Fall – Page 4

More Apples and a Pumpkin: MIMM #40

October 12, 2015 by Alicia 1 Comment

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend!

My weekend included more Fall activities and enjoying the sunny weather after the rain storm on Friday night.

Brian had 48 hours off of work so he came down Thursday night and caught up on his sleep on Friday since he was working the night shift. After work on Friday, he met up with me in the city for dinner. A rain storm was on its way to the area, but I wanted to quickly walk down to the art museum to check out the new sculpture AMOR (Love in Spanish). It wasn’t that crowded like the LOVE sculpture gets, so it was perfect to climb up the steps and take a few photos. Luckily we only stayed for a short while because it started to rain about 5 minutes later and we still had to find our way to the restaurant.

It started to pour just as we were across the street from the restaurant and we actually ran inside a gas station first as we waited for the rain to lighten up enough that we could see again. I chose a mexican restaurant, La Calaca Feliz, for us to try. We started with some guacamole and chips of course. Then we each had tacos. I chose the pulled pork tacos and Brian got the pot belly pig tacos. We ended with some mexican chocolate cake for dessert. Very delicious food!

By the time we finished eating the rain was much lighter and we made our way to the train station, barely making the train, but luckily it was 6 minutes late so we didn’t have to wait around.

Saturday morning I made some pancakes for breakfast and then we drove to the apple orchard. The golden delicious apples were ready for picking so I was excited! The people at the orchard said the Golden delicious are not like the ones you get in the grocery store, they taste better. After eating one, I can say they definitely are better. Of course apples fresh from the tree are better anyway.

It was such a beautiful Fall day, I really wanted to check out a state park or something around the area since we drove so far for the apple orchard anyway. Brian was navigating and I was driving and following his directions. I had no idea where we were going to end up but eventually we pulled into Nockamixon State Park. There were a ton of sailboats out on the water and we just enjoyed the view for a while. I loved seeing the different colors of the trees. Fall on the east coast is just a different experience than in the suburbs of Chicago.

It is also great to know that this state park is just an hour drive away. When driving through the area, I felt like I was in a completely different state or something.

The drive back seemed very long, but eventually we arrived at Dave and Busters near our apartment. We decided to get a late lunch there and play some games. I still hold onto our card that we started when in Buffalo to add to the tickets. As it has already been years…I don’t think we will ever go there enough to get one of the worthwhile prizes like an ipod or something, but I also don’t want to spend the tickets on candy or little toys.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back. Brian napped because he was driving back later in the evening and I caught up on my daily yoga poses and enjoyed a 30 minute yoga video from OneOEight ( <– check this website out if you haven’t, you can get a 10 day free trail and it’s only $15 a month for all the yoga classes, meditations and more).

For dinner I picked up some thai food (I ordered from GrubHub for the first time!). My meal consisted of appetizers: chicken saute, egg rolls and rice. I failed to take a picture of the food as I was enjoying it too much. After eating and watching a movie, it was time for Brian to pack up and I got ready for bed, reading a bit before.

Sunday morning, I got up around 7 again. I made it my mission to get to the gym when they open at 8. I got to the gym at 7:57 and there were already a handful of people inside, so I will have to arrive earlier next time. I figure I had to go this early to use the one squat rack. Someone was already using it when I arrived, so I did a few other exercises for 10 minutes while I waited. It felt great to barbell squat again until my legs were shaky. I have to start coming Sunday mornings more often to increase my weights on the squat rack again. The only issue is this gym does not organize the weights ever and finding just a 10lb weight to add on is a challenge. I got up to 85 lbs though. I think the most I was at before was 145 lbs, so I have a bit to go to get that strength back. Weightlifting makes me so happy though, especially those barbell squats 🙂

After my workout I headed to the grocery store where I picked up a pumpkin. I found a decent knife around my kitchen and got to carving. It actually didn’t take too long at all, as this pumpkin didn’t have too many guts, but a fair amount of seeds that I roasted up.

I also did some yoga with my pumpkin that I started last year.

Definitely had a fun weekend with some great Fall activities! I am so happy the weather was beautiful. Now onto another work week. Today is Columbus day but we don’t get off. Also Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends today!!

Have you ever ordered with GrubHub?

Do you like carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds? I never roasted the seeds until a few years ago, love doing it now.

Apple Picking and Pumpkin Hummus: MIMM#39

September 28, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Oh hey there Monday! This weekend was nice and relaxing with some Fall related things too! Friday I got to work from home because of the expected Popenado in Philly. Though I think the city was pretty empty Friday because most companies had their employers work at home. I actually felt pretty productive and it was nice to stay in my workout clothes all day, have a longer gym session in the morning and also sign off and already be at home before 5pm. I took advantage of my extra time and headed to the pool after working, so yes double workout day! I have not had the chance to do lap swimming since July basically because of my ear infection and being sick and heading on vacation, I didn’t want to risk it coming back. It was definitely nice to get some swimming in again. I decided to stop once I got to 70 laps (1 mile) and then headed to Target next door because my printer nearly ran out of paper printing stuff for work so I wanted to be sure I had more, just in case I was also working from home today. I also couldn’t resist these cookies.

I tried them last year and really liked them. I think 1 bag is enough per year though.

As I drove home from the pool and Target, I kept thinking about making hummus and then I got an even better idea, Pumpkin Hummus! I had opened a can of pumpkin the other day to make pumpkin cookies so I needed to use it up. I had a couple people on Facebook ask for the recipe, so I thought I would share how I made it. It is really simple and just takes 30 seconds for the blender to whip up. I have a Blendtec blender and I used the Mini Twister cup to make this.

Pumpkin Hummus

2015-09-27 19:45:10

Save Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 can chickpeas, drained and 2 tbsp liquid reserved
1/4 c canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1-2 tbsp water (optional, see notes)

Instructions

Put all the ingredients, except the water, into your blender or food processor*.
Blend for about 30 seconds
Scrape the sides down, if necessary, and blend for a few more seconds
If hummus looks too thick, you can add the 1-2 tbsp water to thin it out**.
Serve with chips or veggies
Store leftovers in airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Notes

*I have not tried this recipe in a food processor (as I don't have one)
**My hummus was pretty thick, so it helped to add water to thin it down. This may depend on the type of canned pumpkin you use.

By Alicia Kettler

Bridges Through Life https://www.bridgesthroughlife.com/

Saturday morning I left early to meet up with my friend for some apple picking. A 45 minute drive to the orchard was totally worth it. There was so much pretty scenery along the drive with all the farms. I knew it wasn’t a far drive to farms around PA but really I need to get out that way more, so many trails to walk on. We went to Solebury Orchards and after parking, you wait to take a wagon over to the apple picking. This orchard was the first place I have been where we rode a wagon to pick apples. I have actually only been apple picking a handful of times in my life. I don’t think apple picking is very popular in Illinois, so the first time I went was back in college in Buffalo, NY.

This orchard has so many different varieties of apples. We picked Pinata and Pixie Crunch apples. Both new varities to me and delicious! I also learned the proper way to pick apples, twist and turn upside down and it should come off if it is ripe, if not move on and try another. This was definitely true, but also tricky to try to figure out which ones were ripe. I did pick the perfect apple though since part of the tree came with it.

Really, how picture perfect is that apple?!

Once we felt like we had enough apples (I didn’t want to go too overboard), I had my friend take a few bridge pictures for me, because apple orchards are just so beautiful!

Then we hopped back on the wagon back to the market to pay. I also picked up some apple chips (which I haven’t tried yet) and apple cider and an apple cider donut (which was eaten right away).

My long time favorite apple is the Golden Delicious apple which is usually ready to pick in October, so I might just have to head back to this place once those are ready to pick and restock my apple inventory.

The rest of Saturday I was in and out of my car, completing a list of errands before Sunday when barriers would be up for the Pope being down the street from me. I got my weekly groceries and got my earrings cleaned at the mall and then finally I was able to relax the rest of the afternoon.

I did assemble a massive burrito (though it failed to close until I ate some of it) for dinner.

Sunday was a relaxing day. I made some shredded chicken in the crock pot for lunches or dinner for the week. Then I made myself do some much needed yoga for 50 minutes. Usually I can’t stay focused doing yoga for that long in my own apartment, but I knew I needed it and it felt so good to make up the sequence as I went along. My muscles are increasing but now I am feeling out of yoga shape. At least I joined 3 Instagram challenges for October so working on getting back on my yoga game, in addition to the weight training that I am really enjoying.

After yoga, I decided to go walk around. I knew the Pope would be down the street, so I saw a few police around. He was 3 miles down the road though so I didn’t see him unfortunately. I did check out the park by the train station that I have been meaning to get to since moving here in April. I didn’t realize how big the park was. I looked up online after and the trail around is .75 miles so that is pretty decent. I walked about 3 miles total between walking to the park, around it and then back home.

After that my legs were kinda dead, so I sat around. I have been catching up on the new season of “Chasing Life”. It is definitely a sad season, having me shed tears with each episode, but always ends with wanting to know what happens next.

Not a very eventful weekend, but I always enjoy my down time as the week can get crazy and busy. The train is still on weekend schedule today because of the Pope but I might make it into the office still (as I write this I don’t know if I am working from home or going in today). With less trains I feel the trains could go one of two ways, be way more crowded (which they already are crowded enough on regular days) or people may have been told to work at home so it could be pretty much dead, but the trains only come once an hour and I also don’t want to be stuck waiting for an hour if the trains get too crowded coming home…decisions…I also like working in my yoga pants and sitting on the floor to work.

2015-09-25 15.26.39 — this was Friday, working from home, on the floor, exercise ball behind my back

Yes I did get my work done this way. I actually felt it was better on my back sitting this way. I like that I can do all my work from home when necessary.

Hope everyone has a great Monday! Enjoy the Pumpkin Hummus recipe and let me know if you make it.

Do you have a flexible job that lets you work from home?

Have you done any Fall activities lately?

What’s your favorite apple?

When Things Don’t Go As Planned: MIMM#16

October 20, 2014 by Alicia 4 Comments

Do you ever have those days where things don’t go as planned and then you are like what do I do now? For those of you who don’t know me, I am a planner. I like things to go as scheduled and not change, but lately I have learned that sometimes it is best to just not worry about the plan and just live. Yes, sometimes it is very hard to do, but I definitely think my 100 days of happiness changed the way I think a lot. They say it takes 21 days to start a new habit. At least that is what I have heard. I guess when you do something for 100 days, it really sticks haha. Anyway I mentioned on Thursday last week that I was going to go register my car this weekend and become a resident of PA like officially, but that changed quickly.

Saturday morning I headed out to what I thought was the place to get both my license and registration done. Then I learned I had to get my license elsewhere which was like 12 miles from that location. So I headed out for a drive down some new to me roads and eventually wound up in Media, PA at a mall and the DMV was located behind it. I finally find the DMV hidden behind the grocery store next to the mall and then I head in and the guy asks if I have the form, check, ID, check, social security card….uhhh no. When I was looking for jobs, I just needed a passport to count as my 2 IDs, but apparently driver’s license are different. I can’t even remember if we used my social security card when I got my drivers license originally. Well anyway without my social security card, no license for me. I have to get it from my parents eventually and next weekend I start yoga teacher training, so I will have to do the whole registration on one of my off weekends. Hopefully in 2 weeks we will try again and succeed. I will let you know.

Well since I drove out all that way and was next to Kohls and a grocery store. I picked up a pumpkin and some $1 avocados, SCORE!

Then I think I somehow spent an hour in Kohls. I haven’t been to Kohl’s in ages because well I think I was at the closest Kohl’s and it’s in the opposite way of my usual stores that I go to, so I hadn’t made it out there yet. I think I made out quite well with a couple shirts for myself and some Christmas shopping. However I still don’t understand their sizing. I was definitely shopping in the juniors section trying on a few different sweaters. Can we talk about how this was a size small in Juniors and still baggy?? I mean I think that is the style of the sweater but still…I guess you can’t tell much in the photo, but the sides were just too large for me. The arms fit perfectly.

Then I found the sweaters I purchased, where a small was too small (this is why I can’t shop online anywhere…), so next size up for these and they were too comfy to pass up. I think they will work nicely for the office as well. I got this color and one in red, which I think will be perfect for Christmas. (I know it isn’t even Halloween yet, but somehow I have Christmas on my mind right now). [side note: if you ever look at my closet and look at my work shirts, I think nearly half of them are in a blue/teal color. It just goes some well with my eyes…]

I was checking out at Kohls and of course was asked to sign up for the store credit card which I only did because I saved 30% by signing up and coupons in the mail are nice too. They also have a new rewards program where you don’t even need a Kohls card. It’s called Yes 2 You rewards. You get 1 point for every dollar you spend and once you reach 100, you get a $5 coupon. Pretty nice, especially since I am already half way there [actually I just got 100 bonus points for linking it to my new Kohls card, guess I will have $5 for November]. I also got a $10 Kohls cash to spend in 2 weeks. Good thing I plan to go get my license in 2 weeks. Not sure what I will buy, probably another gift or more socks for myself. I swear I buy socks and then I do laundry and wonder where all my socks went.

By the time I got home, it was already noon. I had a quick lunch before heading out to Wegmans for my weekly groceries. After putting the groceries away and hanging out for a bit, I decided I needed to enjoy the weather. After train “surfing” (the train was super crowded and I was literally being held up by people most of my ride home) on Thursday evening, my left arch of my foot has been hurting so I have been wanting to let it rest to recover so I got out my bike and road to the park. It was very windy but about 70 degrees and beautiful outside. Though the clouds hit when I got to the park and I thought it might rain, but it was just stayed cloudy. I did get in some nice yoga though at the park for a while and enjoyed all the colorful leaves.

I think that will probably be my last bike ride till Spring. I need to get a bike pump because the tires are super low and I don’t like to ride in the cold anyway which is coming too quickly.

Saturday evening was spent making some iced tea and dinner. Then watching some Harry Potter. I don’t have cable, but I heard it’s Harry Potter weekend. Good thing I own all the DVDs and took them with me.

Sunday was a fairly relaxing day. I slept until about 8am, made a delicious pancake breakfast while reading some blogs in the morning. I also lit a pumpkin spice candle made by my friend who just got married. The candles were our little gifts to take. Awesome idea, especially all the Fall scents!!

Then I headed to the gym to get a weight workout in before heading to Target and Michael’s for a few things. Well once again things did not go as planned because when I returned from the stores, my street was entirely blocked off with police and firetrucks. I parked at the library which is around the corner and walked to my apartment with my bags to see what was going on. Some of the kids were playing outside so I asked them what happened. A house caught fire when a woman left something on in the kitchen and the fireman were still making sure all the hot spots were out when I got there. I put my stuff inside and grabbed an apple to munch on while I watched the firemen for about 15 minutes as they were cleaning up. I heard that everyone who lives in the house was ok, but I do think they took someone in the ambulance.

Luckily most of the fire was put out by the time I got back and it wasn’t too long before all 4 of the firetrucks left and the police unblocked the streets. So then I quickly walked back to my car and drove it around the block to my parking spot. Then it was time to return to my plans of meal prepping and painting my pumpkin. I wanted to carve my pumpkin but it was going to be messy and I didn’t have good supplies for carving, so I decided to have some fun painting this year. While my veggies were roasting in the oven, I painted. It worked out really well, time wise. By the time I was done with the oven, the paint had dried and I quickly went outside to get some photos before the sun went down.

Yes I had some fun with the pumpkin photos. Here is my absolute favorite though. Peaceful picture with my Om yoga symbol.

I think I made use of my time very well this weekend, seeing as it was my last weekend before yoga teacher training begins to really take over my time. In 4 days I will have my first 3 hours of yoga teacher training. I can’t believe how quickly it has come and I can’t wait for the journey to begin.

Thank you Katie for hosting. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well. Temperatures are finally cooling down here which makes my apartment the perfect temp, however I am not looking forward to the frost advisories I hear are coming up this week.

Treat Yourself Tuesday #10

October 14, 2014 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hey guys!! A short post on a few of my treats from the last week. Thank you Becky for hosting and reminding us to treat ourselves 🙂

Firstly, on Friday, I caved and got a cupcake. I haven’t had a cupcake since August as I have been saving money. When I saw a smores cupcake on the menu at the cupcake truck, I had to get it. Well it was between that and pumpkin spice…so basically deciding between summer and fall right? Anyway I decided to try the smores because I never got my smores cupcake in the summer. I am not sure why they decided to put it on the menu in October…

As tasty as the cupcake was and a great fuel for my swim after work, it was a bit disappointing. For one, it had too much frosting so I had to scrap some off and two, there was not enough graham cracker. They just sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on the frosting. I have had a better smores cupcake where they did a graham cracker crust on the bottom and prefer that. However I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered melted Hershey’s in the middle.

On Saturday I went to Target and while walking by the DVD section, I saw this for under $5 and had to get it. Two movies in one!! I find I have been buying more DVDs lately since I don’t have cable… [side note: Miss Congeniality was the first PG13 movie I watched]

I also picked up some of these to try as they were on sale. They are delicious by the way.

On Sunday, I decided to order a new water bottle. I figure I need a back up and my Camelbak straw always gets like moldy after a couple days…yeah it’s gross…but since I only use it for water and I clean it every few days, I have lived with it. I used to have an Under Armour water bottle like this but left it at the gym one day. Bonus, it was free shipping since this water bottle supports breast cancer.

I also treated myself to some yoga and reading outside in the sun on Sunday. Have to soak up that sun before winter.

I love how steady I feel in crow pose these days. I feel my fingers making small adjustments just like when I am doing balance poses and standing and my toes make small adjustments, but I feel very steady. Amazing to see how far I have come because in March of this year I couldn’t even hold crow for a split second. Also had to do my bridge pose too. Trying to practice it more to get my hands closer to my feet.

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