The UNproductive paid vacation

So I waited to do another post after my fall break and being off work for a week.  It was glorious let me tell you.  Especially since I do not get anymore time off until Thanksgiving.  I'll take all the time off I can get, being surrounded my kids day after day can wear a person out..no wonder teachers have so much vacation time!

So here were my plans for this week.  I went into thinking, 'wow I have all this time off I can really spend time on my room and studying for my grad school test etc.." welll that's not exactly what the week played out to be.

intention #1

Put together my new furniture for my room

What really happened:

The furniture sat in my living room waiting for me for the whole week.  I starred as it while I worked out everyday and watched Boy Meets World.

intention #2

Study for the MAT test

What really happened:

I decided working out, going to coffee, shopping, and baking was more fun and studied for maybe 1 hour out of the 5 days.

So since it wasn't as productive as wanted it to be, I did get the chance to be with the people I love and relax without time constrains.  This concept is foreign in my life so maybe this unproductive week was needed.

My friend Dara was in town for 3 of these days and was staying with us because she is on tour 4 out of the 7 days a week and has to leave from Nashville so she is here for a few months while she is touring.  I spent majority of my time with her working out and shopping the boutiques at Green Hills and scored these beauties at Posh.

Turquoise leaf earrings, I fell in love.

Not to mention this week provided some amazing talks about God's grace, mercy, and sin with Dara as well.  We had these talks in between our morning workouts with The 30-day shred and plyometrics.

We also discovered an awesome fitness app to motivate us to maintain healthy lifestyles and fitness goals...love it! Myfitnesspal..check it!

Besides spending my time with Dara, Amanda and I spent some time in coffee shops and boutiques.  We also had a bon fire by the creek in this amazing fall weather.

All in All I may have been sore this whole week from all my intense workouts but It was UNproductive and relaxing...I'm ok with that...next week I'll have time for being productive.

This weekend was nothing but more fun and relaxing.  I had a leisure Saturday with a devotional, workout and brunch with the girls at Marche' (which was delicious by the way).

Always satisfied with my coffee

Side note....see Footloose...AMAZING!

Today I was a church all morning serving in First Impressions for all 3 morning services and then went out to Owen Farm for a church picnic...it was a super fun day all around...what's better then being in church all morning surrounded by the body of Christ and then on a farm pumpkin tossing, getting lost in a corn maze, and hay rides.  You can get much better then being surrounded by Tennesee's fall beauty!

I'm always up for a tractor ride ;)

Now tomorrow it's back to reality (work) and tonight it's time to put my bedroom furniture together (Where's Dad when you need him?) ;)

Oh and I almost forgot...during this fall vacation I baked some gluten-free banana bread (it tasted just like real banana bread)..here's the recipe

2 cups of gluten-free al purpose baking flour (I make my own but it's avalible at whole foods)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 cups of mashed ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetend applesauce

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips or walnuts (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.  .  In a seperate bown whisk eggs, sugar, applesauce, bananas, oil, and vanilla.  stir dry ingrediants in with moist.  slowly add chocolate chips.

Spray two bread pans and pour in evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 min or untill toothpick comes out clean.

Finished bread! Great gift for the neighbors.

Since I spent my week mostly with Dara I'll add her song to the blog this time.  She is so talented and such an annointed woman of God with such a pure heart to change the world through this gift.  If you get a chance to see her on tour this fall and winter you should! :)

Blessings!





The Lame Blogger

Happy Fall!!

I am absolutly in love with fall and devoted to doing all things fall related.  That includes but is not limited to boots, clothes, pumpkin carving, corn maze, nature walks, bon fires, pumpkin recipes, apple butter, and halloween costumes. I need ideas for an original costume idea..I could use y'alls help! :)

Ok so onto the blog for real...the blog title tells it all really...I have indeed been a lame blogger.  My roomie and friend Stephanie pointed out that the way I talk in real life is funny and she thinks my life stories are hilarious and thinks I need to be real with my readers instead of "fluffy".  Apparently real and vulnerable is best ;).  That being said.  I will continue to give my readers some fitness ideas and gluten-free recipes but will be taking a different approach thats more true-to-self, as Stephanie would say.  She told me when she was reading my blog she was like "who is writing this? This is not how Alexis tells stories and her life is much more intersting then this." haha thnakful she pointed out my blog short-comings. ;)  She also inspired me to change the name of my blog to "My picture perfect life...I never would have thought", this title basically represents how my way I picture my life is much different than God's picture for it, so it represents his thoughts and ways are higher, better, and deeper.

Today I give you a list:

"Changes, lots of Changes"

1.) A year ago after visiting Nashville I planned what my life would look like like when I moved to Nashville.  It went something like this.  I would get a teaching job right away in the metro school district, teach aerobics in the evenings, find a church right away, live the life of a Southern Belle etc.... WELL..it didn't quite happen that way I didn't get a teaching job, I'm a nanny for a baby, I sub in the metro school district (sometimes teaching highschool Chinease), I baby-sit for 10000000 families, I also dog-sit often, and I'm with kids more then the average mother.  I'm also going to grad school in January.  NOT exactly how I had it planned, but God has blessed the path.  I now need to work on getting rid of one of my 17 jobs.  I came her 3 months ago with none and now have 17....thanks God for abundantly answering my prayer ( He has a sence of humor) :)
2.) I ate dog food...unintentionally..the family I work for makes their own...I thought it was soup and it looked gluten-free...didn't find out until the next day.
3.) I'm an organized person by nature and I sold all my furniture before moving here thinking it would be easy to consume what I sold when I got to Nashville...ummmm I lived without a dresser for almost 3 months and had clothes still in boxes, talk about driving an organized person CRAZY.  I was promised 3 different dressers and all fell through.  I finally have one, did I mention God has a sense on humor?  My closet is also half the size I'm used to and I relaize I have a ridiculous amount of clothes even though I gave away half my closet before I got to Nashville.  Fashion addiction at it's finest. 
4.) I never thought I would live in a hallway.  yep that's right my room was built where the hallway is supposed to be.  To get to the kitchen you have to go the long way through the living room to bypass my room.  Ridiculous...I was a priveledged girl growing up...if I didn't figure that out before, I know now...thanks mom and dad.
5.) My first breakfast in Nashville was at The Waffle House...it's all we could find while getting lost trying to find where I actually lived and ended up on a ghetto street in Nashville and it was the only restaurant around.  (Waffle houses are disgusting...never again).  Our waitress asked if I lived around there and I thoguht I did so I said Yes and she explained to my Dad the prostitute problem on that street.  My dad was ready to haul me back to Flagstaff at that point, but luckily we found my house and relaized it was not in that area. PRAISE THE LORD!
6.) My roommates discovered I am an extremely gullible person so they tried to convince me they were on drugs they got from a back alley.  I went in my room to pray for them and they were in the living room laughing...Good times
7.) Nashville fashion...first of all I love it, a very trendy and lovely community of clothing...what I don't like is that people actually follow the no white pants or dresses after Labor Day rule..I wanted to explain to them how it stays sunny in Flagstaff and I would wear white until November.  I no longer can do that...thanks Nashville.
8.) "I would never go to this church!" yep it's true this is what I said about the first church I tried when I was here and now I go to that very same church I said I never would...Thanks God...your plans are greater
9.) Never thought half of my workouts would consist of a jogging stroller and baby inside at this time in my life.
10.) Why do they make the new girl drive all the time? Yes I'm still the new girl and yes sometimes I drive.  Do you know how hard it is to drive in this big city with 4 girls in the car and not one of them is giving directions because everyone is talking and laughing and therefore the new girl gets lost because SHE HAS NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS GOING...sorry just had to get that off my chest ;)

While my Picture Perfect life is being torn apart...God is making it into something even better

To end this I would like to say I couldn't have gone through all the changes without the support of my family and friends back home and all my wonderful friends here in Nashville...glad to be in a transplant city where everyone had to go through these very same things when they moved here.

soon to come...a list of Arizona vs. Tenessee

Recipe for the week...I made these for Amanda's birthday last week, not gluten-free but I heard they were tastey...enjoy :)

Didn't look exaclty like this..but I tried ;)

Lemon Raspberry CupcakesPrintable Recipe

Cupcakes
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
12 teaspoons seedless raspberry jam (Confession: I didn't use seedless)

Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, powdered sugar, and lemon zest in a large bowl until fluffy & well blended.  Add eggs, beating to blend. Beat in half the flour, then buttermilk and lemon juice, then the remaining flour.

Drop a spoonful of the cupcake batter into the bottom of each muffin cup.
Use the back of a spoon to spread it around to the edges of the tin, otherwise the jam will go right to the bottom.
Divide remaining batter among muffin cups to top the jam.

Bake for 18-22 minutes, until toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

To make the frosting, in a large mixing bowl, beat butter and raspberry jam together until well mixed and smooth. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until you reach a consistency that you desire. Pipe onto cupcakes and decorate! (I used a Wilton #1M tip for these cupcakes.) \

Video for this week...It's a switchfoot week, that's for sure!

Blessings, Darlings!