Endorphins Make You Happy

I have been looking forward to posting again for several days now so I am pretty excited to finally get a chance to do so!  I'm still getting used to working 45 hours a week and the fact that I now have to consciously make time for things that I didn't have to schedule in before.  The busy-ness is kind of overwhelming, but it's making me more diligent in everything I do.

Monday, July 13th:
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I was stoked to soon receive the sequel to my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, on the day it would be released, which was Tuesday the 14th.  So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to come home on my lunch break, and see a package from Amazon that Syd left for me on the kitchen table.  I hurriedly tore threw the cardboard to see my hopes confirmed:  I had received Go Set a Watchman the day before it was to be officially released!  Thanks, Amazon Prime :)

I basically wanted to do nothing else in life, but bury my nose in this new book, but adulthood calls.  I'm currently just a few chapters in and reading it slower than I normally would so I can really savor the experience.  It's actually quite a bit different from the style of Mockingbird, but has its own beauty.  You can ask me in person as time goes on if you want to know how I feel about this new book (sans spoilers because I detest when people do that).

Tuesday, July 14th:
Tuesday is my usual "Need for Speed" day.  And I do mean it when I say need because I probably wouldn't be doing it if I didn't know it was a necessity for building up my strength as a runner.
I did the usual workout with these 400m splits:
1:34:33
1:40:71
1:42:16
1:42:12
1:44:06

I also tested out my new KT taping skills Trevor taught me.  Of course I had to buy this specific color KT tape for coordination sake...

I really wish the high school football team wasn't doing training for the Fall yet.  The players sometimes get in my way when they cross the track and are so utterly teenager oblivious that someone else could be there.  I did get a chance to see some of the boys from our youth group in action, though so I hope this hard work they are putting in during the summer pays off in the season.
6 miles total


Wednesday, July 15th:
Back in April, I won a couples photo session with Sarah Liz Photography on Facebook.  I knew we really didn't NEED more photos taken of us, but I seriously love that experience being in front of the camera and the fun and confidence it brings so I was extremely excited.  Sarah mentioned that she had met a woman at the Farmer's Market in Arcata who owned lavender fields and that we would try to take photos there, if it looked decent enough.  We met her out at the woman's farm in Dow's Prairie, which is past McKinleyville, but before Trinidad, some 20 miles north of Eureka.  It felt a little strange to be going to this woman's property whom we had never met, and just frolic in her crops, but she was super friendly and willing to let us play around.  Her business is called Flora Organica and they have been doing local farmer's markets from something like 25 years I want to say.  Such a cool, humbling life.
We started out taking some photos in what was left of the lavender she hadn't picked, but since it was such a gorgeous sunny day, the sun was casting shadows on our faces.  The owner told us she had some pretty dahlias growing over by her house and the lighting could be a little more shaded there.  Once we found some great lighting in this spot of her gorgeous flowers, Sarah began snapping away.  Sarah is SO MUCH FUN to work with.  We went to high school together, but I hadn't seen her since.  She is just as silly and vivacious as ever and really has a passion for her art.  She blew me away with how she could manipulate the lighting and see things in a completely different way than I ever could have imagined.  For instance, sitting in an old tub didn't really sound to me like it would turn into a nice photo, but she proved me wrong time after time with awesome ideas for setting.  As we walked through this woman's property, we got to see just how quirky and pretty the place was.  From flowers in a greenhouse to a field of bright hydrangeas and from a vintage Airstream trailer to barn doors, this location had lots to offer.  At one point when we were posing in the hydrangeas, a buffalo came to check us out!  When does that happen?  It was truly a great experience, and I am so thankful for the opportunity Sarah gave us.  She really captured mine and Syd's playfulness and the joy that is represented in our marriage.  Plus, I got to admire my husband's gorgeousness all evening.  I was giddy on the drive home afterwards.  I can't wait to see the gallery of photos, but Sarah posted a few sneak peeks on her Facebook page:

This was taken right next to the buffalo who was spying on us.

I win hottest hubs award.

Give her a follow in Facebook at Sarah Liz Photography or check more of her beautiful work on her website, http://sarahlizphoto.com/.

Thursday, July 16th:
Syd took Thursday and Friday of this week off of work because he didn't really get a break after Teen Camp ended.  We also were asked to babysit Q overnight because my in-laws would be taking a trip to Oregon.  I knew that Q would probably want to spend a lot of time playing videogames while he was with us because Syd can be a terrible influence like that, but I was surprised to get off work and see that my car was in a different spot and had been washed!  Thanks, sweet hubs.  Also, when I got home, I looked out the kitchen window to see Q mowing the lawn while Syd was kinda just standing around.  That's right...we put the kids to work in our house haha!  I asked Syd about it and he said that Q was earning video game time by doing various chores and he actually wanted to mow the lawn, which is wonderful for both of us.  After part of my run and Bible study, I met up at Syd's softball game.  I knew I wanted to finish my run home instead of getting a ride from Syd afterwards, and Q said he wanted to run also.  Since the baseball field is only about a mile away from our house and I wanted to go at a pretty easy pace, I told Q it would be a great idea for him to come, too.  He started out quicker than I thought, and held a good pace for about 3/4 of the way until we walked the last bit home.  Such a stud.  When we got home, I asked Q if Syd had given him dinner while I was at Bible study and he said no, and that they probably wouldn't be eating dinner that night.....probably becauase I wasn't home to come up with something lol.  I felt badly for Q because it was pretty late to be eating dinner (I want to say like 8:45ish).  Since it was a special occasion with our overnight guest, I consented to fast food for dinner and we went to Wendy's.

FYI they no longer carry the ghost pepper chicken sandwich :'(

5 miles


Friday, July 17th:
After a long day at work, I pretty much spent the first part of Friday evening on our couch catching up on Jeopardy and my new book (yes, we are def Jeopardy watchers now and yes, I do record every episode #winningatadulthood).  As comfortable as this was, I felt like nothing could get me out of my lounge-fest on this Friday night.  Nothing, that is, until we got a text from our friends Jeremy and Dessirae who were in town from Paso Robles with their 1 month old baby girl!!  I have been so eager to meet Miss Natalee Mae since before she was born and I missed Jeremy and Des so we hopped off the couch and went over to our other friends' (Mike and Tomi's) house to meet up.  It was wonderful to see their newly grown family, and snuggle with Natalee!  She was the most easy-going baby with many different facial expressions...SO cute.  I could seriously have held her all day.

Holding her made me want our own baby for about 20 minutes until Syd snapped me out of it :)

Saturday, July 18th:
This was a day for sleeping in until 10:15 and doing not much of anything in particular other than running some errands.  Q came back to stay with us shortly before 6pm, so we decided to have an easy, early dinner of Annie's white cheddar mac n' cheese, and then go for a bike ride to get ice cream since July is National Ice Cream month, according to a proclamation made by the honorable President Ronald Reagan, my mom's hero.  Although, I don't really think ice cream needs its own month because I pretty much could eat it every single day of my life.  Q and I really wanted to ride our bikes, but Syd thought Franklin really needed to get out, too, and he doesn't do well by the bikes, so Syd walked Franklin down the Eureka Boardwalk while Q and I rode our bikes in front of him to Living the Dream ice cream. Q got a vanilla ice cream sandwich with snickerdoodles and I got a waffle cone with chocolate peppermint and coffee cookie ice creams.  The chocolate peppermint is definitely my favorite of theirs.  It was a perfect summer Eureka day for a bike ride and ice cream with some of my loves.

Do you think Franklin was ready to go with us to the Boardwalk?

Another exciting part of Saturday, I got new tires and rims on my car!  Mobbing in the Pilot with black on black makes me feel super ballin'.

I also became the person who puts these stickers on their car.  Sorry I'm not sorry.

3 miles on bike

Sunday, July 19th:
I got out of bed at 7:30 to an already sunny, warm morning.  You could tell it was going to be a warm, sunny day in our neck of the coast.  That is my favorite kind of weather.  I really am not a fan of the amount of rain Eureka is known to get as I am a huge fan of the weather in Southern California so I live for days like this in Eureka.  And what made this morning even better was knowing I would get to spend it outside running the Fortuna Rodeo Run.

This was at 10 am!  Perfect morning.

There was a 5K and a 10K, and I signed up for the 10K.  It was a super flat out and back along the main streets in Fortuna, and if you were running the 10K then you would run the course twice.  Since it was very flat and on the road, I was running at a race pace for sure.  I also noticed there wasn't a whole lot of people racing the 10K so I could get a good finishing spot if I pushed myself.  It was pretty warm and there was no water on the course, but I felt great about my time and effort when I finished.  I broke 50 minutes, which I wasn't sure I could do, and I was the 2nd female finisher overall for the 10K.

The post-race raffle and celebration ended just in time for me to make it back to Eureka shortly after church started.  I arrived just after the greeting time, which is exactly when I would have hoped to enter haha.  After church I made myself an acai bowl for lunch.  Acai bowls are one of the parts of San Diego I miss the most so I have tried mastering the at-home version for years now, and I have found what works for me.  I use about a cup of acai juice (Sambazon is one of my favorites, but pretty much any brand will get the job done), one frozen banana, a cupful of mixed berries, and a hefty handful of whatever greens I have on hand.  After blending, I top my bowl with sliced banana, strawberries, chia seeds, and granola.

Later that evening, Syd and I were craving something to BBQ for dinner.  Syd suggested carne asada, but I didn't know of a good marinade for that.  We decided to try one of our local Mexican stores out, and were so pleased with what we got.  The marinade they used had just the right amount of sweet in it, so we will probably be eating carne asada more often.

My Jarritos lover.

We ended the night by watching one of my favorite movies in honor of its 20th anniversary.....

This movie takes me back to my childhood when I  wished I could be as cool as Cher and her Beverly Hills posse.  So many one-liners to drop in various life situations from this movie:
"As if!"
"I was surfing the crimson wave."
"She's my friend because we both know what it's like for people to be jealous of us."
"Do you prefer fashion victim or ensembly challenged?"

Fortuna Rodeo Run:
Mile 1- 7:27
Mile 2- 8:03
Mile 3- 8:12
Mile 4- 8:21
Mile 5- 8:33
Mile 6- 8:08
*My Garmin time was 50:13 with an 8:08/mi pace, but race finish time was 49:58 :)
6.2 miles

Monday, July 20th:
I like the new strength class I have been going to very much, but I could always use a good partner so I was very glad my super buff, hot friend Taylor would be going to the 6:45 class also!  I was looking forward to it and I even wore the workout tee that makes me feel uber pumped.

A little Elle Woods inspiration for the daily workout.

Our workout of the day was an adapted form of the Murph Challenge, which I researched a bit (and you can click on to find out more) and found out it was a workout honoring a fallen Navy lieutenant.  Our adapted form was:
400m run
200 air squats
100 pushups
50-100 pullups
400m run

Within the half hour or so we had to complete the workout, I finished both runs, all the air squats, 75 pushups, and I can't remember if it was 30 or 40 pullups (although they were WAY assisted).  Boom.
I prefer more of a variety of exercises because I am ADD like that when I do a workout other than running, but being able to look back on the numbers feels good.

I decided to try out a new chicken recipe, one I hoped Syd would be a fan of since he would prefer everything he eats to be fried.  I made oven-baked pecan crusted chicken tenders and used this recipe: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2015/01/22/baked-pecan-crusted-chicken-fingers/

I ended up running out of pecans so the majority of my crusting was crushed walnuts.  Whatevs.  This was a bit messy, but not complicated and it turned out pretty tasty.  I dipped the tenders in Laruppin Dill Mustard sauce, but think it would have been awesome dipped in honey mustard.  Syd approved so that's a definite win in my book.

Of course Mondays mean my ever guilty pleasure of The Bachelor.  I have some of my girl friends from living in the dorms at Point Loma to thank for this.  I remember when I watched my first episode my sophomore year wondering why people would watch such a morally terrible show that advocates for dating multiple people at the same time.  Well, five years later and I am still wondering why I am one of those people who watch it.  Funny thing is, I tried to get my mom and sister to watch when I would come home for holidays and they just couldn't stand it.  Now, these are the texts I receive from my mom on Monday nights:

Even Syd joins in on the fun sometimes.
(Syd during the Men Tell All episode):  "Why is that guy who left early talking so much?  Like, does anyone even know who he is?"
Still hoping for Ben H. (Syd's twin) to be the next Bachelor so that I can pretend Syd is on national television every week.

Tuesday, July 21:
More speed work stats that I am sure nobody really cares about, but I will document anyway.
1:36:11
1:39:47
1:40:27
1:42:58
1:40:75

Not a major improvement from last time, but a few seconds of faster splits put in.

I finished with a cool-down around Cutten with Franklin for a couple miles for a total of 6 miles logged.

One tired puppy sleeping on my feet.

Y'all, I have been wanting to blog this post for a couple days now, but this really does take me several hours so here is a look at the start of my post last night around 11 pm.  Come on.  I HAD to postpone posting to cuddle with this little guy for the night.

I hope you all have a fabulous everyday!  A question to leave you with....if you could have a chat with any person in history who would it be?

"Workin' All Summer Just to Try an' Earn a Dollar"

After weeks of waiting and wondering, I was finally offered a summer job!  I am now working full-time at Professional Property Management.  Although it was awesome having my summer days totally open and more time for playing, I do now feel more purposeful and grateful for the opportunity to work.

This post will cover bits of life from the time I last posted until I started working.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 1:

This was an extremely lazy day.  I'm pretty sure I didn't even get out of my pajamas until I went to circuit class at 5:30.  Syd was pretty happy this day because wifey went ahead and made some banana bread.

I saw there were several brown bananas on top of our fridge, and usually I freeze those for smoothies, but since I knew we would be heading up to camp for the weekend, I had a different idea for how they could be enjoyed.

"Syd, do you want me to make banana bread?"

"Ummm if you make banana bread I WILL DEFINITELY eat it."

"Oh good. I was thinking maybe we could take it to camp."

"If I don't eat it all before then!  And if not, then it will not leave our trailer (meaning no sharing with anyone else lol).

I used my usual recipe, which is from my Grandma Esther:

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

4 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

3 mashed bananas

Optional chocolate chips or walnuts.  (Syd prefers no nuts and plenty of chocolate chips)

Cream sugar, oil, and eggs.  Add dry ingredients.  Put bananas and optional ingredients in last.  Bake at 300 degrees for about an hour.

It turned out great!  The last time I baked it in this oven I remember it was a little too brown on the edges so I cut baking time a bit, which was a great decision.

Check out that face so excited to devour the banana bread.

Thursday, July 2:

I spent this morning hanging out with Q.  We took Franklin to the dog park, which they BOTH love, and Q taught me how to make a daisy chain necklace.  This kid is hilarious and really smart, and spending time with him is always great.  Plus, he is Franklin's human BFF.  Seriously, those two can just run around with each other for hours.  It's the cutest.

Later in the afternoon, I went to Syd's office and spent a few hours helping him plan activities for teen camp, which would begin the following week, and then we went shopping for supplies.  I love looking at people's random purchases on the cashier belt, and ours was definitely one of those.

In the evening, Franklin and I went for a run at Headwaters Forest.  It's a trail out past Elk River Road and is paved for the first mile.  http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/prog/nlcs/Headwaters_ForestReserve.html  We like to take Franklin here sometimes on walks because he doesn't have to be leashed.  This was my first time running the trail, as well as Franklin's first time running with me unleashed, and he did awesome.  It was pretty warm out for Eureka standards, and I didn't have water to give him on the trail so he was a trooper.  He was never too far out of my sight, and stayed within 10 or 15 feet behind me.

 How could you not enjoy a run on this trail?

Franklin and I stopped for a bridge selfie on the way back.

5.5 trail miles with Franklin

Friday, July 3-Monday, July 6:

Today was the day we would be heading up to Blue Slide for Family Camp 4th of July weekend!  Syd and I really love going to Family Camp.  We have missed it the past couple years, so it was great to be back up there with everyone and have our own trailer this year for it.  Before we left, though, I got in a fast paced run for the weekend.

6 miles.  51:20:4  8:33/mi pace

On our way out to camp, Syd and I saw a mama deer with two BRAND NEW baby fawns.  Syd thinks they were probably only a week old.

 They were right in the middle of the road and went we went further forward, the mama went up the hill on the side of the road with her babies trailing her.  One made it up, but the other one just couldn't quite make it up the hill on his own.  We stopped to watch and see if the mama would come back down to help her baby, but she didn't. 

The poor baby deer was shaking all over because it was so scared of us so we drove up further away.  I parked off to the side and we decided Syd should get out and see if the deer needed any help getting up the hill, plus he really wanted to pet it.  By the time he went back, baby had made it up the hill-yay!

This is one of my favorite views on the drive up to Maple Creek.

There were lots of church family members at Family Camp this year, which made it even more fun.  It was a relaxing weekend spent with some wonderful people.  Festivities included chapel and worship through singing and dancing (which I helped the kids lead the hand motions the first night as they were all RCS chapel songs), an intense kickball game, a watermelon eating contest, s'mores, river time, too much awesome food made by my in-laws, great conversations at the campfire, holding little ones' hands, and a fireworks show announced by Pastor Syd himself!  Blue Slide Camp is such a tremendous blessing to our church, and we are so grateful for that gorgeous space and for the people who continue to help the camp run smoothly.  I foresee many weekends spent in the sun there this summer (except for Sundays when people should head back in town for church, which is the whole reason why the campground is there!)

Sunday night, after mostly everyone had left from Family Camp, Syd and the teen camp band made up of a group of Point Loma students showed up along with Cadence Please, the band that we had for teen camp last year.  We had pizza and talked about all our connections within the university (Nazarene-dom is CRAZY small, I'm telling ya).  A couple of the guys in the band were actually good friends with Syd's brother, Carl!  One of the guys said that I reminded him of Carl's girlfriend Carly, which is a major compliment for sure :)

I was bummed to not be able to stay for the whole week of helping at teen camp because I had to start working, but Syd did a great job with everything and the kids were really fed physically and spiritually during the week there.  Weeks like that make me so excited for the future of our youth!

My favorite color- the one God uses for the special sunsets.  Those were at the gate and then on the camp road on the way out.

Tuesday, July 7:

Speed training.  

This is how I feel about it:

3 mile warmup and 5 4x400s with a jogging lap in between

1:36:41

1:38:92

1:38:16

1:40:01

1:40:44

Wednesday, July 8-Friday, July 10:

Work.  Circuit class.  Reading.  Treadmill run.  Softball game sans Sydney :(  Franklin was uber bored these few days with Mommy working and Daddy up at camp.  Because we were missing Sydney, I decided to Google his doppelganger-Ben H. from this season's The Bachelorette.  As much as I don't like Kaitlyn as the Bachelorette, I really like this bachelor she has...mostly because I think he is cute and the sweetest of the others.  Syd pointed out that I think so because he looks like Syd.  He was SPOT ON.  Especially when he smiles.  Young Ben H. totally looks like Syd in his younger days..check it out. 

4 treadmill miles and 1.5 misty street miles to Kennedy Fields with Franklin

Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12:

I had asked Trevor (uncle/coach/runner extraordinaire) if he wanted to run around 10 miles at Headwaters this weekend and he was in.  I picked him up at 8:30 and we were off.  He taught me how to use the KT tape I got before we started, which I hope will really help with my knees.  Trevor asked if I had ever run this trail in its entirety, to which I replied negative.  I had probably only gone about 3 miles in.  He said it is about 5 miles out, and then there is a short half mile loop at the top in the old growth section.  I figured we should go the whole way out as I wanted to get 10 miles in that day.  Well, let me tell you now that the first 3 miles I had run were cake compared to the last couple miles.  It is hill after hill after steady increasing HILL.  My quads were screaming.  Trevor informed me at one point we were running up a 14% grade incline.  I was pretty lame having to stop a ton in that fourth mile especially.  Trevor is uber fast and in the best running shape of anyone ever so I felt badly keeping him slowed down, but I am so not used to doing hills.  Trevor kept reassuring me that hills would make me stronger and would help with my knee pain and speed over time.  When I was feeling really weak and slowing down, Trevor said, "Just keep moving forward with purpose."  I laughed at that last part, "with purpose."  My purpose at that time was to be done with all those hills, but I think what he said is a great motivator for running all the time and life in general.  Trevor is so awesome like that.

I wish I would have thought to bring my phone to take pictures during the loop and old growth Redwood section because it was gorgeous.  After one half mile loop, we began our descent back down the trail.  I enjoyed going down much more because it was less painful in the legs, but was still not fully confident with my footing, so we kept it at an easy pace.  We tried to sync our watches at the very beginning of our run, but my Garmin lost signal for about a mile at mile 6 so I didn't save our time.  I think Trevor had about 10 or 10.5 miles on his watch and I honestly can't remember our time.  I think it was around 14:30 min/mile.  Trevor said that effort-wise with all the hills it was equivalent to a road half-marathon so that made me feel much more satisfied about our run for the day.

Around 10.5 trail miles

My legs were pretty achy the rest of the day, but I did still go with Syd and his dad to help clean up camp after Teen Camp.  We got there around 3 and cleaned for over 3 hours, sweeping and mopping cabins and bathrooms and cleaning windows.  Syd is lucky I love him.

Sunday, July 12:

I have officially lost the ability to sleep in past 8 now that I am working 8-5.  Bummer.  At least I got good reading and Bible study time in before church.  Church was very powerful this morning, with our passionate guest speaker of Cutting Edge Ministries.  Next summer, our youth will take part in a mission trip with them.  I am so incredibly excited for the future of our church and will continue to pray for God to lead the right pastor into it.

Syd and I finally made it to a Crabs game this summer!  We barely made it for the 1st inning of the 12:30 game.  The Humboldt Crabs beat the California Storm 7-2 :)  We didn't win the 50/50 raffle, but afterwards we went to Arcata Pizza and Deli for some much needed grub and raspberry lambic for me.

I can't wait for Tuesday, when Go Set a Watchman is released!  I pre-ordered it on Amazon so I will get it sent to me the day it is released.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Let me know if I can pray for you in any way or if you just want to chat/hang out :)