Valentine's Day Weekend

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We celebrated Valentine's Day weekend in Chicago, and spent some time visiting with my parents as well. My husband and I headed up to my parents' on Thursday night.

On Friday morning, I worked most of the morning and then headed to the gym... downstairs. I had a 6 mile run planned, and busted it out while watching - you guessed it - Netflix. Once 6 miles were up, I spent a while walking and then did some abs.

I followed this until mile 6, when I started 'freestylin' aka jogging at 6mph

There is clearly something wrong with my Polar Heart Rate Monitor, because there is no way this is accurate. It was a good workout, but my heart rate definitely did not reach 204 (I would have probably felt on the verge of death if it had). What's up with that? Do I need to replace my battery?

Did I die and come back to life?

Once my workout was done and dusted, I took a shower and started getting ready for Valentine's Day errands. I realized that I had packed nothing red or pink to wear, and I am a festive girl so this was unacceptable. I took the liberty of raiding my sister's closet and came up with this. The benefits of having a same-sex sibling who is a similar size.

I'll take it!

After I was sufficiently dressed in Valentine's worthy garb, I headed out to pick up some Valentine's Day necessities for the meal I was preparing. My dad recently had surgery and my mom has been busy taking care of him, so I wanted to make a nice meal not only for my husband but also for my parents. I headed to Mariano's Grocery to pick up filets, brussels sprouts, sage, dried apricot, and arugula.

En route, I savored the green juice I had brought from Holland the day before.

My dad had requested a chocolate cake, so my next stop was Portillo's to pick one up. They make such a good chocolate cake, and I am more of a cook than a baker anyway, so it was definitely worth it to leave this one up to the pros (also: less mess to clean up). 

I also picked up lunch for my dad, husband, and I. I went with a chicken breast, sans sandwich, and the staff at Portillo's kept yelling out that I wanted mine "nudie." It was funny. 

Once I got home, I ate my nudie, did a little more work, and then poured myself a glass of wine around 4 as I prepped for dinner. 

My husband knows how to give gifts. While I gave him a Gymboss workout timer, he gave me a David Yurman. Clearly I got the better end of the deal, honey.

I made an appetizer of dried apricots with melted aged cheddar cheese and sage, which was delicious and hard to stop eating. I also prepared roasted brussels sprouts with parmesan and maple syrup, a side salad of arugula and whatever veggies/nuts I could find in my mom's fridge/pantry. My husband roasted up the filets around 6:30 and we went to town.

Dinner fixings, and yes, that would be my plate with two wine glasses. 

After dinner, we were all pretty full and tired, so we laid low. My husband and I started watching the new season of House of Cards and we went to bed early.

The next morning, we met my friend Sara and her husband at Meli Cafe. It is both of our favorite lunch spot in the city, so there was not even a discussion about where we would meet for brunch. It was just Meli's, assumed.

Double fisting like a champ

After brunch, my husband and I headed over to East Bank Club for a workout. My friend is a member and gave us a guest pass for the day, so we made sure to get in a killer workout and took our time.

We left sore and happy, so clearly it was a success. Afterward, we headed to West Loop. I had my final laser hair appointment at Ellehome Med Spa, and it was a painful but necessary fifteen minutes.

Post-pain, we headed back to my parents' house. I had been steeping lemon rind and vodka at my parents' for a while, so I finally strained it and combined with homemade sugar syrup to make some homemade limoncello (I used this recipe). 

God bless my parents for putting up with all of my weird experiments...

My aunt and uncle stopped by, and we hung out with them for a while before having Bill's Pub pizza for dinner and ordering a movie.

Sunday consisted of a lame attempt at a workout (I was cranky, it happens randomly sometimes), an awesome church service, and a visit from our best man. It is always nice to see people you love smiling!

On the way back from church, we had stopped at Sunset grocery to pick up some dinner fixings. I was surprised to see that they now offer a beer counter in the grocery! My kind of shopping, but probably not at noon on a Sunday.

We put together a delicious meal and then spent a few hours helping my parents re-do their internet and wireless set up. Or, I should say, my husband did that... and I sat on Realtor.com and played house.

You win some, you win some.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• How was your Valentine's Day? 
• Do you have any Valentine's Day traditions? I am not much of a traditionalist, and I end up changing  things up all the time, but I love learning about other people's traditions so I can try them out!

P.S. WANT TO WIN A MONTH'S WORTH OF POP CHIPS!? My giveaway is open until this Friday, so be sure to stop by and check it out!

Weekend Things: Like Mike

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I can't believe that it's June, that Father's Day is behind us, that my Bachelorette party is this upcoming weekend, or that I get married in like 6 and a half weeks. Life is flying, and I'm trying to appreciate it.

My mom's birthday was last week, and we do birthdays for real in my family (meaning we like to make a big deal of it). On Friday, when I was finished at work, I hopped on the train to take it up to my parents' house.

I missed your stories, Rick Riordan, but your writing is terribly edited.

I tend to actually really enjoy my longer train rides because I get some quality time with my Kindle.  I am an avid reader of two subjects: Spiritual books and Young Adult Fiction. It's what I love (and, when it comes to Young Adult fiction, I suppose it's what I write, too, so there's that). After a touch less than an hour of reading, I was there.

Why is the only family member not present the birthday girl herself? #WRONG

Step one was crafting the birthday girl's favorite cocktail. I made the best version of "The Butterfly" that I could. It's my mom's favorite "martini" from our favorite Memphis bar, and includes fresh grapefruit juice, fresh basil, soda water, and vodka. I added a tiny bit of Maple Syrup to combat some of the grapefruit's bitterness.

Soy and Lemon Grilled Salmon, Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Parmesan and Pine Nuts, and Olive Oil Grilled Asparagus

The Birthday Girl had also requested a healthy dinner. She is a big fan of salmon, so my brother, dad, and I made grilled salmon and asparagus, while my mom whipped some sweet potatoes (it got a little hectic and she had to lend a hand). I topped the Sweet Potatoes with some shaved parmesan and pine nuts. Yum.

Many hours were put in for this cake. WORTH IT.

For dessert, my sister pulled out all the stops. She made a flourless chocolate espresso cake that was so delicate and creamy that it felt like it was melting in your mouth. 

Yes, I'm wearing a hat. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

After dinner, my brother started a fire in my parents' fire pit in the back yard, and we all cuddled up with blankets (wimps) and chatted a bit before finally hitting the hay. We tried to make it an early night because we had a fun event in the morning...

Saturday morning, I was signed up for the Run for Boston 5k with my mom and sister. We rallied the troops and drove over to the race site, which is legitimately across the street, but it was really gross out and, despite being across the street, the only paved entrance is kind of far away, so we decided to drive it.

Sisters running together!

My mom was unable to run it because she's recovering from what we think is heel spurs and is forcing herself to lay off of running or even excessive walking for a while. So, she was our official race photographer.

Soaked with rain... and victory!

My official time was 23:23, which is a PR for me (and is also hilarious because my fiance and I met Michael Jordan just a few days before). My sister and I ran together for the first 1 or 1.5 miles (not sure). It was our first time running a race together, so I loved it and was so grateful for the moment that I was just desperate to soak it in (which I did!). 

When we split up, I continued to increase my pace. It wasn't a long run, but I focused the entire time on being grateful - grateful for my run with my sister, grateful for the fact that I can run, grateful for the classes I took at The Mercury Method to help increase my pace... grateful for my feet, my ankles, my shins, my calves... and so on. My mom said that when she saw me, I had a huge grin plastered on my face. That's a pretty accurate reflection of how happy I was!

Here a blogger, there a blogger, everywhere a blogger blogger!

After the race, they called all of the bloggers to the start/finish line for a picture. There were so many of us at such a small race! Crazy.

My mom thought this figurine looked like my puppy.

After showering and getting ready at my parents' house, my mom and I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby and Dollar Store to pick up a few random tid bits for the wedding (some guest room bags, frames, etc). I can't get over how happy Hobby Lobby makes me. I could seriously spend hours in there. It's worse than IKEA.

Where's Waldo?

After the shopping frenzy, we drove down to Chicago and hit up the Taste of Randolph Street Festival. It was super crowded, and the streets are narrow, so we were all pretty close together!

Oh hey tiny feet.

The Western entrance to the event had a basketball station set up, where you could measure your height, hand size, and foot size. Obviously, I am no comparison for the true pros. Michael Jordan, do you hear me?

I CANNOT WAIT TO EAT YOU.

Because this festival is food themed, there were countless delicious looking dishes to choose from. I ended up going with some tacos from Belly Q, which were just as yummy as I expected them to be. Fun fact: Michael Jordan is part owner of Belly Q. Apparently MJ and I are now besties.

Sunday morning, I slept in (meaning I slept till 8) while my morning bird fiance had time to wake up, go to breakfast by himself, and drink 3 cups of coffee. Seriously, 8am is not that late!

I went to Bodypump and CXWorx at the gym while my fiance studied, then came home to run some errands. We went on a long walk and hit up Macy's, where we checked out the dishes for our wedding registry, and lululemon, where I exchanged some pants for my mom and bought a glass water bottle.

You get a water bottle? I get a beer. #compromise

We also stopped at Twisted Spoke for a "snack." My fiance had steak tacos and I had a pretty boring garden salad. Oh, and a vodka soda with extra lemon. Twist my arm, why don't ya...

Look, Dad! I'm drinking your root beer!

A bit later, we walked to church, where they celebrated Father's Day by giving out bottles of Dad's Root Beer. I'm not a soda fan, but snatched one for my fiance, who was apparently too shy to grab his own (if you know him, this is VERY out of character).

Ghosts are real.

At home, I prepped quiches, lunch salads, chicken, and watermelon for the week. I also checked up on the vodka I've been infusing. Check out my ghost strawberries. Can't wait to taste test this!

What about you?

• Have you ever met anyone famous? Did you feel like they rubbed any good energy off on you? After seeing Michael Jordan, my fiance and I both felt like some of his "energy" rubbed off on us for at least a few days.
• Have you ever infused alcohol? I've currently got some Lemoncello brewing, as well as some strawberry ginger vodka. If it works, I'll share the "recipes."
• What do you think about during races? I spent the whole time doing mental gratitude exercises, and it was amazing. It didn't hurt that the race site was incredibly beautiful!