Running

I ran 10.5 miles this morning and loved every minute of it. Our church has started a group for runners to meet occasionally on the weekends and run at our own pace and meet up at the end to hang out for a little while. I was nervous because the last time I ran anything over 6 miles was for the P.F. Chang's 1/2 marathon in Phoenix. At about mile 7 or 8 I became pretty badly dehydrated to the point that I stopped sweating at about mile 11 or 12. I had to walk quite a bit of the last 4 miles of the race. I was completely bummed out about it, but I knew I had to watch my body and actually listen to it so I didn't hurt myself any worse. But, as I rounded the final turn into the parking lot where the finish line was, I picked up my pace and ran across that finish line!

That experience was one of the most emotional moments of my life. When I saw my husband, I started to cry, when I received my completion medal, I cried again. When I walked out and saw my husband again, I cried once again. Here is my running story:

Two years ago I could barely run to the end of my block. I had always told myself that I would start running, but it lasted one day, or maybe two, and then peter out. My best friend wanted to start running again and my husband encouraged me and downloaded the best podcast to my iPod for me to follow. Here is the podcast if you are interested.   It is a nine week program that literally had me from the couch to running 30 minutes without stopping. I was completely blown away that I could run 30 minutes without stopping. I am not fast by any means, but I was able to do it!

I was going to try to train with two of my closest friends for the P. F. Chang's 1/2 in 2010, but in October of 2009 I ran a beautiful 6 mile trek with no pain and thought I was home free. The next morning I woke up and could barely walk. I had a hard time walking for an entire week and I took a two week break. When I tried to go back out there I ended up only being able to run 1/2 mile. I was devastated. Not only could I run only a tiny bit, my shin splints were raging. I broke down and it felt like a little bit of who I had grown to be was taken away from me.

I didn't give up! With encouragement from family and friends I worked little by little to bring myself back up to a 5k. I ran one in March of 2010 and felt great! In July I joined the gym and took on a personal trainer. (The best thing I have done in a while!) My trainer specializes in working with runners. He got me working hard! I dropped weight, gained muscle and was on my way to training for the P. F. Chang's 1/2 marathon in January of 2011. During one of my training runs I was running around my original training path at a nearby lake. I began to cry as I was circling that lake because I saw the benches that used to be my landmarks. I was excited when I could run from one bench to another, or all the way to the bench on the other side of the lake. Now I was able to run circles around both of the lakes and then a few miles more. It put into perspective how far I had really come.

As I said above, I completed the P.F. Chang's 1/2. Now my goal is to run a half marathon in under 2 hours and 45 minutes. My last one was completed in 3 hours 6 minutes. I can do it. I know I can. The most amazing thing

The one on the left is my first 5k. The one on the right is before the P.F. Chang's. The difference might not be as apparent here, but to me, it is HUGE. I feel better, I look better and I am just better all around. Running has changed my life. It has made me a better person and I find peace while I am pounding the pavement.

10.5 miles today and NO dehydration! It's a start toward a more successful 1/2 next time!

Fingers Crossed

When I was 12 my family came to Arizona for Christmas break because my dad was selling Christmas trees in Sierra Vista. One of the places we went to visit was the Biosphere 2 complex. For those of you who don't know, the Biosphere 2 is a lunar environment that was built just outside of Tucson to see if it would work if we ever decided to colonize the moon. The base of it is metal and the top is all metal and glass structure. The inside has multiple environments from tropical rain forest to grasslands. It also has the largest man made ocean in the world. (Or at least to that point.)   The Biosphere 2 got its name because the first Biosphere is Earth, making this the second one. When it was first built they had scientists that specialized in each environment live within the facility for two years, conducting experiments and observing the successes and failures of each area so that they would be able to adjust and make it better should they build it on the moon.

Anywho, I became obsessed with this place. I even had a poster framed in our TV room when we got home and I swore upon all that I had that I would be the marine biologist who got to take care of the ocean. I just knew that I was meant for that path. Unfortunately, when I was in high school we went to Hawaii and I tried snuba diving. I learned that I can not go under the water more than about 10 feet without having horrid ear pain. I can't regulate my ears to save my life. So, I followed my second love and became a teacher. However, my love for the Biosphere 2 has never faded.

I learned recently that they do a STEM institute every summer for different grade level groups. My grade level group is up this summer and I have applied to attend. It is a 15 day institute where I would go to the complex and live in one of their casitas and they would teach me how to effectively teach my classroom to fit the STEM model. (STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Math). Not only will they teach it, they allow us to try it and give us all of the materials to take home. We also get to conduct a research project and take that home with us as well. I was beside myself when I found out about this opportunity! The application deadline was last Friday and we are supposed to find out in the next couple of weeks whether we got in or not. I will definitely let you all know the outcome, but as of now, I am anxiously waiting, saying some pretty hefty prayer and keeping my fingers crossed. I have never wanted any experience as badly as I want this one! It would truly be a childhood dream come true.

Random side note: They are designing a biosphere that will be built out in the ocean! Soooo cool! (I am such a science geek it isn't even funny!)

Kitchen Comforts

Tonight I made chocolate chip cookies. Simple some may say, but it is something I am very, very good at. Some may say that sounds pretty pretentious, but I am serious. People have bought ingredients for my cookies so that I could make them when I came over. I used to make batches of cookie dough for my roommate in college just so she could eat it straight from the bowl. My cookies are not from a fancy recipe. Shhh... don't tell anyone, they are just Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, but I make them in my own, very special way.

I only use one particular type of margarine (Imperial Margarine) and it has to be softened to the exact texture. (Seriously, any other butter just won't make it the same!) I put the ingredients in exactly the same way every time, and I beat the batter extra long when I add the eggs until it is creamy and fluffy. There is no special bowl just for the dry ingredients either. I just throw them all in after mixing the wet stuff. Then, the final, most special, touch... milk chocolate chips. There is just something about the smooth, creaminess of the milk chocolate chips over semisweet that just puts it over the top. It doesn't compare.

Placing a couple of cookies on a saucer with a cup of milk makes it the perfect evening snack while watching a movie. Take a look for yourself:

Doesn't that just make you want one? Tonight's batch was extra good. Sometimes they just turn out better than any other batch, and these were just that kind of batch. They were perfect in texture going on the cookie sheet and fluffy and light coming out of the oven and when they cooled, they flattened out to just the perfect thickness. Chewy and soft with stringy chocolate chips. Tomorrow evening I will have a large group of women over to my house to share in these cookies as a dessert. My husband was lucky to get these two.

There is something about a good chocolate chip cookies that is comforting. It makes me feel at home, no matter where I am. I know that wherever these cookies are made, they are for those that I love. Knowing that those I love enjoy them makes them even more special.

Do you have a special "comfort" recipe? Is it your own creation, or one that you have made so many times it has become yours?

Kitchen Bible

The one thing I can not live without in my kitchen is what I call my "Kitchen Bible," or my hand-written cookbook. I took all of the recipes from my childhood and all of the recipes I have loved along the way and compiled them into one handy notebook. If I were to lose this notebook it would be the end of my kitchen world as I knew it. I have misplaced it in the past and was a frantic mess looking for it. Without it I feel like a chicken with its head cut off! I have a million cookbooks, but none of them can come even close to what my treasure holds within its pages.

One of my many recipes in my "Kitchen Bible"

I have taken recipes off of the back of packages and have scribbled them down on scraps of paper to later tape into my notebook so that I can be sure to find them again in the future.

Sugar cookies on the left and corn chowder on the right. Mmmmm...

I think that it is important to compile recipes that mean a lot to you or that you absolutely love because being able to recreate these things can start family traditions or create memories. I want to share these memories with my children so that they can share in them with me. Each recipe has a story behind it, whether it is an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe from a friend (that contains pudding mix of all things!) or a secret family recipe or just a random cookbook recipe that you loved and can adapt to make it your own. I know I have a lot of love stored up in these pages and I can't wait to share them with my kiddos when they come along.

Do any of you have your own "Kitchen Bible"? If so, what kind of recipes do you put in it? If not, what do you use more for your recipes, cookbooks or the internet?

Kitchen Adventures

I decided to follow in my dad's footsteps and cook up some black eyed peas tonight.

My dad makes these every year for New Year's day because it is a tradition in our family and in some cultures to have a bite for good luck. Unfortunately, this year I did not have a bite on New Year's day. Hopefully I am not cursed! I was looking forward to them the most because I really wanted to have my favorite dish for dinner. Like I stated in an earlier post, I am a picky eater who has a rather odd pallet. I absolutely love black eyed pea burritos. I take a La Tortilla Factory 100 calorie whole grain tortilla and put in about 1/2 cup black eyed peas and sprinkle chopped olives and cheddar cheese on top and roll it all up. Oh. My. Goodness! Is it ever amazing! My adventure began at the dining  room table with a small pile of raw black eyed peas.

My dad always told me that it is extremely important to sort through your beans so that you don't cook any icky ones into your pot. We have also found rocks in our beans! They really do just dry them and bag them without looking! Make sure you sort your beans to make sure you aren't crunching dirt when you eat them! When began sorting through my pile I found a few unsavory little buggers. Yes, Dad, I remembered your advice and am glad I did!

You can see the one in the front middle is a reddish brown one when they are supposed to be a creamy white. Several others in this picture have holes in them or are a sickly gray color. (I couldnt' figure out how to make my camera get a closer look at them. I am still learning!) I am extremely glad I took a look around to make sure I didn't put them in my dinner! I placed them all in the pot and washed them a couple of times to get all the remaining grime off and then covered them in water and let them boil then reduced the heat and cooked them until they were tender. My family has never soaked the beans before cooking them. Every bag and recipe I came across tells me to soak the beans overnight or do the quick soak method, but we never have. I think it is just so that the water stays clearer and the beans stay whole because mine turned out just fine without soaking. They didn't take any longer and they were beautiful! My burrito was amazing! I recommend this to anyone who is willing to give it a try. Burritos will never be the same again!

Reasons I Want to Live in New York City

Today I was talking to a friend of mine about my desire to live in New York City. She thought I was nuts. It made me really think about why I want to live there. 

1) The beauty of architecture and nature within a huge city. The perfect meeting of these two things is Central Park. I absolutely am in awe of being in the middle of Central Park and seeing the buildings towering over the treetops as I look up. (Again, didn't I mention the importance of looking up before?) When you are in the middle of Central Park, you feel like you are in the middle of nature, not in the middle of one of the largest cities. When you look up, however, you see the beauty of the city looming over the trees, begging you to join it.
There area parks everywhere. From teeny-tiny to Central Park. I love how the city has maintained the blend of nature within the city. I appreciate that I could look out of my window and see trees up and down the street. Are all streets there like this? Of course not, especially when you get downtown, but for the most part, you can find nature in the busiest of places.

2) Culture. I know I mentioned this one before, but I love that so many cultures are smashed into one large area. If you wanted to find a rare or unique food or spice, New York City is the place to find it. I can't tell you how many times I have looked for an unusual food item and couldn't find it anywhere. I want to be able to walk into a family owned Italian store and pick up some handmade pasta or walk into a spice shop and know I can find the weird spice on my list. Organic food markets? Yes please! The closest health food store is about 20 miles from my house right now. I would much rather shop through my limited selection at my local grocery store.
The biggest thing we are lacking where we live now is quality restaurants, particularly Chinese and Thai. I want to be able to call up an authentic, good Chinese restaurant and have my food delivered! I want to head to a Thai restaurant and know what I am getting is the real deal. I want to spend my weekends trying restaurants from cultures I have never experienced before. New York City offers that.

3) Theater! One of my greatest loves. I want to see Broadway musicals, attend comedy clubs, join a community theater to act, and witness top-notch ballets. This is something we are sorely lacking here in podunkville. I did get to see Wicked when it came through town and was completely enamored with the set design, costumes and quality of acting. When it was over I wanted it to continue. If I lived in New York City I could experience that more often. Yes, tickets are expensive, but one or two shows a year is much better than one show every three years here.

4) Running outside year-round. I understand that NYC gets freezing cold during the winter, but it is not bad to run in the cold. Where I come from it gets so hot that sometimes it feels like my eyeballs are on fire. Running outside anywhere above 85 degrees can run a high risk of dehydration. I have experienced dehydration and I can tell you it is miserable and I don't wish it upon anyone. Cold I can manage. Layers are good. I can always put more on, I can't always take more off. I want to run the entire city, explore every path, every sidewalk, every street. Would I ever run Central park alone? No. But to be able to run outside throughout the year excites me.

5) Restaurants. Some of the best food in the world comes from NYC. Max Brenner and Serendipity 3 are two of my current favorites. But, more than the stereotypical places, I want to find the family owned, mom and pop shops. I know that the best piece of pizza comes from a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Have I eaten it yet? No, but I want to find it! Greek, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Irish, English, Indian. I want to try them all! I am not the one to follow the newest trendy places. I want to support the little shops. Does that mean that I will never try the trendy places or the restaurants owned by the big-name chefs? No. Those will just be saved for special occasions like a birthday or anniversary.

6) Farmers Markets. I. Love. Farmer's. Markets. Especially open-air markets like many in NYC. Locally grown, fresh, brilliantly colored produce is a feast for the eyes. I want to walk the aisles, pick up the fruits and vegetables and inhale the sweet and earthy smells. I want to find heirloom tomatoes, fingerling potatoes and fresh arugula and artichokes. I would take them home and make a meal that would explode on my taste buds and excited the senses. We don't have that here. I want it.

7) The noise and excitement. NYC is the city that never sleeps. I love that. Sometimes I am awake at odd hours. I like knowing that I am not alone if I am up at 1am. The hum of cars, the rumble of the subway, the murmur of people walking below. This does not turn me off of living there. If anything, this makes it all the more exciting.

8) The subway! I love the subway system of NYC. There is something about zooming from one place to another without needing a car. I am an avid people watcher. This is the perfect place for it! Hundreds of thousands of people use the subway every day. Hundreds of musicians play in the tunnels. It makes one feel like anything can happen. No matter where you go in the city, you are always connected to another location, just by hopping on the subway system. Sigh... Heaven for a person who wants to explore.

9) Pictures. My favorite pictures that my husband and I have ever taken have been the ones from New York City. There is so much to look at and so many nooks and crannies to explore that photography would be a snap! It seems like no matter where you go there is something, or someone, to take a picture of. A quiet residential street offers a row of historic facades. Central Park offers unique landscape and people. Times Square offers lights and excitement.  The Empire State Building offers spectacular views and unique vantage points of all corners of the city. NYC is a photographer's paradise.

10) Experience. I just want to do it so I have the ability to say I did it. Even if it is just for one or two years. I want it. The hubbub, the noise, the food, the opportunity. NYC makes me feel like I can do anything.

Did I ever see myself living in a place like New York City? Not at all. I love small country towns and quaint places to raise children. But does that mean that I can't want the city now? Of course not. Does it mean that I will actually live there? No. Do I hope to? Absolutely. Maybe someday, we shall see. But for now, I am happy where I am at, dreaming of NYC and hoping that someday I will get the chance to call it home, even for a little while.

Photographs

Some of my favorite moments have been captured by photos. Sometimes, just to remember that something is real I go back to the photos. Have you ever eaten something that was so perfect that when you think about it later it seems like it wasn't real? I went to LA to visit a friend of mine a while back and she was working on some of the world's best cupcakes. I am not joking you. Everything was from scratch, even the cake. What made it all the more spectacular was the buttercream frosting. Just thinking about it now makes me drool. Did she just leave the frosting plain? Nope! Gourmet all the way. We had orange, lemon, almond, cherry, candied ginger, and, my personal favorite, sea salt and honey.

Are you drooling yet? I daydream about them every time I have a store bought cupcake put in front of me. Someday I will have to attempt them myself. The trick with the sea salt and honey frosting is to used whipped honey and chunky sea salt. Mmmmm....

On this same trip we went on a photo adventure and found all sorts of fun things to take pictures of. One of the best pictures I came up with was of some stairs inside the old LA Zoo cages.

I loved the lighting and depth of the picture. It is amazing what you will find when you peek between bars and around corners!

Other moments that I love are times with family. We went with my husband's parents to Glacier National Park a couple of years ago and I took this photo of the lake.

My husband might try to tell you that he took this one because we were handing the camera back and forth, but, nope! I took this one. I was so awestruck by the reflection of the clouds in the water and how it was almost like pure glass.

Two years in a row we visited Disneyland for Christmas. I loved it because I didn't have to decorate my house because Disney was doing my Christmas tree. The thing I loved most was the castle. (Did you know it is Snow White's castle at Disneyland and Cinderella's at Disney World?) Trying to put the beauty of Snow White's castle into words would be a disservice to its loveliness. Let the photo be the descriptor.

Words cannot describe this beauty. The fireworks made it even more amazing. I am in love with lights and this, coupled with the fireworks, was breathtaking. Disneyland truly is a magical place.

Another thing I love about taking pictures is finding the unexpected. I went to our Renaissance festival not too long ago and was wandering about when I found this little beauty.

There were actually two of them, this one and a pink one. They were hanging up in the archway of a booth where if you didn't take the time to look up, you never would have seen them. I was quite taken by the light as it sparkled in the sun. Always take the time to look up, you never know what treasures you might find!

The final two pictures I am going to post today are running photos. I like to run where the view does not repeat itself. We have a lovely neighborhood nearby that allows for me to see the entire valley where we live from all directions as I run. I also love to run in the mornings at sunrise or in the evenings at sunset. I happened upon something quite lovely when I was running one morning and stopped to take a picture of it. The sun in the background did something unusual to the photo and I thought it was unique and unexpected. I is amazing that this photo was taken with my phone!

I love how the sun almost looks liquid behind the cactus. Gorgeous!!

And, finally, an achievement. I  know I have the physical version of the subject of this photo that I can pick up and hold, but I love having something to share with everyone. Two years ago I was obese and couldn't run to the end of my driveway without becoming out of breath. My friends and my husband encouraged me to start running. I followed a podcast program and in nine weeks was able to run for 30 minutes without stopping. Slowly, but without stopping. Five months later I ran my first 5k. That Christmas I suffered a knee injury that took me out of the game for almost 6 months. I started running again last spring and joined the gym in July. Through intense training, I have gone down 9% body fat, lost 14.5 inches total and ran my first 1/2 marathon in January. Without the support of everyone around me I would not have been able to accomplish this amazing success.

Photos help capture a moment that sometimes our memories let slip. We need to always be prepared to make those memories last so we can come back to them when we need a reminder.