School’s out for summer!

9 Mar

I get to leave work at 12:45 today. And because it’s sunny and almost 60 degrees outside, I feel like a kid getting out of school for the summer. I have been looking forward to this all week long – it’s the little things in life.

I am so excited to go on a run in the warm daylight, and still enjoy a full night of relaxation afterward. This week has been crazy and this afternoon will be Glorious.

I just have to make it through a call about life insurance with our financial planner…

You might know that I don’t do anything with money except spend it. All things financial bore me to tears and anger. When I announced last night that I was going to bed, Travis started talking to me about life insurance. Nope, not talking about this now. See ya.

Travis asked me again this morning when would be a good time to have our phone call. I couldn’t keep my eyes from rolling. The last thing I want to do on my glorious day of freedom is talk about money. 

But, in an effort to be grateful for a husband that cares about things like life insurance and kindly doesn’t ask me to be involved unless legally necessary, I will allow the phone call to infringe. I realize it’s not necessarily a good thing that I don’t want to be involved in our financial situation, but I don’t think you’d want to be involved in something that made you want to poke out your eyes with sharp objects either. (And no, I am not being overly dramatic at all.)

After the call of gloom, I will skip happily and merrily into my free afternoon of running and reading! I might even paint my toenails with the fun purple color I bought a couple weeks ago…

What are you up to this fine Friday? Do you like talking about finances and future planning?

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So tired. Need chocolate.

8 Mar

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I was starting a food log as part of the Love to Eat, Hate to Eat book study I’m doing with my church, and as a way to be more mindful of what I eat. I have been faithful in logging my food everyday, even on Tuesday when I was stuck in a meeting in the same freezing room for 12. hours. straight. Well, we did get a few breaks. But it was a looong day. Everyone at work was still exhausted yesterday. I feel mostly recovered. Wowza.

At first, I thought that my eating log wouldn’t be a true representation of my eating habits – wouldn’t knowing I was going to write it all down motivate me to choose wiser than normal? Perhaps it did for the first few days. But just like I can slouch on an exercise ball, I can eat for emotional reasons even if I’m tracking it.

I have been encouraged to see that 85% of my eating is not emotional. Some days I don’t even make one emotional choice. But then I have days like yesterday, when I’m exhausted and grumpy, and I just want sugar, sugar and more sugar, and throw all discipline and control out the window.

The biggest surprise shock has been to actually see how many calories I eat. In the past when I’ve counted calories or tracked my eating, I’ve conveniently ignored the times when I eat a little bit too much, or regret my dinner choice. “The damage is done – I’m moving on” was my mentality.

But if I am really trying to please God with my eating habits, I can’t just ignore the ugly parts. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). So to bring everything into the light, I’ve kept track of everything – the little bites here and there, the candy, the condiments, everything (even Tums!).

During the first week, I counted calories as I wrote my food down. But I could feel the temptation to become obsessed with the numbers and this is supposed to be about gaining insight and not about making changes. So last week, I decided that I’d leave that part off.

This morning, though, I went through my log from last week and tallied it up (mostly out of curiosity). I don’t believe that our bodies operate on a 24-hour schedule like we do, so I am using a 7-day average as the measuring stick. While some days are scary high (pushing 3,000 calories), the weekly averages for both last week and the first week are around 2,190 calories a day. According to this calculator of Daily Calorie Needs for a moderate activity level (I sit around at work but am fairly active otherwise), I’m eating the right amount for my body size and activity level. My scale agrees. I’m still at the same weight I was 2 weeks ago, 2 months ago, and 2 years ago. My body just likes this weight. So while the sticker shock has yet to wear off, I think that I’m feeding my body an appropriate amount.

That leaves me to tackle the whole emotional aspect of my eating habits. I wish it were as easy to solve that issue as it is to tally a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. But it isn’t. On days like yesterday, when I am so moody and emotional in general, the idea of not eating the delicious-though-they-cost-$1.25 Reese’s peanut butter cups awaiting me in the vending machine makes me want to yell or hit the first person who dares to annoy me. Glorify God? Respect the temple? I. Don’t. Care. 

Even though I don’t have the solution figured out when I’m already in a bad mood, I do have one insight into prevention: SLEEP. It is no coincidence that yesterday was my roughest day eating-wise, and also the day I felt like a walking zombie. I’ve known for a while that Tiredness + Kathy = Bad Life Food Decisions. I think I also channeled my frustration over having to be at work into eating – Maybe this donut will send me into a wonderfully numb sugar coma so that I don’t realize I’m still here.

“Need to get more sleep” has been written on my log more days than not over the past 2 weeks. I haven’t been doing my morning routine of Bible + writing because I wake up sooooo tired (which is not normal for me). Several days, I’ve woken up to see that I had been hitting my snooze for 45 minutes without even realizing it. Yesterday after work, I walked in the door and promptly laid down on the couch. I didn’t even take my jacket off. I seriously would’ve gone to bed right after dinner if I hadn’t had my ladies group, and I would’ve skipped that, if I hadn’t been the one leading the discussion. I left right after we were done, went straight to bed when I got home, and then… I couldn’t fall asleep. {My mind was running a mile a minute. Even about work stuff. Seriously? So I finished reading Robinson Crusoe. The book was okay. It was pretty slow moving, which isn’t that surprising since it was first published in 1719 (100 years before Dickens was even born!).}

Anyway, to sum it all up, my eating log has helped me be more mindful of what I’m eating, but I have yet to eradicate emotional eating. Stay tuned for more on that…

Do you like reading old classics like Dickens, Tolstoy, or Twain? Which book is your favorite?

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Training Recap: 2/27 – 3/4

5 Mar

Yesterday, after we got home from church, I turned on my Harry Potter audiobook and deep cleaned our kitchen. The book kept me entertained enough that I powered through cleaning the microwave, refrigerator, freezer, the front of our cabinets, and the OVEN (that has needed to be done since we moved in 3.5 years ago). Now whenever I use the oven, I will think about the first lesson that Hagrid taught at Hogwart’s about Hippogriffs, because that was the story plot as I fumigated the kitchen with oven cleaner. (Am I the only one who can remember stuff like that?)

Even though I really dislike the act of cleaning, I love the aftermath. A clean house just makes me happy.

What else makes me happy is my second full week of marathon training. Life threw a few curveballs of busyness last week but I fought back.

Monday: 1.5 mile run on track (18:45, 12:30/mile)

This was when I almost got killed by brussel sprouts.

Tuesday: 3.6 mile tempo run (40:09, 10:54/mile)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 4 mile run – 3 miles moderate (33:00, 11:00/mile), 1 mile time trial (9:42)

I wanted to do a speed workout this night, but since my long run on Saturday was going to be a tough one, I decided to do most of the run easy, and then do a 1 mile time trial. I definitely could have gone faster but I had to slow down for a car or two, and I was feeling some acid reflux. After Monday, I was still a little spooked. I seriously need to start eating Tums before each and every run I go on. But I feel like 9:42 is a good starting point.

Friday: 50 min P90X Yoga

Saturday: 7.94 mile hilly long run (1:27:27, 11:00/mile)

Sunday: 10 mile bike ride (45 min)

Finally, I got to ride my bike outside! It was 60* yesterday and sunny. It felt just like spring. I’m loving every minute of it and ignoring the Debbie Downers who keep telling me that March is usually Colorado’s snowiest month. A girl can dream, right?

Riding outside also means that I got to test out my new bike setup. The verdict is: meh. The seat was comfortable enough for 10 miles but I can’t envision me doing 40-50 miles on it. And for some reason, my back still really hurt after 5 miles. We took a break and I could barely stand up straight. If any of you out there know more about bikes than I do, is that just my back needing to get used to that, or is my bike fitted incorrectly?

Total Running Miles: 17.16

………………………

Finally, can I just say that this is the most annoying ad EVER?

The lady on the right sneezes and blows the entire calendar over. What’s so annoying is that you have to wait for the ad to run before you can do anything. Ugh. I would have expect that such a craptastic display of marketing ingenuity would come from Aetna. Have I ever told you how much I hate them?

And on that note, Monday is over! I have a work meeting tomorrow from 7 am to 7 pm so I probably won’t post. But it’s not that bad because they’re feeding us breakfast, lunch and dinner, AND since I’m a contractor and can only work 40 hours a week, I get to jet early on Friday. I won’t argue with that!

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A hilly long run.

4 Mar

Yesterday, I was scheduled to run 7 miles for my weekly long run. I was going to meet a friend for a killer 3-mile hill run (according to her) so I planned to do an 4 easy miles before we met up.

I got up at 7:00 and after eating a delicious peanut butter & banana waffle sandwich, I was out the door with the pooches by 7:30 for a 4-mile route that would take me up and over a steep but short hill twice.

I had done 60 minutes of P90X Yoga the night before and my legs weren’t that sore, they just felt tired – kind of the way your legs feel during a triathlon when you get off the bike. Your legs feel so strange that you can’t really tell how fast you’re running like you normally can.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I got to mile 1 and my watch read 10:20. Since this was supposed to be my easy long run, and I didn’t want to show up for my hill run with dead legs, I focused on keeping my pace comfortable. On the way back, though, my feet felt so light and my legs felt good so I ran at whatever pace felt good. I finished out those first 4 miles at an average 10:58 pace. (I don’t have splits because my phone’s GPS was acting up. Stupid.)

On my way home, I ran by a baseball field and noticed 5 big black dogs sitting out there. They didn’t seem to be moving, but then one of their tails started wagging. I stopped running and stared. What were dogs doing out on the baseball field? And where were their owners? And why were they sitting so still? They were all still as statues, except for the one that was wagging its tail.

Then I realized they were just statues, and the wind was blowing the one’s tail. I remembered that I had seen one of those at another park near our house and that one had freaked the crap out of me too. Once I realized they weren’t real, I was like, What in the heck? WHY would somebody put statues of coyotes out here and scare the living crap out of people? Travis told me today that they’re to scare off geese so that they don’t ruin the fields. I totally understand why the geese would be scared. I’m scared.

Anyway, I got back home and was gathering my things when my friend said it was too windy over at her house (which I totally believe – that wind is ferocious!) and she didn’t have time to drive over to my place. So I was on my own for the last 3 miles. I had changed yesterday to be my hill workout of the week and had been wanting to tackle the devil hills on Carr Street (those same hills that rocked me when I biked to work over the summer). So I mapped out 3 miles quick, grabbed my stuff and drove over to the park I planned to start at.

Before getting out of the car, I ate a peanut butter Gu.

 

I had heard about these from Amanda at Run to the Finish and thought I’d try them out. After dealing with frozen Shotbloks during the Ralston Creek Half, and getting sick of picking leftover gummy out of my teeth, I decided that I needed to find a different fuel. So I picked up 4-5 different flavors of Gu and some Honey Stingers. The peanut butter Gu was surprisingly delicious. It actually tasted like peanut butter, and the consistency was very close to peanut butter, only slightly runnier. I was definitely a fan.

And with that, I was off. The wind was cold and I had cooled down with the break between runs so I was not thrilled to be out there. But I am a stubborn person when I get an idea in my head. I was going to run 7 miles, no matter what.

I feel pretty good about these hills – a 4% grade for 1.38 miles. With some walking to catch my breath and doing what felt like an insanely slow shuffle run, I made it to turnaround in about 23:20 (11:54/mile). On the way back, though, it felt like I was cruising and I made it back in 20:06 (10:15/mile).

My view heading back:

All in all, I ended up running 7.94 miles in 1:27:27, exactly an 11:00/mile pace. Considering the hills I ran up, I am very excited about this run. It has really encouraged me that all this hard work and dedication is paying off, and I really am becoming faster. Yay! It has also made me very hopeful that there are no hills like this in the Mayors Marathon. Just sayin…

Every time I rolled over last night, and when I got up this morning, I realized that I am incredibly sore from the last two days. My arms, back and core are the sorest and I know that’s from yoga. Seriously, such a good workout. I still haven’t mastered the standing half moon poses. I’m pretty sure they’re tough any time, but they’re especially so on tired legs!

Well, I’m off to bed – starting the week off right, like a grandma.

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Back-Strengthening Exercises for Home or the Gym

2 Mar

I mentioned a long time ago that I would post my physical therapy exercises for strengthening my back, so that you all could benefit from the big chunk of change I dropped to learn them. Last week, I had my last appointment. Not because I was no longer benefiting from my visits, but because my money tree was dead.

It took me this long to post the exercises because I was planning to post pictures of yours truly illustrating what to do. But then I realized that my pictures would be crap and that I might as well just post the exercises already. So without further ado…

Equipment You’ll Need:

Swiss Ball

Resistance tube or Cable pulley machine

Resistance Bands (You can tie the ends of a Pilates band together too, but the round resistance bands work better.)

Optional: Medicine Ball

 

EXERCISES:

Swiss Ball Squats

2 x 15 reps

With the ball behind your back, feet shoulder width apart, sit back as if you are trying to sit in a chair too far away. Make sure your knees don’t go past your toes.

Swiss Ball Abdominal Rollouts

2 x 15 reps

Kneel in front of the ball and place your forearms on the ball, your elbows bent at a little more than 90 degrees. Pull your belly button in towards your spine and roll forward, placing your weight on your forearms, back straight, and elbows underneath your shoulders doing a plank on the ball. You should feel your abs engage to stabilize you. To make it more challenging, roll out and lift one arm off the ball.

Swiss Ball Alternating Leg Lifts

2 x 20 reps           

Sit on the Swiss ball and roll out so that your upper back is resting on the ball, your hips are lifted, feet on the floor shoulder width apart, and your body is in a straight line, with your hands resting comfortably. Carefully, lift one leg, hold for 5 seconds, lower. Then lift the other leg, hold, lower. Repeat.

Swiss Ball Bridging

2 x 20 reps                                                             

Lie face down on the Swiss Ball, with your hands and feet resting on the ground. Pulling your belly button into your spine, raise your right arm and left leg together, hold for 5 seconds, lower. Then lift left arm and right leg, hold, lower. Repeat.

Lunges with Torso Rotation

2 x 10 reps

Step forward and lunge, keeping your knees at 90 degrees.  Rotate your torso to both sides and return to standing. Hold a Swiss or medicine ball in your hands as you twist to make these more challenging.

Straight Arm Pull Downs / Cable Pull Across

2 x 25 reps

Note: For these exercises, use either a resistance tube anchored above your head or a cable pulley machine on the top notch, with weight set low (7-10 lbs).

Pull Down: Stand up straight and pull your belly button in, facing the tube or machine. Grasp cables in both hands and keeping your arms straight (but not locked), pull down to your side, as if you were going to graze your thigh. Keeping your arms straight, release back to starting position. Repeat.

Pull Across: Take cable in your left hand, with the left side of your body facing the tube or machine. With a slight bend in your elbow, pull down and across your body to your opposite hip (as if you were dancing 70s disco-style).  Keeping the slight bend in the elbow, release back to starting position. Repeat, then do the same with the right arm, turning your body so that the right side faces the tube or pulley.

Monster Walk (this one is killer for the hips and glutes!)

2 x 30 reps

Place a resistance band around your ankles and start with your feet together. You will be moving laterally so make sure you have enough space. Step your left foot out, keeping your toes pointed forward, then step your right foot in, bringing your feet together. Step to the left again, bring right foot in again. Do 15 reps, then step right foot out, bring left foot in, for 15 reps. Repeat to the left and to the right again.

The next part is best explained with a picture:

After 15 reps (8 to right, 7 to left), do it in the reverse direction. So instead of stepping the left foot forward, you step it backward. Do 15 reps (8 on left, 7 on right) and repeat forward and backward again.

………………………..

To keep my no-photo streak going, I made these No-Bake Granola Balls and this Chickpea and Kale Soup recently and they were both delicious. Kale was another green vegetable that I had written off as disgusting, but I was wrong! I honestly do not know what horrible recipes I used the first time I tried kale and brussel sprouts to make me hate them so much. Or maybe my tastebuds are just maturing as I get older? Whatever the reason, I like the result!

Have a great weekend!

Have you made any good recipes lately?

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Language Barriers

1 Mar

I don’t have much to post, besides the fact that I’ve been going to bed too late this week (but because I’m busy, not because I’m lazy!) and feeling the consequences. Also, work is still really busy and two huge projects with lots of details and moving parts are scrambling my brain. If you see typos in this post, it is not my fault.

One of the projects I’m working on is translating our company website into Spanish and Portuguese (I’m not actually translating – we hired a company to do it). One of the brain-frying dilemmas we’ve run into is whether or not to translate our product names. We have talked about this a lot and every day it seems like another layer is peeled off and it is still just a cluster.

Anyway, while I was musing with my boss about how languages borrow words from other languages (English is definitely one of the worst offenders), she told me about a website called engrish.com. It’s kind of like the FAIL blog, only they post pictures of attempts at using the English language that have gone so, so wrong.

Here are some of the ones that I laughed out loud at:

A couple of friends that got married while we still lived in Minneapolis went to Mexico on their honeymoon. And they said that one of the emcees had asked at the beginning of a show, “Are you ready, yes or not?” I’m sure I sound exactly like that when I speak in broken Spanish but it’s still funny!

I really do have to give kudos to all those who know English, even though it’s not their first language. I’m convinced that English is the most difficult (common) language to learn. There are so many words to describe the same thing, and so many exceptions, and stupid grammar rules, and borrowed words. I would hate learning English.

Anyway, hopefully the people reading our website after it’s translated won’t be laughing at our expense!

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My Running Nemesis

29 Feb

Monday night, I almost died.

Well, at least that’s what it felt like.

I got home from work tired (because I had stayed up too late Sunday night) and didn’t feel like going on a run outside in the brisk air. So I talked Travis into going on a walk with me and the dogs, and I’d go to the Rec after dinner.

Bad idea. Remind me to never do that again, will ya?

My mistake was eating an antelope burger (they’re actually very tasty) and about half a pound of brussel sprouts for dinner.

Remember how I discovered less than a month ago that I couldn’t eat a salad before a run? Apparently that same thing is true for brussel sprouts.

Only this time, the brussel sprouts really tried to finish me off. I was running around the track at a really easy pace (11:30ish/mile) and I started feeling a little sick. Assuming that the ketchup on my burger had given me acid reflux (which it has been known to do, and of course I forgot to eat Tums before running), I was just going to muscle through. I was on my 17th lap (1.6 miles) when in the span of ten seconds, all of a sudden I couldn’t breathe.

I got off the track and sat on a bench, and I was actually really scared that something bad was happening. My chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it, like I just couldn’t inhale enough oxygen to expand my lungs. My face was tingly and hot, and felt like it had swollen up to 5 times its normal size (but I felt it with my hand and it seemed normal). This was exactly what had happened during my run after eating the salad, only 10 times worse. That time, the symptoms had slowly subsided on their own, so I felt okay to just wait it out – even though it was incredibly painful!

After about 5 minutes, I started to feel better. I sat there for another 5 minutes and then granny-walked to get my stuff and leave. My stomach hurt as I was driving home and immediately after I walked in the door, I laid down on the couch.

I felt ok for about 10 minutes and then my hips and legs started aching – like how your body feels when you have the flu. Then the chills set in – I had two blankets covering me and I was still shivering. Finally, I got the worst headache I’ve ever had – stabbing pain in my forehead. I asked Travis to make me some tea and bring me some Tylenol, which he did willingly. But it was hard to drink the tea because I had to sit up, which made my headache worse, and I had to take my hands out from under the blanket, which made me colder.

After at least 10 more minutes of agony, Travis suggested a warm washcloth for my forehead. I didn’t think it would help, but what could it hurt?

That was the ticket. My headache and chills didn’t go away immediately but by the third re-warming of the washcloth, my headache was bearable and I wasn’t shaking anymore. By the fourth, I was sleeping. Wonderful.

I don’t plan to go to the doctor because 1) I’ve had this happen before. 2) I woke up yesterday morning feeling fine. 3) I don’t believe in doctors.

No but seriously, I went to the ER once for chest pains. It was the same kind of scenario – my chest felt tight, I couldn’t breathe deeply, etc. They diagnosed me with acid reflux, gave me some meds, and sent me on my way. Apparently, the combination of chocolate, coffee and ibuprofen caused acid reflux to such an extent that the acid inflamed the lining between my lungs and ribs, causing friction which feels like chest pain. It took several days for the chest pain to go away. I had to literally sleep sitting up because it hurt too bad to lay down.

Then another time, I gorged myself on fried food at a friend’s house (hello sweet potato fries and arepas!) and woke in the middle of the night convinced I had to throw up. After racing to the toilet and sitting there for 10 minutes with nothing happening, I realized that it was probably acid reflux. Sure enough. I propped myself against the wall and was fine in the morning. Acid reflux is a weird condition.

Since my brush with death (I’m being melodramatic if you can’t tell), I’ve done a little research on acid reflux and discovered that there are more offending foods than I thought. Here’s the short list of Food to Not Eat Before You Go on a Run if You Have Acid Reflux from WebMD:

  • Meats. Ground beef, marbled sirloin, chicken nugget-style, and chicken/buffalo wings.
  • Fats, Oils & Sweets. Chocolate, regular corn and potato chips, high-fat butter cookies, brownies, doughnuts, creamy and oily salad dressings, fried or fatty food in general.
  • Fruits, Vegetables & Juice. Orange juice, lemon, lemonade, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, tomato, mashed potatoes, French fries, raw onion, potato salad.
  • Other Beverages. Liquor, wine, coffee, and tea.
  • Grains. Macaroni and cheese, spaghetti with marinara sauce.
  • Dairy. Sour cream, milk shake, ice cream, regular cottage cheese.

Um, doesn’t that include about everything? Except spoonfuls of peanut butter I guess. My most-often offender is tomatoes or tomato-based anything.

I also discovered this about heartburn (a symptom of acid reflux): “Heartburn usually is described as a burning pain in the middle of the chest. It may start high in the abdomen or may extend up into the neck. In some patients, however, the pain may be sharp or pressure-like, rather than burning. Such pain can mimic heart pain (angina).” {source}

So I’m convinced that my chest pains were caused by acid reflux. I do have a doctor appointment scheduled in March and will ask about this then (ok, Mom?).

Not one to be deterred, yesterday I was back to running. A 3.5 mile tempo run with Travis. I was admittedly a little nervous but the run was good. Legs felt strong. Lungs felt strong.

My takeaways from this whole situation are:

1. Stop eating vegetables before a run.

2. Go on a run right when I get home from work, instead of eating dinner first.

3. Avoid running at the Rec. There are bad vibes in there.

4. Take Tums before every run, even when I don’t think I need them.

I’m a slow learner, folks.

Have you had any brushes with death while running?

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Training Recap: 2/20 – 2/26

27 Feb

I completely stuck to last week’s training plan, and even got in some extra workouts with my bike seat testing. Yay for me!

Monday: 3.14 mile easy run (34:27, 10:58/mile); 3 mile easy bike (11:40, 15 mph); physical therapy exercises

Tuesday: 3.18 mile repeats (33:15, 10:27/mile); 3 mile easy bike (11:35, 15.5 mph)

I warmed up for .5 mile, then did 1 x 800, 2 x 400 (approximate), 1 x 800, and cooled down for the last .5 mile. My 800 times were 4:00 and 3:59, which I was very satisfied with (McMillan says I should run 4:05). I definitely pushed myself. I didn’t time the 400s, since they were approximate.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3.5 mile tempo hill run (36:32, 10:24/mile); 7 mile easy bike (30:00, 14 mph); 10 min strength

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 6.24 mile long run (1:10:37, 11:19/mile)

Sunday: 15 min dog walk; 11.75 mile bike on trainer (45:00, 15.7 mph)

Total Running Mileage: 16.06

Here are my splits from my long run:

It was pretty windy that day so I was pretty pleased that I averaged an 11:19 pace. Mile 1 and Mile 5 included stops for the dogs (and I just let the app run but stopped my watch), so that’s why they were slower, and why the minutes don’t add up to the final time (though I doubt any of you were actually checking that!).

Verdict of The Bike Seat: The combination of a new stem and my old seat is still not perfect but it’s a LOT better than it was. I made it 45 minutes on Sunday with minimal discomfort, but 60 minutes would’ve been a stretch – although I’m not sure if that’s because of the seat or because I was so bored! I wanted to ride outside, because that’s the real test, but it’s been SO windy here lately. Nonetheless, this is a good enough solution that I’m going to return the $90 seat I bought.

………………………………

Yesterday, I went to Walgreen’s and restocked a couple of my must-haves:

This Aveeno lotion is the only beauty product I “splurge” on (it’s $17.99 a bottle). I used to alternate between a heavy lotion like Eucerin in the winter and then a lighter moisturizer in the summer. But this one is great year round and it has SPF 15. They also have an SPF 30 version, but it’s the same price and a smaller bottle.

If you ever use lotion for removing eye makeup (it works really well), just don’t use this one. It will make your eyes water like an onion (because of the sunscreen). I learned the hard way.

I love Burt’s Bees – the original. There is no substitute.

And I also picked up some fun things:

Colors (l to r): On a Trip / Wet Cement / I Need a Refresh-Mint

This picture is pretty bad but the color on the left is bright purple, the middle one is a grey purple, and the last one is a bright teal. Can’t wait to paint my nails!

What is your favorite beauty product?

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My Current Food Obsessions

26 Feb

Last Sunday, we had lunch with about 3 other couples from church. Ana Helena was the cook and as always, everything was delicious. My favorite part was the crepes for dessert. We piled them with warm berries, homemade chocolate syrup and whipped cream, ice cream, fried bananas, and walnuts. I am in love with crepes. Thanks again Ana Helena for such a wonderful dinner (we didn’t go home until 4 pm)!

As I was eating the crepes, I remarked to Travis that I need to learn how to make crepes. I crave them all the time. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized they probably weren’t that hard to make. Then on Friday I saw the Blueberry Cream Cheese Crepes post on Part-Time Housewife and knew: I need to make crepes.

I didn’t have the ingredients on hand to make her recipe so I used her crepe recipe and improvised the rest. (Note: I think it would be easier to combine all the ingredients at once instead of in steps, but perhaps that’s just my rookie thinking. The egg/flour mixture got stuck all up in my whisk.)

We don’t have much food in our cupboards or fridge in general right now, but I had thawed a chicken breast and we had a few marinated artichoke hearts left from making little pizzas. So we combined those with some garlic and spices. I also found a long-forgotten tupperware in the freezer, full of a soup that had failed but could be used as a sauce. So while Travis went to work on grilling the crepes, I prepared the rest.

Our crepes actually turned out well, if you ignore a few lumps.

I put the chicken mixture on the crepe, topped with some cheese.

Then I rolled them up, placing the seam on the bottom, and topped them with what looks like disgusting green poo, but actually is a pureed vegetable soup.

Yes, I realize that picture does not want you want to eat this. But I have two more that you will want to eat.

After we ate our crepes, we went to see Sherlock Holmes 2 at the cheap seats (and it was just as good as the first!) and THEN we went to…

Yogurtland!

I still had not made it to Yogurtland after my January of not eating sweets. The night we had decided to go was the day we got about 2 feet of snow and even though Travis and I slid our way over there, they were not open “due to the weather.” Single tear.

So I was determined to make up for it with this run. Travis kept making jokes about not going. After the movie, he said, “You wanna just go home instead of going to Yogurtland?” Um, NO!

And then when we got to Yogurtland and saw that it was the high school hang-out and pretty busy, Travis was like, “It’s too busy. It’s going to take forever. I don’t think we should go in there.”

“I will wait as long as it takes,” I replied.

This girl needs froyo, yo.

I chose 4 different yogurt flavors, and a slew of toppings. Travis was boring and chose 1 yogurt flavor and “2” toppings (it only looked like 1).

Mmmmm… I’m so glad that Denver has Yogurtland.

Saturday morning, I had yet another treat awaiting me. We had 2 crepes left over from the night before, and this one I determined was going to be a dessert one.

So I slathered it with almond butter, topped it with blueberries and frozen Cool Whip, then folded and doused it with chocolate syrup.

Savory crepes have their place, but dessert crepes are the best. It was good, I actually wanted to eat Travis’ crepe too and went to our bedroom to ask if he was going to eat his crepe. After no response from him, I decided that I actually was full. So when he got up, I made the same crepe combination for him!

I was hoping that my crepe and frozen yogurt obsession would be cured, or at least decreased, by these treats. Nope. I just want more.

What food can’t you get enough of lately?

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By grace this love springs forth.

24 Feb

The other night in our church small group (what we call care group), our discussion leader asked us 2 questions:

What area in your life is encouraging right now?

What area is discouraging?

As I thought about that, so many encouraging areas came to mind:

I’m encouraged that I’m still running and my legs and lungs feel great.

I’m encouraged that I pray every day, and often more than once a day, because I want to.

I’m encouraged that I’ve finally found a daily routine that works well, and allows me to read the Bible, write my book and train for a marathon.

I’m encouraged that I feel more at home in Colorado than I ever have before – having great friends helps a lot.

But the area I’m most encouraged in?

My marriage. 

And that my friends, is something that makes me want to run around, yelling and screaming and skipping!!

In my last post about marriage, I talked about how Travis and I had taken up going our own ways on weekends. We asked each other, “What are your plans for this weekend?” and both did our own things. After that post, though, things changed. We still ran the same errands on the weekends. But we ran them together.

Yes, it meant things took longer. And that we spent time doing things that weren’t our first pick (grocery shopping for him, Home Depot browsing for me). But we were together. And we were having FUN!

We’ve also been going out on one impromptu date each weekend – which has given us time to talk, laugh and enjoy one another.

And those things have made something else happen.

When Travis comes home from work, instead of giving him a slight head nod and a “Hey beads” while I continue making dinner or changing out of my running clothes, I intentionally stop what I’m doing and go hug and kiss him hello. He’s happier because I’m talking his love language. I’m happier because I actually want to hug and kiss him (which sadly, hasn’t always been the case).

When I talk to him on the phone, I enjoy hearing his voice.

When he smiles and his eyes crinkle, I feel so in love with him.

We laugh over well-timed movie lines and inside jokes.

We watch the dogs frolic from our kitchen window, silently daring them to jump the fence (but stopping them before they do – most of the time).

Travis muses aloud about Roth IRAs and whether or not he should take the new job (he did BTW and today was his last day!). Instead of rolling my eyes, ignoring him, or lamenting that we’ve already talked about this, I listen and offer him my advice…again.

Travis asks me to come look at, or help him with something, and I don’t get frustrated.

Travis wants to buy a ridiculously expensive antelope hunting tag and I don’t demand the same amount of money to spend on myself.

I win a pool table competition and instead of running out to buy a new shirt with my $30, I offer to take Travis out to lunch.

The best part about all of this? 

I did none of it. It all happened organically, by the grace of God. I honestly look at all this and think, How did this happen? I surely did not cause this! This is not MY handiwork!

God did this. He inspired my obedience in one little thing: painting our front door. I hated that door. Oh, how I hated it. I painted it once, 3 coats of painstaking strokes. Only to have it peel off in my hands as I removed the painter’s tape. The door remained white for at least another a month. It took me that long to get over being angry.

Finally, at Travis’ request, I tackled it once again, this time armed with pink primer (closer to the red paint than white). I still remember standing in the hallway next to our kitchen, glaring at the door. I did. not. want. to paint the door again. I was done with it. But out of a desire to serve my husband by helping with a house project, I did it. And I swear, that was a turning point in the way I thought about our marriage.

Things have only gotten better from there. Yes, we still have disagreements and tension from time to time. But it is no longer the door-slamming, fruit-throwing, cuss-word-yelling that our marriage my responses once were (Travis has not resorted to my form of temper tantrums).

Which proves that I, unfortunately, do not have any marriage advice. Because I could not have written this story. God’s ideas are always infinitely better than mine, though often harder to understand. Why did it take me almost 5 years of marriage to get to this place? Why did God bless me with my husband, though I abused him for so long? I don’t know.

But I do know that the best advice for anything is: Get to know God. The real God of the Bible. Jesus, who died for your sins. He is amazing. And He is the only answer you ever need.

That is not just a trite saying. I don’t say that flippantly. I say it with the full force of my being and my heart behind it. I say it as I look back on 5 years of hating the wife I was and wanting to throw in the towel. I believe that God has the power to redeem and glorify any marriage, even ones that have been torn apart by infidelity, loss or deceit. Because this God – He ransomed us from our sins. He has granted us eternal life. Surely He can do ALL things!

Put Him to the test. Ask Him to do amazing things in your marriage. Stay alert to the ways He works in your life. He will stun you.

Though I am dry and barren

By grace this love springs forth

Love for You and Your kingdom

Joy in Your glory Lord 

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