Photo Shoot with Kapitol Photography and a Weekly Catch-up

August 16, 20136 Comments

Hey there! TGIF 🙂 This week started out fairly busy, but calmed down throughout the week. As of the end of work today, though, I will be gearing up for a very busy weekend consisting of teaching, moving and doing lots of shopping.

You may remember me mentioning my coworker/friend, Tim, in my Stowe, VT recap. Well, he was up here for business again at the beginning of the week and decided to come up Sunday evening instead of taking one of those deathly early flights on Monday morning (don’t those flights always seem like a good idea when you book them? And then you are rudely reminded of how awful they are when your alarm goes of at 4am, right?), so we got together and grabbed dinner and drinks at the Yard House in Fenway. I thought it would be go to Fenway since Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake were playing there. It was packed, but since the Yard House is huge we didn’t have a problem getting a table. I was a bad blogger and didn’t take any photos, but Tim did take this video that I’ll share.

IMG 4712 from Monique Gagnon on Vimeo.

It was pretty cool that you could hear the concert so well!

I was able to get up Monday for an early 3.5 mile run before work. After work, since Tim was still in town, we grabbed drinks at the Alibi Bar which is in the Liberty Hotel. The drinks were delicious!

Since most coworkers were on vacation this week or out of town for client site visits, we didn’t have a big group dinner like we usually do. Some of us went to Gaslight in the South End. I was hesitant of going there because the one and only other time I had been was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had! From the service to the wine to the food, I was utterly unimpressed. It bothered me so much because I’m usually pretty easy to please and the Gaslight has really great recommendations. With that said, this past visit completely erased the former bad memories associated with the Gaslight. The wine was delicious and my dinner (Swordfish Roti–with couscous, heirloom tomatoes & cucumber gazpacho) was amazing!! Some of the best swordfish I have ever had. So happy they redeemed themselves!

On Tuesday, my sister met me at my new apartment after work. She was so sweet and brought champagne and treats! I’ve been avoiding moving or even thinking about moving (I’ve had my keys since August 1st and hadn’t even stepped foot in the apartment since then. Clearly I’m having issues with moving!), but having her there and seeing her be so excited for me helped to get me out of my pending move funk and actually make me excited! So much so that I started making my “need to buy” list. Yuck!

The rest of the week was as they all are: work and teaching, but I did want to take some time now to show you the amazing headshot photos that I got back from my friend, Dan Brown (aka, Kapitol Photography). Dan and I went to college together and via Facebook, I realized that he is an incredible photographer. Not long after I started my blog, I realized that I wanted to get some professional photos taken so I reached out to Dan. He was more than happy to help! It took us forever and a day (ok, not really, but it took a while) to get a date that worked on both of our calendars, but after seeing the photos, it was well worth the wait. We headed to Acorn Street in Beacon Hill and then made our way to the Esplanade. Here are some of my favorites! I’m looking to pick one to use as my B2B headshot- please vote for your favorite in the comments! 🙂

1, 2

The two photos above were taken on Acorn Street, which is the most popular street to photograph in the city of Boston! It was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to have it to ourselves the entire time we were there. We walked up and down the street and Dan got photos from all different angles, but these two were my favorite (very similar- I realize that 🙂 ).

3,4

These two were taken as we left Acorn Street and made our way up and down various other streets in Beacon Hill. The brick buildings are my absolute favorite! How great would it be to live in Beacon Hill?! We also tried a bunch of serious face photos, but I looked terrible in them! I am just not one of those girls that can pull off the straight/serious face photos.

5,6

We took these right as we were about to cross over the bridge and photograph on the Esplanade. I feel like these have the real “city” image so I like them for the background, but they aren’t my favorite in terms of strictly headshots. By the time we made it over to the Esplanade, the sun had unfortunately set a little more than Dan would have liked. I was really impressed with how he was able to know where to put me, how to have me angle my head and my body (did you know if you put both your hands right on your waist, vs. on your hips, it makes you appear thinner in photos? These are things us ladies should all know 😉 ) and how to maneuver his way around different places in the city to get the “right” shot.

We are going to do another shoot, but instead of focusing on the “professional, Boston living, work hard/play hard” side of me, we are going to focus on the fitness side of me. I’m super excited for that shot because it means I get to buy new Lulu, right?! Big thanks to Dan for taking time out of his busy schedule (he’s getting married in 2 weeks!!) to take these photos and allow me to share them with all of you! If anyone is interesting in having Dan shoot photos, he can be contacted through all forms of social media:
Facebook: Kapitol Photography
Instagram: kapitolphoto
Twitter: @KapitolPhoto

That about does it for me today! I am not sure how much I’ll be blogging throughout the next couple of days or so since I’ll be moving, but I hope to get some regular posts up next week!

Questions for you: What is your favorite Fenway bar? Where is the last restaurant you went where you had a horrible experience? Have you ever had professional photo’s taken?

Weekend Catch-Up: Babysitting, Lunch at Cafeteria, Lulu Shopping, Sushi, Beach

July 16, 2013July 14, 20131 Comment

All last week I kept looking ahead to my weekend and felt great that it was literally wide open! However, by the time Friday rolled around, pretty much my entire weekend was booked; does this happen to anyone else? Since I am a planner, this isn’t uncommon for me, but it still made me laugh to see how quickly I turned an open, no plan weekend into a relatively busy weekend!

After I taught on Friday, I headed to Newton to babysit Trent and Lila. I met their mom, Renee, back when we used to take yoga every Monday together. I have been babysitting for them for over 3 years at this point; crazy to think it’s been that long! I always have a blast babysitting because the kids are great, it’s fun to catch up with Renee, and because they always have the best snacks and trashy mags for me to read after the kids go to bed 😉

Not a bad way to spend the night! Plus, babysitting money is my Lulu money, so you wanna know shopping was on the agenda for Saturday.

I let myself stay in bed until 9am on Saturday since I didn’t get home until 1am. I originally had plans to go to BodyPump, but realized that my body was exhausted and could use the rest. After I got up, I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and then Target to stock up on things for my trip this week. While I was at Target, I ended up getting a bathing suit for $22!! Love a good deal!

After errands, I showered and then my sister and my friend Lauren and I went into the city and had lunch at Cafeteria. Weekend lunches out require cocktails, right? And, it’s only fitting for me to have a glass of bubbly 😉

To eat, we ordered 3 sandwiches and shared amongst ourselves.

I got the black bean burger, but I’ll spare you the picture since it wasn’t very pretty. Everything tasted great, though!

After lunch, we walked over to the Lululemon. I went with the mission to get a colored pair of spandex shorts, but they only had black ones in my size. Boring 😦 I ended up finding a pair of HOT PINK capris (on sale!) and a bright lime green top instead. I can’t say I was disappointed about my purchases.

Don’t worry, I won’t wear them together 😉

In addition to my new outfit (I am SO excited to workout and wear them now- such a great motivator!), I finally got a new gym bag. I have been on a hunt for a new gym bag for MONTHS, so I’m stoked that I finally found one that I like. It’s really big so it’s perfect for my “work to gym” days (aka, every day).

I love it so much already!!

After shopping, Lauren and I got much-needed pedicures. It’s the little things!

Once we got home, I was absolutely beat and did something I NEVER do: napped! I had dinner plans at 7, but knew I had about an hour that I could allot to napping, or at the very least, resting. It felt great!!

Dinner was at Yoki, which I’ve blogged about on here once or twice before! The sushi is amazing and the Celtics roll is literally the best roll I have ever had!!

Mmmm 🙂

We were finally graced with a really sunny day on Sunday, so Lauren and Danielle and I decided to go to the beach! We went to Nahant, and it was already jam packed at 10am. Even though it was a beautiful sunny beach day, it was almost TOO hot.

Nonetheless, we lasted about 3 hours and then grabbed lunch at Tides, which is right at the start of the beach.

I got a Teriyaki Grilled Chicken Wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with a side of steamed broccoli. I loved that they had healthy, yet yummy, food options!

To counteract my healthy meal, I enjoyed a Blueberry beer!

There’s just something about an ice cold beer that quenches thirst unlike no other. Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way!

Once we got home from the beach, I did some pre-blogging for the week (have a few guest blogs for you- get excited!), cleaned up the apartment, did laundry and went to the grocery store. Since I will be away most of the week, I just grabbed some fruit and a salad to eat with the other half of my wrap that I got at Tides. Danielle and I did walk to get an ice cream. I was craving one bad! We ended up sharing one since they didn’t have kiddie sizes.

Phew! That was a long weekend recap; if you made it this far, thank you!

Questions for you: What’s your favorite hot weather treat? What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? Ever been to Nahant beach? What is a MA beach that I have to try?

PS!! Check out the size of this summer squash that I picked from my garden!!!

what do you think I should make with it?!

Shopping, Girl Time, Celebrations, Workouts- Another Busy Week!

July 12, 2013July 11, 20138 Comments

Hi friends! Happy Friday! For some reason, I have had an incredibly busy week. It’s been fun, but I’m beat! Doesn’t end today, either. I’ve got work until 4:30, then I am subbing my old Friday night class at the Allston BSC (all my old regulars, please come!!!) and then babysitting! Phew! Let me tell you that a well deserved trip to Lululemon will be happening 😉

Let’s catch up, shall we?! On Sunday, on my way back to MA, I decided to make a pit stop in Kittery since I was tired of sitting in massive amounts of traffic. I have a bunch of work trips this month and wanted another suit, so it was a great time to check that off my “to-do” list. 45 minutes later, I walked out of Banana Republic with a new suit and a new dress- for $72!!! Long story short, I had cash rewards from my BR card and then had to open another card for some reason so I got the 15% off, too. Definitely a great pit stop!

I didn’t end up making a big meal on Sunday night since it was so hot, but I threw together a pretty tasty quesadilla! Shrimp, peppers, onions and feta- delicious!

On Monday, I went to The Studio Empower for an awesome class and was greeted with a salmon dinner prepared by my roommate when I walked through the door! Love that.

Tuesday was a really awesome day! I forced myself out of bed for an early run. It wasn’t fast, but I covered 3.4 miles in 30 minutes which I was very happy about. After that, I did 15 reps of biceps curls balancing on 1 leg, upright rows, triceps dips, pushups, and an ab ladder. Nothing like being finished a workout by 7:15am!

After work I met up with someone for drinks at Legal Harborside Roofdeck. I couldn’t believe how packed it was for Tuesday. Apparently people have a life outside of the gym after work; who would have thought?!

From there, I headed to Amy and Sheila’s for a girls dinner party! Instead of going out, they offered to cook for us which was a nice treat. It’s so hard to catch up with people while in a restaurant at a big table; I’d much prefer a casual setting at someone’s apartment. Our friend, Kelly, was also visiting from San Francisco so our group was even bigger than usual! Unfortunately, Kia couldn’t come because she had her puppy to tend to, but other than that we were all there!

Amy grilled up chicken, steak, shrimp and veggies. Jess and I cooked rice and green beans and Sheila prepped the salad. Pair that with a big ol’ glass of vino and you’ve got a happy Monique 😉

After dinner, we brought out the desserts for some birthday celebrations. If you remember, I severely cut back on eating desserts a few weeks ago, but I most certainly had desserts on Tuesday. I mean, funetti cake and peanut butter rice crispy treats with chocolate and homemade berry ice cream?! I was in sweet tooth heaven!

And, throw some bubbly in there and you’ve pretty much got a perfect night!

On top of all of that, just when we thought it couldn’t get any better than good food, good drinks, tasty desserts and long overdue girl time, Sheila surprised us with her recent engagement!!!!! Somehow, we had the whole ‘toasting to champagne’ thing on video and it’s literally the best video I’ve ever seen. All you hear in the background is “wait. WHAT?!” from me and screams from Lauren. It.was.awesome! We all couldn’t be more happy for Sheila and Bryan!

Beautiful ring unlike anything I have ever seen!

Wednesday I ended up teaching a double to help a fellow instructor out- phew! I was on another level that night; that is what happens when I go too long without teaching 😉 My Thursday double was a little tough to get into, purely because my legs were tired! What made everything better, though, was coming home to pizza fresh out of the oven!

Man did THAT hit the spot!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Questions for you: Tell me- what’s on the agenda for tonight? How have your workouts been? What’s was the best part of your week? Drinks on a weeknight- do you do that often?

Slowing Down, Maine, Ballet Barre, 4th of July Festivities, Beach Day

July 6, 2013July 5, 20135 Comments

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great 4th of July, and week, for that matter! Last time I wrote posts, I was planning out my weekly workouts. Well, I ended up waking up on Monday still feeling quite sick, so I called my doctor and was able to get in right away- perfect. 20 minutes later, it was confirmed that I had a sinus infection and was told that I was “severely dehydrated”. Now, how that happened is still beyond me; I drink at least 100 ounces of water a day, but apparently when you’re sick, your body needs even MORE. The doctor said that the humid weather also takes more out of you, hence why I got so dizzy last weekend. Needless to say, I did not take the Studio Empower class that I was scheduled to take. I spent a lot of time on the couch sleeping and just trying to relax- much harder than it would seem!

Tuesday I worked in the office, but was allowed to go home early which was perfect since I knew I was heading to Maine later that night. I went for a 20 minute walk to shake my legs out and, more than anything, needed some “me” time to think and clear my head. After my walk, I packed up Charlie and headed north. Luckily, traffic was non-existent and I was able to get home fairly quickly!

I woke up on Wednesday feeling much better, thankfully! Since the temp had briefly cooled down, I headed out for a nice and easy 2 mile jog. I didn’t want to push it too much, so I told myself that if I was feeling tired or sick, I would stop and walk. The 2 miles flew by and I felt great, besides sweating A LOT. Once I got home I made myself a festive yogurt-bowl breakfast.

After my run, I worked from my parents house and called it a day around 4:30 since my mom and I had plans to go to Jackie’s Ballet Barre class at The Mind Body Studio which is only 5 minutes from our house- perfect! Jackie and I have connected so much through teaching and classes and all things fitness (and blogging!) and it’s been a blast. Unfortunately, since we live in different states and both teach a lot, we can’t really make it to each other’s classes, but my mom is an avid-Jackie follower (party dance class- say what?!). Anyway, it worked out that I was home and available to go to her Ballet Barre class. I brought mom with me and we had a blast! So many squats and leg lifts and planks… I was a happy, happy girl. For anyone who is in the Shapleigh area, Jackie teaches this class on Wednesdays at 5:45pm and Saturdays at 8:30am and has an affordable drop-in rate, so I highly suggest checking it out!

Wednesday night, I met up with my very good friend Jason. Fun fact: Jason and I dated back in high school and throughout most of college and have still maintained a really great friendship ever since. We grabbed dinner and drinks at the local hangout: The Backstreet Grill. It was fun catching up, but even more fun that we could see the fireworks from the parking lot on our way out. I LOVE fireworks and all things 4th of July!

4th of July

My family loves the 4th of July, parade and parties that go along with it. I woke up and whipped out my 4th of July Workout before heading to the parade. Even with a 5 minute warm up, I was finished in 20 minutes- perfect! It was almost silly to shower, though, because I was sweating within seconds of running for candy at the parade. Yes, you read that correctly: I am 28 and still fight children for candy run for candy at the parade. I don’t know what it is, but I LOVE the thrill of running out and grabbing as much candy as I can. And, the thing is, I don’t even eat the candy after I get it! I have issues. Sara’s step-daughter, Grace was egging me on, though, so I blame her this year! We did a superb job and got a LOT of candy.

It was fun having all the Shapleigh girls together, and little Zeke!

After the parade we headed up to Sara’s house on the lake for a few hours since it was 90* and the pool party we were going to didn’t start until 2. It was hard leaving the lake, but at least we were headed to another body of water; the temps this week made it really unbearable to be outside if you were not in or by the water.

The Mahoney’s was a blast, as always. So many little babies to play with!

I didn’t drink much this year, only because I was afraid of getting dehydrated since it was SO hot out. I did have a new Sam Adams summer beer which was delicious! As well as a fun cocktail that my sister found from Health.com: champagne, Grand Marnier and pomegranate juice- wow was this good!

Yesterday, my mom, sister and I went to the beach. I got up and did Athena’s Red, White and Blue workout before packing up for a day at the beach with mom and Danielle. I was afraid it was going to be TOO hot at the beach, but we were pleasantly surprised! There was a nice beach breeze that kept us from getting too hot. We packed lots of snacks, waters, seltzer and wine & beer- mom is the ultimate beach queen!

That stupid bag rig thing was the death of me. I took over bringing it down to the beach and by the time I got to the beach I wanted to throw it in the water. This is how it looked when we got home:

Anyway, the beach was lovely and we ran into lots of people we knew (small world, right?!). After the beach, we met up with Sara, Amy, Chris and Zeke for cocktails at Barnacle Billy’s.

And Zeke snuggles!

When the six of us get together, it’s like no one else is around, and like nothing has changed since we were little kids… except now we drink with our moms 😉

So much fun! After Billy’s, mom and I headed home since I knew dad was cooking up some ribs for me. I’m not a huge rib person, but dad had been raving about the ribs he had made last week I asked if he’d make me some. Let me tell you, they did NOT disappoint!

Wine and ribs.. classy 😉

All in all, it was a really great little getaway from the craziness that Boston brings on a day to day basis. I tried to get a sub for my class today, but it was too last minute. Since the heat wave is here to stay and my other plans fell through, I’m unfortunately driving BACK to Maine after I teach my kickboxing class. I just can’t even think about how sad I would be being in the city alone in the oppressive heat, so I’ll do the trek back to Maine for the day and night. I mean, there could be worse things to worry about, right??

Questions for you: How was your 4th of July? Get in any workouts? Do you like parades? What’s your favorite beach?

PS- I want to wish my friends Jessi and Josie a very happy birthday!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend at the Gagnon’s

May 28, 2013May 27, 20139 Comments

Hey everyone! Who else is feeling a little bit of a let down after the long weekend? I was so happy the sun finally decided to come out yesterday, but where was it the rest of the weekend?! Thankfully, we had loads of fun inside and really didn’t notice the gross weather too much. Since my weekend in Maine was filled with so many fun things, let’s get right to recapping them!

Saturday

Danielle and I met mom in Springvale for lunch at the Springvale Publick House (clearly, we love that place). Dad dropped mom off and took Chuck home so he didn’t have to sit around in the crate for any longer than necessary. After lunch, we grabbed Dairy Queen and puttered around Ocean State Job lot and the Dollar Tree and decided to grab margarita’s at Fresco Mexican Grill. Holy Yum! I had the Pineapple Mango Sage infused margarita with dry ice- such a fun afternoon treat!

After drinks, we came home and got going on our homemade pizza on the grill night! Dad made his homemade dough and we split it into 6 pieces so that we could have lots of mini pizzas. I made a caramalized onion, zucchini and fresh mozzarella cheese and I think it was the best out of all of them!

We had such a fun night filled with lots of laughs, good food and wine (duh!).

Sunday

Since we were going to 11am mass, we had plenty of time to hang around and relax when we got up on Sunday. And, with rainy/gross weather, being lazy was totally ok. After church, we all went to Lowe’s and Wal-Mart to get plants and whatnot. By the time we got home, I was STARVING and couldn’t wait to dig into the left-over pizza! Late afternoon, before our BBQ, mom, Danielle and I went for a 1/2 hour walk which felt great!

Sunday night, we hosted a Memorial Day BBQ for our close family friends. There ended up being 15 adults and 2 babies! So fun!

My mom obviously has lots of friends, but she has 2 best friends that she is always with: Jean and Jeanne, aka “The Jeans”. One cannot do something without the other two, so it is no surprise that when the Jean’s went shopping earlier in the weekend, they had to get mom a matching shirt!

It was an extra special party because Matt and Courtney came and brought their new baby boy, Alexander! What’s really neat, is that they are letting people choose their own nickname for him: Alex, Xander, Al (although, I wouldn’t call him Al since that’s what my dad’s name is and that would be weird).

And no Maine post is complete without a picture of one of our favorite babies… Emma Jean! She is getting SO big and is so much fun.

Sara, as you remember, is so very pregnant at this time! She is due on Wednesday and could give at any moment. It was fun to see her with the babies and know that she will have her own so soon! Come on out, Zeke, we want to play!!

As always, the food was delicious! Asian salad, broccoli-cauliflower salad, pasta salad, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steak, pork, and so many desserts!

It was really so fun to see everyone, and even more fun that everyone was referencing Burpees to Bubbly! I love to hear people say “let’s get a pic for Burpees to Bubbly”. Music to my ears:) This pic seemed only fitting since we were most definitely drinking bubbly!

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends around all the time! Never a dull moment at the Gagnon’s 😉

Memorial Day

I woke up to a bright, sunny sky and immediately decided that it would be awesome to go for a run! As I was running, I realized how quiet it was compared to the city running that I usually do. No sidewalks, no cars, no people, just my music, the pavement and a sunny sky. I really focused on being present and enjoying the moment, something I should probably do more often!

I made my run more fun by adding in strength exercises after every mile- I’ll post it later this week!

Here are some pictures of “Shapleigh Corner”… I am from a very small town and this is the “center” of town. A whopping blinking light!

Yup, you’d call this Maine, small town living!

The rest of the day was filled with LOTS of planting and gardening with dad and visiting with our cousin, Karen, who is visiting from Michigan. Always nice to visit with family!

And now we are back to the grind! This week got a little busier when I agreed to sub back-to-back classes tonight (Kickboxing followed by SHRED at the South Station BSC).

Questions for you: Best part of your weekend? Did you have or go to a BBQ for Memorial Day? Are you from a big city or small town?

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Category: Bubbly

Photo Shoot with Kapitol Photography and a Weekly Catch-up

Weekend Catch-Up: Babysitting, Lunch at Cafeteria, Lulu Shopping, Sushi, Beach

Shopping, Girl Time, Celebrations, Workouts- Another Busy Week!

Slowing Down, Maine, Ballet Barre, 4th of July Festivities, Beach Day

Memorial Day Weekend at the Gagnon’s

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