Recently

Cheers because it's almost the weekend🎉 This week has felt short but strange, I think election day threw me off and before I could fully figure out what day it was it's now Friday, but I have ZERO complaints about that. 

I haven't done a weekend dets and eats or a life update post in awhile so I'm combining them into one and calling it recently. At lot of times my life is pretty boring because I am a creature of habit and routine, but this past week has actually been busy.

I am not one to watch a lot of TV. Typically the only TV I watch is the news and that's when I'm running on the treadmill, but I couldn't take election coverage anymore. I started watching The Newsroom on Amazon Prime and I'm addicted. My other recent obsession is a new show called Pure Genius. Pure Genius is a really different show, in a good way, and I've gotten my parents hooked on it as well. It's about a tech genius and billionaire who builds a hospital called Bunker Hill where he enlists the greatest minds in technology and medicine so they can develop revolutionary treatment for patients. The show is very well written and the camera and lighting work is phenomenal! The geek in me gets really excited during the show because it's so well done. I definitely recommend checking it out, plus you can get the first episode free right now on iTunes- all the more reason to check it out!

Last Friday night I headed down to see my boyfriend. Earlier in the day my brother had been texting me about getting Chipotle because he had a buy one get one free coupon and of course I had been craving Mexican food. My boyfriend is always up for Chipotle so when my brother sent me the game to play to get the coupon he was quick to finish it so we could go get food. I had never been to Chipotle but I had heard people rave about it. I got a burrito bowl with chicken, rice, black beans, fajita vegetable, tomato salsa, and romaine lettuce. By the time we actually got food I was starving so I devoured the entire thing. We spent the night in watching one of my favorite movies of all time, Accepted. If you've never watched it it's hilarious and I HIGHLY recommend it! 

Saturday was an unusually warm day so we took advantage of it and drove out to Spicer's Apple Orchard. It's quite a hike but it was a beautiful drive with all the leaves changing so we didn't mind. We walked through all the orchards soaking up all the sunshine because the weather is bound to change. Apple picking season is over but we still found some apples on trees. I bet dear and other animals come in when people aren't around and eat the apples left of the trees and the ones that have fallen on the ground, which there were a lot. Most of the leaves are still on the trees so the orchard looked like it was on fire because the trees were almost all shades of red, it was so gorgeous. 

There was a little market where they sold cider, donuts and various other homemade items. There were so many different types of apples for sale. It was fun to look at all the types of apples because there were so many I had never heard of before, let alone seen in any grocery store. I loved looking at the gourds because each gourd is so unique, but every one is beautiful in it's own way, kind of like people. 

My favorite part of the day, aside from walking around the orchard, was the wine tasting. There is a winery on the property that features a full bar complete with hard cider that they actually make, a variety of wines and small eats. I'm the only one who likes wine, but he tried the hard cider and took a few sips of wine. I wasn't a fan of the hard ciders, they tasted like a dry white wine to me and I cannot stand dry white wine. My favorite wine was the peach wine. I have been obsessed with peach wine since venturing out to Robinette's with some friends a few months ago. Robinette's still has the best peach wine, but this was definitely good.

Sunday was dedicated to getting some work done around the house. There was LOTS of leaves outside that needed to be gotten and some various other things that needed to get done before winter. Cora was thrilled to spend the entire day outside even though she is still stuck in the cone. Please excuse my ugly boots, they may not be attractive but they are super comfortable. I never wear them out in public because they are not cute😂 

My mom went to small group Sunday night so I spent the night hanging out with my dad. We went to Home Depot to get some supplies for my dad's latest home improvement project. By the time we got back the sun was already setting so I quickly fired up the grill to cook dinner before it got totally dark. I love daylight savings time but I am not a fan of it getting dark so early. While I was cooking I broke open a bottle of sauvignon blanc wine that the team at Natura sent me. It's a totally organic wine so I was really excited to try it because while I love wine I'm not a fan of all the pesticides that are used to grow the grapes. A full review of Natura will be up next week!

I knew was going to be working the polls on election day so I spent Monday meal prepping. I haven't meal prepped in awhile because I've been lazy and while I was prepping I realized how much I missed it. It makes life so much easier, so I'm going to try to get back into the routine of prepping some meals for the week. Even though the polls didn't open until 7am I had to be there at 6am to set up. I couldn't sleep so I was up at 3:20am and hit the gym to get in a quick 5 miles before heading home to clean up and get to the polls. 

Not pictured is the breakfast I prepped. I cut up strawberries and a banana to throw into my oatmeal which I ate while I headed out the door. For lunch I had an O'Dough's gluten free bagel thin topped with avocado, organic turkey breast and goat cheese with a honeycrisp apple. For dinner I packed roasted sweet potato, sautéed garlic green beans, and grilled greek chicken breast with ketchup for dipping. Normally I am not a snacker, but I knew it was going to be a long day so I packed a container of strawberries (not pictured) and a chocolate sea salt rxbar.

This was my first experience working the polls and it was a unique experience. I always bug everyone to register to vote and to get out and vote so I wanted to be part of the election. It was a really long day since I ended up working from 6am until almost 10pm. I loved interacting with the public, it's the reporter in me, and it was genuinely awesome to see democracy at work. People were excited to be there and it made the day go by faster. I was dead tired by the time I got home so I cuddle up in sweatpants and a hoodie and my boyfriend came over to watch the results roll in. 

I was kind of nervous to be interacting with so many people since I was still getting over being really sick. One of my friends had given me a bottle of hand sanitizer spray from The Honest Company. I kept it with me all day and besides smelling amazing, it smelt like orange, it was super convenient to have. I liked that it never discharged too much like a regular hand sanitizer bottle does sometimes. It helped my germaphobe self not worry about all the people and germs I was interacting with, especially since my immune system is still pretty weak from dealing with this flare. I would definitely recommend this hand sanitizer though as I know I will be buying more.

We were up until almost 2:30 watching the election results roll in. After a long day of working the polls I couldn't last a minute longer so I went to bed. Of course my body woke me up at 5:05am and was wide awake🙈 I knew I wouldn't be going back to sleep so I hit the gym for a quick treadmill run because I did not have it in me to lift and run. For staying up so late I was surprisingly really awake all day.

After getting back from the gym and getting breakfast I whipped up some pancakes and took them over to my boyfriend. He's definitely not a morning person😂 After spending the morning with him he had to head back to school so I headed home to enjoy some time outside. Cora was so happy to get outside and run around in the leaves. While Cora ran around in the leaves I enjoyed a few quiet moments by the lake. The water was like glass and it was so peaceful. 

Thursday was a blur of doctor appointments, errands and helping my change the oil in the cars, yes I actually know how to change the oil in my car. It's one of the many benefits of having a dad who's all about doing everything himself. 

I'll end things here and I'll try to get updates posted sooner so posts aren't a mile long. Have a great day and happy Friday! 

Do you have any fun weekend plans?
What is one skill you have that people would not expect?