An Adventurous Weekend

Today I am guest posting over on Stephany’s blog Stephany Writes about vacation must-reads. I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what books you would recommend to someone leaving on a trip? Steph is currently on a cruise. You should all be jealous.

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So I ended up taking a relatively spontaneous long weekend off from blogging. Often by the time Friday rolls around, I’m already beginning to draft up posts for next week. But as of right now, I have NOTHING. I think every once in a while it’s nice to just take some time to LIVE and everything else will catch up eventually.

I had one of the best weekends that I’ve had in a long time. I had a spontaneous 4 days off from work, and although I already had a little road trip to Vermont planned with two work friends, I ended up packing my entire weekend with plans. Since today I’ll be heading back to work (in just a few hours, sigh!) I thought I’d share some photos from the last few days before truly getting back to reality.

Thursday– I don’t have any photos, but I had a really lovely day anyway! I spent the afternoon at a L’Oreal sale with one of my best friends where I spent FAR TOO MUCH MONEY on makeup and hair products, followed by a really nice dinner and an Italian restaurant with some friends. Another one of my good friends is leaving for Florida tomorrow so we all wanted to get together for a little goodbye dinner kind of thing.

Friday– I got ready and met my two work friends (well, ex-work friends. I mean we’re still friends, we just don’t work together anymore!) and we drove over the border to Burlington for the night. We bought tickets to see FEIST in concert months & months ago, and had planned to stay overnight to do some shopping the next morning before heading home.

Sitting & waiting for Feist to start! Not our best picture, but the only one we got together

The lovely & extremely talented Feist! She put on a great show. Can’t wait to see her again in August!

The service at our hotel was amazing, but the place itself was SO sketchy. These tips were nailed crookedly to the back of our door…

Walking the gorgeous streets of Burlington on Saturday morning. We walked through a Farmer’s Market before heading into the mall for some serious shopping!

Although Vermont is only a couple hours from home, it still feels like an entirely different world. I always love going to the States for little trips because I get to eat and shop at places that don’t exist just a couple hours North here in Montreal. Although I do go a little crazy turning my cell phone off most of the time, I actually enjoyed it SOSO much this weekend. I happily turned it on to Airplane Mode as soon as crossed the border, and just spent the entire day enjoying a lovely city without worrying about who was trying to get in contact with me. It was VERY nice. ‘

We had a quick lunch at Panera (my first time there!) before heading the 2 and a half hours back home. I was VERY excited about trying this place out because I’ve heard so many good things about it, and it did NOT disappoint! My food was the bomb.

On Saturday night, we had a big girls’ night with a bunch of the ladies from work. I wasn’t able to stay for very long because I had to be up early on Sunday, but I was there long enough to take some yummy jello shots, HOLD A SNAKE (my friend’s pet!) and spend some time in the hot tub.

A few of us girls around the kitchen table!

Me being terrified while trying to hold Timmy the snake! I actually can’t believe I was convinced into doing this, ha 🙂

Sunday– Mother’s Day was another non-stop day for me. I woke up bright and early for a brunch with my family, followed by a baptism & finally the most delicious meal EVER as an after party for the baptism. I was out basically from 10am until 7pm and by the time I got home I was completely exhausted.

I had SUCH a lovely day and spent tons of time with my nephew who I hadn’t seen in almost two weeks. It felt like way longer- every time I see him he changes and does fun new things. Plus I think he gets cuter every time too. Seriously.

Me and my super giggly nephew at brunch. I freaking love this little munchkin! ❤

My brother and I with my nephew at brunch 🙂

Happy Mother’s day! I’m extremely lucky to be able to call this woman my mom 🙂 ❤

Hanging out with daddy during the baptism. His eyes just melt my heart!

It was my sister-in-law’s first Mother’s Day! Baby loves his mama 🙂

Goodness, it takes a long time to write about 4 days of awesome. I love weekends like this, and I hope there are many more to write about this summer. So far, May has been such a good month to me.  I’ve been working so hard at making the best out of all the little moments I have- with family, friends, and just the time I spend on my own. This weekend was, if anything, the exact kind of thing that reminds me why I’m so lucky to be surrounded with the family and friends that I have in my life. 

Did you do anything special this weekend? 

Up & Down

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My life feels like a big roller coaster. Which is a weird metaphor for me to use, considering I have so much trouble getting on an ACTUAL one. (seriously, ask my friends!I am either refusing entirely to try one or screaming my brains out on the baby ones). But it’s true; I have such ups and downs, highs and lows, sometimes I wonder when life is just going to become a smoother ride, slow down, and come to a stop somewhere safe.

I’m always looking up (or down) at the next turn, loop or dip ahead. In March, when I was having the toughest few weeks of my year, I was aching for the last day of the month to start over again in April. It seems like I’m always basing my life on what’s next- where I’ll be, what I’ll be doing, and what fun adventures are waiting for me. I’m always searching for a greater reason to being here, but when will I slow down and just be happy for a little while? I want to do that today.

April has been good to me. In between interviewing some of my favorite overseas bands, to seeing my beautiful nephew hit his first half birthday, to getting a job at my school that opens up a window of exciting opportunities for the year ahead, I have VERY little to complain about.

At this time exactly one month ago, I was praying for a light at the end of the tunnel. I was writing about my anxiety with failure and the way all bad things seem to pile on at once, and how nothing seems to be working out. Today, I just wanted to remind myself that it’s not always going to be as bad as it seems in any given moment.

When you’re having a really bad day, week, month, or year, remember there will always be a silver lining to the cloud above your head. Where there is failure, success is sure to not be far behind (for those who strive for it), and where there are emotionally difficult times, the heart learns to heal and find other things to be filled with.

Today I feel good. I’m on a good path. I am reminded that when things didn’t work out and I was afraid for my future, it was all for a reason. Because really, everything DOES happen for a reason. There are still many parts of my life that I question this about, and every time I feel like I am wrong, the world finds a way to show me that I am a stronger person for those moments.

I’m not saying everything is perfect, awesome, rainbows and unicorns. There are always a million tiny things on my mind; bits and pieces of my life that seem like they SHOULD be better, but just aren’t.  Right now though, I’m feeling like things are going to turn out okay. Even though I’m still stressing about my very last final exam (tomorrow!) I’m still seeing the good things, and I’m proud of everything I’ve managed to do in the last couple months to get to where I am. I took chances on myself, and although it doesn’t ALWAYS pay off, sometimes, it does.

What are you proud of yourself for today? When was the last time you took a step out of your comfort zone, and took a chance on yourself?

Foods I’ll Never Give Up

Real window in a Greek bakery. They know what’s good! 

In my goal to eat more healthy and stay more fit, I’ve come to a really important conclusion: although there is a lot of food in my diet that I can easily go without or cut out drastically, there are some things that I’ll never be able to give up.

1) Coffee. I take my coffee with anywhere between 3 and 6 sugars. It used to be at least 4, but I’m starting to cut down. I also have a severe addiction to Starbucks and other similar expensive coffee franchises. This isn’t necessarily a GREAT thing because I can have anywhere between 1 and 3 coffees a day… But honestly, coffee just makes me happy. Why give that up?

2) Carbs. A lot of people who start to eat more healthy try and cut carbohydrates out of their diet. I totally understand this & I think it’s important for me to do that too, but I will never the the person who eats them as a treat. I love having toast in the morning, rice with my dinner, pizza… You get the point.

3) Jam. I know there’s a lot of sugar in the jams that you buy in grocery stores, but I just love it so much. More often than not I have toast for breakfast & although I’m a huge fan of peanut butter, there’s only so much PB a girl can take. Moderation is key, that’s all! Also? I will never, ever give up nutella. Never.

4) Ice-cream. What on earth is summer without an ice-cream cone? It’s nothing, that’s what it is. It’s not something I’ll eat every day, but it’s one of those sweet treats I just can’t see myself giving up!

5) Cereal. I grew up with a brother who had an obsession with cereal like Lucky Charms, so it’s no surprise I grew to love them too. LC is just one of my guilty cereal pleasures though; fruit loops, french toast crunch, cheerios, cap’n crunch, honeycombs… Every once in a while I’m going to buy a box and I’m going to enjoy them without feeling guilty.

Those are the first five things that come to mind, but I know there are a few other things. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t all items I’m going to have every day (I mean besides coffee = every day) so I’m not worried that they ruin a healthy diet. I just don’t agree with forcing myself to cut out every single thing that makes me happy out of my diet just so that I can lose weight– if that were to even happen. I just want to cut out bad eating habits that occur daily.

I don’t want to resort to TV dinners as often as I do, I want to learn to cook more using vegetables, I want to include more fruits & veggies in my every day habits and I want to do all these things happily. I don’t want to feel like changing my food habits is some ridiculously drastic thing in my life, but I know that I am known to eat badly and let myself cheat more than I should. I’m by no means self-conscious of how I look, I really just want to feel healthier, and in my heart I feel like that’s a good reason to be doing this whole thing in the first place.

What food can’t you live without? What CAN you live without?