An Easter-less weekend

There was no dyeing of or hunting for eggs, no eating of dinners and no filling of baskets.  There wasn't a single sign of Easter in this household whatsoever, for several reasons:

• Xierra was over at her dad's for the long weekend
• my family went down to Las Vegas for vacation
• Papa Bear and Baby Bear were still sick

Kinda' sad, huh?  Yes.

I can't complain though, because I DID get some social activity over the weekend, which is very rare.

MOKSHA

Good Friday was the WORST day to go to yoga (At noon on a holiday?  What was I thinking?!).  Everyone and their mom showed up -- the class was at capacity and we were literally elbow to elbow in the studio.  

Saturday was a little better -- I've made a commitment to try and be at the front of the studio when I can.  I'm trying to push myself as much as possible so that I can hopefully start seeing the results.  Being at the front of the room, next to the instructor, gives me the advantage of seeing each posture up close.  Also, being in front of the mirror allows me to see myself without any obstruction, so I can catch a sagging shoulder or a un-square hip. 

Sunday was my day of rest...which I'll explain later in this post.

Monday was a super early class - 6am.  I felt really guilty about missing Sunday, so I wanted to get right at it as soon as I could, Monday morning.

Okay, so that was my yoga sched.  Let me now get back to this 'social activity' I spoke of earlier...

Saturday night was Karalynski's birthday celebration at Tavern United, downtown.  I contemplated going because I knew Bri was feeling under the weather, so I wasn't sure if he'd be up for staying home and watching Mr. X.  He totally encouraged me to go and hang out with friends, so I did.

In the midst of getting prettied up for the party, I managed to whip us up a nice hearty dinner:

 Dijon mustard and spice crusted pork chops

 Grilled corn on the cob and grilled sweet potatoes

Bon appetit!

Brandizzle was going to be in my area, dropping her grandma off at home, so she offered to swing by and pick me up.  You know where this is leading, right?  I didn't have to DRIVE... which meant I TOTALLY GOT MY DRINK ON!

haha

When we got to Tavern, Karalyn was sitting among close friends at a big loooong table.  We didn't really know anyone from that group, so we offered to sit at a booth adjacent to her table, to allow seating for her other friends that showed up at the same time as us.  No biggy.

My drink of choice:  the 'specialty Caesar'... and can I just say, it was definitely SPECIAL - and freakin' delicious.

Started the night in moderation - but before I knew it, I was full blown INTOXICATED.  We were having a blast :)  Here are a couple photos from the night:

The rest of the photos can be found here

At the end of the night, we all went home -- and by 'end of the night' I mean that by the time I got home, it was like 2:30am.  And by the time I got into my (spinning) bed, it was probably 3am.  This is the latest I've been out in 2 years.

Needless to say, I was in pretty bad shape the next morning.  No yoga for me.  More like, no ANYTHING for me.  It was a day of rest...much needed rest.

So really, that was pretty much the extent of my excitement over the long weekend.  The rest of the days were filled with playoff sports.

My kids both hauled in an Easter basket or two, so I guess I lied when I said that there wasn't a single sign of Easter in my house.

No sugar for mama though :(  Aw well.

Hope everyone else had fun times during the Easter weekend!

Just some random chatter...

Just an FYI, I want everything HERE.  Please and thanks.

Remember the quinoa that I cooked the other night?  Well this is what I ended making with it:

Ingredients:
- quinoa
- diced cucumbers
- sliced red peppers
- dried apricots
- toasted almonds
- curry powder
- lemon juice
- salt & pepper


I pretty much threw everything together and crossed my fingers.  I just added the curry powder and salt and pepper to taste, and added a couple tablespoons of lemon juice to help loosen the salad a bit.


It was (and still is) delish!










Yoga drained me yesterday.  Loved the lesson on 'judgement'.  I definitely have to put that lesson into motion after this week.  I came home, had a shower and crawled into bed.  Fell asleep for an hour and a half - best hour and a half ever.


Lucky me - last night was pretty terrible, in that, both my husband and baby boy were sick-sick-sick.  It made for a pretty tense house, as my husband strangely becomes a completely different person when he's ill and doesn't really speak to anyone.  I'm gonna admit, it's a little disheartening when you try to do whatever you can to make someone feel comfortable, and they don't really show any emotion back :S
I, myself, am also catching the nasty cold that is consuming my household -- sore throat, headache and achey body -- but am choosing to suck it up, until my boys get better.


I was craving a super-meaty kinda' meal last night, so before picking Xander up from daycare, I grabbed some steaks from the store.  Had them marinate for about 30 minutes, and threw them onto the grill:

Made some wedged potatoes on the indoor grill: lightly coated with olive oil, seasoned with smoked paprika, rosemary, garlic powder and salt & pepper

Served up the steak with the potatoes and salad.
Mixed myself up an extra spicy Caesar and enjoyed this meal (quietly) with my hubby.

• Have a meeting at the bank at 11am
• Meeting Brandy for lunch at Clay Oven at noon'ish
• Final meeting at H&R Block to complete my taxes
• Yoga class from 9pm-10pm at the Donald location (first time going)

Oh no! B.O.!!

I'm on the elliptical at the gym, as I write this blog. I always used to hate on people that would be on their phones while exercising -- and look at me now.
I started journalling from the gym about 2 months ago, as I was tracking my workout progress. I fell in love with doing it because it gave me something to focus on, rather than the excruciating burn in my muscles, and it totally helped my 30 minutes of cardio fly by.


So back to that stinky title...
I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing, but a few weeks ago I figured out who the B.O. (body odour, for those of you who aren't immature teenage girls that would USE that term) culprit. Back in January, I was running on the treadmill and an overwhelming cloud of stink came over the entire gym -- so bad, I could literally taste it. Gross.
At the time, every single elliptical machine was occupied and at least 3 of the 6 treadmills were also in use. This made it extra hard to pinpoint who was sporting the odor cologne.
There was one guy that stuck out, probably only because he was a man and had facial hair :P
..shame on me for judging people.


A couple weeks ago, I was surprised to discover that the smell, in fact, came from ...wait for it... A WOMAN! *insert horror film shriek*
Ew. Gross.
So I pulled up the gym today, and who do I see through the window -- none other than Miss Bonnie O'Stinky herself. As soon as I swung the door open to the gym, the odor cologne hit me like a ton of bricks. So now I have a choice -- do I skip the cardio and just go straight to weights? Or do I suck it up (quite literally) and just do cardio on a machine as far away from her as possible? Ugh, I hate having to make choices this early in the morning...


--
I ended up doing my cardio because I knew I'd beat myself up if I didn't.  Yay me.




IN OTHER NEWS:


I'm proud to announce that I signed up for a 30 day membership at Moksha Yoga yesterday.  My cousin, aunt and nieces invited me to join the 430pm class, which has a kids drop-in class at the same time.   I surprised Xierra by bringing her to the studio.  This quite possibly could be our weekly 'mama/yaya' activity - assuming my wallet can handle it.

Excited much?

After our class, we booted it back to Royalwood to pick Mr. Xanderman up from daycare, and headed home to prepare our healthy dinner:

 Fruit smoothies, packed with vitamins for a icky-sicky family

 Chicken parmesan baked with light provolone cheese, and a caesar salad with a light vinaigrette

Oh yeah, and by the way:

GO BLACKHAWKS!  - Finally won a game in the series against Vancouver *sigh*

• Hubby stayed home sick from work for the second day in a row -- quality time with the wife, perhaps?  Doubtful.  Been trying to nurse him back to health, one meal at a time
• went to the gym: did cardio and worked triceps *ouch*
• Pre-registered for a noon yoga class
• Another healthy and hearty dinner for the fam tonight

Perfect timing -- gotta leave for yoga now :)  

Cook-a-doodle-doo

Brrr...it's a chilly Monday morning. I am beginning to recognize that this 'weekend flying by too quickly' business is becoming a trend (and not a good one, I'll add).


My weekend was sports filled -- starting with Friday: Soccer Schmid had an early game, which meant he got off of work a bit early, in order to make it to Canlan for his 'pre-game Caesar' ritual (have I ever mentioned that my hubby is a superstition extraordinaire?)


The game didn't start till 610pm but we were there as early as 5pm.
This was a really important (playoff) game, as they, the lowest ranked team, were scheduled to play the #1 team in the division. Plus, there was some worked up animosity between their teams from previous interactions, so the game promised to be chippy.  
We (Xander and I) sat and watched from upstairs:

The game was frustrating to watch.  My hubby's team ended up losing 0-5. *womp womp* With not-so-good spirits, the team gathered upstairs in the restaurant for some last hurrah pitchers and called it a season.


That night, we came home, chilled and tried to put the day behind us. Unfortunately, we caught game 2 of the NHL playoffs, and watched our beloved Blackhawks get their butts kicked by the Canucks :( a terrible night for sports -- went to bed super early - like 10pm early. Hoped Saturday would be a better day.


SATURDAY
In anticipation of the Bulls first playoff game, we got up super early.
*Please, please, PLEASE let todays game have a better outcome*

Thank the basketball gods for an amazing come-from-behind win in the last few minutes of the game!  This called for a celebration! Grilled cheese sandwiches! Go Derrick Rose!!


After much procrastinating and ass-dragging, I mustered up the energy to go grocery shopping. Our fridge and pantry were practically bare and we had NOTHING to eat for dinner *sigh*
Made my looong list based on my weekly meal plan, and was on my way.
Got a load of food for exactly 200 bucks on the nose (how weird, huh?).  The rest of the weekend would be filled with cooking and eating.  Two of my favourite things.


SUNDAY
Sunday morning differed immensely from my usual Sundays.  "Oh? in what way?" you ask?
Two words: Moksha Yoga.
Yes - I finally made it out for my first ever, hot yoga class.  With heavy recommendation from my cousin Cathy, I met her and my other family members at the Waverley location for an 1130am class.


Since I'm probably the only person on Earth that hasn't tried Yoga, I'll save myself from sounding like a complete fool by attempting to describe it's greatness...all I can say is WOW> I loved it.  

The sixty minutes flew by, and I can honestly say that I was sad when the class came to an end.
I will definitely be signing up for their intro 30-day pass!


So after stretching out all of the stress and sweatin' out all of the toxins, I was motivated to come home and prepare some healthy meals for the week.  


Keeping with my promise to implement "Meatless Monday's" into our lifestyle, I prepped a tortilla lasagna - packed full of veggies, light cheese, whole wheat tortillas, salsa and black beans:

Baked it and threw it in the refrigerator for Monday night.

While the lasagna baked, I prepared Sunday nights dinner -- felt like something warm and hearty, since 2 out of 4 of us were seemingly catching colds.  

Cooked up a pot of soup -- with veggies galore, ham sausage, whole wheat macaroni and low sodium beef stock.  Yum! 

Xierra's quote of the night: "I'm not even holding my breath when I eat the soup!  I LIKE IT!"

Umm...okay.  And I thought she liked my cooking all the time.

So while the Blackhawks sucked the bag for the third straight playoff game (losing 2-3 to the Canucks), I spent more time in the kitchen preparing a couple variations of quinoa salads, which I'll share 'finished' photos of throughout this week.  Here are a couple teasers:

So that was the weekend.  Nothing overly-interesting to report.  Oh, but just for some giggles, check out this photo of Xander being an ass :P *har har*

• went to the gym bright and early and got in some fair cardio.  My body is sore from yoga 
• this was breakfast today

• 

• going to stay home and maybe attempt to organize my closet 
• gotta try and nurse Xander back to good health.  Not diggin' the snot-face
• gonna try to take a walk and pick Xierra up from the bus stop