Author Archives: Emily

Home Improvement, A Giveaway

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Don’t be looking for Tim Allen (or JTT as the case may be!),

this post is about my personal home improvements.  And I use the term “home improvement” both figuratively and literally here.  You will have an opportunity for some (literal) home improvement too; scroll on down to the bottom if you are looking for the giveaway.

I didn’t do any school work this weekend, but I certainly spent some time crying about it – I’d say there’s a lot of room for improvement there, don’t you think?!  Today is all about getting myself on the right track.  I started my morning at 7; I took a refreshing shower, I brewed a pot of coffee, and then I got down to business.  I have a ton to do still, but now I’ve made a dent and the list seems more manageable.

Sidenote – Target’s Archer Farms Cinnamon Vanilla Nut coffee is fabulous.

I’ve had two big cups throughout the morning, with skim milk and a cinnamon sugar sprinkle.

As proud as I am of my scholarly achievements, I’d say the biggest improvement of the day relates more to the shower.  We share a small deck with all of our neighbors.  Said deck is directly in front of our bathroom.  I’d say after almost 3 months of standing naked in front of the window to the shared deck it’s high time for a curtain!

My mother actually made the curtain for us (thanks lady!) and we love it.  The pattern totally reminds me of our wedding!

The nudity thing wasn’t really a problem for me – I spend a good 50% of my time at home naked and none of our other windows have curtains! – but I love how much nicer the bathroom feels.  A tiny little home update can make a whole room feel special and new, which is why I’ve paired up with CSN Stores again to offer you guys a $55 gift certificate!

You can upgrade to some modern bedding –

You can pick some cuter (dachshund!) lighting –

You can spiff up a room with a piece of art you enjoy.  CSN stores recently offered me an opportunity to do a product review.  Adam and I decided to go the art route and choose some mobiles we adore.

The hedgehog family is in our living room and the elephants (we call them “L-a-FONTS”) are in the kitchen.  The sky is the limit!

Giveaway info and rules –

  • The $55 can be used on ANY product at ANY of the CSN sites
  • The gift certificate does not cover shipping (but many items include free shipping)
  • Only US residents are eligible (sorry!)
  • The giveaway runs until Thursday, 9/16

In order to enter –

  1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which room in your house you’d most like to jazz up
  2. For a 2nd entry – link back to this post from your blog and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so
  3. For a 3rd entry – link back to this post from Facebook and/or Twitter and leave a comment telling me you’ve done so

Tough Transitions

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I did not get enough done today (don’t I say that every day?!?!) so I’ll keep this post simple.  I did accomplish a walk to the farmer’s market/co-op for some local goodies.

And a trip to Wegman’s to complete the groceries.  We had a hot bar coupon so the husband and I got lunch.

Can you guess which side of that container is mine?

I filled up on an assortment of veggies,

with sesame tofu and chicken.

Not even an hour after eating I felt empty.  The feeling was so bad I ended up walking to get a (ginormous) slice of bbq chicken pizza.

Post-pizza I had a Double Fudge Brownie mini ice-cream.

And then I was FULL.  I ate my 2nd lunch around 3:00 but I ended up calling it dinner because I haven’t gotten hungry again!

I am finding the transition back to school to be much harder than I expected; and I didn’t think it would be easy!  I think part of the issue is that I didn’t just quit my job and go to school, but rather worker bee –> unemployed –> student.  Do you have any advice to help me become a student again????

Patriot Day

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I’ve been missing the husband lately so I skipped my run this morning in leu of cuddle time.  Instead I did 15minutes of strength and stretch moves.  I finished on my yoga mat, with a few minutes of silence for the victims of September 11th.

I made a patriotic breakfast too.

I added blueberries into my Strawberry Danish Oats mix.  I used ~1cup of fruit total.

Hopefully that breakfast will fuel me well, because this weekend is going to be pretty freaking stressful.  Here’s a breakdown of what I need to do for next week –

Monday

  • Orgo – read and take notes on ch. 3
  • Orgo – hand in my recopied class notes
  • Anatomy – read and take notes on ch. 5 -6

Tuesday

  • Nutriton100 – read ch. 3 + 5
  • Nutrition110 – read ch. 1 -2
  • Nutrition110 – 20 post reading questions
  • Nutrition110 – article analysis
  • Nutrition110 – 15minute presentation

Wednsday

  • Orgo lab – flow chart and pre-lab questions

Thursday

  • Anatomy lab – quiz identifying 150+ bones
  • Nutrition100 – prelab questions and last week’s post lab

Friday

  • Nutrition230 – a personal philosophy statement
  • Orgo – read and take notes on ch. 4

Oh, and before I can start any of that today I have to go grocery shopping (at multiple stores), go to Target, go to the Post Office, and fill out a few financial aide forms.  {insert hyperventilation}  Think productive thoughts for me please!

Friday (Mostly) Freebie

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So it’s been 14 hours since my last post, also 14hours since I last sat at my laptop; yikes!  I’m a bit concerned that this semester is basically going to be insane.  My packed lunch was tasty, I guess, I’m not really sure since I inhaled the sandwich while running to class.  The cucumber slices were good, but perhaps a bit loud for crunching during Orgo; insert red face here.  I did squeeze in some Friday fun though.

After my last class ended (3pm) Adam came over to my campus for a study session with me.  I am so much more focused when the husband is next to me, probably because I’m not texting him!  A little after 5, I headed to the gym.  30minutes on the elliptical, random, level 6.  I wasn’t so lethargic today so I was able to run interval sprints for the last 10minutes or so.

After a shower we headed to the mall to Johnny Rockets.

I came home from BlogHer with coupons for 2 free meals so we made that our dinner date.  Usually JR would not be my first choice, but I’m kind of cheap 😉  Adam and I decided to do some sandwich splitting –

I got the #12 turkey burger,

and he ordered a tuna melt on sourdough.

He loved the melt (I thought the tuna tasted funny) and I thought the turkey burger was actually pretty fabulous, not too greasy at all.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy pickles on burgers.  I ate ~ 1/3 of each sandwich and half of my fries.

Since all we had to pay was the tip we brought the evening’s cost up to a grand total of $6.71 by splitting a mini Brownie Batter Blizzard.

Cons – I don’t like brownies so I’m not sure why I thought I’d like this (I ate about 1/3 of it though).  Pros – our DQ has mini Blizzards now, yippie!

Does your DQ offer the mini?  What is your Blizzard order?

Signs of the Season

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Friday, Friday, Friday!  But that’s not all I’m excited about.

Adam left first today and when he called to tell me he was cold I had one thought – “Blazer!”

Some people are excited about the first Pumpkin Spice Latte (don’t get me wrong, I am too, but October is the pumpkin month!), I’m jazzed about the first blazer of the season.

I’m not ready to give in to fall yet though, I’m still rocking the Reefs and my breakfast felt pretty summery.

A serving of Kashi H2H topped with a chopped nectarine and Silk Almond Milk.

Here’s what I’ll be eating for lunch –

Turkey, Laughing Cow, Sandwich Thin.  Yes, that is an entire cucumber in the bag, and I am happy to see you 😉

What is your favorite sign of fall?

Don’t Be Catty

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I don’t know what’s up with me, because yesterday I was insanely hungry and today I was hit by fatigue!  Again, it was almost indescribable.  I felt like I was wading through mud all day long, my mind was cloudy, I was even falling asleep over my dead cat.  Yeah that’s right, there was a dead cat.  WARNING –  there will now be graphic pictures from Anatomy Lab.  Cat in a bag.

Oh, and here’s a picture of my lab partner and I with our dead cat.

She smelled fantastic.  Actually, lab was interesting but a bit frustrating because I was having a really hard time identifying the muscle groups.  Anatomy lab is a grade I’m already worried about.  Food lab (after my lunch post) was much more exciting because we got to identify vegetable cuts and spices and herbs, that I can totally do 😀

After class I went to the gym; the following is a short essay about how working out is the panacea to the world’s ills:

Feeling fat?  Go to the gym.  Mad at your boyfriend?  Go to the gym.  Stressed about work?  Go to the gym?  Having trouble sleeping?  Go to the gym.  Exhausted?  Go to the gym!

The time I spent working out was pretty much the only time I felt truly awake today.  I’m not gonna lie, I went to the gym for one reason and one reason only – I was already wearing my Lululemon sports bra under my dress and I didn’t want to “waste” it.  But I was glad I went, even if my legs weren’t moving as fast as they usually do.  Elliptical, random, level 6, 35minutes.

After my 30minute walk I totally crashed again, but it was nice while it lasted.  I was so tired I didn’t even take photos of my exorbatint amount of food (what?  I didn’t say the hunger was gone).  Plus, who wants to see pictures of food after the dead cat?

Have you ever taken a lab course with dissections?  Any fainting action or did you enjoy the learning?

I Wrote This Post Last Night

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I’m taking a page from Kath‘s internship days and ‘ghost-writting’ this lunch post.  Thursday’s classes and gym trip mean that I’m out of the house from 9am – 4:30(ish) pm and since I have a tasty lunch packed I figured I’d go ahead and post it.  As this publishes I will be exiting my first Anatomy lab with a cat component – I’ll definitely tell y’all more about that later!

I centered lunch around the last Jalapeno Popper turkey patty.

I put it on an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin instead of a bun, and nixed the broiled sharp cheddar, so I knew I needed something special to tie the whole thing together.  Enter Laughing Cow Blue Cheese –

Sandwich perfection.

I imagine I’m going to enjoy that very much 😀

I also packed a small sliced purple pepper,

and the last (tear) of the dried kiwi with some dried apricots.

Hopefully this holds me over through Food Lab and a workout, I can’t deal with yesterday’s insane hunger!

What is your favorite type of dried fruit?  I love kiwis and hibiscus.