3 Exciting May Trips, Playlist, 2.5 miles

Hi Friends!! K... we're not just lucky about winning giveaways, girls! We're SO lucky to have all of these exciting upcoming trips - wow! Can't wait to see all of your pictures and to hear about your upcoming trips. So here's what we have coming up for May...

Exciting May Trip #1: We are going to Birmingham for my besties' Mary and Jimmy's baby girl Emma's baptism. My sister and Zach are coming and Zach's shooting it, and Teresa and Forrest are coming and staying with us, too, at Austin's parents house! Monica and Andy will be there and of course TONS of Birmingham folks - woo! Should be a blasty!

Exciting May Trip #2: We are going to the Dominican Republic! I'm so pumped! We're taking 5 nights to roll out, chill out, and r. e. l. a. x. I'm very excited to get away with Austin! More deets to come!

Exciting May Trip #3: We are going to New York to visit our friend Tyson (we fight over him - originally my High School friend, but became Austin's Atlanta friend when I stayed back for grad school hehe). Austin's been a few times, but i've yet to make it up there so i'm excited!!

Yay! Can't wait! Tyson has LOTS planned for NY so that's exciting, and the Punta Cana trip is being planned by us/Trip Advisor. We chose the Dominican based on Stacy's recommendation - so I trust the area, chain of hotels, etc.

So... back to yesterday! It was kind of a slow one - just worked, ran errands during lunch (bank, gas, Macy's for swimsuits - fail, Forever for random shiz - half fail). Then I worked more, did 2.5 miles on the treadmill after work, and went over to Pappasito's Cantina off Windy Hill to meet up with Stacy's bridesmaids to plan her shower. We had a great meeting and everyone had a TON of ideas. We ended up being there for like 2.5 hours - then I headed home, had a few drinkies with Austin and called it a night. Eats included brunch pizza square, hot chocolate, spaghetti, a light babybel, a few hershey kisses - and then dinner - 1 tortilla stuffed with 1/4 of the chicken fajita order and some guacamole with too many chips and salsa/cheese dip! I ended up at 1,898 calories, 174 carbs, 60 fat grams and 90 protein grams. Here's what I ate.

Ever been to Punta Cana?! If so, did you like??

What's your favorite thing to do/see/eat/visit in NY?!

On to my most recent playlist!! (AKA the songs that are making me happy right now)

Technologic, Daft Punk
Run this Town, Jay-z
Sweet Dreams, Beyonce
Bad Romance, Lady Gaga
Song 3, Britany Spears
Chelsea Dagger, The Fratellis
Good Girls Go Bad, Cobra Starship
Empire State of Mind, Jay z
Kesha Tik Tok
Lover, Deandra Banhart
Rude Boy, Rihanna
Nothin’ On You, B.O.B.
Glee Halo/Walking on Sunshine
Jay Sean, Down
Lady gaga, Telephone
Replay, Iyaz
Stay Fly, Three Six Mafia
Papparazzi, Lady Gaga
Break Your Heart, Taio Cruz
Party in the USA, Miley Cyrus
Move Along, The All American Rejects
I Want You To, Weezer
Pork and Beans, Weezer
Blah, Blah Blah Kesha
Hotel room Service, Pitbull
Around the Bend, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Sexy Bitch, David Guetta

Love them! I've been rocking it OUT. I hope it gets me through today's (what I hope to be) 28-minute run!

Playlist, Book Club Pitas and Book Review

Let me begin by saying: Worst. Blogger. Ever! I haven't gotten to catch up on your lovely blog lives with book club last night, errands all day today and now i'm walking out the door to Athens with no laptop. Sunday is going to be mucho catch up!! One more thing: thanks for the great playlist ideas! I’m ready to listen/add! Here is the list I made – tres random of course:

Starts off slow…

Suddenly I see – KT Tunstall
Island in the Sun – Weezer
Suspicious Minds – Elvis

Gets FAST…

Right Round – Flo Rida
Untouched – Veronicas
Let’s Get Excited – Alesha
I’m Shipping To Boston – Dropkick Murphys
A-Punk – Vampire Weekend
Supermassive Black Hole – Muse
Rock Lobster – B 52’s
London Calling - Clash
You Keep Me Hangin’ on – The Supremes
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Stronger – Kanye
Don’t Trust Me – 3OH!3
Sugar – Flo Rida
Drain You – Nirvana
The Way I Are – Timberland
Shut Up And Drive - Rihanna
Gimme More – Brit
Toxic – Brit
Jerk it Out – Caesars
Boston – Vampire Weekend
Lovestoned – JT
My Favorite Game – Cardigans

Book club was awesome! So good to see Dev, Mon and Stacy!! It's nice to catch up with the ladies during the week; who knew we would all grow up and get so busy on the weekends?! for snacks/dinner, I made 8 pita pizzas:

The Spread....

Zoom on the meatsa pizza (back) and pesto chicken (front)

zoom on the veggie pizza

hehe love my pizza plates - they make me laugh; can also see the Meditteranean pizza well!

Ingredients:

8 Trader Joe's 6" pitas, brushed with olive oil and topped with garlic salt and red pepper flakes

2 Meatsa Pitas: 4 tbsp spaghetti sauce; 2 oz. chicken cooked in olive oil/salt/pepper; 2 slices turkey bacon; 6 turkey pepperonis; fat-free mozzarella cheese; reduced fat parmesan cheese.

2 Veggie Pitas: 4 tbsp spaghetti sauce; onions; red and green bell pepper; tomato; fat free mozzarella cheese; reduced fat parmesan cheese. Top with fresh basil.

2 Mediterranean Pitas: 4 tbsp spaghetti sauce; onions; olives; tomatoes; fat-free feta cheese.

2 Pesto Chicken Pitas: 2 tbsp pesto; 2 oz. chicken cooked in olive oil/salt/pepper; fat-free mozzarella; reduced fat parmesan cheese. Top with fresh basil.

Make all pitas on two pans. Put in oven on broil for 8 - 12 minutes. Cut and serve! I was so excited to use my little pizza plates!

Book club was a blasty – great conversation, yummy wine, fun catch-up time as well as book chat. It’s so good to have great friends, especially ones you have so much in common with! The book we discussed tonight was Sue Miller’s While I Was Gone. I gave it a 2.5 out of 5. It just wasn’t what I expected. It was very deep. It focused on a woman married to a minister who lived a happy life with her three children. Then you find that she has a past, and it comes back in a very unexpected way. It’s less of a story and more of a series of events. It DOES make you think and it definitely lent itself to conversation because most of us disagreed with the main character and the choices she made. I gave it a 2.5 instead of a 5 because I wished more had happened - more literal and less open to interpretation. I felt like the author wanted me to do all of the work; and while I was all about gleaning ideas/thoughts from the book, I needed more to hold my interest. It definitely got our club thinking about people from the past – is it good when they pop back up? Or a reminder of what could have been? Which led to an interesting conversation about Facebook and social media. So again, not the best book for me, but a definite conversation starter!

The next books are:

The Next Thing on My List: December book (Stacy’s pick/her house)
The Lovely Bones: January book (Mon’s pick/her house)

K – next week’s meal plan will have to be posted Sunday– this post is getting crazy long and the plan isn’t quite finalized. Also, i'll have some shopping pics to post. And I got my new iPhone - woo!! Thank you, Genius Bar + Liberty Mutual for making this happen!

Happy weekends, ladies! Talk to you all Sunday!! WAR EAGLE!