Fresh Eats

I love baking, but I've never been much of a cook.  I figure it's time to start filling my recipe box with more than brownie, cookie and bread recipes.  Unfortunately, woman can't live on carbs and sweets alone.  I'm also trying to be more conscious about eating more fresh foods and less processed foods.  Out with the granola bars and crackers, in with the fruits and veggies!

So far I've done pretty well with my cooking resolution...

I've started making homemade hummus on a regular basis.

I made homemade pesto with pinenuts and walnuts

Then used it for a pesto pasta salad with shrimp

I cooked chicken cordon bleu for my home community group a couple weeks ago

And last night I made Cajun Gumbo with fresh veggies

I love using recipes that are tried and true - I get most of them from my sisters or from friend's cooking blogs.  So if you have some favorite recipes, pass them along!  Bon appétit!

Somewhat Celeb Sighting

On a completely unrelated note: Saturday afternoon, I was in the downtown Macy's browsing around.  A couple of the shoe clerks who were helping me mentioned that they had just seen an NBA basketball player and were a little star struck.  I brushed it off and continued my shopping.  As I hopped on the escalator, I heard a man say, "Yeah, we're just in town from Atlanta for the weekend."  I turned around real quick and blatantly stared at a 6' 9" guy... who saw me staring and said, "Hey, short stuff.  How you doing?"  Caught off guard and awkwardly ascending away from him on an escalator, I stammered, "Hi, I'm good. How are you?"  He kind of laughed and thankfully I was quickly out of sight and on the second floor.  Since it wasn't really an indepth, meaningful conversation I didn't catch his name - but I think it was either Joe Johnson or Marvin Williams.  So if you ever want tickets to an Atlanta Hawks game, "short stuff" over here has got the hook up!

A Year Later at Meadows

Exactly one year ago today, I broke my wrist snowboarding at Mount Hood Meadows Ski Resort. I've only been snowboarding once since that fateful day and I decided that I needed to get back up there on this 1 year anniversary to show the mountain who's boss (or at least just make nice to the monster that put me in a full-arm cast for 10 weeks).

So Alan, his coworker Pat and I headed up to Meadows for an afternoon on the slopes.  I still had plenty of falls (its going to be pretty dreadful sitting on my sore tailbone tomorrow) and there were definitely times when I wanted to chop down some trees, build a fire and burn my board today, but at the end of the day I gained a little extra confidence and am looking forward to a few more days of boarding before the season is over.

Alan and I with our sweet boards

a crowded day on the mountain

on the lift... headed into the unknown

my biggest accomplishment today: not once did I eat it getting off the chair lift!

Alan flying down the mountain like a pro

me creeping down the mountain like a beginner
warning: the beginning of this video may make you dizzy... yes Alan is videoing this while snowboarding. impressive.

RG Featured in Waco Today

If you haven't already seen the February issue of Waco Today, check it out (click below)... the McCalls and Restoration Gateway are the feature story!

2 Year Anniversary in Portland

Today is my two year Portland anniversary. Who would have thought I would still be here settling into this odd but wonderful city? Two years ago I would have told you I would only be in Portland for 7 months. A year ago I would have told you I would probably only be here one more year. Now when people ask me how long I think I’ll live here, I simply say “I honestly don’t know, but why leave something that’s so good?” I still miss my family and friends in Texas every day, but the longer I am in Portland the more I love it and accept it as my home (at least for now).

After reading through some old blog posts and my post on this day last year, I realized how much I am continuing to grow year after year. If I was to describe this past year in one word it would be this: faith.

Within the last year I have discovered:

- you can plan your life, but 90% of the time things don’t go as you planned

- you should wear wrist guards when snowboarding

- you can do anything you put your mind to, even running 26.2 miles

- a little bit of encouragement can go a long way

- how to live in the moment

- giving visitors “Mary’s Portland Tour” never gets old

- spontaneity makes life more exciting
- I'm no longer weirded out or surprised by the weirdness of Portland

- how flat Texas really is in comparison to the Oregon terrain

- my Texas accent is never going away and it apparently gets stronger when I talk about Texas

- you can eat at a different Portland restaurant every night and never run out of options

- the power of prayer

Portlandia

Have you guys seen Portlandia yet?  It's a 6-episode short-based comedy series which takes the audience to a dreamy and absurd rendering of Portland, Oregon.  And for the most part... it's totally true.  I'm not sure if it will be funny to those not living in Portland, but it's all us Portlanders can talk about.  I watched the first episode with friends last week and throughout the entire thing we were all laughing and saying, "Yes, that is so Portland!!"

It may seem over the top that the show features people asking their waitress details about the life of the free-range chicken they are about to eat, or people riding around on double-decker bikes and unicycles, extreme feminists, or adults who actually participate in an adult hide-and-seek league.  But it's real!  Portland truly is the "place where young people go to retire".  This show will give you a glimpse of how unique (and totally weird) Portland really is!

Rock Climbing

My friend Megan and I have decided to join in on one of Oregon's most popular activities: rock climbing. Megan experimented with outdoor rock climbing a bit when she lived in Kenya this past year.  The only experience I've ever had with the sport is climbing the Baylor rock wall once my freshman year of college. (Baylor actually has a great rock wall which stands at 52 feet.  I wish I had taken more advantage of it.  If you live in Waco, you should try it out.)

We found an awesome rock wall at a gym close to our work.  So we had a private climbing lesson, became belay certified, purchased a 10-time flash pass and invested in our own climbing shoes and harnesses.

We are going to try to climb once or twice a week so that we can build up skills and strength for outdoor climbing this summer.  Rock climbing is a physically demanding sport - my arms were so sore the first time I climbed that I could barely grip a pen the next day.  But climbing is a great challenge and actually a really fun activity to do with friends.  Climb on!

Yoga Ball Chair

I have to admit, sometimes I have a really hard time sitting at a desk for the majority of the day.  Sitting in a not-so-comfortable swivel desk chair can get pretty uncomfortable pretty quick.  I was reading an article about health on Monday and it mentioned the benefits of trading in your desk chair for an exercise ball.  I've heard of this before and always thought it was weird.  I mean seriously, who sits on a big neon bouncy ball (which is normally used for yoga, crunches and push ups) in a professional work environment?  But as I kept reading, I realized all of the wonderful benefits that come with trading a normal desk chair with an exercise ball: increased core strength, improved posture and decrease back pain, better circulation, burning up to 350 calories a day at the office!

So as of yesterday, I have replaced my lame desk chair with a bright green 65cm exercise ball... and I love it!  I'm never going back.  I talked up the idea to my coworkers on Monday and Tuesday.  I don't want to be "that one weird girl who sits on a bouncy ball at work", so I got several of them on board with me and now Megan and Mary Lee have ditched their old desk chairs for a stability ball, too.  Several coworkers have stopped by my office and said, "Hey Mary, why are you sitting on a ball?"  "Why not?!"  They tried it out and agreed that it's pretty comfortable (and even kind of fun).  I think I've started a new MTI office trend!

And I promise not to be this annoying coworker: