Wait...It's August?!

Hey, y'all! 

It's been a month since I've blogged. My last post was a 4th of July recap! So it's been OVER a month!
Well, I'm sorry. I've got a really great excuse!!

I've been busy!

But not like, school-year, working-all-the-time busy.
This is summer-vacation busy. :-D

I've been hanging out with my friends and husband!

hey bestie!

hi husband!

Going on mini-vacations.

quick trip to Philadelphia to see my Spartan girls

overnight trip to Wrightsville Beach with some teacher pals

Wrightsville photo collage- w/ Instagram & Diptic apps

Eating great food.

homemade blueberry pancakes w/ Instagram app

summer salad + AMAZING white cheddar and apple grilled cheese (w/ Instagram filter)

hi delicious. 

pan-fried tomatoes and poached eggs!

1/2 of a "personal-sized" watermelon! seedless! so goooooood

Oh...and I've obviously been hanging out with Isabelle...a lot. 

School starts next week!
Back to a regular sleeping, eating, exercising, and blogging schedule!
It's going to be GREAT! :)

Island Time

Hi friends! Sorry I've disappeared for almost a week. I'm on vacation! ...and I've had limited internet access.
I've been traveling ALL around Michigan, visiting friends, enjoying the cooler weather, and relishing in the fact that I have ZERO time/work obligations for 2 weeks.

So this is what I've been up to:

Boating over to the island...2 hour ride= wine and a new book.

booze cruise

hi mom! 

Summer run in the woods!

hey SR! 

so peaceful 

Sitting out at an empty beach...

that would be Lake Michigan

the whole beach to myself!!

couldn't be happier <3

And eating fresh whitefish!

seasoned with Mrs. Dash, garlic, and onions

Enjoyed with a fresh salad and a glass of wine. :)

that piece of fish x2. YUM. 

So much perfect summertime.
Happy weekend!

ETR: road trip edition!

Hi pals! We made it to Michigan! All in one piece!!! Successful road trip. :)

We left North Carolina (well, we left our house) at about 12:30. We had a few errands to run before really getting on the road... first priority: lunch!
Because we were already leaving late in the day, we opted for drive-thru. Wendy's!
I got a half-sized Berry Almond Chicken Salad.

YUM!

It came with a packet of blueberry vinaigrette, holy cow SO GOOD!

perfect!

It was a really great salad. Nice sized, lot of berries, dry roasted almonds, and pretty fresh-tasting lettuce.
I picked up a few road-trip snacks at Target before we left, including a box of mini Larabars!

So lunch dessert was easy: cherry pie! So little and bite sized! :)

yum again. 

Ben got a massive burger and chicken nuggets and fries and a root beer...it was quite a picnic.

is it GOOD? haha

We drove and drove for hours and hours. It's a 12-ish hour drive straight from our house in NC up to Ben's parent's house in MI. About half-way through the drive, we decided to change our destination and head for a friend's house, shortening our trip by about an hour.
We saw lots of nice mountains and LOTS of semi trucks.
And then I got bored and watched a movie.

fav!!!

I had some road trip snacks...

Dried fruit and nuts from Target! So tasty...and then I turned the bag around and looked at the ingredients. All fruit and nuts, but the fruits were freeze-dried with sugar and preservatives.  Oops.

Dinner happened much later than normal... again, drive-thru, to maximize our road-time. The choices were: McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby's.
After a few minutes of weighing my options, I voted Burger King.
...terrible choice.
I wanted to get a chicken sandwich, but it was already after 9:00pm, and I knew that having a big bun or piece of bread would = upset stomach in the morning.  So, I got the only salad on the menu: the garden salad with tendergrill chicken.

saddest little baby salad ever. 

This salad actually tasted pretty good, it was just so small. The toppings were all pre-packaged on the top of the salad, separate from the lettuce...so who knows when and where this salad was actually made.
I forgot that I had gotten chicken, and when I pulled that red Burger King package out of my bag, I said out loud "OH! Maybe they gave me a hot cookie!!"
...no.

That would be the tendergrill chicken patty! In a bag. To put on top of my salad.
Lots of head shaking happened.
But I ate it, and actually enjoyed it.
And I felt better about getting a salad then getting a big chicken sandwich on a bun, a burger, or fries.

We arrived at our destination at about 1:00am.
It was dark, cool, and a little damp.
Thankfully, our wonderful hosts had their guest bedroom ready for us, and we hit the sheets (of our king sized bed!!!) immediately.

Saturday plans: breakfast (Larabar and apple), blogging (heys heys), then taking off for adventures around Detroit (nails??, movie?) before meeting my family at 3:00 for my grandfather's memorial service. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family, and saying goodbye to my grandpa. <3 If you recall, back in February I came to Michigan for my grandfather's funeral, but got terribly sick and spent the entire weekend in my hotel room, feverish and sick with a sinus infection. So, today I'm glad I get to attend the memorial service and celebrate my grandpa's life with my family.

Happy weekend. :)

Fo' Drizzle

Hey pals!

This morning I made the yummiest yogurt bowl!
It started with 1/2 of a cup of vanilla yogurt.
Then it got sprinkled with raw oats, and a huge handful of blueberries.

almost ready!

Yesterday, I had a great yogurt bowl with peanut butter...but it was cold peanut butter, which was hard to eat with the yogurt! So, today I got crafty with the peanut butter. 

microwaved melty!

And then...things got drizzly.

YUM

And for a final touch of sweetness, I added a teeny bit of honey.

ready to eat!

This was the perfect breakfast! Creamy, crunchy, juicy, salty, and sweet! Mmmmm. 

After breakfast I headed out to run some errands...

• went to the library to rent some audio books for our 12+ hour drive up to Michigan. I got Hard Eight, by Janet Evanovich, and The Last Town on Earth, by Thomas Mullen. I love all of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, and have read them a trillion times each, but have never listened to one via audio book! The other audio book looks interesting; it looks like it will be a 1900's fantasy/fiction about a town that has been overcome with the flu and decides to go under quarantine...we'll see!
• stopped at the mall to return a few pairs of shorts to Ann Taylor LOFT...I really wanted to like them, but they just didn't feel right. 
• grocery store to try to find some good road trip snacks...I was looking for Larabars, some big juicy apples, and some trail mix...but I think I'll wait until tomorrow and run to Whole Foods. :)

With errands complete, it was time to go to yoga! It was Vinyasa yoga, which I hadn't done before. The instructor was the same woman who did the Core class yesterday, and she was wonderful! She lead us through several repeats of hip stretches and positions, and she turned the studio's heat up! Apparently I was under a vent, because I was DRIPPING sweat while doing my 3-legged dog poses.  It was a great class. 

After yoga, I met up with a girlfriend for lunch at Panera! I had the pick 2 combo, including a bowl of black bean soup, and a half of a Mediterranean sandwich! So good, so fresh. It was a nice lunch with a nice friend. HI LIZ! :) 

Time to get serious about packing for Michigan...my clothes are in heaps all around my bedroom, and I'm starting to stress out. Gotta CLEAN and ORGANIZE! :)

School's out, still going to class!

Hey bloggies!
Happy Wednesday! It's Hump Day! And 2 more days until our trip to the NORTH...which I am getting SO excited about. 2 days, a 12-hour drive,  and then we'll be in Michigan for a few weeks. :)

This morning, I woke up STIFF AND SORE. Thank you, Strictly Strength fitness class. I was really feeling yesterday's squats and lunges when I rolled out of bed. But, because I'm trying to be good to my bod and do this fitness thing right, I geared up for the gym and headed downstairs for a light breakfast.

Yogurt bowl!

Low-fat vanilla yogurt, sliced strawbs, a sprinkle of raw oats, a drizzle of honey, and about a half of a spoonful of peanut butter! YUM!
I did, however, discover that non-melted peanut butter is a little hard to eat in a yogurt bowl. I either need to warm up my pb next time to drizzle on top, or save the pb for warm oat bowls.

After digesting and doing a little laundry, I headed to the gym.
I was soooo sore (still am), and really couldn't decide what I wanted to do for my cardio. Since I did a huge amount of strength yesterday (60-minute full-body class), I knew I wanted to focus on cardio as my main workout today. I've been LOVING the stationary bike, but decided to hop on a treadmill instead.
I walked for a few minutes to warm up (and re-create my "RUN" playlist on my ipod...it disappeared!), and then did run/walk intervals for close to an hour. My final numbers were: run 3 miles, walk 2 miles, 60 minutes. PHEW.
I knew there was a Core class happening at 11:00am, but it was only about 10:30 when I staggered off the treadmill, so I stretched for about 20 minutes before heading into the studio for class.
The Core class was only 30 minutes, which turned out to be just the right length. The instructor took us through various core-strengthening moves, using a Bosu ball and a medicine ball. I used an 8-lb medicine ball, which was perfect. It was a tough class, but I'm really glad I went!
I am not good at motivating myself to strength train, so attending classes at my gym is the perfect way to get my strength training in. The classes are free with my membership, and seriously run from 5:30am-7:30pm, including yoga, strength, kickboxing, core, HIIT circuit training, pilates, cycling, and aqua!
My gym membership is ending at the end of June, due to travels and my interest to check out some other gyms in my area...I'll definitely miss my gym, but I can't wait to see what else my area has for gyms.

After the gym, I drove home and hopped in the shower. Then it was LUNCH TIME!

all the ingredients for...

the perfect recovery smoothie!

Now, I'm watching food network and relaxing for a few hours before tutoring this evening. Ina Garten is making some seriously potent drinks (Mai Tai, Manhattan, Long Island), as well as a yummy crab dip and some sauteed peaches. And now she's having happy hour with her husband in the garden! So precious. :)

See you later!

squat, lunge, curl...REPEAT

Good morning!

Oof. I'm tired. I didn't fall asleep until after 3:00am. I'm not sure if it's because I had that latte yesterday, which was the first caffeine I'd had in weeks! Or, maybe it was due to the massive neck pains that I kept waking up to. Either way, it was a restless night.

But! I woke up at 7:00am ready to have breakfast and head to the gym. I had checked the class schedule, and knew that I needed to be at the gym by 8:30 for.... Strictly Strength!
Whoa, baby.
That was a ROUGH class!
Squat. Lunge. Curl. REPEAT.  over and over and over again!
60 minutes later, I was dripping with sweat, but felt good!
After wobbling around the lobby for a few minutes and refilling my water bottle, I decided to hop on a bike and get a little cardio in before heading home. I biked for 30 minutes, which was 8.7 miles! Then, I walked a mile on a treadmill, catching up on the news.
PHEW! Long, sweaty, satisfying workout!

I drove home, showered, and made an epic protein smoothie: 1 cup of almond milk, 1 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, and about 2 cups of frozen pineapple and strawberry chunks! SO GOOD.

fill 'er up!

Time for a nap. :)

this and that

Hey! My wireless is down at home, so I'm lunchin' and bloggin' at a cute little coffee shop around the corner from my house. Soooo nice to have TIME to do this....love summer vacation. 


Let's catch up. :)

Last night, after Ben hustled off to his second job (ugh gross, I know) I got an itch to run. I suited up and headed out to jog around my neighborhood!
Boy, was it hot.
At 8:00pm it was still over 90 degrees, and humid as ever.
I ran a 10 minute loop around my neighborhood, and then plopped down on my driveway.

tired!

I stretched it allllll out for about 15 minutes before heading back into the AC'd house.
Last week I purchased a fitness ball (Walmart, maybe $15?), and decided to try it out.

I pumped up the ball, and then tried each  of the exercises inside the pamphlet that came with the ball. It was a full-body strength workout! Abs, arms, legs, inner and outer thighs! Took about 25 minutes, all completed while watching my favorite movie, Eat Pray Love. :)

This morning I woke up with such a lovely feeling..."Heyyyyy...it's Monday and I'm not getting up for work!" But then I remembered I needed to drive down to school to sign my contract. So, I geared up and made the 30-minute drive to my school to fill out paperwork and sign up for my 4th year of teaching! Done and done!
Drove back towards home with the intention of going straight to the gym...but I got distracted by the library, the mall, and some other odds and ends errands. When I finished running around, it was after noon, and I was STARVIN'!  I headed back to my house to fix up a quick meal to take to the coffee shop.

light summer salad!

In the mix:
-1.5 cups of garbanzo beans
-1 whole roma tomato
-1/2 green pepper
-2 slices turkey bacon
-salt and pepper, sprinkle of EVOO

I filled up a tupperware with spring salad mix, and poured my bean salad on top!

colorful=YUM. 

Now, as you know, I'm at the coffee shop, sipping an almond iced latte, eating my delicious lunch, and catching up with my FULL reader!

Hey, Vanessa!

Plans for the rest of this summer Monday:  chill time with the siamese, watch a little t.v., tutor for a few hours, and then head to the gym tonight for Zumba!!!

Hope you're all staying cool (if you're in the dirty south), staying awake (if you're at work), and having a great Monday!