The Energizer Family

Remember how I said I was super busy?  Yeah, that hasn't changed since my last post.  We've been rocking and rolling for two steady weeks now.  There have been a hodge podge of things to write about, but since I didn't get around to writing about any one in particular, I decided to throw them all into one big, messy, jumbled blog entry!  I figured that our summer has been kind of haphazard, so why not have a blog that reflects our real life?  If you're looking for a nicely flowing and articulate read, I'm going to have to redirect you now.  But if you're just nebby about what we've been up to, then scroll on down!  

You gotta have at least one day in the summer when you throw (nutritional) logic to the wind and have  the Meadow's Frozen Custard for dinner.  Too bad the flavor of the day wasn't peanut butter.  

To make it really memorable, you should eat your ice cream on an old Showbiz Pizza $0.25 ride.

On Friday, I went to the Bavarian Club to watch the band my husband plays in. When I arrived at the Bavarian, I parked right beneath this lovely sign.  It was as if they knew I was coming and made a sign especially for me!  I felt so welcomed!  I parked spectacularly, by the way!  

Their band is called The Lawn Darts.  Click here for a little snippet of their performance.    They did a super job!  They had a crowd on the dance floor the whole night, and by the end of the night, I had enough beer to get up and sing a few songs with them!  It was a lot of fun.

On Saturday we had a yard sale.  I spent most of the morning and early afternoon setting up on Friday, and was so thankful that a friend of mine was able to come and help.  I had no idea how to price things, and she kept yelling at me that I was asking too little.  We actually sold more than half of our stuff on Friday, when we weren't even technically having the sale!  I have to give Kelley some credit for our profit, because I would have just given the stuff away.  At one point on Friday, she told me I wasn't allowed to talk to the "customers" anymore.  One really nice lady gave me an extra  $2 for a set of shelves and said, "Tell your friend that you made a few extra bucks and maybe she'll be nice and let you talk again!"  Haha!

Having had so much beer, *ahem* fun, on Friday, getting up at 5:30 to sell junk to strangers wasn't exactly at the top of my Saturday fun list.  But my sweet neighbors, who were also hosting a yard sale that day, made a delicious breakfast for us, which definitely helped to kick start the day.  We also had a lot of fun wandering back and forth between each other's sales that day.  We made just under $300, so I would say that the sale was successful. 

My nieces came down in the morning and sold haystacks, brownies and lemonade.  They were good sales ladies!  I'm not sure how much profit they made, but we were nearly sold out of goodies before lunch! 

Andrew, on the other hand, spent most of the day guarding his toys.  I told him that he could pick something to keep from what was left over, so he really didn't want anything to be sold.  Now, don't think I'm a total meanie here.  I went through the toys with the kids before I put them out.  They thoroughly examined and approved every item that was for sale.  He just happened to change his mind about quite a few of those items.  He also got 26 cents out of his allowance jar to buy back some Star Wars Might Beans.  I took the quarter and let him have it.   Luckily, we sold most of the other toys, so the number that I brought back into the house was minimal.  The point was to clear out, not to bring stuff back in! 

 

Andrew did enjoy the cold pizza that he had for lunch, though! 

The best part was that we got this awesome turkey butter dish from my neighbor's yard sale.  Unfortunately, we were too slow to get the matching salt and pepper shakers.  Boo.  Isn't it a beauty? 

While we were all hard at work yard selling, Sam took advantage of the scattered patio cushions and took a nice little snooze!  Oh, to be a cat! 

We spent Monday on the boat.  There's nothing better than the lake, the sun, a few drinks (Greg would add fishing to the mix) and good friends!  It's the recipe for a perfect day, always! 

(This photo is actually from a boat date earlier in the season, but we were with the same group of friends, so I'm posting it now)

I made these avocado popsicles on Sunday.  I saw the recipe in a magazine and just had to make them out of curiosity.  They were pretty good - a little rich.  Next time I might add just a touch less sugar, but they're a good recovery treat after a summer run!  

Here's the recipe: 

3/4 c water

6 tbsp sugar

2 avocados, chopped

1/2 tsp lime zest

2 tbsp lime juice

1/8 tsp kosher salt

Dissolve the sugar in a saucepan (about 4 minutes).  Let the sugar water cool to room temperature, then throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Freeze and enjoy! 

Speaking of running...check this out:

10 miles.  Not too shabby for someone who is coming off of a two year hiatus!  I almost hate to say it, because I don't want to jinx myself, but running has been going incredibly well for me.  I've been back on the wagon for not quite 4 months now, and I feel great.  I was surprised at how quickly I was able to increase my distance, but then again the endurance aspect of running has always come pretty naturally to me.  It's the speed that I have to focus a lot of energy into improving.  

I'm not as fast as I'd like to be, but considering that I'm still reconditioning, I'm trying not to be too hard on myself.  The picture above is from a 5 mile run I did yesterday.  The speed wasn't too bad during miles 3-5.  The first two and half miles of this particular run were straight uphill, which slows me down.  I also don't start off running straight from my doorstep, which makes the first mile always look much slower - same with the last mile.  The cool down, especially on longer runs, takes at least half a mile, sometimes more, so I don't count the times for my last split.  So, 9:42 isn't great, but half of that was uphill.  8:33 is pretty decent, and 8:06 is fantastic - for me anyway!  I've never been fast, so anything under 9, if it's sustained for more than a mile, is pretty good.  I'm running a 15K on July 4th, so I have been focusing more energy on endurance than on speed.  It's not the best way to train, because it's not a well-rounded approach.  Ideally, I should be doing some speed work, some endurance work, and some leisurely runs every week, along with strength training.  I'm doing all but the speed work, but that'll change in the next few weeks.  As soon as the 15K is over, I'll start adding in some speed training too.  

*Knock-on-wood* I haven't had any hip troubles since I started running in March.  In fact, my hip feels better now than it did 6 months ago.  I'm not quite sure where to credit the improvement.  I have been religious about stretching and strength training, and I'm guessing it's a combination of the two that has helped me.  Whatever it is, I'm not planning to change any part of my routine (aside from maybe switching up the strength exercises here and there) any time soon.  

I love that I am running some longer distances now.  For me, the first 2-3 miles are always a bit of a struggle.  I want to be running, but I have to push myself in the beginning.  Somewhere between the 4 and 5 mile markers, I hit my sweet spot.  It's the place where running is nearly effortless, when my mind is wandering comfortably on its own, and my body is doing its own thing too.  Don't get me wrong, depending on the day, I might hit a little wall here or there, but not often, at least not between mile 5 and mile 10.  Last week during my longer run, I experienced that feeling of lost time for the first time in over 2 years.  I was running along, thinking about God knows what, and suddenly I realized that I had covered over a mile of ground on auto-pilot.  I was on a route I know well, so I didn't need to pay attention to where I was, and I just felt good.  When the woman on my phone said that I had gone 7 miles, I looked around and realized that I couldn't recall the last 10 minutes of my run.  It sounds a little weird, but it's not a bad thing at all.  In fact, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing.  I felt so good that I actually laughed out loud (just a little - I'm crazy, but not completely insane).  I'm thrilled to be running again.  I feel so much stronger, more physically capable, and more importantly, happier.  

We've been so busy since my last day of work.  We've had one social event after another, almost every single day, and I'm not exaggerating.  It's all fun stuff, but even the fun stuff can overwhelm me at times.  So far this summer I have only had a few fleeting moments of "oh my dear, we have too much going on" panic.  I'm content right now, because my life in general is good.  We are all in a good place, and I'm grateful for the general ease of our days.  I also believe that exercise is the simplest, healthiest, and least used anti-depressant/ stress reliever available.  So, some fraction of my good mood can definitely be attributed to my running too.   I've been feeling good, sleeping fairly well, and just generally enjoying my time off.  My only wish is that it didn't have to end so soon! 

There's plenty more for us on the horizon - two swim dates this week, a picnic near Pittsburgh with some friends for me, and the weekend with my sister  and nieces.  It's a good thing I've been doing some endurance training.  We've been hopping, skipping and jumping, and we've gotta make like the Energizer Bunny and keep on going!