Labor Day Weekend | 2015

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Three. Day. Weekend.   It’s like music to my ears.  Or was, anyway.   How does it always go by so fast?  Sigh…. and thus we begin our “Working for The Weekend” grind again.

Friday started with a Harley ride to work, as those opportunities are rare.  Being a girl, in a professional work environment, with 20 miles between home and work plus the need for gym attire, Harley attire, work attire… blah blah blah.  You get the picture.

Friday was a jeans day, with a fun Division meeting for the first two hours of my day (complete with t-shirt design competition), a few hours of work and an hour of Wellness Promotion (shameless plug for my fitness classes I start offering to staff on the 14th too)

😉

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FAW (Friday After Work) I was able to meet up with my girl Heidi for an impromptu early evening ride to Waterloo for some cocktails, live music and girl talk.   It was the perfect Friday night.

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Saturday

Clint was in C-town doing more Pirtlefest preps, so I decided to take on a few projects around the house.

Project A: Choose a new front door color.

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An early morning trip to Home Depot and I was well on my way.

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… with the Iowa game on and dogs monitoring my work, of course.

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Before | After

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I am in love!

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I’d love to change the hardware and light fixture above the door as well, but maybe another day.

In between coats of primer and paint I also spent a great deal of time trimming up all of the rose bushes and random crap growing in front of our house (Project B).

…And by trimming, I actually mean cutting down.

Oops.

Have I mentioned I hate clutter?  Guess that transfers outside too.   I hate rose bushes.

Project C: String patio lights over our unfinished back patio.

:p

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Earlier this summer, Clint and company poured a sidewalk and half of our patio in the back.   It wasn’t intentionally done this way, but measurements were a little off… NBD.   Eventually it will extend to where the dog houses are and curve back around.  Our fire pit (which is sitting on top of the ground for now) will go in the middle.

I thought patio lights would look sweet over the top of this, so did a little mock-up, made a trip to Target for lights and started stringing.

So, how about a little math?

$48 of lights +  secure starting point +  connecting point for the four strands + a little too tight of a stretch on the last strand = a big glassy mess.

Just add it to my pile of trash for the weekend.

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Nightfall came quickly so the dogs and I had to call it a night.  Clearly they were exhausted after all that work.

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Sunday

An insanely humid morning equaled a less than enthusiastic start to my day.  5 miles sounded daunting in that heat, so I pulled out my witty tank to garner some laughs out on the trail.   I always wave/nod/acknowledge anyone I meet while out on the trail, so figured adding a laugh would help keep me going, if not them too.

Side Note: Please excuse me while I hop on my soap box for a sec.  I rarely wear this tank, along with a few other “wordy” tanks due to how low they sit on the chest.  I have to roll it into my sports bra a gagillion times to get it pulled up.   I think showing the girls while working out is just weird.  I know – this is probably all just me as I find boobs annoying (anyone feeling awkward yet) but I just find it a little odd to have cleavage showing when at the gym, running, teaching a group x class, etc.   Are we there to get a helluva workout in, or to get looked at?  Mmmmhmmm… that is all.    *Hopping off my personal opinion soapbox.

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After my long and disgustingly hot run, I hopped in an ice cold shower… hello happiness… and then Clint and I stupidly (influenced by my stupidity) went back out in the 100 degree heat for a ride to Lake Ohana.

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A few ice cold brews and we made our way back to Omaha.   Moonshine was producing, which is a very manual project, so you can’t leave it unattended for long without risk of ruining an entire batch.  Not cool.

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We ended the night with fire grilled grub and a few more beers.  Pretty great Sunday, if you ask me!

imageThat fire pit sure works great sitting awkwardly out of the ground.  🙂

MONDAY | Labor Day

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Clint was gracious enough to bring an entire grocery bag full of apples back with him from Clarinda, so I filled up my day with baking.

Three batches of Apple Pie Bars with Salted Caramel (all made from scratch) and a large batch of Apple Crisp smelled up my kitchen.   One batch went to our neighbor, Carol, who broke her leg a few weeks back.  Another batch went to our neighbor, Harold, who hands-down, might be the coolest cat you could meet.  He is an older gentleman, with a love of old cars, rolled white t-shirt sleeves and strategically combed and slicked back hair.  Harold and Clint have become quite the garage companions when talking old cars and tinkering on old trucks.

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Recipe coming soon!

Another hot-as-hell evening short run followed by dinner and blogging has me thinking bed time soon.   Back to the daily grind tomorrow!

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Hope you all had a wonderful three day weekend with family, friends and doing whatever the heck you wanted to do!

Cheers!

Monster Bars

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Recipe adapted from: Averie Cooks

Her photos and write-up is far more appealing than yours truly.  

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup melted salted butter
1 large egg
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup mini M&M’s
1 cup mini caramel bits
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
3/4 cup mini marshmallows

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DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.
  2. Mix together melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla and whisk  smooth.  Add egg and whisk again (adding egg after other ingredients allows it to cool so you don’t end up with a scrambled egg and butter)
  3. Add the peanut butter and stir until incorporated followed by the flour.
  4. Add all remaining candies and yummyness and fold to incorporate.
  5. Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
  6. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until top is set. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, or with a few moist crumbs. Allow bars to cool in pan for at least 30 minutes.

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I made two batches of these babies.  One went to a friends house (I used all pink M&M’s for Breast Cancer Awareness in one batch – GO, TONYA, GO!) and the other went with Clint to work.

Let’s just say the boys didn’t make it to lunch before devouring them all.

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Cheers!

High Five to Year 35!

I love Birthday’s.  And, no, I am ABSOLUTELY NOT that girl who says I am 29 and holding.  Gross.   Embrace age.   Life just gets better year after year.  I have straight up loved my life in my thirties.

Bring on 35!

The Hubs wins again with flowers delivered on Monday for my “Birthday Week”.   His mama taught him right, I’d say.  What a sweetheart.

imageOrange and Black, of course!

My Thursday AM Insanity class surprised me with balloons and a card, thanks to Alice’s sneaky ways. 🙂  And we had a packed house (24) so we had crazy energy circulating that room on Thursday.  I’ll take that as a birthday present for SURE!

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Friday I took a half day off and indulged in a spa appointment with my fave girl Becky at Victor Victoria, followed by Sushi with Tyree and Tracy and then a lash appointment at Living Beautifully.

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Friday night we enjoyed dinner with Clint’s brother J and wife Shelby.  Always a treat with those two.  We only live about 15 miles apart, but yet we tend to only see each other when we all travel to Clarinda for parties and holidays.  #lifehappens

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Can’t tell they’re related at all…

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Saturday morning started with a Starbucks and a card from my witty husband before we made our way to good ol’ town of Clarinda.   We have had so much going on the month of August that I just wanted to get away.  So, we did!

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10:30 hair appointment with the amazing Kayla followed by a mini BBQ at my mom’s house with Gabe, mom, Gr’ma and Clint.  It was a perfect lunch date.

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Bottom right hand corner is Ms. Chloey, my “niece”.  😉 She tracked me down later that evening to give me the coolest gift I’ve ever received.   How CUTE is she?

Saturday afternoon we attended the funeral for the father of one of my classmates.  It was the most beautifully done ceremony out on their family farm.  Very touching.

We ended the late afternoon at my Aunt and Uncle’s house for a few beers and conversation before we ended the evening at J Bruner’s restaurant.   They opened the new location a few months ago and I am SO impressed with how beautiful it is.   Nice work Emily and Joe!

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We ended the evening with a road-trip back to Emerson to drop off Troy and Sara (entertainment from the backseat, yo) before Clint and I finally rolled into home around 2:30am.  Sunday I basically slept, watched TV and ventured out only ONCE for new shoes.   Surprisingly the only stop I made in the mall was the shoe store.   I clearly was on a mission to get in, get out and get back in my pj’s. HA

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The PERFECT ending to a weekend that was spent exactly how I had hoped to.

Cheers!

Back In The Groove

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Thanks to a busy travel schedule for work plus a week in Sturgis, SD thrown in the middle, I had no choice but to take a break.  A break from my daily gym presence.  A break from leading fitness classes.  A break from my alarm clock.

Just a break.

And, you know what?

I feel good.

I spent those weeks doing what I needed to for work.  I spent that week in Sturgis eating, drinking and living without regret.   The week after Sturgis I only taught 1/2 of my fitness classes and spent the rest of the time letting my body just relax, rejuvenate and reset.

And now…

I’m back.

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I am BACK with the latest Round of Insanity (14).  New music, new moves and NEW format that I am LOVING.  My classes are loving it too!  High-Five Beachbody Live for this welcome and needed format change.

I have jumped back into running a few miles.   Taking it slow right now.  My body was worn out in July.  I was working it hard… and playing equally as hard on top of it.

(Ok fine… I was playing 10 times as much as I was working.   Ah, I friggin’ LOVE summer)

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I’ve also  been taking time each night to perfect the new TurboKick Round.   ❤

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Did you know my FIRST CERTIFICATION as a trainer is coming up on October 3rd?

  This is it!

This is me making my dream come true.  You know, the audition I nearly skipped because of fear.

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I am focusing on smaller runs during the week and paying closer attention to kicking up my pace.

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I have mapped out every weekend long run from now until November.   I’ve got The Good Life Halfsy on the books!  13.1 is mine!   You know what else is mine?  That darn 1:59.

My finish time WILL BE UNDER 2 HOURS!

Half #1 – 2:20

Half #2 – 2:10

Half #3 – IS GOING to be 1:59 if it kills me.

🙂

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My morning YMCA classes have picked back up again after hit and misses all summer.  (Ah, summer.  Can’t say I blame them for the hits and misses.  It’s SUMMER!)

This morning we had over 19 in Insanity class.  I can’t even explain the energy in that room when we are that full.     You should join me and experience it. 😉

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The March 2015 Insanity Crew. 

I should convince my August morning crew to take a new pic. 🙂

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I’ve even signed up for the Beer and Bagel 4 mileTrail Run on November 8th.  As of today, part of the M2M Iowa team has also signed up.   Awe… reunited and it feels so good!

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#teamknickers  

Watch it – we are going to dominate!

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Well, I know Blair and I will at least dominate the beer, bagels and chili afterwards.

…Mainly beer.

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Cheers to a much needed rest and rejuvenate.

I am BACK!