean to you? Is it attainable?

• For me, having it all just means being completely happy with where I'm at in life.  I'm not there yet, but I know I can get there.  It's definitely attainable, but it's not easy.  Then again, nothing in life ever is.

4. What's your favorite movie soundtrack?

• August Rush...hands down.  Seriously musical genius.  If you've never seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  It satisfied every bone in my musically geeky body, and I just get lost in the amazing compositions every time.

5. Describe the best view you've seen from a rooftop.

• A couple of my friends in DC had amazing roof top decks.  If you're lucky enough to have one of those in a great part of the city, you can see all of the monuments and historical landmarks.  It's really amazing, especially at night.

6. What's your least favorite thing about summer?

• I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before.  THE HEAT!!  Let me tell you, moving away from Phoenix for 3 years and moving back did not change my abhorrence towards our summer months.  I cannot stand it.  I try really hard to not complain about it, because there's nothing I can do about it, but I really, really hate it.  Really.

7. Our weekly Hodgepodge falls on the first day of August. In ten words or less sum up your July.

• Lots of baseball.  Amazing Friends.  Cousin time in San Diego.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

• I love watching the Olympics.  I love both summer and winter versions.  In the summer I get to watch gymnastics and swimming and volley ball and water polo (all which include amazingly hot men wearing next to nothing!).  In the winter I get the best sport of all...hockey!  Along with ice skating (don't get me started on ice dancing and how I hate it), skiing, speed skating and bobsledding!  I just love it, and wish I could watch them every year.