Start the morning off right....Yummmy!

Slept in this morning...ahh it was nice. When I woke up my husband was making a less than healthy breakfast and I said No i didnt want any. Instead I tried a new recipe, here is how it turned out:

"Oatmeal" without the oats?! Yes thats right and it was goood! Topped with fresh strawberries and Liberte yogurt, delish. Check out the recipe below.

Now im heading out for a morning walk to the local coffee shop and coming back home to enjoy my coffee with some Pinterest ;)

“Oatmeal” Minus the Oats
Ingredients:
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 banana, mashed
3/4 cup liquid egg whites (or 3 egg whites) *I used 2 egg whites*
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (add more if desired)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Whisk together egg whites and almond milk and then stir in walnuts, ground flax, banana, vanilla extract, and cinnamon; blend well.
In a medium saucepan, warm the mixture on the stove, stirring frequently, until the “oatmeal” reaches the desired consistency; this should only take a few minutes.
Top with berries, nut butter, seeds, or whatever else your little heart desires

Waking Up is Hard to Do

How do you go from this?......

to this:

Determination!
I find it difficult to get out of my nice comfy, warm bed with our oversized duvet and start my day early. But I am determine to do just that. I wanna jump up outta bed and not think about it before I change my mind to stay nice and cozy.

If I work in the morning or not, I will be starting my days earlier. My husband starts his at 4:20am and sometimes even an hour earlier -gawd.
I used to enjoy the mornings and be a morning person and I will get back to that. I feel so much more productive when I start my day early.
Tomorrow morning I will be starting this trend.

Do you have trouble getting out of bed some mornings?

Girl talk

A friend recently wrote a post about Sex and the City, who doesn't love that show?

I know, i love the glamour of living in New York, the fashion complete with fab shoes, dating adventures, and time with girl friends.

I have watched the show for years and always tune in when its on tv. I love how all the girls are so different and the best of friends.

I am fortunate enough to have many girl friends including all my closest girlies in the sorority.

We don't seem to be as glamorous but still have lots of fun and are about triple in size(at least).

My close friends that live near me and that I went to High School with, still get together but not as often as the gals in Sex and the City seem too. But the other night s., b. and I all went out for dinner and im sure it was like watching Carrie and the girls with our conversation about our men, sex but with a lot of talk of children and babies. (b. has 3 beautiful kiddies under 7 yrs. old and s. has a toddler and one on the way!)

Think Sex and the City with more kids and as in the movie when Samantha is in LA, well sadly we were missing one of our girls because she lives the big city life in Toronto.

The 4 of us have many fond memories from years ago and all the many boys we dated, parties we attended and girl talks we had. Its always a great time when we get together.

Cherish your girl friends and make time for them.

Goals

New Years resolutions or goals....Have you made them? Plan to? I have but not because its the New Year, which most commonly happens as people say this year I will, this year I plan etc.

I believe it is important to make goals all year round and as you accomplish goals to move forward to others. So whether you made some for 2012 or just to set goals, Go for it!

I have just started collecting things for my goals board (also known as visions board), its a great visual to help you keep in mind those goals you set and reasons why you set those goals to keep you motivated :)

My goals mostly center around health and fitness because this is the biggest area that needs to improve and I have goals for.

So for my goals:

Health & Fitness:

- Eat clean, wholesome foods including more veggies and fruits

- do something active everyday

- work out 3-4 times per week

- start running/learn to run

- lose weight

-do yoga 2-3 times per week

Professional:

- get my name out there at more schools

- continue my education with French courses

- create a resource lesson plan binder

Life:

- read 1(mininum) book per month

- plan a date night every 2 weeks with my hubby

- spend more time at the dog park with our baby girl Dakota

$

- save for our vacation this summer

- pay down debt significantly ($5,000 by the summer)

What are your goals?

Visit

I just had a great week with my bestie v. and her adorable baby girl! They came to visit last Wed. and left yesterday :( It was soo nice to have them stay with the hubby and I because v. is one of our very best friends and we never got to spend much time with baby Chloe and she is already over 3 months old. Leaving away from your friends sucks.

When they arrived with piles of stuff and bags of things (mostly the baby's -theres a lot of stuff that comes with such a tiny person) I was so excited! I couldnt wait to get my hands on that sweetheart of a little girl and snuggle her and smother her with kisses. I couldn't wait until I chatted with my best friend and got caught up on life.

While they visited, we went shopping a couple times, hung out with some other mom friends and their little ones, made suppers, had my parents, grandma and others(from away) come visit v. and the baby, played Monopoly(sadly only once), watch tv, v. helped me discover Pinterest(danger!), washed bottles, made formula, had bath times, nap times and all of the joys of having a baby and just hung out and talked. Thats what I liked the most just hanging out, being with each other. Its nice having friends that you can just hang out with and even do your own thing and not have to talk but just be with each other. I will miss her and the baby girl very much. Can't wait for them to come back and visit and for us to go to the island :)

Cherish Every Moment

Last week was an extremely hard week. I received news that one of my sorority sisters died in a car accident. I heard the tragic news but I didn't believe it, there was nothing on the news(yet) or on facebook. I was in shock, how could this possibly happen to someone so young.

Then I read her obituary the next day. It was so difficult to see my friend and sorority sister's name saying that she had passed.

It is tragic.

I made my plans immediately to head up to her home town for the funeral, where another very close friend of mine was and having a difficult time dealing with the news, as they were best friends.

this amazing young women(a year younger than me) had such a wonderful personality and a zest for life that many should try to acheive. She was intelligent, genuine, funny and a true friend. We spent a lot of time togetehr when we were in the same city and attended the same university. She is my sister. She will be greatly missed by all of those whose hearts she touched in her short life.

{some of my IBX sisters}

Cherish all that life gives you, never take anything for granted and live life with a purpose.