My Week in Pictures XIX

I'm going into this Monday feeling pretty refreshed after a 10 day break! As much as I'd rather have more time to bum around at home, I'm ready to jump back into this school year and finish these last 6 weeks strong! Last week was a mix of fun and relaxing so keep following along to see what I was up to all week.

I started my Monday morning with some errands. I mailed out a few packages, including my Marine Layer recycling kit and a surprise for Maureen!

I went to Acme with my mom to pick up the $20 gift card I earned by playing the Monopoly: Shop, Play, Win game!

Tuesday morning started bright and early for me with my wisdom teeth surgery at 7 am. I had my mom bring me for a Chick Fil A milkshake before 8:30 am and I think the workers were confused why someone would want a milkshake so early.

Later in the day, since I was feeling wide awake, my sister and nephew stopped by. Tommy brought me a blanket to make me feel better and a picture he made for me!

I went to my mom's on Wednesday so I wouldn't be home alone. Tommy took care of me again by holding my ice pack on my cheek for me.

I convinced John to take me for ice cream that night :)

I spent Thursday getting some things done around the house. I packaged up another Momentum Jewelry motivate wrap to send to a friend!

I needed to get up and out of the house so I went on a walk and collected trash along the way.

Friday morning started off with making banana bread before running errands with my mom and Tommy.

Saturday morning began with a 5 mile run. John and I spent the rest of the day running errands and crossing things off our to-do list before eating dinner at my parents.

I went on another run on Sunday morning.

I ended my run with some peanut {soy} butter toast with honey. Thanks, Mackenzie, for this suggestion!

John and I headed over to the gym in the afternoon. I did 45 minutes of strength training :)

We ended our night with pizza on the grill, which we ate while eating the newest season of Santa Clarita Diet.

Question(s) of the Day: What is your favorite thing to make on the grill?

Friday Five: 5 Things I'm Loving This Week

For once I am not too thrilled it's Friday because that means my spring break is over in a few days. Luckily I still have a few days left to rest up and possibly get some things done. I had my wisdom teeth out Tuesday which went really well, so I've spent most of this week being lazy. No complaints here, though! Before I get started on this lazy Friday, I'm sharing my Friday Five with you!

1. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
This book was recommended to me by Maureen, who reads a ton of good books, so I was pumped when I found out my co-worker had it for me to borrow. From the first page I was hooked! The Tattooist of Auschwitz follows the story of Lale, a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau, who is given the job of tattooing his fellow prisoners as they arrive at Auschwitz. Lale soon meets the love of his live, Gita, who he vows to marry once they make it out of this camp alive. This book follows Lale through his two and a half years of being a prisoner and how he used his privileged position, risking his own life, to help save others. It's truly a remarkable story I recommend to anyone!

2. Nuun Plogging Challenge
On Monday, Nuun shared with us a Plogging Challenge as a way of celebrating Earth Day throughout the whole week. Plogging is "a Swedish word meaning picking up litter while jogging." I had heard of this term before, but haven't actually done it before. Since Nuun was challenging me, and I needed a reason to get out and walk, I decided to complete it! On Thursday I went on a 45 minute walk around my development and collected over half a plastic grocery bag full of litter. It was such a nice way to help the earth while also getting some movement in!

Source

3. Hydro Flask National Park Foundation Collection
I received an email from Hydro Flask this week that shared their newest collection, the National Park Foundation Collection! This is a limited edition collection that showcases 5 of our National Parks including Yellowstone and the Great Smoky Mountains. Each bottle features artwork that pays tribute to these beautiful places! You can purchase these in the 21 oz or 32 oz sizes.

Source

4. Momentum Jewelry's #sharetheSPARK Motivate Wraps
I received my ambassador package with the 2 newest Motivate Wraps for the #sharetheSPARK campaign and I have been dying to share them with everyone! The new mantras for 2019 are "keep reaching higher" and "find your courage." From now until May 6th, the whole Share the Spark collection is on SALE (this includes last year's mantras: "you got this!", "you're so worth it," "keep moving forward," and "never give up"). You can choose from any of these six mantras for just $14 each! Want to pay it forward and pass one on? You can buy 2 and you'll get 50% off the 2nd #sharetheSPARK Motivate Wrap! How cool is that?! This is a great sale that will be ending May 6th so hurry on over and pick one (or more!) out!

5. Mashed Potatoes
This is a silly addition to my Friday Five. I've been on an all soft food diet this week because of my surgery so I've had no choice but to eat tons of mashed potatoes. To be honest, I've never been a fan of anything containing potatoes, but I think I am coming around to them. I've actually been enjoying eating mashed potatoes all week because it's the one thing that has helped keep me full!

Question of the Day: What is something you're loving this week?

2019 Goals: April Update

What a month this has been! It's honestly hard for me to believe that April is pretty much over in just a few days. The month really seemed to fly by, just as all of 2019 has felt. I'm not sure if I'm okay with this or not. In typical last-Wednesday-of-the-month fashion, let's talk about how my 2019 goals are going! {You can check out my previous updates here: January, February, and March}

Goal 1: Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

This month consisted of a lot of shorter distance runs in order to work on my pace. It clearly was beneficial as I was able to run two 5Ks with great paces! My monthly mileage wasn't as high as usual since I gave up a few weekend long runs in order to run these 5Ks but I'm okay with that. John and I rejoined our gym which was the best decision! Being at the gym really motivates both of us to focus on strength training.

This box now serves as the "home" for my egg cooker. It keeps my kitchen shelf looking neat and helps all the pieces stay together.

Goal 2: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

I finally got around to shipping out my Marine Layer Re-Spun package. I mailed in 5 shirts which should get me a $25 credit in return! I've been focusing on the reuse aspect of this goal lately. Each time I go to throw certain items away (jars, containers, boxes, etc.), I think of ways I could re-purpose them.

Goal 3: Reduce Phone Usage

I chose to pick up books instead of my phone a lot this month, especially right before bed. I have a bad habit of scrolling through BuzzFeed right before I fall asleep and I'm trying to break that. I've been attempting to make a habit of having specific times throughout the day when I can scroll my social media accounts and not just every so often. That seems to help me from picking up my phone constantly and getting "lost" in it.

Goal 4: Try New Recipes

I finally branched out with recipes this month! In the beginning of the month we tried out grilled pizza. It was so delicious, we've made it a few times since then! When my friend, Rachel, came to stay with us one weekend, we made a taco casserole that was super tasty! John and I have added it into our dinner rotation since it is so easy and delicious. I made a big batch of shredded chicken one day that turned into a week of creative lunches using it. I'll be doing that more often!

Goal 5: Give Back

I gave back to the running community in the beginning of the month and volunteered at my first race, the Philadelphia Hot Chocolate 5K/15K.

Goal 6: Save Money

Knowing we'd be shelling out a lot of money for wedding costs this month, John and I have tried our best to not spend any money on "extras." I sold 4 things on Poshmark this month for a total of $40! I'm planning on going through my spring/summer clothes in the next few weeks so I can add more clothes to my Poshmark closet.

Question of the Day: How are your 2019 goals coming along? Have you completed anything on your 19 in 2019 list, if you made one?

My Week in Pictures XVIII

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good Easter yesterday! We hosted my family in the afternoon and then went to John's parents in the evening so we kept ourselves busy. I'm off today so before I head off to run errands, I'm sharing my week in pictures with you!


On Monday, our wedding venue hosted a bridal show. I spent a lot of time soaking in the beauty of a place that we will be getting married at in less than 4 months.

A few of my students play softball for the township and invited me to their game Tuesday night. Of course I had to go and I had a great time!

Fast forward to Friday {not sure where the time went between Tuesday and Friday}. John and I both had off so we started the day with breakfast at Chick Fil A.

Next we went off to the jewelry store to purchase our wedding bands! I am counting down the days until I can wear the beautiful band we chose... as if I wasn't counting already... 109 days :)

The jeweler shined up my engagement ring! *insert heart-eyes emoji*

That night we dyed Easter eggs with John's parents.

We had another busy day on Saturday. We met with our florist who is creating my bridal bouquet to look similar to the bouquet John designed for our senior prom 8 years ago. We had to switch up a few things to match our colors but it will still add such an amazing touch to our wedding.

After a few more errands {and possibly a nap}, we spent some time at the gym.

We both had a complimentary fitness assessment on Friday, where our trainers gave us free protein shake coupons. I was super excited to redeem mine after a good strength session!

After a week of not feeling too well and being extremely busy, I finally got in my second run of the week on Sunday. I managed to crank out 3 miles without feeling too bad.

John and I hosted Easter for my family. We had a typical Easter meal of ham and had an egg hunt for Tommy!

Somebody liked the bubbles we gave him!

We went to John's parents later in the day to celebrate Easter with his side of the family. I didn't take any photos there.


Question of the Day: If you celebrate Easter, what did you do to celebrate this weekend?

Friday Five: 5 Things I’m Loving This Week

Hi everyone! I'm so happy it's finally Friday but even more happier that I am off today until NEXT Monday! I am really looking forward to this long break even though I am getting my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. I guess that means I'll get some guaranteed rest! I hope everyone has a nice weekend planned for the holiday. Before I get this break going, I'm sharing the 5 things I've been loving this week with you.

Don’t mind Dexter just creeping in the window...

1. My New Plant

Last week John needed to get soil for his new raspberry plant. Since the soil came in huge bags, he suggested I pick out another plant to put on our back patio so we could use more of the soil. I chose a pretty purple hydrangea that adds a beautiful pop of color to our patio!

2. Sandal Weather

Being a runner, I don't have the nicest toenails. Wearing sandals isn't usually something I enjoy but something about this nice weather lately has me loving wearing them to work. I painted my toenails so my toenails don't look too gnarly haha.

3. Fancy Cat Napkins

While out shopping for my sister's baby shower, my mom found the cutest cat napkins. She bought them for me so I could put them in my bathroom during the party just like fancy restaurants do. I just think they are the cutest thing and they really helped "fancy up" my guest bathroom.

4. Girl, Wash Your Face! by Rachel Hollis

I'm embarrassed to admit that I starting reading this book in January but literally just finished it last week. It's hard for me to keep up with personal reading books during the school year since I'm constantly reading books for class. I really enjoyed reading this book because I could stop and then pick up where I left off later and never felt "lost" since it doesn't follow a strict story line. I loved the life lessons Rachel shared with us. Each chapter made me feel like I had the ability to change myself and different parts of my life with the stories and advice she shared. I am now looking forward to reading her newest book, Girl, Stop Apologizing!, as soon as I can get my hands on it.

5. SPRING BREAK 

If you can't tell, I am so so SO happy it is finally my spring break! My school hasn't had any real break besides a few random days off since our Christmas break, and let me tell you, it is much needed! For the past few weeks, you could feel the morale and energy of both the staff and students slowly depleting. I am really hoping that this 10 day respite allows everyone to get the much deserved rest that need and come back on April 29th energized and ready to finish out the school year!

Question of the Day: What is something you're loving this week?

Gloucester Township 5K Recap

On Saturday I ran my second race of the year, a small 5K in my town called the Gloucester Township 5K. If you remember from my post back in December, I had said I would only run 1 race this spring. Well, since I didn't sign up for any "big" races {half or full marathon} I decided a few small 5Ks would be nice! I heard about this race through my town's newsletter and figured it would cool to run a super local 5K that didn't cost much. I knew John would be away for the weekend so I recruited my little brother to run it with me! It was an interesting race for me so read on if you want to hear about it.

This race morning started unlike many race mornings for me because I didn't have to be up at the crack of dawn {WIN!}. Being less than 5 minutes from the race location meant that we could sleep later and take our time getting there. The start time was 9 am but we still needed to pick up our bibs and shirts so we decided to leave my house around 8:15 to get there with plenty of time to spare. The location of this race was at the senior citizen community center in town that happens to share a parking lot with a park so the parking situation was great. At this point in the morning it was drizzling so we ran into the community center to pick up our stuff. We were amazed at how much thought was put into such a small town 5K. There were handmade signs posted all around the big room everything was in such as the check in and post-race breakfast buffet and they even had a couple of local sponsors handing out freebies. We grabbed our shirts and a few freebies and while heading to my car to stash them away, Dale realized he wasn't sure where his wallet was. Being so close to home, I suggested we drive home real quick to see if it was there. It really worked out because then I was able to use my own bathroom pre-race {there were real flushing bathrooms at the start, as well!} while Dale found his wallet, and we still made it back to the start with time to spare!

The start of the race was a bit odd. The whole race was chip timed but we didn't cross over one of those timing mats in the beginning. It makes me wonder how they figured out the timing then. Anywho, once they let us start, I immediately took off because it was already apparent that there would be a bottleneck ahead where we had to narrow down into a smaller portion of the road. Dale stayed with me at this point. We had agreed beforehand that if I felt like I wanted to push ahead to try and place in my age group, that was fine. I wasn't sure what my plan was because the weather was already so hot and humid, something my body was NOT ready for. I continued to keep pushing and eventually pulled away from Dale after about a half mile because I saw a girl in my age group wasn't too far ahead of me {with this being a smaller race, I was able to easily pick out people in my age group}. I kept pushing but eventually the girl flew past me and I couldn't even try to keep up. 

I didn’t take many pictures but I did manage to  get a picture of Dale crossing the finish line!

My ankle started bugging me around mile 2, which was when another girl in my AG started closing in on me. I had kept turning around to check on Dale and eventually realized how close she really was to me. I had to let myself stop real quick to stretch out my ankle and within that time, the girl passed me. At this point, I assumed I was in 3rd, which felt good. As I neared the end of mile 3, a girl who looked like she was in my AG flew by me without warning. I tried my best to push myself in that last quarter of a mile but the heat was really dragging me down. I crossed the finish line with a time of 28:31 {1 second faster than the Phillies Charities 5K 2 weeks ago!}, just 24 seconds after the 3rd place female in my AG. I was so mad at myself for pushing so hard in the beginning because I believe that was what made my ankle pain flare up later on. I threw myself a quick pity party before letting it go and promising myself to continue working on pace to better myself!

I

The post-race breakfast buffet was really nice and I was thankful to have a bagel and some orange slices to fill my stomach. Overall, this was a well put together 5K that I am looking forwarding to running again in the future. It had been awhile since I ran such a small, local 5K and this one made me remember how much I love them! The obvious community pride made me feelgood about the town we chose to move to and call our "home."

Question of the Day: Have you ever done a small town race? If so, what were your thoughts?

My Week(end) in Pictures XVII

Monday already?! I had such a long, yet fun weekend and it's hard to believe Monday is actually here. It was one of those weekends where I needed an extra day between Saturday and Sunday to relax. Because last week wasn't as exciting as this weekend, I've decided to just share my weekend in pictures with you today!

After work on Friday, I tutored for an hour before joining my brother at the gym for a strength training work out. We then met up with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew to pick out his outfit for the wedding (!!!).

Since John was away for the weekend, Dale agreed to spend the night with me so I didn't have to be alone in the house. We had a nice sushi dinner before heading home to watch The Founders and then crash after a long day.

 
On Saturday, we ran a 5K that was down the street from my house. The heat and humidity was real {where did it even come from?!} but I still managed to beat my last 5K time by 1 whole second haha. More about that in a recap soon!

Later that day, I joined my mom, sister, and nephew on a trip up to North Jersey for an Easter-themed train ride. My mom had won tickets last minute and we figured it would be a blast. Man, were we right!

Somebody REALLY enjoyed the train ride!

There was even a little egg "hunt" for the kids!

The views were nice!

 Afterwards we just HAD to stop at a Waffle House for dinner!

My mom stayed over my house Saturday night because we woke up early Sunday to prep for my sister's baby sprinkle I hosted! I didn't take many pictures because we were busy busy and then the party was a blast!

Cupcake decorating!

Just 2 short months until baby French fry is due! Note: I like to give her babies loving nicknames before they're born, haha.

Question of the Day: What was your favorite part of your weekend?