Something exciting happened in the Harkey Household yesterday – Mac’s September BarkBox arrived in the mail!
Sometimes I think mommy gets more excited than Mac does for the arrival of his BarkBox each month.
For those of you that aren’t familiar, BarkBox is a once-a-month mailer for your furry friends that helps to benefit rescue groups. I signed up for the first time this summer and we’ve gotten this fun box of treats monthly right on time!
They usually include some treats, toys, and other random dog goodies. I love it because they include things that I wouldn’t typically buy, but Mac ends up loving them!
They also always include notes about each product and the vendor (where you can purchase more of each item, etc.). This month’s box included 2 types of treats, a liquid bandage spray, and an awesome toy that is twice the size of Mac! But he still loves it and carries it around the house anyways.
See that wagging tail? He was crying the whole time I was opening up his stash of goodies. He could smell those treats from a mile away, I swear!
His favorite part was the large Koala toy. It was long and flimsy (no stuffing!) with 2 squeakers and a rope toy inside! Shockingly, he hasn’t pulled out this rope toy yet, but he has a long history of tearing up stuff. I’m sure it’ll happen tonight.
I was completely intrigued by the treats in the green box. They were organic Cheese Pizza flavored doggie biscuits! They smelled just like the pizza-flavored Pringles to me. He thoroughly enjoyed them!
I believe we have 3 more months on the current BarkBox subscription, but it’s something that I feel is well worth the money when you love your furry family members as much as I do! Plus getting packages in the mail is always fun, even if its not for you.
I hope you’ve had a great Hump Day! I’ve had a crazy week at work, and I finally have the night off tonight. Hopefully chat more later while I get some baking done!
My Mondays tend to be a little overwhelming, schedule-wise. I begin by teaching Jazzercise at 5:40 AM, then I rush home, shower, and make it to my office by 8 AM. I then have the typical work day til 5. This is then followed by me rushing home to spend time with Mac and have a quick snack before heading off to teach my 6:45 PM Jazzercise class. By the time I make it home around 8 PM, I don’t have much energy and I tend to hit the sack by 9.
Sounds insane, right? Well it’s only 1 day a week that I agreed to have this schedule, making the rest of my days seem slow and unproductive (even though that’s usually far from the truth!). Plus, I love what I do, so one day of craziness is well worth it! Today’s schedule stayed right on track, and I am now in my post Jazzercise stupor. I am still in slight recovery mode after running the 5K with a belly full of Mexican food this weekend, but after today I should be back at full speed! I ate fairly lightly today to help ease my sore tummy. So let’s back up a bit…
Breakfast
Breakfast was my typical grab-n-go, so I’ll spare you the boring pictures. I enjoyed some cinnamon roll flavored oatmeal with a banana and some Greek yogurt on the side. Light and filling!
Lunch
Lunch started with a quick salad that was basically half romaine and half sugar snap peas. I was craving my green veggies I think!
I was then SUPER lazy and grabbed a Lean Cuisine that had been hibernating in the freezer a little too long.
This little baby ended up being the best Lean Cuisine I’ve had in a long time! It was part of their ‘Spa Collection’…whatever that means. And it was amazing. I will definitely be on the hunt for sales on these from now on!
The plus? It actually looked like the picture on the box! The chicken was yummy and it had tons of veggies to fill me up.
Dinner
I kept dinner tonight light because I snacked quite a bit when I got from work at 5. I decided some Italian style veggie soup would suffice.
Isn’t it funny how it resembles the minestrone soup from Olive Garden, especially in the festive bowl I chose? I got a kick out of it, and it made my meal feel fancier. I also had some steamed veggies on the side, which I severely overcooked. Oops!
So most of my food today was packaged and not the freshest. But I guess we can’t be perfect everyday. I’m just ready for bed after having that big bowl of hot soup!
I hope your Monday went well! I’ll catch you all in the AM after we get some rest!
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend. The weather was amazing here in SGF, so I definitely took advantage! Most of my time was spent walking Mac, teaching Jazzercise, and running the typical weekend errands. But, the highlight of my weekend was the Glow Run 5K on Saturday night!
Glow Run 5K
Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind! I began bright and early with a chilly walk with Mac and then was onto teaching Jazzercise by 8 AM. So by the time I was getting ready for the Glow Run around 6:30 PM, I was not feeling super energetic! But I put on my best smile, pulled on some stretchy pants, and was out the door by 7 PM.
The race started at 8 PM, and I wanted to get there early to meet up with my girlfriend Carley to get all our glow gear on and do a bit of a warm up. We were provided the bright t-shirts and several neon glow bracelets and necklaces with our race registration. So when we met up, we quickly got our glow gear on and headed up to the warm-up area!
Carley was extra glowy with her awesome shorts and shoes! Some local Zumba instructors were leading a warm up with a fun DJ, so I kinda danced around while Carley chatted with some other friends that were running as well.
Yay for lots of glow runners! We couldn’t have asked for better weather either. It was right around 68 degrees, and the sun was setting as we were lining up in the chutes.
As we lined up, the energy was awesome! Loud music was pumping and glowing neon lights and shirts lined the street for blocks on end. We were so excited! It was Carley’s first race ever, so these last moments were filled with words of advice and positive reinforcement. The nerves were setting in!
We took off fairly slowly because of the crowds (obviously), and I thought we would pull away from them and have a little breathing room. But that didn’t really happen. We were dodging slower runners the entire time! But it was still a great time, and Carley and I kept each other pumped up the whole way.
The only major downside of the race? The 8 AM start time. Eating dinner was an issue! We both decided to eat an early dinner (between 4:30-5), and the food was fighting us the entire time! I had Mexican with Nick (stupid of me, I know!) and Carley had some light sushi with her boyfriend. We thought 3 hours would be sufficient digestion time. But we were VERY wrong! I didn’t feel nauseous, but every once in a while I could feel my dinner coming back up. We made it without having to pull over to puke, but it was a struggle.
Despite the angry tummies, we ran the entire way (she was determined to not walk!) and finished in around 30 minutes. And with all the crowds, families, and strollers, I feel like this was pretty good!
Right as we crossed the finish line, they were handing out water and some hefty medals! I was so excited to get a medal. It was my first one! My other races didn’t provide any type of award. Sad day. But now I have an awesome lime green/neon medal to display! I can’t wait to add to my new medal collection in the future.
Me with my medal!And Carley with hers!
We were slightly proud! The Glow Run was sooo much fun. It’s something I definitely recommend if they ever have a run near your town. It was well organized and very accommodating to all types of athletes and age groups.
After the race, we parted ways, and I headed home to shower and recup. I didn’t realize how rough running could be on your body when you’ve had too much to eat. By the time I showered and settled on the couch to relax before bed, my stomach was completely bloated and I was nauseous bigtime. I stayed up and dipped water and snacked on half an apple before heading to bed. I woke up several times through the night thinking I needed to puke, but thankfully it never happened!
Lesson learned: Do NOT, under ANY circumstances, eat a full Mexican dinner within a few hours of a race!
I spent Sunday recuperating since my stomach was still not back to 100%. I felt ok, and even taught my normal Jazzercise class, but had a bloated and tender belly the whole day. My whole day basically looked like this…
Carbs. And butter. And more carbs. I was in full running recup mode! 🙂 And it was delicious.
Hope your Monday is off to a great start! I’m feeling back to my normal self thankfully. I’ll catch you all later! (I have a super quick and simple meatloaf recipe coming for ya!)
Sometimes I think mommy gets more excited than Mac does for the arrival of his BarkBox each month.
They also always include notes about each product and the vendor (where you can purchase more of each item, etc.). This month’s box included 2 types of treats, a liquid bandage spray, and an awesome toy that is twice the size of Mac! But he still loves it and carries it around the house anyways.
See that wagging tail? He was crying the whole time I was opening up his stash of goodies. He could smell those treats from a mile away, I swear!
His favorite part was the large Koala toy. It was long and flimsy (no stuffing!) with 2 squeakers and a rope toy inside! Shockingly, he hasn’t pulled out this rope toy yet, but he has a long history of tearing up stuff. I’m sure it’ll happen tonight.
Mac & No Cheese 