Guest bedroom pics

I mentioned painting the guest bedroom and the finished pics....
Before -
We thought the room was blue, not sea foam green! It took multiple paint samples and trips to Home Depot to decide on a color.The previous owners did a terrible job painting and prepping the room when they painted it. I did lots of sanding and we found that the room used to be red and dark blue before that!
After - I installed a new light switch, GFI outlets, and vent register. All had been painted over by the previous owners...who does that?!?
I think it came out really nice.

Artichoke decided she wanted to help me on the last day...

Mad cat after I had to clean her paws in the sink!
This is how Gussy helped me all week....
Bed and Breakfast H is now open!
Email me for reservation.
-ELH

PS - next up, the office.

Workout update

I have been busy...we decided to paint the inside of our house (pictures coming). Make it nice for us and sort of get it ready to put it up for sale. My goal for the last week and this week were the guest bedroom and the office. The previous owners just put some paint on the wall, no prep work, so it has been an adventure. My workouts have sort of fallen off because of the manual labor and my left foot is hurt again:( The first day of prep work, I was wearing flip flops (bad idea) and being on my feet for ~6hrs straight per day, has caused the outside of my left foot to feel bruised and sore. I have been soaking it in epsom salt and then putting Super Blue Stuff on it (natural paint relief cream). It is feeling better, but I am going to curb the running for the first part of the week.
The review:
Saturday, April 16th - Hot yoga! It was a great way to start a lazy rainy day.

Sunday, April 17th - Off day full of airport walking, errands, family birthday celebrations, and watching soccer with Molly.

Monday, April 18th - Start of the painting project...I took Molly for a 2mile walk in 36min. GAH came home and we took her for another walk - 1.74miles in 36min. Molly was tired!

Tuesday, April 19th - 1st coat of blue paint went up in the morning. The afternoon included 4.02 mile run in 32:32. It was really hot out, so this run was tough.
Splits:
1 -8:20
2 - 8:00
3 - 7:56
4 - 8:05
Followed by a 0.53mile cool down walk with Molly in 11:10.

Wednesday, April 20th - 2nd coat of blue paint and the first coat of cream paint on the trim and bottom half of the room. I did a little boot camp workout -
Started with a warm-up walk with Molly - 0.53miles in 10:48.
6min routine of 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 fast squats. I did 7 rounds!
Compact chain 10->5 and then repeat 10 with 10lb weights.
Buns of Steel - at least as much of it as I could remember.
Finished with some ab work.
It was nice to work some of my other muscles!

Thursday, April 21st - Sort of an off day - 2nd coat of the cream paint and walking Molly 1.69miles in 33:46.

Friday, April 22nd - Was going to run my 6mile loop, but with the pain in my left foot, I opted for pilates. Great for my abs! The day was jam packed with my nephews birthday party and painting the window frame. Did I mention what an awful job the previous owners did?? Painting is hard work!

Saturday, April 23rd - Nephew's birthday celebration continued with a road trip to train ride. It was a fun family day with no working out.

Sunday, April 24th - Happy Easter! We did take Molly on a long walk. 2.75miles in 58:22. We had to stop a few times to smell other doggies and take care of many bodily functions!

The guest room painting is finished, so I will be moving on to the office this week and limiting my running.
-Enjoy
ELH

Happy Earth Day!

-ELH

Happy Birthday...

....to Grandfafa (GAH's dad) and our nephew LH.

Happy Birthday to you both!Picture borrowed from SIL's blog

xoxox
ELH

Product review

I have been trying a few new products recently and of course have some opinions!

Burt's Bees tinted lip balm in Red Dahlia - gives you a hint of color while moisturizing and conditioning your lips. Each tub is $7.
I love everything Burt's Bees, but this product missed the mark. It is great for moisturizing and condition, but the hint of color is missing. I would stick with their regular lip balm and your favorite lip stick for color.

Burt's Bees natural toothpaste - This toothpaste does not contain sodium lauryl sulfate YEAH! SLS is know to cause canker sores which I have been prone to for as long as I can remember. I love this toothpaste! At Target they sell it with a lip balm for ~$5. This is a must try if you are looking for a natural, SLS toothpaste.

Aveeno Positively Radiant tinted moisturizer SPF 30 - Being from the Southwest, I don't leave the house without sunscreen on. I love all of Clinique's face products and use their Even Better dark spot corrector, followed by Super City tinted sun block, but I was starting to feel like I have too much stuff on my face. I saw an ad for the Aveeno product - a two-in-one combination of sun screen and even skin toning! I am 3/4 through my first bottle and am very happy with it. The bottle is ~$13, which is definitely cheaper than the two bottle of Clinique. I am thinking about adding the Even Better to my nightly routine to boost up the tone correction.

Dove Ultimate visibly smooth deodorant - I would like to say that I use all natural products for everything. I don't, but I think I do a good job. I have looked into different natural deodorants, but can't get past that you pretty much have to apply them with your fingers or how you don't make a mess all over your clothes. For now, I'll stick with roll-on deodorant. My sister introduced me to this product because over time your underarm hair becomes less noticeable. Win!! I need to shave every day. This product lets me shave every other day. Win!! The tube is ~$4 and I would definitely recommend trying it.

What new products are you trying?
ELH

Happy Birthday BFF

Happy Birthday ES!!

We meet in 9th grade when our respective BFFs started dating. Patrick broke with Holly and Holly didn't want me hanging out with Patrick and ES's crowd any more. ES was more fun than Holly...and the rest is history! ES and I lived in the same city for ~6months about 2 years ago. It was fun hanging out with her and her awesome hubby. She was the one who got me started running. Love her!!
ELH

This week in workout review

This week has been jammed packed with activities! and I am tired.
Monday, April 11th - Boot camp!
1 mile run - 6:58.
2min push-up - 31 (tired from the run and I am working on my form)
5 min plank
We did some stuff with bands and then did a 3min routine counting how many sets you can do. It was 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 sprint squats (basically really fast squats).
I did 3 rounds plus 5 push-ups.

Tuesday, April 12th - Bikram yoga! First official yoga class that wasn't some sort of cool down routine. It was hot and it was hard. My hip flexors are sore. I enjoyed the class and will definitely finish off my 4 other groupon classes. I am not sure if I will continue after that...

Wednesday, April 13th - More boot camp!
1 mile run - 6:56 (I think this is my fastest mile!!) My legs were very tired from the yoga.
2min push-ups - 32
5 min plank
More bands and then repeated the 5-10-15 routine. This time I did 3 rounds, 5 push-ups, and 10 sit-ups. Improvement!! We finished the class off with this killer "buns of steel" routine. Basically is it is very small movements of your hip while laying on your side. It hurts so good!!

Thursday, April 14th - Run
I did a nice 4.06 loop in 33:59, alone at a lake/park near work. My splits were ok. It was hot, 75F, which I am used to running in the cold and my legs are tired from all the other workouts. It was a hard run.
Splits -
Mile 1 - 8:20
Mile 2 - 8:22
Mile 3 - 8:31
Mile 4 - 8:15
0.06 in 30 sec (8:00 min/mile)

After, I did another 2.41 mile run/walk in 33:19, with the Beginning Running Program sponsored by work. It is basically a 10-week "couch to 5k" program. I was a volunteer coach last year and am again this year.
Today's workout was:
5min warm-up
7 x (2min run, 1 min walk)
5min cool down
We had a group of 9 people. I ran with a group of three and they did a great job. I think the program is going to be a success!

Friday, April 15 - off/rest day. I am going to visit one of my girlfriends and her boys at their new house!! We meet in college and have sort of been following each other around the country. If it wasn't for husband, I wouldn't have met GAH!! It should be a fun night.

Weekend plans - maybe another hot yoga class on Saturday or a run and Sunday is a "rest" day full of airport walking, brunch, errands, and family activities!
Enjoy!
ELH

Greek Yogurt review

The new fad seems to be Greek yogurt. Dairy and I have a weird relationship - sometimes I am fine, other times, not so much. Every few months I get on the calcium kick and try to add more dairy to my diet, the latest kick is trying out different varieties of Greek yogurt. So far I have tried 3 national brands:

Chobani - my least favorite. This yogurt tastes very chalky. I tried the honey (added my own almonds for crunch) and the strawberry flavored. After eating this, I wonder what all the hype was about.

Fage with blueberries - The commericals for this yogurt peaked my interest - what is this stuff?? The yogurt was very good. Nice and creamy and not chalky. This does seem to be the most pricey, about $2 a container of the ones I have tried.

Yoplait greek - Nice and creamy and not chalky. Again, I tried the honey and vanilla version and added my own almonds.

My favorite is tie between Fage and Yoplait. The decided factor would be a game time decision at the grocery store - whatever was on sale!

What do you think about Greek yogurt??

-ELH

Playoffs

In case you missed it....

I'll be near a TV during game time, if you are looking for me!

Enjoy

ELH

Workout update

Wednesday, April 6th - Boot camp! Still resting my heel, so no running or jumping. It is feeling better, but I want to give my body the week to rest.
32 push-ups in 2min.
5min plank.
We did a new little routine - 5 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 15 fast squats. Repeat until Stephanie staid stop. It was hard!

Thursday, April 7th - Off day. Took a nice afternoon cat nap.

Friday, April 8th - Another off day. Meet with Stephanie and a few other boot campers to discuss ways to help her track all the students meters. She has 80 people now!! and needs help. We came up with some great ideas, but I didn't get home until after 8pm. Long day!

Saturday, April 9th - 10k run with Stephanie. The plan was to keep our splits between 8:30 and 9min. This was my first run since the Cherry Pit. As you can see from the splits, our legs felt pretty good...
Mile 1 - 8:19
Mile 2 - 8:22
Mile 3 - 8:07
Mile 4 - 8:32 - I stopped here to take off my long sleeve shirt, but didn't stop my watch.
Mile 5 - 8:04
Mile 6 - 8:06
0.2 - 1:28 (7:25 pace)
total - 51:02
The hills were hard and my feet felt fine. Recovery officially over!
My best 10k time is 50:59 from this past Thanksgiving. I am signed up for a 10k over 4th of July and my goal will be somewhere in the 49s.

Sunday, April 10th - No set workout plans. Just plan to be lazy and get some work done.
Enjoy!
ELH

Last day of the regular season

Today is the last day of the NHL's regular season. Excited for the playoffs, but sad that hockey is over. The mighty Red Wings are in! In fact they have the longest post season appearance record in all professional sports - 20 years!!
Our home team did not make the playoffs :) They had a chance and then they started to stink. The team is up for sale and there is talk of moving them to Winnipeg. Fans hoped that if they made it to the playoffs, talk of moving to Winnipeg would disappear.....I guess we will just have to see what the summer brings.
These are some pictures of the last game we went to. They played the league's best team and kept up with them, so the game was fun. Unfortunately, a go-ahead goal in the third period sealed the win to the visitors. The stands emptied, including us.

It's getting hot in here... This jerky dad in our row told his kids to sit down during O'Canada - "We don't stand for other country's anthems!" I really wanted to yell at the a-hole "If it were not for Canada, you wouldn't be at this game!!" Half of the roster is Canadian. Jerk!!

Honorary pee-wee 7th man - a goalie. He looked so cute in his pads. Mini-me!

Enjoy
ELH

Coffee Ice Cream

I wanted to use my KitchenAid ice cream maker....so I made coffee ice cream. Looking at the internet most of the recipes only called for tablespoons of instant coffee. I found one recipe where you steep the coffee beans in the hot cream liquid for an hour and then add fresh ground coffee before going in the mixer. It was very tasty and is definitely a keeper recipe!!

Action shots of the ice cream -

Duck Cake

A few weeks ago we celebrated GAH's birthday with his family. I was in charge of the baking!!
I made his favorite pound cakeand then so other treats for the kids and adults - duck cupcakes and coffee ice cream - recipe coming soon. Everything was a hit!

The cupcake idea came from What's New Cupcake!I am not a decorator, but I think they came out pretty good.Ducks in process - donut hole heads and marshmallow tails. I had a can of pink frosting that I used as the glue.

Preparing the yellow frosting for the duck-dunk!

Dunked-ducks!

Finished duck!

Making 20 ducks was a lot of work and I was tired after. Fortunately everyone loved them!
Enjoy!
-ELH

Cherry Pit 10 miler

Sunday, April 3rd was the 10 miler. It was 2 weeks after the 1/2 marathon, so I wasn't actually training for this race. I also started running probably too soon after and my left heel started hurting on Friday. It aches and feels like it is bruised. Sort like how your feet feel tired and sore after standing on them all day. Annoying:(
The race went well and I felt good. I didn't have a finish goal time, I just wanted to keep all my splits under 8:30.
I am taking this week off from running to allow my body to rest and heal.
I was 16th out of 74 in my age group and 170th out of 499 over all.
My time was 1:21:37 = 8:10min/mile average and dropped 2min off of my best time!!
Splits -
1 - 8:19
2 - 8:05
3 - 8:18
4 - 8:02
5 - 8:04
6 - 8:06
7 - 8:18
8 - 8:26 - roller coaster hills!
9 - 8:06
10 - 7:48

March Mileage

My mileage for March is 71.58 miles!

Mileage for the year is 209.65 miles.
Awesome!
ELH

Last weeks workouts and the beginning of this week

Wednesday, March 30th - Cross training. Burpees/push-ups, 20 -> 1. Compact chain with 10lb weights 10 -> 1 and then a lot of abs and stretching. It was a great workout and I felt strong.

Thursday, March 31st - Longest run since the 1/2 marathon - 5.04 miles in 41:54.
Mile 1 - 8:11
Mile 2 - 8:19
Mile 3 - 8:30 - this is the mile with the hill.
Mile 4 - 8:17
Mile 5 - 8:13
Last 0.04 was in 21 sec with a pace of 8:15.
Cool down walk with Molly - 0.51 miles in 9:23.
For the marathon training, I am thinking about doing repeat runs up that hill between mile 2 and 3!

Friday, April 1st - Sort of a lazy day, I did take Molly for a walk - 1.76miles in 33min. Then we took her for another walk when GAH got home - 1.79 miles in 32min - faster walk since she had gotten all the poo out on the first walk! Silly dog!

Saturday, April 2nd - Rest day for the 10 miler tomorrow. 10 mile races are my favorite right now. A nice distance! We did take Molly for a walk, 1.74 miles in 33 min. Since getting my GPS watch, Molly and I have walked

Sunday, April 3rd - Cherry Pit 10 miler....best time! 16th out of 74 in my age division and 170th out of 499 runners. More to come on that.

Monday, April 4th - Boot camp with Stephanie. April is bands, so we did lots of arm work. I skipped the mile run and did 200 dips on the curb. My arms are feeling it.
32 push-ups in 2min
5min plank.
It was good to have someone push you during the workout. Can't wait till Wednesday!

Tuesday, April 5th - I have been tired and my left heal is still a little sore, so I decided to skip a workout and take a nap and then do some stretching. I have decided to add more stretching to my workouts, working on my flexibility during this sort of running down time.

My marathon is Halloween weekend, so serious training will start at the beginning of the summer. In the mean time, I will still run three times a week with my long run being anywhere from 6 to 10 miles.

Enjoy!
ELH

Book Review - Winter 2011

It is that time of year again.....
Book review from Jan 1 to March 31st.

Since the wedding is over and I am much more free time! I have been reading a ton. My to-read stack is getting smaller by the week.

A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Bulter - 1993 fiction Pulitzer Prize winner. It is a book of short stories primarily about Vietnamese. I like short stories, so this was fun book. Recommend.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave - set in England, which is fun, but the book is sort of depressing. It was an Amazon recommendation - I would skip it.

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed - Won the 2009 Pultizer Prize in History. The book discusses the history of Thomas Jefferson and his second family with Sally Hemings. It is very well done and was interesting to learn more about our 3rd president. Recommend!

Island by Elin Hilderbrand - set on a small private island off of Nantucket, it follows the lives and relationships of a mother, her two daughters, and her sister. It was enjoyable and would be a great "beach" read for the summer! Recommend!!

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson - a book about domestic violence set in Texas - not great. I really like Between Georgia by this author, but her latest books have become depressing. I guess when I read, I want to laugh not cry. Skip it.

Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs - part of the Friday Night Knitting Club series. If you have read these reviews before, you know I like book series. This is the latest installment in the growing lives of the Knitting Club. They are like old friends that you want to hear about their lives. I enjoyed the book and the series. Recommend!

Ironweed by William Kennedy - 1984 Pulitzer Prize fiction winner. Like most PP books, it ended with no conclusion. Skip it.

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, and Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer - So I finally jumped on the band-wagon for the Twilight books (finished all 4 in ~month!) They are very entertaining and I had a hard time putting them down. I understand why adult women like them - new extremely passionate love. Makes my heart melt. If you haven't read this series, you should! Highly Recommended!!

Cross Fire by James Patterson - The latest book in the Alex Cross series. It was great! The book ended with a teaser about Alex working Detective Boxer from San Francisco....excited to see the Women's Murder Club and Alex Cross series combine! Definitely Recommend!

Run for Your Life and Worst Case by James Patterson - books 2 and 3 in the Michael Bennett series. Murder mystery page turners. It is an okay series, but I like Alex Cross better.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos - this is the book you should read before Belong to Me. Same characters, but describes how they met. Belong to Me is the future. I like books that continue with the lives of the characters. Both books were good and would be great for the beach. Recommend!

April Food Day

Today is April Food Day! Please chick on the logo and make a donation to Feeding America by clicking on their logo (lower right side) or donate to your local food bank.
-ELH