Race Recap

I did it!!!  I now have my second Half Marathon under my belt and feel amazing about it!  Unfortunately I didn’t feel amazing during the actual run, but more on that in a minute 🙂

We had a great weekend including Friday night going to visit Chad’s Mom and Grandma for his Grandma’s 87th Birthday!!!!  Pictures are to come….my camera battery is charging! 

Yesterday we went to the dog park and hit up a local Harvest Fest going on downtown, and then relaxed the whole day which was nice with my long day coming up today.

The alarm went off at 4:00 am this morning…Yowzers!  That should be illegal on a Sunday Funday!  After gathering all my stuff, Jennifer met me at my house at 4:45am and we were off.  We had about an hour drive and had to pick up our race packets before the race so we needed to hit the road early :(  Unfortunately the drive to the race was HORRIBLE!  It was still dark out (obvi) and it was SOOOOO foggy….seriously, I had to go about 15 MPH on the interstate!  I couldn’t even see 10 feet in front of me!  Thankfully we had plenty of time to spare so we just took our time and drove slow, but it was the worst fog I’ve ever had to drive in in my life!

But, we made it and picked up our packets.  I was thrilled because I LOVE race t-shirts….like seriously obsessed :)  It may or may not be the main reason I do races!  LOL  And thankfully this race shirt is AMAZING.  Sorry I can’t post pics right now because again, my battery is charging.  But it’s my favorite by far :)  It’s black and dri-fit = cute!!

As we were prepping by my car I got out my camera to have someone take a picture of Jennifer and I…..well, I soon realized that I forgot to CHARGE MY CAMERA!  What a bad blogger I am!!!  I was pissed!  Oh well….we were cute, cold, nervous, and excited…picture it 🙂

The gun went off at 7 am on the nose and we were off.  Miles 1-4 were okay….I felt alright but definitely hadn’t hit my groove yet so I couldn’t wait to get until 5 when I thought that would happen.  NOPE.  Honestly?  I didn’t hit my runner’s groove the whole race!  Mile 6-8 were probably the best, but again, not great.  There were 3 small hills along the course which I’m not used to at all so that was a little tough, but doable.  Around Mile 9 and 10 I seriously started to wonder if I could make it. 

Going into the race, I never once considered trying to beat my Half Marathon time from my first half in May (2:11:50) because our training runs hadn’t went that well and we felt really unprepared.  Plus, we were really just doing this for fun and to do a race together.  My bestie, Renee, had planned on running this race with me as well as another friend of ours, but they were both unable to so I was happy Jennifer was able to do it with me!!  Not only had Jennifer and I undertrained though, our longest training run was 10 miles (last time I did 13 as my longest training run).

However, around mile 8 or 9 we realized that we could actually surpass my last time and get a new PR!  We agreed to “kick it up a notch” around mile 10 and really book it for the last 3.1 miles.  Um yeah.  That didn’t happen.  Mile 10 came and went and my legs seriously could not move any faster!  I felt like crap and wanted to quit.  I told Jennifer that if I asked to stop and walk that she shouldn’t let me and she needed to push me to the end!  Around mile 12 I actually told her that if I passed out, to just leave me because I’d be okay and I’d see her at the end :)  I actually wouldn’t have been surprised if my legs gave out….I was that exhausted! 

Once I saw that we were averaging about a 9:15 mile for our last mile, I started sprinting because we were SO close to beating my PR!  We had 2 turns though and I kept expecting to see the FINISH LINE but I didn’t.  We kept looking at each other like WTF, it has to be here soon or we’re not going to make it!

Finally it was within site and about 100 yards away.  We decided to “sprint” to the finish, but the sprint at that point was more of a slow jog because our legs were jello!!!

We dashed to the finish line and held our breath at the time…we were super close to my PR but I wasn’t sure (keep reading!).  The finish line was very poorly organized though and you immediately had a LONG wait, standing in line waiting for food and drink.  We both though we were either going to puke or pass out just standing still for so long, so we went and sat and stretched and that was such a good idea!  I couldn’t even catch my breath at that point.  Thankfully 10 minutes later I started to feel human again so we got up and got shuttled back to our car (starting and finish line were different).

It was then that we decided a small shopping trip was in order and some lunch was needed ASAP!  We hit up Taco Bell (hey, we earned it!!!) and were on our merry way.  Driving a half hour home was not my idea of a good time but thankfully we had some interesting discussions on the way home 🙂 so the ride flew by!

I instantly checked our chip time on the internet when I walked in the door……we missed my PR by 26 FREAKING SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Our official chip time was 2:12:16.  On one hand I’m pissed that we pushed ourselves SO hard and were that close and didn’t beat my time!  There were a LOT of water breaks so if we had skipped one, we could have done it!  Or if we trained better, I would have blew my time away!!!!  On the other hand, I’m SO proud because honestly, I thought we’d have to stop and walk numerous times (but didn’t ONCE!!!) and I figured our time would be more like 2:20 or something.  So I guess it’s still great :)  I guess now I have something to shoot for at my Vegas half in December 🙂

Alright, I’m doing some much needed relaxing now and am headed to bed soon…..I have a long day ahead of me with work and then Bunco tomorrow night so I’ll be gone from 7:30 am – 9:30 pm :(  Not cool!  Thankfully I have Friday off though so I have that to look forward to!

Night all 🙂

JELL-O SHOTS!!!!

This has been a crazy, busy, tiresome week….but I’ll leave it at that :)  No need to bore you with boring details!  Let’s get on to the good stuff: JELLO SHOTS!  I promised last week that I’d give you guys more info on the jell-o shots that we made in syringes for the Brewer Game we went to.

• 2 packets of Jell-o (whatever flavor you’d like)
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 1/4 cup cold water
• 3/4 cup alcohol (whatever kind you’d like)
• Syringes

Boil 2 cups of water and pour over the two packets of Jello-mix.  Stir slowly and continuously for 2-3 minutes.

Add 1 1/4 cup cold water and 3/4 cup alcohol.  Stir for 30 seconds.  Have your syringes ready and start filling them by just sucking them up in the syringe.  Stir the jell-o mix every once in a while so the alcohol and Jell-o don’t separate.

Lay on baking sheet in fridge until firm (we left ours overnight).

**The syringes can be found at Fleet Farm!!  Cool, huh?

**The flavor combos we used were Pineapple Jell-o with Malibu Rum and Berry Blue Jell-o with Blue UV vodka… they both worked out really, really well.

If you try them, let me know how it worked!  Honestly though, they’re SO simple to make!!

Other than that, we have a pretty busy but fun weekend coming up.  Tonight after work we are going to visit Chad’s mom, her boyfriend, and Chad’s Grandma for his Grandma’s birthday!  We always have a blast with them so it should be lots of fun.  Tomorrow we have a relatively relaxing day.  They have a Harvest Fest downtown that we’ll probably go to and take Baylee to walk around, and possibly hit up the Farmer’s Market.  Then on Sunday it’s my Half Marathon!!!!  I seriously can’t believe it’s almost here already….it seemed so far away, but we are in the middle of September after all!  SHEESH, where does time go?

I am excited for the Half Marathon because then I’ll have 2 under my belt!  As I’ve mentioned though, we’re not going for a specific time or anything.  My running buddy, Jennifer, is doing it with me and we’re just excited to run a race together.  My long runs haven’t been going fabulous (i.e. more walking than I’d like) so it’ll probably be a slower half but that’s okay, we’re just doing it to have a great time!  The bad thing is we have to leave at 4:45 am on SUNDAY!!!!  Our race is at 7 am and we have an hour and 15 minute drive, and we also have to pick up our packets first because we aren’t able to get them ahead of time.  UGH, getting up at 4am on a Sunday should be against the law!!  😉

What do you have planned for this weekend??

My Perfect Weekend

My idea of a perfect weekend includes: doing something fun, relaxation, football, and baking…and this weekend included ALL of those things!!  🙂

Friday I had to work until 6 pm so we didn’t really do much besides supper and relaxing.  Saturday we woke up bright and early so I could take Baylee to the dog park and Chad could go to the gym.  After that we drove to where Chad’s dad lives so we they could go golfing! 

I’ve only golfed twice in my life and HATED it…it is such a frustrating sport to me!  I actually hit the ball at one hole yesterday and after missing the ball a handful of times and hitting it in the water 3 times, I quit!!!  LOL

The course  we went to was seriously adorable.  It’s out in the country and it’s actually an old farm that they turned into a golf course!

I’m currently trying to talk my parents into doing the same thing with their farm when they retire :)  Yes I hate golfing but a) it would make their son-in-law (aka Chad) VERY happy and b) I just think it’d be cool!!  😉

Chad and I with the GORGEOUS day of weather!

I just got a new handheld water bottle for running (which I LOOOOOOOOOOVE) and thought taking it along golfing would be the perfect opportunity since it was 80*+ outside and we were walking the 9 holes.

Again, I LOVE it and it is my new obsession!!!  It is so comfortable and grips so well that you don’t even have to really hold it!  The link can be found here!  Seriously, best thing ever!  I can’t wait to use it on walks, roadtrips, and RUNS!  (P.S. I also used it on our 8-mile run this morning and loved it just as much!!)

Chad and his dad:

GORGEOUS!!

 

After golfing, we went back to his dad’s house for some Beanbag Toss and a cookout.  We just got a new set of baggo boards from a friend….of course they had to be Milwaukee Brewers!!!  :)  Aren’t they cool?  One is blue and one is white.

Chad and his dad unfortunately kicked everybody’s butt :(  4 games in a row!

Chad and I partnered up for a round though and actually dominated!!!

We had to head back early because Baylee had been in the crate all day, plus I needed to head to bed so I could get up early before my last long run before my Half next weekend!

Jennifer and I met early this morning and did 8-10 miles I’d say…we’re not quite sure because we didn’t have a Garmin and took a different route than normal.  It went okay….I taped my foot with athletic tape (per Jennifer’s recommendation) and it worked like a charm!!  Thanks Jen ;)  I was finally blister free!  I did still have to walk more than I liked though.  Oh well.  We’re just doing the Half next weekend for fun and not really for a PR so I’m okay with that.  I also finally got to meet her dog, Izzy.  I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before or not, but I am seriously OBSESSED with Great Danes!!  :)  I couldn’t wait to meet Izzy!  She is SO tall!  LOL  She’s actually a “small” great dane at only 90+ pounds, but she seemed so big compared to Baylee.

I love her big long nose!  I’m so used to Baylee’s short muzzle :)  I LOOOOVE big dogs!  To me, the bigger the better.  It’s my mission to one day have a huge Great Dane :)  Chad says he won’t ever get anything but a Boxer though so we shall see.

I also made AMAZING muffins today!!  I was talking with a Weight Watcher friend yesterday who for breakfast, always just has a low WW Point muffin and some yogurt.  What she does is just make a cake mix and only uses water, and then makes it into muffins.  That’s what I did and just kind of altered them.

SUNRISE MUFFINS

• 1 box of Banana Cake mix
• 1 Banana (mashed)
• 1 cup pumpkin
• water (I think I used around 2 cups or so…just add until moist and the right consistency)
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 1/4 cup of ground flaxseed (!!)

Place in muffin tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean (around 22 minutes for me).

These are SO delicious and moist!!!!  Definitely a keeper!!!  And only around 86 calories each so even better – delicious AND healthy.

We’re having some peeps over tonight to watch the Packer vs. Bears game so I also threw some PB and Chocolate chips in some to make them even fancier.

All day since the run I’ve just been cleaning, napping, baking, watching football, and laundry.  LOVES IT!

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well and are going back to work tomorrow rested and refreshed!

Almost time for us to watch The Packers beat The Bears!!!!

GO PACK GO

And the secret is…..

Like I mentioned last week, an unexpected opportunity came up that Chad and I just can’t pass up……and I suppose it’s time to let the cat out of the bag.  We are (hopefully) going to VEGAS!  Vegas has definitely been on our “must visit” list for awhile now, but we’ve had some awesome opportunities to go out of the country on our last few trips (Riviera Maya, Mexico and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic) that Vegas kind of got pushed aside.  We’ve always wanted to go to see what the hype is about but haven’t rated it as the #1 must see on our list until now 🙂

My college roomy is going to Vegas with her sibs in December and they’ve asked us to tag along.  I ADORE her so much and her family is awesome as well, so we knew it’d be the perfect group to go with!  We kind of surpassed our trip budget this year though (thanks to me and needing to go to Seattle and Boston this summer), hence why I’m doing everything I can to help us save money (i.e. ask you guys for advice) so that we can afford to go.  Don’t get me wrong, Vegas is one of the cheapest vacays out there, but money doesn’t grow on trees!

Also, I’m sure you’d all like to know, that the main reason they’re going in December is for something you may have heard of….a Rock n’ Roll Marathon!!!!!  Yes, the Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon is December 6!  Keebs (my college roomy), 2 of her siblings, and some various family members are all running the Half Marathon and wanted to make a trip out of it.  I’ve decided to do the Half with them and it’ll be my 3rd half (for newby readers, I did my first Half in May and my second will be in 2 weeks!). Now, to elaborate….

I actually decided a couple weeks ago that I was going to go crazy and try for the Full Marathon….with where I’m at in my training, December was the perfect time to attempt a Full, and what better place to do it than Vegas?!?!?  Right?  Well after a crappy run on Monday, and some long, hard soul searching, I’ve basically decided to forgo my dream of running a Full Marathon.  With my knee/joint history I knew a full marathon probably wasn’t the best choice, but I was feeling good and I knew that this is probably the only time in my life when I’ll have the energy and time to train that much.  Well after Monday’s crappy run, I decided it wasn’t worth the toll on my body.  My joints esp in my knee but also my ankles have been mega sore lately which is also what happened after I trained for my half marathon in May.  After walking around like an 80-year old Monday afternoon, I figured it just isn’t worth it.  I said it before and I’ll say it again – I don’t love running, I love how I feel after running and the fact that it keeps my body in great shape.  I do really like going out for a 3-6 mile run, but that’s really it.  I think part of it is that we’re so crazy busy on weekends that trying to squeeze in a 2+ hour run every Saturday morning is just taking it’s toll and I’m worn out.  Plain and simple.  And that’s the mental aspect of it.  The physical aspect is that I’m realizing that I shouldn’t probably even think of running a Full anyway with the condition of my knee (i.e. no cartilage in my right knee so aka my bones rub together when I run).  If I can’t walk when I’m 50, or need knee replacement when I’m 35, it’s definitely not going to be worth it.

I’ve tossed this notion back and forth in my head for months and months now….and don’t get me wrong, I’m still not 100% in my decision!  SO, if 2 months from now I announce that I’m going to do a Full marathon, don’t holler at me or be surprised :)  BUT, for now, I’m listening to my body and taking it easy so that my body can act like the 27-year old body it is and not the 80-year old body it probably would have felt like if I had decided to do the Full.

PLUS, I need to keep reminding myself that I’ve walked 2 Full Marathons!!  This may sound easy, but trust me, it’s not!  I’ve heard from people that have both walked and ran full marathons that walking one is actually harder because of the time it takes to do it!  7-8 hours of continuous walking is NOT easy people!  So, technically I’ve done 2 Full Marathons and you guys might need to remind me of that every now and then :)  Would it be wrong for me to sport a 26.2 sticker on my vehicle??  LOL

So…there you have it!

I LOVE the fact that so many of you like the jello shot in a syringe idea!!  :)  I have the “recipe” at work so I will post it for you guys tomorrow night!!  It’s a keeper, for sure :)  Chad joked that we should make a ton and just keep them on hand, LOL.  They’re SO easy and SO yummy!

Question of the Day: Have you ran a full Marathon?  Walked a full Marathon?  If not, do you want to or do you think you ever will?  ***Hopefully all of you answer no to those questions so that I don’t get my marathon fever back, LOL***

Go BREWERS!

Sorry about my very delayed post…I meant to type this up Sunday but honestly?  I’m still recovering!  Let’s just say it was a very long (but felt short), but fun weekend!!

First of all, THANK YOU so much everyone for all your money saving techniques and ideas!  I received some great comments and emails from you guys with some amazing tips and I will probably utilize almost every one of them, so THANK YOU!  I’ll tell you all more about it later this week once I have more details…until then you’ll have to wait in suspense!! 

Weekend Recap

Friday morning I got up bright and early and went out for a 5-mile run.  We were busy all weekend and I couldn’t get my long run in until Monday, so I knew I had to do at least 5 miles.  I had to be home by 6:45 to get ready for work though and by the time I got up, let Baylee out, and was out the door, I only had time for 5 miles….but I have to remind myself, that’s more than 90% of people run in their lifetime so I’m doing good :)  lol  Friday night a friend came over to make JELLO SHOTS for our Saturday festivities 🙂

Did you guys know you can make jello shots in syringes????  SOOOO convenient!  And much less mess!

Blue and Yellow for the Brewers 🙂

We proceeded to head to bed at 9:30 on a Friday so we could get plenty of rest for the BIG DAY!  Saturday morning we left around 7:15 to go to breakfast with 4 other friends.  We were doing a Brewers bus trip for a surprise 30th birthday party for one of the guys, and we told him we were doing breakfast and golfing.  At breakfast we surprised him and told him about the trip!!!  He was SO surprised and SO excited.  Milwaukee is about a 3-hour drive for us so riding on a bus in style is SO much better….plus, then you don’t have the 3-hour drive home and you can drink ;)  I may have taken that to heart…  lol

I may have been a total picture whore that day….maybe….

And then we arrived at Miller Park and did about 3 hours of tailgating!  It was a GORGEOUS day, about 78* and SUNNY!

Me with the Birthday Boy!!  (for those of you that met my friend Renee in Boston, this is her awesome husband, Justin!!)

I loved one of our friend’s Brewer Shirts so I made him trade 😉

 

On the way to the game we found a skidsteer that we had some fun with 🙂 Unfortunately the pics aren’t turning out 😦

And then it was time for the game with more shenanigans 🙂

I love how Renee and I are posing for a pic and Justin’s totally stealing my margarita!!  lol

 

There are MANY, man y more pics but not blog appropriate 😉 so you’ll have to check out my Facebook pics!!  LOL

We got back around 11:30 pm so it was a LONG but FUN day!!!!  Honestly?  One of the funnest Brewer games ever :)  We decided we are going to make it an annual trip!  We had to head to bed though because the next morning, we had to hit the road again to visit our cousin and Godson!

Isn’t he the cutest thing?  (oh yeah, Thomas is cute too!!!  ;)  )

I even got to play mommy and take him for a walk in the stroller ;)  He’s blonde like me so I totally could have stole him and no one would have questioned it!

They have a boxer too so we took Baylee for a puppy play date 😉

SOOO pooped!

We got back around 9 or so and proceeded to head to bed almost right away..I was still so tuckered out from Saturday’s party!

Monday morning I headed out for my weekly long run.  I’m not going to lie.  It sucked.  Bad.  I think there were a number of reasons why:

• It was a Monday so my brain/schedule were out of whack because I always do my long runs on Saturday
• I didn’t have coffee like usual
• I had to run alone – I’m now spoiled with my running buddy, Jennifer!!
• I didn’t want to be running for 2 hours on a HOLIDAY/day off
• It was freaking hot outside
• I was STILL tired from Saturday

Excuses?  maybe…but it sucked.  I did 9 miles but walked almost half of it!  With my Half Marathon only 2 weeks away, that made me a little nervous but whatever.  I’m sure I’ll do fine, I just know I won’t beat my time from my Half in May.  Oh well.  Jennifer and I are doing it together so it’ll be a blast no matter what!!  🙂

The rest of the day Monday we did absolutely nothing!  Okay, I took a 3-hour nap in a lawn chair outside (in the shade) and tried reading some of my book (The Time Traveler’s Wife!!) but other than that, nothing.  And get this, I’m STILL tired today!  Wow, I’m not 20 anymore, haha!!!

Alright, on that note, I need to hit the sheets….we just got a new mattress and it is HEAVENLY so luckily I have that to look forward to.  It was much needed – our old mattress just wasn’t doing it for me!

Money saving tips needed PLEASE!

So….an opportunity has presented itself to Chad and I and I need your ideas.  Sorry, I don’t want to discuss details until we have a chance to talk about it further, and Chad’s gone tonight so that probably won’t happen until tomorrow!  BUT, the one thing standing in our way is money.  Between my recent trips to Seattle, Boston, new fan/light, new mattress we just got (TODAY!!!!!), etc, cash is not coming out of our ears, let’s just put it that way!  And I KNOW we can save up enough money for this little opportunity I’m talking about. 

Thankfully, I’m married to a man with a minor in Accounting and who is very, VERY good with money!  So I know we can do this!  The big spot where we know we can save is groceries.  We spend $500 a month on average and there are only 2 of us!!!!!  When we really watch things, we can keep it down to $300-$350.  SO, for the next few months, my goal is to spend under $300 a month, which isn’t easy but I know it can be done.

So I need all of your ideas!!!  What are your best tips and tricks to save money on groceries???

Push Up Challenge

Happy September!  WOW, can you believe it’s already September??  To me, September means Fall: leaves changing, colder temperatures, football, and warm comfort foods!!  ;)  We made a big crockpot full of chili today to ring in the new season!

This year, September also brings new challenges.  I’ve been trying to think of something to do, and after talking to Caitlin in Boston about push-ups, I decided to start a Push Up Challenge.  This website says it can have you doing 100 push-ups (!!!!) in 6 weeks?!?  I don’t know how faithfully I’ll follow the program exactly, but I am going to give it a shot!  I can only do 4 (yes I’m a weakling apparently) REAL push-ups, so anything will be a vast improvement, right?  ;)  I’d love to do 15 or 20 by the end, and I’d be satisfied.

Anyone want to join??

OH!  Guess what?  I lost my Camelbak water bottle this weekend!!!  I took it along to an event we went to, and I left it behind on a picnic table!  I was so bummed…I never thought of it until we were back home.  SOOO bummed!  The pink one is now on my wish list in case anyone would like to buy me one 🙂

RIP Camelbak!

To make up for it though, I did get my camera back this weekend so I was thrilled about that…I felt so weird not having it for a week!  That also means I now have the pictures of my parents’ corn roast.  They first soak the corn in salt water for a few hours, and then throw it on a HUGE grill!

 

And then once it’s done, you put it in an old cooler to stay hot!  Ingenious 🙂

Seriously…….SO good!  I think Chad had like 13 cobs 🙂

I HATED growing up on a farm when I was little.  I felt like I missed out on everything because all of my friends lived in town.  But now that I’m older, I really cherish all my childhood memories and really believe that I had one of the best childhoods ever!  How lucky was I to be with my mom and dad 24/7 until I went to school, grow up with animals galore (cows, chickens, LOTS of kitties, dogs, and various vermin in the meantime)…nothing beats a farm life and now I truly realize that!

Some of my parents’ silos 🙂

Also this weekend, I want to give a shout out to Chad’s mom and her boyfriend!  He GRACIOUSLY came and fixed our light/ceiling fan this weekend after I…ahem…fried it!  I put a 75 wattage light bulb in our old light fixture and low and behold, it fried the whole unit AND the switch!  $250 later, we have a new gorgeous light :)  Thanks Paul!

On the food front, I tried a new yogurt yesterday.

I was a little nervous to try it on it’s own, so I poured it over a cup of pineapple and topped it with 1/4 cup granola.

This was amazingly GOOD!!!  Really, really good!  I would buy this again and again!  Definitely recommended.

This morning to get in the fall mood, I made a healthy, breakfast-y version of peach cobbler.  I made some oats in the crockpot ahead of time, then topped it with a cup up fresh peach and some Oikos Honey yogurt…

This was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!!!!  I can’t wait to do this again!  The peaches lately have been great so I hope to have this again real soon!

And, last but not least, after a great supper of baked tofu, mixed veggies, and sweet potato fries, I was good to go!

 NEWSFLASH: I need to make tofu more often!  SO cheap, SO tasty, and SO healthy – now there’s a win-win!

Baylee Pic Of The Day

Baylee likes to lay in the doorway of the kitchen while I’m cooking :)  What a cutie!

Today was my first day in a while getting up before the crack of dawn.  My schedule lately has worked out that I’ve either worked out at lunch or after work, so getting up at 5:30 was TOUGH today, especially when I realized it was still pitch black outside.  And cold.  I got up though and did an interval 40-minute workout on the treadmill and felt amazing afterwards.  I also went to the gym at lunch to do 35 minutes of strength training so it was a great fitness day!!  It feels so great getting both cardio and strength in – I just felt STRONG all afternoon!

Alright, it’s been a long day so it’s bedtime for this chick!  ‘Night 🙂

Need…sleep…now…

I’m SO sorry I haven’t shown you guys any lovin’ these last couple of days!  ‘Twas a very busy weekend (again) and I had to work until 6pm tonight, so once I got home, cooked supper, cleaned, etc, it’s after 9 and I need rest ASAP!  SO….I’m declaring tonight “Go To Bed Early” night!!  I promise to check back in tomorrow with some great stuff :) 

I Love You, Man

OH MY GOSH!!!  We just got done watching the movie I Love You, Man.  HILARIOUS movie!!!!  I was laughing hysterically the entire time and my stomach actually hurt by the end of the movie!  Seriously, if you haven’t already seen this, run to your nearest video store and rent buy it NOW!!!!

Starbucks Overload

  Whew, what a busy and crazy and FUN couple of days I’ve had!!  :)  I am sooo happy tomorrow is Friday though.  We have a lot of fun stuff coming up this weekend so it can’t come fast enough!

I loved knowing that I’m not alone when it comes to the Trader Joes Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels!!!  Talk about a trigger food!!  You know what else is a trigger food for me?

I just can’t stop at one serving!!

What are your trigger foods??

On another food front, I got to try another goodie from the Healthy Living Summit swag bag!!  Have I mentioned that bag ROCKS???  Finally our kitty, Cashmere, decided she wanted to be a camera hog too 🙂

This baby was really good!  And very filling!  It had a yummy chocolate exterior so you can’t go wrong ;)  I would definitely get these again!

Just to show you how little sleep I got Tuesday night and how busy my day was yesterday, it was definitely a twice/day Starbucks kind of day!  First up?  Grande Skinny Caramel Latte…nothing beats it!

In the afternoon I decided to try Meghann’s suggestion of a Grande Unsweeted Passionfruit Iced Tea…I think I said that right 🙂

I really liked it!!  It was extremely refreshing!!  It basically tasted like unsweet fruit juice.  I’ll admit it, I’m a sweet chick (no pun intended, HA!) so I did have to add 1/2 packet of Equal.  So good though!  Thanks, Meghann 🙂

OH YEAH!!!!!  I almost forgot to tell you guys!  I finally registered for the Fox Cities Half Marathon on September 20th!  I’ve been planning on doing it for months, but my 2 friends that were going to do it with me are now unable to :(  So I was holding off b/c I really wanted to try and find someone to do it with me!  Jennifer, my new running BFF, graciously agreed so we registered before it had a chance to sell out!  I am pumped!!!  I had wanted to do the Madison Mini-Marathon this weekend but it sold out before I could register, so now I’m paranoid!

So tonight, my friend Jess and I gave making Kombucha Tea a shot!!!  I’ve heard so many things about all the benefits it has so I couldn’t wait to make it.  It has to ferment a week in the cupboard though (?!?!?) so unfortunately I can’t give any reviews yet.  But it’s…..interesting so far.  You have to get a live “mushroom” to make it!  To me it looks like a huge ham patty :)  LOL 

Um yeah….Chad was SUPER freaked out when he saw this in the fridge!  He was totally grossed out as well knowing there was a live organism taking up residence in our fridge!!  haha  Personally, I think it’s cool ;)  I can’t wait to tell you more about it next week!!

While making the tea, we decided to make Panini’s with Jess’ new Panini Maker!  YUM!  The kitchen was full of panini supplies

because we couldn’t decide what we wanted to make – the possibilities are endless!  We’re huge cheese fans (duh, we live in Wisconsin!!) so the cheese was oozing out the whole time :) 

They were SO delicious!  A Panini Maker is definitely on my “want list”!  Hint, Hint Chad 🙂

I think Baylee was pooped from watching us work like madwomen in the kitchen!  AW!

*YAWN* I think it’s time for bed!  I plan on doing a Body Bugg review either this weekend or early next so stay tuned!!!  Have a fab night everyone 🙂