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Thursday, 25 March 2010

Currently
Couples Retreat
By Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Faizon Love
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Running:
Monday completed 6.65 miles in 58:52. It was a good run, I worked at it but didn't kill myself. The weather was great, the wind a mere 12 mph and I had dressed properly, which all helped make the run a good one.
Today I did 8x800 (1/2 mile) on the treadmill with a target of 4:16 for each 800. I got 4:13, 4:08, 4:08, 4:09, 4:06 and 4:01, so I beat my goal each time. I'm speeding up!!
There is a 10k this weekend near my in laws (where we'll be). Not sure if I'll run it or not. Either way I have a 12 miler on the schedule so it might be a 10k + 6 miles.
April 10 there is a Pink Ribbon 5k at my alma mater (and where my sister attends). Cost is only $10 and includes a shirt and breakfast. I haven't ran a 5k in almost a year, so I'd like to see how it goes.
Food:
I made some good chicken the other night. I browned boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Then I mixed 2/3 cup ranch salad dressing, 1/3 cup mustard and 3 TBS brown sugar and poured over the chicken and let finish cooking. Very tasty!
Yesterday I went to the Happy Hog Café for lunch and was lured in by a pecan roll the size of my hand that was literally buried in pecans. It was probably the best thing I've ate in a really long time and I enjoyed every single bite.
Happiness is sharing a glass of milk and handful of tagalongs in bed with your hubby.
Somebody dumped out my green smoothie at work because they saw it in the fridge for a number of days and thought it was bad. Yes, it is in the fridge for a couple days because I bring a new one each morning and yes, it is green because it has spinach in it.
My oatmeal exploded in the microwave at work, so I got ½ a breakfast and had to clean out the microwave.
Other:
Yesterday it was sunny and 60, today it is cloudy, windy and 30 (feels like 18). This is why I live in Michigan, Summer and Winter shirts can be worn year around!
Brent spoke at the Teen Service last night at church. For about 40 minutes he had the attention of 130 teens and he rocked. I'm so proud of him!

Monday, 22 March 2010

Currently
Tonight
By TobyMac
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Yesterday I did something totally out of the ordinary for me. I went on a semi-spur of the moment trip to Toledo, Ohio for a concert! Hannah won 2 tickets to the Skillet and TobyMac: Awake Tonight tour. We tried to
figure out the logistics of having Brent drive us but not having a third ticket, so I encouraged her to go with a friend. Well, she ended up giving the tickets to Brent and me, so yesterday afternoon we headed down to Toledo. We stopped at Birch Run to have lunch at Tony's. Tony's is this sort of dive place where you can order bacon by the pound and get a 12 egg omelet! Brent got a bacon cheeseburger that was literally buried in bacon. We then did some wondering around the outlet mall before continuing south.

The concert was INCREDIBLE! Skillet rocked out with some crazy pyrotechnics and violinist and cellist that were anything but classical. TobyMac was also great, his band was so entertaining with beat boxing, break dancing and amazing vocals. Seriously, this concert was so great, anybody who thinks that Christian musicians are lame or boring, should catch this show, they rocked hard!

We got home about 2:15 this morning and poor Brent had to work at 7:30 am, so he got about 4.5 hours of sleep. I slept in until 8 am and slept about 2.5 hours in the car, so I'm faring much better.
Nothing else recently was nearly as fun, especially a 6 mile run I didn't finish and an 11 mile on Thursday that was the worst run of 2010. But if you want some great running/get a sweat going tunes, check out TobyMac and Skillet, they have a beat that keeps you moving!

Thursday, 18 March 2010

I'm terrible at posting. Let me explain why:

We don't have internet at home, on our cell phones and I can't access it at work. So that leaves me an hour a day at the public library. I typically write a post and email from my work address to my yahoo address so I can just copy and paste and post. But 1 hour of internet time goes fast when you've got emails to reply to, projects to work on, recipes to find and other things. So currently there are at least 3 posts in my email that just never made it to xanga. Sorry.

So here is what has been going on in the short version:
- Saturday the weather was windy, chilly and wet, so Hannah's and my 10 mile run was postponed to Sunday. Sunday it was still windy and we had to run in the dark. But we did it, 10.1 miles in 1:39:20 for about a 9:49 pace. That is 8 minutes faster than my 10 mile run last summer.

- My in-laws came over this weekend and we enjoyed steak, potato wedges and Tasty Treat to celebrate Dad D's birthday.

- We had friends over Tuesday night for dinner and games. I won in Settlers of Catan again. I'm now 2 * 0 against that couple and Brent.

- Today I'm running 11 miles after work. I'm taking advantage of the warm weather which will be gone by the weekend and more daylight after work. I'm running this by myself and am nervous about that.

- Garmy is not working AGAIN. I know people love their Garmin Forerunners but mine has never worked properly. So today I bought a bright orange digital watch/stop watch from Walmart for $7.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Hot:
- Faygo Rock n Rye pop (kinda like Cream Soda + Dr. Pepper mixed)
- Running in the sunshine
- My mom at Night Out For Ladies last night (she was looking really cute)!
- Husbands who do housework
- House of Hunan with my sisters for lunch
- Husband's dealership retaining their Cadillac franchise

Not:
- Husbands who wear their work shoes on the freshly deep cleaned carpet
- Trying to eat a turnover without getting pastry crumbs everywhere
- Finding out mid-run there are still too many icy patches on roads, rendering your carefully planned route useless
- Finding out that your husband's dealership retaining their Cadillac franchise from your boss who saw it on the news.
- Running half-marathons in your dreams and waking up sore and exhausted

Monday, 08 March 2010

Spring Cleaning

To celebrate the beautiful weekend weather, I cleaned on Sunday. Hannah came over and baked a wonderful blueberry crisp while I finished up the housework. We also took a walk to the local store for a few things; it
felt so luxurious to be walking outside in the sunshine with just a sweatshirt. Then I attacked the living room carpet with the deep cleaner. Brent moved all our furniture into the dining room which left barely a path to the kitchen and the only option for getting to the bathroom included walking across the couch. But I got the living room done and the carpet looks so much better! It was so nice to have a very clean house, sun streaming through the windows (a few windows were even open a crack) and fresh blueberry crisp cooling on the counter.

Saturday I did manage a run but had to go in the morning and it was only 7 degrees, not the nice 45 it was around 3 pm! Lately I'm been missing my running mojo, I want to quit mid run not because I'm tired, out of breath or sore but because I'm bored. It has been really tough as I train for a 25k to complete my runs and it has started to seem like a mega chore. Saturday's run wasn't much different but today's treadmill speedwork seems to have shaken me free. 3x1600 @8:48 (translation: 1 mile, 3 times, run in 8 minutes, 48 seconds) had me mentally whining the whole way to the gym. But once I got on the treadmill next to a very cute guy on an elliptical (aka Brent), it was no problem. I actually ran them in 8:42, 8:33 and 8:24 and though I was dripping in sweat at the end, it was a good run. No pain, a little out of breath but not bored. Lets hope I'm back!

Thursday, 04 March 2010

Sunny Smiles!

I love sunny March days! The piles of snow are shrinking even though the morning started out at a cool 5 degrees. In the car yesterday, with the sun beaming in, I cracked the windows*ahh*fresh air, its been so long! I also love how parking lots are once again becoming easy to traverse. I feel once in a parking lot this year and it hurt! Despite our maintenance man's best efforts, our parking lot at work has been very dangerous this year, there has been 1 broken knee cap, 1 broken ankle (both requiring surgery) and a fall that resulted in multiple broken ribs!

I'm also optimistic that the ice jam on our roof will melt! This year has been the worst winter for leaking on our porch (enclosed) even though Brent has done his best to keep the roof shoveled off. The only down fall is that we won't be able to know whether Baby's friend has been around once the snow melts. Baby LOVES to sit on the footstool by the window in our living room, push the curtain aside and peer outside. Well imagine our surprise when we noticed a pair of cat tracks in the snow that lead from the road right up to Baby's favorite window, seems like our cat has found herself a friend. Which is exactly the reason she remains an indoor cat!

Tuesday, 02 March 2010

This weekend was dominated by laughter and lack of sleep! Friday night and Saturday was spent with my sisters and we laughed so much! A contributing factor probably was the lack of sleep Friday night. Emily and I went down to FSU and spend the night in Hannah's dorm. Hannah and I started out sharing her twin bed, while Emily was on the love seat with the only blanket. About 4:30 am I got up to go the bathroom and noticed Emily sleeping on the tile floor so I claimed the love seat. I had no blanket but it didn't stop me from catching about 45 minutes of
sleep until I got cold and got a bath towel to keep me warm. Needless to say, when the alarm went off at 6:48 am for a 9 mile run, we shut it off and slept as much as we could before heading to breakfast.
Saturday we went to Grandma and Papa's for lunch (sloppy joes, orange salad and rhubarb dessert) and I got my taxes done (we owe ).
Sunday was more family time after Hannah and I completed a rough 9 mile run. Physically it was okay, but mentally I was struggling the whole time. Brent and I joined Mom, Dad, Emily and Hannah at Mom and Dad's
house for tacos and ice cream birthday cake. The food was delicious and we shared more laughs before everyone but me passed out in a food coma.

What sort of birthday goodies did I receive? A total of 3 cakes, cash, the book "Sparkling Gems in Greek" by Rick Renner, 2 cookbooks, a running tank and capris and 8 cards! I'm so spoiled!

A co-worker and I in the hallway between Stella and the shops!

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Birthday Time is almost here!

My plans for celebrating my 25th year include a 9 mile run, sloppy joes with Grandma, Papa, Hannah and Roo, getting my taxes done, being an usher at church and Fig Leaf Conspiracy.

But the celebrations kicked off in earnest today with a cake and card during our Managed Health Division meeting and lunch at Trattoria Stella in Building 50 at the Village at Grand Traverse. The Village is REALLY a cool thing, a bunch of businesses (retail, restaurants, wineries, bakeries, professional offices) are in the restored State Hospital Grounds. The State Hospital was a State Run Psychiatric Inpatient Hospital for a number of years. My favorite places in the Village are the Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery (breads), Underground Cheesecake, Sweet
Asylum (bakery), Cuppa Joe (coffee/food) and Gallery 50 (art). (hahaha, think I like food??) I highly encourage people to check this place out, with old brick walls, winding corridors, and iron gates instead of store doors, you know it is different than your average mall/shopping center.

I also had a little celebration with Brent's family a few weeks ago including funfetti cake, a new running outfit and camping accessories.

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Dawgs Rule!

The best part of the weekend was undoubtedly the Ferris vs Michigan State hockey game and alumni tailgate!
To say that Brent and I came out a head, would be correct. Normally tickets and parking would have been $37 total. But the tickets for the Alumni Tailgate were $40 total and included game tickets, parking, food and we both won door prizes (Brent got an Alumni Hoodie, I got an Alumni T-shirt). Brent also got me a FSU travel mug filled with hot chocolate

At first we were bummed our seats were on the opposite end from the Dawg Pound (cheering section) but after FSU scored 3 goals right in front us, we decided they weren't that bad at all!

Sunday I managed a very nice run! I was a little nervous since I was running by myself and was afraid lack of motivation and a crappy attitude would put the kibosh on things, so Saturday I mapped out a nice 8 miler but later on was bummed to see that most of the roads were too icy. So I headed out on Sunday with no route, no running buddy and no ipod (I can only handle 2 things on my ears at a time and yesterday headband and sunglasses won), just the fact I had 8 miles on my training schedule. I knew 8 miles would be about 1 hour, 15 mins or so, so that
was my goal time and I just ran. The weather was lovely and I had my new camelbak to keep me company. I was pretty happy with my time (1:22:43) and distance(8.5 miles) and even happier that my knee feels fine today!

Friday, 19 February 2010

Hot or Not?

HOT
- Zumba Class
- Pineview Discount Grocery (Almond Butter for $1.45/jar? Dried cherries for $0.85/bag? Yes please!)
- Shell Rewards that let you earn points on coffee even when you use your freebie coupon!
- The Fig Leaf Conspiracy by Jimmy Evans * A Bible study on sex and intimacy in marriage
- Wildberry Joint Juice

NOT
- Brent saying I need a new swimsuit because mine is faded and stretched out (maybe this is a "hot" because it means I'm losing weight??)
- The bathrooms at work getting cleaned only 3 times a week. And having 2 of the 3 bathrooms closest to you contaminated with blood and feces for 2 days. I'd rather take my chances with the corner gas station bathroom.
- Eating too many Newman's Own Ginger-O cookies. I have to remember that being organic doesn't make them a health food.
- Getting a letter from the census bureau stating that my census survey will be coming soon so please fill it out promptly. It cost how much to send that in a separate mailing? Come on Government!
What things are you currently enjoying? What things are currently annoying you??