Rain Ain’t So Bad

Maybe it’s because I was born in April (April showers bring May flowers, after all), but I’ve never minded rainy weather. Something about the pitter patter of rain drops on a rooftop and the cloudy skies make me feel comfortable and relaxed. 

Plus, whenever it rains, I get to sing my “Ducks Like Rain” song to Ryan.

Ducks like rain,

Ducks like rain,

Ducks like to widdle wobble in the rain

Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack…

(Anyone else know that song? If you’re in the mood to learn this totally fun and 100 percent obnoxious song to sing when it’s rainy outside, click here! )

Though I like the rain, little Miss Sadie does not. When it’s raining outside that means she can’t do any of this…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… and that makes her very frustrated, so she puts all of her energy into annoying me and Ryan. It’s a treat! 😀

Dinner

Since we couldn’t take Sadie on a walk after work today, we enjoyed an early dinner. I prepared broiled salmon and roasted Brussels sprouts (Yes, they actually were Brussels sprouts this time… Great catch last night to quite a few of you!), while Ryan chased Sadie around the apartment.

I really need to take a video of Ryan when he messes with Sadie. They both run circles around this one wall, trying to sneak up on each other. It’s hilarious and Sadie’s getting pretty good at it!

Within 15 minutes our dinner was ready for eatin’.

The fish looks burnt, but it was just really crispy on the top. The fish itself was really tender and moist.

Before broiling the salmon, I seasoned it with a spice blend we received from Ryan’s dad a while ago.

The spiced added a nice sweet flavor to the savory salmon.

Now I’m off to make myself a mug of hot chocolate and do some wedding-related tasks. These wedding to-dos seem to keep piling up! I guess that’s what happens when you’re just about a month out from the big day!

Question of the Evening

Do you like rain?

Movin’ and Groovin’

I try not to let my blog stress me out. Most of the time I succeed by reminding myself that the lil’ blog is my hobby and that helps me to put things into perspective.

I did feel a little bit of blog-related stress yesterday as my blog made the move from WordPress to Bluehost. I’ve done nearly everything related to my blog myself (except for the wonderful redesign which I owe to The Blog Fairy).

I am not tech-savvy at all, but with the help of some online tutorials and many, many Google searches I’ve been able to get by… That is until I started looking into changing the host of my blog.

Time to Move

Holy information overload! Since I didn’t want to lose any of my blog in the transfer process, I knew I wanted to have a professional’s help, if not for their skill than for my peace of mind.

I want to give a huge shout out to Seth for being my go-to web guy! He was so, so easy to work with and answered all of my questions in a language I could understand (not web-speak). Thank you mucho, Seth! 😀

So, as you may have noticed my blog was flip-flipping back and forth bewteen my peanutbutterfingers.wordpress.com domain and it’s real home, right here at pbfingers.com.

Subscribing to PBF

Since many of you seemed to appreciate my previous blog post for the non-blog savvy folks, I thought I would quickly post easy-to-find links for those of you who may wish to subscribe to my blog or receive automatic updates.

Subscribe Me, Please!

• If you want to subscribe to this blog via email, click here.
• If you want to add this blog to your Google Reader, click here.
• If you want to add this blog to your Google homepage, click here.

I hope this helps!

Now let’s get away from the movin’ and head onto the groovin’…

Workout

My workout this morning was a sweaty one! I initially planned to take Sadie for a run, but it was pouring outside!

Plan B: Take a spinning class!

One of the benefits to keeping track of my workouts through the Exercise Log on this blog is that I can see when I last took certain classes. The last time I took a spin class was in March. Clearly I was long overdue!

I forgot two things about spinning classes:

• They make me unbelievably sweaty
• They’re really hard!

I think my time away from the bike made today’s class feel extra challenging.

The instructor said something that resonated with me though and made me push through.

“If you’re not working you’re not living.”

I know you can take this statement in many different ways, but I took it to mean that when we truly work our bodies and minds to our full potential, that’s when we’re really living!

I always feel so much more alive after a great workout and I kept telling myself that whenever I wanted to kick back and relax on the bike.

Breakfast

Breakfast today was a new combo!

Peach + Coconut Yogurt Bowl

I made myself a yogurt bowl that contained:

• 1 c. Fage plain Greek yogurt
• 1 sliced peach
• 1/2 c. old fashioned oats
• 1/2 scoop All the Whey cake batter protein powder
• Three pinches unsweetened coconut
• Dash of nutmeg

I cooked the oats and protein powder together with a bit of water in the microwave and let the mixture chill in the fridge for a bit before adding the remaining ingredients.

After topping the cake batter oats with the yogurt, fruit, coconut and nutmeg, my breakfast was ready!

Scoop it Up!

Tuesday Breakfast

Great combo! 😀

Sadie: A Future Pig?

Look what I found at PetSmart when I took Sadie to get her nails clipped after work today…

Doggie Halloween costumes!

I wanted to wait to purchase Sadie’s Halloween costume with Ryan, but I have a feeling this one may be the winner:

Not only is the costume pink and totally adorable, but Sadie actually has a thing for pigs. Her first toy was a stuffed pig and her grandmas have added to her pig collection.

Puppy Sadie flash back… 

She was the cutest lil’ puppy in the world!

Unfortunately for Sadie, this particular trip to PetSmart was not all fun and games.

We had business to attend to.

 

Sadie’s nails were in desperate need of clipping. Nail clipping and Sadie simply do not mix.

Get me outta here!!!

Luckily, we can turn her over to the people at PetSmart and within 10 minutes we have our dog back sans talons.

While I waited for Sadie, I visited the other animals and had to pry myself away from the kittens. They were so stinkin’ cute!

I thought Sadie would be done sooner than she was, so I wasted time creating this Where’s Waldo picture for you guys:

Where’s Julie?

Okay, so I wasn’t exactly well camouflaged… 😉

Eventually Sadie was done and in a much better mood! She wanted to sniff and explore, so we spent some time wandering around the store before stopping by the puppy training class to say hello.

Sadie actually graduated from the puppy training class at PetSmart about two and a half years ago.

She’s a good little shaker. 😀

Dinner

With clipped nails and wagging tails (Sadie, not me), we headed home to get crackin’ in the kitchen.

On the menu this evening was Hormel peppercorn pork tenderloin with roasted Brussels sprouts and zucchini.

Ryan picked up the pork at the grocery store yesterday and we both thought it had a ton of potential. It smelled fantastic as it was cooking in the oven.

Unfortunately the end result was way too salty for me. I ate my portion, but wouldn’t buy this tenderloin again.

At least the veggies were great! Ya can’t go wrong with simple roasted vegetables.

I’m off to polish off the second half of yet another cookie from my bridal shower. These things are the JAM!

Sleep well tonight, friends!

Making Watermelon MORE Refreshing

The salad that Ryan and I enjoyed during the Greek cooking class we took at Whole Foods on Friday night has stayed with me.

Though I loved all of the flavors in the salad (feta cheese, mmm, olives, mmm), the flavor combination that really stuck with me was the watermelon and mint duo.

Watermelon is already quite refreshing on its own, but when paired with fresh mint leaves, it reaches a whole new level of refreshment.

Watermelon + Mint

I enjoyed a big bowl of cubed watermelon with fresh mint leaves during lunch today and the combination of the two flavors was just as fantastic as I remembered.

Just to keep you guessing, I included some other totally random foods in my midday meal.

Along with the watermelon, I also had a bowl of lobster-flavored imitation crab meat and a cup of Greek yogurt.

Gimme!

I think Sadie wanted in on that fakie lobster meat.

Crab? Lobster? Fish? Delish!

The Spread

I also enjoyed this monster of a cookie that was leftover from my bridal shower.

Cookie Monster

Yum.

PBfingers.com Update

As some of you may have noticed, my blog, which is normally located at PBFingers.com, is in the process of changing hosts. While undergoing this transition, I’ll be posting here at peanutbutterfingers.wordpress.com, but PBFingers.com should be back up and operational this evening! 🙂

Tired In Different Ways

I think it’s funny how our bodies can be tired in totally different ways.

Sometimes my body is physically exhausted and other times I feel mentally drained.

Today my mind feels shot!

Apparently date nights and bridal showers are more draining than I thought!

Fortunately my body felt totally rested, so this morning’s BodyPump class went well! The teacher incorporated the  bicep track  from the newest release into today’s class and I loved it. Our class will do the new release in its entirety next week and I can’t wait!

Breakfast

After BodyPump and a walk around the lake near our apartment with Sadie, I was ready to eat!

I made myself a peanut butter and pumpkin sandwich using the PB2/pumpkin ratio I used for last week’s pumpkin peanut butter French toast.

PB2 + Pumpkin

I spiced up the sandwich a bit with some nutmeg and coconut shavings.

Oh La La!

Open Faced

I purchased the unsweetened coconut shavings at The Fresh Market yesterday and can’t seem to keep my lil’ mitts out of the container.

Coconut

I am a huge coconut love-ahh!

Smooshed Together

Question of the Morning

Do you ever feel like only one part of your body is tired? Just the bod or just the brain?