Pure Exhaustion

I'm about a day behind in my happenings here, but I figured I would catch up and recap on my Friday before diving into Saturday.  I woke up EXHAUSTED yesterday!  I just didn't feel good and needed waaaaaaaaaaaay more sleep.  Obviously I have been doing a lot of extracurricular stuff lately, and I think that's starting to translate to not enough down time and not enough sleep = me completely exhausted!  I think my goal for next week will be to try to get to bed earlier and try and get in closer to 8 hours of sleep.     
I decided this was the perfect day to try my other Amazing Meal packet that I got at the Healthy Home Market a few weeks ago.  This one was a Pomegranate Mango Infusion version:

The last one I tried seemed to give me a bunch of energy and I was curious to see if this one would do the same.  I did a smoothie with:

1/2 packet of Amazing Meal

3/4 cup of milk

handful of ice

handful of spinach

one banana

spoonful of macadamia nut butter

sprinkle of shredded coconut

(i figured i would go kinda tropical for this smoothie)

(I got this at the Healthy Home Market a couple weeks ago too and wanted to try it)

I liked the smoothie.  I was a nice change from a chocolate or Green Monster smoothie.  However, I don't think it successfully energized me the way the chocolate one I tried did.  But maybe I was just too far gone in zombie land to be brought back ;)

I went to Greenapple for another round of treatment on my knee.  I had the same stuff done as last time, lazer, stim, movement/massage of the area, and tape.  I also did some exercised on this bouncy contraption (can't remember the name of it).

I took a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  I am not usually a napper, but I was just DYING yesterday.  I felt slightly better after my nap and had some banana soft serve with dark chocolate dreams PB as a snack when I woke up:

Then I got myself geared up and as out of my funk as I could to go to a Zumba class with Jen and Katie.  Earlier in the week, Diana had mentioned that she wanted us to come to a Zumba class with her sometime and that Friday's class would be a good one to come to.  There is no way to explain the amount of passion for Zumba Diana has.  It's completely awesome and contagious :)

 

And her Zumba outfit is so cute and cool!

Irene, Diana, Katie, Jen, Jen, and me.

(I think my camera was on a "food" setting when this was taken...lol)

She instructed on one song, but also made the rounds during the class showing the moves on the floor.
This was my second time trying Zumba.  I'm not sure it's my thing.  I've never been big into dance or anything like that and I kind of don't know if I like it.  I had a good time though, and I'd be up for going again, I just don't know that it will ever be my passion the way it is for Diana :)

I got home from Zumba and decided to take Clyde for a walk.  We stumbled upon a little "drive-way party" going on on the other side of my neighborhood involving a couple neighbors I know.  I was invited to stay and offered a beer.  Heck, why not?  I chatted with the ladies while the men played cornhole and various kiddos ran around.  Clyde was very well behaved and mainly sat quietly on my lap.  After about a half hour I decided we needed to head out and finish our walk and that I needed to EAT (it was pushing 9pm!). 

I had nacho/salad:

Food Should Taste Good Multigrain chips

Meunster cheese

spinach

tomatoes

mushrooms

 a heap of fresh guac

I ended up staying up til about midnight since I was all thrown off by my nap.  I caught up on The Real World and The Next Food Network Star.

Bloggers Bloggers Everywhere!

Thursday was a flurry of activity as usual.  I started my day with something I don't usually have for breakfast: Ice Cream!  Banana Soft Serve!  With a scuffin crumbled on top. 

Then off to work I went.  I went straight from work to yoga, because Greg was home durjing the day ysterday, so I didn't have to rush home to let Clyde out.  On my way to yoga, I tried this Kind Bar.

Ok, so I devoured it before I got a picture of the ACTUAL bar, but here's the wrapper.  This bar was VERY TASTY!

Yoga was fun.  I met Jessie for a power mixed class.  It was a nice workout and I actually sweated my tape from Greenapple off!  Ooops!  

After class I was in the locker room at the studio showering and getting ready for my next event of the evening when I struck up a conversation with another girl in the room who turned out to be a yoga instructor there and also blogs!  Hi Sarah!  I hope to take one of her classes soon :)

After yoga, I had a Charlotte Bloggers Meetup at Charley's Restaurant.  Funny story, but since I'm a member of meetup.com (I've mentioned before this is how I got involved in a running group), I get emails about new groups.  When I saw the email about this group, I recognized the organizer as being a girl I went to high school with in Massachussetts!  RANDOM!  Brittany writes Mommy Words, a blog about her life as a mother of three and lives in Charlotte.  I always thought it was funny that she was in my class of about 400 people and we were the only two "Britts".  Our name was rarer back then, before Britney Spears and all the other crazy Britts started popping up everywhere.  It's even more random that we both ended up in Charlotte!

I mainly attended the meetup to see Brittany, but I also was interested in checking out the group.  It was interesting!  It got me thinking about the purpose and direction of my blog again.  Which, in case you can't tell, I have no clue where I'm really going with it.  I just know I enjoy writing it.  I may start giving my focus some serious thought again though.

While there I had this yummy salad call the California:

It had goat cheese, strawberries, mandarin oranges, and pecans.  I was like, YES PLEASE!  Yum :)

The blogger meetup went late and I didn't get home til about 10:30pm. 

I had a fun day meeting all these bloggers everywhere though!

Scuffin Night In

I had another appointment at Greenapple for  my knee tonight.  This one went well.  The doctor kind of massaged with pressure my knee and leg while moving it.  Kind of hard to explain.  It hurt a bunch above my knee but in a good way.  They also used a lazer and some electric stimulation on the area.  Then he taped my knee with this special tape that supposed to help my knee cap get back to where it should be (it's a little off).  I have to wear the tape til Friday (my next appointment).  It is PRETTY (no, not really)! 

Greg and I were hoping to take our kayaks out on a nearby river tonight.  Upon arriving home he got them packed up in his car.  We checked the weather radar and realized some storms might come through though, so we didn't go. 

Instead we took Clyde Francis (yes, he has a middle name) for a walk.  

Here is my lovely taped knee... 

Clyde running through the parking lot of our pool.

Cooling down after.

We had an early dinner, which was blackbean burgers- the hubby's favorite.  I forgot to take a picture, but mine was sans bun on a spinach salad base with some salsa, avocado, lemon juice, mushrooms, and tomato.

Since we stayed in, I decided to bake something.  I made Oh She Glows' scuffins!

The hubby doesn't like coconut so I made half with and half without.  Nom nom nom :)
While baking I half watched Away We Go.  I really liked the music in it.  I think I will download some to the Pod sometime soon.  I am a big fan of getting music from movies.  Do you have a favorite soundtrack?

Greenapple and Oranges

So, here's a little update on my knee.  Obviously Sunday's bad run had me totally down about the whole running situation.  It's been almost two months since my half marathon, and about a month since the knee got bad enough for me to stop running.  I want to get back out there!  Almost everyone I know is training right now and I miss running a lot.  Three people I work with have been to this guy Dr. Greenapple.  All of them are runners and triathletes and they said the guy is pretty progressive and had them running within two weeks of visiting.  They also take our health insurance (I always have issues with that!).  I made an appointment and saw him yesterday.  Things went well.  I told him my loooooooooooong story (seriously, it probably took me 20 minutes to explain everything).  He listened and took notes.  He examined me.  His conclusion made a lot of sense and we went right into some treatment and scheduled more.  I'm really encouraged.  I'm HOPING to be back out running in a couple weeks.

I rushed back home after visiting Greenapple, to make dinner for Greg and I.  He's been away about 5 days this week, so I was really happy to have him home.  I had offers to meet for yoga, but I really just felt like he and I needed some quality time together.  Which leads me to something I wanted to discuss.  For any new readers, I've been with my husband for 8 1/2 years now and we've been married over 4 years.  When people ask me about being a pilot's wife, I say that I'm used to him being away and I'm used to him being home.  Both seem normal to me.  A lot of the time I say it's kind of nice to have the time he's away to myself.  You probably notice that I fill my time with various athletic activities, dinners, and social events.  I've also been known to give the piece of advice to a new pilot's significant other to "get a life" (well, I try to put it more eloquently than that).  I just mean that a pilot's wife needs to be really independent and be able to entertain herself while her man is gone.  I think that can also mean to not plan everything around the pilot being home and drop everything just because he's home.  But, I think recently I'm guilty of not allotting enough time for my husband.  I've gotten so into my social activities, sports, and extracurricular activities, that sometimes I feel like I really only spend a couple hours a week with Greg if he's only home on weeknights.  I don't know that that is enough, and I want to try and prioritize spending time with him a little more, while still maintaining an active social life.  Do you guys have trouble balancing the things/people in your life? 

Ok, on to dinner!  I REALLY wanted to try making MILLET!

I actually twittered about it wondering if anyone had a good recipe.  No response :(  So I just decided to wing it.  I toasted the Millet for about 4-5 minutes in a dry pan (this was 1/2 cup).

While it was toasting I brought 2 cups of liquid (I used 1/2 water, 1/2 veg stock) to a boil in a sauce pan.  I dumped the Millet into the water and covered it to cook on low for about 30 minutes.  I ended up deciding to add some sauteed onion, some orange zest and orange juice (like 1/4 of an orange worth), and just a touch of dried rosemary (like maybe 1/4 teaspoon).  I added these things in the last 5 minutes of cooking or so to meld in. 

I also steamed some zucchini:

Then I got to the "meat" of the dinner.  Greg LOVES orange chicken at a Chinese Restaurant.  At least, he used to when he ate meat more often.  I have always thought it was gross, with the "mystery" chicken under the deep fried/candy coating.  I'm more of a chicken with mixed vegetables or broccoli kind of girl.  Anyway, while at the place where we can't spend less than $100 Costco recently, we saw this sauce.  Yeah, it's not very nutritious, but it gave me an idea.  Tempeh would be good cubed with a little of this on it to simulate "orange chicken".

And my idea was right!  I used very little, like maybe a tablespoon?  A little went a long way and created a nice gooey crust on the tempeh.  Success :)  I think I actually could make my own healthier version of this with just some orange juice and brown sugar (maybe some corn starch to thicken it slightly).  Since I only used a very small amount I think the overall health of this meal was pretty good though. 

All together...

Greg loved it and said we should have this meal once a week! 

On a totally unrelated note, I just heard about this website: Cats that Look Like Hitler! 

It's good for a laugh if you are need... :)

Dandy Night

Via my new way to waste time on the internet Twitter last week, a bunch of Charlotte bloggers coordinated a meet-up at Dandelion Market.  They had a Groupon for $10 for $20 worth of grub and we all liked the idea. 

Here's the bar area:

The wall of shoe molds:

Le menu:

My beer, which was a Carolina Strawberry Ale.  It was yummy!  It had a subtle strawberry taste, but wasn't overwhelming.

The water, which came in these cool tall jugs with tiny little water glasses.  Jen is a constant water drinker, so she probably had about 40 glass fulls of water by the end of the night...lol!

I ordered a salad with balsamic and cranberries in a Parmesan cheese basket.  MMMM, cheese basket :) 

And mushroom flatbread:

Plus Jen twisted my arm into having some of this apple dessert.  We shared it with most of the table.

The crew

Michelle, Jessie, Katie, Kelly, Jen, Jen, Me, and Diana:

It was a late night out for me, being a weeknight and all, and I promptly crashed upon arriving home. I had a great time though and really enjoy the company of these ladies :)

Sunday Run-day

I was excited to get up this morning and go for a run with Ashley around the plantation.  As you saw yesterday, it's completely gorgeous in Hilton Head, and a run around the plantation sounded like a great plan.  Before our run, we ate some fruit and played with you-know-who....

I got my Nike's on and we headed out.

I warned Ashley prior to the run I needed to take it kind of easy on this run since I'm still nursing that knee and that I might not want to go too far.  But she convinced me to do the big 4-5 mile loop which includes bridges over the marsh and going by the marina- some pretty views.  I couldn't say no and she said we'd walk if it bothered me, so I agreed...  Yeah... my knee started bothering me after about 2 miles.  Great...  So that wasn't fun...  We walked on and off, but I think I need to look into treatment this week again if I want to kick this injury once and for all.  I can't believe I felt it again after resting it so long.  Rrrrrr!  I'm totally discouraged.

Lunch today was out at a new restaurant called Woody's.

I can't believe Mark and Ashley are coming up on one year of marriage already!

I had a delicious salad with a giant crabcake on top.

The girls stopped at the Tanger Outlets to check out the Banana Republic Factory Store (my fav).  I got two dresses and a t-shirt.  I may be wearing one dress to the Healthy Living Summit Cocktail Party in a few weeks!

I made a batch of banana soft serve for the fam!  It was a big hit!

Before heading out of town, we all went to the pool for one last float.  This time I had water with fresh strawberries floating in it instead of margaritas, since I was driving. 

My trip home:

95 North:

26:

(the sun was behind the clouds, glowing :)

and finally 77 North:

It actually got really stormy between Columbia and Charlotte.  Good thing Greg's car has 4-wheel drive and I'm used to driving in crappy weather...

I made it home around 9:30pm.  The trip felt too short.  I am wondering if I should have stayed another day...  :(  I miss my family already!

Fast Times on Hilton Head Island.

Clyde and I arrived in Hilton Head around 4pm on Friday!  Just time for a float in the pool and a margarita with the fam!  It was so lovely! 
After regrouping at the house, we headed out to Corks for dinner, which is one of my favorite spots in the area now and I've been there about 4 times.  The food always rocks and the wine is phenomenal. :)  There was ahi tuna, salad with goat cheese and apples, and tuscan chicken flatbread.  Also a nice Rojo and a Pinot Noir. 
A couple of my brother's friends met us out and came back to the house for some dessert (peach cobler) and more wine. 
I called it a night early since I'd been up since 5:15am for that early yoga class and also needed to make sure the puppy behaved at the grandparents' house.  The youngins (bro, sister-in-law, and their friends) went out for some drinks around 10:15pm.

Saturday morning started with a walk with my mom and Clyde around the plantation. 

Spanish moss :)

The Marsh

This sign is pretty funny, and about 10 years ago when my brother was in college, he stole one similar to this posted in the same area that read "Please do not feed or MOLEST the alligators".  Ok, I won't!

Clyde checking out a bird!

The building behind those trees is the plantation clubhouse where Greg and I got married :)

It was about a 2-3 mile walk.  I love it here.  It's my favorite place to walk.  So scenic! 

Back at the house we had some plans for breakfast...

I got my mom hooked on Green Monsters last time she visited. 

We also had this fruit salad that I helped make.

Playing with the settings on the new camera...  Love the "food" setting :)

After breakfast, my dad and brother hit the links, Ashley went to the pool, and my mom and I went to get some food for a huge seafood feast we were planning for dinner. 

Some of the goods...

Also went to Hudson's Fish Market for FISH!

I took a couple pictures of the docks at Hudsons while my mom was inside picking out the fish.

After our errands were complete, my mom and I joined Ashley up at the pool...

We got in some girl talk and I read more of Eat, Pray, Love.  We also took a dip to cool off.

Then the boys got back from golf and called us to come to the smaller pool on my parents' street.  They met us with pool noodles for floating and some margaritas in insulated containers.

Once our skin was fully pruned (and I was tipsy from my margarita) we headed back to the house to make our dinner feast.

Fun in the kitchen!

Some relaxing also ensued...

Clyde likes his uncle!

For dinner we had a salad with spinach and romaine, and assorted topping options...  Almonds, dried cranberries, croutons, and goat cheese.

We had the ultimate seafood feast of seared scallops (made by my bro), broiled tilapia, and king crab legs.

My dad and bro also grilled a couple filet mignons with a seasoning of cocoa, chili powder, and salt.

I don't steak that often anymore, but this was a good one.  I had a slice.

We also had asparagus and wild rice.

My plate (crab leg not pictured!):

and my salad:

Plus we had some wine:

 We had a little cheesecake for dessert, and this dessert wine:

Sounds weird, but it's pretty good.  Kinda like Kahlua...

We also had a visitor on the window:

He was funny!  Reminded me of those sticky octopi in the cereal boxes that you throw at a window and they stick and "climb" down...

Then we all called it a night!