Challenging Week and Hunger Games

I’ve been MIA all week. So what was I up to? Getting my eye numbed (had eye pain for about 5 days and finally got it checked out), tough talks about the future of my career, updating my resume, taking lots of walks outside, going to the dentist and working until midnight last night. It was a challenging week for other reasons too, mostly involving work, which led to a very sleepless night and tired Thursday.

I didn’t make it to the gym a lot. I did get there yesterday and had part of a Larabar before my workout. Ironically, while running on the treadmill, I watched a Joy Bauer segment on the Today Show about not needing to eat before working out. She said it was actually counterproductive, but recommends something small like a banana. Joy also recommended having caffeine about a half hour before your workout.

Lunch was a scrambled egg, asparagus and a roma tomato.

I also tried some new protein powder as a recovery drink. My sweet co-worker brought it in for me to try out since she knows I am always trying to make sure I get enough protein in my diet. It was tasty!

This morning, we went to the bank to update one of Craig’s accounts. While waiting for the banker, I got to use a Keurig for the first time! I loved it. I think one would be so nice for an office. The coffee was delicious!

After the bank, we went to Oak Creek and got a free lunch. I’ll write a review tomorrow as we felt so lucky to get a nice big meal for nothing!

And then it was Hunger Games time! I haven’t been this excited for a movie in a while.

I gave it two thumbs up! I loved the book though and think the adaptation was a good one. Craig liked it too and he had only read half of the book…mind you, the first half which is more boring than the second.

I loved the actors in the movie and the sets.

We stopped at Target after the movie and I found this finally. Hooray!

I purchased the Raspberry Fudge Chunk and tried it when we got home. It was pretty tasty.

We haven’t been home all day, so I am glad I can relax a little tonight and look into some things. Once I know more about my future, I’ll clue you in with my decision. I am excited, but a little nervous too.

Hope you had a fabulous Saturday!

I am definitely a city girl!

We’re back from our trip up north! It was nice to relax, unplug a bit, nap, sleep in, and read without distractions. I did miss home and our cats especially, so it feels good to be back!

While I enjoy getting away from the city, I am definitely not a country girl. I guess I take after my mom! I told Craig that we’ll probably never go camping together. I feel bad, but in all seriousness, if I can’t handle spiders in the cottage bathroom, how could I ever camp?

Here’s a recap:

Some of the food I/we ate:

Trader Joe’s maple oatmeal with Justin’s maple almond butter (so good).

A big salad from the Pick N’ Save salad bar. By yesterday afternoon, I was just craving tons of veggies.

We went out to eat on Friday night and had fry bread and cheese for our appetizer.

For fear of strange looks, I didn’t take a picture of my main meal. I got a delicious veggie burger with swiss cheese and mushrooms on it.

I was sent an Erin Baker sample pack of products before we left, so I tried Erin Baker’s Organic Brownie Bite. It was unexpectedly a bit minty and tasted so good!

We brought two bags of the Food Should Taste Good chips up north and tried those. Let’s just say my husband loved the White Cheddar and that bag is already gone. Glad I got to try more than a couple of handfuls of that flavor!

I munched on some jalapeno chips during our car ride home. Not that we needed any more “heat” added to our drive. You’ll hear more about that in a bit.

Entertainment

We went out to eat and walked around town on Friday night. We enjoy one particular restaurant in town, so we always return back there.

Restaurant interior

Typical main street in any Wisconsin small town.

We played Uno a couple of times. Craig was declared the winner far more often than I was .

I finished reading The Hunger Games! It was so addictive to read. Craig also was reading it on his kindle and he claimed I was being competitive, trying to finish before him. The truth is, it was just so good that I had to get to the ending! I can’t wait to read the other two books!

Only “up north” would you see this:

Workouts:

I actually did not workout a lot and I missed it. I did a walk/run with Craig one morning before the humidity set in.

And I did yoga this morning using the Hot Body Yoga app from Women’s Health. It was my first time using the app and I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to try it more often.

It felt amazing to do some yoga! My body needed it.

Today’s car ride felt like our own version of 127 Hours. We weren’t stuck in the desert and we didn’t have to cut our arms off, but we were in extreme heat the whole way home and Craig’s air conditioning was not working.

Did I mention that I hate bugs of any kind, especially spiders? There was a black spider crawling around our pillows and food in the back seat. When I got the opportunity to, I killed the bugger. I know, it’s not very nice, but hunching forward in my car seat to avoid him wasn’t so pleasant either.

Besides the bugs and extreme temps, we faced a nice highway backup. Why oh why Dept. of Transportation of WI, would you have a popular two lane highway going from north to south cut down to one lane on a weekend when no one was doing any construction work? I am sure they have their reasons, but we and the other 100 something cars in the backup were not happy!

I actually feel sick when I am in that kind of heat with the sun blaring down on me. I was so happy to get home to our air conditioning blasting and the happy faces of our kitties.

Time to go change the laundry, unpack some more, and find something to eat.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Food Should Taste Good chips giveaway!

Unplugging (sort of)

source

Since we are staying at a place that has no wi-fi, but offers beautiful scenery, a lake to look at every day, birds to watch, etc. I am officially unplugging this weekend. The only electronic devices I am bringing along are my kindle, cell, and iPod touch. I hope to do lots of reading of The Hunger Games, books on my kindle and catch up on some magazine reading too (Whole Living, Fitness, Health)! I can’t promise that before or after a run to the farmer’s market in town, I won’t step into the town library to use their wi-fi with my iPod touch, but I will unplug from blogging this weekend. I’ll be back on Sunday or Monday with a recap of the weekend!

Oh and here are my usual before and after shots of my haircut/color. I went darker and shorter. Trying to get away from visiting the stylist so much for highlights and get back to my darker blonde roots!

Before

After

My new haircut is sort of a “lob” (long bob) which is hot right now. While waiting for my color to process, I did look through some hair magazines and tended to gravitate towards the lob. I didn’t ask for that cut directly, but did ask for it to be a bit shorter and a little more layered.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!