Celebrations All Around

Hey! How is your week going so far? Mine has been a little sleepy after Laura’s Bachelorette weekend in Black Butte. I had so much fun hanging out with the girls and soaking up the sun. The weekend ended up being full of physical activities (which I loved!) Friday morning, my friend Rachael and I went for what was supposed to be an hour-long run. Neither one of us has spent much time in Black Butte and we ended up getting lost and walked around for two hours after our run. Luckily our friends found us and drove us home.

Saturday morning, my friend Marci (who’s a personal trainer) led me in a hard-core full body weight workout. It kicked my butt and I had so much fun working out with her. She is in amazing shape and gave me some great tips. Later that night, I got my second workout of the day in the form of a scavenger hunt. This was one of the highlights of the weekend. We were split into four teams and the clues for the scavenger hunt were answers to questions about Laura and her fiancé. We sprinted around the pool area while breaking a sweat.

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After only getting four hours of sleep Saturday night, we all needed a little R&R on Sunday. Luckily the sun was out all three days and we got to lay out by the pool each day that we were there. It was such a fun weekend!

The celebrations didn’t end this weekend – my friend and co-worker, Kristyl’s birthday was Monday. Earlier this year she found a cake recipe that she wanted me to bake for our office birthday lunch. Everyone at work loved it! (I didn’t try it because it was not gluten-free.) The recipe can be found here at the Health Magazine website.

While baking the cake, my kitchen went from this:

to this:

My tips for keeping a clean kitchen while doing a lot of cooking and baking are to:

• Clean up as you cook.
• Try to reuse the same bowl or utensil by rinsing it off instead of taking out a new one.
• Immediately put used dishes and utensils into soapy water in the sink.
• Wash dishes while your food is baking in the oven or cooking on the stove.
• Wait to wipe down the counters until everything is washed and put away.
• Lastly, sweep the floors once everything else is cleaned up and you are done in the kitchen.

I’m off to get ready for work and go for a 5-mile run tonight with my friend, Tonya. Have a great day!!!