RUN?!?! Who me?!?!

So I've been seriously lacking in the workout motivation department and I'm going to attempt to use my blog to keep me accountable, especially since I got this wild hair to complete my 1st ever 1/2 MARATHON!  I don't run, so I have no idea how I'm going to accomplish this, but I'm going to give it my all for 9 weeks and see what happens!  

Casey over at Ever Changing Life has started "Get Moving March" and I'm signing up to motivate me through my 1st month of training.  
This means 2 things:
1. No fast food for the whole month (except for this weekend when we go to Nashville, only because it's just me and the guys and I don't want to be a PITA, so if we do end up eating fast food, I will substitute "no fried food" for "no fast food")
2. I have to report my work out plan and progress each Monday.

So here's my week 1 action plan:

Monday: REST (WAHOO, I haven't even started and I get a rest day?  I like this plan!)

Tuesday: walk 2 miles, run 1 mile, walk 2 miles

Wednesday: Cross Train (it will most likely be crossfit)

Thursday: Run 1 mile

Friday: REST (and drive to Nashville)

Saturday: walk 2 miles, run 1 mile, walk 2 miles

Sunday: run 2 miles

Sounds easy, but like I said before, I'm not a runner, never have been, but I hope to become one.  While I'm in Nashville, I plan on doing a little shopping for some new running gear.  Mainly shoes and a watch, but probably a pair of  pants and a jacket as well for the days when the weather isn't so hot here.  If any of you are runners and you have any suggestions or advice, it would be greatly appreciated!!!  Hopefully I have good news to report when I get back from Nashville next Monday! (Nothing like starting out a new work out plan and cutting out fast food the week we take our 1st road trip of the year!)

WAAAHHHOOOOO!!

I received my 1st ever blog award =)  I see bloggers all the time posting these to their sites and I never in a million years thought I'd actually get one.  I feel like I finally fit in with the cool kids now, thanks Tori!  (check her out over at Tori and Chad and give her some comment love!)

My job now is to tell my readers 10 things they don't already know about me and since most of my readers already know me personally, this is going to be HARD, but here goes nothing =) (ok, I gave up, if you know me in person, you probably know most/all of these things about me)

1. I cannot believe this has never made it to the blog before now.  I AM ADDICTED TO COKE, as in Coca Cola!

I actually quit drinking it for 9 whole days and just gave in about 3 hours ago and chugged one that was hiding in the garage!  I'm going to try REALLY REALLY hard to cut back from 6+ per day to one a day, and I'm not going to keep it in the house so that should help drastically!

2. I don't eat red meat or pork.  

 

I didn't eat any meat for about 5 years, then instead of gaining the freshman 15, I lost it and I didn't have it to lose!  I was working for my college's football team, assisting 3-a-day practices and working my butt off and just not getting enough protein in my body.  So Easter weekend (don't ask me why I picked that weekend) I ate a chicken sandwich (from Burger King none the less) and slowly started adding chicken to my diet.  That was almost 10 years ago (holy crapola, I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I was a freshman in college!) and since then I've started eating seafood and turkey.  Lately I've been considering adding red meat back into my diet (mostly for my hubby's sake) but I'm not 100% sure yet.  I believe the lack of red meat keeps me at a healthy weight and overall just healthier, so I'm not sure.

3. I miss working.

Before I married my husband I worked for Delta Airlines, and I miss it.  I miss having something to do during the day the most, but I also miss my coworkers, especially my best friend, Holly (wow we looked rough at work the day after my birthday but this is the only pic I can find of us at work):

I miss traveling for free, I miss the customers and their ridiculous stories, I miss getting to wear PJ's to work, I miss the friends I made working there, I miss making my own money.  I love my hubby, but I miss being independent!

4.  Before my husband, I gave my heart to the game of hockey!

 

So I went to games with my parents when I was young, in fact I remember hiding under my seat 2 rows behind the bench when a fight broke out because I didn't want to see anyone get hurt.  Then I went to a game in jr. high because a boy I liked was going to be there and that's when it happened.  Not only did I fall in love with that boy but I fell in love with the sport, and although the guy is no longer in my life, the game still is and I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love everything about it and I can't wait to watch the US beat Canada for the gold medal tomorrow!!!  My AWESOME HUSBAND was deployed during our 1 year wedding anniversary so he made up for it by sending me and my best friend, Holly, who I mentioned in # 3, to the NHL All Star game in Montreal:

Where we met GORDIE HOWE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (For you non-hockey fans, he is AKA Mr. Hockey!!!!)

But also ALEXANDER OVECHKIN who is, in my opinion, the 2nd best current player (some may argue he's the best, I disagree)!!!!

Let me tell ya, if my husband misses another anniversary, he set the bar REALLY high!

5. My grandma was my best friend and I 100% believe I would not be who I am today without her influence! I miss her dearly!

Which leads me to #6:

6.  Jason and I are JOPers!  We were laying in bed talking one night about getting married when he got back from deployment and I started thinking about my grandpa being sick with cancer, and Jason's grandma being sick with cancer, and Jason's grandpa being sick in general and the thought of my grandpa not being at my wedding freaked me out.  My grandparents practically helped raise me and if he didn't make it until Jason got home from deployment, I would have been besides myself, so we called our parents the next morning and said "what are you doing on Saturday?, nothing? good.  we're coming home (to Cincinnati) and getting married." And that is exactly what we did.  We took our parents, grandparents (who didn't quite understand why we were doing what we were doing), and our siblings and went to this ghetto little chapel in Kentucky and got married.  

Right before Jason deployed, his grandpa passed away, while he was gone, my grandpa passed and right after he got home, my grandma passed away.  I could not be happier that we did things the way we did!

7. Speaking of wedding, we had a big ceremony/reception a few months after Jason got home from his last deployment and I got a FREE wedding dress!  I read on the knot about a woman in New Hampshire that was giving away bridal gowns to women engaged to deployed soldiers for 2 days and 2 days only.  I made a few phone calls (lucky for me, my best friend still worked for Delta) and the next morning, my sister(and MOH) and I got up REALLY early in the morning and hopped on a flight to Boston.

We rented a car, spent a few hours in Boston, being tourists, drove to New Hampshire, stuck our feet in the freezing cold ocean

tried on 3 dresses (I think, maybe 4), ate some yummy seafood, got back in the car and drove back to Boston and flew home with a gorgeous wedding dress for free!

I even ended up on the front page of the small town's newspaper the following day =)  It was such a fun experience, and I'm so glad I got to share it with my awesome sister!

8. Before I married Army, I dated all other major branches of military (Navy on and off for a couple years, Air Force for about 2 weeks and Marine for a year and a half)...sorry, no pictures for this one!  Needless to say, most people weren't surprised when I married a soldier!  On my behalf, I must say that I never sought these guys out, it just sort of happened that way!

9. I love to cook, but I hate cleaning!  I would cook even more than I already do if I didn't have to clean up after myself.  I hate dishes, I hate laundry, I have vacuuming, I hate dusting...I am not cut out to be a house wife!

10.  I'm tired and I'm going to bed...maybe I'll think of something better to put here in the morning! (Edit: While laying in bed unable to sleep until 5 am, I decided I want to run the Cincinnati Flying Pig 1/2 Marathon in 9 weeks

However, I'm not a runner AT ALL, so I'm probably setting myself up for failure, but we'll see how it goes....training starts TOMORROW!!!!!)

Tori, thank you again, this was so much fun for me!  I got to go through some old photos to add here and I loved it!  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

BIG NEWS...not about me...

MY BABY SISTER IS ENGAGED! 

I am thrilled she found the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with at 18 years old!  I know for sure that I was NOT ready to be engaged at 18 but I guess this is one way we're different (it's hard to find those differences sometimes, she's ALMOST exactly like me!)  Both of my brothers have been with their significant others since they were about 17...I guess it's about time they get introduced to ya'll!

Meet Craig and Suzi:  They've been together about 7 years and engaged for almost 4 =)

And Brad and Jamie: They've been dating almost 4 years now!

Somehow both of my brothers were smart enough to pick the right girl the 1st time...my sister and I had to dig our way through quite a few bad choices to find the right man.

Some how my sister found herself a soldier...well, actually she found the guy, they broke up, he joined the Army, they got back together and now they're engaged, and he's deployed.  I support them fully but I can't help but have the statistics running through the back of my mind and I can only pray she doesn't become one of those statistics!  For now I'm going to try to be positive and help her plan the wedding of their dreams, as soon as she asks me to  ;-)

grandpa

Yesterday was a year since you left this world and not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of you...you were my rock for so many years and I appreciate you and love you more than I ever could have told you...you are missed!

Roots...

I decided to start this blog as a way for our friends and family to keep up with this crazy ride we call life in the military, and as a way for me to share my food and photography with the world.  I have to admit though, since I started blogging, life has been more than boring around here.  While Jason is finishing grad school, it almost feels like we're not a military family.  Jason is home all the time (except for the few hours 3 days a week that he goes to class), he has a beard (can't wait till that's gone for good!) and unless I go on post to go to the commissary or PX, I rarely even see people in uniform.  We almost feel like a normal civilian couple, or at least what I assume a civilian couple would be like.  I'm not complaining, not one bit, just explaining why there isn't much posted lately. Until we receive orders, which should be any day now, and can begin the process of moving our lives to Japan, I hope you stick with me!

And because I don't like to post with out at least one picture...go team USA Hockey!!!

Project365 {week7}

{12Feb10} Jason was loving all the dogs...me, not so much, I slept on the couch!

{13Feb10} my $240 Ralph Lauren dress that I paid $25 for...it was a great day of shopping!

{14Feb10} my breakfast courtesy of Jason

{15Feb10}Icicles

{16Feb10} I can't post this picture yet...

{17Feb10} This dog LOVES apple cores!

{18Feb10} My boys taking a nap

{19Feb10} Yay for a clean pantry =)

Project365 {week6}

This project has made me realize exactly how lame life in MO really is, especially in the winter! My life revolves around my dog, food and, well, more food! Hopefully once the weather gets warmer and I leave the house a bit more often, these photos will become much more interesting!

{5Feb10} my attempt at making chocolate covered boxing glove rice crispy treats for the UFC fight...at least they tasted good =)

{6Feb10} I FINALLY found a spice rack I like that doesn't come with spices..I already had those, just needed a better way to store them!

{7Feb10} HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAZ! (thanks for driving an hour each way to get cake batter ice cream cake Ty!)
{8Feb10} homemade Chinese for me while Jason was at class

{9Feb10} this has become my new favorite snack!
{10Feb10} Buster always looks so sad while we eat...you'd think we never feed him!
{11Feb10} Yeah, our dog watches the Daily Show...what about it?!?!

Flavor of the Week {Yummy Chicken}

There is some discrepancy of what this chicken actually is, the original recipe found on PioneerWoman was criticized for being called "Butter Chicken", so we're going with yummy chicken! This tasted just as good as it looked AND it was easy to make so it goes down as a WIN in my books! In fact, it was SO easy that I'm not even including step by step pictures (mainly b/c they didn't turn out well, but also because YOU DON'T NEED THEM!) If you would like to see how PW did it, you can see that by clicking the link above for the original recipe, she takes great photos!

Ingredients:

4 pieces Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

5 cloves Garlic, Minced

1 teaspoon Salt

½ teaspoons Black Pepper

½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper

¼ teaspoons Ground Coriander

¼ teaspoons Cumin

¼ teaspoons Cardamom (I could NOT find this anywhere in Fort Lost in the Woods, so I left it out)

1 whole Lime, Juiced

1 whole Onion, Diced

¼ cups Butter

1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Tomato Sauce

1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 pint Whipping Cream

1 bunch Chopped Cilantro, to taste

Step 1: Combine the 1st 9 ingredients in a bowl or ziplock bag and marinate over night.

Step 2: Melt the butter in a large skillet then add the onion until slightly brown. Scoot the onion to the sides of the skillet and place the chicken in the pan. Cook each side about 5 minutes until brown then add the tomato sauce and diced tomato, cover and cook about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Right before serving and the cream and stir to combine then the cilantro, again, stirring to combine. I served mine with butter noodles but the original say to serve with Basmati rice, I'm sure either are great!

Here's a photo of what mine looked like at the end

Flavor of the Week {Soft Pretzels}

I just realized I've never posted what has become the "famous" pretzels! I found this recipe at Annies Eats, where I find most of my recipes, she is AMAZING!!! Her site is the 1st one I go to when I'm looking for a new recipe. I started making these last summer and now almost every time we're invited somewhere, it's requested that this is what I bring. I'd never made a dough from scratch when I 1st made these, so I was a little intimidated, but they are super easy and I've never had a problem making these! I hope you give them a try and enjoy them as much as we do! Ps, they are great frozen and reheated like the ones you buy in the freezer section at the grocery.

Soft Pretzels makes 8

Ingredients:

1½ cups warm water (110-115° F)
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
22 oz. all-purpose flour (about 4½ cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

For finishing:
Cooking spray
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water
Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Step 1: Mix the water sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let sit 5 minutes. Then mix on low with a paddle attachment to combine the yeast. Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk. (the photo is after it has doubled in size)

Step 2:Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot.

Step3:In the meantime, divide the dough into 8-10 equal pieces.

Working with one piece at a time, roll a segment out into a 24-inch long rope.Make a U-shape with the rope and holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and onto the bottom of the U-shape in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place on the cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 or 2 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and return to the baking sheet. (If you put them in upside down, when you take them out, you can flip them onto the parchment paper which is easier than trying to slide them off) Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.

Project365 {week5}

{29Jan10} cut off 8 inches and donated to Locks of Love

{30Jan10} playing in the snow

{31Jan10} cleaning out the spices

{01Feb10} Love these boys =)

{02Feb10} FAIL #2

{03Feb10} the #1 reason I never wanted a pet

{04Feb10} I love when the hubby makes dinner