Bridal T Shirt Giveaway!

According to the Random Number Generator, the winner of the Bridal T Shirt Giveaway IS....

#21- Bethany from Our Love On The Run!

Apparently, the Random Number Generator liked your list of reasons why you should win :) I would love to put a cute little view of the random number generator that other people do but I can't figure out how to do it, sorry guys.

So Bethany, Congrats on your win! I need you to e-mail me at

1. Your T Shirt Size
2. Whether you want pink writing or plum writing on your cream colored T shirt (I can guess based on your comment but just in case)
3. Whether you would like to order additional products from Inkbox Design- this way everything can be shipped together. Don't forget you get 20% your whole order in addition to the free T Shirt. I will send you the code when you e-mail me :)

For Everyone Else
Don't worry, you can still enjoy these fun bridal shirts and other products (dog of the bride shirts, anyone?) from Inkbox Design. Just for reading my blog you can get 10 % off your order by using the code: cake

The question is, who is going to buy me one of these shirts? Hehe :)

On a different note, I received a lovely blog award today from pinkflipflops at "The Many Thoughts of a Reader." I have to say I have not been awesome at keeping up with blog awards lately because I just read so many blogs that I can never decide who to pass them on to, but I do appreciate any time you guys think of me. I had to at least "accept" this one because it's called the Happy 101 award and it's for bloggers that brighten your day, which is pretty much the best compliment you could get as a blogger (well that and that someone learned something from you).

Also, I get to list 10 things that make me happy, which is just what I need on a dark, cold, Monday night :)

10 Things That Make Me Happy

1. When Eric makes me laugh...at least 100 times per day.

2. Any time I get to spend seeing, talking to, e-mailing etc my friends and family. It gets harder after college to spend quality time, but I always love it.

3. My Christmas tree!

4. Cape Cod

5. When my students can do something that they could not do before- yes this absolutely includes zipping their coat.

6. New accomplishments

7. Ice Cream

8. Going to bed early and waking up early (but the sun has to be out or it's too early)

9. Planning trips- and usually going on them, except for the actual process of getting there

10. Blogging and reading all of your blogs !

I think I may just pass this on to everyone reading...yes, a bit of an easy way out but I seriously love reading all of your blogs and you all brighten my day. And if you don't have a blog and you just read mine, you still brighten my day :)

Whew, this was a very optimistic post for a Monday. Let's pretend I'm not getting up at 5:30 am for spin tomorrow morning. What makes you guys happy? Leave me a comment or do this on your blog.

Also, please note one of my favorite bloggers, Meghan has moved her blog to traveleatlove.com (dropped the wordpress) so switch your feeds and if you don't read her blog already, you should start!

Don't forget to visit Inkbox Design and use the coupon code: "cake" for 10 % of your purchase.

Trying New Breakfasts Day 1

Good morning. Today starts my week of trying new breakfast ideas in hopes that I will find something I can eat fairly consistently (or a few things I can eat consistently). It's been actually pretty challenging to come up with 5 different things that I've never had before...mainly because I am trying to make them time friendly. I most likely will not be able to post every morning, but I will post a new breakfast idea every day :)

Today I made a "breakfast sandwich." It began with a whole wheat English muffin and 1/4 cup of egg whites. I cooked the egg whites on the stove with a little Pam sprayed in my pan. When I came up with this idea last night I knew I needed to add something to this sandwich, but I am really not a meat in the morning type of girl so I did some googling. On some random website, not even a food website, someone had mentioned salsa and egg whites as being a good combination and I thought, perfect! I just bought this new (to me) salsa at Trader Joe's last week...

I have to admit that when I woke up this morning, salsa sounded a bit less appealing but I had no better ideas so I went with it. The results?

In the end, this seemingly random combination ended up being really delicious. And, it really only took me less than 5 minutes to make. To be honest, I'm not 100 percent sure I would have it again at breakfast, just because I am more of a oatmeal, bagels, peanut butter girl in the morning (rather than eggs), but I did like it so I may make it for lunch or an easy dinner some day. If you are an eggs in the morning type of person, I'd think about giving Kelly's Random Breakfast Sandwich a try :)

The best part was, since I wasn't eating at work, I got to eat with this guy:

Okay so he is not a morning person, but I think he did enjoy my pathetic attempt to understand the football show he was watching haha.

Stay tuned later today I will have the bridal t shirt giveaway winner and pictures of our new Christmas tree.

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Well, all I can say is there are two happy people living in my house right now...Eric and me. Football coaching is OFFICIALLY over, yayyyyy!!! Dying to hear how it ended? I know you are...

In case you are a new reader, my fiance Eric is a middle school PE teacher and this year he was essentially recruited to help out with the high school football team in the same town he works in. It has been incredibly time consuming and he is basically a "paid" volunteer so overall doing it was kind of insane. However, the kids ended up having an amazing season and yesterday they got to play in the "superbowl" in Gillette Stadium which is where the New England Patriots play. Not too bad huh?

I headed down to Gillette with Eric's parents and brother and we ate at CBS Scene, a new bar/restaurant right next to the Stadium. It was a really cool atmosphere and the food was good. Though I will say they only had fried chicken, not grilled so my stomach had to suffer the consequences of that (and no, there was really not a better option). In the last year or so, they opened up all these new restaurants and stores right at Gillette called "Patriot's Place." I have never seen it so it was cool to see. We were also sitting right next to Doug Flutie, which is pretty cool for a BC student like myself...

I gotta give the guy credit. He must have been interrupted 300 times by people wanting autographs and pictures. I would hate to be famous.

When the game started we headed out into the freezing rain. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I have never looked more awesome...

Haha. I had on...underarmour, a sweater, 2 fleece jackets, and a rain coat. That doesn't even include my hat, scarf, neck warmer and gloves :) I was nice and warm.

So here are some pictures of the game...

And half time show...

And the best coach (obviously...)

He is most likely smiling in the above picture because he is noticing how ridiculous I look. Oh and by the way, he is wearing shorts, so obviously he does not share in my layer up philosophy.

Oh, and also- Eric's kids killed the other team, 26 to 0, and so the celebration begins...

So overall good times. Though I was really happy to get back to Eric's parents house so I could take off all the ridiculous layers. I was beyond exhausted after our escapades from Caroline's birthday, but I managed to make it to one of the other coach's houses to meet all the people Eric has been coaching with this year. I didn't want to drink anything but I didn't want to sit awkwardly so I had one beer. Fortunately my stomach forgave me even though I had already fed it a lunch it doesn't like and chips and crackers for dinner. We watched half of the game again on TV (they had DVRed) it, but fortunately Eric did not make me watch the whole thing because I was about to fall asleep sitting up.

When I woke up today I could tell my body was seriously wondering what kind of crazyness I was going to put it through today. It also looked like this outside...

Well, hello winter. I have to admit it does look pretty but it's also a pain in the bum. My workout today consisted of: 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes of Total Body Pilates, and then 30 minutes of shoveling, haha. Eric and I have a small driveway, that I could probably shovel in like 10-15 minutes. EXCEPT that we have a stone wall on one side and a fence on the other. So we have to lift the snow over the fence when we shovel. Let's just say my arms and back may hurt a bit tomorrow.

I also had my first ever MRI today on my knee. The whole experience was a little freaky, including the 1 million questions they asked me before. I didn't even know what half of the medical terms meant but I figured if I had anything I'd know what it was. It was also weird to lie down and not move. I doubt I move that much when laying down in general but when all you are doing is sitting there thinking about it, it's harder haha.

Anyway, I rewarded myself when I got home with a new treat my friend told me about. I am a big chips person, but most chips hurt my stomach now. She recommended these chips:

I found them today at the grocery store and I had to try them. Look at this ingredients list:

Only 3! That's awesome considering what kind of crazy things chips usually have. I ate some of these with my tuna + greek yogurt sandwich, on my new Christmas plates that my awesome mom got for us!

Hopefully we are going to add to the Christmas theme of the house with a Christmas tree later today :) I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Don't forget tonight is your last chance to enter my giveaway!

Happy 21st Caroline!

Good morning! Yup, only this girl stays out til 2am and then posts at 8:33 the next morning. Unfortunately, I cannot sleep late on command. It takes several nights of staying up late before my body clock switches so, here I am, lucky you cuz I have lots of fun pictures to share.

In case you did not see my message yesterday, last night I was out with my sister celebrating her 21st birthday! I am 4 and a half years older than her, but that does not mean that I can't enjoy a good 21st birthday in my old age. Oh, and I got asked for a back up ID for the first time EVER last night, so maybe I can pass for 20. Do you think I look like my license picture?

I think I threw them off because my hair was straight...oops. Or it's just back to how my doctor say I "appear young than stated age." It's funny that when I was a teenager, and even a really young teacher I wanted so bad to look older. But now that I'm a bit more established in teaching, I think it's a compliment to look younger. ANYWAY, enough about me, let's check out some 21st birthday highlights...

We decided to go to the Fanueil Hall area of Boston. In my experience it's always a relatively good time and there are so many options if you don't like one place you can move at any time. The Fanueil Hall Christmas decorations were out in full force...

We started off at Jose Macs...which is where I met Eric back in the day...

That is not Caroline's first legal drink because she was out on Thursday night at midnight but...her first drink of the night anyway!
We also got a picture of me and Eric at our old stomping grounds...

Then, we switched bars and went over to Purple Shamrock. I don't think I've ever actually been to this bar, but I really liked it. Eric kept saying it was going to get packed but it never did which was so nice. I am so over standing in a place I can not move. I am not over celebratory shots though...

Don't worry, we did not leave the boys out...

They might have been too quick for the camera but I did get a hilarious after shot pic...

We got some good sister pictures as well, it's kinda weird to be the straight haired sister...

Obviously we had to call some people. Caroline is on the phone with my cousin Courtney, who happens to have same birthday as Caroline, but she is 16. I still remember when we found out Court was born during Caroline's 5th birthday party!

On the way out of the bar we had a little photo shoot on the side walk.

Overall, the night was a ton of fun. I've felt better on Saturday mornings, but I don't feel as terrible as I probably should.
I gotta go rally and get ready for Eric's kiddos to play football in Gillette Stadium this afternoon! It's supposed to snow so I have to break out all the layers.

Question of the day: What did you do for your 21st birthday? If you are lucky enough to live in a smarter country than mine, What did you do for your 18 or 19th birthday? Whenever you were legal...

Don't forget to enter my bridal giveaway!

I Love Friday...

I don't know if it was just because last week I did not move off my couch, but I am definitely ready for Friday this week. Since I didn't post yesterday, I wanted to fill you in because I went to a new doctor about my knee troubles. I would not say he gave me a ton of new information, but he did explain to me a couple of things I did not understand (including why people were using patellafemoral syndrome and patella tendonitis as though they were the same disease- they are not, but apparently I have some symptoms of both yipee haha). He also ordered me an MRI, so I'll be getting that done on Sunday. Hopefully I'll know more soon :)

I also went to spinning last night for the first time in 2 weeks. It did bring me 17 miles closer to 200 miles by 2010...but whew, remind me not to skip 2 weeks again!

Finally, today is my sister's 21st birthday. We are going out tonight so I have to begin the hair straightening process. I almost never wear my hair straight but since I have to wait for Eric to get home from football to go out, I figure this will keep me awake. Just for fun, let's flashback to my 21st birthday. It was 4 1/2 years ago...

My birthday is in June, which means that I was living at home for the summer AND my birthday was a Wednesday night. This combo does not make for a crazy 21st birthday, but I did have some of my favorite people with me. Plus, let's be honest, I probably had enough bar insanity when I studied abroad in Australia to last me well past my 21st birthday.

Including, my beautiful and amazing college roommate Ashley who happened to be living in Boston that summer to work.

And two of my awesome high school friends, Timna and Sarah (plus Ash is in this picture again)

And my friend Linda (also from college) was there and Eric was there

Eric and I had been dating for less than 4 months, now it's been way past 4 years haha

Fun times on Wednesday nights haha. The funny thing is, for that time in life drinking and going out on Wednesday night isn't that weird. But in the summer, it all gets different because everyone has jobs...I guess thats why we all calm down a bit after college, that whole job thing...

Anyway, for obvious reasons (being 16 and all) Caroline was not able to celebrate my 21st birthday with me BUT I will be able to celebrate with her. It's actually amazing to me that she is really just legal today. I completely think the drinking age should be 18 myself, or maybe the day you graduate high school. That would be awesome, then I never would've had to sit at home with Katie while all of our friends went out...awesome. But enough of my opinions :) I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Sneak Peek at my Future Blog Posts:
This Weekend: Caroline's Birthday Celebration Recap and Pictures of Eric's football team playing at Gilette Stadium (where the Patriots play)

Next Week: I try a new breakfast idea every morning. You guys gave me so many great ideas I decided I am going to try one every single morning next week. If you did not already tell me your favorite weekday breakfasts, please leave me a comment!

End of 2009- Goals!

If you have not had a chance to check out my giveaway, go for it!

With November behind me, I thought I'd check in to see how I did with my goals...

#1- Yoga Challenge- 10 minutes of yoga every day.

This goal was a bit ambitious for me, but I did end up doing 10 minutes of yoga approx. 5 days a week until I got H1N1 and then obviously things slid a bit from there. While I did not exactly get to 10 minutes every day, I did learn a couple of great things from this challenge. For the first time I did yoga without a class or a dvd some days and I just made it up as I went along. It was nice to just do what I felt like sometimes. Secondly, one of the things I loved about this challenge is that 10 minutes of yoga is really just 10 minutes. I could do this in my pajamas right when I woke up, or right before dinner while something was cooking. Unlike normal work outs, it did not require changing, showering etc. This really encouraged me to include more short, non-sweaty strength work outs into my daily routine. And, of course...more yoga!

#2- Bike 200 miles by 2010.

Technically in order to reach this goal, I was supposed to do 100 miles in the month of November. I was on track to do this with no problem, except that I got the flu and ended up missing almost two full weeks of cardio. This meant I only got in 60 miles in the month of November. I still have high hopes that I will be able to make it to 200 by 2010 if I really step it up for the month of December. I'm just hoping my body, particularly my immune system, is on board for this challenge. I'll keep you updated...

Now that I am finally better (with the exception of my sleep patterns being totally off, leaving me exhausted) I am hoping for December to be a bit healthier of a month for me. My goals for December include:

#1- Core Challenge

In short, 4 core exercises, 4 times per week for the month of December.

Visit Monday's post for more information on this challenge.

#2- Bike 200 miles by 2010

Even though I am a bit behind on this challenge I still think it's possible (assuming I remain healthy) to complete this challenge by 2010. I will basically have to attend at least 2 spinning classes per week, and possibly do a small amount of supplemental biking on my own. I definitely get a lot more miles in during a spin class so hopefully I'll be able to get to those as often as possible.

#3- New Breakfast Ideas

I am very loyal to my early morning oatmeal, but I have to admit I am getting a little sick of it and have been resorting to quick, but not as healthy breakfast choices lately...such as bagels with cream cheese. I really want to come up with some new breakfast ideas this month and post about them. If you have any suggestions, please let me know...

#4- Implement Bill Paying Thursday

Okay, I may have just invented that name myself and it's not creative at all BUT I really want to dedicate 10-15 minutes per week that I deal with my fiances. I will pay any bills that are due, look at all accounts and budgets, move around money that needs to be moved (don't ask- I always have to move money around for some reason haha). I am hoping that dedicating 10-15 minutes that it has to be done each week, I will eliminate the feeling like I am constantly dealing with my bank accounts in one way or another. If you have ever done something like this before I'd love for you to post any strategies or suggestions you have. I was thinking about making a list of things that may have to be done in a given month and then every Thursday I'll quickly run through the list to check if I need to do that particular thing that week. For example, heating bill, move money into savings etc.

I'll keep you posted during the month to see how I am doing. I hope everyone is having a great Hump Day!

GIVEAWAY!!!

Today is a very exciting day in the land of Kelly's blog :) Why? Today Stephany became my 100th follower! How will we celebrate?

Obviously, with a giveaway!!!

So, here is the trivia question: What occupies all of Kelly's time and money?

The answer: weddings!

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you have probably noticed that not only am I getting married next summer, but it also seems that an abnormal number of my friends have also decided to tie the knot in '09 and '10. In the process of this wedding insanity, I have become somewhat of an expert on all things wedding. Though, I'm not always the biggest fan of weddings...

One thing I absolutely love about weddings though, is wedding clothes. That's right, I totally want my friends sporting ridiculous bridal party shirts at my bachelorette party. I know, so tacky. It must be the kindergarten teacher in me!

BUT, guess what? I was reading The Fit Bride the other day and she showed a company that makes bridal gear that is NOT tacky. Really...check it OUT:

Everything is so gorgeous and yet, not a rhinestone to be found! I am actually a little upset that I did not find these earlier because I can totally see some of my beautiful bride friends from '09 wearing these clothes! But, never fear, I still have plenty of people to buy for.

The good news for you? Cake by Inkbox Design has offered to give one of my lucky blog readers a "Miss Bride T Shirt" AND 20% off anything else you'd like to order from CAKE! Here is an up-close picture of the awesome T Shirt you can win...

And a few of the other amazing products you could get with your special 20% coupon...

Even if you are not getting married yourself, I know you can think of someone who would love this Miss Bride T-Shirt and the holidays are coming up...

So, How to Enter:
*Please leave one comment for each entry- you can enter up to 4 times!

1. Follow my blog or tell me you are already a follower :)
2. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway.
3. Post this giveaway on your blog and let me know you did.
4. Check out the Inkbox website and click on "products." Which bridal product would you be most likely to buy for yourself or someone else? I know you guys all want the dog shirts!

This giveaway will go until Sunday December 6th. I will announce the winner next Monday morning.

Good Luck Everyone!