Snow Day (again!) & White Chili

I woke up this morning, before my alarm even went off, to a magnificent snow covered back yard... again! School and work are canceled and we're expecting to get up to a foot of snow, IN ARKANSAS! 

Brr! Doesn't it even look cold?!

I decided I would still go to work this morning, just because with the snow and sickness last week, I hadn't been since wednesday. I wanted to make sure everything was still intact. Its quite fascinating, all the things that can go awry in a gym with no attendant. 

On the way home I decided I would go by the grocery store and get some goodies just in case everything freezes over, cause we all know it would be so unlike me to be prepared. haha. 

Upset that I had left my entire pile of "recipes to try" on the kitchen table, I started looking through a pile of magazines I had in my car to take to to work for the cardio section. I found a very simple White Chili recipe in the February issue of All You. 

Step one:

Heat one tbsp of oil in skillet and cook chicken breast (I used 3)

Step two:

 Chop and Saute 2 onions and 4 cloves of garlic :

chop:

saute:

Step three:

Add all ingredients to slow cooker (*mine is too small so im cooking it in a big pasta pot on the stove)

2, 4 oz. cans of roasted green chilies

1 tbsp of Cumin, which i think smells like mexican restaurant dumpsters and arm pits.. but i wont argue with a recipe.. (for some reason this picture just WONT rotate.. sorry!)

also add:

-1 c water

- 2, 14 oz cans white beans

-4 c chicken broth (preferably low sodium)

Step four.. 

put the lid on, turn stove on low and wait...

for SIX hours..

(oh and stir twice during this time)

in the meantime, I am going to be making something all crafty and cool. Also, I bought the dogs busy bones and havent seen them in well over 30 minutes, so im off to investigate what they've gotten themselves into.  Pictures later, along with the chili review! Hope everyone enjoys their snow day!

surgery and cereal extravaganza!

Due to the fact that I have been asleep, pretty much consistently for the past two days, I am just now having the chance to update you on the recent happenings. Wednesday afternoon (3ish) I started feeling not so good. For those of you who don't follow me on twitter, I will copy and paste my posts as a timeline. Haha! As the afternoon went on, I started feeling worse and worse. Around 6 I went to go eat with my aunt. 

Tweet 1:

does not feel good :(

7:28 PM Feb 3rd from mobile web
After this I had just enough time to go home before things got ugly:
Tweet 2:

yes the fetal position on a dog bed in the bathroom floor is the most comfortable option right now. its clear that death has come for me.

8:42 PM Feb 3rd from mobile web
Soon after that, I attempted to take a nap, and woke up crying like a two year old. From about 9:30-10:30 I did my best to talk myself out of it. I kept telling myself things like "you're just being a baby" and "it doesnt really hurt that bad" ...by 10:45 the sick part of me was cussing at the tough part and trying to come up with some options. After a long discussion with google search, my mom, a nurse, and my cousin I finally gave in and went to the ER. Thank goodness I did, because I have a gallstone...yay...Finally made it home thursday morning around.. 5 maybe? im not really sure at this point. Slept all day yesterday, all night last night and today until noon. Anything I've eaten has almost immediately come back up. Already, I've lost 8 pounds, but i'm quite positive thats water weight because I feel like a camel lost in the desert with a hangover from too much jagermeister. So at this point, im pretty much ready to get my surgery scheduled and get this thing outta me. Then once I have recovered I plan to visit every buffet in the tri-state area, because I'm stinking hungry!!!I will be spending the next 3 days on the couch, so I wont have anything amusing to talk about aside from cable television and the newest issues of cosmo, womens health and marie claire, so I will leave you with an amusing video of my dogs. In my mind, I think this was their way of cheering me up.. or helping me cross that line into a suicidal mind set.. haha jk! i love myself way too much for that!Enjoy!P.s. I bet if you leave me comments, it will make me feel better : )

its only tuesday???

Todays Workout:

5 m run

&

arm day

Finally went to ASU's new fitness center. Here is my review. 

Parking: it would've been wise to have considered this when they built it. All of the parking i've found so far is either resident or faculty parking. Thanks to my blatant disrespect for ASU parking services I just parked in the dorm parking lot. If anyone knows where we are SUPPOSED to park, im taking suggestions, cause im starting to rack up the parking tickets this semester...oops

OK, Im going to rant for a minute. When I went in today the lady working at the desk (who barely spoke english) told me that I had to have a towel to go in, and so in seeing that I didn't have one she offered that i could use one of theirs for $2. TWO DOLLARS to rent a stinkin' towel?! Anyways, since my goal of the day was to get at least past the front desk I complied and told her to put it on my student account. Which she didn't know how to do. So i offered to go to my car and get two dollars cash to pay her. Apparently, they don't accept cash, so I would've had to walk to the union and pay someone in the offices. RIDICULOUS! 

After giving her the STANKIEST stank eye I could muster up, I walked back to my car and drove back to my house, you know the place where I have my own treadmill, and got a towel, so that I could turn around and drive all the way back. 

...

Finally I was back and allowed entry (ASU you're really not as special as you think you are, I promise.) and made my way to the fancy smancy treadmills I had been obsessing over since I first laid eyes on them.  

Of course, the only one not occupied was not only in, but directly facing the sun. But I was determined! 

It was completely worth it. This treadmill is THE treadmill of all treadmills. I had died and gone to ADHD runners heaven. I could push buttons the entire time and not get bored. 

Here is a screenshot I took from the website:

Sadly, I felt like a 3rd grader in graduate school trying to use this thing. I made a user account and logged in, by the way, my "password picture" is of a rabbit, in case I forget. I ended up doing three different "workouts" according to the log. All i know is if i pay thousands of dollars for a treadmill i better be able to listen to my ipod AND watch tv on it at the same time. But, sadly this isnt an option. However, I did get to charge my ipod and watch espn at the same time, so I was appeased for a short amount of time.  I was under the impression it was going to send my workout to my email, which didnt happen,  soo thats a battle for another day. 

The past few days north Arkansas has had a plethora of snow, and of course same as last year, everyone was completely under-prepared which means SNOW DAYS! I got off school and work Friday and Monday . My house is seriously cleaner than it was when i moved in. And all of my homework is done. Its very weird not having a never-ending to do list. So I think tonight I'm going to give the dogs a bath and maybe stare at the wall for a bit. Wee!