Thanksgiving and more!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent some quality time with your family and friends! I know that I did and I loved having some time off from work just to enjoy this time!

Being a teacher, we had Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off, which was amazing! Wednesday I was able to get ready since we were hosting dinner on Thursday!

First on the agenda, was a workout! I went to the gym for a good 80 minutes on the elliptical!

Then it was time to come home and get started on food prep! I made an apple pie... homemade crust and all for a healthy dessert!! :)

I also cleaned the house from top to bottom! Or as best as I could! Then I did a lot of the cutting of veggies and got the stuffing (well, dressing) made, minus the baking part of it.

I had to wash and cut lots of stuff... here are the brussel sprouts with some carrots and parsnips! I added some rosemary, sage, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic with oil and then roasted!

Then it was onto the stuffing... apple cranberry stuffing!I sauteed the celery and onions first, then added the chopped apples and craisins.  The next day I baked it (with wheat bread!)!

Thursday morning Mr. JAB wanted to do the turkey himself, so I taught him how to cook it! (He did a great job!)

Here's the bird pre-roasting. We cooked it in my great-grandmother's roaster in the oven.  I love that I was given this heirloom! Even though I don't eat meat, it was special knowing that her many years of cooking are added to our dinner too! (Turkey prepped with veggies, orange slices, bell seasoning, olive oil, and butter.)
Once the bird was in the oven it was time to run!
I got in about 8.5 miles in 65 minutes, then showered up before cooking the remainder of the dishes!
We set the table... (JAB had bought me/ the table flowers!)

Then we sat down for about 20 minutes before our guests arrived!

Just around 2:30 we sat down to dine with my in-laws and aunt!  On the menu: spinach salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes and squash cassarole made by my MIL, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, corn, and stuffing!

We cleaned up and rested before dessert.  I was so full and tired I forgot to take a picture! I enjoyed the apple pie.  There was also a peanut butter cup pie, coffee cake, and pumpkin pie! We were joined by my parents and sister, as well as my SIL and her fam... it was a full and fun house!

A great end to the evening came with a nice Pat's victory!! ( We were too tired to stay up for the whole game though!)

Thanksgiving day 2 came Friday when I made the husband his favorite...turkey pie!

I used the leftover turkey, veggies, and gravy!

Ready for the oven!!

My legs were tired on Saturday, so I took it easy with an elliptical workout,  and then the day was spent with my sister!  My bro is getting married next summer, so we had to go bridesmaid dress shopping!

Not the best fit!

Finally, Sunday was a day of running, working out, work, and rest!

I started it off with a 6 mile run to break in my new shoes!

 6 sweaty miles at the gym!

 New Asics 2170s-- they're discounting this model, what will I do?

It felt good to run in new shoes, although they are still a little stiff!

And now sadly, as always, vacations come to an end-- but I have another exciting vacation coming up in about a month... so work hard until then!

As I said before, it was great to enjoy this Thanksgiving with my "old" family and "new" family.  This was our first year married for Thanksgiving, so it's nice knowing that I have officially added so many wonderful people into my lives.

Already looking forward to the upcoming Christmas season!!! (But first things first, 4 weeks of work before we get there!)

weekend roundup and farm fresh ri

This is quick... but here's how the weekend went:

Friday... grocery shopping for Thanksgiving!  We're hosting on Thursday :)

Saturday- AM RUN! Ran 9.25 miles in the morning in 70:45  Felt great to do this!
The rest of the day was spent driving up to MA... we went to mass at the church where we go married and then attend a surprise birthday party in Worcester.  Unfortunately it wasn't too vegetarian/ lactose-free friendly... so my dinner was bread, salad, and green beans... and for dessert they had key lime pie with whipped cream.  That wasn't happening, but I did manage to eat all of the graham cracker crust!

Sunday- 2 hour bike ride!  Then Jeff's parents were here to help with some things... the men cleaned the gutters.  I did house work.  In the afternoon we did some errands and then watched the Pats.  How about that victory!?

Monday- Full day of work, followed by the gym- 1:20 on the elliptical, then abs and stretching.  Tomorrow is the last day of work for the week for me! (and it's pajama day at school... wear your pj's to work? yes please, don't mind if I do!)

It works out nice that we have all of Wednesday off so I can start to get ready for Thanksgiving on Thursday... we got our delivery from Farm Fresh RI, so I am looking forward to using some of these veggies on Thursday!

I have already used the mustard greens- I sauteed them with some garlic a couple days ago.  Other veggies we got include onions, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, apples, turnip, kuri squash, and spaghetti squash.  I am planning to cook the parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, and kuri squash to go with our dinner on Thursday!  It's nice to know that we're eating from some local farms!

Farm Fresh RI Veggie Box

We signed up for a few months of this and I'm looking forward to seeing what we get next!

Well time to relax and call it a night... just one more day to go!

quick check in

Just checking in... it's been busy here in RI and MA.

Tuesday I was booked solid.  I got up just after 5 am to hit up the gym.  I like to run on Tuesdays, but running at 5:30 just wasn't happening, so I did the elliptical for an hour, came home, showered, and headed up to Marlboro MA for a day long conference with the Department of Ed.

While the conference got out at 3:30, I was far from done with the day.  Rather than come back down to RI, I went to visit my parents to kill some time and catch up with them, then continued on to go back to the town where I teach to host a literacy night at the library.

We had a local author come to read to the kids... here's her site, check it out!
"Marshmallows Galore"

We did a craft and had a snack with the kids too.  Finally got home to RI around 8:30 pm to crash after prepping for another day.

Wednesday wasn't as busy fortunately, but I could tell my body was just tired from the day before.  Once again after a full day at work I didn't have a run in me, so I went to the gym and again did a workout on the elliptical, this time 77 minutes.  (7 is my favorite number!)  It was nice to end the evening yesterday though with the husband watching Survivor!

That brings us to today- Thursday, which totally felt like a Friday when I woke up, but alas no- one more day to get through the week!

Fortunately, my body was able to catch up on sleep last night, so after work today I was determined to run.

This happened:

 I let the treadmill start and as per usual didn't want to set my expectations too high for fear they might not be met.--- why do I do this? Shouldn't I try to raise the bar? Anyways, in my head I thought, "ok- 5 miles, you can do that, but as the miles ticked away I changed it to, ok Julie, just run the full hour, which I did, then the treadmill automatically adds on a 5 minute cool down, which I ran too.... bringing the day's mileage to just under 8.5 miles in 65 minutes- about 7:39 pace! woohoo, not my fastest by any means, but seeing how last week's mileage total was only 5.25 miles and the week before was zero- I was thrilled.

 This is me thrilled-- and sweaty--- and tired---- and thirsty.

I felt like a runner again today-- such a good feeling!!

And on that note, I am proud to say I earned my day off tomorrow.  I used to never take days off, but now am a firm believer in a rest day weekly.  Fridays seem to work for me as that day off.

New Big Bang Theory tonight!! Time to relax... happy almost Friday! :)

a day to ketchup-- errr catch up!

Ok so for those of you who are reading this, you may not know- I love ketchup.  It's pretty much the condiment that I will and do put on anything.  Today has nothing to do with ketchup (this photo taken on our honeymoon, I found a stash of bottles when we were out to eat on Oahu).  It's more about catch up-- catching up from a busy weekend!

Let's go back to Friday, shall we?
The husband and I went to Honda to test drive cars.  We had been before, but had narrowed it down to the Honda Insight and Civic and were going to try to make our final decision. We opted on the Civic, but weren't planning on purchasing that evening; HOWEVER, our sales guy said, "so what do I have to do to get you to make purchase this evening?"  Hm.. how about cutting us a deal?

Long story short, we negotiated a bit, traded in Mr. JAB's 2005 Subaru(pictured driving below)

and signed on to buying a new 2012 Honda Civic!!!
While I was super excited, I did feel bad- the husband had to give up his Subie baby- the first car that he had bought new. :(  But he is so generous, that he insisted I get the new car since I drive 300+ miles a week for work which is over a half hour away up in MA.  (The plan is for me to drive this car for the next 1.5-2 years, then hopefully when we move again he will inherit the new civic and we'll look into another car... maybe one more fit for a family!?;) not rushing that yet though.

After going back on Saturday and doing about 3 hours of paper work and waiting we drove home our new baby! So we are now a Honda family!!

Since that took longer than planned, I didn't make it to the gym to run, instead Mr. JAB and I went to the basement for a ride on our trainers. I rode about 1 hour and 55 minutes, then did some hip exercises before a quick shower and lunch.  Why the rush? We had a date night!

We had tickets to go to Providence to PPAC- the Providence Performing Arts Center to see a play--- ELF!
http://www.ppacri.org/events/detail/elf

No photos allowed there... check out the website! It was a great play, very similar to the movie-- minus Will Ferrell of course.  I was surprised at some of the language though... a little too vulgar for some of the younger kids in the audience.

Sunday morning I was determined to finally run.  I had taken 2 weeks off due to a calf muscle strain, but I am happy to report that I ran 5.25 miles in 40:15 and had no pain! (although I am a little sore today, not used to running and hip work)... after the run I did another 35 minutes on the elliptical to finish off the workout.
And yes, I was happy to run!:
(In the spirit of Elf all I could think of in my head was "I'm running! I'm at the gym on a treadmill and I'm running!!")

Then it was time for house work! Mr. JAB and I cleaned cars/ switched things from mine to his, did some yard work, and some house work-- I folded 3 loads of laundry, yikes!  He then told me that Lowe's had a Veteran's Day sale and the dishwasher we had eyed a few weeks ago was $40 off... so instead of trying to fight the crowds on Black Friday, we went to Lowe's to order this appliance:

A nice white dishwasher to match the new stove we got a few weeks ago.  Our kitchen is almost completely renovated!  We're still waiting to hear from them about installation, but it's nice to know that our final ugly old black dishwasher with some nice rust forming at the bottom will soon no longer be living in our home!  (It still does wash dishes, so I can't complain about it not functioning, but we know that if we want to move/ sell the house we need to update, so why not do it now so we can enjoy it a bit too?)

And as if yesterday wasn't busy enough, it was also a Pat's day--- thank goodness for DVR! The husband watched the first half while I cleaned floors and got dinner ready, we then watched the second half together after dinner.  What is it with the Patriot's letting it get too close as the game ends?

Usually Sunday nights are also getting ready for a week of work, but today I have no work- school is closed in honor of Veteran's Day.  So today is a day to catch up from the busy weekend-- and also be thankful for our Veterans.  My grandfathers and father in law all served and I am truly grateful for their courage, bravery, and selflessness.

Since I didn't have to wake up early today, I didn't set an alarm.  I slept in until 7:45 and woke up with a sore throat?! :(  I am trying to keep up lots of fluids, hoping this is just due to the weather/ dehydration/ allergies, etc.

The husband has to work today, but I did make him a special breakfast to send him off-- egg and cheese sandwich, along with nutella toast (his request!)  As he left for work, I went to the gym---> in my new car! (Although I felt guilty leaving all smelly and sweaty and getting into a new car smelling clean car.)

At the gym I cranked out 1:30 on the elliptical-- roughly 11. 5 miles! Something about not having a schedule, I was so relaxed and could have gone longer.  I'm not going to lie though, my legs were a little sore and was happy to not be running today.  

As for the rest of the day, it's all about errands, catching up from a few neglected chores from the weekend and trying to get ahead with a few things too.  Tomorrow is a busy day with an all day curriculum summit to attend, followed by a literacy night I helped organized... so perhaps some resting is in order today too since I foresee a lack of sleep tomorrow!

new addition to the family

We bought a car this morning!
New 2012 honda civic... More to come later, but now it's time for some time on the bike before Elf- the play- this afternoon!

thankful thursday

So with Thanksgiving coming up in less than two weeks, it seems like a good time to think about what I'm thankful for!  Here are some things I'm thankful for on this Thursday...

(first some general ones...)
-having a warm home
-being fortunate to live comfortable lives and have plenty of food and water
-having a good job that I enjoy
-being married to my best friend
-loving my new family
-loving my (old) family

AND specific to today...
-waking up next to my best friend
-hearing the radiators hiss = warm house!
-a safe drive in to school (I was nervous with 4-6 inches over night and no snow delay this morning, thankfully the roads were clear and safe!!)
-looking at my hand and seeing two rings.... yes it still gets me warm and fuzzy inside
-hearing that one of my friends is going to have a baby (now 3 pregnant at once!)
-helping some of our first graders during a small group session and seeing the smile on one's face when he realized he could read the cvc words!
-getting to the gym and getting in another solid workout on the elliptical!( 77 minutes)
-coming home and taking a hot shower!!
-sitting with my husband and enjoying dinner
---->just now! getting word from my mother-in-law that she has tickets to give us for ELF this Saturday! (looks like we have a date this weekend!)
-getting to go look at cars tomorrow with JAB... appointment at Honda tomorrow night!
-relaxing on the couch, getting ready to watch some a tv show with my best friend
-looking forward to FRIDAY!!  (going to start to do some Thanksgiving food shopping tomorrow after school, since I take Friday's off from working out... walking the aisles is my cross training!)

Here are some pics from last Thanksgiving...

The bird before... yes, I am a vegetarian, but I don't mind cooking meat, the husband loves his turkey!!

Stuffed him up!

I don't use the knife... that's his job! Notice the roaster we used--- this was my great-grandmother's (from Canada)... we've now inherited and I am excited to use it again this year.  It's fun to think about the stories and places that go along with old family items!

Our table set up... notice all of the condiments, I am a condiment queen-- I love dipping!!!

And just a few of the sides-- I need to make the stuffing again; apple cranberry stuffing!(well technically dressing, since it wasn't cooked inside the turkey) Also shown are spinach salad, turnip, mashed potatoes, and sweet potatoes!

Now I'm getting hungry... I think it's time for a snack and some tv, good night!!

wild weather wednesday

Hi all!
Do you ever have that feeling like you know it's going to snow? I totally had that feeling walking into school this morning.  The air was very cool and there was a strange stillness... well my senses were correct because it is now Wednesday evening and it's been snowing since about 1:30 this afternoon! We're supposed to get 4-6 inches where I work up in MA, but here in RI not as much.  Still, it made for some difficult driving home and some slushy roads down here in RI!
The wild weather also changed up my plans.  I was supposed to head back to school for a PTA meeting at 7:00 this evening, but that was called off due to the snow... so that meant I could get a better workout in at the gym, score!
Like I said before- I am not going to run any miles until this weekend to let me calf fully heal from the muscle strain, but I still managed to work out 1:20 on the elliptical, around 10 miles!
Here's a peak at the new haircut too- I had it cut over the weekend, my sister-in-law's husband (not sure what that makes him with relation to me?) is a hairdresser, so I basically said "Do whatever you want, I just NEED it shorter!)  Well about 5-6 inches later this is what's left of my pony tail! It feels like a little bob as I workout! Headbands are a necessity... I could even use some clips for the bottom pieces that seem to fall out of the elastic.

And in case you think I live in workout clothes... I really don't. (Although I am not dressed up here by any means- this was taken after doing some house chores!)  I did take a pic over the weekend, so here's the new do after I got it cut!

I'm grateful I didn't have to go back out and drive in the snow tonight.  Not only do I feel safer and cozier in my home and already in my pj's by 8:00 (yes, I lead the crazy life of a teacher), but also, this means I can now go catch up on laundry before watching Survivor with the hubby!
Time to get folding and watch the snow fall... then tv time!... of course in the back of my mind I am also wondering if this wild weather will continue over night- snow delay?!?  (I really don't want to miss school tomorrow, we had two days off last week due to Hurricane Sandy!)
Have a goodnight! :)

fitting it all in

Happy Monday!! Yup, just wrote that-- scratch that, happy Tuesday! There is some prime evidence there to show you that I am tirrrrred and the week has basically just begun!
This week is all about fitting everything in. Lots of teacher meetings and extra hours at work means squeezing in workouts when and where I can!
A week and a half ago I strained my calf muscle and have another half week or so of cross training to go before I hit the pavement or treadmill again, so this week is fitting in cross training!
Yesterday I did about 1:25 on the elliptical ( about 11 miles- not too shabby for Monday evening!).
Today is a little more tricky. I had a faculty meeting after school and then went to vote. I drove home to pick up Mr JAB around 4:45 and we went to the polls to vote as husband and wide for the first time- of course they still had my maiden name, so voting was a little more cumbersome for me. Neither of us had done our workouts, so it's now biking on our trainers in the basement for an hour and a half. This means a late dinner which I'm not a fan of, but we're making it work and trying to fit everything in!
At least blogging on the iPhone while watching the news and election results is a good way to make the time go by quickly. Have a good night all- another busy day ahead tomorrow!

a new beginning

Mr. JAB and I got married over the summer-- August 4, 2012.  I have been wanting to start blogging again and even thought about doing it during the wedding planning stages to document all of the decisions that were to be made.  BUT reality was that I got a little too busy- planning a wedding, moving to a new state, and starting a new job all within in a few months of each other.

Now that things are settling down, I feel I finally have time to do something that I really enjoy doing- writing.

This is not my first attempt at blogging; I have several other attempts via this address:
http://www.jacsc715.blogspot.com/
however, since this is a new beginning and a new chapter in our lives, I want a fresh start- so here begins the story of Mr. and Mrs. JAB-- and believe me we're always on the run, but always trying to have fun!

(That was us having fun ziplining on our honeymoon in Hawaii.  We went ziplining on the island of Kauai!)