Yay for Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm linking up at Life Rearranged for Instafriday.


It has been sooo hot that I am now dreaming of Fall weather and decided to light this 1803 Apple Dumpling candle to enjoy the smell of Autumn in our house!

This past Monday was Gabriel's 18th birthday. We had a fun day! He requested key lime cheesecake and pumpkin pie. My mom made both and they were so delicious!

Here is my Gabriel on his first birthday. Time really flies!

We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Gabriel's birthday. Here are Paige and Sami waiting for our yummy breakfast.

Whipped cream and icecream at the birthday celebration.

Sami loves butter and eats it right out of the little containers at Cracker Barrel. Funny girl!

Pepsi in the ice buckets...

We stopped by the Bike Surgeon this week. I am going to start biking with my mom and Gabriel as soon as the weather cools off. Looking forward to it! Here are Gabriel, my bro in law Erik, and Patriot at the Bike Surgeon.

My mom bought me this cute, colorful, little wallet/handbag. I think it's fun and cheerful! I don't don't like carrying large purses, so this one is perfect for summertime!

I am excited for the Olympic opening ceremonies tonight! With the weather so hot, watching the Olympics will be the perfect thing to do  inside. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Instagram Fun

Happy Friday! I am linking up over at Life Rearranged.......
 
Here are some of my Instagram pics from this week....

I think this is such a pretty picture on my calendar for this month.

Beautiful flowers from my mom's garden. I also love this pretty placemat from World Market.

Out to lunch with a fabulous friend! I LOVE Mexican food!

My lovely friend Jamie enjoying some coffee and magazine's at Barnes & Noble.

Katie and Paige relaxing with us at Barnes &Noble.

JNL's book that we bought from her at The Arnold this past winter.

I liked this mug. Pretty cute!

Sweet, silly Simon waiting for me to throw his beloved football off the deck.

Have a GREAT weekend!

I Want To Learn This.......

Now I just need to find some Crossfit peeps to teach me!

Trader Joe's, Salads, and Mud Pie Mojo!

 Do you shop at Trader Joe's? We do, but not as often as we'd like because it's about 30 minutes away. That's not all that far, but a little to far to stop in for a quick shopping trip. I love that store and wish so much that we'd get one closer to us. My mom's friend gave her this Trader Joe's Cookbook for her birthday. There are plenty of great looking recipes that I want to try.

 Here is one thing that we love from Trader Joe's. 100 calorie dark chocolate bars. Dark chocolate is good for you!

 These are some recipes that look good to me......

 Here is one we tried last night. Avocado, Orange, and Olive Salad. It was delicious with such a good mix of different flavors. Very refreshing and Summery.

    I always love salads, but especially during this hot weather! I think fresh veggies and colorful salads look so pretty! I snapped some pics of different things I've eaten over the past couple of weeks. This was a yummy Asian Salad with avocado and boiled eggs......

 

 I am really enjoying our fresh home grown tomatoes from the garden. The cherry tomatoes are so sweet! I topped off my spinach scrambled eggs with some of these delicious tomatoes....

  

A simple spinach, avocado, and cherry tomato salad and a tuna salad with baby carrots.....

Salmon with green beans and butternut squash risotto....So good!

I admit that this weather also makes me crave icecream! I have things under control and plan to have one icecream treat day a week.  Have you ever tried this........

It's Mud Pie Mojo from Cold Stone Creamery which is coffee icecream with fudge, peanut butter, roasted almonds, and oreo's. OH MY GOSH it's so good! I don't get the waffle bowl and I do get the smallest size. It's a wonderful treat and so worth it! I'm normally not even tempted by ice cream, but this heat really does it! Do you love ice cream during the summer?

One of My Favorite Rooms

Our gym is one of my favorite rooms in the house! A couple of years ago this room was a sitting room across from the living room. We all decided that it would be so nice to turn it into a gym instead. I'm so glad we did! It is so convenient to have this space to work out in. We use this room so much more now. I usually do 3 of my weight days in here, some cardio, and my ab workouts. The TRX is an awesome workout too. I use the TRX mostly for abs. Those are STL Cardinals seats from the old stadium under the mirrors. I think they look pretty neat in here.

A step and the Bosu.

Punching bag, dumbbells, kettlebells, weight bench and some magazines.

TRX and the treadmill...

The TV and Bose. Gotta have music in here of course! There are the stability balls sitting on the treadmill.

 These pvc pipes are used to practice overhead squats. These squats are harder than they look! I am going to keep working at doing them with proper form and then I want to try adding weight. I need to work on not leaning so far forward and getting much lower. It takes such core and leg strength and flexibility as well. You have to lock your elbows and keep your arms back too. Whew! A great challenge!

 My eyes are lookin kinda of crazy!

Every time I do these I just want to keep doing them over and over to see how low I can go! It helps to do these up against a wall so that you keep from leaning so far forward. Also putting a low stool or step behind you to go low enough to lightly touch with your butt helps. Here are some pictures of overhead squats.....

 They get pretty low!
Anyway, grab a piece of pvc pipe and give it a try! Here's a video for ya.....