Adorable Food

Hello friends!

Today was family lunch Friday, and boy was it a fun one.  We went to Be Right Burger (BRB) in Reston Town Center.

They use all natural organic beef, and it is so darn good.

I made my own burger, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onion and Chipotle Ketchup (yum).

Sorry for the bad pictures, it was a messy burger. This was probably one of the freshest burgers I have ever had (outside my homemade burgers).

Ok, I am about to show you something that is going to blow your mind... The MOST ADORABLE food you will ever see, in your whole life... get ready:

BAM! Its a smilie face potato, I have never seen one of these before, and it was sitting at the bottom of my fry container at BRB. AH, I didn't want to eat it, but (obviously) I did, and it was gooood.

Later, after work and dinner, we went bowling! We had such a great time, and I was really on my game!

It is insane how over-sized everything is in America, I mean just look at that soda. Don't worry all three of my cousins and my sister got one of those AND finished the entire thing (they didn't go to sleep for a long time).  My cousins also had some pretty hilarious bowling names:

Don't ask about the Afghan camel, I have no idea why Kian wanted that name.  I also managed to sneak this pic:

Nalini told me to tag it, and made sure I called her out on my blog :).  I don't really know what Erik is doing in this picture tho, haha.   After bowling, around 11pm we headed back to our house and played Apples to Apples (best game ever), until around 2 am before passing out!

Ahhh what a great day! I hope everyone else had a great day as well!

Dumbells

I miss actually using these for their intended purpose:

which is to actually tone my muscles instead of physical therapy for an injury.  You see the little 1 lbs pink weight at the top? Ya that is where I am....super frustrating considering I used to be around the 10-12 lbs range. Today at physical therapy I did a lot of stretching, we are trying to gain some range of motion back in my shoulder, Amy said it is going to take a long time to get back to where I was... But it's alright, I am strong, I can do this.  I will go back to the gym and regain my normal routine.  I am such a creature of habit, that I haven't been 100% myself because my routine is all wacky.

I joined Daily Mile so that I can keep track of my running/elliptical miles.  I haven't recorded any workouts yet (because I haven't gone to the gym in over 2 weeks), but I will go... soon....But for now I am having loads of fun with my family :).

We went to Costal Flatts for dinner tonight, sorry no pictures, I was so hungry I couldn't even think straight.  I had the Filet Mignon, it.was.amazing!  Also the house chop salad that they have is really out of this world.  I don't know why but I LOVE grilled corn on my salads, it gives the salad a bit of grilled sweetness that makes it a perfect summer salad. I cannot wait until tomorrow night, or really the entire weekend, we have a lot of fun stuff planned, buuutt you will have to wait to hear about them :)

Have a great night!

Do you like grilled corn on your salads?

Cousins are fun!

Hello friends!

Today was quite a busy day!  We don't have any much food in our house right now so I didn't make anything for lunch today.  I did however take a quick 7 minute trip to Pica Deli for their yummy Pieta sandwich:

I really must get some Poppy seed dressing to put on my homemade sandwiches, that stuff is out of this world.

I had to leave work early today because we had a repair man come over to fix the door of our fridge, but I did get some work done while he was there.  After he left, I took Ella and headed over to Fairfax Corner to meet my sister and cousins.

We had a good time.

I really love having my cousins here, and I wish that they all would just move to the states so we can all be together all the time.  We decided to hit up Pinkberry (the first time for me), for some delish, non-fat fro-yo:

I had heard great things about this place and I had it on my 101 list, and let me tell you this place did not disappoint:

I even got the Original flavor for Ella and she couldn't get enough of it:

After our pinkberry adventure we headed back to my momma's house for some homemade pizza.

and because there are were so many of us we made five pizzas. Which in the end turned out to be one too many, because when we were all stuffed this little guy was left untouched:

The good thing, is we all love leftovers, so YUM :)  Oh course after dinner, we all wanted to go back to Fairfax Corner (it was such a beautiful night).  I wanted Erik to try Pinkberry (he loved it), and the boys wanted to run through the fountain:

All in all it's really been a fantastic day!  I hope yours was great as well!

Technology hates me!

This is what I spent most of my day doing at work:

My computer works fine, but there is some weirdo windows installation thing going on.  This was a simple task, take out broken hard drive and replace with new one.  It was anything but simple.  Turns out, because I have two hard drives, things are a bit more complicated than they need to be. Perhaps this is why the company sends this:

you know just in case you have to take apart their machines 100 times in order for them to work correctly.  So until further notice, when we decide we want to deal with it again, I will be working with my machine looking like this:

why yes those are the hard drives of my machine sitting on my desk.  worthless...  At least for now the computer works.

In other technology failure news, I had to cancel the order for my new digital SLR camera, oh ya did you know I ordered one of those...  I called the company who was supposed to ship it out and they said they had no record of my order, say what?  So I called the company who took my order and they said " oh sorry, for some reason the order did not go through, we will resubmit the order for you."  To that I replied, " No sir please cancel my order, I do not want to deal with your faulty online ordering system." ( I should have added a nice GOOD DAY SIR, to it but I did not.)

It was just a rough day all around, because after my computer and camera issues, I headed to physical therapy.  I really love my therapists, they are awesome at what they do and they are super nice... well they are nice until it comes time to stretch.... Amy wanted to see how much progress I have made over the last what is it now almost 4 weeks, so she pushed me a little today.  And by a little I mean, I have taken 800 mg of IBprofen and am sitting with an ice pack on my shoulder.

I asked her whether she thought I would be better off just having the surgery or continuing with therapy, and she was just as up in the air on that as I am.  I am just frustrated.. really really frustrated.  I also have lost all motivation to go to the gym (any words of encouragement are greatly appreciated).  Since my accident, I haven't been able to do the things I want to do, and it is driving me up the wall.  Sorry had to vent.....

Luckily, my family is a great source of my happiness.  So instead of going to the gym, we have been hanging out with my family a lot.  We have a wicked fun weekend planned, and I just want it to be here already! I promise I will take more pictures...

I hope everyone had a great day!

Busy Bee

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days! I have been super busy!  As I said on Friday my cousins from London are here and we have been running around with the family.

Saturday we spent most of the day at the airport, waiting for my cousins and my uncle (from Iran) to arrive.  Once they were here we all went back to my mom's house and ate dinner, played video games, and watched movies.  Pretty chill for the first night.

Sunday, Erik and I spent the entire day cleaning our house, inside and out.  We have really been neglecting our yard this year and it need a massive little trim. We were completely exhausted so we simply stayed on the couch and went to bed early.

Today was my cousin Kian's birthday.

That is him in London, my other cousin Farid has yet to post the pictures from our night.  After work we went over to my mom's house for some yummy chicken kabobs, and Baskin Robbin's Ice cream cake (whhhaaaat, so good).  Afterwards, we all headed to Ultra Zone for two intense games of Laser Tag.  There was a group of 14, let's call them jerks 20somethings, who had matching shirts that said "Winning" on the front of them.  I'm not going to lie, they looked pretty intimidating, they had eye black too.  But we soon found out they were all talk, similar to Charlie Sheen.. oopps did I say that.... They lost both of the games, and we won.. no CRUSHED them in the last one. aaahhh nothing like a good game of Laser Tag to get your blood flowing!  It was a fantastic night!  And now I am totally exhausted.  I hope everyone had a great night!!

Retail Therapy

Because I was down in the dumps yesterday about not be allowed to run anymore, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and got this:

It matched my coffee mug:

cute huh? So what I love pink, deal with it.

I got up this morning, and instead of going to the gym, (which I can't motivate myself to do anymore because I am just so frustrated) and did the laundry and vacuumed the whole house... that has to count for something right?

Let's hope so.

Today was family lunch day!!!!!!!! We went to La Madeline at Reston Town Center today:

I got the Turkey Bistro "Smoked turkey, crisp bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, melted provolone and sun-dried tomato pesto* spread on a toasted sourdough roll". 


Oh dear this.was.so.good.

sorry for the weird-o blurry pictures.  The portions are perfect here, ok so I was stuffed after my sammich and still ate the chips (bad idea, but so delish).  But it wasn't a heavy sandwich.  We must go back, they have quite an extensive menu.

Two beautiful sisters, enjoying lunch on a pretty Friday afternoon.  This is happiness.

Tomorrow my cousins from London are coming to stay with us for two weeks!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSS I cannot wait!

That is all for today. Have a great weekend!

I thought...

my shoulder was healing... I also thought I could start running...

but I was wrong..... I felt great this morning, no more pain than usual, so I figured "hey I ran, and I feel good, I can keep training."

No. Wrong.

I went to physical therapy in a great mood, and told them I ran and my shoulder didn't hurt and I was happy!  My physical therapist Amy was not feeling my enthusiasm, don't get me wrong, she is awesome, but she told me she didn't want me running.

She said she didn't want me making my shoulder worse than it already is, awesome. So that was it, my bubble was burst.  I told her I wouldn't run until she told me it was okay to.  I know she felt bad about it, but I understand why she told me to cool it.

On a happier note, my range of motion is getting better, but I still have quite a bit of pain so we aren't out of the woods yet. Okay enough shoulder talk for today.

Other than that it was a pretty great day, after work we went over to my mom's house to have dinner with my family.  We had a blasty blast.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family that can always make me laugh! For dinner we had some delish stuffed veggies:

My mom makes stuffed peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. When I was little I looooved the eggplant and now I am really in a stuffed tomato craze.  Each of them taste different but they are all oh so good.  I will switch it up next time and have a stuffed eggplant.... mmmm... I will put the recipe for this up soon.

Alright I am off to watch Project Runway!!! I hope everyone had a great day!

Running Again!

Hello friends!

I hope everyone is having a great day! At my physical therapy session today my therapist Melissa, was stretching my shoulder out and she told me that my range of motion in certain directions was improving! YES. This was great news! When I got back to my office I was talking to one of the owners of the company and he basically convinced me to start running again.  My physical therapist had said that I could do anything as long as it didn't hurt my shoulder. Okie, awesome!  So after work Lejia and I went to the gym.

To say I was scared to start running is an understatement.  After going to Busch Garden's and walking around all day I was sore, I couldn't even imagine what running was going to feel like.  But I did it! I ran the 2.25 miles I am supposed to be running this week.  However, I looked like an idiot while doing it.  I had my left arm tucked in, um just imagine what a turkey's wing looks like when you tie it up before putting it in the oven for thanksgiving.  Honestly it was ridiculous, but I did it and it didn't hurt too much.  I felt like I could have run further, but I started feeling a bit of pain in my shoulder so I stopped.

I have also been reading up on Labral Tears in the shoulder and have since found out that they do not heal themselves.  Which I read as, I will have to have surgery soon.  I also read that depending on the type of repair I can be fully healed in 3-4 months. Which probably means no 10k, no softball, no football...... BUT who knows, perhaps my body will super heal itself.  I have my next doctors appointment at the end of August, so I will keep you updated.

Sorry that was a bit long winded, but I am very proud of myself for overcoming my fear so I had to share.  Onto today's eats!

Lunch was another turkey and cheese wrap, yum! These are so good, I think I could have them everyday (other than my Friday lunch dates with my mommy and sissy).

For dinner tonight we had a group of 14 go to Honey Pig! Oh dear it was so delish.  My cousin, Farid, had never been to a Korean restaurant (they don't have those in Iran), and he loved it!  Sorry for the lack of before photo, we were too hungry and chatty to take a picture.  But never fear:

ahh the aftermath.  We had three tables FULL of yummy food!  I love our friends! It's been a great day and I am off to bed now!

Crazy storm and a pizza

Hello friends! I hope you all liked my post yesterday, sorry it was a bit long, but I wanted to highlight a lot of stuff. So let's catch up a bit shall we, yesterday for lunch I decided to try something new that we had gotten at Trader Joes this past weekend:

I am not really a big fan of dry, premade soups because they usually have a lot of sodium and really are not good for you, but its Trader Joes, so we decided to give it a try.   I'm not going to lie and say this was amazing, because it was really just OK:

I was a bit disappointed that there was NO corn, please refer to the picture on the box, and the pictures I took:

Maybe the next one I have (we only bought two) I will eat at home, so I can add some spices and veggies, overall not bad for 99 cents.

We had a crazzzzy mega storm roll through later yesterday afternoon, which caused a lot of power outages and downed trees:

all those are from our neighbor's tree! CRAZY. Luckily Erik was home at the time so Ella had someone to keep her company as the storm rolled through.  As we were starting to clean (I am not much help, seeing as how I can't lift heavy objects with my left arm), it started to rain again so we decided to go inside and make dinner and deal with the trees later.

We made pizza again tonight:

Erik is good at rolling out the dough, and he enjoys doing it!  He did make a bit of a mess when he decided to throw the pizza dough in the air, haha too funny.  Ella had no idea what was going on.  Our pizza turned out delish, as usual:

Pesto, chicken sausage, tomatoes, onion :) I like this pesto pizza with the shredded chicken better , but this was still pretty good.

Today I had a farmer's market plum that my mom bought us this past weekend:

I don't think I have ever had a white plum before, but these are fab.  I must buy them again next weekend. For lunch today, I made a turkey and cheese wrap:

This was make with humus, greens, tomato, Trader Joe's Honey Turkey breast, and colby jack cheese.  I will be having another one of these tomorrow because they are so good, and so filling.

For dinner tonight we made some pre-marinated chicken from Trader Joe's, Sundried Tomato and basil, tater tots, veggies, and sweet potato fries:

This chicken was amazing, I think I can make the marinade myself but this was so perfect. The chicken was so juicy and flavorful. After dinner, Luke came over to help Erik clean up the trees from our backyard, while I took pictures:

haha.  This is all I could do, I am frustrated that I can't help out, but I am trying to make the best of it. Alright well that is all for now.

Did you guys have crazy storms on Monday?  What do you like to put on your pizzas?

Honeymoon/ 1 Year Anniversary!!

I was looking through my computer's files and I found this blog which I NEVER posted!!!  Enjoy, this was about our honeymoon/ 1 year anniversary on August 29, 2010:

Here it is, finally our honeymoon blog... almost a year later.. I warn you this will be LONG!

So as I said in the previous post, we left London very early in the morning to go to Dublin, Ireland.  Once we arrived, we got our rental car and headed to the hotel.  We saw a lot of pretty churches, and houses along the way.

After we checked in, we decided to go for a walk, there was no one out on the streets, since it was still around 8am. After we ate breakfast, we went back around the hotel, and decided to do our souvenir shopping.  I think I had a little too much fun in shop!  We walked to the Temple Bar, and saw more beautiful churches, and lots of people.

We had decided to walk to the Guinness Brewery (terrible idea).  It was such a lot walk, but we had the opportunity to see a lot of the city.  The Guinness brewery was AWESOME!  

They had a really cool waterfall thing, right in the middle of the building.  The main building where they held their self guided tours was in the shape of a pint glass, with the top of the glass had a room with a 360 view of Dublin.

We walked around all the different displays, learning about the deliciousness that is Guinness, until we got to the very top, where we enjoyed the view of Dublin with a nice tall glass of Guinness.

 Both of our beers had a shamrock shape in the foam! I thought that was very noteworthy.

We took the bus back to our hotel area, and went to a little Italian restaurant called “Toto” for dinner, then headed back to the hotel, and literally passed out!

Day 2

We got up early the next morning, and went to a yummy bagel place called “The Bagel Bar” for breakfast, then hit the road to Kilkenny (which was our favorite city in Ireland).  The drive down to Kilkenny, was so beautiful, perfect green landscape and wonderful weather. We took a really nice walk around town and went to our first castle (Kilkenny Castle), the inside of the castle was really pretty.  We took a self guided tour of the castle, then walked around the gardens around the castle.

 We then went to Esquires Coffee House, for a nice afternoon coffee break.  Little side note, the coffee in all of Ireland was as thick as mud, delicious, but really strong.  We loved it.  After our coffee break we went to our second brewery of the trip, Smithwick’s.

The tour was really awesome, there was 6 of us on the tour, so the tour guide took his time and showed us everything, and shared so much of the history of not only the brewery, but of Kilkenny as well. We learned a lot of how the town came together to build the St. Francis Abby Church, when times were really hard financially, it was a real touching story.  After our tour, we went to the underground bar they had at the brewery, where we learned how to pour the perfect Smithwick’s and drank!

 After we finished our beer (which is now one of my favorites), we walked around the town a bit more, had dinner, then went to the hotel to crash again.

Day 3

Up early the next day, free breakfast at the hotel (lots of salted meats). Then we were off to Blarney Castle!  Before we went into the castle we walked around “The Rock Close”, oh boy was it amazing.  They had waterfalls, a rock shaped like a witch, and signs with stories on them.

 We then ventured into Blarney Castle, this place was HUGE, and had the most fantastic views you will ever see.

We walked up some crazy skinny, spiral staircases, to get to the tippy top where the Blarney stone was.

And at the top we both kissed the Blarney stone, and boy was it scary.  You were a million feet in the air, at the top of the castle, and they made you lay back and grab onto the bars and hang basically upside down. It was awesome haha.

After the Blarney castle we decided to go to the Jameson Distillary (Erik loves his whiskey)! We doodled around the gift shop while we waited for our tour to start.

The distillery was really cool, we learned it was an old distillery and that they had since built a new one just a few miles down the road, which was fully operational.

We went to the old barrel room where they had a display set up of all the different aged whiskies.

 After the barrel room, Erik got to participate in a whiskey tasting, where they tried 3 different types. One was obviously Jameson, they had Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels, Erik passed and got a certificate :)

Day 4

We spent our fourth day in Ireland driving around the Ring of Kerry.  I cannot even begin to tell you how amazingly beautiful it was.  We had to stop every 10 minutes to take a picture, stunning.  I wish I had a better camera, because I don’t think my camera did this place justice.  I will let the pictures do the talking for this section of the bloggy.

Day 5

We took a ferry across the ocean, to go to the Cliffs of Mohr.  Here is what our navi showed us as we were going across the ferry.

 On our drive over there, we got to experience, the crazy TINY Irish roads, we took a pretty cool video of Erik driving.  Ill try and post it here, if not it will be on facebook.

I believe everyone should go to Ireland and go to the Cliffs of Mohr, OMG they are spectacular.

They do warn you, they are pretty scary.

Im also going to let the pictures tell you the story of how amazing the cliffs are.

After the cliffs we went out to dinner at a place called Pier Head, the food was really yummy, and it was right by the water.

Day 6

Our last day in Ireland, and it was our anniversary!  We spent the day driving across the country, I believe it took us 3-4 hours. Here are some more amazing views:

So we got back into Dublin and our hotel was near a stadium, where they were playing some sport haha.  The entire area was closed off, and there was a crazy amount of traffic. I had to get out of the car and go up to some cops in order to ask them if they would let us down the street where our hotel was.  Needless to say it was a pain in the butt to get to our hotel, but it was worth it.  We got a really sweet deal, for a king size suite, with bathrobes, and free drinks. We went to dinner at the hotel, and got some wine and celebrated our 1 year anniversary.

It was the perfect way to end the most amazing trip!