Watermelon!

Today's obsession is watermelon, sweet, juicy, wonderful, delicious watermelon.

My mom makes this sauce that she drizzles over fresh fruit (don't know where she got the recipe) but it's absolutely amazing, and that is specifically what I was craving today.  So here is how you do it:

Start with fresh fruit - I used watermelon and red grapes.  It's also delicious with strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe, and probably any other fruit!  Cut fruit and place in bowl:

Mix equal parts of lime juice and honey:

Pour mixture over fruit, and enjoy!  I especially like it after it has sat for awhile and all the flavors soak together, I also prefer it chilled. 

I am going to let it sit overnight, and let all the flavors soak together... then I am going to put the watermelon chunks and grapes on skewers and try freezing them, I'm pretty sure it's going to be delicious!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Here is a recipe from Bon Apetit that I really want to try too! 

Surprise!!

I have been working on multiple blog posts about our surprise for over a month, but I just don't feel like finishing any of them, none of them seemed quite right... so here it is: 

We're having another baby! 

Here is the timeline of events:

• April 13th - Positive pregnancy test
• April 14th - 2nd Positive pregnancy test.. had to make sure the first one was right :)
• April 27th - First ultrasound to determine my due date, I found out I was 6 weeks 4 days pregnant with a due date of December 17th.  A Christmas baby!?!?!  I have always said how badly I don't want a Christmas baby, but I have gotten more used to the idea over the last couple months, so I think it will be just fine!
• June 1st - Second doctor appointment, at 11 weeks 4 days.  The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, so she sent me on to the hospital to have another ultrasound... you could say I was freaking out a bit at this point.  Got to the hospital, had the ultrasound and saw the baby right away, moving, kicking, heart beating.. it was great!  Baby measured right at 12 weeks!

So, we found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks 4 days, and kept it a secret from most people until after the June 1st ultrasound... that was a long 7 weeks!  Especially since I feel like I look 6 months pregnant...

We told Kara right away, and she is super excited!  We bought Kara a 'Big Sister' t-shirt and she loves it, she wants to wear it constantly!  She is also obsessed with looking at pictures of the baby on my phone via the babycenter app.. which are obviously not pictures of our baby, but she thinks they are!  Last week she put her hand on my belly and said "The baby kicked my hand" haha, she is too funny!  Kara is 100% convinced that we are having a baby girl, and so far I am too... only a few more weeks and we will be able to find out!

Anyway, that is our big exciting surprise!  Now that it's out there expect lots of posts about cravings, mood swings, etc..... 

Here is baby at 6 weeks 4 days, heartrate 114, pretty much just a blob!

And here is baby at 11 weeks, 4 days, heartrate 167 - I tried to outline the baby because it is very hard to see in this picture, but on the ultrasound I could see the baby's head, body, arms, legs.. such a difference 5 weeks can make!



Life Is Full Of Tough Choices.

The last few times that Rural Alberta Advantage have come to Minnesota I have missed seeing them, due to tickets being sold out before I had a chance to buy them.  So back in December when it was announced that they would be playing a show on March 25th, I bought tickets immediately.  Here is where the tough choice comes in.. Later down the road it was also announced that Sims and Volcano Choir were also playing shows the same night.  I could be fine with not seeing Sims, since I just saw him a month ago and he is from MN, so he plays a lot of shows here.  But, I would not be ok with missing Volcano Choir, after all it was their very first US tour date EVER and they only had one other show scheduled.  So we had to decide if we wanted to skip out early of RAA to be able to catch Volcano Choir.  Then I had the thought that we could skip RAA and be able to catch Sims' full set and Volcano Choir, and the Sims and Volcano Choir shows were right down the road from one another, so it would be easier to get from point A to point B (see picture)

I went on craigslist and found an ad that someone was looking to purchase 2 tix to RAA for $70.  Face value of the tix was $12, but I paid quite a bit more than this since I purchased them through TicketMaster.  I sold my RAA tix and bought tix for Sims and Volcano Choir.  So Friday night we were off to the Triple Rock to see Sims... I was pretty disappointed when I discovered that he was playing 3rd that night, not 2nd like we had thought.  We did catch sets by Mally and Astronautalis though, which were both pretty cool.  Sims did do one song with Astronautalis though, which was pretty awesome!  I also got to see almost the entire Doomtree crew hanging out at the Triple Rock!  At about 11:00 we decided to ditch out of the Triple Rock to head over to The Cedar for Volcano Choir.

We had a good view of the stage at The Cedar.  Joe and I both really enjoyed the Volcano Choir set.  I am pretty sure I could watch Justin Vernon sing for hours and hours on end.  The people behind us were pretty hilarious - I think they thought they were there for a Bon Iver concert, which it was not.  They made quite a few comments that I was laughing at.... ah silly kids! A video from the show, not my video, or my view of the stage... just a video I found on youtube!



Anyway, it was awesome to be able to see Volcano Choir's first ever US show - that, we will never be able to do again, but we will be able to catch Sims and Rural Alberta Advantage again.

Next tough choice...... making a decision on whether I want to run a 10k on April 30th... well, the decision has just been made, I just registered for a 10k!!  Someone save me!!!  I hope I can survive.  I think it would be a wise decision to start my training immediately!  Anyone want to go for a run??

When you are two the tough choices you have to face are things such as:

• Deciding if mommy should be the big bad wolf, a monster, a dinosaur, a baby puppy or a ghost. 
• To eat your waffles with blueberries and whipped cream, or just eat the blueberries and whipped cream
• Should I watch Monster, Inc, Yo Gabba Gabba or Meet the Robinsons?

Oh the joys of being two, huh?  I wish life could stay that simple! 

One last note - my new favorite band is The Head and The Heart.  Check out this video of them and fall in love with them!



That's all for now!  Peace out.

Get Lucky 7K

February 10th, 2010 was the day that I registered for my very first 5k, which was due to some extreme pure pressure and lots of wine consumption.  When I registered for this race I had no running experience, and hated the idea of trying to run.  I tried to start out with the C25K program, but I wasn't very good at following it.  I remember going to the gym and trying to run, and I really had to push myself hard to run 60 seconds, like I had to push really, really hard.  I still have never completed the C25K program, but in the last year I have completed four 5ks and now a 7k.  I can now run over a mile straight, sometimes longer if I really push myself, my longest distance of running with no walk breaks is 2.5 miles... pretty good considering a year ago I could barely run for 60 seconds!

The race day plan was to drop Kara off at my mom's house around 8 and have Emily meet me at my mom's by 8:30.  I was wide awake around 6:45 in the morning, turned my alarm off on my phone and laid back down.... and then I woke up, looked at the clock and realized it was 8!  My mom lives 30 miles away from me, so yeah, I was running a little behind.  I got ready real quick, woke Kara up and we were off.  We ended up getting to my mom's around 8:50, luckily the race wasn't too far from her house.  Emily and I took off, made it to the parking ramp around 9:30 and then had a nice 15 minute walk to the starting line.

There were a ton of people at the race, but we somehow we managed to run into Carly, Kathy, and Kathy's brother and cousin - it always amazes me that we are able to find our friends in the swarms of people at the starting line!

Emily and I pre-race:

Me, Carly and Kathy pre-race:  I look like I just rolled out of bed... 

Emily, Carly and I kept together throughout the race, Kathy bolted off and she was gone (she is crazy fast!).  The air was cold, the temp was somewhere around 25-30.  We really had no expectations for this run, none of us had trained for this distance, and I had previously only run this distance once... which was 2 days prior to the race.  The last few months had been really difficult for me when it came to running, I had horrible shin splints in January, and had some really terrible runs in February - where I couldn't even run a quarter mile.  It's so easy to get discouraged when training for a run, but you are not able to run.

We ran the first 1.3 miles straight and then took a quick walk break.  They had flags posted for each kilometer, which was kind of nice, since a kilometer is less than a mile, so the flags came up quicker than if they had been mile markers.  We alternated running/walking throughout the rest of the race, but overall did more running than walking.  We hit the 5k mark right around 38 minutes, which is pretty average for us - I think it was about this point when we all got really hot, it's amazing how hot you can get when running in 25-30 degree weather.  The course covered some of the same ground that was covered when we ran the Torchlight 5k back in July, we were reminded of the brutal 90 degree, super humid, ridiculously hot day when we ran that race... I would choose to run in the cold winter over the hot summer heat any day!  

I was really worried that I would want to collapse at the 5k mark, I am always dragging my ass over the finish line at 5k's so I was really dreading the extra 1.25 miles we had to run.  Amazingly we just kept on running!  I was tracking our run using Runkeeper on my phone, it's really cool cause it will randomly tell you your distance, time and average pace - so I just listened for my little updates and we were pretty much pacing at 12 mins per mile, which is normal for us, and it was nice to hear that we were keeping on our pace and not falling behind.  At the 4 mile mark we knew we were getting close to the end, I was so ready to take a walk break, but I knew I could push through - so we kept on running.  It seemed like the finish line was nowhere ahead of us, we couldn't see it anywhere!  When it finally came into view Emily and I both booked it to the end!  Our official run time was 53:15, which I am very proud of!!  Here is our race results from Runkeeper.

Here is us with our medals post-race.  We Survived!!

A shot of my race number and medal:

And here is a shot of the hooded sweatshirt we got for running the race:

These are some typical comments we make while running:

• Why are we doing this?
• Whose idea was this?
• Why do people think running is fun?
• How do people really enjoy running?
• I hate people that make running look so effortless.
• Are we done yet!?

These are some typical comments we make after running (I think runner's high is to blame):

• OMG, that was awesome!
• We did so good!
• I am so proud of us!
• We totally kicked ass!
• Let's do another race

I think the next logical step in my future as a runner is to run a 10k (6.2 miles).  Get in Gear has a 10k coming up on April 30th, the Get in Gear 5k was my first ever 5k, how perfect of a running anniversary would that be to go from a 5k to a 10k in a year?  I still haven't signed up for Get in Gear... but I am considering running the 10k.  I think a 10k wouldn't be so intimidating if I could consistently have good runs, but it's hard to have consistently good runs when you only run a few times a month.  I am going to work on running more regularly, and  I will keep you posted on my training and my decision to run the 10k!

2 posts in one day, what!?

Good evening, I am back with yet another blog post today.  The previous post really should have been posted 2.5 months ago, so it's not like I am really blogging twice in one day... kinda.. right?

My dad came down from Bemidji for a little visit a few weeks ago.  Kara was so cute when he got to our house, she went running up the stairs saying "Grandpa Wayne is here!!"  Kara generally takes awhile to warm up to everyone, so that was really cute to see.  While Grandma Wayne was here him, Jayla and Kara started a family band.. they have some pretty rocking songs!

Jayden didn't want to be in the band, but he did want to be a robot!

On Saturday, March 12th we had a surprise 50th birthday party for Becky, it was lots of fun!  We got to see some old friends, and some family members who live out of state/out of the Twin Cities area.  I think everyone had a really good time!  The day before the party I asked Kara what she wanted to get for Grandma Becky and she said "a hula-hoop" so off to Wal-Mart we went, and we actually found a hula-hoop.  I am pretty sure that Becky loves it!  I am having some serious issues getting pictures to upload to my blog, so checkout my facebook page for all the pics from Becky's party! 

Here is Becky and I at her party:

And Kara and Becky while Becky's siblings were singing her an original song about being 50.  I loved watching Kara while she was watching them sing, it was so cute!  

I taught everyone about 'Tranny Arms'.... Michelle and I were doing this one night and Joe meant to say "T-Rex arms", but it came out "Tranny Arms", so yeah, this is us doing Tranny Arms

Onto other things.  I am running the Team Ortho Get Lucky 7k tomorrow, which is 4.35 miles.  I have done absolutely nothing to prepare myself for this race, so yesterday I decided to go for a run.  I ran around Colby Lake in Woodbury twice, which totaled 4.55 miles - the longest distance I have ever run!!  See my running results here via Runkeeper. My total time was about 57 minutes, but I did stop at my car for a water break after my first trip around the lake.  After my second trip around the lake I decided to stay on the path that goes straight to the parking (there is a split in the trail where it either goes straight to the parking lot, or around the playground - the first time I took the way that went around the playground).... I wish I would have taken the other way!  I ended up going through this mega flooded path, basically a small lake in the road.  I tried walking through the snow, but the snow was just slush with a ton of water under it, my shoes were SOAKED!  So today my shoes got a bath and are all sparkling clean and ready for the 7k tomorrow!  

I will be sure to post a full race recap tomorrow, or Sunday.  I ate a Dove chocolate a few weeks ago, and this is what the message on the inside read:

I think this is trying to tell me that I should just run the 7k and have no time expectations.  Although, the way I see it I will be setting a personal best time record since I have never raced in a 7k before.  

And this is my race number, it's almost evil.....

Wish us luck tomorrow!!  It will be our usual running crew of me, Emily, Carly and Kathy!  I hope we kick this thing's ass!  Oh, and we get a free beer after!!