The Lucky One, Dress Fitting, and Pancakes

Good morning, and happy Wednesday everyone!

Waking up this morning I planned on taking care of my 6 miles for the day, but the little monster on my shoulder talked me into an afternoon run. So instead of running I .....made Pancakes!!

-Being a college student I have recently learned the importance of having a box of pancake mix on your shelf.  A box itself lasts forever, or as Steph would say "You get a lot of bang for your buck!"  And not only that but who doesn't just love a good pancake?


Over time I have gotten a bit creative with my pancakes adding all sorts of different ingredients.  Today I made a pretty basic (for me) oatmeal and cinnamon pancake!....and later I added banana

I reealllyyy wanted to add peanut butter also but I held back, I love pb but it really shouldn't be eaten very much (though it does make everything better!) 

I like mine pretty thick, this makes them slightly doughy also!

I put the bananas in while they were cooking, not bad but I didn't particularly love the the taste or texture of cooked bananas so I probably would just eat them on the side next time. 

Yesterday was jam packed with things going on, but started with a nice mile repeat workout :)...

Mile Repeats Workout:6x mile @ 5:40-35 w/ 2:30 recovery

2 mile warm-up

Mile 1)5:36

2)5:39

3)5:36

4)5:34

5)5:31

6)5:31

1 mile cool down

I was very happy with the workout, best mile repeats to date!

At ten I had an interview with the Registrars office on campus for a Graduate Assistant position!

Here is my interview outfit....

This is mainly because I know Mom would want to see this :)

After the interview, and having to run back and forth from different departments on campus for paperwork I met up with Adam in the library.  He was studying so I had a few minutes to read my book that checked out a few days ago...The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks  

-I saw that this book was coming to video, so I figured I needed to read it before!

Here is the video of the trailer:  

After the library Adam and I grabbed a bite to eat in the UC and then I headed off to Lufkin to ....Try on my Wedding Dress!!

Last week my dress came in and yesterday I finally got to try on MY dress.  It was so wonderful finally putting on the dress that is yours and not a random sample dress.  It was beautiful and perfect and I absolutely love it!

Downtown Lufkin

A sign around the corner from Lesa's shop 

Afterwards I drove home and then had an ASAP (working on campus) Training followed by a quick dinner and then my first on campus class of the semester Ancient History with Dr. Dahmas, were I learned I would be writing a paper..every week. (Its only 3 pages not that bad!)

Well off to the rest of the day, working the basketball game tonight, should be fun! 

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

Sooo Good Eggplant Casserole! Tuna Melt and Bachelor Night

So this might be a little backwards but lets start with dinner tonight....
Eggplant and Ground Turkey Casserole!! 
I knew I had an eggplant that I needed to use somewhat quickly so I found a recipe online and very loosely followed it for dinner.

Ingredients -

1 Medium Eggplant, peeled, sliced into ¼ inch slices 3/4 cup Mayonnaise 3/4 cup Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs (I didnt have these so I ground oats and seasoned them with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and garlic powder)  1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated two cups of spaghetti sauce 1 pound of ground beef or turkey

Preparation:

1. Spread mayonnaise on both sides of the eggplant. 2. Place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on a counter and spread out the bread crumbs. 3. Dip each slice of eggplant into the bread crumbs and coat on both sides. 4. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. 6. Brown meat in pan 7. Place the slices, overlapping, in a shallow baking dish. 8. Top with meat  7. Layer of Parmesan cheese 8. Pour the spaghetti sauce over the top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. 9. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. 10. Serve and enjoy. Now backtracking a bit... Sunday started out with a 17 mile long run, followed by: Shipleys Doughnuts!

I seriously never eat doughnuts but Adam convinced me and they were pretty amazing :) 

For lunch I tried a new throw together that was inspired by a pinterest pin (I know I'm talking about a lot of recipe ideas, but both were seriously good!)

Tuna and Tomato Melt  

Ingredients:

1 can of tuna

1 small sliced tomato

either mayo or sour cream

Cheese (I used Parmesan, but I think mozzarella might be better) 

Salt, Pepper, Garlic powder, Onion powder

2 pieces of bread

- Mix your can of tuna with enough mayo or sour cream (I used sour cream since I didn't have mayo) to coat everything and make it moist. 

- Add your seasonings until desired amount

- Put tuna mixture onto bread 

- top with layer of cheese

- Layer tomato slices on top, and coat with another layer of cheese

- cook on cookie sheet until desired crispness

MMMmm so good!! (unless your my Mom who would say this was gross lol!)

This afternoon I met up with a black haired pooch that left me with quite a story:

When I got home from my afternoon run there was a black lab around my apartment, and of course I immediately went to go pet him :) and saw he had a collar with a name, number, and address.  Getting my phone I called the number, so sure I would hear a relieved voice on the other end missing their poor (dirty!) puppy. When the man finally answered after about a dozen rings I could tell immediately he was older and definitely hard of hearing! I tried to tell him that I had found his missing dog "Phipps" and he tried to tell me that he could not come pick him up.  

At this point I was thinking in my head that this was most unfortunate for him since he would never see his dog again, because I most certainly was not about to drive to some strange mans house and become a murder victim of Nacogdoches.  But finally after a few minutes of stuttering and beating around the bush on his part I caved and asked the man where he lived.  He replied that he couldn't quite explain it to me because he hadn't left his house in over ten years so he was not familiar with the new land markers. (I wasn't too concerned since I had his address and a GPS) Around this time I began looking more closely at the dog and noticing he looked a bit skinny for a lab (who are known for their beefy bodies!), so know I wasn't sure I wanted to find this more or even bring his dog back to him!

Luckily there is a Vet clinic directly in front of my apartment complex, where I proceeded to lead Phipps and see if they would look at him and make an assessment if he was actually undernourished. (Or if they would be so generous to take him home, since I was also dreading the thought of putting him my car!)  After a reluctant "I would take him back" from one of the nurses, Phipps and I headed toward the car.  Adam was in the middle of a workout at this point so I called Nathan (one of our teammates) to come with me so I wouldn't be  killed, raped, etc (or any other awful thing that women are supposed to constantly think about!)  

The man lived only a little bit away and when we pulled up, he was waiting by the inside of his door.  He was in his wheel chair, missing an eye, almost completely blind in the other, very hard of hearing, and his words did not come easily either.  He seemed so grateful we had brought his dog back to him and asked us to come in for a minute to thank us (at this point I am feeling softer towards him, but I will admit when we went inside and he closed the door I did think we might die...I mean that's how it always happens in the movies right?) 

He had antlers all over his walls and pictures of old hunters (Nathan noticed these not me lol) His house looked like it would be interesting to go through and full of history! After talking for a few moments we left, and I felt bad that I had been so upset on the phone that he couldn't pick up Phipps, there was seriously no way he could have!  I'm sure he gets little company and I am so glad now that Phipps is back with him.  It was a lesson to me to be thankful for everything and everyone you have in your life and to not take the little things for granted!!

Whew sorry to write so much!! I normally try to not have such wordy posts!

Tonight was: Bachelor Night! 

Amanda and Lauren

And this is how much Steph is into the Bachelor :) 

After tonight we are starting to narrow down our favs...

1) Kacie B.

2) Jennifer 

added bonus we Love her hair color, so fun!

3) Lindsey

4) Nikki

Not completely sold on her yet, but we think shes a good one :) 

This post feels completely random and not very well guided, so sorry if you feel this way too!

Busy day tomorrow...one of the scheduled appointments: I Get to try on my Wedding Dress!!!!

Oh and mile repeats bright and early, wish those were over with now.

Sweet dreams!

Simple Saturday

First off...
Today Amanda (my sister) ran,...and WON the 5k at the A&M-LSU Dual Meet!!! She ran a 17:29 and had an amazing finish! I wasn't there but thanks to runnerspace.com I was able to watch a live video feed of the race :)
Here is the video if anyone wants to watch it....
http://www.flotrack.org/video/577987

Running these past few days:
Wednesday: 
A.M.- 6 recovery miles
P.M.- 4 recovery miles
Thursday:
A.M.- 4 recovery miles
P.M.- 3 recovery miles
Friday:
P.M.- 7 sets of hill repeats @ Maroney Park
from 4:02-3:29! (Good workout!)


This coming Saturday I will be running the 3k at the Houston Indoor Meet! Can't wait to run the 3k again, I think it is definitely one of the most fun races to run, not too long but not too short!


The goal of today was to.... clean the apartment, and believe me it sure needed it! 

Started with the bathroom...

All clean!

 And while I was cleaning we kept a close eye on the A&M meet going on

What Adam was doing while I was cleaning lol

Now were watching the end of Saving Private Ryan on the couch and getting ready for a long Long Run tomorrow morning!

Happy Sunday to everyone tomorrow!

  

The After Chili's Pictures and Throw Back '06 Picts

A raspy man voice....yes that is what I sound like at the moment!

But besides that, lets talk running!

Yesterday:

A.M. -6 recovery miles

     - 15 squats 

     - 15 Lunges on each leg

     - 30 then 15 oblique leans on each side 

     - several sets of normal crunches

     - 2 sets of 1 min plank

P.M.- 4 recovery miles

Today:

8x800s @2:45 w/ 2 min recovery

My 1st through 4th were all 2:44

5th- 2:42

6th- 2:40

7th- 2:38

8th- 2:36 

It was an alright workout all in all, not anything great though. 

The rest of my day consisted of 3rd graders at TJR Elementary! I must say not as much fun easy as watching movies with 7th graders but they sure were cuter!! (and not as evil to boot lol) 

Last night we went out with the team to celebrate Amanda W's birthday!! 

Of course I didn't bring my camera to the restaurant, because everyone knows I am a horrible blogger!...But I did snap a few once we got back to the apartment....

Roomie Pict!

I think i'll marry that guy ;)

Steph and I (plus our dirty pile of dish rags lol)

My camera kept telling my I had "no more memory space left" and Adam keeps insisting I need to delete my pictures from...2006! I know I have them on my computer, but I love them on my camera too! 

So here are some old throw backs some people might enjoy seeing :)......

Prom '06 (of course I had the bright pink dress!)

Kelli and I at High School Senior Awards night (This is one of my favorite pictures!)

Our first Lumber Jack football game Axe 'em!

Robert and Kate's Wedding (A small moment in time when Kelli had brown hair)

Off to bed, hopefully a good sleep will cure this throat! 

And good luck to everyone starting classes tomorrow!

Winning the Houston 5k, A&M Indoor Meet and a Bad Football Weekend

This past weekend has been jammed full of running fun! Though most people wouldnt put the words "Running" and "Fun" in the same sentence, our family sure would!

On friday night I drove home to Houston after a long hard day of subbing for speech at Mike Moses Middle School (we watched movies all day woo! Thats the best day when it comes to subbing) to get ready for our 5k on Sunday.

SATURDAY: A&M INDOOR MEET
Saturday after a morning shake out run (of 5 miles) the rest of the family loaded up in the mini-van and headed to college station for the Team Ten A&M Indoor Meet. Amanda was running the 3K, and it was her first race back in over a year! (Shes been injured since the end of 2010 cross)

Amanda at the beginning of the race

Amanda ran a 10:23! (She wasnt happy with it but I thought it was awesome for her first 3k ever!)

Here is a picture of Randi (ex-roomie) and Lauren (Roomie) about to run the mile. Lauren broke the school record, and Randi ran a PR!!!

Side Note #1: (Please excuse my temper tantrum rant for a moment, I will have two throughout the remainder of this blog)

This was my first experience at the A&M Indoor facility, and may I just say that the system that is in place here is quite awful! It is not spectator friendly AT ALL! The people who run the show have the building on lock down and it is also very expensive for an indoor track meet!

- Our saved ticket names were messed up and we obviously were down for two, but both names were on the same line so we had to buy an extra ticket.

- You cannot leave your seat to go to the bathroom unless you have your ticket with you or you cannot return to your seat.

- you cannot cheer at the railings, because you will be blocking the spectators (even though there was absolutely NO one behind us) and they will come immediately and remove you

- Your staduim seats must be a certain size, yes they will take out their rulers and measure for you

- Athletes are NOT allowed in the spectator section, they will remove you immediately

- The track is unusually far away from the stands making it very difficult for cheering to be effective.

Bottome line A&M Indoor Facility, you suck. 

SUNDAY: 5K RACE IN HOUSTON 

Today began bright and early at...4:00 A.M.! I woke up to eat my pre-race (which was a chocolate Power Bar, I will NOT be following this routine again 3.5 hrs before my race. The results were not good: enough said) and began getting ready to head downtown. 

We met at the Hilton Hotel and began our warm-up from there. It was dark outside and a bit chilly but all of the blocks around the George R. Brown convention center were packed with people! It was so fun to see everyone ready and wanting to run!

Check out those bright pink shoes!

Robbie (my brother) ran in the 5K too! We ran together for the 2nd half of the race, and my favorite part of the race was at the end he told me "Its time to go!"

After the race

Team Green Girls!

Robbie, Amanda and I walking around afterwards

I was blessed enough to end up winning first overall woman! So afterward they whisked me off (very quickly) to the press room of the convention center where I was interviewed by a Houston Chronicle guy, a teammate on the guys side (Ryan) won overall so he was getting interviewed as well! 

RACE SUMMARY:  I ended up winning overall, which was exciting, but I honestly wasnt very happy with my race.  I felt that I had a fast start, and then towards the end I had side stitches which slowed me down considerably.  My time was a 17:18, which is a second slower than my 5k track PR! This makes me excited about the posibilites of where I can get to in track season!

Side Note #2: (Please excuse this second rant, it will be my last of the blog...promise!)

Today I realized that people do not understand the etiquette of where to stand on the starting line for races, so I feel it my duty for the good of everyone to clear this mis understanding up.....

First- KNOW YOUR PLACE! You know who you are, self awareness of your ability is the key!!! But if you are not the best at this concept allow me to assist you.

You should not be near the front if:

- You have a water bottle back-pack

- You say the words "I'm going to try and run this 5k in 45 minutes

- You have headphones in your ears (many people may disagree with me on this one, but I stand firm on it!)

- You are wearing pants when it is in the 60's

- You say the words "I havent trained for this, but im doing it for you!"

- You are an elementary aged child (really parents don't let your child be "that kid")

- You and your wife are both aged and plan to run together

- When the gun goes off you go out at a 12 min mile pace

I was about 4 rows removed from the starting line and these were all people who were beside or in front of me! And then I had to do sooo much extra work to get around them at the start when they began their "jog" after the gun went off.  Just go ahead and move further to the back, it really would be better for everyone!

Overall we had a wonderful weekend full of running and fun! Happy day of no work tomorrow!

p.s.- Now the Texans, Saints, and Broncos are all out! No one good left to root for :( (This is my football quote, since it is in my title and all lol)

Top Ten of 2011

Last night when some of the girls came over for our Bachelor viewing party, I was talking to Amanda W and she had a wonderful idea for the blog! Her idea was to make a top ten list of the best moments during 2011 :) 

Anyone could try this, not just on a blog! But it would be a terrific idea to jot down your top ten moments of the year in a journal that you could save and continue each new year.  It would be so much easier to remember the big and special moments when looking back later in life.

So Here It Is......

Top Ten of 2011

10) Experienced Mardi Gras for the first time

9) Earned an All Southland Conference Position in Track 

8) Randi (one of my future bridesmaids and past roomie) got married

7) Indoor Champions 

6) Summer Vacation with the Cousins in Pensacola 

5) Kacie got married and I got to be her Maid of Honor 

4) Outdoor Champions (they guys won too!)

3) First Rounds of Nationals in Oregon

2) Joining Adidas-Team Green

1)  Getting Engaged (Surprise surprise lol) 

My top moments of 2011, here is to a wonderful 2012!