Santa Chase – Jingle Bell Run

My 4 year old son ran his first 1 mile race today! I’m so proud of him!

A couple of months ago I bought him a new pair of sneakers and when I purchased them I referred to them as his “running shoes” and the rest was history. He’s been asking frequently to go running with me and we will run to the end of our road and back. When I told him last night that we were going to go watch Daddy run a race this morning, his first question was “is there a kid’s race?!”.

It was a great day! I love that we are making fitness a family activity.

Today.

I received a text message this morning when I woke up that my grandfather passed away in the middle of the night.

Today I choose not to be sad.

I learned in the past few days to take nothing for granted, to cherish those you love and to live life to the fullest. Sometimes we need bad situations to remind us of that.

Today I will spend the day at home with my son and my husband doing the things we each love to do. Lincoln will probably play Wii all day. Tim will hang out on the computer. And I will master making these …

We will finish decorating the Christmas tree.

I won’t stress out about the smudges on my hardwood floors, the dishes in the sink or the 6 loads of clothes that are piling up. I will be kind and loving to those I come in contact with and will choose my words wisely.

Today I choose to be happy.

Love.

I got a call last night that Pawpaw isn’t going to make it much longer. I dropped everything and drove the 3 hours to Atlanta to be with my family. We stayed up all night spending time together. This morning I got a call that Lincoln was sick, so I left Pawpaw and rushed home to be with my little man. What a crazy and exhausting 24 hours it has been.

We love you Pawpaw!

Oktoberfest in the Smokies

Hi! I’m happy to report that day 2 and 3 of our vacation have gone much more smoothly than the first day.

Yesterday we road the Sky Tram to Ober Gatlinburg where they were having the last day of their Oktoberfest celebration. Although I’m terrified of heights (and pretty much everything else) it was a beautiful view.

We spent the day playing miniature golf, running through a huge maze, riding rides and eating funnel cakes and fudge.

The fudge, o.m.g, the fudge.

How do you make a decision like that?

The food was also amazing! I’m a sucker for German food, but I decided to stay strong on my veggie kick and order a roasted veggie sandwich instead of some of the more traditional German fare.

As you can see I temporarily forgot that German potato salad has bacon in it. Duh.

I traded it to Tim for his German Red Cabbage.
His plate incase you are interested …

A good time was had by all.

Tonight we are taking Ironman Trick or Treating downtown.

I’m actually hoping I can convince him to trade his candy in at either Earth Fare where they are giving out healthy options for trading in candy or at the dentist’s office where they are giving cash for each pound traded. We’ll see how that goes over.

Happy Halloween!

Mark This Day Down

Today has been a very out of the ordinary day. The only thing on the original agenda was that I was going to take my mother-in-law to the hospital this morning at 11:00 for a routine Colonoscopy. No big deal.

As soon as Rocketboy, as he will now be referred to as, left for school I headed out for a run. The weather was amazing!

I set out down one of my regular out-and-back routes with no plan in mind, just run.

I ran 5 miles in 42 minutes. A comfortable, perhaps slightly speedy pace.

By the end of the run my knees, hips and as usual my feet were screaming. I was glad to be done! Thankfully the knee, hip .. and foot pain went away quickly and hasn’t stuck around for the rest of the day.

Once I got back to my car I was met by a text message that I had missed a class I was suppose to take for work. Freaking great! I completely forgot, I’ve never done that before. Thankfully I was able to reschedule it for next week, but it gave me a big scare.

Mom-in-law and I headed to the hospital and arrived about 15 minutes early. She was told that the procedure would take about 30-45 minutes, I planned on perhaps 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours because I know the ways of the medical world. I was already starting to get hungry, but was looking forward to lunch as soon as the procedure was finished.

As soon as we walked through the doors of the hospital we were greeted by a sign that read, “You will be here for atleast 3 hours.”

Oops.

And we were.

Thankfully, Tim met me at the hospital to relieve me for a few minutes to find something to eat. I knew better than to try to find something healthy (or vegetarian for that matter) in the hospital cafeteria (sad, huh?) So I headed to Publix and picked up:

• A Veggie Wrap from the deli
• Vegetable Sushi (which is what I really wanted in the first place, but I didn’t figure they’d have it so I ordered a wrap first)
• Apple Chips
• Watermelon (per Rocketboy’s request)

We had a picnic in the bed of the truck in the hospital parking lot. Very strange.

By now you should all know that we have a horrible time trying to get Rocketboy to eat ANYTHING at all. If its not “chocolate milk”, he doesn’t want it and he will hold out forever.

This is the part of the day that should be marked down in history:

That Sirs and Madams is my son SHOVING sushi into his mouth! My life is complete! He ate about 3 or 4 pieces. I wanted to cry. .

I bet we looked quite strange having a sushi picnic on the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot outside the Endoscopy center. I couldn’t care less 🙂

R.I.P. Pa and Granny

My weekend started with me getting a phone call from my mom at work at 3:30 am on Saturday morning that my grandfather was dying. I immediately left work to head 2 hours south to see him. By the time I got in my car and called my mom back to tell her I was on my way, he was already gone.

I’m so glad I was able to get this picture of my Pa and my son while he was stile alive a couple of weeks ago.

My Pa was a hard man. He’d tell you exactly what he thought, he never held back. He once told me that I was “as wide as I was tall”. He constantly told me when I was growing up that I “needed to get out and run around the house a few times”. These things seem sort of funny to me now, but they weren’t at the time. But he was still my Pa and I loved him very much.

September will be a hard month for my family. My Pa died September 11th and my Granny died September 14th, 2007.

Sunday morning I headed out for a run, I wasn’t exactly sure what my plan was going to be. I knew it would be a slow easy run, but I had no idea where I was going or how far.

As I ran all of my built up emotions hit me at once. This was the first time that I’ve ever actually cried while running. As I ran I thought about my grandparents, my childhood, my memories and I realized that I was heading to their grave.

I spent about 20 minutes talking to my grandmother and telling her about Lincoln and how my life has changed since we saw each other. I know she couldn’t hear me, but it helped.

R.I.P. Granny and Pa, you will always be loved and missed.

A Day Trip to the Country

Yesterday Tim, Lincoln and I made a day trip down to my parent’s house for a quick visit. Its about a two hour drive from home. We arrived just before lunch. My mom made Eggplant Parmesan, green beans, garlic toast and salad for us.

After we filled our bellies and let it settle for a while we decided to go on a walk/run together. My family has all been taking some steps to live a healthier and more active lifestyle.

I had been craving to get outside all day, the weather was absolutely perfect in the morning. Tim, I, Lincoln, my mom and my 6 year old niece headed out on a walk down to the creek. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t quite as perfect as earlier in the day, the sun was high, there was very little shade to be found, and it was nearing 90 degrees by the time we actually made it out for our walk.

I ran up and down this dirt road while my family and the kids poked along.

I was able to run 2 quick miles up and down the road before my family made it halfway down the road. When we all met back up there were some mini-meltdowns taking place. In the end Tim took Lincoln back to the house and myself, my mom and my niece drove the rest of the way to the creek, where we met my sister.

We had to either climb over or crawl under a fence to get to the creek. I tried going over a couple of times, but got scared. (I have an intense fear of heights). Ultimately I crawled under, which was apparently HILARIOUS!

I haven’t been to this spot since I was a small child, with my grandparents. It brought back alot of memories!

 

My family waded in the water a bit, and splashed my mom with the nasty cow poop infested water. They were under strict orders to not even think about getting me involved.

After splashing around we headed up to the bridge.

For some reason this bridge has terrified me for my entire life. I vaguely remember hearing a story when I was a child about a drunk man who drove off of the side of the bridge and died, and ever since I’ve been scared of the bridge. Its just one of those strange childhood things that sticks with you.

I still to this day can’t walk or drive across it.

I stepped onto the bridge far enough to get these photos and then chickened out and turned back around.

After getting a few more quick pictures (courtesy of my niece), we walked back home.

 

All in all, I walked/ran 3.54 miles in a little over 45 minutes. It was nice to get out in the sunshine and do something active with my family.

Clean-ish Eating

I started my morning with a 5 mile run around my neighborhood today. Although my pace hasn’t been bad, I’ve noticed that I’m feeling super sluggish, slow and heavy on alot of my runs lately. During my run I realized that this sluggish feeling might have less to do with the heat and humidity of the summer that I’ve been blaming it on and more to do with my poor diet as of late. “Poor” is a relative term in this case. My diet is actually fairly healthy, healthier than probably 90% of people’s I know. But … I’ve been eating larger portions lately, more processed foods than usual, higher calorie/fatty food, too many desserts and too much alcohol.

During my run I decided that I would do my own version of a Clean Eating Diet. The basic principles of a clean diet are (from here):

Eating a mini-meal every two to three hours (5 to 6 small meals per day total) to keep blood sugar level and prevent hunger

Combining lean proteins and complex carbs at every meal

Avoiding all over-processed and refined foods (especially sugar, white rice, and white flour)

Avoiding saturated and trans fat, instead consuming healthy fats

Avoiding soda and other sugary juices and drinks

Avoiding high-calorie, zero nutrient foods (i.e., junk food)

Eating proper portion sizes

Drinking at least 8 cups of water every day

Its not really feasible for me to eat 5-6 times a day, so my version of the clean eating diet will focus on:

• Eating whole natural foods and limiting processed and refined foods.
• Decreasing dairy consumption, specifically cheese. (Its one of my week points).
• Avoiding sodas.
• Eating smaller portion sizes. (Being aware of my body, and eating only until satisfied … not stuffed).
• Drinking plenty of water.
• Decreasing alcohol intake.

I began to put my ideas into practice for my post-run breakfast.

A slice of homemade whole wheat toast topped with green eggs (spinach and 2 eggs blended together and then cooked) and salsa.

It was delicious! Normally I would put cheese in my eggs but it really wasn’t necessary.

My mom was in town today, we took Lincoln and my neice to the zoo for some family time.

 

We stopped by Jason’s Deli before heading home for a salad bar. I loaded up on fresh veggies and avoided the cheese, egg (since I already had plenty today) and heavy salad dressing. I topped my salad with an edamame succotash that had a little olive oil in it, its all my salad needed for dressing.

For dinner tonight I made homemade margherita pizza with some pizza crust that I made a while back and froze. It tasted amazing, even though my crust wasn’t cooked thoroughly. Oops! I should have baked the crust before topping it and then baked again.

I tried … but I wasn’t able to avoid having a beer with my pizza. Oh well, you win some … you lose some.

Off to bed now, getting up early for some Half Marathon training. I’m planning on doing 10 miles. Here’s hoping I feel strong, fast and rested.

Forget the Farmer’s Market

Today was a good day. We drove down to my parents farm to visit with my parents, my sister and my grandfather. Its about a 2 hour drive. Its been way too long since we’ve made the trip.

I didn’t take many pictures while we were there because I wanted to spend the time I had concentrating on my family. But I did get a couple of pics of my son with my grandfather.

My grandfather is dying from cancer and sadly this could have been the last time I see him alive. I wanted to make sure I had a picture of him and Lincoln.

It was a good visit. My family made a delicious veggie plate for us for lunch which consisted of:

• spinach salad
• fried okra
• fried eggplant
• green peas and potatoes
• Sister Schubert’s Rolls
• grilled asparagus

I tried to concentrate on the non-fried foods since I overindulged last night on fried green tomatoes and onion rings at home. I did have a few okra though, I can’t resist them.

My Mom and Dad sent me home with a loot of vegetables from their garden as well as 4 1/2 dozen eggs from their hens.

I feel kinda silly for buying tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market yesterday now.

A gallon size bag of shelled pecans. (Yes, my sinks are orange.)

All in all I ended up with:

• tomatoes
• banana peppers
• bell peppers
• Anaheim peppers (?)
• a sack of potatoes
• pecans
• eggs
• Coconut Oil
• blueberries
• figs
• eggplants

Who needs a Farmer’s Market? 🙂

I couldn’t possibly eat 10 gallons worth of tomatoes before they went bad even as much as I love my tomato sandwiches so I spent most of the evening preparing them for different uses.

Most of them I froze for use later in chili, soups, etc.

That’s right, it was 10:30 at night. I’m that dedicated!

We also made a big jar of salsa.

 
Tim said I should name this post, “Lord its hard to be humble” … because I kept telling him what was missing from the salsa until we got it perfect. The key was lime juice!

My dad use to sing a song that went … Oh Lord its hard to be humble, when your perfect in every way …

I can’t help it, I’m just good like that.

Now I’m working on a jar of spaghetti sauce with the last of the tomatoes. I think I could go the rest of my life without seeing another tomatoes.

This has been quite a process, but hopefully it will be well worth it.

Wash, blanch, peel, quarter.

That’s what my night consisted of.

I was planning on making some fig bread for breakfast in the morning, but I think its gonna have to wait.

Do you have any experience with Coconut Oil? What is it good for?

Tokyo & Shakespeare

Last night Tim and I decided to declare it a “family date night”, which basically means that we do something that our whole family will enjoy. Even though we are hardcore saving money right now, we enjoy going out to dinner together on a regular basis and I think we can squeeze that in to the budget.

A little self timer pre-date action …

I’ve been craving Japanese food lately, so we thought we’d try a new place that we haven’t been to before called Tokyo.

I ordered the Vegetable Hibachi meal and a Fresh Green Roll.

Avocado, asparagus and cucumber. Mmm! 🙂

For those of you who have wondered how I eat sushi and am a vegetarian. That is your answer. The name sushi actually refers to the rice and not “raw fish”. Its a common misconception.

The Vegetable Hibachi was also delicious.

I’ve never ordered a vegetable hibachi dish that included tofu. I really liked it. I ate about half and gave the rest to Tim. Although his meal also looks delicious I could see where it might not be very filling for a man.

After dinner I wanted to hit up Kmart to check out the clearance toys, they were having an extra 50% off the clearance prices. I bought several things for Lincoln for Christmas.

Lincoln had a fun time sword-fighting with Daddy while I shopped. I’m sure everyone around just loves us when we go out.

The night ended perfectly with icecream.

Snickers blast with KitKat topping. A little too much for me, I had a couple bites but ending up preferring Tim’s Cake Batter icecream.

This morning the alarm went off super early for a Saturday, at 5:00. I came very close to turning it off and going back to bed. I’ve been really trying to make an effort to get up early and go running with the River Region Runners group at Blount Cultural Park (i.e. Shakespeare). I finally woke up a bit and decided to go for it.

I had a great 4 mile run at a easy conversational 8:58 pace.

After the run I decided to head over to the Farmer’s Market to pick up fresh veggies for the week. On the way over my stomach was talking to me so I just haaaaad to stop at Panera Bread and have breakfast.

I got a Spinach & Artichoke Soufflé.

It was divine! I just wished I had looked up the calorie content before I ordered it instead of while I was eating it. For that many calories it should have kept me full all day, but I was starving again 3 hours later.

At the Farmer’s Market I picked up some:

• Green Tomatoes
• Red Tomatoes
• Onions
• Green Beans
• Pink Eye Peas

I’m going to make an awesome veggie plate for dinner tonight. Tim has requested Fried Green Tomatoes, but insists on making them himself. We’ll see how this goes!