Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Sunday “Not-So-Fun” Day





Today was definitely NOT a “Sunday Funday”.  You see, what had happened was this…



Yesterday I started the day by eating a nice, healthy breakfast while watching the México vs. Brazil Olympics finals soccer game with the hubby.  I had my new favorite meal, the same one that I had had for three out of the last four meals: whole wheat mini pita pocket, eggs with diced steak, freshly diced tomatoes, drizzled with Chimichurri sauce.



*** In case you are wondering, Chimichurri is an Argentinean parsley/garlic/red pepper flakes/red onion/lemon juice/olive oil/throw in a blender sauce…almost like a pesto only more flavorful and with parsley instead of basil.  If you’ve ever had a dipping sauce for your bread (or a green sauce atop your steak) at a South American steakhouse or Spanish Tappas or Italian restaurants, then you know what I’m talking about this because this is pretty similar.***



 Anyway, I made a big batch the other day; we can’t get enough of it in this house!  The hubs is from South America, where this stuff is a staple because they are such big meat eaters and the little one, well she just loves it!  Honestly, I eat the least amount of it usually or get tired of it within a day or two but I have been obsessed with it too this time around!  It had been a while since I made it, so maybe that’s it.   Anyway, I drizzled this stuff onto the steak, eggs, tomato mixture and it was soooooooo good!  Well after that meal I was really full, and by the time I got hungry again it was close to my run time and I didn’t want to eat and get full before the run so I just waited.  Well I went for my run and then got cleaned up and dressed and well, long story short, we ended up at a Mexican restaurant at 10:30pm.  Big mistake.  Huge.



Let me preface this by saying that I really don’t like eating at Mexican restaurants.  No offense, but most Mexican restaurants (around here anyway) are actually “TexMex” and well, when you grow up eating real Mexican food everyday, three meals a day, home-cooked by your straight-from-México grandmother and aunt (that never even learned to speak English when they came to the states) until the age of 18 when you went off to college, well, suffice to say, the other stuff just doesn’t measure up.  If I do eat it, I prefer to eat at a good old Taquería or Carnicería (meat market); the smaller, the greasier, the least-likely-to-hear-English being spoken, the better!!  



So we went to this Mexican restaurant, and by now it’s been about 12 hours since I last ate anything and I am HANGRY!!  Translation = hungry + angry.  I’m so hungry I’m grumpy and my head was hurting big time.  I wanted food, and lots of it, and chose a platter that included two ground beef (which I never even eat anymore, we only buy ground turkey) enchiladas, rice, charro beans and a small salad.  Oh, and I told the waiter to please keep the chips and salsa and guacamole/green salsa dip coming.  Oh, it pains me even just thinking about it now!!  I never eat like this, it's not good for my system, and I know this...and  I did it anyway!! #momentofweakness



I ate everything on my plate.  Ever.y.thing, and made a nice dent in the chips basket and salsa bowls too.  On the ride home I was already starting to feel sick, and by the time I made it to bed (passed out, actually) the food felt like a giant rock in my stomach.  I slept fretfully and tossed and turned and sweated all night, and my hubs finally woke me up at like 3:30 am and gave me some Picot in water, which is the Mexican version of Alka-Seltzer only in powder form.  This is the best stuff ever and usually does the trick anytime something has my tummy hurtin’!  Not this time, however, because I awoke early this morning to watch the Olympic Men’s marathon and I still felt sick!  I watched the last half-hour or so of the marathon, climbed back in bed and that is where I stayed the rest of the day. 



I only got up for bathroom trips, napped on-and-off, read a book, and finally ate a tiny bowl of cereal that my daughter brought me around 2pm.  My hubby and daughter kept coming in to check on me – it’s just not like me to stay in bed all day – and they knew I was feeling awful!  Honestly, I had not felt this bad in forever, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that my daughter – who had virtually the same meal – felt perfectly fine, I would have been convinced I had food poisoning.  I’m still not totally convinced that I don’t.  L



I finally made it out of bed and got showered and dressed and we went to Souper Salad for dinner where I had some Chicken Noodle Soup and cornbread with my salad.  The food didn’t make me feel any better but at least it didn’t make me sick!



The highlight of my day, aside from the fact that I almost got an entire book read, was that I ended the evening having Tapioca at my favorite place, with one of my favorite people ever, my friend Amanda.  We got caught up since we hadn’t seen each other for most of the summer.  We jumped from topic to topic in the crazy way that we always do, and it was great to get to spend some time with her.  I can’t wait until we see each other again!



Now I’m home and heading to bed because I actually have to go to work tomorrow...and I'm still not feeling very well.  We have an all day staff development and it starts at 8:00 am.  Guess it’s that time of the year when I have to start getting back into routine.  Darn!!  No more Olympics, no more late night runs, no more staying in my PJ’s till gym time, and no more staying up all night and sleeping late the next day!



Summer is (almost) over; the new year has (almost) begun! 



Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday Favorites, 8.10 - I'm baaaack!!!


I’m baaaaaack! 


So much has been going on this week and I have so much to fill you in on!  I do have to say, I MISS my daily blogging therapy and promise to never take such a long break again!  Today is Friday, and I normally do Friday Favorites, but honestly, these are going to be more like tangents since I have so many random things to fill you in on!  Umm, yeah, this is gonna be a bit of a long one! J



Here are my Friday Favorites (a.k.a. tangents).  Let’s start from the beginning!



***


 On Tuesday I had a couple of people who deserved TROPHIES in my book: 

1.     Rachel, the bestie!  She received a HUGE promotion at work, and is going to be a big boss at her school now.  Wooohooo!  So proud of her and I know she is going to do a fantastic job!!!  We went to the school board meeting to watch her get officially announced in her new position and then went out to dinner at PF Chang’s afterward to celebrate.

2.     Javier, the hubby.  He receives a huge trophy for being so thoughtful!  He met us at the restaurant because he was coming straight from an appointment that he had been at all day.  And when he walked in, guess what he had in his hand?  Flowers.  For the bestie on her special day.  That’s one of the things that I love about him, his attention to detail.

3.     Who doesn’t get a trophy?  Me!!  I hurt myself during my workout on Tuesday.  I know this may be a silly question, but do women have groin muscles like men do?  Well if we do, I hurt mine!  I went to an earlier class than I normally do on Tuesday’s because I needed to make it to the board meeting on time to see my friend.  The class that I go to on Wednesday’s with the instructor that totally kicks my butt…well, that same instructor gives the same class on Tuesday’s too, and that’s the one I went to.  When I walked in (about ten minutes late) they were already fully into the workout!  So of course, I did the smart thing and instead of taking a couple of minutes to warm-up off to the side, I jumped right into the workout!  This is the instructor that I told you recently got certified in CrossFit and has since changed the structure of his class to make it straight CF.  I definitely ain’t complaining!!!  We were standing on steps with 3 rizers under each side doing lunges, forward and backward, and I had a 10 pound weight plate in each hand.  On one of the lunges backward, off of the step, I felt a pop in my muscle at the top of my leg where the thigh meets the hip.  The pop was weird; it was so shocking and quick!  That’s when I did smart thing #2 and kept going full-force for the rest of the class instead of stopping.  Oh, and then I ran 2 miles on it later too.  Needless to say, that was noooooot the smartest thing I’ve ever done!  It took me back to my high school days when I continued to play basketball after I had torn my ACL and when it popped out I would just pop it back in and kept going like nothing was wrong.  Ouch!!  #craziness 


***


A quick Run streak update:

RUNstreak: as of tonight, 70 days and counting…


My “groin” or whatever it is that I hurt is feeling much better after taking it easy during my workouts for a couple of days.  I continued with my runs, though so as not to break my run streak.  I have to admit, though, that Tuesday night’s run and Wednesday morning’s run were ROUGH.  I was hurting sooo bad that I had to stop and walk some.  Way more often than I would have liked!  And while I was able to finish the two miles each time, I did end up having to walk quite a bit, and being that I don’t normally do this, my anal-retentive self is having a hard time calling those real “runs.”  My hubs tells me that I should give myself a break and give myself credit for even trying to run while injured.  I guess I’ll listen to him!  I may have  had to stop and walk some but I still did more running than walking so I’ll still count it!  I felt muuuuuch better during yesterday’s run and am feeling almost back to normal today!


***


The “Greatness is ours” Nike commercial.  The Pr and Marketing people at Nike are amazingly good at their jobs!!  They are right on the money. Every. Single. Time.  This latest commercial, in two words?  Inspiring and motivating!  I read a little bit of background about the young man who made the commercial and his story is great!!  You can read about his story here.  What I love most about this campaign is the fact that it lets us believe that there is already greatness within us all.  In a time where we are all inspired yet humbled watching the Olympic greats, Nike tells us that we may not all be Olympic athletes but we all have miracles within us.  It’s beautiful, really!


***


Friday favorites – OLYMPIC edition:

-         Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings win gold – love, love, love them and have been following them since High School!!!  I know I mostly talk about Basketball, which was undoubtedly my favorite, but I played (and loved) Volleyball too.  They were my favs then and they continue to be my favs now…and I WISH they would go for Gold in Rio in 2016 too!

-         Alison Felix – 200m gold FINALLY!!

-         Kenya’s David Rashida setting the World Record in the Men’s 200m race – love his story because he is such a nice, simple man from humble roots…and he runs to make his country and fellow tribesmen proud!

-         Women’s Soccer team wins the gold…and gains redemption from losing the World Cup to the same team last year

-         Ashton Eaton winning gold in the Decathlon – although no one really doubted he could do it, it was nice that he actually did do it.  I love that he’s so down-to-Earth, and in an interview I watched with him and the silver medallist, Trey Hardee, whom he considers a friend, Ashton credited him Hardee with helping him train to be more successful.  Talk about humble, which is an unknown concept for some athletes celebrating their Olympic success.  I don’t wish to take anything away from Usain bolt because his athletic accomplishments are impressive to say the least, but it’s nice when an athlete doesn’t’ feel the need to toot his own horn.



***

And my last favorite and something you GOTTA TRY – I made this crazy simple crockpot Bar-b-que chicken earlier this week and it was thebomb.com!!!!  I can’t take credit for this recipe; I didn’t make it up myself, I actually saw it somewhere, I just can’t remember where!!   Here’s my version of the recipe:

 

“Crazy good” Crockpot Bar-b-que Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
1/2 c diced red onion
1 cup diced pineapple
1 bottle bar-b-que sauce
Preparation:
1.        Place the chicken breasts at the bottom of the crockpot and put the onion, pineapple, and sauce over the top of it.
2.      Put the lid on, turn it to LOW and cook it for 6-8 hours.  Enjoy!




That’s it.  So easy and delicious, my favorite two things!  I made drop biscuits, homemade coleslaw, baked beans, and corn to go along with it.  We had lots of leftovers of the chicken and I froze it for a quick meal sometime next week.  I’m thinking next time we’ll make pulled-chicken bar-b-que sandwiches.  I will definitely be putting this one on the menu rotation!



Five questions for you:
1.     What are some of your favorite things right now?
2.     What was your favorite workout this week?  When you get injured, do you take it easy like you should?
3.     Have you seen the Nike commercial?  What are some of your favorite inspiring commercials being played right now?
4.     What are some of your favorite Olympic moments so far?
5.     What was your favorite meal that you made this week?




Sunday, August 5, 2012

Love is in the air...



Sorry I’ve been kind of m.i.a. from blogging the last couple of days.  I have a confession to make.  Every time I sit down to do something (like write a post), I remember the Olympics is on and well, then it’s all downhill from there! J I have the fever, and have defintely been bitten by the Olympic bug like everyone else, and absolutely cannot get enough!!



This weekend we went to a wedding and it was the most fun we had had in a long time!!



The couple that got married was Victoria and Trey.  Victoria is my good friend (and co-worker) Kelly’s little sister.  Victoria is an Aggie like me, and I have known her for a while because every time she would come visit her sister Kelly, they would come by to say hi to me.  I still remember meeting her for the first time, about seven years ago, while she was still in college.  She’s the cutest, sweetest thing, and I (in a sense) have gotten to watch her grow up.  Therefore, it was such an honor getting to watch her take the “big” step.



The wedding ceremony was at a pretty church in a small town outside of Houston, and the reception was held at a ranch a few miles away.  When we arrived, the first thing we saw were beautiful peacocks roaming the grounds. 






The reception hall was gorgeous and as soon you walked in you could smell the Cedar because the entire hall was made of Cedar wood. 






We found a table waited for everyone to arrive.  Seated at our table were: my hubby, our daughter and I, my boss (who was the wedding planner), her husband and their youngest daughter, and Patrick, the wedding photographer who also happened to be one of my husband’s best friends. 


Once the wedding party arrived and were introduced, we were served dinner.  Dinner was a salad appetizer, and the main entrée was a chicken breast in a cream sauce, cheesy mashed potatoes, green bean almondine, and a roll.  It was delicious!!    






After dinner came the toasts, the first dance, and a traditional Polish Wedding dance that everyone was invited to participate in.  It was like one big Conga line and was so much fun!!



Then it was time to get our DANCE on!!!



Now, for those of you reading that are new, GETTING MY DANCE ON is one of my favorite things to do!! I took ballet/tap/jazz throughout my childhood and have always loved to dance.  I got really into Salsa dancing after I moved to Houston, and was actually out dancing when I met my husband in the summer of 2002.  He was a ballroom-dance instructor at the time and by the end of that summer I knew how to Merengue, Bachata, Tango, Rumba, Fox Trot, Samba and Quick Step too!  Plus, I had dropped one boring boyfriend and had gained an awesome new one! J 



The DJ played an excellent variety of music and once we got on that dance floor, we did NOT come back off!  Even the little one stayed on the dance floor!  One of the things that I love about my boss, aside from the fact that she’s like family to us, is that she is so much fun!! 





When I say she’s like family, I mean it!  We go way back - matter of fact, she interviewed me when I was still in college!  I have only ever worked for her and can’t imagine working for anyone else.  Her best friend was my daughter’s daycare provider when she was a baby, and her daughters would always babysat the little one when we had Open House nights at the school. 


My boss (she hates it when we call her "boss" LOL!) and her husband were getting their dance on too and their beautiful daughter, Alex, was kind enough to hang out with our little one all night!  She even taught her how to wobble! I have known Alex since she was eight – my daughter’s age – and have watched her blossom into the beautiful young college lady that she is now!! J 





I have to brag for a moment, so please forgive me!  Halfway through the night, as my hubs and I took a rare break from the dance floor, we were approached by a lady who complimented us on our dancing.  She said that she and the rest of the people seated at her table (who happened to be the groom’s mother’s side of the family) were really enjoying watching us dance and how beautifully we moved together!  She switched into Spanish and started telling us about how much her and her Cuban family loved to dance too.  It was such a flattering compliment; although I must admit it’s not the first time we’ve gotten that.  But I guess that’s what happens when you are dancing with a pro!  That’s one of the first things that I loved about my hubby…the sexy way he danced (think Maksim on Dancing With the Stars!) and moved around the dance floor!!  I’m not going to lie, though; it’s nice to know that I've still "got it" too! ;-)



At the end of the night, we bid farewell to the bride and groom with sparklers, and then called it a night.  We came home with lots of party favors, including a mason-jar mix to make “Cowgirl Cookies,” which I can’t wait to make!  We also came home with lots of Peacock feathers that Alex and my daughter collected after walking around the grounds earlier in the evening.






It was a perfect summer “love-is-in-the-air” kind of night, complete with good friends, good food – and LOTS of dancing!!  Does it get any better than that??













Monday, July 23, 2012

The family that plays together



They say the family that plays together stays together. 
 

This saying is definitely true when it comes to my father’s side of the family, the Murphy’s.  This weekend was the annual Murphy Family Reunion in College Station/Bryan; it’s held every third weekend in July.  This was the hubs, bambina, and my second year attending.  Here is a picture of my brothers and sisters from my father’s side of the family.



James Jr. (T), Eric, Bernard, Me, Dorena, Jarlene


Although I wasn’t raised around this side of my family, we have come together and bonded like we have always been in each other’s lives.  It was just me growing up; I was an only child on my mother’s side and while it had it’s advantages, I was kinda lonely!  The good thing is that I now have all the brothers, sister, cousins, nieces and nephews that I always wanted! 


Since there were so many years when we weren’t together, we’ve decided to not waste any more time and fully embrace being one big (and I do mean big) happy family!


Just a small fraction of the family.


This was definitely another successful family reunion and I look forward to maaaaaany more years of these annual summer get-togethers in one of my favorite places of the world!


View from one side of campus.


 
We arrived in College Station On Friday afternoon and went straight to lunch with one of my favorite family’s ever: Rachel, one of my girlfriends from this group, her husband Luis, and their precious son!


Rachel, Luis, and their handsome boy!


Friends for twelve years!



Primos (cousins)!


After lunch we got checked into the hotel and rested up because the Fish Fry started at 6:00pm at a park in Bryan.  After the fish fry we came back to the hotel, I went for a night run on campus and then we went and hung out by the pool with the family.



Saturday morning I got up and went for an early morning run around campus again.  This time, I went all the way down University Drive to the Northgate area, which is right across the street from the dorm I lived in the first two years in school.  I ran 3.5 miles but took it way easy because I was stopping along the way to take pictures.


View from University Drive.

 
Saw this view everyday because I lived in the first dorm on the right (Hobby Hall).



Administration and Meteorology buildings.


Kyle Field (on the left) from afar!




I came back, got cleaned up and met my brother for breakfast.  Is there anything better than hotel waffles?!?!  There’s just something about that turn over waffle iron!  My home-made waffles never quite come out like that!



After breakfast, I took a nap with the hubs and our little one and then we got ready to go the Lincoln Recreation Center for the bar-b-que.  It was the perfect place, since we had picnic tables set up for everyone to eat at and the gym area where the kids played for the entire day.  Well, not just the kids because at one point there were dodge ball games where my brother and husband joined in on the fun!








We enjoyed lots of delicious food and family time where we all sat around and got caught up on the past year’s activities and happenings.  It was nice to see everyone, including some new faces that we hadn’t gotten to meet last summer. 


Later, we headed back to the hotel, rested up a little more, and then went out to the pool again where we all spend the rest of the night.  The adults sat around chatting, cooking, drinking…and the kids were in the pool.  It was a lot of fun!


Eboni (neice), myself, Shar (cousin).


There was no early-morning run for me the next morning, however!  I was too tired because all of the weekend’s excitement and movement finally caught up with me.  We all met at our annual meet-before-heading-out place, my cousins’ Blynthia and Chuck’s house.  We had summer sausage, cheese and crackers and got our last chats in before we all headed our separate ways.



From the lunch with one of our favorite families on Friday, to the reunion and family time on Saturday and Sunday, overall it was a beautiful weekend!  If the saying is true, and the family that plays together stays together, then this family is one that will definitely continue to prosper for many years to come. J  




Thursday, July 19, 2012

Thankful Thursday, 7.19


Here is a list of some of the things I am thankful for today:


1 The health and fitness blogging community

…for all of the positive feedback to the post I wrote yesterday about the “Survive on 35” challenge.  Thank you for all the emails, tweets, retweets, and positive comments!



2 Alief ISD

…the district that I work for, for its dedication to furthering our education as teachers, and providing awesome professional developments that we actually look forward to going to…and don’t fall asleep through.  Matter of fact, today’s session was riveting and I learned a lot of valuable information that will reinforce and improve my teaching!



3  Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer, for:

-         writing an extremely useful book, which helped to make my 11th year of teaching that much more fun and rewarding, by enabling my ability to share my LOVE for reading and books with my students

-         helping me, to feel like for the 1st time ever I genuinely instilled that same love for reading into my children (I mean, they were even asking their parents for Nooks and Kindles for Christmas this year!)

-         being a captivating speaker

She had our full attention!


          -         having a marvelously witty sense of humor

-         for making the seven hours pass like it was 30 minutes

-         for conducting the professional development session like it was all of us teachers just sitting around talking shop, and for…well…

-         sitting around talking shop with me and my two friends and co-workers, Kim and Alicia, after everyone else had already left  

-         saying – and I think it’s testament to just how down-to-Earth she is – (when I asked her to pose for a picture with me) – “I’m a regular teacher just like you!”

-         oh, yeah, and for posing for said picture with me:


Me with Donalyn Miller.  Lucky me!



4 Having great co-workers that I truly enjoy working with!

I was looking forward to seeing them today, and even got to enjoy a tasty sushi lunch with three of them – Kim, Alicia, and Michelle.  These ladies are not just co-workers, they are friends too, and I feel fortunate because I know that not everyone is blessed enough to be able to say that!  Kim and Michelle are fellow teachers – and believe me when I say they are pros and I have learned so much from hem and hope to be as least half as good as teacher as they are one day!  Alicia is our librarian and she has done a phenomenal job of stocking our library with the latest and greatest in children’s and young adult literature!  When I want a good book to read, or an honest opinion of one, she is my go-to gal.  Today’s session – and Donalynn Miller’s belief in giving kids time to actually read and enjoy books – was exactly what we all expected and more!



5 Naps

…because after staying up waaaaay too late last night, and tossing and turning all through the night for fear I would oversleep, and actually getting dressed and having to be somewhere all day – a routine I have fallen out of now that I am enjoying my summer off – I was able to come home and take a nice l o o o o n g  nap!!!  Which was a good thing, too, because on the way home I knew I would have to wait to run because the sky looked like this:



Hello, Mother Nature!



I love naps, though sometimes it seems my naps are so long and deep, they’re actually more like hibernation!  I woke up rested and refreshed and ready for my night run with Bella.


Bright eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for my run!



My Bella-bo-Bella!



Yes, I did it again!  I slept so long that I had to go for another night run.  Unlike the last time, though, this one wasn’t as late.  Here are Bella and I’s stats from our run:


She’s getting better and better at actually letting me run!
 

6 Murphy Family Reunion

Tomorrow we will be meeting my father’s side of the family in College Station (WHOOP!!!) for the annual Murphy Family Reunion.  I am looking forward to a weekend filled with family, fellowship and good food…and I can’t wait!!!  The bonus is that the reunion is in my old stomping grounds since I AM AN AGGIE (Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 2001 – WHOOP!!) and going to College Station always feels like going home!  I am so ecstatic and I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep (again) tonight because of the excitement!!!!!


I am definitely blessed to be blessed, and am thankful for all the wonderful things in my life!


Five Questions for you:
1. What things are you thankful for today? 
2. Have you ever read Donalyn Miller’s “The Book Whisperer”?
3. How long do you usually sleep when you take a nap?
4. Any AGGIES out there? What was your major and what year did you graduate?
5. Any other teachers out there?  What do you teach and what age group?