Sushi Lover's Heaven

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

I woke up yesterday to go take the GRE (graduate exam). It lasted for 4 HOURS and they were freakin' hardcore! They made me take off my hoodie, spit out my gum, and they even said they had a take a "digital picture" to prove that it was me taking the test. Geez. I think I did pretty good though...and now I can start thinking about applying to some Grad schools.

Lunch yesterday was delicious:

• Italian Herb Flat-Out Wrap
• Garlic and Artichoke Hummus
• Turkey Slices
• Loads of Spinach
• Salsa
• White Wine Mustard
• Quacker Cheddar Mini-Rice Cakes

I just love the mini rice cakes as substitutes for chips. They are so much better...and only 60 calories for 11!! So that means I can eat like 300, right?!

Last night I also worked my last training shift at stir-fry. For the last night of training they always want you back in the kitchen helping to prep the food. This was sooo much fun! Can you imagine?! I got to see all the yummy food and how it was made...and even got to sample some of it :). The manager was quizzing me on what some of the food was, and I may not have known all the food, but I knocked her socks off on the sushi. There was a big tray of like 10 rolls, and I named off all of them like that. Sushi is my favorite food, of course I know about it :) It was a sushi lovers heaven <333

I didn't get off work in time to go see the movie that Lucas and I had planned to see, but he did come over and we are planning to see the movie tonight instead :). We are going to see I Love You, Man. Which I have heard mixed reviews on, so we will see. I just hope its not one of those awkward funny movies that you feel uncomfortable seeing with a guy. you know what I mean? Has anyone seen it yet?

In other random news the past three mornings, for no apparent reason I have woken up singing the theme song for "salute your shorts." Anyone remember that show?

Gotta love 90s Nickelodeon. Am I right?!

Currently, I am enjoying a nice big cup of coffee and contemplating what to have for breakfast. It may just be some toast with cottage cheese...I'm pushing that 130 years. haha.

Oh yes, and you just KNOW I have pool night pics to share.

Grant snapped this picture because he said that all I did all night was text. I think some of it was checking blogs, though. hehe

We lost...we were sad.

Alright girlies, time for brekkie! I hope everyone has a great start to the weekend...I have work at the ol' Rave and then a cute baseball player is picking me up for date #2 ;)

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Serving My Favorite Food

Oh my gosh! Last night was totally crazy. Starting out at a popular weekend hangout on a Friday night was def. overwhelming, but I actually liked it. I get bored so easily, so I need a job where I keep moving and always have something to do. It makes the time go by really fast, and I was done with my first night before I even knew it. I'm gonna break down the night just so I dont have a huge block of writing for you all to read through!

• We can wear whatever we want as long as it is a black top, other than that anything goes. Even with the top as long as its black it can be a t-shirt, tank top, whatever. That is AWESOME! You can even chew gum, wear your hair down, and wear whatever kinda jewelry you want.
• I get 1/2 off sushi, 1/2 off meals, 25% off alcohol, and free admission to any of their events. They have some really HUGE events like rail jams, "white" parties, magazine launches, and they have a band every Friday and Saturday.
• I got to sample all of the great food that I have never tried before!

The only bad thing is that the menu is so CONFUSING! They don't just serve sushi (which is hard enough to remember all those different rolls) but they have a full grill too AND a full bar! My trainer gave me a to-go menu and wrote little notes all over it for me to learn, just look!

Im def. going to be studying that all weekend. And probably goggling pictures of the food so I know what they look like :)

Ok anywho, before work I had to do a TON of running around, because my friend Jenni is having a baby shower today and I wanted to get her something great. I ended up going to four different places before I found a gift! After all that I came home for some lunch!

Turkey sammie, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Close-Up/Break-Down:

• Wheat Bread
• Garlic and Artichoke Hummus
• Turkey
• Spicy Mustard
• Spinach
• Cucumber

When I got home from work last night I was starving, so I fixed up something quick and easy:

• Kashi Pilaf
• Bit o Hummus
• Sauteed Spinach
• Salad (not pictured)

Now on to the fun part...the fearless and fabulous Miss Jaime tagged me! Here are the rules:

The rules are as follows: List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sidebar letting the whole world know…you are Kreativ! Soooo here goes:

1. My Family:

I truely am so blessed to have the BEST sisters in the world! We are all so close and whenever we get together you can bet we are laughing and having the best time. My sister Allie (middle) is 19 and we have a great friendship. We hang out together and she was one of my biggest support systems when I was going through my hardest times. She went to group therapy with me, talked to me, and was there when I needed her, more than anyone else.

And of course my parents, who are THE BEST. I am also so lucky to have two loving parents that do everything that they can to provide and take care of us all. My mom is my best friend and my dad is my hero :)

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

2. My Second Family (AKA Rave Co-Workers)

This was when my manager Stephanie got married and that is all the girls. I know that I have talked about them before, but I can not say enough about how much I love them. I feel like I really found my place when I got a job there almost two years ago. I really clicked with every single one of the girls there and now they are my best friends. They also were HUGE supports when I was at my worst time with my ED. They helped me through it and they still are the first people I talk to when I have a problem or need good advice. I make sure that I tell them all how much I love them every time I see them.

And when we all get together and go out on the town?! You can BET we have fun and are the life of the party! We know how to do it right!

3. My Best Friends

First of all let me just say, I'm picky about my friends. I have had alot of friends come and go because they just are not good people for me. The friends that I surround myself with now are only the BEST. They are all the greatest people you will ever meet. They are kind, fun, and would be there for me in a flash if I needed them...and they know that I would do the same.

Thats one of my best friends, Jenie and her boy Chris. They are having a baby in less than a month! I am going to her baby shower today! She is from Korea and one of the sweetest, most interesting people that I have ever met.

Did I mention that we also have a freakin' blast together?!

4. Running

Running has also been something that I have been so lucky to discover. It really is therapeutic! It helps me think through my day, blow off steam, and energize me for all those fun times with the friends. Oh yeah, and its also freakin awesome bragging rights that I recently ran a 10k. Next up?! Half marathon!!

5. The Beach

I have been to both coasts! Above: Venice Beach, CA. (West Coast). Below: Panama City, FL (East Coast) During MTV's Spring Break last year!

No where else on earth could make me feel more relaxed and wonderful then the beach. Charleston, specifically has been like a second home to me and I hope to one day live there. Its my life goal. :)

6. Teaching

I have always had a special connection with children (maybe its because I am just a huge kid myself) And I love the rewards of teaching children something that they did not know before. Seeing their faces light up because of something that you taught them is one of the most wonderful experiences that I have ever had.

haha. Cracks me up everytime!

7. Shopping

Clothes shopping, grocery shopping, housewares shopping, shopping, shopping, shopping, I LOVE SHOPPING. Ever heard of shopping therapy?! Um yeah...its what I do.

AND OF COURSE I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ON OF YOU! I FEEL SO BLESSED TO BE A PART OF SUCH A LOVING AND SUPPORTING COMMUNITY. I HAVE MET SOME GREAT FRIENDS THROUGH BLOGGING AND HOPE THE FRIENDSHIPS CONTINUE TO GROW. :)

Wow! This took me a good hour to complete, hope you enjoyed it! Now I gotta get ready for the baby shower!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

V-Day Recovery

hey hey pretty ladies! Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday and recovering well from the valentines weekend. Last night I spent V-day with my friend Tina. She was my date to the movies. We saw The Uninvited, which was surprisingly really good. I didn't think it would be scary at all, but it was and it had a really good twist at the end ;) After the movie we hung out at my house and drank some wine and talked about guys. haha. Pretty good valentines, I guess. Here is a pic of Tina and I driving to the movies.

This morning I was definitely feeling the wine that we drank last night and unfortunately I had to get up and work open to close today!! I packed up my lunch to go. It was a repeat of yesterday's "apple, peanut butter, and jelly sandwich." Because it was just THAT good. I mean look at this:

Honey Wheat Bread, Mighty Maple Peanut Butter, Blackberry Preserves, and half an apple thinly sliced. And allll toasted up!

Archer Farms Blueberry Pomegranate yogurt topped with blueberries.

All packed up and ready to go to work :)

After work I came home and made up some din-din.

Brown rice with Chinese veggies stir fried with soy sauce and served up with a side of steamed broccoli.

Salad with cucumbers, onions, tomato, celery, and green peppers with a light vinaigrette dressing.

Now I'm going to take a nice bubble bath and get ready for some sleep. I need it!

Goodnight dears! <3 Ems.

P.S. Am I the only one that was not aware that it was a holiday tomorrow?! What the heck is presidents day anyways?! haha. Does everyone have the day off?

Friday Night and I Feel Alright

Happy Friday girlies! I know everyone has been looking forward to the weekend and its finally here! Tonight is kind of a chill night for me, I think my friend Tina and I are going out tomorrow night.

Today was a pretty relaxing day as well. I got in a little gym time. I only did 35 minutes on the eliptical today because I just wasnt really feeling it for some reason...I was nervous because I have been waiting to hear back from my interview...but a little exercise is better than none at all, right?! After the gym I went into the grocery store to pick up a "few" things, and ended up with a little more than I had anticipated! They had so many veggies on sale!

How could I possibly pass up these tri-colored baby cauliflowers...how cute are they?!

These broccoli sprouts were on sale too, the PERFECT thing for my sammies, for sure :).

And of course I had to get stocked up on my fruit: apple (cameo and crispini, bananas, oranges, and grapefruit).

Back when I was student teaching and eating lunch in the teacher's lounge, I always saw this one teacher bringing these salads for lunch and thought they looked kinda good and convenient.

Tuscan Pesto Chicken Fresh Express Salad

I decided to pick on up (since it was on sale too) for something quick for lunch...since I was STARVING. Upon further investigation of the salad when I got home, i realized that it kinda sucked. All it had was romaine lettuce, that was IT for the veggies, and then some grilled chicken, some gross looking cheese, croutons, and dressing. I definitely had to "health" it up a litte. I quickly tossed the croutons and the cheese and just used the lettuce, chicken, and dressing...then I added in some spinach leaves, tomatoes, and cucumber...it ended up looking something like this:

The dressing and the chicken were actually pretty good...and once I added the extra veggies the salad was pretty decent.

I worked a little after that and then came home and the roomie and I cooked up some stir-fry using this HUMONGOUS bag of stir-fry veggies she bought. That girl and buying in bulk, im telling ya. ;)

We cooked up some noodles to go with it and mixed it with soy sauce and the stir-fry mix. Here is my plate:

and a small glass of wine...hey its Friday isnt it?!

And dessert...

Fudgy peanut butter chocolate vitatop, with cool whip on top. YUMMM!!!

Oh yeah, something VERY exciting happened today. I walked out of my door to go to work and there was THIS laying on my door step.

What is you ask?!.....A package from Mike!! In case you didnt know Mike is my boyfriend, and he currently lives on the complete opposite side of U.S.! It was a very good surprise for the day :)

Inside was a book that I told him I had been wanting to add to my collection of books for my future classroom. It is one that all of my professors recommended. He knew that I had wanted it because I showed it to him one day, but decided to wait until later to buy it. AND he got it for me!

Well, that is about all of the excitement for the night, I think. Ill probably call it a night soon.

But first I have a question for you gals...those of you who eat Tofu regularly, I really wanna start making it too...like in sandwiches and such. How do you cook it and season it?! Please give me ideas!!!

Thanks and tons of love to everyone!! Goodnight! <3

EDIT!!!!

ok i had to do it, if you think his gift was cute...just look at this picture!

I miss him!

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!!