Monthly Archives: November 2011
It’s Like I’m Starting Over
I finally made my way to the gym today after what seemed like an eternity.
I could tell that it had been a while because my workouts seemed way harder than usual.
I did my 20 minute Stair Climber workout, but had to throw in the towel at 16.
Damn.
Then I hopped on a treadmill where I did a little gobbely goo. For every song that came on to my iPod, I either increased the speed, or the incline.
So depending on how long the song was, that 8 incline was killin ma butt cheeks. 
I did a total of 2 miles with my little walking thing, and I’m sure I looked like a total tool, power walking on the tready, but it felt good to be moving again.
I should have stayed and done some resistance stuff, but I decided to wrap it up.
I promised myself that I would get back to my normal routine, and take off the (eek) 5 pounds I’ve gained over the last month or so.
I’m trying not to sweat it too much. Yeah, was hugely disappointed when I hopped on the scale, but, I know how it happened, and I know what I need to do to take it off.
I just have to do it.
So, here I am, creeping on December 1st, frosting cookies.
Tis the freakin’ season!
The cookies I’m frosting are for the blogger cookie exchange I mentioned a while back.
They’re just about ready to go out, to Texas, California and Minnesota. Maybe to you?
I’ll be sharing the recipe soon, but now, it’s a little bit of a secret.
Better Late Than Never
Thank goodness, my camera is back safely in my hands, and I’m ready to share all the fun pictures from Joe and Tara’s anniversary party.
And that’s all she wrote, literally.
Happy Anniversary (again) guys!
Surprise Anniversary Party
Last weekend, I told you about how I had taken limited photos to share with y’all.
Who would have thought that me, a blogger, and an exceptional self portrait taker, would leave their camera behind at a party?
Wahhh! 
What I wanted to show you, were a collection of photos from a Surprise First Anniversary Party for Joe and Tara.
Kidding!
Ya see, it was exactly a year ago yesterday that we were all sharing a very special day with Joe and Tara in Punta Cana.
So, there was lots of friends, family, fruit and frozen drinks. Just imagine all the bright colors and smiling faces.
And I also remember meeting new people, and showing them my favorite ab exercises, with a skirt on.
It was a great time, and I’m so bummed I can’t share the photos with you. But I will, sometime, soon. I hope.
In the meantime, I suppose I could just keep filling my blog with hilarious some e cards.
Specifically, cake vodka and root beer.
I don’t really love sleeping until 5:30 in the evening with some dry heaving every few hours. 
But friends are so worth it!
Happy Anniversary Joe and Tara!!
Hey Now
Whoo. I didn’t think when I mentioned that I’m having a hard time finding time to blog, I would mean, going 3 whole days without it.
Between 3 Thanksgiving dinners and a few lots of beer, I have a lot to catch up on.
Let me start with Wednesday night. The biggest party night of the year, right?
Tara and Joe had invited us to celebrate a little early. There’s a bar at the end of their street, owned by their neighbors/friends. They had opened up for friends and family for a Thanksgiving buffet and really cheap drinks.
They also had the most ahhhmazing spiked cider, which I was sure to get the recipe for. I have plans to whip up a mega batch of that for Christmas.
While hanging out at the bar, I ran into Ashley. I met her over the summer, and we found that we have a billion things in common. We exchanged phone numbers, promising to hang out.
6 months later….
Reunited and it feels to good….
Then on Thursday, my family all headed over to my Aunt’s house, where she made a delicious turkey dinner.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Adam and I drug my brother to our friends house to do a few Thanksgiving shots.
I’m thankful for alcohol!
We went to bed at a normal hour and at 5:00 am, Adam quietly asked me if I wanted to go out and get a few Black Friday deals. I ended up just getting a few things for myself, but we were done before the sun came up.
I came home and took a nice long nap, but now I’m getting roped into hanging Christmas lights.
I guess we’re just throwing ourselves right into the Holiday season.
And also, I just had to put this in. Renae’s little brother got a new puppy, and Oh. Em. Gee. he is the cutest little thing.
That’s a woman’s size 8 boot. Tiny, right?
Starting to get Bizzay
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Or so they say.
But isn’t it really the most hectic time of year?
It seems like as soon as we get home from work, we’re heading out again. Shopping for gifts or at least scoping out ideas.
I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the holidays this year though.
We’ll see.
I have a half day today, and a few errands to run. But then we’re heading to Adam’s parents house for our own Thanksgiving dinner.
Adam’s Dad, and both brothers have to work on Thursday. 
So we decided to have the turkey and all the fixings a little early. And I can.not.wait!
Gobble Gobble!
A Limited Photo Weekend
Lately it seems like every weekend, I have a plethora of photos to sift though from the weekends activities.
This weekend was a little different.
It must have been the fact that I was the DD, apparently, when I’m boozy, I’m a camera whore.
I can actually say that there is not one picture of me from this weekend. Which is actually a damn shame, cause I was one FIRE last night. 
On Friday night, as I mentioned, I went to see Breaking Dawn and honestly, I wasn’t blown away. And that’s coming from a pretty big Twilight fan.
Saturday night, me, Kim and Stephanie headed out to dinner to celebrate Kim’s birthday.
We went out to try and go dancing, but after hitting 3 other places, we never got a satisfactory groove on.
Oh well, we just might have to go out again….soon.
Today, I went to see Breaking Dawn again, but this time I went with my Momma. Second time around, I think I might have liked the movie a little more.
And I’m sure when I see the movie again, I’ll be obsessed with it.
I’m also still frantically working on cookie recipes. I think I might have a good one, but I’m still tweaking things to make sure they turn out just right.
Batch one that I made yesterday tasted great, but the presentation was off A little dough cooling time and sugar rolling, and I think it might just be perfect.
Have I intrigued you yet?
How TwiHard are You?
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a Twilight fan!
I might be borderline crazy about it.
Exhibit A:
These are hanging in my bedroom, and NO, I am not 16 years old.
Exhibit B:
This hangs above my bed, and if you are a devoted fan, then perhaps you recognize this quote from the book, Eclipse.
It’s how Edward proposes to Bella. 
They changed it in the movie (arggg) but regardless, it’s still a beautiful quote.
Exhibit C:
Hubba Hubba. 
Basically, I’m a big fan, a TwiHard if you will. (My brother hates that term).
So, after months of anticipation, today is the day, Edward and Bella are finally gonna DO IT!! GET MARRIED!!
I’m heading to the movies after dinner to get my Breaking Dawn on!!
Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pizza
I’m always looking for new ideas for my flatbread pizzas. I’ve had this idea rolling around for a while now, but we never have bacon in the house. For good reason.
I love bacon, and I could literally eat an entire pound of its fried crispy goodness in one sitting. Ladies and gentlemen, I need you to understand, this is not an exaggeration. So, you understand the importance of keeping it out of my house.
I bought a pound of bacon a while ago, used half of it in a frittata and put the other half on the freezer.
I pulled it out this morning, knowing that I wanted to try this pizza.
I fried up the last 5 slices, 2 for my pizza, 2 for my breakfast and the last one got split between Adam and Zeus.
Portion control baby!
I took my flatbread and topped it with ricotta cheese (and I may have mixed just a touch of the bacon grease with it), then I layered some grilled chicken, the bacon and drizzled it with some fat free ranch dressing. I topped the whole pizza with some cheddar cheese and put it into a 450* oven for 15 minutes.
Please, pay no mind to my crusty looking cookie sheet, I swear it’s clean.
It was delicious, but we all knew it was going to be right?
Hellooo, Bacon!!!
It’s Bacon!!!
The ranch dressing didn’t really provide much flavor, so I suppose this was more of a chicken bacon cheddar pizza, but either way, it was good.
I’m off to (hopefully) buy some new boots. I’m looking for a cute slouchy boot I can wear with leggings or skinny jeans. And yes, I will wear them all the time. Catch that last part Adam? 
Can I get any ladies with some cute slouchy boots to back me up on this?
Please?
Zeus and the Girl Scouts
I went to the gym after work today and did a circuit training routine I found on Julie’s blog.
She mentioned it a while ago, but never got around to jotting it down and bringing it with me.
Today was the day.
Pyramid Arm Workout
10 push ups (on my knees b*tch)
20 tricep dips
30 bicep curls
40 second plank
50 tummy tucks (plank position, lifting alternating knees to chest)
40 second plank
30 bicep curls
20 tricep dips
10 push ups
So, there’s a few things I have to make mention of.
- I did 10 tricep dips, and my baby arms could barely handle that!
- 40 seconds in the plank position had me sweating like “whoa”.
- It was way harder then I thought it would be, but it felt good when I was done.
I started my workout today with a 10 minute treadmill warm-up and after the pyramid workout, I hopped on the elliptical and did a 20 minute routine.
I used to do a lot of 20 minute intense routines that I found in Jackie Warner’s book, “This is Why You’re Fat”
Yeah, thanks bitch. 
Anyways, that woman knows what she’s talking about. Her cardio routines are fast paced and intense, and she says that 20 minutes, when done right, is all the cardio you need.
This is the elliptical workout, I’ll post the others on the exercise page (soon)
Start with the cross ramp between 1 and 5, keep your resistance at a pace where you can go fast and hard. Try and keep it around 170 strides per minute. Do this for 2 minutes.
For the next two minutes, raise the cross ramp as high as it will go, and increase the resistance so that you were struggling to move your legs against it.
For 1 minute, lower the ramp between 1 and 5 and decrease your resistance so you can pedal at a comfortable pace.
Repeat this interval 3 more times for a total of 20 minutes.
It’s a good workout, and if you give it a try, let me know what you think.
Now, in case you were wondering what the heck my title meant, well Immabouta to give it to ya!
Zeus was due for his yearly physical at the vet, but the vet had a field trip of about 8 girl scouts. They asked if we (or Zeus) would mind if the scouts observed the physical.
Zeus was terrified of being at the office, so I thought the little gals would be a welcome distraction to my shaking puppy.
The girls were all so gentle with my little guy and kept him distracted while he got blood drawn and a shot. 
There was this one little girl though, ummm, yeah. She kept like, getting in my way when I was trying to soothe Zeusy with a mothers touch. Always in the way, gurl!
I kinda wanted to shove her and I might have stepped on her toes to show her who’s boss.
I’m kidding, I do not condone child abuse in anyway.
We sure showed her when Zeus refused to give her kisses.
In yo FACE annoying scout!
I forgot to tell ya
After my little rant last night, I realized I forgot to tell you quite a few things about my evening.
First, I made a pretty awesome dinner, if I do say so myself.
We had some spinach parmesan chicken sausages, but no rolls, so I popped the meat out of its casing, and browned it in a pan. Once it was cooked, I dumped it into a pot of spaghetti sauce. I let that simmer, and at the same time, I had some zucchini roasting in the oven.
I had planned on just eating the sausgage-y sauce over the roasted veggies, but couldn’t resist a scoop of that whole wheat rotini.
I’m sure it would have been delicious without the pasta, but it just tasted so good with it. Very filling.
So, good that I packed the same thing for lunch today.
And also, when I went to the gym last night with Adam, I just did a walk for 2.5 miles. I also did a few ab exercises, but was having some tummy issues and felt like a crunch wasn’t going to turn out well. 
Today, I’m heading to my gym after work, cause that’s how I like it! Then we have to take Zeus to the vet. He’s due for his yearly shots. EEK!!
He’s not going to be happy about it, he doesn’t like going to the vet, but they give him cookies!
Who doesn’t like cookies?
