Weekend Recap

This weekend was a pretty busy weekend, although I spent a good portion of it Beyonce style (as a single lady, duh!) since Michael worked both days...sadness.

Here's my recap of the weekend though!!

Saturday morning I woke up and jumped right out of bed, ready to go. Well kinda like that, the dogs woke me up. Then I headed to KY fit club, which was intense, as usual.

After fit club I hit up "Another Man's Treasure", a furniture store in town that sells new, damaged, or used furniture. I was trying to find a replacement coffee table or tv stand for our house, since we are in need of one and our living room is super spacious currently because there is a void where our coffee table used to be. But no luck shopping there, nothing was the dark cherry color I needed, and for some reason the stock they had on Saturday was just blah.

So I thought I'd be productive and call Petsmart to get the dogs bathed and nails trimmed. Fail, all booked. OK, I will accomplish something. Since Snow White was for some reason covered in bird droppings I thought it was appropriate for her to get a good bath. She received the star treatment with exterior wash, vacuum, window wash, and the fresh linen scent inside. Ain't she a beaut?

Since the dog cleaning appointment did not work I found it necessary to bathe the dogs on my own. Because Willis gets STANKY after a while, and he was at that point. I think he has some gland issues that get stinky or something, who knows?! So for the first time, I attempted to wash them inside. (Michael has done this before but I never have). IT was definitely interesting and very wet and furry. But now my dogs don't stink to high heaven!

Afterwards I got myself together, cleaned up the house and got excited about girl time!

Bible study girls came over for girl time. We all went to Michaels craft store and bought ribbon for our creation that involved 3 items: Paper plates, ribbon, and double sided tape. I was one of the few to finish theirs but we made these!!:

They are trees made of paper plates. I am especially proud of them. In order to get the full girl time experience I decided to move the kitchen table in front of the tv so we could craft, snack, and watch. We all decided on the Doris Day Movie, "Pillow Talk". I've never seen any of her movies but I loved it.

I will definitely have to watch some more! Maybe next time not consuming 40000000 calories of food though (the girls all brought yummy snacks: Puppy chow, pumpkin bars, popcorn, chips, cookies, and reese cups!)

After the girls headed out I anxiously awaited the return of my hubby. I even made dinner!!! Turkey meatloaf, potatoes, and broccoli oh and a pumpkin beer!! I was so excited to just chill with my guy. We caught up on one episode of Modern family after dinner and then decided on a movie.

We watched "The Birdcage", Michael had seen it but I never had! I remember my mom renting it or something when I was younger but I wasn't allowed to watch it.

I guess I understand why now, it came out in 1996 so I was probably 8ish,  haha. This guy is the most hiliarious though!


Saturday was a great day.

Now on to Sunday!

I woke up super early again, around 7. Michael was at work. So of course a lazy sunday calls for laziness right?

I watched 3 episodes of Brothers and Sisters (by the way, Calista Flockhart is in the birdcage and brothers and sisters):
 
 
before 10 am. I had to get something else accomplished.

I forced myself to do the turbofire yoga (stretch), and core.

Then I found myself watching ANTM Allstars.. blah...lard. It was time to walk the dogs.

It was an amazing day outside. Well beside the raging winds, which Carson was terrified of. Ok, he wasn't terrified of the wind, he was terrified of all the leaves flying at him. But we got a good 2 1/2 mile walk in!

Oh and speaking of wind. This poor flag is having the hardest time staying attached to our house...down again!

Next, Adrielle time. We (meaning just Adrielle, I was able to hold myself back) tried a new froyo place called Menchies. It was yummy. Well the 2 samples I had were yummy. Adrielle said it was good. She had the chocolate covered banana yogurt with thin mints, brownies, and banana slices on top!

Menchies has cool spoons too (like Orangeleaf, but not)

After Adrielle time, grocery time. I won't bore you with those details.

Then B-stud time (which I am excited about our challenge for this week!) , which sadly Michael has missed. I hope to see him sometime shortly, wait he's walking in the door as I type this!

And that's my weekend recap. I hope you enjoyed and it wasn't too long!

Traditions

Last night when Michael and I arrived home he gave me a little gift bag. I thought that it was a little something he had picked up for me during his travels around the globe. (GLOBE = Louisville and Atlanta...duh!). But I was surprised when I looked in the little bag to see my favorite annual gift that I get during this time of the year from my Aunt Carin who lives in Georgia (Michael stayed with them one night this week).

So, the tradition started like this.  With my mother first.

Back in the day my mom LOVED collecting antiques. That was her thing. We went to sooo many antique malls, shows, yard sales, etc. in search of the next antique. Basically all of the wooden furniture in our house was antique. She was also into collecting refurbished/repurposed wooden wall clocks. Different sizes, looks, etc. I loved that, it was cool that she had something that she loved to collect.

Which brings me to another point. My friend Amanda's parents had all of these collectible hallmark ornaments. Man was I jealous. Especially of the cool barbie ones.. anywho...

Well I don't really remember how it all got started. (Aunt Carin might be able to clue me in on this because I was probably too young to care/remember) but I do remember that my mom got her hands on this Hallmark ornament collectors book that listed the going rate for each ornament in a series. Well somehow she decided Dustin and I should start our own collections.  I picked the puppy collection ("Puppy Love")  and Dustin picked the frosty friends collection (Mine is up to its 21st ornament and Dustins it's 32nd, Dustin's older ornaments sell at very high price points!) :

She let us pick ours and then went crazy trying to find some moderately priced ornaments in these collections. Each year around Christmas we would receive the ornament from that collection for the year. Sadly once my mom passed away we thought the tradition was over. Until one day Dustin and I received our ornaments from our Aunt Carin. She wanted to keep our tradition going in the spirit of my mom. As I write I am tearing up just thinking about how silly a collection of silly dog ornaments are, but really, they mean a lot to me (and hey, you all know I L-O-V-E dogs!). So yes, my tree may be covered in little dogs, but they have a meaning to me, and they have a special place in my heart. I really appreciate the gesture by my Aunt each and every year. It makes me smile. And it makes me remember my mom. Thanks Aunt Carin, love you and see you soon!

so many elevens!

Happy 11/11/11 to everyone! I hope all your wishes came true!

Also, thank you to all of the men and women who have worked in the armed forces to keep our country free. I appreciate what you have and will do for us!

Today was another busy day but I am so glad to finally be home in my house with my pups and my hubs. It feels right.

Today I spent the day in Louisville for a work meeting. Meetings can be long, but they made it a little better when our in-charges got to go around the room and talk about a staff who has helped them a lot in the past. It definitely made me feel good, so I bet everyone else feels the same. MORALE BOOST! YAY!

Out of super random luck Michael and I happened to be in Louisville at the same time today. So I rode with a coworker to Louisville and had Michael pick me up after his U of L interview and my meeting had ended.

After we stopped by Old Navy to waste some time and then headed out to dinner with 2 of our wonderful friends Adam and MaryLauren  (no relation to Ralph, ba ha ha ) who live in Louisville. We went to a restaurant called Dittos, on Bardstown road. The food was good, but the service was terrible!! But hey, it was great getting to catch with this lovely couple!

After dinner Michael and I scooted on back to Lexington. With a pit stop at McDonalds to fix my hot fudge sundae craving. Goodness, I don't even know what I will be like when I'm pregnant someday. I can barely control my cravings now... I. will. be. insane. The. End.

Great day. Tired. In bed. Goodnight. OH YEAH and GO CATS!! First win of the first official game of the season, we have an exciting season in basketball coming up!

2 ships

So I'm not one for putting poems in my blog posts, like ever, well unless they are silly ones that I've made up and well I didn't make this one up. I was "googling" a picture of 2 ships passing in the night and this poem came up, I didn't take all of it just the first line because I thought it was semi-applicable...

As two ships passing in the night,
So quietly neath the stars soft light;
Our paths cross but now and then.
Reaching out, seeking one another again.

Why this? Sometimes I feel this is how Michael and I are. I got home from being in WV all week this evening at 8. Sadly Michael had already departed Lexington at about 5 pm, he's interviewing at Louisville tomorrow. But luckily I will see him tomorrow night, although he is working both weekend days...booo that. Well atleast I have some furry friends to keep me company! 


p.s. laziness has sunk in, I did not workout again...that's 3 days of no workouts. GOODNESS GRACIOUS, someone needs to get me a workout partner pronto. EARLY ALARM for workout set. check.  In bed semi-early. check. Get my sweat on in the morning? ehhh I hope so!


Goodnight!

Ashley meets yummy Indian Food

Tonight at dinner I experienced some yummy Indian food. Yes, I have had a couple of times before but I had no idea what I was ordering or what was good.

But you know the good thing about having an Indian coworker who is super excited about taking us to get Indian is? You get to eat super yummy Indian food! We ate at a little Indian restaurant in downtown called Little India.

My coworker helped us order some appetizers and entrees. And he ordered everything medium (the other 2 coworkers prefer HOT, but I can barely eat mild things) which made me very nervous, but you know what? It was actually perfect!

The appetizers were yummy Chicken kabobs and these fried vegetable balls (which I can't remember their names):

 they were very yummy! I learned that the red colored chicken turns this color because it is cooked in clay pots!

Then out came the food and the naan (delish, I could eat that alone and be good to go). We did it family style so we could all try everything. It was wonderful. I was even convinced to try the lamb vindaloo, which was good, but hard for me to eat because I kept picturing a sweet little lamb in my head, so I mainly stuck to the Chicken tikka masala which tasted epic with the naan. I was also convinced to try the yogurt in the back (white). I mixed it in with some spicy rice we had, and it was nice, and cucumbery...surprisingly good!

 All in all a wonderful meal. We were all very very very full. (hint hint, the reason why I wasn't able to workout tonight, too full of a stomach) but we pretty much killed everything....

I definitely will be hitting up more Indian food when I get back to Lexington, I feel a lot more comfortable with it now!!

Workout Wednesday

Welcome to another workout Wednesday!!

Thursday: This day I didn't feel that well...so I did about 25 minutes of a 55 minute turbofire video, and I had no energy so I quit. That's the attitude, right?

Friday: R.I.P.P.E.D class, I finally made it to it a week that my friend Aly was teaching!! YAY! Such an intense and great workout!

Saturday: Insanity Cardio...which was insane. SUPER tired afterwards, but what a gret workout, especially with friends

Sunday: Cleaned, Cleaned, Cleaned and walked the dogs with Michael.

Monday: Ran 5k on a super nice gym treadmill and then 20 pushups after.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Due to late dinners straight after work, workouts were not possible on these days. BoO long work days and super filling suppers.

So I wasn't my best this past week, but I tried to fit it in where I could.

A Friendly Face

Sometimes being away for work all the time is hard. No personal time or conversation with people, or even just a hug. But today was a special treat for me!

After a SUPER long day of working, productive yet tiring we headed back to the hotel. We are staying in Charleston, WV this week. I had planned a special meet up for the evening. Do you know who lives in Charleston?! (well at least for the time being!). Mrs Lela and Mr. Eric of course!! I was so excited to make plans with this lovely married couple. It was wonderful to just see a friendly face or two and chat it up comfortably.

We met at Panera, which was a short walk across the hotel parking lot for me. Lela and I ordered the same meal. I kinda copied her soup. I have never had the black bean soup so I thought about trying it. It was pretty good, but I guess my body isn't used to black bean soup cause I felt SO full!

We spent a couple hours chatting in Panera and then a little while outside in the parking lot chatting before finally saying goodbye. What a wonderful blessing it was to be surrounded by some great friends!!

Although i didn't get to workout this evening, it was totally worth it!!

Although being away from home at work there are a couple of pluses about staying in hotels is Hampton Inn's delicious, warm, melty cookies... (well...the picture is refusing to upload, but it looks like a chocolate, melty, poooo mess, but oh so delicious!)

Tomorrow is hump day! YAY!