work Archives - Page 2 of 2

Rolling with the Clementine

October 26, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hi friends, did I mention I finally broke down and bought a foam roller? Did I also mention that I HATE foam rolling. It does not hurt so good. It just hurts. Buuuuttt, I do it because I don’t want to be sore, and I bought a pretty bright green one to make it more appealing. Green is my favorite color. In case you haven’t seen my wardrobe 😉 So today after my run, I got on the foam roller to try to work out some of my super tight leg muscles and no sooner do I start rolling, than does Clementine run and start love nibbling my face. I don’t understand why she does it or what she thinks she is doing, but she ALWAYS tries to nibble on my face and my ears. I don’t know if she’s trying to play with me? It’s usually cute, but also very annoying. I’ve tried to make her stop, but apparently ~~I have no puppy discipline~~ her cuteness makes telling her no nearly impossible. So this was my foam rolling experience

Of course Winston wasn’t far away either.

And then I tried to switch rolling positions, but she outsmarted me.

I love that silly dachshund. She drives me nutty, but she has so much personality, and determination! She is like no other dog I’ve ever met, and as annoying as her face nibbles are, it usually just makes me smile 🙂

In other news, I’ve been wanting to share this review of Aladdin! Come see the show!!! It really is a great production, I feel. Friday at 7, Sat/Sun at 2 @ Greaseaint Youth Theatre. If you go Friday or Saturday, you will get the pleasure of seeing me there! 😉

In even more news, I checked my site stats today and noticed something new, clicked on it and realized someone posted my cupcakes on pinterest!!!!! The recipe for my Skinnified Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes! I’m so excited!!! I made Steve pause the Top Chef finally so I could show him. Now I must see who wins! Routing for Sally! Have a fabulous night everyone.

Opening Night: Aladdin!

October 22, 2011 · by Ari ·

There are few things more exciting to us theatre peeps than OPENING NIGHT! The night when all the weeks of hard work leading up to the show becomes worth it and you get to celebrate your success (or drink away your sorrows–depending on how it goes). Luckily, between the dream team of Jodie, Tasha, John Luke and I, and the cast of amazing talented kiddos we have, it was definitely a night to celebrate. An other fun thing about opening night? You get all dressed up and fancy and sometimes you get presents! I got lovely cards and gifts from Tasha and Jodie that totally made my night! Tasha even baked for the first time ever and her brownies were aaaaamazing.

When we arrived, Tasha had already reserved our usual rehearsal viewing spots in our viewing order, plus places for our guests. This is Tasha. She was my assistant choreographer and she is absolutely fantastic. I love her and I was SOOOO lucky to have her through this process!

I was lucky to have so many people in the audience for opening night! Steve, Mi Hermano, my dad, and Steve’s mom, grandma and sister. Steve got some pretty amazing photos during the show!

The band lead by the fabulous John Luke!

Arabian Nights

Jafar and Iago

Friend Like Me

Carpet Ride

Villains! You can’t tell, but Iago is pecking at Jafar’s staff. It is hilarious. One of my fav parts of the show!

A Whole New World

Awwwwwww!

All in all, the show went great. Especially the kids, they really stepped it up and rocked it out! I really love this cast!!

After the show, one of my favorite little ones gave me a sunflower out of the flower boquet her parents had given her–soooo sweet! I almost cried. After congratulating the kiddos, Steve, Jacob, Jodie and her fam, Tasha, John Luke and his partner Alex went out to a Mexi restaurant in old town Scottsdale that I still don’t know the name of haha. When we entered I literally squealed in excitement when I noticed the skinny margarita was on special! I LOVE margs, but refuse to get full sugar ones–not worth it! So the fact that they had a skinny one and it was on special?! Heck, yes!

The artistic dream team: Tasha (Assistant Choreographer), Me, John Luke (Musical Director), and Jodie (Director)

We had a super fun night. I especially enjoyed getting to meet Alex, and getting to hang out with some of my fav peeps! And lastly, of course we couldn’t leave without riding the burro…

Aladdin runs until next Sunday. Come out and see it–super funny and enjoyable 🙂

My 100th Post!!!

October 21, 2011 · by Ari ·

HOORAY!!!! This is officially my 100th post since I moved on over to wordpress and my own domain. I started the Skinnified blog a long time ago, but it has only been the last 2 months or so that I began to take blogging seriously and told Steve “I want my blog to be something. I want to inspire people and I want to change people’s lives.” I have no idea if anyone other than me actually gets anything out of this thing, but I get a LOT out of it, so that’s something 🙂 Today I got up in the dark again for my long run. Kara met me at my house @ 6:15 and we set off. The first mile, I was really slow. I think I was nervous and trying to pace myself, but seriously I was like a snail, but we picked up on mile 2 and ended up finishing our 6 miles in 1:03.

When I decided to run the Susan G Komen 5K, I remember saying to Steve “By the end of the year, I want to be able to run an hour without stopping.” At this point 30 minutes still felt so hard. He said “It’s going to be hard, but I think you can do it.” Well, friends, today is October 21st and actually with my training schedule, it looks like by the new year I will be running for more like 2 hours. I didn’t just accomplish that goal, I stomped all over it and kicked it to the curb in place of a better one: 13.1. Sure the race is Jan 15, but that is basically the start of the new year and I plan to kick it off with a bang!

Our run ended at The Good Egg where I ordered whole wheat pancakes with oatmeal and blueberries cooked in and 2 scrambled egg whites. I could only finish the eggs and one of the pancakes so now I have a second pancake for later 🙂 We met Bethany and Steve for breakfast. I was feeling a little out of it at this point and desperately in need of iced coffee. After breakfast, I took Bethany to her mom’s because she leaves for her first cruise today! I’m so excited for her. She works so hard and deserves to have some FUN! Then I met Kara at Starbucks for the COFFEE. Most important part of my day, seriously. I started off with my usual sfc iced coffee, but then got a refill that was AMAZING! It’s not officially out yet, but this year sugar free peppermint has arrived!!! I made a skinnified version of a peppermint white mocha

Grande iced coffee

1 pump white mocha

1 pump sf vanilla

1 pump sf peppermint

soy milk

light ice

You’re welcome. All the rich deliciousness of my favorite seasonal treat with about 100 calories. Yes, please

I even got to write my own cup which made me feel super special. Kara and I hung out with Mona on her break and enjoyed out iced coffees, some sunshine, and the accomplishment of being finished with this week’s long run!

My joints are feeling it a little today, but we walked over to the gym for some stretching and foam rolling (I hate you foam roller) and I will spend lots of time icing this evening. I also plan on hitting up the ibuprofen bottle to hopefully knock out any pain that may be coming my way.

I feel pretty great about the way my training is going. I know there will be challenges and times I question why the f I would ever want to do this, but right now it is bringing me so much joy and every week I achieve something that once seemed impossible. Every week I affirm the fact that

I.Can.Do.Anything.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Okay, I promise the next post will include my new cookies and their recipe. But now I have to go to the tmobile store AGAIN because my stupid phone ate the new battery they gave me and now will not come back to life AGAIN. Annoyed.

In happier news, tonight is Opening Night!!!! So excited. Come see Aladdin!!!!

Technology Fail

October 17, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hi friends, happy Monday! Today is actually pretty fantastic because I thought I didn’t have to work until 2:40, but then I realized I don’t have to work until 5:30! Hooray!! I got up nice and early to start my run at about 6:15, but I had forgotten to charge my phone which meant I would have no music, so I stuck it on the charger, caught up on some blog reading for half an hour and then figured it should be ready. It was, but my Garmin which I had charged yesterday stilllll said low battery >:(

Uggghhh so frustrating. I tried to put it back on for a few minutes, but it was no use. I stared at it dumb founded for a good minute. Derrrrrr. What do I do now? I live in the 21st century and don’t know what to do with out fancy gadgets. Then I ~~had a stroke of genius~~ remembered that I actually am an intelligent human being and that I did actually run a few times before I got good ole Garmie. I remembered the 3 mile route I had been taking around my hood and set out feeling naked with no Garmin to keep track of my time or distance. It was hard to push myself at the end with out it, but I still covered a little over 3 miles in about 30 minutes. It was a good run, I just hate not knowing exactly, you know?

I came home and made the most delicious breakfast sandwich ever. I toasted a sandwich thin, spread 1 tbs almond butter on one half, and 2 tbs pumpkin and a couple drops of sugar free maple syrup on the other, then topped with lots of chia seeds and half a sliced banana. Yum

I always read blogs where they say they ate half a banana and I always wonder what happens to the other half? I tried to wrap mine back in the peel, but ended up eating the rest when I got back from Starbucks anyway haha, I spent a couple hours at Starbucks working on choreography and catching up on blogging. I still have so much more to get done, but honestly can barely find the motivation to do anything other than sit on my butt and eat. Yikes. This girl needs a vacation! Back to work on Fiddler ‘ography. Have a lovely day everyone!

5 miles? Yup, I can run that!

October 15, 2011 · by Ari ·

Whooohoooo!!!! 12 hour day work week is over and I survived! Last night in rehearsal, I started to feel it really catching up to me, but I came home, went to bed early, and feel much more ready to take on today! Let’s back track to Thursday morning. Up until Thursday, I had been doing all my training runs by myself, which I actually don’t mind, and I wasn’t expecting to enjoy running with anyone else to be honest. I was afraid one of us would slow the other down or I would feel self conscious, and it also seemed pointless being that I am not someone who really talks while I run. Regardless, I met Kara bright and early Thursday morning at a lake in Chandler to go for a run together.

The sun was just barely coming up and it was beautiful outside. I was surprised to REALLY enjoy the company! The route ended up being kind of an adventure. We were running, then all of the sudden the trail ended and we had to jump a couple low fences and run through this apartment complex. It was different, but it kept things interesting, that’s for sure! We discovered that 1 lap around the lake was about a mile, so we made three laps with all negative splits! Whoot! I believe it was something like 10:47 (it takes these legs about a mile to warm up, and I find that taking that first mile nice and slow makes a HUGE difference to me!), 10:20, 9:53. I could actually look it up in my Garmin for something more exact, but that takes actually getting up off my butt which is totally not happening right now haha. Our last lap, we encountered a flock of ducks just hangin out in our pathway that for some reason totally cracked us up. It is so nice to have someone to share the experience with and LAUGH with! Luckily, Kara and I are really at the same place fitness wise, which makes sense considering we have pretty much the same work out routine. I discovered that I don’t actually have to be a hermit with my running, and company is an amazing thing!

Yesterday, I grudgingly took the day off from working out. It’s been helping so much with my energy level and overall happiness to wake up early and get it finished. I feel more accomplished and productive during the rest of the day! But I knew that since I was running a new distance today, I needed the break. So yesterday, I slept in (well until 6:45 haha), went to work, had an amazing dinner break at True Foods with my assistant choreographer Tasha, and returned to the theater for our final rehearsal before tech. We had a great rehearsal and I am so excited for this show.

If you live in the Phoenix area, please please please, come see Aladdin Jr @ Greasepaint! We open this coming Friday and run for 2 weekends with Friday shows @ 7pm and Sat/Sun matinees @ 2pm. I’m really proud of the work the kids, and all of the artistic staff has put into this show. My harem dancers are rock stars and they impress me every single night!

Okay, onto this morning’s excitingness!!! So now that I am full on in half marathon training mode, it means that my long run every week is a distance I have never run before. Up until I began my training, the farthest I had gone EVER was 3 miles and it was NOT easy. 2 weeks ago it was 4 miles, last week was the 5K (not a new distance, but my first race!) and today was 5 MILES!! Kara arrived at my house at 6:30 this morning. I had planned our run to end at Great Harvest Bread Company which is right across the street from Seattle Espresso (best coffee EVER) and a cute little farmers market. I LOVE having something fun as the end destination of my run. It makes it all worth it!

I was pleasantly surprised at how great I felt during most of the run. We took it slow and steady and I didn’t start to really feel tired until about 4.5 miles. We are not the fastest runners out there, but today Kara and I ran 5 miles for the very first time!

We got close to negative splits, but no cigar. We did do mile 5 in 9:33, however! I am still so amazed by things I never thought I could do. It makes me wonder how many other things in life I perceive as unachievable, or out of reach, that I could actually accomplish. I am a very goal oriented person, and there is almost nothing that makes me feel better than meeting my goals. Today I feel awesome. After we finished, we enjoyed a delicious sample of pumpkin chocolate chip bread (OMG AMAZING!!!) and egg white and turkey sandwiches. I could only eat half–I just don’t have much of an appetite RIGHT after I run. Of course, now I’m hungry again. Then we walked across the street and I did something I have not done in a LONG time.

I used to be awful about my coffee drinks. I had no idea just how bad they were for me, and my very favorite was always Seattle Espresso’s White Russian Mocha. I haven’t one in well over a year, but today I treated myself to a 12 oz double shot non fat hot white russian mocha. It was like heaven.

Then, we walked around the farmers market a bit, I bought some cilantro and a butternut squash. Random, right? Well I ran into Dani and she mentioned a recipe for butternut squash cupcakes which sounded amazing so I had to buy one. After, you know, dancing around with it like a total freak. Can’t take me anywhere 🙂 Now I desperately need a shower and a snack, then I’m off to 6 hour tech rehearsal! Happy Saturday everyone!

Early run & long day

October 12, 2011 · by Ari ·

Today I worked literally 12 hours straight. When I wasn’t actually teaching, I was driving between jobs, which I can assure you, feels nothing like time off. The funny thing is that today was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. I started the day with a nice, slow run. Nice and slow? Yeah, I’m weird. After my experience during the Komen, I wanted to take things nice and slowly this morning. I am new to running. I need to take my time and be patient. Today, that is exactly what I did. Nothing spectacular, amazing or impressive, but I felt good the entire time, and felt like I could have gone further which makes me feel a little less scared for my 5 mile run I am planning for Saturday.

After my run, I got ready, made a smoothie to go and had a super productive day at work. I love when I finish everything I need to do and can add MORE! It never happens in my real life to do lists, so it’s a nice feeling of accomplishment when it can happen at work. Then, I went to job #2, and after a class at job 2, moved on to job #3 for the day–rehearsal! I had left my Wednesday rehearsal last week feeling slightly discouraged. Things just were not coming together the way they normally do and I felt like I had to spend a lot of time being the bad guy. I HATE that. I’m a pretty fun and silly teacher/director/choreographer and when I have to play tough guy, it makes me grumpy. BUT, and this is why I LOVE working with kids, today everything was different! It all finally came together and we felt like a team, a family, and I wanted to cry I was so happy. I put every single thing I have into my work and when my kiddos succeed, I feel like a success. When things go wrong, I take it to heart. Good or bad, I care immensely about what I do.

It’s funny, yesterday I said to John “I just want to quit. I want to choose a different career.” I was frustrated. I’ve been having a lot of frustrations that are more situational than anything else. But every time I start to feel exasperated and begin to think of other careers I could possibly pursue and still be happy–well first of all, I can never think of a single one, but second of all, something always happens that reminds me that I DON’T want to quit and that I absolutely love what I do. I just care so much that bad days are BAD days. Maybe one day I will chill the F out. Then again, this is me.

Well I have to be up in 7 hours to meet Kara for an other training one, so I guess that means it’s my bed time. I haven’t been sleeping well at all, and I’m not tired because I just got home less than an hour ago and I’m still all wound up from work, but maybe once I lay in bed, magic will happen and sleep will occur. Have a great night everyone!

PS: If you haven’t gotten a chance to read about my Whisked Away experience yet, it was pretty amazing and there are about a million pictures 🙂

What do you pack?

September 24, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning everyone!! Well, it’s Saturday which should be really exciting, except for the fast that my last day off was this past Sunday and my next day off is October 22nd. What did I sign up for again?? Oh yeah, when asked to work on two shows this fall for a theatre I love and a theatre I’ve been dying to work with, I said HELL YEAH! Not regretting it, but realizing that sanity will shortly become a thing of the past 🙂 Yes, I am kind of a workaholic.

So my question to all you wise people out there, is what the heck do you eat when you’re gone for 6-8 hours straight with no access to a fridge?! I’ve been living off this

I mean, those trail mix bars are delicious, as is the lemon zest Luna bar, and I love me some frosted mini wheats (these ones have fruit inside–YUM!) and fiber cereal, but it does not cut it at dinner. Last time my schedule was like this was during the dark carb-less days so I was essentially living off sugar free low carb protein bars and beef jerky. It was pretty disgusting. I need help because I am not someone who does hungry well–I get GRUMPY! And when you work with kids, that is especially bad. What foods travel well with no fridge?

On the plus side, before I left for my day yesterday, I had time to prep this delicious salad

And even more amazing, I had a legit 45 min break to come home and eat it! Filled with chicken, red fat feta, cherry tomatoes, red, yellow and orange bell peppers, carrots, romaine and a homemade honey mustard. It was the best thing I’ve eaten in a few days…until this morning! Stay tuned for BACON PANCAKES!!!

Penny Rae Vintage

September 10, 2011 · by Ari ·

We are taking a moment from normal posts about my life and recipes (but trust me, the french toast I just made will be coming ASAP) to give out shout out to one of the most amazing and talented women I’ve ever met. Melissa Rae has been one of the most important friends in my life since we met working at theatre camp together in 2005. She is a constant glimpse into the kind of person I hope to become someday. A few (I forget exactly how long) years ago she made a shift in her career and started her own fashion design company. I know it hasn’t been easy for her, but her designs are amazing and she works so hard and is just so talented. I cannot talk her up enough. To fully understand, you’d have to meet her in person. If you live in the STL I highly suggest trying to make that happen!

Anyway, it is an incredibly exciting time for her as one of her garments is featured in this month’s issue of PEOPLE MAGAZINE!!!! I’m so very proud of her and I cannot wait to get my butt to the magazine stand.

If you have a moment, check out her clothes, give her some love, and a shout out for this huge accomplishment. She is oh so very important to me.

http://www.facebook.com/pennyraevintage

Off to work, posts tonight about the super cute restaurant I tried last night and the super delicious french toast I created this morning. Happy Saturday!