Hey. So it’s practically the holiday season. And what do a lot of people do during the holiday season? They give. So here’s an idea…give me some long sleeve shirts or sweaters.
Ok that sounded rude. Let me rephrase.
DONATE your new or gently used ‘warm clothes’ to me. You know, the girl who moved from California 10 years ago and still hasn’t grasped the concept of winter? The girl who moved to CANADA and forgot practically all the warm clothes she did own in the States. The girl who is shivering 24/7.
The girl who is currently walking about a mile to the gym with 3 pairs of lulu pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, a long sleeve T, New Balance windbreaker, North Face Fleece, Kenneth Cole Parka, NE Patriots head warmer, Red Sox baseball hat, and two pairs of Target gloves. (aka: ALL the warm clothes I own)
Merry Christmas, y’all (gotta keep it interesting, you know, separate myself from all the other bloggers telling you it’s Halloween or some silly thing like that).
Welp, not only is it “Christmas” but it’s also FOODIE PEN PAL REVEAL DAY! (cue squeals of excitement)
Here’s the 4-1-1 in case you want to sign up yourself:
-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
– Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
And OMYGOSH some homemade fruit leather!!! (apple and apple-pear). She even included the recipe in her card. Not gonna lie, I ate ALL OF IT within 48 hours, and I actually just bought a bunch of apples yesterday to make a batch tonight! Can’t wait (I hope it turns out half as good as the stuff Nicole sent!!) A HUGE thanks to Nicole for her thoughtfulness in my fpp box this month.
OH.
AND.
I sent a a package to Ashlee this month, and she wanted to write a little blurb about her goodies, so read on…
Hey all! I’m Ashlee and I’m from Ontario!
It’s my third time participating in The Lean Green Bean’s Foodie Penpal exchange and this month I was lucky enough to receive my box from Jen. I started following Jen’s blog the minute we became friends on Twitter and let me just say…her personality shines through her posts. Because of that, I was especially excited this time around to see my box full of surprises!
As soon as I started unpacking my goodies, I realized I had tried none of what Jen sent me – BONUS. It’s awesome to get things you like, but it’s even awesomer to get things you’ve never tried. The maple crunch – gone. The almond spice bar – gone. I tried the marshmellows in hot chocolate…bad decision…so I ate the rest solo. I’m still working on (hoarding) the gummies…sorry roomies. They’re a nice treat after a long day at the office. The only thing I shared was the tea. It was an exceptionally rainy/chilly weekend, so my mom, stepdad, and I curled up on the couch and drank it all. Yum!Thanks so much, Jen, for all of the wonderful goodies! Cheers to another successful month!
But it’s not for like…me. (ok, it is.) I just put together something yummy, but I can’t share it yet because I haven’t tried it yet. But, you can tell it’s gotta be good based on the list.
Last night, I got through the strength portion of Workout A from Best Body Bootcamp at home. I did some homework (also at home, hence the name), then scooted over to the Y for the cardio interval portion of my workout.
Sidenote: I got my midterm grades…..an A and a B+ (not proud of the B+, but it is what it is)!
This is the least flattering picture ever. I need to get my roots done STAT. And get rid of my sideburns. And stop doing that tween face.
OMG I HAVE TO TELL YOU SOMETHING. I was going through my phone looking for this workout picture for the post, and I had taken a bunch throughout my workout, including some at the gym, and in the one in the locker room mirror, I snapped the naked tushie of an older lady! Totally didn’t even see her when I took the pic. I immediately deleted because I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.
Hi. Target is coming to Canada. That is the ONE credit card that I owned in the states, and pretty soon I can start using it again.
I was entirely too giddy when I saw this at the mall yesterday. My giddiness turned into shopping rage, and I bought a butt-ton of candles, some jewelry, and some long sleeve sweaters and tops. And…kombucha.
God, I love that stuff.
And Essie nail polish. I never splurged on this brand before because it’s pretty expensive, but after my first experience with it yesterday, I am a total convert. Go out and buy it. Now.
HEY YOU. Yes, you. Get on Facebook and ‘Like’ my page. Right now. Please? I’m borderline begging you.
Remember last week when I told you that I went to the bottle return and got $23?! Well, I forgot about one significantly large box of bottles that were in the backseat instead of the trunk. And so, all week I have been driving around Calgary with a LARGE box of empty tequila bottles (yes, they are ALL tequila bottles). I should probably take them out of my car. Again, I’m guessing that’s illegal.
For your entertainment, this post tells you how to scare yourself thin this Halloween. I am so doing EVERY SINGLE thing on that list tomorrow.
Since I’m bored, and still have pretty much no friends in Calgary, and I want to get a lot of people to comment to keep me from eternal boredom, do me another favor and answer the following in the comments:
1. I won 2 tickets to the Kensington Wine Market Wine Fest on Friday! I was so excited because I really never win anything- and this I could share with Tyler!. Unfortunately, he got my cold, so at the time he couldn’t really taste much. We still had fun though!
There were 80 wines to try, and they were separated by country. Only one bottle of each wine was opened, so we were encouraged to ‘move on’ to another sample to allow for others to get a try. They had some food catered- finger foods as well as meat and cheese platters (I got hooked on the smoked bison).
The event ran from 7-9pm. At 8pm, they brought out the cupcakes and dessert wines. If I could have just drank port all night, I would have been fine with that.
I got a good laugh because everyone arrived very timid and quiet, and by the first 15 minutes, we were all buzzed and chatting. Tyler and I made nice with the Spain and US tables. MMmmmmMMM (I have the pamphlet they gave us which listed all the wines, but I have yet to take a picture to share with you. I would do it now, but I am typing this in bed and I’m too comfy to move. Maybe another time.)
So fun!
2. Saturday, we ran tons of errands. But who cares about those. When we got home a bunch of hours later, we carved our pumpkins!
Tyler’s came out better than mine. Whatever. I scraped the insides out of both of those suckers, so I’m the real hero.
His:
Mine:
And I roasted the seeds! I had no idea how friggin easy that was. AND TASTY.
4. Our post pumpkin treats were….beer. We indulged in some seasonal brews from one of my faves, Big Rock Brewery. We loved all three!
Autumn Wheat: Spiced Ale. Light in taste. Great with din din.
Loved the Espresso Stout! Only 4.2% alcohol content. It tasted like cold coffee with a hint of beer. There was absolutely no aftertaste. We both thought this would be nasty, but it was an awesome surprise. I could have drank about 6 more of them.
But I moved on..
Winter Spice Ale was 6.0% alcohol content, so I thought it would be massively strong, but it was still quite pleasant. Seriously, there is not a single beer from Big Rock that I don’t like. Good job, guys.
5. Oh, and I actually got dressed on Saturday. Like, makeup and everything. That never happens. Even Tyler gave me a double look because of it.
Not TOO shabby.
6. Yesterday I finished up my two midterms. Not fun, but after about 5 hours of work, I submitted both and the weight was immediately lifted. Now, only 5 weeks to go and I’ll have my Masters!
Oh wait, you don’t know what that is? Probably because I made it up. I was too busy making pumpkin pancakes, watching football, doing schoolwork, and finishing my book to get to the gym for any cardio yesterday (wasn’t up for cardio anyways), so I do a bunch of strength stuff in my jammies at home.
100 pushups
100 Gliding side lunges
100 stability ball situps
100 lateral raises
100 wall squats
100 leg lifts
Today will be an INTENSE cardio session followed by Workout A from BBB.
8. I bought toilet paper this weekend. I know, I know, it’s a big deal. I used to buy it at Target (in bulk), and it’s cheap. But grocery stores are significantly more expensive. I chose the cheapest one, which oddly enough was 3-ply. The verdict? 3-ply is no better than 2-ply, so don’t waste your pennies. #justsaying.
10. Got the new Pink CD. Played it on Friday night after we got home from the Wine Fest, and of course I had a dance party (with myself. Tyler doesn’t dance, and Layla usually just stands in front of me and stares)
This one is my fave: (you probably won’t see the link if you’re viewing this through Google Reader)
11. Important notes saved on my phone:
These are very imporant
Trash can liner size
light bulbs for house
light bulbs for kitchen lights
weight conversion (mostly for meat in the grocery store)
gas prices. I still don’t understand why they price it so crazy looking,
Happy Throwback Thursday (usually people refer to throwback in the sense that they post old pictures or play old songs. But me, I ‘throw back’ a few brewskis. Umm it’s Thursday, so there’s football. And when there’s football, and a football loving dude that I just so happen to live with…..there’s beer)
Oh funny story: I have been saving all the booze bottles (and milk cartons and kombucha bottles) for the last couple of months and I returned them today for $23! Hells yeah I can buy practically nothing in Canada for that.
1. My Avon order arrived today! Woo hoo
(More than $23)
2. So did my new coat!
(Way more than $23)
(That’s my crazy i-look-like-crap-silly-face) Gimme a break, I didn’t put makeup on today because I am about to go to the gym, and I wanted ‘naked’ skin when I went to my Avon lady’s house just in case I was going to put a lot of samples on. But I didn’t) Layla doesn’t judge.
3. We also got some dimmer switches that Tyler ordered, but I didn’t open the box because those aren’t as exciting to play with…..until they’re installed.
*Have we noticed that I am useful being stuck at home? I answer the door for all the deliveries!
Yesterday’s HEAT class had a whopping ONE person in attendance. PEOPLE, DON’T SLACK OFF ON GOING TO THE GYM JUST BECAUSE THERE’S SNOW ON THE GROUND. I hate snow and I still trekked through that shi*
I did a 10 minute progression cardio set on the elliptical before heading to the studio for class, where I did:
(The first few rounds were taken directly from one of Athena’s workouts that she posted the other day. I used to hate being in her class when she did count downs only because I seemed to be the only grunter by the time we got down to 4’s. Oh wait, I think I liked it because I was the only grunter. Ahh, potayyy-toes, potahhh-toes.)
Countdowns (10 of each move, then 9, down to one…Athena explains it. Then one minute of the cardio, and about one minute of the core move)
Round 1
Bicep Curls/Overhead Presses
Jumping Jacks
Alternating crunch/toe touch
Round 2
Pushups/bent over rows
Jump rope
Side plank w/hip raise
Round 3
Tricep Kickbacks/Upright Rows
High Knees
Heel Taps
Then, I had to get a bit creative because my one participant was a little limited in her movement due to an injury.
Round 4
Donkey Kicks (each leg countdown)
Weighted left squat to left side lunge (45 seconds) to right squat and right side lunge (45 seconds)
One minute wall sit with a front raise
Round 5
Crunches/Supermans
Mountain Climbers
Leg lifts
One minute wall sit with lateral raise
Round 6
Weighted reverse lunge with 3-count pulse and 3-count hold (90 seconds each leg)
Weighted Squat to overhead press
Laying weighted hip abductions with 3-count hold
It doesn’t look like a whole ton of cardio, but since we were doing those countdowns like quickfire, we were both breathing hard and sweating lots.
Today’s workout will consist of 40 minutes steady state cardio, and a few moves that were in my workout from Best Body Bootcamp that I was supposed to do yesterday (but didn’t squeeze them in my class)
nutcaseinpoint 