Friday Favorites 7/11

Oh gosh, y'all.  So sorry for my absence all week!  Getting in to the summer school routine has been a lot harder than I anticipated!  Between preparing for summer school, chores at home, and relaxing time, the blog has taken the back burner.  BUT I have Fridays off (score!!), so I should be able to get some blog work done this weekend so this doesn't happen again next week!

Let me update y'all on life by talking about some of my favorite things from this week!

Favorite To-Go Breakfast

Dunkin' Donuts is RIGHT by my house and on my way to work, so I've stopped by twice this week for some breakfast.  I LOVE the egg white veggie flat!  I feel like it's a great alternative to going to McDonald's and getting a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit, and it's tasty, too!

Favorite Way to Motivate Myself

I mentioned on Monday that I wrote my workouts in my planner this week, and after doing so, I have followed through on EVERYTHING I wrote down!  I'm definitely going to keep doing this in the future and hope that it helps me stay on track with my workouts.

Favorite New Running Gear

I got my first Sparkle Skirt this week!!  I purchased three total for costumes for upcoming races, and I can't wait to wear them all!  I went on a run this week in Empowerment (the multi-colored zebra looking one) and it is SO, SO comfortable.

The shorts underneath also have huge pockets AND they don't ride up at all when running.  Tequila was jealous she didn't have one to wear (well, probably not, but we can pretend :))!

Favorite Picture of Tequila from This Week

Isn't she just adorable?  I love her more and more each day, despite the fact that she has now chewed through two of my bras and my favorite pair of white shorts...  At least she's pretty!

Favorite Way to Move
Joe and I wound up going to Latin Night at a local bar last night.  One of our friends, Josh, is Latino and he convinced to go dancing.  While Joe is not much of a Latin dancer, he did get out on the dance floor with me and tried some moves!  Josh also taught him the basic salsa and taught me the bachata dance steps.  It was a lot of fun!

Favorite Activity Planned for this Weekend

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Scallop season is upon us, and Joe and I are (hopefully) going scalloping this weekend!!  The last time we went was two years ago, and I'm so excited!  Basically, scalloping is a snorkeling Easter egg hunt.  You swim around looking for scallops (pictured above), dive down to grab them when you see them, keep them in a mesh bag while you find others, then get back in the boat and move to a new area.  It's a blast!

Well, that about does it for me!  We should have a good weekend of scalloping (crossing my fingers it works out!), potentially visiting some friends in St. Augustine, and a 10K race!  I hope y'all have a great weekend!  Back at ya on Monday :)

Question for you: What are some of your favorite things from this week?  Have you ever been Latin dancing or scalloping?

4th of July Weekend Recap + Planning for Success

Hey, everyone!  Sorry I went MIA after Wednesday.  Joe and I went up to Maine for the 4th of July weekend, and we were without cell service or internet.  It was really nice to unplug for the weekend, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and celebrate America!

We stayed with Joe's friend from chiropractic school Adam and his family.  They live right on lake, and we had such a beautiful view!

We spent Thursday on the water enjoying the sunshine and taking everything in.  Good thing we did, because the 4th of July was a rainy, cold day!  I guess that's what happens up in the Northeast.  We still went out on the boat, and it was quite an adventure coming back in the pouring down rain!  The company was great, though, and we had plenty of beverages to help keep us warm :)

Fireworks didn't happen on the 4th, but they were AWESOME on the 5th!  We went out on the boat around sunset, which was beautiful in and of itself.

Then, people all over the lake were shooting fireworks off of their docks.  There were so many different places to look for fireworks, and it was just gorgeous over the water.

When we weren't on the boat, we were playing yard games (I was surprisingly good at Kan Jam) during the day or playing pool at night.  Plus, who could forget all of the yummy food!?!  I didn't take any pictures, but everything was so yummy.

Overall, we had a great time in Maine!  I'm so thankful to Adam and his family for their hospitality.   What better way to spend the 4th of July than exploring a state Joe and I had never been to!

ZOOMA Training
This week was another failed week of training.  I did get in a 3-mile run on Tuesday, but other than that, no exercise happened.

So, let's talk about how I'm planning to make this week a VERY successful training week.

• Scheduling workouts in my planner-I LOVE to check things off my to-do list, so putting them in my planner will be good motivation for me.
  
• Bringing gym clothes with me to summer school-I'm teaching summer school, and on days when I plan to do a treadmill run/workout on my own, I'll stop by the gym on the way home.  So much easier, since the gym is on my way home!
• Signing up for a race--So that I'll actually get in my long run, I signed up for the Suck it Up Buttercup 10K on Sunday morning!  The race is nearby, I'm excited to try another 10K, AND I'll FOR SURE run 6 miles (hopefully I'll continue on for another mile or two after it's over, too) for a long run.  Plus, that race shirt is going to be adorably awesome!!

  

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I think all of these things will lead to a successful week of training this week, and I look forward to writing next week's training recap!  ZOOMA Chicago is less than a month away (AHHHH), so I really need to get on it if I'm going to be able to finish the race!

Question for you: What did you do for the 4th of July?  How do you plan for a successful week of training?

WIAW #36: ON a Wednesday

Hey there, y'all!  How's it going?  This post is a little late today due to the fact that Joe and I watched the USA soccer game yesterday at the Daytona Cubs' baseball stadium.  We stayed for the game afterward, got home late, and all I wanted to do was get to bed when we got home!

BUT it gave me the opportunity to participate in one of my favorite traditions in the blogging world!

I took pictures of today's meals, so you actually get to see what I ate ON a Wednesday!  Kinda sounds like what What I Ate Wednesday should be, right?!  Well, without further ado, here's my meals from this Wednesday

Breakfast

Today's breakfast was a bowl of Special K Red Berries cereal.  This cereal is just ok to me.  I have no idea why I picked it up since I don't really like berries in my cereal!  In my head, cereal should be sort of crunchy, so the texture of the berries in the cereal weirds me out a little.  Oh well, at least I got in some fruit at the start of the day!

Morning Snack

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I was at a training for summer school in the morning, so my snack consisted of some chocolate that was on the tables.  I just counted resist the Krackel and the Special Dark!

Lunch

After the training, I went to Panera with my summer school partner to plan out the curriculum.  I got the Strawberry Poppyseed and Chicken Salad, and it was just as good as always!  This is my FAVORITE salad from there, so I get it just about every time I go in the summer when it's available.  You need to try it if you haven't already!  I had some left over, and I snapped this picture of that.  Most of the blueberries and oranges are gone, but it's still going to be a tasty meal later on.

Afternoon Snack

On my way home from planning, I stopped by Dunkin' for my favorite iced coffee and the coffee cake muffin.  Not the most healthy of afternoon snacks, but it was satisfying and made me happy!

Dinner

Tonight was a leftovers night our household.  We needed to clean out the fridge in preparation for our trip, so Joe and I had various leftovers.  In addition to some of my leftover Panera salad, I ate the salmon that was left over from our anniversary dinner on Monday night.

We ate at Vince Carter's Steakhouse and had a great time!  Yes, the restaurant is owned by the former NBA player Vince Carter.  He's from Daytona Beach, so that's why he opened his restaurant there.  They apparently have the best burgers in town, so if you're in the area, check it out!  The entrees are a bit pricy, but Joe and I both enjoyed our meals on Monday night.  They have great happy hour specials on wine, too :)

There may be an evening snack to come, but you'll just have to use your imagination for what that is :)

Workout

After dinner, I went for a 3+ mile run.  My Garmin didn't pick up satellite for a few minutes, but I wanted to go until I knew I'd run 3 miles for sure.  It was really rewarding to feel my FitBit vibrate when I got to my 10,000 steps for the day.  First time in a few days--go me!

Question for you: What was your favorite thing you ate today?

Mid-Year Goals Check-in

At the start of 2014, I set 6 goals for myself for the year.  Well, 2014 is already halfway over (what?!? how did that happen!!), so let's check in and see what progress I'm making on meeting these goals.  I did a quarter-year check in at the beginning of April, so hopefully you'll see some progress on all of the goals since then!

1. Deepen My Faith
This is something that I need to work on constantly.  I am putting forth effort in reading and studying the Word more, so in that way, I do feel like I'm growing deeper in my faith.

A summer Bible study is a step in the right direction!

I also feel like I've done some things so far this year that God has called me to do, and that helps me feel closer to Him, as well.  Of course, I'm nowhere near where I want to be in my relationship with God, but I am making progress toward deepening my faith!

2. Run 14 races in 2014

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So far, I've run 5 races (check out my Races page for a full list and some recaps!).  Here are the races I have registered for for the rest of the year:

-ZOOMA Chicago Half Marathon, Aug. 2nd

-Rock 'n Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon, Aug 31st

-Lighthouse Loop Half Marathon, October 26th

-runDisney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon, November 8th

-Women's Running St. Pete Half Marathon, November 23rd

-Space Coast Half Marathon, November 30th

-Mount Dora Half Marathon, December 21st

Oh boy, that is a LOT of half marathons!  I'm looking forward to the challenging race schedule, though.  That'll put me at a total of 12 races.  There are some local 10ks that I might be signing up for, so I believe that I will easily get in 14 races in 2014!

3. Reduce the Clutter
I go through phases with this.  I have done really, really well with de-cluttering things each day sometimes, and others I just let it pile up.  At least I am better about than I was before, but this is still a work in progress.

4. Make a t-shirt quilt
Yep, still no progress on this goal.  I haven't even picked out the t-shirts yet, even though I had PLENTY!  I did, however, make a connection with some ladies at church that can help me with the quilting part after I sew the t-shirts together.  So, maybe I have made some progress!

5. Attend a Conference (or two or three)
I already attended two conferences this year (FCTM Leadership and FLBlogCon's FORUM) ,and I have signed up to go to FLBlogCon in September.  There may also be an education conference that I'll go to in October.  I am really sad that I never planned to attend Fitbloggin' (it was just this past weekend--can't wait to read everyone's recaps!) since Savannah is so close, but at least I have another blogging conference coming up soon!  Maybe next year when it's in Denver (and I have friends that I can stay with ;)).

6. Do something adventurous
Other than riding on a motorcycle, I don't really think I've done anything else adventurous.  With our trip to Maine coming up, there may be some adventurous things happening there.  I STILL want to sky dive with Kristie--we originally planned on Joe and I going out to Seattle at the end of June, but it didn't really work out for either of us.  Time to plan a trip to Seattle ASAP!

Well, it looks like I'm making in progress in (almost) every goal!  I do like these quarter-year check-ins so that I can refocus on my goals and make sure I'm making progress throughout the year.  I'll check back in at the end of September before recapping the entire year come January.  It'll be here before we know it!

Question for you: What's a goal you set for yourself this year?  How are you progressing toward meeting it?