Let Me Brag About My Friends Again

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

I’m currently sitting outside on this last day of spring break, and I’m feeling all kinds of emotions.

Sad that spring break is over, overjoyed that the weather has been beautiful, grateful for amazing friends, anxious for the second half of the semester, and excited for what’s to come.

But can I brag about these people in my life who I call my friends (I think they call me their friend too, but who really knows)? These last few days of spring break have been wonderful in every way, but mostly in how down-to-earth, fun, and faithful my friends are. I’ve said this so many times before, but they constantly inspire me to be better and grow closer to God.

Friday

Friday started with some homework, maybe? I don’t remember. Regardless, the important part of the day was Mass and lunch with my friend Katie!

perfect weather

We chatted about the very depths of our souls over some bomb salads from Sweetgreen. I forgot to take picture with her, so my type-A-blogger self is sad.

The rest of the day involved Kan-Jam, a trip to the gym (too many heavy squats ➔ sore for DAYS), homework, and early bedtime.

Saturday

I worked from 10-3 before playing outside in the perfect weather (again). I also stopped by Whole Foods to buy a box of salad greens, Fage Greek yogurt (that was on sale!), fresh strawberries (also on sale) and Nature’s Path mixed berry buckwheat freezer waffles (also on sale #collegebudget). Those four things were my sustenance for the weekend.

crumbs everywhere on my bed

Yogurt, nut butter, waffles, berries, and leaves— nothing out of the ordinary for me anyway.

Saturday night brought some fun festivities! My friends and I went out for drinks…

…and I was the only one in our group under 21, which explains my Shirley Temple pictured above.

*waitress taking orders*

Friend 1: Guinness, please.

Friend 2: I’ll also have a Guinness.

Friend 3: Guinness.

Friend 4: Guinness for me too.

Me: …Can I get a Shirley Temple?

Honestly, that’ll probably be me when I’m 21 anyway.

Nevertheless, ’twas a grand ol’ night, complete with live Irish music and dancing. I’m grateful for my older friends who let me have fun with them despite me being an infant.

They went to another bar at 11, at which time I actually needed to go home. #NoFakeID

Sunday

That one hour loss, guys. IT GOT ME.

Nothing a good breakfast can’t fix though!

Better yet— Mass with friends… and more perfect weather!

After Mass, I knew that I had to move and groove outside. It seemed like all of Boston was saying hello to the blue skies!

I ran into more friends, who were willing to put up with my selfie shenanigans in the middle of their workout.

We all burpee’d a lot.

Lunch was the rest of my salad greens, Snap Pea Crisps, and an almond butter Perfect Bar.

I was planning on doing some more studying, but I didn’t need to do any work… So I went back outside 😀

As soon as I whipped out my phone, this squirrel that was stuffing its face stared me down and looked like it was about to kill me.

More frisbee!

It was also my friend Lauren’s birthday!!!

four-eyed friends ♥︎

The dining halls opened last night (praaaaaise), so a few of us chowed down.

Then I joined my saintly friends for Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen for a little while before coming back to ~~do some work~~ attempt to do work while waiting for RACHEL TO COME HOME!

She was on a mission trip in Guyana for spring break, so I had not talked to her/seen her/contacted her/known every detail of her life for what seemed like FOREVER. She shared her experiences from the mission trip, and I almost cried. God worked through her in such profound and incredible ways.

She also saw a lot of stars 🙂

Back to the grind today. Sophomore year will come to a close in just six weeks, help.

Hope you all have a kick-butt week! I’m going to need a couple kicks in the butt just to get out of bed.

So tell me:

Something you loved about this weekend.

Something you love about your friends.

Have you ever been “that” person under 21?

Have you ever been on a service or mission trip?

Back in Boston + Five Minute Friday #7

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Dinner last night was leftover salad with hummus, Popcorners, a frozen banana, and two spoonfuls of cashew butter. Why did I come back to Boston when the dining halls aren’t open yet???

Well, despite the fact that dining halls aren’t open, I am both nourished and having a great time with friends.

Rewinding back to New York: On Tuesday night, my parents kindly took me out to dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant for the best sushi ever.

I came home and made myself some peanut butter banana soft serve (frozen bananas blended in a food processor with a splash of milk and peanut butter)— an old time fave. I ate it with a little Greek yogurt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and granola. Fabulous.

And then this beautiful person came to visit me after her class ended (at 10 pm!)!

Daliza! ♥︎ I fed her a pancake with half peanut butter and half nutella + glass o’ milk. Her visit would be incomplete without me giving her something with peanut butter or nutella on it.

Wednesday morning involved overnight oats, packing, and some moves and grooves (handstand walks, pushups, and a 16 minute interval workout) before preparing brunch for my friends Joe and Louis.

French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon

“The bacon was very good, Alison. The whole brunch was very good, but the bacon was VERY good.” — Louis

It was my first time cooking bacon, so I’m glad it turned out well. I also blended up a green peanut butter banana smoothie (milk, greek yogurt, frozen banana, peanut butter, and spinach) and ~~forced it down their throats~~ convinced them to try it, since I knew for a fact that they would not be able to taste the spinach.

Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 11.34.58 PM

They didn’t taste the spinach. #VICTORIOUS. (“There’s like a little bit of an aftertaste.” ← yeah, sure, believe what you want.)

I made myself an avocado, bacon, and egg toast + another egg + sriracha. I also ate my weight in leftover roasted brussels sprouts while I was cooking.

This was amazing.

Joe, Louis and I hit the road for Boston and made it back in time to enjoy the FREAKING GORGEOUS weather. It hit 70 F — shorts and t-shirt weather! As soon as we arrived on campus, we joined more friends for Can-Jam until it got dark.

Then we ate dinner at the food court on campus, chilled out on the dock, and played the Ellen Degeneres iPhone game, “Psych”, until we were all falling asleep. Good people, good times.

Yesterday’s activities included some quick moves and grooves (this ab workout), Mass, lunch at Tasty Burger, the Museum of Fine Art, and a special pre-screening of the new movie, The Young Messiah. It’s hard to pick out the best part of the day!

This was a “dine-in” theater with the most luxurious seats I’ve ever seen in a movie theater.

And today I’m going to Mass and lunch with a friend, maybe working out at the gym, and definitely doing lots of studying.

Now that we’re all caught up, how about some Five Minute Friday action? (This post probably took you five minutes to read already…sorry.) This week I’m talking about something very random: where I would want to live after I graduate!

link to the video!

Taking a video of myself on a tire swing in a park that I’d never visited before. Sounds about right for me.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

So tell me:

Have you ever tried convincing someone that a smoothie with spinach does NOT taste gross?

If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?

If you love where you live, why is that?

Our First 5 Days of 2015

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Well hey there, I haven’t talked to you all since last year!

Last year being five days ago, but still! Happy New Year! I hope you all had festive celebrations and fun times with family and friends. All the good F’s.

Besides some lingering sickness (read: hacking death coughs), we’ve been having a great time ringing in the new year in Florida! So much happened, but instead of boring you with a lengthy recap of everything, let’s do this alphabet style. I would like to share the fact that I do indeed know the alphabet. 😉

Ringing in the New Year: By the Letters

Avocado toast // Saturday night’s dinner along with sloppy joe meat and roasted cauliflower

Beach trip // played frisbee for a couple hours

Crepes // using Alton Brown’s recipe

Ducklings // spotted in our neighbor’s backyard

Ebelskivers // delightful Dutch round pancakes made by my aunt and uncle

peanut butter-filled aka happiness-filled

Forecast // looks very pleasant for the upcoming week here in Florida

Group photos // ’tis the season

Humbling // doing pistol squats and this leg workout after a week of being sick

matchy matchy

Ice cream // of the cookies and cream variety on NYE

Jokes // trying to come up with some to incorporate into my Boston University tour guide script with only minor success

Kansas family friends // who now live in Florida and are like family to us (they came over for NYE dinner with us, and then we went to their house for dinner on Friday night!)

Luau // Disney’s “Spirit of Aloha” dinner and show was a blast!

(Besides the fact that I had to stand outside due to intense coughing at the end. Two people thought I worked there as I stood outside and asked me to point out the bathrooms. One of them was a little boy who called me ma’am!)

those dinner rolls would be PINEAPPLE COCONUT rolls!!!

I spy Madre

Marshmallows // roasted over hot charcoals for NYE s’mores

Char, peel, eat, repeat

New Year’s Eve // spent at home with family and friends eating pulled chicken sliders, salad, ice cream, and more

Overnight oats // with way too much peanut butter left at the bottom of this jumbo jar…never thought I’d say that

doughy, peanut butter goodness

Pancakes // green silver dollar banana ones on Tuesday and “Melt-in-Your-Mouth” Bisquick ones on Saturday

Quiet time // I need to set this aside for at least an hour before going to sleep

Ricola // cough drops are a hot commodity in this household currently

Spinach in my smoothie // with frozen banana, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, cinnamon, nutmeg

Typhoon Lagoon // Ben and I spent our Sunday there with our relatives

(There was a WICKED wave pool that reminded me of the huge wave that swallowed the world in the movie, The Day After Tomorrow. It was intense.

Dinner eaten at Downtown Disney, followed by the most difficult mini golf ever at Fairways.)

Ben: “Again [with the selfies]??”

Upride down // did ten handstand pushups in a row with an abmat underneath my head!

Visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios today!

Wawa walk-through // because Ben heard so much about this high class gas station chain

Xylophones // one of the only practical words that start with X

Zzzz’s // caught some during several naps throughout the week

To all those going back to school and work today/sometime this week, I wish you good luck! You’re all rockstars, so let. it. ROCK.

{Happy birthday to my best friend and partner in ridiculousness, Daliza!!!}

So tell me:

Some letters that describe your weekend!

Have you ever tried Ebelskivers before?

Do you like wave pools?

Are you starting work/school today or later? Or have you already been on the grind?

Fascinating Friday Links #40 + Jumping for Joy

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves

Hi!

I went on a 4 mile walk/run at a shady trail yesterday, and there were some beautiful things I saw along the way that made me want to jump for sheer joy. I’m not kidding; I actually did this when no one was around:

[source]

I saw an elderly couple walking back and forth on the trail holding hands, a smiling lady praying a Rosary, a man pensively sitting on a bench while looking out into the lake, and a bunch of chipmunks (one of which scared the crap out of me when it popped out of the trees all of a sudden).

Not so beautiful was a bug flying into my nose. EW.

I was listening to “I Got Rhythm” at one point as well, which put some major pep in my step. I was doing leaps and turns in my sneakers until I saw a lady walking towards me. Guatever, “Let them praise Him with dancing!” Moving and grooving at its best.

I also played frisbee— the only hand-eye coordination activity that I’m actually good at—with Jordan and Michael for a couple hours and it was the best thing ever (they told me to say that). But seriously, it was really fun! Except when they each hit me with the frisbee accidentally— once in the collar bone and once in the shin, right where my burpee wound is. Abusive.

These cookies at Mike’s house made up for it though:

Anyway. Long time, no links! I took a break from Fascinating Friday Links while in Florida because there was just too much happening on the trip that I wanted to recap, so the links had to scoot over temporarily. I’m happy to be bringing them back this week!