Life Is Busy + Easter Recipes

Hello!

I’ve missed my regular posting schedule over the past couple of weeks, but life is simply too busy right now with everything I have going on. I keep reminding myself that it’s all fun stuff and that this little old blog of mine will be right here and waiting for me once things calm down a bit. Thanks for understanding!

Here’s what’s on tap for the next week or so:

–Tim’s birthday is today!! The old man is 29. We’ll be heading out for a nice dinner and drinks tonight. I was away in Minnesota and Chicago last week, and he was away in Missouri and Minnesota this week, so I am really looking forward to having a quality night together tonight and catching up. This morning before his flight home, I sent him a little homemade e-card that I put together with PicMonkey. I listed three restaurant descriptions and asked him to choose one for tonight. Can’t wait to see where we end up! Tomorrow we’ll be doing more birthday related activities and seeing his parents and sister at night.

–Sunday is Easter. Orthodox Easter falls on the same day as Catholic Easter this year, which means no Easter candy sales for my dad and his favorite joke. We’ll be heading down to see my dad’s side of the family in New Bedford, and per usual, we’ll be having our Easter egg cracking tournament.

 

–Monday is Marathon Monday and a big day for Boston after last year’s tragedy. Tim and I will be meeting up with our friends Ashley and Brett for brunch, and we are planning to watch the marathon from the Cleveland Circle area. It’s going to be such an emotionally charged day, and I just cannot wait to be surrounded by all the very reasons that I love this day in the city.

–Tuesday morning I will be participating in a fitness focus group at Reebok headquarters through Fitfluential. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in something like this, and I’m excited. Reebok is right next door to one of my company’s locations, so it works out well. The shopping part is pretty awesome too.

–Then the rest of next week will be completely focused on getting ready for Slesh’s bridal shower! I can’t believe the weekend is finally here. This week I spent a couple of nights shopping for an outfit and for other things (can’t give away any surprises), and next week I’ll be putting together the logistics of everything. I can’t wait for my best friend’s special day!

Phew!

Please tell me I’m not the only one with an absolutely crazy spring?

For those of you who celebrate Easter, I’ll leave you guys with some recipe ideas for this weekend.

For dessert, try:

• Coconut nest cupcakes
• Pecan crusted carrot cake
• Mini strawberry and cream cupcakes

For appetizers, try:

• Spanakopita bites
• Skinny shrimp salsa
• White bean dip

For a side dish, try:

• Greek style green beans
• No crust spinach quiche
• Asparagus with olive oil, feta, and black pepper

For brunch, try:

• Banana pecan coconut oatmeal casserole
• Whole wheat blueberry banana muffins
• Mushroom spinach baked egg casserole

Just in case you’re scrambling for Sunday. 🙂

Enjoy!

Twenty Eight

Today is my 28th birthday.

I honestly feel that I wrote this post just yesterday for my 27th.  I re-read it on Thursday night and it really hit home for me.  Last year at this time I was going through a lot of personal things, all while moving in with a boy for the first time, starting my new position at my full-time job, and taking on a new part-time position at the Y.  I remember being so excited for all that change, but slowly realizing that all that change was actually too much for me to handle at once.  I would probably say I spent the majority of 27 working, wondering, and just trying to stay afloat.  My “me” time and social life definitely suffered, but I think it was a small price to pay because when I look back on the year I realize that I have done so much.  I finally learned how to manage and work through my stress and anxiety issues.  That alone was huge for me.  I rid myself of toxic friendships and surrounded myself instead with people I genuinely wanted to be around.  Working so much also allowed me to save up some money, but more importantly working so much also let me do some soul-searching.  I discovered what I love to do, what I thought I loved to do, what I want to do and what I don’t want to do.  And of course I don’t have ALL the answers, and I probably never will, but I can confidently say that going into 28 I finally feel satisfied with where I am in both my career and personal life.  And I feel happy with who I am.

I do have some new life updates to share with you guys, and today seems like a good day to share!  Effective Monday 9/9 I am no longer going to be in the group exercise coordinator position at the Y.  The healthy living department has done some re-shuffling, so to speak, and all my responsibilities are transitioning to Lauren who has a full-time coordinator position there.  At first I was a little upset about this, because I have put so much effort, time, energy, etc. into my role at the Y in the past year, and I think I did a pretty damn good job!  But the more I think about it the more I’m okay with it.  Things with the wellness program at work are in full swing and I need to put 100% into that to make it the success I want it to be.  Also, all the time spent on going through Y emails, submitting payroll, updating the schedule, and so on will free up so much time for me.  I will still be teaching my classes at the Y (no worries!), but I’m excited to spend more time enhancing this blog, seeing friends and family that I don’t get to see enough, spending time with Tim, personal training here and there, and trying new fitness classes around the city.

Also in the fall I will be auditing the wellness coaching class that I took last year but never completed.  After getting my personal training certification last March, I registered for the Wellcoaches 18 week health and wellness coach training program.  I completed all the classes I need for the program, but I never followed through on certifying.  This was partly because of my full-time career switch – since I would be working in wellness, getting this certification so quickly was no longer a priority for me.   But it was also because I didn’t have enough time to dedicate toward studying and preparing for the tests.  That being said, I am paying a small audit fee to do the classes over again starting in September, and then I hope to certify sometime before summer 2015.  I am excited to add “wellness coach” to my list of certifications.

To celebrate 28, Tim and I are heading to the beach today and will be going out for dinner and drinks later tonight.  I celebrated with friends last night and had a great time.  I feel lucky to have so many good friends in my life.  And I’ll be doing a family dinner next week once my brother is back in town.

All that being said, I’m excited for these changes to come.  And I’m excited to see what 28 has in store for me.