Becoming Emma

I am not good at this. Not that anyone other than Scot ever looks at this, but I’m sorry to anyone (esp. Scot!) who does and has been disappointed by the severe lack of posts. I will try and be better at this!

There isn’t any real point in chronicling  the last couple of weeks, mostly because it happened so long ago that I couldn’t give much detail anyway. So, I guess today is kind of like starting over… again.

I think I’m finally going to give hot yoga a try tonight. There is a studio here in Kansas City called Yoga Fix that offers a new student special, which actually makes going to a yoga class kind of affordable. I’ve been wanting to go for a while because I think it will help my back feel better, which, thanks to my sit-at-a-computer-all-day job, has been bothering me a lot between my shoulder blades. I’ve managed to talk myself out of it every time, but I’m being pushed on by Jenna over at Eat Live Run. Eat Live Run is one of my fave food/fitness/healthy living blogs, and she declared Dec. 15- Jan. 15 Hot Yoga Month. What better time to get started! Here’s a link to her post on Hot Yoga Month. I don’t know that I’m going to follow all of her “rules;” for me, just getting active is a big step.

Here’s the plan for tonight:

• race home to change clothes, grab yoga mat, and tend to the doggies
• hot yoga from 6:30-8
• head to SunFresh for a dinner-sized salad from the excellent salad bar
• meet Cody at the Tivoli to eat aforementioned salad and take him home from work (he rode his bike in this weather… brave guy!)

I’m hoping that my package from Mocha Club will be waiting for me when I get home from work, because that means dessert will be hot cocoa from Ghana! Yum yum!

Happy Wednesday!

I am a horrible blogger! I did pretty well for the first week, but the stupid holiday really threw me off. So, here’s a mega-update post.

Day 8 – Most of the day before Thanksgiving was spent getting ready for Thanksgiving. Cody & I were charged with making stuffing for 30 (!) people, and being the weirdos of the family that we are, we opted to make it all from scratch. I found a pretty basic recipe, but nothing is totally basic when it’s prepared to serve 30. It took a lot of time slicing and toasting the bread, chopping up 5 onions in the food processor (my eyes!), and cutting up the celery. I also washed our sheets and some towels, and ended the day with a viewing of Coco Avant Chanel at the Tivoli.

Day 9 – TURKEY DAY! We finished the stuffing, made our second corn casserole for the week, and headed out the door. We went to my parents’ first, and then ate with Cody’s family in the late afternoon/early evening. About 9pm we met Cody’s sister & brother-in-law and my cousin & her boyfriend for a couple drinks. The place was packed, but it was nice to hang out. This year’s Thanksgiving was probably the most relaxed one I’ve had in quite a few years.

Day 10 – Oh, Black Friday. We did a little shopping, but nothing crazy. We bought a new pet food container at Petsmart and ran to Target to pick up a small iPod-docking stereo. The best part? My mom is paying me back for it and giving it to Cody for Christmas. Free stereo! And, I haven’t played it much yet, but we bought the second volume of Wii Fit, too. We did weigh the dogs, which you can do with this one, and they’re fat!

Day 11 – Saturday was a 14-hour work day. I was at the library from 8:30 – 5 and at the theater from 6 – 11:45. Loooooong day.

Day 12 – I worked at the library from 12:30 – 5 and then basically crashed. I think I made dinner, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. Probably Hamburger Helper or Sloppy Joes. You know, quick and from a box or can.

Day 13 – This week I traded my usual evening of Monday for Wednesday at work so I could go see The Swell Season at the Uptown Theater! They are so amazingly good. The music is so beautiful and the whole band just seems to be made up of genuine and heartfelt people. These are people you just want to hang out with. It was definitely worth the hassle of trading nights.

Day 14 – Work and school. Normally my management class meets on Wednesday nights (a total of 5 times in the semester, I think), but my teacher was going to be out of town so we met on Tuesday instead. Class was pretty normal, and we got out about 7:50, so I was home by 8:10. After that, I think nothing happened. I’m usually ready for sleep pretty early.

Day 15 – Wednesday was almost a day off work. I only had to be at the library from 5 – 8:30, so most of my day was free. Bonnie came over with her doggie, Woody, so he could play with our doggies and our neighbors’ doggies. It was kind of crazy. Before she came over, I made us some banana chocolate chip muffins to have for breakfast. After playtime wore all the pups out, we walked over to One More Cup to get some coffee to go with our muffins. Yummy mocha! After Bonnie left, I met Cody at World Market to look for some Christmas decorations, and then we ate some Mr. Goodcents for lunch at the theater. I then ran a couple more errands, and went home to work on the computer. I’m trying to reduce all the clutter in my life, and I chose to start with the computer. Weird choice, I guess. Then I went to work… blergh.

Day 16 – Thursday was a day at work and a late night concert (late for me, anyway). I sort of last-minute bought tickets for Cody and me to go see Spoon, but by the time Thursday rolled around, neither of us was in a very concert-y mood. This was no fault of Spoon; we were just exhausted from the weeks we had already had, and Spoon didn’t go on stage until 10:20. We went because the tickets were too expensive to waste, and managed to get in and out easier than expected. We also got to park for free… score! Spoon sounded great, but we didn’t stick around for the encore (again, tired). We got home and into bed about midnight.

Day 17 – And, finally, we’re at today, Friday. Today is going to be a long day. First, I overslept,  and now I’m at the library until 5 and then heading to the Tivoli until 11:30 or midnight. Fortunately, I don’t have to work anywhere tomorrow, although I should do some homework. We might be going out to Westport for a friend’s birthday tomorrow, but we’ll see. Cody and I both have a lot of homework to finish in the next week. We need all the time we can get.

I’ll try to come up with a goal for tomorrow. That was sort of the whole point of this blog, and I haven’t been too great about it.

Happy Friday!

Yesterday was Monday… and that’s pretty much all it was. I didn’t set a goal or task for the day in advance, and, therefore, didn’t really accomplish anything. I did finally buy the new David Gray and Swell Season albums, but I don’t know that that really counts.

I really struggle in the morning. I have a very hard time getting out of bed, and often leave myself barely enough time to get showered and dressed for work. On Mondays, I work a late schedule (libraries are more like retail than business or government when it comes to hours) and don’t have to be in until 12pm. Sadly, the extra time usually goes to waste, unless you consider clearing out the DVR a constructive use of time.

I spent yesterday morning at home buying digital albums from Amazon and watching No Reservations on The Travel Channel. That Anthony Bourdain is sort of an ass, but he puts on a good television show. I got ready for work, threw a quick meal into a lunch bag, and went on my way.

After work, Cody and I ran to Target to pick up some dog food and a few ingredients for two corn casseroles, one for Thanksgiving day and one for an early Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. Here’s a tip: the linked recipe is courtesy of Paula Deen, and it’s great, but it’s even better with Fritos on top!

Today has been work as usual. I’m sitting at my desk, writing this blog, waiting for 5pm and Cody to get here so we can head to our early Turkey Day dinner. I’m hungry! Lucky for me, I don’t have to work tomorrow, so I’m hoping to do one or two things before I crash after this dinner. On the agenda: at-home pedicure and manicure, catching up on Project Runway.

I’m working on at least one goal for tomorrow, probably either fitness or schoolwork related. Maybe one of each if I’m feeling ambitious!

PS: Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I am not a skilled photographer, and my camera isn’t exactly what I would call “high quality” or “new.” I’ll try to improve!

My weekend was full of cooking. I did plenty of it, and not much else.

Saturday morning Cody and I ventured to the grocery store and spent way too much money. When we got home, we ate lunch before he headed off to work. Then I got to cooking.

First, I made some mashed potatoes. We had some Yukon gold potatoes laying around that were on the verge of turning. I decided to get them cooked and ready to eat before I lost them completely.

Yukon gold potatoes with the skin, half & half, salt, and peper

After the potatoes were done and my only large pot was clean, I started on my next task: Chipotle Sweet Potato Corn Chowder. I found this recipe while surfing the “Tasty Kitchen” section on thepioneerwoman.com. There are a lot of great recipes in there. In fact, I think the stuffing I’m going to make for Thanksgiving will be courtesy of The Pioneer Woman! Here’s the finished product:

The last thing I made on Saturday was my second Green Monster. I had to work at 4:30pm, so I whipped one up to drink on the way to work.

I took some of my soup with me too. Yummy!

Then on Sunday morning, I got up and made breakfast for Cody and me. I saw this recipe for pumpkin pancakes on Two Skinny Jenkins and had to make them!

I also made us some bacon and topped the pancakes with some Smart Balance and real maple syrup. They were so good! And I followed Tina’s recipe for iced coffee and drank that with my breakfast. It was a perfect Sunday morning breakfast!

Following breakfast I went with my parents to the Kemper to check out the Wyeth exhibit. They’re big Andrew Wyeth fans, and I just like going to art museums (I like the Wyeths, too). After we toured the exhibit, my dad went to a friend’s house to watch the rest of the Chiefs’ game (woohoo!!) and I met my mom at their house to help prep for Turkey Day.

My mom makes these great egg noodles from scratch, and she wanted to show me how she did it. So I helped her make those, as well as the croutons/dried bread for the stuffing. Last, but not least, we melted some chocolate and dipped dried apricots in it as a treat for my grandma (and me, and my dad). Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of this stuff, but maybe I’ll get some on Thanksgiving?

I didn’t set any concrete goals to meet or tasks to accomplish over the weekend. I need to get on it this week!