Life – Page 13

Currently February 2019

February 15, 2019 by Alicia Leave a Comment

It’s somehow mid February…woooahhh!! I think I am way overdue for a currently post. January was just a bit stressful and there wasn’t much writing happening. I hope to get back to writing because I also think that helps me destress, whether that is writing for the blog or personal writing. Lately my days are filled with work, some homework, gym time and a bit of time with Brian. It is great having him home everyday. I also feel like it’s still a little weird to adjust to. While he was away at work all the time, I worked on keeping myself as busy as possible and Brian being home has taught me I need to slow down and enjoy the moments more. Usually he cooks something for dinner or if I have something I meal prepped, he might share that. I enjoy eating dinner with him and chatting about the day before we go our separate ways in the evening with me working on school work (or getting distracted with Youtube videos if I’m being honest) and he has been working on some programming of his own for a hobby.

I will say so far I feel like this school semester has been less work, which I was expecting it to be more. Either I am doing something right or something wrong? But assignments have all been on track and grades good so far. This week I just keep thinking about Saturday though as I can’t wait to take my first stats test and have it behind me. I think I am prepared, but just going to review the lessons quickly to be prepared for any surprises. I also just turned in my first group project for both classes so you know the nerves you have on that first project like did I do it right? Did I follow the rubric as the teacher wanted? We will learn after those grades I guess. The thing is I am taking Stats and Marketing and both have been REALLY interesting to me. I haven’t taken classes in either before and with marketing, our teacher requires us to keep a little up to date with the news with current event discussions every 3 weeks. It has been interesting reading the textbook and current news with marketing to learn a little more of the business side of things but also learn that with technology, we are constantly being watched and our data collected. I mean, that’s how Facebook knows I just looked at the Lululemon website or something. It’s scary but I try not to think about it.

Anyway back to a currently post…

Current Book: How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. I just bought and started this book as it is the book club book for The Girls Next Door podcast. I haven’t read their book club books before but this one sounded interesting and I felt I needed a good fiction read. I should also probably make use of the public library I joined last year and have been to about 3 times…

Current Purchase: I just purchased a thin travel yoga mat from Manduka for my honeymoon. We are going to Aruba and you can bet I am getting a pass to Yoga Girl’s studio for some SUP and classes. Normally I am against thin mats, but I can live with it for traveling. My favorite yoga mat for home is my Lululemon mat.

Current drink: iced tea…it may be winter, but I was loving iced tea as I had an upset stomach over the weekend.

Current TV show: One Day at a Time on Netflix. Discovered season 3 just came out last Friday and I was so excited. Also not feeling well last weekend I couldn’t seem to get into the show as much. It’s one of those shows I feel like you have to pay attention to.

Current Food: strawberries and chocolate for Valentine’s, the only thing I wanted

Current want: maybe a new iphone…I just had to restore mine and hoping that helps as many of my apps were freezing on me and it randomly shut down on me the other day. The good news is this iphone is officially the longest lasting smart phone I have owned at 2 years and 2 months. My previous android phones all broke themselves in about 13 months which is why I switched to the iphone. No going back as of right now.

Current craving: pickles!! I go through phases of pickles kicks. I have discovered that Wegmans brand pickles are pretty good.

Current excitement: wedding is less than 90 days away!! I’m excited and also just want to get it over with. The planning has not been smooth even with a small wedding and the expenses still add up. I am trying to enjoy the moment though and that’s why I also planned a small beach wedding. Mostly I am excited for my girlfriends to join as I have never done a girl’s trip and I will have a couple days with them before the wedding.

Current mood: if you were to ask me this last weekend, I would have said horrible because I just wasn’t feeling well and crying at nothing basically, but the last few days I feel like my mood has turned around. I got back to the gym on Monday and Tuesday which helped and just overall feel like I have more energy.

Tell me your current…

…book?

…want?

…excitement?

Scenes from the Weekend and Things I am Loving

January 28, 2019 by Alicia 2 Comments

Hello lovelies!! Is that a good intro? LOL. I am sitting here watching the snow fall outside. It’s actually the pretty snow where you feel like you are in a snow globe and the streets are staying pretty clear so far. After last week’s snowstorm, the snow is sticking around for a while. The next few days are going to be chilly with the lows around 0 and -4 F and about half to an inch of snow a day to come. That seems pretty manageable though and shouldn’t interfere with my morning gym schedule at least. It will be another month end this week for work so time for another crazy busy two weeks probably. Honestly January has gone by quickly for me. Between being busy at work and having school stuff to work on, I have had plenty to do. I know February will be even more busy with school stuff so I am enjoying the somewhat slow pace at the moment.

Lately there have been a few things I am really loving and wanted to share.

Firstly, these hair ties. I haven’t really branched out from a standard hair tie in a while and it was buy one get one 50% off at CVS when I picked some up so I decided to try something new and I have to say I am impressed with these braided ones.

My obsession from the weekend is my Ganesha Wall Sticker. I really wanted my office/yoga space to have a yoga studio feel to it and learning about Ganesha in yoga teacher training really stuck with me. He is the Hindu god that is the remover of obstacles, but is also known to place obstacles in your path that you need to work through. Having him on my wall reminds me that I have faced many obstacles and worked hard and in a weird way, it calms me to have him there. Looks so amazing on the bright green wall too. I got the sticker from Etsy. There are tons of different styles to choose from.

This weekend I started the Curly Girl Method for my hair. For the last two years, I have only washed my hair with shampoo and only 2-3 times a week. This started when I was backpacking because I didn’t want to carry shampoo and conditioner with me. It seemed to work just fine and my hair adjusted after a while of being oily. However, reading about the curly girl method, you only use conditioner 1-2 times a week or an approved co wash. You also use gel in your hair after a shower to keep the curls going. My hair is naturally curly so this method makes sense and I am trying it out. I plan to report back in a month.

I went to the gym on Sunday with Brian. I started a new workout routine so I was actually excited about lifting. For the past couple weeks I have felt bored doing the same things and also feeling stuck with my weights. I’m excited for this new program I created and less reps and more sets to increase my weights. I did squats at 135lbs which is my current PR so hoping to break that next week, bench at 80lbs (lighter for a wide grip, current bench PR is 100lbs) and pause deadlifts I kept light at 145lbs. As Brian was working on his deadlifts, he left 185lbs on the bar and asked me to try it. My PR was 165lbs recently. I wasn’t sure how 185 would feel, but I lifted it off the ground just fine, setting a new one rep max for myself. My goal is to break 200lbs for my one rep max for my meet in April. I think I am on my way towards that and that made me feel more confident.

Slow cooking in my Instant Pot has been fun to try out. Since I only had a small crockpot before, I was limited for my slow cooked meals, but with the instant pot, I can make more. I have also decided that slow cooked shredded chicken turns out better than the high pressure method, so I am still slow cooking chicken for 6 hours on the weekend for lunches during the week.

Also still obsessed with the best Christmas present to myself, the R8 Roller. It’s so amazing for squat recovery.

What are you loving lately?

The First Snowstorm of 2019 Weekend

January 21, 2019 by Alicia 2 Comments

Hello and happy Monday. I disappeared for a week, spending some much needed time decompressing and reflecting on life things. I am happy to be back to some writing time and it was a laid back weekend with the impending snow storm. The snow wasn’t as bad as they were originally calling for but I would definitely say we got at least a foot and it was heavy due to sleet being mixed in. The snow also started later on Saturday than anticipated, so the roads were clear most of the day.

Let’s quickly back up to Friday. Friday afternoon was very chit chatty at work as we headed into the weekend. I got home and the first thing on my mind was my stats quiz. Brian cooked up dinner while I took my quiz. I knew I had two attempts and it was open book, but being the first quiz, you never know what to expect. After quickly going through the quiz and solving for some answers, I submitted and got like a 70%…eek. Luckily I knew I had a second attempt. I could see which questions I got correct and reviewed explanations on the ones I got wrong. We are not shown the correct answers, but with the explanations, you can learn from those and figure out what should have been the correct answer. Dinner was ready once I finished attempt 1 so I ate and then reviewed. The second attempt, you have to watch for some questions that are re worded or may ask the opposite of the original question, but it went much smoother and I only got 1 wrong and got an A for the second attempt. With an A and that quiz off my back, I was able to relax. I have been watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Hulu as my current show.

Saturday morning I had my alarm set for 7am because I wanted to get to Wegmans early. I made bacon and some toast for breakfast before heading out. There were few people on the roads at 7:30am, but Wegmans was a bit busier than usual for the 8am hour. In addition, they had been cleaned out completely of potatoes and onions and even the meat section looked low. Luckily Brian had bought meat the other day and plenty. I basically shopped for my usual items for the week and found everything I needed just fine. Then I got to check out and people had carts filled so high with food. These people will now not need to shop for at least 2 weeks right?

The snow was originally supposed to start around noon or so. Noon rolled around and it was still semi sunny outside. I spent the morning doing some yoga and then some cooking.

I have been craving mac and cheese lately, but since I can’t do much dairy, I needed to make some vegan mac and cheese. I made a cauliflower “cheese” sauce from a recipe and used chickpea noodles that are more filling and it hit the spot. It was amazing!!

After eating it was time to do some reading homework. The snow finally started sometime around 2-3pm and did start fast, but was nothing crazy. Brian made some steak fajitas for dinner which we enjoyed with some Good Thin corn crackers, avocado and salsa. It was a really good meal.

We also watched the first episode of Tidying Up on Netflix that I have heard so much about. I think it’s a good show for couples to watch to learn things from other families. Brian and I don’t like a lot of “stuff” as it is, but we both have accumulated stuff that we need to sort through. It was fun to watch an episode together and reflect on stuff for now and also thinking of the future and how to keep things tidy.

I watched as the snow was falling outside. I love our living room window and seeing the snow lightly fall by looking at the street light. There were a couple inches maybe before we headed to bed with most of the snow expected overnight.

Saturday night was rough sleeping because they were on top of the plowing (which I am not complaining about). I live on a dead end street and the beep, beep, beep of the plow constantly backing up to plow the snow into one pile kept waking me up. After they plowed around 5am, I was rolling for a while and decided to get up at 6:30 Sunday morning. I made some oatmeal for breakfast and made some blender muffins to pop into the oven. Shortly after eating, I put on my sweatpants and coat and got to shoveling.

The snow was quite heavy due to the sleet/ice on top and mixed in. I did the bulk of the driveway and cleaned off my car in half an hour. By that time, Brian was finally up and I left the heavy plow stuff for him to do. I was so sweaty from shoveling I needed a shower ASAP. I wasn’t sure if I would want to go to the gym after the workout of shoveling, but after a shower and another snack, I felt refreshed and we decided to venture to the gym. There were few cars on the roads and the roads were partially plowed. I made Brain drive, but my new winter tires seem to be working like a charm, which I am very pleased about.

We were the only two crazy people to arrive to the gym shortly after 9am. I love having the gym all to myself though. I was able to work on deadlifts and break a new PR for myself of 165lbs.

Once we got back from the gym, I had some lunch and got to work on my school projects while Brain did some more shoveling. Luckily the snow stopped before noon and the sun even came out. I love seeing the sun reflect off the white snow.

Were you snowed in this weekend?

My Word of the Year: Growth

January 9, 2019 by Alicia 1 Comment

I don’t think I have ever done a word of the year, but I saw a few posts about it recently. I couldn’t pin point my exact goals of the year, but Growth seems to sum it up well.

I drew this little chart after watching a bunch of Youtube videos on Bullet Journaling goals for the new year. I tried bullet journaling last year in the new year and I will say it only really lasted until May/June. I love the creative aspect behind it, but I plan so far ahead that I love my $10 daily planner more for weekly plans and to do lists. So now I’m using my bullet journal for occasional inspiration with drawing or quotes I want to write.

but how cute is this polar bear I drew after watching a Youtube video with Polar Bear theme bullet journal

Anyway back to my word, Growth.

Growth in my yoga practice (aka practicing again, even if not everyday, getting back to consistency)
Growth in my relationship (currently Brian is home and it has been nice carving out more time with each other. Plus it’s wedding year!!)
Growth in my weightlifting (I have my meet in April and I have some new PRs since last year, still hoping to break even more PRs)
Growth in my mindset (aka being more present)
Growth in self care (this goes with mindset a bit, but just taking time to de stress, getting back to monthly massages, because they really made a difference, taking more baths and doing face masks and continuing to eat well)
Growth in my job (it has been a crazy year end, I have learned a lot and I hope I can continue to learn more and make tasks more efficient)
Growth in friendships (if I’m honest, I feel lonely a lot of the time. Many of my friends are in different cities and states. I am excited that a few of my close friends will be coming to my wedding in May and I can’t wait for girl time. Hopefully some weekend summer trips will happen to visit friends too)
Growth in Penn State (if I had to pick a favorite week from last year, it was the Penn State orientation week. It sounds so weird to pick that as a favorite, but I truly felt like I belonged and the first semester was amazing. This second semester there is a lot to figure out still, but I am learning and excited for my classes)
Growth in exploring and getting outdoors (I hope this summer, we have a summer and that I get some more SUP practice at the state park and some more hiking)

Those were some of the things I came up with and I think Growth describes it best for the categories.

Do you make resolutions for the New Year or any goals?

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