Staycation Recap

Friday afternoon we headed up to the campground.  I think this was our 5th trip there.  We really love it.  It's about 2 hours north of here, on the Delaware river - PA side.


Off we go!



LOVES the car and Medzmama (Armenian for Grandma).

It rained pretty much all of Friday night, cloudy Saturday while we went kayaking and HOT Sunday morning as we were packing up to leave.  It was our first time kayaking and it was a lot easier than canoeing and rafting!  I didn't fall out this time :) Here are some pictures:

Monday we hung out at home, food shopped for the week, etc.  Tuesday we went to Mountain Creek water park which was a lot of fun too!


Yesterday we went to my aunt and uncle's house in CT to swim and hang out.  They have a gorgeous pool.  I didn't get a picture but here's a before and after of Murphy.  He was pooped!


On our way - excited and awake!

 

Pooped after a day of swimming and playing!

 It was a great and enjoyable 5 days off and much needed!  No big trips this year but it definitely felt like a vacation so that's good!  We're hoping to do another few days off at the end of the summer.

It's been super hot here in NJ... in the mid 90's and today & tomorrow will be close to 100.  Tomorrow we're going out to dinner for my cousin's birthday and we will see what the weekend brings!

Happy Thursday! :)

Gone Camping

I'm working until 2 today and then we are heading to the camp site.  It's about 2 hours northwest of here, on the Delaware River.  We love it.  However, it's a lot of work to pack everything, set up, etc.  This time we are leaving earlier than usual so it should be a little bit easier.  Normally we don't leave until 5 or 6 pm and by the time we get there, it's dark - lol.

This time, there's going to be 9 of us, 10 including Murphy - myself, Saro, his 2 daughters, his Mom, his sister and her husband and his parents.  It should be fun.  Tomorrow we will go canoeing and I will most likely fall out of the canoe (happens every year).

We will pack some snacks and beer for the trip down the river.  I'm thinking the river will be high due to all the rain we've had.  The higher, the better.  Then the boat doesn't get stuck on rocks and when the water is flowing more rapidly, that means it's more clean!

We will come home Sunday afternoon and then I'm off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday :)  We might do a day trip to the beach but not sure yet - nothing major planned but it'll be nice to sleep in and relax.

Do you like to camp?  Have you ever been?

If I Win the Lotto Linkup!

Happy Thursday, all!  I'm linking up with Holly & Kristie to talk about what I'd do if I won the lottery, and we're not just talkin' $100.  Big bucks, people.

I would:

1.)  Pay off my student loan.  Literally, I'd drive to Wilkes-Barre, PA or where ever the friggin' office is located and give them what I owe plus the interest.

2.)  Pay off my credit card bills.

3.)  Give some to charity.

4.)  Pay off my Mom's house and give her some extra.

5.)  Work part time doing something fun, like in a floral shop. 

6.)  Put a butt load of the $ into a retirement fund so I don't touch some of it.

7.)  Adopt more dogs.

8.)  TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL!!!

I'm sure I can think of more, but those are the ones that pop in my head first.

Hungry + Angry = Hangry

So, the smoothies generally fill me up from 8:00-10:00.  That's not a long period.  Maybe because it's in liquid form but would I really feel more full if I ate a handful of spinach and kale with some fruit?  I don't think so.

So, I just had 5 m&m's and 8 almonds.  Yes, I counted.

I keep staring at the clock (since it's kind of slow today) and I can't wait for lunch.  Lunch that I left at home.  Oops, I guess that will be dinner!

I would snack a little more but since I'm not exercising as much, I'm trying not to.

Do you ever get so hungry that you become hangry?  Like, you need to eat now or else someone might get hurt?

Simple Green Smoothie Update

Day #9 and I haven't missed a day yet!  Even when I was hungover on Sunday morning after our BBQ.  I woke up around 3am feeling so sick.  I made sure to drink a lot of water all day since it was extremely hot outside.  Oh well... I went back to bed and felt better when I woke up at 9.

This week, it's a lot of "stone" fruits (peaches, plums and cherries) and fresh ginger.  Today's smoothie is - 1 cup kale, 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 cup water, 1/2 of a banana, a few frozen mango chunks, handful of blueberries and one whole peach (pit removed).  The Nutribullet is perfect for these shakes.  The ginger gives it a different bite - it's good!

I haven't been able to exercise in over a week.  Currently, my lower back is killing me and even going up and down the basement stairs (all 7 of them) is brutal.  I'm thinking about focusing on arms & abs although a lot of ab/core workouts also work the lower back.

Last night we went out to celebrate our 6 year anniversary over Thai food.  We hadn't had it in forever and it sounded good...and it was!  Yum... I have leftovers for lunch today :)

That's really all I've got!  I'm looking forward to camping this weekend and getting my hair done tonight!  Have a good week!

Stubbornness

Won't get me very far...literally. 

My sciatica has been bothering me for 10 weeks now (but who's counting?)  I decided to go to a lower back/sciatica specialist (my 3rd doctor for this problem) last week and again last night.  He's a chiropractic physician.  They do physical therapy there too.  He adjusted me, tried laser therapy, decompression (strapped down to a bed extremely tight and it moves back and forth, stretching your back out), and also electric stimulation.  I feel the same or maybe even worse but now I don't know if it's from my short run on Sunday night.

My leg DID feel better after the stimulation but the pain came back 30 minutes later.  I also walked on a treadmill with ice.  Nothing.  He wants me to get an MRI (DEATHLY afraid, people).  Like I'd need to be put to sleep or given a lot of drugs.  He said it bothered him that I didn't feel instant relief after the decompression.

I signed up for a 9/11 tribute 5K for this Thursday.  It ain't happenin'.  He says I shouldn't run or even do yoga because some poses aren't good for a bad back.  Just great!  He said walking is good.  I don't like to liesurely walk for exercise.  My exercise walk is walking so fast that it's borderline jogging.  I like to sweat as it makes me feel better and is a stress reliever.

The best way I can explain the pain is that it feels like there's a knife stabbing the inside of my leg string from my hamstring to my heel pulling straight down and not allowing me to take a normal step.  It's definitely nerve pain because what I'm feeling is sharp, sometimes shooting pains and even twitches.  It's not your typical lactic-acid-soreness-after-exercising-for-the-first-time-in-years, type of pain.

End rant.

Simple Green Smoothies

Well - Whole30 only lasted about a week for me.  My cousin asked me to try this simple green smoothie 30 day challenge with her.  Having a smoothie for breakfast is definitely doable as I used to do it almost everyday anyway.  For the last month, it's been 2 eggs for breakfast so I'm ready to switch it up.

This morning my smoothie consists of 2 cups packed baby spinach, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup pineapple, 1/2 of a frozen banana (I really don't like bananas but it's not so bad mixed in with a bunch of other crap), 1/4 cup papaya, 1/2 cup mango, 10 green grapes.  It's really good!  The only thing I wish is that it was a little bit colder so I think I'm going to stock up on frozen mango from TJ's.  I added a few ice cubes but it didn't do much.

If you're interested, join the challenge!  It's not too late!  Google Simple Green Smoothies and sign up on their website.  They'll email a weekly shopping guide and recipes but you can definitely create your own.

On another note, my leg is friggin' KILLING me today.  I was up from 3-4:30 last night because it hurt so bad.  I guess I shouldn't have went for that run yesterday.  Only 2 miles but I think it put me over the edge.  I most likely won't run the 5K this week  :(  Back to physical therapy tonight...

I did run it in 20 minutes flat which is good timing for me.  I can't seem to break 10 min/mile.

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I'm glad it's a 3 day work week!!!