A new goal

I have a new goal...learn how to play the guitar!

I played tonight for the home meeting because Glenn is out of town. Boy do my left hand fingers HURT! It was so much fun, yet I still have so much to learn. I remember a time when I was able to switch from chord to chord very fast! It may have been nine or ten years since I have played the guitar...pretty sad!

Hannah and I will get together and play sometime soon. She has a guitar that we can practice on.

Mom and Dad, do you still have that old guitar? Maybe I can borrow it next time I'm in town.

Spring!!!

I have taken a few "feet" photos the last couple days...not on purpose! But I took both because I wanted to illustrate that SPRING IS HERE!

Daffodils at Green lake! (Bad photo...focus on feet instead of pretty flowers)
First day wearing flip flops!!! (and yes, toenails are not painted yet!)
I am so, so happy that the sun is shining and the weather is beautiful! Yesterday I ended up walking green lake two times because it was just a gorgeous day. I LOVE getting off work when its still light outside and having a chance to quickly run or walk the lake. Every year when spring starts again I always freshly appreciate this!

Today I walked to Starbucks and bought myself some chocolate and a free drip coffee (turn in your old bag of beans.) No cake pops this week, as I am trying to cut out wheat for a couple weeks as an experiment.

Anyway, I will shut up now. Get out and enjoy the weather!

A beautiful day to race!

I am so blessed that today the sun is shining! I ran the Mercer Island half marathon and it is now my favorite race course! As you run around the island you can see all the different mountain ranges and they were all so beautiful today.

As I ran the race I knew I would make it under 2:00.00. I decided to try to beat 1:55.00 and even made myself a deal that I would buy myself something from Lululemon if I beat that time! Fortunately for my pocket book, my time was around 1:56:00 to 1:57:00. I don't think the official results have been posted yet and I was a bit distracted at the end...didn't hit the "stop" on my watch right away. But I am still so proud of my time, its my fastest time ever, including the easy Snake river race last year. And even better, I AM NOT INJURED!!!

Here are some photos of the race:
And I have a few more recent photos that I want to share. Just some photos from every day life that make me happy.
And here are some photos from this year's St Patrick's Day. We broke out the face paint from last year and we even went to a coffee shop instead of just sitting around the house!

Only 4 more days!

I run a half marathon this Sunday, March 20th. Its the Mercer Island half marathon, and the course takes you all the way around the island. Now that its four days away I am officially tapering and have to stay away from the gym!!!

My trainer said she wished she could deactivate my membership for a couple days so that I will be forced to take some time off. That's how work out obsessed I am!

Whatever will I do? Its a good thing that my friend Renae is visiting this weekend! It will be a good distraction.

Although I am disappointed that I have to take time off, I do think it is necessary. Today I ran 5.77 miles, ran 2 miles on the elliptical, did 20 minutes of abs, foam rolled my legs, and did an hour weight class. Obviously a little rest is in order if I don't want to injure myself.


On another note, St. Patty's Day is tomorrow! I wonder what we will do for fun this year? Here was last year...I don't know if we can beat this fun night we had!!!

My indulgence!

Today I worked hard. I was pretty sick, yet a spent an hour and a half at the gym. One hour of it was boot camp and its always really hard! I love that.

When I got home Matty and I cleaned both bathrooms and cleaned the floors. We also took the garbage out. It may not sound like much, but we spent a long time doing a thorough job.

Today I also planned my lesson for tomorrow. I am teaching the kids at the meeting so I had to prepare a bible story to read as well as a craft. The kids will be painting their own treasure boxes! Hopefully that will be fun. I bought some kraft colored plain treasure boxes from Joann's.

Crazy, busy Saturday.

So at 3:00, I treated myself to some yummy treats at Starbucks!
(Do you like how I am rationalizing my sweets?)

I got the birthday cake flavored cake pop as well as the salted caramel square. Both were delicious! And free!

We headed to Heather and Phil's for an evening of tacos and games. We also caught the last ten minutes of the UW v. Arizona basketball game. Washington won by one point in overtime!

It has been a busy, yet fun day. Definitely enhanced by the sweets that I got to eat. Go sugar!!!

What I did today

Today was an unusual day.

But I liked it.

I woke up at 4:45 and was instantly inspired to document all my expenditures for the year in an excell spreadsheet. Once I got this idea into my head I could not let it go! So far I've gotten through January and February and only have a few more things to enter.

I went to the gym for a light work out. Yesterday I just about killed myself with a three hour work out AND I'm feeling sick. So I did the elliptical for 50 minutes and in the meantime I finished my book! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...I read it on my kindle. Good book, overall! (A few too many details at times, but what do you expect from a European author?)

I went to U. Village and bought some gifts for some friends. I have two bridal showers this weekend and I bought each bride the exact same gift! The two girls have never met, so this shouldn't be a problem. :) I love the gifts I got them and wanted to buy for myself. I think I will post pictures next week. I figured that gifts from Anthropologie have to be appreciated because if all else fails you can return it and get something else that you like. (Everything there is AWESOME!)

I visited Aileen at Pottery Barn. That was fun.

I ate lunch at Starbucks. I ate a hummus plate with veggies and a petite vanilla scone. Starbucks has cake pops!!! I have never had one, but let me tell you, I am temped! They are just too cute! (I may go back tomorrow.)

Of course I went to work in the afternoon...nothing too exciting to report. But I did have a nice day. Every patient was pleasant and I had a great time. I love my job (at least today.)

After work I headed over to Josh and Ellen's for dinner. All the guys were there, including some that like to talk and talk. It was pretty entertaining at times. :) We had fun.

This week's dinner

Its no secret to many friends of mine that I do not cook often! I love super quick and easy meals. My favorite place to shop is Trader Joe's. This week Matty and I paid off our car and so we haven't had tons of extra money lying around. So that means EAT THE FOOD YOU HAVE! (And don't go out to eat!)

So this week I cooked.

I cooked on two nights and I made the exact same thing.


I sauteed some onion, and then heated up a can of black beans with some coconut milk (the light version) and added some curry seasoning. I sprinkled some cheese on top. I really liked this quick meal and so I made it a second night, this time for Hannah and I. She liked it too, yay!

I also sliced some cucumber and seasoned it with chile powder, lemon and salt. I remember when I used to live with Lilian she taught me to put spicy seasoning on lots of things, especially apples and cucumbers. I need to find the seasoning she used because the one I had didn't really cut it. But it was fun to reminisce on old times with Lilian.

Happy weekend everyone!
Try out some EASY recipes and then you will all have more time to work out. ;)