EA Action Sports on Wii Is Still Fantastic!

So I am on day 16 of the EA Action Sports Wii game. I have to say, it is incredibly hard. Every single time I do it, I feel like I just ran 3+ miles. Last Saturday I actually got a new resistance band for the game. The one the game comes with is super wimpy, and I am just too buff for it. Just kidding, sorta. So I got this medium one, the cheapest one at Target. It was more resistant than the one from Giam, that was $20 or something. Only problem, this one has thick handles, which gets in the way with the controllers a bit. But nothing I can't figure out.

I weighed myself the other day after a workout. And I got the lowest measurement on Body Fat Percentage ever. I didn't believe it because I just worked out, and it was 5% below what I was last time I waited long enough for it to register. Usually I just see the weight number, jump off and try to forget what just happened (this was going on for about 2 months). ;-) But I waited this time, and saw the number and was and said WTH (but normal words). And then I made Mike jump on and see if it was off for him. It was normal for him pretty much. So I checked the next day without workout, and it was the same. Checked today and it was 1% up. Either way, looks like I am definitely down some BFP which is sweet.

Eating has been okay on some days. Other days not so much. I need to eat home made meals more often. This past month it has been a lot of going out for lunch, and even dinner. I need to stop just so I can cut down on things in my freezer. haha.

I need to cancel my gym membership though. I think I will keep up with this EA Action Sports thing. It is easy to do in the morning, and requires no extra effort. The gym requires me to pack a bag, remember my locker combo, make sure i make it to the class on time (or find a good Dreadmill). I should probably run out side as well, but it is gross out right now. Around 85 - 90 degrees before 9am. And super humid. No thanks.

In Paris news. I bought my "Paris Dress" last night. I told myself I could buy ONE dress for my trip. I had been eying it for awhile, and then I saw last night only 3 left in my size, so I freaked out and bought it. Note: I bought it knowing I would get my quarterly bonus with my paycheck on Wednesday, which apparently is not happening until the next paycheck. Awesome.

Mike and I are learning french on cd, some conversational french thing. It is pretty good. I think I am catching on. Not sure how it will work when I am actually in France, but either way, it should at least help me understand SOME things.

We also got the Rick Steves France book, and have been flipping through to see where we want to visit. I think we are spending most of our time im Paris, and will head to Paris and Belgium for a day trip. Can't wait!!!!

Have any of you ever been to Paris? Any tips?

Slowing Down Today

I had quite the busy week. It was a great week, but yes, very busy. Today is my first time I have had a chance to actually slow down. I have not had the chance to take pictures of one healthy meal a day, but plan to do that starting tomorrow. :-)

Let's do a quick update:

Last Saturday I went with with Teddy to get something done, that I am not sure I can say on here or not. It will be a surprise to a few, so have to keep quiet. After that we went and got Thai food and went to a party.

On Sunday I watched USA vs Brazil soccer match. And ended up just hanging out with Mike and Teddy.

On Monday I worked of course, then caught up on some tv shows.

On Tuesday I had book club. The book we read was "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld. I was bad and didn't finish it yet, but it was almost a 600 page book and I only had a month to read it. I had a lot of fun at the book club event though. I am glad I have kept this up for about a year now.

On Wednesday I worked really late, then went to Pluckers by the UT campus to participate in their Trivia Night. We did not do very well, but I definitely had a lot of fun. Unfortunately though I ate too much grease and was not feeling well later that night.

On Thursday Mike took Ender to the vet, a new vet. This vet seems pretty amazing. Shet set us up with a great plan to help his problems. She thinks he probably has worms, a bacterial infection because of worms, and on top of that doggie IBS. We are not going to get him hypoallergenic food (venison or fish), give him antiobiotics, deowormer, and probiotics. He is also getting a new type of flea/worm meds (frontline + interceptor, rather than revolution). I am really excited we have a plan now. He already seems to be doing much better. I just need to find probiotics for him!

On Thursday night I played basketball with a few friends for several hours. Now that was definitely intense. It was 99 degrees at 8pm, and humidity was ridiculous. I was not able to keep up with everyone, but still had a lot of fun. Afterward, Teddy, Mike and I all hung out at my place where we talked about traveling all night.

On Friday, I didn't have to work! I planned a whole "paris day" with Mike. Well, only part of it was actually all about Paris, but it was still fantastic. In the morning we went to Cafe Le Crepe and got 3 different crepes (we shared). Mike got this chicken one which I did not eat, since i can't eat chicken. I got this one called "The Italian" where it was proscuitto with basil and mozzorella. It was amazing. And we got a dessert one with bri, walnuts, honey and pears. It was PURE heaven. After that we went to Half Price Books and got some french phrases and french/english dictionary. Then we went home and got tickets to PARIS!!!!!!!!!!! Mike's parents were incredibly generous and bought us tickets to Paris as an engagement present. We are beyond excited!!! I am going Augustin 3rd - 9th. I canNOT wait!!

After booking our Paris flight, Mike and I went and watched "Away We Go" which I thought was pretty fantastic. We also ended up getting Mario Kart on Wii and played that the rest of the evening. Overall, a pretty amazing day.

On Saturday, Mike and I woke up early and went to Alamo Drafthouse to watched "Public Enemy". I as really excitef for this movie, but the movie was just okay. My biggest problem with it, was that you really didn't care much about any of the characters. They all just seemed to blur together. After that we took the pups to Bull Creek (waterfall dog park) and hung out there for awhile. Ender will officially swim now, but only if he is chasing a stick. It is pretty funny. They had a great time there as per usual. After that we met up with Mike's friend from out of town and a few others at the Spiderhouse. After there we went to Torchys, and then later to downtown. We first went to the Gingerman where we randomly met up with Teddy. Then we went to the area they call "dirty 6th" which was HILARIOUS. Amazing people watching. I would love to go into details here, but not sure everyone wants the details. haha.

So far today, Mike, I, Teddy, and some other friends went to Jaun in a Million. We got their famous "Don Ramon" tacos which were amazing. I only had less than 1/2 and am still from it, about 5 hours later. Yay! After that I took a nap at home, and did my Wii Fit sorta thing. Later I plan on picking up some veggies and fruit and watching a movie with Mike tonight at home. I definitely need to relax today, because this past week was BUSY for me.

I hope you had a great weekend as well!

Food Update & AE Action Sports Will Game Review

I have been too busy and social to take pictures of a healthy meal everyday. But, I have gotten quite a few pictures of things I made recently. Pictured below you can see a picture of an Avocado Lime salsa I made following the recipe from Cooking Light.


With this recipe you are also supposed to make flank steak tacos. I am usually not a big fan of steak, or red meat in general, but flank steak is my favorite. And this flank steak with the avocado lime salsa and a bit of 2% sharp cheddar cheese, I was in heaven. Mike requested that this meal go in normal rotation.


My friend Amanda made Avocado with Shrimp Salad for our Harry Potter Night (where our mission is to watch all the movies before the new one comes out, especially since Amanda and I had not seen any of them before). We had leftovers actually that she graciously let us keep and I had this the night after. It was VERY tasty to me.



Mike brought home a rotteserie turkey for the Harry Potter Night as well. We have been eating leftovers from it all week. This was the obvious, yet simple way I went about using it on Monday night.


Tonight I actually had a night alone. This is quite the rarity. I was starving by the time I knew I had to eat dinner so I kept it light and simple. This is an english muffin, with one egg, and some 2% american cheese.



Another reason why I kept this meal light was because I knew I would be trying out my new EA Action Sports Wii Game shortly after. I gave it a try about 20 minutes after dinner and let me tell you, it kicks your butt! I started this 30 day challenge, which I thought set you up for about 20 minutes per day. That turned into 30 minutes or so. It had me do running in place, high kicks, lunges, squats, kick boxing moves, in-line skating, and some other arm and back exercises. It was a lot of fun so far, and taught me how to do the moves right. It took me longer than I expected because I didn't factor in the time it would take for me to watch the videos explaining how to do what they were asking. An hour later, my hair is still wet from sweating so hard. I can't wait to use it more!

Do any of you have fun weekend plans? I am planning to go to Enchiladas Y Mas after work tomorrow, and then watch Harry Potter at Amanda's place with a few people. On Saturday I am going to sit with Teddy while she gets some work done on her back. On Sunday I am going to a Volleyball party, where we will sit by the pool, and play volleyball. I am pretty horrible at volleyball, but I am sure I will still give it my all.

Engagement Photos - Not From the Best Source Yet

The weekend started out Fabulous. I came home to a lovely bunch of flowers from Mike, which is a rarity. Mike and I had plans to grab a drink at a Mexican restaurant (Maudies on South Lamar} and then take some food to go so we could watch the new Friday the 13th. This was romantic because the first time we hung out we watched Friday the 13th together.

On Saturday Mike's parents and brother came into town. We had plans to go to Hudsons on the Bend, to celebrate my birthday, his brothers birthday and Father's day. Turned out to be even more of a celebration. After dinner, Mike proposed to me in the herb garden in the back. It was beyond adorable and a moment I will remember forever. Unfortunately, my camera did not get pictures of this event, because I was very involved in the whole proposal part. Mike's parents, or shall I say my soon to be parents, took some photos but I have not received any yet. Hint Hint? hahah.

We did however get a shot of us at a bar we went to later that evening with my camera, after toasting to our engagement at home. Unfortunately the picture taker, Mike's brother, had no idea the video setting was on and just took 5 second videos instead of photos. I can't figure out how to get a single frame out of them to take in a picture, but oh well. Here is the one picture we did get together below. I wish the ring would have been showing, but fortunately I was able to take more.

Here are my hands on top of Mike's to show off the ring. This was night of. The ring was not positioned ideally, so I took a picture of the ring close up tonight, just for you :-)
Now you can see the ring close up. Again, it is set with white topaz, because Mike knew I did not want a diamond (due to many people dying for them, which I don't like), and encased in white gold. I am pretty sure I used the wrong terminology, but forgive me, I never took lessons on being a girl.

When I get more pictures I will post them here. I am thinking Mike and I might have to dress up again and re-enact a few because the camera situation did not work out quite as I had hoped so far. Hopefully the future in-laws will have some good ones :-)

I should have some more pictures posted up tomorrow, as well as a short review of the Wii AE Sports Action game I did. Have a good night!

My First Experience with the Wii

On Monday I received a Wii in the mail as a birthday present. Mike set it up for me and we played the Sports games for an hour and a half. We were sweating, my arms were shaking it was awesome. Too bad when I did the fitness test, it set me at age 52 or something lame like that.

On Tuesday morning I woke up and played the game again for my morning exercise. I did about 40 minutes of it. I got age 30 on the fitness test this time. I also hit 8 homeruns out of 10 or something obnoxious like that on the test. Crazy!

On Tuesday afternoon I could feel the soreness coming along. Not too terrible, but enough to make me whine a bit, and discourage me from laughing. My shoulders were sore, my arms, and my abs. I ended up buying the EA Action Sports package after work with a gift card I got from Andrea, so I could start an actual fitness regime. But it would have to wait until Wednesday morning because I had dinner with my future mother in law. :-)

This morning I woke up at 6, and immediately turned the alarm to go off at 6:45am instead. This was because I was INCREDIBLY SORE by this point and could not even imagine doing a fitness regime. My back got more sore, my arms are really sore now, and the core part is also pretty sore. It pretty much hurts to lift my arm to my mouth (good for discouraging me to eat right? hahah. Jk). Yes, I am pathetic.

Tonight I have a house warming party to go to, so I will be unable to try out the Wii EA Action sports. Plus I can barely move, so that is another reason I won't be doing it tonight. Once I get it started I will give a review. So far, the sports package that comes with it, is super intense if you do it for more than 2 hours in the course of 24 hours.

I have not had time to upload a picture of the ring yet. I am waiting on Mike's mom to give me pictures of the engagement. I have one of us at a bar after the engagement and the champagne toast at home. But it is not as cute as when we got officially engaged. heheh.

Has anyone else gotten incredibly sore from playing Wii? Am I just pathetic?

I'm Officially Engaged!

So it happened on Saturday night. Mike and his family and I went to this fancy restaurant to celebrate Father's Day, my birthday and his brother's birthday. We had an amazing meal and then afterward we walked through their herb garden. Mike pulled me away so we could be ourselves and then he asked me. It was so adorable. And the ring is perfect, it is exactly what I wanted. white gold, with white topaz jewels (did not want diamonds) in-set in the ring. And right afterward we got to show his parents and they were all super excited and crying and what not. And after that we went and got champagne and made a toast. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.


I should have pictures in the next few days. I can't wait to show you!!

Healthy Meals and Birthday Catch Up

On Wednesday, I had no time to eat and was STARVING. I got home at 645pm, and had to be out of the house by 715pm to get to trivia night at Pluckers on time. This included taking my dogs out to go the bathroom, feeding them, etc.

This meal here was Quorn Chicken (fake) stuffed with goat cheese and raspberry. This was divine. I was in heave with this. I can't believe I had it in my freezer for almost 6 months before giving it a try. Mmmmm. Obviously I had a few carrots as well, although honestly, they were going kind of bad, so I didn't eat all of them.


On Thursday night I played basketball with a few friends. After our extremely intense game, we were all hanging out and talking. A few minutes into this, some guy walked over to us and told us that his wife had called 15 minutes ago and said we are in the middle of a tornado warning that started about 15 minutes ago and that we should head home. I have NEVER been in a tornado warning before so I was super excited (I love crazy weather!!). On our 3 mile trek home, I could see the sky go from blueish gray to BLACK. It was amazing. When we left the park the sky was blueish gray, and once we got home, the sky looked like the picture below. Holy moly, it really made my day!When we got home I decided to have some Amy's vegetarian (spicy) chili. I grilled some onions and garlic, added the can of chili and added some 2% american cheese on top. For some reason, I love American Cheese on my chili. If you love chili, I highly recommend this. I am not a big fan of chili, but I LOVE this stuff.


I also came home to this lovely rose from Michael. He got it for me as an eary birthday present. I love it!!
My birthday started with Amanda showing up with these freaking adorable cupcakes for me. She used the recipe off cookiemadness.net. They were sooo freaking amazing, and made me so happy she spent the time for me on my birthday!!After work I went to Dart Bowl for some bowling and tasty enchiladas. They are supposedly pretty well known for their enchiladas so I was pretty excited to try them. They did not disappoint. I had a fantastic time bowling with all my friends, and was so excited so many people showed up. We actually ended the night playing rock band a racquel's place, which was also quite amazing. I got home pretty late for a 25 year old, at 4am. Whew.
For my birthday Mike got me an espresso machine. I had been wanting one for YEARS. I was soo freaking excited, you have no idea. On Saturday morning he taught me how to make a cappuccino with it with some local coffee from Katz Coffee. Mmm. Possibly the best cappuccino I have ever had.


After a day of craziness on my birthday, my tummy was not the happiest. It felt acidic all day. At 8pm I thought about what Teddy always says about too much acid in the tummy and realized I needed something to alkalize the digestive system. What better way to do that than with a huge bowl of veggies. It did the trick. 15 minutes after eating half a bag of frozen veggies I felt MUCH better.
I followed it up with a frozen banana with cinnamon and sugar. This was beyond tasty. It was like a healthy churro to me. Mmmm.
On Sunday I spent the day getting my new IPOD!!! And then after that and a few other errands, Mike, Teddy and I hit up Mighty Cone. This is a trailer place (often referred to as a roach coach I think) on south congress (the hip part of austin). I got the avocado shrimp cone. This consisted of a fried avocado and coconut shrimp with coleslaw on a tortilla. This was really really good. I will probably have it in my thoughts until next time I go. If you live in Austin, I highly suggest this place. Teddy also got a veggie slider there, and it was also pure heaven. It was like a falafel with hummus and a mixture of heaven.

After a weekend of eating a lot of food, including the greasy meal above, Mike thought we should eat a lighter meal. He bought stuffed flouder (stuffed with shrimp and some cheese), and made rice and veggies. This meal was spectacular. I only ate about half, but it sure made my tummy happy. I am so glad I like seafood now. This fish was even a bit more fishy than usual and I was still loving it. Crazy how much taste buds change throughout the year.
I also spent my day laying out by the pool, going to Amy's Ice Cream (Teddy's first time there!), and making chipotle peanut butter and an avocado lime salsa. This salsa is for flank steak tacos Mike and I are making tomorrow. Mmmm. I will definitely get a picture of that.

I hope you all had a great couple of days. Note: i posted a "healthy" meal for everyday except my birthday on Saturday (where I ate no healthy foods). This is making me much more conscious of getting in more healthy foods everyday. I love it. I hope you like it as well. I will try to be more regular with the posting, but life happens, and I am sure you understand. :-)

Have a great day everyone!!

Semi Healthy Meal Of the Day - 6/9/09

Here is my semi healthy meal of the day. I think my breakfast might have counted for "healthier" but it was not photogenic. This however is some home made pizza with fresh dough, grilled onions, garlic, cayenne pepper and cilantro. I would have eaten some veggies, but it looks like I have run out of ones that I could easily throw on the plate. I was also in a rush, so I didn't have much time to eat much, other than my leftovers (this pizza).

Note: pizza was made of very small pieces. I tend to bake mine in pie tins, if that gives you a better idea on the size of this.

In other news, my ipod is officially dead. Sucks. Turned out to be the motherboard which i was not going to replace. Woot.com said they would give me a refund for it. I sent it out to them today.

I am going to wait to buy a new one, as in until perhaps Saturday. I have convinced Mike and Teddy to get me a gift card to best buy instead of a regular present so I can buy one. Hopefully others contribute. hahaha. I am pretty bummed out about the death of my ipod. But that's life. Or is that Death? whatever. Definitely not that big of a deal when put in perspective, but still. I spend abour 40 hours a week with this thing, we have a close relationship. hahaha.

I was supposed to go to MojoKickball tonight, but looks like that is not happening. Mike is trying to figure out how to get silverlight onto his mac so he can watch some movie, and that is taking awhile. Plus we are both tired. I have not been able to sleep well for the last 2 nights. That is super weird for me. I blame the sun burn. But I really don't think that is it.

Since no mojokickball tonight, I have no excuse but to wake up early and do some yoga, or take the pups on a walk. Here's to hoping that will happen! haha.

Alright, have a fantastic day!!

Healthy Meal of the Day

I have not fully committed yet, but I had the idea today to post at least one healthy meal a day. That means I have to actually eat at least one healthy meal a day. I just wish I had a wireless memory card, because that would make this MUCH easier. Uploading is what annoys me. hehe. Any suggestions? Do you like this idea?

Here is my "One Healthy Meal Today". It was a almond butter, honey sandwich on wheat bread with flax seed and some strawberries that I ate for dinner because I was too drained to actually cook. I think it is healthy enough. Do you?


Yesterday I talked about my trip to Bull Creek, the dog park with waterfalls. Here is proof. If you squint your eyes, you can actually see Ender, Emily and Mike's shorts in the background.
Here are the pups enjoying the cool water on this warm day right next to Mike. My scalp burnt and my shoulders got started on a shirt tan. This was only from being there for less than hour Ahh.

Ender refused to swim last summer, but this year he is a swimming machine. Although he still gets worried every time he can't touch the ground. haha.
Here is Emily, enjoying the water. Isn't this such a pretty area for pups? And the water is actually pretty clean in this area. I am considering laying out here sometime on a Saturday or Sunday. I think it is a win win for the pups and me.

I did not end up working out today. I ended up getting around 6 hours of sleep last night. I just could NOT sleep at all. This meant I did not do my morning workout. I also ended up working for 11 hours, which means I got home at 715pm, just in time to eat dinner. Who wants to workout right after dinner? Not me. Plus I need to get some laundry done and what not.

Tomorrow night I am going to mojo kickball though, and participating this time. My friend Amanda will not be playing like I had hoped though because she had an accident with a window yesterday which resulted in 8 stitches. Ouch! Hopefully she recovers quickly and can play soon. But I imagine it will take at least a few weeks. Any other girls in Austin willing to participate with me?

Oh also, I finally talked to the ipod repair people. The guy who was actually fixing it talked to me. He told me that after messing with it a bit, he decided it was just the battery that sucked that he put in it. And that he got it to start charging. He wanted me to wait until tomorrow to pick it up though, just so he could make sure it would fully charge and playback without dying in 2 minutes. I am not going to get excited about this this time, because I have not had the best luck so far. But we shall see....

Recap + Ipod Dilemma

Not sure I will have much of a picture post for you this weekend. Depending on what I make for dinner tonight, I might have something interesting. As of right now, not really. I am having a pretty relaxing weekend so far, and am too broke to do anything fancy.

Let me give you an exercise/health update of my week so far.

On Sunday: I went to the school nearby and played soccer with the pups and Mike. I was definitely sore for a few days after this.

On Monday: I woke up early and did some yoga. I even got Mike to try it. That was pretty funny.

On Tuesday: I woke up early and took the pups on a long walk. And at night watched Mike play Mojo Kickball. It is a combo between kickball, tag and dodgeball. It was created to get people to exercise without thinking they were exercising. I think I am going to do it next week, even though the game looks really confusing. Also my brand new ipod died this day. :-(

On Wednesday: I got home late from mojo kickball, so I was not able to workout in the morning. And then had plans to go to Pluckers to do the whole trivia night thing with a few friends.

On Thursday: I was too tired from Trivia night. However, I did try my exercise ball workout. I just got one in the mail, blew it up and did the workout video that came with it. Lordy that is intense. I am excited to keep using it though!!

On Friday: I did an exercise ball segment, focused on upper body. I was going to do another but realized I needed to put the laundry away that I did the night before, so it wouldn't get super wrinkly. Later that night I just watched a movie at home with Mike and Teddy.

On Saturday: Mike and I took the pups to Bull Creek, which is a fantastic place where dogs can hang out in the water and play with each other. It was a lot of fun. We might go back there and lay out there sometime soon. After that we did some errands and watched a movie. We ended up making flank steak w/ grilled onions, and home made guac with black beans and rice. That sure was tasty.

On Sunday: So far I have done nothing. I am planning to do a few errands and lay out by the pool. Perhaps watch the NBA finals and eat some strawberry shortcake.

So would you like to hear my ipod dilemma? Sure. It has been all I talked about for the past week. I recently (as in 2 months ago) bought an 30 gig Ipod Video from woot.com for only $100. It was refurbished and it was an insane deal. So I did it. The last week or so it started not charging right. I thought maybe it was just my charger. But then I got a new one, and it would just not hold a charge. Then it gave me some lame error and wouldnt charge at all. I took it to Apple, because even though I didn't buy it through them, it is still their product and they should have some pride in it enough to let me know what is going on. They barely looked at it once they found out I didn't buy it from there and said oh the battery is dead. We can replace it for $80. I said no, because I bought it for $100 and that is ridiculous. So I decided to take it to an ipod repair place in Austin, so I could get it back faster and for cheaper. So I brought it in on Thursday night. They said it would only be $40. I called on Friday to ask when it would be done because they never gave me an approximate date or anything. They said come by by 6pm and we will have it ready. I go in at 545, they tell me that they replaced the battery but it still wasn't holding a charge. That it might be a mother board issue. I ask how much that is to fix, they say $114, but they might just need to do a few other things to it, and not have to replace the mother board. So I am like alright.... cool. Let me know what happens because I do not want to replace the mother board for a price higher than I spent on the ipod. They said we will call you on Saturday. They never called. I called at 5pm, since they close at 6. Their answering machine picked up. They never called me back. They are closed today.

If it is the motherboard, I am going to just get a refund from woot.com (they said they would give it to me, due to a 90 day warranty). Not sure if it counts if someone messed with it at a repair shop though... hmm. I really feel like I need a new one, with a warranty. I use this thing probably around 40 hours a week, and it seriously double the work I get done because it reduces distractions such as email, blog reading etc. It really isn't THAT bad to spend $250 on something you use that much. I use this thing more than I use anything else probably. I do not have an extra $250 right now, but might have some extra next month. I could either put this on a credit card or pretend that someone would buy me one for my birthday in 1 week. I know that won't happen though. :-( But a girl can dream right? hahah. I wish birthdays were still a big deal and you got as many presents from your parents as you did as a kid. Too bad that's not the case now. haha.

What would you do in this situation?

I considered a zune, but after reading reviews it sounds more annoying to deal with and it is the same price. So... lame.

I am sure an ipod is not that big of a deal to you, but it really makes me sad. heh. :-(