The good and bad of Monday

Since this post concerns a Monday I'll keep it simple.

I decided mid-drive home to switch my run to tomorrow and relax with yoga instead.

Clove has perfected this yoga position.

The husband is feeling a bit under the weather so potato soup and Emergen-C were in order.

It's already Monday?

Yesterday I remember laughing when I thought about how nice and lovely our weekend sounded on my last blog post because it was anything but that.

To be fair, Friday night I had a wonderful time catching up with an old friend and on Saturday morning my 9 mile run went splendidly. Everything after that moment became a blur of errands. I remember coming home Saturday night really tired and I can't even tell you what we had for dinner. I think we made a pizza.

Sunday morning rolled in and with every intention of going to the late service, we opened the windows to see the thing we've been dreading for months  weeks--our flower bed. Ok let's just the be honest--it was our whole yard.

Even though the temperatures were amazing this weekend, we knew that it would be best to knock out the hours of yard work early thus we had to forego the service that morning. 4 hours later we have this:

Now you might think that it looks normal, but you just don't know how bad it was before it looked like this. The breaking point was when I could no longer tell the difference between what plants were which and what was a weed. Bad.

Needless to say, that afternoon we were exhausted. The house hadn't even been cleaned and laundry was still waiting to be washed in the hamper.

The house got clean, the laundry finally got done, and the grocery store was never visited.

Two highlights of the weekend were a much deservd ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins and new lantern lights in our favorite back yard tree.

Weekend-1, Mark and Olivia-0.

Friday

                    

Thank goodness it's Friday! The only thing that can make Fridays more unappealing at work is having the thermometer set at 60 degrees.

My weekend plans are simple and sweet. A long-time friend of my is coming over to see my house finally. I anticipate multiple cups of coffee and lots of catching up that will be done tonight. Tomorrow I'll be waking up way too early to run my 9 miles at Shelby Farms.

The only other thing on my agenda involves enjoying this amazing cooler weather that we've been having recently. How often do we have lows in the 60s during August?

A few weekend additions could/might include the following: starting a new book, enjoying brunch in bed tomorrow morning, an afternoon nap,  and baking pumpkin bread.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. :)

                                     

It's Ok Thursdays

Happy Thursday to all! One more day of work left and the weekend will be here. Hopefully my preview of It's ok Thursday" yesterday was a success because now it's time for the real deal. Without further adieu....

-It's ok that I've been counting down the minutes until I'm off work.

-It's ok that I find myself constantly singing about the random things I'm doing. For example, if I'm dusting I will somehow make up a ridiculous song about it. Mark loves this let me tell you.

-It's ok that I am fully aware that I laugh at my jokes WAY more than anyone else does.

-It's ok that when Mark and I were at a wedding last weekend, the buffet line was too long so we left and went to Chikfila right before it closed. To give us credit, it was 9:45pm and we had not eaten dinner and I had ran 8 miles that morning. We needed food.

-It's ok that my husband is a much better writer than myself. I accept this and move on. :)

-It's ok that I talk for the cats. Yes you read correctly--for the cats. Don't get me wrong, I talk to them as well, but there are definitely conversations that happen. It's a problem but I can't stop.

-It's ok that the only plans I have this weekend are reuniting with my friend Mary Rachel tomorrow night and running on Saturday morning. Busy weekends stress me out.

-It's ok that I am overly excited about all things including: fall, pumpkin, apples, cider, hot chocolate, fall decorations, blankets, boots, and fires.

-It's ok that I haven't gotten my hair cut in so long that I can't even remember when the last time was. I should probably make an appointment soon.

Woohoo! 2nd post in a row

Day 2.

How long does it take for something to become a habit? I think it might be 2 weeks. Maybe if I continue writing a daily blog post for 2 weeks I will form a habit. Minus the weekends...and holidays...and busy days at work. I think that this might be doable. Maybe. :)

There's this trend I've noticed around a few blogs that I read called "It's ok Thursday" where you basically try to justify ridiculous/odd behavior--except that it's more of a confession than a justification.

I realize that was the worst explanation I could have written. Apologies.

Instead I think I'll just write a few "It's ok Thursdays...except it's Wednesday." We'll just say it's practice for the real deal. Stay tuned for tomorrow. It's going to be a good time.

---It's ok that up until this point in my life I've never cooked with ground turkey. We made spaghetti last night and used ground turkey in the sauce. Amazing!

--It's ok that I used to be a vegetarian and feel no shame in the previous statement.

--It's ok that I have eaten cookies after dinner every night this week. They are PUMPKIN chocolate chip cookies so that makes it healthy right?

--It's ok that I've been procrastinating fixing our bathroom toilet seat that is unhinged in one corner.

--It's ok that part of the reason I've been putting off fixing that toilet seat is that I enjoy watching my cats run and jump on the toilet seat forgetting that it's broken. I really need to video tape it.

--It's ok that I make Mark watch the ridiculous tv shows that I watch. He says he only watches them to spend time with me...but I think we all know the truth about that. :) Either way he is a good sport.

--It's ok that I'm taking Mark out for a date tonight instead of him taking me out. Every now and then it's nice to switch things up. :)

--It's ok that the majority of pictures on my Iphone are cats and food. My priorities are clearly in check.

--It's ok that I have been craving chocolate and caramel all day long. Something needs to happen about this.

I really enjoy reading other "It's ok Thursdays" so I hope that you guys do as well and even join in the fun!

Recap

I am going to admit something that will not come to a surprise to any of the poor followers still visiting this ghost town of a blog. I would much rather read someone else's blog than write my own. I really do enjoy reading about other people, but when it comes to myself it's different. It's not that I feel like we are boring and not worthing reading about--it's that I am simply too lazy to type out a blog post. The other factor that is greatly against this blog is that Mark and I are terrible about taking pictures. I kid you not, we probably only have about 5 pictures of us together since our wedding. I just hate being the person to ask for their picture to be taken. I am not bothered at all when someone else asks me to take their picture, but for some reason I feel annoying asking. I'm getting a little better about taking pictures of other things though--just not of me and Mark. Baby steps.

It's August and we are only a few weeks away from cooler mornings and darker evenings. This means that school is approaching for Mark and half marathon(s) training started a few weeks ago. This time around I increased the intensity of my training from last year's plan. The upside to this is that I ran 8 miles this past Saturday and felt great. The downside, however, is that my weekly mileage is higher (not including cross training) and I am simply exhausted. Even as I write this I'm really craving some coffee.

Our trip to DC was fantastic--we sucessfully sweated through every article of clothing that was brought. :) It was a great trip though. The highlight was probably going to the Holocaust Museum which you can read a wonderfully written recap from my husband on obsilence.org

A delicious restaurant in DC

                    He fell asleep mid-stretch on the rug and didn't move for a good 15 min.

 Discovered how to freeze fresh herbs. Chop up, put in ice cube tray, fill with water and freeze.

 Chilled Swiss Oatmeal from this cafe/bakery chain in DC. Seriously...chilled oatmeal is probably the best thing I've ever tried.

                                     A picture from Shelby Farms after I finished my run.

A street in DC that was lined with food trucks during lunch hour. If it wasn't so hot we would've gotten lunch from one of them.

Mondays

Monday mornings are tough enough as is, but when you throw in some night time allergy medicine taken the night before, they are downright brutal. There isn't enough coffee in the world that can wake you up from sinus medicine.

I'm happy to report that Mark has returned safely from his trip! The house was terribly quiet while he was gone aside from me talking to the cats (don't judge me please). I'm also happy to say that I only cooked twice the whole 2 weeks he was gone, but I am definitely happy to be cooking again. One person can only eat so many frozen meals you know?

We have finally planned a mini vacation for the summer! We will be going to visit Washington DC in August!! The flights and hotel have been booked and we cannot wait. I'm ready to explore the city and what it has to offer, especially all those free museums and all.

Here's an Iphone picture recap since my last blog post.

               The lovely flat tire that happened when driving to get coffee on a Friday morning. To the lady who was swerving in the middle lane on Poplar Ave, I hope you're happy.

  Strawberry lemonade muffins made from a recipe found in Southern Living. Delicious.

Mark and I prepped yesterday for our lunches this week. We cooked up a bunch of veggies and some quinoa. I decided to cut up the fruit in our fridge and put it in snack sized bags which makes me more likely to eat it than if it was whole. It makes no sense, but if it's in a bag I'll more likely eat it. Plus it saves a lot of time. I just don't recommend doing this with fruit that browns very easily (bananas, apples, etc.), though you could just toss in some lemon juice to stop the browning.

5/21/12

I clearly haven't updated my blog in awhile because when I tried logging in to Blogger everything is different. So much has happened to the blogging world since April apparently and I happened to miss that memo. Regardless (off topic, but why is there a word "regardless" and "irregardless"? Do they both not mean the same thing?) here I am and May has been busy as always.

Mark leaves for his trip this Saturday and my nerves and anxiety are increasing with each day. I think I've been in denial up to this point, but now that it's here I have to face the reality that I'll be without a husband for 2 weeks and that it's not the safest trip in the world. I know that things will go smoothly and there is protection there for the team there, but that still doesn't stop the anxiety. That will only go away when he returns. We would, of course, appreciate your prayers while he and his team are away. :) As of Saturday though, I will begin my crazy cat lady training living in a house alone and outnumbered by cats. ha

We are still doing some work on our yard and I already have a rather long list of things I want to do around the house while Mark is away. I told him to go ahead and expect the whole house to be differnet when he comes back.

In other news, I decided to run the Greenline Half Marathon in October...and then decided to sign up for the St. Jude as well since it was about to fill up. So yes--two half marathons within a few weeks of each other. Suicidal? Absolutely. Go big or go home. :)

Since it is the end of the work day, I have little to say other than I'd like to go home and sleep for hours. Instead I'll just post a few pictures of our lives according to my Iphone.

double date bowling

                                                       Order from Forever21

                                 
            Light vanilla ice cream, low sugar granola, and berries. New fav. summer dessert

Little Clove

Iphone picture update

Here's an update via my Iphone pictures.


                                                   Brunch at Republic on a Saturday morning

                                                     Our new little garden full of herbs

          Our storage building that was cut in half and moved. Notice the huge hole underneath the building. Needless to say that is a lot of erosion going on in our backyard that we're about to fix.

Food staples

I'm going to go ahead and say that this is an incredibly random post. This morning when I was making my lunch to take to work I began thinking about certain food items that we continually have in our refrigerator and pantry. These are the items that no matter how low on food we are, if we're out of these items then we need to go get them. Then I started wondering what food staples everyone else had. Is that strange? I just think that someone's pantry and refrigerator say so much about them (good or bad). So if you're an oddball like me, either comment below or write a post about your food staples.
1. Non-fat plain Greek yogurt (Chobani or Fage). I buy this yogurt in the biggest container possible. I love having it for breakfast w/ some berries, a little granola, and honey. I also substitute it in recipes calling for mayo or sour cream. You can easily replace it and it tastes so much better and healthier (plus added protein).



2. Apples. I eat them for a snack constantly with some natural peanut butter or almond butter.



3. Pita Chips. I for some reason cannot eat regular tortilla chips because they make me really sick. It's actually really horrible b/c whenever we eat at at Mexican restaurant I can't eat the dip or salse :(. If we are eating any sort of dip at home though, I always use Stacy's pita chips. Love.


4. Uncle Ben's ready Steamed Rice. You just tear a little hole in the package and microwave it for 90 seconds. Our favorites are wild rice and brown rice. It's really great when you're making a burrito and don't want to spend forever cooking rice.


5. Flavored creamers. I know they aren't good for you and I'm sure they're full of fat and processed junk, but I don't even care. I love flavored creamers. I've used them ever since I starting drinking coffee. In fact, I can
remember my mom and I have coffee around 3 every afternoon and we always loved trying differnet flavors.




6. Chocolate chips. I buy the big bag from Costco of Nestle's chocolate chips. I can't live without them.

7. Laughing Cow Cheese. The Creamy Swiss is my favorite, but I love to put them on crackers or my sandwiches.



8. Zucchini/Squash. We always have either one of theses in our refrigerator. We love to just saute them in some olive oil or grapeseed oil and add some garlic and seasonings.



9. Honey. I go through jars of honey like crazy. Like I mentioned earlier, I use it w/ my yogurt a lot. Whenever I make oatmeal (I just really hate instant/Quacker oatmeal...it's just too sweet for me so I use regular old fashioned oats) I sweeten it with honey).


10. Canned tomatoes. We make our own tomato sauce b/c it's easier, cheaper, and you can flavor it however you like (plus you can pretty much control your sodium and sugar). We buy canned tomatoes in bulk at Costco and make a big batch of sauce. We'll just put it all in jars and freeze it until we use it.

Tired

No matter what I do I cannot shake this exhaustion this week. It might have something to do with me painting the two bathrooms this weekend, but who knows really. At least it's a 4 day work week right?

Sorry to my husband since I just cannot even muster up the energy to pack a lunch for him (yes I normally do pack a lunch...we're cheapos).

I need a nap.

Tidbits from the week

I've almost eaten an entire cantaloupe this week. By myself. Mark isn't a fan of it hence the pressure to eat it all, but let's just be honest--there's no real pressure. I adore cantloupe so part of me is glad he doesn't like it. At least it's good for you right? Maybe it can counteract that chocolate cake I had on Valentines Day. :)

You want to hear a lesson I learned this week? When it's 12:30 and you're tired and little chilly, don't reheat your coffee from the morning. As good as it sounds, just don't do it. Stomach ache.

The decision of what color to paint our hallway bathroom is beginning to consume me in an unhealthy way. Ok not really...but I cannot decide (big shock right?). I better decide soon since I'm going to prime the walls on Friday. :/

Discovered cuticle oil. Amazing. Enough said.

Enjoyed a work phone call that was so ridiculous you have to laugh instead of get mad.

Looking forward to a long weekend thanks to Presidents Day.

I'm making myself start the process of buying a few Christmas a month this year so I don't get stressed out in December. I've made our presents in the past but this year I want to buy them if I plan it right. Let's see if I stick to this decision.

Last but not least: how is it already Thursday? For reals.

2/13/12

I'm on a strike against blog titles today. I just cannot think of one, probably because it's 3:30 and it's been a long and busy day at work. I did paint our hallway this weekend! I have pictures on my phone but for some reason they won't send to my work email. :( It looks great, but now our bathroom looks nasty compared to the freshly painted hallway. Insert project for this weekend.

I know it's early and all, but I do love Valentines day. I know I know, it's a made up holiday used to make money and we should treat every day like Valentines day. Here's my thing though--I'm not going to turn down a chance for some flowers and a nice dinner. Aboslutely not. Plus, call me crazy but I kind of enjoy being out with other couples on Valentine's Day. It's a little like going shopping on Black Friday. If I go it's more to enjoy being out really early w/ a bunch of other crazy shoppers. Either way...

To Husband

Here's a picture to say thank you for asking if I wanted to go into Anthropologie while we were leaving the Apple Store.

And for letting us buy that ridiculously priced candle that smells like fruit punch.

Oh ya--and for being cool enough to geek out in William Sonoma with me. It's pretty great.

1/31/12

It's officially the last day of January and I couldn't be more thankful. Apologies for the noticable absence in January--it was a hectic month for us. There was bronchittis, strep, 2 doctor visits, updates with work, and overall busyness. 2012 didn't exactly start off idyllic for us, but I have high hopes for the rest of the year. I told Mark we just had to get all our sickness done with in January so we could be healthy for the new year. :) How's that for the glass half full?

In my last post I mentioned a few goals for the New Year so I thought I'd address a few things that I particularly liked in January. We'll call it my January favorites/few New Year's goals met.

1. I'm happy to say that I, despite the craziness, did manage to get more reading time in. I'm especially enjoying a little devotional book (I cannot remember the name of it...) but it's been great. :)
2. I did make a new recipe via Pinterest. I made honey chicken in the crockpot and it was absolutely delicious! Pinterest really does have some amazing recipes.
3. Favorite quick dinner-Chikfila. The stupid place made me start eating meat again and I blame it for its delicious chicken.
4. I love getting to see my nephew and niece a little more often now that we live across the street. :) My favorite quote from Christian was when I asked him if he liked me or Mark more and he said "the cats."
5. I'm thankful not to be sick anymore--and to be able to swallow w/o the feeling of knives stabbing my throat.
6. I've been indulging in getting a manicure every few weeks in a soft pink color and for some reason it continually makes me happy everytime I look at my nails.
7. DVR. Enough said.

Here's to a wonderful February!