Another Day another Dolla

Scott and I went out for a run tonight. We actually got out there before it was dark.

I swear my 85 year old neighbor is trying to pick up on me. As we are running down the road he's driving the other way and tells Scott I'm looking like his (Scott's) daughter. Gotta love it.

I figured out how to set up a pace time on my Runkeeper where it will tell you if you are running at the pace you set. I think this would probably be more effective if I had changed my audio cues to go off more often. I set it for an 11 minute pace. I ended up running & walking a 10:26.

I ran too fast and had to walk some to catch my breath. Hey I made it under 11 though right? I guess I should try for under 10 so I can get that 30 minute 3.1. I got so close one time but then I switched to focusing on longer distances and lost my short run endurance.  We have 2 5k's we are signed up for so it would be awesome if I could do it.

New goal/old goal revisited, sub 30 5k.

it's only 2 1/2 minutes and I have almost a whole month. Maybe just maybe I can do it!

We have one more 3 mile run this week (who can run 3 miles without pushing it to the 3.1?). They are supposed to be "easy" runs but eh, it's 3 miles not 10.

In other news, when I asked Scott if he was going to be able to fix the washer tonight he said he already did. (yesterday). Um yeah well thanks for telling me? I'm walking around with my droopy ass 2nd day pants because I have no clean clothes.

Guess I should go out and wash something now.
In a minute yeah yeah.

We're Scott and Trevor are also watching a nice flat screen TV that I bought from my co-worker for $100 today. The old dinosaur is decorating the living room at the moment. (my bad I thought he took it outside but I guess not).

So all is good in our little world now.

Melissa's high school orientation/registration is next Monday (I KNOW how is she that old??) so that will be a good $200. $75 just for a year book. Better buy it now because the price goes up if you wait. By the time Trevor goes to high school a year book will probably be $100. Ridiculous. Can't they just use those Shutterfly coupons I'm always getting emails about?

I'm still waiting for a letter about the bus. I might have to breakdown and call someone. The last time I paid for it for Jessica it was $360 a year. That was a few years ago so I'm guessing it's at LEAST $400 now. Good thing they let you break that up into two lovely payments. If only I worked in the same direction as the high school I could just drop her off. Nope. That would be 25 miles out of my way. Easier to pay the money and save on gas.

Tomorrow is already Thursday. This week has pretty much flown by. Hopefully the next 2 days do too. So much work to do it makes  the days go faster. I guess I should be grateful for that!

Appliances R Us

I'm sooo hungry! Wait no I'm not. Noo yes I am!! I should just go to bed. Finish this bottle of water..

Tonight Scott and I went to frozen yogurt after the gym. I think they cancel each other out right?

So remember when I said my TV was dead then I was all like "just kidding!"? Well it really is dead now. I came home and the house was all quiet and I was like are you guys really just not watching TV or is it dead?

Yep, it's dead. I told Scott it was dead so when he got home he did the same thing I did and then was like "yep it's dead". This TV is huge, like two feet deep. You know, those pre-flat screen ones. I think it weighs like 200 pounds.

Scott hefted it out of the house to the appliance graveyard we have going in the back.

washing machine CHECK
tv CHECK

So now we are watching this little thing that was in Trevor's room. One of my co-workers has a flat screen that she's not using that she's going to sell to me cheap so that will be nice!

I don't think I updated on the washing machine situation. So the washer is dead (also) and I saw on the little bulletin board out where I live that someone had a washer for sale. I called the woman up and went over to check it out. Originally she was asking $100 for it and I didn't even try to bargain with her and she offered it to me for $25! Score! I figure if it works for a few months and then dies it's not that big of a deal for $25 right?

Scott went over after work to pick it up and we brought it home. Now we still cannot use it because the water pipe we have hooked up to it is clogged or something and I'm really running out of clothes to wear.

I might actually have to iron something tomorrow.

Meanwhile mount washmore is taking over my room....

In other news Scott and I started training for the Big Sur Half Marathon that is in November yesterday. He wants to do this plan that is on Runkeeper. It's longer than the last one I did but I guess it will work. Hopefully we won't get too burnt out!

Book Round Up

I figure it's about time for another book round up! Once again I've mostly just been listening to audio books. LOVE them. So nice to have something to listen to in the car, while washing dishes, folding clothes, etc.

I've been working my way through Sandra Brown's books. The last one I listened to was

Ricochet

One thing I've learned about Sandra Brown's book is they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. Not one is the "same" kind of book. This one is a crime mystery type book.

The story is about Duncan, who is a detective. He gets caught up in a web with Elise. Elise has just shot an intruder in her house.

She is married to Judge Cato Laird who just happens to have been the judge to let this criminal guy go. A guy that Duncan had been trying to get convicted.

So we have this web of the criminal guy, the judge, the hot judge's wife who killed someone and the detective.

I only gave this book 2 stars because I never really felt connect to any of the characters. They were all boring and shallow. The story kind of kept me guessing until the end though!

When The Bough Breaks by Jonathon Kellerman

This is another crime type mystery. The beginning was a bit confusing to me. Maybe my mind was drifting while I was driving. A bunch of people were killed and they were all kind of jumbled up in my mind about who was who and what was what.

This psychologist guy Alex ends up helping to try and uncover what this little girl saw. It turns out that she didn't see a whole lot but while he's trying to figure it all out we learn of this horrible sex crime ring taking place. He is really more detective than shrink and it's all pretty interesting.

There is a bunch of action and it seems like it would make a good movie! I think I'll look into the next book in the series.

Led Astray by Sandra Brown

I didn't really like this book. The main character is stupid. I hate stupid women. She's of course seduced by the macho man and yeah I think they call that a romance novel.

It did have a few steamy scenes but that's about all that was good about it for me.

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

Now this, this is a good book. Set in the dust bowl era this book is about a single woman and her son who run a boarding house out of their home. Ella runs a strict schedule of cleaning and cooking. That is until the day the doctor brings by Mr. Rainwater who needs a place to stay.

Mr. Rainwater works his way into life and the life of her "special" son Solly. Solly is just not like the other kids and Mr. Rainwater is ever so patient with him.

Mr. Rainwater is quite the guy. He helps out neighbor's during their turmoils with the banks and the town bandits that are only trying to make everyone miserable.

If you have a chance to read this one I'd pick it up.

The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux

This was a pretty good book too. This is the story of three women who met each other at the DMV office so many years ago. They have planned to meet up again for their 40th? I think it was birthday. (they all have the same birthday) We learn about them in their past and then now, in real time. The three woman somehow end up at this fortune teller type woman's place and she lets them all go back in the past to rewrite history. When they are done they can chose to change their lives or keep them the same and they can also chose if they want to remember it the original way or forget it all.

Who doesn't wish they could go back in time and change a few things? It's interesting to find out what the woman decide to do with their past and ultimately their futures.



Have you read a good book lately?

Yard Work and Bon Fires

I spent my Sunday getting a new tramp stamp. SUNBURN STYLE. Seriously how can I scorch the crap out of myself without realizing it? I went in to take a shower and was like holy mother! 2 inch strip of beet red skin. Lovely.

My friend is getting married next May. I asked her if spray tans cover up uneven tans? Anyone? Anyone? Because, I my friends, am queen of the bizarre tan lines. I'm really hoping she doesn't pick anything strapless and or open back because I.will.be.screwed. Maybe I should just sign up for tanning now? But then I'll go out in the yard for an hour and mess it up again...

This 5 minute break was like the highlight of my day. I really wanted to sit there all day but I had shit to do. Like attempt to weed the OTHER side of the yard. That didn't go too well because it was too hot. Oh well, good enough! I'll work on that again later. Yeah yeah that's the ticket.

Do you like spiders?

I was moving the big ass pile of bricks on the porch and this guy popped out. ALMOST.CRAPPED.MY.PANTS. 

Only the size of the palm of my hand. WOWZERS.  I figured he'd lived awhile to get that big so I just shot him with some water from the hose so he got out of my way. 

Spiders=nature's pest control. 

Although
back widow spiders=squished. Those bitches are nasty.

After giving myself heat stroke for the day we went over to my brother's to celebrate his birthday.

When we got there everyone was lounging around the pool. My brother's friend's girlfriend that I've never met started talking to me and told me that she's a fairly new runner also. Nice to have someone to talk to!

We did the usual BBQ and then had cupcakes and ice cream. 

 32 candles on a cupcake. Good thing we were outside haha.

My favorite part of the party? My younger brother winning a bet that he could fit through the doggie door. Hilarious. 

Book Club and Buffalo

I've been so busy this week. Can I just have a few days of doing nothing?? Oh wait I have to go to work tomorrow. Darn.

So just like I thought my washing machine bit the dust. Unfortunately it was before I washed any clothes. I'm pretty sure it's still full of water and clothes from yesterday. I've asked the man if he knows how we are getting the water out? (it won't drain) and he mentioned siphoning it out but I don't think that's actually happened yet. So don't get to close to me because I'm most likely wearing kind of dirty clothes tomorrow.

(and while I'm typing this the TV in the living room just took a dump, gotta laugh or go crazy right?) {oh just kidding it works now, just plug it into another part of the power strip!}

I spent all morning cleaning my ass off for book club. My family all thought I was a psycho bitch for you know, asking them to HELP. This once a month or so when I actually ask people to do something besides sit on their asses is like TORTURE.  I even offered the girls money to help me work in the yard earlier this week and they both turned it down (and I'm not talking about single digit dollars either). I'll remember that when someone needs some money and I'm not even kidding.

Everyone was also all bitchy because they had to leave the house for 2 hours. REALLY? They had plans to go to the movies. OMG TORTURE.

So THANK GOD I got my house clean enough with half an hour to spare before everyone got here. I opened the wine bottles and resisted chugging a glass until everyone got here.

I set us up in the kitchen. I was going to buy some flowers to put on the table but I forgot so I just snipped some of my geraniums and stuck them in little wine glasses.

Buster kept breaking out of my room where I had put him because he was way too interested in the table so when we were almost done I let him out and he got some loving. 

Silly cat. He was rubbing his face on the table even though it looks like he is zonked out from too much wine!

We talked about the book Rainwater for 1.1 seconds I think. The rest of the time we talked about the club and all the wacky neighbors. 

Two hours and we were done. Ahh one hour nap on the couch and then drag myself into the kitchen to make dinner.

I made these Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes from Pinterest.

(Picture from website above)

I thought for about 15 minutes they were going to be a total flop but they turned out ok. Instead of making my own pizza dough (who has time for that??)  I used 2 pre-made tubes. When I went to roll the chicken mixture it was kind of messy so I ended up just kind of plopping them into the muffin tins. I didn't use about 1/4 of the dough that was on the ends since I didn't have any chicken in them. They turned out to be about 103 calories each and were pretty filling. Everyone liked them too, score!.

Of course mine looked nothing like the picture. I also slightly overcooked them because the first time I checked them they looked too doughy.

Family's suggestions were to next time add olives, pepperoni and mushrooms.

Off to read a few blogs and then hit the hay. It's already almost 10pm. It sure is nice and quiet without the TV on in here though!

We Can't Stop Because It Hurts So Good

I just got done paying bills. It's almost midnight. It's been a busy day. Work, meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking a nice dinner, out for a run and paying bills and balancing the "check book". That saying is going to start dating us. Who uses a check book anymore? The only time I write checks is to the kid's school for stuff.

Anyhow, the weirdest thing keeps happening lately. I pay my bills and I have money left over. What?? It's so weird. (Jessica if you are reading that I'm just kidding I don't have any extra money) I'm not going to even attempt to get used to it because I know it's not going to last. Something is going to die (well really I should go buy a new washer, it's pretty scary sounding). It's like I'm walking around on egg shells just waiting for what's going to hit us. It's coming, I know it.

So tonight for dinner I made these stuffed shells (picture from her website)

But of course mine look nothing like that. Mine look more like a blob with pasta sauce on them. They were really good though. Even though I figured them out to be about 140 calories a shell. OUCH. I ate 4 and a big salad. I'm still full hours later so I guess it "stuck".

Like I said before I went for a run. Scott went too and Trevor rode his bike. We made the dog stay home, he wasn't too happy about that.  Trevor ditched us about half way to go home. I felt like I was really running fast. I had my audio cues turned off (forgot to turn them back on after my bike ride)  and didn't look at my Runkeeper until I was finished. Which was just a bit before I really wanted to end but I had a side cramp so I decided to just walk the rest of the way home.

When I looked at my time I was surprised it wasn't a bit faster. At least it was pretty consistent right?

Tonight I added a couple songs to my iTunes and actually just listened to my own music instead of Pandora. I forgot I had added this song. Nothing like belting out "HURTS SO GOOD!" while you are running. 

This video is hilarious. 

Was he supposed to look sexy in those chaps? And that drummer. Woo yeah.

The girls outfits are almost as bad as Miley's.



I'm admitting I like that song. Call me crazy but I like her look too. The video is a bit out there though. Hmm I'm seeing a bit of Madonna in there. And a big f'you to everyone that told her what she had to do for all the years leading up to her being an "adult" and making her own decisions.

Well that's probably enough random for one night and I should probably go to bed!

Pity Party For One!

Arg I just ate Costco pizza for dinner. Today is payday, the day after camping and we had no food in the house. Tomorrow I will go shopping for healthy food and get back on track! Sometimes I miss those days where you could write a check at the grocery store and have a 3-5 day window before it actually cleared your account! Creative accounting I think is what we called that ;)

After work today I spent a couple hours washing stuff from camping and putting it away. That's the not so fun part of camping. I need to go out and tackle mount washmore next!

And go to the gym. I really need to do that too. Or maybe go run. Or both.

I'm up about three pounds from camping. I packed mostly healthy food to eat while we were there but I also ate a shit ton of sunflower seeds, drank some diet soda I actually got the shakes from it, guess that's a sign it's not good for me??) and maybe a half a bottle or so of Vodka. It was over several days, don't worry! So hopefully most of that is fluid retention. I'm sure the pizza will totally help that out.

Does anyone else totally freak out when the scale is up? Last week I was super good and got my weight down quite a bit and now ZOOM right back up. Freaking depressing but I know I'm just doing it to myself.

WAKE UP CALL.

Here's some bits of pieces of last week that I didn't get around to blogging.

Tuesday, girls night out with my friends Dee and Carolyn. We met at Red Robin where I had a bunless burger California Burger (should have said no mayo, didn't realize it was going to come with it). There was so much lettuce I didn't really want the salad. I think next time I'd just order it with no lettuce and eat it that way.

Afterwards we went and did a bit of shopping. Goofy glasses at Kohl's anyone?

Then we went and had some frozen yogurt. Just a little bit for me.

Wednesday, first thing when I walk in to work. Confronted with my #2 food issue lately.

Chips and salsa. Oh how I love them. I think I might have to put them on my list with Chinese food. Sigh. And yes, I did eat some.

Thursday we had a baby shower at work. With Cake!

Ate some. 

Where oh where has my will power gone?

Friday I had more cake at lunch.

Looking back at my week I can watch my downward spiral. 

That's it ::::claps hands::::

Must be good now. No more slipping up!!

What I Love About Camping

We went camping Friday night and just got back today.

What I love about camping?

It's beautiful

My kids love it at first (day 3 not so much)

My husband does all the cooking

And washes all the dishes
And makes big camp fires

And someone makes me a s'more (just one I don't really like them all that much but have to have the experience with everyone else)

Playing cards

It's beautiful

more detailed post to come later. Most pictures are taken by Jess but she had them on her Facebook so I figured they were free to steal. Plus she takes great pictures!

Slumbering Sunday and Moving Monday

So Sunday was pretty productive. I spent most of the day like this

I don't even think I watched any tv. Just laid on the couch and snoozed on and off. Well except for when I had to go pick up Melissa at her friends house. I ran by the store and picked up some stuff and then came back to the couch.

I did get up to cook dinner too.

We had this Chicken and Spinach Parmesan Recipe

Of course mine never looks like the pictures haha

That's broccoli slaw on the right. I buy the bag of it that you just add a few ingredients and wahlaaa yummy side dish. 

Today I got into work and my computer wasn't working. GREAT! What a way to start a Monday. I called the new IT guy and he actually came in and worked on it for most of the day and had it up and running a little bit before I had to leave. I thought for sure I'd be out of a computer for a  few days. 

This is going to be a really stressful week at work I can tell already. Today I spent almost the entire day working on one person's stuff. Woohooo. After this week is over I'm hoping we are done with this year's contacts. 

After work I drove over to Stockton to pick up Trevor from my Mom's house. They are working on every freeway in every direction around here. Today there was a car stalled in the middle of the freeway. They have the shoulders blocked off so the car is just there with 2 tow trucks and about a million cars trying to get around it. That was a fun half an hour.

I got home and started right into making dinner. Tonight we had these little spaghetti cupcakes with meatballs. I used ground turkey instead of beef and they were just fine.

Of course mine weren't quite as fancy looking. I only had one because I had a Starbucks (light) frapp on the way to pick up Trevor and I'm trying really hard to stay in my calorie count. I did however have lots of veggies and some fruit to go with it. 

After dinner I did the dishes and we went out for our run. We took the dog with us since he was so excited to go when he saw us getting ready. We ran around 2 lakes and then Scott started walking when we were close to home so I handed him the dog and kept running. I ended up running a total 6.2 miles. I felt great and like I could run forever. I love when that happens! The arch of my foot did ache a little bit but not bad enough to make me feel like I needed to stop. 

My splits are really consistent. 

Not too fast but not too slow for me.

Tomorrow I'm going to dinner with my friends. I think we are going to Red Robin. I might have to just drink water all day if I'm going to try and stay in my calories ;)

Post Run and Birthday Dinner

After we got home from Saturday's race I laid around on the couch. The dog thought I made a great cushion. He's so funny.

He was just hanging out like that. Silly boy! I think he thought he was in trouble when Jess called his name haha.

Scott made everyone breakfast but I made my own "scramble" with some egg whites, onion, broccoli, a tomato and mushrooms. It looks like crap but it was actually pretty good.

 I also had 2 pieces of bacon and some fruit

After washing a shit load of dishes we went to Stockton to get Scott a new pair of running shoes. I finally got myself a 13.1 sticker too!

We killed some time walking around REI (bought a Luna Bar to eat because I was starving) and Petco and then went over to Macaroni Grill for my sister in law's birthday dinner.

I never go to the Macaroni Grill because the few times I had went I wasn't too impressed with it. This time the food was actually pretty good although it didn't look anything like I thought it was going to. 

I of course had some bread (FAILED to be strong on that darn it!)

a Cesar Salad (170 calories)

and the Chicken & Mushroom Cannelloni (780 calories)

My son got a pizza, that looked pretty delicious

Cousin Love. He's like hmm I don't know if I like this lol

Ava loves Grandpa

Brother Joe and the birthday girl!

Me and Jess

Mom & Dad 

 Us old folks

 

cousins

My other brother was there too but I didn't get a picture of him and my sister in law. Melissa was at her friend's party doing the teenage thing.

After dinner we went over to my brother's house where one jello shot turned into about 6 whoops. In my defense they WERE little. I may have also somehow ate a chocolate cupcake. I think the jello shots made me do it.

We left around 10 and I slept the entire ride home. Guess I was a bit tired after the long day!