New Shoes: CrossFit Nano 6.0

A $20.00 off Zappos.com coupon magically showed up in my email recently and I figured this was a sign to invest in some lifting shoes. I've been wearing regular running shoes to CrossFit in the 1.5 years I've been doing it and the extra cushion isn't the best for lifting. One of the most frequent pointers I get is to keep my weight in my heels. I'm hoping that it'll be easier to do that with these new shoes (CrossFit Nano 6.0). I was so excited to put these on when I got home from work! Size 8.5 fit perfectly!

Here's to smashing PRs and keeping up with the boys in 2017!

My Victoria's Secret order arrived yesterday and my Black Friday Ulta order arrived today, so it's been nice to have packages waiting for me at the door when I get home from work (free and fast shipping...my favs!).

Black Friday Activities

10 AM CrossFit, check! My sister and I went for the Turkey Burner workout. The owner split us up into 4 groups and we rotated through 4 different stations, 7 minutes each. One random thing: I saw one of my former coworkers there, so it was nice to briefly catch up!

7:00 AMRAP: 100 m run, 15 Box Jumps, 30 Air squats
- 2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 10 DB Push Press, 20 Walking Lunges, 30 Mountain Climbers
-2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 7 Wall Balls, 7 Burpees
-2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 400m run/row, 15 Push-ups, 20 Sit-ups

Afterwards, we went back to my parents’ house to eat. We enlisted the help of my cousins and cousin’s girlfriend to help set up our Christmas tree and lights. It only took us 20 minutes since Hugo is pretty tall and with his help, I didn't have to drag a chair along the floor to hang the lights on the columns and up high.

I went home to take a shower and proceed with a productive afternoon!

• Hung up my Christmas wreath
• Turned in my mortgage check
• Got bubble tea
• Got new Nikes to replace my current workout shoes (25% off!). The afternoon coach gave me a hard time the last time I was at the gym. "Tina, you need to get new shoes. You've been wearing those since I've started coaching here." 
• Got cardstock and paper to make this year’s holiday cards
• Sat at the dining table and did some online shopping for Christmas presents for other people and myself, heh. I couldn't help it!  Some of the Black Friday sales were too good to pass up, especially with free shipping deals! I placed an Ulta order and a Zappos order for bright blue Reebok Nanos (CrossFit shoes).
• RJ watched me from the couch. Maybe he is using telepathy to get me to buy him lots of treats for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whoo hoo, one of my favorite holidays of the year is here! We had a total of 15 people at my parents' house, and fortunately everyone pitched in so that no one person had to slave away in the kitchen, making all the food.

Per tradition, Mom made a turkey for us to eat and my cousin Hugo made a turkey (and flan) so that we'd have some for leftovers. Hugo's girlfriend made some green tea/red bean cakes for dessert. My cousin Peggy brought pies and salad. I brought the pumpkin cheesecake that I made last night. Julie made stuffing. My cousins Emily and Andrew and Andrew's girlfriend brought rolls, mashed potatoes and drinks. My cousin Erick and my uncle and aunt brought green bean casserole and broccoli salad and a cranberry sauce. Yum!

The tripod that I bought at a yard sale a few years ago has really come in handy!

A Blustery Unproductive Day

I took a shower and put on makeup with the full intention of going window shopping and getting bubble tea and Potbelly, but it was so windy outside! Mmm, nope, no thank you!  Hey, at least I looked good in the comfort of my own home. I did some window shopping online instead. Hooray for the internet and a Harry Potter marathon on tv, bah ha ha.

By dinner time, I figured I should put my best effort to do something productive today. I baked some Rolo cookies to bring to the office tomorrow (I'm glad that I bought a few bags during the post-Halloween clearance sale at Target), cleaned up my kitchen and ran the dishwasher.

Holiday Craft Fair 2016

Whoo hoo, it's that time of year again! :)

This is the fourth year I've done this craft show (2012, 2013, 2015) and by far, the best one!  I was so grateful for the nice weather outside to encourage folks to be out and about. Everyone that stopped by my table was so nice. Most of the comments I got were "OMG, so cuteee!" Ha ha. I recouped my table fee in the first 30 minutes and then $149 after that. Look at that, people DO still care about snail mail! :)  The other awesome thing is that I didn't really make that many cards to prepare for the craft fair; I had lots of inventory left over from last year. I will definitely have to restock to prepare for next year though!

The wind definitely picked up at the tail end of the craft fair, so I retreated back into my introvert bubble...complete with a bowl of ramen, a Harry Potter marathon on tv and kitty cuddles on the couch.

Welcome Back, Mom and Dad!

I stopped my telework day early so that I could pick Mom and Dad up from the airport. They've been in Taiwan for the past 3 weeks, visiting friends and family. Julie asked me if I could pick them up since it was too early for her to leave work and she knew my boss would probably be more flexible. I stopped by the house to pick up the minivan. OMG, driving the van, ugh. Mind you, it's a 2001 Odyssey. It has seen many trips back and forth from 2 colleges and several family vacations. I felt like I had to mash my foot on the accelerator to get anywhere. I'm hoping that my fellow drivers were somewhat forgiving! Heh.

Oh, look, I found a creeper.

Food Prep and Flannel Sheets

My sister found this Balsamic Chicken and Veggies Sheet Pan Dinner recipe online. She shared some with me the past few weeks, and I wanted to make a batch for myself for the next few days. Super easy to do since the oven does a lot of the work for you. This would have been perfect for the fall CrossFit healthy eating challenge except the sauce you pour on top has honey in it. Anyhoo, yay for not having to cook for the next few days. :)

I caved this week and turned on the heat in the house. I also switched my comforter and my sheets (from regular to flannel). It felt so cozyyy! RJ approves.

Life Update

Oh boy!  Whew, wow, is it dusty in here!  (Takes a Swiffer cloth to the blog). 

Hello out there!  I've recently had some folks (thank you, Louise and June) reach out to me to the tune of "Tina, are you okay? You haven't posted on your blog in a while!" Yeahhh, sorry about that! I guess a part of me wondered if my content was getting stale since my day-to-day life doesn't really change that much: CrossFit, crafting, work, food...RJ. And I was just feeling meh about blogging, but the kind messages I received have reenergized me, so I'd like to get back to posting every now and again (as opposed to dropping off the face of the planet).

CrossFit is still going strong. New news: I did cancel my regular gym membership at the end of October because I found the combination of CrossFit and spin class very draining. The relationships that I've made with the people at CrossFit are much stronger than the very few I've made at spin class. Plus, my sister holds me accountable for going to CrossFit, whereas I didn't have that at the regular gym. I just needed to be honest with myself about where money is better spent, and yeah, it's great having that gym membership money not be taken out of my paycheck anymore.

One of my friends asked me to make some topiaries for her parents' wedding anniversary party. One down, one more to go! It's kinda nice to do something new!

We had a fall potluck at the office this past Monday. My contribution was a pumpkin cheesecake. Other people brought green bean casserole, turkey enchiladas, sweet potatoes, stuffing...yum! I got several compliments on the cheesecake and came home with an empty pan. 

My sister and I went to Target this past weekend. I walked by this shirt and was like "Ok, let's not make an impulsive purchase. Let's think about this overnight and see how we feel about it in the morning." Yeah, heh, I went to another Target the next day and thankfully they had these shirts there too, so I bought it. Harry Potter fan for life!