My Running Shoes

I am 2/3 of the way though week 5 of the couch to 5K running plan, and I am feeling freaking amazing!

Today's workout consisted of

5 min warm-up walk
Run for 8 minutes
walk for 5 minutes
Run for 8 minutes
5 min cool down walk

I took a nice slow pace and I got though it unscathed. Although tomorrow I have to run 20 minutes straight, and I'm a wee bit terrified that halfway though my body will collapse and I'll be found hours later by one of the millions of snooty people who live in my neighborhood while walking their dog that is the size of my foot.

But I'm no quitter!

Wish me luck!

Gonna Fly Now (Theme From "Roc...

Audiobooks

I am the kind of person who needs to have something going on while I am sewing, cooking, cleaning, basically doing anything in the house. Sometimes I feel like I enjoy the background sound. I usually have the T.V. or radio on, but lately I have become bored with both mediums. Everything is the same, I needed a change. So I decided to try an audio book.

On friday I went and picked up a few from the library, I am already 3/4 of the way through my first one. What a great way to read a book while cleaning, working, sewing, or doing anything else in the house while Kyle is at work.

Here's what's in the CD player now.

The Rescue - Nicholas Sparks


Song Yet Sung - James McBride

Lord of the Rings Book I -The Fellowship of the Ring

Any of you guys ever try Audiobooks?

Google Calendar

Am I the only blogger that has a tennage stalker-ish lover obession with Google and how wonderful it is?

I think not.

Yesterday I finally figured out how to sync google calendars to my iphone, and the heavens opened up, and it was good.

Now all birthdays, holidays, and work type things are easily accessed and/or updated via my phone or via google, sweet. Now my widget on igoogle is actually, well, acurate; so I can move it from down in the corner where no one could see it, to front and center on my igoogle window.





I also wanted to point out one other thing....




Since I have had at least 100 unread blog posts in my reader for the last month (due to my lack of bloggy-ness) I feel good to be able to look at that empty window, finally. =)

Two Bean and Beef Chili

I have found my soul's chili counterpart here in this bowl of steaming wonderfulness!



But in all seriousness, this Chili is fabulous. I served it Saturday night with a fresh tossed salad (hand tossed by the hubs) and home made corn bread. The Chili itself came together fairly fast, and the flavor is out of the world. Plenty of kick with a lot of smoky subtle tastes. Make this, go ahead DO IT!

Two Bean and Beef Chili
Source:Cooking Light

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil, divided
Cooking spray
1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat (any type of ground meet will also work, I used fresh ground chuck steak)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño pepper
2/3 cup Cabernet Sauvignon or dry red wine (I used the Cab)
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ancho chile pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (15-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can hot chili beans

Preparation

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large Dutch oven coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle beef with salt. Place half of beef in pan; sauté 8 minutes or until browned. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining beef; remove from pan.

Add 2 teaspoons oil, onion, and bell pepper to pan, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add garlic and jalapeño; sauté for 1 minute. Add wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return beef to pan.

Stir in remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until beef is tender, stirring occasionally.

My Love Affair with Sewing

This is day 3 of my 4 day weekend (working 12 hours does have it's benefits, like more days off!) and I have had a really nice time relaxing and spending time with the hubs. Today he is on duty so I have a day to myself. God bless time off!

I have become quite the seamstress over the last few months. After my success with my quilt for little Rika I decided to start another project. (sorry I can't tell you what it is, it's a gift for someone who I think reads this blog!) After I finish it I'll be sure to post it though so no worries!

My Supplies:



This is my sewing machine, and I love it about as much as I have ever loved an inanimate object. It belonged to my mother who gave it to me when I moved out. I'm not exactly sure how old it is but It's definitely older than me. It's an old Kenmore, not much to look at but it gets the job done . It makes me feel proud of good old American craftsmanship or something like that...(esp when I have to haul the thing around, it weighs a TON!)



This is my machine's extendended work surface called a "Sew Adjustable." This makes sewing large projects 1,000x easier. Check 'em out here. Note Alex's cameo in the picture =)

And of course you simply MUST have



An iron



And an OLFA rotary cutter and self healing mat. (Only OLFA, any other rotary cutter is pretty much garbage in my opinon)

With these simple items and some fabric, the possibilities are endless!

yeah......

Ok, ok, I have TOTALLY SUCKED at blogging over the past month (well month and a half)

I actually have a legitimate excuse this time (well...sort of)

I actually came dangerously close to accidentally deleting my blog last week. Let me explain...I have had the same e-mail for several years. I have been wanting to change it to a more "adult sounding" e-mail for a long time but the process of changing it with all of the many MANY people (and things) that have my e-mail. Finally last week I decided to just buckle down and do it.

Then came the headache, changing my blogger account, changing my google reader, changing my igoogle home page. What a mess. While adding my new e-mail as an administrator of my blog I had probably the most horrifying 30 seconds of my blogging life. I was unable to access my blog, then I started getting error messages from blogger. Oh god...I freaking deleted my blog, it's all over....

Then I had to go to work....

So you already know how this ends (since I am posting this) that I was able to recover my blog and add my new e-mail address. Unfortunately I had such a busy work week that I wasn't able to get back on the web until...well...tonight (I think the 240 some odd posts in my Google reader is proof of that).

Hope you guys are all doing well, (looks like you're posting more than me anyway!)



In other news i'm 1/3 of the way through week 4 of the couch to 5-k running plan

I can now run 2 miles fairly easily with minimal rest. I NEVER thought I would be able to say that!

Thanks Allison!

Allison from The Displaced Texan gave me an award! The Best Blog Award (wow, thank you so much!)



The rules for this blog award are as follows:
1. To accept the award, you must post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted you the award, and a link to their blog.
2. Pass the award on to approximately 10 other blogs that you recently discovered, and think are great!
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

A Bee & His Honey
Just Another Day in {our midwest} Paradise
Cape Cod Love

Grad School

For those of you lovely people who have been reading every so often you know that I have been obsessing about Grad School for the past, well, it feels like forever (actual time about 6 months). I have been going back and forth about what I want to do since November. At first I wanted to teach at a school of nursing, be a clinical professor, so I decided I wanted to get my masters in nursing education. Awesome, I can do it online, easy easy!

So I started calling universities and getting my applications together for University of Phoenix and Walden University. I had decided to go for Walden University and I was literally putting pen to the paper of my application when I thought, what did I really want out of this? Sure I can teach, but I wouldn't be able to use my master's degree to practice. Hmm...If I get my Nurse Practitioner I can teach AND practice? Plus better hours and more pay to keep doing what I love to do, take care of patients and teach.

O.K. sounds good I'll get my NP, now which one? This set me back A LOT. I have always had a passion for women's care and obstetrics, so I thought hey being a midwife might be fun, researching into it got me really passionate about the midwifery model of care, however the nitty gritty of the actual job was a turn-off. Near impossible access to insurance and the horrific hours don't really butter my bread if you know what I mean. For sure when I start having kids I will have a midwife deliver me, It just isn't my passion enough for me to make the sacrifices needed to make that my career.

So as of today I have settled on getting my Family Nurse Practitioner. For those of you who have absolutely have no idea what I am talking about click here!. I am excited about starting this program, but I feel I should take some time to let it stick before I start applying to schools. The OTHER thing to add to this whole mess is that I need to stick around in one place long enough to actually finish a program, which isn't up to me, it's up to the good old United States Navy.

Ugh...too much stuff for me to obsess about. Well this is the plan for now. There is a program local that has a good program, application deadline is March 1st. I'll get some references at work and get my application in. If I get accepted, awesome! If we don't end up staying in San Diego I'll just be out the application fee (which would be the case if I don't get in anyway).

Wish me luck, I think I need it.