Southern Eskimo

End of the Year!

2010-12-30T13:55:00.001-08:00

Sorry for not posting. I've been too busy playing outside a lot and working! Instead of typing up something, I thought it would be fun to make a little video to close out 2010. See everyone in 2011!!!!

Up and At 'Em!

2010-11-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

It's stupid early right now (2:40AM!!!) but I'm so excited because we have today off from school so I woke up early to get more things done! Not only did I want to post a blog but also get in some much needed knitting time before working out, cleaning house, and running a few errands (including looking for a dining room table we badly need before we host a Thanksgiving dinner! Yikes!). Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm definitely a morning person! I LOVE getting up early and getting a jump on things! Please tell me some of you are the same!

I'm sure some of you have noticed the change in my header and yes, I'm now married! Everyone has been asking me if married life is different. Since Adam and I had already dated for 6 years prior to being married and lived together for 4 of those years, my answer mainly has been no. (I can see where people who don't live together prior to marriage could say yes. Learning to live with someone and their idiosyncrasies is always an adjustment! A good one, though, if you've been living alone for a long while.) The only big change I have had to work on is getting use to saying 'husband' when I had finally become consistent with saying 'fiance' over 'boyfriend'! No worries, though. I'm quickly adjusting! ;)

It's been such a fun journey these past months being engaged and going through the whole process of planning a wedding. Things that day really turned out well. Adam and I were able to keep the party size fairly small (64 people) and keep it personal. My mom, my dad, and awesome sister were able to help create many things for the day to keep things personal. My dad my the signs, my mom made the owls and found the cotton branches, my sister and I sewed/created the "Mr./Mrs." pendants and burlap runner, and my dad even went hiking into the Florida wood to find those gorgeously, huge pine cones! He came out with some battle wounds, though. He came out with a ton of chigger bites! :(

I thought I would wrap this post up by leaving you with some of my favorite pictures from our Engagement Shoot to our Wedding Day. Our photographers were amazing and I love how they have captured these moments forever for Adam and me. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do.

(FYI: Sorry the pic sizes are smaller than normal. I was too lazy to upload each one into Flickr and change them!)

Time Keeps on Slipping...

2010-10-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Oh yes. Once again, I have managed to let too much time slip by without posting any new blogs. I will still have to keep it short but hopefully you can tell from the new header why I've been a bit absent. :)

I promise to make a proper post over the next few days!!! Stop back by!!!!

It's That Time of Year Again!

2010-09-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

Can you tell school has started back? Oh, yes. This time of the year, when I the first few weeks of school begin again, always has me completely behind in many other areas of my life, including blogging. This year, since moving to a new state and basically a new coast, has me feeling really swamped! Things started to calm down last Friday and this weekend, Adam and I were finally able to get in some time to have our engagement pictures taken. Check out this link to see a slideshow of the amazing work our photographers did! The weather and temperature was perfect. 74 degrees!!!! I love September! Fall is the best!

We lucked out being able to shoot our pictures up in Boulder since one canyon over from where our pictures were taken was a huge wildfire that had broken out and the smoke, blowing the opposite way from us, was insane. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this fire. I'm so thankful to be able to have been able to have our pictures taken where we wanted them.

We are basically three weeks out from the wedding and everything is starting to go so fast and feel incredibly real. I had my last dress fitting this afternoon and my brilliant seamstress did an incredible job fixing my dress. What was wrong with the dress, you ask? Well, I ordered it from a store in Florida with my hollow-to-hem measurements and when the dress came in, it was 3 1/2 inches too short. The hem hit where it was supposed to only when I was barefoot! No worries except I kinda wanted to wear shoes since my fiance is a whole foot taller than me. :) My seamstress worked some of her magic and added some beautiful material to the bottom to make the dress even more gorgeous than it already was.

Lots of fun little things are being planned and I can't wait to share some wedding photos in a few weeks! How is everyone else's September going?

Some knitting going on...

2010-08-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've always loved seeing all the adorable knits there are out there for the wee ones in the world. Recently (as in last week!), a friend of mine gave birth to the most adorable little girl and I was thrilled to have knit this sweet giraffe for her. I'm going over to her house today to deliver the gift. Fingers crossed that she likes it! :)

Calling All Crafty People!

2010-07-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

Okay peeps! I've not talked a lot about it on here but I have a wedding coming up at the end of September and now it's beginning to take a forefront in my mind as the details are being worked out. One thing I thought was really cute was this "Just Married" banner on etsy.

Since I have some sewing skills I figured I could give a go at making this myself. The only thing is, I've never done any printing/stamping on fabric! Before doing tons of online research, I thought I would throw it out to the awesome people in blog land. Have you all ever done any printing/stamping on fabric? Any suggestions on how to go about creating this banner? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

The Fruits of my Labor

2010-07-16T15:49:00.001-07:00

Within a week of arriving in Denver at the end of May, I was determined to have my own successful garden this year. You may remember from an earlier post, I bought some of these and, as of today, I FINALLY have the first veggies from the garden!

As you can see, I have two kinds of tomatoes here (Yellow Pear and Early Girl) along with two jalapenos! And how did I decide to use some of these awesome veggies? To make homemade guacamole!

(Apologies for the out-of-focus pics. I was using my phone.)

The molecajete was an amazing wedding present from Adam's sister and her family. I've always wanted one!

Other veggies that are growing pretty well (besides the tomatoes and jalapenos) are the beans, cucumbers, watermelon, strawberries, bell peppers, and corn. Unfortunately, the carrots, squash, zucchini, and different lettuces did not even sprout. I figured it would be a long shot with the lettuce since they are cool-weather but I thought I would give it a go anyway. I plan to replant the lettuce seeds again once it cools down here. I'm not sure what went wrong with the other veggies and I'll take any insight anyone has!

When I was checking on my veggies this afternoon, I noticed one looked like it had been on the losing side of a battle with a critter. Here's the evidence...

Very sad since I only have two bell peppers at the moment and this was one of them. I haven't used anything in or around my plants to ward of critters but maybe I should have? Dunno....

No worries, though! I'm completely loving having some veggies ripening and from the looks of many of my plants, the garden should be bursting with ripened veggies and fruits in the next few weeks. May have to do some canning!

Happy Birthday!

2010-07-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

(Red Velvet cupcakes w/cream cheese icing, his favorite)

To my love,

Many wishes for a wonderful birthday! You mean the world to me.

Much love and a thousand kisses,

Girls' Camping/Hiking Weekend!

2010-06-28T17:15:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to have a new friend invite me along for a girls' weekend camping and hiking up in the Rocky Mountain National Park in the Estes Park area. We rented a campsite just to make life easy since it's summer and the weekend up there can be crazy with tourists trying to find a spot on a first-come, first-serve basis. The 1 1/2-hour drive up from Denver was perfect since it gave me time to get to know everyone and we all hit it off with each other right away. I love when you meet people that just "get you" and everything clicks, you know? :)

Once we got to our site we quickly set up our tents. A storm was rolling in so we decided to drive around snapping some goofy pics with the dark clouds as a killer background and just doing some site-seeing. The tourists up there were hysterical to see with all their funny poses so we decided to take a pic in front of the sign entering RMNP in poses we all saw tourists do...

After getting the first round of goofy out of us, we drove from the Beaver Meadows entrance of RMNP up Bear Lake Road. Bear Lake was gorgeous but a little too crowded with tourists so we made our way back to camp to cook up some yummy appetizers and dinner. Wendy (cowboy hat) starting acting hip-hop which was hysterical since she doesn't have an ounce of hip-hop in her soul. Sara and I began imitating and this pic was snapped. I swear it was funny in the moment!

The night was filled with massive silliness and I loved every moment of it! I think we laughed ourselves to sleep. The next morning we packed up camp and headed up Colorado Highway 7 for our hike that was to start near the town of Allens Park. On the way we had to stop for a photo-op that was too gorgeous to pass up. (This is one of my faves.)

The hike itself was stunning with views all along the mountainside trail that opened up to eye candy like this:

We arrived to our halfway stop at Calypso Falls and had snacks. The falls were amazing and the pic doesn't do it justice at all!

We lucked out by having a Steller's Jay land right next to us on a log and hung around long enough to snap some pics. How beautiful is this bird?!?!

One of my fave pics from the trip is Sara and I snacking at the Falls when a bout of the giggles overcame us.

This pic pretty much sums up how all four of us were the entire time... laughing 'til out bellies hurt. After our snack break, we hiked back to the car and headed home. The ride back was filled with more laughter (shocker) and plans of when we could get together for another trip again. How cool is it to meet girls like this?! Life is definitely good....

Busy in the New Casa!

2010-06-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I've posted but it doesn't seem like it! Wrapping up on school, packing, and seeing friends definitely made the time go by quickly!

Last Saturday, I left at the crack of stupid (aka 4am) and drove 15 hours to my pit stop of Manhattan, KS. It was really great getting to drive through Chattanooga and Nashville one last time since I have so many great memories driving those roads to see friends. Quite the nostalgic drive. The first part of Kansas was interesting as I passed a museum for Brown vs. Board of Education, the Eisenhower Library, and the Wizard of Oz Museum! If I wasn't so antsy to get to my stopping place, I would have definitely stopped to see some of these places. (A do-able drive back, if I want, though!)

I crashed pretty quickly then got up the next morning pretty early and hit the road once again. The last two-thirds of Kansas can be a little bit of a challenge since the drive the entire time looks like this:

These spaces were so huge, I finally understood the real meaning of "wide-open spaces". I actually went through a storm front and was able to see where it began and where it ended. Amazing. I also passed a huge farm of windmills that were enormous! There must have been 200-300 of them!

After 5 hours of driving through Kansas' "wide-open spaces", I was very happy to finally come upon this:

Three hours later, I arrived to movers unloading all my belongings into the new house! The rest of that Sunday, all of Monday, and most of Tuesday consisted of, literally, dawn to dusk unboxing and unpacking. Once the house started to actually resemble a home, Adam and I next tackled replenishing our fridge and spices and cooked up some yummy turkey/feta/cranberry burgers!

On Thursday, I felt like having Mexican so I went over to an older post of VO2Maxxed and borrowed their recipe for fish tacos using mahi-mahi. I made three of their baja sauces (the Green Baja Sauce, the Pink/Red Baja Sauce, and the Chipotle Sauce) and had such a great time using my food processor again! (It's been 6 months since I've been living with my in-laws.) I also was craving some pickled red onions so I used this recipe and was thrilled with the results! It was so easy too! The side item used was a cajun shrimp and corn salad with lime-chili dressing. Check out the pics of the results! (I LOVE all the colors and the pink of the onions in the jar rock!)

Yesterday, Saturday, a friend from Greenville came in to visit and I we went up to Boulder to hang. I first took her Chatauqua Park then we went to Pearl Street and mulled about until we came upon this place that puts feathers in people's hair. We were totally game and now we both are rocking some feathers! It'll be fun to have something crazy in the hair while out of school!

Here's Bridge at Chatauqua...

Here's a shot with some of the feathers in my hair. Crazy fun!

Bridge is such an amazing friend that when we got back to the house she wanted to tackle the front garden that was completely overrun with weeds. Here's one small section of the garden before we tackled it...

And here's after just weeding, mulching, and putting in pavers!

We left as many of the flowers as we could and now I just need to figure out what to fill in the empty spots with to brighten it up. The garden faces the east and is shaded for a good part of the day until the middle of the afternoon where it does get some sun. I've noticed poppies are in serious abundance out here and I definitely like those! Anyone have any suggestions, I'll take them!

I'm loving Colorado and it's only been a week!

(Sorry for the post being so incredibly long! I obviously had a lot to catch you up on and I wanted to share it all! )

4 Weeks and New Challenges (but fun challenges!)

2010-05-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

(Sorry for not having a pretty pic with this post. I promise the next post will have some!)

In exactly four weeks, I will have loaded up the Subaru with the last pieces of my life left in Atlanta, driven 1,400 miles, and arrived to my new life in Denver, Colorado. I'm definitely ready to be in the same city again as Adam. Six months away from him has been seriously hard!

Adam and I lucked out finding a house to rent at a ridiculously affordable price in a pretty cool area of Denver called Washington Park (or, as the locals say, Wash Park). The house is wicked spacious with a huge deck and an equally large backyard with lots of possibilities. One of the possibilities I want to jump on is starting up some gardening again. This presents a new challenge of learning for me since I've never lived in this kind of climate/altitude before and I need to learn about the growing conditions and vegetation unique to Denver. In addition, I'll probably do container gardening since the house and it's backyard, don't technically belong to Adam and me and I don't want to cause any issues with the landlord by converting the backyard into my own personal Garden of Eden. I came across an interesting gardening system called Earthbox after watching a youtube video of one of my favorite chefs, Rick Bayless being interviewed. The boxes seem to get pretty good reviews but I would love to hear if any of you have used an Earthbox!

The change of scenery will also present a new twist on what goes down in the kitchen. I've been reading some about cooking/baking and know my boiling point will be affected due to the change in atmospheric pressure which will in turn affect, among many things, my cooking time. One way I have really enjoyed cooking is braising and I'm not sure the specifics on how this change to a higher altitude will affect this kind of cooking. Obviously, I understand the cooking time will be longer and I'm guessing I may need to start off with more liquid then the original recipe calls for, but I came across a good point made on a website related to high-altitude cooking and it got the wheels in my brain turning a bit. The comment was this:

Charts giving the boiling point of water vs altitude are based on the standard atmosphere and can be quite misleading. If the barometric pressure is different from the standard atmosphere, the actual boiling point of water will vary from that given in the charts.

For example: If you live in Denver and wish to calibrate your thermometer using boiling water as the standard, the charts will tell you the boiling point of water in Denver is 202°F. If on that day the barometric pressure in Denver is 30.05 inHg, the correct boiling point for water is 212+°F. If your thermometer indicates 212° in boiling water, you will believe it to be 10° high. This means that if you are cooking a chicken to an internal temperature of 170°F in the breast, you will actually overcook by 10°, scratch your head, and wonder why is was dry when you did everything right.

A more reliable way to determine the correct boiling point of water, at a specific time, is to use the calculator below. Just enter the current barometric pressure, in inches of mercury (inHg), and click on "Do Boiling Point Calculation". The correct boiling will be returned in the lower window.

Now I'm wondering if I need to be checking the barometric pressure before cooking something, like a chicken, in order to properly adjust for the correct internal temperature needed so my food is still edible. (Yeah, I know. Probably a nerdy thing to do but this is my analytical side coming out of me! Thanks, Dad.) Anyone have any suggestions and/or advice? I would seriously appreciate the tips! :)

Music!

2010-04-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a new group I've been digging lately. The band is from England and I'm totally loving their bluegrass style!

I didn't forget ya!

2010-04-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being MIA for a while. The last month and a half has been completely filled with IEP meetings for all of my students along with several other tough meetings my coordinator requested I sit in on to try to bring a different perspective for our program. The meetings have been brutal and the paperwork has been crazy! Needless to say, I'm thrilled that last Friday concluded my last meeting and this whole week is my spring break!

I had an interview this morning at a really awesome school in Denver and was offered the job! I'm definitely excited about getting this job at this school because not only does this school have an awesome program for the Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing but the school is also exactly 3.4 miles from the house Adam and I will be renting starting in June! Which girl will be commuting to work on her bike??? THIS girl!!!!

It's crazy how everything has been falling into place and this was the last thing Adam and I needed to happen to make this move to Denver complete. Now all I have to do is finish out the last two months of school in Georgia then head out west! The Colorado dream has become a reality!

Something to make you smile

2010-02-27T14:28:00.000-08:00

Came across this on youtube and thought it was too cute. Enjoy!

I am....

2010-02-10T17:55:00.001-08:00

...Colorado bound tomorrow! Seven weeks is a wicked long time to go without seeing Adam. Can't wait! I'm also getting in a lot of wedding stuff like finding a caterer and photographer. Should be interesting!

Fiber Work

2010-01-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

(My friend Lisa modeling her new beret I made for her. How cute is she in it?!)
I finished up on a lovely project I started a couple of days ago. (The pattern can be found here on ravelry.) Today was not as fulfilling as I would have liked at work so to make up for it, I quickly finished this hat to help give me a sense of accomplishment.

Modifications: (Due to only having one skein)
-Casted on for more slouchy version (74sts)
-Worked whole hat in a very loose gauge
-Only worked two rounds of lace pattern instead of four before going into the working of rounds 1-6 one time, etc, etc…

(Sorry for the yuck-tastic photo. I took the picture with my phone since my camera only allows me to maually focus my lenses!)

Determination

2010-01-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

Andy is Dick and Sandy's sweet King Charles Spaniel. She has been most gracious in allowing my dogs to stay with her while we are in transit to Colorado. When Andy was a puppy, her favorite place in the whole world to hide was under the couch. As she's grown older, and obviously larger in size, her favorite hiding spot has become more of a challenge. Taking this challenge head on, this puppy is willing to put forth the effort to squeeze herself into her favorite "puppyhood" spot over and over again just for the simple pleasure of hiding. You've got to admire that kind of determination. A good life lesson, I think. Even the biggest challenge can be taken on with some will-power and determination.

The In-Laws (to-be)

2010-01-13T20:51:00.001-08:00

Meet Dick.

I also call him "the dude". (Secretly.) He makes the most incredible meals every night for myself, the Mrs., and himself to have at a lovely farm-style table accompanied by fabulous amounts of amusing dialog. (I feel like I'm back in Europe where I never rushed a meal and enjoyed the company.)

Meet Sandy.

Sandy is fantastically artsy fartsy and would give her left arm to help others. (I hope she doesn't, though. It's really useful for serving up proper hugs.)

These are my in-laws. Well, starting 9/30/2010 but I figured I would get a jump-start on things. :)

(Please forgive my sub-par photos. I was taking these in an effort to learn how to better use the manual mode on my Nikon. I should have messed with the white balance but I was too focused on getting enough light into the camera without having a lot of noise.... so I forgot! I learned a lot from this session!)

Pics of the day

2010-01-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Outside the house on the way to work. Leading Lines???

(Remnants of snow outside my classroom portable)
Apparently the cool kids here in blog land take pictures of their feet and far be it from me to stray from the pack. ;)

Happy Tuesday!

A New Year...

2010-01-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

...means it was high time I updated my header! Thanks to this lovely lady taking precious time out of her busy life to answer my email questions, I have discovered a new (and time-snatching!) site called Picnik where Header Heaven is! (Adam! Keep your mind out of the gutter!)

Once you upload your pictures you can play with collages (I did the three-across collage above), text features, effects, etc. until your little heart's content! (Disclaimer: No joke when I say this is a time-snatching site. :) You can literally waste TONS of time at this little space on the internet!) And the best part? FREE!!!! Oh, yes! Free! You can upgrade to the premium, fancy schmancy stuff (no judgement!) but the basic is way more than enough to make this little lady happy!

So what do you think? Yay or nay to the new header?

FlipVideo: Round 1!

2010-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

My first go at using and uploading a video with my new FlipVideo! Adam was the unwilling subject but nonetheless made it entertaining, as usual!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Two full weeks off from teaching is always a wonderful treat during the Christmas season and I welcome the time with open arms! The first few days of the break took place in Tampa, Florida where my parents have recently retired and my sister and husband live. Although the time was short, the time with the family was wonderful. I also was able to squeeze in a little knitting which came in handy in Colorado. (Check out the first pic below for the finished project!)
Since Adam just moved out to Denver, I wanted to spend Christmas and the rest of the time with him so he wouldn't be alone for the holidays. I arrived the Wednesday before Christmas and have been having a blast. Thursday morning was spent and the killer REI store shopping for Adam's presents and couple of items for me (including some proper boots for being in this lovely snow!). The afternoon was dedicated to shopping for Christmas dinner and the evening was spent with a neighbor of mine from Alaska.
Adam and I woke up early Christmas morning and he took to the kitchen to make some yummy Pamela's pancakes with blueberries! After breakfast we decided to head outdoors for a lovely, long walk in City Park and complete with picture taking then stumbled upon the Denver Zoo which was open! We had a great time checking out all the critters!
The rest of the day is being spent prepping the food for Christmas dinner, hanging out, and even doing some knitting.
The pictures below are a recap of the Denver trip so far...

My finished project! Mittens!

Hanging with Mimi and Lulu!

Checking out a stunning coral reef

A bizillion ducks!

How snazzy is this critter?

Yep, I'm skipping! Snow makes me THIS happy!

My love and I...our first night in Denver together.

May you and yours have a lovely and peaceful holiday...

Much love and good karma to all,

r

Operation Denver and a Birthday

2009-12-08T03:41:00.000-08:00

So Operation Denver got a real jump-start this past week and a wicked, fast way. The original plan from the get-go was for Adam to move out in December taking some of our house stuff with him, start job hunting, and begin school in January. I would stay in Atlanta to finish out my year with my students, rent out my house during that time, then join Adam near the end of May/beginning of June. This past week was when everything was supposed to start going down but things took an interesting twist.

To make the move easier, Adam and I decided to have professional movers take our things out to Denver and they were supposed to pick up on Saturday, December 5 and arriving in Denver on Friday, December 11 . Adam's plan was to leave on Tuesday and make his way out there after my birthday on the Monday the 7th. Two weeks ago, we also decided we would go ahead and put the house up for rent so I might save some moola by renting out the place and moving into some smaller digs. We both had high doubts about the townhome renting out any time before February because people don't tend to rent out during the holidays and the beginning of the year but we thought it wouldn't hurt to put it out there.

So here's how it all went down:
-November 30: We got all our boxes Monday evening to begin packing up Adam.

-November 30: Also Monday evening, a couple wanted to look at the townhome but was asking about any offers we had. Thought this might be a bad sign since I had no intentions of waiving a security deposit or anything.

-December 1: Tuesday afternoon the movers call to say they are still picking up on Saturday but because they have a light load, they will be delivering Tuesday morning, which means Adam has to leave earlier than expected. Adam was ticked because I was turning 30 :) on the 7th and he wanted to be with me.

-December 1: Later that day, the company I have taking care of my renting, called to say the couple who looked at the house the day before want to rent my place. Yay! They also want to see if they can move in by the upcoming Saturday. Yikes! I said yes decided I would bust major tail with the packing to make this work. It seemed to make sense since Adam could go ahead and take most everything with him now since the move out/move in date was now on the same date as mine. I start to freak a little because I still needed to find a place to stay but Adam's parents came to the rescue and offered up a room in their house for the reminder of the time I was in Atlanta. I jumped on it!

-December 1-3: LOTS o PACKING! Packing was going so well by the 2nd we decided to move the actual moving day to Friday since the company said they could do that day and it would be cheaper to switch to a week day.

The move day went down on Friday, December 4. Adam worked late on Friday then we both worked Saturday evening together and he was Denver bound in his car Sunday morning, December 6th. He arrived safely on Monday evening and is getting settled in a little before beginning the fun task of finding a job. Anyone know a restaurant/bar/pub in need of an awesome bartender??? :)

Needless to say, Operation Denver has begun!!! Next up, I'll be finishing the final changes to my resume over the next 2 weeks then plan to begin sending it out to potential schools/systems. I'm just glad this ball is finally rolling!

I miss Adam so much already and am really glad I'll be coming out to Denver for Christmas to see him. We also will be checking out potential venues in the Boulder area for a possible wedding in August/September. Any suggestions?

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Lots of laughter, delicious food, and wonderful family has filled the day. Along with a lot of this...

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Good karma to all,

~r

Worth Passing Along

2009-11-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Cleaning for a Reason - If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotheraphy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning - 1 time per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service.

http://www.cleaningforareason.org

Leon

2009-11-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

Such an informative and entertaining cookbook! Think of this like an adult pop-up, interactive book broken into two parts: ingredients and recipes. The ingredients section not only tells you about the ingredient in a great, straight-forward way but also throws in some funny humor by also telling you about benefits, what pairs well with it, and interesting trivia. The second part offers up delicious and healthy recipes with wonderfully-paired stories to boot. Tie in a 70s-themed pic approach with pull-out charts and stickers, and you have yourself a killer cookbook!

The only downside to this cookbook is it's British which means us Yanks will need to do a bit of converting but nothing too difficult. Oh! You might also learn some interesting new terms for everyday veggies you might not have known before like courgette or aubergine!

The Engagement

2009-11-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for taking longer than a few days to get back to following up my last post. Some of my students thought they would give me the crud as an engagement gift. Lucky me! :) Now onto the fun stuff...

Details!!!!

From previous posts, you may have noticed Adam had bought me this amazing Nikon D40 and I had been attempting to learn how to use it. I had been begging Adam to take me on a field trip and teach me more things and the Thursday before Sunday, Oct. 25th, he said during a phone call we would go that weekend since the weather was looking good and the leaves were out in full force. Yippee! So excited! I was FINALLY going to learn how to work my camera better!

Me: Oh! Will we being doing any hiking?
Him: Nah. We will probably only go into the woods 50 yards and begin shooting...
Me: Okay. Just wanted to check and see if I needed to wear some layers, hiking boots, and bring water for our outing.
Him: We're good.

Jumping to the weekend:
So Sunday morning we get up, get our cameras packed, and begin driving up to Helen, GA area and decide to shoot outside of Helen at Mt. Yonah.
Mt. Yonah!

We grab our gear and begin hiking in....and keep hiking...and keep hiking. We were having a great time but I did notice we were definitely walking farther than 50 yards! The day was warming up quickly and without layers to shed, I was starting to get really hot and wicked thirsty about two-thirds of the way up the mountain. I had no intention of complaining though since I had never been successful at getting Adam to go hiking with me before and I was loving being on a mountain with him! I also knew Adam felt terrible about not bringing water along and he kept apologizing for it. Anything for you, my love! ;)

After stopping a few more times, we finally reached the top where there was this rock face that opened up to look down over the mountain and into the valley below. It was picture perfect with all the gorgeous fall colors and the perfect weather! We plopped onto the rock and soaked in the view. After a few minutes, Adam took my my hand, told me how much he loved me and how happy I made him, then asked me to marry him! My brows just shot up in surprise and, as I sat there speechless, he pulled out a gorgeous ring and put on my finger. I quickly said yes, obviously!

A couple of minutes later, a group of hikers with some chicas in the group came by and I just had to let them know what Adam had just done. Now, I'm not much of a girly-girl but it was definitely awesome to tell that hiking group Adam had just proposed to me and to have all the girls squeal and come up on the rock to check out my ring! One of the guys in the group offered Adam and I a beer but, as tempting as some kind of liquid sounded at that moment, the Keystone beer (blah!) was politely declined. Stouts for me, please!

We quickly made our way down the mountain, snapped a picture together as a newly engaged couple...

then started making lots of phone calls!

Today was a Good Day

2009-10-25T17:46:00.001-07:00

Trading in the gf title for the fiance title... ;) I'll tell the full story over the next few days!

Only in New York

2009-10-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

So I watched a documentary on HBO called Nursery University.
The film brings to light the insanity parents in NYC are a part of when trying to get their little ones into the "right" preschool program. The parents see these preschool programs as "feeder schools" into Ivy League Schools. No joke! A handful of families' experiences are chronicled as they navigate through this process.

As an educator, so much about this process and the parents' intensity is so insane it's actually funny. I couldn't believe families would actually pay $20,000 for their child to learn how to socialize with others or the fact that there are consulting firms who's sole purpose is to help parents "navigate" the preschool application process. The film is definitely interesting but it only further solidifies the fact that I would never want to live in NYC. My apologies to my NYC peeps. :)

First Pic with New Camera

2009-10-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here's my first go...straight out of the camera. Nothing amazing but not horrible, either. I'll take it!

My brain is bursting!

2009-10-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

In a good way! BF extraordinaire bought me a snazzy new digital SLR camera a few weeks ago and I am now starting to learn about not only the camera itself but also how to really take pictures and play around with photoshop. I've decided the main focus at this point will be shooting a great straight-out-of-the camera, SOOC (lingo!!!!), shot. The photoshop stuff is wicked tempting, but it seems a bit like crack. I hate to use it as an excuse for sub-par photos from the get go. I'll try to hold off on the photoshop for now and just make it the icing on the cake.

To help me on my quest to increase my photography knowledge, I've been buzzing around one of my favorite blogs. If you look to the right of my blog, you will see my list of Peeps to Check Out and this particular blog is listed. It's the Pioneer Woman. Ree is a really rad mama living in the mid-west on a cattle ranch who has quite the knack for knowing and sharing a wealth of things, including photography! Thanks to her laymen's terms, I've gotten a better grasp on ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and how to combine everything.

It's a great site to visit not only for the great information regarding many things in life, but she is also an amazing storyteller with an irresistible sense of humor. I've learned a good bit from her blog including gardening, cattle ranching, cooking, and schooling. Oh! and her pictures are to die for! Who can't love a picture like this...

I love it! When you go to her site, also check out her whole house transformation. Gorgeous!

Seriously! I'll just shut up now. The proof is in the pudding. Go check out The Pioneer Woman now!

How I spent my Saturday evening

2009-10-04T06:32:00.001-07:00

Sunny Day Real Estate concert!!!!!

Oh, yes, yes! They were amazing! Seriously, I honestly have to say it was the best concert I have ever been to. The band was so killer! The lead guitarist, Dan Hoerner, was so passionate on stage. I've never seen someone look so genuinely happy playing music. Such an amazing vibe to be around. If you get a chance to catch their tour, I HIGHLY recommend you go check them out! This night goes down officially as one of my favorite nights in Atlanta.

I'm ready....

2009-09-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

... for October!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the first day here in Atlanta we had "cooler" weather. Only a high of 69 degrees! I heart when it actually starts feeling like Fall so, to celebrate the weather and the approach of October, I put up some Halloween decorations today! Slightly early, I know but I couldn't help myself. Bring on Fall and Winter!

Wild Weather

2009-09-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

The school week is finally over and it couldn't have come any sooner. It has been raining quite a bit here over the past few weeks with the culmination coming on Monday. It was one of those days I would have loved not to be a traveling teacher. Definitely glad I had my Fry boots on!

On Mondays I go to three different schools and by the time I had made it to my third school mid-morning, the weather was ugly. I had been in my classroom for about 5 minutes and could hear the weather decided to kick it up a notch. Just as I was thanking the Higher Being for letting me get inside before this mess started, I heard a faint alarm sound coming from another hallway. Confused, (since it was horrible weather and ITBS testing) I went to see if I was actually hearing a real fire alarm. Turns out....I was!

I quickly got my student from my classroom and we headed outside to go stand away from the building in the pouring rain. (Apparently the Higher Being has a sense of humor!) After about twenty minutes, we were permitted to go back inside. Turns out the fire was caused by a science experiment gone awry. (Ummm.... yeah. Was a little disturbing to know a real fire happened at school and the alarms throughout several hallways never went off!)

Once back inside, classes resumed and all hell seemed to break loose outside. A massive downpour began around 11:30AM and never let up. Counties were closing schools left and right around us, including colleges, but my county stayed until the bitter end. I was wicked glad to live fairly close to my last school and didn't have to deal with some of the driving problems like some of my friends. I direct you now to exhibit A...

Exhibit A

Crazy, right?!?!

It took some of my friends 5-6 hours to get home from work. Boo....

The next day school was closed and pictures of the flooding began to emerge, including some of the following...

Colorado and it's snowy weather is looking better and better by the minute! :)

I've talked about it...

2009-09-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

...for a few years now and I really want it to actually happen this time. Enough talking...it's time for action now. The house is officially on the market. It's not the most ideal time to try and sell but living in Atlanta has begun to leave a bitter taste in my mouth and that has red flags waving now. I can't keep waiting for things to "get a little better". It's time to start living again....

One week down and a little deja vu

2009-08-15T16:54:00.000-07:00

The first week of school has come and gone, much to my relief. I'm very excited about starting up the new year teaching in some new settings but switching from elementary to middle school is definitely an adjustment! The students have been great and it's nice actually having a classroom of my own again. I love being itinerant but being in the classroom for an extended amount of time is what really makes me happy. I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings!

My attempt at growing vegetables has proved to be quite a success! On my deck I have basil, romaine lettuce, and tomatoes in full swing. Here's a great artsy picture the man friend took of some of my veggies...

Tomatoes!!!! From my OWN garden! How fun is that?!?! I love it...

A little bit of deja vu has been going on in the casa for the past couple of days. You remember Copper and her back problems which led to surgery? Well, my older dachshund, Meg, has starting showing some of the same problems. She's been walking around in what seems like a lot of pain with her back extremely arched but will then turn around and walk normal again. My dad, aka vet extraordinaire, confirmed my thoughts: Meg probably has a bulging disk and, depending on what happens over the next few weeks, may have to get surgery if the disk ruptures.
(Meggie on the couch)

Right now, the protocol is to put Meg on prednisone (keeps the inflammation/swelling down), keep her confined to her kennel, and try to give her body time to hopefully heal on its own, sans surgery. Fingers crossed that a lot of diligence and positive vibes will help her pull through.

Thankfully, I have this man to help over the next few weeks....

I've seriously lucked out having him along for the ride! :)

Disappeared

2009-08-07T11:22:00.001-07:00

Well, I've allowed summer to go mostly by without posting a single thing. Time to remedy that!

I last posted in April and at that point I was on the fast train of writing IEPs (special paperwork, aka hell), statewide testing, and end-of-year school stuff. I was really looking forward to the end of May and have a low-key summer of working out, gardening, knitting, and hanging out with Adam. I was especially excited about going home to see the folks and to learn a new skill: sewing! Everything was put on a massive back burner when my mother became sick and the doctors didn't know what was causing her illness. Long story short, she is doing better now and I'm wicked grateful. It's heartbreaking to see a loved one's soul under attack...

Pre-planning for another year of teaching has been this week with a curve ball thrown in. Budgets issues have been on the forefront which has now led to a financial decision by our governor to force three furlough days. Our county didn't want to impact the kids with this decision so the board of education peeps took away three of our five planning days. Kind of stinks since the teachers were still going to have to come in to school in order to be ready for the first day. It's not really fun working for free. Now there's talk the state is going to require the teachers to have to take an additional seven days during 2010. My pockets are seriously starting to hurt. Boooo....

Adam will be moving out to Denver in early to mid-December so he can find a place to live before he starts school for the spring semester at Red Rocks Community College. He is going back to get a degree in Renewable Energy/Resources and it makes sense to do Red Rocks right now until he qualifies for in-state residency. Once he has that, then he will transfer to the University of Colorado, Boulder. I will stay back here in Georgia to put my townhome on the market and wrap up the school year. The plan is to be out there by the beginning of July.

Adam and I decided to spend our Christmas together this year in Denver since he was already going to be out there. We both really hope there will be snow. We never have snow on Christmas here and I really miss cold, snowy weather. I should be out there for close to two weeks with Adam so anyone who wants to hang, we would love to meet some Colorado peeps!

Crazy Week

2009-04-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Eight days and lots of things going on. First, I was really stoked because last weekend (Sunday) was the ING half-marathon and it was going to be my first one. Adam and I show up at the sight ready to rock it out, and notice we don't see any runners around. We ran into a club member who informed us the race started an hour before. Adam had gotten the time completely wrong! He felt so awful about his mistake but, to be fair, I should have looked up the time myself. So, we went back home to do our own run. Turns out missing the race was a blessing in disguise because I was only able to go 7.60 miles before my whole left leg was in crazy pain from my IT Band. The pain drove me to desperate measures....

That's right! Ice bath!

Brrr......

The next day I did an easy 45 minute spin to flush out the legs and when I finished my workout, I noticed Copper, my younger dog, couldn't get up the stairs. She could put her front paws on the stairs but couldn't get enough spring out of her back legs to get up. This really freaked me out because only one reason popped in my mind as to why she couldn't get up... her back was going out from a disc that has ruptured in her spine. I called my dad (he's a vet who does specialized surgeries) to get his opinion. He agreed with what I thought but because she could still walk around fine on level ground, she might have a chance to heal without surgery. I was to keep an eye on her....

The next morning at 5:30 when I was getting up for work, I went to go check on her and she had gotten much worse. She was only able to walk two or three steps before her legs gave out. I FREAKED! I knew time was crucial. If I didn't get her the spinal surgery quickly, I risked her staying paralyzed permanently which meant possible kidney failure and euthanasia. I called my parents and two hours later I was at the airport on my way home for my dad to operate on Copper.

Copper was on the operating table by 12:30pm with little motor movement but still had deep pain sensations. (This was a good thing.) The surgery went well but dad gave me the sobering news that Copper was one of the worst cases he'd seen and to be prepared for her to possibly not get better. Once he opened her up, he had to completely remove 1 disc and clean out 5 others. Here's Copper a few hours post op...

Things were looking positive after surgery. Copper could slightly move her left leg and had some feeling in her right leg. I knew we weren't in the clear, though. A couple more days would be the real test. The next morning I went to go see Copper at the clinic. She wanted me to hold her but I could tell she was miffed at me since she wouldn't look at me at all...

Kind of amusing but I totally get where she's coming from. I'd be mad at me, too.

I had to fly back home that evening to get back for work the next day and was seriously bummed with having to leave Copper behind, even though I knew it was the best thing for her. Dad called me later that night to tell me Copper had dramatically improved! (He was really surprised and impressed with her recovery.) She was very shaky, but was able to stand and take a few steps on her own. Amazing!

Mom was driving down through my town the next evening because she was driving down to be in Florida a week before my sister's wedding (She's getting married this coming Friday.). She and Dad thought Copper was doing well enough to come back home where she could be comfortable and heal quicker. When Mom arrived, I got to see Copper's scar for the first time...

A hella wicked scar, huh!

Poor baby girl! :( She was being so crazy strong, though and was even walking around a little.

So, to wrap up on Copper, she is doing amazingly well with her progress. She's now able to go to the bathroom on her own and is getting stronger each day. It's probably going to take 6 months before she gets back to being somewhat pre-surgery, but no worries. I still have her and that's all that I really care about.

Quick workout update: I had a 10K race this morning and had a really good PR! I've never been a good runner and had also never run a 10K under an hour so I was thrilled to have run today's hilly course in 50:23! I know this isn't really massively impressive but for me, it's baby steps in the right direction. I even got a medal for being the 2nd female to cross the finish line. Ha! Obviously there wasn't much competition but I'll take it! :)

My hardware...

So, that's been my life over 8 days! Good times! Hope everyone's had a less eventful and more positive week!

Good karma to all,

r

Adventures in Slow Cooking in a Dutch Oven

2009-03-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

I finally gave in and purchased a nice Dutch Oven! I wasn't able to use it until yesterday since I've been working doubles literally all week and the time was seriously not available. I'd been looking forward all week to Sunday and cooking because I had decided to give my first try at braising and make carnitas! I bought a 4 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast and, after seasoning it with salt and pepper, browned all sides in a large heavy skillet then removed it from the pan. (When I was turning the roast with my tongs, I lost my grip with the following results happening...)

Yes, yes. Who gets to take home the award of dumbass of the day??? This girl! Nothing like grease burns to kick off the cooking right! ;)

After I took the roast out of the pan, I added onions (1 yellow, chopped) and some garlic (2 cloves minced) and sauteed them. I then used one bottle of Dos Equis lager to deglaze the pan, get up all the lovely browned pits, and reduce the liquid. I put the roast in my dutch oven, poured over it the beer mixture, and added some orange and lime zest. Finally, I finished it off with about a tablespoon of oregano, covered and cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for 2 1/2 hours (until it was tender).

Here's the roast with all the aromatics on it prior to putting it in the oven...

While waiting for the food to cook, I whipped up some guacamole as an appetizer for Adam and I, which we enjoyed with some Dos Equis!

I also made some Pico de Gallo and, when the roast was almost ready, warmed up some corn tortillas in a skillet. Here are some finished pics of our Carnitas...

The verdict from Adam: Huge success! Score!

More Sharing

2009-03-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

Back in January, bf extraordinaire and I ran a 5K and won some "hardware" for getting 2nd and 3rd AG, respectively. Well, the hardware finally made an appearance...

It started blooming a couple of days before moving to the new pad, which is evident by the background in the pic.

The next pics are of Copper in the kennel as I was driving them up to the house. She is such a goofy dog and I love it...

The weather here has been a bit blah and rainy lately and I've been craving warm breakfasts. Obviously a staple is oatmeal and I had a couple of friends ask how can I make mine without butter and brown sugar and still make it taste yummy. This is how I fix up my oatmeal...

and the last ingredient...

Seriously don't miss any sugar or butter with this one!

Major Slacker

2009-03-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Pitiful, I know. I haven't blogged in forever. To catch up on things...

The past few weeks have been nuts-o. Work has seriously picked up because this is the time of the year when my special ed. students have to have their annual meetings (IEPs) which means lots 'o paperwork. Yippee! I had planned for this but what I hadn't planned for was having to move during the same time. Yuck! I have been renting out my townhome for the past couple of years and my tenants decided to move out early. Two weeks and I have gone from downtown living to the 'burbs. Not a bad thing, though. I had originally planned to put the place on the market next spring prior to moving to Colorado and moving back in will make the process much easier.
Also going on was my sister's bachelorette party. My sister is amazing but she and I are the sun and the moon. As the maid-of-honor, I was supposed to be in charge of planning the party. I thought it would be great to rent a cabin and do a low-key weekend. Maybe some hiking, biking, etc. Ummm... no-go. My girly-girl sister (and I mean that in a loving way!) decided she wanted to do it up in Miami! Here's a group pic of all the ladies from the weekend...

These girls could party like a rock star and with Miami's clubs staying open 'til the crack of stupid, I was done. I definitely could not hang with this crowd. Great group, though.

All this crap really affected my workouts and I realized, bottom-line, I allowed it to affect my workouts. On my Beginner Triathlete website, I wrote a blurb addressing this. The short version is basically this: I like to reflect and see how I can improve at living life The realization hit that I need to do a much better job at balancing things in my life. I've allowed work and other things to take a front seat when a front runner should always be my health. So now I'm working on that. That's it in a nutshell.

The workout front has been poo with a couple of issues persisting: IT band causing some serious side knee pains and lower side stitches killing my runs. Today was my first day in weeks where neither issue flared up. I really do love running and it was so awesome to have a run sans hurting.

Anywho, it's stupid late and I need to go to bed. I have some new grub to try out and I hope to post some pics over the next week or two. Yell at me if I don't...

Good karma to all,

r

A Valentine's Story

2009-02-16T17:14:00.001-08:00

I found this story posted on a Triathlon site by a father and thought it worth sharing. Enjoy!

So I take my two boys (8 and 6) to the local Hallmark to pick out cards for their mom. Well, the youngest informs me, to my delight, that he's picked me to be his valentine this year, not Mom.

So he wants to pick me out a card, but I told him I wanted him to do that on his own, to keep it kind of a secret. Since he knows how to read, I told him to just look at the cards that said "Dad" on the tab behind them.

Well, as the oldest and I are in another section picking out something for Mom, the youngest comes over, just beaming from ear to ear. "I want to show you the card I picked out!!" I just can't say no when he's in that kind of mood, so I take the card and flip it over to read it.

It starts, To the man I love . . .

I start laughing . . . but he looks and me and says, "What?!? You ARE the man I love!"

Um, yeah, those things can make a Dad get teary-eyed. So my wife had him sign and date it, so that ten years from now, when he's just becoming a real man, I can pull the card out and exclaim, "Don't you remember when I was the man you loved!!?!?"

Soooo long

2009-02-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted so I'll do my best to play catch up!

First food...
Had a great dinner the other night and thought I would share....

Vegetable/Black Bean Burritos!

So, the recipe: (everything organic!!!!)
-1/2 onion, chopped
-ground cumin (i did about a tablespoon)
-chili powder (again, a tablespoon)
-1 red bell pepper, chopped
-1 can of mexi-corn (i was in a rush!)
-1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
-2 cans of Mexican-style stewed tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped
-1/2 a jalapeno chili, chopped
-freshly grated cheese (whatever your preference is)
-cilantro, chopped
-whole-wheat tortillas

-In a pan over medium to med-high heat, heat some olive oil (use the kind that is good to cook with) and cook the onion until translucent. Next, add the cumin and chili powder. Do this to taste. I love cumin and chili powder so I tend to use more. Throw in the corn and bell pepper and saute until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, and jalapeno last. Bring all this to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper then remove from heat.

I heated my tortillas up in a 350 degree oven wrapped in foil for about 15 minutes. Take a tortilla, spoon in your filling then finish off with some cheese and cilantro! Yummy!

Now for the workouts:
Training has been pretty good but a little up and down. Was sick for a little while so I had a week to recover before my Tundra Time Trial race this past Saturday. The Tundra TT ended up not happening for me. I pretty much had a mental breakdown. There was a lot that happened that caused my breakdown but the two main things that led to me not racing was 1) working the night before and only getting 3 hours of sleep and 2) not being prepared (i.e. packing beforehand, making sure I knew how to get to the race site, adequate time to prepare prior to my start time). I've never had a melt down like this before any event and I was really bummed it happened for this race. One saving grace was the race was a 'C' race so if it had to happen, I'm glad it happened at a 'C' race. I toss up the whole experience to some necessary, albeit hard, lessons learned. C'est la vie!

I had a really great base ride yesterday out in the country that made me remember why I love riding. I first got into cycling while living in Tennessee and the ride yesterday reminded me of the great rides I had back then. It's a lot harder to get in these kinds of rides without having to drive far. This one was worth it, though! I rode with some of my multi-sport friends and look forward to doing this ride again soon.

So that's pretty much catches everyone up on what all has being going on with me! I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

Good karma to all,

r

Running Recap and New Treats

2009-01-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

On the lunch break right now so I figured I would take some of my extra time to update the blog. Workouts have been pretty good the last week and this past Saturday was the Polar Bear 5k in Marietta, Georgia. Here's the run-down on my race.

The Good: I had a new PR with this race! Time on Garmin was 26:02 but I forgot to stop my watch at the end so I think I actually was under 26. (Found out later timing chip showed me at 25:48 which is a minute faster than I was two weeks before.) The course was fairly flat with a couple steady, long inclines.

The Bad: It was rainy, which was a little annoying. There were 2,000 peeps running and they had us all squeezed into one lane. Sardines had nothing on us. The race had us wear a chip in our race number but there were no mats to cross over and activate them so everyone's time began together which really screwed anyone who wasn't up front. To stop the time chip, you had to go another 5 or 10 seconds after you crossed the finish line to the people with these wand-thingies that stopped the time. Not cool.

The Ugly: Work went late last night which meant I was running this race with only 3 1/2 hours of sleep... I was dead tired. Calves were wicked tight from being on them all night. I wore too heavy of a jacket and was hella hot. I ate two hours before the race but quickly learned that going this hard meant I should have eaten 3 hours beforehand. As a result, I had wretched side stitches kick in during the second mile and never let up. I had to stop 3 times to try and get them to ease up some. No such luck so I just made my mantra, "Suck it up, buttercup" for the rest of the race. It just continued to go downhill, as the lap times will attest to...

As soon as Adam and I finished the race and handed in our chips, we went straight to the car to get home and crash.

Just flat out hurting from the side cramps...

Adam cruising in...

Looking back on this race I am still really happy since my time is improving. I know it's still a slow time but I have to remind myself that I do not come from a running background (much less any endurance background!) so it's at least a starting point.

On the food front, last night was a repeat of my delicious turkey/feta/cranberry burgers with some grilled veggies and steamed broccoli.

As for new things, my order from Matisse & Jack's finally came in and I was so stoked! The food is an amazing and natural bake-at-home snack that you can mix whatever else in with their ingredients to make rocking pre/post workout treats or a healthy, anytime snack. I used the Chocolate Chip Power Snacks and mixed in the ingredients from http://vo2maxxed.blogspot.com/2008/11/matisse-jacks-cranberry-pumpkin-power.html to make a hella awesome treat!

Here's all the ingredients mixed together...

Done and so freakin' tasty!

Gotta go get back to teaching! Hope everyone has a wonderful hump day!

Good karma to all,

r

Eat, Sleep, Workout, Repeat (oh yeah, and work in between)

2009-01-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

Finally feel like I have recovered from the long weekend of working uber late and getting very little sleep! Horrah! Today was a good day. Here's a typical day of eating for me.

Breakfast: Blueberry Smoothie (from Ani Phyo's recipe book)

Lunch and snacks throughout the day: Sun burger with homemade "raw" ketchup, salad with veggies and balsamic vinaigrette, greek yogurt, cheese, almonds, goji berries, and blue berries.

Dinner: Sirloin, salad w/carrots, blueberries, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette, leftover grilled veggies, and quinoa pilaf (swiped from this fabulous blog)...

...and some, oh so addictive, Kombucha!! Num, num, num!

My trainer ride yesterday was pure doggie poo because I was completely zapped of energy from the get-go. Could definitely tell I had not recovered from the lack of weekend sleep even though it was Tuesday. Ended up calling it quits after 30 some-odd minutes and hit the hay early.

Had an interval workout today on the treadmill and it was awesome!!! Felt soooooo fresh and was lovin' it! Had a great time doing my intervals to Paramore's song Misery Business. Definitely felt I could have gone longer than the prescribed intervals with the music going. I heart music! Did some good core work and lots of stretching of the IT band afterwards. Wish I could feel this awesome with every workout. Gotta be better about catching up on the weekend work interfering with my sleep...

Good karma to all,

r

Monday! (...but it's my Sunday?)

2009-01-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

When I can, I like to use my Sunday to cook up a good bit of food for the upcoming week since I know I'll be busy with teaching and working out. Since yesterday was filled with other plans away from the house, today became my Sunday Cook Day!

The grub for some of the week:

Organic Whole Turkey

Organic Sun Burgers and freshly made ketchup (dehydrated at 104 degrees). Ketchup not pictured...

Dinner on tap for the night was grassfed ribeye, grilled veggies, salad, and for desert... gluten-free, wheat-free, raw mango cobbler!

No pics of the ribeye or salad, but here are the veggies and cobbler.

Veggies pre-grilling

Cobbler

There was no cooking involved in making this cobbler nor was any butter, sugar, or crazy stuff used. The crust was made up of pecans, a vanilla bean, salt, and dates. I used organic frozen mangoes and let them thaw out before using them. I mixed the mangoes with a "syrup" I made that had dates, coconut oil, a vanilla bean, and some water. Topped the mango/syrup mix with leftover crust. I will not be able to post the actual recipe since it is not mine. The Mango Cobbler, along with the recipes for the ketchup and sun burgers, I got out of my wonderful recipe book Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes by Ani Phyo. Ani is an amazing raw foods/living foods chef and her recipe book makes this kind of "cooking" easy and delicious! Definitely a book worth getting if you are interested in raw/living foods that are massively yummy!

Hope everyone has an amazing week at life!

Good karma to all,

r

You Better Ride! (then cook!)

2009-01-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Just got back from a cold, wet but good ride on the Silver Comet Trail with a group of NAMC peeps. The plan was to roll out at 10am but I managed to forget my helmet at home and had to quickly go back to get it. Thankfully, AB and I arrived only a couple of minutes behind and everyone was still getting gear on. We had hoped the 10am start would allow us to miss the rain but no such luck. It rained right from the get go! All I kept thinking about was how my coach tells me it is good to practice in bad weather. Definitely got in some good practice today! By the time was finished, the whole group had lots of wet and muddy feet, knees, and backsides... hehe.

Courtney(on right) and me after riding

Afterwards, the gang went to get some warm, yummy goodness in our bellies and chat at the Atlanta Bread Company. Since getting home and thawing out, I decided to go ahead and whip up the meal I wanted to make before AB headed to work. Part of the menu was swiped from the blog of VO2 Maxxed which is the food blog of two on-road and off-road triathletes, Beth Gerdes and James Walsh.

The meal: Grilled Cranberry-Feta Turkey Burgers and Grilled Organic Veggies.
The burgers consisted of:
- 2 lbs. extra-lean, organic ground turkey meat
- organic dried cranberries (couple handfuls)
- chopped, organic celery (couple handfuls)
- chopped, organic red onions (couple handfuls)
- organic crumbled feta (about a cup or so)
The veggies were marinated in organic balsamic vinaigrette prior to grilling.

Here are a few pictures of the the grub.

Happy Riding and Eating and Good Karma to All!

r

Wacky Wednesday!

2009-01-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Wacky weather going on today! It couldn't make up its mind weather (pun intended) or not it wanted to be rainy/windy or sunny/windy! It kept changing up every few minutes. Nutso! Maybe the weather will get back to being cold which I love!!!

Workouts so far have been going well. I really want to get faster at running and hopefully being consistent with training will produce some kick-arse results. I have a bike fit set up on Friday which I'm so excited about since I'm hella antsy to get out there on my new ride! The fit is at the store I bought it from since it's free. After a week or two week, and once I have some time to get a feel of the bike, I will be getting a full-on, real-deal fit at Sportfactory. Hopefully I'll be good to go with riding my new bike for the Tundra Time trail February 14!

I'm also stoked because a Christmas present arrived from the madre today... An E-Z blocking board for my knitting!

Can't wait to finish up my Baby Cables Sweater and use my new board!

Sunday Fun Day was spend with AB's parents which consisted of seeing Milk

then following up with dinner at Canton Cooks. If you haven't seen this movie yet then I highly recommend you get on it. Such a beautiful and inspiring movie with Sean Penn's performance alone makes this film worth seeing.

Happy Hump Day and, of course, Good Karma to all,

Oh, how I wish I were a little bit taller...

2009-01-04T04:09:00.000-08:00

...but I'm not so finding a tri bike that fits my 5'2'' frame (knew gymnastics and cheerleading would come back to bite me in the butt!) that doesn't have 650s was a bit of a challenge. My budget kept the thoughts of all high-end bikes or custom-made frames far, far away... :-) After lots of research, deciding what I wanted, and deciding to bite the bullet, I returned back from Christmas in Tampa to find bf extaordinaire AB had bit the bullet for me and had this amazing Christmas present waiting for me!

Yes, yes! My very own tri bike! (Specialized Transition E5) Woo-hoo! Now I get to go out and play with all the grown-up boys and girls! 100 points for bf extraordinaire! Just have to get fitted on it now and figure out which saddle to switch out with the stock one. (Played around on the trainer for five minutes and was re-introduced to the pain of stock saddles.) I currently have a Specialized Jett on my Orbea Diva but a friend who says she has the same on her road and tried it on her tri, said it was aweful. Any suggestions on what saddle to throw on my tri bike would be greatly appreciated!

Another cool thing in the works is a trip out to Colorado this summer! AB and I are pretty much set on loading up the bikes and heading west (roadtrip!) for a few weeks. The focus will be Colorado since we are working hard to move there in 2010. We hope to do some races depending on when we make the trip. We definitely will be staying around Denver and Boulder and hope to meet some new peeps and say hi to some old ones!

Wonderful Days of Winter

2009-01-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

Just got back home a little while ago from running the Wonderful Days of Winter 5k. I ran it with the mindset of it being a completely fun-only race since I have been getting over having bronchitis and haven't been training. You can imagine my surprise when not only did I manage to set a new PR time for a 5K but also walked away winning 3rd place in my Age Group (AG)! It was my first time ever placing in my age group and I was crazy stoked about my placement. AB took 2nd place in his AG and we both were given hand-painted flower pots filled with a bag containing soil and a bulb of some kind. (Maybe a tulip? That would be exciting but I don't know anything about planting or growing bulbs. If anyone does, I'll take any advice!)

(Here's AB and me with our prizes)

Yesterday was a big hangout day for AB and I but we did get to use our iChat for a little while to talk with my sister and her fiance. As you can see, we enjoyed our talk...

(The sis decided to impersonate Kenny from South Park)

Chatting with my sister is always wonderful fun. She has a sense of humor that never stops which I adore. I hope everyone has a friend or family member who makes you laugh and smile as much as S. does for me...

Good karma to all,

r

Dropkick 2008... Ring in the 2009!

2009-01-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

A new year deserves a new post! I hope everyone is recovering from all the good time had last night! Mine was certainly entertaining with lots of interesting drama... Never fails to be the case when you bartend. ;) The night started off with one of our bartenders telling us her boyfriend broke up with her a couple of days ago and his band was going to be playing our bar that night. Lucky us! She held it together really well and I especially give her mad props for holding it together as he played song after song that were total heartbreaker songs... (i.e. With or Without You by U2, Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Purple Rain by Prince, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, etc.) Yeah, no joke. It was brutal and I seriously felt sorry for her.

Later on in the night a fight broke out that turned into four more fights with a bunch of guys and some of their lady friends which spilled into the street. On of the girls came back in and was screaming to us about the whole incident. As she stood there screaming with a her face turning purple all I could think about was how she reminded me of this video...

In these kinds of situations, I find myself using many of the same strategies and techniques I have to use in the classroom when working with my young students. Hmmm...... ;)

(I realize this sounds a bit gossip-y but craziness sometimes has to be put out there.)

Plans for today include meeting up with a cousin for a quick bite to eat then head back home to hang out with AB while watching some football and knitting, knitting, knitting!

Good karma to all,

On the Cusp....

2008-12-31T07:57:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe I was last standing in October and now here I am on the verge of stepping out of December and into a new year. Although I haven't posted in forever, it only seemed appropriate to close out 2008 with one more post with a New Year's Resolution to blog more frequently since I really do enjoy it.

November came and went quickly with a quaint by lovely feast at my sister and her husband's house. Every immediate family member lives in a different state so getting together is usually quite difficult. The big gathering of most of the clan is always at Christmas. Usually all of the kids go to the parents' house but the lack of off-time from work for the youngest meant the holiday gathering was to be held in Tampa, Florida. (Ah, yes. Puts a different spin on the idea of a white Christmas, doesn't it?) It was wicked hot while down there (apparently the hottest winter Tampa has seen in many years... lucky me!) but I had a wonderful time catching up and laughing with everyone. My family was very gracious with the gifts and my mother, a fellow knitter, bought me a blocking board (yippie!) and knitted me a gorgeous basket-weave, lap blanket! Such a wonderful heirloom to have!

Since getting back to Atlanta and having another week off from teaching, I've been knitting and reading (or listening to audiobooks) non-stop! I've gone through some fantastic reads (children's literature) which have included The Looking Glass Wars Series by Frank Beddor which is the "real" story behind the book Alice in Wonderland

as well as The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.

This story is about a djinni summoned by a young boy studying to become a magician who is trying to get back at an older magician who embarrassed him. The book is told a good bit from the djinni's POV and he is hysterical! I've actually been doing the audiobook version of this and am obsessed with the narrator. I've done many books on tape and the reading of this book may very well be the best reading I have ever listened to. I highly recommend the audio version if you plan to get this book!!!! ( I can't wait to tackle the other two books in the series!) FYI: Don't let the cover discourage you from reading this book. The cover is the only scary thing about this book. :)

The main knitting project I am currently working on is my Baby Cables Sweater. Such a well-written pattern by villapeikko on Ravelry! It's knitting up quickly and, as you can see from the pic, I am really enjoying it. :)

Good Health, Good Cheer, and Good Karma your way,

r

L5P Halloween Parade!!!

2008-10-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

If you live in Atlanta, one thing everyone must go and experience or participate in is the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade! L5P is the deliciously, eclectic part of Atlanta that embraces many lifestyles and people ranging from Rasta to Gothic. Halloween is this neighborhood's Christmas. This year's parade was amazing as ever with a wide array of people, costumes, and good fun. Here are a some pics to give you a taste of the hella good time had...

Photos courtesy of jillandjohn.com

In the Raw

2008-10-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking more into trying to eat a more raw, healthy diet. I picked up Ani's Raw Food Kitchen book

which contains living food recipes. I looked through the recipes (which look pretty damn good) so I decided to look the author up online. I came across Ani Phylo's website. I really liked how informative her website was and I loved that she has several links to youtube videos showing her making several recipes. (I'm a very visual learner so I love any video or tv show that demonstrates cooking!)

I decided tonight to give one of Ani's recipes a try...her cacao pudding recipe from her website. Holy snikies! What a delicious recipe! It literally took 5 minutes total, prep time and actual making, to complete this recipe and I was so hella happy with it! Everything is raw and organic and crazy yummy! Definitely many thumbs up for this one and I definitely plan to try many more recipes now. Here's my finished pudding! Num Num Num!

So Much to Say and Share

2008-09-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a hella long time since I've blogged and I definitely have some catching up to do. Since my last entry, school has been in session for almost two months (Wow!) and the change in the weather has finally started to occur. Fall and Winter are my favorite times of the year so I'm in absolute heaven right now with the cooler weather!

Over the last week I decided to tackle a bunch of unfinished projects. So far I have finished a scarf for my older sister...

...along with my first fair isle project, the Composed Mitts from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 issue.

I'm now trying to tackle for the bizillionth time my Frieda Sweater. Keepin' the fingers crossed. ;)

I've also been doing a bit of cooking and baking. I just finished baking the most delicious banana nut bread. I swiped this recipe from a friend to knit with's blog.

My latest results...

I've been prowling on Ravelry quite a bit the past few days and was checking out skrillaknits's blog and oh me oh my! She was sharing the coolest techie information. For those who have iPhones or an iTouch (I have the latter) you can download an application called Stitch Minder which is a stitch counter. Very cool!

All right! That's it for now! No, wait! One more thing! I just realized a couple of days ago that people are actually reading my blogs AND posting comments! I'm such an idiot. So, my apologies to all who have written comments and wondered why I never responded. I promise now that I know, I will be responding.

Much love and good karma to all,

r

I Heart Organic!

2008-07-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

I started off my day with how I wish I could start everyday...shopping at a local farmers' market! Today I went to Morningside Farmers' Market for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Everyone was amazingly friendly and all the vendors were extremely helpful in explaining how they prefer to prepare some of their unique products. Here was what my feast looked like all spread out at home.

Yep! Even the fresh flowers are from the market!

As you can see, bought chicken, cucumber, blueberries, blackberries, cherry tomatoes, squash blossoms, granola, lettuce, purple peppers, and whole-wheat sourdough bread.

I also bought watermelon, Japanese eggplants, green beans, herbs, and heirloom as well as beefsteak tomatoes.

After taking everything home, I went out and rounded out my shopping spree with some new measuring spoons from Anthropologie along with a couple of cookbooks.

Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients by Jesse Ziff Cool

Wonderfoods:Amazing Ingredients & Recipes for Optimum Health by Natalie Savona

Now...what to eat first?

Bon Appetit!

Contentment

2008-06-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've been on Ravelry or blogged! Finishing up the end of the school year became massively out of hand along with an unexpected and quick move out of the current place I was living with Adam and into a new place. (The shooting in front of our house prompted us to take up residence in another dwelling. Wise decision, I think.)

Summer is definitely here now in Atlanta. It's been in the 90s most days which usually doesn't happen until July which so I can only imagine the heat by the time August rolls around! Training for my triathlons has been going well but I had to put it on the back burner for about 5 days since I was dealing with some sort of intestinal infection that had me in a bit of pain. On the mend now and I definitely never want to deal with that again!

Talk of moving to NYC is back in the picture again. It looks like Adam has decided to finally follow through with his passion for photography and there's a few schools in NYC that would really benefit him to go to. I am a mixture of emotions about this possible move. The thought of the experience of living there is exhilarating but trying to figure out where to get a job, where to live and what to do with all our things here in Atlanta is a bit overwhelming. One thing at a time, though.

Here's a lovely pic Adam took of my darling Copper. I love the look of contentment on her face...

Sometimes It Be That Way

2008-02-28T18:32:00.001-08:00

Things have hella hectic and busy but in a very deliciously, satisfying way. The weather was amazing on Monday so Adam and I had a lovely impromptu bike ride. A kid attempted to jump out in front of me on the path and I thankfully was able to avoid her but had issues with clipping out my right foot quickly which led to the following pic...

I love getting dirty on my bike! =)

The rest of the week has been packed with IEP meetings (Special Education Meetings) and the paperwork that goes with it but it's all good. The hard work for the next month will mean all my work done before the County lets out for spring break and all will be smooth sailing 'til the end of the school year.

Good karma to those in need,

R

My "Ahh!" Moments

2008-02-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

So things are going really well. Much better than the last post. ;) For one, I have rented out my townhome for another year...and to someone I know personally which thrills me beyond belief! It's a massive weight that has been lifted off my shoulders to know my home will be taken care for.

I've also recently stumbled upon podcasts. Yes, I know I'm pathetically late on this discovery comparatively speaking to the rest of the world, but better late than never! There's some really good podcasts on knitting and I also really like the Sierra Club podcast. I would love to know if others out there are listening to podcasts and which ones they like!

Alice Waters' fabulous cookbooks have entered my life and I am so stoked to be using her amazing recipes. Reasons why these books rock:
1) Both books contain a million wonderful recipes for veggies that I have been too nervous to use in my cooking and I feel more confident now with trying them out
2) All the veggies listed also have the corresponding season written with them so you know when to buy the food and when to avoid them even though the grocery stores will still sell them ( Out-of-season=more energy spend on transporting food from longer distances. Boo...)
3) I love Alice Waters' belief that one should derive pleassure from cooking and eating food. I've been concerned a while now with how quickly, as Americans, meals have steered away from the pleasurable and social aspect it once represented.
4) I adore Alice Waters' movement to promote her "Delicious Revolution" in the schools. She has started up a pilot project called the Edible School Yard and the knowledge the children are getting from this project is truly inspiring. As a teacher, I would love to see more students be exposed to such a wonderful idea that is so vital to our health.

Okay, enough preaching. Hope to post soon about the recipes I try and hope you get a chance to check out the books!

Just one of those days..

2008-02-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

So...I'm having one of those days where I feel blue and have no particular reason as to why. I think I'm feeling worn down by all the negative energy that surrounds my work environment. I've always been one to remove myself from a situation that brings down my energy but this is impossible right now since it is my job. Thankfully, my other job helps to counteract this negativity but not completely. So, to help cheer myself up I'm going to post a pic that make me smile...

Copper's first time in a pool. She thought I was drowning and jumped in to save me. I love her fierce loyalty...

Looky Looky!

2008-02-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yippee! I FINALLY finished my first garment! It's the Anise from Rowan's New Shapes. It was an easy knit but with everything going on from the holidays, teaching, bartending, and training, my knitting time was severely limited. I'm back!

I love this cardigan. Very cozy and a nice fit as well. I bought the buttons at Knitch and I adore the way the look. On to the next sweater and cardigan!
(I'm having issues with having the pictures turn the way I want them to. Apologies!)

My Cocaine ;)

2008-01-31T10:39:00.001-08:00

I'm pathetically addicted to Ravelry! Hours on the site! I need help....

I finished up my first sock earlier this week. Here's my progress.

I'm not sure if I'm really digging the whole sock thing but it's not bad. Maybe it's because I'm hella focused on my sweaters right not.

I also knitted my friend Candice a pair of fingerless mitts after she saw mine and begged for a pair. An easy gift since they knit up in a couple of hours. I'm crazy pleased with this pair and love the decorative buttons I added on the outside edge. I used Malabrigo yarn for the first time and it's awesome! Will definitely have to use this yarn some more!

Look at me go!!!!

2008-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

So I'm currently working on my first pair of socks and I just finished the heel flap! I'm really happy with how the sock is knitting up so far and I'm definitely enjoying this project. I'm right on target for where I'm supposed to be for my next sock class on Tuesday so I think I'll take the rest of this time to work on some other projects I've been neglecting the past week. I'm hella stoked tomorrow is MLK Day and I don't have to teach or bar tend!! Yippee!!!

My sock to the heel flap:

All Riiiiight!!!

2008-01-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

So, it looks like maybe I get how to blog! I'm hella stoked! Not too much to say right now. I'm able to be on this during the day because I'm home sick from teaching (NOT sick of teaching!). It's nice having the down-time to chill out with my fabulous weenies, Copper

and Meg

and to work on my knitting homework. I'm taking a knitting class right now at Knitch so as to learn how to knit socks. Seems to be going well so far! I'm quite a fan of this yarn (ONline Supersocke Winter Color 887) since it knits up as a faux fairisle. Nice!

More to come later...

My first attempt at this!

2008-01-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hope this is working!!!!

Ravelry

2007-11-27T04:15:00.000-08:00

I am completely addicted to this beta site! I got on it last night around 9:00pm and didn't get stray away from it until 2:00AM!!!!! I was so busy putting in my needle information as well as uploading pictures of my yarn and projects that the time just flew by! Very cool website!!!!