~Olympic Haze~

2012 Olympics has mostly all of my attention, so much so I can not believe tomorrow is Wednesday and I will be picking up my best friend from the airport! I have been trying to get everything done around this house plus get my yoga practice in before she comes. I am very sad to say I will be missing yoga for a whole week, but I know it wont be bad since I will be consumed with partying with the best friend. =)

This is the first year I'm actually watching the Olympics and one of my favorite events is synchronized swimming. This is such a cool even to watch, maybe I wish I did it! Gymnastics, beach volleyball, woman's soccer and diving are the other events I try to keep up with. The USA and Canada soccer team had a great game with USA winning in overtime 4-3. The woman's USA beach volleyball team also had a great match against China.

 Yoga class Monday night was sweaty and tough! The "tough" teacher taught and there was only four other people and I. She likes small classes because then she can work us harder and work on tougher poses. I enjoy learning new tougher poses, but I was not aware of how much strength you needed to do handstands until that night.

(This is what she had us do first, showing us how strenuous the poses was going to be.)

(Here is what the handstand will look like at its fullest expression)

Please use the following link for more infomation

http://leeanncareyyoga.com/yoga/2011/06/yogis-way-featured-pose-handstand/

My arms were shaking and burning but its was an awesome feeling! I could do the handstand right next to the wall but it was a step and hopefully as I work on it I will be able to do it in the middle of the room. The following pose is what I would love to work toward.

http://www.favething.com/o-campbell/yoga/yoga-pose/

Lastly I had also make a great dinner with perogies and left over chicken. I cooked the perogies with some onions in olive oil. Preheated the oven to 350 degrees and cut up the leftover chicken. Grabbed a can of cream of mushroom soup and mixed it with the perogies, chicken and onions in a casserole dish. I put mozzarella cheese on top and put it in the over for 20mins. Added a side of Brussels sprouts and yummm. It was a very tasty meal.

 Hopefully everyone had a great week so far!

<3 ~*Britt*~

~DIY Closet~

Finally getting things accomplished! My closet was a mess and not very functional for me, pinterest was my savor. I wish I took before pictures but a visual for you, tan walls, one clothes rack, and shoes covering the floor. I took the rack down and removed everything from the closet, painted the walls blue and added stripes to the ceiling. I went to Lowes to get another rack, dowels, hooks, screws, nails, mirror hooks and Walmart for fabric.

I was always frustrated because there was not a full length mirror in the house, so I found this mirror that my mom had giving me years ago, bought some clips and wa la! Well not really, this was tough because the mirror is heavy and trying to hold it and screw the hooks in was a nightmare.

I cut the dowels down to different sizes and used them to hold my jewelry and heels. So thankful I got all those heels off the floor, I tripped all over them every time I was getting my clothes. My earrings are hanging from the left over piece of the clothes rack.

These shelves are actually drawers from a broken (cheap) dresser that I pulled apart, wrapped them in fabric, screwed them together and into the wall. 

There is so much more I need/want to do with my closet but for now I am happy with the progress. There is nothing spread across the floor so the walk to my clothes is safe. =)

If you have any questions please ask. 

<3 ~*Britt*~

~Almost Fridayyy~

Power Yoga last night was amazing, but very mentally tough. Nothing kills the excitement for class like seeing the students before you leaving, soaked in their own sweat. This means its going to be a hot class! Our teacher was also in that mood where she really wanted to push us to our limit. It got to a point when she said "foward fold" everyone in class just fell into the pose and gasped. "At the point when you want to get out of the pose, is when the pose starts working". I felt great, but ready to a long shower! The boyfriend made dinner too, now that I think of it I should have took a picture, I do not know when that will happen again ;).

Thursday is our day, the day with no after work activities. Pork chops and perogies was what was on the menu, but we decided to save them for another day. Instead we went with pasta again, we love pasta! I shredded four pieces of chicken and cooked them in a pan with some olive oil. Added some asparagus, seasons, can stewed tomatoes, sun dried tomato pesto, and some red sauce. Now for the "secret" ingredient, Velveeta cheese! Yes its wonderful, makes everyone happy. =)

 (Heaven in a pan)

So after fattening up, a walk (or a roll) was well needed and Blaze never complains. A couple blocks away is a school yard, so we take her there to run out her energy.

She loves playing ball-e so Brian throws the baseball for her. There was a football field lined out on the grass so we decided to time her running the forty yard dash. She ran it in 3.6 seconds!

The walk worked out wonderfully, Brian and Blaze are both passed out snoring. =)

Friday is tomorrow!!! Planning on getting this house straightened up this weekend. Softball playoffs Sunday so probably not much going on this weekend. I am happy with that, because I have a great friend from North Carolina flying in on Wednesday and I am sure we will exhaust all the time with staying busy.

<3 ~*Britt*~

~At Work~

Well I downloaded the blogger app to my smart phone and decided to find out how it works. Being that I am at work and very busy, this is the best time to take a break and try it out right!? The only thing is I dont know how the pictures are going to turn our or even where they will be placed but a took a couple. The one picture is a building I am currently working on, which is a renovation and addition of new steel, ugg its a complicated job, but I am finally making headway with it, thanks to field measurements! The other is my sleepy pup, who is not very happy today because its been raining and that means no outside playtime during work lunch break. Yes I bring my dog to work and its the best! If this wasn't possible then I would never have rescued her but everything worked out and she has a better life to look forward to. Well back to work! Thanks for stopping by, I hope someone is out there reading! :)

<3~*Britt*~

~Did not get a thing done~

I confess, skipped out on yoga tonight, with the idea of organizing our, what seems to be, endless clutter from when we moved. Crazy but I really like to clean and organize, when I am in the mood and today was the day. I decided a quick dinner was a good idea if I was going to get some work done before bedtime.

I love pasta, really who doesn't? Whole wheat pasta was in the cabinet and as I looked around I grabbed a can of diced tomatoes and sun dried tomato basil paste. Cut up some mushrooms that were in the frig. and added them to a pan with some olive oil. I added the the diced tomatoes, paste, garlic, onion salt, and some red tomato sauce to the pan with the mushrooms. Topped off the sauce with some Italian shredded cheese mix and YUMM it was delicious. 

 No we do not eat on those place mats, nor do we even eat at the kitchen table, but it sure makes a good picture. =)

Lets just say after dinner, taking the dog for a good long walk, and cleaning up dinner, the enthusiasm of organizing the clutter was diminishing. Then any hope of getting anything done was thrown out the window because a pick up softball game was where I ended up. So everything will sit until another day. I know I am not the only one that would turn down cleaning up over being outside with friends and family... =)


<3 ~Britt*~

~Practicing Yogi~

(http://fajriumami.blogspot.com/2012/03/yoga-in-weight-loss-plan.html)

Now its time to talk a little about what I love to do, Hot Yoga/Vinyasa. Honestly I do not know what I would do without yoga. I have ridiculously high anxiety and this is the only activity that I do everyday that helps. If I have any "quiet" time all I do is think, and thinking for me is very bad. I worry about everything, mostly things I can not change.

Hot Yoga(Bikram) and Vinyasa are 90min classes usually 110 degrees and about 60 percent humidity. The place I practice at also has radiate heating in the ceiling which also heats up the room and bodies. After the first couple classes I did, the heat became tolerable and I was wanting to go back to class because of the way I felt when I left. Mental clarity and the reduction of anxiety/stress is what keeps me going back.


Class tonight was perfect, just what I needed after a heck tick Monday. I was also feeling very stressed today, so when I got into "forward fold" pose and the teacher says "let go", then that is exactly what I do, let go. I accomplished, for the first time without help, a tripod headstand from a wide leg forward fold, I was ecstatic, oh and still am! =)

(wide leg forward fold)

(http://www.beerasana.com/index.html)

(tripod headstand)

(http://thelife.buzznet.com/user/photos/strike-yoga-pose-tripod-headstand/?id=45626171)

I hope my enthusiasm for yoga will get you to take a step into a studio and try it. I'm sure I will blog more about yoga and hopefully get some pictures of me doing some of the poses.

<3 ~*Britt*~

~Relaxing Weekend~

9 am wake up call Saturday morning, trying to find the snooze. Rolled myself out of bed to get my yoga gear together and out the door I went. Hot vinyasa was just what I needed to get my morning started, "namaste".

I was losing my tan, the sun was shinning, and the puppy needed to get out of the house, so off to Mommoms we went for a lake day with the family.

This is one thing that was great growing up at mommom and poppops, the lake! The summer times are always the best, because the family always gets together by the water.

My cousin Lindsey grew up right next door and she was my little buddy. Now she is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady.

Blazey girl it not a very good swimmer so I bought her a doggy life jacket which works out very well. She loves being at the lake and runs around like a nut!

Beautiful niece Taya was there too.

It was a great Saturday at the lake. My sister-in-law had my brother and hers wedding video so we watched it later on after dinner. Its really funny watching everyone dancing and being silly, not knowing they were on camera.

Sunday=Lazy day. Laying around after softball game watching the Phillies, nothing too exciting! Cleaning and Laundry later, then back to Monday...ugg I do not like Mondays..

Hope everyone had a great weekend..

<3 ~*Britt*~

~Baking; Banana Bread~

The Love of Food...and Baking, but mostly Food.

 It has been a while since the oven has been used for baking, but tonight is the first night in a long time we have not had something planned. We are usually getting home from work on Fridays, showering and running out the door. I am catching myself tip toeing around the house, hoping Brian doesn't come up with a plan for tonight, because my plan is sitting my butt on the couch and finding a movie. The baking begins..

I got the recipe for the Banana Bread from bettycrocker.com. This is the first time I made banana bread so I just did a search on Google and this one had the most amount of stars. Note to self: Buy a mixer asap. I had to do all the blending by hand with a spoon and hand beater, so the prep part took a little longer than expected.

It smelled so good whille I was prepping, that I had to taste it! ;) So after all the mashing and mixing it was time to put them in the oven.

The cook time was an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. So time to eat our dinner which was pizza and french fries, yummm! I was craving pizza all week so why not have it on our cheat day.

 After some pizza I got a change to catching up with a great friend and her two beautiful baby girls via Skype. What a great invention, I have not seen her in forever and yet to meet her girls so it was nice to chat it up with her and the little ones.

So the buzzer rings on the oven...

  

and "bam" master piece..

Well maybe not a prize winner but I am very happy with the final result. Only thing I would change is less flour. The recipe called for 2 and 1/2 cups, I would probably just go with 2 cups.

 I'm eating it as I write this blog, and Brians asleep on the couch so my hope for a night in and a movie might actually happen!!! =)

<3 ~*Britt*~

Here we go...

Well I was planning on coming home from work, eating dinner then sitting down with my computer to write my first blog, but I had some visitors....

My brother, sister-in-law and niece Taya came to drop off some things so I was consumed with this crazy twenty month old. The funny thing is she is just like me when I was younger! I honestly do not know how my mommom and poppop kept up with me, because Taya is so exhausting. She needs to be constantly entertain so outside it was with some sidewalk chalk.

Taya and Blazey girl are bestest buds. They follow each other everywhere, so where you see one, the other isn't far behind. I think they just go on adventures together in their own little worlds. They love to give each other big kisses.

It was a great end to a long day at work. Now Blazey girl and I are resting on the couch watching some tv, waiting for "daddy" to get home.

<3 ~*Britt*~