Bacon Guacamole Sandwiches?

What a week! I survived my illness, but being sick Sunday to Monday really makes for a crazy rest of the week. I have approximately one photo from Tuesday through Friday, but it's a cute one. Marshall and Terry came to meet me on my walk home from work (in Marshall's new wagon!) and saw a fire truck.

The rest of the week remained mercifully uneventful to let us get back on track, and on Friday night I got to sneak out of the house for a few hours to hang out with Amanda. She recommended The Last Five Years on Netflix, a musical starring Anna Kendrick, and I loved it! It's a departure from Anna's normal comedy, and she is truly a phenomenal singer and actress. Plus the night involved ice cream and wine, so we really lived it up!

Saturday morning Marshall and Terry got back in the pool after a months-long hiatus for swim lessons! Marshall wasn't sure what to think...

I got to watch from an observation deck above the pool, so I couldn't always tell what was going on, but there were tears to start and smiles to end the lesson. The pool was pretty cold because all the little ones were shivering when they got out and it took a while to get Marshall warm. Pitiful, but adorable too.

Once Terry gave him a ball to "chase," Marshall was distracted from the cold and happy to splash around.

After swim and lunch, we had a birthday party, which was at a My Gym and so fun! And we were home in time for dinner, which made for a relaxing evening.

On Sunday, Terry wasn't feeling great, so we kept close to home. I found a recipe or two I wanted to try while both boys napped, and ended up prepping food for most of the week.

(I made these donuts, which were awesome!)

Roasted sweet potatoes, donuts, farro (not pictured), and a frittata with spinach, roasted tomatoes, and goat cheese.

Marshall and I had the day off today, and I was so happy for a whole day together! Terry ended up staying home to work, too, so we were all around. Marshall and I took a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond and then enjoyed a long walk around the block (I love when we aren't in a rush and I can just let him wander at his own pace; he is so funny to watch!). 

He loves stop signs (???), and this is what he did every two steps for at least half a block. 

Future crossing guard, just like his mama. (I kid you not, I won an award for Best Crossing Guard in 6th grade. Proud moment.)

And some food lately:

Mahi mahi (topped with pesto, baked at 375 for 20 minutes), peas, and farro with feta

Salad with greens, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, farro, feta, and an egg. YUM.

New bowls! I've been meaning to find some soup/pasta bowls for a while and finally did! Also, this was tonight's dinner, a savior from the freezer. (I hadn't labeled it, so on our meal plan it was literally "Mystery Soup." I'm so glad it turned out to be Mexican chicken soup! 

Tonight's dessert: donuts! I dipped the 100 Days of Real Food donuts in melted butter, then in a little sugar and cinnamon. Heavenly. 

We've been rocking our workouts (minus a few sick days here and there) and eating at home almost exclusively, hence my inability to find time to write here. My workouts this week look as follows:

Sunday: yoga and walk 

Monday: Heavy upper body weights

Tuesday: Leg & Plyo workout

Wednesday: Rest / Yoga for stretching

Thursday: Upper body with light cardio (long walk/easy jog)

Friday: HIIT of some sort

Saturday: Rest

Since I'm doing two intense workouts (Tuesday and Friday), my other days are pretty light this week. 

Our dinners this week are completely unknown at the moment. I used all my creative energy on breakfast (frittata, which will be reheated each day all week) and lunch (big salads most of the week). I seriously sat staring at my blank menu planning page for half an hour and came up with "bacon guacamole sandwiches." WHAT?! THAT'S NOT A THING! And we don't even have guacamole! We'll see what we pull out of thin air when we get home tomorrow and have no ingredients!

Hope your week is off to a magnificent start! 

TV Shows, a Weird Day, and a Workout

My favorite TV shows so far this season:

• Marry Me (SO much like Happy Endings, which is one of my favorite shows of all time)
• Mindy Project
• Brooklyn 99
• Modern Family
• The Middle (<--I just got into this one, and I haven't really watched any of the other seasons, but I think it's hilarious)
• New Girl

I also watched a few episodes of A to Z and Manhattan Love Story, but I hear they were both already canceled. I'm going to start Blackish (the pilot was awesome), and I feel like I should get into a drama or reality show to add some diversity to my comedy-only list, but I don't have any on my must-watch list. Recommendations?


Today was a weird one. Marshall slept well last night (have to admit, he seems pretty comfortable in his crib), but he did wake up around 12:45 and didn't get back to sleep until 1:45. I'm still adjusting to the whole idea of him not being right next to me, so I stayed awake until I knew he was asleep, which involved:
- creeping into his room multiple times after I had fed him to see if he was asleep (he wasn't)
- sitting outside his door for about 30 minutes so I could just pop back in if he needed me (he didn't)
- seriously considering sleeping on his floor so that at least I could sleep (I didn't)
- going back to my own bed several times and trying to tell myself he would be fine and would fall asleep on his own (he did, but I didn't believe it until I saw it)

It's a process. So anyway, when he woke up this morning (not until 6:45!), he was just all awake and happy in his crib. I brought him back to my room to eat, and then we hung out for a while before he fell asleep again. I won't lie; I was pretty grateful. I needed more sleep, too! We napped another few hours and then Marshall ate and fell asleep on me so I gladly cuddled him until almost 11 am! I know these days are numbered, so I just went with it and breathed in his sweet baby scent.

When we finally woke up for the day, rested and happy, I realized I had lots of fun (albeit ambitious, with a five-month-old) plans, but then he took yet another nap and we didn't leave the house until after 2 pm. Ah, to be a baby and sleep all day...

First up: HomeGoods. I took down Marshall's co-sleeper yesterday (so sad), which opened up a huge void in my heart our room. We used to store a bunch of "Marshall stuff" in there--diapers, changing pad, wipes, extra clothes, burp cloths, blankets, etc.--so that we don't always have to change him in his room. Sometimes in the morning Terry will offer to burp/change Marshall while he gets ready for work, and we also do the whole bedtime routine in our room, so it's nice to have all that stuff right there. With the co-sleeper gone, I wanted a simple basket to store everything neatly. I found a good one, but I don't have a photo to share yet. I'm sure you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting for me to post one, so I'll follow through with that soon.

Next: Carter's. I mentioned to some of my new friends yesterday that I wanted some warmer footed sleepers for Marshall because his room is an icebox, and they suggested Carter's. One of the girls texted me this morning to say they were having a huge sale, and she also offered me her 25% off coupon, so I had no excuse but to check it out!

I bought two fleece sleepers, a pair of sweatpants, and two sets of onesies that I'm not totally sure I'll keep. I need to take a little inventory of Marshall's 12-month clothes before I decide. (The baseball sleeper on the left is from Marshall's, which was right next door, so...)

I also needed to go to Costco (greens, butter, fruit, and ground turkey) and the grocery store (buns, mozzarella). It was Day-O-Errands around here, and I'm grateful that my little guy was up for the adventure!

 Sadly, late in the afternoon Terry called with the bad news that he has to work all weekend. We scratched our plan to meet for a run this afternoon, so now I'm regretting that I didn't get more movement in throughout the day. I hope I can make up for it this weekend!

By the way, here's a fantastic full-body workout made up of compound exercises (exercises that use at least two major muscle groups) I did recently. You can complete it twice through for an extra challenge, but one round took me less than 15 minutes, so it's a quick one. Adding on the EMOM burpees got a good sweat going!

 

Some notes and links to proper form:
Plie Squat with Upright Row
Plank with Row
Squat + Shoulder Press (scroll down to #5)
One-Leg Wide Row (<--similar, but do a wide row instead of a regular row): Stand on one leg, careful not to lock the knee. Lower the upper body down as close to parallel to the ground as possible, keeping the back straight and hips aligned. Complete the wide rows from this position, using the core and hamstrings to maintain balance.
Stationary Lunge with Curl
Stationary Lunge with Lateral Raise
Glute Bridge + Chest Press
*Bicycle Crunches (x2): Complete 30 reps total (right + left = 1 rep)
*Calf raises (x3) + Reverse Curl: I guess it's obvious, but it's 3 calf raises and then one reverse biceps curl (that's one rep).
EMOM 10 Burpees: Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes, complete 5 burpees. That's 50 total!

It's a fun one! Well, fun for me. I realize not all people find this type of thing fun, but at least you can do it indoors with just a pair of dumbbells, and it'll be over before you know it.


So now that Terry's working most of the weekend my plans have shifted to running more errands, lots of meal prep, and finding fun activities for Marshall, like rolling over the other way. And our friend is visiting on Sunday to meet Marshall!

What's your weekend looking like? 

Any TV shows I should be watching? What's your favorite? 

Walking Weekend

This weekend completely wore me out! It was by far the best Valentine's Day weekend I've had in years, though, even if I won't be able to move tomorrow. For starters, the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

Terry and I took advantage of our day off together on Friday by taking a hike at Escondido Falls in Malibu. Our hiking book claimed it was easy and flat, but my huffing and puffing suggested otherwise, and those 3.5 miles kicked my butt!

That bump gets me tired SO quickly now!

Unfortunately, those "falls" weren't exactly falling. We spotted a small trickle of water, but this spot was sad proof of LA's crazy drought.

Terry and I loved the hike, and we'll keep it in mind for future outings. Later, we played some Scrabble. Try not to be jealous of our awesome romance.

Despite my rocky start, I won!

Who gets letters like these?

For dinner on Valentine's Day, we went our usual route, but with a twist: fondue made with pepper jack cheese!

Our dippers: blanched broccoli, hunks of sourdough bread, baby carrots, apples, and celery

We also watched Annie Hall, a classic we hadn't seen. It's always referenced in How I Met Your Mother, so we finally rented it and thought it was great. Definitely a different style from what we're used to but funny and endearing. As a Seinfeld fan, I saw a lot of the same type of humor, so I recommend it to my fellow Seinfeld lovers!

Saturday morning we couldn't sleep in, but we had agreed to take turns making each other breakfast in bed this weekend! Talk about an easy way to pamper your significant other. I highly recommend it. :-) I went first and made us French toast.

Then Terry suggested walking to Target for our quick shopping trip, which logged four miles for us. We spent the rest of the day apartment hunting (more walking), relaxing, catching up on some Downton Abbey, and then heading out for a little date night. Of course, we walked the mile or so to dinner, so we were at nearly seven miles for the day!

We wound up at Burger Lounge, a restaurant that focuses on grass-fed and responsibly-raised meat. Terry tried the grass-fed elk burger, and I had the Lounge burger (grass-fed beef). The flavor is phenomenal!

We also split a shake on the walk home, and it was delicious!

This morning we slept in a bit more, and Terry make me a scrambled egg burrito in bed. Scout was thrilled.

And we decided to round out the weekend of walking a million miles with a "quick" walk to the farmer's market. Turns out, I was completely wiped out from the previous two days. By the time we got half a mile from the apartment, my back hurt, my legs and hips felt sore, and I was completely out of breath. We slowed way down and even took some breaks. Needless to say, I think pregnancy has taken its toll on me this weekend! I'll be resting tomorrow for sure.

Still, the walk to the market was totally worth it, because my sweet Valentine bought me these gorgeous flowers!

After some more apartment hunting, I took a suggestion from a friend to try swimming for back pain relief. I'm not totally sure how well it worked, but it did feel lovely to float around in the pool. I even soaked my feet in the hot tub to relax my sore toes.

Dinner tonight was our favorite grilled veggie kebabs with pita and goat cheese. A great way to end a wonderful weekend. I'm exhausted, but I can't really complain about all that time with my hubby!

Off to get some rest before another day of apartment hunting tomorrow. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

3-2-1 Superset Leg Workout + WIAW

I don't know about where you are, but LA is ridiculously hot right now. Again. I'm running all of our fans, keeping blinds closed to avoid letting light and heat in, even sleeping with a cool washcloth, a suggestion from my friend Amanda. Scout is trying to find ways to cope with the heat, too.

I woke up ridiculously hot this morning at 6:30 and decided to just get up and hit the gym. I knew I might take a yoga class later, so I opted to focus on a quick strength workout:

I loved these quick supersets! I find one-leg deadlifts and stability ball split squats to be sooooo hard, so I felt plenty challenged, but you could also tack on some cardio to round out this strength set.

Some notes:

I used dumbbells for all the exercises except the ball roll ins, but you could skip those to focus on form and balance if needed.

One-leg deadlifts

Hamstring ball roll-ins

Stability ball split squats

Plie squats

Side lunge + lunge pulses: Side lunge with your right leg (use dumbbells if desired), then step your left leg back into a lunge; pulse down into a low lunge three times; then pick up your left leg and step into a left side lunge to repeat on the other side. That's one! You'll do ten reps (so side lunge + lunge pulses 10 times one EACH leg)

Later in the day, I did end up going with Jenn to a yoga class. She took me to Yoga Hop, which was so fun! The class uses current popular music, so we heard Foo Fighters and Macklemore during yoga. I felt so pumped up doing my Warrior 3. 

Alrighty, here's what I ate on this impossibly hot day:

Breakfast: Plain Greek yogurt mixed with vanilla, plus blueberries and sliced almonds

A stop at Whole Foods resulted in a few bites of pineapple. Free samples? I'll take it. 

Early lunch before yoga: 1/2 whole wheat pita (my very favorite pitas from a local bakery, sold at Whole Foods) with Havarti cheese, cucumbers, hummus, and avocado

Post-yoga snack: apple with peanut butter, plus a bowl of cereal (no photo--I realized I forgot after I ate it!)

Drink of the day: tons of cold water to cool down in this crazy heat!

Dinner: Caprese salad with spinach

Dinner part two: pasta with zucchini and spinach, plus marinara and mozzarella

Dessert: blondies with milk

Any suggestions for cooling down in this heat? I'm taking even the most ridiculous suggestions. 

Also, for my fellow Friends fans: 31 things Friends taught me about life

Lately

Loving this little guy

And missing this big guy

Could he be more handsome?

Excited about our Europe trip, where we'll be joining my parents for a few days in Switzerland and Austria

Photo from our honeymoon in London

Thankful to be able to work out again. After almost two weeks off, I have joined my mom at the gym and taken a few long walks, which makes my body so happy! Tomorrow Mom and I are trying out a boot camp class, and I'll be designing a little weight routine for after the class. I'm still stretching plenty (though not as much as I was last week, which I regret).

Stressed about life decisions. While I know I could be in a worse position, being unemployed is a scary, anxiety-ridden choice. Here's hoping it'll all turn out okay!

Loving America's Test Kitchen. My dad told me about this KQED (PBS) show, and I'm going to be obsessed by the end of the week. The show chooses a recipe or theme for the week (breakfast foods, for example, or croissants). The breakfast show goes through how to make scrambled eggs--but it details the science of eggs and how they are heated--and also touches on 10 different toasters and how they tested the best one. Since I love baking but don't understand too much about the science of it, the details of what works and what doesn't, I find this show fascinating! (I will say, this show doesn't focus at all on health or nutrition--they focus instead on taste or convenience or even texture. But it's still interesting, entertaining, and educational!)

Excited for whatever is next. Terry and I have some big changes in the offing, and I'm eager to see where it all takes us. A new job? A new place to live? Lots of possibilities!

What have you been up to lately? 

Pretending-it's-Summer Kind of Weekend

This weekend Terry and I enjoyed the gorgeous weather and other benefits of living in LA, all while avoiding work (until today) and relaxing to the fullest. 

It started Friday afternoon - a hangout with the other teachers in my department - before Terry and I headed out to dinner. We chose Simmzy's, a favorite of ours, but I was actually a little disappointed with my selection. I should have stuck with the tried-and-true burger. 

On Saturday, we allowed ourselves to sleep in--or at least I did. Scout woke Terry up, and the boys hung out while I continued to sleep until almost 8 am! Amazing. But then we were off to the races!

A looooooong time ago, we purchased a Groupon to participate in the Amazing LA Race with Heidi and Edward. We finally booked a date to play, and yesterday we ended up in Hollywood to start the scavenger hunt around the city. The game only had four teams yesterday, but the idea is that all the teams meet up at the starting line with a clue, and then you're off around some famous spots in LA to solve more puzzles, a bit similar to the TV show Amazing Race. And we had a blast!

And...we won!

Perhaps being the best of only four teams isn't that awesome, but we finished in "only" three hours (par for the course is more like four hours). Also, one of the women from another team threw a total fit about not winning and even refused to take the third place medal. So I'd say anyone who didn't do that was a winner. We also covered a LOT of ground in those three hours:

So I'd say it was a pretty awesome day! Bonuses: Getting to see parts of LA we hadn't before, riding the Metro (LA's subway) for the first time, and checking out places we'd like to go back to. The finish line even included a free beer, and who can complain about that? The company hosts several different races, so we're already excited about trying another one soon!

After the crazy day, I had zero desire to cook, so we made it a cheese-and-salami night while watching Moonrise Kingdom--super cute, I highly recommend it (the movie, but actually the whole evening was cute, so I recommend that too).

I was exhausted and asleep by 9:45 pm. Not a bad Saturday night.

This morning we woke up by 7, and I squeezed in a quick yoga session before heading to the farmer's market.

The ripe summer produce got me in the mood for a fruit salad.

And the rest of our haul: bell pepper, oranges, zucchini, tomatoes, strawberries, cherries, eggs, and yams.

We also made it to a movie today! We've been wanting to see Iron Man 3 for weeks. It was excellent! Definitely on par with the other two.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, relaxing, eating a seriously delicious turkey-avocado sandwich for lunch, and watching more Arrested Development. Then we enjoyed a long walk around our neighborhood and some delicious turkey burgers a la Chef Terry--on the grill, no less! I finally got around to some school work and feel prepped for the week ahead! On the menu:

• Turkey burgers with tomato-avocado-balsamic salad (tonight)
• Ina Garten's Italian wedding soup (new recipe!)
• Grilled veggie and cheese sandwiches with sweet potato fries 
• Eating out one or two nights

Looks like a good week with lots to do and plenty of delicious meals. Off to enjoy the rest of Sunday!

Do your summer weekends feel different from the rest of the year? How do you change it up?