What's Wrong with this Picture?

There's a hole in my heart today...

Meeting Blake Lewis

Today was the Summer Fun Festival in Myrtle Beach (notice all the lovely SUN in these pictures).
Blake Lewis (American Idol Season 6) performed a few songs from his CD, and then did autographs.



























And check out what the cops drive nowadays!

Running

OK. So, for the last month+, I've been doing a program called "Couch Potato to 5k" which is designed to get you running a 5k (about 3 miles), with progressively harder workouts over a period of 9 weeks. There are a couple of mp3 versions available for free on iTunes. One is called Podcasts for Running, and another is First Day to 5 k by Podrunner Intervals. I skipped Week 1 since I wasn't a complete couch potato. All of the workouts have a 5 minute warm-up and a 5 minute cool down. Week 2 was 6 intervals of alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes. By the 6th running interval, I was gasping like a landed trout. Thought I was going to DIE. Wondering what crazy person thought this was a good idea. Oh, yeah, that was me... I took Spike with me, and for the first 10 minutes, he was trying to drag me down the road (thank goodness he only weighs 5 pounds!) but by the last 10 minutes, I was dragging him. He (and I) improved quickly, though, as we completed more runs.

Fast forward a month, and I'm proud to say I just finished the last day of Week 5, which is 20 minutes of non-stop running (plus the warm up & cool down). The funny thing is, it didn't seem as hard as Week 2. I've come a long way, Baby! I'm not saying I was running very fast; I mean, come on, my running partner has 6 inch long legs! But still, I have improved so much. I acutually enjoy running now. It's not easy, but a good challenge is healthy! Whoever designed this program figured out just the right mix of challenging, without being, "OMG that's impossible!!!" Every week I think, "Oh, man, that's gonna be rough!" but it's never as hard as I expect it to be. Four more weeks to go!

Spike loves our runs together. He totally flips out when he sees me get my running shoes out, and yes, he knows the difference between running shoes and regular shoes. Here's what seems to be going through his head:

"Let'sGoLet'sGoLet'sGoLet'sGoLet'sGoGetYourShoesLet'sGoGetMyLeashLet'sGo GO!GO!GO!!!

Oh, look! There's something in the road! What could it be? Oh, a pinecone! COOL!

What's that? There's something in the road! What could it be? Ah! A candy wrapper! Neat!

There's something else! What is it? A fiddler crab!!! WOW! Can I eat it? OUCH. No, can't eat that...

A car! What will we do??? Let's run out in front of it; that'll teach it! No, Mom? Oh, well, if you insist, we'll just run here on the side of the road for a while.

Look, a BIRD! I shall catch it and eat it for my dinner. What? Oh, yeah, dogs can't fly.

A squirrel! Can I catch THAT? No? Durn leash...

Mmmm... something stinky. Maybe I should rol---OOF! Guess Mom doesn't want to stop running.

A fence post! I could pee on tha-- *yank* I guess Mom still isn't ready to stop...

NEIGHBOR'S CAT!!! KILLKILLKILL!!! Hahaha! Look at him run! That's right, Buddy, you just keep on truckin'!

Back home already? No more running today? Ah, naptime. "

Smile for the camera ... or not

Ah, it's spring photo time!

There's my boy, smilin' all nice!















And then there's Mackenzie. What can I say, she really doesn't like photographers.

Mother's Day 2009

Me & the kids, after church.



















There's something about having a flower in my hair that just makes me feel pretty!

















After church we took the kids to Broadway at the Beach and fed the fish and ducks.

A Hoppin' Good Time

Mackenzie and her bag of Easter goodies from school.

Coloring eggs.

Oh, my. What happened to Keira?

Let's Go Fly a Kite

We took the kids to Huntington Beach State Park to fly their kites last weekend. Seemed like a great idea, since it was a nicy windy day. Turns out it was TOO WINDY to fly a kite! Also the sand was blowing like crazy, and it STUNG when it hit our bare legs! Spike wasn't crazy about the blowing sand, either! We had fun, anyway.

Banana Bread

Here's my recipe for Banana Bread. This is an old family recipe, and it's super good. Even better if you use REAL butter and REAL buttermilk. It's definitely not health food, though! You can make it a little healthier by substituting applesauce for part of the butter, and whole wheat flour for part of the all-purpose flour, but it's not as good that way. Still good, but not GREAT. Better yet, splurge once in a while and make it the old fashioned way... mmmmm....


Banana Bread

1 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Bananas, mashed
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts, optional

Mix all ingredients just until incorporated and turn out into a well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. (Or use a muffin tin and bake 18-20 minutes.)

More Bento Fun!

This weekend's bentos (16-20). PBJ's, carrots, strawberries, dried fruit.

My order from IchibankanUSA came in today, YAY! Super cute stuff! See the little penguin? He's a mayonaise container, and his beak is the handle of a little spoon thingie to spread it with! How cute is that?!?

I was so excited about the new 'toys' that I made a bento (#21) for Bill to take to work. Bean & rice casserole, carrot sticks, strawberry, and a boiled egg shaped like a fish. (The rest of the eggs I molded came out great, but the fish was a little mangled!) The yellow thing has Caesar dressing for the carrots.

Sewing, Bentos, a Dog, and a really big tree

Some old jeans I picked up for $1.50 at a thrift store. They had holes in the knees so I sewed on some heart shaped patches (cut from an old dress that was mine when I was little.

The weather was so beautiful, we picnicked Saturday AND Sunday this week. So here are Bentos 4-8...

and bentos 9-12.

TEN AND TWO!!! TEN AND TWO!!! And keep your eyes on the ROAD!!!

A Gi-freakin'-normous live oak tree at Hampton Plantation. A plaque near the trunk says that George Washington saved the tree in 1791.

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Muffin Tin Monday, Bentos and Sushi

Today is Muffin Tin Monday, and the theme is orange. We've got carrots with orange tinted Caesar dressing, fruit salad topped with tangerines, foccacia, chick peas, and goldfish crackers. The kids are loving eating out of the muffin tins, but it's hard not to fill them with more food than they can eat! (The tin above is bigger than a regular muffin tin. It makes 4" muffins.)

Bento #1! I am so excited about Bento. This one contains grapes & blueberries, chickpeas, homemade (!) smoked salmon sushi, an onigiri stuffed with more smoked salmon, and a jello jiggler topped with a shamrock-shaped kiwi slice. I made them for all four of us to eat on Saturday when we went to Charleston. I wasn't sure how the kids would like the sushi or onigiri, but they loved it (once Benjamin got past the fact that it contains seaweed EEEWWWW!!!) They ate everything I packed, plus some trail mix that isn't in the picture.

In other news, today is Robin's birthday. He's old enough to drive! Bill asked if I was going to take him to get his license today, but I said, "No, he's too blind to see where he's going, and besides his paws don't reach the brake.

Pinewood Derby and Blue & Gold Banquet

Benjamin's tank












showing off his license














Oh, so close!

















The boys performing the skit I wrote. They did such a good job!

Help, there's a monster in my ice cream!

Um... It's looking at me. Scary monster cat face in my ice cream!












Kenzie got some new shoes-her first pair of heels. You should see her shuffle along in them.












Pretty.













Muffin Tin Meals. Got this idea from several websites. You serve a meal in a muffin tin. The kids thought it was great fun, and I managed to get them to eat more veggies than normal this way.

Birthday Shenanigans

A few pics from Benjamin's 7th Birthday...














My daughter, the walrus.


















We all thought the cake turned out great!














Ben with his favorite present. They had both been begging for this remote controlled T-Rex since before Christmas but it was too expensive. Until I found it on clearance last week for 60% off!!! This thing is hilarious, too. They'll be playing with it for a long time.