Turkey trax 2011 recap

Thanksgiving morning I ran my first race since July (I think). I was definitely itching to race.

At the beginning of this year I set a goal to run a sub 25 minute 5k. The race I ran on new year's eve 2010 was in 26:08 so I thought knocking just over a minute off my time shouldn't be too difficult. Well, here it was the end of November and I was still chasing that sub 25. I ran a St. Pat's race where my Garmin said 24:55, but my chip time was 25:08....wah! wah!

The weather was going to be wonderful for the race this year. I remember last year being fuh-reezing. It was in the low 30s or high 20s (I can't remember). This year was expected to be in the mid 40s. Perfect. I ended up wearing capris and a long sleeve tech T under a short sleeved shirt. Well, the mid-40s didn't come around until later in the day (even though the forecast said mid 40s at 8:30am when the race started). So I was a bit chilly, but even 40* is better than low 30s. :)

My dad ran this race with me and my mother-in-law walked/ran it also. It's great to do these races with other people. It's much more enjoyable to me.

Me, MIL, Dad

I knew my dad would beat me, that's no secret. He is a speedy guy! We still lined up together to start. This was a huge race. Prior to this one - St. Pat's is usually has the most participants with less than 700. There were more than 1000 people doing this 5k on Thanksgiving. That's crazy to me. I was happy to hear the guy on the PA system pre-race instruct the walkers and folks with strollers and dogs to start near the back. This usually helps some of the congestion at the beginning. Of course, there are people who ignore that, but every little bit helps I think.

So, we start out (no starting mat for timing, FYI). It's pretty congested at the beginning, but the street is pretty wide and everyone was able to spread out since there was no traffic.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting or noteworthy about this race. I thought it was fairly hilly, but my dad disagreed. About mile 1-1.5 (or maybe more) was a gradual uphill. That wears you out eventually. I did get passed by a lady with her dog during this hill. They were really moving and it made me wish my dog would run with me for that extra push. I remember last year getting passed during that hill by a guy pushing a double strollers...so I guess this is a win for me this year. :)

My pretty girl, Lucky Anne.

Luckily, after that gradual hill it was pretty flat for a mile and then a VERY steep hill at mile 2.4(ish). It wasn't very long, but at the point in the race it felt like we were going straight up. It kicked my butt.

Once we climbed that hill - we had just over a half of a mile to go and almost a quarter of that was on the track. I tried to really kick once I got the track (less than .25 of a mile left), but I only made a decent sprinting effort for about 100m and slowed a bit for about 200m. That 200m felt like forever so when I got to the final straight away I tried to give it hell.

I still missed my sub 25 even though I felt like I really pushed myself. Bummer.

Some stats:
Garmin time - 25:26 (I forgot to turn my watch off of a couple of minutes so this is my "moving time")
Garmin pace - 8:17 ("moving pace")
Official time - 25:15
Avg pace - 8:07
Overall place - 176/904
Division place - 10/73
Sex place - 55/140

Last year I ran this race in 28:06. So, even though I didn't get in under 25 minutes - I could definitely seem huge improvements in just a year of racing.

For anyone curious, my dad definitely beat me. His time was 22:XX. Maybe someday we can run a 5k at the same pace...probably not. Haha. And my MIL knocked 7 minutes off her time from last year so that's wonderful.

No AM group run today.

The group I have been meeting with for a couple of weeks decided we would run Monday and Wednesday this week. We normally run on Tuesday and Thursday, but with Thursday being Thanksgiving - we just adjusted.

There was a discussion on our FB group page about running this morning. It seemed like a few girls were on board. When my alarm went off at 5 this morning I promptly checked the FB page because that last thing I wanted to do was show up and have no one there. One girl posted last night that she wouldn't be there this morning because she thinks her hip flexor is jacked (bummer). Another girl's husband is out of town and she has a daughter who she, obviously, can't leave in the morning to run. I knew that another girl was sick yesterday, but she intended to run today. I ended up texting one of the girls because I had a bad feeling that I would be the only one to show up. I'm glad I did because, sure enough, I would have been there by myself. I snuggled back into bed and went back to sleep for a few hours.

So it sucks about not getting a run in this morning, but I think I am going to do some speed work/intervals on the treadmill at the gym tonight. Tomorrow morning or after work I am going to do some cross training at the gym. Wednesday morning we are hopefully still meeting so I can get some easy miles in before the Turkey Trax 5k on Thanksgiving morning.

I did get in a little less than 4.5 miles on Saturday before we started tailgating for the Mizzou game. My 5am wake up call seems to be getting easier and easier each time. I went to the normal spot that I meet our group, but decided it was too dark and uncomfortable to run there by myself. So I drove across town to campus where I knew it would be better lit and more traffic. I just took off and really didn't have a route or a plan in place. I basically just ran until I was running out of time to meet to shower and meet our tailgating friends. It felt pretty good and I ran about a 9:20 pace.

That 5am start to my day really kicked me in the ass about 6 that evening. I was done. A full day of tailgating and watching the football game.did me in. Justin and I grabbed some Thai take out and vegged out the rest of the night. We were in bed by 9:30.

And I will leave you with some tailgating pics. :)

Justin and I showing off our "black out" outfits for the day.
I told him he looked like a cheerleader so we posed accordingly. :)

Justin with his bestfriend's sister who is, obviously, much taller than him.

MIL, Justin, and Me outside of the stadium

Family friends.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Football season has kicked off, my friends. NFL preseason started a couple of weeks ago. College football started last night. This is my favorite time of the year.

We are season ticket holders (along with the ILs) for Mizzou football. We have gotten our tailgating routines down to a science...almost. There seem to always be a couple of hiccups and speed bumps regardless of our intense planning.

Tailgating prep started last weekend. I completed the first couple steps of vodka infused gummy bears. So far - they are very yummy, but definitely very sweet. The tailgating totes were also busted out and organized. Apparently we left a bag of chips in one of the totes from last season. Oops. :) The coolers are being packed tonight and we may even pack up the truck bed since tomorrow's game is at 11am. Tailgating time is going to be limited so the more we do ahead of time the better.

I am very anxious to get this season started. Our starting QB from last year (Blaine Gabbert) decided not to return for his senior season and entered the NFL draft instead. Our new starting QB is James Franklin. He got some snaps last year and I think he is going to do just fine. It is, of course, a little nerve wracking when a new QB takes the reins.

I have grand plans to get up at 0530 to get in some sort of run tomorrow morning. Our tailgating begins at 8 so if I want to run - it has to be super early. I tend to be awful when it comes to getting up that early to run. We'll see if the butterflies in my tummy for Mizzou's home opener will get my rear out of bed to run tomorrow morning.

Happy football season to you. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Any big plans?? Races?? Tailgating?? Who will you be cheering for this football season??

Go Mizzou!!

ps
As I was finishing this post - an ESPN analyzer chose Missouri as his choice for the underrated team in the preseason rankings (they are currently at #21). I like to hear that.

Update..

Once again, I have done a horrible job at blogging over the last month or so. I don't feel like I have anything excited to talk about. Plus, my camera only works 1/2 the time so I don't take many pictures to upload here. I know that I enjoy posts from other people with pics so I am sure the few times I do update - they are probably pretty boring to everyone because the content is generally boring plus there are no pics.

So the last month...

-We have watched my little brother play baseball a lot this spring. I am so happy to be back in Columbia so that we can catch most of his games. They are all 10 or 11 years old and they are really fun to watch. They are starting to understand the game much better and they are getting pretty skilled at their specific positions. It's much more fun than a couple of years ago when there were kids who didn't have a clue. Rian pitches quite a bit, which I love to watch. He is doing so well. I hope that he keeps it up because I think he is going to continue to grow into a great player.

-We are still living with the in-laws. It's not ideal for anyone involved, but it's going pretty well. We definitely can't complain.

-My job is going very well. I am learning a ton each day. I have been told multiple times that I am learning very quickly and that they are impressed with how well I have done so far. I feel great about that, obviously. After my first week, I never thought I would get to a point where I feel so comfortable so quickly. I am very happy with this switch. And after a budget meeting earlier this week, it seems that MRI is one of the few sub-departments in radiology that are doing well. So, at the moment, my job is not in jeopardy. That's some great peace of mind to have.

-Justin's job is going well also. He does a lot of gopher work still. He is slowly working his way into doing more cases. He goes to a week long training in May. After that training, I think he will be better equipped to start selling some of the orthopaedic implants. He is doing a great job so far and I am really proud of him.

-Our 2 year wedding anniversary is in just over a month. Some days it seems like there is no way we could be married for that long...and other days it feels like we have been married for 10 years. We are also just a couple of weeks away from our 8 year dating anniversary. We don't have plans for our anniversary yet. I think we will probably just do something fairly low-key again this year. Last year we spent the night in a hotel in KC...we went to dinner, went to a comedy club, and out for a couple of drinks afterwards. Nothing too exciting. We do, however, plan to go to St. Lucia next year for our anniversary. I really hope that we are actually able to swing that. We definitely need a trip away just the two of us...and to a beach, my request. :)

So that's our exciting life in a nut shell.

And speaking of my less than par functioning camera...does you have any recommendations for a good point and shoot camera??

Moving...

Moving sucks.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who actually enjoys moving. If they do, they are nuts. And by moving I mean the actual packing, loading boxes/furniture into a truck, unpacking, and putting away everything.

We attempted to move from Kansas City this last weekend. Unfortunately, since Justin started his job at the first of the year and I didn't start until March (and I left KC about 2 weeks after finding out I got the job) - we did ZERO packing before leaving for Columbia. We packed up the bare minimum that would get us by in Columbia. Other than that, everything was left in KC.

That was mistake #1. And mistake #2 was made by thinking we could get our entire house packed and moved 2 hours away in a weekend.

And, fear not, there was a mistake #3. Mistake #3 came when I got off work on Friday evening. Justin asked if I wanted to wait until Saturday morning to leave for KC. I agreed and continued to make mistakes #4 and #5 (are you still with me??). We met up with the fam to have some drinks Friday evening and then met up with some friends to close the bar down Friday night (collectively mistake #4). I then woke up at the crack of dawn (7:30...that's the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning for me) to watch my little brother play baseball. He had a double header starting at 8. Of course, I could not leave after the first game so I stayed for the 2nd (mistake #5). I didn't leave Columbia until about 12:30 on Saturday.

So if you are following...that's Friday evening and half of Saturday wasted. When I finally made it to KC, Justin was already there and at a friend's house because he didn't take a house key with him. OYE! I needed a nap at that point. So I asked Justin to let me sleep for 45-60 min. That turned into about 90 minutes because he was enjoying the company of his friend. So it's now about 5pm on Saturday.

Instead of getting right to packing/moving then, we decided we should grill burgers. So while the boys prepared and cooked burgers, I packed. I got a few boxes packed on Saturday...but no where near the amount we needed to pack in order to be ready for the in-laws to bring a trailer to load up on Sunday morning.

After dinner (oh and a movie) on Saturday night, we were worthless so we went to bed. We planned to get up around 9 on Sunday. As you can probably imagine, that didn't happened. We started packing about 10:30 on Sunday morning...with the in-laws planning to arrive about 12:30 ready to load things up.

Believe it or not, we got about 60-70% of our house packed and furniture disassembled by the time they got there. I was impressed with us considering how the rest of our weekend had gone.

By the time 6pm rolled around on Sunday we were D-U-N, done. :)

We still have about 25% left to do. Unfortunately, that means another planned trip back to KC to finish.

I hate moving under any circumstances.

I have quickly realized that I hate moving when it's:
A. moving long distance
B. completely put off until the last minute
C. preceded by slacking and procrastination (goes along with b).

I don't plan to move into another house until we can afford to build it how we want and make it our forever home. Other than that, we will move some things into an apartment in the mean time...1 apartment followed by 1 house and then never move again is the plan for right now.

And just based on this post, we can all now tell how good we are at executing plans. :)

I'm alive!

Eeek. Sorry for the lack of blogging. I am still trying to find a routine now that I am working the day shift (for a bit..and then I will be back on evenings).

We are still transitioning from our house in KC to our in-laws in Columbia. It's a gradual process. And we are very lucky to have family here in Columbia to offer us places to stay. It's tough to be 25 and moving back in with our parents, but we are very fortunate to have the option.

I am about to start the 3rd week of my new job. It's going well. It is a lot of new information since I was doing x-ray and now I am doing MRI. The very first day in the MRI department I was definitely on information overload. I was very overwhelmed, but each day gets a little bit better. I actually meant to blog about my first day of work that evening because I figured I could look back on it and laugh about how overwhelmed I was. Needless to say, that didn't happen. But, believe me, I was incredibly overwhelmed and a little freaked out about taking on such a new modality.

Other than learning our new jobs and being back in our hometown...not much has been going on. My little brother's baseball season starts in 2 weeks and we are very excited for that. I am so happy to be back in town so that we can go to his sporting events. All in all, things here in Columbia are going well. We are very happy to be closer to our families.

I will do my best to keep up with this blog a bit better as things calm down and I get into a routine. I say the same thing about my gym routine also. Ha. :)

And the best news of all - it's almost spring!!

Oh happy day!!

I am in a bit of a funk today. I have been off work for a week now. It's been a great break, but in the back of my mind I know that I am not getting paid for this week (and the next half week I have off before starting on Monday). It takes some of the enjoyment out of it all. So that's my funk...





My funk has disappeared a bit when I logged in to find this joyful post from MrsTote. If you haven't already, check out her blog. She has some amazing recipes and is quite the domestic diva...I know she loves when I call her that. :)

Onto the joy that is this post...I was tagged by Katie at A tote's life (see link above). It's a fun, day brightening tag so here we go...





The rules:
_List 10 things that make you happy.
_Tag 10 bloggers and link back to the person who tagged you.


Ten things that make me happy:

1. Blog comments...hint! hint! :):)

2. Lazy days with Justin.

3. Snuggling with my puppy...especially on cold, winter mornings.

4. Hanging out with friends.

5. Tailgating.

6. Watching football.

7. Meeting fitness goals..whether it be keeping my calories in check for a day, meeting my goal for minutes of working out in a week, etc.

8. Sunshine...oh how I love sunshine.

9. Mexican dinner dates with Justin.

10. My family...all crazy sides of my family.


And I now tag....
MrsEyeCanSee at The Juice is Worth the Squeeze
Michelle at See Michelle Blog
Renee at A Taste of Life
Tiffany at Baby Fish
Shalay at Writefully Yours
Amanda at Amanda's Life Commentary

Amy at Newlywed News
Casey at You Call It Madness But We Call It Love
Allie at Simply Allie
Amy at Life in the Junction

**Sorry to anyone who has already been tagged. :)

Resolution follow up...

It's the second month of 2010 so I figured I should do a little follow up to the resolutions I set mid-way through January.

1. I am on my way to finishing the couch to 5k running program. I did week 6, day 1 tonight. So far so good. I should have no problem finishing by my birthday. And I definitely need some new scrubs so that is great motivation.

2. I haven't started the 30 day shred yet. That will come soon enough. I have until June 1st to finish that so I have some time.

3. This is the BIG one. I got offered a job in Columbia today. And it's a WONDERFUL job. It's MRI which will be some new training in a different modality of radiology. I am so excited about this, but I am also sad to be leaving the job that I have had for the last 4-5 years...and the people I have developed relationships with here in KC for the last 7 years that I have lived here. However, I will be moving back to my family which I cannot begin to explain how happy I am about that.

4. I am surviving the distance between Justin and myself right now. Luckily, I only have a couple of more weeks to survive the distance. And then at that point, my focus will be on surviving living with the 'rents for a bit, renting our house, and everything that goes along with those two things.

5. I have been tracking my mileage on on sparkpeople.com so I can see if I make it to 500 miles in 2010. So far, I am at 17.39 miles for the year. That is not 10 miles a week like I was hoping for, but I know as the year goes on I will up my mileage so some weeks I will have more than 10/week.

6. We are slowly, but surely working on our credit card debt. Not much to update there.

7. I did not blog at all last week so I think that means I have failing at the whole blogging 3x/week thing. I will keep working on this also. :) I am sure I will have a lot to blog about as I start the transition of moving back to my hometown and starting a brand new job. I can hope so anyway, right?? :)

Happy holidays!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season. Justin and I had a great Christmas with our families. Hopefully it is our last one that we have to drive from KC to Columbia. *fingers crossed*

We both had to work Christmas eve (2-1030 for me and 830p-7a for him). That's just the joy of being hospital employees. We drove home after Justin got off work on Friday morning. The drive was not fun - it was through a snow storm. We made it though.

The entire weekend was BUSY. We had about 6 different Christmases with different families. Unfortunately, for us, the holidays means lots of running around to different places. We never get to spend as much time with each family as we would like.

I just have a few key points from this holiday....

1. I drove about 80 miles through a snow storm down i-70 on Friday morning. For anyone that knows me or my mom - you know that is a MAJOR accomplishment. I absolutely hate driving in the snow. I freak out.

2. Oreo balls are my new favorite thing. I am trying to figure out how I made it this far in my life without discovering them.

3. Board games with the family might be my absolute favorite thing to do. Board games with anyone, really. I love them. Apples to apples, Taboo, Catch Phrase, Guestures...any of them. We had a big (12 person), 2 hour game of Guestures on Friday night. That was a blast!

Again, I hope that everyone has had a great holiday season. You may (or may not) be pleased to find out that one of my new year's resolutions is to blog at least 3 times a week. I might need anyone who reads this to hold me to it. Feel free to ask questions in the comments on topics that you might want me to talk about.

From the Foster's, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So proud of my hubby!

As I mentioned in my last post - Justin just accepted a job in our hometown (Columbia, MO). Like I said, we are super excited, nervous, scared, happy, and many more emotions all rolled into one.

Justin just wasn't completely satisfied with his position as an x-ray tech for the last couple of years. With each passing day, he seemed to become more and more unhappy with his job. It was pretty clear that he needed a change. On top of that - we wanted to be able to move back to our hometown in the near future.

An opportunity presented itself a few months ago (probably 4 or 5 months ago was when it was first mentioned). It has been a slow moving process, but Justin has made the trip back and forth to Columbia countless times for interviews, meetings, gatherings, etc. for this job. All of that traveling has paid off. He accepted the position last week. He will be in orthopedic sales.

Unfortunately, we purchased our house just 16 months ago. So now is not a good time to put it on the market. We don't have enough equity to make money. We would actually probably lose a large amount of money at this point if we attempted to sell. That is our first dilemma in this major change in our lives. Our hope at this point is that Justin's best friend and his wife will rent the house from us while she finished chiropractic school. That would give us some more time to hopefully allow the market to turn back around in our favor.

On top of that - x-ray jobs are pretty hard to come by in the mid-west in general...let alone in Columbia. As of right now, there are zero x-ray jobs for me to apply to. So I will be keeping my job in KC until I can find something in Columbia.

This is where the anxiety comes in. Justin and I have never lived farther than across town from each other (in high school) or across campus (in college). We will now live about 2 hours apart. This is temporary, but it still freaks me out. It all kind of hit me this weekend. I will be living on my own for a few months. Eeeek!! To any local friends reading this - you are welcome to stay the night at any time. :)

Justin will be staying with his parents at least until we sell the house. We haven't thought too far in advance as we are taking this transition one day at a time.

I am so incredibly proud of Justin. He has taken all the necessary steps to getting us back to our hometown. He has worked very hard to get this position.

Please send your well wishes our way as we begin this journey.

Pumpkin butterscotch cookies

Last week we went to the Mizzou v Nebraska football game. We brought a few friends so I thought I should contribute to the food of the tailgate. That and I saw this recipe and wanted to try it out.

Let me start by saying that I am NOT a baker. Typically when I attempt to bake, something goes wrong. I am happy to say that NOTHING went wrong this time. I am pretty happy about that.

These cookies went over quite nicely at the tailgate...until they got completely rained on. Apparently the container had standing water in it by the end of the night. They made for good hangover breakfast the next day for the fam anyway. :)

I didn't take any pics (remember, my iphone camera is broken??). Here is a pic from Heather's blog which is where I got the recipe in the first place.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

1/4 cup canola or corn oil (I used all applesauce...so 3/4 cup applesauce)

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips (I am sure I used more)

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray the cookie sheets with cooking spray.

2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and light in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides as needed while mixing.

4. On low speed, mix the applesauce, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips.

5. Scoop approximately 1/4 cup of dough (using measuring cup or ice cream scoop) onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing the cookies approximately 2 1/2 inches apart.

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry, about 12-16 minutes. Cool them on a baking sheet for about 5 minutes , then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Enjoy!!

Fab weekend.

I am getting ready to wrap up the weekend and head to bed. I figured I would write a little post about our weekend now or else it might not get done. And we had such a great weekend that it would be a shame to not recap. Unfortunately, my camera was dead the entire weekend so I have no proof of this amazing weekend. :)

The weekend started with a surprise birthday party for my stepmom. My dad did an awesome job planning everything and keeping it a secret. Somehow, he got my stepmom on the golf course the evening of her birthday. While they were golfing, we got a room inside the country club set up for the party. My dad sent us a text when they were making their way onto the 9th tee. One of the country club staff members tied some black balloons to the flag in the hole. We watched them walk closer to the green and then everyone that was there for the party walked out to surprise her. Saying she was surprised was an understatement...she definitely cried.

Once we surprised her, we all made our way into the party room and got the party started. My main job for the party was the create a slide show for her. We kicked the party off with playing the slide show. Not to toot my horn or anything, but that slide show rocked (toot! toot!). She cried again...and so did I. I am a sucker for pictures set to music. I will pretty much cry every time.

We hung out at the club until about 11 and then we headed to my dad's to continue the party with her closest friends/family. I am not certain on the time my stepmom went to bed, but a few of us (including me, my dad, Justin, and some other friends/family) stayed up until about 3 or 4 in the morning on my dad's back deck. It was a lot of fun.

Needless to say, Saturday we needed some recovery time. We left my dad's around 11am on Saturday and made our way to my inlaws. They were out of town, but it's easier for us to stay there with Lucky. After eating some lunch, we all (Lucky included) fell asleep. We slept from about 1 until 4. It was a much needed relaxing day.

We might not have woken up, but we had another birthday party to go to that night. It was a birthday party for Justin's cousin, Jenn. She turned 16 today (Sunday). This party was a bit more low key, but definitely also a lot of fun. We had some good food...including cake and ice cream. We were going to go swimming in their pool, but it started to rain. We watched a bit of the Chief's preseason football game. It was pretty boring so we played Monopoly Deal. It's basically Monopoly in card form. It was a lot of fun. We played that game for about 4 hours. I am sad to report that I did not win a single time. I could have continued to play for 4 more hours, but Justin was ready to go home. We left a little before midnight. It was great to just hang out with the family and celebrate a BIG birthday for Jenn. :)

We used Sunday as another day to relax. We slept late, ate some lunch, watched golf, and napped on and off throughout the day. Speaking of watching golf...we witnessed golf history today. Y.E. Yang won the tournament (PGA, maybe??). He is the first Asian person to win a major tournament. I am not a big golf fan, but it was definitely cool to watch history in the making. I never thought I would be blogging about the winner of a golf tournament, but this definitely deserves a shout out.

We got back to KC around 8:30 tonight and have been doing laundry and a bit of cleaning to get ready for the week. Fortunately for us, we have a short work week. Justin only works 2 days and I work 3 days. We are leaving Wednesday evening for Iowa. Justin's cousin, Kyle, is getting married this weekend. I will charge my camera so I can have show some pics of that (hopefully).

I hope everyone had a great week. Happy Monday..ick.

Ugh, gas money.

Justin and I have been traveling back to Columbia A LOT lately. As I balanced our checkbook today, I realized just what that is doing to our bank account. Holy cow, we are spending a shit ton of money on gas money to make these trips.

To put it into terms, we spent about $334 in gas in the month of July. We typically budget about $200 a month for gas. So we spent over $130 more than usual on gas in one month. That is just nuts!!

Granted, one week looked like this: we drove to Columbia on a Friday night, drove back Sunday, Justin went to Columbia Wednesday for an interview, he drove back that night, we drove to Columbia Friday to stay for the weekend, and then we drove back on Sunday. That was an abnormal week, but it definitely was a contributor to our increased gas budget for the month of July.

If nothing else this definitely helps us realize that we REALLY want to move back to Columbia. We will save quite a bit of money on gas alone whenever we are able to move back.

Unfortunately for us, the frequent trips are not going to slow down anytime soon. We have season tickets to the University of Missouri Tigers (in Columbia, of course) so we will be traveling back there quite often in the fall as well.

This weekend.

I cannot even being to tell you how excited I am for this weekend!! I have so much to look forward to...I cannot wait.

First of all, I am off on Friday so I have a short work week and a long weekend. That is always nice. It's too bad I have to use vacation time in order to have off on Friday. Oh well, it will be worth it.

When Justin gets off of work on Friday we will head home to Columbia. He will either be off the entire day or he will only have to work 0600-0900. Either way, we will be home about mid-day/early afternoon on Friday.

Friday evening my BFF, Katie, is coming to Columbia. I am super excited about that because since she has moved away I only see her about every 3 months or so.


Friday night we have a game night planned with my family and Justin's family. I am about the biggest fan of game nights ever. I love board games. My favorite right now is Apples to Apples. If you have never played, add it to your list of things to do in the near future. It is a blast. Game nights are always a good time...I am excited to have Katie join us for this one. :)

Saturday is 4th of July (duh!) aaaannnddd my mother-in-law's birthday (how cool is that??). I am pretty sure for as long as Justin and I have been dating, we have gone to his grandparent's for the 4th. They live on a private lake that is very fun. We will be going to their lake again this year. I am pretty excited for some time in the sun and on the water. I have all appendages crossed that it will not rain. That will definitely put a damper on my weekend.

Last year I brought a little concoction I like to call the Paint Can to your 4th of July/MIL's bday celebration. I believe I have started a new tradition. I definitely plan on bringing the ingredients to make 2 or 3 of these Saturday. They are great on a summer day. :) Plus, I love me some Vodka so that makes the paint can just as good for me.


Happy 4th of July to everyone! I hope your work week goes by quickly and that you have good weather for whatever you are doing to celebrate.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy father's day to my dad and all the dads everywhere. :)

Here are some random pics of my dad (and some of us together) that I like.

1st place!!!

We spent a bit of this weekend at the baseball fields. My little brother, rian, had a tournament.

He is quite the little ball player. He pitched about 2-3 innings each game. When he was not pitching, he played center field or 1st base. I think there were only a couple at bats that he did not get on base.

It was fun watching him play. And it was even better that they got first place. :) congrats to the 10u Columbia Starpath!!

Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Justin's birthday.

Here is one of my promised posts....

I planned a surprise birthday party for Justin. It took place on May 9th which was a couple of days before his birthday. My grand plan was to have our family come to KC and have some friends surprise him as well. I wanted everyone to surprise him at the golf course. The guys would go play golf and the girls would do whatever to get ready for the rest of the day.

This plan sort of happened. Some of our family came. His parents and brothers were all there. My dad was not able to come because my brother had a baseball tournament. A couple of his friends who had planned on being there were not able to show up. So the only friend that was able to golf was Brian. That was fine. He was surprised none the less.

Justin and Brian.

There was one little snag in the plan about a week before everyone came. Justin was invited to a work BBQ and he was very excited about going. He is newly interested into meat smoking and this is what his coworker was doing so he wanted to be apart of that. I was very concerned that he would be disappointed that I had planned all of this and he would not be able to go to the BBQ. I made sure his coworker knew that he would not be coming. Luckily, Justin was not disappointed.

I had the family surprise him at our house since getting him to the golf course would have been impossible otherwise. The guys golfed and the girls went to lunch, did a little shopping, and prepared for the BBQ at our house. When the guys got done golfing they came home and BBQed. It was a fun night of a couple of drinks, rockband, Apples to Apples, friends, and family.

Le sigh...

We bought our house in July/August last year. At that point we were sure we wanted to stay in the Kansas City area for a few more years; if not forever(ish).

A couple of months ago, Justin was pursuing a very good job in Columbia (our hometown). It was during that time that we both decided that Columbia was where we wanted to be. Columbia was where we wanted to raise our children. The obvious problem was that we just bought our house, the market sucks, and it would be close to impossible to sell our home quickly and without losing a bunch of money.

That job ended up falling through - I am sure thanks to the economy. We were both very bummed as we had this grand plan of him living in Columbia while I lived in KC until we sold our house and/or I found a job in Columbia. Ever since that point, our trips home are bittersweet. We, obviously, love visiting or families but it just makes our desire to move back home that much more.

We have accepted the fact that we need to stay in Kansas City for the next 3 years or so. We have made plans to do some home improvements to make our home in KC that much better for when we are ready to sell it.

Our feelings of wanting to live in Columbia come and go with different scenarios. Today was one of those days that it came pretty hard core for me. I just received a text message from my dad that my 10 year old brother, Rian, would be pitching in the championship game today. It really sucks not being able to be there for that. Right now is when I want to live in Columbia so we can go to all of Rian's games.

Baked Spaghetti

This recipe for baked spaghetti has worked its way into our regular menu. It's pretty quick and easy. It's only a couple of more steps than regular spaghetti.

Ingredients:
-1 package (8oz) spaghetti, cooked and drained
-2 tablespoons butter or margarine
-1 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
-1 container (24oz) of ricotta cheese or cottage cheese (we use reduced fat cottage cheese)
-1 pound ground beef (we almost always use ground turkey for any recipe that calls for beef)
-1 jar (28oz) Prego, Ragu, whatever
-1 package (8oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

How to:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Line 13x9x2 inch pan with foil

Cook spaghetti and garlic seasoned beef (turkey) - drain both

Combine hot, cooked spaghetti with butter, stir until butter melts.
Add 1/2 cup parmesan cheese and small amount of spaghetti sauce to coat.

Arrange spaghetti in an even layer in pan.

Mix ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese and spread mixture over spaghetti.

Add seasoned beef.
Spread sauce over beef.
Top everything with mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 min.
Then remove foil for final 15 minutes of baking.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

No pictures of this one, sorry.

The randoms

I thought I good way to start out this blog was to carry over the "25 random things about me" circulating on Facebook. Here are mine (with a few changes and maybe some pictures sprinkled in).

1.I haven't played soccer since my last college game (almost 2.5 years ago, wow!) and I can't think of any moment since that I have missed it. Even watching the Avila girls play in the last couple of seasons, I haven't missed it. I would love love love to coach, but I have no desire to ever play again.
2. I hate sports drinks (Gaterade, etc.)
3. I only like Blue Powerade with Vodka (I realize this contradicts #2).
4. I am a reality show junky. The only show that I watch that is not reality is "Grey's Anatomy." Sad, I know.
5. I had my first "real" soccer injury during a fun tournament the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. A girl from the other team and I butted heads while jumping in the air for a ball. I still have the shirt that I used to stop the bleeding from the gash above my eye.

6. I have never been an "everything happens for a reason" type of person. I have had some in depth conversations with friends and family about this...some more heated than others. I do not, however, judge people who are these types of people as one of my good friends has this phrase tattooed on her foot.Me and H.

7. I used to skip out of studying because Justin wouldn't study and do well on tests....I however, did not do as well.
8. I was a safety patrol officer in elementary school...fully equipped with the orange sash.

9. We had a bride and groom kewpie cake topper (and another one sitting on the cake table) for our wedding cake. I don't think anyone noticed that and it was by far one of my favorite details from our wedding.

10. I like my steak medium rare.
11. I can remember the first time hearing "Amazed" by Lonestar on the radio. I was in 9th grade on the bus to go to an away basketball game. A couple of days before that, Justin had told me how much that song reminded me of him. I love that I can still remember that moment and that it was our wedding song. <3
12. I used to hate sour cream. Now I love it.
13. I started trying out for volleyball in 6th grade, but quit a couple of days into because all of my friends had already been playing for a couple of years. I ended up just being the manager so I could still hang out with my friends.

14. I feel incredibly lucky for the family that I married into. They are awesome (not so random, as everyone already knows my love for them).And this is just one side of my married into fam. :)

15. I once got separated from my mom in the Independence shopping center during Christmas time. oops.
16. I love the smell of tide and wish they would make a Tide candle.
17. I pop my hips and it looks like I'm leaning over to fart :) <--stole this one from (my sister-in-law) paula
18. I am not of fan of all things domestic. I am just now startingg to like to cook, but I definitely hate to clean.
19. I have slept with a stuffed animal for as long as I can remember...and still do.
20. I eat honey with my chicken nuggets.
21. I worked at Taco Bell from the time I was 16 until the summer before my sophomore year of college. I loved it!
22. All of the things that I hated about my hometown growing up, I miss like crazy now. I hope to move back there in the next few years...and this may come sooner than expected.
23. Whenever I have kids, I am really excited to have a girl so I can dress in her lots of pink (although I hated when my mom dressed me in pink, and dresses, and frills).
24. I have been in 4 accidents in my life and only one has been my fault...knock on wood.
25. I met some really great, lifelong friends at Avila...including my bestfriend KLN.

This is a typical pic of us. :)