New Kicks

Happy Saturday! While we were supposed to have a very rainy Saturday, we've hardly had any rain at all. And while I was looking forward to the rain, as a means of being productive, I'm glad the sky held itself together. Because yesterday after school I treated myself to a pair of new running shoes - Asics GT-2000 3, to be exact - from Luke's Locker, and I am obsessed. In love. Infatuated. Call it what you want, but they feel like pillows on my feet. And they're pretty cute to boot.

I believe I mentioned in last Sunday's post that after the Austin Half Marathon, I was going to invest in a new pair of running shoes. You are supposed to replace your running shoes every 300-500 miles, and I think it's safe to say that I've put my fair share of miles on my pink Brooks. My body was certainly telling me that, and after putting on my new pair of Asics, I knew it was true. I felt a difference right away. And as I've also mentioned before, I pronate when I run, meaning I need a little extra support so that my knees won't start giving me trouble. And though that means buying a more expensive shoe, I would much rather pay a little bit more for shoes, than have to pay for knee surgery, or worse, stop running altogether. And ever since I have started purchasing shoes with that extra support, I have experienced very, very little knee pain. And I'm hoping this new pair of shoes will help with my left shin pain. Because weirdly enough, it's only my left shin that has been giving me trouble. Hopefully the new shoes, paired with some diligent calf stretching, will do the trick.

To break in my new shoes, I decided to take them out for a seven mile run around the neighborhood. They have to get acclimated with one another, after all. I know many parts of the country are experiencing some crazy cold weather right now, but not this part. It was about 72 degrees with 80% humidity when I went out for my run. I thought it was going to be a tough run, but it was actually very pleasant. I set out to run only six miles, but it felt so good that I just kept on going. A little slower than usual, but I'll chalk that one up to the humidity. Nonetheless, a great Saturday afternoon run.

I was nice and sweaty after that run, so I came home to shower and freshen up. One of my fellow English teachers has the same off-period as me, and he has a teacher float into his room. And I obviously do not have a classroom, so we both find ourselves in the English lounge at the same time. He is absolutely hilarious to talk to, and he is also a big-time runner. Just the other day we discussed how when we run, we sweat. Some people maybe have a bead of sweat running down the side of their face, but that is not the case for me. So, a shower was very necessary.

After my shower, I headed up the road to Salata for a healthy post-run salad. I sat in there and read Scary Close by Donald Miller while I was eating my salad, and though I am only about one-tenth of the way through the book, I love it already. It focuses a lot on meaningful relationships, and the freedom that comes from loving other people. I'm hoping to get a few more things done so that I can curl up for the rest of the evening with my Kindle.

After making a few stops at CityCentre, I headed back home to continue working. I have been surprisingly productive today, but I still have quite a lot of ground to cover, mainly in the grading area. Honestly, I'm not even touching the short answer responses they wrote yesterday in class, because they are an absolute train wreck. The question asked of them was extremely complex, and I'm not sure that they really gained anything by writing them. I want to take time to go over (for the upteenth time) how to correctly answer a short answer response question. It would take me far more time than it's worth to truly grade and make comments on them. I do still have a stack of expository essays staring back at me, and I would like to get to those before the weekend is over.

I hope your Saturday has been a good one! Anyone gearing up for The Oscars tomorrow night? I will watch them, of course, but because I'm absolutely awful about going to see movies, I'll probably be watching it more for the dresses. And to see if Bellaire grad Richard Linklater can bring home another award for his film, Boyhood. See you guys tomorrow!

Weekend Compilation

Happy Sunday! I'm headed back to Austin in a few hours, but I thought I would check in with you guys first. Yesterday was a fairly jam-packed day, as I participated in a last-minute CPR/AED training, so I am now 100% ready to coach volleyball. And when I say I'm 100% ready, I mean that in the technical sense. Mentally, I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting there!

(Source)

I hope I never have to administer CPR, but I am glad I had to get re-certified, because I'll be completely honest - I didn't remember much of anything from the last time I was trained. I also ordered a Mini CPR Keychain that contains a breathing barrier, so that I could potentially perform CPR wherever I go without having to worry about catching any diseases. It sounds bad to say that, but our instructor continually reiterated the fact that we have to protect ourselves first, and I would hate to stand back and watch something horrible happen because I am worried about what might happen to me.

I took that class in Baytown, which is about a 40 minute drive from my house. I got out around 11:30am, and shortly after returning home, I started sorting through some of my book collection to decide which ones would make the trip to my new classroom. I packed some of them up in a box, and I have another large box that is being stored over at my grandmother's house, so I am well on my way.

That being said, this is my plea to any of my wonderful readers - if you have any old books that you remember reading in high school, or that you would have enjoyed reading in high school, and don't want them anymore, I, as well as my students, would so appreciate you sending them our way. I want my students to fall in love with reading the same way I did, finding the joy that comes from reading and getting lost in a whole other world, being able to identify with a character in the novel, and there are so many books out there that can make kids fall in love with reading. Okay, I'm done, so back to our regularly scheduled events!

After I had gathered up and organized a few things for my classroom, I set to work in the kitchen. I have probably mentioned before how much baking seems to calm me, and after sending Dylan a picture containing about 70 cookies, he asked me if I was stress baking. It occurred to me that the fact that I become a professional in just five short days was probably the underlying cause of this cookie extravaganza. But, my family sure wasn't complaining when they came home to all of these cookies!

I spent almost two hours baking all of those cookies, before deciding that it was probably time to hit the gym for a workout. Because I have been doing my beloved Pure Barre classes lately, I have been neglecting the pool, so I decided to sneak in a little swim and sauna time before treating myself to a salad from Salata while getting a deluxe pedicure. We're all worth a little splurge, right?

I certainly knew where I was when I walked in to a nail salon full of moms all dolled up drinking wine and gossiping about their kids. Home sweet home, right? And I say all of that in the nicest way possible, because they never say anything malicious, and they deserve a little pampering, too!

And to round out my day, I finally did something with the hundreds upon hundreds of pictures I had taking up lots of space in my backpack. I knew I wanted to create some sort of "All About Me," that would quickly tell my students a little bit about their teacher, but that would also serve as a keepsake for me. I came across one of my old empty bulletin boards, as well as some cute button pushpins, so I set to work creating the perfect combination. I feel as though this collection tells a lot about me, with pictures that tell a story of my love for UT, my family, my friends and roommates, Dylan, and running and travel, among other things.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a couple thousand that sum these past few years up pretty perfectly.

And on that note, I'm off to organize what few things I have left to take back to Austin. Five days and I call this place home again. It's bittersweet, for sure!

Restaurant Review: Salata

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a very relaxing Memorial Day Weekend (if you were lucky enough to have Monday off, that is)! It poured all day - all weekend, really - in Austin, but it let up enough so that we were able to enjoy a beautiful evening. It was the perfect day to stay inside to do some classroom crafting, as well as some baking, but more on that in a later post.

I have a wonderful restaurant review for you guys today, but first, let's get through the routine news.

Breakfast + Workout

I woke up to rain this morning, so I let myself lie in bed for a little while before eventually getting up to make my usual scrambled egg whites and spinach (but first, I made my bed).

I planned to attend a 10am BodyPump class at the gym, so I packed a few of my banana-oatmeal-almond butter muffins in a Ziploc bag and ate them just before class began. I really love taking BodyPump classes, but I also don't take them regularly enough to not feel sore the next day. So, I have a feeling I will not want to get out of bed tomorrow!

The bicep and lunge tracks were particularly challenging this morning, and I have a love/hate relationship with what I think are called progression lunges. We started off by putting one leg on an exercise step (sans blocks), and one on the ground directly behind us in a reverse lunge position, simply moving up and down with 5-lb weights in each hand.

Up and down movement - legs remaining in this position (Source)

We then progressed to keeping that simple lunge movement, but we added to it by bringing that back foot back up to the starting position on the step before taking it back and completing that same reverse lunge movement again.

Step One 

Step Two

After eight reps of that movement, we progressed into our final movement, which meant that instead of stopping that back leg at the platform, we brought our knee up, as if we were doing high knees. This one killed me, but as always, I was glad I didn't quit!

Step One (Source)

Step Two 

Step Three

Salata

Now for the exciting part of this post! I think I've mentioned a couple of trips to Salata before on this blog, and I absolutely LOVE it (the fact that there is one located so close to my house in Houston is one of the greatest attractions to moving back home). So, when Brooke reached out to me about reviewing the recently opened Austin Salata, I jumped at the opportunity. This Salata opened just over a month ago, and I have driven by it quite a few times, but I had not yet had an opportunity to stop in. So, this past Thursday, Dylan and I drove out to the ArborWalk Shopping Center to enjoy a healthy and refreshing lunch.

We were greeted right away, and I was told to ask for Kasey, the franchise owner for the Austin and San Antonio locations. She was so sweet in explaining how everything worked, and told us that she would be the one taking care of us today.

Salata offers salad and wraps, and though we both went for the salad options, I saw someone eating a wrap and I vowed to get that next time, as it looked great! Anyway, the way Salata works, and the reason I think I like it so much is because it reminds me of many frozen yogurt establishments, in which you get to create your very own dessert. The salad option might just be a little bit healthier!

So, you start out by picking your greens - I went with spinach, and Dylan went with the romaine hearts, but you can also choose from mixed kale/spinach as well as mixed greens. I'm a creature of habit, and I have always only gotten the spinach, but everything always looks great.

Going down the line, you can then choose to add as many fruits and vegetables as you please. And they have just about everything you can think of. You can see all that there is to choose from in the picture, but I added black olives, green olives, sprouts, onions, tomatoes, and chopped pineapple to mine. There is seriously so much to choose from, and you can add as many ingredients as you want with no additional charge, as each salad starts at either $7 or $8, for the small or regular, respectively, and the only additional cost is for the protein.

There are also options to add sliced and chopped nuts - Dylan added some sliced almonds to his - as well as cheese, though you guys know I had to pass on that one!

Once you get through with the fruit and veggie toppings, you get to the wide array of dressing options. I unfortunately didn't manage to snag a pic of the different dressing options, but they have all the usual options - balsamic vinageriette (my fav), ranch, honey mustard, caesar, and they also have options such as ginger lime, mango, and sun-dried mango. What I love about Salata is the fact that they let you sample as many dressings as you would like before committing to putting one on your salad. Bonus points, for sure!

Moving on down the line, next you have an option to add protein. Not one to pass on meat or seafood to go atop my salad, I went with the Herb Marinated Grilled chicken, but you can choose from so many options, such as Pesto chicken, Spicy Chipotle chicken, and Asian BBQ chicken. 

And for your seafood options, there is Herb Marinated or Spicy shrimp, Baked salmon, Krabmeat, and a Seafood mix. So, in other words, something for everyone!

Finally, you can choose between three types of bread, which comes with your salad. You can choose between pesto bread (Dylan got this, and I was immediately jealous), wheat bread (not pictured here - I chose this option, and it was also excellent), and spicy chipotle bread. I have no doubt that that one would taste excellent as well. They send the bread through a toaster oven so that it is nice and warm by the time it gets to you. More bonus points.

And finally, though we did not choose to add any soup to our meal, you have the option to add either a cup or a bowl of broccoli, tortilla, or tomato basil soup. I'm sure it will be perfect in the colder months, as I cannot seem to fathom the idea of soup during a Texas summer!

After we were checked out at the register, we were given cups and encouraged to try their different flavors of lemonade. Dylan remarked that this is truly a healthy restaurant, as they don't even have soda as an option.

I started out with water, but Dylan started with the raspberry lemonade, which was our very favorite throughout the entire meal. We also tried the peach lemonade, as well as the Arnold Palmer, and while both were excellent, the raspberry won the gold that afternoon.

Overall, I can't say enough about my experience at Salata, and I think Dylan would second that notion. I love the build-your-own salad concept, because there are so many times that I like the sound of a salad, save one or two ingredients, so I like that I am able to customize this to whatever I want. Like I mentioned earlier, the options are truly endless, so you are sure to find something that suits your taste. And, there is no judgment for asking for topping after topping after topping - it is your salad, after all! We also loved how fresh all of the ingredients were, as well as the fact that all of the employees take care to make sure each topping container never got too low.

In the state of Texas, Salata has locations in Austin, Houston (Sugar Land and The Woodlands, included), Dallas, and San Antonio, as well as in Addison, Fort Worth, Irving, and Plano. Salata can also be found in California, so click here to find one near you. I already know I will be making a return trip very, very soon.

So, a huge thank you to Brooke for reaching out to me with this opportunity, to Kasey for taking such good care of us, and for the Salata chain as a whole. I give you guys five stars, and I absolutely love the concept of this next generation salad bar. It's fast, easy, healthy, and delicious. So, stop by Salata and be ready to eat good, look good, and feel good.

Over and out - I'll check back in with y'all tomorrow!