How Great is Our God

Good afternoon and happy Sunday! I hope you all have enjoyed a fantastic weekend and that it continues through the day! It’s been a crazy busy weekend for us, but VERY enjoyable! We spent Friday night visiting with friends. It was supposed to be a campfire outing, but the downpour rain and storms made that not happen. It was still nice to get together for some drinks and chat. I worked on Saturday, but immediately after we were off to our friends house for their good-bye party! Good thing we will see them on Wednesday again, so it wasn’t really good-bye! 🙂 If you remember from my last blog post, our friends are moving to Africa! It’s been wonderful to get to know them and pray for them as they leave on this amazing adventure!

This morning we went to an amazing church service, which I will try and recap sometime this week….it was too good not to share! We followed it up by an awesome trip to the dog park with Telli! She had so much fun bounding through the water and playing with the other dogs!

 

My favorite song at the moment- Chris Tomlin-How Great is Our God-World Edition

This song has been out for awhile, and I have loved it ever since I initially heard it, but there is something different about the song lately. It’s my jam…no joke. I have worked out to it, it pumps me up on my way to work, I listen to it at home, every where..I love it! It’s truly a song that stands true to it’s title, “How Great is Our God.” He is so great! And regardless where you are at in life, what your relationship with Christ is like, where you live in the world, what language you speak, what you look like….our God is SO Great and loves us the same!

He loves us unconditionally.

He gives us strength when we feel weak.

He shows the light when we only see darkness.

When we mess up, He shows His grace.

When we fall down, He picks us up.

He shows us His original artwork everyday when the sun rises and the sun sets.

He shows His creation by the beauty of this Earth.

We really do serve a wonderful, loving, amazing and GREAT God!

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do!

And if you want to hear Chris Tomlin’s explanation of how he came up with the idea of the world version of his original song and the inspiration behind it, you can see it here. It truly is it’s own work of God and how amazing he is.

Now for the funny part of this morning and this song…….

As we were driving home from church this morning, I told Nate I wanted to listen to that song, so we played it and I sang along at the top of my lungs (like I always do), but this was the first time I had an audience. Nate looked at me and laughed. I knew exactly what he was thinking, she is singing to this song like she knows the words she’s singing, and the language she’s singing. Yes Nate, your right…..and God doesn’t care! 😉 As long as I’m singing to him, right? Or attempting in this case? Well, then he said something that we laughed so hard at for the next 20 minutes….”You sound like Joey on the Friends episode that he thinks he is speaking French! You are singing like you know African and Portuguese!”

I hope that leads you with a smile the rest of the day. Remember to praise our God always and see the beauty and grace he surrounds us with everyday!

❤ God Bless

African Bar and Grill and Ginger Beer!

Happy Friday to you all! Are you excited it’s Friday? Did you have yourself a fabulous week? I’m excited it’s Friday, but I did have the day off yesterday since I work Saturday….so I guess it doesn’t really feel like a typical Friday to me. I had a great and relaxing day off yesterday. It began by taking a 5.5 mile speed walk! It started as  I’ll just walk to here, but I wanted to see where the path went, so I went to the road, and then I saw I was only 1 mile away from the city park, and then I got to the city park and wanted to walk around the lake….so that’s what I did with my amazing and wonderful walking buddy, Telli! It’s a good thing I was trying to walk fast, as it seemed to make Telli feel like she wasn’t pulling as hard…but man, that was tough hanging on to her for that long!

           

 

It was a great morning for a walk, a little humid, but cooler and cloudier than most mornings we have had lately! I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of Telli at the lake. It was hilarious and I’m sure the crowd enjoyed watching me maneuver Telli. I don’t quite trust Telli off-leash yet, and technically she’s not supposed to be off leash anyway, but I really wanted to just let her play in the lake. She was only wearing her 6 foot leash, and she so badly wanted to jump and play through the water, but I was trying not to get myself pulled in…too bad no one had us on video, that would’ve been a Friday funny! 🙂

Needless to say, by the time I got back home I was starving! I hadn’t eaten anything yet, as I didn’t think I was going to go that far…..so I put Telli on the patio and made myself a delicious breakfast of Fage yogurt, raspberries, bananas and walnuts! It was so deliciously refreshing!

 

I was really hoping the sun was going to peak out-so I could get some pool time in on my day off! No sun ever came out, so I thought, well why not, I’ll just go down and chill in the hot tub. God must’ve really known how much I wanted to go in the pool. As soon as I got the pool the clouds cleared and it was sunny, blue skis for about 1.5 hours!!! Woo-hoo!!!! Sunny pool time for me!

Telli was wiped when I got back, she didn’t move for a long time…..she’s so cuuute!

 

Dinner

We had dinner plans, and we were so excited! Our friends are moving to Kenya, Africa next week! It’s crazy, we just met them 8 months ago and have been there since they first got the thought, to the many prayers to the packing up and leaving for Africa! They are going over there to help with the Agape International ministry  organization, and they don’t have a time frame of coming back yet…..They are buying a car, house, everything over there! What a great testament of faith it has been to see them go through with this process!

Anyway, we made dinner plans with them to go to an African restaurant! It was a drive for all of us, in a part of town that we’ll just say isn’t the best part of town. After some traffic issues we arrived to a little hole-in-the-wall, authentic African Grill and Bar! We were immediately greeted by Osei (I think that’s how he spelled it). He is originally from Ghana and was explaining to us how the restaurant came about and that they are expanding and building another one about 20 miles away! There were three couples and we had to wait 20 minutes for the final couple to get there…..but don’t worry, we were entertained by Osei! He explained the ENTIRE menu! I was very grateful to see him explain what we were looking at….but he gave stories, told us of what the people in Africa did to make some of the different dishes, etc….WAAAAY in-depth explanation of the menu. It was interesting to hear for sure! By the time the final couple got there, we were only on the second page of the 3 page menu in explanation. We tried some appetizers of Keleweleh (not sure on spelling) It was fried plantains with peanuts! Very delicious and would get again. We also ordered some Chicken and Goat Kabobs and our dinners. I got to try ginger beer! I heard so much about it and it was just as delicious as what people have told me! It was very sweet, gingery and delicious!

 

My dinner, I don’t remember what it was, but in english it was “flat pancakes and beef stew.”

 

The “flat pancakes” were delicious! I ate them right up. They kind of had the texture of a crepe, the taste of a sweet tortilla chip and were perfect to dip in the beef stew. The stew was ok….nothing to crazy or flavorful. One of the guys ordered Fufu (Smashed plantain with soup and chicken), it looked so good! I want to go back just to try that…I’m sorry, I didn’t get a picture…but I promise we’ll go back to try it!

Well I think that sums it up, enjoy your Friday and weekend!!!!

❤ God Bless

 

 

Guess what day it is!!

HUMP DAY!!!!!!!! Every Wednesday one of my co-workers comes into the office saying this, just like he is the camel on the Geico commercial! I love it, and laugh every time!

A little bit of life lately….

My attempt at running…..

If you’re wondering about my running…..yeah, it’s not going to happen right now. After a couple of runs following my train for a 5k program I began to have a lot of pain in my hips and ankles. And I’m not talking a little sore here or there, but such pain that I wanted to go to the doctor (but was too stubborn) as always to go. From my experience as a diver and gymnast, I feel like I know the difference between being sore from doing something too much or that is new, and something that is going to result in an injury/injury itself. I diagnosed myself and decided to delay the running….just for now. BUT I began using our apartment facility gym and I love it! Already I’ve spent 45 minutes each morning doing a 30 minute elliptical workout followed by strength training! I feel great! I feel sore-which is the best feeling ever! I think if I can strengthen my muscles, I WILL RUN ONE DAY! 🙂

Telli at her favorite Dog Park….

I took Telli to her favorite dog park last week-the one in Evergreen we used to always go to when we lived up there! Her nose was sniffing as we entered Evergreen, I think she could really smell the fresh mountain air! When I took off her leash, she took off in her all out happy sprint. She’d run back to me with a big smile on her face-“thanks mom for bringing me here!”

 

Look at her go! I was enjoying the beautiful scenery and the fresh air. I couldn’t help but smile the entire time I walked around on the trails. It’s one of those things in life that I don’t think we realized how lucky we were to live up there. It was so green, so fresh, and the perfect mountain temperature-not city hot! It rained the night before, so the trail had a touch of moisture, that made it the perfect hiking/dog park experience…and Telli was in heaven!

 

And this just sums up our day at the dog park! We had a fun mommy/daughter day!

 

Well I think this has already been a long enough, but I will do an update on our food lately..with an overnight oats recipe I created and love! Be sure to check back in for that one.

❤ God Bless

Kendra

 

 

 

Favorite Apps!

Good morning! I have the day off today..whoop-whoop! I enjoy my time in the morning with my cup of coffee, my blog, my dog, my bible…and sometimes spend a little too much time playing on my phone. But how can you not?!?! There are so many fun apps out there right now. I might be behind the times on some of these, but I thought it would be fun to do a recap on my favorite apps and see what your favorite apps are! It’s funny to me that you can “find an app for that.” I mean seriously, if I want a way to track something or read something, I go to the app store, type in what i’m looking for and Wa-La, there is an app for that! Let’s get started…..

What would I do without my google maps app? It get’s me EVERYWHERE and shows me where ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is located! I even use the reviews of different places occasionally to see how different businesses are!

Diptic is such a fun photo editing website! You can put pictures into different collages and add words to them! Perfect way to share pictures on Facebook and Instagram! In fact I won our office free lunch for the 4th of July! We had a decorating contest and had to send in pictures of our decorations–I enjoyed throwing all out decorations into a Diptic collage…or two…or three..to win!!!!

Pinterest-How do we plan anything without Pinterest these days! I mean we plan our weekly meals off this website, I’m planning my future house (which I probably won’t be able to afford), I plan my workouts (that I never really do after pinning),  the books I’m going to read, etc.

Map my fitness is a great app that I have had for a little while! It tracks all your walking, running and hiking and is a great source of gps for me! I love knowing how far I just went and what pace I went at!

The You version Bible App! I love this app-it’s a great way to have God’s word at my finger tips. You never know when you are going to need to reference a verse or when you just want to read God’s word at some point throughout the day!

Instagram– I am a little bit of a newbie to this one….I know, WAAAAAAy behind the times! But I love it now. It is a great way to share photos of what is keeping you busy!-I think I’m almost liking it better than Facebook!–mostly because  a lot of people post pictures of their puppies, babies, travels, etc…how can that just not make you smile!

***Follow me: klwillis85

Zillow: In the midst of searching for a home, this is a constant app I am using. As someone who still doesn’t know where I want to live, its a great resource to check general housing prices in different neighborhoods, trends on the prices, photos of homes, and quality of schools! All the research you need, already done, in one easy-to-use app. My only negative on the app, is sometimes homes are already sold, however it hasn’t been taken off the app yet.

9 News: I always need to have my local news station accessible! It’s great to get all the local updates!

Candy Crush Saga game: I initially jumped on this bandwagon pretty late as well. But then I started and became addicted to the game as you can read in this post. I have slowly begun to fall off because I get tired of playing it, and especially when I get stuck on a level for an extended period of time, I get bored with it.

Bloglovin’: I love this app to read all my favorite blogs on! Sometimes it reacts a little slow (as most of my blogs I see in my email first) before hitting blog lovin’ a couple hours later. WHat a great way to organize my favorite blogs and show the ones that I have already read!

Recently added apps

Run a 5k- I have had this app for a couple weeks as I train to become a runner…I have loved this app as a great training tool! There is a “coach” in the background that tells me when to walk and run. It also allows me to play my favorite playlist while I run-such great motivation! At the end, it will compile all my running logs so that I can compare and see myself improve! Improvement is the best motivation!

Spotify– Can you believe I just downloaded this app yesterday? Once again I thought Pandora was amazing…but spotify? I can download specific songs and create playlists! As you can see I only have the trial version for now, but know as soon as it is up, I will be purchasing the full-blown app. I love it and so far it seems to be pretty user friendly – a key to any app that interests me!

This is another game. You might know I’m a little obsessed with these little minion guys. So the fact there is a game out there specifically about them and their adventures–I’m in! I just downloaded it yesterday, and honestly it’ll probably be another free game that only lasts about a week on my phone, but for now, it’s fun…and the voices are hilarious!!

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing what my favorite apps are!

Now it’s your turn, what are your favorite apps?

****This just in for a little humor: I got this text message from my sister-in-law this morning as a conversation that was between her and my niece….

K: Mom, when you are done sleeping do you get your buggers out of your eyes?

SIL: Yes

K: I am having a hard time.

Don’t worry K, sometimes buggers are hard to get out of your eyes!!! 🙂

That was a beast of a run

Good morning! Happy Monday morning and I hope yours is off to a great start! Sometimes it’s so easy to complain about a Monday morning…I mean you have to wake up to go to work and not relax, have fun and continue in the weekend fun. I saw this on Pinterest and I love it! It’s a great reminder to not complain but to thank God for waking you up to enjoy another day in his beauty and glorifying him in all that you do!

 

Just have an extra cup of coffee if you need a little more motivation!

My workout…my walk/run

So it was Week 3  Day 1 of my 5k running training. I had been feeling pretty good on all of my other trainings so far, but man the one I did yesterday was brutal! I kept putting my run off (blaming it first on wanting to sleep in on the weekend, then the higher temperature in the middle of the day–and finally at just after 7 I got my workout clothes on, my shoes laced up and I was ready to go! There is always a 5 minute walking warm-up and I kinda thought it could be a rough run based on how tired I felt, but I was hoping I just needed to stretch my muscles out a little bit…nope! I started the run and just tried to focus on my pace and my breathing and listening to my rocking playlist! I was able to zone in, which helped but this week was definitely a step-up in intensity compared to the last couple runs. The program had longer running intervals and it was overall 10 minutes longer. I know I need to increase time, mileage, and intensity to get better, but I thought it might come a little easier. I averaged my best minutes/mile so far…so I must be getting better!

 

 

 

Food Lately

Nate and I went to a tavern (italian/Irish pub) on Saturday night. We really just wanted to try their beer that we heard so much about! Check out this Guinness beer list! I love Guinness mixed with other beers so this beer list just looked awesome to me!

 

I was going back and forth between the Chocolate Covered Cherries, the Guinness Latte, Guinness Shandy or the Trojan Horse. I asked our waitress and she said her favorite by far was the Chocolate Covered Cherry…..so that’s what I went with! It was okay….I will probably try something different next time I go.

 

We had a modge-podge of a dinner that included a mushroom, Italian meat (similar to prosciutto) brick-oven cooked flat-bread pizza. I really wanted veggies so we ordered a side of steamed seasonal veggies and my favorite-sweet potato fries! 🙂

 

Since we had leftover pizza, we of course had Pizza Eggs the following morning!!!

Our Sunday–I’ll make it brief, because I know this post is getting long……

We took Telli to the dog park….and they had the coolest cattails in the fields!

 

We took Telli to get a bath because she hadn’t had one in awhile, and was kinda stinky! 😉 It’s always an adventure giving her a bath–because she hates it! We both got nice and wet and she gets lots of treats… 😉

 

We got home, made pizza eggs, watched some tv and then I got ready for my brutal run! 😉 When I got back I new something was going on with Nate–his face looked sad. He proceeded to tell me he lost his wedding ring and thinks it’s where we took Telli to get a bath-since he took it off his hand to wash her. They were already closed so we couldn’t go there, however he remembered handing me the car keys in the parking lot and thinks it could’ve fallen out at that point…so we drove to the parking lot, prayed that God would make it so pink and sparkly neither of us could miss it. Well at the same time, we spotted it! Sitting in the middle of the parking lot!

 

Crazy! But so glad we found it!

I’ll end this post with that…..because it’s Monday, and God woke me up to enjoy his beauty and to glorify him in all I do today! I hope you have a great day!

What do you do to get through tough runs? Have you ever lost anything and had to re-trace your steps to find it?

❤ God Bless

I laughed so hard I cried!

Good morning and Happy Wednesday!

 

Well I think it all began yesterday morning…I mean it’s great to laugh, I love to laugh, but I don’t always laugh out loud….but yesterday there was a lot of laughing out loud!! SO I hope this post inspires some laughter in your world today!

My first bit of laughter came from Amanda over at Running in Faith. I was reading through her marvelous blog  post and at the end she had a little clip with the minions off of Despicable Me. I love these guys…if they don’t make you laugh….then I don’t know. I bust out laughing every time I see them. 😉

Check it out and laugh your butt off!

And  second……

I was at work yesterday, took a little break and was checking out Facebook when I saw this video! I was sitting at my desk literally laughing out loud. Everyone in my office was asking me what I was laughing at, but I couldn’t answer anyone! I finally got control of my laughter and showed the rest of my office the video that had me rolling! I hope this video gives you a little morning laugh as well!

And then I got home last night and Telli typically snuggles with us on the couch. Last night she didn’t try to snuggle, instead she attempted to get up on a chair that leans back, is small, and a little unstable (for a dog). After five minutes of trying to get on it, she was up! But now what to do…..

 

 

She scooted her little paws around until she was facing forward and could lay down……

 

She’s not very comfortable and within 5 seconds of laying down, she climbed off the chair….SILLY GIRL!

And in honor of Wednesday….and some more laughter………

 

I hope you all have a great day that allows you to laugh a lot and put a smile on others faces!

What makes you laugh out loud? 

❤ God Bless

Farm Market fresh dinner

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a fabulous start to the week, and not a typical, dreadful Monday. I know for me it was great! If you remember, I had a three day weekend, so it was still the weekend for me! I had a lot I wanted to accomplish today, so I got my butt up bright and early to begin my fun filled day. I started my day better than ever enjoying my morning cup o’ joe and reading God’s word. That is the best way to wake up if you ask me and get your day going on a positive note. I’m going to try and be so much better at making it a habit every morning.

So the delicious recipe to share with you today is: Pappardelle’s Jalapeño Green Pasta Recipe…..but you’ll have to be patient and look for it below!

Breakfast

I made some yummy breakfast. Leftover vegetable pizza, mixed with spinach and two runny eggs cooked on top of it! I typically scramble this little concoction, however this morning I was really wanting to eat runny eggs, and with the crust of the pizza, there was plenty of bread and other deliciousness to soak it up with!

I then ran to the grocery store because I was making dinner for a dear friend of mine. She just had a baby a month ago so I made her and her husband another farmer’s market fresh meal. Wild Rice Casserole with the freshest vegetables around…..recipe will be on another post! But here’s a sneak peak at the ingredients….

After the grocery shopping, I put the casserole in the oven so I could take Telli for a walk and get in some pool time as well before delivering dinner! Look at the beautiful flowers that were in bloom near our apartment!

When I went to the pool, I was all by myself so after a little R&R with my People magazine, I got in the water for a nice swim…which turned into a water workout! I did quite a few laps back and forth of various strokes and followed it by some on the wall leg and ab work. I forgot how much I am a little water bug and enjoy exercising in the water! I was definitely tired at the end, but it was a refreshing tired!

Before heading up to my friends house, I stopped by Jamba Juice to get me a fresh fruit smoothie! It was so refreshing and good!

And now for the farmers market fresh recipe!

Pappardelle’s Jalapeño Green Pasta Recipe:

At the farmers market we had purchased delicious looking pasta (Jalapeño Green Fettucini). The lady told us the best part of their pastas is the fact that all you have to do is add fresh summer vegetables to the pasta to make a delicious summer pasta because the noodles already have enough flavor! Boy was she right! She told us to check out their website for ideas and recipes (since I’m not much of a creator in the kitchen) and we made the best recipe!! You can see it directly here off their website, or follow our version below….

Ingredients we used:

• 1 lb. Pappardelle’s Green Jalapeño Fettuccine
• 4 ears of corn, kernels shaved off (about 1-1/2 cups) – we only used 3 of the best corn in Colorado- Olathe Sweet Corn
• 2 tablespoons butter – we used coconut oil instead
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 medium zucchini, diced – I had one big one…..so that’s what we used…..
• 3 Roasted red peppers
• 1/2 cup chicken or veggie broth
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese- we didn’t add any cheese

Instructions:

1. I began by cutting up all my vegetables……I cut the corn off the ears (This was my first time and more challenging than I thought it would be!)

2. I then cut up the Zucchini (I accidentally sliced it instead of dicing it, so eventually we cut it up more when it was mixed with the other vegetables

3. I cut up the Roasted red peppers and onions

4. Once all of your vegetables are cut up and ready to go, cook the pasta in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water until it is al-dente (should be about 8-10 minutes.  When the pasta is al-dente drain it and and transfer it to a heated pasta bowl. (I didn’t know what a heated pasta bowl was, so I put it in a glass container in the sink with a lid and surrounded it in hot water. It worked great, but I would recommend putting a little bit of olive oil in it so the noodles don’t stick together)

5. After putting the pasta in to cook,  heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add zucchini; sauté until soft, about 2 minutes.

Nate was skillet master…….look at him go! I love when I get to cook with my hubby, we have so much fun in the kitchen together….we may or may not have done a little lady in the tramp action with the extra long noodles!….we just wanted to make sure they were al dente!

6. Add corn and roasted red peppers, sauté until corn is cooked, about 2-3 minutes. Add broth, salt and pepper. If the mixture needs more liquid, add a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.

How good does this look?

Serve sauce over pasta……..and enjoy!

Preferably with a glass of wine…….

With a beautiful sunset to enjoy……

I hope you enjoy your evening-and have the chance to someday try this pasta! You can order it online…otherwise I at least recommend making the entire vegetable sauce over whatever noodles you prefer!! It is so delicious and fresh—especially with farmer’s market fresh produce!

What’s your favorite summer recipe? What’s your favorite meal to make when you take dinner to someone?

❤ God Bless!

Fresh Market Food

Happy Saturday!

I hope you all had a fabulous, relaxing Saturday full of fun adventures doing whatever your little heart desired! This was personally my favorite Saturday in a long time...because I had the day off with absolutely NO plans! Really? Not only a Saturday off, but also no plans…whoo-hoo!!!! What was I going to do with my day? Sleep in and Farmers market for sure! I made a list yesterday at work for my weekend because I actually have a three day weekend-which makes this day off even better!

I love my list! Everything that I enjoy doing….notice how I put an exclamation point and square around the RUN! 😉 I’m determined!

On our way to the farmers market this morning we stopped at Caribou for some coffee and oatmeal! I had the nutty maple brown sugar and a large iced coffee. It was very delish and the perfect pick-me-up to start my day!

The Golden Farmers Market had so much food and goodies!!! They had cheese, wine bread, all the local produce, coffee, milk, honey, hats, bags, food trucks, salsas, jams, butters (the pistachio and cashew butter tasted so good….but it was a little pricey so we didn’t get any this time around) and much, much more. Nate and I made our rounds talking with the locals and what they had to offer to see what we wanted to spend our budgeted amount on. (We always have to set aside a certain amount of cash to go to farmers market, otherwise I get out of hand with my purchases)

We decided on a basket full of items!

**side note, my mom got me my farmers market basket for Christmas and this was the first time I was able to use it…I was more than thrilled-and received so many comments on how cute it was!

That’s the pretty look of the basket, and below are all the purchases for the morning!

 

Sweet Peppers, Zuchinni, Squash, Snap Peas, Asparagus, Carrots, Olathe Sweet Corn, Palisade Peaches, Peach/Honey whip, Eggplant Salsa, Green Jalapeño Fett and Spicy Thai Linguine! What some great finds!

I sure had fun at the farmers market! It was a beautiful morning to walk around for fresh food.

We had a couple errands to run and when we got home we thought it would be fun to take Telli to the dog park. There are many different dog park options, all of which have their own special features. It’s always hard to go “dog-park shopping” because I feel like some parks have more aggressive dogs than others (not only more aggressive dogs, but also irresponsible dog owners). My co-worker recommended one to us that isn’t too far away and has a lake-well being that I am from Wisconsin, this is definitely not a lake, a mere pond/structure of water. Needless to say, it is a body of water and if there is one thing Telli loves, it’s jumping, bounding and splashing through the water!

She sure had fun! We keep trying to get her to “swim” but she really only likes to go where she can still touch. I think too many dogs have been aggressive with her when she has tried to swim…so she prefers to keep her feet planted on the ground. Hopefully when we take her again it will be less crowded and she can just swim around and fetch like most labs do!

New Playlist

We got home and the storms were starting to roll in…so unfortunately my anticipated pool time didn’t happen. I did however decide it was time to refresh my music on my computer and that motivated me to create a new running playlist! I can’t wait to use it and see how well I put the music together. If you are looking for a new list, I hope you like it too. I will let you know it’s got a little more country flare than anything else…..but that’s only if you consider Eric Church and Zac Brown Band too country! 😉 check it out!

Dinner – Leftover Pizza Eggs

I also made a quick left-over dinner favorite of ours!

We had vegetable pizza last night (although you can make it with any leftover pizza). All you have to do is cut it up, cook it in a skillet (I added some spinach to the mix),

add some eggs and TA-DA  dinner is made!

So simple. So Satisfying. So delicious.

Well it looks like the rain is stopping..so I think it’s time to lace up my shoes and hit the pavement!

What is your favorite find at a farmers market? Any workout songs you love that I should add to my list next time?

❤ God Bless

Determined to be a runner

And I am as far away from this statement as I could be right now.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in pretty good shape- I mean I love hiking, biking, walking and now that I have access to a gym-lifting weights! You’ve read about a couple of my at-home workout regimens….or my hiking experiences….or my attempts at running, but truth be told, I’m not a runner and never have been. I mean I remember going for runs in high school and college occasionally. It was only about 2-3 miles at a time, nothing crazy…but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. And currently I can’t even run a mile! I see so many friends and family completing 5k’s, 10k’s, 1/2 marathons and full marathons. I mean if my brother can do a marathon surely I can train to run more than 2-3 miles. But I’m being very realistic and starting slow-I am determined, and I don’t want to get burnt out before I even get going.

There is a feeling that I get when I run! I can clear  my mind. I can think freely. It’s a moment of time to myself. I say moment right now, because I still don’t run very far….but I will!

SO I downloaded an app to help me along this journey. I’m that person that can be so excited for something that I put too much into it at the beginning and get burnt out really quickly. So this app is great, it helps me be realistic, while pacing myself to stay on track! It is the red rocks app and I am using the run a 5k version. (You gotta start somewhere right?) I really like it, I only had one glitch so far-that to be honest got me very frustrated and I was ready to throw my phone in every different direction. It’s a great way to get in the zone. I am currently doing 30 minute sessions and there is a voice that says when to jog and when to walk while your playlist is going in the background! Talk about some good motivation to keep going and to be in the zone and not be distracted by looking  at a watch, playing with music, etc. I just go…..and that’s what is most important right now!

Well it’s been a week, and I’m proud to say I haven’t missed a day or slowed on any walk/run yet!! 🙂 And the running segments are getting easier! Whoop-whoop! I’ve been able to enjoy different routes, different terrain and so much beauty on runs! I have typically been going either at sunrise or sunset (when it tends to be a little cooler!)

I love all the sunflowers that are in full bloom around our neighborhood!

 

 

I know they’re weeds, but at least they are pretty and not in my yard! 😉

Telli the terror

Yes, that’s right she hasn’t been so sweet this week. I tried taking her on my first run which was a disaster. She chases all the bunnies and pulls so much, she is an impossible running partner. And for me who needs to focus on each aspect of this running plan, I haven’t taken her with me anymore because of her distraction. It just means I get more exercise by taking her for other walks!

 

She has also been on a chewing frenzy! A cable to the tv, an ottoman, our “shoe basket” and my flip-flop! My new flip-flop! My cute flip-flop! I have only had these for two weeks and they are destroyed!!! 😦 so sad….tear…..

 

Well I hope you all had a fabulous week! I am very thankful it is Friday because I have a three day weekend ahead of me with no firm plans! I know I want to go to the farmers market and am planned to deliver dinner to a friend who just had a baby….but other than than, the weekend is mine!!!!!! Can’t wait to recap you all on it!

Have you ever started a running program? Any advice on what I should do? I’m also in need of amping up my playlist so if you have any recommendations, I’d really appreciate it! 🙂

❤ God Bless

 

Where did the time go!?!?

Happy Sunday! Whoa-did I just say Sunday? I mean for real?!? And at that it is already Sunday afternoon…..Schnikees! Where did this week go? We had a lot of family in town this past week, and we enjoyed every minute of but it kept us very busy! We made the comment at some point, we’ve had more people over to visit us in the last week, than we did the 3 years we lived in our house! 😉

My cousin Keith, wife Katie and daughter Erin (7 months) stayed with us from Saturday through Tuesday! It was so much fun to have a little baby hanging around the apartment.  She is such a fun and cute baby-with the biggest bluest eyes!!! 🙂 AM I a little baby crazy? I guess that tends to happen occasionally! We spent our time splashing around in our pool, taking morning walks, enjoying dinner, a Cubs/Rockies baseball game and then going to the top of Mount Evans!

 

And check out these views from the top of Mount Evans! (We drove up the highest paved road in America to get there!)

Telli enjoyed her time as well on the top of the mountain! Her nose was sniffing out all the new smells! I saw some Mountain Goats by the bathrooms, they were just chillin’ on the rocks, unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on me to catch them…. 😦

 

At the top of all the 14,xxx foot mountains in Colorado they have the medal plaques at the top of the summit! I tried to get Telli to pose for it, but she didn’t want the picture.. 😉 She also didn’t want to be in the picture below….

 

We loved our time together and I feel so blessed they wanted to come spend a couple days on their trip with us!

Then on Monday, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law came into town for his work! It was perfect, they were able to stay in a hotel right down the street and came over for some pool time, another Rockies game and some good food and beer. Oh and just FYI, I also went to a Rockies game on Wednesday night for work! That is 3 baseball games for this girl in 4 days!!!

You have to look at the beer I drank! I was quite hesitant at first, but figured, why not?!?! And it actually tasted it really good!

 

I was so happy when they wanted to go to Beau Joe’s! It is some of the best pizza in Colorado…..very unhealthy, but very delicious! They offer the honey to dip your extra crust in at the end! There is nothing else that tastes this good!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, our apartment is a disaster, cleaning needs to be done, laundry needs to be folded and food needs to be prepped for the week. I am thrilled that we are back to eating normal healthy food (I think my body likes it too!)…but now it’s back to the cleaning on Sunday…..

 

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention one little thing…..did you ever know that the ABC’s song and Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star are to the same tune? Our pastor mentioned it to us this morning in church (of course non-shallantly during the sermon) but it made me take my mind off the message so that I could sing both in my head! What do ya know!!! It’s crazy! Are there any other songs like that I should know about?

Have a great week!

❤ God Bless