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Today was an awesome day. I’m currently on a high from giving back to the Minneapolis community.
The company I work for is a large corporation and as a whole, does a wonderful job of giving back to the community locally, nationally and internationally. Even better? Our CEO pushes each and every one of us to take one day a year and do something, anything, to give back to our local community. While one day may not seem like much, given the number of employees our company has nationally and internationally, we can make a big impact!
So today, my larger “team” volunteered our time at two different locations here in Minneapolis. The first location was Second Harvest Heartland, a food bank that is doing wonderful and inspiring things to provide hunger relief in the area. Our time was spent prepping and packaging different food items to be distributed- self explanatory, but a first for me. This was the beginning of me opening my heart an mind today.
Our second location was at a Salvation Army location, setting up a gymnasium for their “Coats for Kids” event tomorrow. The weather is changing here in Minnesota… for the worse. The cold is settling in and the snow is on the horizon, with many of the less fortunate being unable to afford coats for themselves and/or their family. This event provides new/gently used coats for children and adults, as well as hats/mittens, etc., to these individuals. Our team was team set-up for the mad rush tomorrow! Again, very eye opening and humbling. So, so many individuals and families will be so thankful and grateful for the kind individuals who provided these coats and hats so that they can stay warm this winter season.
Today got me thinking about the things that I, and most likely many of you, take for granted on a day-to-day basis. The times where I wish I had “x y or z” or complain about the little things. When I find myself thinking these things in the future, I need to remember today, and how I should be grateful for what I have. Life really is great and should be celebrated, no matter how much or how little you have. People a lot worse off are walking around laughing, with huge smiles on their faces… I think we all need learn a lesson from their book, no?
I thank my company, and my wonderful team, for this amazing day. I’ll admit that I often forget to take the time to give back, but today was a welcoming reminder that I need to give back and volunteer more often, especially with the holiday season upon us! Even more important… this isn’t about ME. This is about those that each and every one of us can help with even the smallest time commitment. It really doesn’t take much to make a big impact on those around us. And I can only imagine how thankful those we are helping are for what these organizations and their volunteers do!
Random post, but I wanted to share my day with you!
Do you often volunteer? Does your company encourage you to give back to the community?
I’m hanging out in the burbs’ this weekend house and dog sitting. It’s a nice break from the hustle and bustle of Minneapolis, but I am starting to miss Uptown and the busy streets!
I’ve also learned that two dogs, solo by myself, is a wee bit much to handle. Although they are good snuggle buddies.
I also am realizing that empty houses are quiet and boring after a few days… maybe I need a hobby? Yes, that’s a good idea… Or maybe I need to get back within walking distance of restaurants, shops, grocery stores, bars and my bus stop.  I feel like I need to hash tag this as #totallynotreadyfortheburbs.
Anyway… last night was actually quite relaxing. Later in the evening I put on a fire, put a pan of veggies in the oven for roasting and cracked open a pumpkin beer. I sat on the couch with the dogs and watched the first six episodes of Breaking Bad, which Mike and others have sworn by. I’m hooked. Really, what could have been more relaxing and Fall like than that? Not much.
Last night I even tweeted that Fall made me crave getting back to spin class and pumpkin beer. I took care of the pumpkin beer last night and this morning I was going to tackle spin class. But let’s re-read that last sentence and put an heavier emphasis on was going to, because yeah… didn’t go as planned. Here’s the condensed version of my hour+ morning experience.
Rewind to last night when I locked all doors. Duh. Dogs wake me up this morning and I open the french doors from the bedroom to the backyard and step outside with the dogs to make sure they do their business. Door locks behind me. Swear words come out of my mouth… I immediately try the other door in the back. Duh, locked. All other doors are locked. Head to the front yard, through the fence, and get locked out of the back yard (while the two dogs are barking their heads off). The fence is too high to jump over… search high and low for a possible spare key in the front yard. Mind you, this is 7:30 on a Sunday morning, I probably looked crazy and suspicious. Oh, and I was shoeless, hadn’t brushed my hair/etc., and wasn’t wearing my glasses.
I start panicing… who is up at 7:30 on a Sunday besides me? Oh… a dog and a blurry gentleman across the street. I start shouting SIR, SIR! Turns out in was a female. #fail. Where are those glasses when you need them? Thankfully she didn’t hold it against me and kindly let’s me use her phone to call Mike. He’s half way across the country and attending a work conference, but starts calling family, his sister’s friends, anybody who he can think of. Many people were called unsuccessfully… then said neighbor calls her “handyman” neighbor who meets us at the house. He uses a ladder to get over the fence, we find an open window and next thing I know, I’m head first through the window. SUCCESS. Windows now locked. I head back out to close the gate that the neighbors left through and Petrie decided it’d be fun to run down the block and have me chase her. Nothing like ending the morning running down the block like a crazy lady. Seriously… my life is a comedy at times, I swear.
The rest of the day was spent walking the pups, working out and watching more Breaking Bad. Tonight won’t be much different . 
Just finished up a delicious dinner of eggs cooked in marinara sauce, with added corn, onion and spinach. I had this atop a bed of lettuce, sprinkled with some parmesan cheese. Simple, but delicious, filling and nutritious. I rounded out the meal with a guilty pleasure that I found in the freezer… “pizza” Texas toast.
Off to watch more Breaking Bad and eat cookies & ice cream. See ya!
How was your Sunday? Have you ever locked yourself out of the house?
Life is *somewhat* settling down, and I’m getting the itch to come back and tell you all about it! Hopefully somebody out there is still around to read all about it.
During the busy summer and fall seasons, while I was living an adventurous life with great things to blog about/share, I was somewhat selfish with my time and didn’t want to sit down and blog. Fair enough, no? Now with things slowing down a bit, I’m feeling a little bit, for lack of better words, bored. Hmph. I remembered how much I love and adore the blog world. Sharing my life with you, reading about your life, and the community in general are so wonderful, so I’m going to try to show my (blog) face a bit more often!
What better way to start things up again than to share two of my favorite outings from the past month!
Up first, a day of hiking and apple picking in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. This was something Mike and I had been talking about since this past spring. We both had been to the area before for the skiing nearby, but never to hike during the summer or fall seasons. We may have picked the most perfect fall day there was for this mini-adventure!
Sunken potholes… so cool!
So amazing what you can find an hour outside the city!
My other favorite adventure of the past month was our trip to Texas last weekend. <3 I am sharing the only four photos I took on the whole trip, which is a shame, because it was an epic one!
Friday alone we packed a trip to Ft. Worth, Joe T Garcias (!!!), Costco, a trip to the lake to jet ski and a wonderful home cooked dinner and dessert in. Oh, and a Minnesota Lynx championship game- aka, the only solid Minnesota sports team there is. Also, the first Minnesota sports championship in 20 years. Sadness. At least Joe T’s has a beautiful outdoor patio to make up for it.
Saturday was just as busy, if not more! Shopping at three malls, buying numerous clothing items and four pairs of new shoes. Something comes over me when I’m in Texas… I go crazy with my purchases! We broke for lunch at Twisted Root, a first for me, and I was very pleased… more shopping, wine tasting, dinner and more wine, topped off with gelato.
I have a thing for walls of wine, so of course the camera came out at the wine bar!
The wine bar we went to made their own wine in house, I was very impressed. They even had one of my favorites, almond champagne, which I’ll be back for!
I enjoyed the evening with a few of my favorite people in the world. Mom and bro.
And of course this guy…
The plans for a Sunday morning workout went out the door when we all slept for 10 hours and woke up to rain. Movies, Scrabble and apple & pear crisp for breakfast, courtesy of my mom’s wonderful neighbor, happened instead. As always, tough to say goodbye, but I’m back for 10 days at the end of the year!
So there you have it. My two favorite adventures from the month past.
I wonder what the rest of October has in store!?
What have you been up to? Are you dressing up for Halloween? If so, what are you going to be?
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I am so thankful that good television, at least from my perspective of good television, is back! Arguably my favorite show premiers tonight; Parenthood to be more specific. I don’t know what it is about this show that draws me in… maybe it is all the different personalities, range of emotions, and the strong connection they have developed with each character and us as the audience? Who knows!
Of course there are other “old” shows I’m excited for, but I’m also excited for new shows! The two I’ve heard the most buzz about so far have been Up All Night and The Playboy Club. I admittedly don’t know too much about these shows, but I do know that I want to give them a shot. Which old and new TV shows are you excited for this Fall?
Although I most definitely am NOT excited for summer to be over and for the cold to blow in for 6 horrid months, I am excited for the cozy Fall nights! We got into the Fall evening groove tonight by cooking up a cozy meal, wearing comfy clothes, and hunkering down to watch TV all night. These heart warming times are what I DO like about Fall (okay, and Winter).
Dinner tonight was baked chicken, which is Mike’s “speciality”. He adds random condiments from our cupboards and fridge, throws in some veggies, and bakes at 350 degrees for an hour.
This man knows his chicken, this was so good! Mike always talks about how he grew up eating baked chicken several nights a week, so these meals are pretty nostalgic for him.
To accompany our protein, canned green beans (!! guilty pleasure) and mashed sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes are actually Simply Potatoes variety, which is one of the 8 packs we currently have in our fridge. I wish I was kidding. Mike had to do some product placement analysis at a local grocery store last week and the remaining products were left with him. While I love free GOOD food, 8 packs of potatoes is a lot!
What are you looking forward to with Fall on the horizon? Apple picking, pumpkin, Halloween, hot cocoa and candy corn + peanuts, which taste just like the beloved Salted Nut Roll candy bar, are on my list!
Today started like all other short work weeks. Enthusiasm and motivation was high, and excitement was buzzing all around the office with people chatting about how great having a four day work week will be. It is like clock-work. The same conversations happen every.single.time. Kind of humorous, no?
So yeah, my day started out well. The crisp Fall air greeted me as I walked out the door, while my warm cup of tea in my travel mug did a fine job of battling off the goosebumps. As I was walking to the bus stop myself to head downtown, I saw a flurry of activity on the roads as the remainder of Minnesota schools headed back to school today. I was overcome by a wave of nostalgia and remembrance of my “back to school” days… both the good and the bad. There was a fair mix of both growing up. I was always scared about fitting in (weren’t we all), about the future, what was to come. Looking back there are oh so many things I wish I could tell my younger self. But alas, that’s not the point of this post, the point is yet to come… maybe some other time we can get into what I’d tell my younger self. By all means, if you want to share what you’d tell you younger self in the comment section, please do. (See, told you I got nostalgic today!)
Anyway… on to work. Work was going well. No major fires, pleasant encounters with co-workers and clients, all was well on this fine Tuesday. But then it happened…
You see, Mike was enjoying another day off at home (jealous), and spent the day doing man things. Playing video games, reading books, watching old basketball games and whatever else they do on their days off. He must have been so *ahem* distracted by all of his activities that this happened…
Yes, that would be a chewed up heel of my absolute favorite Ralph Lauren pumps. The two doors to our walk-in closet remained open today, while our cute little dog found my high heel to be a wonderful toy.
Devastation doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings. Now, supposedly there was a three hour period of “oh my goodness, how do I tell Jenna what happened?”, and a few text exchanges between Mike and my brother before I got the phone call at work “Uh. Babe. You’re going to kill me.” Then you can about imagine what happened from there…
Granted, Mike scores major brownie points. He came downtown to go shoe shopping with me after work, and even offered to buy me a new pair. What a guy, huh? Funny thing is I came out empty handed. I want MY shoes back. So where do we go from here? I’m not ready to say RIP my favorite shoes… Mr. Shoe Repairman is getting a visit and we’ll see if he can replace the heels. Anybody ever heard of this done before? A lovely Google search said it was possible. Hmmm…
Luckily, I’ve come out of my sad haze and will enjoy the rest of the night, but for a girl, her favorite pair of shoes is no small matter. Do you have a favorite pair of shoes? Share!
While we are on the shoe subject… any Fall must-have clothing/trends that you are loving right now?
Err, hello?
Do you remember me? Remember what I look like?
What about my adorable dog and her mischervious ways?
We hope not!
I sure haven’t forgotten about you guys or the blog world, it’s just been one hectic, non-stop, FUN summer. I write this as Fall is knocking at the door… I woke up to temps in the high 40’s. Not acceptable. That’s for another time though.
So what have I been doing that has kept me from this little outlet of my life? Well, as you know, moving happened as well as a new job, both of which have taken up plenty of my time in the past month. All positive though, so no complaints.
We’ve also had weekends filled with back-to-back events, oh, and no internet until last week. We had some *issues* first with the provider, then with our router, which neither of us were in a rush to fix. Oddly, I took our internet issues as a sign that I needed to take a break from constantly being strapped to technology and just LIVE my life for a few weeks. Sure, I could have gone to a coffee shop to blog (ahem, literally feet away from my apartment building), or even down to our community room, but the serenity that I received from not being pressured in to that was divine. Plus, I think both Mike and my iPhone’s kept us sane.
The time came though when I started to miss this little blog of mine and the connections I’ve made, which is why I’m back! Life is still busy (read, plans during the week and weekend for 6 weeks out), but I’ll check in when I can. And let’s not forget, the snow season here in Minnesota is only about a month away… aka, what better thing to do then spend time blogging and reading blogs, right?
What have I missed? What is going on in your life/the blog world? I’ll be honest, I took a total break from all things internet/blog related for quite some time. Fill me in, give me the details!
First of all, I apologize if tonight’s post reads as if I am scatterbrained. It may appear that way… well, because I am. I suppose I’d have to apologize for the last few posts and the next couple future posts as well then! With all the positive change and the go-go-go schedule we’ve had, I’m a bit all over the place.
One thing that I know for sure however is that tonight, for the first time this summer, I tasted true summer candy. What in the world is summer candy you may ask? Well, it comes in the form of a vegetable. And if you are a snob like me, it must come from Minnesota, because that is where the top-of-the-line batches are made. I’m talking about SWEET CORN!
We had our first batch from Minnesota this evening and I squealed with delight as to how wonderful this ear of corn tasted. De-licious. Definitely not the best though. The best corn on the cob comes hand picked from a farmers field and is immediately steamed/boiled/grilled up for you. I am spoiled and have uncles/aunts who farm and have experienced this incredible taste. If you haven’t at least tasted Minnesota corn-on-the-cob, you surely haven’t lived… Kidding!
Time to get off my corn tangent… we also had sloppy joes and some random cauliflower and cucumber.
Seriously folks… we are scrapping by with our food these last few days. As satisfying as it is to eat what you have and not put any food to waste, I sincerely miss cooking up fun dinners, and maybe even more-so, baking! There is something to be said about coming home from work and cooking a meal you’ve never cooked before, or baking to alleviate stress… with *most* of our shelf stable food/baking supplies packed, this hasn’t been an option. Only one more day though… I’m sure we’ll be eating out most of this weekend!
Before I wrote this post we cleaned a few areas of the apartment, in addition to the windows and screens. It is gross to realize how dirty things actually are that deceptively look clean. Yikes!
Ok, back to work I go! Not having a couch stinks, but it is a great motivator as well. You don’t have the luxury of ‘taking a break’, you have to forge forward and check things off the list. Catch you later!
Moving week is in full swing!! We don’t officially move out until Saturday, but packing is coming along swimmingly…
I won’t deny that we have a ton of stuff. The above photo is only some of it! We have done a wonderful job of purging things that we no longer need/feel attached to/had no idea we even had. If we didn’t use it or know we had it for the past year, it was donated. Our trash is another persons treasure.
You’ll notice there is also a big piece of furniture missing in the photo above… our couch (replaced for the time being with a very comfortable Lovesac). It was picked up and moved out on Saturday, and will be replaced with a new couch we purchased from Room & Board outlet. For local Minnesotans who haven’t heard of the Room & Board outlet, you are missing out. Saturday and Sundays ONLY from 10-5(?), they have furniture that was either overstocked, returned, etc. (all brand new) for a fraction of the sale price. Aka, premium furniture made somewhat reasonable.
One thing we did not expect was the line of at least 100 people waiting for the doors to open! We drove up around 9:50, expecting some traffic, but we were greeted with a massive line. Immediately, my competitiveness came out and I jokingly told Mike that we were going to divide and conquer, and to box people out and trip people if necessary. I would be lying if I said this is practically what had to happen; we had to duke it out with another couple to get the couch we wanted! In about 5 minutes, about half of the furniture had ’sold’ tags on them. Insane!
Since we are becoming professional movers in this household, we have a list of things to accomplish each night this week to make this move as painless as possible. As I stated earlier, the move out is Saturday, followed by a Saturday evening cleaning session. Sunday we have declared a Sunday Funday, with Monday being the big move-in! Wish us luck.
I’ll even be moving my office cube on Thursday, giving me “practice” for this weekend!
Oddly enough, our ‘clean-out’ meals are actually pretty good! It is amazing what you can come up with when faced with random meal components that you need to either eat or pitch. Since I hate wasting food (and $$), we’ve come up with some interesting things. Take for instance our meal tonight…
Trader Joe’s Sweet & Sour Chicken, which I added any veggie we had on hand to. This frozen meal was a total guy purchase, but I have to say that I give Trader Joe’s two thumbs up… it was fantastic!
Maybe not as good as the grease-laden variety from Leeann Chin, which I’m embarrassed to say I even enjoy. Luckily, I haven’t eaten at said restaurant for YEARS, which makes my waistline and arteries very happy.
We also had some random Chicken Shu Mai from Trader Joe’s in the freezer as well. Never heard of Shu Mai before, and I wasn’t the biggest fan either. I’m guessing the ‘real deal’ is much better than the frozen variety. Have you ever heard of Shu Mai before?
And to round out the meal, canned green beans with hot sauce. Oddly, it all worked together.
Not bad, right?
Getting back to this couch we sold… Mike and I were discussing that this maybe was the stupidest, most expensive impulse purchase we made. We were thinking in the moment, not thinking about future residences or styles. We were also young(er) and weren’t thinking of how our tastes would evolved to more of a classic/traditional/sleek style. We could have easily purchased the same, high quality couch we purchased this past weekend two years ago if we did more research. Yes, we are growing up! So tell me, what is the stupidest/most expensive ‘mistake’ purchase you’ve ever made?
In the morning while walking to the bus, I check my emails on my phone. I check to see if there are any important emails that have come through, see what the Groupon and Living Social deals are for the day, and then try bypass all of the J.Crew and Banana emails that I received. You know why? Because if I see a “good deal”, I cannot, for the life of me, pass it up.
Exhibit of the day… for some reason I decided it would be a smart idea to see what Banana Republic wanted to greet my day with. Clicked in to the email and saw a ‘40% off up to three full price items’ message. SOLD. I immediately forwarded this email to my work email, intending see what I could find over lunch. When there wasn’t time for that, I re-forwarded the email back to my Gmail account AND set a reminder to shop later tonight. How sick is that? I’m a total sucker!
The odd thing is that I only get the urge to shop in an actual mall three or four times a year. But for some odd reason, I love online shopping! I think it is because actually swiping the card doesn’t happen. You enter in your info and hit ‘complete order’ and it is like you didn’t even spend any money. Someone, please help me and my sick ways of thinking about online purchases!
Funny thing is, I am in marketing and I myself send marketing emails. I should know better! But 40% off really IS a good deal… right?
Are you a sucker for email promotions? Do you prefer to shop online or in-store?
Day three of the new job went well, as have the last two days. Things are still exciting, days are still flying by, and I am still eager to take on the day each and every morning. I would sure hope I would be three days in, but this is such a change from where I was, it feels nice!
What doesn’t feel nice is the continuation of the excessive heat wave we’re having. I’ll be throwing my hands up in celebration tomorrow I’m sure because Mr. Weatherman says the heat is supposed to break tonight. Highs in the 90’s the rest of the week will feel like a walk in the park!
The warm, muggy weather had me craving a big salad for dinner. We’re trying to use up what we can from our cupboards, fridge and especially our freezer, and the salad included both fridge and freezer items! Base of lettuce with onion, red bell pepper, celery, cucumber, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, a chopped veggie burger and poppy seed dressing.
Doesn’t it just LOOK healthy?
While this salad tasted incredible, I had to bring on a contender for my favorite part of dinner. Trader Joe’s sweet potato fries. So.dang.good. They have the perfect crunch on the outside, with the softness in the inside. I definitely went back for seconds!
Well with that, I’m off to relax. My brain is mush at the end of these days this week! Plus, I have to rest up… starting tomorrow night, through the rest of the weekend, we are packing!
For those of you who enjoy ’seasons’ and experiencing all the vastly different climates the world has to offer, I know the perfect place for you to move. Minneapolis, Minnesota my friends. I promise you this… you’ll experience bitter cold, ice, sleet, snow, blizzards, a windchill so cold you can’t feel your body the moment you step outside, perfect summer nights, 80 degree weather, sunshine, crisp Fall days, rainy Spring weeks, May flowers from all that rain you got in April (and May), and air so densely humid you want to scream. See? Didn’t my rant just sell you on this locale?
I’m being a bit sarcastic in the paragraph above because truly Minnesota does have the perfect Summer and Fall weather. That is what us Minnesotans “sell” to others who are moving here/thinking about moving here/visiting here. It is what balances out our horrific winters. But today just was not funny Mr. Weather, not funny at all. The instant full out body sweat I was greeted with when walking out the door at 7 a.m.? I could have done without. And your friend Mr. Weatherman apparently is saying you are here to stay for a few days. Guess that means I better start to like you! (I should look back at this post when I am complaining about the cold in a few months.)
Since we are living in a tropical location these days, Mike actually came up with a fitting dinner idea, Baked Hawaiian Chicken.
This really hit the spot tonight and was so simple. Ingredients needed? Chicken breast, red bell pepper, onion, pineapple, a Hawaiian sauce of sorts, cilantro, peanuts, salt & pepper. Preheat the over to 350 degrees and lay the chicken in a 9 x 9 pan, top with roughly chopped red bell pepper, onion and pineapple, then smoother with your sauce, salt and pepper. Bake for 55 minutes to an hour and top with cilantro and peanuts.
On the side we had some very un-tropical sweetcorn (was subpar and definitely not Minnesota or Iowa born!) and leftover Trader Joe’s Harvest Grain Blend. After a few bites of the grain blend I had had enough, the chicken and corn were enough themselves!
The first day working the new job went very well! There is a lot to learn, but luckily I was excited and eager all day to understand and master what I was doing. I definitely was in need of a new challenge and now more than ever that I am ‘living it’, I realize it. Sometimes you just need something new and fresh to liven things up when you are in rut! My brain is mush tonight after being filled with so much new knowledge… time to go veg out!
What is the last new job you started? Was it a good move for you?
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