MIMM #10

Happy Monday Friends! As much as I dislike Mondays, I’m glad to be back to routine after several days of holiday festivities.

So let’s talk all about my marvelous long weekend!

Thursday I got up early and ran sprints in the home gym. I had to share the TV with my niece who basically went crazy when she saw Lightning McQueen flash across the screen… I’m a sucker for Cars!

Afterwards involved lots of cleaning, cooking, and partying! We had all our immediate family and friends over for ribs, Mom’s homemade cole slaw, and grilled veggies! My friend Sarah brought Skinny Taste’s Red White and Blue Fruit Skewers with Cheesecake Yogurt Dip – which was amazing! Mom made this beauty.

Friday involved this deliciousness for lunch!!

And an evening of fun with friends and my niece and nephew.

Saturday I got up early and ran to town to make goodies for a friends party.

Nothing like a summertime cruise in the Camaro.

Then the hubby and I made the long trek down south, it was a blasty blast! Even though we didn’t get home till after two am. YIKES.

Sunday, we saw Candace and her family off back to Oklahoma… Sad business.

Then the hubby and I went to see the Heat!

It was pretty funny, I could just do without the F-word every other minute.

We did a little shopping as well at Target and Academy, my two favorite stores!

Picked up a new lunch kit so people would stop asking me if I was bringing a 12pack to work everyday. Plus it is pretty and stylish. Grabbed some more coaches tape for Crossfit wounds and new ice packs for my lunch kit since they get yucky after a while.

Can never have enough Yoga DVDs and I LOVE Jillian Michaels.

At Target I grabbed some Yes To shampoo and face wash. My little sister swears by it and introduced me to it, plus I’m always looking for ways to cut chemicals out my life. Also needed some more Stash’s green tea, and a new scrubby for my Crossfit induced callouses…

As for today, I managed to yank myself out of bed at 4am to get my butt kicked.

It has been a rainy day here in South Texas which is rare for the summer so this girl is going home and taking a rain and tin roof nap. Win.

Question:
What neat things did you pick up this weekend?
How did you spend your fourth of July?

Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!
-Jaren

Weekend Wrap Up and a Recipe!

NOOOO! It can’t be Monday already, I’m not ready! I guess I can’t complain too much since it’s only a four day work week, which is pretty much a win.

Anyways, on this hot sunny Monday I thought I would just give you guys a little recap of my weekend!

I pretty much had the house to myself most of the weekend since the hubby had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Boo.

Friday night the hubby made homemade Cajun Crawfish and Veggie pizza and we lounged on the couch and watched OZ. It was good but not one I’ll probably rewatch over and over. But I did really like the monkey!

Saturday morning I wanted to sleep in but that didn’t happen thanks to this little lady.

Such a hard life...

So I cooked myself breakfast and opted for some more yoga. Yoga is really growing on me lately. Weird.

Painted my nails!

When the hubby got home we gave the pretty lady a bath, I may or may not have stood under the water hose like a 5 year old since it was over a hundred degrees outside.

Then we headed off to the Bayou City Muscle Car meet. Dinner, froyo, and a whole lot of horse power.

Then one of my friends brought up my handstand photos so of course I had to demonstrate my mad skills.

Sunday I was a perfect mix of productive and lazy, if that’s even possible. Went to lunch with my sister, went grocery shopping for the week, and then cleaned the house only to turn around and nap the afternoon away!

But since I couldn’t let the hubby think I was laying around all day (even if I kind of was) I got up and ran sprints!

Proverbs 31:25

And cooked him dinner. I love Iowa Girl Eats Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet and have been craving it but I wanted to make it without pasta and more veggies! And voila!

Creamy Chicken Sausage and Veggie Skillet

2 tsp of olive oil
4 oz of half and half (I used organic)
1c of chicken broth
1 can of rotel drained
1/2c of onion
2-4 garlic cloves (or more)
3-4c of broccoli
2-3c of spinach
2c of chopped mushrooms
1pkg of chicken sausage
garlic pepper
1/2pkg Italian dressing seasoning

Add olive oil, onions and garlic and cook until the onions are clear.

Add chicken broth, rotel and sausage and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add half and half, broccoli, mushrooms, seasonings and cook until the broccoli is done.

Add spinach and cook until done.

Makes about 4-6 servings.

You can put a little parmesan or goat cheese shavings on top, YUM!

Today my sister Candace from Salt Water Quilts is coming to stay the week! HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY! And bringing my favorite kiddos in tow for the holidays. Who knows what kind of shenanigans we will get into this week!

Question: What did you do this weekend?
How do you plan to spend your 4th of July?

Eat clean, train mean, and inspire others!

-Jaren

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Marvelous In My Monday #9

Good evening! Hi, my name is Jaren... I kid. Long time no blog, I know and I’m sorry. In less than two weeks all this craziness will be over and I’ll be back to regular programming. I bet you can’t wait! At least I hope you can't. My Granny called my father last night and was like, “Tell Jaren she needs to post on her blog.” Well yes ma’am!

So like I said, today we are exactly TWELVE DAYS away from the wedding. DO. NOT. PANIC. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I feel like the day is going to get here and I’m not going to be prepared then I’m going to have a heart attack. Hence I’ve become a list making fool. Never really liked making lists till now, but I found it helps keep me sane. We are pretty much done now except for getting our license, premarital counseling, and meeting with the DJ for the last time. All of that will be done this week though, and the 5^th is my “Girls Night Out” and the fiance’s Bachelor Party.

Since I haven't done a MIMM post in a while I thought I would do that today to tell you about all the fun and great things that have been going on around here.

Shower: Back on the 22nd my two wonderful sisters, Candace and Logann, threw the fiance and I a shower. Our friends came, people from church, and a few of my parents friends. It was so pretty and the food was GREAT even though I was too busy talking to everyone to eat a lot of it. Boo. We are truly blessed with some great people in our life and had an AWESOME time. Plus we got some great cooking stuff. OH! And my sister Candace gave me The Rose Quilt she made, I have been trying to get my fingers on it since I saw it on her blog. Not going to lie, this girl almost cried. Its so pretty!!

Bridesmaid Luncheon: The next day we had a nice luncheon for my bridesmaids/man. It was at this awesome tea room in Old Town Spring. We had champagne, tea, cute little sandwiches and sweets. Grown up tea party, I thought it was probably the coolest thing ever. (I'm so going back).

Fall: October has finally arrived and brought the amazing fall weather with it! Finally the Texas heat is gone and its nice cool breezy days ahead. I love hoodie weather, I'm so stoked! Last night the fiance grilled some BBQ chicken and veggies, and we sat outside on the swing and drank wine. PERFECT kind of night. {Even though we might have had too much wine, oops. Wine is good for your heart right? :) }

Muse: Tomorrow is the release of the new Muse CD, The 2nd Law! New workout music, HURRAY! I pre-ordered it months ago on iTunes, so I'll probably be up at midnight laying in bed listening to it. Yeah, I've told you before - I'm obsessed. Their new song Madness is a AWESOME running song. 

Construction: It is so close to being done! The walls are in and the cabinets in the gym are done as well. Now just paint and floors! So ready to show you guys how it turned out! {Also to have a legit gym in the house!}

Endangered Species Dark Chocolate: Is it possible to become an addict? My father has been buying this for my mother, and I am addicted. I have a little nibble ever day and its wonderful!

And as for a funny story, the other day I dropped the Camaro off at the dealer for an oil change. The dealership is right next to my sisters neighborhood, but also a huge interstate. I gave the lady the keys and asked how long, and she asked if I was going to wait for it. I told her no I'm going to run home. She assumed I had a ride and I was like no literally I'm going to run home, like exercising. She looked at me like I'd grown two heads. I then explained where my sistered lived but I still think she was like this girl is crazy. It was funny. Trust me. 

So I've also been slacking on my blog reading, shocker I know. Any good posts I should read? Recipes or workouts, add the links to your comments!

Eat, clean, train hard, and inspire others!

-Jaren

Marvelous in My Monday #8

Marvelous in My Monday is a link up party started by the wonderful Katie over at Healthy Diva Eats. You just post about marvelous things that have happened to you over the week. 

1. Austin - Last weekend I got the opportunity to go visit my sister in Austin with the fiance in tow! Friday night we made homemade sushi, Saturday we spend the morning in the park and the afternoon at the springs swimming, and Sunday we headed home after breakfast! We had so much fun, and it was great to just hang out and enjoy the end of the Olympics. This weekend she came home and now I get to spend a whole week with my sissy!

2. Madness - I am a H U G E Muse fan; 90% of my workout music comes from Muse. Today they released their new single "Madness" and it was instant joy to my ears!

3. Clean Room - Yesterday I was having a not so great day and I came home to find my fiance had cleaned my room and made my bed. INSTANT HAPPINESS. There is nothing from going from a Level 10 Disaster Area room to a clean room. I think I even sleep better with a clean room. It is the small things in life.

4. CHECKS - Nothing like checking things off the wedding to do list! NOTHING. In the last few days we got both our cakes ordered, ordered our cake topper off of Etsy, got the rental paid for, and all the table linens picked out! Load off for sure! And I love it that my fiance is so involved and he has even picked out lots of stuff for our wedding! All that is left is little things and presents! 

Well my friends I am off to go cook some kabobs for dinner and enjoy my new marvelous DVD, The Hunger Games.

Eat clean, train hard, & inspire others!

-Jaren

Marvelous in My Monday #7

Marvelous in My Monday is a link up party started by the wonderful Katie over at Healthy Diva Eats. You just post about marvelous things that have happened to you over the week. 

This past week I spent most of my time sick, but things definitely started looking up on Thursday so I do have a few marvelous things to talk about!

1. Tuxes - Yesterday we went to Men's Warehouse and got the fiance, his grooms men, and my man of honor their tuxes for the wedding! I'm so excited! They are charcoal Vera Wang tuxes and the boys will be wearing paisley {the fiance put his foot down and demanded that detail} vests. After the boys left for some "bonding" time my mom and I bought the fiance some wedding gifts and we went shoe shopping at DSW. {SHOES!}

2. Family - Like I mentioned in my last post, my entire family has been under one roof this past weekend and while the house has been crowded it has been so nice! Lots of joking around, time spent with the babies... Feels like vacation or a slumber party! 

3. Mustache - In all my years my father has ALWAYS had a mustache. We constantly dare him to shave it, and he doesn't. So Saturday we dared him again, teasing him that he was all talk and no walk. Sunday morning Dad came into my room to wake Logann and I up since we were bunking together. He kept laughing and acting like he was hiding something, so Logann was like "What are you hiding?!" He said he wasn't hiding anything, and that he thought we would notice that his mustache is gone! I was out of bed so fast! Logann threw the blanket over her head and refused to look! It was pretty funny! But after 25 year I've finally seen all of my father's face! And he is so handsome without it, but it is a serious transition! I still can't believe it when I look at him. I think Candace is going to need therapy though. 

4. Old new clothes - Remember those clothes you packed up or wrote off because you couldn't fit into them anymore? Well I got out some dresses that I never really got to wear yesterday and I was able to wear them! I felt like I had a whole new wardrobe. Its little things like that that makes all the hard work worth it!

Today is going to have some rough moments though. I'm about to report the Camaro flooded to insurance; they may fix it or depending on the wiring total it {unlikely} but it will definitely hurt my resale value in the future. You know those guys you see at car shows that are madly in love with their cars? That is me, except I have boobs. My dream scenario is that it will be labeled water damage and I'll get a new interior. So we will see. 

But tonight I get to have dinner with one of my favorite friends and the fiance so that is the bright side! And since I'm off today I'll also get to fit in a kick butt workout! 

You have good days and bad days; and I always try to find the good in the bad! So chin up!

Eat clean, train hard, and inspire others!

-Kiwi && Me

Back from the Dead

Good evening my dears! I'm terribly sorry for abandoning you for nearly a week, but such is life. After my MIMM post on Monday, I started working on my post for Tuesday which I had planned on finishing Tuesday night.


Tuesday we had a family interview for the fiance's State Trooper process, which I think went pretty well. I learned a lot, and I feel a little better about him potentially taking on that role. But not soon after they left, I got sick sick sick. I immediately went to bed. Wednesday I got up, suffered through work, came promptly home and went back to bed. This was Thursdays process as well, except by Thursday evening I started feeling pretty human again.

I think it was partly due to stress, so Friday I took a pamper day and just focused on me. I got up early, went to the gym for some cardio, got a massage and a hair cut! I was feeling pretty much like a million bucks. Then Logann decided to come home last minute, and Candace's air conditioning broke so all of our whole family is sleeping under one roof. This hasn't happened since 2006. But it is SO MUCH FUN.

Today has been nothing but relaxing; Logann and Candace sewing, shopping, napping... Well I did get in a workout, Total Body Sculpt with Gilad! Tonight we are cooking up Skinny Taste Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle mayo and avocados, sweet potato fries, and home made cole slaw. Dinner on the patio with a few beers and wine, couldn't get any better.

On the subject of my Camaro - this has not been her week. Monday she almost flooded but water did get in the floor boards so she will be headed to get a good steam cleaning. If this doesn't help then I'll be calling insurance to get a new interior. Even though I just forked out to get the windshield replaced. And to top it all off, the poor girl just rolled 50,000 miles... She is getting so old. Kidding, but seriously...


So Survive on $35; apparently during my down time there was a lot of twitter and blog negative back lash to Lindsay's idea. Personally, I think it is GREAT. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people when I talk about my healthy lifestyle is that its too expensive. The fiance sometimes offers to stock his mother's pantry for a week and we follow the same guidelines. We make a list with a small budget, go to the store with a calculator and try to leave with nothing unhealthy except for maybe ice cream. It is a good challenge to teach people that it can be done, I don't believe it was ever her intention to make light of those in low income families. I think it is good to teach people to budget, to be aware of portion sizes and costs, and to be creative! Haters are going to hate; but I think Survive on $35 is great!


So this week, you'll be hearing a lot about Lara Bar; I'll be posting the review and a giveaway that was supposed to be on the blog this week before I got sick. So check back Tuesday!


Question:
What is your favorite wine?
What fun things are going on in your life this weekend?

Eat clean, train hard, & inspire others!
Kiwi && Me

Marvelous in My Monday #6

Marvelous in My Monday is a link up party started by the wonderful Katie over at Healthy Diva Eats. You just post about marvelous things that have happened to you over the week. 

Rain: In the last week we have received over twelve inches of rain out here in SE Texas. There is some local flooding but everyone seems pretty to be in good spirits. This time last year we were in a terrible drought and fighting forest fires right and left, so the rain is welcome even if its excessive. I guess the only down side I can see is that the camaro is terribly dirty and so are the pups, but it has made from some great naps. 

Plus the rain has made from some awesome running weather! Got a quick run in last night before dinner and yoga!

Pink Berry: My new favorite frozen yogurt place. Their chocolate flavored froyo is so rich and delicious! Plus I love that they have a mini size so I can get my ice cream fix without having to worry about my waistline. I even have the fiance in love with them too, though I think he would rather drive 30 minutes to the other side of town for Orange Leaf's Birthday Cake froyo if I would let him.

Construction: It has begun! My family is currently in the process of turning the garage into a workout room, building out the upstairs, and building another garage with storage space. The workers came out and laid the frame for the new slab, no we are just waiting on the concrete to get the show on the road! I can't wait to share with you all the finished product of the gym! It is going to be so AWESOME!

Wedding Dress: COMPLETE! The bustle is done, and its been steamed so that bad boy is ready to rock in three months! It feels good to check that off my list of to do's! Also my sister's bridesmaid dresses came in and they are {GORGEOUS}!

Larabar: Look what I received in the mail!! Come back tomorrow for a review! I can't wait to share what I thought of these wonderful bars!

89 Days: Till I'm a married lady! {Get used to the count downs - you only have 89 more days of it} It is time for me to really focus on my portion sizes and getting in solid work outs a few times a week. I'm not going to go crazy and freak out, I am happy with my weight. I would like to mostly maintain and tone up a little! Plus if I loose anymore weight my dress won't fit, and I loooooooove my dress.

the gorgeous flowers my fiance brought me to mark three months till our day

Questions:

What marvelous things have happened to you recently?

What is your favorite froyo flavor?

Eat clean, train hard, & inspire others!

-Kiwi && Me