It’s a new week, people. Not a fun new week, however. Sure, it’s cyber Monday, but it’s also back to school for me. 2 more weeks of this nonsense and I am DONE!

The last few days have been pretty fun though:

There were 2 good workouts- Saturday was a combination of strength circuits and short cardio bursts (all done at home) and Sunday was a nice long spin at the gym. On Friday, I got my new armband in the mail, so I was finally able to use my iPod touch yesterday. I loved it! It’s super minimal, has awesome no-slip fabric(?) and has a small pocket for a key!..or money!..or both!

 

Wait, let’s go back to my at-home workout on Saturday. 3 words: Single. Leg. Burpees. I have officially added that to my list of all-time favorite exercises. We were meant to do a lot of burpees in this phase of BBB, but after doing Workout A last week, I just wasn’t feeling the layout, so I rearranged it for my Saturday workout. Lots of single leg burpees mixed in with other compound exercises. By the end of my workout, I was walking around like I just got off a horse. FANTASTIC!

 

I haven’t really been in the mood to follow the Best Body Bootcamp workouts lately, but I am thinking of vaguely following them (at least the strength portion) this week and getting in a LOT of my own cardio through running, spin, and kickboxing. Hey, since I’m on the topic of cardio AND it’s that time of the year where getting to the gym can be hard, I thought I’d share THIS post with you. It’s a lot of cardio exercises you can do to get your heart rate up up up! And you can do them from the comfort of your own home. You are so welcome.

On Saturday evening, I headed over to Leigh’s for a Calgary blogger meet-up. It was super fun! There were about 10 of us, and it was really nice to put faces to names of bloggers I have been checking out lately. Plus, it felt REALLY nice to be able to socialize. You have no idea.

I ended up bringing a batch of my favorite crack no-bake cookies. Alison asked me to post the recipe (you may regret this, Alison!) Here it is:

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tbsp cocoa
• 1 stick butter (that’s in American butter. For you Canadians, it’s 1/2 cup butter)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup peanut butter (don’t substitute with other nut butters, it really doesn’t come out right)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 3 cups quick oats (you can use cook and serve, but it really changes the consistency)

What you do:

1. Put the sugar, milk, butter and cocoa in a large saucepan and bring to a boil (stirring constantly). Allow it to boil for 1 minute.

2. Remove from heat, stir in peanut butter, vanilla and oats until fully incorporated.

3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on foil or waxed paper and allow to set and cool completely.

4. Eat all of them and then make another batch to share.

At the meet-up, we also did a white elephant gift exchange. I lucked out (ALL the gifts were awesome) and went home with a few goodies:

Some locally made toffee- which I ate half of last night and it was deliciously yummy and fantastic

 

Some lemony soap shaped like a wedge of pie

 

And some handmade Christmas cards. Love the glitter!

 

This AM, a couple of packages arrived from my parents. Yippee!!!!!!!! I love getting stuff in the mail 🙂

 

Ok, ok. One is for me, and the LARGER one is for Tyler. Mom said we could open them right away, so I tore mine open. [Do you have any idea how difficult it is for me to leave Tyler’s unopened until he gets home from work?! Ugh, the agony]

I already knew of one thing that was in my package- so I really did have to open it right away. My mom made us a beautiful tree-skirt!

 

She’s a really awesome quilter, so I have no reservations in pimping her skills on the blog. If anyone wants her to make something for you, I could totally hook you up. (With a commission of course)

Then, some other really sweet goodies:

 

Soap in a coat! The bar of soap was wrapped in wool felt that acts as an exfoliator. It smells of delicious lavender.

 

A cute little snowman! He’s already up on the mantle 😉

 

A luxuriously soft infinity scarf and headwrap. Now I have an excuse to get dressed and leave the house today to shop.

And, without further ado, I would like to wish my parents a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY 46th anniversary today!!!!! (SHIT, that’s a long ass time)

And good luck to my dad who is having surgery today- a wonderful gift to give your wife on your anniversary. Let’s just hope mom doesn’t make nice with the wine before having to drive him home! (kidding, mom. Sort of. Not really.)