Winter Workout Outfit Inspiration

Winter has officially arrived here in ABQ! It went from gorgeous to down right freezing literally over night last weekend. And we officially saw our first snow atop the mountains.

It may be pretty to see, but the cold sure hasn't been making my early morning gym trips very easy. Lets be serious now, who wants to wake up at 4:40 am to go out in 18 degree weather?! Living in mountain desert terrain may sound appealing, but the mornings and nights are frigid.

Despite the cold, I've been good and have been freezing my way to CrossFit in my crop leggings, tank tops and layered coats. One of these days our WOD will be outside in the miserableness (yes, that is a made up word!) and I won't be nearly as prepared as I'd like to be.

Here are a few pieces I'd love to have in my winter workout wardrobe. Maybe these cute clothes will help get me more pumped about early workouts.

Top, Lululemon

Pullover - Nike

Shoes - Nike

Pants - Under Armour

Bag - Lululemon

Tuesday {In The Kitchen}

Today I thought I'd share a recipe I adapted from a friend of mine back in Dallas. She is strong Christian, has the best personality and is an amazing cook!!! The picture just doesn't do this dessert justice.

This recipe is far from being gluten free or Paleo but it is so good. It's quick, easy and perfect for a night you invite friends over and need a nice homemade dessert.

Here is the recipe I adapted from The Pink Antler:

Apple Cinnamon Galette

Crust:
Pre-made pie crust rolled out

Filling:
2-3 apples, cored and sliced thin
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. Splenda
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl mix sliced apples, lemon juice, Splenda, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. On a plate roll out the dough. Lay apple slices in a continual circular pattern beginning in the center of the dough and working your way around. Leave a few inches of dough around the edge to fold over once you finish the circular pattern.

Place in the oven and bake for 45 or until crust is golden brown and apples are soft.

**I haven't tried this yet, but I've also considered cooking apples on the stove to soften them before laying them in the pie crust. I think it would give this galette more of an apple pie texture.

Our Moving Binder

I've mentioned before this is our first time purchasing a home and I can tell you it has been a wonderful but also a very intimidating experience. And to be completely honest we are right in the middle of it.

Let me start off by saying purchasing a brand new home is awesome! Our builder agreed to make a few updates to the home as a part of our original offer, so we are very excited to have a somewhat "custom" home. While we didn't build the home from the ground up, we are definitely getting a say in the final finishing touches, which is really cool. But along with purchasing comes a laundry of list of "to-do's" on top of the traditional home buying "to-do" list which includes: negotiating with the seller, to arranging a mortgage, choosing home-owners insurance, packing, canceling/transferring services, canceling current lease agreements, etc.

This massive list of things to keep in order and things to do can be incredibly intimidating, so I decided to cut the stress out of the process before it started by putting together a home purchase/moving binder.

The binder holds everything I need for our home purchase, all the important contact information for our mortgage loans, real estate agents, home builder, etc. It also has monthly calendars so I can easily keep track of all of our meetings and appointments. I've also included a budgeting/finance section as well as a section for floor plans, neighborhood plans/layout and home amenities. Again, this just helps me keep everything I need in one place. And it's easy for me to carry around wherever I go.

I started with a binder from the Martha Stewart line at Staples. I also purchased a set of Martha Stewart post-its that fit right inside the front of the binder. I also used a few dividers I had on hand and one page protector that I also had (to hold, CD's or anything else that didn't fit in the binder).

Here are the dividers I created:
Contacts 
To Do List 
Calendar 
Finances, Mortgage & Insurance 
House Information 
Apt. Move Out Info 
Moving 
Other 

I purchased the contact, to do list, budget and finance templates here through IHeart Organizing's Etsy shop! If you haven't ever checked out her store, you should! She has some excellent templates that would help keep any household organized.

And there you have it! One easy-to-reference place for all our home purchase information!

**By the way, can you tell these images are sooo much better than iPhone pictures?! Yes! I finally got my new camera a few weeks ago and man I am loving it!!!

Boxtoberfest

This weekend I participated in my first CrossFit competition event ever! I will be honest that I was nervous out of my mind. But I have to say I had an absolute blast the whole weekend! We had an awesome team, two girls and two guys; I couldn't have asked for better teammates! We weren't there necessarily to win we simply wanted to have fun and push ourselves to our limits and I'd say we accomplished just that and more!

Saturday, our first event took place on the soccer field, the men bear crawled 50m picked up their barbell and ran back then completed 30 overhead squats, then the women bear crawled 50m to their barbell, then ran it back and completed 30 overhead squats. Then the men bear crawled to their box  then ran it back to their side and completed 40 box jumps, when they finished the women did the same thing. Overall, the event wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, but I must admit that no one ever looks good doing a bear crawl.

     



The second Saturday event took place at the indoor pool. The teams had to complete 3 rounds of 50m swim, 20 goblet squats, 20 burpees, and 20 hand release push ups. Again, a difficult but fun event. We completed ours in 8:26 minutes!

Sunday's event was at the crack of dawn! And was by far the hardest, yet most fun event as a team. It began with a team 400m run, with one person carrying a sandbag, we had to finish the run together then we immediately started working on 200 double unders, then 40 clean and jerks, and finally 60 ring pull ups. As a team we decided that each of us would do as many reps as possible until we burned out and then the next person would step in. We alternated men and women to keep up our pace! It definitely paid off because we came in first in our heat at just past 9 minutes.

I must say it was one of the best events I've ever done! There is such an amazing community built around CrossFit, I honestly don't know what I'd do without that family! They are simply amazing! And I have some pretty fantastic friends from outside the CF community that came to support me as well! You guys are the best!! Thank you!

And a special shout out to my awesome, amazing husband for being there to support me the whole time. He recently had a hamstring tear that has kept him out of CF and out of this competition, but despite his inability to compete he was still there to cheer me on and bring me recovery drinks, water and food! You're awesome babe and I love you!!!

Friday Recap {We're Moving}

Hello again world!

Hope you've all had a great week! It's been a slightly crazy one for us. All very exciting things of course but busy nonetheless. Here are a few highlights of our week:

- We put an offer on a house this week and got it!!!! Yippeee!! We are really overwhelmed by all of the next steps involved in the process, preparing for a mortgage, finding good homeowners insurance, etc. It's all a bit much! Thankfully, we have some great friends taking care of us and making sure we only meet with the best people in the area.
- Now that we've almost got a home we also have to plan to MOVE! For some reason when we put an offer on the house, I seemed to forget that that would actually mean I'd have to break a lease then pack up my entire apartment! And if I didn't mention it before, this will all take place within a short time period of 30-45 days, and yes folks, you guessed it that will take place smack dab in the middle of the holidays! Again, so very exciting, but also very crazy! The Mr. and I have a LOT to do!
- In an effort to get things organized I decided to purchase a few of these templates. I will be putting together a binder of all our home buying and moving related information, including calendars, contact information, insurance and mortgage info., to-do lists, and moving checklists.
- I am also super excited for next week. I know this post is supposed to be a recap of this week, but I am not gonna lie I'm SO excited that our J. Crew opens next week!
- I will also be competing in my first CrossFit team competition this weekend. It's a two-day, three WOD (workout of the day) competition that will include swimming, burpees, box jumps, overhead squats, clean and jerks and double unders. I am very nervous, but I'm really trying to not worry too much and just have fun with it! Doing CrossFit everyday, I know I can do it. Let's just say, Monday, I'll be one tired girl!

{Image Credit: Wit + Delight}

This week....

Because he's just adorable!

Oh my goodness...the weeks keep flying by! As much as I love the weekends and loom forward to Friday, I'm beginning to wonder wear the time goes. Dare I say it, it's going to he Christmas before I know it! Anyway, here are a few of this weeks updates.

This week...

- I enjoyed my first ever pumpkin spice chai latte from Starbucks. I know, it's super bad, and loaded with sugar but can I tell you how absolutely AMAZING it is!
- I'm still in love with the house we looked at last week, no updates yet on Mr. C's job yet...but we are praying for guidance!
- bought this beauty! So soft, cozy and chic!
- The Mr.'s parents flew in this week! We love them and are looking forward to a wonderful visit!
- We will also be going to dinner with some friends - fajitas and margaritas! Doesn't get much better than that!
- And, this weekend is the beginning of Balloon Fiesta!! It's a huge deal here in Albuquerque, people fly in from all over the world to see the hot air balloons. I won't lie, I've lived here over a year, but I still get giddy every morning when I see them on my way to work! So, needless to say, I'm pretty pumped for balloon fiesta this weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone!

{Image Credit: Attackofthecute.com}

House Hunting

Mr. C and I have always dreamed of owning a home. It's never been anything we've wanted to just jump right in to though. We have always wanted to be wise about our money as well as our decisions so we decided to living minimally, until we knew where wanted to put down roots for at least 3 years.

This year will be our second year in our apartment though and while it has definitely become our home, we are beginning to think about whether we should look into renting or buying a home.

Fast forward to yesterday. A friend told us about a new neighborhood being built and it sounded intriguing so we decided to check it out so we went for a little Sunday drive. We've never looked at houses together, so I won't lie, it was pretty exhilarating. We walked through a number of model homes, looked at various floor plans and discussed how the community will evolve as a whole. We tried to imagine the lush parks, shops and restaurants that are expected to one day be a part of the communities ambiance.

After a few hours of talking and dreaming, we decided it was time to head home. 

Now for the big decisions and long conversations. The homes were not only affordable, but they are custom built, so we could pick everything from the start which is both awesome and overwhelming all at the same time. 

Here are the things we will have to be thinking/praying about:

- First, are we going to be here for at least 3 more years?

- Is this neighborhood a good one, worth investing in?

- If so, which floor plan works best for us as a "starter home." A 1500 sq. foot home or a 1900 sq. foot   home? One with 3 bedrooms or 4 bedrooms?

- We also have to be thinking about the resale value of the home.

- How much do we spend on the floor plan, and how much do we reserve for the upgrades?

- How will this effect our everyday lives and are we ready for that change (i.e. church community groups, CrossFit gyms, etc.)

{Image Credit: Urrutia Design}