Garden talk

Hello friends! Erik and I are feeling much better today!

Last night we watched the season finale of The Voice, and our favorite guy, Javier Calon, won! YAY team Adam, although Dia Frampton is amazing, and we love her voice as well.  I would have been happy if either one of them had won!

This morning I got up, had breakfast as usual:

and really battled with myself about my morning workout.  Luckily my hubby forced encouraged me to take Ella for a run. No but seriously I am glad he did, because it felt good. Ella and I ran 1.38 miles; not great but not bad either and I think we ran it in 10 minutes. I would have actually gone further, but I decided too late that I wanted to go running so I ran out of time.  When I got back I hung out with Tony Horton and the crew and did the 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X.

For lunch today I had more leftover spaghetti:

I am trying to control portion sizes so I put it in a 2 cup container so I will know how much I have had.  It is crazy how small a serving size actually is. But it filled me up enough, along with my peach and peach chobani:

Mm mm mm. I was actually really craving a turkey sandwich today but we have a lot of leftovers in the fridge so we need to eat those before they go bad. 

So back to the title of this post, I have been debating all summer whether or not I should have a garden this year.  Last year our garden was great, but as usual I planted too much and most of the veggies went to waste.  I know that I want tomatoes and zucchini, but I don’t know what else to plant this year.  I think I am going to do it.  The first step was to clean out the garden:

It was completely overgrown with weeds.  I don’t even know what those things are that are growing in there. So 2 hours and three bags later this is what my garden looks like:

It is crazy how much crud was in there.  I am not sure if I will have time this weekend to plant, hmmm perhaps I will have time on Monday. Hooray for 3 day weekends.

Any ideas on what other veggies I should plant this year? Help me out!

I played around with the idea of growing my veggies and selling them at eastern market, but I don’t know if I will ever have enough. I have some maddddd zucchini growing skills. Haha. Hmm on that note, I really need to get my act together and start cooking again, bad wife. *tisk* *tisk*

As I said yesterday Erik wasn’t feeling well *sadface* so he went to the doctors today, therefore we are on a simple diet for the next two days, no fancy meals.  Hopefully whatever is in his system that is making him not feel well, will go away! And honestly who doesn't love Chicken nuggets and tater tots!

After dinner we went to the movies to see Transformers, it was really really good! Youuu should go seeee itttt.

Alright folks that is all for me today! Have a great night!

Takin’ it easy

Hello blog friends! I woke up with a massive headache and Erik was having some really bad stomach issues so we both decided to work from home today.  Well actually Erik did leave in the morning to deliver something for work, but then came home and worked from home.

Breakfast

Yesterday on my way over to my mom’s house I stopped off at Trader Joe’s to get garlic for my mom, and ended up getting bananas for our house! I heart bananas, so you can probably guess what I had for bfast today:

awesome cereal combo.  After breakfast it was time to get to work.  I have never worked from home before, and I really didn’t know what I was missing. I love working from home.  The only bad part is that I have a lot of access to snacks, but I was good today.

Lunch

My mom made some more yummy Iranian food and let us take some home.

This is called Kuku Sabzi, you can go here for the recipe. I made it into a delish sandwich with tomatoes and cucumbers from the farmers market.

I did not workout today, yay, I needed a break, we have been going at 100 mph and I just needed to slow things down. 

Ella was a bit tuckered out today because she spent all day yesterday with my sister, and today Erik and I are home so she is once again up and running around outside.  Take a look at this:

This is Ella at 8 weeks old, the first day we brought her home.  She has that same blue “hippo” today and loves it.  This was her today:

Passed out. Look at how much smaller she used to be. Oh man, we love going through old puppy pictures, it really makes us want to get another puppy. The picture is a bit deceiving because the blue “hippo” no longer has any stuffing in it, so I think it looks a bit smaller than it did 2 years ago.

Dinner

Dinner tonight was our classic Chicken Nugget Tortellini, but we ran out of pesto so we used regular spaghetti sauce.  Not the same, but still good.  And because we were both feeling a lot better we decided to have a little snack:

SMORES! YES, we used our stove:

(I love gas stoves) and cooked the GIANT marshmallows, until they were crispy:

Mmm I love smores, takes me back to my girl scouting days!  Alright folks, I am off to bed!!! I hope everyone had a great day!  

Phases

I go through phases where I am really into reading or working out or cooking.  I can never be consistent and do everything in moderation and eventually I am totally burned out and don’t want to do said activity again.  I need to work on that.  The reason I say this is because 2 days in a row I have skipped the gym in the morning to read.  I’m not saying I won’t go to the gym again, but right now, I would rather use my mornings to read.

 I finished the second book of the Hunger Games series this morning, so skipping the gym was a good idea. It was really good, I did have trouble getting into this book at first, but starting on page 173 it got really interesting and I couldn’t really put it down. I am now starting on my next book:

I know it looks super lame but I am a hopeless romantic and I love the other three books, so here is the last one! I started reading the series after Erik and I got engaged and fell in love with the quartet.  Currently I own 16 physical (not kindle) books I have to read, before I can buy any other books on my kindle. The problem is, I love my kindle… It is so much easier to read outside where the sun is glaring on the pages, honestly its fantastic.  Sunny and Diana bought me a book on my kindle for my birthday so I may just switch back and forth from reading physical books and books on my kindle. Hmmm yes I think that is a good plan…

I also realize that I don’t think I am drinking enough water:

This picture was taken around 2pm, and that is all the water I had all day! FAIL.

So lessons learned today, do everything in moderation and drink more water. Awesome!

Breakfast

I had the same mixed cereal as I did yesterday, and when I got to work we had leftover bagels from yesterday and OJ:

I can’t pass up bagels, mmm carbs. I had a peach and some fresh cherries my mom and sister picked from the orchard this weekend, as snacks:

Yum! Sour cherries are the bomb.dot.com.

Lunch…

was leftover spaghetti from last night, no need for a repeat picture. And for dinner tonight we went over to my mom’s house for some yummy Iranian food.  I tried to take some pictures, but then realized that there are some foods that just don’t look appealing in photographs.

Tonight’s dinner was rice with a carrot sauce

This is a picture I found online.  My goal this summer is to learn how to cook Iranian food.  I always say I am going to do it, but it’s on my 101 in 1001 and this summer seems like the perfect one to learn.

Well folks I feel a headache coming on, I am going to go watch tv and fall asleep! I hope everyone had a great day.

Sad that Softball is over

Boo tonight we had our last softball games.  We lost both of them to a team who was tied for first place.  We ended the season in third place I believe.  I ended up pitching the last game and it was so much fun.  Having been a fast pitch pitcher for 12 years, ok maybe 10 I didn’t start pitching right away, it took a lot of restraint on my part not to wiz the ball into the catcher at 65 mph! ahhh I miss those days.

Breakfast

Today I decided to mix a few of my cereals together like Colleen does every morning, and let me tell it was a great idea. I can see why she likes cereal so much.  Today I mixed together some honey nut cheerios, cinnamon toast crunch, and Fiber One nutty clusters. Yum! I think I will be doing that again tomorrow.

 When I got to work my coworker Lee yelled at me from his car to come help him take a few things into the office.  I was a TOTAL bag lady today; I had 4 or 5 grocery bags, my backpack, purse and my lunch bag. Really?! Haha. It was awesome, and I am glad I helped because then I felt like I earned my bagel.  Yes I had another breakfast, I love bagels!

Lunch

For lunch, yes I was hungry again at 1; I made myself a taco salad from the leftovers of our Taco Thursday night.

I used the refried beans as a “dressing” so it was just ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce, a bit of cheese and refried beans (fat free).  Later on in the afternoon I had these puppies:

They weren’t as good as the regular tastykakes, because they were sugar free but they were still good.

Workout

I did not feel like going to the gym this morning so when Erik got home the three of us (Ella makes 3) went out for a run.  Luckily Erik ran with Ella today, so I ran a bit further than I did last time.  I am pretty sure I made it to the 2 mile mark, but I did have to stop for like .2 seconds because I had a massive cramp. Forgive this picture because I think I look horrible in it but this was us post run:

And of course I am pretty sure Ella really enjoyed herself:

She was super pooped. 

I decided to reward her slash cool her off with one of her ice cream treats:

Which she ate, but then 3.5 seconds later proceeded to throw it up. Ewie.  Lesson learned, do not give your dog treats after a run, ok got it.

Dinner

For dinner we had some super yummy baked spaghetti.

I made this before we went on our run, and let it simmer while we were gone. Baked spaghetti is so good; the only problem is that while it infuses the noodles with the delicious sauce, it also absorbs it so it tends to be a bit on the drier side.  We remedy that by putting some more spaghetti sauce on the pasta before we eat it. Yum yum yum!

Alright folks, that is all for me today! I hope everyone had a great Monday!

I live for the weekend!

Hello friends! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far, I know I am.  I rarely have time to blog on the weekends, because we try and pack as much fun as we can in just two days.  I hope everyone checked out my About Me page I put up on Friday!

Saturday

After sleeping in Saturday morning we headed over to my mom’s house around 9.  We had breakfast then we headed out to the Farmers Market in Fairfax.  I didn’t take a picture of the market because I had Ella with me and let’s just say there were a lot of new smells she was interested in.  She kept me pretty busy.  It was a cute little farmers market; nowhere near the size of the one in Eastern Market, but the food was just as delish.  I ended up getting a few tomatoes, peaches, cucumbers, and a cantaloupe:

After we got back from the Market it was time for us to make our way to our last football game.  Unfortunately when we got there, we realized that the other team was not going to show up, bummer.  We ended up scrimmaging ourselves for about 30 minutes, before we headed over to Front Page for lunch and drinks.  I had a Heidenburger, which in hindsight was way too heavy for me.  Needless to say I did not feel well after lunch. I really need to rethink my food choices, most of the time my eyes are bigger than my stomach.

Erik and I went to Dick’s sporting goods and Old Navy after lunch.  He got some new football/softball cleats at Dick’s, and I got 2 pairs of shorts and a black skirt at Old Navy.  I really want to go through my clothes and donate them, but I always find reasons to keep the clothes I have.


Does anyone else have this problem?

Later in the evening we headed over to Top Golf to celebrate our friend Kevin’s birthday.  I have never seen that place soooo packed.  We had to put our name on a waiting list for a bay, and they had told us that the wait time was an hour and 45 min?! We decided to wait and it really wasn’t that long of a wait.  But it was long enough for us to watch Mexico score on the US twice, barf.  We had a great time, and if you have never tried Top Golf I recommend it.  The golf balls have microchips in them, and the point is to hit the ball into the “holes” to get the most points.  Check out their website for a more detailed description.  Erik won both games, but I gave him a run for his money in the second one for about 2 seconds. Haha.

Sunday

I cut this bad boy up for breakfast Sunday morning:

And we ate it with a delish egg sandwich:

Yum yum yum.  After breakfast Erik really wanted to go for a bike ride and I am so glad he did because it was such a wonderful day to go riding.  We headed out for an hour and a half through the trails of Wakefield and Lake Accotink. Being in the woods was so peaceful this morning; it really was a fabulous way to start off the day.  When we got back Erik was cleaning off the bikes:

And picked me some beautiful hydrangeas from our garden. I put them in a vase and put it on our dining room table:

Shortly after we got back we geared up and headed over to my mom’s house to go to the pool:

There was little humidity today so it was really easy to sit on the pool deck and read. When the guys were in the pool playing with the Toypedo:

(do you remember these things?) Diana and I were yaking up a storm.  She randomly picks up a white twisty tie (and doesn’t realize she picked it up..don’t ask)

Later she turns to me and says, “hey where did this thing come from?” to which I replied, “you just picked it up off the ground and started playing with it.” Haha, she said she didn’t remember picking it up off the ground, haha. It was funny, but I think you had to be there to fully appreciate it.  We got back home and had just enough time for Erik to mow the front yard while I vacuumed before we had to head over to Wakefield for our second to last set of softball games.  We won the first game but lost the second pretty terribly.  There was a really tall guy on their team who hit a homerun at least 50 yards OVER the fence every time he got up to bat.  Redic.  I am sad to see the season end, but we had a lot of fun!

Alright folks, sorry that was such a long post. Have a great night and I will see you guys tomorrow!

*Cue Rebecca Black song*

I love Fridays for 2 reasons.  #1 It’s Friday, which means the weekend is here, and #2 (best reason) I get to have lunch with my mommy!  AND from now on (since my sister is on summer vaca) she will be joining us on Fridays for lunch! Now if Erik could come with us for lunch that would be my perfect day!

This morning I decided to sleep in a bit, and well so did Ella:

AH she is so freaking cute.  It was really nice this morning, a bit humid but its summer in DC what do you expect, so after Erik left for work Ella and I headed out for a run.  Man I know I have said this before but it is so much harder to run with a dog, it’s alright though, she loved it and it made both of us happy.  I only ran 1.5 miles, but I did it in 14 minutes, so that is pretty good considering at the gym I can only manage a 10 min/mile. I think that might be a regular Friday morning activity, depending on the weather.

After our run I popped in Ab Ripper X and worked through that, before getting ready for the day.

LUNCH DATE

*happyface* I picked up my mom and sister and we went to Cafesano again.

 This place is so good.  I decided to try something new this time, so I got the Turkey Pesto Wrap

This was really good, but not as good as the chicken pesto Panini I had last time.  Next time I go I want to try one of their pizzas.  Next Friday my mom won’t be able to go to lunch with us, so Ava and I are going to go to Flippin Pizza.  After we ate we walked outside the restaurant where there was a pretty lake:

There was a cute little family feeding bread to the geese and the one lonely turtle:

Can you see him?

For dinner tonight I made Trader Joe’s beef and Broccoli:

It was quite delish, and super easy to make.

After dinner we headed over to Sunny and Diana’s house for a movie and SUNDAE night!!!! I looove ice cream.

Sunny and Diana also sold their house back in St. Louis so we had a little bubbly to celebrate:

Yum yummy yum.  And now that I am in a food coma I am off to bed.  YAY weekend!

About me Page

Hey guys,

A quick note, I finally wrote an About me page. Check it out!

I will blog later tonight again!

Have a great Friday!

Taco Thursday!

Hello blog friends! YAY it’s almost Friday! I live for the weekends, does anyone else do that? I wish I still had my every other Friday off, but I like my overall schedule better now so I am not really complaining.  It just means that after work I need to get some housework done so that our weekends can be spent lying by the pool and reading, mountain biking, wine tasting, or any other glorious summer activity.

Today I woke up and headed to the gym a bit later than usual so I only had time to run my 2 miles on the treadmill, stretch and head home.  I am ok with that; it was a good run.

Today at work we spent yet another day trying to fix my computer.  No one could figure out what was wrong with it (this was before lunch).  Our group went to Chili’s for lunch and I got an Avocado Burger (put avocado on anything and it instantly makes it 100% more delicious).  I didn’t take a picture of it because I was with my coworkers and I thought it would be weird, maybe next time I will sneak a pictures in there somehow.

After lunch we racked our brains again and eventually I did something magical that made the program run. I was super excited! FINALLY, after 2 weeks we got my computer program up and running. *whew*

I got home today and instead of doing another workout I decided to use the time to clean up my coupons.  I stopped off at Staples and got a bigger binder and some sheet protectors, and went to work:

I threw out some old coupon books that were filled with expired coupons, and clipped some awesome food coupons for my binder.  As I was going through the books, I realized that I had been missing out on some great deals, boo.  I clipped all the food coupons for things I usually buy and sorted them in my binder:

This way when I go to Giant I can take my binder and know what coupons I have.  After that I made Tacos for dinner! YUM:

And waited for Erik to get home so that we could eat:

Mmm taco nights are my fav, because they are not only delish but super easy to cook and clean.  We ended the day by watched 3 episodes of ER, along with the results show from The Voice! Man that show is fab.  Alright well I hope everyone had a great day!