We lost our dog: the story

Hi everyone!

Yes, I’m still alive!! Ha. I would have blogged sooner than this but we had quite an emotional week! :s If you follow me on twitter, you might remember me tweeting numerous times about our dog, Rocky. In case you missed it, she got out of the backyard on Wednesday morning and was missing for more than two days.

The dogs have gotten out before but it was never a problem. Well, this time was different. Erik drove around searching and searching and searching all day until I got home from work and no Rocky anywhere. Once I got home, we drove around with our windows down yelling her name and searching some more.  As darkness approached, we decided we better make some “lost dog” posters and start doing more than just driving around.  We used this picture: We love our dogs and we were so sad! It’s a horrible feeling to have to go to bed at night knowing your dog is who-knows-where. We put up fliers, put an ad in the paper, called animal control, searched the dog pound, told everyone we knew, etc. The moment I got home from work the next few nights, we’d drive around ‘til dark putting more posters up and searching then we’d come home and realize how quiet our house was without her.

And finally on Friday, the good news came.

My mother-in-law sent out a mass e-mail to all her contacts and someone she sent it to posted it on her Facebook wall (thanks, Susan!!) One of her friends saw it, who told her husband. Two days later, this lady’s husband was in a gas station in his corrections officer uniform and a guy in the gas station asked him if anyone had lost a police dog (Rocky is a German Shepherd). The guy responded that while he’s not a police officer, he did happen to know of someone that was missing a dog fitting that description and they exchanged numbers. The corrections officer then gave the number to his wife, who gave it to the lady who posted it on Facebook, who gave it to my MIL, who gave it to Erik. Erik then called the guy who might have Rocky, Erik met him on his lunch break and sure enough …. it was her!!! We were SO happy and SO thankful that this Good Samaritan had taken Rocky and fed her and gave her water while she was away.

(sigh) … having Rocky back after 2 1/2 days of trying not to worry was a very good start to the weekend and we give God all the credit for getting her back to us!  THANK YOU everyone who helped : )
Rocky is definitely Erik’s dog and he was SO happy to have her back. He was a wreck without Rocky! 
How was your Super Bowl Sunday?? Ours was good, though we didn’t watch the Super Bowl, ha. We went to church, out to lunch with my mother-in-law, and then spent more of the afternoon cleaning the house. Working up quite an appetite and not in the mood to cook after cleaning, we decided to get some pizza.  We opted for Domino’s. Here’s how we made our take out pizza healthier:

• Ordered thin crust
• Asked for half of the normal amount of cheese

My toppings of choice were mushroom and onion (yum!!). I love Domino’s thin crust pizza. (And I probably don’t want to know how much sodium I ate!) Erik got chicken and green peppers.  His pizza came with practically no cheese at all so he just added some of our 2% cheese.
Other than that, we’ve spent much of our weekend playing with our dogs, buying them bones/toys and remembering how much we love them!

Today (Monday) is my day off and so far, I’m loving it! This morning, I leisurely woke up in a clean house and get to take my morning slow. Later, I get to go with Erik to stock the vending machines and run some errands. I don’t normally get to do this kind of stuff so I’m excited! ; )  
Anyways, I haven’t been around to say “hi” in so long … I hope everyone, old and new, has been doing wonderfully and as always, thanks for stopping by! 

P.S. The giveaway is still coming!!!!! ; )

Up and runnin’ + vending giveaway??

Hey everyone!

Happy end of the weekend! : ) Hope it was a good one!

On Thursday night after work I got to help Erik fill one of the machines. I had fun ; ) Of course I took pictures along with way to show you guys. This particular machines is in a middle school.

Programming prices …
The loot. Not gonna lie, Erik pretty much did all the work and I just stood there watching and sampling ; ) Towards the end, I did end up putting all the prices under the items so I worked “hard” for my Berry Berry Good Lemon drink! haha.  The box that Erik is holding is what the cash goes into.
And here are a few completely stocked pictures. Some of you have asked about what the prices are on our items. Basically, they range from $1 to $2.50. Only two of the items (Mix 1 drinks and Energy drinks) are actually $2.50 and the median price is probably about $1.60.
Here’s our “testing” stash at the bottom of the machine. Since we’re new to this, we had to test some items to make sure they wouldn’t get stuck on the way out when purchased.   It’s still early in the game, but so far Hansen’s sodas and white cheddar Pirates Booty are the biggest hits! We spent Saturday all over the KC checking our machines, stopping by Costco to see what kind of products they had and if we would benefit from putting any of them in the machines, and just hanging out : )

I really want to do an Originally Organics Vending Sample Pack giveaway soon!! Erik told me that if I did a giveaway I’d had to pay for the products, haha. :p Maybe if you guys let him know via commenting how much you’d like a giveaway he’d give in! (*cough*cough*hint, hint!!) ; )

Today we went to church, ate at Chipotle (we seem to be slightly obsessed with Chipotle lately :s), did some house cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry. And now … back to the work week! I wanted to work out today since I didn’t on Saturday but that just didn’t happen. Oh well … I’m always more hardcore about it on weekdays and allow myself slack on the weekends and I don’t mind!

What did you do this weekend?? Happy February and have a great week!! :)

Vending & Fitness Updates

Hello! :)

Random FYI: thus far, I love blogging less often! Ha. I’m sure my blogging amounts will vary from season to season but it’s nice not to feel like I have to blog and I’ve been enjoying life much more. Why do we always put unnecessary pressure on ourselves? (Or maybe I’m the only one who does that? ; )

I thought I’d give everyone an update on some of our life activities …

Originally Organic Vending

Upon getting the food for our 1st five machines, we quickly realized it was a lot more than we expected! We were going to purchase an enclosed trailer to haul with our normal vehicles. However, that wouldn’t allow room for growth (and we want to grow!) so we decided to go with a cargo van. We’re going to decal it and then pictures will follow!

Anyways, Erik is now driving around a white Chevy 3500 and he enjoys it WAY too much, haha. Maybe we should paint it black and put a red spoiler and stripe down the middle? ; )
Gettin’ the goods all ready to go … The most exciting update for the business is that the machines are here!! (3 of them anyways … still working out kinks with other 2 locations). Sad part is, I haven’t seem them in person yet!! : ( I had to live vicariously through Erik’s picture texts today. Here’s some “sneak peek” pictures via cell phone …

As soon as I can, I’ll get “real” pictures!
Fitness

We’re still going at it! Ha. We unintentionally took almost a week break as all our vending stuff has been unfolding, but we’re back …

Poor Erik always runs out of plates … maybe someday I’ll let him get more, ha.
I think I was trying to make a weird face … but I don’t think it turned out being a very good weird, ha. Oh well!  French Meadow Bakery

I received a package from French Meadow Bakery about a week ago and here is what was included …

• Hemp bagels
• Sprouted bread
• Gluten free tortillas
• Gluten free pizza crusts
• Tote and info

Though I don’t worry about eating gluten free, I appreciate the company’s many gluten free products.

We tried the tortillas and though they were good, they kinda majorly fell apart. Unfortunately, the pizza crusts got moldy in less than a week so I had to throw them out. (I should have stuck them in the freezer!!)  But hemp bagels … yes! I love the taste of hemp breads! And you all know I’m not one to turn down some good sprouted bread : )

Thanks, French Meadow!

And that’s a wrap! Hope your week is going well :D

Let the Children Play for Peace

Hey everyone! : )

First off, thanks for the all the positive feedback on our vending machines! We’re very excited to get it all up and running and I’ll be sure to keep my wonderful Lesley Lifting Life readers (YOU!) up to date ; )

Let the Children Play for Peace

I have something really awesome to share with you all for this post. I know it’s something all my readers will very much appreciate and be touched by. It’s called Let the Children Play for Peace.

We live in a world that is very divided, a world in conflict. We have divides of religion, ethnicity, nationality … but no matter what our religious, ethnic, or nationality divides, we are all human beings sharing a planet, we are all neighbors.

This morning in our church, there were two guests; Samuel Nachum (a Jew born in Israel) and Ahmed El Sherif (a Muslim born in Egypt). They were born on opposite sides of an ongoing conflict that as children, they could not control. They now both reside in Kansas City and have come together, despite their differences to form an organization called Let the Children Play for Peace.

“Let the Children Play for Peace is a global interfaith project founded in March 2009, by two men hailing from opposite sides of the Gaza-Israel conflict. These men felt compelled to help their respective homelands, and came together to realize their vision: a non-profit group whose mission was to help restore childhood to a generation deprived of it.

Let the Children Play for Peace delivers shipments of donated toys, sports equipment, and other children’s products to a site on each side of the conflict. We want to change the environmental cues around the children there to ones of optimism, hope, and joy.”

This morning in church, we got to hear about how they met, how they formed a friendship despite the fact that they’re from two opposing sides of the Gaza/Israeli conflict, and how their nonprofit organization, Let the Children Play for Peace, was formed.

Its aim is “to provide the children in this region [Gaza/Israeli] with some semblance of a childhood through toys and sports equipment.” 

Quoting their website: “As collateral damage in the conflicts of adults, the children in this region of the world are robbed of the sense of fun and discovery inherent in childhood. The foreign aid delivered to this region rarely includes toys or sports equipment, and the mission of Let the Children Play for Peace is to help replace the images of violence these children see with ones of creativity and imagination by providing those play items.”

I’m so thankful we got to hear about this awesome organization that’s doing a wonderful thing. It was extremely evident that Samuel and Ahmed were both such kind-hearted and sweet men and it’s great to be apart of it.  Here’s a picture of Ahmed, our pastor Brian Zahnd, and Samuel.

Muslim, Christian, and Jew

It was a very touching and emotional dialogue between our pastor, Ahmed, and Samuel. I left feeling like a wonderful thing had happened … something very pleasing to God … people with such different viewpoints coming together under common ground in peace and love.

Our pastor, Brian Zahnd, mentioned his three motives to Ahmed and Samuel for our church participating with this organization, and it was such a wonderful moment, I can’t help but share them. (To hear this dialogue for yourself, click here).

1. This organization is simply a good thing and we want to help with such a good thing. “To help give children a childhood in a place where war threatens to tear it away from them is a good thing and it needs no other justification.”
2. It represents ethnicities and religions who historically have not always been shown the best face of Christianity. We need to redeem the face of Christ from the ugly face of the Crusader. Christian is a word that means “Christ like”. As Christians, we have had very ugly moments in our past. During the Crusades, under the banner of the cross, and calling themselves Christians, the church murdered other human beings. There were church sponsored holy wars against Muslims and Jews. That was not the true face of the cross, and we want to show Muslims and Jews a difference face of Christianity. The face of Christ is a face of love, forgiveness, and mercy and we must show Jews and Muslims a different face. 
3. To show Christians a different face of a Jews and especially of Muslims. There’s far too many Christians that to them, the face of a Muslim is Osama bin Laden. We need to change that. All Muslims are not “thus and so”. Muslims are often presented in a dehumanizing, demonizing way and we need to change that.

Today’s service wrapped up with a Matisyahu video that everyone agreed, could be the theme song for Let the Children Play for Peace.

For more information, or how to donate and be apart of Let the Children Play for Peace, please visit their website, or Facebook page.

Have a great week!! : )

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
-Stacia Tauscher

What 750 lbs of food looks like in a living room!

Hey guys!

Hope your week has been treating you well : ) We have A LOT of food in our living room right now (approx 750 lbs worth to be exact).

Remember how I said things were moving along with our vending machines? Well, we got all the food today!
I don’t know how much food for five vending machines looked like until I got home, haha. It was more than I expected!  At first we felt slightly overwhelmed and in over our heads but what’s to be expected? We’re new at this! It’s exciting … we just have to iron out all the wrinkles and get adjusted.
    One thing I know … it’s a lot of fun to have all this food in my house! We taste tested a few products. First, a Mix 1 Berry smoothie … … then a Raw Revolution bar.
And check out these little packets of Materne apple sauce …. love them!!  It’s such a cute and efficient idea … they’re squeezable and resealable.
While doing a little taste testing, we went through all our inventory and organized it a little better to make sure we had everything.
This part might be boring for some but some of you guys have asked what all we’re putting in the machines and to start out … here is our loot:

• Popchips
• Kettle Foods bakes
• Zen Soy, Soy on the go cappuccino
• Materine Applesauce
• Robert’s Gourmet Smart Puffs
• Robert’s Gourmet Pirate’s Booty
• Kettle Foods Chips
• Stacy’s Pita Chips
• Brother’s All Natural fruit crisps
• Stretch Island fruit leathers
• Barbara’s Bakery fruit and yogurt bars and snackimals
• Raw Revolution bars
• Clif Z Bars
• Late July sandwich cookies
• Back to Nature graham sticks and mini cookies
• Blue Sky tea soda
• Hansen’s soda
• Steaz energy drink
• Mix 1
• Horizon organic milk
• Imagine Foods Kidz smoothies
• Honest Tea juice
• Adina iced coffee
• Itoen iced tea
• Tazo iced tea

 

This is fun! : )  Erik’s going down to set up all the machines the middle of next week and as soon as I can, you know I’m going to take plenty of pictures at the locations to share with you!!

Hope you guys all have a great weekend!! :)

Originally Organics Vending update, grilled veggies

Hello! :)

Thank you guys all so much for all the nice comments about how often I blog. I feel so much better having taken the pressure off myself! In fact, I never meant to let it get there, it just kind of crept up on me … needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend! Erik and I got to spend a lot of wonderful and fun quality time together. I love my husband and life with him only gets better and better!

And thanks to everyone who joined in the protein discussion! ; )

Originally Organics Vending Update

I haven’t said much about our business lately because there hasn’t been much to say! Ha. The behind the scenes work was still being done but we’re very close to launching the vending machines! On Sunday after church, we took a drive down to the KC area to scope out the schools and locations our vending machines will be in.

The five starting locations include 3 schools and an ice arena. The machines will be arriving in about a week (hooray!) We’re so excited to get this going!

Since we were in the neighborhood we stopped at Whole Foods to grab some dinner and a few groceries.
As always … we ate good ; ) I tried a few salads I didn’t love (which doesn’t happen very often). But my meal was redeemed with rotisserie chicken, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and grilled onions …. I absolutely love grilled veggies! Erik probably won’t like this picture but I do ; ) 
We even got to eat by some lovely flowers. We had a great day and it was nice to actually see the vending locations up close and personal. Hopefully soon I can give you all a more detailed update!

It was just a little bit foggy on the way home, haha …

I took a break from lifting the past few days so that I go go back into it with a refreshed mindset. Tonight …. I relax and eat Amy’s pizza ; ) Tomorrow, regularly planned lifting will resume.

Hope your week is off to great start!! :)

In honor of Martin Luther King Junior Day, I’ll leave you with this quote:

"Justice at its best...is love correcting everything that stands against love."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Protein: How much is too much?

Hey all!

Have you ever done something you love so much, got stressed about it and felt like you had to do it so much that it wasn’t fun anymore? Ha. That’s what I’ve been feeling lately, hence why I haven’t blogged the past few days.  I sort of burnt myself out and needed a break!

Since I started lifting hard on top of work and blogging every night, my days have been jam packed, I haven’t been getting enough sleep, and I still haven’t been getting everything done I want/need to get done, and Erik and I haven’t been spending as much time together as we need. My evenings after work consist of two hours working out, then making dinner, and  then blogging and after all that, it’s already past my bedtime.

I really wasn’t thinking because sleep is even more important right now, as I’m exerting myself even more in the gym than my body is used to.

But, lifting and blogging are both things I love to do so of course I won’t be stopping them. I just need to figure out a better way of going about them. Therefore, I probably won’t be posting quite as often, as I don’t want to feel pressed to blog every single day (in fact, I’m not sure why I felt that way in the first place??)  I decided I’d rather have more quality posts not as often anyways … and this way I can breath more!  I’m sure you all understand ; ).
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Moving on ….  RE my last post …

Glad you found my current figure competition diet interesting ; )  And thanks for all your input!

A few questions came up along the way and I thought I’d post the answers for all to see:

Thankfully, somehow I don’t find it that hard to add foods and eat more. Honestly, I just love food and I love to eat it! Ha. If anything, I’ve always had problems eating too much food. And that’s a perk I find to eating clean. I’m able to eat more of it without gaining weight. If I ate a lot of “junk food” I’d be in trouble because I’m horrible at eating “junk food” in moderation. It’s sort of all or or nothing kind of thing for me. While some people can eat whatever they want in moderation and still maintain a healthy weight, I cannot! If I’m eating cookies, I don’t just want one! My body type gains easily and my appetite wants a lot of food ; )

As far as working out is concerned, yes, I do work out everyday but for the bulking phase, I have decreased my cardio significantly. I’m currently just doing 15 minutes of low intensity cardio before and after my lifting session. So far, I have no stomach complaints ; ) Other than feeling really full at times, everything is in order. With a high protein diet, I drinking plenty of water! However, with large amount of water consumption, I’m thankful for a job that allows me to easily use the restroom often! ;)

I find the easiest way to get in protein is meat. I eat a lot of chicken breasts and lean ground turkey. I plan on incorporating more fish into my diet as well. In most other meatless meals, there will likely be eggs or protein powder involved.

Last but not least … the issue of protein. How much is too much??

 
And anonymous responded with:

After reading both of these responses, it caused me to do some research of my own and I found this topic of protein can be very controversial. One article in particular that I found interesting was this one, called “High protein diets affect on muscle gain and weight loss” by Paul Johnson

Here is an excerpt from it that I found interesting:

The part most interesting to me is that half of the Polish powerlifters, when doubling their protein intake past the recommended daily allowance, were still not getting an adequate amount and still has a negative nitrogen balance.

All in all, it’s evident that bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other high intensity athletes do consume large amounts of protein, way more than the recommended daily amount.  And for those athletes, large amounts of protein are essential to achieve certain size/strength goals.

This is all very interesting to me because I’m currently consuming a little less than 1.5 grams protein per pound, which is definitely higher than the recommended amount. However, through research and looking at others experience and education, I don’t believe this amount is unhealthy due to the amount I workout, how hard I workout, and what I want to achieve.

And bottom line, I trust my husband (aka my trainer) because he has both done bodybuilding and trained athletes and I trust his judgment! : )

I’ll end with one more excerpt from “High protein diets affect on muscle gain and weight loss”:

The answer to a near optimum amount for muscle gains, yet still also being a healthy amount for the kidneys and liver, is probably somewhere in around the 1.5 grams per pound mark.

Hope all this wasn’t too boring and long! ; )

Any more thoughts on protein??

P.S. Have a fantastic weekend!! :D

My figure competition bulking diet

Happy Wednesday! January is almost half over, can you believe it??

Thank you all for the nice comments concerning my nervousness. I didn’t know I could be so nervous for something  that’s so far away, ha, but I’m sure it’ll be here before I know it. I’m looking at two different figure competition shows, one in September, one in October. So … we shall see!

Anyways, I thought it would be a perfect time to share my current diet. Right now, I’m focusing on growing my muscles and bulking up. Around 3-4 months out from the show, I'll then cut down to loose body fat and hopefully keep all my muscle ; )

When switching up a diet for a show, I hear it’s all about trial and error. So for now, per my trainer, here’s what it looks like … I already eat pretty clean and I actually have to eat “worse” than normal during the bulking phase of my contest prep (ha, it’s weird!)  The basic differences in my diet are as follows:

• Lots of water. I aim for at least a gallon a day.
• More carbs. Right now I’m at about 300-350g carbs a day.
• Faster digesting carbs. I’ve been eating:
• Spelt bread instead of sprouted bread

• Whole wheat cereal instead of oats

Btw, I really like this cereal thus far! For cereal, the stats are pretty good and it’s really cheap for a healthier cereals. Low sodium and all ; )

• Regular potatoes instead of sweet potatoes.
• Organic white rice instead of brown rice.

• More protein. Right now I’m at about 200g a day.

It’s been really weird eating “worse” than normal but I don’t mind eating more food ; ) Haha.

Here’s a sample day of bulking diet eats …

6:30 a.m. breakfast: 1 cup Honey Nut Toastie-O’s, 1 cup Sweetened Wheat-fuls (see above) in unsweetened almond milk with 1/2 scoop protein powder, 1/2 banana, and cinnamon.10:00 a.m. snack: Toasted peanut butter sandwich on Rudi’s spelt bread with 1/2 banana and a little stevia    12:30 pm. lunch: 1 cup rice with 5-6 oz chicken breast and 1 cup veggies, little 2% cheese, balsamic, and agave nectar sweetened ketchup 3:30 p.m. snack: 1 cup Honey Nut Toasty O’s w/ half piece of fruit

6:00 p.m. post workout shake: Includes protein, dextrose, maltodextrin, cinnamon, water, and ice (approximately 480 calories … this baby packs a punch! haha)

7:30 p.m. dinner: 1 large potato, 8-10 ounces lean ground turkey (or chicken), 1 cup veggies

9:00 p.m. snack: 1 cup 1% cottage cheese with a few almonds, stevia, and cinnamon

And there you have it : ) I definitely stay full at all times, haha.  This is all new to me so I really don’t know how much figure competitors usually eat at this stage … I’m just trusting my husband and doing whatever he tells me! He’s been right about everything fitness/diet related thus far so I trust him about this too! :D I’m glad to have him, that’s for sure!! 

Getting nervous …

Hey all! : )

How’s your week treating you? Even though it’s still the beginning of the week mine seems to be going by fast!

Okay, guys … today I looked up some potential bodybuilding shows and the thought of actually competing made me so nervous!! Ahhh!!! I’m glad I still have around nine months to prepare!

Today was kinda the same old thing for us … I went to work, came home, had a snack, worked out, ate diner and here I am! Ha. As always, I took some pictures while we were lifting. Are you getting tired of seeing pictures of us every day?? :s!  (I think I am!)I got this Rocky poster for Erik as a little side present for his birthday in September and it just so happens to fit perfectly in our new gym! And what’s better to stare at as we’re working out?? ; ) Now we just need a frame!  I was being weird and dancing in between sets in front of the mirror :s Ha … at which point Erik grabbed my camera and I said, “you can take all the pictures you want but I’m not going to put something like this on my blog”.  I was serious too, ha … and yet here it is …Dinners lately have been quick with plenty of carbs and plenty of protein! Here’s my plate from tonight … a medium/large sized potato, 1/3 pound ground turkey, and veggies topped with agave nectar ketchup and 2% cheese. My “bulking” diet has consisted of faster digesting carbs than I typically eat, plus more carbs! That being said … my current “bulking” diet in preparation for my figure competition is coming soon! : ) I’ve been taking pictures the fast few days of food to be able to share it with you all.

Along with that … I have a few more Lesley Lifting Life videos planned … until then …

I love Whole Foods … busy day

Monday already! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :)

After church on Sunday, we ended up going to Kansas City again. This time, to go to Dick’s. Neither of us have much for winter fitness clothes and it’s definitely winter! Plus, when we’re not working, we’re pretty much always wearing workout clothes (comfortable, anyone??) Thus … a well spent investment.

While in KC, we made a stop at Whole Foods for some food. They have the best food bar ever! Ha, I always pile my plate as full as I can possibly get it.  I love their grilled onions! Then, we picked up a  few grocery items and I took a bunch of pictures. I’m usually shy at taking pictures in public places such as grocery stores and restaurants but I’m trying to break out of my shell more and more, ha.  I love Whole Foods! Bins and bins full of grainy goodness! We got some quinoa and some goji berries.  Here’s a bunch of exotic fruits. I didn’t get any but thoroughly enjoyed just looking at them all!Look at all that fresh organic product … love it! Seafood counter … Cheese and olives … Tons of tea … if you’re a long time Lesley Lifting Life reader, you know I love my tea!! : ) Pizza, breads, desserts and more … Since I now have a juicer, I thought it was high time that I get some wheat grass to juice. I tried this before with a blender and it didn’t work so well. Ha.  I hear it helps to wrap it up in spinach so it juices better? We shall see! Our cart … we didn’t get much. And here are a few pictures of part of the glorious food bar. Erik and I always talk about how it’s a good thing we live an hour away or we would spend way too much money eating there!Fast-forward …

My Monday has been busy! It went something like this: work, home, cardio/weights/cardio …

… with a few pictures in between …
   … running errands, home, dinner, blog, bed (except I haven’t done that part yet ; )

Adrian also snuck out of our backyard today and was gone for 3 hours! We thought for a moment we weren’t going to find her.  Needless to say, when she got home, she was pooped. Oh, Adrian ….

Hope your Monday was a fabulous one!! :D

Celebration Date

I think I say this every weekend but …. I love weekends!

As you remember from my last post, I had exciting news to celebrate about. Long-and-slightly-complicated story short, I basically got a promotion. The department I have been working in the past year and a half was a pilot department so they started us all as temp workers. Well, they decided to hire two officially full time workers and after applying, interviewing, etc, etc, I am one of them …. and I’m so thankful and excited for it!

So, Erik and I went to KC for a little celebration. First, we stopped at Ted’s Montana Grill for dinner in the Power & Light District.We like Ted’s and hadn’t been there for awhile. We ate kind of early and as you can see … it was a packed house ;)We entertained ourselves by taking pictures. I really like the booths at Ted’s because they’re so tall and really blocked off from the booths next to each other. It feels really private and enclosed. We were big drinkers … obviously!
 
Ted’s is known for being eco friendly with their paper straws, recycled paper menus, to-go cups that bio-degrade in landfills after just 50 days,  recyclable glass bottles, bio-degradable take-home food containers,  as well as working to conserve water and energy at all restaurants.

Erik got the bison burger on an oatie wheat bun with a baked potato. We’re pretty much always happy with their bison burgers. I heard that their veggie burgers are good so I decided to try one, also on an oatie whole wheat bun, with roasted asparagus. I thoroughly enjoyed it : )After dinner, we went to see Avatar in Imax 3D. We didn’t really even know what Avatar was all about, just heard that it was good. Plus, neither of us have seen a movie in 3D before (does that make us lame?). It was a pretty good movie and the whole Imax 3D thing was pretty neat too! ; )

Plus, we got perfect seats, ha.Before the movie, we consumed some Turtle Mountain Purely Decedent Coconut Milk Cookie Dough ice cream. (And it was very good ; )

Now we’re off to church! Hope you’ve had a great weekend!!!

What we do on lame & tired nights

What a day!!

I found out some very exciting news at work today which made my day fly by. Then as I came home tonight, the lack of sleep I’ve gotten all week started to catch up to me.

In fact, Erik and I were both pretty out of it! So we decided to lift tomorrow morning instead of tonight. (Saturday is normally an “off” day). Here is how our lame and lazy Friday night has played out …

Computer: (p.s. I love Windows 7)Computer tonight for me basically has equated to … watching our church’s Friday night service online (since we obviously didn’t go), e-mailing, blogging, Facebook, etc, etc. All to be expected.

Easy and quick Amy’s margherita pizza: (yum enough?)  Am I the only person who puts their pizza on the box to cut it when it’s out of the oven? Sometimes it sounds kinda gross since I’m not sure what/who has previously touched the box but most of the time when I’m eating pizza, I’m being lazy and don’t care …. so I often cut my pizza on the pizza box. I ate half of this bad boy! Hot, delicious tea:Crabbiness: unpictured

Art: Erik’s been working on his latest piece of art. When I started to take pictures of him, he got all fake serious on me …   … at which point I told him to stop, ha. So he started being non fake Erik again … Dogs: Rocky must think she’s a small lap dog … And that’s how we do a lazy, lame, and tired night!

Pretty exciting, huh?? Ha!

I’m glad to be in my warm house tonight as it’s supposed to be –19 tonight. That’s cold!! In fact, I’m thankful to have a nice, warm house to sleep in at night! Last night as I was curled up under the covers falling asleep to the sound of my warm space heater, my thoughts went to the homeless and how hard of a time winter must be for some. So, I did all I could do at the moment and said a prayer for anyone out there who had no way to keep themselves or their families warm … 

Amidst this cold season that many of us hate, don’t forget to be thankful for how blessed we really are! :)

And … Happy Weekend!! Erik and I have some celebrating planned for tomorrow night ; ) (It has to do with the whole “exciting news at work” thing I mentioned at the beginning of the post).

Before and after; back and dinner

Happy almost weekend!!! Hooray!

Thanks for all the juicing suggestions … I’ll keep them all in mind!

Remember in my gym tour video I told you I’d post a before picture of your new gym room? Well, I forgot … so here it is now: Pretty bad, huh?? Yeah, it’s MUCH better now!

Tonight I came home to our newest piece of gym equipment … some “mat” flooring to go under our dumbbells. Love it! Only problem we might have? Thus far, it seem to be a dirt and dog hair magnet, ha! We’ll just have to sweep a lot! Tonight as far as lifting was concerned … it was back night. Ha, I could easily have called it frustrating night. I’ve always had a hard time really focusing on working my back effectively, and in the right places! So we worked on that a lot.

(Please excuse the laundry in the background … Erik did a lot of it today! He’s the best!)

As you can see, Erik was wearing his special lifting shoes tonight. They are oftentimes otherwise known as slippers, or house shoes. Haha.

      And then after lifting as Erik was walking out the door to run a few errands for his dad he told me, “I left you a little hint on the counter of what I want for dinner".

I was just kinda like … okay? Ha, here is what I saw when I went into the kitchen … It made me laugh! He even took out all the seasonings and pots and pans.   So … pasta with ground turkey it was.

Here is dinner being born …. yum! The dogs were more than willing to help me cook and all sat right outside of the kitchen just in case I dropped any food. (They always pick it up for me ; )

P.S. Why there is a stamp on the floor by Adrian’s leg, I have no idea!

That’s all that’s going on in my evening … and now … the weekend ; )

Any fun weekend plans??

Juicing Combinations?

Happy cold weather!

Ha, why I seem to like talking about the weather so much, I have no idea but I do! Here’s a look at our weather for the next few days. Wind chills of –25? Yes, that’s cold enough for me.

Actually, I’ve been good this winter. Normally I constantly say “I hate winter” but this year, I really don’t hate it. I simply decided to enjoy it instead and it’s amazing how that works, ha. Attitude is everything. It’s currently flurrying and I always love the sight of freshly falling snow. There’s just something about it that’s cozy and wonderful! How’s your weather?  In The Gym

Tonight was my “off” night, so I didn’t work out. My trainer has me lifting Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.  It’s nice having the night off but I’m not gonna lie, I kind of missed my workout!

At least for now, lifting is definitely my niche …. it hurts so good!  One of these days, I’ll post what a my typical “bulking diet” day-in-food is currently like. More video posts are coming as well!

Juicing

One of the things I got for Christmas is a Jack LaLanne juicer that looks just like this (though it didn’t come with the freshly juiced orange that’s in the picture ; )  …

I was very excited to get this because I’ve been wanting one for a really long time!!! I used it a lot when I was stuck in Nebraska after Christmas but haven’t used it much since I got home. Tonight was the night to break that streak. Here was my experimental combo based on what I had in my fridge:

• Small organic Fuji apple
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Cherry tomatoes

Does anyone have tasty, mostly veggie based juicing combinations to suggest to me?? I know how to make a fruit drink taste good, it’s not that hard because fruit is just good! Ha. However, I’m having a hard time coming up with tasty veggie drinks so far.

This combo was just all right. Something threw it off a little and I’m not sure what it was. I think either the celery or the broccoli? I know you guys will be able to help me out on this one! ; ) Now I’m off to eat some dinner … I’m hungry!!

Don’t forget to tell me your favorite veggie based juice combo! ; )