Domestically Disabled Post: Energy Bites

With all the extra time I have from not studying I've decided to take on a few recipes from my friend Cassy's blog over at healthywithsass.blogspot.com. She has already put up some amazing easy to do recipes that are perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

My favorite recipe from her blog so far has been the energy bites. I like to call them peanut buttah bawls in my best New Jersey accent.  Anyways, I made these bite size balls of yumminess this week and they are so good! Just like Cassy I tend to skip meals or I forget to eat snacks in-between meals and  I find myself famished before lunch or dinner. This usually leads to really unhealthy meal choices. Anyways, I went and picked up some ingredients from Sprouts, and in less than 30 minutes I had an amazing snack! 

Here is the recipe from Cassy's blog)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Balls

Here's what's in them:
2 1/2 cups of quick oats
3 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 cup of honey or agave (vegan)
1/2 cup of cacao nibs (I used Enjoy Life mini-chips which are soy, dairy and nut free)
2 tablespoons of almond milk (You can add a little more if you feel your mixture is too dry) 
Here's how to make them:
Dump all the ingredients into a large bowl, mix together, this is a VERY sticky situation. I coated my spatula with coconut oil so that I didn't end up with a giant glob of mostly unmixed ingredients. Once it's all mixed up form into balls of any size you like, mine were ping pong sized. Put on a non stick pan or a plate and refrigerate for at least 15 min before you eat them.
I made about 15 balls from this recipe. You can also use whatever kind of liquid or nut butter you want as well. The mix in possibilities are endless. Which makes it even more awesome. 

Easy peasy!! It's the perfect snack and it's Señor approved. He seriously ate half a batch in one day. 

Try it out and let Cassy and I know how you liked it or how you changed it up. 

Enjoy!

A Long December

Oh yes, I love starting out a blog post with a nice cheesy title.  I bet all of you 90's kids out there have The Counting Crows A Long December song stuck in your head now. Nice. 

Well, it's been about a month since I last posted, but I’ll spare you guys the excuses on why I haven't been present on this blog. Chances are you probably already know why. 

The good news is I passed level 2 of nursing school! Hooray!! I'm half way to being a nurse!!! This semester was supposed to be the hardest semester of our nursing school career, and I'm happy to report that I survived it. Phew! Nursing school is full of excitement and dread. It's almost like riding a roller coaster with no sort of safety restraints, but you turn out okay at the end. 

Anyways, I have a month off before school starts up again and I plan on filling my break time with sipping warm tea, reading a book (not healthcare related), Christmas shopping, baking, hanging with family, and then heading to a long time friends wedding in Seattle. This is my first time being a bridesmaid in a wedding and I’m absolutely honored and thrilled to be a part of it all. 

Running has been going well and I'm still doing the running streak. I've modified it a little bit and have allowed myself to walk a mile instead of run on a few days. I've taught myself to listen to my body and sometimes running is just not part of the plan that day. I've mixed up my routine and I've been going to hot yoga a couple of times a week. I'm attending a new studio in town that is donation based and offered a great Groupon rate. The coupon allows me to attend for an unlimited time for two months, and with the recent burst of cold air that just came through NM going to hot yoga has been a real treat.  It's funny to think on December 1st of this year I was still running in a skirt!  I've asked good ol' Saint Nick for a new pair of running shoes, as my current pair of Asics are feeling a bit worn. I'm thinking of switching my brand of shoe to maybe Brooks or Mizuno. I love my Asics, but they just haven't been as awesome as I remembered them to be in the past. 

I think I remember reporting that I was going to do a turkey trot run. The run went okay. There were a lot of hills and I was not prepared for that. I did beat my pumpkin chase run by a few seconds, but boy was I beat up from that run. It definitely inspired me to add more hills to my running routine.  Below are a few photos I took on my runs. The 1st was from this past weekend in which the weather was freezing, but the scenery was still gorgeous. The 2nd one was from early November after the turkey trot run, I was in the foothills getting my hills on. 

It recently snowed her in Albuquerque and I've been excited about the possibility of actually going snowboarding this year. Also, it's nice to have the moisture here in the dry desert. It was seriously starting to freak me out how warm it was going into December. This afternoon we had a serious wind chill and my teeth were chattering during the first part of my run. I guess i'm going to have to start embracing the cold weather. 

Enjoying the snow! 

Anyways amigos! I hope you all are doing well and holidays haven't swallowed you whole yet. The Señor and I have a lot planned for the holidays. This year we are hosting Christmas Eve at our house for both our families. I plan on making a big pot of posole and making tamales for the occasion. This is our first Christmas as a married couple and we are enjoying the little things about the holiday. Such as getting Christmas cards addressed to us with my new last name....eek!  My husband and I have been married 4 months and it has been amazing.  We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. 

Making tamales with friends and family

 I leave you guys with a picture of our dog Shed. Isn't she just the cutest? She sort of looks like a rambofied Christmas dog. 

Stay tuned for a domestically disabled post coming later this week! 

Turkanza 2012

TURKANZA!!

This past weekend, we celebrated our 5th annual Turkanza. Even thought this party can be a lot of work, it was so worth it. Over the past few years Turkanza has developed into a really awesome pot-luck style party in which our friends and family contribute some amazing dishes. Even though the celebration is mostly focused on the turkeys that we cook in the ground, we had a bit of a vegan/vegetarian twist this year. My favorite dish was the vegan tamales that my friend Cassy and her mom made.  You can check out her vegan tamales recipe at Healthy with Sass.  I added some fresh pico de gallo to the tamales and they were perfecto!

It was a great celebration with our lovely friends and family! Turkanza was definitely a nice break before I go into "studying hibernation." This blog post is my last attempt in avoiding the huge mounds of material I have to learn.

Running update:
I know in my previous post I mentioned I wasn't planning on running a Thanksgiving 5k. However, I signed up for the Hobbler Gobbler race with a friend from nursing school. She actually signed up for the 10k like a boss. I was throwing around the idea of running the 10k, but I wanted to see if I could improve on my 5k time from the Pumpkin Chase run.
Earlier this week I went on a run with my nursing school buddy after class, and she actually pushed me to run 8 miles. I was really hesitant at first, but It was great weather and I felt good. I guess it helps that NM nature/weather gives me a major runners high. I was only planning on doing 4-6 miles, but I ended up running eight and feeling great!!

I plan on doing short recap on my Turkey run and Thanksgiving, but afterwards I'm disconnecting myself till the end of the semester.

I hope you all are doing well and have some fun plans for the Thanksgiving holiday!
Happy Turkanza and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Great Pumpkin Chase Recap

I already know that I  haven't followed through on my once a week blog post.
I'm thinking I'll have more  luck with a biweekly blog post. We usually have an exam every two weeks in nursing school, and this is a good way to procrastinate studying. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about... How your house or apartment is the cleanest when you need to get something else done (e.g. studying or work project).

Even though life has been crazy busy as usual with school (I'm currently in the hardest semester in nursing school). I've actually managed to have a little bit of fun these past couple of weeks.
I'm happy to report to you BB readers that I have finally broken out of my running race slump. I honestly have not run a race since my half-marathon back in 2010...2010?!! Can you believe it?!

About a month ago my good friend Cassy (healthywithsass.blogspot.com) suggested we do a race with a fun theme. I was sort of hesitant because I didn't feel prepared to run a race. I hadn't trained at all except for some random 2-3 mile runs with Shed dog around the neighborhood.  However, I checked myself and concentrated on making the run FUN! That meant no Garmin on my run, and it meant wearing a silly costume. There was a point when the half marathoner in me crept out and tried to get me to do the 10k, but I wasn't having it. I was going to do The Great Pumpkin Chase 5k and I was going to love it!  The night before I laid out my "racing witch" race outfit and tied my Shwings (Shoe-wings) to my shoes and got my little witch hat out. I was ready for the race!

Shwings!

The next morning I got all dressed up  in my "running witch" outfit and we even dressed up Shed Dog for the occasion.  I bought her a cute skeleton outfit to wear for Halloween. Yes, I'm one of those dog owners. Anyways, we met up with Sassy Cassy at the race and did a little pre-race stretching. It was freezing cold out, but we did our best to warm up.

When the 5k started I felt good! However, I couldn't feel my feet. They were completely numb from the cold.  I did start to feel better once they warmed up around the 1.5 mile mark, but it was sort of weird running when you can't feel your feet. Anyways, the race was absolutely beautiful. It went through a historical downtown neighborhood (the neighborhood where Jesse Pinkman's house is for all you Breaking Bad fans out there), and along the river trail. Although it was freezing cold during the first part of the run, as I started to warm up it became perfect running weather.

As I ran by my husband around the 1 mile mark, I was happy to see him cheering me on! I loved it when he yelled "Good job, you're running so fast!!" I also heard our dog Shed losing her shit because I was running without her. I swear, if you could translate her dog fit it would have translated to: HOW DARE YOU GO RUNNING WITHOUT ME YOU BI***!  I got a pretty good chuckle out of that whole scenario in the middle of my run. On the last leg of the run, I was smiling and cheering on my fellow runners. I was able to give Cassy a high five on the trail and that propelled me to finish strong. I finished with a time of 25.28 and placed 28th overall and 3rd in my age group, and I got a MEDAL! I never thought I would be so happy to get one of those things. It was a little shocking to me because all I got after running my half marathon was a stupid pin.

I had so much fun running in the Great Pumpkin Chase event. I really can't wait to sign up for the next silly holiday themed race.  I think I'm going to skip out on a Thanksgiving run this year, but will try and sign up for a winter holiday themed race.  My plan is to stick with 5K's for now, but I think it's helping me build up my confidence for another 13.1 in 2013.  You gotta set goals!

I spent the rest of the weekend studying and catching up on errands, and just in case you were wondering, I wore my medal the whole time. :)

Click here to see Cassy's recap of the race and check out her yummy pumpkin oatmeal recipe!

**Crickets**

Hello...anyone out there?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately friends, but I promise you I'm going to try to get back to writing on this poor neglected blog at least once a week.  I do miss coming on to this blog and connecting with everyone.

This year has been crazy busy, with planning a wedding and nursing school it has really been a whirl wind of events. However, I feel like life is starting to calm down a little bit and nursing school is becoming manageable. It's amazing how much time you have when you are not planning a wedding.

I plan to update this blog soon and give the scoop on my beautiful wedding back in August, my running routine, my new obsession with hiking, and my journey as a born again cyclist!

In other news:
Please check out my dear friend Cassy's blog at: http://healthywithsass.blogspot.com/
She is a certified health coach and personal trainer and her blog is going to be a good one to follow. She is documenting her adventure with vegetarian cooking and is going to post easy to make recipes that even the domestically disabled can follow. Happy cooking!

I leave you guys with some photos from the fall hike we took on Monday. We went to the  4th of July Canyon Trail in the Manzano Mountains here in New Mexico. The trail is known for having beautiful fall colors and it did not disappoint. Next time I plan to bring a thermos of hot cider to sip on while we walk the trail.

Be back soon! Have a lovely week!

Wedding Countdown and Running Streak!

Hey everyone,

It's the wedding countdown!!
I was inspired by my amiga CindyLu who wrote about how she participated in the Runner's World running streak challenge on her blog Lotería Chicana.  The challenge was to run one mile a day for 38 days.  Our wedding isn't exactly 38 days away, but I'm going to start the challenge anyways. I guess we can call it a wedding running streak!
I found this challenge worked with my schedule really well. You see nursing school and wedding planning don't leave much room for much else these days. However, I find that if I set a goal or challenge myself I am more likely to stick to the routine. So the goal is to keep the running streak going up until the day of my wedding. Which I am super excited about. I just got to make sure nursing school doesn't drive me insane before my nuptials.
Anyways, I hope I can do it,  I'll try not to let you guys down!

I leave you guys with a photo from the night the amore and I first met. I really can't believe it's been 5 years since this photo was taken. I still remember how I felt when I first saw him..I would say it was love at first sight, but it was way better than that.

Cheers amigos!

Happy Breaking Bad Season 5 Premier Day!

Hello amigos!

 I started writing this blog at 5pm, but I got distracted because my cool mom decided to make an impromptu Breaking Bad Premier party at my house.  My family came over and I made a salmon dinner and we enjoyed the show. I actually enjoyed the premier of Breaking Bad and I am anxious to see what the season has in store for us.

I hope you all had a good weekend! Sorry for the short post, but it's time to read up about Diabetes.

pollos.

Hello out there!

Hello out there........echo.....echo......!

Hey everyone, it's been awhile!
I always knew that I would become extremely busy once nursing school started, but I didn't anticipate being so busy that I couldn't even update my blog every once in awhile. Well, I guess it's time for another update on life through few words and many photos.

So, it's been awhile, so for all of you who don't know already I have started my first semester of nursing school and I am loving it. We started our clinical rotation last week working with spinal cord injury patients and so far it has been a great experience. The first week of rotations was what I anticipated, I was nervous, but excited to get in there and work my skills and start learning. For the last two weeks has been filled with moments of wound dressing changes, health assessments,  and I've been testing out which jokes work best with patients. I still believe laughter is some of the best type of medicine. Yesterday we said goodbye to our first patient who will most likely be discharged before we return next week. He was very kind to say that he hopes we return to work with in the spinal cord unit as he has enjoyed having us as his nurses.  It's only been two weeks, but I've learned so much and feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn on the Spinal Cord Injury Unit.

WEDDING!!! Ahhhhhhh!! I can't believe it's coming up so fast! We are wrapping up the minor details to our fiesta and boy is it a lot. We have sent out our invitations and my dress is almost complete. The dress just needs a few minor adjustments, but it looks gorgeous and it's exactly what I imagined wearing on my wedding day. I love it! I have had a lot of help from my friends and family, but I still feel there is a lot of things that need to be done. One of my dear friends Sassy Cassy has been an amazing help through this all. She has had flower making parties and has made some amazing paper flowers for the wedding.  It's all coming up so fast, I really feel a bit anxious for it all to happen. The f-word and I can't stop talking about how excited we are to have our friends and family come together, but most of all we can't wait to be happily married. Honestly, the excitement of getting married to one another just makes all the little worries of minor things just go away.  More updates on this to come as well!

Well everyone I am off to clean our home as it has been neglected due to busy work schedules, nursing clincals, nursing exams, and just plain laziness.

Cheers!

Eclipse 2012

Yesterday we joined a bunch of enthusiastic people to catch a glimpse of the eclipse and it did not disappoint. It turns out Albuquerque was one of the best places to catch the eclipse. There was all sorts of people who came in from out of town just to see it.
  My mother and I went to the National Museum of Nuclear History and Science to check it out. They had the astronomical society there with their bad ass telescopes and a few stations set up with information on the eclipse. It was basically a huge nerd gathering and I loved it!
My mother and I were able to catch some pretty good photos with our iPhones and even snapped some photos of people watching the eclipse. Basically, it was hilarious to look at people staring at the sun so intensely.
I hope you all got to catch a glimpse of the eclipse where ever you are.
Here is a few photos of the eclipse that we caught. Also, a few photos of some extreme sun starers.

 

Have a great week! 

Where has the time gone?

Tick tock...tick tock...tick tock...Your break is almost over!

This is the sound that clicked in my head this morning when I woke up. I had a lot of plans for myself when I finished the semester, and for the most part I got to all of them. However, it's obvious that my blog fell by the way side of my other plans. This makes me sort of sad because I love this blog! I just felt myself not really being able to make it to the computer and document what I have going on right now. I have so many amazing things happening in my life that I think I'm just living it up right now.

On Monday I begin my first level of nursing school. My honest feelings about it?
I'm super excited and scared shitless. Honestly, I don't know what to expect, but I do know that having this blog will be a great outlet for me to document the process along the way. I have been very relieved to find out that the community of nursing students and nurses is so supportive. There are so many resources out there and it really has helped me lean towards the more excited part of going to nursing school. I enter nursing school armed with a supportive family friends, and Fiancé. I honestly feel this is my calling and I am ready for the ride. I wish any readers out there who are embarking on a similar journey, whether it be school, having a baby, or any other journey the best of luck. We can do THIS!!

Now that I have that out of my system..
I would love to catch all of you up on my recent break! So much has happened in these last three weeks! Talk about pounding it all in while you have the time.
I guess I'll start off with whats going on wedding wise. So far, things are going brilliantly and I can't complain. However, I did suffer a bit of a mental break down when things sort of when south with the bridesmaids dresses I had chosen. They were these jersey convertible dresses and they turned out to be brighter than I had expected.  Thankfully, I have a back up plan and I am hoping for the best at this point. However, I've adapted a new motto for wedding planning. If at the end of the day Patrick and I are married, it will have been a success.
So far, it's working and things are falling into place.
On May 5th I had my bridal shower and it was such an amazing experience! The bridal shower fell on Cinco de Mayo and I sort of didn't clue in on this because we don't really celebrate Cinco de Mayo. However, we worked it into the theme a bit and had a fantastic time.
We played Three games..
The first game was He said, She said..Which is a game where the bridal shower guest try to guess who said what phrases. Before hand Patrick and I put together phrases that either He said, she said or we both said and the guest gave us their best guess.  The tongue depressor mustaches and lips really brought it all together.

The second game was Pin the Boutonniere on the groom. After a few sangrias this game proved to be a bit challenging.  My mother got some butcher paper and traced Pato's outline. However, she didn't get it long enough and ended up cutting off his feet. It was a hilarious home made project and we got a good laugh at of it.

 Isabella: The winner of the Pin the Boutonniere game

The third game was a version of hot potato with a sombrero. I guess we can call it the Sombrero Caliente game. It was a last minute addition and proved to be a lot of fun. It got a bit competitive towards the end, but my brothers girlfriend Jessie came out on top.

 Jessie: The winner of Sombrero Caliente game

The girls who attended the bridal shower were so much fun! I had a fantastic time and couldn't be more blessed to be surrounded by such a great group of women during this amazing time of my life.

Thanks to Helin "Mooxie" for the great photos!!

To wrap this long post up. The fiance and I took a long hike up our mountain. We have been planning on doing the La Luz trail hike for years now, and have finally had time to hike it up together.  At first we only hiked up half way. This proved to be a nice warm up and we even ran a few portions of the way up the hill.  This is where I found out that my future husband to be is actually a pretty amazing runner. He even talked about getting into trail running!  I'm trying not to take him too seriously, but the thought of it excites me.

The second time we went up it was the day after my bridal shower. I was feeling a little run down, but was ready to sweat out the margarita/sangria I had drank the day before. We got our dog Shed ready for the hike, did some stretching, got our camelback ready, and headed up the mountain. Shed led the hike most of the way like a champ. There was times where she would look back at us like
ugh..you humans are so slow and wimpy. We made up in about 4 hours and got some amazing views of our city. It truly was a great hike and I'm thinking it may be a possibility to run up, but I'm not sure. It would be a great goal.

Thanks for coming back amigos! I hope to check in again soon!

Gone Studying

Hey everyone,
I write this post during my last few hours of being a 30 year old. I can't believe how fast time has flown by and that I'm actually turning 31 tomorrow. There is something interesting about turning 31. It's not as climatic as turning 30, but rather a calm entrance into whatever is next. During my 30th year on this planet so much has happened. Getting engaged, getting into nursing school, finding out I'm becoming a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding, planning my own wedding,  and more. it's all so much, but I can only embrace everything with open arms. Even though right now I find myself stressing over a huge med list that I have to memorize by next Tuesday.  I am ready for my adventures as a 31 year old.

This brings me to wedding update.
I can't believe it, but I bought my veil the other day. My godmother was sweet enough to purchase it for me, and I couldn't be more grateful for the support my family has offered me during this important time in my life. My sweet mother the other day busted out her wedding album in which she showed me some great photos of her on her wedding day. It's sort of funny because we sort of have similar things going on between our weddings without really knowing it. One of of them being the decisions to have my bridesmaids wear different colored dresses.  I don't really care for my bridesmaids to look alike because really they are all so awesomely different. I teared up  a little while looking at the wedding photos. My mother looked beautiful and my father rocked a serious powder blue tuxedo, crazy hippie hair style and mustache. I can't wait to sit down with someone in my future and show them our photos of our wedding day. Who knows, I may be discussing with my son or daughter the unknown similarities between our weddings.

 Photo of my mother on her wedding day with my godmother and godfather

Cheers amigos! I'll return with more post and updates after finals!

Snowy Spring

Happy April 3rd!
We woke up to a snow storm today in the Land of Enchantment.
Looks like I get to bust out the wellies one more time this season.
Brrrrrrrr!

A Simple Photo

It has been a crazy week amigos. It's been quite a contrast from last weeks relaxing spring break.
This week we had our nursing school orientation and it was both nerve wracking and exciting. I know it's going to be mega intense, but I'm ready for the ride. In the same arena my pharmacology and dosage classes really stepped it up a notch. I actually studied till 2 am last night. It's been a while since I had a session like that. My eyeballs feel crooked on my face today, but it's a small sacrifice to pay to the pharm gods.

Earlier this week during one of my crazy study sessions i was Interrupted by the Señor telling me it was snowing outside. I figured it would be the last time I saw it snow this winter, so I walked to our bedroom to see the flurries. However, I wasn't focused on the snow at all, but my handsome future husband and our mutt having a moment. My heart skipped a beat. I'm sure ill be having these love dysrhythmias for the rest of my life, and I'm happy about it.
Have a good week amigos!

Spring Break In Photos

I can't believe spring break is almost over!
I forgot about how wonderful a week of free time is since I left college back in 2004. I usually just lounge around and see how lazy I could possibly get during this time, but this go around I was a bit more productive.
 I started off my free time productively and read two books. The first book being Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel which I needed to read for my Psych and Film class.  I found the book to be interesting, but  also really frustrating and annoying. Mostly because it's sort of depressing to read about depression. Go figure, right?  The next book is the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins talk about a complete 180 from Prozac Nation. This book was seriously an adventure and I can't wait to see the film next week. Dorkus Maximus? Yes, I am.

The rest of my spring break I'll explain through photos in order to save time. Enjoy!

My Godmother, uncle and primo came into town from El Paso, TX. The enjoyed a 24 hour whirl wind trip of northern NM. It was great to see them. 

 Mother, me, Godmother

 Godmother

 Santa Fe, NM 

Finally got some good mileage in this week, thanks to great weather! 

Thanks to my girl Sassy Cassy for spicing up my runs with some nice polka dot shoe laces! 

Celebrated Pi day with my Fiancé and got ourselves a pizza 3.1415926535…

Yummy Zia Pizza. Green Chile and Pepperoni

Shed dog is still a cutie and she loves them too. 

This is Pato trying to cut down a huge dead tree in our front yard. Thank god he snapped out of it and decided to call a professional.  Dudes. 

 

♫ I'm a Lumber Jack and that's NOT okay..♫

Finally, I had the 2nd fitting of my wedding dress. It's still in rough draft mode, but I seriously couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Teresa at the Designers Lounge is a pure genius, and my family and future mother in-law couldn't agree more.

 Sneak peek for you all!

Have a great week amigos and Happy St. Patrick's Day!