Spinach and Skittles {and everything in between}

Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, Gayle!

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday, I spent the day very lazily recuperating after my food poisoning/severe soy attack Thursday night.

Seriously lazy.

Friday morning I woke up at 6:45 a.m., passed out in the shower, called a sub, and went back to bed around 7:30 a.m. I woke up at 11:33 a.m., watched a movie, wrote a blog post and went back to bed at 2:00 p.m. Woke up at 4 p.m., called the clinic, spoke to a triage nurse, who said I didn’t need to come in unless my temp rose too much, (what is too much? I was at 100.4, so is 101 too much? 102? 103?), and to continue drinking gatorade & eating saltines and to get plenty of sleep.

Sleep I can do.

I hit the sack at 7:30 p.m. and didn’t wake up until 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. In case you aren’t feeling up to doing math on a Sunday, that would be 15 hours straight sleep. I still couldn’t eat much, so I drank some peppermint tea, nibbled on some saltines and by 2 p.m. I was ready for a nap. Pretty pathetic, eh?

After starting and finishing 78% of my new kindle book, (Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella - Bridget Jonesy, super fluffy chick-lit, predictable and all I had the energy to focus on), and hitting the sack around 11 p.m. last night, I awoke at 9:06 a.m. feeling refreshed. Not my normal gym-going self, but no more body chills, aches, etc.

Enter a cure for the blah oatmeal blues: Bob’s Red Mill Creamy Buckwheat Cereal.

Perfect!

I topped my bowl with pecans, raisins, chia seeds and some brown sugga. It was a tad dry so I added some almond milk. Mmmmm, just what this girl needed.

Plus coffee, of course.

Then a little sunshine called us out for a midday stroll with the pup.

Vitamin D? Don’t mind if I do.

I also browsed chic camera purses online, after reading Elise’s post on the subject. I found some super cute purses at Kelly Moore and Epiphanie, but they are so expensive! No more expensive than my favorite B. Makowsky bag (cheaper actually), but still more than this girl is willing to spend at this moment in time. Especially since I am still learning how to use our nice Canon Rebel T1i. Maybe instead I will make my own, using Allie’s wonderful tutorial. Cute no?

Menu planning also took over my Sunday, and I am pretty excited about tomorrow’s Meatless Monday meal. We planned to have dinner for V-day over at Downriver Grill, (which really needs a website), but they aren’t normally open on Monday’s and are only taking reservations during a short 3 hour window. By the time I called to make the reservation it was too late and we could have only gotten a table at 8. Meh, no thanks. On a Friday or Saturday, sure, but on a work night? Not my thang. Then we planned to hit up ValenWine weekend and stay at The Davenport, leaving the kid, aka Libb, at home. But my food poisoning sitch kinda put a damper on those plans, so we’re having a lazy no frills V-day celebration. Wait til you see what I got the hubs.

The rest of my Sunday was equally lazy, doing the usual work-week prep, lounging, and curling up with my kindle. Rikka and Rilo were equally lazy.

They say hello.

Oh, and this broke.

You know how I feel about my hair, so obviously this needs to be remedied right away.

After sipping on more peppermint tea (good for the stummy, in case you didn’t know), and nibbling on more saltines, I decided a real meal might cheer me up. Enter a LaaLoosh recipe. Well, a modified one at least.

We made the “fried fish” sammie, but subbed panko for Fiber One cereal, and pan seared it before putting it in the oven.

Pretty tasty.

Plus a side of (overdone) kale chips.

I’m planning to scuttle off to bed shortly, nurses orders after all. Maybe I’ll be 100% tomorrow, as I would really like to enjoy a little dark chocolate + sea salt action.

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

So remember those mini-goals I wanted to attempt each week? I haven’t really talked about them much lately because I am still trying to accomplish the first one (get out of bed without hitting snooze).

I think the root cause of my ongoing snooze button affair has to do with my sleep schedule. I am the lightest sleeper I know. I sleep with a sleeping mask AND earplugs every night. No joke. And I still wake up to tiny noises. It is pathetic.

(source)

You would think that living in the dorms my freshman year of college would have cured my sleep issues. But no, they are still here, tormenting me every night.

I would love to have eight uninterrupted hours of sleep. Aside from giving up my morning cup ‘o joe, I can’t think of a way to make that happen. And no, I am not willing to get rid of that sweetness in my life, so you will have to offer up other suggestions.

Sigh, such is life. So here I was, again, hitting snooze…three times. I made it to the gym, but I was late, again, and I was dragging the whole time.

Oh and p.s. I forgot my friggin camera again in my desk. Again. Food blog FAIL! Lucky for you (or unlucky?) eat pretty much the same thing every few days so I have some unused pictures to at least kind of give you an idea of what my eating day looked like.

Coffee post workout was a must, and was paired with nothing less than a chocolate peanut butter Luna protein bar and a nanner.

Lunch was a less-pretty version of this spinach & feta sausage/quick’n’easy sauce/penne from last night…

and an apple.

I planned to have an afternoon snack but the classes went so quickly, before I knew it it was four o’clock and it was time for a snack-attack date with some of my former co-workers.

And by co-workers I mean they were in a paid position and I was a lowly student teacher. Who, ya know, paid to be there.

I met up with my fabulous mentor Marla and one of my favorite lunch buddies, and sixth grade teacher (now fifth), Jenny.

We wound up at my new favorite place, Left Bank Wine Bar, for some half-price pizzas.

We split a margarita and their combo (pepperoni, onion, olive, and mushroom).

Wow, my iPhone takes some craptastic pictures. I think I may need an iPhone 4. *hint, hint hubs*

I had the best time catching up with these lovely ladies and spent three (happy) hours laughing myself to tears. When I was student teaching this near-pee inducing laughter would happen daily in the lunchroom. I truly miss the noontime dose of laughter, and not just for the amazing abdominal benefits.

These gals are the only way I survived student teaching and the stressors that came with trying to understand how to run a classroom. I am so blessed to have had such a support system. Do you have amazing co-workers? Or have you had a great work-support system in the past?