Book Club!

Book club was last night...check out the spread! Unfortunately, a food coma came over me before I was able to take any more pictures, but I had a blast.

I managed to get in a 4-mile run AND go to boot camp before coming home to my clean house (Darling David cleaned...love him!). I threw the pizza rolls in the oven and hopped in the shower.

By the grace of God, I was dressed (sweatpants=dressed in my world) AND had dry hair before people arrived. It was a miracle.

Food update:
Pizza roll things turned out awesome. They weren't the most beautiful snack in the world (they're on the blue platter close to the bottom of the picture), but they were gone by the end of the night. Pizza rolls! I am totally making you again.

The yogurt-cheese thing, on the other hand, did not turn out to swell. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that ate any, and it tasted like thick plain yogurt with dill. Yes, I realize that's what it technically was but, COME ON, it was supposed to look like cheese.

Seriously, check out this link. Dilled Yogurt Cheese I'll wait.

See? How pretty is theirs? I had to put mine in a mug to contain it. And, just so you know, my yogurt did not have gelatin in it...I actually checked (and double checked when it wasn't setting up).

Oh well... I'm going to let it go. Mostly because there was PLENTY of other food at the book club that made me drool.

The shocker of the night was that we actually spent a large portion of the time actually talking about the book. Not the norm for us, but still tons of fun!

TMI Thursday

Wanna see something gross?

No?

Sorry, don't care. I think gross things are cool. This might be because my dad's a veterinarian and I spent most of my childhood looking and examining gross things.

It was awesome. Except, of course, when I would faint. Fainting the clinic was no fun. Dad would make fun of me and I would usually hit my head. Those, however, are stories for other days.

So, anyway, back to the grossness at hand. I have really ugly feet. My brother, Kyle, likes to refer to them as my "hooves." A few years ago, that probably would have made me cry (or at least go off somewhere to pout), but I've recently come to the realization that they actually are pretty hoof-like. More Flintstone than Rolling Stone, if you get my drift.

Yesterday, after my evening (ugh) shower, I glanced down. I'm getting ready to lose another toenail. Yep, it's the fourth toe. And, yes, the 3rd and pinky toes are already nail-less. My 2nd toe (which, fortunately, you can't tell is also my longest) is having some issues right now, but I'm pretty sure that nail is going to hang out. And my thumb-toe (1st toe? big toe?) is in the process of growing back...about 75% there. Mercifully, I cropped that toe out.

I lost my first toenail right after my 1st half marathon. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool. You know, like a scar I could wear proudly. Since my feet are already pretty unsettling, losing a couple of toenails wasn't the end of the world.

I realize that I shouldn't be losing toenails due to running. I've gone up shoe sizes, and bought a variety of different pairs. All the other pairs always rub my feet funny and cause blisters in random places. I always gravitate back to my favorite (and first) pair... Mizzuno Wave Creation. I figure that if they feel good 100% of the time, a few missing toenails are worth the price.

Plus, what if I just have horrible genetics and would lose nails no matter what? No one in my immediate family runs, so I have nothing to compare myself too. I also have the ugliest feet in my family, so I might blame my shame on whatever accident caused that too.

Aren't you glad you read this today?

Snow and Snack City

As I got off work today, it was SNOWING. Beautiful, big, fluffy snow.
I decided to go ahead and run outside....but put on my Yak Traks for a little traction. I first heard of these things when I was in the Peace Corps. We had harsh winters, so we were supplied a pair of these each. They're amazing on slippery and icy paths.

Since I wanted to take a picture of my feet (weird, I know), I decided to take my camera along on my run.

My typical outdoor run is along Grant's Trail (which is blissfully flat) and Clydesdale Park (which is nothing but an evil hill).

I run past Grant's Farm...home of the Anheuser-Busch/In-Bev Clydesdales. Aren't they cool? Careful, though...HORSES MAY BITE.

Grant's Farm is also home to a zoo/farm type thing. I can't really describe it because I have never been. Yeah, that's right. I run by this place at least 4 times a week and haven't ever gone. I think we need to remedy this situation, stat.

And, because I took my camera, I decided to take a picture of myself post-run. It was only a 4-miler today, so I still look pretty happy :)

Tomorrow is book club, which I love. It's also a night for living on snacks and wine. And, really, not talking very much about the book at all. We all read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for this month. Well...I still have 30 more pages to go, but I'm confident I can pull that off before bed tonight. If not, no one will yell at me. We're nice like that.

Usually, we start book club at 7pm. However, this time I'm hosting and, because boot camp doesn't get over until 6:30, I managed to talk the girls into waiting until 7:30 to start. This way I can take a quick shower and transform myself from "Sweat Monster" into "Wet Haired Girl." She's far better smelling than "Sweat Monster."

Considering that I will have just finished busting my pa-tooty working out, I've been trying to find some healthier snacks to share. Of course, I will over-indulge, but it would be nice if some of what is provided is less evil.

Right?

Right.

Here's my plan...

I found a recipe for Dilled Yogurt Cheese.

Have you heard about this? Basically, you mix plain, fat-free yogurt with some spices (dill and garlic here, yum) and then strain in a coffee filter for hours. After some magical point, the yogurt starts to look/taste like goat cheese.

I like goat cheese....so I'm hoping this

eventually becomes something I can eat. If that works, I am seriously in heaven. Finished, it's only 25 calories for 1 T. I can support that, especially paired with flat-bread crackers. Hoo-hoo!

I found another recipe for pizza roll-ups. Fat-free croissants, pizza sauce, light cheese...rolled up and baked. Please, please, please be good...because you'll be about 75 cals a pop. And that sounds good to me.

I hope these look better after I bake them. Because, now...not so yummy looking.

Alright, time to go clean the house. David's agreed to do the floors tomorrow after his class, so I just need to get the kitchen spotless and put our junk that piles up away.

I love book club!

New Year's Resolution

Yeah, I know it's January 26th. This didn't just start today, but I just realized that I never blogged about my New Year's Resolution.

Here's the story, Morning Glory.

I get up super early for work. Depending on the day and which school I'm going to, I either get up at 5:30 or 6 am. Before this job, I always got up super early and went to the gym/on a run before work. Then I would come home, clean up, and be on my merry way. But the 5:30/6am wake up calls don't include time to sweat. I figured out that if I wanted to do even a 4 mile run before work I'd have to get up at 4am to get dressed, have some, ahem, bodily functions (cause if you've ever tried to run without allowing time for this, I pity you), drive to the park, run, and drive home before getting ready for the day.

4 am just isn't happening.

So I run/workout after work...which works out fine because I get off work either at 2:35 or 3:12 (totally worth the early wake-up calls). The problem is that I enjoy morning showers. REALLY enjoy morning showers. Feel gross and bad-haired if I take a night shower. I don't want a double-shower, because then my hair gets oily very quickly and my skin dries out.

So, I would just go to bed and shower the next day. I never went to bed actually sweaty, mostly because there were large gaps of time between exercise ending and sleeping beginning. I used that time to air-dry.

Fast-forward to vacation (OOOH VACATION! I STILL NEED TO POST PICTURES). I found out, during a conversation with David and my mom, that my lack of night-time showers really bothers David. REALLY bothers him. Enough that he would complain to my mom (and, yes, the rest of my family) about how gross it is.

Waaaaa?

I mean, I know it kinda bothered David, because he'd make little comments about "how good a shower would feel" and how he "can't sleep sweaty." I figured it was just him giving me a hard time.

Nope.

Therefore, in an effort to be a good/better spouse, my New Year's resolution is to shower after working out.

So far, so good. I told David that I'll give it a full month. I don't really like what my hair looks like at work, but I'll double-shower (booo, hisss) before important days.

The things I do for love.

Weekend Recap!

Saturday was Law School Prom...more officially known as Barrister's Ball. I call it prom...because, seriously, prom is the only reason I'll ever wear a prom dress, and we all know it.

It was a great time...full dinner, open bar, and dancing. For some reason, I only took three pictures all night. Lame-o. Luckily, I noticed this morning that some people have already added a bunch of pictures to facebook. You can stalk David or me there and see how pretty we were.
Anyway, I was really proud of my dress. I paid TEN DOLLARS for it WAAAAAY back in the summer. A good deal is like a ray of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.
Come on...TEN DOLLARS!
The dress ended up being a smidgen too big (I tend to buy too big when I'm buying for distant-future events. It's driven by fear), so I just safety pinned it to my bra and called it good.
Yes, I'm class all the way. I'm pretty sure I told everyone I knew about the safety pins. I probably showed a few girls. Weird things make me proud of myself.The night was good. David and I opted not to spend $150 for a hotel room (we're paying a mortgage, people) so my darling friend Martha agreed to pick us up. It's all about safety. That is a good friend...she doesn't even live in St. Louis and was STILL willing to drive us home after midnight.

And, she stopped at Taco Bell. Because we begged her.


Oh Taco Bell. I love you. I hate you. You are the reason my self-imposed daily weigh in was no fun Sunday OR today. But...secretly, and especially after an open bar, I love you, Taco Bell.

Sunday, I spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry. Somehow our house had destroyed itself over the week. It was bad, friends. I also managed (against all odds) to go on a run. I would have bet dollars to donuts that a run would have been PAINFUL, but it wasn't too bad. I ran a 8:27/mile. Woo hoo!

Does anyone know what dollars to donuts actually means? I have no idea.

Today is Stacy at work's 40th birthday. In our conference room (where we all eat lunch), this is waiting.

CAKE

TWO KINDS OF CUPCAKES

COOKIES

Oh and wait, it's also crock-pot Monday...so this is on the other side of the room.

Oh lordy. We'll see how much resolve I've got in myself.

My day off!

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day…meaning that I didn’t have to go to work.
Ahhhh. Let’s just take a minute and breathe.
I, overall, had a glorious weekend. David was working on cite checks and other very important law school things all day, every day…so I got caught up. House is clean, all laundry (including sheets!) is washed, dishes done, etc.
You know, I think it’s a sign that I’m getting old/boring if my definition of a glorious weekend is that the house is clean I and did laundry. Oh well…
Thinking back on it, I did more than just clean. I ran a 10k on Saturday morning. My time wasn’t as good as I would have liked…I had been sick the week before and skipped my long run (which I never, ever, ever do…but I couldn’t move).
We also went to a surprise birthday party on Saturday. Some of the law school kids were playing drinking games. They decided that my new official name is “Lady Brady.” Cute…I really kind of like it.
Sunday, baby Liam celebrated his first birthday. He had a traumatic morning involving the ER and a reaction to some medicine, but pulled it together for the party. What a trooper!

Look at this cake!!! It’s a monkey! I totally am going to try to make one of these sometime. Maybe David’s birthday? Or St. Patrick’s Day?

After the party, Baby Liam went back to the ER. All’s well, but it was a little tense for a bit.
Yesterday, I finished up a massive project for work. I know it was a “day off” but this had been weighing over my head for a long time and I just wanted to be done thinking about it. After that, I went on a run. My time was MUCH better than during the race. I did an 8:22/mile. Thank goodness—I had been a little down on myself for the 9:05 pace 10k. This faster run was exactly what the doctor ordered.

After that, I went shopping. We FINALLY have a nightstand of sorts for the guest room.

And milk. We needed milk :)

I don't know how they run in London.

The fog here has been overwhelming. Right before I left on my run today, I tried to take a picture outside so you all could see what it was like.

I'm sure some setting was wrong on my camera...but, seriously. Look at this. Can you believe that? Our front porch is wet and slippery.

Anyway, my run was a little rough-- I had a hard time catching my breath. It probably had something to do with the humidity being about 100%.

I don't know how people train for and run things in really humid climates. In weather like this, I am such a baby. Whine, whine, whine.

But I did my 5 miles. I started a bootcamp a few weeks ago that's on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my legs are still pretty sore on Wednesdays and Fridays. I'm hoping that it's going to turn into added strength (not soreness) any day now.

I started reading this new diet book (The Beck Diet Solution for Life)...it's more of a cognitive technique to learn to eat healthily. Anyway, I'm really liking it, but one of the things you're supposed to do is weigh yourself every single day. The whole theory behind this is that we put too much emphasis on these numbers and allow our whole mentality to be swayed by ups and downs on the scale. In weighing every day, it's supposed to desensitize yourself to the number AND allow you see the impact your actions (salt, etc) make the next day on the scale.

I struggle with that sometimes. It's bizarre to see how much my weight can shift from day to day. For instance, I'm 2.6 lbs lighter today than I was yesterday.

There are a ton more steps in this book....I'll try to mention periodically how I'm liking it.

Slacker!

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post for ages (since, officially, my last post), but I’ve been a total slacker.

I’m assigning blame outward. I downloaded Windows Live Writer and was amazed at how much faster/easier/happier it is to write posts through than regular blogger. Then, sadly, I’m unable to upload posts from Live Writer to Blogger. So….no posts for me.

My goal for this week is to finally, finally, post about vacation to Grand Cayman. I’ve got some stellar pictures that need to live on the internet forever.

Christmas Eve and Crock Pots

David and I hosted the Brady family dinner at our home and Christmas Eve this year…and I was a nervous wreck.
Not that I was nervous for the family time. They’re great and there’s no stress with that. Nope, I was nervous for the dinner. You see, I come from a long line of women who cook (and cook well). My ancestors have been providing meals as a form of love for a long time. I’ve participated in these meals for as long as I can remember…but never been charge. In my mind, there was a lot of pressure. Grandma and Mom left some big shoes to fill.
Adding to this pressure, we wanted to go to church at 5pm and eat when we returned home…meaning that, unless we wanted to eat at midnight, I had to figure something out.
Enter the three crock-pot plan. (We’re newlyweds; we have a lot of crock-pots. I actually received several more but these are the ones we kept.)
I borrowed my friend Stacy’s slow cooker cookbook and planned.
Mashed potatoes in a crock-pot….YES!
Corny cheesy casserole in a crock-pot…YOU BET!
Dressing in a crock-pot…OH MAN!!
I cooked the turkey in the morning, took it off the carcass (which, to everyone’s dismay, I saved…I love TURKEY CARCASS SOUP!) and then popped it back in the oven when we left for church.

All that, combined with the salad and rice dish (by Danna), pies (by Debra), beer bread (made the day before by me) and wine (a gift from God) led to a pretty great meal.
Then, it was present time…thank god for babies. Seriously, is there anything better than watching a toddler open presents?
And, honestly, It's even more fun to watch David open anything with a tiger on it.
For Christmas, David and I tried to start a new tradition. We got brand spanking new pajamas and wore them Christmas night. I was pretty excited about them……and David was a good sport. He secretly loved them!

We had a light spattering of snow on Christmas day…
but it was nothing compared to what my family got back in Kansas. Apparently, there was nearly a foot of snow and drifts up to four feet in places. David and I were planning on going to Kansas on Christmas Day; however, the Interstate we would use was closed. Scary! Since we were leaving for vacation (more on that soon!) from St. Louis on Tuesday, we were scared to go to KS later and risk getting stuck there. So, we stayed home.
We ended up seeing Avatar (ugh, overly political) and renting the first two seasons of Mad Men. AND, we spent a whole day babysitting the little guy, Liam. David and I stayed in our Christmas pj’s until we left for vacation…except when we saw the movie and when I went on runs.

Classy!

Freezing

I was stupid yesterday.  Very very stupid.  We’re having “dangerously cold” weather here and I decided to go on a run. 
A run outside, because I am still resisting my urge to join a gym and hemorrhage money for a place I will ultimately hate because it’s too crowded.  Plus, I hate running on a treadmill.
So, after work I dressed in layers of running clothes and threw on my big puffy vest for good measure.  Because my water belt wouldn’t fit over the big puffy vest, I just threw one of my 10 oz water thingies in my pocket and took off.
All of the sudden, my left hand was miserably cold.  So cold that I started using very unladylike words and wondered how long it takes frost bite to begin.  Then, my left hip was also painfully cold.  I couldn’t figure out why my right side was, by comparison, toasty warm (with really meant not-quite-so-excruciatingly-cold).
I look down.  I see ice rivers trailing down my left leg.  It turns out that I had neglected to close my water bottle completely and about 8 oz of water had trickled out…and immediately frozen. 
This means it’s too cold to run, right?