June, Part 3 (Serious shopping)

The next day in Minneapolis, we spent 12 hours inside the Mall of America!  We pretty much showed up when the doors opened, and stayed until the amusement park closed.  It was crazy.  I of course did a ton of shopping- and ate 2 meals and a snack, got a massage, and rode roller coasters.

I don't really have any pictures of the shopping that day, but I got a lot of stuff.  We ate lunch at the food court, and dinner at a nice restaurant called Crave.  I had my first ever grilled salad:

These pictures from dinner are not the best because the lights were turned low for ambiance- and I was not about to embarrass myself with a flash!  This was a very nice (i.e. Expensive!!) restaurant inside the Mall!

This was my dinner.  I thought it was cute.  :)  Some kind of chicken (I can't exactly remember) made with a sauce with agave.  I was not crazy about the cold green beans, but the rest was delish!

After dinner, we decided to ride some rides in the amusement park.  There was a special since it was approaching closing time so we decided we should ride.

Here we are with our armbands!

The next day was our last day in Minneapolis.  We went to the American Swedish Institute.  Catherine is super into Sweden, so it was most entertaining for her, but there were some neat things there.  They are doing some major renovating, so I'm sure it will be much cooler when they are done.  I took this picture with this horse:

Who says you can't ride a horse in a dress??  Ha!  Definitely not the most lady-like picture!

After the Swedish Institute, we headed towards Catherine's house to spend the night.  We got up the next morning and drove to Kansas City to pick up my aunt, and then to NWA to drop off Andrea.  I got a really cute shirt from the Fayetteville visitor's center.  It was a little too small, but I can fit in it now since I have lost some more weight.  Woo!

All in all, it was a good trip.  I got to see new places, try new things, and see old friends! I drove all 2000 miles, so I was very glad to be home!

June, Part 2

Obviously I am getting very creative with these post titles.

So I started couting calories a little before I went on vacation, and I told myself that I had to work out 3 days that week.  That did not happen- but I did start out one morning in the hotel gym.  I tried to kill myself running on the treadmill.  It was actually hilarious- but I seriously almost did hurt myself.  I started my Couch to 5K training program that morning, where you alternate walking and running.  So I was about halfway through the session when I ran out of water.  I waited until the next walking session and decided I would walk in place while I filled my water bottle.  Getting off the treadmill was not the most graceful move ever- I seriously almost busted it.  I caught myself on the next machine over, and I was so glad nobody else was in there.  I am not known for my gracefulness...  Anyway, I was proud of myself for getting up before my friends at least once and making it down to the gym. 

One of our other sorority sisters lives about three hours away from Minneapolis and was going to drive in to visit us on Sunday, but there was bad weather and she was afraid to make the drive.  Luckily the bad weather stayed away from us, but we would have loved to see Amy (my little diamond sister!).

Our first stop was the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.   I first heard about this place on a cake decorating show- I think Ace of Cakes.  This is me inside some kind of greenhouse that had these vines everywhere.  They were dripping on me and kind of freaking me out.  But I love this picture.

This sculpture was the whole purpose for visiting this garden.  Some people on that cake show had this on their wedding cake and I thought it was so cool.  I did not know that there was water running through it like a fountain.

It took us many tries to get our poses just right.  Catherine's was the best- her's looks like she is taking a bite out of the cherry.  It probably is because she had the best photographer (me).  Ha!

Here's another picture- with some crazy windblown hair.

We went to Loring Park.  This was not on the schedule, but happened to be right across from the restaurant that the trusty GPS lead us to for lunch, so we paid a visit.  :)

We ate lunch at Joe's Garage.  Apparently they serve Sunday brunch- which I was not thrilled about- and we were not expecting.  Also- you are also apparently supposed to have a reservation.  Whatever.  And I got a weird sunburn on one of my arms and one of my legs.  Apparently half of me was sticking out from under the umbrella.

Here is what I ate:

I was trying to be adventurous, and got this on recommendation of our waitress.  It was a mashed potato omlet.  I usually don't really like eggs- but this had so much other stuff in it that you hardly noticed the eggs.  I would definitely eat it again.

Then we went to a Minnesota Twins baseball game.  We had seats pretty high up, but you could still see pretty well.  And to me- they were stellar seats because they were in the shade the whole time.

I went to get a coke (actually a Diet Mountain Dew- ha!  If you are from the south, then you understand!) and when I got my wallet out, my credit card was not in there!  After a few stressful minutes waiting in line at the Guest Services desk, it was found down at the ticked counter.  The people at Target field could not have been more helpful.  I cannot say enough good things about the staff.  They brought my credit card up to me at my seat, and the guy even remembered to ask for my I.D.  Ya'll- I was so stressed out, and so happy to have my card back again!

After the game, I stopped to take a picture on the way out.  The lighting is not the best, but it is proof that I was there!

After the game, we had a couple of hours of shopping left in us.  We stopped at a few stores that we saw along the way, and ended up at the Mall of America again.  I finally made my first purchase at the Mall of America- 2 dresses from H&M.

I think that's enough for today. Looks like we will have at least one more June post....

June, Part 1

June was a crazy, fun-filled month.  I should have blogged about it right when things happened, because now it is so overwhelming to even think about typing everything that happened!

A few months ago, a couple of my sorority sisters and I tried to plan a little reunion since we had not seen each other in a while.  Nobody really wanted to make the decision of where to go, except that I really wanted to go to the Mall of America.  One of the girls lives about 4 hours from Minneapolis, so we decided that was what we would do.  Everyone was not able to make it though due to scheduling conflicts, so it was myself and two other girls.

I split the trip up as much as possible because I don't really like being in the car for long periods of time.  The night before I left, I decided to make a recipe found on Pinterest (of course)- Trix Krispies.  You know, like Rice Krispies, but with Trix cereal instead.  I had some colored marshmallows that thought would make a pretty treat.  The recipe said to microwave the butter and marshmallows and then add the cereal.  Well.... I forgot that marshmallows get HUGE when you microwave them.... and I had a WHOLE bowl full of them in the microwave.  I put it in the microwave and walked off to start a load of laundry, and when I came back my microwave was completely full of marshmallows!!  It was a pretty mess, but a sticky one!!  It took me forever to clean the microwave and kitchen after that disaster!  I was still able to make the Trix Krispies, but it was definitely not good enough to go through all that trouble!  I will probably not make them anymore, but stick with regular Rice Krispies next time.

I also signed up to run in the Color Run in Memphis in October with my friend Shannon.  I am super excited.  This will be my first 5K to actually run in- and let me scratch another thing off my 30 before 30 list.  Speaking of which.... I need to do an update on that list just to remind myself what I still have to do!

The first day of my trip, I drove 3 hours after work and spent the night with my friend Lyndsey and her family.  We got to go for a long walk around the neighborhood and it was good to catch up.  :)

The next day, when I woke up I was really not looking forward to the longest leg of my journeyand wishing I would have gotten a plane ticket!  Looking back, the driving part was a little fun and saved a lot of money, so it probably was for the best, but it sure took a long time!

I picked up one girl that morning, and we drove through Iowa.  This was my first time to visit Iowa.

I got to go to the Iowa Speedway, which was my first time to be at a race track (for cars anyway).  I took a picture with this sign, although I have no idea who this dude is.

The next day, we woke up and started the last leg of our trip.  We finally made it to Minnesota.  First activity- bathroom break at the Welcome Center!!

Our first real stop was in Austin, MN.  The trusty GPS led us to this fine eating establishment for lunch.  It was delish.

We had to make a stop at the SPAM Museum!  One of my coworkers told me about the SPAM Museum, and I just knew we had to stop there.  I mean, I don't actually eat SPAM, but how many people can say that they have been to the SPAM Museum??!?

The SPAM Museum was very fun and we stayed there much longer than we expected! There was a movie about SPAM and the door to the theater looked like a pig!  So cute!

We got to dress up like factory workers and even have a race to see who can package SPAM the fastest.  I believe that Catherine is destined to work in a SPAM packaging facility as she beat the pants off of me and Andrea. 

After the SPAM Museum, we went to IKEA where I made my first non-food purchases of the trip.  I got a popsicle mold, a large glass bowl, a cereal container, and a salad spinner.  All good purchases if I do say so myself!  We ate dinner at IKEA also.  Then we headed over to the Mall of America (yay!) for just a short time since it was getting pretty late.  Here are me and my peeps at the Peeps store!  :)

This post is getting pretty long, so I think this is a good stopping point.  Hopefully I will be back soon to finish posting about the month of June!

Almost 2 months later....

I guess I kind of put blogging on the backburner for the past few weeks!

I have been super busy and it doesn't look like it is going to ever slow down!

Let's take it one month at a time- ha!  Today I will recap the month of May.

I got to see the Diamond Hogs take on Louisiana Tech at Dickey-Stephens Park.  I love it when the Razorbacks come to play a game practically right in my backyard!  Fortunately the Hogs won, and I had a good time with my friends Karen, Shane, and Austin.  That was really my first time having to eat out while doing the calorie counting thing with MyFitnessPal, and it was interesting.  I was able to have cotton candy though, so it's all good.

Not the best picture, but at least it is proof that we were at the game!

I volunteered with my church at The Arkansas Rice Depot again.  This time I got a much better job than chiseling frozen rice.  It is hard work!

My brother and sister had a birthday.  I made mickey mouse cupcakes.  I should have made the jumbo cupcakes so that the oreos would fit better.  Oh well, I know for next time.



The Greek Food Festival happened at the Greek Orthodox Church.  I went a couple of times, and that was very bad for my diet!  I had to go to the gym twice one of the days that I went to the festival!

I got a couple of new pairs of running shorts.  I decided that if I was really going to get serious about this, then I needed some good workout clothes.  These are my favorite shorts, even if they do look a little like clown pants!

I left my phone at one of my laser hair removal appointments, and I almost freaked out.  Luckily it was there when I went back to get it.  It was almost as if I had lost my child or something.  I don't know what I would do without my phone!  ha! 

I had to go on a site visit to the middle of nowhere for work, and I did not wear sunscreen.  Bad idea...

I went to Riverfest with my mom and brother.

The people watching there is the best.  My brother and I started taking pictures of the best ones, but we were afraid of getting caught with the flash once it got dark outside.  Let's just say that lots of crazy people come out to Riverfest, and also that old men should not wear skinny jeans.  Riverfest always has a big fireworks display on Sunday night for Memorial Day.  Proof I was there:

 

Do you see the smiley face firework in the second picture?  It had a circle around it, but my photography skills were a little slow so I did not catch it in time.

I met up with some of my old high school friends for lunch at Moe's!

I made a really delicous Italian dinner.  Too bad it has approximately 50,000 calories, so I can't make it very often.

I think that just about sums up the rest of May. June was a very busy month too! That post is coming soon!

So much to do, so little time!

This post's title is in honor of my AWS schedule (alternative work schedule).  In a pay period (2 weeks), I work 8 nine hour days and 1 eight hour day, and I get one Friday off.  Before I started this schedule, I thought my days off would consist of sitting around and watching tv and not doing anything.  Yeah right.  Now my days off are more busy than any other day. I always make myself a to-do list a million miles long.  I actually started my chores tonight because I have so much that needs to get done tomorrow.

My office had a bake sale today to raise money for our annual picnic.  I donated some snickerdoodle pinwheel cookies, but I forgot to take a picture.  I split the batch into 2 plates, and one sold for $6, and the other sold for $5 so I'm glad someone bought them!  I got nervous this morning worrying about if anyone would buy them or not.  There were lots of tasty looking things.  I wanted to buy something, but I knew that if I bought anything, I would eat it all!  Plus I feel stupid buying things that I can make myself, especially because baking is the one kind of cooking that I can actually do! 

Also, I started using MyFitnessPal on Tuesday, and now I'm counting calories.  I was really not aware of how many calories I was eating before.  Really I tried to just ignore that part and eat whatever I wanted.  No longer.  Exercising is not enough, so I am now watching what I eat.  It has been a hard adjustment over the last couple of days though. I am used to eating more, so I am kind of hungry!!  I know that will get better and I need to learn to make better choices on what I eat.  I am trying to make it into a game to see what I can still eat and not go over my calories.  For instance, I have eaten out every night since I started and been able to stay under my goal.  Today I wanted cereal for lunch, so I actually got out the measuring cups and measured how much cereal I was going to eat.  I can promise that was the first time that has happened!  I was actually eating much more than I should be just by filling my cereal bowl all the way up.  I'm doing better about learning how much you should eat, but I'm sure I have a lot more to learn!

I'm hoping to stick with it (I realize it has only been a couple of days) and be at my goal weight by my birthday!

10 things- always playing catch up!

I promise I've been intending to write a post in the last month, I just never got around to it.   Blogging was always on my to-do list, and pretty much never got crossed off.

1. Since my last post, I've been going to the gym pretty regularly.  I usually go to a Zumba class at 9 am on Saturdays, and then 2-3 other times during the week, I go and work out on the machines.  Usually I do the elliptical, but it just depends on what is open and which tv screen I think I can see without my contacts!  :)

2. I'm also taking suggestions for good workout tunes!  I tried to use stuff that I've already got on my phone, but what I think sounds good at home usually hasn't worked out to be good for the gym.

3. I went to volunteer for the Arkansas Rice Depot.  That was a different experience!  Apparently every time you go, the job might be something different.  On my day, it was chiseling (like with a chisel) 1500 pound blocks of frozen rice into family sized servings and packaging it up to go to food banks.  That was crazy.  I've never seen so much rice in my life!  I'm going back to volunteer again in a couple of weeks, and I'm excited to see what job I get then!

4. My church had a family life picnic with an Olympics theme.  There was a cookie/brownie contest, and this was my entry, chocolate chip thumbprints:

The frosting was Nutella.  They were pretty good, if I do say so myself.  However, I didn't win a prize.  I never win anything in the baking competitions at church.  :(

5. This picture is the most ridiculous thing ever.  We were doing a three stooges race at the Olympics. 

Basically, myself and two friends had our legs tied together like a three legged race.  I realize that this picture is not good at all, but that makes it more funny.  Our sandals kept coming off, so we had to run barefooted- which is not something I really like to do.  We won the first race, but lost the second one (really bad!)

6. I went to see a new doctor last week, and I absolutely loved her.  If any of you in Central Arkansas are looking for a new doctor, I'll give you the info.  I did have to wait about 6 months for an appointment though for a new patient.  Apparently it is not that bad for existing patients.  I actually spent about 45 minutes with the doctor, which is rare.

7. The other day, when my friend Lyndsey was in town, we went to get frozen yogurt, at my favorite- Orange Leaf.  You must try the cotton candy flavor if you can!  I promise- it sound gross but is super delicious.  Anyway- I went to pick her up, and no joke- I had to wait for 4 geese (does that could as a gaggle???) to walk ever so slowly across the road, stand in the middle of the road to poop, and then walk slowly to the other side.  Keep in mind that this was right smack in the middle of Little Rock.  I felt like I was in the country or something.  ha!

8. My sister turned 8, and I got her this giant balloon.  It was almost as big as she was!

9. I will not be able to ring with the rest of my bell choir at our next performance because I will be on a trip.  So I have been acting as a sub for anyone who is not there that day.  Tonight I played my old bells in the back row, and I had to have moleskin for my hand.  Playing in the front row (where I am now) is turning me into a wuss!  Never ever did I do this when I actually played there every week.

10.  This is the best one.  So yesterday, I went to Sams to get some medicine.  While I was in the checkout line, I saw this giant box of popsicles that have flavors like Root Beer, Dr Pepper, and Hawaiian Punch.  My sister loves the Root Beer ones, and I'm thinking I will like the Dr Pepper ones, so I got a box.  120 popsicles for like $7?  Sold.  Then tonight I was looking at my receipt, and look what it is called on there.

Um yeah.  So who wants some Freezer Barf?

Friday randoms

1.  Today was my Friday off (I have every other Friday off), and I am starting to realize that these 2 extra days off each month are reaking havoc on my bank account.  I usually have a to-do list which involves running errands- which involves shopping of course.  Today's big purchase occurred at The Limited.  However, I did get 3 awesome tops.  Good day.  Ask me when my credit card bill comes in if I'm still feeling that way.

2.  I got a massage yesterday, and I actually have 2 giant bruises on my shoulders/upper back.  Have you ever had that happen?  Is it normal?  I like deep massages, but this was pretty painful!  I've never ever had bruises before after a massage.

3.  A Marshall's store opened yesterday in my town.  I'm not impressed.

4.  I joined a gym today and I'm going to try out a kickboxing class tomorrow with my friend Louisa.  I'll let you know how it goes.  They also have Zumba classes so I'm hoping to check those out too!

5.  I got a big urge to update my resume today.  Maybe a new job is in my future?  haha.  I updated it just in case since I had not updated it since I got my "new" job a year ago.  I'm not actively looking for a job, but I guess you never know when you will hear about an attractive opportunity.

6.  I had a coupon for some free chickn minis today from Chick fil A.  Score!  They were awesome.  I love those things and wish they would sell them all day long!

7.  I may or may not have bought a ton of funfetti cake mix and marshmallows at Target in the Easter clearance...

8.  I bought some new orange nail polish the other day.  I'm still not happy with it. I don't know why I can't find the orange I like in salons at a store.  Anyway I now have orange toenails and purple fingernails.  Is that a fashion disaster?

I think that is probably enough rambling for one day!  I'm off to fold laundry and then go to church to make greeting cards.  Yes, I'm an old lady.  :)