Niki's Neverending Adventure

Good Evening! How was everyone’s weekend? I had a REALLY fun time in Nashville! I was sad to come home this morning and have so much school work waiting for me :(  But, I was excited to see the fiancé and Sadie! I missed them a lot, even if I was just gone for a day! So, let’s get this recap started!!

I left early Saturday morning to drive to Nashville, with my snack pack in tow!!

I figured I should be responsible and bring some healthy snacks with me! I’m glad I did too!! My snack pack contained:

• an Orange
• an Apple
• 1 serving of Quaker Crack
• Apple Pie Lara Bar
• Kashi Bar

The drive to Nashville is so easy, basically just all interstate!! After a quick 3 hours I met Lauren!! It was so fun to meet her and she is such a sweet and fun girl! We had a blast!!

We headed to the Green Hills Mall to do some shopping!! It was then I realized that I had hit the mother load! Trader Joes was right by the mall!! OMG! I have NEVER been in a Trader Joes and have been dying to go to one!! I was way to excited!! Lauren probably thought I was nuts!

I wanted to buy SOO much, but obviously, I had to limit what I bought and couldn’t get any refrigerated items :(  But, I still got some awesome loot!!

I got:

• Chile Spiced Mango- which BTW are AWESOME!!
• Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats
• 2 White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bars
• 2 Chocolate Brownie Pure Bars
• Pumpkin Butter
• TJ’s Almond Butter- that everyone talks about!

I am super excited about my purchases!! I’ve already tried out the mango, Pumpkin Butter, Almond Butter, and Pure Bar! Everything so far is so yummy! I will definitely be trying out some of the Steel Cut Oats in the morning!!

After TJ’s, we headed downtown to meet another blogger, Lauren, for lunch at Merchant’s! It was very yummy!

 

I had an Asian Chicken Salad with no chicken. Very, very good!

 

Lauren

Me and Lauren

The 3 of us!!

After lunch, we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame!! There was a little medical emergency while we were there that I had to be a part of. We were standing in line to get tickets and someone yelled out: “We need a doctor! Is anyone medical?” So of course, I had to go, since I am a nurse after all. Apparently this old diabetic man had not eaten anything since breakfast that morning and was really hypoglycemic. He fell out and was pretty incoherent at first, but not unconscious. So we were able to pour some sugar under his tongue and make him drink some coke and that perked him up a bit. Someone else happened to have a glucometer so we took his blood sugar and it was 40. Super low! So we kept making him drink the coke and finally he started to get a bit better. We found a sandwich for him to eat and they ended up taking him to the first aid room. But he was all by himself in Nashville and I felt so bad for him! Definitely some excitement for the day!

After that, we went to one of the best stores ever, Anthropologie!! I was really wanting a coffee cup from there and ended up getting one and a new oatmeal bowl!

Cute right?!

Then, we met up with my friend Katie!! We hung out at her apartment for a bit then headed to Opry Mills to meet Heather for dinner. It was so crowded at that mall! I don’t think I would EVER go there if I lived in Nashville because it took forever to get in and get out! Not a fan of traffic at all!

We ended up eating at Tony Roma’s after waiting FOREVER for a table! By then, I was HANGRY!!

We shared some Spinach and Artichoke Dip to start. Sorry, no picture. I forgot and was too consumed with gobbling it up! Haha!! I got soup and salad for my entree.

I got a wedge salad with some tomato pesto, blue cheese, and Red Wine Vinaigrette. It was super yummy!

And some Loaded Potato Soup! This was AWESOME! I can only imagine how bad it was for me! Haha, so worth every bite though!

Dinner was very fun! After dinner, I went and met up with Katie and her friends and we stayed out way past my bedtime!! It was so fun though!! I love hanging out with Katie! She always has me laughing!!

This morning, I left around 9 am!! My snack pack came in super handy for breakfast!!

I had some Quaker Crack

An orange

And a Double Tall Nonfat Caramel Macchiato! Love me some Starbucks! I definitely needed some caffeine for my drive home!!

Again, my drive was pretty uneventful. I listened to Firefly Lane most of the time. I’m still not finished with that book but it’s still so good!!

I got home right around lunchtime and knew I wanted to try out some of my TJ’s goodies!!

I had a Pumpkin Butter and Almond Butter Sandwich, an apple, and some Buffalo Cheddar Popcorn. Yum! The Pumpkin Butter - Almond Butter combo is RIGHT ON!

I spent the rest of the afternoon studying and then went to pick up Sadie and to the grocery store. I had some more cereal for a snack:

I really think I have a cereal obsession! I crave it ALL THE TIME!!

I am tired tonight, mentally and physically, so I wasn’t really in the mood to cook a big dinner. So I just threw some stuff together.

I did make some Quick Cornbread because I was really craving it! So I had that, a sweet potato with a little butter and brown sugar, and a mini side salad.

Pretty colorful salad!

Sweet Potato! Nom, nom, nom!!

The fiancé bought some really yummy looking ice cream, so I’m sure I will be having a bit of that after I finish this post!!

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Well, I have a really tough week this week. School is killer with 3 tests and then I have the plumber coming to bust up my floors and fix my pipes, some more floor people coming to do estimates, and I have to go back to the wedding salon in Arkansas to deal with my dress issue. So please pray for me! I am really going to need it! I feel like my life is so crazy right now and I don’t have enough time for ANYTHING!

I’m kind of worried about my running since my life is so crazy right now! I literally have no clue where to fit it in this week and it’s really frustrating me!! I am really questioning my priorities with running right now and the future races I planned on doing. I haven’t decided anything for sure yet, but I am possibly considering cutting back on my Spring races. I’m just not sure I have enough time right now to really train like I want and need to. Running is still definitely a priority but sometimes other stuff just gets in the way and is more important! It’s something I am really having to deal with right now!! But I will keep y’all posted. Any advice would be much appreciated!

How do you deal with your exercise schedule when life gets crazy??  I usually will do anything I can to fit my workout in, but that usually means sacrificing another area and I’m learning that sometimes now, you just can’t do that!

Well, I hope y’all have a GREAT night!!

Posted in: on Sunday, February 21, 2010 at at 8:27 PM