Treat Yourself Tuesday #1

      With all the treats I've been giving myself this weekend, I thought it was time to join in on Becky's Treat Yourself Tuesday.

     So even though I was sick all weekend, I still treated myself a lot. I think it helped me feel a bit better or at least distracted me from feeling sick. First, while I was out Saturday morning, one of my stops was Dick's Sporting Goods. I had received a $10 off reward in the mail and planned to buy a swimsuit to replace my one piece for swimming laps, but their swim suit collection in stores in winter is minimal and instead I bought an under armour shirt that was discounted and used my $10 off. Score! I can already tell this is going to be my new favorite workout shirt.

        On Monday, my mom needed me to return some stuff to the mall for her and since it was a holiday, there were tons of sales, though most of the things I ended up buying were not on sale....Anyway I treated myself to some wild strawberry tea from Adagio tea and bought some candy cane tea that was 50% off for later.

   Then I stopped in Bath and Body works, because they were having a sale and I had some coupons. I wanted to try their stress relief aromatherapy so I thought the travel size would be perfect to try some before buying a bigger bottle. I also threw in an energy body wash. I can't wait to try these out!

     Just a few little treats from the weekend, but they made me happy. Now to get through the work week. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!!

Blackhawks and Long Weekend

    Happy Martin Luther King day! I was so happy when my work announced that we were getting today off. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and if they have today off, hope you are enjoying that as well.
    Last Tuesday night I went to my first Blackhawks game. It was actually the first time I've ever watched hockey and can't say I really paid attention for the first and second periods of the game, but it was a fun night with my co workers. You just can't pass up the opportunity when you have box seats from your company.

   Yes I enjoyed those chicken fingers and chips and sprite for my dinner. I couldn't even remember the last time I had had a sprite and to be honest, I think I overdid the sugar that night because for the next day my stomach hurt. The dessert cart later didn't help....

   I really don't get the chance to eat cookies the size of my hand very often, so I couldn't resist! The rest of the evening, I was stuffed. I finally got into the game during the third period and started to actually follow where the puck was going. The stadium was rather quiet during the game, but when the Blackhawks scored, it was insanely loud with buzzers and cheers, so that was hard to miss!

this was when they scored their second goal

      The Blackhawks ended up being tied at the end of the third period so the game went into overtime. So here you have my overtime face...

    Unfortunately, in the end, the Blackhawks lost, but I have to say I was fully paying attention through overtime anxious to see who would score, other than when I took that selfie of course.

     After staying out late on the Tuesday, the rest of the week just felt off. On Wednesday it felt like it should have been Friday already and the week was tiring as it was our first 40 hour work week since before Christmas, seeing as the past week we had a lot of weather related time off. Eventually Friday came, but I felt awful.
        Unfortunately I've been sick since Friday, but all the sleeping in I've done this weekend is slowly helping. Despite being sick, I was able to get my errands done on Saturday morning that I had planned, including shopping for my friend's baby shower gift, which I'm so excited about!
       Sunday I went bowling with another friend as an early celebration for her birthday since I will be out of town at the baby shower on her birthday. My goal was to score over 100 in each game, but I only scored in the 80s.

It was great to get some bowling practice in also since on Wednesday my company starts their bowling league. I don't bowl often, nor very well (unless I get lucky), but it will be fun anyway. Today I plan to just take it easy and try to relax and hope that I feel better for the work week ahead.


       

Marvelous and Not so Marvelous, MIMM #3

          Happy first Monday of 2014 (or maybe not so happy if you are in the midwest like me and it's going to be -53 degrees F with wind chill)!! Either way, it's marvelous in my monday and there were still some marvelous happenings this weekend to keep me looking on the bright side. So I'll be linking up again with Katie for MIMM.


   First Marvelous is getting a surprise package in the mail Thursday night. My boyfriend got me the Fitbit Flex as a late Christmas present.

I was so excited to set it up and try it out this weekend. I have heard it is good to walk 10,000 steps a day. I never realized how hard this can be. Sunday I actually reached my greatest number of steps in a day so far at nearly 9,000, thanks to some exercising at home which brings me to my next marvelous thing.

Marvelous is getting a zumba workout at home with the Wii. My sister asked for it for Christmas but I think I have gotten more use out of it with all these snowy days so far.

Ever since New Years we've been getting non stop snow it seems.
Marvelous was getting my shopping at Target and the grocery store done on Saturday morning before the snow started.

Though I did brave the snow a bit later on Saturday as me and my sister headed to Kohl's for a bit of a shopping spree (Kohl's cash plus gift cards from Christmas) and Marvelous was spending under $10 and the receipt saying we saved over $154!!

 Saturday night, Marvelous was successfully cooking spaghetti squash and making turkey meatballs to go with it for dinner. (I will work on my food photography)

and lastly, marvelous was just enjoying the weekend at home with my sister and this adorable kitty.

Skittles covered with my scarf as a blanket

While my sister gets an extra day of winter break today since the schools are all closed in Chicago and suburbs, I will be making my way to work somehow, though there is a possibility of a late start, but here is a look at the snow from Sunday morning!!

my street

     Hope everyone has a great week and stay warm!!

SNOW!! and Commitment day photos

    This morning I braved the drive through the snow to work. Believe me, it was not fun at all. I constantly took deep breaths as I drove because I was so nervous. At least the tollway was slightly better than the main roads until I started to drive up to the tollway and everything was becoming more and more white...yes white out conditions. All you could see was the flashing of a couple lights from the tollway sign notifying you it was coming up. Luckily the white out was a short distance of my drive and I made it safely to work.
    I made it to work 15 minutes late and about a half hour later we found out that we were having a late start at noon, but we were already there. Luckily this meant we could leave early as long as our work was done. It was still snowing when we left around 1pm but by this time the plows had caught up on the tollway road, so I was able to drive at 55mph until my exit which was so exciting. I then headed to the gym before driving slowly home on the snow covered roads.
   

my street an hour after I got home

     Yesterday after it was snowing all day, I took a picture of a flower we have in our backyard to show how deep the snow is. This afternoon, I took another picture of that same flower and you can see it is continuing to get buried. 

3pm 1/1/2014

4pm 1/2/2014

      While I hate to drive in the snow, I love the beauty of snow on the trees and the winter wonderland look. Yesterday I mentioned some other photos I wanted to share from Commitment Day. Many thanks to the Commitment Day photographers. Here are the photos!!

me and my dad

bridge in the snow

Happy New Year 2014!!

     First post for the year 2014!! One of my plans for this year is to develop this blog more, so look out for many more posts this year!!

   Last night I stayed up for the new year with my friend, sister and her friends. We watched a bunch of movies and then had some apple cider at midnight.

I went to bed right after midnight because I had to get up at 6am this morning to get ready to go for my Commitment Day 5K. It's sponsored by my gym, Lifetime Fitness and I think it's a great way to start off the new year. I also dragged my dad along. There was a few inches of snow on the ground this morning, but few cars on the road so we got there in 45 minutes, checked in and then walked back to the car until 10 minutes before the race was going to start because it was absolutely FREEZING. There definitely were less people than last year due to the weather, but there were quite a few people that braved the snow.

thumbs up ready for the race to start

everybody ready to go

running/walking

     For those who don't know me, I am not a runner what so ever, but I enjoy 5Ks, to support the charities/organizations, to get fresh air, and run/walk with other people. One day I do hope I can run a full 5K, but for now, I mostly walk them, jog if I can. I walk at a pretty fast rate and today was no different. I think the cold weather encourages you to go faster too. I mostly walked the 5K this morning and finished in 44 minutes, which I believe is a great time for mostly walking and the snowy paths.
     After the race, we grabbed some water and a few snacks and took our picture, which will later be on Facebook. I can't wait to see how it turned out! Then we walked back to the car, warmed up and made our way home on the snowy roads.

post race with my new shirt

    In the afternoon, I went to a yoga class, which was a great stretch and workout after the snowy 5K in the morning. I then came home and enjoyed a steak dinner with my family (sorry no pictures as I was too hungry).    

   Meanwhile, it continues to snow and they haven't plowed our street that much due to it being last priority.  I'm happy I didn't have to get to work today as the drive would have been awful, but I worry about the morning. Happy New Year Everyone and stay safe (especially in this snow if you have any).

can hardly tell the street from the sidewalk