Gobble gobble!

I am just in LOVE with how pumpkin cute this is.

I'm going to be completely original out here in Bloglandia (read: not at all) and wish all my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving.

Everyone else is still asleep, and I am finishing up making my Jalapeno Popper Dip to take to my in-laws' house after I return from the annual 6 mile Turkey Trot.

Race-wise, I'm hoping to maybe make a slight PR because I think I'm around the same level as I was last time I ran it in 2011. My goal is to try and hold a 8:20 min/mile pace. Eep! Seems so pumpkin fast! (anyone else hear that amazingly funny AM/PM commercial? Mike and I have effectively found the best replacement modifier for the F-bomb)

To prep for my race, I ate my traditional PB+J, holiday-style. Dave's Killer Bread+PB+Pumpkin Butter. I also drank the best holiday coffee combination in the world!

 

Egg Nog Latte >>>>> Pumpkin Spice Latte. Forever and ever.

I am so thankful that this year I get to spend Thanksgiving at home and not at work. It's this little one's first Thanksgiving (this was taken when I was FaceTiming her on one of my breaks. She is puzzled and excuse the derp face on my part):

But WHY is my mommy IN the phone?

And although my little man is at his dad's for the holiday, I am so glad that I will be seeing him on Saturday!

Now it's time to get my Turkey Trot on. Have a great day!

A brief haiku.. for you!

I know, I've dropped off the face of the earth the past week.

I just finished my essay that's due at 1350 today (go me), which is the main reason I've been avoiding blogs and all the other social media I enjoy.

I hope to recapture some blogging mojo, but in the meantime, a haiku I wrote today (inspired by our assignment to write a haiku in World Civ):

Leaves falling downward
Revealing trees' skeletons
Undressed, dark, and bare

I am so not a poet.

Have a good Wednesday!

Reason number 3839758 I love Michael

He knows how to make a sandwich! (and he makes the best sandwiches in the entire world)

This one (in order, "because it makes it sound and taste better" - Mike):
*pepperjack cheese
*shredded barbeque chicken
*bacon
*sliced red onion
*tomato
*avocado
*on toasted Dave's Killer Bread, Good Seed variety

+ love, he says :)

Friday

Today has been a rough rest day ;) I got to sleep in until 5:30 am and it was fantastic! Julie slept pretty well too. She woke up a couple times, but I don't mind because it means extra snuggle time. However, one day, that baby will sleep through the night!

I felt super tired today. It's so weird sometimes that I feel more tired on days when I get more sleep. The morning was brisk, and my Ugg-lys and nice thick hoodie kept me warm and made me feel a bit drowsy in class! On my short break between classes, instead of doing a chore blitz like I normally do, I took a little nap.

So sleeping in + a nap?! I think that's the most sleep I've had since January.

Then after my last class, I went and got the kiddos. I tried another route to my in-laws' house which ended up being a big fat fail.

In case you can't read it, the sign says: "Stop. Private Drive. No Exit. Your GPS is wrong."

There's a reason why I always have Michael drive.

After backtracking, I finally started my weekend with the kids. Julie was supposed to be playing with blocks, but she was more interested in the cart they came in.

 

 

 (Sam is camera shy right now because he fell and scraped up his nose)

We saw wild turkeys on our way home.

I made Pasta Carbonara with Chicken for dinner especially for Mike because it's his favorite. Yum.

It's been a good day!

(Late) Thursday thoughts and scenes from my run

It's ice cream social day! (Aka my favorite work day of the month.) You see, every month my work has what they call the "Ice Cream Social" for the whole hospital. Free ice cream? I'm so there. 

Yesterday on my run, I ran the segment of the River Trail that makes up most of the route of the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. It's a six mile race (not quite 10k) with some decent hills during the first half, and I fully intend to run it again this year after my pregnancy hiatus last year. 

I took some iPhone pictures to try to show why I love this area so much. As I said before, I don't stop or slow down to take pictures, so they may be a little blurry.

The Diestelhorst Bridge is open again after its facelift, and it's looking pretty good! 

This is the second bridge on the route, and it's crazy how much the ambient temperature dropped over the water.

This is a neat rock maze that is along the trail. It's great for a meditative walk!

These guys are either ROTC or Reserve, but they were singing about how they want to be UPS drivers. It was a funny little chant!

Terrible, terrible picture but I thought the leaves on this tree were just such a gorgeous color.

The morning was an early morning treadmill run, and it was a tough one. I forgot to charge my phone overnight (dead battery=boooooo) which meant no music or Netflix or any real distractions. It was really hard to stay on that treadmill so long! I managed 4.5 miles before I had to call it a day and drink my chocolate milk. I'm going to count it towards my mental toughness bank.

So I'm posting this now on Friday, heh. Oh well. Here's to Friday and the weekend! I'm looking forward to spending all day with the kiddos.

The rundown: 10/28-11/3 + WIAW: my new favorite yogurt.

Better late than never, right? I meant to post this on Sunday, then yesterday, but I had a crazy day at work yesterday and spent my breaks doing today's homework rather than blogging. Anyway, here's what I did last week for my running schedule:

Monday, October 28th- rest
Tuesday, October 29th - 4 miles @ 12:02 overall pace (48:11)
Wednesday, October 30 - 5.05 miles @ 11:05 overall pace (56:00)
Thursday, HALLOWEEN! - 4.25 miles @ 11:45 overall pace (49:57)
Friday, November 1 - rest and prepare for my race!
Saturday, November 2 - CASA Superhero 5k - 3.1 miles @ 7:44 overall pace (23:59)
Sunday, November 3 - I was going to get up and walk a couple miles before my shift started at 6am, but instead took advantage of the fall back and slept in instead (sleeping in = 5am). I did keep track of the NYC Marathon on my phone, so that has to count for something?!

Total miles: 16.4 miles
Total time: 2 hours 58 minutes.

Really not-so-impressive mileage, hah, but I'm working my way up. I'm gearing up to start a half-marathon training plan this month in preparation for the Shamrock'n Half in Sacramento, so slow, easy miles are the name of the game.

I signed up for Run Eat Repeat's Pile on the Miles contest, so I'm hoping that will keep me motivated. My goal for this week is 20 miles.

Now, for What-I-Ate-Wednesday...

My good habit is my probiotic consumption (aka I like to eat a lot of yogurt). I'm always checking out the yogurt case at the store for new flavors and brands, and I make my own plain Greek yogurt in the crockpot. Since I'm a nursing and active mom, I can (and do) go through a lot of food, so my yogurt consumption is through the roof.

My coworker shared this yogurt with me because she knows I'm a yogurt fiend:

mmmmm... Noosa.

Well, actually she had strawberry rhubarb flavor because she adores rhubarb.

I almost wish she hadn't shared it with me so I could have discovered it on my own at Target. No matter, they're all fantastic. A day or two after she shared it with me, I went and bought a few more... mango and honey and another strawberry rhubarb.

Isn't this cute?!

Well, g'day to you!

The cow amuses me before I break into the yumminess. Seriously, this yogurt is so creamy and smooth. It's made out of whole milk, which contributes a great deal to its tastiness, and the flavors I've tried are great. Next time I hit up Target, I'm planning on picking up a few more.

Now, unfortunately, all the flavors I picked up have honey listed in the ingredients, so I'm not able to share it with the baby until after her birthday, and Sam and Mike are a little burnt out on yogurt (heh), so more for me! I'm not complaining ;)

So, now that I've shared my deep love for yogurt, anyone else have any flavor or brand suggestions for me? What did you eat this Wednesday?

Marvelously windy Monday.

It's a blustery day today!

It's another marvelous Monday! I'm ready for the week ahead. And I'm not going to let the two diet Pepsis that exploded in our freezer overnight get me down. (I'm choosing to look at it as an opportunity to go through the freezer abyss and take inventory, rather than a loss of a precious, precious commodity.)
 
This morning my kid came back from his weekend at his dad's. I miss him like crazy when he's gone! Sam was a little upset that his weekend away was the same as the Superhero 5k because he was wanting to pull on his Spider-Man costume and do the Little Heroes Dash. Oh well. There's always next year!

By the way, here is my favorite picture of all the terrible ones I took on Halloween.

That kitty cat is going to pounce on Darth Vader!

I'm still all super pumped about my new 5k PR from this weekend. My legs are feeling it though... And my torso, which is a little weird.

Julie has been a crack up lately. Her two bottom teeth have come through the gums and are working their way up, so she's started this adorable little tongue thing.

Blurry iPhone photos in low light conditions seems to be my thing.

Everything she's done in the past two days, she's done with her tongue halfway out of her mouth. I think she's just feeling the strange new feeling of her teeth! (Kinda like when you get your braces off, I think.)

Off we go to school again today, which meant we got our every-other-Monday Dutch Bros. And since it's November:

Move over, Starbucks red cup. I like green much better (and my Ugg-ly boots when it's cold and windy). Plus, that cup held a Caramel Eggnog Latte. Oh em gee, it was amazing.

By this time next month it will be nearly finals week, which I'm super duper looking forward to. It's been a difficult, busy semester between school and work, and my kids and Michael have been so amazingly supportive about me being back at school. I want to nominate Mike for sainthood with all that he has to put up with sometimes!

Yes, I am a troublemaker but I make up for it in cuteness!

What's awesome on your Monday?

CASA Superhero Run 2013

Sorry in advance that this is going to be wordy! I'm just so excited. (and excuse the exclamation mark abuse. It's inevitable.)

Today (well, yesterday now, because I hadn't finished this recap, heh) was the inaugural edition of the CASA Superhero 5k. When I first heard of it, I knew I wanted to do it. I've been looking to do a 5k to see where I am speed-wise now compared to March 2011, the last time I ran a 5k. However, I was a lame-o and didn't really wear a costume. I wanted to make something original (like an official Ms. Whirlwind costume) but I ran out of time so I went as an Anonymous Runner.

Of course, me being me, I didn't register until right before the race. The benefits of a small community race :)

My mom met me there so she could watch Julie while I raced my little heart out. I asked her to try to get some pictures during the race, but she had a photo taking malfunction when I was finishing. I told my mom it was okay that she didn't get any pictures of me finishing because I was too fast anyway. *wink*

And we're off! (I'm in the blue shirt and blue Vibrams)

I set my Garmin's virtual partner the night before for my optimistic pace goal. I really really wanted to beat my best time of 24:14. That was a 7:47 min/mi pace, so I set it for 7:46. I wasn't sure how feasible it was, since I've been inconsistent with training and I ran a two mile race in August where I could only maintain a 8:10 min/mi pace (and probably couldn't have held it a third mile).

Finally race time! We were to self-seed, but I think I sorted myself a little too far back.

There were no mile markers on the course, but a lot of motivational signs. (I didn't take any pictures because I left my phone with my mom, and I was racing, darn it!)

Mile one, I focused on getting into my pace groove. I kept glancing down at my Garmin to check how I was doing against my virtual partner, and was surprised to see that after I freed myself from the starting congestion, I was a few seconds ahead of goal pace and feeling pretty good! Except for my toes being a little chilly, my body felt revved up and ready to go.

Mile two, I focused on getting ahead of the guy dressed like a hot dog in front of me (he ended up winning a prize for the most creative costume!) I was still maintaining a pace about ten seconds faster than my virtual partner!

During mile three, I passed two Clark Kents (who ended up stripping off their shirts and whipping off their glasses when they crossed the finish line, heh) and increased my lead on my virtual partner to about 20 seconds. By this time, I was super focused and working really hard. When I came onto the Sundial Bridge again for the finish, I was having some crazy tunnel vision going on and although I was looking around for my mom and Julianna, all I could see was the clock saying 23:xx. I put on a final burst of speed and crossed the timing mat.

Oh my goodness, I PRed!! My reach wasn't such a reach after all! Final chip time was 23:59.2.

Not only did I PR, I also placed in my age group for the very first time ever ever!! I was 19th overall, and second woman for the 20-29 age group (number one beat me by three minutes and she was first female overall-seriously impressing me).

See my medal?!

Jules wants to eat it.

Yay!

Overall, very fun race and for a great cause. They had a free photo booth there, which my mom, Julie, and I used, but the pictures were so bad I think I would be grounded by my mom if I posted them online.

Definitely feeling a bit sore today, but so, so proud of my new PR. Now I have a realistic view of what I should shoot for in terms of my half-marathon goal!

November? Seriously?

I think a sign that I'm getting old is that my mind is blown that it's already November. It doesn't seem that long since last October.

A year ago yesterday, I was in the midst of my phlebotomy internship, and pregnant with Julie. I took Sam trick-or-treating after I left the hospital (he was Spider-Man and I was a deviled egg, with my belly being the yolk ;) and then we went to Chipotle and got cheap burritos since we were in costume.

This year, I worked until 6:30 and so we didn't get to do so much trick-or-treating, but it was enough for Sam, because he wanted to head home after an hour. Little man was tired. Julie was hanging in there, but she was super tired too.

(I'm going to have to get them to dress up again so I can take more pictures because all my pictures turned out horrid. Nighttime photography is not my friend)

Anyway. Crazy October. It was a big month for us!

Tomorrow is my 5k race and I am getting myself pumped up. I'm calling all the candy (and those pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from work, yum) that I inhaled yesterday "early carb-loading." I did it for performance reasons, okay?

(Now I'm going to have to PR, ha ha.)