Weekend Recap – Page 24

The Snow is Melting!! MIMM #56

February 1, 2016 by Alicia 4 Comments

Happy Monday!! Today is a particularly marvelous Monday because I am heading to Disney world tonight. YAY!! I swear I have been trying to get there for like 3 years now and really want to see Harry Potter World at Universal too. Finally it is happening. I am working part of the day before taking the train to the airport today. So besides this post, I plan to be MIA the rest of the week but you can always find me on Instagram (@ilabk or my blog Instagram @bridgesthroughlife).

It’s so weird to think that a week ago (when I am writing this on Sunday) I was digging my car out of 22 inches of snow and now, the snow is melting away so quickly.

We had temperatures above freezing everyday this week and many sunny days, which I am loving. Temperatures overnight are still below freezing so the morning isn’t fun when all the melted snow turns to icy sidewalks. Luckily my apartment has a shuttle bus to the train so I have been taking that as there aren’t really sidewalks to the train. In the city walking to my office building there are some places becoming icy but hopefully most of the snow will be melted in the next week other than the massive piles.

Anyway onto the weekend. Friday was pretty low key. I heated up some soup for dinner, watched Along Came Polly and nearly fell asleep on the couch before 9pm…yeah I’m boring.

Saturday morning, I headed to Wegmans, wished them a Happy Birthday

and managed to spend over my weekly budget of groceries even though I was just restocking staples because I am headed on vacation. I guess that’s what happens when you are snowed in and haven’t gone grocery shopping in a week and a half though…

I came back home, did some laundry, had a snack and then went to the gym to sub a yoga class. After class one guy came up to me and said “wow, you’re the real deal, that was challenging.” Sometimes (OK all the time) I stress so much about making the yoga sequence and having it be long enough and wondering if I am explaining the poses well enough. I set a pretty high standard for myself but I know it will all come with practice and slowly I am getting more comfortable teaching. Having great comments like this helps me feel better about my yoga teaching because I definitely don’t consider myself a power yoga teacher and I like to keep my voice at a calm tone. I think it is great that I can still get the class breaking a sweat mid way through and have a great cool down session with twists and savasana at the end. It is all about balance and I am going to keep on learning about what works and what doesn’t.

After yoga, I stayed at the gym for zumba which was fun. Then I did little shopping at Target (the bad part about Target being next to the gym is it is just so convenient to stop there more when I teach).

I came home and Brian had arrived shortly before me. I made some sausage for a late lunch and we enjoyed a laid back afternoon on the couch, watching Netflix.

Before I knew it, it was dinner time, I got some good looking zucchini at the store and had to spiralize that up. Cooked up the rest of the sausage and roasted a sweet potato. I also had some avocados to use, so I used one and made an avocado sauce for the zoodles. OMG avocado + zoodles = AMAZING!!

After dinner, to get ourselves up and moving, we headed to the mall to walk around a bit. After that I was so tired, but we drove around for a bit and then as we were almost home, there was an accident or something closing the road, there were multiple police cars, firetrucks, an ambulance, it had to be bad. I tried to search for something on the news online because it was only a few months ago that someone was killed on that same curve with a hit and run, but I couldn’t find anything. Anyway, we had to turn around and come down the opposite end of the street and finally made it home.

Sunday morning it was nice to sleep in a bit longer. I made pancakes for breakfast and then started to pack before heading out to teach yoga at noon. When I got home, we went out to lunch at Muscle Maker Grill. I got a delicious quinoa, kale and chicken wrap.

We came home and it was so nice outside we decided to open the windows and air out the apartment and clean a bit. Always nice to clean before vacation because then you don’t get overwhelmed when you return. In the evening, I made the same dinner as Saturday night because Brian enjoyed it so much and then we parked it on the couch for the night.

I hope everyone has a great week and I will be back next week with vacation recaps.

Snowed In: MIMM#55

January 25, 2016 by Alicia 4 Comments

Hello friends!! Did everyone in the storm’s path survive? Did you go crazy being at home?

Well I made it and didn’t go crazy. I enjoyed my time at home and not going out. It was like gaining time in a sense because I did my shopping on Wednesday. Definitely worth it. Watching that Trader Joes line in the city from Thursday to Friday was INSANE! I mean people were standing outside, waiting in line to get IN the store. I am sure their shelves were left pretty bare.

Friday I was anxiously waiting to see this snow start. Last winter, most of the storms missed Philadelphia when they called for one. This one, even SEPTA called in advance that they were suspending most of their service on Saturday and a state of Emergency for Pennsylvania and other states was declared. In fact Sunday morning, Regional Rail lines were still suspended, but buses and the subway were running.

Anyway the snow seemed to start right away 7pm Friday as they said. In just the first hour, the grass the sidewalk was covered with a dusting of snow.

By Saturday morning, a foot of snow had already fallen on Philadelphia. I made myself breakfast and headed out to walk around and look at how buried my car was. I lost my feet when stepping outside.

I worked on a yoga sequence in the morning and read for a bit. I just finished the book Big Magic! So good!!

After lunch I finally went outside to at least brush off my car. That snow was deep! I also took a walk down to the river which was very high and it was quite windy.

After a bit of walking, it was time to get back inside and warm up again. I spent the afternoon reading, doing laundry, listening to Heather Waxman on Periscope and working on the blog a bit.

Shortly after 4pm, my internet decided to only sometimes work. I don’t know why, maybe everyone was suddenly up and online or something, but Netflix, Periscope, Instagram, Facebook, all weren’t working. I headed outside again and found a neighbor with a shovel and got to work shoveling out my car a bit. The snow was still coming down though and after about 30 minutes or so, I decided to head in as it was getting dark and I knew the plow would come through again.

I made myself some chicken stir fry for dinner and ended the evening on the couch, coloring and watching Property Brothers marathon. At least I have basic cable since Netflix was down. I also had plenty of DVDs if need be.

In the evening I got a call from my supervisor at the gym that they were canceling all classes on Sunday, which was a relief because I still couldn’t get my car out.

Sunday morning I woke up to beautiful sunshine reflecting off the snow. The snow is always so pretty in the sunlight. I made pancakes for breakfast again and then headed outside. More people were outside digging out their cars Sunday morning. After some work and moving my car back and forth multiple times, I was able to get my car to move in and out of its spot. I didn’t need to go anywhere but moved the car so I could shovel the sides better and I knew the plow would be making its way back through eventually so every little bit of work I could do so I can move my car tonight for teaching was good.

I then took a walk down to the river. It’s always beautiful on sunny days. I decided to plop my butt into the snow and make a snow angel too. Though with the deep snow it was tricky to get up. Still so much fun!! #kidatheart

After some playing in the snow, I made my way back in to write and work on another yoga sequence. Then there was time for more playing. I loved seeing adults and kids outside hiking through the snow and falling back making snow angels. I brought my tripod outside and did a wheel pose, because it’s always necessary 😉 . I had to find a spot that wasn’t too deep though.

I got my workout in by jumping in 20 inches of snow to get some awesome action shots.

Then it was time to rest, write, color and watch tv. Not too exciting in the afternoon. Luckily the sun was out the whole day and really helped the roads and the parking lot with the snow. Hopefully my car is still in the clear for teaching yoga tonight.

Thanks Katie!!

Penguins and Date Night: MIMM #54

January 18, 2016 by Alicia 1 Comment

Hello all!! Hope you had a great weekend. Some of you may be lucky and even have today off. Unfortunately I have to work today. My company gives us President’s day off in February instead of today. It is nice though since otherwise we wouldn’t have any days off in February and the office should be quiet today.

My weekend was pretty relaxing. Brian came down and Friday night we went to get Five Guys and watched 30 Rock.

Saturday was more exciting. I went to the gym in the morning and got a short weight workout in, which was nice after some much needed rest days this past week. I came home and made some protein pancakes so Brian and I enjoyed a nice brunch.

Around noon, we headed to New Jersey and went to the Adventure Aquarium. They recently got some Little Blue Penguins from Australia which were so cute. They even had little houses in some nice beach colors.

We also got a tour of the big tank filled with sharks, sting rays, turtles and a bunch of fish. They have volunteer divers to help keep up with the tank maintenance. I enjoyed seeing the big turtles swimming near the top.

And since it was 50 degrees outside, I took advantage of the weather and did a bridge with Philadelphia in the background.

We then walked around the malls around Cherry Hill for a couple hours before heading to Seasons 52 for dinner. This restaurant was so good. We enjoyed grilled artichoke, soup and salad for appetizers and then my main dish was filet mignon and Brian got the seabass and carmelized Brussel sprouts. We were planning to skip dessert but then the cutest little dessert cakes/mousse were brought over to us. I got the smores one and Brian got the peanut butter.

After dinner, our tummies were happy and full which was good since we headed to the grocery store afterwards. Much easier to shop with a full stomach so you don’t grab everything in sight.

Finally it was time to head home. We spent some time catching up with my sister on Skype and then relaxed on the couch for the evening.

Sunday was pretty laid back. Brian enjoyed the couch all day. I was attempting to make waffles for breakfast. The first one turned out terribly and stuck, but once I washed and regreased the waffle iron, I slowly got the hang of it and got 2 decent sized waffles. I worked on some blogging in the morning then I went to go teach my first Sunday yoga class at noon.

The class went well. Thanks to some inspiration from Yoga Girl on Thursday night. I had some fun with a bit of core work with them and it seemed that people enjoyed it. One guy even mentioned he doesn’t usually break a sweat in yoga, but he did in my class. I figured a Sunday noon class should have a bit of a workout and was glad I was able to do that and keep the balance of connecting to your breath and mind throughout practice.

When I got back home, it was time to eat some lunch and work on changing up my yoga sequence to prep for tonight’s class. It started snowing on my way home from the gym also. I think it was Philadelphia’s first snow of the season. I mean there was a bit of a dusting last week but none by my apartment and it actually continued to snow most of the afternoon, sticking to the grass.

In the evening I enjoyed working in the kitchen, making tofu stir fry for dinner and some dark chocolate almond butter cups for a sweet treat. I think yoga teaching is helping bring my creativity out again. It may be hard to brainstorm different sequences but I am glad my brain can be put to work a bit more.

Now it’s back to the work week. Hope everyone has a great week and if you have today off, enjoy!

Philadelphia Flyers Game: MIMM#53

January 11, 2016 by Alicia 2 Comments

Today is Monday and the temperatures are supposed to be back to 30 degrees and it was above 60 yesterday!! I mean it felt like summer again after our cold (normal temps) week. After the rain passed, the sun finally came out in the afternoon and I was soaking it up from inside at my desk. I love it when the sun is shining and lights up my apartment. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

On Saturday I attended my second ice hockey game of my life (first was in Jan 2014 Blackhawks in Chicago). I know, I know. 25 years and 2 ice hockey games. I only go when I can enjoy it suite style and am offered some tickets. HA! I got my shopping done Saturday morning and then left shortly after 11am to drive to the subway train line. It was easier since it comes every 15 min on the weekend, otherwise I would have been stuck waiting probably an hour at the other train station waiting. There are a million stops, but besides that, the subway wasn’t too bad and worked out well. I didn’t quite figure out the free transfer part as I exited and then went through again to the second train, but luckily I have a pass so it doesn’t really cost me anything. I figured out the transfer on the way back since there were crowds to follow.

I arrived at the Wells Fargo Center and decided to enter through the VIP door, because I figured suite = VIP. It went fast and then I had to find my way to an escalator. I accidentally took the really tall escalator instead of the one on the right side of the really tall one per the instructions from some staff, so then I took an elevator one floor down and found my way to the suite. About 5-10 minutes later, my boss and his wife arrived and the bank representative came who offered us the tickets. I don’t follow sports at all, but it was fun to watch the game, chat, eat and enjoy the suite life. We had another family in our suite and their two boys were having the time of their lives.

The Philly Flyers won to the New York Islanders 4-0, so that made it exciting that the home team won.

Going home, they had an express train to the city and then I switched to my train to my car. Going home seemed faster and I was back by dinner time, but not hungry after munching on food all afternoon. I have had this urge to bake the last couple days and finally I had some time and made Amanda’s soft and chewy banana granola bars. I made the protein version and used agave for the sweetener. If you like banana bread and granola bars, this is a perfect hybrid of the two!

The rest of the evening, I relaxed on the couch, reading a magazine, sipping some tea and doing a crossword in the magazine (I’m terrible at crosswords, but I think I only looked up maybe 25% of the questions lol). Relaxing on the couch is always perfect for me to wind down the evening and get me tired.

I slept nearly 10 hours Saturday night. I guess I needed it. Sunday morning I woke up around 8am, made breakfast and decided to head right to the gym. I switched up my routine and did Kasey’s workout she posted, except for the resistance band (forgot to bring mine and my gym doesn’t have any) and I did my own burnout (or rather attempted one).

After feeling like I wouldn’t be able to lift my arms the rest of the day, I came home, had a snack and then decided to go to the mall. I wanted to try to find a yoga CD as I might be teaching soon and I recently got a giftcard for Macy’s so I checked out the winter coats on sale. Unfortunately I left empty handed. I wasn’t pleased with the coat selection and I didn’t find a yoga CD so I went to Amazon for that.

When I came home, I was starving and whipped up some steak fajitas with guacamole on top.

Then it was time to meal prep some turkey meatballs, using Susie’s recipe. I haven’t made turkey meatballs in a while and they always end up dry, so I tried Susie’s method of cooking and I think they came out better.

You also may notice some changes around here. I figured out the menu bar and added a contact page. My email address is on my About page, but I am sure the Contact page stands out more. Thanks to Davida and Lee hosting the blogger challenge this month, I am finally working on my blog more and learning new things.

This weekend I also decided to create a separate Instagram just for my blog. I don’t want people to be overwhelmed by my yoga challenge photos on my other account. So follow me @bridgesthroughlife over on Instagram and if you do like tons of yoga photos, my first account is @ilabk.

Hope everyone has a great start to their week.

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