Go Go Go Gurrl

Good Morning my loves! I was def. a girl on the go yesterday and I could not be happier about that. Don't you just love it when you get those things that you have been putting off FOREVER done?! I know I do.

So my day started off with some breakfast and the writing/research for my last post.

Cherry Yogurt with Sliced Banana

Whole Wheat Toast with Apricot Preserves...notice the outline for my post in the background...yes I make outlines, yes I am a teacher!

After breakfast I did some MAJOR remodeling in my house. My roommate and I are turning one of the rooms downstairs into an office for me. Because currently my laptop-ing is done on the dining room table. I wish I had a before picture of this room because it was HELL! But after literally HOURS of work, look at it now:

Here are some key points to notice about this room:

• I displayed my first book that I recieved from student teaching for my classroom library on the shelves. It is Curious George and the Fire Truck, because I did a unit on fire trucks for the whole six weeks of student teaching!
• The drawers on the shelve are animal print...so is just about anything else in our house.
• My diploma is meticulously placed on the the table. I need to frame it.
• For now I am doin it Japanese style and sitting on the floor at the table, but today my mom is supposed to be bringing me a desk.

So there you have it. The fruits of my labor!

After I finished that up it was time for some FOOD!

Turkey Wrap on Italian Herb Flat-Out

After lunch I got ready and went to work to check out a new shipment of dresses that we got in!

Which reminds me...a lot of you asked about my shirt from a few posts ago (the one with the back cut-out) and I got it from the clothing store that I work at...MAXRAVE. Currently I don't think that you can order online, but you can go to maxravestores.com and find out where the closest store to you is.

When I got done with lunch I sat down to download some new music for my runs. I had been listening to the same songs over and over for way to long. I don't know about you, but music is everything when it comes to my workouts. If I am bored with the music, I usually get bored with the workout and quit sooner. If I have something fun and upbeat to listen to and hold my attention, I can go WAY harder and longer. (thats what she said!...right Brooke?).

So here are some of the new songs that I downloaded.

1. Madcon - Beggin'
2. The Dream - Walkin' on the Moon
3. Mario - All the Above
4. Keri Hilson - Knock You Down
5. Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight (Remix)
6. Ciara - Never Ever
7. Metric - Gold Guns
8. Lil Wayne - At War
9. Lupe Fiasco - Real
10. The Decemberists - Oh Valencia

There are lots more, but that is what I have currently been playing. Quite the mix. I never just listen to one genre of music. There is so much good music out there...why limit yourself?!

Last nights dinner was spaghetti at the parents house. My mom makes the BEST spaghetti, but like they say on Sesame Street "Its a SOMETIMES food". But I think that may be just about every meal eaten at the parents. haha.

This morning I am enjoying a bowl of "Banana Pancake Oats" and a laptop full of blogs.

For those of you who were wondering "Banana Pancake Oats" is just a simple recipe, but it reminds me of banana pancakes.

• 1/2 cup Oats
• 1/2 cup Vanilla Soy Milk
• 1/2 Banana
• 1 tbsp. Maple Syrup
• LOADS of Cinnamon

I plan on a run later...gotta rock the new jams! My 5k is coming up and I really wanna run it in less than 28 min. My friend Ben has challenged me, but he claims he can run it in 22 minutes. I can't hang with that...but I think he may be lying ;)

Hope everyone is having a MARVELOUS day!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

All is Full of Love

Happy Valentines Day everyone. I hope everyone is having a great one so far. Anyone have any romantic plans for tonight?! My boy currently lives 3000 miles away, so I of course, do not. But I think that my friend and I are going to go see the Uninvited tonight after work to "celebrate".

I was feeling kinda festive this morning however, and started thinking of some of my all time favorite love songs. So I thought that it would be fun to share them with you. I narrowed it down to my top ten, so if your interested you should def. go download them and listen to them on repeat for the rest of the day ;)

My Valentines Day Mix:

1. All is Full of Love - Deathcab for Cutie
2. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
3. Is This Love? - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
4. When I'm 64 - The Beatles
5. Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
6. The Luckiest - Ben Folds
7. Yellow - Coldplay
8. Life Less Ordinary - Carbon Leaf
9. Such Great Heights - Postal Service
10. My Favorite Book - Stars

Now! On to lunch which was wonderful! I decided to try a little experiment with ingredients that I needed to use up today. So I made a peanut butter, apple, and jelly sandwich! I usually use bananas, but I only had one apple left so I thought hey...apples go good with peanut butter...why not?! I was afraid that the apples might be too crunchy for a sandwich, so i decided to grill the sandwich to soften them up! Heres what it looked like before sandwich-izing it:

• 2 slices honey wheat bread
• 2 tbsp. mighty maple peanut butter
• a few thin slices of apple
• some cinnamon sprinkled on top :)
• blackberry preserves

Then I sprayed a pan with some non-stick spray, sandwiched that baby up, grilled it, and came out with this:

Gooey, crunchy, sweeeet goodness! :)

I also had some Fage 0% greek yogurt with blueberries mixed in on the side.

Now THAT, my friends, is some good eats! :)

So my Beautiful Blogging Bud Nicole bag tagged me, so now I must share with you yet another of my "bags". Here is the bag that I am currently carrying:

Ok, here is the story with the bag. I kinda have a thing for snakeskin, so when I saw this bag I HAD to have it. I bought it at ALDO when I was on vacation in Charleston, SC. I dont think that it cost too much, maybe around $40. But I love this thing, and I carry it pretty much all the time! Here is what I have inside:

• Extra gum, supermint (its the best)
• brush
• my HUGE-O vintage sunglasses
• my bajillion keys
• HUGE make-up bag
• wallet

So there you have it. Nothing too scandalous or exciting. Well, Im off to get ready for work. Yes, my valentines day involves working in the mall. fun fun.

Everyone be sure to check out Erica's blog for a great giveaway, and just because her blog is AWESOME!

Hope everyone has a GREAT Valentines Day filled with love whether it be from friends, family, significant others, etc. Lots of Love <3 Ems

Frrrrreezing!

Oh my goodness, let me just tell you it is soooo cold here! its supposed to get down to zero tonight! My mom and I braved the cold in the name of shopping today, but every time I stepped outside it almost HURT it was so cold. How much longer until summer?! Dont you just wish you could hibernate all through winter?! haha

This morning I wanted a nice warm breakfast...and I still have TONS of yummy fruit, so I knew I would have all the needed ingredients for a great bowl of oats! This bowl contains :

• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1 banana
• handful of raspberries
• handful of blueberries
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• tiny bit of left over Bare Naked Granola

ohhhh YUM! it was mighty tasty!

Despite the cold my mommy and I had a pretty good shopping trip. We went to Old Navy and I got the cutest pair of yoga pants for $3!!! I of course had to give them a trail run at the gym today, so I did not get a picture. But I did get a picture of the other shirt I got for only $4! Such bargains, im tellin ya!

Cute AND my favorite color. :)

We then headed to the mall where I purchased two more shirts (and my paycheck from work to help pay for said shopping trip). Here they are:

I fell in love with the one on the right. Im seeing this Indian type theme in a lot of stores lately (the beads and feathers, etc.) and Im loving this trend! what do you think about it?

After I got home from shopping I fixed up lunch, I didnt get a picture of that, because it was the same as always...a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with some wheat thins as well.

After lunch I did some things around the house and headed over to the gym. I absolutely despise going to the gym later on in the day because it gets soooo crowded! its so ridiculous because people are just there to socialize and you have to stand around and wait forever to use any of the machines, and you can totally forget about running on the track because it is just way too full! Besides that minor annoyance though, I did get a good 45 minute workout on the eliptical, so I felt good about it. Tomorrow im gonna go early in the morning to avoid the crowd, for sure.

When I got home from the gym I was in the mood to cook something up! I was inspired by Erica to make a stir-fry type dish and my roommate had bought a MASSIVE bag of frozen stir-fry veggies, so it was fate! So I put some mixed veggies in a pan and stir-fried them together, as I was cooking those up I just so happened to notice a can of pineapple and decided to throw that in there too. I wasnt sure how it was going to taste, because I have never had pineapple in a stir fry before even though I have seen it being used before...but it was DELICIOUS!! It really gave it alot of flavor.

All together in the pan stir-frying it up!

I didnt have any soy sauce so I substituted this salad dressing for it, because it tastes just like soy sauce!

And I also mixed in a little bit of this:

While all the veggies and the pineapple were cooking up I boiled up 1/2 cup of brown rice and when it was ready I added it to the pan as well:

I let this cook a little more all together and then VOILA! into my bowl it goes!

It turned out pretty good! I was pretty proud of myself!

I was also thinking about updating my playlist on my IPOD for when I work out and thought that some of you might have some good suggestions for some songs that really pump you up! Currently I LOVE these songs for when I am working out:

• Wake it Up - Akon
• Go Hard - Kanye West and T-Pain
• Whine Up - Kat DeLuna (LOVE this song, it always make me work even harder!)
• Dont Cha - Pussycat Dolls
• Go Go Gadget Flow - Lupe Fiasco (AWESOME workout song, download NOW!)
• Please Dont Stop the Music - Rihana
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Miley Cyrus (dont say a word!)
• Just Dance - Lady Gaga
• Cookie Jar - Gym Class Heros

Thats just some of the songs that are currently on my playlist. I like sort of hip-hop or dance songs when I am working out, because they always get me going!

Allright time to have the nightly chat with ol' Mike. Long distance sucks! Hope everyone is having a wonderful night and guess what?!....

TOMORROW IS FRIDAY GIRLS!!