My schedule has been changing so much that it’s hard for me to stay focused–and since this blog is important to me, I try to incorporate it into my daily life without letting it take over. Last night is a great example…My bible study took a little detour to Leaves-n-Beans Roasting Co in Peoria Heights before our session.

I hadn’t been to L-n-B in about 10,000 years and since I don’t really drink coffee, I didn’t have a reason to go…of course my opinion has now changed. I mean, talk about charming.

I had to get a couple pictures of the place before I browsed the drink menu.

What other place do you know that has a giant painted oak tree with little nests full of happiness, I mean cups of coffee and tea?

A cozy fireplace and giant bags of coffee beans? Swoon!

We made our way through the little coffee/tea house up to the counter to place our orders…but first Monique stopped for a handful of peanut M&M’s.

If you were curious, Tina is checking to see if she has some cash in her back pocket–you pervs.

The menu was pretty big…lots of choices, even for us non-coffee drinkers.

But they also had a little pour-your-own station..

My strawberry fruit smoothie was awesome…I got a small and I felt like it was huge–I couldn’t finish it all. Allison got an iced coffee and sucked it all down by the time bible study was over.

And if you wanted to know what I look like while drinking a smoothie and taking a picture, here you go:

And as a tradition here on TP the Town, I got a group shot of my fellow TP-ers outside the local establishment.

Allison was working on her supermodel pose in this picture…and I clearly missed the purple memo.

Leaves-n-Beans had a great atmosphere–I could see myself going there to do some homework (except that I’m done with school) or catch up with an old friend. I really need to become a coffee drinker and these trips to places like L-n-B and Joe’s won’t be so weird for me.

So I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to be doing tonight–there are a few ideas up in the air. But I know for sure that tomorrow I will be at the Steamboat race! I’m so pumped about it…minus the being-at-the-race-at-6:45am-on-a-Saturday part. It will be worth it.

Have a great weekend!

TP

Psst! I actually spent money last night:

Small strawberry fruit smoothie: $3.50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know how awful my week has been? No? Ok, well we can talk about that later. Last night I needed to chill and since I didn’t really have anything on the agenda for TP the Town (yet ANOTHER freakin’ long meeting which interfered with a blogging activity) so my parents brought it to my attention that a lunar eclipse was happening last night and that we should all kick it in theirhot tub and watch it all go down. I guess I didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be able to view it here in North America nor would there really be anything to look at–whatever, any excuse to get in the hot tub on a cooler summer evening was good enough for me. So we headed out to our Lunar viewing digs.

We even brought Barn for the party!

Clearly he isn’t much of a party animal.

The deck looked pretty sweet though…

Note to self: Get a camera that takes better pictures at night.

And of course, we had to get a picture of each of us in the Lunar viewing party.

Nerds much? You can thank my mom 🙂

Annnnnd we were done.

Anyway, clearly we truly had no intentions of staying out in the hot tub to “watch” the Lunar Eclipse, but it did give me something to write about today! Win! Also I wanted to mention that as I was talking to my dad about this post, he said “Well I don’t want people thinking they can just pop over to our house whenever they want to get into our hot tub.” I assured him that none of you would do so–but if you want to, hit me up 😉

I promise that my “event” tonight is legit–none of this fake lunar eclipse and excuses for sitting in our hot tub to have something to write about.

See ya, P-funk!

TP

Psst! This was free–unless you count buying a hot tub as a cost.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been eating my way through this blog–so I decided to nix that habit and get my blood pumping. Luckily, my friend Rose (yes, the same Rose who has made several guest appearances throughout this blog) is an aerobics instructor at Body Fitness in Peoria! Rose had mentioned to some of us at our office that we should come to her class so I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to bust some moves (I’ve got sweet rhythm…you should see me at weddings) and break a sweat. I knew my girl Emily would also be up for the challenge…and I say challenge because word on the street was that we may or may not have needed to know how to pop-n-lock it.

Since Rose only teaches this class every other Tuesday, I know I didn’t have a ton of opportunities to attend…so we went last night after work. Body Fitness is only about 10 minutes away from where we work and is in a fairly central location in Peoria. Easy access, folks!

When I walked in, I didn’t know what to expect–I guess I was thinking it was going to be more of a dance studio than it was a gym. I was mistaken. This gym is a little smaller than what I’m used to (I’m looking at you, RiverPlex) but it was super clean and had a ton of awesome machines. Basically this little gym packs a huge punch.

(sorry that’s not the world’s most clear photo ever taken)

So we headed to the back of gym to the dance studio.

Holy wide open spaces! I wanted to do cartwheels and backflips and spin in circles–I refrained because there were people there who didn’t know me and I didn’t want to scare them off.

So Emily and I explored the studio while Rose got set up for her class…through our exploring we learned that the Jonas Brothers used Body Fitness’s gym to practice a few time–WHAT!? Did Rose know that I secretly love the JoBros????

Since I knew my BF Joe Jonas was watching over me, I knew I had to dance my absolute BEST!

Anyway, back to the blog–Rose was busy getting her headset ready…

Notice her sweet kicks? Yep, those are her new shoes from Running Central!!

Right before Rose was all ready, Emily and I got a pre-workout pic.

So that was the last picture of the evening. I didn’t take pictures throughout the workout because that would be really weird. Just imagine me out of breath with awesome sweaty hair and Emily with a beat red face :). Rose did a fantastic job of quickly teaching us some dance moves for each of the songs while also incorporating tons of cardio moves. My favorite dance track was California Gurls by Katy Perry and my other favorite was the arms track–I don’t remember what the song was because my arms were ON FIRE the entire time and I was too focused on how much pain I was in.

Rose definitely kicked my butt last night–literally, my bum was feeling tight and sore this morning!

Emily and I both really enjoyed our visit to Body Fitness. I really like that they have so many different types of workout classes that are dance focused–I think that’s really different from what other gyms in the area offer. We talked about coming back to take Rose’s class again which I could definitely use this summer!

A huge thank you to Rose for being an awesome instructor and just a pretty sweet person overall!

I’m excited about tonight’s activity–nope, I haven’t even TP’d the Town yet! Lunar eclipse, here I come!

See ya, dudes!

TP

Psst! Em and I got a comp pass for the class… but if anyone wanted to take the class it $10 (SO WORTH IT!!)

Well since I wasn’t able to hit up Lou’s 2 weeks ago….I had every intention of going to Lou’s Drive-In over my lunch hour with some friends–oops, I forgot that I had to attend a FOUR HOUR MEETING from noon until 4pm. So I convinced my adorable parents to hit up Lou’s with me for dinner. They graciously accepted and I secretly knew that this would be another blog post that I wouldn’t have to pay for. Win!

Anyway, my parents and I loaded up my car (psh, they made ME drive) and headed off to Peoria to visit Lou’s Drive-In for dinner.

As soon as we pulled up, our carhop came right to our window and handed us menus. After perusing the menu for about 2 seconds we decided what we wanted. My dad ordered the tenderloin basket (which included the sandwich, fries and a rootbeer), my mom got a cheeseburger and I got a double cheeseburger basket (my mom and I shared the fries and we each got our own rootbeer.) Apparently the rootbeer was a MUST TRY item on the menu–it’s homemade! So after we ordered, I got a chance to take some pictures of Lou’s as well as catch up on my Drive-In etiquette–like turning off your headlights and only turning them on when you need the attention of the carhop. Anyway, here are some pictures of Lou’s

It’s pretty much your all American drive-up! So old skool.

And then I came back to the car for a photo-op

(those are my parents, if you were curious)

(and that’s me–a really attractive picture of me, might I add)

And finally after a little bit of waiting, we got our food!! So naturally, we cheers’d with our rootbeers and dug in.

We didn’t get any pictures of our actual food–imagine juicy cheeseburgers and a crispy tenderloin…And whoever told me that I HAD to get the rootbeer (I think it was my dad) was right–it was awesome! We drank it all up.

Isn’t that window-latchy-tray thing awesome?

And we were done after our dinner? Nope! We’re Pizzuti’s and we’re bottomless pits. We ordered some fresh popcorn to go for the ride home.

The popcorn was a perfect treat for the ride home and a great “dessert” to our meal.

I loved Lou’s because I feel like it’s one of the only true drive-in’s left in the area. It was also great spending time with my parents and although we just ate cheeseburgers, going to Lou’s felt more like an experience rather than just another place to eat dinner. My mom and I want to come over our lunch hour just for the popcorn and rootbeer.

Thank goodness I had a more active TP the Town activity tonight to help me burn off that double cheeseburger. Stay tuned!

TP

Psst! This adventure wasn’t free–that would be called stealing

Tenderloin basket: $5.85

Cheeseburger: $3.65

Double cheeseburger basket: $6.00

1 Rootbeer (the other 2 were included in the baskets): $1.50

Medium popcorn: $2.15

Total: $19.15 (although Mike and Linda paid for me…except I did drive and gas ain’t cheap)