Friday Night Musings

Ever have one of those days where you just want to call all of the people in your life and tell them that you love them?  Yep, having one of those days.

To everyone reading: I love you.  Embrace life - always.

I'm trying to be good on my quest to put the "fitness" back into "food faith fitness photography fun" but I wasn't feel a walk or run today.  Pilates DVD at home, it was!  I adore this DVD.  The workouts are in 20 minute increments - perfect for an every day workout that you can sneak into a routine and you can double up if you are feeling ambitious.

Totally random, but look what I got from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program!  Foodbuzz and Tervis teamed up - what a great combination!  Publishers were tasked with creating a new recipe for the tumbler - the wheels are turning in my head already.

I'm off - some of us from church are having a Stewardship Stuffing Party tonight!  Have you ever gotten something in the mail from your church and wondered who put it together?

Wish us luck ...

Breathe.

Okay, I'm a wee bit stressed right now.

I did, however, take an hour break this afternoon to take a walk.  It was much-needed, although I came crashing back to reality as soon as I walked in the door.  I hate that!  How do you keep the zen?

Anyway, my garmin died less than a mile into the walk, but I walked about 50 minutes - soooo 3 miles perhaps?  I'm really happy that I forced myself to get out of the office - I need to do that more often.  Maybe I'll start bringing workout clothes to work so I can leave straight from there?

Bruce came through big time and stopped at the grocery store for some dinner fixin's - and then he cooked!  Wings + Salad - Yum.

Alright, I have a homily that isn't finished yet and I'm fading fast.  Time to buckle down.

Early Morning Crisp Walks

My sister and I took a walk in the cool, crisp 46 degree morning!

Gorgeous!  We did about 3 miles - it was lovely!

We came back to my parents house for a home cooked brunch by my dad!

Amaaaazing.

Unfortunately, it's time for me to get back on the road.  See you in Rehoboth!

Mini Vaca

I spent a large part of my morning and afternoon doing this:

Oh man.  I needed this.  A 24 hour mini vacation where I could really forget about everything and just float around with a good book.

Of course, I was reading a book about the church and spirituality.  But I don't really consider that work, I consider that pleasure reading.

Does that make me sound pathetic?

Wait, don't answer that.

My mom and I ran some errands in the afternoon and came home to a delicious grilled dinner!  I love it when my dad cooks. :)

After dinner my sister and I took a lovely 3 mile walk.  I felt so refreshed after it, I was reminded of how much I really need to take time to work exercise into my schedule.

We are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning so I can be in the office by 9.  I may be a little bit tired but at least it's Wear a Dress Tuesday!

Okay, we're a half hour away from the rose ceremony on The Bachelorette.  I'm on Team JP!  Is anybody else watching?

Sanity.

Walking = Inexpensive Therapy.

I was home with a renewed sense of energy and ready to tackle my inbox. Amazing how that works!

3.1 miles.  Fast-paced walking. Good music in my ears.  Perfection.

Saturday Shenanigans

Not a bad view for a Saturday night, right?

The weather has cooled off and I am officially in love with the citronella sticks that my mother-in-law got for us.  I love working on the deck at night!

***

Let me back up ... This morning started off with a new yoga app ...

It's called YOGA Free and it had pretty good reviews for a free app.  I like it because it guides you  easily through the position transitions and you are able to create your own sessions.  There is, however, a 25 minutes beginner session and that's what I did this morning.  My back is out of whack right now and I was hoping this would help - I'm not sure that it did, but I did feel looser afterwards!

I had originally planned on sitting down, focusing and writing after breakfast, but for many reasons I just couldn't focus and Bruce knew I needed to get out and burn some adrenaline.  He asked some friends if we could borrow their kayaks and within 45 minutes of him pulling me away from my desk we were on the water.

Oh - but not before I ate this!  We showed up to get the kayaks and I was immediately handed a piece of brown sugar cheesecake.  I seriously love the entire Woodard family.  You guys are the best!  Thank you for everything.

I loooove kayaking.  I really wish it was in the budget for us to buy two of our own right now, but it's just not.  The good news is that I think I know what I want now, and I will have all of next fall and winter to save.  Ha!

The views were gorgeous today.  A little bit of wind, but it just gave me a better workout as I paddled. :) And there was no one on the reservoir!  Where was everyone?

Just what my sweet husband ordered.

We were pretty hungry by the time we got home and Bruce asked if I wanted to attempt to grill pizza (we've been dying to try since this dinner over a month ago!).  He made a quick trip to the grocery store while I attempted to re-focus myself and my sermon.  By the time he got home we both got to work in the kitchen.

I cooked up two different kinds of onions and mushrooms with salt, pepper and garlic while Bruce worked with the dough.

Honestly - this was easier said than done.  The dough was REALLY sticky, so we had lots of problems with it.  We tried to toss it in flour, then cornmeal and eventually ruined half of the dough.  So we ended up rolling what we didn't ruin out on a well-greased cookie sheet, put all of our toppings on it (sauce + mozzarella cheese + pepperoni + onions + mushrooms) and threw it on the grill.

Once the dough puffed up, we transferred it off of the cookie sheet (because we didn't want to ruin it), but realized that the dough might burn because of how hot the grill was ... 

... so we transferred it to a pizza stone.

(Are you still following this story?)

We were in hysterics throughout the entire process.  And my kitchen is still a mess.

Needless to say - we are going to try it again sometime.  We have by no means mastered it.  But dinner was delicious.

All in all the whole day was just what I needed.  After dinner I sat outside and cranked out my sermon faster than I ever would have thought.  I took a break to blog and now I am going to finish up a funeral I am presiding over tomorrow and then call it a night.

Life isn't always easy, but it is days like this that I feel insanely blessed.  Goodnight!  xoxo

Okay, I'm Sore

It's the classic story.  Boy meets girl.  Boy marries girl.  Boy and girl buy matching schwinn bikes.  Girl eventually gives girl's daughter the girl's schwinn bike.  Girl's daughter rides it for awhile and then it sits in girl's daughter's garage for years.  Girl's daughter decides to give girl's daughter's daughter the schwinn.

Did you follow that story?  If not, here's the short version.  For years my mom had my grandmother's 1970-something schwinn bike (she and my grandfather had matching ones) and she hasn't been riding it lately.  I don't have a bike, but don't have it in my budget to buy one right now so my dad brought me my mom's or me to ride.  While I was at work this morning they went out to buy me new tubes so I would be all set to ride today.

We drove over to the East Bay Bike Path, which was highly recommended from church members.

Here I was about five minutes before we set out ...

... 10 minutes later my dad was walking my poor bike back to the car.  The gears don't shift.  I think it has something to do with a metal part.  I wasn't really paying attention.

Of course we didn't let a broken bike get in the way of our ride.  Bruce drove home to pick up his other bike, my dad lowered the seat on the bike that Bruce had originally brought to ride so that I could ride it, we rode around a little bit, reconnected with Bruce when he got back with his other bike and (an hour later) headed out on the path.

Phew.

The ride was GORGEOUS!  It's a rail trail, so it is relatively flat and there is a pretty good balance between sunny and shade.

The fun part about this trail is that there are little shops along the way.  We stopped about six miles in for frozen lemonade!

I love having my dad here! Do you think he'll stay here all summer while he's on vacation?!

(Yes, I'm so cool I wear my helmet when I'm not even on the bike.  Don't you wish you were like me?)

All in all, we road 15.03 miles.  It was a great way to re-integrate myself back into biking without killing my legs.  Although, I have to say - I'm not moving as quickly as I usually do!  I'm walkin' like a cowboy!

We came home, showered quick and headed out to dinner.  My dad asked if there was a Chili's or an Applebee's nearby so we went to Chili's.

We were SO HUNGRY by the time we got there!  We started with chips and salsa.

And I ordered the Quesadilla Explosion Salad.  Delicious!

My dad snapped this picture.  Hysterical.

I had so much fun at book club tonight, but I'm exhausted!  We're winding down with some TV and heading to bed soon.

Goodnight!

Back On The Horse

Guess what I did for the second time in about six years?

I went on a bike ride!

I'll be back later with fun details and pictures (and stories, of course - I actually rode one of Bruce's bikes, which is kind of a funny story), but for now I'm off to dinner with my dad and Bruce and then to women's summer book club at the church!

See you later!  I'll probably be sore!

Haggling

What.A.Day.

The good news is that, while the morning was crazy, the afternoon calmed down. I sat down to my desk around 2 pm and worked without stopping or without my phone ringing for three hours straight! I love when I get solid blocks of time to work like that. It feels like good, quality work (as opposed to work when I'm constantly switching around, does that make sense?).

My new Feasting on the Word came today!  I can't believe we are already through the last volume my mom bought for me - time seems to be flying.

This collection is going to look so awesome as it grows, ha!

I got home around 5:30 and asked Bruce if he wanted to take a walk.  We had such a nice time!  The weather was perfect, we ran into a church member and met a new neighbor - perfect summer walk!  I didn't take my garmin, but I think we walked about 3.0 - 3.5 miles.  I think I'm also going to roll out my yoga mat in a bit and stretch for about 20 minutes before I go to bed.

I was very hungry by the time we got home - I had planned to eat the other half of a wrap that I had for lunch (in the midst of the craziness we ordered sandwiches for lunch), but I knew I would need more than that.  I boiled some thin spaghetti and tossed it in olive oil, basil and black pepper.  It wasn't anything special - but hit the spot as a perfect side dish!

I'm blogging from the couch and Bruce is watching Pawn Stars.  For some reason, the point where the guys at the shop and the customers are haggling stresses me out!  I think it's because I'm so bad at haggling myself so I would never want to do it.  Anybody else with me on that?

Newport Take 2

What a wonderful day!

Anyone want to go in together on a mansion?  I'm sure the historic society wouldn't mind selling ... :)

So the rain didn't exactly hold off while we were in Newport, but it didn't really put a damper on the day.  Instead of walking the beaches, we walked the shops and toured one of the mansions!

We started with lunch at the Brick Alley Pub & Restaurant.  It was PHENOMENAL!  I had a smoked turkey club and french fries.

I really can't stand driving in Newport so we decided to leave our cars parked and walk to the Cliff Walk and the mansions - it was about 3 miles so it was nice post-lunch.

The Breakers is one of the biggest and more popular mansions in Newport - a summer/weekend cottage of the Vanderbilt family.

Can you imagine this being your WEEKEND home?!

No photography allowed inside (they say it's to "preserve the home" but I think it's so that you buy the postcards!) but here are some exteriors ...

 

Gorgeous!  The self-guided tour took about an hour and a half and by the time we got out the sun was poking out!

We decided to walk back via the cliff walk and I'm so glad we did!  The views were breathtaking and it was such a peaceful day.

Do you see that little one dot on the cliff way out?  That's a bride!  They were doing their photos - can you imagine a more perfect spot?

I didn't really realize it until we got back, but what a great workout!  I'm so glad we walked and didn't drive.

Back in town the sailboats were all docked - there was supposed to be a regatta today, but I'm not sure it happened because of the rain.  As soon as we got into the car to drive home, it started to rain again and it's been doing that off and on ever since.

Such a fun day, but I'm totally exhausted!  We probably walked 6 miles and I was not wearing the right shoes (ha!).

I have a graveside in the morning so I'm going to start to wind down.

Goodnight!