February Favorites

February was such a quick month.  I am having a hard time wrapping my arms around the fact that March starts on Sunday.  Of course I am not going to complain about that because it means that Spring is right around the corner...and then tra la la Summer aka boating season.  Alrighty enough day dreaming, let's get on with this months faves.

Moment(s): I really should stop trying to narrow this down to just one, already.

Winter day at the Tiki Bar

Old memories flooding back during our trip to the Saterlee Clarke House

This exact moment right here people...I am so thankful I captured this.

 

Music My jam - Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars

I was hesitant to like this one at first and then suddenly it kind of stuck on me.

 

Beauty Product(s):

Mario Badescu ceramide herbal eye cream - Tried a few other ones, but keep coming back to this one.  It is amazing.

Josie Maran Whipped argan oil hand cream in vanilla apricot - The smell and how my hands feel after I use this glorious.

Lavender and Sleepy Time essential oils - After struggle with falling asleep, thought I would give these a shot.  There has been so much about essential oils lately. 

Reading -

Via

 

Right now I am about half way thru this....and I will say I am enjoying it.  Of course, I do love backpacking; so aside from the general story of her finding herself, the things she learns along the trail from the backpacking experience I find interesting.

Watching - We are still loving our "Shameless".  Of course "The Following" starts Monday night and I am super excited about that too.

Food/Drink -

 

Absolutely anything with sugar in it...I was been a total sweet freak this month.  And I have some girl scout cookies sitting in my drawer as we speak, for the win.

Purchase:

Technically I didn't purchase it, but the hubbie got it for me and I am super excited to start using it. plan on using it to document my adventures, you know when there is no cell service or computers.

Smelling:

Interwebs:

Someone always sneaking into your ben And jerrys go out and get yourself one of these Ben Jerrys Euphori Lock Combination Protector. Confused about to wear to that awesome concert you have tickets too?  Check out this over on tumblr concert outfits blog.

And my shout out this month for some of my fave blog posts are going to Steph. Found out some pretty cool things just in the last week over at her blog...like cooking pasta in a frying pan with cold water (hello I am giving that a try), coconut oil shaving cream, her thoughts on the bachelor (well said, well said).   

And on the horizon for next month...a surprise and "The Diary of Anne Frank" play being put on by the high school.  What was your awesomeness this month?

Time to Work it Out

Well January found me all ready to kick some ass on my working out. With that being said we will just follow that mentality with a little Brittany:

 

First though, I will say I failed at doing the home dvd thing.   Work has been crazy busy resulting in some late evenings.

 

And then there was a moment...which I though would be brief and discovered it was reoccurring.  Hey you know those long runs are there for solving your problems, the world's problems and then plotting various activities.  That reoccurring moment brought me to the conclusion that I will not do a marathon this year.  Note the key words: this year.  This is due to the training.  The training takes a large portion of my time and inhibits me from doing other races due to mileage requirements.  Last year, I can say I was disappointed that I missed out on some of the races I enjoy.  With the change of plans, I decided I will more then likely do 2 half-marathons and focus on some speed work for a few of the 5ks that will be mixed in during the fall.  The April half is still a major go and I will still be chasing a PR.

 

 

Oh the miles those shoes have taken me and the sights that we have seen together.  And now onto how the month went.

 

Week 5: 3 run days with 2 strength days.  This week my speed work out was longer, but I got a cut back week on the long run.

 

Week 6:  3 run days, 2 strength days, and 1 bike day aka active rest day.  Big change this week was the addition of biking on Friday while I did my long run on Saturday.

 

Week 7: 3 run days, 2 strength days, and 1 bike day again.  Aside from adding an extra mile to my long run, I also extended my Monday run by a mile.

 

Week 8:  This is going down right now.  So far there are 2 run days and 1 lift day under my belt.  I will be doing another lift day tomorrow.  Then will be skipping biking this week to do the long run on Friday.  Long run this week though is a mileage cut back week, but the miles will be done at my goal race pace....and to that I say, bring it, I got this shit handled.

 

And there you have my little month recap...until next month.

 

 

 

Ghost of Weekend Past

Exhaustion can pretty much sum it up.   Work has been a little crazy so basically Friday night was another late one.   

Saturday left me running around like chicken with my head cut off...not as cute as these guys.

This would be from one of my stops, The Flower Shoppe to pick up a corsage for Forest for his winter fest date.  And now here is how Saturday went down.

 

Numero Uno get up and get the running done. Oh and I have a brand new alarm noise which would be "I'm an Albatroz". Happy bouncy an get me moving alarm.  The run was 11 miles this week...and since I was jamming only one episode of "House of Lies".

 

Then it was off to evil giant of Wal-Mart to get the house shopping done.  What I can say though is this Wal-Mart has the greatest range of air fresheners, so needless to say I stocked up.  After that I had to take a little side trip to Maurices.  Found the cutest shirt and cardigan...because hello this girl has cardigan problems. 

 

Next up was the flower shop to pick up the corsage.  I do enjoy going here since they have so many others things to look at like this...

I am seriously in love with this mirror.  Wish I would have taken the time to find out how much.

 

With that accomplished, it was off to get some grocery shopping done.  Since I discovered that I was getting rather hangry and McDonalds had shamrock shakes...I stopped and low and behold they had...

 

They had SpongeBob happy meals, so why not.  Now for someone who has not ordered a happy meal in forever, I was a little stressed at the drive up when I was picking my items. I was like I will have the chicken nuggets....uuuuhhhhh apples, and a chocolate milk.  My brain was thinking...what the heck is up with the healthy apple crap, I am at McDonalds I want fries.  Whatever.   So you can imagine the joy when I got home to discover yes there is still fries in there.  Thank goodness.  Apples are still in the fridge too.

 

Yeah that is my cool spongebob toy.  It makes noises when you move your straw. 

 

While I was impatiently waiting for the next event to occur, the Forest and I worked on his very first tax return. 

 

Finally it was Winterfest time.....

 

This is the beautiful corsage.  That flower shop never disappoints.  One of the parents hit it on the head when they stated getting all 14 kids arranged and together for the various pictures is like herding cats.

 

One of the parents was nice enough to take a picture of us together.  What can I say we like black....and bow ties are the new cool by the way.  Next I am going to see if I can get him to add a vest.

 

After that chaotic mess, the hubbie and I hit up the bowling alley for some pizza while I waited to go to the grand march.  Let me tell you that was the longest wait ever.  When my head hit the pillow at 10:30ish I was definitely done for the day.

 

Sunday...we took a road trip for the littles birthday.   We went here last year and they loved it so, that the little bro wanted to take them back again.  This time though there was something a little off....

 

Like how did those guys get in there??   Darn dinosaurs always out causing problems.

 

And then there was the extremely large frog that jumped in by the fish this year.

 

Look very closely at the picture above and see what you find.....did you see?

 

With it being the rainforest dome and the humidity there was a plant that was dripping and of course our little Cooper was there taking a mini shower.

 

After sitting in the swamp like climate of the tropical dome, it was off to the desert dome.  This one was closed last year, so it was nice to see this year.

 

This was the Bird of Paradise plant.  I can definitely tell why it got that name.  And the Cooper decided he needed to be spiderman and got his face painted.

 

He did such a fantastic job sitting there and the artist did a wonderful job making up his face.

 

What we did not realize, was that it was also steampunk day at the domes.  Which is why there was the face painting, this guy playing with fire and some other people walking around in costumes.  Sorry, no pictures.  What I can say though is we are kind of intrigued by the whole steampunk thing and now are contemplating this for Halloween versus Katy Perry and the sharks.  And the way they dress is cool...of course, I will be researching this whole genre.

 

Last was the reason why we went to the domes....the show dome and the train exhibit.  This years theme was space.

 

After all of that it was off for a late lunch at the Mineshaft.  Where we stuffed ourselves silly and played some various games in the gameroom.

 

And last but definitely not least it was time to close out our day with some presents and cake to celebrate the adorable littles' birthday.

 

Happy Birthday my two favorite Goobers!

 

And now we get back to work to rest up for next weekend...

 

Littles top Ten

Normally everyone would be reading a Friday Five for an upcoming birthday...but today you are twice as lucky.  See twice as lucky as I, when these two adorable little boys came into the world.  Today's Friday Ten is dedicated to my top fave Moo and Cooper moments over the last year...

 

1. In case you were not aware there is nothing better than boogers and beaters.

 

2. Cornholio Crazy

 

3. Why yes, yes this is a hat.

 

 

4.  I tell you I am the captain of this here ship

 

 

5. Just too cool for you

 

6. They must be placed just so in a very particular little row

 

7.   The sea belongs to me

 

 

8. Oh yes, I love you to very much now please do not lick my nose again

 

9. Snug as a bug in a rug

 

 

10.  I shall get you my little pretties

 

Here is to two of the most awesome boys that I know.   You have my heart and soul, I could not imagine our lives without you. 

 

 

Warm the Soul - White Chocolate Caramel Hot Cocoa

There is nothing worse than being outside for an extended period on cold winter's day and then coming in to only wait for hot chocolate. When I found a recipe for slow cooker hot chocolate, I was ecstatic. One of our favorite things to do has been to make this for Christmas....and if we would go sledding.  Well now this year I stumbled across a recipe for a white chocolate caramel one.  And you know that of course we had to give this a try.   Made a few little adjustments to the recipe and I think we may have a new favorite cold weather delight on our hands.  Now let me get to the recipe

White Chocolate Caramel Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

3/4 cups heavy cream

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

3 Cups of Milk

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Caramel, as desired

 

 

And ready, set, let's go

Pour into the slow cooker heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and milk.



 

Add your white chocolate chips. Give it a quick stir.  Then set the slow cooker on low for about 4-5 hours.   I try to stir it occasionally during that time to help mix up the chocolate.

 

Now when the chocolate is all melted it is basically ready.  Next take some of your caramel and drizzle it along the sides and bottom of a coffee mug.   Add in the glorious white chocolate mixture and bam...white chocolate caramel hot cocoa.

 

 

Sidenote: If you follow this recipe to a "T", you will have a 1/2 can sweet condensed milk leftover.   That leaves you with a few choices:

1. Grab a spoon and eat it
2. Go over to my yummie simple magical bars recipe cut the recipe in half and make some of those glorious things
3. Double the recipe above for an abundance of hot chocolate goodness.

And there you have a little warmth for the soul via some super sweet goodness. Stay Warm.