Weekending: Maine Edition {Freeport, Family Wedding & Relaxing}

September 23, 2014September 21, 201410 Comments

Good morning! How’s everyone doing? This past weekend was so nice… and relaxing! After a crazy couple of months, it was so nice to be able to relax, go to bed early and hang out with my parents. Even though our Sunday apple picking lunch picnic plans got cancelled because of the weather, it was still a great weekend. I headed up to Maine on Friday afternoon after work. Starting the trip from my office in Wakefield is so much nicer than starting from Boston! Before going to my parents, I stopped off at Shaw’s Ridge Farm to visit with and congratulate my dear friend Meredith on her recent engagement. We didn’t snap any photos unfortunately, but I’ll tell you… her ring is stunning and she is absolutely beaming! I am so happy for her!

Shortly after 7 I arrived at home. Even though I had just seen my parents the weekend before, I was still so excited to see them. Mom had a glass of wine waiting for me and dad had unloaded all the leftovers from the fridge so I could make myself a plate- I love being home 🙂

This was my dad’s plate. Talk about a lot of stuff!

Friday night was an early night and Saturday morning mom and I did some strengthening exercises for our knees (she has a hurt knee right now, too) before going into town for pedicures.

I decided to wear my hair straight, but with curls from my straightener. I hadn’t done it in a while, but I think it turned out pretty good! I also loved the dress I wore. It was comfortable and warm, which was perfect for the chilly weather on Saturday. I got it at Marshall’s for $20 (it’s a Max Studios dress).

Around noon we headed out. Mom suggested we take road sodas, and I’m not one to say no to her 😉

My parents are Jamie’s god parents so they were invited to the ceremony. The ceremony was held at my aunt and uncles new place on the ocean in Freeport and from what I heard, was beautiful. While they were at that, I shopped around the outlets in Freeport and grabbed a super healthy smoothie before going back to pick them up.

We headed to the reception around 4, which was held at my cousin’s new barn in Falmouth. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any of the entrances or first dances (everyone was standing around the dance floor and I couldn’t see 😦 ), but from pictures I saw online, it was awesome! Jamie is a collector of all sorts of old things, including vehicles, so he and his new wife, Sheena, were in the cab of the truck and the bridal party was in the back as they made their grand entrance to the reception.

The barn was adorable- so rustic and quaint and just perfect for a Maine reception.

The food was also delicious- and so simple. I think people get too caught up with food and options and apps and main courses when at the end of the day, if you have one thing that’s really good- people will be happy. They had at least 2 huge pigs (whole roasted pigs) for pulled pork, beans, rice, coleslaw, corn bread and salad. Everything was really, really good! And cupcakes for dessert? Yes, please.

It was so nice to a. spend time with my parents at an “outing” and b. spend time with my dad’s side of the family. We don’t get to see each other nearly enough and it’s a shame because they are SO FUN. I was at the “kids” table and we had so many laughs- they all have the Gagnon sense of humor (I do not.) and I laugh so much when I’m with them. While there wasn’t a ton of dancing, we did dance to my cousin’s band that was playing, and it was so cool that he jumped in and played a bunch of songs with them! I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, but Jaime and Sheena- what a fantastic wedding! I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. Cheers to many more years of happiness, laughter and love.

My dad is a twin… so fun!

This was the “if you graduated from UMaine Orono” picture- can you believe how many people there were?!

My sister had another wedding to attend over the weekend so she wasn’t able to attend this one 😦

Till the next family wedding!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? What was the best thing you did? Have you been to a wedding in a barn?

Weekending: Moving, moving & more moving

September 18, 2014September 17, 20146 Comments

Yup. Moving was the jist of my weekend starting on Thursday night. I keep telling everyone that moving to a new floor in the same building is just as hard, if not harder, than moving to an entirely new building! Instead of packing things up and doing a few big trips, I ended up not packing and just making a million trips up and down the stairs every time I needed something. It was a bad way to go about the move, let me tell you that!

After a few hours of strenuous moving on Thursday night, I had a glass of wine then treated my helpers to pizza and wine from Santarpio’s.

#prioritiespeople Clearly wine is the first thing that should be in a fridge. Booze helps moving suck less 😉

I hadn’t been to Santarpio’s since my birthday weekend, and boy was I craving it! Per usual, Santarpio’s did not disappoint. Look at these bad boys!

My parents came down on Friday to help my sister with her stuff (she’s moving in with me for a few months), so I rushed home after work to join the party. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in and saw this beautiful bouquet of flowers from RM. For those of you who don’t know, he’s actually my landlord and that’s how we met 🙂 Last year, when I was just his tenant, he knew I was nervous about moving and surprised me with a bottle of wine and little note in my fridge. This year, as my boyfriend, he left flowers… I’m a lucky girl!

I took a quick break for dinner (we ordered from Jeveli’s) and continued working until 8:30.. yuck! It was fun having my parents around, though. Dad broke in my new deck, I toasted to the new apartment and we all indulged on delicious food!

I didn’t sleep a wink on Friday night, so I was up and making trips up and down the stairs at 7am on Saturday. This wasn’t a good idea before teaching cardio kickboxing! I was such a space cadet in class 😦 and tired- physically really tired!

Once I got back, it was nice to do some more organizing and a few additional trips. My downstairs neighbor, Lauren, came up for wine and snacks later that evening- it was such a fun night! It felt weird to sleep at home by myself on a Saturday night, though… and even more weird to wake up on a Sunday and have a quiet place to myself… I took advantage of it and watched tv and blogged. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve done that! I was even able to eat lunch out on my deck- such a beautiful day.

The rest of Sunday was spent moving the final pieces of stuff from my old place, cleaning it and doing the last bit of organizing in my new place. I went to Target and picked up some new curtains and a lamp- what do you think of the place so far?

I finally decided it was time to put together some dinner. Salads have been making me gag lately, so I knew I needed to prep enough food to bring for lunch and eat throughout the week. Since my dad brought me all these veggies, I tried to put them to good use.

I made a big ol’ batch of roasted veggies, including carrots, parsnips and onions from my dads garden and sweet potato and butternut squash (side note: I originally typed SQUAT instead of squash… i have issues) from the store. I just put coconut oil, salt, pepper and garlic salt on them and roasted them at 400* for about an hour.

On the side, I made some stuffed peppers with the peppers that my dad gave me. I put onions, summer squash, zucchini, broccoli, black beans and ground chicken in them. SO good!

I made some ground chicken burgers with the leftover ground chicken. Thank goodness I had wine to keep me going through all that food prep!

So, there’s my weekend. I have to say- it was really nice being around on Sunday without a million plans. My sister was gone all day, so even though I got lonely by 7ish, it was a super relaxing day where I was able to do what I wanted when I wanted. I need more days like that 🙂

Questions for you: What was the best part of your weekend? Did you make any good meals? Do you food prep for the week? What’s a way to spice up a salad?

Boston Day of Fun, Pat Green Concert & Easter Weekend in Maine {Recap}

April 22, 2014April 20, 20142 Comments

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing like the feeling of spending a weekend home in Maine. I come back to the city feeling totally re-charged. I love the fast-paced, city life style 95% of the time, but after weeks and weeks of that, it feels really great to come home to Maine for a slower-paced, less busy weekend.

I cannot tell you how amazing it was to have Friday off. I don’t know what my problem was last week, but I had ZERO desire to work. I managed to get through it, but it wasn’t fun! Friday started off with a much-needed hair cut, followed by a sushi lunch with the guy. We had planned to have a “day of fun” in the city since I had the day off and he had a half day.

After lunch, we headed to Copley and did some shopping. I got my watch fixed and he scored big time at J. Crew. We finished the day at The Salty Pig, which would have been better if it wasn’t Good Friday (meaning we could eat meat). But! They had Gluten Free beers and a great music selection, so it was the perfect way to end our day.

That night, I had plans to go to the Pat Green concert at the House of Blues with my sister and some friends. Danielle surprised me with tickets for my birthday and even though I had never heard of him, I was excited to go to a country concert with a fun group of people!

After a very sweaty (per usual) and still fairly packed kickboxing class on Saturday morning, Danielle and I headed north for the rest of the weekend. We met our mom in Kennebunkport for lunch at Federal Jacks, which was delicious! I got the beef and barley soup (so random, but it sounded so good) and the strawberry and goat cheese salad. I knew I had to go try on clothes after lunch so I wanted to keep it on the lighter side.

After shopping around at PJ’s Unique Peek for an outfit to wear in the fashion show next weekend, we headed home to finally see dad! He and I prepped veggies and meat for the BBQ- I cannot tell you how excited I was to have a BBQ!

Danielle and I were in bed and asleep before 10pm… and didn’t wake up until 8:45 on Sunday morning. I haven’t slept that long in who knows when and it was amazing!!! We did Easter baskets, church, brunch and then helped dad clean up the wood on the lawn (for the winter months) Mom and I went for a nice 40 minute walk and then we all had a bonfire until it was time to cook dinner.

We had an absolutely wonderful meal… so good that I think I need to share it with you soon 😉

All in all, it was such a good weekend! From the time I woke up on Friday, to the time I went to bed on Sunday (ahhh, the joys of having a flexible job that allows me to work from home in Maine!), I pretty much had a non-stop smile on. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life- both family and friends, and getting some solid, uninterrupted family time over the weekend was exactly what I needed after a very hectic March and April.

I hope all of you had a nice Easter celebration (if you celebrate it)!

Questions for you: Have you heard of Pat Green? Do you like going to concerts? What did you do for Easter- was it a small celebration or a big family thing? Were you able to enjoy the nice weather?

Workouts and Weekending

February 24, 2014February 23, 20142 Comments

Morning, friends! I hope you had a great weekend! Thank you so much for your awesome comments, Twitter shares and Facebook shares on my “You workout… you can eat what you want”. I had a blast writing that post and was happy to see that so many of you could relate to it!

I’d love to say that both my workouts last week and weekend activities over the weekend were mind-blowingly awesome, but, they weren’t. On the plus side, I got out of the house which was a very nice treat after having been cooped up inside my little apartment by myself all week!

Friday night after work, I headed up to my friend Lisa’s apartment for a glass of wine and social interaction. It was perfect!

Saturday morning, I got up, worked out (mostly back to normal!) and then hit the road to head north. Although I was feeling and looking {mostly} better, I knew I didn’t want to go out, so I thought it was best to swing home for a night. I stopped in Kittery to “look” quickly at Banana Republic and ended up scoring BIG TIME. Can you guess how much I spent on all of this? 1 dress, 1 pair of pants, 1 skirt, 2 shirts, a necklace and perfume? Hint: It’s under $100!!!

Apparently I was into leopard print…

Once I got home, I showed my dad an incredibly sore, swollen area on my back and we decided to go to a walk-in clinic to get it checked out since I’m in Dallas Monday and Tuesday this week (really not great timing…). Turns out I had a staph infection and was put on antibiotics. Great. Just what I needed after my week!

Needless to say, being home with my parents to take care of me couldn’t have been any better. I got to have wine, snuggle and play with the cats and even got some “get better” flowers from my mom’s friends. They sure know how to make a girl feel better!

Charlie’s “sleeping like a log”… get it… in the wood bag, haha I thought mom was pretty funny for that one!

Sunday was a relaxing day around the house. I filmed a workout video, napped (I didn’t sleep Saturday night, I think because of the Prednisone… sucks), blogged and just tried to relax. I’m nervous about this quick trip to Dallas because being tired and run down is really the last thing I need right now!

Let’s talk about workouts…

I have a whole post going up tomorrow about my mentality towards working out last week (and physical inability to do what I usually do), which was definitely a struggle for me at times, but at other times it was literally the last thing on my mind. Although I wasn’t able to DO most things because of how painful the sores/bumps were on my hands and feet, I was able to get creative with some workouts, which allowed me to get movement in without pain- made me feel so much better!

Last Week’s Workouts

Monday- Nothing
Tuesday- Nothing
Wednesday- I came up with a “no contact, no impact, no equipment” workout that took me about a half hour to finish, including a warm up. I’m posting it on Wednesday for you!
Thursday- I g-chatted with Athena during the day and voiced my frustrations about my physical limitations and she gave me a bunch of “doable” exercises to do. I ended up playing around in my apartment for an hour after work and got in a great sweat sesh with no pain! I also walked 3 miles in the day since it was warm and sunny (and I hadn’t stepped foot out of the apartment in over 48 hours…).

Friday- I was able to jump and make a fist with my hands on Friday!! So I did about 30 minutes of different exercises in my apartment since it was raining outside (meaning I couldn’t walk).

Saturday- I had a great workout in my apartment before leaving for Maine. I did about 35 minutes of kickboxing and 15 minutes of core strength, no-weight arm exercises and some squats/lunges.
Sunday- I filmed my workout from Wednesday, which was about all I did. I had intentions of going snow shoeing, but due to lack of sleep and time constraints, it didn’t happen…and that’s ok!

This Week’s Workouts

Monday- If I slept last night, my plan this morning was to get up early and do a quick 20-30 minute workout before heading to the airport. I know I won’t have time on Tuesday to workout, so I’d like to get something in today if possible.
Tuesday- Nothing
Wednesday- Finally back at the gym (I hope!!!). I’ll probably take it easy and do some light, no-impact cardio before I teach pending on how I feel. I missed these guys last week!
Thursday- Teaching my SHRED and Kickboxing double… Hope I’m feeling back to normal at this point!
Friday- Not sure. I may try to get something done in my apartment or it could be a rest day since I have plans after work.
Saturday- Teaching kickboxing at the Oak Square YMCA
Sunday- Not sure… it will probably depend on how my workouts for the week went.

And, that about sums it up!

Questions for you: When’s the last time you had a limitation inhibiting you to workout like you wanted to? What do you do when you can’t do your usual workouts- skip a workout all together or try to improvise and come up with something that is doable?

Extended Time In Maine: Spending lots of time with family and friends!

December 31, 2013December 29, 2013Leave a comment

I can’t remember the last time I spent more than a few nights home in Maine. Actually, that’s a lie. Last year for Christmas, my sister and I were able to spend a lot of time in Maine, mostly due to the fact that I came down with pneuomonia and we couldn’t leave when originally planned. Thankfully, I survived the holiday sick-free this year.

Since I’ve already caught you up on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I’ll pick up after that! Thursday morning, my mom, sister and I all went to the gym, which is my favorite way to start the day 🙂

After we got home, my dad and I got busy putting together my new mini-kitchen island. I thought I could do it on my own, but I am so happy my dad suggested doing it together because he has all the tools and knowledge to make sure it’s done right.

Charlie thought he was going to be a good helper… he wasn’t.

It took much longer than expected to put it together, but I am so happy with how it turned out! It’s not great quality, but until I buy a place and know I won’t be moving every couple of years, I don’t want to have super nice stuff that could get damaged. This is absolutely perfect for my little kitchen because not only does it give me extra counter space, but it’s on wheels so I can move it around as I need/want. Love it- thanks mom and dad!!

We went to the movies in the afternoon (nothing like $6.50 matinees in Maine!) to see Anchorman 2, which, sadly, was a big disappointment. Has anyone else seen it? I just thought it was slow and not that funny. At least the beers were $2, which kept me entertained 😉

We made the most delicious chicken parmesan meal when we got home from the movies. Holy moly. My mom really does make the best chicken parm (Danielle and I served ours over spaghetti squash… the best way to save on carbs and calories!)!

After dinner, we spent a lot of time listening to my parents talk about their parents and their childhood. My dad’s parents passed away when he was in his young 20’s and my mom’s mother passed away when she was in her mid-late 20’s, so we haven’t really gotten to hear much about them over the years. It was so fun to look through old photo albums and listen to their stories.

I started my Friday just like most “off” days from work: at the gym! I took a great cardio and core class, which was perfect after a weights class on Thursday. After the class, I headed to the AT&T store to get a new iPhone. I was using an old iPhone 4 and was long overdue for an upgrade, so I finally headed in and made the upgrade! So far, I am LOVING my iPhone 5S and can’t wait to see the difference in picture quality.

My family headed to the mall in the afternoon and I scored a number of deals- have you guys been shopping since Christmas? The sales are unreal! I got 2 shirts a dress and lotion for $30! After the mall, we headed to the Back Street Grill for some happy hour wines with my mom’s friend, Jean. When the $3 happy hour wine ends at 6pm and you get there at 5:30, you order 2 😉

We made a nice, healthy chicken and veggie teriyaki stir fry for dinner- all of us agreed we needed more veggies!

Saturday, Danielle and I made the trek back to Boston, with a quick stop in Kittery to exchange some things (I just ended up buying more. whoops). With the looks of the back of her SUV, though, you’d think the last thing we’d be doing was shopping!

Once I got back, I unpacked everything, went for a 5K run and then had a quiet night in. I had wanted to do something, but it ended up being nice staying in. I needed to get my iTunes updated so I could put music on my new phone, catch up on blogging and have some alone time, all which I accomplished on Saturday night!

Sunday morning I woke up pretty early, which was expected since I’ve slept a lot the past handful of nights, so I went to a 9:30 spin class, followed by upper body strength and core work. The gym was dead, which is my favorite way for it to be unless I’m teaching 😉

The rest of my Sunday was pretty quiet… I’m ready for some serious social interaction! I went grocery shopping, prepped lunches/meals and did some other random stuff around my apartment. I hung out with my sister in the afternoon for a few hours before coming home and making a delicious chicken, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts and quinoa dish.

Although it was a quiet weekend, it was good. I started Monday feeling refreshed and ready to get back on a schedule!

Questions for you: Have you seen Anchorman 2? Do you have the new iPhone? What was the best part of your weekend? Any fun plans for NYE tonight?

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Tag: shopping

Weekending: Maine Edition {Freeport, Family Wedding & Relaxing}

Weekending: Moving, moving & more moving

Boston Day of Fun, Pat Green Concert & Easter Weekend in Maine {Recap}

Workouts and Weekending

Extended Time In Maine: Spending lots of time with family and friends!

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