My life – Page 3

07/12

Healthy Train Five on Friday (Err…Saturday)

I have finally come to terms with the fact that my half marathon is only 5 months away.
Holy crap…5 months! What was I thinking when I signed up for this?!

I admitted to myself that I’m not just bloated and those 10lbs are not going to magically disappear tomorrow.
Maybe my clothes are shrinking?

It was time to get back on the healthy train and get on it for realz this time.
No pretending to watch what I eat while “rewarding” myself on the daily!

So, this week, I’ve had health and fitness on the brain.

This has been my usual attire…sports bra, tank/shirt, stretchy bottoms. I don’t think I’ve put on real clothes all week!

I have several reusable water bottles, but there is something wrong with all of them and I eventually stop using them. The biggest issue is that most of them won’t fit into my cup holder in the car so I would have to hold onto it while driving or it would go flying. I have one or that fit in my cup holder, but they aren’t insulated to withstand this FL heat! I finally sat down at the computer last week and was determined to find a water bottle that fit my needs. My non-negotiables were insulated and it had to fit in my car. I also wanted a straw or sippy lid, but apparently that was like finding the holy grail of water bottles. I finally settled on this pretty little bottle by S’well.

S’well is 18/8 double-walled stainless steel, non-toxic, non-leaching and BPA free. Not to mention that a portion of the proceeds of each bottle sold goes back to WaterAid, which provides sustainable access to clean water and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. I’m loving my bottle so far! I got the 17oz so it would fit in my car and as long as it keeps performing well, I’d love to get the kids the 9oz one to take to school. I did read about some issues a few people were having with the seal in some of the bottles, but I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to mine. I seriously spent WAY too much time researching reusable bottles to start my search over again.

Since June was so crazy and I knew I wanted to workout more, I decided to print a calendar to schedule in some fun time with the kids, but also some sweat time. Our first week was a little too high on kid fun and my workouts were a little more squeezed in than I would have liked. Hoping to do better next week!

Btw, did you know you can get have 3 fitness apps running at the same time? I usually have Polar Beat running for my HR, Runkeeper to keep track of my distance as well as my music playing in the background, so I don’t know why I didn’t think I could also have the C25K app running to give me audio cues. For some reason I thought I had to choose between knowing my distance or having my run/walk audio cues. [Hi my name is Katie and I’m a dork.] FYI, it doesn’t work with Hulu+ if you’re running on a treadmill and you’re trying to watch tv. It showed me visuals of when I needed to walk/run, but not the audio cues.

Last but not least, I was frantically looking for some camera items I was missing, which I found thankfully, but I also found my beloved FLogg journal (that sadly isn’t sold anymore)! I love using MyFitnessPal, but I hate that you have to enter what you ate and the calories for everything at the same time. Sometimes I don’t have time to look up the item and say how much I ate. Sometimes I just need to jot it down quickly and then get to the specifics later when I have more time. Sometimes I don’t necessarily want to count calories, but I want to journal what I ate for reference. There may quite possible be an app for that, but nothing beats pencil and paper! I plan to carry this baby around everywhere!

Friday I was supposed to run again, but instead, I napped and listened to a wicked thunderstorm all night. It was a super lazy day that may or may not have ended in ice cream (okay, okay, so I’m still working on cutting out the treats!). 😉

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Fitness, My life Tagged: s'well water bottle

06/30

Summer is finally here!

Technically the kids got out of school on June 6th, but we were in San Francisco the week after that, then had one week to catch up and start getting ready for simultaneous trips the next week…D.C. for my son & I and camp for the teen!

Last Sunday, we were up at 3:30am…headed to Washington D.C. with the other safety patrols from his school and other schools within our county. In case you don’t have safety patrols in your school, the safety patrol program is a volunteer position for 5th grade students who are respectful, courteous, on the honor roll and show leadership skills. — The AAA website can explain it better than I can. 🙂 — Every year the patrols have the opportunity to tour D.C. for 3 days and then get a day at Busch Gardens. 5 days in all to drive up there, tour the city & amusement park and then drive back.

2nd kid, 2nd safety patrol trip…no offense to anyone who lives there, but I think I’ve had my fill of Washington D.C. for awhile!

After riding in a bus all day on Friday, I was up bright and early (5:30am!) on Saturday to pick the teen up from camp. This was her first time at a weeklong camp and it will likely not be her last. She didn’t want to come home! She had a lot of fun making new friends and being away from mom & dad. 😉

As evidence of her good time…

I’m so proud of myself though. Most of our clothes and gear are unpacked! It was partly because the teen’s suitcase/clothes/bedding from camp weren’t coming in the house until they were cleaned, but whatev’s…our bags are unpacked (mostly), clothes are clean and it’s almost back to normal around here!

I’m already anticipating no early morning alarms, no schedules, nowhere we HAVE to be unless I want to be there, yoga without having to take the kids to school first, evening plans that don’t revolve around homework, lazy days of staying in our pj’s, afternoon trips to get ice cream…endless possibilities!

Some of the things I’m looking forward to…

Swimming
Library visits
Museums
Visiting family
Back to the gym/workout routine
Fro-yo
Movie theatre during the day (not on a weekend!)
Rock climbing with the kids
Concerts
Baseball games
Art Walks
Jaxon’s Night Market
Lazy PJ days
Finally trying SUP & SUP yoga
Organizing and cleaning areas of the house that get skipped over often

After getting all caught up on laundry over the weekend, we have had a completely lazy day today. And when I say lazy, I mean laaaaazy. Like, watched Kung Fu Panda once, it started over with subtitles and instead of turning it off, I just muted it and we ended up letting it play all the way til the end again. Afterwards, the kids retreated upstairs to be lazy some more. lol. Maybe we’ll do something tomorrow other than be lazy, but today…I’m content with being a slug. 😛

How about you? Do you have a bucket list for summer or do you just wing it?

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: local favorites, My life Tagged: summer bucket list, summer to-do list, washington dc sights, what to do in jacksonville this summer

06/23

Save Me, San Francisco (part 2)

What’s that, you say? You want more Golden Gate pictures? Sure thing!

Okay, that miiiight be all of them. Who am I kidding…I still have more, but I think that might be all of the ones I’m going to post. Those last two photos are from the sand staircase at Baker Beach. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s was a killer! Especially after our long hike at Muir Woods the previous day!

Speaking of Muir Woods…it was only our 2nd day in San Fran, but it was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a little while. The trees were ginormous and it was so quiet and peaceful (up on the hiking trail, not on the touristy main strip), we even spotted a couple of deer thanks to my hubs’ super sonic hearing! We followed a trail that we knew would take us up, but omg, at one point I thought my heart might explode. And then an older guy and an older couple came up and I suddenly got a burst of energy. 😉 I don’t super love hiking (bugs & dirt aren’t really my thang), but my hubby does, so like the ever so sweet wife I am, I participate to make him happy. I’m so glad we got there early though because when we were leaving around lunch time, that place was cuh-razy!!

I didn’t have many touristy things planned during our trip, but I did have several ideas of where I wanted to eat/drink. Some of them didn’t pan out (maybe next time!), but the ones we made it to, did not disappoint!

The Slanted Door won the James Beard award for most outstanding restaurant so of course, we had to eat there. Thankfully when I realized I needed to make reservations, there were still a couple of times available. Our reservation wasn’t until 5:30pm (the perfect time IMO since that’s when they open back up for dinner), but I’m glad we got there early because a line starts to form at the hostess stand and you have to wait in line whether you have reservations or not. Our meal was delicious, the restaurant was beautiful and the service was great! The waiter was really helpful with what items were gluten free or could be made gluten free. We ordered the spring rolls, organic chicken, caramelized wild gulf shrimp (NOT gluten free according to our waiter even though I’d read differently online, but I ate them anyway, hubs did not), cellophane noodles and jasmine rice.

Blue Bottle Coffee was another place I had to visit. I even knew what I wanted to order…the New Orleans. Coincidentally, they were 1 block from our hotel! Score! I never had a problem with a long line, but I tried to go at off times.

Susie Cakes wasn’t one I had read about, but we ended up eating lunch at Blackwood with some friends and SusieCakes was across the street. Both were unexpected, but both were equally delicious! I’m lying…while Blackwood was really delicious, my cupcake was beyond yummy. I’m pretty sure I did the whole, bite and moan thing. I tried taking a photo of the cupcake, but I ate it too fast. 😛

Other eating places worth mentioning…zpizza (I think they’re a chain, but they were right around the corner from our hotel and they offered organic ingredients as well as a gluten free crust!) and our last night in town, our friends treated us to a great dinner at Epic Roasthouse. If you want a steak, that is definitely the place to go. My hubs said it was the best meal our whole trip!

K, I feel like I left important things out, but if so, I’ll just have to make a [part 3]. After a day in San Francisco, I was saying I could totally live there and my hubby was thinking the opposite. lol. Oh well, it was fun to visit! I’ll definitely be going back and will likely take the kids to all the touristy things we missed this time.

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: My life, Travel, Uncategorized, wanderlust wannabe Tagged: baker beach, being a tourist in san francisco, blue bottle coffee, muir woods, san francisco, the slanted door, where to see the golden gate bridge from

06/18

Save Me, San Francisco (part 1)

We dropped the dog and kids with my mom, packed up the car and headed out. We drove about 30 minutes south and then stopped for dinner before it got too late.

With a full belly of yummy mexican food, I kicked off my shoes, pulled my feet into the seat and settled in for our 2 hr drive.

I had my iphone set to shuffle and I was singing along as usual, when the words suddenly hit me. “Hey!” I exclaimed, “How awesome is that?!” as I pointed to the dash.

Pretty fitting, considering we were about to hop on a plane to that very place!

We’ve taken plenty of trips as a family, individually, trips with one kid/one parent (hello France!), but it’s been 7 long years since the hubby and I took a real trip without the kids. The last one was to Hawaii in 2005!

I have been dying to go to San Francisco for years. I wanted to fit it into our Cali trip we took a few years ago, but it didn’t happen. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to be checking it off my bucket list. We picked a super rad hotel called Hotel Zetta for our stay. It’s only been open about a year and from what I read online, it sounded right up our alley. (*check out my review at the end) These shots are a little glimpse of what it was like inside…

I’m kicking myself, because I didn’t get many shots of our actual room. It was small, but very modern and nice with wood flooring and modern/minimalistic furniture (actually it looked pretty close to this one, but arranged differently). The hotel had a meeting area downstairs in the lobby with a huge couch to lounge on, some tables & chairs and a full service bar. There was also a huge game room on the second level that had shuffle board, a pool table, a large plinko game and plenty of other games to entertain you!

I wasn’t too excited about the weather being chilly, but I finally understood how all the fashion bloggers wear all those cute layers of clothing 365 days a year! I bought this utility jacket and some TOMS booties in preparation for our trip and I can honestly say they were the PERFECT purchases! Pretty much my San Fran uniform.

I also bought the above scarf from lululemon before the trip. (funny story – Eric didn’t really pay attention to what I bought until I was actually wearing it and after he saw the different ways I was using it, he started calling it a “thneed“. You know, from the movie, The Lorax. Now the stupid name has stuck though and I keep calling it a thneed! lol) I probably used this thing at least half of the trip and it especially came in handy the last night we were in town when I went out to make a City Target run and grab dessert at 9pm. Brrrrrr! It was also particularly useful on the plane!

………………….

Of course, the Golden Gate Bridge was one of my must-do’s for the trip. We took photos on three different days because it looked different each day (thank you fog) and from several different viewpoints.

So many pictures of the same bridge. You’d think this was it, but no…there’s more…

But, you’re going to have to wait until the next post!

**Hotel Zetta Review – Where oh where to start?! I already told you about the awesome game room and lounge area downstairs. Our room itself was on the small side, but that’s to be expected in the middle of the city! We didn’t have a problem with the size at all. Being that the hotel is sandwiched between two other buildings, if you’re looking for a scenic view, this isn’t the hotel for you. I, personally, quite liked the close buildings. It reminded me of NY or something. I don’t know. It felt cozy. We did have to be careful when and if we chose to open the blinds though. 😉 The whole hotel is modern/minimalistic in it’s design and interior decor…which we loved! Our room had a king bed with a large wood/leather headboard, two small side tables, a minimalistic desk area with a stocked fridge (so don’t plan on using it for leftovers!), a tv on a small minimalistic tv stand, a modern sitting chair and wood flooring throughout. The bathroom was gorgeous! No tub, only a glassed in shower. As far as the service, I don’t have many complaints. The one thing I read over and over again was that the staff was very friendly and helpful and I would definitely agree with that. The only thing that was a little “eh” was that I was expecting our room to have been cleaned/replenished by 2pm when we returned back the first day, but she was just getting to our room. They offer a small incentive if you choose to forego the daily maid service, but we had a couple of things that we wanted them to take care of. I would probably say the only real “con” to the hotel would be the parking. They don’t have their own lot you can self park (although there are a couple close, but they aren’t much cheaper and they aren’t really meant for taking your car in/out daily) and to valet it’s a whopping $50 a day! Ouch. On the plus side, it was super nice to just call down to the front desk when we were getting ready to leave and have our car waiting for us outside! I loved the location of the hotel and even though we had a car, there were plenty of places nearby to walk to. Some of my favorites were Blue Bottle Coffee, Dottie’s, zpizza, Peet’s coffee, City Target…not to mention all kinds of other restaurants, it’s literally RIGHT next door to the Westfield Centre shopping mall, and there is a cable car stop only a block and a half away! This hotel isn’t for everyone, but I’d definitely recommend it if you don’t mind the few things I mentioned.

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: My life, review, Travel, wanderlust wannabe Tagged: golden gate bridge, hotel zetta review, how to wear a utility jacket, san francisco, toms desert wedges

06/15

Oh hey…remember me?!

So I was pretty proud of myself for blogging on a regular basis

and then I go and disappear for a month!

Wait…I can explain!

Well, not really.

Life just got busy (I now have a 6th and 8th grader…say what?!)

and I had nothing to say really and no time to say it anyways.

But, I’m back!

and while not necessarily better than ever,

much more relaxed and ready to get back to the blogging world!

And since posts are much better with photos…

if you aren’t following me on Instagram, this is a little hint to what I’ve been doing while I was away. 😉

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: My life

05/12

Happy Mother’s Day!

I’m not much of a beach girl, but the kids wanted to go to the beach on Sunday, so that’s what we did! Because making the kids happy, made me happy. 🙂 We went to a beach we don’t go to often, but what made it super awesome was that you can drive on the sand and park your chair right next to where you park your butt! It was kinda cloudy and the water was pretty cool, but the kids had fun anyways. Then we went to my mom’s house to hang out for a little while.

I hope all the Moms out there had an amazing Mother’s Day! Whether you relaxed at home, woke up to breakfast in bed, went somewhere fun or just had an ordinary day…I hope you know that you are all intelligent, beautiful, selfless, incredible, amazing women doing the hardest job out there! If you haven’t watched the video below, I highly suggest you take a few minutes to watch it. 🙂

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: My life Tagged: #worldstoughestjob, mothers day 2014, toughest interview for the job no one wants

05/02

TGIF…five on friday

Oh, Friday…how I love thee.

It’s been a long week and I am ready for the weekend! My husband was out of town until last night so I’ve been single-parenting it since Sunday. It’s doable, but it’s tiring! The teen’s routine didn’t really change, but the boy and I have been getting up earlier. Between his allergies and having to be dressed for school an hour earlier than he’s used to, he’s been so tired.

Not eating gluten is getting easier, but it takes a lot more thought and planning. Before, if I got up late or didn’t have groceries, I’d just let the kids buy lunch…but now that’s not an option because not only will the kids not think about it, but I highly doubt much of what they serve is gluten free. School lunch is crap though, so this isn’t a bad thing. Before, when we’d have a busy night, I would have normally run to McDonalds to pick the kids up dinner…but not now. I know, I know…McDonald’s…doesn’t get much worse than that! I’m getting better though and cutting out gluten forces me to make better choices. Not always healthier, but better. Junk food is still junk whether it has gluten or not! 😉

///////////////

I had so many grand ideas for what I was going to get done in the house while hubby was away this week, but instead I was a…total, complete, slacker! I did manage to shower and go to the mall on Tuesday. I need some every day t-shirts and I had birthday money to spend! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very fruitful trip. I only found one shirt to buy. 🙁

The dress on the left was really cute and comfy, but it was the only one left and defective. It was also sold out online. 🙁 And I loved this maxi…comfy with baggy pockets! It was like have my sweats on! Unfortunately, sweats are super comfy, but they aren’t really flattering. I felt like it gave me zero shape. Although, I might buy it anyways because it was so comfortable!

///////////////

Last week, it was all muffins and oat cookies for breakfast. This week, I decided to make my overnight oats again.

I used the same basic recipe I was using before, but I did a few things different. For one, I made it with less oats. Using 1/2 cup of oats was just too much food. For two, I nuke it for about 15-20 sec to take the chill off. I don’t like hot oatmeal, but I didn’t love the overnight oats super duper cold out of the fridge either. A little cooler than room temp? Perfect! Finally, I’m not sure if this adds much to the final product, but I’ve been adding a little vanilla extract. With these little tweaks, it’s pretty much per-fection! Two of the mornings, I just added honey & peanut butter, the next morning I added in banana, but yesterday morning, instead of the PB, I added mashed up strawberries with a few pecan pieces. OMG. By far the best breakfast of the week!

1/4 cup gluten free oats (not the quick cooking kind)
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup almond milk
1 packet Truvia
1 1/2 tsp chia seeds
dash of vanilla extract

The night before, throw all the above ingredients into a jar and mix them well. Put them in the fridge and when you wake up in the morning, it will be thickened up and ready for toppings.

For my strawberry one, all I did was cut up a few fresh strawberries, mash them a little to make them juicy and added some honey for taste. Then stir the strawberry mixture into your oats and top with some chopped pecans! Seriously delicious and refreshing. It kinda reminded me of strawberry shortcake.

///////////////

Have ya’ll heard of the Give it 100 project? It’s basically about committing to something for 100 days. This chick rocked push-ups for her 100 days and I can’t believe how far she came. And this chick, jumping rope throughout Berlin…awesomesauce!

They totally inspired me to do my own #giveit100 project, but the question is WHAT?

*wheels turning*

Hmmm…I know from previously doing only a 30 day challenge that running or even working out for 100 days straight isn’t going to happen. Going gluten free for 100 days might be a good goal, but I’m kinda already doing that so I want something more challenging. Other ideas…

read at least 30 minutes a day
yoga/meditation
no social media (yikes, this one would be hard, but probably beneficial. The blog wouldn’t count!)
burpees
pull-ups
no lattes

That’s all I got right now. How about you? Any ideas on what you could do or give up for 100 days?

*Since I wrote this yesterday I ended up deciding on yoga for 100 days. I may add pull-ups too, but I’ll start simple for now.

///////////////

Annnnnd, because I apparently have the musical taste of a teen girl, this song has been on repeat this week (and last week…and the week before)

///////////////

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Five things, My life

04/21

Weekend Round-Up

Is it is really Monday already? We had a 3-day weekend, but it sure didn’t feel like it. I wrapped up birthday festivities, went to 3 different grocery stores stocking up to change the way we eat (more on that later) and then spent Easter Sunday with the family.

Friday was my first day out with my birthday present from my hubs. I already shared via Instagram & FB so it seems kinda redundant, but it’s too good not to share one last time, so in case you haven’t met him yet.

Internet meet “Louis”…

“This is Louis’ seat”

“Don’t put your feet on Louis”

“I remembered Louis, but forgot my phone!”

“Louis has my camera”

(all things that actually came out of my mouth over the weekend)

I woke up worried about Louis because I thought I left him in the car (garaged & locked) overnight.

I know, it’s a sickness. I’m sure it will wear off at some point, but for now, Louis is the newest family member and will be treated as such. 😛

And while we’re discussing birthday presents, I’ve worn the present from my awesome SIL & BIL, 3 out of the 4 days since it arrived.

I LOVE it!

On Easter we headed over to my mom’s house for good eats and an egg hunt. The kids always enjoy hunting for eggs, but we inevitably lose a few due to the adults hiding them a little TOO well.

Hope your weekend was great!

Here’s to a productive week and starting the countdown to Friday!

4 days to go…

posted by katiehigg 3 Comments
Filed Under: My life

04/16

One Spark Jacksonville!

For 5 days, our downtown was HOPPIN’! It was what a big city downtown should be, dangit! And it was all thanks to One Spark.

One Spark was born here in Jax. It’s a 5 day crowdfunding festival for creators…artists, entrepreneurs, innovators…to get their project in front of thousands and possibly take it from an idea to real life. This year (second annual event) they gave out $310,000 to the lucky winners!

Last Tuesday, while everyone was setting up their booths, the excitement in the air downtown was palpable. Creators were getting ready to pitch their ideas to anyone and everyone who would listen.

One of the things I got silly excited about during One Spark, was riding our downtown skyway. We’ve had a small monorail skyway system for several years and I’m embarrassed to say that I had never ridden it before now. In my defense, it’s only open during the week and seeing as I don’t work downtown, I never had a reason to ride it. The kids thought it was pretty awesome too.

I was volunteering at the Do Something Great Today booth for part of One Spark and then on Sunday, I took the kids down there to experience a bit of the festivities.

the Pajama Monster was adorable! Made me wish I had smaller kids!

This huge teepee was awesome. When One Spark was open, you could go inside and explore. Super cool.

The food village was a huge hit with us. 😉

a few more pics of the sights at One Spark…

Last year I am sad to say, I didn’t make it downtown once to check it out, but this year, I made up for it by being down there every day and I’ll definitely be there next year!

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: My life Tagged: do something great today, one spark 2014, one spark jacksonville

04/15

Go shorty, It’s my birfday…

We’re gonna party like, it’s my birfday….gonna sip bacardi like it’s my birfday…

Just kiddin’

In actuality…

I’m going to make plans with my SIL for breakfast, but remember while I’m showering that I have a dermatologist appointment.

Then, I’m going to get to said dermatology appointment, only to find out that I didn’t pay enough attention to what time it was scheduled for and realize that I missed it by an hour. *sigh*

After I feel sorry for myself because sadly, this is NOT the first time this has happened, I take a fresh faced selfie…

and decide that I didn’t want to go to that fracken appointment anyways, so I head to eat something for breakfast

After breakfast, Target is going to call my name. I will take an ungodly amount of time browsing around, but will find an adorable rain jacket that I can’t pass up. I mean…hello…it is my birthday!

Then I’ll find these three goodies…

elephant earrings :: new polish :: midi rings

And my SIL will text me a picture of my present…spoiler…it’s awesome!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Then the kids will come home from school. The teen will decide today is the day to be Ms. Grumpy Pants. We’ll exchange words and I’ll let her know she may not be pissy to me on MY birthday.

Then I’ll drive across town and sit at Jui-Jitsu for an hour before heading to pick up take out from Outback.

When I get home, I will eat my delicious dinner…in my pj’s…from the comfort of my home and afterwards I may or may not have dessert because I’ve already “treated” myself way too much today with 2 lattes and biscuits & gravy!

Did I mention it’s been rainy all day? No worries here though. I’ve got my polka dots and rain boots to brighten my day! 😉

UPDATE: after dinner my hubby told me he’s taking me shopping for my present at a very specific store!! Can’t wait to share when I finally have it in my hot little hands!

posted by katiehigg 3 Comments
Filed Under: My life Tagged: my birthday