One year.

Today is our 1st wedding anniversary!!

April 3, 2010 was a family and friend-filled day, full of love. It flew by faster than I ever would have imagined!

first dance!

April 3, 2011, our 1 year anniversary, has been much calmer and more mellow.

pre-lunch :)

 

oh you husband <3

It has been a wonderful first year of marriage! There have been lots of laughs, minor upsets, and everything in between. I couldn't ask for a better year.

I started my personal holiday with a trip to the gym...cardio is a great way to start any day!
I hopped on a bike, getting ready for a solid hour of biking.
I really wanted to read my Kindle, but it was dead-dead-DEAD when I pulled it out of it's case this morning. SHOOT! So, plan B was to watch t.v. on my phone. I got into hulu.com, and was shocked that I couldn't watch any shows! I'm not sure if I was unable to watch t.v. shows because I was on my phone, or because they've changed their format...but every show I tried to watch was unavailable unless I was a "Hulu Plus" member...aka a paid member! OK. Plan C: watch an episode of NCIS on cbs.com. This worked for about 5 minutes until I received a text, and when I got back into the cbs.com webpage, the show started itself over. GAHHHHH! So, I listened to music. Laaaaaame. I love biking, because I can read/watch shows while working out! 
Oh well.
I completed 60 minutes of biking! I rode 17.25 miles! Strong legs. :)

beast.

 After the gym, I drove over to Whole Foods to grab a few things. My biggest grocery goal was to find some organic, free-range chicken breasts, so that I could make Julie's buffalo chicken sandwiches! I bought 2.2 lbs of chicken breasts, along with a few other goodies...

highlights: Larabars and portable Justin's almond and hazelnut butters!

After getting groceries, I headed home to shower and see Ben!
We received a gift card to T.G.I. Friday's from Ben's parents (Thanks, family!!!!!), so we decided to head out for an anniversary lunch date.

I haven't been to T.G.I. Friday's in years. In fact, I remember the last time I was there was the day I bought my car, which was sometime in late January, 2009! So, today I was excited to see the menu and try something yummy for lunch.
We started our lunches with drinks...a mojito for me, a long island iced tea for Ben!

mmmm!!

I decided to try the 3-course meal, and shared the appetizer and dessert with Ben. He chose a big burger, topped with cheese, fried onions, and veggies!
We started with an order of green bean fries. They were SO good!! I had about 1/2 of the plate of fries, dipping a few in the wasabi-ranch sauce.

YUM!!!

And now, you all can see my bad-blogger ways...no pictures of my Key West shrimp skewers, served with really yummy broccoli. I liked this entree; the shrimp were grilled and topped with a citrus-y marinade, and the broccoli was steamed to perfection. I ate one whole skewer of shrimp (about 6 shrimp), and all of the broccoli. Ben helped me with the second half of my lunch, which is typical. :)
My lunch came with a dessert course, for which we chose peanut butter pie (also undocumented...sorry!) This dessert was SO sweet and rich...I had about 3 bites, and Ben ate the rest.

Now we're back home, relaxing and enjoying the rest of our Sunday. I have a bit of school work to do, and we've got the t.v. on for background noise. The windows are open, because weather is beautiful...70 degrees and bright blue skies! Izzy has been channeling her inner Dora the Explorer, sniffing around the back yard and eating grass. She loves to be outside!

wild child.

See ya later!

Good things come in "threes"

Hey you guys!
I'm back! 
I'm sorry that I've been completely MIA the past few weeks.
There's no really great excuse like that I was on vacation or getting married or something...just busy with school, tutoring, and LIFE!
I won't try to catch you up on EVERYTHING that has happened as of late...but I do have a few pictures and tidbits of three good things share...so let's get at it, shall we?

1. My husband and I have discovered a frozen yogurt heaven...I'm obsessed.

oh yes. 

and again...

AND AGAIN! his and hers :)

2. Last weekend, my sister came to visit! We had froyo, obv. We went to school for a workday, and Katie helped me grade papers! We went with a girlfriend to get her tattoo! We had a CHILLY (45 degrees and rainy) bbq with friends. We went for a few walks. And we ate a lot of junk foods.

She brought her mini schnauz, L.B., and we did a LOT of cuddling.

I like your fuzzy dome.

We had dinner at a cool Irish pub in Raleigh with some friends and co-workers.

besties: (sister) Katie and (pal) Alyssa

 

Izzy hated our visitors...specifically the 4-legged one. She didn't come out of hiding for days.

3. I've been eating some seriously veggie-packed meals!  And I'm back into my exercising routine! Phew! Being unhealthy is exhausting and dreadful. I'd been eat a lot of fast food, snacks, and junk. Now, I feel a ton better, having gotten back to my healthy meals and regular gym-visits.

today's breakfast! egg beaters topped with Franks, and 1 whole zucchini + 2 cups of spinach!

pickle chips for a salty afternoon snack. :)

tonight's dinner: turkey burger + mustard, HUGE veggie, almond, and goat cheese salad!

 I was gone all morning and into the afternoon...tutoring, gym, groceries! So, tonight we're staying in, watching "P.S. I Love You", snuggling on the couch, and maybe running out for a Saturday evening cup of frozen yogurt. :)

Tomorrow is a holiday! Here's a hint...April 3, 2010 was a family and friend-packed day of LOVE. <3

I swear I don't go shopping this often...

You guys probably think I'm some kind of shopping spaz after this and this happened last week. But I swear I don't normally go shopping this much!
Yesterday I went outlet shopping with a co-worker/ girlfriend. It was a perfect day to do so, 70 degrees and sunny.

Saturday fun starts with lunch!
Actually, that's a lie. Saturday fun really started with a trip to the gym at 7:30am to get my sweat on. I did 20 minutes on a StairMaster, and 15 minutes on an Arc. I usually try to do cardio for at least 45 minutes, but I was pressed for time, because I had to shower and eat breakfast before tutoring at 9:00. I need to work on my gym-time management. 
*tutor tutor for 2 hours...with a big iced coffee to wake me up!*
NOW comes lunch and shopping!
Before shopping, we stopped at Ruby Tuesdays for a quick lunch, to fuel us for a big afternoon of shopping.
I didn't take a picture of my lunch...but it was amazing. I was planning on doing the salad bar and a bowl of soup, or the mini-vegetarian burger "sliders"...but then I saw a server walk by with a sandwich on a pretzel roll. I immediately scanned the menu and found that all of their "premium" sandwiches were full of meat, but served on that beautiful pretzel roll. So, I ordered the "Avocado Turkey Burger", minus the turkey burger, bacon, and onions. It was AMAZING!! On a pretzel roll was: lettuce, tomato, pickles, swiss cheese, and big slices of avocado. And a really cute little dish of fries! Perfect shopping fuel. :)

Shopping time!
After lunch, we headed to the outdoor outlet mall. We knew that our target stores were LOFT, Banana Republic, and Gap...and we were pretty successful.

so pleased.

I found this cute cardigan at LOFT. It's thin, almost like t-shirt material, which will be perfect as the weather warms up. My shopping pal got the same cardigan...we'll be wearing it to school someday and be twins. :)
I struck out at Banana Republic and Gap...maybe next time! We stopped in the Crocs store to look for some shoes for my friend's 1-year-old baby...and I was amazed at the amount of Crocs in such a small store.

floor-to-ceiling rubber.

Next stop: Rack Room Shoes!
We were looking for some sandals to go with a dress my friend bought, and I've been eyeing a pair of Sperry dock shoes for a while now... (yes, this picture was taken on my bed. I'm a creep.)

eyeing turned to buying!

These are the most COMFORTABLE shoes I've worn in so long! I love the pink plaid accents, too. Feminine and cute. I can't wait to wear them this spring with jeans, capris, shorts, etc! I probably will not be wearing them on any docks or boats, as much as I'd love to.
We finally left the outlet mall to head back home around 4:30, with big plans to grill out for dinner at my friend's house!

Get ready for a meatless product review...
I stopped at my house to pick up a few dinner items, grabbed Ben, and off we went. We made a pit-stop at a grocery store for grilling foods: Ben got brats, I got Tofurky Keilbasa meatless sausages.
Now. I'm all about the meatless faux-meat products. But this one...was...AWFUL. I do NOT recommend this to any of my veggie readers. Though they looked good in the package, once they came off the grill they were dry with a matte finish...not shiny and glistening like the meat-filled counterpart. The taste was so bland, I covered my "sausage" with bbq sauce, but still couldn't finish it. And good thing I didn't...that meatless sausage packed a whopping 240 calories and 12 grams of fat! Not worth it.
After that disappointing experience, I filled up on homemade pasta salad and fresh chips and guacamole...and watched as my friends ate their hamburgers and brats with a teeny bit of jealousy. :)
We played with the puppies...

fuzzy Pomeranian named Dash

Played with a baby...

dancing? more like squirming and fussing. MOM let me dowwwwwn!

And had a nice evening with friends. :)

Sunday Funday?
This morning I woke up with a sniffly nose, a congested head, and a scratchy throat. With the time change, I was feeling so disoriented. I stumbled out of bed and fed Isabelle, then made myself a big fruit salad to eat in bed. :)

Today calls for: more snooze time, more fruit and veggies, lots of water, and those dreaded lesson plans.

The 5 things that made my Friday

On a scale of awful to amazing, my day gets a A-. I have no idea what that means, but since it's my blog, I can make up whatever kind of arbitrary rating scales my  heart desires. Right? Right.
(side note: I tried to teach my students "capeesh" this year. They struggled with it. Then I tried "comprende", but it turns out that my kids really should probably just stick to English. My district is getting Rosetta Stone software this year...so maybe that will help. Orrrr maybe it will make their little brains even more confused and we'll all run around speaking a mix of Spanish/German/French/Italian/English and pull our hairs out and change professions.)
I digress.
Ok, here's why my day rocked:

1. A great 3.5 mile run, plus .5 mile walk in 42 minutes.

good job, shoes. you can stay another day.

2.  A delicious, filling breakfast.  Cinnamon raisin bagel thin + a smear of pb + half a banana + a gallon of iced coffee= jawesome.

I eat my breakfast on a bagel bag.... SO classy.

3. My computer got a virus, and our tech girl was able to re-image that baby in roughly 25 minutes. SHE'S A KEEPER.

...hello in theeeeere? obviously this was pre-intervention.

4. New jeans. 7 for all mankind. Need I say more? Well, yes. I need to say more...to convince you ladies to invest in these jeans. Seriously, these jeans are my favorite 7s so far. They just feel GOOD. Stretchy...perfect length...nice big pockets to flatter the butt...not too low of a waist...perfection.

source of perfect bum in jeans (clearly not mine)

5. Jamaican bread. A friend and coworker's husband is from Jamaica, so they occasionally make a trip to Charlotte, NC to visit a Jamaican food store. My friend brought me a few pieces of this crack delicious bread. It's really dense, yet so light tasting! It's a little sweet, and kind of chewy! SO SO GOOD.
Mine wasn't in loaf form, just a few slices...which I ate before I left school. Sorry, Ben. Maybe next time I won't be a selfish hoarder of all things delicious and carby. :)

source

What was wonderful about your Friday?
Any great plans for the weekend?

My day, start to finish.

4:40 am: alarm goes off...I hear it POURING rain, think to myself "waaaaaaakey wakey! no eggs! no bac-ey! run time!" and promptly turn off my alarm and go back to sleep.
5:40 am: alarm goes off again...I hear it pouring STILL, and hit the snooze button.
5:48 am: alarm goes off again...still pouring...but I realize I need to wash my hair and force myself out of my snuggly warm bed.
6:40 am: leave for work, am pleasantly pleased that my car thermometer reads "58 degrees". mmmm spring.
7:00-7:55 am: eat my sad, sad plain oatmeal breakfast and work on my B.T. papers that are due at 3:30.
7:55-2:00 "teach"...aka let students work on their laptops while I work on my B.T. papers and an IEP.

shhhhHHHHHH, guys!

2:00-2:15 pm: pace around my room nervously as I await my post-observation conference with my principal
2:15-2:45 pm: meet with my principal, find out that I'm not, in fact, FIRED. sweat buckets, smile and nod, and thank my sweet lucky stars that I'm not a disaster after all.
3:00-4:00 pm: meet with staff and principals to hear about the upcoming school year's budget. find out that if the county commissioners don't want to give our school district $7 and change million, our district is going to FALL. A. PART. cuts include: no middle school athletics, outsourcing custodial services, no 3-5th grade tutors, $1,000,000 from E.C. (that would be MY department), 1.5 mile "walk zone" for bussing, fewer teacher assistants, fewer supplies, no pay raises, etc etc the list goes onnnnnnnn...
4:00-4:15 pm: quick quick IEP meeting (no parent, so that makes it fast)
4:15-5:15 pm: last ever BT 3 meeting; turn in 10 pages of "reflection on my accomplishments", eat 2 shamrock cookies, discuss budget cuts, soak my feet by running through puddles.
5:45 pm: finally get home. find a delightful surprise on my doorstep!

check out that bling!

5:45-6:70 pm: assume the horizontal position on the floor, talk to husband about day, debate eating dinner, make a egg and avocado sammie on a cinnamon raisin bagel thin.(no picture...it was good but ugly)
7:00-7:45 pm: feed a out-of-town friend's cats, run to Harris Teeter for some groceries, including sprouts, apples, nectarines, bananas, carrots, veggie sliced cheese, and THIS BABY:

takes me back to my wedding dinner!

 7:45-8:40 pm: pack my lunch, pack my clothes for tomorrow into my gym bag (planning to run before school!), sing "it's a rainy day" to Izzy, test out a few Lifesaver jelly beans to make sure they're edible before taking to school for my kids...

just a few, I swear. :)

8:40-8:57 pm: quicky quick quick blogging
9:00pm:  BEDTIME!

P.S. Look what I got in the mail from my mom and dad! Our first (and hopefully only...lol) one-year anniversary gift! It's a 3-cup Hamilton Beach food processor, "chef's chopper"! I can't wait to try it out this weekend....maybe with some hummus, or black bean veggie burgers?! Thanks, mom and dad! <3

it came with a mini-spatula...which I obv stuck in the hole in the lid.

Triple Tangent Tuesday, lazy-style

Hey y'all.

It's Tuesday.
How was yours?
Mine was sort of silly, and included an unannounced observation from my principal, in which my kids were pretending to be zoo animals and I was managing in a controlled-chaos type of way. At one point, a student was putting tape on her forehead. "GIRLFRIEND, you CANNOT do that right now." 
Can't WAIT for the post-observation conference...fingers crossed that I get to keep my job? Yes, please.

I planned to go to spin class this morning, but slept like garbage last night and opted to get a bit of extra sleep this morning. Probably if I had gone to spin and gotten my sweat on, I would have been all over my monkeys children and had a stellar observation. Oh wells.
Then, OF COURSE I didn't want to go to the gym after school...so me and Chalene did sit ups and the wheel for a bit, while the Siamese rolled around on the floor and showed off her fuzzy tummy. WORK ya BODY!

It's Triple Tangent Tuesday!
(good thing, too...my fingers are too cold to type, and my eyes need to sleep.)

1. It finally looks like spring in my neighborhood!

I loooooove the white trees! (don't worry, none of those are my house)

It can be 80 degrees and sunny, but if there are no leaves on the trees, I just can't fully get into the spring-mindset.
A few days ago we had a mega-rainstorm, and now the trees are blooming and beautiful!
...Now, if only the grass would catch up! Most of our lawns are parched and yellow, like these. Yuck.

2. (this is going to be the lamest "tangent" ever...just so you know.)
Wanna see what I had for lunch? Ok.

spicy black bean burger + veggie cheese on a cin-raisin bagel thin. 

Wanna see what I had for dinner? Ok. Inspired by Sarah's lunch wrap!

apple-spinach-blueb goat cheese quesodilla (on a fiber-licious low-carb wrap!)

 3. Me and the mister relaxed on the couch for a solid 45 minutes tonight, and it was lovely! We only see each other 3 nights a week, plus weekends...Mondays and Wednesdays I tutor 5:30-7:30, and he goes to his second job at 7:30, and doesn't get home until after my bedtime. So, Tuesday nights I have to do some force-snuggling. Haha, just kidding...kind of. :)

 thanks, iphone 4, for making your "amazing 2nd camera" so crappy. but look at that snuggle. <3

Tomorrow I'll do better, I promise.
Over and out, cub scouts.

Inspired and Encouraged

It's Monday...
And I only have a few things to say.

1. This video (via youtube) is beyond amazeballs. I'm telling you right now, if you don't break down into quiet, weepy tears, you've got no soul. This video makes me want to smack myself when I stop running after 1.25 miles... GIRLFRIEND, get it together! I'm going to watch this video when I'm feeling really lazy and need inspiration.
Here's the description:

"A Son asked his father, "Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?" The father who, despite having a heart condition, says "Yes". They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons. The father always saying "Yes" to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his fater, "Dad, let's join the Ironman together."

To which, his father said "Yes".

For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

Father and son went on to complete the race together!"

2. I spent 67 minutes on the treadmill at my gym tonight. Most of the time was spent running! Here's what it looked like:
miles 0-2: run
miles 2-2.25 walk
miles 2.25-3.25 run
miles 3.25-3.5 walk
miles 3.5-4.0 run
miles 4.0-4.25 walk
miles 4.25-5.0 run
miles 5.0-5.25 walk
miles 5.25-5.75 run
miles 5.75-6.0 run
totals: 4.75 miles ran, 1.25 miles walked= 6 miles in 67 minutes!
This is encouraging...it makes me believe I might actually be able to do the 10k without passing out...which would be the worst kind of embarrassment. Thumbs up to training! :)

3. 5:30 am spin class! Time for bed.