Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Prayers

Please pray for 3 little boys in Morenci and for their family. What a terrible and sad situation. It's been pretty hard to believe. Helicopters flying low around the area make it seem so eerie. I can't even imagine what this family must be going through. Please keep them all in your prayers. I never in my wildest dreams thought something like this could ever happen so close to home. It's terrifying and a horrible feeling to think that someone could actually do something like this. Please pray for those little boys.

Friday, November 26, 2010

you made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter

Why am I listening to Taylor Swift all the time? Could it be that I'm finally doing something right? :)

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I miss my Grandma

Yep, I said it .. I miss my Grandma. She's been gone for over 10 years now, but I miss her a lot. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. I have so many good memories of her. I would give anything to go back to that time when life was so much simpler. We didn't have cell phones or internet or HDTV, but I had the time of my life. Here are some of my favorite memories of my grandma..

  • When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I was out in the yard helping my grandma plant flowers. I started digging a hole for a flower and just kept digging and digging to see how big of a hole I could dig. My grandma turned to me and said "are you trying to dig a hole to China?" I laughed so hard like it was the funniest thought ever and attempted to truly dig a hole to China. I really thought I could.
  • I have this one fleeting memory of going out to eat with my grandparents in Wauseon one afternoon and on the way there, I remember looking out the window at the countryside and thinking about how much I loved going for drives in the afternoons and just looking at all the farms and wishing that day/moment would never end. I remember we were on our way to visit my great aunt in the nursing home. It was a weekday and I was probably about 10 years old.
  • When I was little, my grandma would sometimes babysit me while my mom went to child study club meetings. I remember one particular evening that my grandma babysat me that my mom did not get back to pick me up until almost 11:30 at night. My grandma stayed awake the whole time with me playing games because I did not want to go to bed.
  • I remember another occasion that my grandma babysat me that I ended up staying the night at her house. I was sick with a cold or flu of some kind and my grandma gave me Vicks to put on. I remember feeling better instantly and to this day, I think that Vicks cures everything and sometimes I put it on just for the memories :) lol
  • I think her favorite color was peach, because I remember how her Christmas tree was always decorated with peach ornaments.
  • I remember sitting on her front porch with my cousins drinking Faygo red pop.
  • Going to Florida in the winter to visit my grandparents was always the best. I remember laying in bed in a couch that pulled out into a bed and pretending to read smut books while sticking m&ms in my teeth.
  • I remember my grandma scaring me one night by pointing at me :)
  • My grandma made the best fried bologna known to human kind. I remember thinking she was the world's best cook when she made fried bologna on toast. (She was the worlds greatest cook by the way, unless she was making roast beef).
  • I remember going for walks with my grandma in the summer time. I remember going with her to pick these wildflowers one afternoon. They were white wildflowers. We brought them back to her house and filled 4 vases with water mixed with different colors of food coloring (green, blue, yellow, and red). We put the flowers in the water / food coloring mixture and watched the flowers turn color.
  • I remember one day I found a robin's egg in the yard at my grandma's house and she let me bring it in and we put it in a tiny box with cotton balls and hoped it would hatch into a real bird.
  • One day my family was helping to scrape the old paint off my grandparents' house and prepare it to get repainted. I took one of the scrapers and used the edge of it to scrape my initials into the siding. The more I thought about it, the more scared I got, because I was afraid my initials wouldn't come out of the siding. I started crying and confessed to my grandma who told me that it was just fine to have my initials in the side of the house. I wonder if they are still there.. :)
  • I remember running laps around my grandma's driveway, because I thought it was the same size as the track uptown that the high schoolers ran on.
  • I remember playing tripoly with my grandma and all sorts of other card games.
  • I remember my grandma liked to watch Wheel of Fortune and do crossword puzzles.
  • I remember the last time my grandma told me that she loved me.
I can't wait to see her again. I think about her every day and all the memories we shared. I can't wait to see her again. She was a very special person and she is very missed.

I love you Grandma.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Running on empty

Well, we made it home from Green Bay safe and sound with the treadmill in tow. Before we left, my mom claimed that my brother told her it was 48 inches long, meaning that it would fit perfectly in the back of my vehicle (which allows 64 inches). When we get there, I stood next to the treadmill and it's almost as tall as I am (68 inches). So either my brother isn't very good at using a tape measure or my mom has a very sneaky way of getting me to drive 7 hours to Green Bay! Luckily, we found a way to get the treadmill in the back of the car (but not without pushing the passenger seat up really far so my mom had miniscule leg room!) and we had a great weekend all around. See my facebook page for pictures!

So now that I have a treadmill set up at home, I have no excuses for not using it daily and meeting my running goals. My biggest obstacle right now has been my hip/knee pain and the fact that it gets dark so soon after I get out of work. Now I have a solution for the lack of sunlight. I just need to find a way to get rid of this nasty knee and hip pain. I'm looking for a good yoga DVD to do a couple of times a week and hopefully that will help. I'm also going to do a lot more stretching both before and after running and hope that helps also. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, it's time for me to go to bed. All that driving is super tiring..

Friday, November 12, 2010

Cheese-Heading it

Who is so dedicated to her running goals that she's willing to drive 7 hours one way to pick up a treadmill? This girl! And who is also so dedicated to her running goals that she could barely walk at work today? That's right, this girl again!

Tomorrow morning, I'm leaving for Wisconsin to pick up a treadmill that my dad has in storage at my brother's place. My mom is riding along, because a) she is too scared to let her little baby drive all the way to Wisconsin alone and b) she will never refuse the opportunity to see Wyatt (my nephew, her grandson). If all goes well, the treadmill will easily fit in the back of my Escape (the seats fold down) and we will have a good time visiting, even if it is going to be a short visit.

Last night, I shockingly got out of work in time to get home and get a run in before it got dark outside. I don't know what's going wrong, but lately it's my hip that has been bothering me, which causes my knee to hurt, and it even hurts down into my ankle. I think it's my IT band that's the culprit, but either way, I was in a lot of pain mid-run last night and in even more pain at work today. I better get these issues figured out, because I am not going to let any aches and pains slow me down. I refuse to feel old.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Double bacon cheeseburgers

I haven't done the greatest with my exercise this week, but I have been making an attempt to eat better. My only workouts since Sunday's run have been my cardio class on Monday and Wednesday nights and a 10 mile bike ride on the recumbant bike tonight. It's just too cold and dark for me to get outside and run on weeknights after work. I really can't wait to go pick up my treadmill. The recumbant bike doesn't even feel like a workout compared to running.

I think I'm doing a tiny bit better with the choices I'm making food-wise. I'm eating a bigger breakfast now. Although it doesn't feel like it's keeping me from eating so much at lunch, I at least don't feel like I'm starving every morning at 10:30am. I really need to find a good, healthy, quick to throw together breakfast food to take to work in the mornings though. I need something that I can get put together fairly quickly on my way out the door that I can wait and eat at about 8:10 am when I am actually hungry. This week, it's been peanut butter sandwiches with all natural peanut butter and whole wheat low-calorie bread. Not the tastiest in my opinion, but very filling.

My latest creation that I feel is a recipe worth sharing is a healthy version of a double cheeseburger. These ingredients were all purchased at the grocery store uptown. I made it in the George Foreman grill, but I suppose they could be made in any type of grill as long as you press down to drain all the fat out of the meat. I wouldn't recommend making them in a skillet.

Double Bacon Cheeseburgers

Ingredients:
Jennie-O Turkey Burgers (from the frozen foods section in the side isle by the meat at Kaiser's) - 2 burgers (they come in packs of two)
Aunt Millie's whole grain low calorie bread (they just started carrying this - I love it) - 2 slices
Pepper Jack cheese from the deli dept (2 slices)
Oscar Mayer fully cooked thick sliced bacon - 4 slices (it's healthier and lower calorie than regular bacon)
lettuce
onion

Directions:
Thaw burgers in the refrigerator the night before. Heat George Foreman grill to 400 degrees. Salt and Pepper burgers (and any other seasoning you want to put on them) and put on grill. Close grill and cook for 7 minutes. Fold up one slice of pepper jack cheese and put on top of one burger, then put the other burger on top of the cheese. Close grill and cook for another 3 minutes. In the meantime, toast bread, microwave bacon for 45 seconds, and chop onion. Put remaining slice of pepper jack cheese on top of burger and let it melt. Put the 2 burgers on the toast, top with bacon, then onion, then lettuce, then final slice of toast. What you have is an amazing double bacon cheese burger that will make you feel like you are on the show Man Vs. Food when you eat it. It was soo good. You could use sharp cheddar cheese instead of pepper jack. I will never recommend velveeta or American cheese for anything in my entire life. So don't use either :)