What I'm Reading Wednesday!

Hola! Hope you're all having happy Wednesdays. Mine has been pretty good, beginning with a P90X arms and shoulder workout with my co-workers - woo! Then just work, work, work before heading out early for a doctor appointment and then heading home to the fam -not a bad day!

So yesterday at work I got back to my desk from a meeting and was greeted with a copy of Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. We have a teambuilding exercise coming up and my boss had left it there for reading material. Well, when I got home, I curled up in bed and thought i'd read a few pages and see what it was all about. Before I knew it, I was done. Great, short, impactful read! Basically, it tells the story of a new leader being brought into an organization that is desperately needing a more solid executive team. It walks through, mostly in first person, how she introduced the dysfunctions, ingrained them in the team and improved teamwork (sometimes in very 'wow' ways). It's not one of those - here are the 5 dysfunctions - go and prosper! Instead, it's a real-life look at how they work, how they can be applied, why they should be applied and more. For those, like me, who did want to know what they are, here they are:

1. Absence of Trust (invulnerability) - moving towards teams where people admit mistakes, ask for help, seek input, give others the benefit of the doubt and look forward to collaborating.
2. Fear of Conflict (artificial harmony) - moving towards solving problems and discussing critical problems - lively meetings with interesting conversations and shared perspectives.
3. Lack of Commitment (ambiguity) - moving towards a team with common objectives and clarity around priorities
4. Avoidance of Accountability (low standards) - holding people accountable; asking tough questions; ensuring that poor performers want to improve
5. Inattention to Results (status and ego) - moving towards a focus on collective results, rather than individual wins.

And a little image if you prefer it - can see how they build on each other:

source: tomorrowsreflection.com 

It covered why these are important, the benefits of employing them vs. the problems of not, how they interrelate and how to work towards avoiding them. All in all, I give this book a 5/5 - fresh perspective, interesting content, actionable, etc.!

Q: Do you have a favorite teambuilding, management or workplace book?!


Q: What's the best book you've read so far this year? This is only the second book i've read - eek! I haven't even reviewed the other - i'm so behind!

My House Monday: Tackling the Pantry . . . Again

JUST when I think I get things how I want them, something changes and I have to mix it up again! Take, for instance, the pantry. I had organized it last year and it was going well, but I noticed that my cabinets needed some work... where would the cabinet surplus go? The pantry. And in continuing on with our paleo prep and planning, we have to clear OUT our pastas, rices (yes, rices - white, long-grain, brown, basmati, jasmine... seriously - I have an addiction), canned soups, etc. So what does this mean? MORE pantry cleaning! Here is the latest greatest pantry clean up - more organizing to come!

A shot of MOST of the closet - there is another 'column' if you will of white tubs on the right!

Still hearting my label maker - super easy to peel the labels off and make more as our diets change - the 'grain's bucket will soon become bananas or something. haha

In a nutshell - we just groups together our like items, measured the space, found buckets that fit across, made labels and voila! However, we noticed our 'small appliance' cabinet with a disaster, so I moved things around to devote a shelf to our rarest used appliances (electric skillet, quesadilla maker, george foreman, electric mixer, etc.). We left the slowcookers, blender, food processor and mini chopper in the kitchen cabinet, easier to access! We also noticed that two of our lower cabinets were getting cluttered. We essentially needed:

• one cabinet for cutting boards, mixing bowls and strainers
• one cabinet for rectangle and square pyrexes and bulky pans (like muffin pans)

This meant that all of those awesome (but random and not often used) items like the pumpkin-shaped Halloween dishes, my fabulous deviled egg serving dish from my mother-in-law and Christmas servers (think penguins!) now needed a home so they would be out of the way! Enter a small shelf where they could stack on the bottom - perfect. :)

Q: Any fun organization projects going on at your casa?

Q: How was your Monday?! Mine was good - no workout, but I did win an award at work. :) Very sweet! Love my team.

20 Wines, 5 workouts, 2 recipes & 1 night with friends

Happy Sunday! It's been a WEEK since I posted last - WTF?! Sorry, guys - busy week means lack of blogging. Boo. So what's been up?

A lot of cooking

Stuffed Green Peppers 
Recipe adapted from Blog Chef
Makes 6 Servings
Nutritional Information: 323 calories, 36 carbs, 8 fat grams and 26 protein grams.
Review: Awesome! Loved the tomato soup topper and they reheated wonderfully - even brought them to work in a tub! Check out the recipe here!

Tortellini Arugula Salad with Balsamic-Tomato Vinaigrette

Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Café
Makes 4 Servings
Nutritional Information: 377 calories, 36 carbs, 20 fat grams and 15 protein grams.
Review: WOW - this tasted like something I would order at a restaurant! I've never had tortellini in a salad but just love it, and the homemade dressing was AWESOME. Check out the recipe here!

A lot of Wine Shopping

And the usual: Working & Working out!

Monday: 1.5-mile a.m. run; P90 ab ripper X; work!
Tuesday: 2-mile a.m. run; P90 chest & back during lunch; more work!
Wednesday: P90X: shoulders & arms & ab ripper X a.m.; lots of work; worked late; chiropractor and home to sleep! Sadly, missed book club. :(
Thursday: Busy work day, took lunch break to cook!; after work: tons of catch up time with the family!
Friday: Early treat at Starbuck's (for post workout!); 2-mile run + abs+ legs in the a.m.; busy day of work, work, work with no lunch break. Worked late, got home, had a glass of wine with Austin and passed out!


We also got to see some buddies! Yesterday, I slept in. Slept great. Felt 100%, well, except for my back - off to the chiropractor again for a 10 a.m. appointment, then I spent the day in the kitchen making everything from a slowcooker Asian pork roast to Southwest wontons! Then around 7:30 we headed over to Mel & Jon's! We got to see their beautiful, happy little Madison before her bedtime - so fun -she's growing up so fast! Then we caught up with them - love hanging with them, having some wine and just chilling. Great evening that got late too fast, so we headed home to the puppers and I had another awesome night of rest!

So far today has been all about cleaning! I got WAY into my kitchen cabinets, reorged the pantry and went WILD! We're trying to use the rest of our non-paleo-friendly items so we can try paleo for REAL. Testing went well, but now it's time to deplete our starchy supply - wish us luck! :)

Q: Whatcha up to today?!


Q: What's your favorite bottle of wine? We're stocking our shelves - all recs welcome! (our favorites are cab sav, chard, zin and, my newest favorite, pinot noir)


Q: And a random: what's your favorite protein powder?!

3 Dinners, 4 workouts, Married for 4 Years, 1 Night Out in ATL, 1 Recipe

Hi Invisible Friends! I'm sorry for my absence (again) - last week was filled with work, dinners after work, my anniversary, getting my car back, 2 chiropractor appointments - just busy, busy, busy! Starting with a new recipe:

Mom’s Lemon Chicken
Makes 4 servings

Nutritional Information: 368 calories, 50 carbs, 3 fat grams and 30 protein grams.

Yum - I grew up eating this gravy-like dish and just love it. I requested it so much as a little girl, and it was great to eat it again, albeit a healthified version of it. I thought it tasted pretty dang close to 'the real thing' - and was so glad that I pulled it out of the recipe archives from my mom! Thanks, mom, Austin liked it a lot, too! :) Check out the recipe on Healthified Kitchen!

And now, backing up... can't believe I haven't posted in almost a week - eek!


Monday: a.m. workout of P90X yoga with Valerie & Donna at work. Then just work, work, work until home to my PJs and family!

Tuesday: a.m. workout of P90X core synergistics with Valier & Donna - then just work, work, work! I did get a 3-mile lunch in at work with Stacy - nice! After work I took two of my co-workers, Hilary & Jesslyn who were in town from Michigan and California, respectively, out to eat at Uncle Julio's! We had a couple of drinks, lots of good conversations, and a great time! I dropped them by their hotel around 8, then headed home to the fam!

Wednesday: a.m. workout (2 mile run + abs) followed by work, work and more work! Lunch break used to hit up Trader Joe's and Party City. Then I raced home after work for our anniversary dinner at Pampa's - YES, we have been married for 4 years - insane! 2008 seems like yesterday.

Yummy dessert after our 4-year anniversary dinner!

4 years ago - getting married!

Thursday: CRAZY work day. Lunch break used to get my car back (yay! finally back in the saddle again post-car accident) and then after work I was straight to the chiropractor where this time, in addition to my adjustment, I received a full-body massage! Awesome, so awesome that I got Austin a massage gift certificate for our anniversary!

Friday: Skipped my a.m. workout to sleep in - VERY nice! Then I worked and left the office a bit early to come home and relax before dinner with Andy & Monica at Atlanta Fish Market. We had a great dinner, yummy wine, and awesome convos - loved catching up with them and celebrating everyone's recent accomplishments and news! Afterwards, we headed over to Fado for a couple more drinks. LOVED hanging out with them and great to still be home by midnight - I think our late-night days are over!

the boys!

Me & Mon Bon

The 4 of us at Fado! 

Acting like tourists in our own town!

The absurdly large fish outside of the restaurant

Saturday: Got up early and purchased Hulu Plus - just had to watch Season 5 of Private Practice! I then spent the day watching it while cooking up TONS of new stuff - I seriously made about 6 new recipes. Such a fun day. Austin even went to the store for me when I realized I was out of a few ingredients. Very chill, relaxing, and fun day - glad my cooking bug is back as it's NOT around during the week. :(

Today: It's been all about cooking, resting, bill paying, laundry, playing with the poodles and staying in, out of this gross, rainy weather. Loved it - am loving my relaxing weekends winding down, staying in town and not traveling - it's very nice!

Q: What was the best part of your weekend?


Q: Anything you're looking forward to this week? I have book club Wednesday! Looking forward to seeing the ladies!

Date Night, Relaxing Weekend, Pork Sesame Noodles

Happy Monday! Hope you guys are having a good one - I had a long one and am already at home in my PJs watching Private Practice on Netflix OnDemand. Yesssss. I'm also eating this yumminess:

Pork Sesame Noodles
Recipe inspired by Stacey Snacks
Makes 4 Servings
Nutritional Information: 463 calories, 55 carbs, 11 fat grams and 37 protein grams.
Easy, spicy, simple and filling! Love them - will definitely use this easy sauce again, with any meat or with rice instead of pasta. I also loved the veggie blend, and thought it was plenty of sauce for the dish. Great stir fry - we're adding to the rotation! Check out the recipe on healthified kitchen!

How was your weekend?! Ours was great - here goes, in a nutshell!

Thursday: Totally chill and uneventful - just worked all day, had family movie night, no workouts!

Friday: a.m. workout of a 2-mile run followed by P90X ab ripper! Then just work, work, work, working late and then home to the family and SLEEP.

Saturday: I slept in until 8, did a few chores, then headed to the chiropractor! Afterwards, I worked until about 3, then showered, got ready and we were off to our 5:30 p.m. dinner reservation at Kyma (this is the time you get to eat when you wait until the last minute to make a reservation hehe). Mary & Scott met us there and we had yummy hummus and octopus, lamb chops and wine! Austin brought a bottle of Vineyard 29 CRU cabernet - YUM! After dinner, we went to Whiskey Blue for a drinky! It was very fun and loungy - we had a great time and LOVED catching up with Scott & Mary and celebrating their soon to be wedding - eeee! Pics:

The boys with silly boy faces

Me & Mar cheesing it up as always!

The Martins & the Lengels!

Sunday: I did nothing but laundry. I had another unplugged Sunday - no work, no blogging, no computer, no phone. Very nice!

Today: a.m. workout with P90X yoga with Valerie & Donna at work. Then just work, work, work until home to my PJs and family - speaking of - time to go visit with them!

Q: What was the best part of your weekend?


Q: What's your favorite meat? Normally i'd say chicken, then beef - but lately lean pork has been my favorite!! I had these AWESOME flautas with it this weekend - need to post that recipe, too!

Winter Wardrobe Wednesday: 11 Looks I'm Loving!

I SERIOUSLY love combining brown & black....

mixing these two is just fabulous to me

Love the booties, the striped dress, the cape - love it all so much!

Love the mustard + sparkles + destroyed denim

color pop? layers? stripes? yes!

Plaid + knit + black skinnies + brown bootties = cute

Obsessed with her layering

And lastly... seriously... can I have all of these in my size?!

I think I need her attitude, too -she appears to be a confident little nugget  -love it!

Hope you're having a good Wednesday! Mine started with me being trapped at a gas station this a.m. for 30 minutes - more on that later - GRRRR. And backing up real quick: Monday started with an a.m. P90X workout (chest & back), followed by work and a 3-mile walk during lunch. That night I just bathed little Reuben and hung out with the fam! Tuesday started with an a.m. 1-mile run followed by 30 minutes of P90X plyos (was late - slept in!). Then I worked through lunch, worked all afternoon, went to an offsite, got home late and cooked a few new recipes!

Q: What winter looks are you loving?

Q: What's the best workout you've done this week so far? Mine was probably my chest/back workout - I swear I would never do a push up if P90X didn't make me.

Chiropractor, Sol, Netflix!

Happy Monday! I'm home, i'm exhausted, but i'm with the fam so it's not all bad! And I feel better!! My neck/back hurt less (post car accident) which is VERY exciting - my sleep has gotten better, too! Backing up... Thursday was my crazy busy get car fixed day, and my first chiropractic adjustment. OH WOW - those adjustments are amazing. The littlest things made me really feel SO much lighter, gave me better range of motion in my arms and legs, I just really couldn't get over it! I go back on Wednesday and can't WAIT!

Q: Have you ever been to the chiropractor?

Friday began with a 2-mile run before work, work, then P90X legs/back during lunch. Then I just worked more before heading home to the family. When I got home Austin wanted to get out, so we went to Rio Nuevo. My favorite part was the Sol - I LOVE that beer. After dinner I was in bed asleep by 9 p.m. then the most amazing thing happened. I slept. I slept, straight, until 7 a.m. Yes, my body wanted 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and it got it! I don't know how it was possible, but it was AMAZING and I felt fabulous when I woke up Saturday. So much so that I went straight to the gym and ran 2 miles, then showered and headed to my hair appointment before hitting up Trader Joe's - nice morning! Then I came home motivated to catch up at work - so I knocked out 4+ hours of work while watching Private Practice. I LOVE that show for REAL.


After getting some work done and feeling great about it, we decided to go to a new place we've been meaning to try called Sip Wine Tastings & Tapas. It was very cool - great food, tons of wines in 3 different sizes (a sip was 1 oz. for like $1+, then a 3 oz. and then a 6 oz.). I loved that you got to pick a tapas and it came with a wine - you just got to pick the size. So we shared kobe sliders, scallops, butternut squash ravioli & the wines that went with it - fab!  We also shared a chocolate tort - AWESOME! Afterwards we went to 5 Seasons for a beer and visited Jamie and some peeps up there, then home! Sunday was my chill day - just laundry, pupper and TV time - perfect weekend!

Q: Netflix streaming/on demand introduced me to Private Practice - any other netflix on demand recs?!

January?!#@%@, Almost Friday Funnies

Another week went by! Another one of those OMG-it's-Friday-already-but-wtf-did-the-week-go kind of week. Seriously. It's February. For REAL. If I had to sum up this month in 3 words I'd say:

1. Paleo - I REALLY spent a lot of my free time working on paleo - finding recipes, making meal plans, going ot whole foods, trying out new ingredients, etc.
2. Overwhelming - work was just a lot. Between not working until 1/9, onboarding a new team member, meeting my new manager, the company's annual event, and so on, it was just a lot of work, hours, etc.
3. Fun - yup - we definitely squeezed this in! Started the month with the chick-fil-a bowl, got in a wonderful family ski trip, got in a beer fest and had lots of fun nights with good friends over dinner, drinks, etc. I even hosted a book club! Yes, a fun month in deed. I also laughed a lot! Here are a few things that cracked me up:

I laughed! And then my paranoid side was like wait a minute... 

Pinterest of course - man that site has everything

Natalie Dee of course - she's so funny!

Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same never. gets. old. Love it. :) Thanks for introducing me many moons ago, mom!

This week? Not as much with the fun... all about the work, working out and family time (the fun part!). 

Monday was a doozie - SUCH a Monday. It did start with an a.m. workout (P90X shoulders & arms) and I got in a 3-mile lunch, too! Other than that - work, work, & more work. Then home to the family to cook & do laundry.

Tuesday began with an a.m. workout - P90X plyos! Such a good workout, then it was all work, work, work - did get in a brisk 2.5 mile walk at lunch, before working more and heading home to a movie night with the family!


Wednesday started with an a.m. workout - P90X chest & back and a quick 1-mile run! Then I just worked, worked, worked - oy! Then Austin and I had a chill night and watched a couple of 'The Good Wife' episodes - love that show!


Today was just work starting at 7 a.m., long lunch to meet an adjuster, get a quote, get a rental car, etc., then more work. Now i'm just reading blogs! I also made a new paleo recipe for dinner - mushroom burgers with sweet potato fries - nom nom!

Q: What 3 words describe your January?!


Q: What made you laugh this week?!!