Weekend Recap – Page 36

Finally Registered: MIMM#18

November 3, 2014 by Alicia 6 Comments

This weekend was very productive with lots of yoga.My weekend began with Halloween yoga after work. Only one person wore some ears for dressing up, so at least I was not the only person who did not dress up. The class was small since most people were out trick or treating with their kids. We did some great hip openers and learned a new trick (for Halloween of course). I was actually super excited that I got the pose and had to do it a few more times once I got home. No idea what the name of the pose is but it’s a great arm balance.

After yoga I had to wait for what seemed like the longest 20 minutes ever because of the chill in the air at the train station. I took the train to yoga straight from work. I love how it’s so easy to take the train, but the waiting is not fun especially on cold nights. However I learned it was hailing and sleeting in Chicago, so I was glad I was not there. It was just cold here. I laughed at the sight of animals texting across the station though.

I honestly can not remember what I did once I finally got home. I think I just watched something on Netflix and went to sleep. I was tired lol.

Saturday I set my alarm to wake me up at 7am because I had to get an early start to once again try to get my PA drivers license and register my car. I ate breakfast and left shortly after 8. It had been raining since last night which caused me to not sleep that well and it was dark and gloomy outside. I would not have gone out except that I had to. I made the drive and got to the drivers license place. Then the lady at the front desk told me I had to pay by check or money order. I didn’t bring my checkbook with me and I didn’t want to drive all the way back home to get it. Luckily I was able to get a money order from the grocery store behind them. So first I went there to get my quick money order. Luckily I actually had enough cash on me for once. Then back to the DMV to get my number and wait. There were only 6 people ahead of me, but the wait was probably about a half hour. Then finally I got called, gave them all my papers and things started to go more smoothly. I then took my drivers license picture and got issued a temporary drivers license. My real one comes in the mail in two weeks. At least my photo seems to be better than my last picture from when I renewed my license in Illinois. You know how they say a camera adds 10 lbs. I’m pretty sure their camera added 10 lbs to my face in Illinois. Though I feel like I look even younger in my new photo…I don’t know..

Well after finally getting my license, I made a quick stop at Kohls next door because they gave me lots of coupons 2 weeks ago to use. Kohls has a massive selection of Frozen stuff. I came across this Olaf on sale for $199.99…I can’t even imagine buying a stuffed animal for that much and that was the SALE price. He had to be at least 4 feet tall though.

I decided to buy sheets so that I had an extra set, but then they rang up to be double the price I thought. Even after all my discounts, I wasn’t too pleased. [I returned them on Sunday, see below].

Next stop was to go get my car registered and get a PA license plate (singular!! still weird that I won’t have 2 plates). I waited for about another 30 minutes. However the service was great there. There was a guy constantly greeting people walking in and asking what they needed and giving estimated wait times. When I got there, I couldn’t believe my watch when it said 10:30am. It was so dark and gloomy and rainy that it seemed like many more hours had gone by. I was happy they didn’t though.

So I finally got my car registered and my single plate. Now I need to get my car inspected within 10 days. I swear it never ends. However it seems most of the hard parts are out of the way. Last week I also got my snow tires on and the 3 other tire sensors replaced. We’ll just say I spent a fortune, but I own the snow tires now and tire sensors seem to go bad after 5 years, so I hope I have another 5 years on them and I’m praying the tire light remains off for over a month this time, preferably many months.

Wooo…what a morning. I got home and ate something quick for lunch, grabbed my grocery list and headed to the mall then Wegmans, since they are next to each other. It has actually been a while since I have been to the mall. It’s funny cause when I first moved here, I was there a couple times a week. I got some gifts and found more affordable sheets at Macys. Then I got all my groceries and headed home for the rest of the afternoon.

I finally had a chance to sit down and do some of my yoga homework and relax. I even made some chicken fried rice for dinner which turned out so delicious.

I forgot to mention, I also finally bought a garlic press at the mall. Love Williams-Sonoma and it was 20% off.

Sunday morning was wonderful with that extra hour of sleep. Sunday was actually sunny too, which gave me more energy to get things done. I got up, did laundry and ate breakfast before I was off for double yoga. One yoga class was vinyasa and the next was gentle yoga so they were great classes to take back to back. It was also convenient to stop at Whole Foods on my way home from yoga.

After lunch, I drove to another Kohls location much closer to my apartment so that was good. I returned the sheets and because of all my discounts they gave me a store credit with the return. I also got another coupon in my email that morning and had a 15% off that expired Sunday. Since I couldn’t think of anything to buy for myself, there is a little girl that will be spoiled for Christmas and I left Kohls spending just over $1, which was awesome!!

The rest of my afternoon consisted of cleaning, cooking and yoga reading and ended the evening watching Nik Wallenda cross some skyscrapers in Chicago (of course that happened after I moved). I have to say after last weekend and knowing how much time yoga training takes from my weekend, I appreciate these “free” weekends more.

And because I don’t know how else to end this post, I think my headstand is improving. Although I am next to the wall, I didn’t have to use the wall to get my legs this straight this time. 🙂

Thank you Katie for hosting!! Hope everyone has a great Monday and Happy November!!

Yoga Teacher Training Weekend 1: MIMM#17

October 27, 2014 by Alicia 6 Comments

Is it really Monday already? The weekend kind of went by in a flash for me. I was running around in the little time I had in the mornings before yoga teacher training all weekend long.

Friday I packed my food bag, my yoga book bag and mat up and took the train to work.

Work couldn’t go by fast enough as I was excited for my evening of yoga teacher training. Finally 4:30 came and I decided to figure out the buses in Philly. I hopped on one bus and learned that my train pass works on the bus and then rode the bus half way to the yoga studio. I could have waited for another bus to basically be dropped off at the door of the studio but just decided to walk on Friday. It was beautiful outside. Maybe in the winter I will take both buses. Actually my company is moving a few blocks down in a month and then I have to figure out which bus to take again, so we will see.

My yoga studio is right next to Whole Foods and since I was an hour early, I stopped into Whole Foods, sat at a table and ate my dinner I brought and used their Wifi. After a half hour, I went over to the studio. I was the first one there of course and waited for another class to finish up before I could go in the studio and change, etc.

Eventually shortly after 6pm we started, as we were waiting for everyone to arrive. The first day we didn’t use our mats, just sat on blankets, played a name game and learned about what to expect and discussed our first book. We ended with a wonderful shavasana and were let out 20 minutes early which allowed me to get to the train station plenty of time before the train. Unfortunately the train schedule is not that great based on when the trainings end and since the train only comes once an hour in the late evening and weekends, if you miss that first train, you have to wait another hour. This will probably be the case most nights for me unfortunately.

I got home at 10pm and talked with my bf for a while on Skype before saying goodnight as I had a list of things to do in the morning before going to training.

Saturday I got up around 7am, made breakfast and headed to Wegmans. I got all my grocery shopping done, except I realized I forgot chicken stock for making shredded chicken. Luckily the yoga studio is next to Whole Foods and Superfresh which is another grocery store and I was able to pick that up later. After Wegmans, I took a quick walk over to Staples because we needed a binder for our yoga training manual. Then I created a quick cover for my binder and colored it. Yep I had time to color in the morning before leaving and I was quite proud.

I then had enough time to eat a bit of soup (something light since I wasn’t that hungry) while finishing Halloweentown 2 and then packed lots of snacks and a salad for my dinner. Then it was off to the train followed by 7 hours of teacher training. 7 hours looked like such a long day, but I have to say, it didn’t feel like 7 hours at all. We had multiple activities and we even started teaching in partners. It was awkward for everyone at first, but slowly we are learning how to switch up our words and describe the poses and sequence. It was only day 1 and by the end of the day, I definitely felt more comfortable with the sequence we were working on. Towards the end of the day, we started to learn adjustments. Adjustments are one of my favorite parts about going to a class at a studio. It is sometimes hard to tell whether your arm may be in the right place or you realize your hips are not exactly square and sometimes need a little push to see how it feels and then the next time the pose comes up, I try to readjust myself to get that feeling again.

We were all given a lot of information Saturday and now we have to find that balance when instructing, to not give too much info, but to give just enough that the class understands exactly what to do.

I feel like when I am in the teacher training, my mind is solely focused on yoga and I am really enjoying that. We have a wonderful group of people and I know over the next 6 months, we will really get to know each other, which I am excited about!!

Saturday evening I was able to walk to the train station with a few people from my class. I don’t mind walking around the city during the day, but in the dark and alone, I am not too fond of, so it was nice to have some company while walking to the train. Since we were all taking the same train as well, we had a good 40-50 minute wait together where we talked and the time passed by quickly. Another day was done and I got home shortly after 9pm. You would think I would have been exhausted but I somehow wasn’t and ended up cleaning up the kitchen and preparing snacks and even got my chicken going in the crockpot for overnight before finally heading to bed.

Sunday came and I definitely did not want to get out of bed. I actually got up at 6am to turn off the crockpot but then went back to bed until 7:30. Sunday morning was a bit more relaxing because I didn’t have to drive to the store and I planned it that way. I started my load of laundry and made a pancake breakfast, using up some of my FlapJack Protein Pancake mix. I loaded my breakfast with protein knowing that I would probably only have 2 main meals during the day and snack through lunch.

Then I did some meal prep, shredding the chicken I cooked overnight and roasting some veggies. I also prepared my lunch/dinner for yoga, making a chicken, avocado and red pepper wrap.

Finally it was time to rest and slow down. I had about an hour and a half to relax before taking the train to teacher training and that time was much needed. I started this post and watched some shows online.

I arrived at teacher training early and sat outside enjoying the warmth from the sun for a while with some of the other students. The teacher arrived and a class was finishing up before we could go inside. Once we got settled, we did some chanting and discussed our homework for the next time. Then we worked on sun salutations and variations of them for most of the afternoon. Saturday we were introduced to moon salutations and I got comfortable with leading those, but sun salutations threw me off a little yesterday because there were more poses to describe and even though I have done sun salutations hundreds of times, it was very different describing them. Definitely quite a learning experience throughout this journey.

We were let out on time and I walked to the train with other students and we had about 45 minutes to wait where we talked for a while. After spending the whole weekend with the same people, it is weird that I won’t see most of them for 2 weeks. I may see some of them as I attend yoga classes at the studio, but for the most part it will be two weeks. I am happy to have the 2 weeks though to do the homework and reading and get a start on my 50 required yoga classes.

I finally got home and saw that my yoga journal arrived from Amazon. My teacher recommended a journal to write down quotes and our thoughts throughout the process. I love to write and express myself so I think it will be very good for me and curious to see how my thoughts may change over the next 6 months.

It was a busy weekend filled with good company at yoga teacher training. Even though I know there will be times I question why I signed up for this, taking away my weekends and all the material we are going to learn, I am still feeling really excited about all of it and happy to deepen my practice and share yoga with others in the future. The yoga community is always so supportive and I love how even though teaching this weekend to just our partner was awkward, we are all getting more comfortable with the cues and being with one another.

Thank you Katie for hosting and one day I hope to practice yoga with you!!

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.

When Bloggers Plan My Meals: MIMM#15

October 13, 2014 by Alicia 8 Comments

Happy Monday!! Happy Columbus day for you lucky folks that have off and happy Thanksgiving to Canadians!!

I am a little annoyed that I have to work today since I do accounting and well the banks are closed today, but we work a day behind so basically I will have to figure out how to spend 3 hours of my day tomorrow when there is no cash to reconcile. Oh well…moving on.

This weekend was pretty good. I was super productive on Saturday so then on Sunday I got to relax most of the day and hang around the apartment catching up on emails and such. Last week I was out of town and didn’t have time to prep food for the week so my meals mostly involved some defrosting from the freezer with the fresh veggies I had picked up on Sunday. This week I wanted to try some new recipes as I have become tired of eating the same thing and I will be starting yoga teacher training in 11 days, so I will be needing to pack some dinners to go soon.

I can not tell you enough how much bloggers have changed my life. They introduce me to new foods that I never would have tried before, like spaghetti squash. Umm I had never heard of this squash before last year. I know that is probably crazy, but I’m not really a squash person so other than the frozen squash my mom used to buy and the butternut squash she recently started to buy, I had no idea what other squashes were out there. Spaghetti squash caught my interest though and I made it for the first time last year when it was in season and loved it.

This year when fall hit and I saw the spaghetti squashes I was so excited to buy one, but I now don’t live with my parents and that means I am short on kitchen stuff, so cooking a spaghetti squash meant I needed a pan to bake it in. Well I finally purchased a pan this weekend at Target and they actually had a 20% off sale on Pyrex stuff which was sweet and I got to make my spaghetti squash. I decided to make this recipe from Liz with a few tweaks. I did not use tomato sauce. I just used a bit more of olive oil and tomatoes.

Bloggers have also introduced me to quinoa. I tried making quinoa a few weeks ago, but I just added some onion and other veggies and wasn’t sure what to think of it. Saturday night for dinner, I made this recipe from Lisa’s blog. Instead of butternut squash though, I used sweet potatoes. Turned out pretty good, though I am still iffy on the quinoa flavor. The balsamic vinegar and honey dressing was good though and the vegetables over powered the quinoa so that worked for me. I also roasted the brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes in the over for 45 minutes before adding them to the pan to mix everything together.

Of course I had to have some fall themed dessert after dinner, so I whipped up a quick batch of these amazing truffles by Erin. Though I think I had too much pumpkin, at least when covered in chocolate they held together well, but storing the remainder in the freezer since they were melting quickly in my hands.

Sunday continued the blogger recipes with trying Arman’s recent chocolate chunk cookies for breakfast. Though I made them after eating some pancakes and then ate one cookie just to taste and saved the rest for snacking. I don’t think my batter resembled any sort of “dough” and the cookies were not very photographic, but they were light and fluffy and tasty. As long as it tastes good, that is all that matters.

I really don’t know what I would do without the amazing blogger recipes out there. It is very nice when they plan my meals for the week especially when they are budget friendly too.

After a rainy and cloudy Saturday, it was perfectly sunny on Sunday and I enjoyed some yoga outside and some headstanding inside (because I still need the wall just a bit).

I am really embracing the beauty of Fall this year! I love the colorful leaves on the ground and the sunny days where I get some time outside to enjoy it!!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Thank you Katie for hosting!

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