When we were up in Minnesota visiting all the new babies, we got to go visit our wedding spot! And reminisce about the day I found out that there were only outhouses (I had only visited during the dead of winter). That was a meltdown and a half!

Kevin standing right behind our ceremony spot!

Month 11 has been a different one for us. Are they ever going to stop being different? I hope not!! We’re fairly adept when it comes to moving cheese! Now that we’re “settled” on staying in Denver for a bit, we’ve suddenly begun house hunting. Crazy, right? The least committed buyers ever -I think we drive our realtor a little bananas. But it’s fun discussing things like bay windows and how many bedrooms we may need in the future (he he he).

We couldn’t visit without a little reenactment of our wedding kiss! It was so fun to visit. I wish we could go for our anniversary, but it’d be quite the drive. When we chose the spot, I was thinking we’d be living 15 minutes away and could go any time! So crazy.

I noticed this sign as we were leaving and it made me chuckle. Marriage is definitely NOT a minimum maintenance road, but I’d agree with the “travel at your own risk” part! I think we have it pretty easy (we’re totally not opposites), but still we are really committed to building our marriage up from the start.

I don’t usually involve you guys in these posts, but I’m curious! If you’re married, have you ever visited the place where you got married? Or where do you think a cool place to get married would be? We were also seriously considering getting married in the street in front of my parents’ house – block party style, and I think that would have been really fun too.

The evening called for a little pantry improv:

My recipe: red (kidney) beans + quaker oats + Mexican chili powder + loads of garlic + 1/4 cup sunflower seeds + old vegetables. I mean OLD vegetables. Starting to get a bit wrinkly green peppers, onion, and spinach.

I loosely followed this recipe. Oh so loosely. More like it was an inspiration. I was so happy though because the burgers stayed together much better than my homemade veggie burgers usually do.

While I cooked I did a little stretching:

Dominique Dawes is really more my style, but the Shawn Johnson stretches worked too.

Lucky Kevin had his burger on an everything bagel thin with fries on the side. He was really proud of my kale eating though. I started gagging after a while. It really was a lot of kale!!! I only fed two pieces to Boyd. It had some light balsamic dressing on it so it wasn’t completely dry. Kevin said I should get to eat whatever I want for the rest of the night after eating that… haha. I think he kinda missed the point.

Earlier…

I’m seriously in love with the Southwest Salad from Taylor Farms. I want to eat it every meal. It’s a little bit expensive (just under $5). But it feeds two of us for lunch. You can’t beat that with fast food, right? Half the bag is only 245 calories. I made Kevin do that math today. It does have 11 grams of fat per serving due to the dressing and probably the seeds. I’m not sure about that because sugar is really my enemy lately as opposed to fat, and I don’t eat a whole lot of fat in other things.

15 red hot blues on the side. Mmmm….

Today’s WOD:

Just me and some 10lb (ouch!!) dumbbells.

5 Rounds

• 10 Dumbbell Deadlifts
• 10 Dumbbell Hang Squat Clean
• 10 Dumbbell Push Jerk
• 10 Dumbbell Front Squats

Video of exercises here. I doubled the reps since I knew I wouldn’t be anywhere near 45 lb dumbbells!! Ay!!

Time – 11:41

My boss talked me into working a full day tomorrow!! BOOOOO!!! But I figured I should probably say yes since I just took three days off during our busiest time of the month.

I need to go rustle up a little evening snack. Probably some 100-calorie popcorn. And bother Boyd. And make a Summer List… I saw this one over on Whatever.

What would you put on your summer list? I love the “decorate bikes” on their list.

One of the highlights of our trip was making it to my sisters’ piano recital. Those are the kinds of things you miss when you don’t live nearby!

Yeah… baby sister is 8. Ocho. Her feet don’t reach the pedals! She played a piece called Red Recital Shoes and had the perfect shoes for the part!! She suggested to her piano teacher that she might need to change shoes for the duet piece. That’s a girl after my own heart!! I used to love playing in recitals when I was about her age — when I got a little older, I started getting major stage fright. Boo!! Not even the Berenstein Bears could help me work through that! Haha.

A.J. with her piano teacher — my friend — Lizzie. Recognize A.J.’s dress? It was her flower girl dress from our wedding last June. Told you I was  big believer in wearing it again. Speaking of weddings, did you know I set Lizzie up with her husband (my childhood friend, Joe). I’m pretty much the Patti Stanger of Minnesota.

Hannah Banana performed as well. Next time I’m going to make her pin her hair back so I can get some better profile pictures. Lizzie had 17+ (that’s the number Joe gave me) performers! I’m so inspired to get cracking on my piano business.

I think one of Kevin’s highlights of the weekend was not having to eat my cooking vegetables! He even found Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch in my parents’ pantry!

Dinner tonight… was what we had left in the freezer.

I scored some Applegate Farms Natural Beef Corn Dogs on sale before we left, and I knew they’d be good to have on hand. They’re actually GF too, if you’re interested in that kind of thing. It was really good, actually. It had been a loooong time since I’d had a corn dog. Definitely looking forward to hitting the salads tomorrow! I have loads more to share from our trip, two books I read, one game I played, and more.. but we’re tired. We’re still on Minnesota time.

Any recital memories? My favorite recitals were with my friend, Deidre at the Dorian Music Festivals.

Do you get stage fright? My worst stage fright is probably for speaking, but I definitely get it with piano.. sometimes. Comes and goes. If I can get it under control, I actually always felt like the pressure and nervousness help me play my best.

Do you like corn dogs? I don’t really eat hot dogs. So obviously it’s the corn part I’m a fan of.

Last day in Minnesota. I’m enjoying schooling my little brother in the competition for best aunt/uncle and finally accomplished my goal of trying out the new Confetti Cake blizzard at DQ.

On they way over to Wabasha, we stopped and saw my new baby nephew.

Do we lo0k like naturals or WHAT? We’ll be in Minnesota till Tuesday so my internet access will be… limited!

Have a great weekend!

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies (via Two Peas & Their Pod)

Ingredients:

Directions:

The lovely ladies… we met up with two other couples tonight for “happy hour.”

Totally scandalous that we went somewhere with “bar” in the name, right? I still just ordered Diet Coke though I can’t say as much for Kevin James. I’d review the restaurant, but I’m never going to show my face in there again. Haha. We stayed for over three hours just laughing, chatting, and catching up. I don’t think our waitress could have been too pleased since we just had a few appetizers and drinks. Haha. We actually thought she had gone home when it came time to pay, but they found her somewhere. And asked her to split the check. Awesome customers.

Classic parking lot pic!

Earlier….

Lunch today was sweet potato wedges, Pirate’s Booty, and Dr. Zevia – eaten in bed at 3:30PM (half day Thursday, people!). The perks of being an adult…

I kept the salt nearby. I like my potatoes salty!

Sea Salt on my nightstand plastic drawers. Good spot for it!

I got a new flavor of Pirate’s Booty they had stocked at WF – Sour Cream & Onion. Pirate’s Booty is like the best to lick out of the bag – it leaves a lot of delicious salty residue!!! Same thing with pesto. And Red Hot Blues! I’m happy to say that the bag is empty NOT because I ate it all. But because I already portioned some out as snacks. Okay. As a snack for tomorrow.

My face matches my shirt! And my iPhone! I was waiting impatiently today for ZWOW #18 to come out. No such luck. So I randomly decided to run a “fast 5.” That was after a super lazy mile, and I did a cooldown for a total of 7.

5 miles – 38:30 @ 7:42 pace.

I’d like to see that number a lot closer to 35. But my running has been lame for about a month now so I’ll accept it.

Earlier still…

A luscious smoothie this morning.

Berries + skim milk + Greek yogurt.

I burnt my toast. Boo. I accidentally pressed the bagel button. According to Kevin, that’s trouble. So just the smoothie for me, and I didn’t even bring a snack to work! So I was dying of hunger when my co-workers started talking about Qdoba but had already planned lunch at home with Kev-Kev.

I scored a whole taco!!!!!!!! They love me because I bring in the cookies all the time! It pays off. Speaking of cookies… you know what tomorrow is!!

Sweet dreams!

Which would you rather go to – the Olympics or the World Cup? Question is compliments of our lively table conversation tonight.

And, have you ever stayed in a hostel? No. But apparently my husband has quite the tales.

What’s your worst customer behavior? Generally it’s just taking a really long time to decide what I want to order.

The showy ladyslipper workout is not quite as scandalous as it might sound. I actually think this notepad came from my mother-in-law with the Minnesota State Flower. I just had to look up Colorado’s – the Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine. I’ll have to keep my eye out for that.

I interspersed this workout with half mile incline intervals on the treadmill. I miss my stepmill!! Those things are like miracle sweatbreakers.Treadmill incline is my best alternative for the moment. I did 3 sets of the lower body moves, each movement for 1 minute AMRAP.

My favorite move was the around-the-world lunge. Have you tried these little treats?

I was beat after that workout, and my stomach was a little bit upset. I’m sure eating some red hot blues pre-gym wasn’t doing me any favors!

Real life model. Lol.

Earlier…

We actually went to Whole Foods today! When we moved to Denver, I thought we’d go alllllll the time. But it turns out we don’t. King Sooper’s is just so much more convenient. I’m kinda sorta hoping our next move (July 13th!!!) brings us closer to one.

But we’re basically failures in life since we didn’t bring our own eco-friendly bag. And look at those healthy goods popping out the top. Red Hot Blues & Pirate’s Booty! We actually only went to WF because we were next door for dog food!! We really do feed him more than peanut butter and fro-yo!

I insisted on going down every aisle. Kevin loves that. But I kept it to one large bag. That’s good, right? And that even included the Cookie Friday supplies for this week!!

What winning combo did we select from WF for dinner? Pizza and pop, my friends. What do I think of Dr.Zevia? Hmm… All think all the Zevias taste a little watered down. Which is fine. It makes me feel hydrated. Kevin’s not a crazy fan, but he’ll allow them. A 6-pack was $5 today so we figured that was a decent deal. I mean pop costs 60 cents in a pop machine here!! Isn’t that terrible?

The crust was super thin. I liked it. It was actually a pepperoni pizza, but we put all the pepperonis on Kevin’s side before baking it.

I was kind and threw Boyd a crust. Nothing like reinforcing his bad behavior of lurking and panting while we’re trying to eat. I mean he’s literally at my knees if we’re eating on the couch.

Can you believe I’m banished to the bedroom right now? Kevin is taking a quiz and finds my hotness distracting. Lol. Either that or my rampant chatter and harassing of the Boykin.

Where do you grocery shop most frequently? Our realtor was passing on some rumors that Trader Joe’s is on its way. I know, finally, right? There’s one in Rochester, MN! My mom goes there!

What’s the cheapest pop machine you know of? Is there still one for 25 cents in the faculty/staff lounge at Emmaus? Lol. It’s hard enough finding a pop machine for 50 cents now!! Fun fact: I never saw a pop machine in the DR. I think it might be an electricity thing? They don’t really do cans there either.

Do you like the new stripes? What I hate about this layout is that you have to click twice to get into the first post. I’m trying to fix it. Not sure if it’s even an option since I use WordPress.com. The stripes are from Pugly Pixel. The title font is Jacques & Gilles.

Oh, and do you know your State Flower? It’s important.

An empty Peach Fro-Yo container!!!! Man, his face and ears are all gross & crusty now.

I wonder why…

Boyd had no shame about putting his entire face into the container. I’d have to say that’s a family trait of ours…

MUCH earlier…

We did it!! We got up and worked out before 8AM today!! It wasn’t that bad. Really, the worst part is getting out of bed. Once those feet are on the floor… We got up at 6AM because we knew we were going to have a late night out house hunting.

The only problem is that I run much more slowly in the morning! But it feels just as fast. When I was running at 6.0, I could have sworn it was at least 7.5!! Nonetheless, I cranked out 4.5 miles in about 40 minutes. I’ll take it.

Lunch today was quinoa & black beans over greens with a sprinkle of sharp cheddar. Totally hit the spot. I was kind of ravenous after my run this morning!I actually briefly considered having the quinoa for breakfast.

Let me just hit dinner real quick, and then move along…

Yeah… that was a carb-y dinner to have at 9PM!! I actually admitted to Kevin that I was looking forward to spaghetti all day. Haha. I was ashamed to admit it since I count it as one of The Boring 3. I added in a whole bunch of greens again by just pureeing it with the spaghetti sauce. In fact, it turned green like my green mac ‘n’cheese so I ended up adding an extra can of fire roasted tomatoes to coax the sauce back to the normal range of color.

So when we were looking at houses today with our realtor, we noticed a cute feature:

There would be a little “window” covered with chicken wire in the fences between houses for the dogs to peek at each other!!! BOYD NEEDS THAT!!! Unfortunately, we weren’t wild about that house. But I think we could DIY that.

Speaking of DIY:

My friend Ashlee recently started blogging again, and I know you guys will want to check it out @ The Crafty Dough Puncher. She DIYs things that don’t include spinach or sweat, has a beautiful blue-eyed baby boy, and makes stunning cakes. Check it out!

Do you DIY? If so, what was your last project? Just the WODs. And I can puree spinach or kale into most anything.

Runners, do you run more slowly in the morning? Yes. And that’s why morning races are painful for me.

Have you ever played the Bigger, Better game? Me, no. Way too shy. But Kyle MacDonald did and traded one red paper clip all the way up to a two-story farmhouse!!! And wrote a book about it! Maybe we’re taking the wrong approach to house hunting….

I even prepped up some breakfast!

Scrambled egg muffins! I just scrambled some eggs with a bunch of veggies and baked them in a cupcake tine. We’ve been eating eggs or oatmeal for breakfast almost every day, but it’s been cutting into my sleep time! No more of that nonsense!

Microwaved and put it on a whole wheat English muffin with a little Melt. So quick.

Lunch was quick and easy too. My boss likes these little mixes and suggested I try one. I checked out the nutrition content and it wasn’t too shabby so we gave it a whirl. The word “creamy” made skeptical about the dressing, but it really wasn’t too bad.

I made it an entree by topping it with 1/2 a Morning Start Chik’n patty. So good. Now I really want it again for lunch tomorrow. But we ate it all.

My hottie-boom-body in sleeveless. We’ll allow it for the WODs. And this was a sweaty one.

After we had agreed that we would “only run” tonight, I had the urge to do 100 burpees. Don’t ask me where these little ideas come from. But I decided it would be easier to break them up like so:

Today’s WOD:

• Run 1 mile (8:03)
• 25 burpee tuck jumps
• Run 1 mile (7:53)
• 25 burpee deadlifts
• Run 1 mile (7:43)
• 25 burpee plank row & press
• Run 1 mile (7:23)
• 25 burpee broad jumps

Those burpees took me a total of 15:41 for a workout total of 46:03.

KEVIN ONLY DID 80 BURPEES! He claimed that he heard me say 20 – not 25. Yeah sure. I just had to tattle. I was a middle child. I never got enough of it!

And then we ate it all back. Haha. It’s not my fault. I got this text:

We were actually planning to grill burgers tonight, but we opted to go for the deal. And no dishes. Lol. I’ll keep that kitchen clean one way or another.

And just when I said we didn’t repeat restaurants. Juicy really is the cutest burger place around.

Pepperjack, jalapeno, onion, & BBQ!

Cheese fries. I’d like to say we shared these. But we didn’t. Those were just mine. On a Monday. Woops. Nothing like a little extended weekend junk food.

Man, Kevin was extra photogenic today. I snapped this candid when he thought I was taking pictures of myself. Those always turn out the best. He was saying,”I like the way your hair looks right now.”

I think he was being sarcastic. Hence I am not pictured. Lol.

Oh, we got the Boykin again!!!! He’s pictured here staking out the stovetop (I was prepping quinoa for mañana).

How do you prep for your Mondays!? I need to keep working on this. My Mon-Wed block is always super crammed.

Do you play any fun tricks on your pet? We also like to put Boyd in laundry baskets and push his bone underneath door cracks. Hehehe.

Do you have pet insurance? Lol. I heard people in the office talking about this today. What can I say… I sit in the aisle. I hear a lot. Apparently someone’s dog had like a 5k surgery!!