End of 2009

This year has gone by so fast that I don't even know where to begin!

-I am halfway done with law school (pending passing grades)

(This is me toasting after my last final!)

-We moved to a new apartment in the yuppie area, and I love it!

-We adopted Trooper and instantly fell in love with him!

(Who wouldn't love this little guy?)

-Kaley came to visit and I had a blast getting to be with old friends

-I celebrated my 1 year wedding anniversary

-I got running back into my life and ran my first 10k

-My wonderful hubby got a much deserved promotion

And countless other things!

And finally...I started the last day of 2009 out with some apple cinnamon oats!

More Miles

I apologize for the unregular posting, but so far this trip we have driven about 1800 miles...so most of our time has been in the car.  But, the trip has been good and we have seen a lot of family!

Here are a few food bites.  Unfortunately my meals have been very unregular as well, but here is a food review and my stepdad's "Texas BBQ Sandwich".

Food Review

This is my first time trying the Bear Naked bar.  This bar was the fruit and nut variety.

This bar had huge chunks of whole fruit and nuts!  The bar was also a very large!  I actually split the bar with my hubby because the portion was quite large and contained nearly 300 calories.

The bars flavor was great!  Maybe a tad too sweet, but overall great flavor.

Overall, I probably would not pay for this bar again because the portion and calories are a little too much for me.   My hubby loved the bar and thought the portion size was fine for him!

Texas BBQ Sandwich

 

This was obviously a splurge homemade food!  This was made from a whole loaf of french bread, mozz cheese, Italian sausage, and sweet BBQ sauce.  The sandwich is then baked until melted and warm!

Yum!!!!

We are now in Michigan and watching lots of snow fall!

 

The Old Hot Spots

This is a bonus picture of Trooper on the car ride here. 

We had to stop at one of my favorite places to eat---Arni's!!! Yum, yum!  We got the lunch special which came with soup of the day and the famous Arni's Junior Salad.

I got the tomato soup and it was delicious!  It had nice chunks of tomato and was fairly thick.  It really hit the spot on such a cold grey day!

The Arni's Junior!  Sooooo good!  I forgot to ask for light cheese, but I just picked it off.  This salad has small chunks of turkey, ham, radishes, scallion, onion, and lettuce. 

How Do you Know you're in Indiana?

This was at the grocery store.  Yuck!  Some things I definitely do not miss!

Training:

Training has been good thus far.  I will give a little recap of the total mileage on the trip thus far.  Remember the key is to adapt your planned workouts to your vacation.

Sunday:  4 miles

Monday:  8 miles

Tuesday: 5.5 miles

Wednesday:  3 miles

Thursday:  Rest + ab work

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!

Driving All Over!

I apologize for the lack of posting.  We have been trying to spend time with all the families and friends while in Indiana.  We have also driven more than humanly possible!

Eats have not been that exciting.  We have ate a bowl of oatmeal every morning but after that the day gets crazy and sometimes we end up skipping one meal or another or just snacking our way through the day.  Such is the holidays!

On the other side, running/training has been awesome.  I did not know whether or not we would be able to handle the cold, but so far so good.  Saturday was our planned rest day.  Sunday we had a long 90 minute run scheduled, but we ended up spending the whole afternoon with family and by the time we fit in the run it was about 26 degrees and getting dark.  Due to the dangerously icing sidewalks, we cut that to 4 miles.

Monday was planned 3 mile run + strength.  We did our long run Monday.  We ended up cutting a bit short just because that was how the route ended up.  We did 8 miles and my bottles actually froze shut on my running belt!  Crazy!

Monday night we drove another 100 miles to southern Indiana to visit the hubby's family.  Today (Tuesday) we ended up sleeping really late (finally!) and got to our run about 1 in the afternoon.  The hubby's little brother also joined us for the run.  His little brother plays baseball for his college-so he is a tad better shape than us!  Nonetheless we kicked out 5.5 miles at a good pace.

I am not following my training schedule exactly.  I have not done my interval training, but have actually added more mileage.  The key is that I am still keeping up with training and keeping active even though I am on holiday vacation.  It is important to be able to adapt your workouts rather than just skip them!  This allows those yummy Christmas cookies to go unnoticed!

Hope everyone's holidays are going well so far!  When I eat something blogworthy I promise to take pictures!

Home Eats

Bruno Balls!  Breadstick dough-fried and covered in Parmesean.

Unhealthy-but gotta have them when you're in town!

I got a side salad to get some veggies in.  Pretty darn good.  Had seeds, green pepper, cucumber, 1/4 egg, tomatoe, and beets!

I also had an enormous slice of Bruno's Veggie

Jordan is the new dog whisperer.

19 1/2 Hours Later

We are here!  The car ride was long.  We hit traffic all the way through Lousiana!  This was Trooper's first long car ride...and...it was a disaster.  He did not lay down at all for at least 4 1/2 hours! 

After that adventure...it snowed for the last 6 hours of the drive.  It is still snowing here a bit.

Drive was safe and sound, except for the fact that I almost slid us into a ditch trying to get turned onto my road.  I live a tiny, unpaved country road that connects to a highway.  I handled it and we arrived safely but that was definitely enough snow driving for now now thin southern blood!

Trooper was packed and ready to leave.  Just kidding.  He was being a cutie.

Trooper getting his first taste of snow.  He just sniffed and sniffed and sniffed!

More snow

Here is Trooper playing with the big dogs!

Storm and Jordan were getting ready for a little nap.  Storm is my best friend Anna's dog and Storm loves Jordan!

**I would like to note this post was dedicated mostly to dogs for the following reasons:

1. cannot drive in snow and take photos

2. After a 20 hour drive with only 2 hours of sleep us people should not be photographed

3.  The hubby and I have lived off pb&j's and Cliff Bars, not exciting photos!

Tonight is going to be catching up with old friends and watching some big games!  Go Purdue Boilers and Go Saints-Who Dat!

Packing, baking, wrapping

Apples with cinnamon are the best snack ever!

Lunch was a small (very tiny) cup of vegetarian chili.

Tuna salad sandwich--ate most of this.  Few wheat thins as well!

Trooper has watched as Jordan and I madly try to prepare for the 20 hour drive!

Is he not the cutest dog in the world?!?!

My present from Santa aka the hubby!

A girl can never have too many handbags.  This picture does not do the bag justice.  It is pretty.  Nice leather, soft, smells of new leather.  Also pretty roomy inside, which is good because I tend to carry around a lot of stuff!

Dinner was a piece (okay two) of frozen pizza.  The garlic bread kind.  Not very healthy, but very tasty!

I stocked up on Cliff bars for the trip!  Also will be packing some pb&j's!

Starting tomorrow I will be driving for a good 20 hours, but expect a post once I get settled and eat something blogworthy!

***Shout out to Anna if she is reading this, see you soon!***

Homemade Dog Biscuits

I decided to use this mix Trooper got for Christmas today.  The apartment smells of baked dog biscuits and Trooper is one happy dog.

Just pour mix in bowl and mix in water and oil.  Optional to add in peanut butter, honey, or vegetable bits.

Mix and knead into a stiff dough.

Roll out and cut.  (I am a horrible baker and I cannot roll dough for the life of me, so this process took longer than it would a normal person)

My first batch were cut and ready to bake!

Trooper surpervised.

40 minutes later....

These turned out great, and smelled pretty good actually.

Trooper approves.

Trooper's First Christmas

Technically not his first, but this is his first Christmas with us.

He got a squirrel toy.  He loves to chase squirrels!

We also got him this huge bone!  He can barely carry the thing.

Christmas wore him out!

Oatmeal Returns

I finally had time for a yummy relaxing breakfast.  Oatmeal, with some pumpkin and apples mixed in there!

I also hit the gym for about 2 hours today!  It was awesome!

On Sunday the hubby and I ran the Jingle Bell Run and I took my last final.  The race was not good.  I should have just skipped once my final got moved.  My body was mentally and physically exhausted.  The first mile was a struggle and it only went downhill from there.  I was just really down on myself and then my performance got worse.

The entire race I was just thinking about how I was running bad and I would probably go do bad on my test.  Negative thoughts, negative thoughts.  (These have been known to be a side effect of law school.)

Anyway I ended up finishing 30th out of 1312 in my age group.  Some of these runners were all-stars.  There were 5:50 paces for the 5 mile run. 

But the race benefitted the YMCA, so I am glad we did it.

My husband did great, and actually beat me by 1 minute.  (That will never happen again, haha).

Moral of the story:  Don't race when you in the middle of finals.  Bad on the body and the mind.

Here is a little family Christmas Picture, and yes I made us all wear our Christmas sweaters!

Almost there

1 more to go.  Almost there.

3 Finals in 4 days has crushed my soul a bit and definitely made me an unpleasant person to be around.  Poor hubby and Trooper!

Tax final at 6pm tomorrow.

I am running Jingle Bell Run at 2pm tomorrow.  (As you recall this final was supposed to be last Friday, but moved due to weather).

I will survive.

I will go to a bar after and drink many nutritional-less, calorie full drinks.  I will enjoy.

Free Holiday Sampler: 20 Songs from iTunes

Free Holiday Sampler: 20 Songs from iTunes

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3 Finals to Go

All there is to say about the next 4 days.  Final tonight: somewhat prepared.  Final tomorrow night:  Not possible to be prepared, will sleep less than 4 hours tonight.  Final Sunday night:  I was prepared a week ago for when it was scheduled. 

I have been living off Easy Mac and apples.

Monday:  I will sit in bed all day and watch daytime TV.

Giveaway to Check Out!

Head over to Carrots N Cake to check out how you could win Element Bars.  You design your own bar and the ingredients are great!

Coffee Giveaway

In honor of my Finals Hell Week (1 down, 3 to go)...

Check out Megans Munchies for a San Marcos Coffee Giveaway!

4 Finals in the Next 6 Days!!!!!!

This is a little bonus post before I return to blogging from finals.  Finals are not going well this semester, and Houston's little "snow day" threw off my entire study schedule and study mojo.  I now have 4 finals this week, none of which I have even begun studying for!  Law school has made me strive for mediocre and it makes me a little sad.

But...on another note, here are some eats:

Spaghetti Squash bake!

Soooo good.  And this one spaghetti squash gave me 4 huge meals!  Click here for a rundown on how to make the spaghetti squash bake.   For this batch I used frozen spinach, peppers, onions, and some shredded carrots for my veggies.

Giant bowls of pumpkin oats have been enjoyed!

Homemade sourdough garlic bread.  Could have eaten the whole loaf in one sitting.

Fake pasta.  I prepare a thing of Easy Mac (yes I eat the weird orange cheese substance) then add in sauteed frozen vegetables.  I then stir in Parmesan cheese and sometimes even half a wedge of Laughing Cow.  This stuff is actually really good and takes a whole 5 minutes to prepare!

Last night I made a Pumpkin Milk Shake.

1/2 to 3/4 cup of Edy's Slow Churned Light Vanilla

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

handful of ice cubes

milk

lots of pumpkin pie spice

Blend up then top with whip cream!  Pretty darn good stuff!

(Sorry there are no exact measures-I hate measuring!  Rarely do.  This may be why my baking skills are lacking!)

Want to know what fruits and vegetables are in season?  Click here for a list of produce, tips for picking the best one, and tips on storing.

As you know, I will be running my first half marathon on Valentine's Day in Austin!  Here is the training schedule I am following.

I am entering Week 3 and so far have kept up with the schedule completely!  Competing in the planned 5k, 10k, etc. races may not happen because 1) races are expensive and 2) it is hard to always find races for that exact weekend.  Regardless, I will run that distance at a race pace for the scheduled day.

The hubby and I are planning on returning to Indiana for Christmas this year (and Michigan).  Any tips for training in the cold?  I haven't run in cold weather for over 2 years now!

Snow in Houston????

Snow and 33 degrees?  Are you kidding me?????

It is hard to tell, but it is really coming down out there.  And this is spoken from someone who spent 22 years in north-central Indiana.

Here is Trooper in the snow.

Trooper did not like the snow, or the cold.  We came inside after 2 minutes and he buried himself in a blanket.