The Groundhog Was Right!

As many of you probably know, New Jersey has had a brutal winter so far. Storm after storm, we hadn’t seen grass for weeks! Last week was the first week all year without snow, and it was my first full week at work. We still have to get through the rest of February and March, but yesterday we were able to see the first glimpses of spring when the temps actually hit 50 degrees! We even had blue skies, which did wonders for my mood. All this snow and gray skies were getting old. Even more exciting- they are predicting Friday to be 61 degrees! I know we are not out of the woods yet, but this tease of warm weather assures me that spring is on its way…eventually. So excited.

Unfortunately, due to working late and not being fully prepared for Valentine’s Day, I didn’t have time to enjoy the temps and run outside, so I had to hit the treadmill again. Even that was more enjoyable, because I didn’t have to wear 20 layers for the 2 minute walk down to the gym. I did wear my new sneakers, finally, which you may remember from this story.

 

Treadmill Run + Plyo Jumps
4.0 Miles
33:36
10 burpees
20 lunge jumps

I am feeling those jumps today. I always intend to do more (and go by time, for example, 1 min, instead of reps) but my screaming quads convince me otherwise. I’m always afraid I will be too sore to run the next day, or get injured so I am very conservative with the plyometrics. I always do them at the end of a workout to teach my legs to find strength when they are tired and to make sure I am all warmed up.

I came home from my run to this:

 
Flowers and Truffles

What is it about me coming home from a run to these wonderful surprises ;) No complaints here!

I gave Dan a gift certificate to the spa for a massage and last night we cooked dinner together and had Red Velvet Cupcakes for dessert.

Back to Pilates today!

*What do you get a guy for Valentine’s Day?
Girls are so easy…flowers and chocolate, but I think men are more difficult :)

Valentine's Day

Source

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. I know not everyone is a big fan of V-day and while I don't see the need to go crazy on this "holiday" it is nice to tell the *people* you love how much they are appreciated. I got my students Transformer themed Valentines with matching pencils (candy is tough in public schools) as well as cards for my family. I put together a little "man basket" for Dan, including: golf balls, golf mags, twizzlers (his fav), a candle, some v-day themed boxers, etc. Nothing crazy, just a few things that I know he likes. He sent me some beautiful roses at work and gave me a box of truffles (I am such a sucker for chocolate, thank God I run so much, because I indulge in chocolate A LOT) and the most beautiful card that again made me cry.




Truffles...so good!



The "Man Basket"
After he already went through it. i should have taken a before pic.

The gifts were beautiful but it was more important for me to spend the holiday with him unlike last year. Instead of going out to dinner, we went to Whole Foods together, picked out some delicious food and cooked. We ate a marinated flank steak with spinach and a stuffed potato on the side. We had some champagne and red wine also. And for dessert: I had a mini pumpkin pecan cheesecake and he had a blueberry tart. So stuffed!



pardon my laptop in the background...



I could only eat half of my dessert! This never happens...



It was a wonderful Valentine's Day :)

Snow Day #2 and Valentines

When you run in the morning, you gain time in a sense. It's like stretching 24 hours into 25. You may need to sleep less and get up earlier, but if you can get by that, running early seems to expand the day.

~Fred Lebow, Founder of the NYC Marathon

I love this quote. I am such a morning person and am always looking to find more hours in the day, so I thought this was perfect!

As you can probably tell from the midday posting, I am home on another snow day today! I do love snow days, but we will be making up all these days in June...I was going to attempt to make it to the gym today but my little volvo is terrible in the snow and when Dan tried to dig her out, she got stuck! Oh well, I guess I will be doing some on demand and wii fit workouts today.

I also plan to walk to the nearby shopping center and pick up some essentials for Valentines Day. I am not exactly sure what I am going to get yet, but I hope to be inspired when I get there! We have a ton of stores in the shopping center so I hope I am able to find some good stuff! Last year Valentine's Day was 2 weeks after Dan and I moved into this apartment. We had finally just settled down, and his friends invited us on a long weekend ski trip to Vermont. I didn't want to go because a.) I don't ski or snowboard, but mostly b.) we had JUST moved into our apartment together and after all the excitement I really just wanted a nice quiet Valentine's Day in our new home. Dan decided to go anyway (and yes he paid for that decision...I was really mad!). He knew he was in the dog house and went totally overboard with gifts. I obviously would have rather had him to spend the weekend with instead of extravagant gifts, but of course I still enjoyed them. Last year he got me a Sony Reader:



Source

He also had hidden 2 dozen roses, chocolates, and chocolate covered strawberries for me to find in the apartment. Trust me, that didn't get him off the hook, but I do love my reader! I am currently reading Elizabeth Gilbert's, Committed on it. I did get him a couple of small things last year, but nothing crazy, and I do hope to do a little better this year! Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that you should show the one you love how you feel all the time, and not just on Valentine's Day but it is a fun little holiday. I like to celebrate with my kids at school too and get them little treats/valentines.

How do you feel about Valentine's Day? Doing anything special?