How Often Do You Drink?

How often do you drink... water?! Did you think I was referring to alcohol :)

While I love this stuff

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I need to love more of this

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Growing up I always drank a lot of water, I was in sports and the coaches always push the stuff on you... add in my runner/fitness mother I drank a gallon a day.

But my freshman year of college- present day I stopped drinking it. I had access to this:

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And I really thought the water at school tasted awful! Plus the lack of money to spend on bottled water, it got cut out of my diet.

Now that I'm really trying to lose weight and exercising more I need to love this more

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A goal for this week was to drink 64 oz of water a day. This was my initial thought

I have to drink this whole thing?!

These little lovies helped a lot!!

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The hardest time I had with drinking water was visiting this place!!

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Being a teacher you only get 1 bathroom break a day, and that is during lunch. Definitely learned a hard lesson... do not drink a lot of water during the day!!!

18 Years in the Making...

I waited 18 years for this day... May 8th, 2011

My Family was there

And the families who are dearest to me

Add in some friends

I can now say I'm Alumni

I AM A SPARTAN :)

Getting Back on Track

I've been really awful at this blogging thing. However, I'm FINALLY done with school!!! That will be in a post tomorrow so make sure you come and check it out!!

For today I'm going to show you how to make a few great meals on a college budget. I allow myself about $100/month for groceries. Lately this has been really tough for me because I love fresh produce but it's so expensive! I was talking about this with a friend and she recommended a local store called Aldi.


Aldi is a chain store that opened in 1976. It only carries 1,000 products and is extremely less expensive. I only spend $42 on all my staples like bread, lunch meat, fruits/veggies for a week, cheese and crackers. The best buy was the milk though. I got a whole gallon for only $2.29 and at Meijer it's close to $4!!!

With all my fresh produce I decided to make a salad for lunch.


Look at this beauty! It has 3 different kinds of lettuce, cucumbers, apples, grapes, carrots and sliced roast beef. I also pulled a Janae and put goldfish on top :)

While I was doing all that chopping I also made a salad in a to-go container. This helps on time and the produce stays fresher in the Tupperware.


For the dressing I created this pretty thing. I love to combine salad dressings, especially ranch with a more acidic dressing because ranch is ALWAYS too creamy and rich. Today I was feeling spicy but didn't have any spicy dressing so I made this...


It's 1 tablespoon ranch, 1 teaspoon horseradish and 2 tablespoons spicy mustard. I may have used a bit more mustard. Make it according to your taste.

It was amazing with my salad. The spiciness of the dressing made the sweet flavors of the apples and grapes pop. Mix with the cheddar cheese crackers and I was in paradise.

I had a really great workout on the elliptical so I decided to treat myself to this for dinner.


I really loved this cheeseburger!! I've been craving one! I combined it with french fries and mixed vegetables.

The best part of my day was when I entered my info in Myfitness Pal. I was under my calorie goal and ate enough protein. I also drank ALL 8 glasses of water!!! Whoot whoot!!

Watch for my Blog to go under a change. I promise it's only for the good :)

Why I Love My Job

This is going to be super quick and no pictures, I'm sorry!

Right now I'm substitute teaching for a 1st grade class. I've been in this class for 4hours every Thursday since the beginning of the year so I really feel that this is like my own class. Today I'm having the students write "How To" stories. Some of the students were having difficulty finding a topic so we did a brainstorm session. Here are some ideas:

How to give a good hug

How to turn on and play XBOX 360

How to make a PBBJ (peanut butter, banana, and Jelly Sandwich)

But here are my favorite ones:

How to be a good teacher

How to let Ms. Elle let us have extra recess

How to make Ms. Elle and Mr. Stalter meet.

Yep you read that right, my 1st graders are trying to match me up with another teacher! Mr. Stalter and I have ran into each other and the students think its so funny that we are both short and we are both good teachers so we would be good together. Alyssa, one of my favorite students, said "Ms. Elle, my Mom said that when she is on a date she's in a good mood and then she gives me extra ice cream. If you date Mr. Stalter will you give us extra recess and be in a good mood"?

I didn't realize I was in a bad mood! But no Alyssa, you do not get extra recess until this afternoon :)

I love my job. I really do. These kids make my day, they make it fun. I will miss them very much when this year is over!

Jacob's Action Photo Shoot

I love giveaways. I never win. Never! But they are a lot of fun to enter and there is always a 1/million chance I could win :) So for your pleasure here are 2 fantastic giveaways that you should enter!

1) Janae!! I love her blog but her giveaway for 2 modbod shirts is awesome!!

2) Julia! She is an amazing runner and such a great person! This is her first giveaway!

In Janae's blog you have to comment about what you're loving about life right now. I enjoy this philosphy so this blog is What I'm Loving Edition.

Today I got to babysit Jacob. I nanny for him and his brother full time in the summer but since they are on spring break I get to do it during the day! Brandon was at a friend's house all day so it was just Jacob and I. Since it was so nice out I took out my camera and went outside to take some pics-- which turned into a Jacob Modeling Shoot (Action Edition). Enjoy the pics below!

This kid is so funny and adorable! He should be on "Kids Say the Darnest Things". Some examples are:

1) We were playing hide and go seek. I said Reeedddd Rooobbbiiinnn and he immediately said YUM!!! (like the commercial)

2) This kid can remember anything. Seriously. I once told him last summer that I love Julianne Hough. A proactive commercial came on today and he starts screaming at me to come to the living room. He said "look Elle it's Julianne. Get proactive then you can be best friends and have clear skin!" Haha I wish!!

3) 2 robins were fluffing their feathers. I told him to look and I explained that they did that because they want to attract other (male) birds. He then goes "Hey pretty ladies" but did this cute little dance and tried to be all romantic about it!

Hope this edition of What I'm Loving made you laugh!!

Mini Meatloaves!!

So real quick I want to mention the fabulous Megan's giveaway. Miss Megan creates a great workout CD every month and this one is no exception. Check it out here!!

Hello Friends!!! Isn't this pic adorable? It's a boy I babysit for (although he's in 5th grade and got to stay home alone for 1 hr today so now I pretty much don't exist to him). I got to watch him and his brother this afternoon and took them bowling!

Like I said before I got to take the boys bowling. Below is Jacob. He is so freaking cool, if I could spend all day with him I would. He doesn't let his big brother boss him around. Plus he still likes to be with me and doesn't think I have cooties <3

This isn't the absolute best picture of me, actually it's quit awful but it was so much fun trying to make Jacob smile. I was tickling him before this picture so he gave my camera the stink eye!!

Yesterday I posted about my weekend home. While I was there my Mom told me that she had started reading Joy Fit Club. I flipped through it and found a recipe for Mini Meatloaves. They are so cute and so delish!! They are full veggies (carrots, onions, red peppers, celery) and made with ground turkey-- Uber healthy!!
After dinner I treated myself to some Peanut & Co White Chocolate Wonderful with 1/2 a pink lady apple. Sorry I didn't take a better pic but it was so good I couldn't wait!!
While eating my desert I watched Parenthood. If you've never seen this start watching! I love Lauren Graham, especially in Gilmore Girls. She has the wittiest remarks and I would love to meet her in person. This last episode was especially good because it was about Prom and had some good fashion :)
Alright Bloggies that's all for tonight. It's 11:30 and I get to be up and early tomorrow to workout, class, and work!! Sweet Dreams <3

1) Do you like bowling? Are you good at it?

* I love bowling but I'm really bad at it. Today my score was 86!

2) What is your favorite nut butter?

* I usually just have regular peanut butter but I'm loving the White Chocolate. I really want to try Almond Butter but it's so expensive!!

3) Who is your favorite Mom character?

* I love Lorelai Gilmore. I wanted to be Rory growing up!

Weekend at Home

This past weekend I was able to go home... FINALLY!!! It'd been since Christmas that I'd been home and a month since I'd seen my parents. I was so excited and desperately needed the time away!

I love going home for the obvious reasons, free laundry, free (good) food, and time with the parents. But the #1 reason I love going home is the picture above. I love my bed. It's big, and fluffy and my Mom always has clean sheets on it. I love my sheets, and pillows. There isn't a bad thing about my bed.

My room is very bittersweet because it wasn't always MY room. I have an older sister and growing up this room was the E2 (squared) room because it was Elizabeth and Elle. I don't know why we got grouped together, our older brother and younger sister got their own rooms but we didn't. I used to hate it but now I miss her. She lives in Washington D.C with her husband I only get to see her a few times a year. But every time she comes home we share the bed, stay up late talking about boys, school, drinking, etc.

I usually don't take my laundry home because I have a washer and dryer right in my apartment. But lately all my roommates (I live with 3 other girls) have needed the washer and I haven't done laundry in about 2 weeks! I had a lot to do so my Mom said to bring it home and she'd do it for me!! How amazing is my Mom? I love her to pieces!

She also made me this amazing desert. It's frozen, blueberry Chobani yogurt, upside down so the blueberries are on top. With Bear Naked chocolate granola and dried fruit. Yummy!!!! Needless to say I was very sad to come back to school and counting down the 4 weeks left of school until I can spend more time with my parents :)

1) What is your favorite room in your house?

2) Did you ever share a room? Do you miss it?

3) What does your week look like? Are you busy?