Washington D.C. Recap

Alright, alright, alright, it is time to get back into the regular blogging routine. So, let’s stick to the regular information for now – workout and breakfast - before moving onto the more exciting parts of this post.

Workout

Today’s workout was a tough one, but a good one. I started my day off on the right (and early) note with a 6am spin class at the gym. It has been awhile since I have taken a spin class, as I have been taking advantage of this beautiful spring weather by spending time at the pool. It also doesn’t hurt that I can simultaneously work on my tan and workout at the same time. So, today’s spin class was tough in the best way. We did mostly hill work, but we did lots of sprinting on those hills. If you have read this blog with any regularity, you know that sprinting on hills is probably one of my least favorite things to do on the spin bike, so as much as I hate it, I also love it. Twisted, I know.

Breakfast

After a quick shower and a little bit of packing (as I have yet another trip to Houston this weekend – keep your fingers crossed for this interview), I headed over to SRD for my final day of work this week. Once I got here, I wrapped presents for the eight graduating seniors at SRD before sitting down to enjoy my breakfast of scrambled egg whites and spinach (typical),

and some sliced strawberries and mango. 

It was delicious, and about an hour later I enjoyed a cup of Dannon Light & Fit Raspberry Chocolate Greek yogurt. You guys know I have to get my chocolate fix in each day!

Washington D.C.

I am a bit frustrated with myself for not doing a day-by-day recap of my time in Washington D.C., as I did when I went to San Francisco, but, I did not, so just hang with me if this is a little bit longer than usual.

Sarah (my room roommate – suite 1 forever) and I decided kind of randomly to sign up for the Nike Women’s Marathon that took place in Washington D.C. last weekend. Remember how much I loved the San Francisco race? Well, we figured a weekend trip to D.C. would be the perfect pre-graduation getaway, and we were right. It was so nice to escape Austin for a long weekend and enjoy the beautiful east coast weather. We left extremely early Friday morning, as we attended a fashion show on Thursday night featuring one of our roommate’s incredible design collection that she has been working so diligently on all year.

We actually came this close to missing our flight, as we got on the plane two minutes before they were set to close the gate. Talk about an adrenaline rush! I alternated sleeping, reading, and completing some final job applications throughout the three-hour flight, and was happy to finally get off the plane and stretch my legs. We had quite the journey to our hotel, but we finally made it, freshened up, and headed off to find some lunch. After quite a bit of wandering we ended up at a place called Ted's Bulletin, which came highly recommended to us by our roommate, Haleigh, and her sister, Katie, because they are famous for their homemade poptarts.

After much deliberation,  I finally settled on the chicken and shrimp kabobs with a side of asparagus and broccoli. There is cheese on the vegetables in the picture, but don't worry, I got that taken care of! Sans cheese, my meal was still delicious, and it fueled me for quite a bit of walking.

Our next stop was the Pentagon, and though it started raining pretty hard on us while we were there, that was easily one of my favorite things that we did over the weekend (I might sound like a broken record at the end of this post). We obviously did not get the pleasure of going inside - top secret and all - but I now understand why people want to go into a profession like the FBI. It is all so cool, and I can't even comprehend the security measures that were in place while were there. Additionally, 9/11 really fascinates me for some reason, so I loved getting to see the Pentagon Memorial. It was so incredibly touching, and I couldn't help but feel a little more American pride than usual.

Like I said, it was raining pretty hard at this point, so we nixed Arlington National Cemetary and instead headed straight for the race expotique to pick up our race packets. It was pretty standard, but my favorite part had to be my exposure to Chocolate Dipped Coconut Luna bars. They are a magical experience, y'all. I don't even want to count up how many of them were consumed over the course of the weekend.

After our time at the expotique, we managed to flag down a taxi that took us right back to our hotel. We waited out the rain before deciding it would be the perfect evening to walk around and look at the monuments. Sarah's dad snagged us a hotel in very close proximity to THE White House, Washington Monument, etc., so we took advantage of that proximity and did our own mini monument tour.

I really loved the World War II Memorial, and I just really enjoyed getting to experience seeing the monuments at night. I loved walking through physical representations of events and places I have studied for years in school, as I truly feel that Washington D.C. is a place everyone should visit at least once!

After such an early morning, and quite the long day, Sarah and I slept really well that Friday night. We got up when our bodies naturally woke us up and took our time getting ready for the day. First up on the list - breakfast! We went to another restaurant recommended to us by Haleigh and Katie - Founding Farmers - and we liked it so much that we went back the next day. We snagged a seat at the bar, as there was about an hour and a half wait (clearly other people liked this place too), and wasted no time deciding what to order. I went with the Drag Through the Garden pan scramble, which consisted of scrambled egg whites, roasted seasonal vegetables, and spinach. For my sides I choose fresh fruit and multi-grain toast, and let me just say that first of all, I ate every last bite, and the strawberry preserves they brought us to go with the toast was absolutely incredible. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

It was, again, the perfect fuel for another jam-packed day. We started off at Great Falls Park, which is a natural landmark along the Potomac River. It is actually located in both Virginia and Maryland, but we were on the Virginia side of it. Sidenote - does it blow anyone else's mind that Washington D.C. is not actually located in a state?

Anyway, the falls were absolutely beautiful. I had never seen anything like that before, so I was truly blown away by the beauty of it all. The pictures don't really do it justice.

We probably spent about two hours at Great Falls Park - if you want to hear an interesting story about our time at the park, please ask, as I would be happy to tell you - before heading back to D.C. and getting some food into our empty stomachs. We walked around for a bit trying to find something that appeared both unique to D.C., tasty, and without much of a wait, and we settled on Sweet Green, a place that very much reminded me of Salata in Houston. I created my own salad, and into the bowl went spinach, quinoa, tomatoes, green peppers, broccoli, and shrimp, all topped off with a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette. I think my empty bowl at the end of the meal speaks for itself.

We then hopped on the subway and headed over to Arlington National Cemetary, which was easily one of my favorite parts of the trip. Similar to my experience at Normandy, it was just breathtaking, and I could not believe how it just went on and on and on. Highlights of Arlington Cemetary were definitely JFK's gravesite and the tomb of the unnamed soldier, but I would go ahead and say that all of it was very, very worth our while.

Our legs were feeling pretty tired at this point, so we headed back to our hotel to relax a bit before heading back over to Georgetown to find dinner and get ready for our moonlight monument tour, which ended up being quite the hilarious event. It isn't even worth going into detail over.

Naturally it started raining again, so we taxi'd back to our hotel and went to bed shortly after that, as we had a wake-up call coming in the 5 o'clock hour. It was officially race day! We woke up later than we normally would for a half marathon, because we didn't plan to run the entire thing, so we didn't need those two+ hours to digest our food. Our training didn't really happen, so we came up with the plan to walk a majority of the race, running when we felt like it. Well, we ended up running 10/13 miles - running the first three, walking one, running two, walking one, running two, walking one, and running the last three. I really liked that method of completing the race, because although I wasn't really prepared to even run 10 of those 13 miles, that one mile walking break fueled me for more running, and some very speedy running at that.

The course itself was absolutely beautiful, starting at the Capitol building and going by the Washington Monument, both the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the World War II Memorial, and a large chunk of the race afforded a beautiful waterfront view. The weather was honestly ideal running weather, which made it that much more enjoyable. Being presented a Tiffany's necklace by an ROTC member at the end of the race didn't hurt much, either!

After the race, we headed back to our hotel to shower and head back over to Founding Farmer's for breakfast. Should I be ashamed to admit that I ordered the exact same thing I ordered the day before? Although, this time I rewarded myself with a Peach Bellini. And I wasn't even carded, so I'd consider that the second victory of the day.

After breakfast, which was more like lunch, we headed back over to Georgetown to relax with some shopping. It was the perfect post-race treat, and we walked around for a few hours before collapsing in the grass by the water to take a little nap before dinner. We finally figured out that if we didn't want to wait for over an hour to eat, reservations were the way to go, so we had a 5pm dinner reservation at Farmers, Fishers, Bakers - the sister restaurant of Founding Farmers. We very obviously enjoyed our meals from there! The menu was very diverse, but I settled on a simple salad with pickled shrimp. Refreshing and delicious - perfect for my last meal in DC.

We headed back to our hotel for the last time with very happy stomachs and happy hearts after a wonderful weekend spent in a beautiful city. We woke up in the 4 o'clock hour for this flight, and it was quite a long day of traveling as we encountered some inclement weather in Nashville. We got back to Austin around 12:30pm, and it has been pretty non-stop from there, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to explore a new city with one of my best friends.

And now, I’m just hanging out, enjoying being back and working at my beloved SRD – the very best place to be.

Chicken and Apple Chicken Sausage

Happy Thursday, and happy first day of May! Where in the heck has this year gone? T-16 days to graduation, W H A T !

(Source)

I know that it has been quite a while since I last posted, and I also know that I said I was going to be better about posting. However, things are just now starting to slow down, and I probably never even shared with you that I traveled to Washington D.C. with my best travel bud to run a half marathon. That's how behind I am! 

But fear not, with this new month, I am resolving to get back to my 10 posts a month goal. So, without further ado, I have a new recipe to share with you guys!

A few weeks ago I was doing some casual grocery shopping at Randall's. I was walking over to the produce section when I saw a man handing out sausage samples. I am a huge fan of free samples, and surprisingly, a huge fan of sausage (sausage-on-a-stick is definitely one of my guilty pleasures). So, when the representative offered up a sample of chicken and apple flavored chicken sausage, who was I to refuse? I absolutely loved it, so I decided to buy a package of it to cook up for dinner. Well, I sort of forgot about it for a week or two, but I happily rediscovered it when I was attempting to organize my shared shelf in the fridge. When you share a fridge with eight other girls, you're bound to lose something every now and again.
*I apologize for not knowing the brand of the chicken sausage - I am off my blogging and picture-taking game these days, so bear with me as I get back into my groove!

Amidst my rummaging, I also found some neglected vegetables so I pulled those out of the fridge as well and got to work preparing what might be my new favorite dinner.

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini
• 1 squash
• 1 handful asparagus spears
• 1 chicken sausage
• Lemon pepper
• Olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Break the tough ends off the asparagus and discard
3. Lay the asparagus spears on a baking dish, lined with foil and sprayed with cooking oil
4. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon pepper (if desired)
5. Roast in oven for 8 minutes, letting them remain in the oven with no heat for 5 additional minutes
6. Meanwhile, chop zucchini, squash, and chicken sausage
7. Coat cooking pan with olive oil
8. Place all of the aforementioned ingredients in the pan, over medium heat

9. If desired, season with lemon pepper (or any other seasoning)
10. Saute for 7-8 minutes
11. Take the asparagus out of the oven and the remaining ingredients out of the pan
12. Enjoy!

It looks like a lot of steps, but it really only takes about 15 minutes to prepare (and a lot less time than that to eat), and I would even recommend making two servings so that it's easy to reheat the next night when you walk into your house ravenously hungry after yet another crazy day! And again, I apologize for the lack of pictures during the actual cooking process - I'll be better next time, I promise!

Have a great Thursday, y'all, and I hope to be back with another post today. Though I clearly can make no promises on that one!

Monday Mania

Happy Monday, everyone. Remember when I said I was going to be better about posting? I'm hoping I'll make good on my promise one of these days. This past week was a pretty crazy one, as I went back and forth to Houston no less than three times. My fingers are crossed that some good will come out of all that driving! Anyway, I enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing weekend at home. I was able to leave behind the resumes, pencil skirts, and heels in favor of shorts, sandals, family, and friends, and it felt great to leave behind thoughts of the real world, even if just for a weekend. As of last Saturday, graduation is only four short weeks away and though I could (really) not be more excited about my future, I also hate the season of "lasts," that is so inevitable second semester senior year. As of last Thursday I am officially done with class, and the next time I step into a classroom, it will be my own. Weird.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted a survey for you guys, so here's a pretty random one for your reading enjoyment.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:07am, and though I am usually an early-riser, I got back to Austin just after 12:30am, and it was a little harder to drag myself out of bed with enough time to get ready for work.

2. How do you like your steak? Medium rare.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The new Wes Anderson movie – The Grand Budapest Hotel. It is very different from the type of movie I would normally choose to see, but I really enjoyed it.

4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? This is such a hard question, because when all is said and done, I don’t ever want to leave Texas, but there are many, many places I would like to visit. Australia is up high on that list, as is Switzerland, and many mountain states in the U.S.

(Source)

5. What did you have for breakfast? Egg whites and spinach, classic. With a mango on the side.

6. What is your favorite cuisine? I’m going to have to go with Mexican food. That, or American food. Pretty standard.

7. What foods do you dislike? I don’t dislike Italian food at all, but I normally won’t seek out an Italian restaurant on my own because it can often be hard for me to find something that I can eat.

8. Favorite dressing? Balsamic Vinaigrette, especially from La Madeleine.

9. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? I like to think I’m a half full kind of girl.

10. Where would you want to retire? I don’t think retirement is on my radar quite yet!

11. Favorite time of day? Sunset.

12. Where were you born? Houston, Texas

13. What is your favorite sport to watch? I absolutely LOVE watching sports. Football and basketball are probably my two favorites, but I’ll honestly watch just about anything.

14. How many siblings do you have? One little brother. 

15. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning, for sure.

16. What did you want to be when you were little? I think I’ve always wanted to be a teacher (since at least the third grade), but I also went through a period of time when I wanted to be an astronaut. I had a telescope and everything. However, my astronomy class quickly put that dream to rest. 

17. What is your best childhood memory? I don’t think I could pick just one, but I have some really great memories from the sports teams I played on as a child.

18. Always wear your seat belt? Always. 

19. Been in a car accident? I’ve been in a couple, actually, and thankfully each one has been very minor in the fact that no one was hurt. All thanks to the fact that we were all wearing seatbelts!

20. Any pet peeves? I think this question pops up every single survey, but I’ll go ahead and answer it anyway. Tardiness. I’m sure you saw that one coming from a mile away.

21. Favorite pizza toppings? Any vegetable. In fact, I need to bring back my homemade dairy-free vegetable pizza. It’s been too long since I’ve enjoyed one of those!

22. Favorite Flower? Sunflower. 

(Source)

23. Favorite ice cream? Mint chocolate chip, or chocolate chocolate chip.

24. How many times did you fail your driver's test? I passed the first time, but I can honestly say that is probably because I didn’t actually have to drive as a part of my driver’s test. If that were the case, I probably still wouldn’t have my license, as I can’t parallel park to save my life.

25. In which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Anthropologie. For sure.

26. What was your favorite vacation? Hawaii, California, or Colorado.

27. Coffee Drinker? I’m not going to lie, I am pretty proud of the fact that I made it through 13 weeks of student teaching without a single drop of coffee.

And with that, I'm going to return to my book. It's weird not having any school work to do, but you certainly won't hear any complaints from me! Have a great Monday!

Comeback Queen

I realize that I may not have any blog readers left after taking almost a month hiatus from this thing. I know I warned you guys from the very beginning of this semester that there could be days without a post, but I don't think I realized just how busy these final few weeks of student teaching would be. Lesson planning, unit planning, grading papers, attending job fairs, applying for jobs, and trying to squeeze friends, YoungLife, exercise, eating, and sleeping into all of that made for a very crazy few weeks. 

The Hills YoungLife on Placement Night 2014 

Anderson HS new leaders!

BUT as of this past Thursday, I have officially completed my student teaching semester. All that's left is graduating and finding a job, and that's just crazy. Remember my apprehension 13 weeks ago? I truly had an incredible student teaching semester and it still hasn't hit me that it is actually over. I already miss the students so much, and though they often times drove me absolutely insane, each one of them meant so much to me, and I am already looking forward to substituting up at Westwood so I can see them again.

And my sweet teacher sent me off with a copy of the starfish story - reminding me that not every day will be a good one, but if you can impact just one student, it's all worth it. And that is certainly something to remember as I begin my own teaching journey.

And some of you might be wondering where that journey will begin. Don't worry, I'm asking myself the same question. I have read and re-read over my resume, making sure I am using the perfect action verbs, learned what a cover letter is and wrote one of my own, emailed principals, attended job fairs, talked to recruiters, and even agreed to get my bus driver certification in order to make myself more marketable. Just take a minute and picture that one. Realistically I know that I probably won't know where I am teaching until sometime this summer, but I will keep you guys posted every step of the way. Because I promise now that I have more time, I will actually keep up with this little blog of mine.

I am actually sitting on my bed at home as I type this, as I made a trip home for the weekend in order to attend a job fair. Everything is happening so fast these days, but I was able to slow down on Thursday night when Dylan and I both found it appropriate to skip our Thursday evening classes to bring back a rare Thursday night dinner date. I guess the successful completion of student teaching warrants that, right? And a huge shout out to him for putting up with me and my schedule this entire semester. What a star!

Anyway, we went to a restaurant called Jasper's in the Domain, and I can speak for both of us when I say that it was absolutely incredible. We were seated in a comfortable booth, and we had a very personable waiter who made the experience all the better. Dylan ordered the chopped wedge salad to start off his meal, and I think the onion ring on the salad really stole the show.

For our main dishes, I went with the Texas Pecan Crusted Rainbow Trout, substituting the brussels sprouts for Chinese broccoli (nothing against brussels sprouts, but they were covered in cheese), and I ate every bite. I was really impressed (and intrigued) by the Chinese broccoli, which to me seemed like a combination of spinach and asparagus.

Dylan went with the Lonestar Tenderloin/Brisket Bacon Burger, and as a direct quote from him, "it may have been the best barbecue burger he has ever had." That's a pretty big claim, but it looked pretty great, so I'll take his word for it. And I would love to show you a picture but I have this bad habit of deleting pictures off of my phone before they actually make it to my computer. My apologies!

There wasn't one thing on the dessert menu that I could have, so while Dylan enjoyed a Butterfinger Creme Brulee, our kind waiter brought me two samples of some Port wine, and I can't give you any more information than that because I just can't remember where he said they were from. They were a little sweet for my taste, but I happily finished them off, touched by the gesture.

After walking around the Domain a bit, enjoying the beautiful spring weather we have been getting, we made a pit stop at Berry Austin for some frozen yogurt. You didn't think I could complete the milestone that is student teaching without celebrating with some frozen yogurt, did you? It hit the spot, and I think Dylan and I will both agree that the blackberry flavor stole the show.

Obviously I was not going to give you a minute-by-minute update of my past month, as you can probably guess what I have been doing, right down to the scrambled egg whites I have been eating for breakfast. I am heading back to Austin tomorrow morning, and I start work at my beloved SRD on Tuesday, so there will be plenty of time to blog. And so begins the countdown to graduation!

Here's to hoping I haven't lost too many readers!