pinned it, rocked it. january edition.

a few weeks age, i was browsing through my friends pins on pinterest and i saw this fake fireplace. i thought, man that would look awesome under our new tv. jeremy came downstairs right then, so i showed him. he said, "how much would something like that cost?" i looked at some places online, and found the cheapest one for $350 and they went up from there.  the ones i loved were all above $600. in other words, not really in our "spur of the moment i pinned something i want" budget.

then jeremy said, i bet i can make that. so he sent me and jessie off to get our nails done (i know, right?) and he and jakey went to home depot. when we came home, this was in the garage.

after jessie left, we started painting. i had to help with this part.we decided on black for the frame and a yellow for the background. we found some pretty little curlicue things to add some apice.

finally, after what seemed like years of drying time, it was ready to bring downstairs. yes, thats iron chef dismantling some massive piece of meat on the television. and i havent fully accessorized yet. but look what we made!

pretty awesome, right? i LOVE it! and i love the fact that jeremy made it in like ten seconds! and for waaaay less money than buying it.

just another day at the park...

jakey and i ran up to the horsey park this afternoon (aka eastview park). i think it was his first time at a park, but we didnt play - mom was on a mission. my training schedule said 5 miles for today and we made it about 4 1/2 before it was nap time.

it was a BEAUTIFUL day to be outside. i was surprised that no one else was at the park when we got there.  there was only one other guy doing the exercise route there. i noticed him in the distance doing the sit up station. by the time we ran around to that station, he was finishing up and walking away. when we got close i noticed three incredibly odd things about this guy. first, he was wearing a sports coat. really? to do sit ups at a park? and he was also wearing khakis pants that were rolled up to be man-pris. ugh.  the strangest thing of all though was the fact that as soon as he finished exercising, he lit up a cigar as he walked to his car. bizarre, no?

as ive been doing the gorun training program, my mileage has been increasing although my speed has stayed a lot the same. we had a seminar the other night about the physiology of running and one of the mantras he gave us was "start slow, then taper off." i can totally buy into that philosophy. :) but anyways, ive been running a lot more than before (usually 5 days a week) and my workout playlist has been getting a lot of usage. and boy am i tired of hearing the same songs over and over. i need some new tunes.  suggestions? i usually run to hip hop/r &b or rock, but am open to new ideas!

the exercise related portion of my new years resolutions have been going swimmingly, but we are only 24 days in after all. :D are you keeping up with your resolutions?

New recipe

On sunday night I made spinach, cheese and pesto stuffed chicken. SO good. And kinda fancy! It was fun banging the chicken out to be flatter. :) I didn't use an actual recipe but just made it up, but I'm still counting it as a new recipe since I've never made anything like it before.

january tri wrap up

51:53. i killed it this month. it helped that for the first time i wasnt sick and that jakey decided to wake up only once at 5:30am for sure.

december's time was 56:09 and november's was 57:42. that means this month i was almost 4.5 minutes faster!

swim: 10:14. thats only a few seconds faster than last time but i felt better the whole time and finished first out of the girls in my group and before the guy that was sharing my lane. i was in a faster swim heat this time so beating at least the girls made me feel pretty good.

bike: 20:10 thats a couple minutes faster. i pushed the resistance up and pedaled my heart out, to the point where i can barely stand up today. my thighs did not appreciate the hard biking after almost no training.

run: 19:43 i broke the 20 minute mark! go team me! thse first couple of laps after the bike are challenging so i play a little mental game to keep focused. 1/24 ok thats like 4% done. 2/24 = 1/12. way to go. 3/24 = 1/8 that's 12.5%! 4/24 = 1/6. the fifth lap is stupid because 5 doesnt go into 24. lap 6 - 1/4 done, half mile ran yay! etc. almost every lap is a fraction that can be reduced, and then i can spend the rest of that lap trying to calculate approximate percentages. crazy? maybe. but it seems to be working okay for me.

after all that and a great time, i missed placing int he top three in my age group by about 30 seconds which means no tri cup points for me this month. and next month the tri falls during our los angeles trip so none next month either. march and april i better bring it hard in order to finish in the top three!

baby play dates

 jakey's friend carson came over to play with us.they laid on the turtle blankie and held hands, jakey showed carson how he could sit up by himself, carson ate breakfast and jakey took a nap.  thrilling, huh? its a little bit ridiculous to call it a playdate, but i loved having anna and carson come over and see us anyways!

a few days later, we got together with mark and lanelle at my parents house. carly and ava have grown a TON since we last saw them in june and it was awesome to be able to spend time with them! trying to get three littles to look at the camera when there was a dog and toys and not-toys everywhere wasnt as awesome.

Best part of my day...

Listening to jakey sing during the entirety of our three mile run today. I seriously love this kid.

resolutions, week 1

i've been running (three times this week), going to yoga, and i have gym plans for tomorrow for biking and swimming. thats as good as it gets as far as my exercise goals. next weekend is my first tri of the year so lets see what happens!

we made a new recipe tonight - jeremy made chicken fried steak and it was great. SO not mdf, but i didnt have to cook it so its all good!

also. i made two things this week from pinterest. i havent finished my toilet paper roll wreath yet. if it looks even half way decent after a coat of paint and some sparkles i will post a picture. if not, hey at least i tried, right?

one week in - how are you doing with your resolutions?

book review: radio shangri-la

Radio Shangri-La

by Lisa Napoli

from the back: One woman's story of reaching a crossroads in life - and finding happiness in the last shangri-la. Lisa Napoli was in the grip of a mid-life crisis when a chance encounter lead her to the adventure of a lifetime. Leaving behind her job in public radio and her life in Los Angeles, she moved to the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan to volunteer at the country's first youth radio station. Along the way, she found the world is a beautiful and complicated place, and learns to appreciate life in a way she never imagined.

my review: i enjoyed this story. it was refreshing to read a nonfiction book in the middle of all the fiction i typically enjoy. the stories of her culture transition and the radio she helps with are funny and endearing. the people she meets chage her life and return the favor. shangri-la is a very interesting culture, once rated the happiest place on earth but since the invasion of the western world and the internet, cable, and the like their happiness quotient has slowly faded. that was the sad part of the story, but it really made me think about what makes me happy and why.

this book was released last year so go find it in a book store near you! :D