Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving Pies...Oh My!


I'm so excited about Thanksgiving coming so soon!  I think in some ways these holidays are more fun when you get older because you end up being more involved in the preparation.  This year, I'm making pies!  I love to bake, but haven't tried many pies.  This will be my first attempt at pumpkin pie and I'm also making an apple pie...that's my favorite and I've done it before, but it gets tricky because sometimes they are too liquidy...and that all depends on the apples.  Not sure what to do about it...so if anyone has suggestions, please share :)

First off, I'm going to use Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe.
They're the ones who make the pumpkin for the filling, so I figure it's a good place to start!  I can tweak it next year if I like.  This is what it should look like...I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Now, for the actual recipe

For the apple pie, I like to go simple:
  • 6 cups thinly sliced apples
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Prepare your pastry for a two crust pie.  Wipe, quarter, core, peel, and slice apples; measure to cups.
2. Combine sugar and cinnamon.  The amount of sugar depends on how tart your apples are.
3. Arrange apples in layers in pastry lined pie plate.  Sprinkle each layer with sugar and cinnamon.  Dot top layer with margarine.  Cover with top crust.
4. Place on lowest rack in oven preheated to 450 degrees F.  Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.  Bake for 30-35 minutes longer.  Serve warm or cold.


I'm looking forward to baking.  These upcoming holidays are just a good excuse!  

What are your favorite pies??

Monday, November 22, 2010

Insanity Workout Challenge

I'm sure most of you have heard of P90X and other workouts along those lines.  One morning, I turned on the TV and there was an infomercial on Insanity. 

The same company, Team Beachbody makes these two workout DVD packages, plus many  more.  It sounded like something I'd like to try, so I bought my first item ever off TV.  I started doing the workouts after marathon training last year, but decided to stop so I could focus on triathlon training this past spring and summer and then I once again was training for a 1/2 marathon, so I've decided next Monday, I am starting my 60 day Insanity Challenge.

These workouts are hard.  It seriously made marathon training feel like a break in some ways.  Crazy.  Each workout for the first month is 30-45 minutes and then the second month they are around 60 minutes.  So Monday, I begin the challenge from start to finish.  I am also going to be training for another 1/2 marathon I think John and I are going to do in February, so it should get interesting.  This program is all cardio and plyometrics.  It's hard, but effective.  I saw results in a couple weeks!  It should be exciting.  I will finish up at the end of January.  I'll be keeping tabs with you on my progress!  It's also one of my 101 in 1001, so I'm looking forward to checking something else off my list!

Happy Monday!  I'm happy it's a short week AND Thanksgiving!!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

I apologize for my little whine last week.  I just needed some rest.  I did get some much needed rest the next couple days following that, so I was a much happier girl!

I left for my work trip Thursday and it was cold.  I'm not a fan of their kind of cold.  Yuck!  I much prefer Florida "cold".  When John drove me to the airport Saturday morning at 5:15am, it was 18 degrees in November.  Ugh. I couldn't live up north like that.  I had a layover in Minneapolis and they had snow everywhere.  It was pretty, but it was November!  No thanks.  I'll suck up the ridiculously hot summers, just so I don't have to deal with frigid winters.  I guess it's all what you're used to...people probably think I'm nuts for living through the miserable Florida summers, but I'll stay with what I know :)

We had our mini girls weekend for the 1/2 marathon!
We went to see

then ate

then

to get ready for

The day was a great success!  Christy, Ashley, and Christy's mom finished their first 1/2 marathon and they all did awesome!  Every one of them met or exceeded their goals for finishing!  I'm so excited for all of them!  Plus, it was a great time to spend with my lady friends :)

A picture after we had all finished!  It was really sunny!

Congrats Ladies!

Now, Lily and I are snuggled up on the couch waiting for John!  Oh how I've missed my little fur-ball!  

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Today, I'm a mess...

Exhaustion from the past couple weeks has reared it's ugly head and I'm a mess today.  John's a good man for putting up with me sometimes.  Today, I really do feel bad for him.  It is one of those days when you're so tired, you feel ridiculously sensitive and emotional and don't understand why...that is...until it's very kindly pointed out to you that you've been running yourself ragged, haven't slept much and need to stop and take a break.  That's where I'm at.  Ugh.  I leave for my work trip tomorrow and fly home Saturday in time for our 1/2 marathon.  Hopefully I will take care of this mess in a hurry...I have things to do!  Hope everyone has a good rest of the week/weekend!  Updates will be coming soon on the 1st annual ladies 1/2 marathon.  Stay tuned!


Until then...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

John is my hero!

That is the pathetic look your dog gives you after she almost chokes to death.  An hour later.  After she's done shaking, coughing, wheezing and scaring you...this is the look you get.

Last night, Lily decided that she would continue the bad behavior that her grandpa allows when he watches her and snatched 1/2 a steak off the table.  As I was trying to get it away from her, she took a huge chunk and tried to swallow it whole so I couldn't get it.  As I was scolding her and taking the rest of it to the trash, she starts running towards me panicked.  I realize then, she's choking.  I start to panic and yelling to John to save her and to do something.  It was kind of a blur.  He had to give her the heimlich.  It was ridiculous.  After 4 pumps, she spit out the steak...3" across.  No wonder she couldn't swallow it.  Needless to say, I was quite stressed the rest of the evening.  And that's one of the reasons John is my hero!  Thanks to him, Lily's fine and here to live another day.

Monday, November 15, 2010

A little bit about us...as a couple...

I saw this over at Smiling is Good for Your Teeth and thought it was cute, so now, my turn :)

1. What are your middle names?
Joseph & Lou.

2. How long have you been together?
July 4, 2006.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Age 10 or so...

4. Who asked who out?
He asked me out.

5. How old are each of you? 
He is 27. I am 26.

6. Did you go to the same school?
Nope.

7. Are you from the same home town?
No, I'm for a city south of him.

8. Who is the smartest?
Depends on the subject ;-)

9. Who majored in what?
He dual-majored in Physics and Civil Engineering.  I have my undergrad in Political Science and my master's in business.

10. Who is the most sensitive? 
I'm going to go ahead and say myself.  Neither of us are really that sensitive...which works well for our personalities :)

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? 
Utah I think.  Snowboarding...woo!!!

12. Who has the worst temper? 
Probably him, followed closely by myself.  We both used to have really bad tempers, but over the years realized they weren't worth it.  We're much more mellow now.

13. How many children do you want? 
None.

14. Who does the cooking?
He probably cooks a little more than I do, but we share that role.

15. Who is more social?
We're both pretty social.

16. Who is the neat freak?
Depends. I am in dealing with the kitchen.  He likes everything to all have it's  place.  We're in a balancing act right now trying to make all of our stuff start to mesh.  I still have a whole house to move over to his :)

17. Who is the most stubborn?
Hmm...I think I win that one.  Although I try not to be, I can't help it sometimes.  He has a stubborn streak too though.

18. Who wakes up earlier?
That's usually equal.  He's happier about getting up early than I am though.

19. Where was your first date? 
The movies to see 'Click'.

20. Who has the bigger family?
I do...by far.

21. Do you get flowers often?
No, I'm not much of a flower gal.  They're nice to get, don't get me wrong, but I'd prefer other gestures over flowers.  John knows :)

22. How do you spend the holidays? 
Thanksgiving: We go run a local 5K and go back to John's parents house to prep for Thanksgiving #1, watch the Macy's parade and visit. After we dine there, we drive down to my parents house and spend another part of our day over there.  Then, we roll back to our side of town to sit in a turkey induced coma.
Christmas: Christmas Eve is spent going to church, followed by dinner at my Aunt's house.  Christmas breakfast at my parent's house and the rest of the day is spent at John's grandparents house.

23. Who is more jealous?  
Um, neither of us really.  I'll give him a hard time sometimes just to tease him, but usually neither of us are really jealous people.  We both know our relationship and each other well enough to be comfortable with what life throws at us.

24. How long did it take to get serious? 
Probably a little too fast for my liking.  I remember thinking, "oh man, this is way too serious for me, should I end this?  I'm not ready".  We've had our bumps but it's all worked out in the end.  I think the serious-fast thing threw us both for a little bit of a loop.

25. Who eats more?
John.  The end.

26. What do you do for a living?
We are both in construction.  He works for a General Contractor and I work for a subcontractor.

27. Who does the laundry? 
Right now, I do mine and help him with his on occasion, but he does his own mostly.  When we get married, I'm sure that'll all be mine.  Although, I'd rather do laundry than other household chores.  Bring it!

28. Who's better with the computer?
John.  He can do pretty much anything on a computer.  He's his company's stand in IT guy.

29. Who drives when you are together? 
90% of the time he does.  I only drive if he really doesn't want to, which is rare, or if I'm feeling in a big hurry and he's moving slow that day.

30. What is your song?  
Well, when he was working on a project out of town, "Hey There Delilah" was a big song, so that was probably our first song.  We've had a couple more over the years too, but our wedding song will probably stick as our song.   You'll have to wait to find out what that is though :)

Sunday, November 14, 2010

25 Q's

Playing along with Ashley! My answers to 25 questions:

1. Do you see a lot of stars at night where you live?
Yes! I love clear nights! Sometimes you can even see planets if you're paying attention. I took an astronomy class in college (hey...counted as a science credit) and it was really interesting. I can still remember a few things.

2. Did you cry today?
Nope. That rarely happens though, so I'm not expecting it tomorrow either...

3. What are you doing tomorrow?
Back to work. Hopefully a run in there somewhere too!

4. What is the last movie you watched and what's the best thing about it?
Due Date. Robert Downey Jr. Nuff said...

5. Are you craving any kind of food right now?
Nope. I just ate cereal a bit ago and am good to go.

6. Who slept in your bed with you last?
My mother and I have been on vacation the past few days, so that would be my mom.

7. Where were you at 9AM?
The Park Central Hotel in NYC.

8. How do you feel about your hair?
I'd like it to be thicker. It's so fine=no body. But it's super straight & takes me less than 5 minutes to dry & that includes style.

9. Do you plan on having any babies and if so, how many?
Fur-babies only please. I'll take 2. Not a big fan of human babies 24/7. We plan on being fun Uncle John & Aunt Christina.

10. Do you wear makeup?
Usually, unless I'm doing a physical activity of some sort or going to play in the water somewhere.

11. Have you done any community service this year?
Yes. Helped out at the Ronald McDonald house & seniors first.

12. What is the last concert you went to?
OAR I believe.

13. Do you have any secret wishes right now?
Yes. Although some people know them. They're still pretty secret though ;-)

14. Have you ever cried in front of the last person you kissed.
Pretty much the only person who's seen me cry in the past 5 or so years. Ha.

15. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you want to be?
At the moment I couldn't be more content :-) finally got home to see my love & lil love. I'm happy.

16. How is the weather lately?
It's in the 60's right now. But it's nighttime. 80's tomorrow.

17. Where do you want to eat next?
Home. Cookin' tomorrow night. I'm sure I'll want me some Chick-fil-A soon too though. With their magical styrofoam cups!

18. What scares you the most about relationships?
In general-Trust. It takes me a while...

19. What's your favorite sport to play?
Football. I totally would have played had I been born male. But, alas I was not. They did start a girls team at my high school a few years after I graduated. Bummer.

20. Do you like chocolate?
In moderation...and usually with vanilla or peanut butter or some other yummy flavor to off set the chocolate.

21. What are you listening to?
The fan blowing. That's all. It's almost bedtime. Well technically it's past bedtime, but I'm off on my schedule so I'm winding down.

22. What happens to you when you get nervous?
I fidget.

23. Does the rain ruin your day?
No, I like a good rainy day every now & then.

24. What is your relationship status?
Engaged!

25. Are you ticklish?
Unfortunately. Sometime John uses that against me. And he's bigger so he wins.

THE END!!

Christina