Pretty Cute

Way before I started collecting the Starbucks city mugs I somewhat collected the Starbucks pretty mugs.  They don’t really seem to produce many of the cute seasonal ones anymore…sad.

Oh look, more toast with almond butter and banana.  Shocker.

Lunch yesterday was light as I was heading out the door to get my hair done.  Cottage cheese with big, fat blueberries, dried cranberries, and a sprinkle of “salad crunchies” (soy nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc).

After my hair appointment I met up with Tiffaney to fill out some paperwork for booking our hotels and ferries for our upcoming vacation to Greece (!!!).  By the time I was done it was late afternoon and I was starving.

I stopped at Delicado’s for an early dinner.  Chicken Rollup with extra sauce and a small container of beet salad.  I ate it at home while catching up on work for the day and can’t remember the last time I felt that full.

American treat!  With dinner I sipped a Cherry Coke Zero.  Yet another coolio gift picked up during a friend’s trip across the border.  Sweet but yummy.

Not that I had room for dessert but dinner was early so snacking on this later in the evening seemed necessary.  Besides I don’t think I’ve ever made a trip to Delicado’s without getting a deli bar.

In an effort to drink more water and clean out the fruit bowl (damn fruit flies!) I sliced up lemon and lime.  It worked.

Of course, I had to pee about 356 times before I fell asleep but at least my water tasted good.

Cold Matters

It’s actually been a couple of months now since the nice folks at Thermos reached out to me and asked if I’d like to test out a couple of their coolio water bottles.  I was swimming in a sea of packing, moving, traveling and unpacking but when I came up for air I was glad to take them up on their offer.  We all know my love of getting #waterlogged and reminding everyone else to drink up too!

At the same time this was all going on Thermos Brand was running a social media frenzy on their cold products, including a fun Twitter Party for #ThermosCold where a panel of Cold Matters Coaches got together with the Twitter world to discuss health, fitness and hydration.  During that chat I actually won another Thermos bottle!

So all in all I received THREE brand spanking new water bottles to test out.  Since I am only one gal, and already own a couple of water bottles that I still like to use I decided to part with two of the three Thermos bottles.

My Mom became the recipient of this awesome Roho Bottle.  She drinks a crazy amount of water, likes to keep it cold, and was going through way too many plastic store-bought bottles of water.

Now she can tote this around in her car without wasting plastic!  I love the leak-proof push-button top, sippy spout and integrated handle…very practical and useable!

I decided to keep the green Intak Bottle for myself because it is durable BPA-free plastic(actually copolyester!) and I love the sippy spout and lockable lid.  Perfect for carting around to yoga without worrying about spillage or making noise with the lid during practice.

This one is also perfect for #waterlogged challenges because it has this great little rotating counter to let me know how many bottles I’ve consumed that day. 

The third (and honestly, the BEST) Thermos bottle is for you guys.  the stainless steel Insulated Hydration Bottle features TherMax double wall vacuum insulation for maximum temperature retention.

Those of you that prefer your water icy cold will love this one.  It also has this tres cool hygienic sipper lid with attached lid.  No more dropping your lids or fumbling during workouts.  Excellent.  Another feature is the sweat-proof design…it won’t leave water rings on your table!

In order to win you can do any of these two things:

1) Leave me a comment telling me what character was on your Thermos as a kid.  I know you had one!  I am fairly certain my soup went to school in a Holly Hobby Thermos.  (Mom, can you confirm that?)  :)

2) Tweet about this giveaway.  Mention @balanceblog (that’s me!) and @ThermosBrand (because they did provide this prize after all!).  Make sure you follow them because they constantly have giveaways and cool information.

Easy peasy, right?

Contest is open to all readers (I’ll be mailing via Canada Post).  One entry per method per person please.  I will use a random number generator to chose the winner on Friday, October 29th, 2010 at 12pm Pacific Standard Time.

Good luck everyone!  Tell all your friends!

Spoooooon!

hehe, does anyone else remember the Tick?

The other night I got on a roll in the kitchen and packed up pretty much everything but the kitchen sink (and the coffee maker!).  Thankfully Arron will still be living here so his kitchen wares are still available for cooking and eating purposes.

Um, except the cutlery is mine and I packed it.  Whoops.

But I still had one lonely spoon kicking around...

So yesterday all foods had to be spoon-edible (or require no utensils!).

It is about to become very apparent that I am also working my way through whatever food I have on hand!

Yogurt, granola, blueberries...

 

Cheese and avocado quesadilla...

Sammich thin with PB and banana and Supercrack...

How's this for a 9pm dinner?  Frozen hashbrowns.  With ketchup.

And Special K with soy milk for dessert...

Today started out much the same...spreading almond butter with the back of my lowly spoon...

Coffee in my travel mug because I've already packed all of the real mugs...

At lunch time I broke down and busted into the box of camping gear to find an extra fork so I could eat a salad!

 

Mixed greens, carrots, celery, radishes, red pepper and light feta cheese in Spring Herb dressing with fresh basil...

Hard boiled egg and some fancy olives on the side...

And water....soooo much water....

Tonight I'm attending one last yoga class at Breathing Space and finishing up packing my bedroom closet.  Dinner will be a freezer meal and I'm OK with that.  I'm exhausted.

Return

I actually received this card from Ali but the photo seems perfectly fitting for thanking all of you lovely people for your supportive comments, emails and Tweets.  I have been overwhelmed by the number of you that reached out with virtual love and hugs…for both me and Arron.  We both truly appreciate it. 

THANK YOU!!

He has arrived safely in Khartoum.  “it’s surreal…and hot”. 

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I took yesterday off from blogging, and kind of from life in general.  Work was hectic so that kept me busy.  I wisely planned a massage appointment, so that was a hour of me-time during which I managed to turn my brain off for a little bit (of course, I also managed to get tears in my eyes a few times too!).  I drank a lot of Starbucks, ate a lot of junk, and really didn’t take much care of myself…and honestly enjoyed every minute of it.

Sometimes candy treats do make everything better! 

(10 x a bazillion)

Around midnight I decided enough was enough and tidied the kitchen, cleaned out the fridge, made a bigass Greek salad and filled all of my water bottles for today.  I went to sleep feeling prepared for a brand new day.  :)

And woke up still feeling prepared and ready to tackle life.

Breakfast was tough…my poor tummy just wasn’t interested in food but I knew I needed to get that healthy stuff into my body.  Liberte vanilla Greek yogurt with thawed raspberries, 1/2 banana, and 1/4 cup granola…

 

Coffee to go…as I ran off to the chiropractor…and to sign off on my taxes…

Man, paying someone else to do my taxes this year was one of the best decisions I’ve made.  I cannot imagine having to do them myself while going through all of this personal shiz!

When lunchtime rolled around I was soooo happy that I had prepped that salad last night.  Not only did I save a bunch of time, but the tomatoes were all marinated in the dressing…yum!

In the big silver bowl: baby cucumbers, tomato, orange peppers, red onions, light Feta, Greek seasoning, EVOO, lemon juice.

To serve I spooned a big serving of the mixed salad goodies over some fresh spinach…

And added a big scoop of navy beans and fresh ground pepper…

Served with a side of In Snax pita crisps and the last tiny dollop of hummus…

 

I can feel my insides cheering and thanking me for the veggie overload.  :)  That spinach is already perking me up!

Oh…and what did cheer me up yesterday?  The arrival of my cute new t-shirt from fANNEtastic Anne!!  When I saw her put these up for sale I just had to have one. 

Now maybe people won’t look at me quite as funny when I pull my camera out at lunch?  :)