Moving takes over & Weekend Recap

Hey Y'all!

Happy Monday! And happy Spring break to all you spring breakers! 
Sophia is currently on spring break along with the rest of our county. The weather should be pretty much picture perfect for the week. We're going to have some fun! ;)

Last Wednesday was my last post and then all chaos erupted. We moved out of our house on Thursday and have been cleaning, de-cluttering, and organizing my parent's house ever since. We're staying with my parents while our new home gets built. Lucky us. When we first entertained the idea of moving in with my parents for this period, I would of said "lucky" sarcastically. But now that we're actually here, with no other place to call home, I really mean LUCKY. I know not everyone has this option and/or some wouldn't even WANT this option but with my family, it works. Sophia & Nelps are having the time of their lives, so I decided to be more like them. Plus, it's just the beginning...

It definitely feels like I'm just back at home since this is the house I grew up in. Kind of like a wave of nostalgia swept over me while laying in bed looking at my old closet like I used to in elementary school through high school. Except now it's where we're keeping all the girl's clothes. This was home when Angelo and I started seeing each other in high school, and now we're back...with two kids! 

Since I've last posted:

Thursday was a lot of driving back and forth from our old house to my parent's house. Loading & unloading times six.

Thursday night as my mom's birthday and we gifted her with 6 new house guests (The four of us plus our two fur buddies), gifts, and strawberry pizza! :) 

Friday was my first day back at the office, Sophia's last day of school before break, and closing day! I've been working from home since Nelps was born and now I'm back at the office. We signed all the documents and closed at 2pm. Handed over the keys and garage remotes and said "See ya!" to what we called home for the past 3.5 years. 

Saturday was nonstop cleaning and organizing. We ended up with bags and bags of donation items, bags of just trash, and actually some space in the two rooms we've moved our lives into. We took a break to take the doggies to a vet appointment, and I FINALLY got a run in! Last week running was almost nonexistent and not a good thing since we're running a half marathon in 6 (SIX!) days!

New running place :)

Sunday was almost back to normal with church and lunch at Ulele!  It was a perfect day outside!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!! I promise, I'm back to normal postings, thank goodness!! 

XOXO

Lemon Garlic & Gin Chicken Wings

As a small business owner and Florida native, I am a HUGE supporter of locally owned businesses. When I heard about Florida Cane Distillery, and read about the founder who lives in my hometown (Valrico, FL) I was beyond excited to meet him and learn more about his business. 

Florida Cane Vodka takes everything amazing and local to Tampa and bottles it up for us to enjoy. Every ingredient in their vodka, gin, and moonshine is from Florida. Flavors are made using Plant City Strawberries, blueberries from Hernando county, and tangerines from the founder's own backyard! They have opened Florida's FIRST Vodka tasting room! To book your Distilling Experience, click HERE.

Last week I was invited to EATS American Grill to enjoy a meal and presentation of Florida Cane Distillery. We ate & drank delicious creations (both food and beverage) using Florida Cane products. 

We had Tamiami Gin Lemon chicken wings, Drunken Key West Lemon Line Shrimp over Rice Pilaf, Blackened Chicken Pasta with Florida Cane Premium Vodka Sauce, and Florida Cane Okeechobee Cherry Chocolate Ganache Tart. 

While all the food EATS provided was absolutely mouth watering, the chicken wings have.not.left.my.mind. They were my absolute favorite and I knew I wanted to create something similar at home. So I did. I had never made my own chicken wings before so I was smiling from ear to ear when both my husband and kids ate the meat clean off those chicken bones! Success!

Lemon Garlic & Gin Chicken Wings 

What you’ll need:
3 pounds chicken wings
Juice of 1 lemon (3 tbsp)
1/4 cup Florida Cane Tamiami Gin
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tbsp FlavorGod Lemon Garlic Seasoning

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 425°F.
Whisk all the ingredients together, except the wings and lemon garlic seasoning
Toss the wings in the mixture, making sure they are completely coated.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place the wings on the foil in a single layer.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through. (I like mine a little crispy so I kept them in a little longer)
When done, toss wings in bowl with any extra sauce on baking sheet and lemon garlic seasoning.

Serve & Enjoy!

XOXO

**Disclaimer: Thanks to the Tampa Bay Bloggers, I was invited to dinner by EATS and Florida Cane Distillery, and provided with food and drinks in exchange for a review and recipe. All opinions and recipes are my own.

Explore St.Pete (#LoveFL)

Hey guys!!! 
This week is a little insane for me. I'm sorry if I neglect the blog a bit (Ill try my hardest not to!). We have to be out of our house by Wednesday night, Sophia has a field trip, and work and life are still happening. Running is being pushed to the side and I'm considering this whole move as my exercise for the next 3 days. ;)

This past weekend we went across the bridge to have a "stay-cation" at the Vinoy. It rained almost the entire time we were there, but we didn't let a little rain ruin our time! We relaxed, explored the streets of downtown St.Pete, ate, and ate some more. I am officially in love with downtown St.Pete. Downtown Tampa...take note.

Sundial. We used to go to BayWalk and eat at Dan Marino's and Gratzzi a lot. This was my first time being back since Sundial took over and MAN! They did a great job! Locale Market was packed and we were starving so we decided to skip it. Next time...

We ate dinner at Moon Over Water, a British place off Beach Drive. I got the chicken curry, and Angelo ate their Guinness burger. We all shared pierogies for an appetizer. 

Our walk back to the Vinoy. I love this park!

Breakfast the next day was at Cassis. We each got an almond milk latte, shared an almond croissant, and eat their Three Egg Breakfast. Sophia and Nelps shared pancakes. When I say this almond croissant was the best thing ever,I'm not kidding! My friend Lisa, from SoLocal, told me about them and THANK YOU Lisa. They were amazing! We ended up picking some more up on our way home Sunday for a quick breakfast in the car.

Saturday after breakfast, we decided to walk to Great Explorations/Sunken Gardens, because it was only about a mile away from us. We got half way there and the rain started. Down pour. We made it into a CVS, drenched at this point, and purchased towels and umbrellas. We only had about a quarter mile to go so we made a dash for it. The girls were dry, in the stroller, but Angelo & I were basically soaking wet by the time we got to Great Explorations. We let the girls run around, join a drum circle, and get their energy out. By the time we were ready to leave the skies looked like they were clearing up. We started walking back to the hotel and before we even got out of the parking lot, buckets of rain started coming. We ran back under cover and called an Uber. 

Saturday night we went to dinner with Luisa & Steven to Red Mesa Cantina. It was delicious!! I needed about 19 margaritas but settled with one and three tacos. They sang Happy Birthday to me with an apple empanada and strawberry flower. The way to my little heart... 

Sunday morning, we came home early and packed up the rest of the big items in our house. The couches and our bed frame went to storage. All the girl's outside play stuff (bikes, scooters, cars) went to my parents and we rearranged my parent's bedrooms to fit our needs. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! What did you do? 

Have you explored downtown St. Petersburg lately? What's your favorite restaurant? 

XOXO

Making awful videos & Friday Faves

TGIF!!! What a morning it's been! 

I wanted to have the Giveaway winner posted early this morning but LIFE gets in the way sometimes and well...life happens.

When we got to school this morning, I closed the car door on Sophia's pinky finger. She screamed, I screamed, and her finger swelled up like a balloon. Instead of going to school, we ended up at the doctors office, then to the X-ray office to make sure it wasn't broken. In other words, it's been a long exhausting morning for everyone. 

In unrelated news, Sophia picked out our Giveaway winner out of a hat last night! We loaded up the entries, and Sophia picked!. We made a video but it's absolutely awful. I look awful after running, and Nelps kept turning it off and picking up the phone. This is kind of how it went...

Our winner was...JACLYN BURGESS! Congratulations Jaclyn, I am sending an email your way so you can claim your goodies! :) We're all so excited for you!
Thank you to everyone who participated! There are many more giveaways in the future! 

Friday Faves

All hail Brooks Running shoes! I got a new pair for my birthday and I have been absolutely LOVING them on my runs this week! I had Brooks before, then switched to Reebok, and now happily in Brook's loving arms again.

Manicure Parties! The other night we painted all our nails and Nelpe was so proud of her pretty pinks!

On the web

"Let us love our bodies, and leave us alone!"

A real life Notebook story

I'm not into Nascar, but this guy just became my favorite driver!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Keep those little fingers away from car doors! :(

XOXO

Breathe In...Breathe Out...Woosa

What a week! Happy Thursday by the way...

**The giveaway closes TONIGHT at 8:00 p.m.! Don't forget to enter!!!**

Yesterday I was MIA due to our internet being out. The Verizon modem at the office took a turn to the darkside, so we took the one from the house to replace it. Turns out that one joined it's modem friend in modem heaven during transit. The office & house were both internet-less and everyone panicked! :) The office one got fixed right away, while the house internet just got back up this morning. 

I took yesterday off from everything to do some more packing for the move. I got almost all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets cleaned out and into boxes. I had to UNPACK a few things when I realized that I still have a week in this house and actually need things like cooking utensils if we want to eat dinner.

Tuesday was a cake-carb-coma day for my birthday. Donut for breakfast, cake for lunch, and another for dinner. Calories don't count on your birthday, ya know!?!

Celebration at the office with my favorite Sweetie's cake!

Celebration at the parent's with my favorite mom's homemade carrot cake!

Yesterday morning was the Daddy's breakfast at school. Pop In With Pop! I worked the buffet line, while the girls had fun eating with Angelo. 

Today is another busy day trying to catch up on work, the blog, packing, and an endless to-do list. I'm so glad my #bff Alisha got me these Essential oils for my birthday. I'm REALLY loving the Peace & Calming one. Breathe In...Breathe Out...Wooosaaaah

Hope you have a great day! 

It's almost the weekend & we're going away for a little getaway tomorrow!! (In the middle of packing & moving...are we nuts?!)

XOXO

Running for a Cause {PCH Awareness}

Hey! 

First things first...Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet? If not, go on over and show some comment love & enter! :) 

Secondly, rewinding a little bit to Sunday when I ran the Gasparilla 8k and had my first PR ever! {PR = Personal Record} 

Do you know what a PR feels like? Well it basically makes you feel like you can do anything! Kidding, not really. And it makes you think back to all the training you've been doing and think "Wow, all that hard work actually HELPED!" The hard part is the training. The easy/fun part is kicking so much ass butt at the race. My goal was to run at a pace of 8:30 and ended up doing 8 minute miles! For 2 miles I had a pace of 7:45! Katie stuck with me and made me push myself. I wasn't going to slow down if she didn't slow down and I think she was thinking the same thing. :)

Pre-Race Selfie

I ran wearing a shirt for a friend to help spread PCH awareness.( Click here to read about PCH.) I'm not gonna lie I got real tired around mile 4 and started thinking about slowing down. But, I knew I only had one more mile to go and there was no way I was going to let my silly mind convince me to slow down. I knew the faster I went and the more people I passed, the more people would see that beautiful girl's face on the back of my shirt. That's what wearing the shirt is all about. 

PCH is such a rare disease and not many people know about it, therefore there's not a ton of research or funding put towards it. Spreading awareness is just a little/tiny way to contribute to society. It's kind of like how that ALS Ice bucket Challenge got the ALSA so much attention, and donations went through the roof! Bringing awareness to such a rare disease could eventually save lives! Three people came up to me and asked me what PCH was. I'm glad I knew a little bit about it to share! Spreading awareness! :) 

Thirdly, today is my birthday!! When Sophia woke up this morning, Angelo said "Sophia, it's mommy's birthday today!" and she responded "Yeah and my birthday is next!" To celebrate, I volunteered at the school this morning setting up for the Daddy breakfast tomorrow. They offered donuts and I said, "Yes of course I'll eat a donut, it's my birthday!" It's the little things in life. :)  After I pick Sophia up from school, we're going to daddy's work to eat cake, then taking the celebration to my parent's house for dinner. 

I hope everyone has a great day! Spread love!

XOXO

Spread the BIRTHDAY love GIVEAWAY!

Happy Monday everyone!! I hope everyone is well rested and starting into what will be a productive week! 
Tomorrow just so happens to be my birthday! To celebrate, I have a lovely giveaway to share with you! What better week to have my FIRST official blog giveaway than this magical week?! Excitement all around!

When I first started this blog years ago, I never really thought it would be anything other than a diary of some sort for me to look back on. Then, in August I rekindled my relationship with the blog, and the growth I have seen in just a few months puts the biggest smile and look of wonderment on my face! Say it ain't so! ;) 

To thank those who have been sticking with me for the past few months and to those who are just now getting to "know" me via the blog, I thought I’d put together a little giveaway package for a lucky reader featuring some of my favorite things. Just some love and thanks for all the support you've given me. 

What one lucky winner will get:
- Kate Spade "On Your Mark, Jet Set" bangle 
- Two (2) Month supply of JuicePlus Orchard, Garden, and Vineyard Blend Capsules (1 bottle of 120 capsules each)
- One (1) Box of QuestBar Protein Bars (your choice between S'mores OR Cookies & Cream)
- $25.00 Trader Joe's Gift Card

How to enter:
- Follow me on Instagram (@al2getherFIT)
- Follow me on twitter (@alaymet)
- Leave a comment saying you followed AND something that you are loving this month (product, person, restaurant, etc)

The winner will be chosen at random on this THURSDAY at 8:00 p.m. and announced in FRIDAY'S post on February 27th. 

Thank you again and may the odds be ever in your favor! ;)

XOXO

***This giveaway is not sponsored in anyway - just some love & gratitude from me***