Vacation goes by too quickly

The rest of the week just flew by. I was barely home, but I feel like I accomplished a lot.

On Wednesday, I drove out to Menomonee Falls to meet up with my friend Danielle. We walked on trails for an hour and 10 minutes, picked her one daughter up from daycare and then went to lunch at Nino’s Italian Bakery and Deli. It was our first time trying it and we were pleased we did!

They had a great selection of sandwiches, plus Italian desserts, fresh bread and a small selection of Italian groceries.

I had a delicious blood orange San Pellegrino.

Lunch was a veggie panini, which hit the spot after working up an appetite on that long walk. The panini had giardiniera (pickled vegetables) on it and I may add that to my paninis at home once in a while.

These girls were a lot of work to have lunch with! Danielle’s three year old has tons of energy and is so curious about the world!

We all grabbed cookies for dessert. I picked out two small Italian ones–a black and white and an almond. Both got touched by the three year old a couple of times and while eating her own cookie, she asked me about ten times, “Can I have some of your cookies?”

After lunch, we went back to Danielle’s house and chatted. I played with her cats, who loved the attention.

Then it was off to Woodman’s on my way home! I bought a huge cart full of groceries. I was pleased to find the Clock Shadow Creamery quark and BellaVitano Merlot cheese. Hooray for Wisconsin cheeses!

I also stopped by REI on my way to meet Danielle and picked up all of this for only 40 cents, thanks to my REI dividend.

On Thursday, I went to spend the day with my parents. Mom and I took a trip to Costco, where I had to get new passport photos taken. Let’s say they didn’t turn out that great, but I am glad I have my request for my name change done and in the mail.

I was hungry by the time we finished shopping, so I got a really yummy turkey, provolone and pesto spread sandwich at Costco. Mom and I also indulged in some swirled fro yo from there. The amount we got was huge, so I had to bring half of the sandwich and the fro yo home with me.

After our lunch settled, my mom and I headed over to the brand new YMCA in Mukwonago. My parents had already been to it before, but it was my first time checking it out. I didn’t bring a camera to take photos, but it was gorgeous and made me wish we lived closer to that gym vs. our own. Mom and I walked/ran the track, lifted weights, I showed her a few machines and the kettlebells and we even played basketball for a little bit. Their pool has a big water slide, a lap pool, section for walking in the water, a whirpool and a separate water aerobics pool. I hope to check that out next time we go, but I am not a big swimmer.

Two days after that workout, I am still store from doing squats with the kettlebells. I really enjoyed using those again and wish my YMCA had them. I guess I can use dumbells to do similar moves though.

I can’t believe I only have one more day off and then it’s back to work!

Lucky Friday the 13th

Did you know that 2012 has had 3 Friday the 13ths? It’s my lucky day and year I guess! 13 is one of my lucky numbers.

I spent my lucky Friday feeling unlucky in some ways. I met my friend Laurie at Panera to teach her how to use WordPress and blog in general. Unfortunately, we ended up at different Paneras on accident and wondered where each other was. We finally connected and my luck turned around when she bought me breakfast! I enjoyed a yummy egg and cheese sandwich on ciabatta.

Later in the morning, I met my mom to go shopping. We got our free refreshers drinks at Starbucks. We both tried the berry and it was yummy!

After doing some shopping and having no luck in the clothes or shoes department today, we treated ourselves to Yo Mama in Brookfield. It was my first time checking out this location.

I got the cake batter with fruit and assorted borba balls, gummies, etc. Aah, I missed frozen yogurt.

The interior of this location was more spacious than Tosa.

They had the same cute lights I love so much though!

And the same funky, super tall chairs.

I loved this water fountain, or bubbler, as we call them in Milwaukee.

So cool that it has a spot to fill up water bottles and track how many bottles the fountain has filled up.

Back to the bubbler–here is a fun explanation posted above the water fountain.

The frozen yogurt fueled us up for a trip to Costco! My mom is a member, so I stocked up on a bunch of stuff–nothing too exciting though. Mom and I basically had our lunch there in samples too!

What do you call a drinking fountain in your town? What are your favorite fro yo toppings?

Lunch and Costco with mom

I haven’t hopped on my laptop much this week, so that means I’ve been slacking on the blog front! Sorry about that!

It was a busy week at work, so I have been consuming lots of Yogi Green Tea Kombucha, which comes along with some lovely positive messages.

Tried a new Luna bar flavor this week. Loved it!

Mid week, my flat iron broke. The plates no longer heated up. As a result, I was left with some pretty awful hair. I didn’t realize how much I depended on the flat iron to make my hair flat and frizz free.

I did lots of research on ghd and was pretty close to purchasing one. We’ll see as further along in the post, you’ll discover why I might wait.

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday here! Makes me so happy to see the sun (and some cumulus clouds) when I barely see it throughout the week.

I met my mom for lunch at Cafe Manna today. I started with limonade and we munched on the crackers and hummus.

Mom got the Cafe Manna burger (made of lentils). Her only complaint was that it was messy to eat.

I tried something new and got a raw vegetable wrap, which was delicious. Here’s the restaurant’s description of it: A soft dehydrated veggie tortilla filled with crisp fresh vegetables, creamy avocado, nut cheese, pepitas and sunflower seeds. Served with raw dill “potato” salad.

After lunch, it was off to Costco with mom. I spent way too much money, but a lot of what I bought will last us a while or they were bigger things, like this Conair curling wand and flat iron.

I originally went to Costco thinking I would buy a curling wand like this if they had it. I had seen it on Janetha’s blog last year and her curls looked so pretty!

I was very excited to see that it also came with a flat iron! I’ll try it out and see if it works well.

Here are pictures of my food purchases. I also picked up some Cetaphil, tan Kenneth Cole pants, tortilla chips, Fage yogurt and Ecos laundry detergent. We tried lots of yummy samples too. Love Costco!

Apparently the idea of aging is scary to me because I bought so many products that are high in antioxidants!

On my way home, I drove through a subdivision to check out some new houses. It has a model home that I admire the pictures and floorplans of in the Sunday newspaper. Turns out, my mom likes the houses in this subdivision too and I had no idea until I told her I stopped in there to look around. I wish we could buy a brand new house and move soon. We really could, but I think we’ll stay in our current house a couple more years to save some money.

Isn’t she a beauty? All I want in a new house is a dishwasher, bigger kitchen, walk-in pantry and a garage to put my car into! That’s not asking too much, is it?

This one was pretty too.

I had to try out my new toy when I got home! I think I curled a little close to my roots, but I’ll experiment and figure out what works. I like the curling wand style so far though! It’s so weird not to clamp down, but it’s great because I don’t have those crimped ends to worry about.

Gotta go meditate and then watch part of Midnight in Paris!