Wrap-up Friday

Workouts

• This week I jumped back on the working-out bandwagon after some time off. This week I ran twice (both Day 1 and Day 2 of Week 5 in Couch to 5K) and then weight lifted the other day. I plan on doing something this weekend too.
• I am a bit worried about my right heel though. I notice it hurting more after wearing flip-flops so much. I then read this article. Rah roh. But I love my Tevas! :-( I will wear my flip flops a bit less and in general, try to wear better shoes for the rest of the summer.

Replies to Comments

• My difficulty in keeping a secret. Yes Amy Jo, it does make me feel better that I can at least share the secret with you guys. And Kate, I love what you said about the secret keeping me closer to CP. What a great way of thinking about it! And by the way, I am very good about keeping other people's secrets. Mine? Not so much. :-)
• Moving to a more positive outlook. Thanks for liking my blog name ~*Jess*~ and Funderson! It's my favorite phrase!
• Memories. Tia were you a nationally-ranked pole vaulter in college in the late 1990s? If so then you probably know someone I went to high school with who ended up vaulting in the Athens Olympics. Kate, I wish that it was as easy as getting the zipper fixed, but the zipper is fine. It is the fabric that is attached to the zipper that has come loose. According to my mom, as soon as I would sew it back up it would break. Maybe I sew it back up myself but make sure not to put anything too heavy in the bag?

Bored

Today I was so bored at work I joined Twitter. Well, I joined Twitter for all of 20 minutes. I started to follow a few friends that I knew had Twitter accounts, then Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper (for free workout advice obviously) and Kathy Griffin and Chelsea Handler (because they are hilarious). And then I actually went to my “page” and read their tweets. Wait why was I signing up for this again? For annoyingly abbreviated words that do not help the spelling crisis we have in our kids?

So yeah, 20 minutes later I deactivated my account. No thanks. I’ll stick with blogs and Facebook.

But what was really behind joining Twitter was the fact that I am bored at work. I know that shocks you- these days companies are “doing more with less.” Everyone is overworked and understaffed. But yet I am bored. Sitting here wasting my day. Trying to find things to do while my boss is around (and asking her for things to do), reading blogs and commenting when she is not. It is awful. I feel horrible that I am getting paid a salary to do this. I was busy one day this week- Monday. The rest of the week? Bored out of my skull.

Unfortunately with this house purchase, I basically have one other option in terms of a job. I am currently working my resume and cover letter to be able to apply, but I am not banking on getting the job. The problems that I had earlier this year will probably come up again. The problem is- even if a similar job became available later this year, it’s going to be even harder to move when I can’t put anything down on my resume- you know, because I am not doing anything at work!

There are reasons that I can’t get into as to why I need to stay in this industry for at least another year. Even if I wanted to move to private law practice I don’t have a CT license so I would have to take the bar (never again!). If I try to change industries I have no idea if my salary would stay close to what I am currently making- which is a problem now that are a buying a house and trying for a baby.

Yeah. So I am probably stuck at this job for a while. Which makes me want to bawl my eyes out, while scratching them out at the same time. Happy f*ing Friday!


Replies to Comments

• In my post yesterday about books I am reading and music I am currently obsessed with, you guys gave me some great recommendations. Thanks!! "The Help" is on my bookshelf just waiting for me to finish "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest." I read "Little Bee" on my honeymoon- fantastic book for those that haven't read it yet. And now I will have to pick up "Candy Girl" because that sounds fascinating! And yes Natalie, suggest away!!
• Thanks for the help with my pre-pregnancy questions. I made an appointment to get my roots colored next week. Technically it is before we could conceive. And that way I won't have any grays for the family party next Saturday! :-)

Wrap-up Friday

Hey look I actually remembered my new weekly post! Amazing!

Workouts
· I am a bit disappointed in myself this week. Saturday we were busy all day cleaning, gardening and looking at potential houses on the internet so we didn’t even get a walk in with Fuzzy Britches. Sunday was great- 1.5 hours out on the kayaking and then 9 holes of golf. Monday was a wash with the parade, BBQ, and then passing out on the couch once we got home. Tuesday I was in training off site all day and when I got home for our walk, it was pouring rain. Booo. Wednesday I was good and ran two miles, then walked that night with CP and Fuzzy Britches. Yesterday I flat out was lazy. I brought my stuff in to work to go to the gym, but before I knew it, it was 1pm and I didn’t want to go to the gym and then eat lunch at 2pm. LAZY. Today I am having lunch with a friend so I can’t do my lunchtime workout, but hopefully will walk tonight.
· I was thinking that because it is brighter out in the mornings I would start to TRY to wake up early to do 30 Day Shred before heading to work, but I really can’t start it this coming week because I have to travel to far away trainings Weds, Thur, and Fri. Wow just saying that makes me want to slap myself. Maybe the best thing is to try to start the habit Mon and Tues and see how it goes. I would potentially like to start doing it every weekday morning as it is not too hot out (we don’t have central air) and then CP can’t make fun of me because he is still in bed. :-)

Food
· I probably shouldn’t even discuss the weekend. You don’t want to be the guest that shows up to a friend’s house and has all kinds of dietary guidelines. So CP and I didn’t worry if the burgers we ate were from a grass-fed cow, we didn’t worry if the buns we were eating were whole grain, we didn’t worry if the ketchup had high fructose corn syrup, etc. We simply didn’t want to be THOSE people. It was in the back of my mind as I ate things though…..
· The rest of the week was really good. I found two organic/non-antibiotic whole chickens at our local grocery store and CP threw them on the rotisserie and made up the Peruvian aji sauce I talked about earlier in the week. Delish! He also put together a curry quinoa side dish. We had the chicken, quinoa and a side salad for dinner almost all week. Lunches for me were pretty good too- although I do want to buy some Pyrex dishes to take into work to be able to reheat food. I keep reading about chemicals leaching into food from the plastic containers. Gross.

Replies to Comments
· Because I was too lazy to post on Monday AND Tuesday, I didn’t post much this week (whoops). But to the question as to where I buy the charcoal pills that I talked about in this post, I buy them at my local drug store. For me it is CVS, but I’m sure that you can get them at Walgreens or other pharmacies. They are usually in the antacid/gas section. My mother-in-law has had some acid reflux lately and I gave her some of my pills- they worked great for her too!

Misc.
· This weekend I am looking forward to house hunting with our realtor!

Wrap-up Friday

I was thinking yesterday that I should do some sort of weekly thing on this blog. I decided on “Wrap-up Friday” and I will hopefully remember to keep it going. Ha! It will encompass hopefully good news on lots of workouts, the healthy food that I ate this week, and then other misc. items.

Workouts
· During CP’s long stint away from home, I started to take Fuzzy Britches to a nearby Recreation Area. The loop is about two miles so I was getting a nice run, walk or combination in whether I did one loop or two. After he stopped traveling, I started to invite him to take walks with us. It has been a nice time for us to discuss the move to CT, discuss having children, etc. while getting some exercise. We have started to do this at least three times a week and I love it!
· This week also marked the first time running since my surgery. It had been almost FOUR weeks so I was really nervous as to how my body would react. Thankfully, although I was going pretty slow, I was able to run two miles. Yay! Now I just have to build on that….
· This week also marked the first time I was back in the gym and lifting weights. I’m a bit sore from all of the lunges, squats, etc that I did with weights, but I was happy with the workout.

Food
· This week was just okay in terms of not eating processed foods. We still had some leftover white flour and didn’t want to waste food and money by throwing it away, so CP and I made three different kinds of homemade empanadas.* Because we ended up making 36 of them, we each ate two for dinner and froze the rest. The good news? We finished the white flour. The bad news? The flour is in the empanadas that we will be eating for the next couple of months.
· We also made shrimp tamales with green chili sauce. (I don’t have a link to a recipe because CP made it up himself!) CP even used whole wheat flour to thicken the sauce. Mmm shrimp tamales are so tasty- and the ones we made I’m pretty sure did not have any processed food in them.
· Sidenote: it has made me very proud to head to the store with CP and see him check out labels and really think about what goes in our food. I’m happy that he has embraced the organic/non-processed food way of eating. To be fair, he had been doing some things already. The one thing he won’t budge on? Whole wheat pasta. The sauce covers the pasta so I don’t understand why he doesn’t like it…..

Misc.
· This week it is a question for you guys. Do you go back and read comments on people’s posts after you have commented to see if the blogger responded to your comment? Blogger doesn’t allow me to reply to comments, except by just posting another comment. I can only make sure the commenter gets my reply by sending them an email and I often don’t have people’s emails. If I do respond to a comment left, the original commenter probably doesn’t see it, right? So maybe this Friday post is a good time for me to respond to comments made throughout the week?
· If so, here goes the next section:

Replies to Comments
· On moving to CT: it was funny to read your comments on my post. Almost all of you mentioned how it was a “rational” or “logical” decision. While that is VERY true, it saddens me that I have grown up enough that I make rational and logical decisions on where I live. I’m kidding of course, but when moving somewhere in the past it has been mostly an emotional decision. I of course had to have the job or the school offer letter before I moved, but when picking a place it was mostly saying “yes, that is where I want to go” and then somehow making it happen. With some many other things to think about- CP, Fuzzy Britches, jobs, all of our possessions, our future, etc. it makes purely going on emotion difficult, if not impossible. I still hold out hope that we will make it to Denver, but I am going to move down to CT with an open mind and an open heart to finding great friends.
· On our realtor search: I never even thought of calling my realtor out west to see if he knew of someone in CT! I didn’t use some from a big-name place like Coldwell Banker or RE/MAX so I’m not sure that he would have a referral. But good to know for the future. I spoke to my parents’ friend’s daughter’s realtor and she seems to be fantastic. We had a 50 minute conversation about what we are looking for, our next steps, how she is going to work with us, etc. I’m excited to start checking out places soon!


*Unfortunately, I can’t seem to link to the Cooks Illustrated recipe- if you want it, you have to register for a 14 days trial. Just search for empanadas and it is the May 2010 recipe. We made that version, a chicken and black bean and a vegetable empanada (with swiss chard and cheese). Yum!!