MIMM – Page 12

Cold Weekend Relaxing Indoors: MIMM#58

February 15, 2016 by Alicia 2 Comments

Good morning everyone. Happy President’s Day!! Do you have off of work today? I do and I am happy to spend another day sleeping in (which pretty much means I am up at 7:30am). I had a pretty good balance of productive and relaxing weekend.

Friday night I caught up with my parents and a couple friends on the phone which was nice. Saturday was my super productive run-all-the-errands day. I decided to go to the gym shortly after 8am and then came home to change and head to Cherry Hill. I wanted to see the movie “How to be Single.” Being that I am cheap and a morning person, I went to the first showing of the day at 10:10am. I was only the third person in the whole theater! By the way for this weekend it was just me, myself and I for Valentine’s, but that was OK as I had a growing to do list. Brian wasn’t around but we will celebrate next time he comes down.

I enjoyed the movie and then went to get my groceries at Wegmans. Oh and besides the cold, which I knew about in the forecast, it decided to snow while I was in the movie so I came out of the movie and had to brush off my car. There was definitely no snow in the forecast. In fact when I checked in the morning it said 0% precipitation…lies. At least I have snow tires and it only stuck a little but the wind kept blowing it away.

So I drive over to Wegmans and it is crowded so finding a parking spot was tough, but then I finally see one open and then I notice 3 shopping carts half in the space. Like really?! I mean I realize it was towards the back of the lot and it is cold, but really?! It annoys me that people can’t run over and put their cart where it belongs. Luckily I could still fit my car in the spot and left room for the carts but then, the nice person I am, I dragged those 3 carts (which is hard to steer and my hands were freezing) to the cart spot where a Wegmans worker was rounding up the carts anyway and happily took them from me. My good deed for the day. I mean with the wind we had, I didn’t want these carts running into my car or the other people’s cars they were all next to.

Anyway I got my shopping done and headed home. By then it was well past lunch time so time to eat. I worked on my yoga sequence and practiced some yoga for 30 minutes.

Then I headed back into the cold to go to Staples and Kohls. Luckily they are in the same plaza and while I would usually walk between them, it was too cold for that Saturday and I drove between them.

I finally organized my yoga sequences I have been writing into a binder, which was my reason for going to Staples. It helped to clean up all the papers on my desk. Felt good to see a bit more of my desk and be more organized.

I cooked up a hamburger for dinner and then made some muffins for a little valentine’s treat.

I then spent the evening watching a movie on Netflix and then Skyping with Brian for a bit before bed.

Sunday was less eventful. I was productive in the morning with cleaning and working on some blog posts, but then I just decided to read for a bit. I mean that isn’t totally lazy at least. I am almost done with the book Bossypants by Tina Fey and if you haven’t read it, go pick it up now, or buy the paperback for like $5 on Amazon. Seriously so good. I can’t put it down and that is rare for me and books.

I didn’t want to leave and enter the cold 8 degrees feels like -8 temps, but I had to teach yoga. I decided to go a bit early and walk a mile on the treadmill to warm up a bit and so I didn’t feel so lazy looking at my lack of steps on my fitbit for the day. I really like walking on the treadmill for a bit before yoga as it does warm my body up especially with the cold weather. There were 16 brave soles that came to yoga and I had a wonderful heart opening sequence for them for Valentine’s Day.

After yoga, I came back home, ate a snack like lunch and then continued reading Bossypants. One thing I was happy about with the weather was that at least it was sunny. In the morning, the sun shines into my bedroom and warms it up (where I hung out with my book in the morning) and then the early afternoon it comes more into the living room. So I probably looked weird, but I was just sitting on the floor or my foam roller and reading in the sunlight by my patio door. Yep, that’s what I do, chase the sun around my apartment. I can’t wait for summer and soaking it up outside by the pool.

Feeling like I needed to do something, I got into the kitchen and marinated some turkey cutlets and then baked them in the oven. I have to experiment with the bake time a bit as I think they got a bit over done, but still tasty. I put together a great dinner plate (in my opinion) as I celebrated self love for Valentine’s day and fueling my body with clean eats.

Do you like my heart tomatoes?

I still felt like I needed something more since it was Valentine’s and all, so I decided to whip up Jenn’s cupcakes. I actually first made these last year as a late valentine’s celebration dinner with Brian and they were amazing. I saved the other two for today probably after dinner. I used the peanut butter frosting recipe but lightened it up only using 1/2 cup of powdered sugar so my frosting was a bit more liquidy than I would have liked, should have decreased the milk too, but it was still perfectly peanut butter like.

I ended the night watching Gilmore Girls and reading some more before bed.

Saturday flew by being in and out of the car, but Sunday was slower paced and it was perfect to have that balance. Today’s to do list includes making a couple more yoga sequences as I teach tonight and tomorrow night and planning to go to the gym mid morning for a zumba class that I can never go to because of work. I love working out on holidays! Probably will do some weights too.

Do you have today off? If so, what are your plans?

Did you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

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.

New Year’s 2016: MIMM #52

January 4, 2016 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy-New-Year-Clip-art-Images Happy first Monday of 2016!! Did you finish setting your goals for the year yet? I am still brainstorming some and I need to write them down so I don’t forget them. I did write down some of my blog goals though. I am participating in The Blogger Project’s blog challenge this month.

I did have a great weekend though. It was really nice that New Year’s Day fell on a Friday this year so that I could enjoy a 3 day weekend. I got some much needed sleeping in time and also got back on track with my workouts.

Thursday evening for New Year’s Eve, Brian met me in the city. I got out of work shortly after 3pm and walked to Reading Terminal to get a donut with Brian, pre dinner appetizer right?! The line was the longest I have ever seen it, but it moves fast and it was delicious!

Then we walked around for a bit until our dinner reservations at 5pm at Le Castagne. Brian loved my pick. I am so glad that I have work lunches that bring me to different restaurants around the city.

After dinner we headed over to the Franklin Museum to see Star Wars in IMAX. I think I have seen bits and pieces of Star Wars but can’t really recall. Brian told me I looked really into it though and I was. It was good that I didn’t have to have complete knowledge of the previous movies to see this one. I enjoyed it.

By the time we took the train home, it was nearly 11pm. It wasn’t long until midnight but I barely made it. I’m pretty sure I might have fallen asleep for 20 minutes or so. Once we watched the countdown, it was off to bed.

New Year’s Day was pretty laid back. Slept until 9am, got up and ate, took a mini nap, had lunch and then headed to the movies. Yes I took a nap after sleeping in. I was really tired apparently, or maybe just lazy for the 1^st day of the year. Brian and I went to see Sisters, which I saw over Christmas and LOVED! I rarely go to see a movie twice while it is in theaters, but this one I wanted Brian to see and I wanted to see it again anyway, it was sooo good! Brian was dying laughing and still laughing in the afternoon and evening thinking about the movie.

We then ran some errands, decided on dinners for the weekend and bought groceries and then headed home to start cooking. We made fajitas for dinner and mixed up some drinks. We were both too tired to mix drinks New Years Eve when we got home at 11pm, so we had drinks New Year’s Day. I made this citrus cocktail. I have found that I love citrus flavors.

I used the Bai bubbles Grapefruit sparkling water as the base of the drink. My first time trying those sparkling waters and it was really good. They will be nice treats in the future as they are a bit pricey.

It was another late evening just staying up and talking, which I enjoyed. We don’t get much time to talk in person so we treasure the time we have together.

Saturday morning I tested out my new waffle iron that Brian’s parents got me. It is small, but the perfect waffle size to me. It took a couple tries, but finally we got a good one. It will definitely take practice to get the timing right.

Then I headed to the gym for a swim. The pool water was really warm which made it hard to swim, because my body just felt so relaxed. I pushed through the first hard 30 laps and then it got a bit better. A few sets later and I was finally at 120 laps which seemed like a good place to stop for the day seeing as I wanted energy for the rest of the day.

Once I got home, Brian ordered Chinese food and we had lunch. Then we headed out to the outlet mall. We were driving and driving and we ended up way past the outlet mall, but then after pulling over and checking the map, we were not too far from another outlet mall so we went there instead. Brian wanted shoes but this outlet mall didn’t have the store he was looking for, instead, I ended up leaving with 4 shirts and a pair of pants… The pants were a little pricey even after the discount, but I didn’t have any navy blue pants or straight leg so at least it is a different style. I also picked 2 old shirts from my closet to get rid of and replace with my 2 new casual shirts.

We had our dinner cooking in the crock pot, so when we got home, we dug into the bbq pulled pork and had dinner while watching 30 Rock on Netflix.

Sunday morning, I made myself a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and then headed out to the gym shortly after 9am. I wanted to get my squats in and increased by another 10 lbs. YAY!! My legs were jell-o by the end of the workout.

I decided Sunday was cleaning day. I worked on taking down the Christmas tree, vacuuming and cleaning up the kitchen. I had overflowing recyclables since Christmas, but our bins have been overflowing since then too. Luckily with a big apartment complex, I realized that one recycling bin at the other end of the parking lot wasn’t being used. It amazes me how lazy some people are. There are 2 garbage bins and 2 recycling bins next to each other at the other end of the lot, but I think because of the way the garbage bin is facing it makes it harder to open the top and so instead the first bin is overflowing… So I finally got some steps in, in the afternoon, carrying multiple loads to the farther recycling and trash bins.

I was really happy that Saturday and Sunday were finally really sunny. Even if the temps were a bit chilly, the weather was decent for this time of year and the last 2 weeks I have hardly seen the sun with all the rain and clouds we have had. It really makes a difference in my mood when it is sunny.

Now it is time to start this new year and back to 5 day work weeks, but working on some vacation planning to look forward to as well.

Did you do anything fun for New Year’s?

Workouts, Gifts and Food: MIMM#50

December 21, 2015 by Alicia 2 Comments

Ah the last weekend before Christmas, how did that come up so quickly? There were not enough hours in the days this weekend. It went by quickly. Despite not having any real plans other than my workouts, I came up with a project Saturday afternoon and the day flew by. Sunday was more relaxing, as always, but still seemed to go by way to fast. I am excited for a long weekend for Christmas. Now getting back to this past marvelous weekend.

Friday afternoon, my work had a holiday reception from 2-4. Last year we had a sit down lunch and we got gifts of chips and salsa and a beautiful chip tray. This year was a bit on the cheaper side with basically a mid day happy hour (no complaints when you get to leave work early though). I don’t drink and we had probably 30-40 people crowded in this little bar. I was mentioning to some other people how we should have done that plus bowling or even if we had a bigger place with a pool table. Instead the place was packed with our group. I did have some regular iced tea and happily dug into the chips and guacamole on the table. That was pretty delicious. I made my way around talking to different co workers about holidays and such and then started to talk to one of our newer employees who didn’t know many people. We actually had a great time getting to know each other. We didn’t talk about work once, just our families and decisions we made in life and such. It was really great and before we knew it, it was 4:30. What?!? Time flew and I wanted to catch my usual train home.

I think the best thing was that I didn’t look at my phone for like 3 hours on Friday and really enjoyed the present moment the best I could. Because honestly, I am uncomfortable in bar settings and it is really hard to have conversations when it is so loud. Talking in a back corner away from the crowd was great and talking about topics other than work with your co workers to get to know them, even better.

I arrived home at my usual time and decided to catch up with my dad and sister as they were just about arriving back in Chicago after my dad went to pick my sister up from school in Iowa. Only my dad leaves at a crazy early hour in the morning for a 5 hour drive and then drives back the same day. He said he got a nap though while my sister drove for about half the trip.

I ate a light lunch thinking I would eat more at our holiday reception, so I was kinda hungry and decided to make some chicken nuggets I had in the freezer for dinner and then ate a bowl of cereal, while winding down the night with a movie. Though it was hard for me to wind down Friday night. I seem to get a social high and come home a ball of energy after events. I mean it could have been the 3 cookies I ate earlier…or the fact that I usually have more energy at home, but it was hard to relax Friday night and took me a while to get to sleep.

Saturday I was in and out of my car too many times, but that is what happens when you do all your shopping on one day. I got in a swim around noon and made it 2 miles. I didn’t push for 2.5 this time as I had planned to work on a yoga sequence and wanted to still have some energy afterwards. I say “planned” but that didn’t actually happen. Instead I came home after swimming, ate a snack and then had the idea of making jar mixes for my co workers. I wanted to give a gift to my boss since he kindly gave me one last year. I also thought it would be nice to give a little something to the co workers I sit by and always make me laugh. Conveniently, Davida and Lee came up with DIY jars for holiday gifts. I loved that I could easily look back at their combined post of all the jars. I decided to use Lee’s Snickerdoodle pancake recipe and then my own cookie recipe for a jar. Since I had most of those ingredients, it was easy. I just needed to get the right size jar and then a few extra baking things I was running low on.

I bought a jar half the size that Lee mentioned in her post so that it would easily be 1 batch of pancakes instead of a double. I was totally experimenting when it came to putting my cookie recipe in a jar. I didn’t know if it would fit as the flour took up so much of it, but in the end I got it to fit with 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of 2 and wrote up the directions of what to add.

I bought ribbon to wrap around the jars and tie the recipe to the jar and a Happy Holidays message from me.

Of course while shopping at a craft store I wanted like everything and picked up some $1 tins for some peppermint bark I wanted to make as well.

Seriously so cute for some co workers! Oh and I am sure that Brian’s intention for buying me a hammer was to crush candy canes right?! So that was my fun little project Saturday and by the time I was done, I warmed up some dinner and checked out the new Lifetime Christmas movie, but wasn’t really into that one and ended up Skyping with Brian instead.

Sunday morning I slept in and then had some breakfast before heading to the gym. I love Sunday morning gym sessions! Even when I get to the gym around 9am, the roads are still pretty empty and the gym seems to be becoming more empty as the holidays approach. I got in some weight lifting and abs. Then I came home and did some laundry and cooking. It may sound boring, but I enjoyed it. I made Jenn’s quinoa recipe for my lunches and dinners on this short week.

I had to taste it for lunch on Sunday of course and it was so good!! I love red quinoa more than the original tan one. Anyone else have a favorite quinoa?

Finally on Sunday afternoon I got to work on my yoga sequence. I actually have a yoga teacher interview in a week, so I need a 15 min demo. Not sure how to do a warm up, class and cool down in 15 min but I guess 5 min for each will be good. Wish me luck!

Are you ready for Christmas?

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