So...

about this half-marathon. My achilles tendons/ankles are saying no. They have been so sore since I've started running a lot lately. Sore as in I have to walk down the stairs funny. Do I really want to do a half-marathon? The magic eight-ball is saying "heck no" today!

I am, however, enjoying running more regularly. I'm getting into enough of a routine lately that I feel bad if I don't get some exercise in. Usually I'm pretty good about staying on the couch, guilt-free!

So I don't know about the half-marathon. Worth the pain from training? I don't know!

Four Eyes

My new glasses came in. I'm not going to be wearing them much, but for driving- yes. Grocery shopping? Probably. It's hard to see the signs!

Dorky? Yes. I like them though.

On an entirely different note...does anyone do freezer meals? I was thinking that it might be a good idea to have some meals prepped and frozen for the beginning of the school year. That time of year is so exhausting and I don't usually feel like cooking. Rather than eating out all the time, I thought it would be good to prep meals while I have time. Any good website or cookbook suggestions for freezer meals?

Tapas & Paella

That's what we had for dinner last night...we had some delicious tapas, paella, and sangria for our anniversary dinner. Yum!

Gil kept taking pictures of me while I was getting ready to leave...

Anniversary picture!

We finished out with our typical trip to the pastry shop for dessert. Yes please!

Gil got a peanut butter mud pie and I got carrot cake, of course. I don't know when it happened, but carrot cake has moved into my top two desserts, I think.

Since we got sangria at dinner, we didn't have our Year 3 bottle of wine...savin' it for another day.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

3 years of wedded bliss!

Set to Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am"- Our wedding song!

The Mirror is Up!

Lately I've been taking the bull by the horns...at least with hanging things up in our house. Normally I would probably ask Gil to hang the mirror and pictures that I've hung around the house lately. I don't have a great track record for placing things on the wall in a good spot or hanging things straight. But I have to say, I've been on a role lately so I decided to tackle the mirror. I had a few problems, but was able to get it up on the wall successfully.

I love that this mirror was on sale at IKEA for (I think) $14.99 or so.

Fun pattern, pretty drawer knobs.

I don't know what all I want on this sideboard type table yet, but this is how it's currently looking. On the right is a vase of fresh lavender from Trader Joe's that I picked up today. So delicious smelling! I also framed my favorite of the prints from the IKEA pack that I used in the upstairs bathroom.

Here's another shot taken from the living room looking into the dining room area. The space where the red table is has been empty for the past two years. I love how it adds a pop of color, storage, and visual interest!

I really haven't spent much time decorating the basement, but I bought this from Target this week. I'm not a big proponent of buying pre-framed art from big chain stores, but I thought this was a really fun print.

Here's a shot from far away. I centered the picture on the wall, but now I kinda wish I hadn't because it would be fun to put a few smaller frames next to it. Maybe some other time...

I love these pillows that we picked up from IKEA a while ago. The green rug is also from IKEA. It looks dark here, but it's a fun bright green color actually. I'm not so good with picture-taking!

It's fun for me to keep track of our house progress since we bought it two years ago. I love our little bungalow!

Just a few little house additions...

I realize that this is not exciting to you, but I FINALLY hung these pictures up from Seattle. There is another picture that I bought for this room but I keep forgetting to buy a mat for the frame. I also have to figure out a way to put some kind of hanging fixture on the back of the frame. Hopefully that won't take me another 6 months...!

I also hung the pictures that I bought from IKEA in our bathroom. I love how small changes like this make me so happy! Next project for this bathroom is to add a glass shelf that I bought from IKEA to get all the clutter off the counter.

Love these prints!

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Kitten update (because I know you were wondering!): I called our vet and they put me in touch with a woman who fosters kittens until they are old enough to be put up for adoption.

Sometime during the morning, one of the kittens disappeared. I had already called the vet and was waiting for them to get back to me about the foster lady. I got nervous that the mom had come back to get the kittens while I wasn't watching. So I didn't want to put them in a box and bring them in to the house, like the vet suggested.

But I kept a watch and there was no sign of the momma cat. The foster lady said they probably needed to be fed since they were so little, so I ended up bringing the three kittens to her. She said they were probably 4 or 5 days old.

Kitten Love

Laila found some friends outside (and they've been driving her ca-razy)!

If you've ever gone sunglass shopping with me...

One of the things that makes summer great is the chance to get caught up on appointments that are hard to make during the school year. For example, the eye check up appointment that I've been putting off for oh, the last 5 years or so.

My vision is pretty good, but lately I've noticed that things in the distance are a bit more blurry than normal. I have glasses, but I pretty rarely wear them. I mostly got them for seeing the board during lectures in college (or maybe at the end of high school? I can't remember). But I really dislike my glasses and therefore I do not like to be seen in them. Also, someone once told me that if you wear your glasses a lot then your vision gets worse. Probably not true, but it's always stuck with me.

Anyhoo, today I finally went to get my eyes checked. Good news is, my prescription is pretty darn close to being the same as it was 5+ years ago.

Better news, I picked out a pair of frames that I actually like. I tried to find a picture online, but I can't remember what the frames were called, just that they're Nicole Miller brand.

But anyways, on to the part about sunglasses. If you've ever gone with me to try to pick out sunglasses, you know how frustrating it is because they are always always crooked on my face. I always complained during these sunglass shopping excursions that my face is crooked. Then the person I was shopping with would say something like, "No, no. Your face is not crooked, it's the glasses". But really, every pair?

So when the lady was helping me pick out frames today, she took one look at me and confirmed that one ear is not level with the other. I knew it! Thank you so much, ears, for making it so difficult to pick out eyewear for the past several years.

Also, as she saw the types of frames that I liked, she informed me that I was "geek chic". Ha this made me laugh. Sounds about right. At least I'm some kind of chic. :)

Something About Me...

I'm a goal-oriented person. Maybe you've noticed that by now. I like having goals. Keeps me movin'.

So I've decided that I'm going to run the Detroit half-marathon in October. (Ah!) I ran the 25k Riverbank run back in 2007. That seems like a very, very long time ago. Since then, the longest I've run is the 10k in May. I'm nervous.

This is a really cool race though, because the course takes runners across the Ambassador Bridge and through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. That's right, I'm runnin' to Canada. So my hope is that by writing out this goal, I will have to stick with it. I'm thinking about registering today so that I can't back out!

My training schedule starts on the 26th (our anniversary haha), wish me luck!

P.S. Erin, this means you ARE doing the marathon! Okay? Okay!

Yummy Recipe

I made this pasta earlier this week & thought it was really good. You should try it! Instead of parmesan, I added a little mozzarella on top.

myrecipes.com

• YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups pasta mixture and 3 tablespoons feta)
• TOTAL: 40 MINUTES
• COURSE: Main Dishes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces uncooked farfalle pasta
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 cup vertically sliced yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 5 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 3 cups baby spinach
• 3 tablespoons shaved fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

• 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 1 tablespoon salt. Add pasta, and cook according to package directions; drain.
• 2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and oregano; sauté 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Add garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and vinegar; sauté 3 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften. Add pasta and spinach; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat, and stir in Parmigiano-Reggiano, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Sprinkle with feta.

David Bonom, Cooking Light
JULY 2010

Take that, house!

The past couple of days I have been busy around the house. I decided to take on some of the projects that have been hanging over my head like a dark cloud...namely the treadmill room and the laundry room. These two areas were getting pretty outta control. I can't believe how much storage space we actually do have, now that we're using it well. So glad we whipped those spaces into shape...(I just tried to write a whip sound...but couldn't figure out how to spell it...think about it)!

First up, we have some before and afters of the treadmill room, otherwise known as my arch nemesis. The problem with this room is that I couldn't figure out what we needed it for. The desk isn't in there anymore, so it's not an office. It basically has the treadmill, our computer printer and shelves. To start, I sat down and thought about how we wanted the room to function.

Before:

After:

Before: The shelves were just holding unorganized stuff.

After: Organized! Boxes with labels in the middle. There are actually empty shelves left over. Yay.

Before: The computer printer + some grocery bags?

After: I added a space for mail that needs to be shredded or filed. Before, our shredder was across the room and not in a space that it could be plugged in all the time so we rarely used it. Now I'm hoping that easy access means we'll use it!

Before: Gil likes technology. There were boxes with tons of random cords that I didn't want to get rid of, but I also had no idea what to do with!

After: I found this cord organization idea on realsimple.com. Love that website!

I can't believe how bare the room looks now!

Next up...basement closet (that I never go in because I'm scared there are spiders in it).

Before: Stuff thrown in the bottom of the closet.

After: Floor space looks much better! I added shelves for more room on the side.

I put all our winter gear in tubs and found cute scrapbook paper to make labels. Not a huge difference, but makes me happy!

And last up, the laundry room.

Before: Where to start??

After: I bought a bunch of tubs from Target to corral all our stuff!

Before: Shelves were crammed...

After: Labeled containers make it easy to find everything!

It's amazing how much better I feel now that I've tackled those spaces! Thank you summer for time to do all of this!

Run 211 Miles in 2011!

In January, I made some New Years resolutions. Two of my goals were running related. I ran the Riverbank Run 10k (check!) and yesterday I reached my goal of running 211 miles in 2011 (check!). In retrospect, I guess this goal was pretty easy since it's only July. But oh well, I will just keep runnin' anyways.

I hadn't run in my vibram shoes for about two weeks because I cut my heel and they rubbed on it too much. Well, yesterday the vibrams felt comfortable enough to wear. The problem is that I had decided to do a 5k distance and you're supposed to break yourself into wearing those shoes. I felt really good during the run, so I just kept running. I have to say, I feel a huge difference in my vibrams compared to normal running shoes. I feel much faster and lighter on my feet. It wasn't until I stopped that I realized I had been getting blisters. Boo. My calf muscles are also pretty sore. I'm in pretty sad shape. I ran five days in a row, so I don't feel bad taking today off!

Now I'm off to continue organizing our house/life. Have a great FRIDAY!!!!

Operation Organize Our House Has Begun!

Today I've been busy going through junk. Wow, we've held on to some things for no good reason. I actually found a grocery bag with unopened mail in it from the week we moved (in 2009, yikes). Good thing there wasn't anything important in there! I'm really going to choose to believe that we would've put things away like normal people had our basement not erupted a week after we moved into the house. Instead, we ended up shoving things into closets since we had to move all the basement furniture up to various rooms on the main floor.

However, as I've said in the past that excuse is no good now that I have a good chunk of time (ah, lovely summer) to actually organize/get rid of/donate our stuff.Today I found my wedding planner binder that my sister got for me (thanks sis!). I found various "inspiration" photos that I used to gather ideas. It was funny to see that I gathered a lot of photos with natural elements in them- our wedding turned out nothing like that.

Maybe I'll use this for a 10th anniversary wedding party??

I also found a folder with wedding receipts, contracts, and a calendar to keep it all straight. Take a look at the last week. So funny..."Married Life Begins"...if you can't make it out...that's an arrow pointing to "Eternity". That's right, Gil is not getting out of this one! I was so excited to get married (and still am so excited that we are married)!!

...I wonder, what other fun things I will find in our closets this week?

An IKEA Day

Today on my list of things to do was to go get fitted for a custom bowling ball. Yes, I'm very, very cool. Gil won me a bowling ball in a raffle at our end of the year work party. Since that time he's asked me on a daily basis, "Did you get your bowling ball today??" Well, today was the day! I will actually get use out of it because we bowl in a league during the summer for Gil's work.

And since I know you're all wondering what it looks like, behold the glory that is my new bowling ball:

I got to pick the bag. :)

It was actually pretty interesting seeing how they drill the holes and such. There was a lot of measuring of my fingers involved.

But anyways, that's not what this post is about. The more fun part of my day was spent at IKEA. IKEA and I tend to have a fickle relationship. Actually I think I am fickle with most shopping. It's either an on day or an off day where I find nothing.

Today was an on day & I found lots of great stuff for the house. I was getting worried about the cost as I indiscriminately filled my basket, but good ol' IKEA...the receipt was long but the price wasn't too bad.

We purchased the following two prints at Pike Place in Seattle when we went in 2009. Poor things have been waiting for frames since then. IKEA is definitely the place for frames. These are going in the basement bath.

These prints I love! It was a 5 pack. One of them is getting stored for now. Another one I framed with the matte and put it on the red sideboard table for now. These three are going to be hung up in the master bath. Pretty pretty.

I also bought a little lamp for the console table in our living room, a mirror that might work over the red table, some wooden hangers, a couple of stemless wine glasses, a cookie jar, and a glass shelf for our bathroom. I really wanted these wine glasses in the stemless variety but couldn't find them in the store.

Can't wait to get all these frames up on the wall!

Focus

So remember how I was so excited for summer vacation so I could get lots of projects done around the house? Well, it turns out that in the summertime there are other things I'd rather be doing. Like sitting on the patio reading while Laila frolics in the sprinkler. Or giving myself a pedicure. Or going to Target.

The theme for this summer has been ADD so far. Seriously, I'll be folding laundry one minute, go upstairs to put clothes away and I'll notice the floor needs to be vacuumed, so I'll go downstairs for the vacuum and on the way down, I'll remember I didn't water the plants on the front porch yet...and so on. I've been getting sidetracked. I tried to get a paper done for class today and it took FOREVER, mostly because I kept getting up from the computer. I can't seem to get myself focused on a project long enough to finish it! I don't really know why that is, but I'm going to put my foot down and get some stuff done this week!

So here's a list of some of the things I WILL get done this week:

* Clean/Organize laundry room

* Buy shelves for master bath

* Organize treadmill room (sigh, I still don't know what to do with this room!)

* Pick out & order pictures for various empty frames

* Hang pictures in basement bathroom

* Finish writing paper

..Actually, that list doesn't look too bad. It seems worse when it's all floating around in my head.

Maybe it's the fact that I have so much free time lately that I don't feel pressured to get anything done, but that seems like a bad excuse! Summer will be over before I know it & I've been waiting all year long to have this time off!

I'll leave you with a picture of the newest addition to my fun red sideboard table. I found these fake flowers at Michael's and I love how they look here. This little space makes me happy every time I walk by!

In the top drawer, I added a little area for bill paying & general mail- checks, stamps, envelopes, thank you cards, mail opener, etc. since it's right next to the dining room table where I usually open the mail. It's also a good place for storing things that usually end up accumulating on the dining room table, like my ipod holder and headphones. I really don't like things on the table! Just an easy place to tuck things away!

Summer Vacation

So...we finally figured out what we're doing for vacation! Can I just say that picking a hotel is very stressful to me? On one hand, I feel like it's not worth spending a million dollars on a room that we won't be in very much. But on the other hand, I tend to be a bit of a hotel snob (I can't help it!). Don't you just love a new, modern hotel?

Anyways, it took a lot of discussion and checking of reviews, but we finally figured out what we're doing. We're going to spend just a couple of days in Traverse City like we did last year and then we're going to Mackinac. We decided to actually stay on the island. We've never been to Mackinac Island together & we've heard that it's pretty fun to see what the island is like once all the tourists have left.

We were going to go to the UP and see the Pictured Rocks, but it ended up seeming like too much travel to hit TC, Mackinac Island, and the UP. I think we're going to save the Pictured Rocks for maybe next summer and go on a camping trip in the UP. Now I just have to figure out our itinerary (nothin' too structured...I just like to figure out a loose plan of things we want to see) for when we're up there.

So excited...bring on vacation!

Summer Day

Donors Choose Project!

My new Donors Choose project was just accepted and posted to the site! Check out my proposal for a new MP3 Player Listening Center!!

Livin' Loud with a New Listening Center

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend we brought Laila to Lake Michigan to try out swimming again. We brought her last year when she was just a little pup and the waves were a bit intimidating to her.

Laila at Lake Michigan Last Summer

First of all can I just say, sometimes I don't realize how much growing she did in a year until I look at baby pictures next to current pictures. Wow, she's large. Anyways, this year we thought she would handle it a lot better & that she'd be excited to dive in. Indulge me as I pretend to be my dog. I'll be honest, I spend a lot of my time narrating Laila's life. Go ahead and judge.

Laila: "I would love to roll in this sand right now. The beach is great!"

"Water? I could go for that."

"Wait a minute...I'm not so sure about this. Why is the water moving like that!?"

Sue: "Maybe if you go out, she'll follow you!" Fail.

Gil proceeded to lead her out to the water and she proceeded to lead him back to shore.

"I don't think so."

"You guys go, I'm good here."

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the next 30 minutes of beach time, but we decided that Laila was probably freaked out by having the leash on her in the water. We took her off the leash and threw the ball into the water and she practically dove in. It was pretty cute seeing her swim around. She played fetch and swam in the water for a while before she got too tired. So we had a rocky start, but she ended up loving it in the end.

Back in the Car...Crimpy Girl

Today we headed over to our friends house, where we grilled out and the dogs played. If you recall, Erin and Matt are the owners of Wrigley, who just happens to be Laila's boyfriend. Something we noticed today was how much our dogs have calmed down since they turned one. They played here and there, but spent a lot of the time sprawled out in the shade.

Erin & I

Happy Fourth of July everyone!