Back to basics

I know it's been a long long time since I've posted. I almost forgot my username and password! Anyway...
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I ran the half marathon. Let's just say I did it. I didn't do nearly as well as I hoped, but I did it. After that I took some time off to heal up. And then I had a hard time getting back into running. I convinced myself after the semester was over I'd get myself back to working out and running. But then the Sunday before finals week I had to have surgery to take my appendix out. And it wasn't just one of those easy ones where they do the small cuts and stick a camera in me (forgot what that kind of surgery is called!) That would be too easy. My appendix had already ruptured so I got a nice long cut down my belly and a piece of colon taken out as well.

Learn from my mistake... if your abdomen is hurting for more than a few days, go to the doctor!!! don't keep telling yourself it'll go away. (I waited a week and a half to go to the dr)

So anyway, now that I'm recovering and slowly getting my strength back, I'm starting to look forward to working out again. It'll be a little while before I'll really be able to get into it. There's a part of me wondering if I really want to even bother starting again. However, I recognize this as a chance to start over again. It's given me a chance to look at what goals I want to accomplish and how to accomplish them.

One goal I have is to run a 5k in 24 minutes. When I was in my "prime" training for the half, the first few miles I would average 8 minute miles. I knew if I ran a 5k, I would've done pretty awesome. For me at least :).

Anyway, I hope to be able to keep up with my progress on here, share things I learned, and maybe get some feedback! I'll be honest, at this point, I doubt anyone is really reading my blog except the few who find my pins on Pinterest. For those of you who do stumble on here, thanks for your time!

Way to get of ants

Our apartment management kind of sucks. They have sprayed out apartment twice this year and somehow we still have ants in our bathroom. I still don't see how we have them in our bathroom and nowhere else though. Anyway, I found one way to get at least some of them! There's a nice little background story to it....

...So the other day I made myself a scrub for my face (1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp honey). When I was done I rinsed out the bowl a little bit but then I left it on the edge of the tub and forgot it there. It was left under our loofas so it got filled with water. The next day, I find this...

See all that dark stuff? Ants. lots of them. I guess they were attracted to the honey and sugar and met their demise. I wish I could find a good way to truly get rid of them, but at least I know how to kill a load of them!

Get rid of yucky heels!

I wish I had a real "before" picture of my own heels before I started doing this, but this is a pretty good example of how my heels looked before...

Yeah. I wore flip flops everywhere and would only lotion up my feet maybe once a week. And then my husband came up with a genius idea of how to fix them. Are you ready for this?

Baby oil.

That's all! It does take some time (like a few months) but it works! Here's all you do... twice a day rub your feet with baby oil. Now here's the important part.... when you're done, put on some socks. It's best not the use the thin kind that dry out fast. Like I said, this takes time, but it is totally worth it.

This is my foot over a year later! (yeah, it took me this long to post about it.) I know my feet look a little dry here, but it's winter and I'm recovering from surgery where I couldn't reach my feet for a little while. By the way, if you're having abdominal pain for more than a few days, go to the doctor!!! But that's another story :)

Oiy

It's obviously been a while since I've done anything. It's amazing how much time school takes! I want to kind of re-do my blog and reorganize things into different sections so I have a section for posts about running/fitness/health, and one for family stuff, something like that. It's going to take some time for me to work on it, especially since I don't have much material right now. Once I get things figured out I hope to get more traffic on here and hopefully I'll have something that's useful and/or fun for someone!

On a different note, I'm taking a Social Media marketing class. For the class, we are in groups of 3 and we are meeting with local businesses to help them develop a marketing plan directed at using Social Media. My group is working with the Boys and Girls club of America Maverick. It used to be the Maverick Club, but now they are The Boys and Girls Club. Their big problem is that nobody really knows about them or they think the club is closed. They're really in need of donations. If you don't feel comfortable giving a monetary donation, they are always in need of supplies like paper, pencils, etc and also things like basketballs, baseballs, etc. I've only met with the lady a couple times, but I really like what I've seen of the organization. I'm going to try and post more things about them as I learn more.

Also, they club is trying to get the Color Run to Amarillo, TX!!!! The race people donate proceeds to a local charity, so in this case it would be the Boys and Girls Club. So not only would it be epic for Amarillo to have this, but it would be benefiting a great cause. If you happen to read this, go to the site of the Color Run and vote for Amarillo to get it!!

Been busy!

Yes, I  know it's been a while. Truth is I haven't really had much to post about. I've been prepping for the half marathon, studying for a CLEP test, and trying to keep up with everything else. Hopefully soon I'll have something worth posting about!

2 quick things...

1) I'm registered for the half marathon! Woo!

and 2)... I have just discovered the amazingness of pancakes with peanut butter and jelly!!!!! Why has it taken me this long?!?!?!

Woo Hoo!

Horray! After waiting what feels like forever, they finally put up the registration form for the half marathon I want to run! And the best part? It's only $20. Most of the other half's I see are at least $50. I "officially" started training this past week, and sad to say it, but it didn't feel like it. I went running Monday and Wednesday as planned. According to the training plan I'm following, I'm supposed to run Thursdays, but it was just a crazy crazy day Thursday. I was going to to my long run on Saturday (4 miles) but we got up late and then decided to take the kids to the park. I ran to and around the park, but I only got like 1.5 miles in. But, that's okay. This is a new week and now that I can actually sign up, I'm feeling more motivated.

As for the eating better, well.... it's not going to good right now. I'm all out of the fruits and veggies I got. Either they were all eaten or went bad. Money's kind of tight and it's sad that the good healthy stuff I want is so dang expensive. But, it could be a lot worse.

However, my weekly menu is working great! Of course there's days that I switch stuff around, but over all it's been fantastic.

And I've done a couple more creative things for my kids!!! I won't post pics of them, but the first one I did for my daughter. We're starting potty training, so I just filled with piece of paper with stenciled drawings of flowers and butterflies. We have these little butterfly stickers. When she pees in the potty she gets 1 sticker and when she poops (which has yet to happen) she gets 2. We put them on the flowers and butterflies. Whenever she fills up a flower or butterfly I plan of her getting a small prize. I have yet to get the prizes, but she has yet to fill one up. The other I just did this morning. Our son is trying to learn the days of the week, so I printed out the days and made a small calendar. Each day has a picture of what we're going to do for that day. For example, Sunday has a picture of a church because we go to church. Monday has a stroller because I'm going running. One day we're going to the library, so there's books. Hopefully it works out.

Feeling crafty!

Thanks to Pinterest there's a million crafty things I want to do, and I'm not the crafty type. But today I had a couple small things come up that I just had to do! The first one came to me at dinner time. My almost 3 year old son is such a picky picky eater. Usually I'll just give him cereal or chicken nuggets or something like that that he'll eat just so he'll eat. But tonight I made roast and I really wanted him to just try it. I don't like bribing kids, but sometimes it just has to be done. I told him if he took a bit of roast I'd give him a dollar. And it worked!! He ate a few more bites! I wish he had eaten more, but you can only do so much. Anyway, my husband and I decided he's old enough and capable enough to start earning small amounts of money for things. So I came up with a few chores he can help with and amounts of money to go with it!

Here it is! My newly made menu thing! I got the original idea for this from Pinterest (of course) but the one I saw was much fancier. I just used the side of a diaper box, scrapbook paper, a glue stick, a sharpie, clothes pins, and a couple small envelopes I got at Dollar Tree a loooong time ago. I'm excited to have this! Before I just had it written on a piece of paper and it wasn't as fun.

So far my menu and snack prep idea has been going great. I love not having to spend the day thinking "What am I going to make for dinner tonight, and do I have the stuff to make it?" Of course breakfast and lunch are a totally different matter, especially with my son being so picky. The single serve fruits and veggies are great too. I take the kids out on walks a lot so we don't go crazy while my husband has the car all day at work. I just grab a couple bags and bring them along. I know if I can get a few of those down me a day I'm doing great!

I'm wanting to do this half marathon in September. It would be my first! The only problem is I can't find anything anywhere about how to register!!!! It's a yearly thing but I get the impression that they don't start registration until like August. It's a little nerve wracking. I found one of those 10 week training plans for half marathons and I officially start training next week! I'm nervous but excited. We just got our jogging stroller fixed so I'm hoping that will help me with training. With my husband's work schedule I'd either have to wake up super early to run, run when it's still 100 degrees outside, or wait until it's dark and dangerous outside. But now as long as I can push the stroller I can go whenever I want! Woo!

 So, like I said, I would post again about my progress with healthy eating stuff. i know it's only been a day, but I'm excited because I got a bunch of produce tonight! Seriously, I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to produce. I just wish later in the week I was more apt to eating the produce like I would candy. Anyway, I felt good about it, so here are a couple pictures of what I did tonight prep-wise.

I didn't count how many little baggies I have, but I have a BUNCH! Here I have baby carrots, salad, grapes, cherries, and blueberries. In the container is some watermelon. I wish I had money to by a bunch of little containers so I wouldn't have all the little bags to throw away, but I don't. This isn't even everything I bought! Like I said... kid in a candy store. I want to go to the Farmer's Market now that it's open, but I don't know when I'll be able to make it. Another thing I'm excited about? I got the stuff to make an awesome 4th of July cake! At least I hope it's awesome. I'm going to post pictures either way. Wish me luck!

It's been a few days but here's my new big plan for eating healthy: actually planning out meals on specific days. Sounds simple right? Only problem is I have picky eaters so I can't always make what I want. So I have to plan some things for when my husband is working late and won't be eating with us, and some for the hot hot days when I don't want the oven/stove on too long (our apartment sucks). another part of my plan? Put healthy snacks in single servings so they're ready to go! Again, real simple but I've always been too lazy to take the time to do that. Now I have this week's menu planned out along with the shopping list. I guess I'll post later on how it goes!

In another un-related but kind of related thing, I'm hoping we can get the wheel on our double jogging stroller fixed. We took the rubber off the wheel to change the inter tube but we can't get it back on!! We think we need to just by a new tire for it because the old one so really hard and tough. I'm hoping we can get this done so I can get back into running. It's been hard with Nathan's work schedule because I either have to get up super super early to run, run when it's 100 degrees outside, or wait until it's too dark. 

Ok, i'm getting bored with this post which probably isn't a good sign. Thanks for visiting me!

 Some more cakes! This first one was supposed to look more like an Easter basket but it didn't come out like I had hoped it would.

This one I made for my daughter's first birthday! The decorating is simple but it turned out better than any of the ones I have done before. I learned my lesson that crumb-coating really is worth it!







Surprise! It's a checker board cake! This was taken a couple days after her birthday so a couple of the layers started drooping to one side so it doesn't look as fantastic as it did at first. I think this is one of the cakes I'm most proud of!

 My first try with fondant. It was interesting. I didn't trim off the top so it still had all the little bumps and bubbles.

 And this one was just a fail. My original idea was to try and make it look like a small wedding cake with two different sized layers. Ummm yeah, didn't happen. I just decided to have fun with it after that. This was just.... a fail. A tasty fail though! :)

 I made this one for some friends. This one did turn out better than the last one but i wish it had come out better.

 I think this one is my all time favorite so far. I made this to tell my parents I was having a boy when I was pregnant with my son.

 I like to think that someday I'll be a an amazing cake decorator like you see on TV shows.
Unfortunately I lack shall we say, artistic skills. I have some creativity, just not the skill to put what I see in my mind into something beautiful. But I felt like posting some of the cake I have made. 

This first one was a cake I made just for the heck of it. I had just bought a leaf shaped decorating tip and some gum paste and wanted to experiment. I think this one was a yellow and chocolate marble cake. I use cake mixes because of time and ease. I just used store-bought white frosting and made the flowers out of the gum paste! And just FYI, gum paste is NOT very tasty.

I have a few more I want to post, but it'll have the wait!! The kids are awake and demanding my attention :)

Intro

Hello, and welcome to my blog! This is something I have wanted to do for a while but what really pushed me to start a blog were Facebook’s privacy policies. I just don’t trust my information and photos to be safe! I’m going to try and post different things but most of what I’ll be posting about it running, health and fitness in general (stuff I find online), stuff about my family, and books I’m reading. I hope you enjoy!