Yikes!!!!

Has it really been that long since I've blogged?!  Geez...I better get on it.  So, what's been going on with us...here are some highlights.

January - My parents took the ENTIRE family to Florida and we spent a week playing in the sun.  I, of course, did not take any pictures.  Somehow, I've forgotten to bring my camera and to actually use it.  I know alot of people use their phones to take pics, but I really don't like how the pictures turn out on my phone.

February - Not a whole lot happened.  We pretty much just endured a Cache Valley winter and hoped for snow. Of course, it didn't snow, but we did keep hoping.

March - I think hibernation ended because our social calendar started to pick up.  We played games and had parties, and enjoyed our friends company.  Oh and we finished a very painful season of Jr Jazz.  Rylan's team was seriously awful.  He was the best kid on the team by FAR, but he couldn't make up for the complete lack of any sort of athleticism on his team. My dad came to a game and seriously asked if Rylan was on a special needs team.  That's how good his team was. On the last day of March, we planted our garden.

April - Soccer started up so we spent all of our Fridays and Saturdays at soccer games.  I ran the Salt Lake 1/2 marathon less than a week after the bombings at the Boston Marathon.  What a neat experience that was! Except for the pouring down rain.  I actually would do that race again.  Just the 1/2 though...not the full.

May - Rylan finished up his soccer season.  He and Tim started rock climbing lots. I was busy with lots of church stuff and I started working for Brooke and Travis.  I'm the girl who goes around and weeds on Tuesdays.  Oh and I ran the Ogden 1/2 marathon...in the pouring down rain.  Apparently, I need to learn that I can enjoy running in the rain.

June - I started off the month doing Little Red Riding Hood with my friend KeniaAnn.  We did the 60 mile option and had a blast.  I ran the Brother Brigham's 1/2 marathon in Brigham City.  I loved the course...lots of rollers. Tim did lots of volunteering for radio support at different events. Oh and I had a huge project to get done for our youth conference. I should probably do a separate entry on that experience.

July - July started off with the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15k.  I really like that distance.  Rylan's new soccer team "The Internationals" won the Cache Cup. Tim and I went to the Cache Valley Cruise-In and we've been doing lots of social stuff with friends.

I ran into a colleague from Illinois State the other day while out shopping for running shoes.  It's so funny to think of that "life" I used to have.  He asked how I was doing and all I could say was, "Great.  I absolutely know this is exactly where I'm supposed to be in my life.  I love it!"  While it's probably a boring life to some, I wouldn't trade it for anything else.  There is something to be said for living the life that you know you're supposed to be living and having that confirmed daily by the events that happen around you.

2012 Goals in Review

Wow...I haven't written on this blog since February...that's sad.  Actually, I think I've kind of gotten out of the habit of being online.  I rarely sit down at the computer unless it's absolutely necessary.  What a switch that's been since I was working and was in front of a computer most of my day.  Probably that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Anyways, since it's the last day of 2012, I thought I should look back at my goals and see what I've done with them.  I sucked this year!  I didn't accomplish a single goal that I set for myself.  That's a little depressing.  However, I did accomplish alot this year and I think that I should focus on that.  So, here's what we've been up to...since February.

Spring - Tim and I were just talking about how fast 2012 went.  He asked what we did.  I told him we spent the entire spring working on the Land Cruiser, getting it ready for Cruiserfest.  We literally spent as much time as possible from March until he left in June doing Land Cruiser stuff.  I also spent lots and lots of time on my church calling.

June - Tim went to Cruiserfest and actually won "Best Overland Cruiser" in the Show n' Shine.  Apparently, all our work and money paid off.  I went to Youth Conference in Salt Lake City.  I worked in our garden.  We grew corn, peas (which the dogs ate before we picked any), onions, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, pumpkins, zucchini, crookneck squash, miniature corn and maybe some other stuff.  It was a big garden.

July - Rylan went to Scout Camp for the first time and loved it.  He came home wearing the same clothes he wore the entire time he was there.  I'm pretty sure the clothes could have walked around by themselves at that point.  Kyra and I went to Girls Camp at Maple Rise.  It was BLAZING hot! I worked in our garden.

August - I canned lots and lots of green beans...like 100 quarts of green beans.  We made freezer jam.  I made salsa.  I have no idea how much we canned, but that's what I did all month long.

Fall - I don't remember what we did this fall.  Mostly we just were busy.  Tim's job has been swamped.  The kids were busy with soccer and swimming and life.  I started running again and remembered how much I love it.  I started going to the temple with some good friends every other week.  I had a girls weekend in Salt Lake in November.

Christmas was great.  My parents surprised us with a trip to DisneyWorld in January.  The kids are thrilled.  Christmas afternoon I started with the flu and was literally in bed for 5 days.  Not the best way to end the year, but hey, at least it's over and done with.

So, while I totally sucked at achieving my goals this year, I did accomplish quite a bit.  I'll take it and be glad to have a new start tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Popovers

Last time I made pancakes, I discovered a recipe in my Cooking Light cookbook for "popovers" that looked delicious and I've been meaning to try it and finally found time today.  The picture in the book looks scrumptious and I was hoping that I could pull off something similar.  I was especially excited to see that there was no yeast involved since yeast and I don't really work so great together.  I had never had a popover, but I will say that they definitely worked out and this is a repeat recipe.  I think they would be really great with soup.

Ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
1 c. milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 T. butter, melted
cooking spray
1 t. canola oil

Directions:
1. Combine flour and salt, stirring with a whisk. Combine milk and eggs in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk until blended; let stand 30 minutes.  Gradually add flour mixture, stirring well with a whisk.  Stir in butter.
2. Preheat oven to 375.
3. Coat muffin tin with cooking spray.  (The recipe said to brush canola oil evenly in cups to coat, but I didn't do this and mine worked great.) Place muffin tin in a 375 oven for 5 minutes. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.  Bake at 357 for 35 minutes.  Serve immediately.
**Don't open the oven door to peak at popovers, use the oven light.  Opening the door may cause them to deflate.**

 

My popovers rose great.  They taste pretty good.  I should mention that they're TOTALLY hollow inside...just in case you were expecting a flaky biscuit/roll texture.  I will definitely make them again, especially when we have soup.

Kona's Valentines Day Party

We have the very best vet/dog school EVER!  Last Thursday, Kona had a Valentines/Birthday party at Mountain View Vet.  As you can see, he got to wear a birthday hat and he actually did wear it.  There was doggy ice cream, pupcakes, and even games.  He did awesome with the other dogs and I think he had fun.  He sure did love the pupcakes and the ice cream, but I think that his favorite part was watching the other dogs play...oh and greeting the other dogs.  I think its pretty amusing when the other dogs walk under him to check under the hood.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day at our house was kinda fun and definitely interesting this year.  When we woke up, I gave Tim a card and reminded him that I didn't get him a gift.  He's SO hard to buy for because he always buys what he wants when he wants and I've tried doing the "cutesy" gifts and he just thinks they're lame, so this year I decided he could get a card.

However, he surprised me with some really great gifts!   I got this super cute workout shirt, which fits GREAT!  He said he thought I might want a new running shirt for the 1/2 marathon in May.

I also got this awesome North Face jacket.  I tried this jacket on weeks ago and really liked it, but couldn't justify buying it when I already have several jackets.  So, when I opened the box and found the jacket inside, I was totally surprised!  The jacket is warm and I love it!

After Tim pulled off a great Valentines gift, I felt like I needed to do something for him...more than a card.  I decided to make him a delicious dinner.  I hit Maceys and ended up with what I thought would be a great Valentines dinner. 

We started the evening off with a bottle of sparkling apple-blueberry juice.  I'm not a huge fan of sparkling grape or apple juice, but I have to say that the blueberries were amazing.  I even broke out our fancy glasses.

While the potatoes were cooking and the grill was warming up, I made our salad.  We were supposed to have everything ready at once, but we ran into some problems.  Our salad ended up being an appetizer.

At Maceys, I picked up some "chicken grillers" from the meat counter.  I asked one of the butchers how to cook them and he said, "Grill them for 15-20 minutes."  I asked if you flipped them and he said, "Yes."  So, while the mashed potatoes were cooking, Tim fired up the grill.  However, the grill didn't get warm.  He realized that the propane tank was empty, so he swapped that out.  Round 2...we put the chicken on the grill, waited 10 minutes, and then flipped them.  I should probably mention that a chicken griller consists of a bacon wrapped chicken breast stuffed with wild rice, mushrooms, and something else that I can't remember right now.  We pulled them off the grill and this is what they looked like...

Until I cut mine open and realized that there was raw chicken on the inside.  Round 3 on the grill...we cooked the chicken for another 15 minutes or so and then checked the inside with our meat thermometer.  Of course, my piece (because I cut it in half) was totally overdone.  Tim's was good, but also a little overcooked.

So, my nice romantic dinner was a complete disaster.  We would buy the chicken grillers again, but I think I would definitely check with a different butcher on the actual cooking method/time.  Oh, and I've pretty much decided that since I'm not doing so hot in the Valentines/romantic department, I'll just let Tim spoil me on Valentines Day.  :)

Downward Dog

For the past 4 weeks, I've been doing yoga at least once a week.  Sometimes, I even "get" to do it twice a week.  I'm learning to tolerate it and maybe even enjoy it, but I've learned that its WAY better to do yoga with friends.  Or Tim.  Or Kona.
 ,
Except that Kona thinks its really fun to bother me while I'm doing yoga.  I'm guessing its because I'm down on his level.  He licks me and tries to tip me over.  He tries to run under my legs and he has even laid down underneath me when I'm in a plank position.  He's a total clown, and I will admit that he does make me laugh while I'm trying to hold a half moon pose while he's leaning on me.  Anyone ever tried a half moon pose with a 120lb great dane leaning on them?

Anyways, the other night after my yoga workout, Kona decided he needed to lay on the yoga mat.  I should also mention that he does this often.  I guess its cushier than the carpet.  I thought that maybe I could get a picture of him doing "downward dog". 

Apparently, my camera is too slow, but this is what I came up with.

 

 So, if anyone is interested in a good, giant yoga buddy let me know.  I'll let you borrow him.  :)

 

P.S. Yes, Kona is as long as the yoga mat.   

Learning to Love the Treadmill

If someone would have asked me a month ago if I thought I might learn to enjoy a treadmill run, I'm pretty sure the answer would have been "NO WAY!" However, over the past month, I've learned to really enjoy my treadmill runs.  In fact, I've chosen to run on the treadmill instead of running outside multiple times.  That is something I never thought I would do.  Today, while I was running 7 miles on the treadmill in a really hot room, I started thinking about why I'm learning to LOVE the treadmill.

In the last couple of months, I've read a couple of articles in different magazines and online about the benefits of treadmill running.  The articles talk about improving form and cadence.  They also talk about monitoring effort and output and intensity.  I've thought about those articles and really, mostly I just thought they were relevant to professional athletes.  However, I think they may be right.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that they are right.

Here's what I've learned about loving the treadmill...

I push myself HARD on the treadmill.  I haven't had such great runs in years...literally years.  I'm fatter than I've been and I'm running faster than I have in years!  Today, my entire t-shirt was soaked...there wasn't a dry spot on it.  I'm pretty sure I could have wrung a cup of sweat out of that shirt.  I was running at puke pace with a smile on my face!  It feels SO good to push myself SO hard.

I can mentally challenge myself better on the treadmill.  I love the positive self-talk that rolls through my head when I'm pushing myself through some hard intervals. I love banking those hard runs and I'm certain that these mental challenges will absolutely pay off in my races.

I love the intervals I can do. There is something seriously cool and dare I say fun about bumping up the speed and pushing myself.  I think it's hard to run "a little bit faster" when I'm running outside.  I'm really loving the intervals.

I'm really getting into the numbers.  It's been great to see legitimate improvements in my runs and to especially see those improvements through actual data.  I'm running faster and my HR is staying the same, so I know my fitness is improving.  The numbers are definitely working for me.

How great is it that Tim and I can go running "together" and run at our own paces.  Tim and I do not run at the same speed, so running outside means that one of us has to run faster or slower to stay together.  When we're on the treadmill, we can run next to each other and do our own workouts.  Oh and Tim totally cheers me on and pushes me by reminding me of my goals, and yelling things out like "Bikini!"

When I'm running on the treadmill, I can totally focus on my running.  I don't have to think about dogs running out of yards or cars driving past me or stop signs and crosswalks.  I can totally get inside my head and pull things out of myself that I'm not sure I would pull out if I were running outside.

Mostly though, what I'm loving about these treadmill runs is that I'm running faster and harder than I have in a long time.  I'm totally feeling like a RUNNER again and I'm LOVING the feeling!