Thanksgiving 2009

It's Sunday morning and I just had the best night of sleep in quite a while. I'm going to keep this post short as I have a lot to re-cap and I have to get crackin' on my accounting homework.

We had an uneventful trip down to Nicollet on Wednesday. Our arrival was eagerly awaited as everyone was waiting to eat. My fam made a fantastic spread:

Clockwise from top: stuffing, turkey & gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, bun, locally grown corn, pot roast and then green beans from Becky's garden in the middle. Mikey and I split a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert. I also sipped on two small glasses of white merlot. My aunt, uncle & cousin-Becky, Myron & Kayla- joined us for dinner. A good time was had by all.
On Thursday morning we did a lot of this:
You notice how it's all the guys?
It was also my dad's 50th birthday!
While my mom was cooking brunch Mike, Matt & I took the dogs down to the baseball field to run around. It was frigid outside! Champ found the perfect spot afterward:
We had a delicious brunch complete with egg bake, maple sausage, bacon, potatoes and muffins.

The Nicollet football team played in the state championship game on Friday so they had a little send-off on Thursday afternoon. Matt is one of the managers so he rode the bus:
While my dad drove the van full of coaches:
We brought Anna along thinking she'd enjoy being outside. She was primarily interested in barking at people so Mikey had to take her for a little walk. Here they are:
Thursday evening we headed up to the cities to visit Mike's family. Mikey & John made beef fajitas. I had just one with a Stella beer:
I also had 2 dove chocolate ice cream treats (70 cals each).
It's a holiday tradition to fire up the heaters in the garage and smoke a cigar. Dianne and I had little berry flavored ones. I had a glass of wine and a small snifter of cognac with my cigar. 3 drinks is my limit in one evening
Here's the "smoking lounge":

It's quite cozy being all wrapped up in a sleeping bag. The air temp is nice too thanks to the 2 heaters.

On Friday morning, I started out with coffee, Oikos yogurt and cereal:
Dianne, Kristen & I went for a morning walk in anticipation of a big meal tonight. Mikey & John cooked food and bonded with Sienna while we were gone. For lunch, I had a can of Amy's Minestrone soup (only 120 cals for an entire can), some goldfish crackers and water:
Sienna and Mikey playing around:
SO CUTE!!!
We played all afternoon until dinner time. Jake joined us after work for dinner and we enjoyed this feast:
Clockwise from upper right: brussel sprouts, stuffing, sweet potatoes, turking & gravy, mashed potatoes. Bet you can tell the sweet potatoes are my favorite... always the biggest scoop!
I had a glass of white wine before dinner and a glass of red wine with dinner. For dessert, we had pumpkin creme brulee. Delish!

Kristen and Jake headed home to put Sienna to bed and so John, Dianne, Mikey and I had another cigar in the lounge. I had a small snifter of cognac with my cigar and then a bunch of water.
Annie was completely exhausted after 2 days of playing with Champ, Timmy and Sienna:
We had to get up early on Sat. a.m. so that we could get back to Duluth in time to work. I had to work at the UMD football game at Noon and Mikey at the Cafe at 2. For breakfast, I had leftover stuffing, Oikos yogurt & cranberry/pear/giner relish.
We got home on Saturday around 11:30 and so I had enough time to do a little unpacking. I brought our dirty laundry down to the basement to be washed and happened upon a water leak! It started while we were gone BUT, it leaked right over the laundry tub so everything drained!! How is that for good karma??!! I had to get going to work so Mikey ran up to Home Depot to get some plumbing supplies. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to fix anything before work and he got home late last night. He also worked at 6:30 this morning so we still have to fix it yet today.
Mikey and a torch?? Sounds scary...

UMD lost the game and so their season is over.
Once home, I enjoyed some alone time last night. I was given a pork sandwich at the game and so for dinner I had a small serving of leftover egg bake:

After a bubble bath, I had some tea and a little leftover sweet potatoes:
As mentioned earlier, I slept great last night! This morning I had coffee and the last of the egg bake. Now it's off to do my accounting before Mikey gets home. I have a feeling this plumbing project could take up a big chunk of our day since this is Mikey's first time repairing a water line on his own. Yikes!

pre-thanksgiving

I certainly maximized my full day off today. Even though I could sleep in as late as I wanted, I was up at 8:30. It's a bummer I can't sleep as late as I used to. I had a 10:30am workout planned at school so my morning was spent balancing the checkbook, emptying the pics off my camera, returning movies... you know, the usual stuff to get ready for being away from home.
I had a fun breakfast:
This is my favorite Greek yogurt (Oikos fat free) sweetened with honey. I topped it with the last apple from my parents tree and a scoop of pb for some protein. It was delish!

My workout consisted of an 30 minute interval workout on the elliptical and then a half hour of lifting weights. I was talking to Nikki about my scale debacle this morning and she is convinced that I'm sabotaging my weight loss goals! Remember when I mentioned yesterday that today was going to be my official weigh-in for the week since we'll be gone tomorrow. Well, it wasn't good. Last week I had lost 1 pound and then on Tuesday of this week I had lost 4 pounds for a total of 5! I was elated to be half way to my goal. However, today I was back to my old weight. My weight had swung 4 pounds + 1 in one day! I was baffled that my weight could swing that much in one day. I reminded myself that I had one of my hardest workouts yesterday and I drank a TON of water so lets hope the gain was all water weight!! I mean I thought for sure the scale was broken this morning. I turned it sideways and tried it again. Same result. Then I moved it to a different spot on the floor (because you know these old houses don't have level floors)... SAME result! I couldn't help but chuckle at the insaneness!
Lesson learned?? Weigh yourself only once a week and don't get discouraged. It's gotta melt off sometime, right? It was a good reminder for me to keep up the workouts this weekend even it's only a walk and to take it easy on the desserts.
I ran a couple more errands after working out and then got home to pack us up, do the dishes, laundry & take the trash out. Leaving for a few days is hard work!
Mikey just got home at 2:40 so it's go time!
In the midst of tidying up, I also scrounged the last bit of ingredients for a sandwich:
I toasted my bread with the last bit of feta crumbles. OMG... my new favorite!
Added: honey mustard, red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts and red onions:
Washed it down with my favorite winter mocktail: grapefruit juice and 7UP mixed half and half. Added bonus: helps take away red onion breath:)

We're off to Nicollet for Thanksgiving dinner!

4 segments!

Remember last week when I mentioned that it was my goal to run 3 segments during a tv show? Well, today was my day! Not only did I run 3 segments but I ran a 4th one as well. I did 55 minutes on the treadmill while watching The View today. I felt great! My running portion was only at 5.4mph but it was most important for me to put in some time vs. speed today. My next goal is to work up to running at 6.0mph for all 4 segments. Keeping little goals in mind helps keep me motivated. My walking portion is usually 4.2-4.3mph and sometimes at an incline. I was pretty proud of myself:

I did feel some soreness in my left hip so I did some stretching at the end:
I REALLY need new shoes! Hint, hint (I don't even think Mikey reads this blog:)

Unfortunately I forgot my camera today so I don't have any food pics. The pics above were taken by Nikki. For the record, I ate: waffles with pb, coffee, bean and ham soup, yogurt, Odwalla bar, veggie burger, 1 beer & a glass of half grapefruit juice/ half 7UP in that order.

I did weigh myself this morning even though my weekly weigh-in isn't until Thursday. Since we'll be out of town, I'll do my official weigh-in tomorrow. Let me just say the scale is going in the right direction and I hope my weigh in today wasn't a fluke!

My boss decided today to give me the full day off of work tomorrow. So, I'm going to sleep in and then go to school for a 10:30 workout. It's going to be great!

relief

Woot woot! I'm done with my accounting exam. I am so relieved! I never sleep well the night before a test. I was up before dawn today to finish reading a chapter. It's hard to stay focused at work all day when I have this huge looming test at the end of the day! I'm learning a lot in the MBA program but it certainly pushes my ability to remain sane at times! Just ask Mikey:)
I waited to have breakfast until I got to work. I had the usual yogurt and banana. I also had waffles and p.b. in an attempt to have more of my daily calories earlier in the day:

I was a scheduling freak this morning since we are finalizing the schedules for spring semester. Lunch time came quick. I had a yummy veggie sandwich and H20:
After running some errands and recruiting Nikki to help me move some tables, we headed to the Rec Center for our workout. Unfortunately a busy schedule requires multi-tasking:
I re-read another accounting chapter while doing an interval workout on the bike for 32 minutes. No chit chat today... nose to the grind. I think I look A LOT like my sister Sarah in this pic. Gosh, I miss her!
After the workout, I was running a tight schedule. I squeezed in my dinner of Cajun Ham & Bean soup:
Twix PB= stress eating:
I NEVER eat this crap. It was exactly what I wanted today. A little sugar power prior to my test. I also had a Diet Coke (I had been up since 6am). It worked. I totally rocked my test today (I think:)
Upon arriving home, I did a little happy dance, put on my pjs and poured myself one of these:
Mikey and I split two of these suckers. It was certainly an evening of celebrating. Only a final exam left in the semester. Come Dec. 21st at 8pm, I'll have 2 weeks of freedom!!

horns

We had a pretty good Sunday. We slept in a bit and had a light breakfast. I had an apple and a scoop of p.b.:
We were completely out of coffee and most everything in our cupboards so we headed to Cub. They have a Diet Coke sale this week and so we stocked up. We got the fixins to make some soup and sandwiches this week.
Once home, I made myself a veggie sandwich and shared some chips with Mikey. They were SO good!
We did a little tidying up around the house during the Vikings game. We kept laughing every time the Vikings horn played on the TV. You see, we've sorta trained Annabelle to make the same noise:) She mimics the noise on command. I got some video of her doing it today. I'll have to figure out how to post it when I have some more time.
Towards the end of the game, we decided to head out for a walk. Here's my weekly photo shoot prior to heading outside:
P.S. I wasn't crabby... just not ready for the shot.

We thought we were going to beat most of the rain but it ended up being foggy and drizzly. AND, the fog horn was going the entire time! Anna was in heaven today!
After the walk and all the howling, Anna was totally exhausted once we got home.
I had distracted myself enough today and so I finally hunkered down and studied for my accounting exam. I knew dinner was at least 3 hours away so I had a snack of Red Hot Blues & salsa with a can of Fresca. I think I was on a bit of a chip kick today. Maybe I needed the sodium?
I enjoyed a glass of this closer to dinner (it helps with studying):
Here's a summary of dinner...
Roasted veggies:
These were pureed with some garlic and then strained and added to half of the red & pinto beans. Meanwhile two ham hocks simmered with some chicken broth and more veggies. Next the ham hocks were diced and andouille sausage was added. Everything was combined and then simmered for 45 minutes. The stew was then poured over white basmati rice. It tasted like authentic Cajun rice & beans. It was a nice twist on what started out as basic Bean and Ham soup.
We made a BIG batch. I've got three little bowls ready for my lunches this week. We've also got two big bowls for the freezer and one smaller one for the fridge!
After a spicy dinner, we needed a treat to lighten our palate. Enter Mikey's creation:
Dark chocolate chips, banana, peanut butter & a dot of honey. It was horrible (not really).

I've got a huge accounting test tomorrow but it's a short week as we'll be heading out of Duluth on Wednesday afternoon for Thanksgiving! When will it snow??

Christmas City of the North

Haley Bonar's show on Thursday night was great! I love that she lived in Duluth at the time Mikey and I were going to UMD. We have fond memories of seeing her play at Pizza Luce & the Brewhouse. She now lives in Portland, OR. The concert was at the Sacred Heart Music Center. It's an old church that was preserved as a music center. The only bad part about the place is that they have crummy drinks. I had 2 glasses of Franzia Chardonnay. I haven't had Franzia boxed wine in years. The only other option was 5 other varieties of Franzia or Michelob Light beer on tap. On the plus side, drinks are only $3!
Friday was a fun but busy day. I started out with Nutrigrain Cinnamon waffles with peanut butter, an apple and coffee:
Nikki & I did a killer workout at 1:00. We started with 30 minutes of cardio. I mixed my cardio up by doing 15 minutes on the treadmill at 4.3mph on a 10% incline. Then, I hopped on the elliptical and did a 15 minute interval workout. Next, we did a circuit of weight training. We did 10 different stations of a mixture of arms, legs, abs & back. Everything hurts today, especially my arms! I was anticipating a night of indulgences so I wanted to get a really good workout in.
I came back to my office and had squash pasta for lunch:
Check out these super cute booties that Nikki made in one night for one of her friends:
She thinks even I could master it. They are made of felt and mostly hand sewn.
I left work at 5:00 and picked up a falafel sandwich & fruit from Chester Creek Cafe on my way home:
I also had to make a pit stop at the Whole Foods Coop to pick up some skim milk to make Hot Chocolate. It's a winter parade tradition complete with Rumpleminze:
We've had this bottle of Rumpleminze for at least 3 years. It only takes a splash to do the trick.
Stirring it up:
It was totally delish! I've never made "real" hot chocolate. I always use cocoa powder. Chocolate syrup is where it's at! At 6:00 Nellie picked me up and we headed downtown.
It was the perfect night for a parade. It was ~45 degrees with very little wind. The streets of downtown Duluth were packed! The Christmas City of the North Parade marks the official start of the holiday season in Duluth. They always bring in a 50 foot tree to the MN Power plaza on Lake Ave & Superior St. and light it up at the start of the parade:
Again, a limitation of a point and shoot camera is that night shots aren't great. Hopefully you can see the pics well enough to get a feel for the atmosphere.
Here I am all bundled up:
And here is Nellie (she was shy for the camera at first but then obliged after some convincing):
I took this pic for Mikey. It's a float for the local PBS station and I think the character is suppose to be curious George:
We stayed all the way to the end to see Santa:
The parade lasted until 8:15 and so the night was still young. We decided to stop in to the Brewhouse on our walk back to the car. We split the amazing Artichoke Dip:
I sipped on a glass of Cline Cashmere wine and a ton of water. I think I was pretty dehydrated from the workout earlier today. At 10:00, the Randy Weeks band took the stage:
I had never heard of this band but they were really good. They fit in well with the Duluth crowd. I had another glass of Cline Cashmere during while the band played. Bruce and Mike showed up around 11:30pm (after getting off of work) and we decided to go to a Midnight movie at Zinema 2. We saw the flick Harold & Maude. It's a movie from the 1970s. I was very impressed with the theater. Super comfy seats and a nice size (seats ~100) so it was fun. There were probably 30-40 people at the show. The movie was cute. I dozed in and out of sleep during the show just like I do at home (and no, it's not because of the wine). I kind of had a feeling I wouldn't be able to stay awake for the whole show but I went along for the ride. Next time I'll have to take a cat nap before a midnight movie:)

I crawled into bed at 2am and slept like a baby until Anna insisted she go outside at 9:30 this morning. I feel like I could have slept 'til noon. I feel so mentally and physically exhausted.

For lunch today (Sat), I scrounged up a random lunch. Some veggie spicy nuggets & a scoop full of New England clam chowder.
We are out of coffee in the house, so I made myself a cup of hot chocolate (minus the Rumpleminze)!! Good thing the chocolate syrup is just about gone. I could have this every day:)

It's a beautiful day here today. It's so odd for it to be sunny and warm at the end of November. I'll take it! Anna and I are off for some exercise before the sun sets.