Pampered Chef Party in NH, Apartment Hunting, Poolside, Lakeside

June 18, 2013June 18, 20136 Comments

Hey there! I am currently en route to NYC for a quick work trip (I’ll be back tonight). How is your Tuesday looking?

Last Friday night, I got together with most of my St. Michael’s girls at our friend Nikia’s new house in New Hampshire. She and her boyfriend recently bought a brand new home in the country and WOW was it beautiful. Seriously, I couldn’t even believe it! I am so proud of all that they have done to make it “theirs”.

We got together both to see the house and to attend a Pampered Chef party. Has anyone been to one of those parties? I love Pampered Chef kitchen stuff SO much. You’ve seen the stones on my blog quite often.

The host created these delicious, healthy pepper strips that were a huge hit. They were so easy, too. She combined some ingredients, mixed them with a Pampered Chef seasoning, placed a scoop on each pepper strip and baked for 7 minutes.

I ordered a few things, but told the host to get in contact with me in Sept/Oct so I could host a party at my new place!

It’s always a fun time getting together with my SMC girls, but we missed you Kelly and Jessi! These girls are my rock- seriously we all just “get” each other, even though we are all pretty different. That’s what makes it so fun, though!

Thanks for an awesome party, Kia!

On Saturday, I woke up, packed up and headed out to see an apartment at 9 before teaching my 10am kickboxing class. Even though the apartment is a basement level, I really liked it! The ground goes at an angle so the back of the apartment is not underground at all and there is a door from the bedroom that leads out to a back patio. Everything has been recently renovated and the landlord is awesome. I have a few questions, but I think I might take it- eeek!!

After my class, I headed north and met mom and Danielle at the Mahoney’s pool. Pure bliss, if you ask me!

Mom had a whole cooler full of goodies, which I quickly dug into when I got there since I was starving!

Shortly after we finished, the other Jean and Colleen and Emma showed up! Look how stinkin’ cute she is in her little bathing suit!

We even brought her in the pool. She was loving the water and splashing her hands around!

We left there around 4 so we could head over to Sara’s house on the lake to get some Zeke snuggle time. Boy are we lucky to have so many friends with access to water!

Zeke gets cuter and cuter every time I see him!!! And he is so GOOD. Literally just sleeps and eats… barely ever cries.

Sara looks phenomenal. Seriously. A beaming mom for sure! I got my mommy multitasking practice in

Haha. It’s easier than you may think 😉

We took the boat out for a nice stroll before heading home.

Dad had hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob ready for us upon our arrival. How’s that for fantastic service? Per usual, we had a blast laughing and joking and drinking wine!

Questions for you: Ever been to a Pampered Chef party? What’s your favorite kitchen tool? Do you prefer a pool or the lake?

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?

More Weekend Catch-Up

April 30, 2013April 29, 20131 Comment

Hi! How’s everyone doing? Did you survive Monday? I always feel a little better once Monday is over!

Since I didn’t do much weekend recapping except for Sara’s shower, I wanted to fill you in now! Everyone left our place by 6pm on Saturday and at that point, my sister and I were ready to get out of the house. I had a $20 OpenTable gift certificate and she had a $10 UBER credit, so we decided to take advantage of both and go grab dinner somewhere. Most restaurants were pretty busy, but one of our go-to favorite restaurants just happened to have some availability! I stumbled upon Anthem Restaurant in Faneuil Hall a few winters ago when I was planning Rachel’s bachelorette party and we have been in love with it ever since! I’ve taken my parents there, work friends there, college friends there… Pretty much any time we don’t know where to go, but want good atmosphere and good food, we go there.

Anyway! Since we were not too hungry, we ordered some wine and chatted before placing our meal order.

Once our stomachs began to rumble a little, we placed an order of their Boston Bibb salad and Margarita Pizza. Nothing too heavy, but enough to satisfy us!

Yum! The salad looks boring, but the dressing they use is what makes it so good!

My friend and former co-worker, JP, met us out, which is always a good time. He and my sister can be bad news sometimes, though, because they egg each other on in drinking competitions and whatnot. Youngin’s, I tell ya!

JP was also able to catch this on camera. I have to say that she did a much better job carrying me this time. I blame it on my heels!

I woke up Sunday feeling much better than I thought I would, which is always a nice surprise. After blogging and eating breakfast, I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and go for a walk. Danielle joined me so it was nice to have someone to talk to! We covered just about 2 miles and then I worked to get my garden ready for planting. Let me tell you, raking and tilling and pulling weeds is a great upper body workout!

Even though I could have stayed out in the sun and warm weather all day, I had to go in and shower and get ready for my friend Christy’s bridal shower. It was at the Daily Catch in the Seaport and it was absolutely lovely. I had never been to that location, but it was so much nicer than I had imagined. Plus, the view of the harbor on a gorgeous sunny day didn’t hurt, either. It was great to get to catch up with a bunch of my college girlfriends and be a part of Christy’s special day. It was a surprise bridal shower and it seemed like Christy was 100% surprised!

I didn’t get many pictures, but I did grab some of the adorable center pieces that my friend, Amy, made, as well as a delicious mimosa and the menu.

It was a 3-course meal and everything that I tried was really good! I got the caprese salad to start, fish n chips for my meal (everyone deserves a splurge day or meal!) and obviously didn’t turn down a piece of cake (I am a sucker for all things dessert, especially when it involves frosting.).

After the bridal shower ended, I picked up Danielle and we hit up the grocery store. I had all intentions of making a nice Sunday dinner, but when I looked in the fridge and saw how many leftovers we had from the shower on Saturday, I decided to postpone my meal for tonight (only night I don’t teach, so I actually have time to make a nice dinner after work!). This was a big move for me… I ALWAYS make a “Sunday Dinner,” so when I don’t, something feels so off!

And, I think that about sums it up! Weekends being surrounded by best friends and family are the best, in my book, and nice weather is just icing on the cake (pun intended!).

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Do you like to garden? Do you try to make a nice meal on Sunday nights or do you prefer to cook during the week?

Birthday Celebrations

April 18, 2013April 17, 20136 Comments

Ok, ok. I know. You’re probably all sick of hearing about my birthday, but I promise this is it! I want to have this as a reminder of how wonderful my birthday was this year. It was definitely one for the books. So many cards, texts, flowers, emails, Facebook notes… I feel SO blessed and loved. I wish it could be my birthday every day!

Most of you probably saw how I spent my Saturday, but if you didn’t, go check it out! It was a busy day for sure, but it was fun because I was able to pamper myself a little! Saturday night, some of my closest girlfriends and I got all done up and headed to The Brahmin for dinner before other friends met up for drinking. The girls know me so well because Jessi, Danielle and Amy all got me Prosecco! Amy also got me flowers:)

We headed to the Brahmin around 7pm so that we could eat and relax and not worry about the ridiculous line that forms there by, like, 9pm. It’s insane!

The food was really quite tasty and we loved that it was all tapas style since we love sharing food! The waitress brought over shots and I think that’s what got me going to a drunken place I don’t tend to go! Luckily, I remembered dessert! 😉

I was so happy to have so many friends around to make my birthday so special!

And, a gym friend even came! Of COURSE we had to bring the guns out… it’s a gym thing.

Not long after this, it was time for me to go home. Luckily, Rachel was nice enough and got me into a cab safely. THANK YOU, friend! JP sent me this photo the next day and it pretty much sums up the night and how happy I was:

…….

My parents came into the city on Tuesday for post-birthday celebrations. We totally lucked out and had gorgeous weather. The city was still a little somber after Monday’s Marathon events, and the security/police presence was bigger than I’ve ever seen it, but we still made the best of the day. I loved seeing all the marathon runners wearing their blue jackets. I wanted to run up and hug every one of them.

We opted to stay in the Faneuil Hall and North End part of the city, which was fine by me. We played tourist walking up and down along Quincy Market,

and decided to have lunch at the Salty Dog. Lunch was delicious (I splurged on a fried catfish sandwich!), the beer (first Sam Summer of the season) was so refreshing, but the company was the best part!

After lunch, we walked along the water and up the back end of Hanover street. My mom wanted to take some cannoli’s home, so obviously Mike’s Pastry was a necessary stop. I couldn’t believe it-the line was short! This is unheard of at this place. I got a red velvet cupcake and then later stopped and got a gelato. So tasty!

All that walking around really made us thirsty, so a stop at Bell In Hand was a perfect place to quench our thirst before my parents went to catch their train at North Station.

I was sad to see them leave, but so thankful that I got to spend such a fun day in the city with them. They are just the cutest little people around!

So, there you have it- my 28th birthday celebrations are FINALLY all documented! If you made it this far, thanks for sticking through this monster post!

Questions for you: What’s the most memorable birthday you’ve had? Do you play tourist in your city?

Saturday’ing

April 7, 20136 Comments

Hey Friends! Happy Sunday! I tweeted this morning how happy I was that it was a bright, sunny morning and I am still smiling about that! The temp may not be that warm yet, but the forecast is looking good. I love a Sunday morning where I wake up feeling good (definitely tight from my workouts this week so I am happy today is a rest day! Haha, jk! I just checked my email and saw the that Athena sent us our weekly workouts for the April Arms Challenge so I have some 3-2-1 circuits to do!) and have a fairly open agenda for the day. All I “have” to do is grocery shop and look for a dress to wear to my birthday party next weekend. Yes!

Thank you all so much for your comments on my post on Friday! It’s definitely a fine line you can cross when working out while you’re sick, so I am happy to see I am not the only one that struggles with it!

Friday night…

I taught my last class at the Allston BSC on Friday night… totally bittersweet:( I sure went out with a bang, though! 21 or 22 people came and it was so nice to see that most of them were my “regulars”. They all had the kindest words for me after class and I am going to miss them so much!! Hopefully some will come to my Wednesday or Thursday classes at the Central Square BSC!

When I got home, I poured myself a glass of vino (I tweeted Jen to let her know that I was participating in Winesday Wednesday early!) and hung out with Danielle while she made pizza!

Danielle decided she wanted to make buffalo chicken pizza AND a margarita pizza so I was pumped! I’m all for easy, simple pizzas, but it’s nice to have fancy ones every once in a while!

Drool-worthy, I know. It tasted even better than it looked! Post dinner, we watched Wednesday’s Nashville episode (anyone else watch this show?! How GOOD were the 2 girls at singing Ho Hey?! I might have cried a little…) and I was in bed by 10:30. I know, I act like I’m 80 years old with my early bed time!

Saturday

Yesterday was a busy, busy Saturday! Between teaching kickboxing and having two birthday parties on the agenda, I was pretty much non-stop all day! Kickboxing was an absolute blast!! Again, I had a huge group of members who like to work HARD. Every instructors dream, right?! I was also happy because Athena came! I had a to sneak a pic after we were done. Please pardon our sweaty, post workout appearance! I was so sweaty yesterday that my hands slipped on the ground when we were doing our last blast of the class (10 burpees to finish off our workout)!

After class, I rushed home and showered because mom and Colleen and baby Emma were coming down for Rozzie’s 1st birthday party (my mom is obviously a social butterfly and her friends kids have had their own babies- Emma and Rozzie. Love those two to pieces!). I don’t have any pictures of Rozzie’s party, but it was perfectly pink and looked like it was right out of the Etsy homepage:) We did get to hang out with Emma… can you get enough of those cheeks?!

(We were twinnies with our matching green pants!)

We had to leave Rozzie’s party early because it was Rachel’s birthday! In years past, Rachel and I celebrated our birthday’s together, which was always a blast, but now we celebrate separately which gives each of us our day to shine (We are both ridiculously obnoxious with our birthdays… forcing people to celebrate with us for the whole month!).

Rachel is the hostess with the mostess and this party was no different! But, let’s be honest, as long as she has made her famous Sangria, the food is just an added bonus!

Look at the treats!! mmmmm These things are pretty strong, so it was a good thing that we had loads of food!

And most of you saw these on Instagram… SO good.

It was so nice to catch up with so many friends and family yesterday! Feeling very blessed today and know that feeling will stay with me for the rest of the week as it is BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!