Life – Page 37

Beautiful Weekend: MIMM#30

May 11, 2015 by Alicia 3 Comments

So looking back I haven’t done a marvelous in my Monday post since March. April was packed with moving and yoga studying and honestly I stressed a lot so I didn’t feel like I had marvelous things to write about. But over the past 2 weeks, that has changed. I changed my mood, let out my emotions, began journaling some more and working out more to help me de stress each day. I feel so much freer than I have in the past month so let’s get onto my marvelous weekend!!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful!! I love having a little patio now. Friday after work, our new couch got delivered. Brian was here last week and one day he sent me a picture of a couch and said “do you like it?”. I honestly couldn’t really tell much from the picture on my tiny phone screen, but Brian liked it and he was buying it so I said it was fine lol. I cleared some boxes and the couch fits perfectly along the wall in the living room. It also came with a little side table which fits perfectly in the corner, but I have been hauling it in and outside all weekend to have a foot rest and table outside. Maybe we should call it the traveling table…

Basically this was my Friday night. I had been craving cookies so I made this little deep dish one. Perfect for a single serving. However probably not the greatest idea to use the oven when it is 80 degrees out. The apartment got warm, but luckily there is AC.

This was my first free Friday night in 3 weeks, as the last 3 weeks involved yoga training and graduation. I felt like I had so much time on my hands and enjoyed the peacefulness outside. I also started to read BODYpeace. I bought it when it was 99 cents, so can’t go wrong with that. While I haven’t suffered from an eating disorder, I definitely have questioned things about my body at times as most girls do and there are times when I am not comfortable in my own skin. This book and journaling I believe will be very helpful for my mind, body and soul. I also get to meet the two authors during Glow Retreat in August!

Friday night I slept for almost 10 hours, which was soooo wonderful.

Saturday

I had breakfast and then headed to Wegmans, over to NJ. I drive about 15 miles (each way) and pay a $5 toll to go to Wegmans. That is how much I love that store! Their produce, deli and everything is just much better to me than Giant and ACME stores that are much closer. It was nice to just shop around and not be rushed for once. I did have to walk down the Asian aisle about 4 times before I finally found the babycorn and water chestnuts, but again being in no hurry helped.

I got back home around 10am and shortly after the furniture guy stopped by to drill on the legs of the couch. Very nice of them to come back the next day with a drill. Legs or no legs, the couch is great. I would have had Brian bring a drill next time he was down anyway.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies which turned out a little flat but delicious.

Then I went for a swim for the first time in about 7 months!! It felt great to be back in the pool, but I must say those first 20 laps or so were very difficult. At first I didn’t think I would make it to 40 but then as I kept going it got better and better and I made it to 70 laps (a mile and a bit?). Normally I would swim 100-120 laps, but working my way back up.

After my swim, I drove over to a couple other gyms. I haven’t really been too happy with my current YMCA. It is just small and the zumba class I went to disappointed me (basically I had the most energy in the room…). I also want to start working out at 5am so I can get my workout done before work, but the Y doesn’t open until 5:30. So I got a tour at Retro Fitness and then headed down the road to find LA Fitness as well. Retro Fitness opens at 5am but doesn’t have a pool. LA Fitness opens at 6am and has a pool I can use any time! Basically I plan to join both gyms, because I want the flexibility to work out in the morning before work and I need a pool somewhere. Together, the gyms will cost me $1 more a month than I am currently paying for my gym, so it makes sense for me for all the open space and a pool to use whenever I want without worrying about little kid swim lessons.

After that I headed into the mall. I have needed new shorts for a while (aka years) as I only found one pair last year. I headed into JC Penny and found some shorts in the juniors section. I swear juniors sections of stores usually look more colorful than the women’s. I had to figure out my size though because they are junior sizes and I guess I am used to adult sizes now. Actually I never have a clue on my size. Every store is different these days which drives me nuts. I left with some tan shorts for a pretty good deal though.

I then headed into the Loft outlet and found some jean shorts. The shorts were over half off and fit nicely, so I had to get them. I continued walking through the mall and ended up getting a couple t-shirts for $6 each which was awesome!! I felt happy with my purchases after that and decided to head home and eat a late lunch/snack of ham and crackers outside while reading.

Then I washed my car windows. They got covered with pollen or tree stuff last week so my silver car was basically a yellow-green and I was tired of the dirty windows. I can finally see through the windows now! Now I just need a car wash so the rest of my car can sparkle.

I finally had some time to do some cleaning up and then I made dinner. I had marinated some shirataki noodles in soy and sesame sauce and some fresh ginger. I heated up some frozen stir fry veggies and cooked a chicken breast and then combined all of them together with some baby corn for stir fry.

It was so good!! Especially with the fresh grated ginger!! Once that was done, I had time to eat, write and relax.

Sunday

Yesterday wasn’t too eventful. I got up at 7:30 again and then made protein pancakes, my typical Sunday breakfast these days. Then I headed out for the train shortly after 9am. I arrived an hour early into the city before I was assisting for Yoga on the Banks, so I walked around the bike path and read for a while. The weather was perfect! Humid, warm and with a breeze. We saw the sun briefly during yoga, but only for a short period. It was fine though as it was plenty warm. The hour flew by while I assisted with the class and it went well. I look forward to many more weekends on the banks with the people that come by. The class is from 11-12 Saturday and Sunday and donation based. I thought that assisting would be a good place for me to start before teaching my own classes, wherever that might be in the future. If you are local to Philadelphia, definitely stop by 🙂

After that, I had some time before my train so I walked around the city, saw a craft fair happening and stopped in a couple stores, leaving empty handed because I didn’t want the items badly enough. Really I want to find a new swimsuit, so that is top of my shopping list now.

I got home around 2 and ate a late lunch. Then I enjoyed some reading time outside for a while. I came inside at the perfect time as it just started to rain. We need the rain, so it’s good. I prepared dinner and then relaxed the rest of the evening.

This weekend was honestly just so enjoyable. I got over halfway through a book (just reading for fun) and got a lot of walking and time outside enjoying the fresh air. Now just one more full work week before a couple short ones since I am heading home to Chicago for a long Memorial Day weekend. Wow I can’t believe how fast this month is going, but I am truly enjoying each day more than I have in the last couple months.

Thank you Katie for hosting!!

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend #13 and Graduation

May 4, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

This last week was very emotional as I finished up my yoga teacher training. I am so happy to have my weekends back especially with this warm weather, but I will miss spending the weekend in the yoga studio with all the wonderful people I met. It was study, study and study till the test finally came.

I am a week late on recapping this, but still wanted to write it. Backing up to Friday, April 24^th after work. We began yoga teacher training with a student led class and then we ate. We had a wonderful potluck and everyone brought delicious food. We watched a movie talking about the yoga concepts we had learned. I actually thought it was a great way to wrap things up right before the test as I had been studying and seeing the terms on the screen was a great reminder of them. I made these cookies and this awesome variation on guacamole to go with chips.

We ended at 9 and then headed to the train. My train arrived on time, but then after leaving the city, we ended up on the wrong track for the next stop so we had to wait and reverse. In addition to that, I somehow ended up in the loudest car ever on the train with some fan that seemed broken. Eventually during our wait to reverse, I switched cars and it was the best peace and quiet ever! I also munched on some leftover cookies as I waited and stayed calm. As soon as I got home, I crashed right into bed.

April 25

Saturday morning I did some grocery shopping and tried to study. Our test was actually open book and I had marked my binder up with tabs for everything. This day was a little different for training as well since we had to meet up at the other studio, which I used to live by but now am about an hour away from, so I was not too happy about the driving. I left early and headed to Panera. My internet was down in my apartment so I used the Panera wifi and got an awesome lunch and my free birthday cookie.

At least that studying was a bit more successful being in a different area to spread out all my notes.

Then I headed to the studio at noon. We began with another yoga class, which was awesome. I honestly did not do much yoga in April since I moved away from the studio and was focusing on studying and getting back into weight lifting. After that we had a workshop with Wah. She is basically like a yoga celebrity I guess. Her music is often played at the studio where I did my training and is great for yoga classes. I want to get some of her CDs or something for when I teach. We did a bunch of chanting and partner work which was a lot of fun.

After the 3 hour workshop, we had a 3 hour break before Wah’s concert at the studio. It was a bit annoying to have such a long break and a late night when we had the test the next day, but we did what we could. Most of my yoga group went out for Thai food around the corner from the studio. The studio is in a little town so the stores and restaurants are pretty small. When we asked to move tables for a group of 9, it seemed like we took up half the restaurant. Service was also pretty slow for our group as we watched groups of two come in after us and leave before us. However, it was great to be enjoying a meal outside of the yoga studio with others and talk. The time really did fly by. When we finally all got our food, we ate it so fast (so no picture). It was delicious, but I probably wouldn’t go back there again due to the price of my pad thai.

Afterwards, some people wanted something sweet. Well, Village Treats happened to be across the street so we checked it out. I can’t eat ice cream, but as soon as I walked in, I saw chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and I was thinking, wow that sounds good. Again we took up the whole ice cream shop waiting in line but it was worth it. Though it was a bit of a chilly day to be eating ice cream for those who got some, but that cookie dough truffle was amazing!!! It really was like a partially baked cookie in a ball, dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Perfect!!

I can tell you that was eaten in probably .25 seconds but I had to take a picture because sprinkles…and also it is probably best I never knew about this place when I went to the yoga studio so much.

We got back in time for the concert and we weren’t sure what to expect, but actually I really enjoyed it. I only stayed for half of it though because while the music was awesome it was also kind of putting me to sleep because of how relaxing it was and with it being dark outside and a long drive, I needed to head out.

I got home at 10 and headed right to bed to try to sleep well before the final test.

April 26

Sunday morning I got up and made some protein pancakes and then cleaned (to procrastinate studying…). I took the train an hour earlier and hung out at a coffee shop by the studio for a bit, talking to a few other yogis in my training. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was trying to drink tons of water too as I felt a headache starting which may have been a combo of stress, nerves and the heat. Finally it was time for the test.

As soon as I got it and started going, turning pages and putting down answers, I knew it was going to be ok. I knew exactly where to find everything. Some things couldn’t be found in books and I would say the most challenging was creating 2 10 pose sequences. I finished in 2.5 hours and used about another half hour to review everything. Then I flipped it over and was done.

I made it through despite my head hurting a bit. After everything was done, I felt relieved and just hoped I passed. Brian drove down and picked me up from the studio which was way better than waiting an hour for the train, especially with my headache really coming on.

Honestly I got home at 6:30pm and laid in bed. I didn’t fall asleep, I just didn’t feel well. Headache, tired, stressed possibly. I felt really warm and thought I must be sick, like I was overheating. I even thought there was a chance I would have to call into work sick Monday [I really should have because the extra day of rest probably would have really helped me]. I took Tylenol and that eventually kicked in and I felt better around 8pm. I then got out of bed at 9 to watch the kick off of the Food Networks Spring Bake off. (Yes, priorities).

I went back to bed at 10, to sleep this time and slept amazingly well, which was good.

With Brian staying for the week, I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could, but I still had work. Lately I had not been looking forward to work. I didn’t realize how many emotions I was balling up inside me until mid week when I finally broke down while talking to Brian about many things. Brian is much more laid back than I am, which helps me in some ways when I am creating too much stress for myself. After Wednesday, I really felt more like myself again and each day got better. After our long chat that night, I had also signed up for the free stress workshop by Alisha at Alisha’s Appetite. It really could not have been better timing. Sometimes you just need reminders on what to do to live with every day life stressors, etc.

May 1

Friday morning, all the yogis received an email that we all passed. That was good to hear. We were told as long as we didn’t hear anything, we were to show up for graduation. How awful would it be if we showed up and didn’t graduate?!

After that email, I was even more relieved. Friday evening we gathered in a circle, chanted, congratulated each other and reflected on our experience. What is amazing to me is that on May 2, 2014 was the day I showed up to the Yoga Garden for the teacher training meeting, only my first week living in the Philadelphia area and still jobless at the time. Now a year later, I am over 10 months at my current job and spent the last 6 months on weekends training and studying yoga. While I still have not figured out entirely what I want to do with my life, I am really happy to know how far I have grown in the last year.

Since this is long enough, let’s end with a few pictures. My teacher took a bunch of group photos and hopefully will email them to us soon. We enjoyed a dinner after our graduation and plan to meet up for coffee/tea once a month to get together and plan a 1 year reunion. It will be weird not seeing everyone so often.

Also, another note, I met those two lovely ladies in the picture on May 2, 2014. Great to be graduating with them!! Also one of my teachers is photo bombing in the background 🙂

Birthday Throwback

April 9, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Hey guys!! Today is my 25th birthday!! So you know what I am excited about? I can now rent a car without that extra $20/day and I am looking forward to lowering my car insurance. OK that isn’t all that exciting but it is in some ways, more money in my pocket for future travels right?

Anyway today is Thursday which means it’s #ThrowbackThursday or #tbt. After looking at my Timehop today (yeah I am addicted to it), I thought it would be fun to put together some of my pictures of my previous birthdays. I even found some really old ones in my 1 photo album I put together. ~~Once upon a time~~ sometime before I started college, my parents found my box of baby pictures and basically it was the pictures of me up until we moved when I turned 7 years old. These pictures were lost for a while which made finding a baby picture for class projects really difficult, but luckily it was eventually found. So I spent ~~some~~ a lot time sorting through them when my friend gave me a photo album for one of my birthdays. I have to say that was one of my favorite gifts. I know things are all digital now, but I still like photo albums and flipping through the pages. Maybe I will make one on Shutterfly sometime. But where were we, let’s get back to me, because I mean today is all about me right? Well and Susie, cause it’s her birthday too 🙂

So this picture was from sometime around my first birthday is my guess. See, I was adorable!!

Next let’s skip a few years and jump into my 5th birthday. I had my 4th birthday at McDonald’s in the play area. There was a carousel. I have no idea how this was fun and I don’t remember the last time I ate McDonald’s but yes I had a birthday at McDonald’s. I remember watching the home movies of the times, which reminds me, I still need to convert those to DVD sometime and off of those little VHS tapes.

Then my 6th birthday was at Chuck-E-Cheese because pretty much every kid had at least one birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese. My sister was only a few months old at the time.

Don’t you just love the 90s style of clothing!!

Now let’s jump a decade (because my old pictures, if digital, where most likely taken on my dad’s digital camera so those pictures are somewhere on discs at home). So 16th birthday, we played Twister!!

Then let’s jump to my 20th birthday, my second year at University at Buffalo. My bff, Mercedes came to visit and it was my first birthday with Brian in my life.

My 21st birthday was the most adventurous in Australia. My friend Jenny took me to the Blue Mountains and bought me a piece of cake at a chocolate shop which was so good! Then a couple days later, I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, because that is what I wanted for my birthday. Plus it fell on our semester break. Actually I only went to school 5 times on my birthday in my 22 years, as it was normally spring break.

My 22nd birthday in my apartment, senior year. Love this candid photo of me and Brian and my cookie cake of course. A cookie cake from Mrs. Field’s was usually my only request for my birthday and my favorite part was that he remembered to get my high school colors, orange and blue.

We’re skipped 23 because that was the worst, basically everyone forgot my birthday.

So onto 24. I was unemployed and just had a fun adventure in Philadelphia, NYC and DC before coming home and then I drove to Michigan to be with my bff Mercedes and her new baby for my birthday, because I was determined to make it better than my 23rd birthday. I spent the night there and woke up on my birthday and got to hold this little girl. Then I came home and found out that my mom actually bought me a cookie cake and a spiralizer (probably my most used birthday present ever).

And now here I am a year later, a quarter of a century old. Looking forward to lowering some costs and saving more money for adventures. My co workers got me a cake and decorated my cubicle. First time my cubicle has been decorated!

Then today I got another piece of cake and we had a lunch and learn session with delicious food at work. I already have a lunch with co workers tomorrow and a dinner tomorrow night as well. Basically this birthday seems to be about eating and eating. I guess I will take that. After all other people paying for my meals sounds good for me to save up money too!!

Since there is no Mrs. Field’s around and it is just me this year, I made myself a cookie cake last night. So yummy!! Cookies > cake

Also I can now do a headstand which I am pretty proud of. Still working on the second variation but it has been a while since I tried and I felt stronger today. I am definitely planning to build up my muscles again over the spring and summer to get back where I was before yoga teacher training and even stronger!!

Hope you enjoyed my birthday throwback!!

What do you look forward to for your birthday?

Massage and Shopping: MIMM#29

March 30, 2015 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Back to Monday, but I am feeling quite refreshed today and excited that it is a short week. This weekend was the most fun weekend I have had in a long time. Maybe shopping therapy actually works haha. Beginning Friday night, Brian was here since we are moving tomorrow and so he picked up some food from the Thai place down the street from our apartment. I will miss that place so wanted to eat there one last time. We enjoyed the food at home. I actually wasn’t too hungry after going out to lunch with my boss so I ate the spring rolls and a few bites of my pad thai. Then we headed to the movie theater to see Insurgent (Divergent 2). Since I read all the books last year, I didn’t exactly remember what happened in the second one, but parts came back as I watched the movie. I am always amazed at the acting in these movies for some reason.

After the movie we just came home and went to bed. Yep we are pretty boring.

Saturday morning I got up around 8am. I don’t remember the last time I have slept in so late. I am usually up by 7. I had some breakfast and watched some tv before heading out to the bank and my massage. It has been over a year since I got a massage and I have been wanting one since Christmas time and finally got around to finding a place. It was great to have a one hour massage and I definitely felt lighter afterwards and less stiff.

I got back to the apartment and Brian was finally up. We ate lunch and then I headed out to meet up with some yogis to practice adjustments in poses. I only stayed for an hour and then Brian and I headed to the Philadelphia Outlet mall. The mall was packed when we got there at 3pm. First Brian got something to eat. He decided on a Philly Cheesesteak so I tried a bite. It was my first time trying a cheesesteak. I am not really a fan of cheese and all that oil kind of grossed me out. However it wasn’t too bad. I mostly enjoyed the fries though and picking out some of the steak from the sandwich.

While eating we looked at a map of all the stores. I needed sneakers so I was happy that they had an Asics outlet store and we decided to head that direction first. It took a while before I figured out which shoes I wanted, but I was happy to have a new pair of sneakers to break in for the spring. We continued making our way around the mall, stopping in a few stores that interested us. I will talk more about what I got tomorrow for Treat Yourself Tuesday. Brian also got me a very nice birthday present.

A couple hours later and we started to make our way home, trying to figure out what to have for dinner and what to eat until Tuesday when we move. We got a few items at Wegmans and stopped at the King of Prussia mall. We wanted to eat at this great Mexican restaurant but the wait time was 50 minutes!! Then we tried a few other restaurants, but they all seemed to have an hour wait. Eventually we ended up at Panera which was fine by me. I wanted something light so I got the chicken avocado salad, which was good except for the cheese they added. Luckily it wasn’t mixed in too much so I was able to pick it out.

Finally we were on our way home, but then we passed Home Depot and knew we needed boxes and a mattress cover for moving, so we stopped there. Unfortunately they were out of mattress covers but we got a couple boxes and some foam wrap stuff for the kitchenware.

The one thing that was disappointing about the evening is I wasn’t able to get a pastry treat at Panera with my rewards because it was so late in the day there were no good ones left so I saved that for another time but I was thinking about cookies, so we made a quick stop at Insomnia Cookies. Their cookies were fresh out of the oven at 8pm which was awesome. They are open until 3am and they deliver too! I got a chocolate chip cookie and oatmeal raisin which were both consumed right when we got home. Brian got a peanut butter cookie and lemon cookie. I loved the cute box they put our cookies in.

To end the evening, we watched Big Hero 6. This movie was hilarious!! I definitely recommend it. I already want to watch it again.

Sunday morning I again stayed in bed until 8am. We were up pretty late anyway so it was nice to stay in bed and not be in a hurry anywhere. The sun was out and coming through the bedroom window which is my favorite thing. I love waking up to the sunlight. I made some protein pancakes for myself and I made some bacon egg cups for Brian for breakfast (forgot to take a picture but he said they were really good).

2015-03-29 08.48.42 — pancakes topped with strawberries and syrup

After breakfast, it was time to start packing. In an hour or so I had all my clothes except for what I might be wearing for the next two days packed. Then we got out the boxes we bought Saturday and I started figuring out how to pack up the kitchen. When I moved out of my house last year I didn’t have to pack kitchenware because I already had my box of a few random things from college still taped up, so it has been interesting packing up all the kitchenware and pantry and spices that I have. I am glad that most of our things are packed (aka I haven’t unpacked the boxes that my dad and sister delivered last August nor some of my own things). My desktop will probably be taken apart today while I am at work and Brian is home. Then it will just be the little things to sort through and stick into boxes or bags. We are hoping that between my car and Brian’s truck it will only take two round trips to the new place to get everything there.

In the afternoon I had to head down to the city for a meeting about Yoga on the Banks. I am hoping to assist some teachers for good experience to keep up with my yoga. Then Brian and I got some dinner at a BBQ place around the corner from my meeting. I went with the pork ribs.

Once we got home, I decided to quickly whip up some rice krispie treats with Easter colored M&M’s for work as well. I wanted to bring something for Easter this week but with moving wasn’t sure on a good day. Finally decided on Monday. These were quick and delicious. I had to taste one or two of them of course.

That wraps up my weekend. More packing to do after work today and then moving day tomorrow. I find it so hard to pack up the kitchen when I like to cook/bake daily.

Thanks Katie!

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