Happy Anniversary and a paint delivery

Since we are an old married couple, we don't do gifts on our anniversary. We go to a nice dinner. We celebrated this past weekend. 

Dinner was a seafood restaurant outdoors looking out at sunset. We got married at sunset.

I had Mahi, he had some weird fish. Oh, and oysters. (gag) Followed by a movie. And Fro-yo! Yes! Mint chocolate is my new fave. They have Christmas-y toppings now, like red and green chocolate covered pretzels. I am a sucker for sweet and salty things.

So today, Steve told me I had to be home for a paint delivery. Here's what came.

Me and this little guy might do some damage here.

 

Thanksgiving 2011

Here are a few tips for a successful Thanksgiving:

1.) It is necessary to sautee onions and celery with your Mickey Mouse spatula.

2.) Also, do not use a flash if your forehead needs "degreasing". You may blind someone.

Seriously, I have the best little helpers ever. This was our first year cooking the whole meal. Steve smoked a turkey. Not gonna lie, it was the best turkey I've ever had.

Here's the turkey.

 

Since my family (all 1,999 of us) gets together on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, it was just us, the in-laws, and the sis and bro-in-law. We started the weekend before Thanksgiving a few years ago because my mom gets upset when all 8 of us aren't together at the same time. Everyone has in-laws and different eating times so this works for us.

The food. My Chinet plates are classy, I know.

None of the dishes prepared were "clean". Thanksgiving comes one a year, so indulge and enjoy it!

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

My favorite was my corn casserole. 

Turkey Trot Recap aka The Chicken Run

This will be my third year running the Turkey Trot. I don't like 5k's all that much and don't run many of them. Mostly because they can get expensive and I'd rather save my money and run a few halfs and full's vs every 5k. Plus I am not fast. I am getting faster.

Here's my last three Turkey Trot times:
2009: 29:51
2010: 26:50
2011: 26:05 (PR)

I like this 5k becaus it's cheap and my kids can run it. Last year, my daughter ran it with me. My boys ran a short dash.

This year, my boys ran the one mile race. It was their first time running that distance. Here they are pre-race.

I ran with "Q" and he pretty much complained after 50 yards. I heard every excuse. I wasn't going to let him quit.

Steve took over after he finished running with "C". He finished in 9:14. Q ended up finishing in 14:30. Steve didn't let him walk. Apparently I am not as good at motivating as Steve.

Here they come.

There they go.

So three of us came home with PR's! A great new tradition and a way to get a head start on burning those Thanksgiving calories.

Fun Fact Friday (calorie edition)

That has HOW MANY calories????!?

Nestle Drumstick, chocolate has 360 calories.

Marble Slab Creamery Cheesecake ice cream has 456 calories.

Starbucks Double Chocolatey Chip Frap (grande) has 500 calories.

Orange Julius Blackberry Storm premium fruit smoothie (20 oz size) has 680 calories.

Cold Stone Creamery Butter Pecan ice cream (gotta have it size) has 780 calories.

Dairy Queen Brownie Batter blizzard (med size) has 950 calories!!



I don't know about you, but I am not running 10 miles to burn off a blizzard. Actually, it doesn't work that way.......but still. Not only that but I would be sick to my stomach if I ate any of this. I guess one of the benefits to being a clean eater is that you think not twice, but three times before you indulge. Sometimes having a ticked off tummy isn't worth it. Oh, not to mention the sugar hangover.

St. Pete Women's Half Marathon recap

My running group and I have been training for this half for a few months. I ran the race last year just for fun. It was much cooler last year. We were up at 5:30, had coffee and a bagel, and got dressed.

This was my friend, Melissa's, first half marathon.

The group.

And again.

We got in our corrals. There was a 5k race, but they were in the last corral. I was in corral 1. I was nervous about the humidity and temps. It was 70 and 89% humidity. Not good for a race and wanting a substantial PR. My last half was this one last year and I ran a 2:13. I didn't train for it, it was in between my 2 full marathons. I was shooting for a sub 2.

The 2 hour pace team was in my corral. I ran around them the first 6 miles. This guy was wearing a plaid skirt! He had the pace on his head somehow. The other guy was from Trinidad. He was amusing.

The water was beyond those trees.

Right on track.

This was about 7ish miles into the race. Many ran on the sidewalk because the cobblestone roads were too uneven. At this point I was second guessing my ability to try for my goal.

I started to get a side stitch. I had this for what seemed like a few miles. I didn't keep track. It was annoying. Because of the humidity, I was really thirsty. I was hot. I went back and forth in my head about trying to keep a sub 9 minute pace.

I took a Gu at mile 2 and between mile 6 &7. I drank gatorade at the first 2 waterstops then stayed with water since that is what I drink on my training runs.

It was a mental battle. "I can't break 2. I think I might have a chance. It's too hot. This cramp won't go away. This is a race, it's supposed to hurt. Pain is weakness leaving the body. Now my stomach is queasy. I am thirsty. Where's the next water stop? I can do this. I want to stop. Maybe that will make me feel better. No, you can't stop! You've worked too hard for this!!"

Then we headed toward downtown for the last few miles. Before mile 9, this girl comes up beside me and tells me if I stop, then she stops. I guess she was pacing with me? I say, "I'm trying to break 2." She says, "Me too, we can do this."

We then passed mile marker 10 and it said, 1:30. Now this wasn't accurate with our chip time, but close enough. I figured we could maybe crank out the rest before 2. We would have to pick up the pace. By this time, my legs felt like they couldn't go any faster. My stomach felt weird. I was thirsty.

We kept a good pace until we hit Tropicana Stadium. We ran through it....on the astro turf. Not my favorite part. It was hard to run on.

We hit mile 12 shortly after. I knew in my heart there was no way for a sub 2. I was fine with that. I dug deep to finish strong and my new friend, Melissa was a few seconds ahead of me. My time was 2:01:46. I shaved off 11 minutes from my half marathon last year!

The finish line.

These two girls both pr'd. They finished before me. 

We couldn't take enough pictures.

#85/586 in age group. #520 out of 3,901.

St. Pete Women's Half- before the race

We drove up Saturday afternoon to St. Pete for the Women's Half Marathon. There were several of us meeting up there for the race. We checked in to a cute little Bed and Breakfast close to the race.

We then walked over to the expo at a beautiful hotel on the water. Apparently it's a wedding factory. There were a few weddings going on there. I bought some socks on sale, buy 2 get 1 free. I like the Feetures brand. I bought a pair of their elite compression socks. I bought Steve a pair too. you can never have enough good socks.

We made the cover of Women's Running Magazine. They are the ones who put on these half marathons.

We hung out in the hotel lobby for a bit because the rest of our group was there. It was beautifully decorated. These are weird angles because I didn't want to weird people out by taking their picture. I just wanted to get the color scheme to show Steve.





I love the beams on the ceiling.

Some of the lobby. 

We walked back to the B&B and ralaxed a bit before our dinner at 6:30. We had reservations at an Italian restaurant a few blocks away. Here's the group.

The best part.

Cheesecake is good for carb-loading. I totally just made that up but I had to eat a few bites to offset the garlic that was on my pasta. I had a Mediterranean whole grain pasta dish with enough pasta to kill any vampires within a 50 foot radius. I felt safe on the walk to the B&B after.

We got ready for the next morning and hit the hay.