Feb 27, 2012

Post-It Notes and Juice

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Operation Beautiful

Got my post-it note up today! It was a good one and I honestly thought about it throughout the day… made me smile every single time! Hopefully it made Tim smile a few times today too =)

Juice- Day 3

I was determined to make my juice taste good this morning and wanted to get off on the right foot for the week so I went with what I thought would be a no-brainer….

  • Granny Smith Apple (I know I have 2 pictures but I decided to go with just one)
  • Carrots
  • “Dannon Light and Fit” Yogurt
  • “Almond Breeze” Almond Milk
  • Honey
  • Cinnamon

It started out looking okay… a little dark/prance but do-able from an visually appealing standpoint (not like that first nasty green juice)

But turns out old carrots are not a good way to go. I didn’t load up on my carrots when I went to the grocery store because I knew I had some in my fridge. I knew they were a little older but I figured that would be okay for blending. I was wrong. The texture of this smoothie really was not appealing. It felt grainy and honestly just felt like they were old carrots. I’m not giving up on this mix because I think it has the potential to be delicious but I think I’ll go spend the money to get some new fresh carrots this week!

As usual, I drank it. I’m not sure if I do this to prove something to myself, you, or just because I am cheap and I don’t want to waste my hard earned money by pouring it down the drain but I was excited when it was around 10:00 and I got to eat some cucumbers for a snack! Something about that crunchy that tasted just the way it was supposed to was just what I needed at that time.

The grapes later in the day were just as satisfying too!

Oh and so were the gummies.

 I still LOVE gummies!

I don’t think I have shared with you all yet a wonderful thing that happened to me! I came home from my day trip to Chicago last week to a box sitting on the island. Tim said it had my name on it so I was like YIPPPEE this is fantastic… because I love presents!

 

I opened it to find a truly wonderful site! A whole case of Ocean Spray GUMMIES!

A fellow blogger and friend over at A Busy Mom of Two had run a give-a-way on the Ocean Spray Gummies and by some miracle I ended up getting some! Let me just say that these things are delicious.. pretty simply flavors nothing crazy. Just your usual cherry, strawberry, grape, and mixed berry. I also feel like there are a lot in a pack compared to other gummies… like my princess gummies have like 5 pieces in them I swear but these gummies have around 7-8 which is just fabulous!

Don’t worry- I took a box to work to share… I didn’t totally hog them all to myself! Although only a few co-workers have taken me up on my offer… apparently gummies are seen a child’s treat not for a grown adult. Silly people have no clue.

A real treat!! I assume most grocery stores carry them but I think I’ll be set for a little while- then I’ll stock up on more!

Getting Married Mondays

I really feel like wedding planning is coming along. I have been working on our information cards to put in our invites, our RSVP postcard design, and I am finally starting to settle on some centerpiece ideas (which I bet my florist Nikki at Perfect Petal Designs is thrilled with).

 

I also decided that I think I would like to donate to the Akron Children’s Hospital… keep it local ya know? Mostly because I was remember when I had surgery there when I was 13 and how incredibly FABULOUS they were. Great attention, super sweet nurses, and just amazing people. I also remember how my parents both were trying to sleep on that uncomfortable chair and how they never left my side… bless their hearts! The sad part was how there was a little girl right down the hall from me that I overheard my parents talking about.. apparently she did not have one visitor the entire time she was there… it made me sad then and it makes me sad now.

So now, I don’t think my donation is going to buy these children more attentive parents but maybe I can get more involved too… maybe I can sit and read or do whatever for these kids. Maybe I can find more ways than one to make a difference.

In any case, just a thought I had.

In another news, Tim’s grand and aunt will be throwing my shower. They are fabulous party planners (things I could never do!) and it will be wonderful I am sure! I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Operation Beautiful · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Aug 29, 2011

Adventures with Peyton

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I knew it would be another great weekend to write about considering Tim and I were starting off the weekend with a Friday slumber party with Peyton!

Friday morning we started off on the right foot and went for a run. Things started to fall into place a little more and since it wasn’t raining and my stomach wasn’t about to fall out of my body we made it for a solid 2.5 miles and it felt pretty good. I am not a full blown running but I am getting closer! YAY This belly thing is really starting to get to me though because it just doesn’t feel great when I am running. I am just going to keep an eye on that weird painful cramp that keeps occurring and see what happens! So after our run on Friday I headed off to work with Casey and Brody. For breakfast I made a smoothie and finally remembered to put everything in it. So yes it had the flax and the spinach in it along with some strawberries, bananas, and some regular milk (I am out of Almond Breeze Almond Milk and need to get to the store). So after a long morning at work I sat down to a pretty tasty lunch!

My sister had called in the morning and said that Pey would be eating dinner with us now so I had to run to the grocery store during lunch so Casey and I multi-tasked and ate at Buehler’s Restaurant inside the store. We both decided on breakfast for lunch and I was pretty glad I did! I got this meal called the “Health break” which is made with scrambled cholesterol free eggs, squash, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. It has some fruit and toast on the side. I finished all of that but the toast and went on my merry little way for the day after gathering up some supplies for dinner!

Mid-way through the day I was told by some co-workers that they were making a Dairy Queen run and well I couldn’t pass it up. So I got a small vanilla cone at DQ and ate just the ice cream- no cone. I figured I saved myself at least a few calories that way right? I pretty much don’t remember the last day I had DQ so this was a real trip!

As soon as I got home I had to start cooking dinner! I decided on doing a picnic dinner at the park so I made some Chicken Salad that had celery, grapes, bacon, salt, and pepper in it. I realized half way through baking the chicken the George Foreman would have been a MUCH faster way so I finished the chicken off there, cut it into cubes, and mixed it with all the goodies and a bit of Kraft’s Olive Oil Mayo. DELICIOUS!

With that tasty chicken salad I also packed Stacey’s Pita Chips (one of my many favorites), some weird melon thing that Tim cut up, and apple slices. I packed all that up and headed toCroghanParkwith Peyton, Tim, and my bestest Kara. My mom were out and about inAkronpicking up some of our favorite Sushi from Sakura so they decided to stop at the park to meet us for dinner! We had quite the spread.

The Spread

Kara and I enjoying our picnic

After our bellies were full we ran around like monkey’s chasing Peyton and playing on the playground. I’d like to say that we were there for her but clearly Tim was enjoying himself just as much as Pey was…

Pey was just running around like a mad woman tackling everyone and being her adorable self! She loves to be chased so we did quite a bit of that! Mark and Casey were at the park walking Brody so Casey got to swing Pey around a few times too! It will be sad when she is too heavy and too big for us to throw here all around! While we were playing in the jungle jim my mom decided everyone should work out a little while we were there so we did the monkey bars….

We did our pull-ups

And we tackled Pappa a few time!

Needless to say we had a great time!

After the bugs started to come out and started eating us we decided it was time to leave so we went to… get ready for it… MENCHIES! Yay for MENCHIES! It was PACKED. Literally the line was out the door but as I am sure you can assume it was totally worth it. Pey was a little overwhelmed at the amount of choices she had but Poppa hooked her up with a few samples and she finally decided on Strawberry, Vanilla, and Snickerdoodle. I think she added in gummy worms, marshmallows, white chocolate chips, sprinkles, and one random blackberry. Needless to say this was that little 3-year olds HEAVEN! See- she was loving it.

Kara and I each had our own as well! I decided on the Strawberry-Kiwi Sherbet (I really should start branching out here soon) and lots of fresh fruit. Kara’s was way tastier and had chocolate goodness and all sort of tasty treats. I was still satisfied with mine and felt good about my choice! I did sneak a few bites of Pey’s ice cream!

After we made it home Pey took a bath and we all (Pey, Tim, and myself) all laid down on the couch to watchAlicein Wonderland. I think we made it about 10 minutes in before we all feel asleep!

In the morning Pey woke up and suggested Pancakes… I realized pretty quickly that I was out of Milk (ugh!) so we took a quick trip to the grocery store in our PJ’s. My sister is VERY tidy and always has Pey looking fabulous so Pey was half excited half embarrassed I was having her go out in her sized T-shirt and pants! *Sorry Britt but there was only like 10 ppl in the store! No worries*

Pey's Breakfast

My Breakfast

When we got make I made breakfast while Tim and Pey read books. We ended up having pancakes, bacon, grapes, strawberries (that Pey picked out at the store), Tim and I had scrambled eggs, and Pey had a hard boiled egg and that was breakfast. Clearly Pey enjoyed it…

She concentrated pretty hard on that breakfast

After breakfast we got ready and Pey and I headed out the door to the “Touch a Truck” event my sister was putting on for her work. The event is a way to get the community together to meet the emergency personnel in the area and for the kids to see cool big trucks and equipment for them to play on. The highlight was probably the balloon animal guy that Pey and I waited in line for (like 20 min!) so she could get a purple and pink flower. I think I took her to the event a little too tired… but hey my sister looks great!

They had a pretty cool jumpy thing too!

And they even got to sit in the “Children Life Support Team Helicopter” which was totally cool!

I was sad to leave Pey but after our day of fun I had to head home to get ready for more adventures with Tim and some friends!

Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, My family is the best · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
Aug 24, 2011

A little inspiration goes a long way

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I have been feeling a little yucky lately. I think it is because I have been letting myself indulge in treats a little more than I have been the last few weeks and I’ll tell you what- it is easy to feel it (hopefully not so easy to see it)! In any case I have been running and eating right for the most but I have been sneaking in a little piece of chocolate here and an extra pack of fruit snacks there. I am going to stop that right now, as I type this, because I know I am taking Peyton to Menchies on Saturday and I want to feel like I can enjoy that frozen yogurt without feeling bad about it. It is all about portion control and moderation right? That may have been more of a pep talk to myself and less of the normal information sharing I do with you but I hope it works!
So let’s focus on running. Let’s see of right now as I type this I have 16 more days available to train for this 5K coming up. Monday morning Tim and I woke up to a pretty cold day and did 2 ½ miles. We started on a new track that we had never done before so I enjoyed that. It was tough in a few areas and had this hill that felt like it was never going to end at about the 1 ¾ mile mark so that was, well, hell but we made it. Since we are recently new home owners (about a year ago) we still really like talking about home construction so our new route was neat because we got to check out some different houses. Most of the time we end up dreaming about what we would like our future home to look like. Here are items that made our list…
  • BIG (we didn’t specify size but we both want a big house- like a you get lost in it big house)
  • Wine Cellar- a definite must
  • Water Feature- besides the beach Tim also is obsessed with water features
  • Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom
I think that was all of the musts that we talked about but I know there are more. Those are just the ones I can remember.. Hard to hear yourself think when you have all that heavy running breathing going on.
So yea the morning run was good. Mondays are always hard because we are pretty lazy on the weekends when it comes to working out so our bodies kind of panic at the beginning and just aren’t quite sure what to do! In any case we made it through and got home with enough time to eat breakfast before work! Tim made breakfast this morning so I got a delicious “eggle” (egg on a bagel) but we were out of basil so I missed out on that yummy flavor. I did put some spinach on it though to give it some more color and tastiness. When Tim makes me breakfast I get the whole egg rather than an egg white so it is always just a small treat that happens once a week or so. Here I am smiling with my whole egg before heading off to work!

I am usually NOT this happy before I go to work!

And this is why I was so happy!

Work was work and when the clock hit 5 o’clock I was out the door! Monday night is work out night  with the ladies so I had a great time (as usual right?) and I did this crazy workout with Kari that almost killed me made me feel great mom! It was called “Fight Gone Bad” but I called it the “Keep going until you Barf” workout. It consisted of 5 exercises that you do for 1 minute each.
  • Rowing
  • Wall ball (we did not throw the ball at the wall but rather used a heavy ball and threw it up in the air and jumped each time when we caught it)
  • Deadlift High-pull (with the Olympic bar)
  • Box Jumps
  • Push Press (AKA dip drive w/ the Olympic Bar)
I mean this workout was TOUGH. Kari is truly inspiring though and was constantly pushing me to do better, be better, push my body to it’s max so I did just that. You do this based on a score and then each time you complete the workout you try to get a better score than the time before. Kari beat my score by 4 points so next time I’ll have to try to win! My mom didn’t ask me my intensity level that night but if she had I think I would have said an 9 with a few 10 throughout the workout. It was just TOUGH- try it! Take your time and breath through but give it a try. Give yourself 1 point for each calorie burned on the rower and then 1 point for each rep you do within your 1 min for the other exercises… then tell me your score and I’ll tell you mine! We can compete a little bit. Friendly competition is A-OK in my book!
When I got home Tim was already making a delicious dinner for me! He decided on doing Jennie-O’s Turkey Burgers since we hadn’t had them in real form in a while. I do my veggie burgers in the microwave for lunches at work but sometimes it is nice to have a tasty lean turkey burger right off the grill. Loving the idea of lettuce as much as I do I made a seriously killer burger salad. I  had a bed of romaine lettuce as my base and then added in cilantro (of course!), onions, peppers, avocados, spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes and then laid my naked turkey burger on top. I don’t know if you don’t like lettuce or turkey burgers, it is hard to not be impressed by this little number.

The salad

The veggies

The finished product

See? Told you! So tasty. As usual Tim opted for the bun and his looked pretty good but I must say.. .I think my salad looked better! With the turkey burgers Tim and I attempted to make some homemade French Fries. So Tim cut up a few potatoes and popped them in the oven with salt and pepper on them. I don’t think we left them in there long enough and I don’t think we cut them thick enough because they just turned out weird. Casey said there is a great recipe on Skinny Taste so I am gonna try that one and see if we can make it better next time. Regardless of how they tasted it is a hell of a lot better than consuming all of those calories that you would in regular fries.

Tim's not as healthy choice

After a rough but great workout on Monday night I was really nervous to see how I was going to feel on Tuesday morning. Luckily my first thought when my alarm went off was a very inspiring one. Tim told me sometime last week that his friend Mary had run 6 miles one day. He had read at her blog that she just went for a run not worrying about time or distance and finally made it home 6 miles later. She was running because she ENJOYED running… that is my goal! So I told myself in the morning (and literally I said this out loud to myself) put on those tennis shoes and just run. Don’t worry about where you are going, except don’t get hit by a car, and don’t worry about how far it is or how long it will take you… just do it! Well because we had just mapped out our route yesterday I actually knew exactly how far it would take me and about how long it was take but hey I managed to get out there and just RUN. I was feeling great and thought I was doing a pretty good job until I got to that hill… then I felt a little dead. HOWEVER- the important part here is that I did make it the entire way without killing myself and I felt good about it. I think in a few more weeks I will be able to just get out there and run. I seriously cannot wait for the day where I feel a little stressed out or just need a break and decide to go running to clear my head. I also can’t wait to feel like both my legs and breathing want to cooperate on the same day but hey I’ll take what I can get little by little.
After my run and getting ready for work I did make myself a smoothie! I put in strawberries and blueberries along with some protein powder and Almond Breeze Almond milk in it this time. I literally just keep forgetting to add my spinach and my flax seed but I’ll remember next time! I think I should make a “smoothie” section in the new pantry set up so it’s like a one stop shop of everything I need!
Work was just a normal day and I was very finally make it home after round 2 of my allergy shots! My left arm was very itchy but Tim and I headed out to make a quick stop at the grocery store before making dinner. I am doing homemade pizza night with some girls on Wednesday night so I needed to get us the goods to make a delicious dinner! When we got back we realized we hadn’t thawed anything out for dinner and really had no plan. For some reason I had zero taste for salmon so I said no thanks when Tim suggested that. Then somehow we decided on Turkey Hot Dogs… far cry from Salmon right? Tim put these puppies on the grill and I enjoyed Turkey Hot Dogs for dinner! I did them without a bun and added in some cut up hot peppers, onions, and cut up pickles. Ever since I chopped up those pickles when Rose and Adam were visiting I kind of love doing it now. It seems totally pointless and like a waste of time but I just love them! I usually only like to eat hot dogs at sporting events but the Turkey Dogs are delicious and they have far less fat in them than regular hot dogs so they are a nice quick meal to make at  home. On the side with the hot dogs Tim cut up this weird melon thing and also mixed in some Kiwi! I pretty much just picked all of the kiwi out and pretended it was that kiwi strawberry sorbet I had at Menchies the other day. Nothing like dreaming a little bit!

Tim "ballin" his melon ha

After dinner we spent some time watching some TV, catching up on things going on in our lives away from home, and finally went to bed. I am also in this weird habit of sleeping the wrong way on the bed. Like where my feet are supposed to do I put my head and visa versa. The fan is closer to the bottom of the bed and I like it to hit my face so yea I don’t care if that is weird but I like it!
Filed Under: Good Eats and Treats, Primary Menu · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Aug 12, 2011

Note to self: don’t do that again

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Wow- sorry for the lack of updates! It was just a crazy busy week! By Friday afternoon I was really glad the week was finally over! The days went by fairly fast but there is nothing like the weekend being on the horizon. You can see it, touch it even but when it gets here… your whole world changes. Too dramatic hu? Ok well then. WELCOME WEEKEND. I have missed you for the last 5 days.

Wednesday was welcomed with open arms because at some point during the day I would be hitting my half way point to the weekend. So I woke up and literally had to drag Tim out of bed. He has ZERO interests in going with me today but it was way too dark outside for me to go by myself so I needed a big strong man to protect me. So we headed off to do our full 2 mile run with some walking for the warm up and cool down. We had a full half hour conversation about the I-Phone today! Tim is a technological dork genius so he loves talking about this kind of stuff. See, I have a Palm Pixi and while it functionally works great I am ready for a big kid phone that let’s me play games (ha sounds a little backward right?). I am just ready for a phone that can do more than my current one can. Plus, I can’t get any good running apps and I clearly will need those so that is one very good reason to get the I-Phone. Apparently trends say that the I-Phone is usually announced in like June or something but that didn’t happen so I was very sad. Then Tim read it should be announced in September so I was very happy. Now, I am just getting nervous it won’t be coming! So many emotions for 5:30 in the morning! PLUS Tim was saying how much more expensive this one will be because it cost more to put it together so I was thought it would be a good idea to get the I-Phone 4 when the 5 comes out and get a killer deal (always thinking of ways to save money!). But then I thought… will I be mad I didn’t get the latest and greatest? SO MANY CHOICES when it comes to phones! Sometimes I miss the days of that bigger Motorola phone that either had the back light in blue or green. One choice to make. That was it. That was nice.

So we made it home undecided about the I-Phone but hopeful that I will have a choice here in the next month and a half or so. I told Casey maybe I would have a sweet new phone by the time she got married- not sure if that was relevant at all to her wedding but it was a good time reference for me. After our run we got ready for work and I headed out the door. I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast that morning! OH NO! I am so sorry. I am thinking I had a smoothie so- pretty par for the course. I do remember I had a veggie burger salad for lunch. I put lettuce, tomatoes, olive, feta cheese, and used some poppy seed dressing w/ a Morning Star veggie burger to top it off. It was sooo good and that along with a bag of garden salsa chips filled me to the max yet I somehow found a way to eat the 2 sugar wafer cookies Casey brought me for dessert! It was a productive afternoon at work and I went home to head to dinner with Tim’s dad Mike and Karla.

BUT then Mike and Karla cancelled so we were all “what are we going to do for dinner now” and Tim’s dad was kind enough to let us go enjoy the pasta bar at Fairlawn Country Club since he ditched us. It had been FOREVER since Tim and I were at pasta bar so it was really nice to be there! Oh you are probably wondering what pasta bar is right? Pasta Bar is this amazing night where you go to the club and you can “create” your own pasta. You start with telling the nice chef what kinds of veggies and meat you want. I got shrimp, italian sausage, yellow squash, peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, and I think that may be it. Then she cooks it up and adds in basil and some white wine while you pick your noodle type. There was spaghetti, penne, and bowtie (I got the bowtie), and then after she puts all of your tasty veggies on top of your pasta you go over the the sauce station and pick your sauce (red, meat, or alfredo). I figured it was one of those go big or go home kind of meals so I opted for just a little bit of the alfredo sauce. I paced myself and only ate a portion of the pasta (being a good girl!) but them moved on the ice cream bar where I had vanilla ice cream w/some crushed up Oreos and Heath bars. I had a few bites and then sent the rest back to the kitchen so I didn’t overload myself on all of the tasty stuff for you!

After this we were pretty much in a food coma so we made it back home and into our comfy bed ready for another day to start!

Thursday

Thursday’s run was easier to get through because it didn’t happen until 6:15ish. I was headed to the dermatologist that morning so we got to sleep in a bit. We decided we really need to push yourself in the morning because this was going to be my last run before the 5K I was in on Friday so Tim and I ran 2.5 miles in the morning with some added walking for warm-up and cool-down. I thought this run went really well and the weather was perfect and my breathing was good. I was dog tired at the end of it but totally proud of myself for making it!

After the run and a bowl of Peanut Butter Puffins I mixed up a smoothie to-go which ended up tasting more like chalk than anything else. WAY too much protein powder and not enough fruit or something so I only made it through about a ¼ of that thing and decided to call it quits. I noticed when I got home Tim thought it was gross too because he left most of it in the cup in the sink.

Day went by fairly fast since I got to work a little late and I enjoyed lunch with the rest of the marketing team. We were doing some presentation for a new addition to our team so we had a catered lunch of tomato basil soup, a turkey, tomato, lettuce, and onion sandwhich on flatbread along with some regular mixed greens salad and fruit salad for dessert. There were cookies too but I didn’t get any of those little guys. After the work day I headed to my mom’s for workout class where I got my butt kicked! Tim joined us ladies again and he was my “partner” for class so we just worked as hard as we could and got one hell of a workout. We did an interval where one partner rowed for 5 min while the other did a 30 second on, 30 second off workout that contained squats, and burpees, and mule-kicks, and throwing balls and catching balls, and working your butt off balls haha. It was TOUGH and I was sweaty and gross but it was exactly what I needed before I headed into this weekend of fun.

We had some BBQ chicken with my parents for dinner w/ some corn on the side (random side dish I made) and talked about lots of things going on in our lives before we headed home. I have some to really LOVE these weekday dinners with my parents because I feel like it is so easy to let life get ahead of you and sometimes you stop communicating about the little things that matter. So these dinners matter a lot to me and now that Tim has been able to join class it is great that the four of us get to hang out once or twice a week! After class and dinner it was an early to bed kind of night because that class just exhausted me.

Friday

Hello Friday! I knew today was going to be a good day because I had a lot of stuff going on at work and then we had a family and friends day at work in the afternoon that my mom was coming to along with Tim, Paul, and Amanda! So in the morning I jumped out of bed and got ready for work. I skipped my run this morning so I didn’t wear myself out before the 5K on Saturday which turned out to be a good thing because that workout class on Thursday made me SO SORE. Tim too! So at least I knew I wasn’t just being a baby! I put some FiberOne Cereal in a to-go container and took it along with some Almond Breeze Almond milk to work to have for breakfast.

When lunch rollled around I wanted to grab lunch with a few friends so we went to Pizza Hut for their $4.99 buffet- what a great deal! Totally unhealthy for me to have had that much pizza in 2 days but it was the company I wanted to keep so I was down with that! I didn’t eat too much because I knew I would be eating again in the afternoon with my mom and friends!

<3 good friends that come visit me at work!

When 3:00 rolled around my mom was right on time so we made our way around my campus at work to see all of the fun sites! About an hour or so later Tim, Amanda, and Paul got there and we all enjoyed some early dinner/late lunch together. I had a veggie burger, a few bites of the pulled pork I got before I realized there were veggie burgers, and some fruit salad. I stuffed myself and it was probably the first time in a long time I did some mindless eating and should have considered how my body was actually feeling because I ended up eating waaay too much and then feeling kind of bad the rest of the evening! Note to self: don’t do that again.

My late lunch/early dinner

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