Friday Lovin’

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Shayla @ The Good Life

Happy TGIF everyone!!! First off, I want to say how much I enjoyed reading your “I Give Myself Permission To…” comments – it really warmed my heart and I loved hearing all that you give yourself permission to do. (And if you haven’t yet read the comments I suggest you do – they’re a lovely read by some awesome ladies)

And I think we should especially keep that “I Give Myself Permission To…” mentality in mind when there are days that are tough and we feel especially anxious or stressed – I think it’s ok to remind yourself to say “I Give Myself Permission To…relax, do a fun exercise class, grab a treat, get a pedicure, etc. Do whatever you need to do to bring happiness back into yourself/your life so that you can enjoy everyday to the fullest

I also want to say thank you so much for your feedback about my iPad conundrum on whether or not a) I should get one? and b) if they’re compatible for blogging? After reviewing your advice and especially great tips from the lovely Sarah and talking about it more with my parents, we decided that they’ll all get me gift cards to Best Buy. I think that’s the perfect option so that I can weigh my choices at the store and compare the iPad (they sell them now at Best Buy) to all the other laptops and see what will work best for me. I’ll definitely post about it once I make my purchase

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Anyway, most of you follow me on twitter so I think a lot of you knew what I was up to…

So yeah, that’s pretty much the only excuse as to why you haven’t seen blog posts from me this whole week. And to be honest, I just needed a break and I’ve just had an emotional week – last weekend was an emotional one for me in regard to some personal stuff…

Although there was a bright light in that I had the most amazing day with my friend. You know those friendships where you can pick up right where you left off and like no time has passed? I think it’s been about a year since I’ve last seen her and every time I do it’s simply amazing. We actually mentioned to each other that we never feel any anxiety or nervousness upon seeing each other – I’m always so relaxed with this girl and am laughing non-stop with her. She’s got the most awesome sense of humor and personality – there was a reason why we’ve been such great friends since Kindergarten and Girl Scouts, we just have a great connection. I love her dearly and can’t wait for our next get together

And I think this photo speaks for itself of just how much we can have when we’re together…

My mom is simply awesome – she got her groove thing on at our wedding

So back to the other parts of my weekend, it was an emotional one and it’s stuff I won’t discuss here, but will say that I just didn’t want to force a “happy go lucky” post when I wasn’t feeling in that mood at all this week. All I felt like doing was focusing on work and tackling my Christmas shopping – which always makes me happy – love buying gifts for my family and friends And, I’m happy to say I got every person done, yipeee! Except for Todd…still thinking about that one! Above all else – today is Friday, I woke up on the right side of the bed, I got a fun night planned for tonight, and I’m ready to make this weekend a better one.

So with that, it’s Friday and I love my Friday Lovin’ posts because it just simply gives me a chance to tell you all what I’ve been loving lately. Like more delicious holiday finds from Trader Joe’s…

Delicious is all I can say – trust me

And we got our mini Christmas trees decorated!!!

They look kinda funky, but cute, haha! We weren’t about to do real trees again this year – we did that once and it was such a mess (p.s. we have hardwood floors!). Don’t get me wrong, I do love them and our family got real trees throughout my childhood, but it’s just not for Todd and I. We have plans to buy a fake one once they go on sale after Xmas to use for next year!

More penguin decorations…

When you turn him on he changes colors from blue to green to yellow to red – too cute

Papa penguin

And these lovelies…

(source)

Here I have the shaft unfolded all the way up

It’s hard to see in the pics just how lovely these boots are – and super comfy!

I bought them last Saturday with my friend and I couldn’t pass them up. Regular price $150 and got them on sale for $112…I think that’s a pretty great deal, don’t cha think?

And I’ve updated my blog theme to “Bouquet”…I can’t stop changing the look of my blog and I think I’m really loving this one…

And my lovely coworker got me on to this great new holiday feature for your blog – in the Settings you can choose “Show falling snow on my blog until January 4^th” – in the pic above you can kind of see the white dots – that’s the snow. I love it – super cute and festive

And the other day, I got a shipment of this deliciousness…

That there on the left is a magnum bottle – whoo hoo!

In which I’ll be enjoying with these lovelies…

And then it’s off to here (our fav spot!) for some more shenanigans and good times

I’ll give you a hint as to what we’ll be indulging in…

Yes pleaseee!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend! I know I sure will…tomorrow I’m meeting up with this wonderful friend to bake up some delicious pecan pie cookies – never tried them before and I definitely can’t wait for our baking extravaganza

Questions:
Any fun plans for tonight or this weekend?!
If you shop at Trader Joe’s, what’s your favorite holiday treat right now? Mine is the Cookie Butter!!!

Holiday Shopping – For Me?!

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Shayla @ The Good Life

Hello all! How is everyone’s ~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday going? For some reason all today I’ve been thinking it’s Tuesday – it’s nice when you realize it’s actually a day later than you thought – don’t you love it when that happens?

So with Christmas now less than a month away it’s time to gear up as Santa’s little elves and start holiday gift shopping for your family and friends. Though I believe the holiday’s should be a time to cherish and celebrate moments with family and friends and to remember that Christmas is a day to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, it’s also one in sharing joy with others through gift giving, and I admit that I already got holiday shopping on the brain. So much so that I’ve already started shopping for none other than…me!

Am I the only guilty one here who has high hopes of buying gifts for friends and family, only to leave the store with a gift for yourself? I think we all deserve a treat now and then and I like to believe it makes dealing with all the crazy mall crowds and traffic that much more bearable when you got a special lil something for yourself And how can I not pass up the adorable penguin themed goodies that are especially on display during Christmastime. Like these adorable penguin mugs I found at Target that I absolutely could not pass up…

They also came with matching placemats and plates but hubby said no – good for my wallet but sad for the soul, haha

And Trader Joe’s – don’t even set foot in there if you don’t want to come out with a bag full of holiday goodies that they got going on right now. Like these gems I found there the other day…

Everything is absolutely delicious, but the Cookie Butter? Um – amazing!! Just like Biscoff Spread but a lot thicker and more dense – delish!

And random side note but speaking of Biscoff Spread, if you ever come across buying a jar and have emptied it in a week like we did, then I highly suggest you make Overnight Oats in it – purely amazing…

So back to holiday shopping, I also got my eye out for some over-the-knee boots. And with the help from Ms. Shoe Fashionista Shanna, she told me about the awesome shoe website that is Endless.com and I already got my eye on a couple beauties…

Chinese Laundry – Kingdom

Franco Sarto – Social

And I love flat boots too – especially with hardware on it…

Madden Girl – Ravia

And you may be asking, why not ask Santa for a pair of boots? (Yes we still have “Santa” in this household ) Well, since my laptop is kaput I’ve asked Santa for a new iPad (!!) So excited…

(source)

Speaking of iPad’s – are they blogging friendly? I know all you ladies are pretty tech savvy so please leave me any input/advice you may have on the iPad!

The holiday season is about spreading cheer and love to family and friends – but I also thinking showing your love through food, cards, or gifts is something so special and what makes this time of year so wonderful

Questions:
What’s on your wish list this holiday season?!
Do you still play “Santa” with your family? For our Xmas Eve family holiday party, my dad plays Santa for the little kids and it’s the most adorable thing ever – it’s an awesome tradition that I love so much <3

Christmas Eve 2009 – sis, mom, Santa (dad!), Todd, me (wow with short hair!)

Friday Lovin’

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Shayla @ The Good Life

Happy Friday everyone!! Well I’m back from the living dead This whole week I’ve felt absolutely awful – this cold is one heck of a beast. My whole office is infected (everyone is out sick today), and now Todd has it – eek! So let’s just say this weekend will be spent holed up inside, with lots of blankets, hot cocoa, movies, and baking chocolate chip cookies to feed our colds So that’s why I’ve been MIA the past few days, I just have not had it in me to write, my head is in the clouds, and let’s just say I’ve had some very “blonde” moments – my brain just hasn’t been with it, very frustrating! So this post is going to be short and sweet and hopefully by next Monday I’ll be good as new and back to my regular blogging schedule

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There have been some yummy eats I’ve been wanting to share with you all but didn’t since I took a break due to my cold, so I’ll share them today for Friday Lovin’!

* Chevy’s

I find this place to be a hit or miss, but lately we’ve gotten some really great service (especially if you sit at the bar) and the food has been pretty descent lately. And I’m never let down when ordering my tried and true favorite grilled fajita chicken salad – it satisfies my love of warm foods

It doesn’t look anything special here but all the goodies were hiding down below – in it was pepita seeds, cheese, avocado, grilled veggies, chicken, and tortilla strips, and I got the dressing on the side

Todd got fish tacos…

Super good as well and I ate all his sweet corn tamalito – love that stuff!

And we went through two rounds of these…I can’t be controlled around chips and salsa!!

* Fro Yo

Last weekend I happily consumed frozen yogurt two days in a row – U Love on Saturday, and Miyo Yogurt on Sunday…

Peanut butter fro yo with an assortment of chocolate candies (can’t remember them all!), strawberries, mango, and banana

I never ever get fruit on my frozen yogurt, I always figure why get something healthy on something so indulgent and splurge on the candy? But for some reason with the warm weather I was really craving fruit and went with it, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it and it really was delicious. I’ll always be a chocolate/candy toppings girl at heart on my fro yo, but this was a nice change

*The Bay Area

Wednesday I took the day off from work because I felt like complete death, but as the day rolled on I started to feel better and was itching to get inside from being cooped up all day long. So I went out for a nice, leisurely walk and it was such a beautiful day that I had to snap some pics of this great walking trail and the view we have from it…(sorry for the icky Blackberry photos!)

Straight ahead is the skyline of San Francisco

And then once I walk up the hill I have this view…

To the left is the trail I walked…

And then if you look real close, across the way is my office building!

On the top of the hill I took some time to just sit, relax, and appreciate what a beautiful city we live in and how thankful and lucky I am to have so many blessings and greatness in my life…it was so peaceful and a beautiful spot to reflect on everything. It made me think how I need to get outside more often and not be holed up in the gym…I think for some reason I have this fear of exercising outside by myself – is that weird? I don’t know where it comes from but I’d really like to get outside more – although not sure how that will pan out seeing that we’re finally getting some fall weather and rain here in the Bay Area!

* Casseroles

I am still absolutely loving making casserole dishes lately. They’re so easy to make, delicious, and make for the perfect leftovers for Todd to take to work for his lunches. With that, I have another great casserole recipe to share with you all that I made this week. It’s super easy and it comes from my mom, not sure where she got it from but since day one of her making it we’ve called it “Sherri’s Surprise”. Now if you try it, you can just add in your own name and you can say you invented this dish yourself…don’t worry I won’t tell anyone

“Sherri’s Surprise”
Ingredients:
* 3 cups Rotini pasta
* 1 cup chopped/shredded tuna/chicken/turkey – whichever “meat” you prefer, you could even use tofu to make it vegetarian. Here to make it easy, I just bought the ready made rotisserie chickens at Safeway and shredded 1 1/2 breasts which equaled to a little more than a cup.
* 1 tbsp. minced onion
* 1 tbsp. butter
* 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup, or Cream of Mushroom Soup to make it vegetarian
* 1/3 cup milk
* 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Directions:
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees
* Cook pasta for about 7 minutes – until al dente and you still want a bit of bite to it since it will go in the oven
* In the meantime, melt 1 tbsp. butter and add the minced onion. Cook until onion is browned – about 5 min.
* In the same pan, stir in can of Cream of Chicken Soup, 1/3 cup milk, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and your cup of “meat” – stir until well combined
* Once pasta is finished cooking, drain and add pasta into the pan with the meat mixture and stir until well combined
* Place into a casserole dish and sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
* Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes

Tada!

Here’s an inside look of it…

It’s delicious and super easy. I hope you try it sometime!

* 2% Fage

I do love my 0% Fage, but there really isn’t anything better than having Greek yogurt with some fat in it. It’s absolutely creamy, luscious, and packed full of healthy fats and protein. Lately for my 2nd breakfast after my workout, I’ve been enjoying 2% Fage yogurt with chia seeds, sliced frozen banana, and some Kashi Go Lean Crisp…

* Trader Joe’s Garlic Bread

We’ve had this bread sitting in our freezer forever, finally Thursday night we broke it our to have with our soup (that’s been our dinners all week long to fight off our colds) and it was pretty darn fantastic…

*Another Trader Joe’s find…

The Pistachio Chevre is especially amazing – you gotta try it!

*Daylight Savings

Remember everyone to turn back (“fall back” as I like to say) your clocks this Sunday…that means one extra hour of sleep, whoo hoo!

So that’s it for today! Hope you all are having a fabulous Friday so far and stay healthy and sick-free!

P.S. Did any of you guys get trick-or-treaters?! I for sure thought we’d a least have a couple, but nope, nothing! Now we’ve had this starting back at us for the past 4 days…

Any of you guys wanna take it off our hands??!!

Questions:
Are you a fruit or chocolate/candy toppings person for your frozen yogurt?
What’s your favorite Mexican restaurant to go to? What’s your favorite dish to order?
Are any of you attending the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco this weekend?! I’m super bummed I’m not going or at least meeting up with any bloggers – I’m just to sick to go out Hopefully next year!

Friday (Fives) Lovin’

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Shayla @ The Good Life

Happy Friday everyone! Is it just me or did this week fly by?! Not that I’m complaining, but I really do love those weeks that wizz on by and before you know it the weekend is upon us

So my Friday Lovin’ post is a lil different this morning…I saw my lovely friend Shanna post a fun survey this morning that’s going around the blog world and right away I knew I wanted to do it too!

So without further ado…here we go!

Last five people I talked to on the phone: (Like Shanna, this was hard for me too since I never talk on the phone – when you think about it that’s kinda weird?! lol!)
1. My hubby – which is rare since we’re always texting but he needed a question answered asap!
2. My boss
3. A telemarketer at work – I get about 99.5% of calls from them at work!
4. Nubi Yogurt to see what their flavors were (Yes I call in advance to make sure they have a flavor I like, otherwise I won’t go )
5. My mom and dad

Last five meals I ate:
1. My second breakfast this morning at 9:30am – Smoothie with 1 cup 2% milk, Sunflower Butter,1 frozen banana, and puffins
2. My first breakfast this morning at 4:30am – Kashi Go Lean cereal with milk
3. Last night’s dinner – Turkey and hummus sandwich on sourdough bread with a side salad
4. Last night’s dessert – Prunes dipped in Skippy Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter
5. Yesterday’s lunch – Fage yogurt with Peanut Butter Puffins, banana, and side salad

Last five places I’ve traveled:
1. Lake Tulloch for 4th of July weekend
2. Jamaica for a wedding
3. San Diego for my wedding and honeymoon
4. New York – hubby’s hometown and I met his family and friends for the first time!
5. Lake Tahoe

Next five places I will go:
1. Yummi Yogurt to get fro yo with a friend/old coworker of mine
2. Equinox Gym for tomorrow’s spin workout!
3. Trader Joe’s
4. San Francisco (next Saturday for the Hornblower Cruise with the Blue Angels during Fleet Week!)
5. The dentist

Last five workouts:
1. 30 min. elliptical, 20 min. weights routine and abs (this morning)
2. 30 min. treadmill walk (yesterday)
3. 30 min. elliptical (Wednesday)
4. 25 min. yoga (Tuesday – ExerciseTV with Chris Fretag)
5. 3 mile walk (Sunday for our Anniversary in San Francisco to and from the Ferry Building and Train Station)

Five things making me happy right now:
1. Emails back and forth with my mother-in-law about the fun (and yummy food we’ll eat!) we’ll have together when hubby and I go back to his hometown in New York this November for Thanksgiving!
2. It’s Friday! And I got my first pumpkin at the grocery store this morning…it’s a decorative one too, so cute!
3. A compliment I got from a friend I ran into this morning at said grocery store – he said “Wow, you look so happy!” (He knew me during my disordered eating/underweight days so this comment has a special meaning to it and hearing this from him was really sweet)
4. Hubby got a brand new truck! (An amazing deal was going on at our Chevy dealership…basically he traded in his old Tahoe for a brand spankin’ new truck with the most amazing warranty and free oil changes for a lifetime!)
5. I get to spend the weekend with the hubby…just relaxing and making babies

Thanks Shanna for the fun survey! And I hope you all enjoyed getting to know a lil bit more about me

Though I did the survey, I gotta also share a couple goodies from Trader Joe’s that have to make this Friday Lovin’ post…

Sunflower Seed Butter and Pumpkin Cream Cheese??!! Yes pleaseeeee! I have big plans of putting some of that cream cheese on my pumpkin bagels, ooooh yeaaaa

And I’m lovin’ this new song by Rihanna…have you heard it? The music video isn’t out yet and this is all I could find…great beat and song to workout to!

Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend!

Questions: What’s making you happy right now?

Friday Lovin’

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Shayla @ The Good Life

Happy TGIF everyone! Whoo hoo! So today I suddenly got inspired to start a fun segment on Friday’s called “Friday Lovin’”. Some bloggers have fun segments or series they do to make for some fun posts so I decided I wanted to start one too! So each Friday I’ll blog about what I’m currently loving, either it be a new workout, weekend plans, fashion, beauty products, etc. Some of my posts can err on the more serious side, so I think Friday’s are the perfect day to bring some fun and lightness to the blog

First thing I’m loving today is that I get to have lunch (and possibly my first of the season Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte! ) with the beautiful, stylish Shanna who’s the blogger behind Shanna Like Banana…super excited and this will be my first official blogger meet up!

Loving that I took a whole week of from exercise and still feel great – in mind, body, and spirit

Although I’m really loving that I get to workout with the hubby tomorrow (low intensity strength training for me) and most importantly, get to remember what wearing LuLuLemon feels like…

I’m also loving the fact that I get to spend all weekend long with this hunk…

Hubba hubba

And loving the fact that he is the chef of this household and cooked up an awesome meal for us last night…
Turkey burgers on English Muffins with a side of Orzo Pasta Salad and Greek Feta Salad – both salads came from a nearby specialty market Draegers.

And loving some crunch factor in the form of TJ’s Bagel Chips with TJ’s Eggplant Hummus…

And always loving a sweet treat to end the meal…

This sucker was good!! And it better be for $4.00, ha!

And loving the blog world for this amazing community, all of you wonderful and amazing bloggers and readers, and for introducing me to overnight oats…

1/3 cup oats, 1/2 cup Fage Greek Yogurt, 1/2 cup Whole Milk, 1 tsp. Chia Seeds, handful of Peanut Butter Puffins, half a banana sliced