A Weekend of Food and Running and Food, of course

Every weekend I think maybe I'll blog so that Monday isn't just a recap of my weekend.  But then I can't find time to do anything on the weekends, so it never happens.  So then I am left recapping the last three days on Monday.  Oh well.  I'll get back to my Vermont recap soon.  Maybe tomorrow.  I did remember to take a few pictures this weekend, so at least you don't have to just read a bunch of text.

On Fridays I work from home most of the time and Evan hangs out with me.  Usually he plays by himself while I get work done until my husband gets home around 10am.  This past Friday I decided rather than just eat our lunch together we would take it outside and have a nice picnic.  So, I packed our lunch into a picnic basket and we put a blanket out in the grass on the side of our apartment building.  It was so fun!

Evan had pizza (his new favorite food) and rice.  He ate his pizza and then my yogurt, but wasn't so into the rice. 

Then he was up and running around.

He's really into throwing sticks these days and was so excited to find a bunch hiding in the grass.

Then he realized that he could wander around and I'd stay sitting on the blanket.  He was thrilled not to have me following him around.

He kept walking around and looking to see if I was coming.  Then he'd come back and eat some yogurt and pizza and then go for another "walk".  I was fine as long as he didn't try to go into the street.  It turned out to be a great lunch.  I think we'll do these little picnics more often - it beats sitting inside all day while I work on the computer.  Plus, it tired him out so he went down for his nap really easily!

I usually try and get a run in Friday evening, but Ivan wanted to go out to eat.  Ivan and I have had a few "talks" about how I veto all his ideas without considering them...like when he suggests we go out to eat.  It's not like I don't like his ideas, it's just that I'm cheap and don't like wasting our money on going out to eat. However, when he suggested we head to his favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner...I agreed instead of saying no right away.  That definitely doesn't make me wife of the year or anything, but I'm trying!  So we called up some friends and met them for dinner.  We hadn't been there in over six months or so.  A long time.  We really don't eat out much anymore (probably because I veto the idea all the time).  It was fun though.

Saturday I was back at golf, after two weeks off.  Summer classes are always a lot smaller and I enjoy them a lot more.  The girls are so adorable.  And sweet.  It does make my weekends go faster though because by the time I get home it's the afternoon already.  I made it to the grocery store though and even made it for a short three mile run with a stop at the playground.

instagram: @mapleandmud

We got home really late (well, late for Evan).  Sometimes I feel like the only mom that has no schedule for their child.  I left for a run around 6:30pm and texted my friend to see if she wanted to meet me at the park and she said they were eating dinner, then it was bath time, and then bed time (for her daughter, obviously, not for herself).  I had a twinge of guilt because here Evan and I were heading out for a run, then a playground trip, and we still hadn't dinner yet.  We got home around 8pm and I gave Evan some of the spaghetti Ivan made.

He loved it.  Ivan makes "Honduran" spaghetti - which means he melts a stick of butter into his sauce.  I tend to not eat it because I don't like a bunch of butter in my spaghetti.  However, Evan loves it...probably because he LOVES butter!  He was shoving spaghetti into his mouth like crazy.  After dinner, he took a shower with Daddy and was in bed by 9pm.  Not too horrible, right?  And we had a fun playground date.

Sunday was a bit hectic, like it usually is.  I woke up and made 5-Ingredient Peanut Butter and Banana muffins.  It was a Pinterest find and I thought they would be good muffins to take to LA this week.  They aren't good muffins to send with Evan to daycare because my niece is severely allergic to peanuts, but it didn't make too many.  They were super easy and quick.  I had them mixed and made before Evan even woke up. 

After he did wake up, we changed and headed out for a five mile stroller run.  It was around 9am and it was already HOT and HUMID.  Ugg.  We did about four miles and then stopped at the playground.  We had brought Evan's new tractor that his Papa had bought him (Evan calls it Tractor-Papa) and I thought it would be fun to play in the sand pit.  Unfortunately, the sandpit was filled with a million bees.  Boo.  So, we just put the tractor down the slide and played with it on the ground.

Evan thought it was fun to just push the tractor around.

And yes, Evan went to the park in his jammies.  No one was at the park anyway.  We stayed for an entire hour and not a single other person showed up.  I think people sleep in on Sundays or go to early Sunday church services or something.  Evan loved having the playground to himself (except for having to share with the bees)!  Then we ran the last mile home.

After we got home it was cooking, cooking, cooking.  I had a lot of things on the menu to make: vegan lasagna, zucchini tots, shrimp-stuffed shells, tres leches cake, shredded chicken, and black bean burgers.  I didn't get all of it made - just some of it.

I wanted to make Vegan Spaghetti Squash Pesto Lasagna for my friend Allyson.  She was doing a crazy big two-day bike ride in Colorado (like 130 miles each day, over three mountains) and I thought she'd like something in her fridge when she got back.  In Honduras, when I'd go out of town my neighbors would clean my house the day before I returned.  It was so nice arriving home to a super clean house.  I used to do the same thing for my sister - I'd always scrub the floors and toilets and vacuum, etc. before she came home.  I feel weird cleaning my friend's house though (and it looks pretty clean anyway), so I figured food was the better way to go.  So, I whipped up this crazy complicated lasagna.  I am not vegan and had never made vegan cream sauce.  I've made lasagna with tofu before, but nutritional yeast was not really in my pantry.  All in all, it turned out pretty tasty.  I hope she likes it! 

I also made zucchini tots for Evan - they were delicious and Evan ate three of them after dinner.  I wanted something new to put in his lunches and saw these on Pinterest.  They were super easy to make and turned out to be a winner.  I got the shrimp-stuffed shells made for Ivan - I've made them many times before and he always loves them.  They are a bit time consuming, but I felt like I was making a bunch of other complicated things, so why not add something to it.  I also got the chicken cooked - I just put it in the slow cooker with some water for four hours and then shredded it.  I don't need it until Wednesday to make Easy Chicken Flautas (another Pinterest find), but wanted to have it already done so that the cooking process didn't take as long.

I ran out of time to make the tres leches cake and black bean burgers though.  Maybe I'll have time this week before I head to LA.  Otherwise they'll have to wait until I get back.  I can only make so many things in one day!

I crawled into bed around 12am - yikes!  I seriously need an extra weekend day to get all my stuff done!!

*********************
Did you cook anything fun this weekend?

What types of things do you "pin" the most, if you use Pinterest? 
      - I mostly pin food and clothes (for my Stitch Fix stylists)

Splashing in the Stream

This is going to be a long week.  On Wednesday, rather than working from home, I have some kind of Summer Success Immersion program for school.  What does that mean?  Not exactly sure except that we are going to be reviewing Anatomy & Physiology stuff and learning drug calculations.  Something about how these things will help us be successful during the first semester and beyond.  That means that I won't get my extra hour of sleep though.  Or a relaxing evening after work where I don't have to stress about a commute and arrive home at 7pm.  Of course, there was a time when I went to the office five days a week, so I shouldn't be such a baby about it.

This weekend was like all the others: it went too fast but it was filled with fun times. On Friday Evan and I made it back to the Nature Center.  It wasn't too hot out and I felt like a mini hike was in order.

We didn't get too far because he found this little stream and wanted to play in it the entire time.

I ignored all rational thought and let him get his pants and tennis shoes soaked.  I had made him wear pants to try and avoid ticks.  And Lyme disease, a huge fear of mine.  He really had a fun time and was throwing rocks in the water, digging in the dirt, etc.

He also enjoyed playing on the stumps.  

And, best of all?  He didn't pitch a fit when we had to leave.  

After a fun time in nature we then headed out for a run.  The stroller is really starting to weigh a lot.  Or I am really weak.  I felt like it was so heavy and that I was really shuffling along.  Especially on the up-hills.  We stopped at mile 3 to play at the playground for an hour and then headed back home.  

Evan was pretty good sitting in the stroller but did start saying "All done" on the way back home...like he was all done in the stroller and please remove him.  It was cute but he was stuck in there until we got home.

Sunday was a busy, busy day.  We got up and went for another run.  This time we took a shorter route because we had made pancakes first and were on the late side.  Of course our run took us to a playground and we played for about 40 minutes before heading back home.  Again, super heavy stroller!  We survived though.  Then we showered and headed to Costco.  I have decided that Costco is really like Target.  Your go for one thing and come out $100 poorer. I love Costco though and they are a really great company (unlike Target), so at least that part makes me feel better.  There were a ton of samples and Evan and I enjoyed sampling sausage, salmon cakes, wantons, perogies, quesadillas, coffee (I sampled this alone), and Belvita cookies.  Evan really liked the salmon burgers so we bought those (he will probably change his mind and I'll have 20 salmon burgers to eat alone).  Along with a million other things even though we just wnet for coke, eggs, and chips.  Oh well, at least our fridge is stocked now.

There is no room for anything else!  Ivan keeps saying that we better enjoy it now because pretty soon we'll only be able to eat eggs, beans, and tortillas.  We had some cubed steak this weekend and Ivan was like...pretty soon we won't be able to afford meat so we better enjoy every last taste.  I said we could probably buy cubed steak every once in a while since it is only $2.55 a package.

Evan and I also made sure to put on our USA jerseys for the game on Sunday.

We were very excited.  Ivan invited our golf friend over to watch the game too so I made 7-layer dip (of course because Ivan LOVES this and asks for it as often as possible) and tacos.  Everything turned out and I even managed to do the laundry, fold the clothes, and clean the bathrooms.  Nothing short of a miracle.

Now it's back to work and off to sleep for a bit.  Hope you had a fabulous weekend too and didn't look this pathetically tired when you work up this morning (we are both looking pretty rough)!

Busy Busy and Jogging Stroller Run Breakdown

This weekend just flew by!  I guess that is what happens when there are so many things planned that you have no free time. It was a good thing though.  I think it actually started on Friday because it was a super busy workday and I didn't get a chance to relax until late in the day.  Busy work days are good sometimes and stressful other times, I am not sure which kind of day this was.  I finished the work that was due though, so that is always an accomplishment.

Saturday started with a long run.  Yup, after two weeks of no movement, I decided that I would try to do 8 miles with the jogging stroller.  Hubs had to work so I ran two miles to the TNT meeting spot and got there just as they were finishing their warm-up.  It turns out they were doing a 3 mile loop or an 8 mile loop...so I decided to do the 8 mile loop.  I was a bit nervous because I wasn't sure whether Evan would last in the stroller that long, but figured I'd try.

He lasted until mile 8.5 (that's including the two miles it took me to run to the meeting spot).  Then he started crying like crazy.  I still had two miles left, so I wasn't sure what to do.  It was really cold out and he was toasty in his Bundle Me Arctic (fyi - I did NOT pay $100 for this!), but if I had to carry him he didn't't have warm enough clothes.  In the end I carried him because he was screaming so much, but I felt badly because his mitten fell off (figures, how impossible is it to keep two of the same mittens on kids) and his feet were cold because he just had his pjs on (he had a winter coat on, just not winter pants and boots).

Frozen pond we ran by - see - it was literally freezing out!

We managed to walk the two miles back to the start and then one of the coaches drove me home (he has a little daughter and had a car seat).  We then took a hot shower together to warm up!  And I drank an entire glass of hot chocolate with whole milk (since we don't have any other kind in our house these days).

And then I couldn't walk.  Probably a bad idea to run so far with the stroller.  There were some hills too.  One hill was so big I had to walk up and even that was incredible strenuous with the 45 pound stroller. My legs feel better today though.

We then ran (hobbled) a few errands and Evan and I went grocery shopping and then we had dinner at my bus friend's house.  She made the most delicious pork roast and mashed potatoes.  So good!  I ate so fast I didn't take a picture.  Then we chatted while Evan played with his toys (that we brought over) and tried to climb upstairs. 

Sunday we got up early for no reason so I made beans and eggs and Moroccan-style lentil soup.  We ate the eggs/beans for breakfast and saved the soup for later.  In the afternoon I headed to my golf friend's house to make a cake for my sister.  I ended up making  Southern-style Strawberry Cake with cream cheese frosting.  I can't wait to eat it!  It worked out so well because I hadn't visited with my golf friend for a while and baking a cake was an easy thing to do while catching up.  Plus we got to eat lots of cream cheese frosting - delicious!

Then it was home, Skype with Mimi, and bedtime for the kiddo.  

After all those weekend activities, I only snapped one photo:

Dad and son napping during the day on Sunday.  Pretty adorable, huh!  I would like to mention that this happens with me a lot but no one ever snaps a photo.  Evan is totally in love with cuddling - it is the best thing ever.  One of these days I'll write a post about our experience with co-sleeping.  I pretty much love every minute of it - especially when Evan and I hold hands as we fall asleep.  Or he rolls over and puts his arm around my neck.  Melts. My. Heart.

So many things to tell you and the worst run ever

This may be a long post because I have so many things to update you on.  A lot has happened since we last "chatted" and since we are practically best friends I feel like I need to give you the full update.  Hold on to your seats people, it's gonna be a long ride.  But don't get too excited because I haven nothing of real importance to tell you.

First, what is this update with out a mention of Halloween?  I know I am late on this and should have posted on Friday with the rest of the blogger world, but I was swamped at work and by the time I finished all I wanted was to rest my eyes from the computer screen.  However, Evan was the cutest monster ever.  Don't you agree?  My niece was an adorable Angelina Ballerina and I went as myself, so don't make any comments about what my costume might have been.

Instagram: mapleandmud

I bought Evan's costume second hand and mainly because it looked nice and warm.  Figures it was practically 60 degrees that night, but he didn't seem to be too hot.  And yes, we had to go trick-or-treating with his Easter basket because I dropped the ball on a Halloween basket.  I also didn't have a Halloween shirt for him to wear that day either.  I am trying to keep on top of things but I obviously wasn't on top of everything.  We only got candy from a few houses because I didn't want piles of it waiting to be eaten by me.  So,  I had pretty much eaten all the candy by Friday...maybe I should have let him go to a few more houses!

This weekend was a blur of many things.  Saturday started out nice and slow because it was the first weekend with no First Tee!  No getting up at 6am to get ready for golf!  I wish I could say I was productive and did a ton of other things but no, Evan and I slept in.  We walked the dog and had some breakfast and took the morning slow.  Then when Ivan came home I went to take a shower...and read my Runner's World magazine for the first hour (no worries, the water wasn't running).  Ivan caught me though and he came to see why my shower was taking two hours!  Evan and I decided to do a little shopping and banking so the two of us headed out (Evan refused to nap so I gave up after 30 mins).  After the bank we went to my favorite baby consignment store.  I bought Evan the cutest clothes ever.  Seriously, so adorable.  I also got him some puzzles and a new sippy cup.  I then went next door to the upscale dog store for some glucosamine pills for Dolce.  He has a limp that won't go away and I think it is a bit or arthritis.  I had really wanted to buy myself a new pair of pants, but after shopping for toddler and doggie I decided to call it quits.

On the way home Evan fell asleep and when we got home Ivan was sleeping.  I put Evan in his crib and thought I'd make my favorite cookies, great pumpkin cookies, since everyone else was napping.  I have wanted to make these for a while but never found the time.  I put the flour and oats in the bowl and then realized I needed a cup of brown sugar and I only had a few tablespoons. So off to the store I went...all by myself.  Yay - party at the Giant.  When I got home Evan was awake though...so no cookies were made...until that night when he went to bed.  I think I started around 10pm - but the time was changing that night so I figured I could stay up extra late.  And it was worth it.  I love these cookies!!

My instagram: mapleandmud

Sunday was an even more productive and pumpkin day!!!

First, we came off daylight savings time, which is my favorite thing to do.  An extra hour in the day! My dream come true!  I thought I'd get an early run in since Evan would be up early, but I was mistaken.  Evan slept until 8:15am!  I got bored and actually folded and put away our large stack of clean clothes.  After Evan woke up, we headed out for a run.  The worst ever.  It was sunny and when I checked the weather I thought it said 55 degrees.  NO WAY!  I think that was the high, it was more like 46 degrees.  I bundled Evan up but I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt.

I can tell you, it was too cold for this outfit.  The second bad thing about my run?  It was WINDY.  So windy!  So I was extra cold.  Plus, the route I went on was kinda hilly and pushing the BOB through the wind, up hills, was ridiculously unfun.  At one point the wind was blowing the stroller sideways and I was having to use all my arm muscle (which, honestly, isn't much)  to keep the stroller on the path.  Then Evan's blanket blew away and I had to run and get it.  On a few of the hills where the wind was blowing directly into my face I felt like I was running in place.  It was one tough run.  It was also the longest run I've done with BOB - 5.5 miles.  I finished the run without walking though and feeling returned to my legs and arms eventually.  And the biggest accomplishment?  Evan didn't cry at all!!!  Usually he starts crying at about the 4 mile mark and I can stretch out another half mile or so, but he was content pointing to every tree for the entire run (and eating a smoothie I made him for the road).  Let's hope this run wasn't a preview of what my winter training runs are going to be!

After I got home, I hopped in the shower and off to church we went.  I bought Evan the cutest church outfit at the consignment store the day before and I was so excited to put him in it.

Sorry for the crappy iPad photo, but he wouldn't stand long enough and at a good enough angle, so this was all I got.  I thought it he looked pretty dapper.  After church we headed to brunch with some friends and then finally headed home.  Evan went down for a nap and I started to do some major cooking.  I made pollo guisado (a Honduran dish) for Ivan and then was going to make pumpkin muffins and spinach and quinoa patties for Evan...however, when I looked in the fridge there was only one egg left and I needed five.  So, quick change of plans.  I ended up making pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin soup for Evan.  I had found some canned pumpkin with BPA-free liners and bought a bunch, so I just happened to have all the ingredients for those two dishes.  I guess I was on a pumpkin roll or something - cookies, soup, and pancakes!  I then decided I had enough energy to organize all of Evan's clothes and pull the clothes that don't fit him anymore and put the larger and more wintery clothes in his dresser.  And then I actually stuffed his diapers!

But with all that cooking and organizing - I didn't do my two Chemistry assignments and I didn't clean the bathrooms....some things never change.

And this morning I woke up refreshed from the extra hour of sleep (don't worry, my body will adjust in a day and it won't feel so exciting anymore)!

Happy Monday!!!!

Dog bones and my first race

On Sunday I had my FIRST RACE since the Marine Corps Marathon!  It was only 4.09 miles (it was a race to raise money for some victims of the Boston bombing), but I had to run with the jogging stroller.  I have only run about 2 miles with the stroller and really have only ran about 3 miles without it.  I just haven't found the time to go for long runs these day.  I was a bit nervous about how it would be (there were two hills on the route and we did two loops), but it turned out fine.  I started in the back but then passed a bunch of people (which is HARD when you have a stroller because you really have to weave in and out carefully).  I even passed people going uphill with the wind blowing right in my face. 

We're finished!! 
(This was taken after we had finished, but we were pretending to run it in.)

I finished in 39.27 which is approximately a 9:38 pace.  I was pretty happy with that - especially since I had started way in the back and it took me a long time to get into a good pace, so I think my last two miles were faster than that.  I will probably not run with the jogger in too many more races since it is really annoying to manuever.  I don't mind pushing it, but there are just too many people and it makes it hard to get around without running over feet.  This was a small, local race so it wasn't a big deal.  We don't have a lot of money for races anyway, so I'm not sure how many more I'll do.  Probably not a lot.  My next big race will most likely be the Disney Princess Half Marathon in Feburary that I am planning on running with my sister.  I really wanted to do the Baltimore Half this year, but it's so expensive that I am pretty sure I'll miss it.

Look at my big arm muscles!  Hahahahaha!

After the race I wanted to go home and sleep but Evan had different plans.  He has a new thing for dog bones.  Every time I closed my eyes he was after it again!

He scoots himself all the way to the dog bone...

He grabs the bone...

And then he tries to eat the bone!  Gross!!

I didn't realize he was going to put it in his mouth so the photo is blurry because I grabbed the bone out of his hand (it might have been two seconds too late).  One day before Evan could scoot around the house I went into the kitchen to grab something and came back and Dolce and Evan were chewing on this bone together - Evan on one side and Dolce on the other.  Yikes!  Evan's new favorite thing is Dolce - he scoots all over the house just to be near the dog.  Dolce finds it very annoying!

For the rest of the afternoon we played around, did laundry, and walked to the library to return a very over-due book.  My family book club is discussing The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo on Tuesday.  I finally finished the book but hadn't returned it and it was due last Monday.  Yikes!  I had already renewed it twice so I couldn't renew it again.  The library wasn't too far away and I had to walk the dog anyway - so we just walked up there and back.

How was your weekend?

Do any races??

Going for a walk with Bob

Notice how the title of this post says walk and not run.  Yeah, I’m not sure what happened to me and running.  We are apparently not friends anymore.  I was doing really well with running – I ran a few times a week while I was on maternity leave and then I even continued to run during lunch while I was at work.  Then I got really busy and I didn’t have time.  And since laziness begets laziness, I quit running on the weekends too.  I think getting up so early during the week along with being tired from going to work, going to class, and being a mom started catching up to me and I just wanted to be lazy. 

The thing is, I really love running.

I guess I will wait until my motivation returns.  I have a feeling it will return with the warm weather.  We’ll see though.

Even though I haven’t been running, I did get my booty out for a walk or two.  With BOB.  Let me tell you – I love my BOB.  I was a little hesitant spending so much money on a stroller, but I am so happy I did.  Not only is BOB my favorite color, but he is an awesome stroller.  And I finally went out for a decent walk with him.

I don’t know what I was thinking but I had it in my head that Evan had to be 6 months old to ride in the BOB without the car seat.  I must have made this up in my head though, because when I looked at the instruction manual it said 8 weeks.  What was I thinking???  I had been dying to use my weather shield but thought that I had to wait until Evan was 6 months (since the weather shield does not fit over the car seat). 

Good thing I had the sense to look at the manual.  The second I discovered Evan was old enough for a walk in the BOB, out we went.  The first two times it snowed.  No worries though, Evan stayed nice and toasty and dry inside his plastic igloo.

He seems to always fall asleep when we go for a walk. 

Dolce and I got wet though.  It’s too bad there isn’t a weather shield for Dolce.  Or a dog raincoat that would fit him.  Along with doggie booties.

I love going on walks with Dolce and Evan (and BOB). 

The only problem is getting BOB in and out of the apartment.  First, the BOB stroller is a bit heavy.  And large.  And I live on the third floor of a walk-up condo.  At first I was carrying the BOB downstairs, then running back up and getting Evan and Dolce.  But then I had to strap Evan into the stroller outside and then put the weather shield on.  So, instead I decided to get him all set in the house and then go down the stairs with him in the stroller.  This has worked but it can be tricky trying to get the stroller down the stairs with one hand and making sure Dolce doesn’t bolt off with the other hand.  Going back up the stairs is just as fun.  We are getting better – and my arm and back muscles are slowly getting stronger.

Dolce is a great walker with the stroller.  He sometimes walks too close and gets run over (see picture below), but for the most part he walks right next to me and doesn’t act like a maniac.

Notice all the dog fur stuck to the wheel.  He hasn’t quite learned that he needs to give the stroller some space.  He’s working on it though.

I can’t wait for my walks to turn into runs.  I really can’t wait to go running with Evan.  It is the whole reason I bought the BOB – so we could spend quality time on runs.  So far he seems to enjoy the stroller, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed he stays content in there.  It’s too bad I can’t take Dolce for runs with us – we could have a fun family outing.  However, Dolce is getting old and has some leg problems so running isn’t the best for him.  Also, if he could run, winter would be the best time.  When it gets warmer it’s not the best idea for him to exercise too much.  He’s really an artic dog – so the summers are a bit too hot for him.  I feel bad leaving him at home though.

For now, we’ll keep taking him on long walks.

And I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a few good runs coming my way!