Friday Fillers: Creative Scheduling

• Ran 2.5 miles in 29:56 minutes this morning with 3 dogs. 
  
• This week's highlights were high school graduations and post-graduation feasting.  So proud of the graduates and I hope they will continue to be mindful of being a responsible friend, student, young citizen when they go off to college. 
  
• The bug I am having has made it difficult to breathe and sleep at night. This week's attempts at waking up early to get my workouts in weren't successful. Throw 2 nights of graduation ceremonies into the mix, for this week's workouts to materialize, that would mean some creative scheduling.
• Did Jillian Michaels while watching the oven.
• Run multiple laps to the mailbox and back (0.5 mile each way)
• Pack running shoes and clothes so I could stop by the gym on my way home. 
• Run as fast as I can so I can get done, go home, fix supper, and feed.
  
• Since I missed yesterday session with Jillian, I am going to have to do it later today. Lunch time will be a good time.  And then, I will be caught up with my workout plans with another Jillian session and a 3.5 mile run left to go.
  
• Drinking juice is a good way to get my 5 servings of fruits and vegetables. I'm loving 2 oranges, 2 apples, 1 tomato.
  What's your favorite juice mix?

Friday Fillers - Fancy Schmanzy Word of the Day

• Bummer that Blogger was down yesterday because I had a GRAND day! 
  
• I started my day with Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30. Here are my thoughts:
  
  
  1. I used 5lbs dumb bells and I think I would do better with 3lbs ones.  I found that I wasn't able to maintain good form and ended up doing some sloppy work.  So, if you are starting, you might want to try using 3lb dumb bells instead.
     Remember:  "Form is key!"
     
  2. Jillian's voice is kinda scary.  I probably watched The Biggest Loser like 2 times, so I don't know if that's the way she usually talks.  It's like a manly girl talking.  And I felt a little embarrassed when I hear her call me "Baby."  (more like, "babe-bay!"
     I felt like telling her, "Oh honey, don't call me baby!"
     
  3. By evening time, my abs, triceps, biceps, hamstrings were sore. Not a bad sore. A good sore that tells you, "Hey! You worked today!!!!" So that was awesome!
     
• I love fresh juice.  Freshly juiced juice tastes creamy to me.  It is happiness in a glass.
  Here's a concoction of orange, apple, and pineapple.

• I was shopping for air tickets to go home. 

 

• I ended up buying this instead.
  It's actually an indoor grill pan thingy.  I have a girl grill, but I stink at building a fire.  Grilling a slab of salmon and using a whole bag of charcoal seems kinda wasteful.  So.... maybe this will be the answer? 

• Still no air ticket.  Oh well. I'll try again.
  
• And I ordered some cute Melissa and Doug toys for therapy and birthday presents....
  
• And still no air ticket. Never mind, I'll try again.

• I also bought a graduation card/money holder thing for my boyfriend's sister.
  I think this applies to all of us.
  

• And still no air tickets. :)
  
• I have a 2 or 3 miles on tap later on the treadmill.
  
• I guess, I better go work on buying that air ticket!

Friday Fillers - Royalty, Run, and Random Rambles

You just can't go through today without hearing or commenting about the Royal Wedding. I didn't obsessed about it. I didn't even wake up to watch it. All I did was google searched Kate's dresses. Yes both of them.  I like them. Not stiff. Not uppity. Classy. Yet, it has a certain ease about it.

I drove home and under the carport, I heard birds chirping. Music to my ears.  Every winter/spring time, I purposefully leave boxes and things out and high up so the Carolina wrens (my favorite) can build nests in it and leave their eggs in those boxes.  Today, the baby wrens are up and trying to take flight.  I had to also distract Paddy Wag and neighbor's-dog-but-now-kinda-my-dog away from those wrens. 

I went on a walk/run with Paddy Wag and that neighbor's dog which I named Sammie. Someone please tell me how I can teach Paddy Wag to not drag her momma along! I feel like I am choking her with the leash and collar. ARGH!  Also, she hates bath.  I am out of tricks. Someone tell me how I can teach her to at least not fight with me over baths.  

I ate junk today - half a bag of popcorn for lunch, some veggie chips and tater tots (I love tater tots). For supper tonight, I actually settled for a big bowl of strawberries, grapes and Greek yogurt, drizzled with some agave syrup and two spoonfuls of granola. Yum!

 

 Gonna try and do another run/walk on Sunday.  Let's get real. It is not easy to rebuild your running base. It's like learning to walk all over again.

Friday Filler: Garden Fresh

Just a few random notes.

1. I haven't been logging in my food intake like I did some weeks back. I stepped on the scale again today and BAM! I am down 5 lbs.  I don't know how. It is frustrating. When I try to be good, eat well and exercise, I'll pile on the pounds. Don't tell me it's muscle weight either. It is not. I know.
2. I made 2 samosa pies this week. Love samosas but to individually wrap each and every samosa takes too much time. So, I dumped all the filling into a pie crust, topped with another crust and baked it for about 20 minutes until the crust is nice and golden.  Lower in fat too since it is not dunked in grease!
3. My 2 weeks of rest will be over this weekend.  I guess it is time to really take the legs out for a spin soon. It will be a lot of rebuilding the base again. But I am kinda giddy with excitement!
4. I went to the grocery store and bought a lot of vegetables. Love fresh, leafy vegetables. Look closely at the wording on that blue twisty thing.

So, at the check-out counter, the cashier fiddled with the wire twisty thing to look for a code.

Didn't find the code.

She pored through her handy dandy cheat sheet. Didn't find it either.

She asked me, "What's this vegetable?"

I said, "Mustard green?"

She said, "It says it's Garden Fresh."

I said, "Oh. Ok."

So, any funny stories at the grocery store?

Friday Fillers!

It has been a week of non-exercising. I am secretly enjoying it.

 

I only walked like a grandma for 2.5 days after the half marathon. 

A week of non-exercising has the scale stepped down by at least 3 lbs. Hmmm .....

 

I ate cheese dip and salsa. 

I got guilty and bought this.

 

Now, I am going to finish up taxes.  

I'm itching.

Friday Filler: Who's Got Style?

Leah at Chasing Atalanta tagged me the Stylish Blogger Award.

I'm supposed to share 7 random facts about myself.

1. I don't have and never had to shave my arms or legs. Blessed or what?
2. I started wearing glasses when I was in third-grade. I thought I looked fabulous!
3. I used to run track in high school. 2.4K was the usual distance. I thought I was da bomb!
4. Once I signed up for the 3000m race for school's race. No one else did. So that was canceled.
5. I outran a lot of guys in my class. I believe I ran 2.4K in 10 minutes.
6. Guys in my grade wanted to go on dates with me. I told them "no... unless they can outrun me."
7. Sometimes when I'm driving behind an 18-wheeler, I imagine driving and crashing into it and wondered what it would be like. 
   
   Random?

And now, I'm supposed to tag 7 people.  I'm going to tag the first 7 people who leave a comment on this post.

Happy Friday!

Friday Fillers - ABCs and update

I'm still fighting a losing battle with this cold thing I have. I feel more tired than ever. My belly feels empty and weird.  Food tastes tasteless so I am after BIG flavor foods like lime sorbet and curries! And when I get to eating, I feel yucky and can barely eat.  I finally gave in to resting today.  I guess it's pretty bad when all I can think of today at work was how miserable I am and how much I wanted to be home, wear my granny panties and pjs and sleep.  The kiddos I worked with today were good, easy, funny kids and I can't even fully commit to laughing with and at them.  Anyway,  after work, I slept. I let the chores slide and left the dogs alone and slept.  It was good. 

With this junk I have, I just am not in the mood for a lot of things, even running. Gasp! So sorry that there hasn't been a running post.  Hopefully I can kick this cold soon. So, I decided to do the ABCs post that has been floating around.  I enjoyed reading your ABCs, and if you haven't done it yet, do it, so I can read it in bed. 

A:  Age -- 31
B:  Bed Size  -- Queen.
C:  Chore Your Hate -- Cleaning the toilet bowl.
D:  Dogs -- Buttercup (a mix) and Paddy Wag (a lab and German wirehaired pointer mix)
E:  Essential Start Your Day Item -- Contact lenses.
F:  Favorite Color -- black and white and grey
G:  Gold or Silver -- Silver
H:  Height -- 5' 4'
I:  Instruments You Play -- none
J:  Job Title -- Speech-Language Pathologist
K:  Kids -- None.
L:  Live -- SE Arkansas
M:  Mother's Name -- maah-meeeeeeee
N:  Nicknames -- Babe, Chrissy, Chichi
O:  Overnight Hospital Stays -- 0
P:  Pet Peeve -- purposefully misspelling words "kool/cool," "dun/don't"
Q:  Quote from a Movie --  "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
R:  Right or Left-Handed -- Right and left
S:  Siblings -- 1 younger brother
T:  Time You Wake Up -- Tuesday/Thursday - 4:47 a.m. or some weird number, Sundays - 5:27 a.m. M/W/F- 6:18 or something like that and Saturday - whenever I wake up
U:  Underwear -- yes.
V:  Vegetable You Dislike -- Raw celery and raw carrots and raw broccoli. Love them cooked.
W:  What Makes You Late --  Internet and forgetting where I left my keys/phone.
X:   X-rays You've Had Done -- Dental x-ray and chest x-ray
Y:  Yummy Food You Make -- Let's just say I can cook pretty well. :)
Z:  Zoo Animal Favorite -- Hippos - they are dirty, they are fat, they don't have lots of pretty colors. But they are still kinda cool.

Friday Fillers

Paddy Wag was lounging around on the front porch when I drove up and got out of my vehicle.  I was graced (well, not too gracefully) by her very bouncy jumps. When I knelt down beside her, she settled close next to me and plopped right onto the ground with her fours up in the air, wanting me to tickle her belly.  Sweet loving. Buttercup came right next to us and we all had a great few minutes together. 

I feel like I haven't been spending enough time with my girls. 

I play with them or sit with them for about an hour a day after work. 

However, it is usually getting dark and we don't get to run around much. 

Thank goodness we are lucky to have lots of land around us so the girls could roam and explore. 

For the remainder of this month and in March, I am going to commit

to taking the girls out for a walk on Saturday mornings.  

I am also planning on running with the girls at least once a week. Nothing serious or long. 

Probably about 3 miles or so until Paddy gets the hang of it. 

I'm coming down with a cold or flu.  Nose's running. Throat is kinda dry. Tired. And sneezing some. Argh! 

I am planning on getting a lot of things done this weekend. 

1. Clean/organize study
2. Laundry
3. Work on a horseradish potato salad recipe
4. Clean out my vehicle 
5. Tidy foyer
6. Clean out fridge

Will report back to see what actually gets done. It will be a laughing stock! 

Of course, before I leave, I gotto share this photo with y'all.

 

This is how tight we are! 

Friday Fillers

Anne Marie over at Goals for the Week dedicated her Friday's post to EMZ. Basically it is about "filler blogs" and why we blog.  Click on the links for some interesting reads. 


Here's my 2-cents.
I started this blog with the sole intention of sharing my runs. I realized that my mind gets really random when I run. It's not possible to share my running experiences without sharing all those random thoughts. And my random thoughts usually are related to real-life experiences.  So there you go - here's a blog that's running-related with real-life thrown into the mix. 


Here's a little real-life + running.

I found a package for me on the front porch this morning before I drove to work.  I controlled myself and didn't open it until lunch time.
I found these:

I chatted with a friend in college recently on the phone about him being a new dad and all the wonderful joys of being a father.  When asked about how I am doing recently, I found myself talking INCESSANTLY about running. So, while at a used book sale, he came across these two books and purchased it for me. This was an absolutely thoughtful gift because this was an absolutely sweet gesture that totally acknowledged my love for running.  Thanks Vinay!

********

Aneta over at My Running Bucket is going through a pretty fantastically exciting phase of her life - moving into her new love nest!  I was one of the first people to comment on her blog about a survey/random tidbits. So, here you go.

4 TV Shows I Watch:   I don't have cable anymore and haven't watched TV at home in 2 years. But when I go online, I will watch   
Gossip Girl  +  America Next Top Supermodel   +  Beverly Hills 90210   +   Law and Order  

4 Things I'm Passionate About:

Family     +       Boyfriend              +            Running           +    Cooking

4 Words/Phrases I Use Too Much:

Goodness     +       Silly Goose          +     Oh man!         +       I don't know.  

4 Things I Have Learned From The Past:

If you feel an injury brewing, stop and RICE.

Surround yourself with positive, responsible people.

I can do anything I set my mind to it.

I often underestimate my abilities.

4 Things I Am Looking Foward To:

My brother's wedding in 2012    +   Paddy Wag growing up and running alongside me   +  Always the next time I get to spend with my boyfriend     +   Seeing my parents and best friend. 

4 Things I Love About Winter:

Cold with possibility of snow   +  Christmas and break   +   Winter fashion/accessories   +   Fireplace 

Now, consider yourself tagged in your blog or pick a category and share the 4 things on the comments section below.

Happy Friday y'all!