Rants, Recipes, and Running

The subject of this post may lead one to think something adventurous has occurred in my life recently. Maybe I tried rock climbing? (Which my crazy husband is trying to convince me to do. He's crazy. I don't even climb past the 3rd rung on the ladder.) Maybe I've signed up to go sky diving? Or base jumping? Or maybe I'm stepping into a jumping castle full of a large group of wild children during flu season. (another persistent fear of mine...bouncing, germs)   How about........     Connor Jaeger in the Olympics?   No...he doesn't scare me.   It's what he's perched on!   Swimming blocks .      Let us all take a moment to let our heart rate come down. Wipe the sweat beds off our face.    I don't know about you all, but the pure thought of diving off a platform that is whopping 1-2 feet above the a pool of water sends shear terror through my spine!!!   I have swam my entire life, but...

A few months have managed to pass since I did my last post like this. So here are my current "Currently's"  :) Current Book : "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes. It's about a women taking care of a quadriplegic. It sounds like a sad book, but it's actually quite funny at times - as the character has a funny and dry sense of humor. It also really opens my eyes to things I've never really thought about with being w/c-bound. Current Excitement : My Friday night date with 2 of my girlfriends. We are having dinner and going to a movie based of a book we read --  "If I Stay". Excited to see it! Fully prepared for tears, since I cried during the book! Current Fashion : Well, In 4 days I will begin wear jeans again. (September 1) Even if it's 100+ degrees out. It's September. I'm ready to boycott summer! I miss jean and sweaters so much....... Current Drink : I am currently drinking a lot of Bigelow Green tea with Mint. I made a...

Ryan and I have few weekends where our schedules align...and this was one of them. Therefore, I try packing in as much possible! I had a 3 day weekend - so mine started bright & early Friday morning at 5 am with masters swim, followed by a 24 mile bike ride! I had some technical difficulties with my bike, on a crazy-steep incline, and it was scary. But I managed to fix the chain on my own!! * insert fist pump * The rest of Friday was spent cleaning house, grocery shopping, and making deserts for the party we were hosting Saturday night. Ryan and I ordered in thai food and watched "God is not Dead" while I made white-chocolate truffles. It was a productive, but nice night in! And green curry always makes me happy.... Saturday I needed to sleep in past 4:30....so we "slept in" until 6 am! We had 10 miles to run, and I knew we had to get somewhat of an early start. We were on the trail by 7 am, and it was already 84 degrees F. * insert tears * Unfortunat...

I have finally reached the final post of our Minnesota trip! It only took me a week to complete this . I'm not so good at blogging consistently. I've broke these posts into 3 categories: Anniversary, Family Time, and finally "Happenings". Instead of writing a book of all the fun we had, I am going with a bullet-point approach. It's Friday. Brain is fried and attention span is not so fantastic. Here are a few of my favorite things of the trip: Waking up every single morning to views of the lake. Does it get better than this?!: Morning runs. Most days I did a 5 mile route that goes on a road behind the lake, and then another road through corn fields. After being stuck in the desert for the past 6 years....seeing all that green was rejuvenating. Lots of coffee enjoyed while looking at the lake..... One morning Ryan & I headed to Glendalough State Park. If you're ever in Ottertail County - I highly recommend checking this out! There's a ...

The utmost highlight of this trip was family. And I'm not just saying that because the only people that probably really read this blog are my family. ;) I mean this with the utmost honesty. I have to say we were quite successful in seeing as many family members we could possible squeeze in during our short time home. All 5 of my siblings were at the lakes for the weekend. Plus spouses. Plus their children. Which makes a happy bunch of 18!!!!! My mom hired a photographer to come out and take photos. And although photos can make us groan in agony ( especially the men ) - I am so glad she did this. It's not very often we got that many people in one place at one time! Saturday my Mom invited her siblings to her house for a get-together. She came from a family of 8 children, so as you can imagine - that can make for a large group! We had a grand total of 36 people at that gathering, and it was awesome. Most of that side of the family Ryan and I haven't seen since our wed...

Somehow, 5 years have managed to fly by since I married Ryan. They say time flies when you're having fun  - and that statement is very true! It almost scares me when I reflect on how fast these 5 years have gone. As cliché as this sounds, I just don't know where the time went! I seriously feel like we were planning our wedding a few months ago. But I am preaching to the choir, here. So I'll move on from my moment of awe.... We spent our anniversary in the place where we got married - Battle Lake, MN . Which is the happiest place on earth, in my opinion! Being in that area always brings back such strong memories of growing up. And now having the memory of our wedding makes it even more of a special place in my heart. Here are my favorite moments of the 1st 5 years: Our honeymoon . We stayed a the Playa del Mujeres Excellence Resort outside of Cancun - and it ranks as my favorite vacation. That place is seriously paradise.....sailing, all-inclusive indulgence, beautifu...

I have to say this past weekend was pretty awesome! It was jam packed and busy. By the time Sunday evening rolled around, I was exhausted! But worth it! I kicked off my 3-day-weekend with a swim/bike brick Friday morning. Which was rough . 1 hour speed work swimming. 34 miles biking. I hit a wall . Learned that taking in some form of nutrition during these long work outs is mandatory. I drove home very pale....(90 + degrees with 60% humidity is no good...) I went straight from my brick work out, to oatmeal, to a bathroom "mini-reno". We replaced light fixtures and painted. Ryan had to do rewiring, I was his "tool girl". This project turned into much more than expected. It took 4 COATS of paint!!!!!! (Pictures to come soon.....once I get around to decorating!!) We took a break from painting at 6 pm to head over to my friend Lisa's 40th Birthday Party! It was the group of girlfriends who spend hours weekly running/biking/swimming together. So it was fun ...