Wednesday, July 22, 2015

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?








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