Yoga

So a couple weeks ago I went to my first ever yoga class. I loved it! And since then I've been to two more.

I have been talking about going to yoga for years, and for some reason I never actually did it. After my ankle I knew that I was not strong enough to do it because I could barely stand on my right side, much less balance and hold a pose. After finally feeling better and getting stronger after my second surgery I decided it was time to try yoga finally!

I loved it! But it is really hard! I guess I thought it would be mostly stretching or something. And it's even harder than Pilates. But because I have been working out with my trainer I am actually getting stronger, so I was able to hold a lot of the poses. My main problem area to work on is flexibility. I am so tight! But I am hoping this will help stretch out some of my muscles as well.

My other worry is that I was told never to even walk around without shoes on after my surgery, so exercising and standing on my right foot without shoes on is worrisome. I walk around without supportive shoes on at my house all the time and don't have a problem. But actually balancing all of my weight on my right foot, barefoot, is another story. I am hoping this is not adding to my current knee pain. I also noticed my right ankle/foot has been more swollen recently and am worried this is a sign it does not like yoga. For now I have been icing and resting when I can. I hope I'm able to continue!

Amazingly, I can also do this (although don't look quite this good I imagine)! But is it hurting my ankle??

Shannon & Terry's Wedding: My Ankle Can Finally Dance!!

On Saturday, January 19 my friends Shannon and Terry got married! I was so honored to get to be part of their special day by being a bridesmaid in their wedding. My ankle was not sure if it was going to make it all day/all weekend in wedding shoes... but it did!

Wedding party!

Rehearsal dinner night we wore little black dresses (white for Shannon) and fun shoes. Sadly, they do not make orthopaedic shoes in very fun styles. But when I gave away all of my shoes that were not ortho approved (YES! this really did happen a little while back) I saved one or two pairs I could not part with! Luckily, one of these pairs was a fun, flat silver shoe. They have absolutely no support, but I can wear them for a couple hours at a time. By the end of the night my ankle was done, and I was worried about the next day. I got it up and rested it as much as I could to be ready!

Bridal party at the rehearsal dinner! Little black dresses and fun, cute shoes! 

Being silly showing my shoes before the wedding.

Months ago Shannon helped me pick out the flattest bridesmaid shoes on the shoe site we used. She found the ones I wore and I loved them because they were almost flat (maybe 1 inch wedge type heel!) but still cute. I was worried when they came and I tried them on because they hit me right on my scars, which are still tender. My dad saw me trying to walk in them originally and asked if I had injured myself because of how I was walking. I sent them to get dyed and prayed that what I put on my scars to shield them would work. I wore them around the house one day to break them in and had no problems. And I wore them for the wedding and had no problems! After spending a lovely morning getting ready together at the Harvard Club, we trolleyed out to the church for the ceremony. My ankle was fine walking down the aisle. Then we trolleyed back to the city with the newlyweds and took lots of pictures! For this we changed into Uggs or boots. And you all know my secret - that my ortho inserts fit into my Uggs when I wear them, so I was very comfy! Reception meant back into the wedding shoes! But guess what?? I ran around the reception and danced the night away in my shoes ALL night!! I didn't have to change into my ortho flip flops I brought! It was very exciting!

This isn't even my right foot... but Shan found some pretty cute shoes for being flat, right? And look how great the hot pink color pop looks with the navy!

With the bride! And what a great view of the shoes she picked for me!

With my savior for the night, Amanda!

By the end of the night my ankle was DONE though. Walking around Boston later, it just couldn't go anymore. My love Amanda let me lean on her when we walked back to the hotel, which I really appreciated! And sadly when my ankle is done, I am done. It was a very long day so I was pleased that my ankle did as well as it did. I really had been worried about it for months, and I had relatively few ankle problems when it really counted. All in all, a good day/weekend for my ankle, and more importantly a spectacularly beautiful weekend and celebration for Shannon and Terry!

Rehearsal dinner with the bride. I love this pic of us!

After the reception with the groom! Why I couldn't take a picture with both of them, I don't know...

Team Awesome. Over and out.

Pilgrim Cupcakes

For my high school swimmers' recent pasta dinner I made some fun Thanksgiving themed desserts! Here are the pilgrim hat cupcakes I made, inspired, of course, by Pinterest! 

I made regular cupcakes from a box and used store bought icing (I know! Can you believe it??) and then had fun with the tops! Once again, I'm here to tell you making things from a box is ok! Sometimes, that's all you have time for and all that is necessary - they're still delicious! Any ways... I used vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and Funfetti cupcakes with yellow (vanilla flavored dyed yellow) icing. 

You need:

cake mix and ingredients to make it

can of icing

yellow icing for hat buckles

Keebler "Fudge Stripes" cookies

Reese's miniature peanut butter cups (I got a family sized bag to have enough for 4 dozen cupcakes!)

The yellow-iced cupcakes got "real" pilgrim hats - Keebler "Fudge Stripes" cookies upside-down with a Reese's peanut butter cup upside-down attached by a dab of icing! Then I used yellow icing to pipe on buckles!

Pilgrim hat cupcakes!

On the chocolate-iced cupcakes, the above cookie concoction looked silly. So I left out the cookie, and just added an upside-down peanut butter cup. 

Cute and delicious! 

For both, I used a yellow icing tube to pipe on the buckle! 

That's it! Really easy, really cute! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This Week's Ankle News

So this week because of the holiday I could only make it to PT once. I went bright and early yesterday morning to see Dave. My ankle is feeling a lot better after being mysteriously "compressed" on the outer side of my ankle/foot. I would say it's not at 100% like it was when I first started doing all of the crazy exercises, but much, much better than when it got compressed. So yesterday I got to walk in all four directions on the treadmill again. I didn't do any other exercises or jumps, but the treadmill felt ok. I did my stretches and had some manipulation done to my foot before icing and being hooked up to the stim machine again. As the day went on I was on my feet a lot. My foot was definitely swollen, but not more than usual. I think it's getting better!

Today I went to the gym with my sister to try going to Zumba. Dave said I could try it but that it might hurt to go side to side, which has been the biggest problem after this injury. Our biggest worry was that I would not be able to do a whole one hour class yet because I have not built my endurance back up. I decided to try the class today. And guess what? I did it!! There were definitely some moves that were hard for my ankle, and I can tell my right side is still weaker. But I was able to do almost everything in the class, and made it through a whole one hour class!! I can't even tell you how happy I am about this!!

Next week I have two more PT appointments. And this should FINALLY really be the end of physical therapy. But every time I think that, something happens... So keep your fingers crossed!!

I totally look like this girl on the left when I Zumba - I'm that good! ;)

Candy Corn Cookie Crunch

Halloween is just a week away! Here's yet another Pinterest win from Kelly's Fall themed housewarming party! I decided to go ahead and fast forward to one of the best parts of Fall, Halloween, for this one. But be warned, it is very sweet! Happy Halloween!

Candy Corn Cookie Crunch

1 lb. almond bark candy coating or white chocolate (I used meltable milk chocolate)
14 Oreos, broken into pieces (I used Halloween ones with orange filling)
1 1/2 cups pretzels broken (I used honey twist ones because that's what I had)
1 cup candy corn
1/2 cup peanuts
1/4 cup Reese's Pieces
1/2 cup Peanut M&M's (Fall colors)
Halloween sprinkles

Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper or foil. Spread the broken pretzels, broken cookies, peanuts, and about 3/4 of the candy corn on the prepared cookie sheet. Melt the white chocolate or candy coating until smooth, according to package directions.

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the pretzel mixture, spreading with a spatula if needed. Before it sets, sprinkle on the remaining candy corn, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, and sprinkles. Place tray in the refrigerator until set. Break into pieces and enjoy!



Before we broke it up. Looks sinful!

I recommend having something to mash things with before starting. I did not realize that my sister, who in all fairness just moved into a new house (which she owns!!) and is not as domesticated as me, has very few kitchen tools. Mashing things up without tools was difficult and messy (I put items in a Ziploc bag and mashed by hand).

As with many Erin creations, I used a little more of some things until it looked right to me. So feel free to modify the amounts to your desire. Also, it was hard to break apart at the end, but it also got melty if out of the fridge for too long. In the end, Amanda and I ended up using a knife to break it apart the best we could, and then put the pieces back in the fridge for a bit, and this seemed to work. Good luck and enjoy!

Pumpkin Dip

Another recipe hit from Kelly's housewarming party. An easy, Fall delight: Pumpkin Dip! Another Pinterest win!

Pumpkin Dip

1  15 oz. can of pumpkin
1  5 oz. box of instant vanilla pudding (just the powder, don't make the pudding)
1  16 oz. container of cool whip (low fat is ok)
1/2 Tbl. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 Tbl. Cinnamon
1  small pumpkin (to hold dip if desired)

1. Mix pumpkin, pudding mix, cool whip, and pumpkin pie spice together (by hand) in a very large bowl.
2. Chill for several hours before serving. Meanwhile, carve your pumpkin!
3. Sprinkle with cinnamon, and serve with fresh apple slices, vanilla wafers, or ginger snaps.



Pumpkin dip is so easy and so delicious!The original blogger put her dip in a carved out pumpkin. I couldn't help but love this ceramic pumpkin dish instead!

 Although not shown in my picture, I loved this the most with red apple slices! Others loved it with the ginger snaps or Nilla Wafers. It is delicious and so, so easy!

As my caption and picture point out, I did not carve out my own pumpkin to put the dip in. As nice as the presentation looked from the picture on Pinterest, I was pressed for time that day. I'm not an experienced pumpkin carver myself (although it doesn't look too hard!), and since I don't have a husband to do this dirty work for me as the original poster did, I opted for my lovely glass pumpkin bowl. Don't feel bad about yourself or your pumpkin dip if you put it in a dish instead of a pumpkin. I'm here to tell you that is wonderful and so are you!

Hot (Spiked) Apple Cider

For my sister's recent housewarming party I made most of the food and drinks. Let's be honest, this is my thing, so I'm in charge of the entertaining around here! We had a Fall theme and wanted to share a few of the recipes (all from Pinterest of course!).

Our Fall drink was Hot Apple Cider - spiked or not!

Hot Spiked Apple Cider

1 gallon fresh apple cider
1-2 sliced apples (Granny Smith recommended)
dash of apple pie spice
1 bottle Southern Comfort
whipped cream (we didn't use this)

Pour cider into a pot and place on medium heat. Slice apples into small pieces and cook in the cider. Add apple pie spice to taste. Cook cider until it reaches coffee-like temperature. Serve hot in mug and add Southern Comfort to tolerance! Top off each cup with extra creamy whipped cream (if desired). Feel the warmth.



Optional: Your own super festive Halloween/Fall mug to serve your Hot Spiked Apple Cider in!


We added about a shot of SoCo per mug of cider. And as I said, we did not use whipped cream because I don't like it (yep, that's why no one else gets it as an option!). I also only used apples as garnish. I bought apple pie spice for this occasion, but I think other Fall spices would have substituted nicely if you don't have it. I (not-so-secretly-anymore) dislike pie, all types of it. Bleh! So I never make pies and don't have apple pie spice, but decided to purchase it in the hopes of making an apple pie in the future for someone else I guess. Any takers? ;)

Ankles Are Sad When They Can't Walk on Sand

Last weekend was super busy! I got to see one of my grad school loves, and Cashmere Mafia sister, get married to the love of her life and go to the beach to do it! (Thanks Jen!) And then I went on up to Boston to co-host a bridal shower for my love Shannon! All while traveling with some BFF's. What could be better?

My ankle held up pretty well. I even drove the whole way. That's right - up to Baltimore, Baltimore to Spring Lake, NJ. Then Jersey Shore to north of Boston. And then Boston back to B'more, Silver Spring, and NoVA. YES! That happened in one 4 day weekend. It was amazing. (We jammed out to 90's music a good part of the way, particularly the NJ to Boston at 7:30pm to midnight Saturday night portion!)

The celebrations were beautiful. We could not have asked for more perfect weather. And my girls looked AMAZING. Who is more beautiful than a bride in love? A bride in love who happens to be one of my gorgeous friends, that's who. I wore my Birkenstocks (since I still couldn't wear shoes with backs) and kept my ankle wrapped up well. And sadly I couldn't dance at the wedding. (Ok - I did do the Cupid Shuffle very carefully. I can't hear it and not dance. It's not possible). I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

The only sad part was - I couldn't walk on the beach! My incision is still open and even though it was wrapped up pretty well, I was just picturing a not fun time trying to get sand out of my heel... I LOVE the beach. LOVE IT. But it was not worth testing this out and missing an event or being in (extra) pain for this special weekend. So sadly, I stayed on the boardwalk. But hey - I went to the beach in October, I can't be too mad about that.


After surgery, ankles are sad when they can't walk on sand at the beach.



Boom - married! Beautiful bride and groom!

Beautiful bride-to-be!
And that's a cake she's standing next to. Amazing.