Television: A Favorite Subject

(I'm attempting NaBloPoMo this year, where I write a post every day in the month of November.  Miss Zoot has graciously provided some prompts, and today's prompt was television.)

I've long been an avid television enthusiast.  Some of my earliest memories are of watching shows like The Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock before bed, or really old game shows like The Jokers Wild and Card Sharks.  Dating myself, much?  I even had Mork and Mindy themed PAJAMAS.  

When I went off to college, that's when my real t.v. watching skills came to fruition with the first years of The Real World on MTV, Party of Five, ER, and of course, Friends.  I also started getting into soap operas, watching them in the 'Tube Room' of our sorority house between classes.  If any of my 'sisters' are reading this, they are laughing at me because they know what I'm about to say next: I was voted 'Tube Room Queen' for at LEAST two years running.  I was stupidly angry about this, as if it marked me as lazy or something.  Seeing as how I was a Communications major with an emphasis on Media Studies, I should have just shrugged it off to STUDYING.  Alas, I know now that just because I lurrrrrve television, it does not make me a lazy person.

So, I can't talk about my memories of television without getting down to brass tacks: favorite shows and what I'm into right now!

Shows you should Netflix, Hulu, whatever, just watch them for they are arguably the best shows ever to grace our lives:

• Friends (which is coming to Netflix! Yay!)
• Six Feet Under 
• Battlestar Galactica (the SciFi Channel version with Edward James Olmos, although the old show was fun, too)
• V (in this instance, the old mini-series)
• Sex and The City
• Breaking Bad
• 24

Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything on there, but I'd say that's a well rounded list.  Right now, you'll find in our DVR, Amazon Instant, and Netflix queue:

• Friday Night Lights (FINALLY getting on board with this and I'm not sure how I was able to live without Tim Riggins in my life up until now.)
• Veronica Mars (OK, finished this up a while ago, but it doesn't necessarily fall into 'best TV shows of all time' but SO SO GOOD and Kristen Bell is my hero.)
• Sherlock (the current one with Benedict Cumberbatch, who can do no wrong)
• Top Chef (I get annoyed with it from time to time, I mean, ANOTHER team competition??  But it's still great TV.)
• The League (It's ridiculous and bawdy and hilarious and reminds me of home.)
• Sons of Anarchy (I really wanted this to be in my top shows of all time list, but I really feel like it jumped the shark last season. I'm just watching to see how it all ends at this point.)
• Justified (Raylan Givens is like Tim Riggins, you need him in your life.)

Alright, feel free to sound off and let me know what show I'm totally missing and must add to my queue!

November Goals (and October Check In)

Recap on October Goals

Run sub 54:00 in the Snohomish River Run.  
Done!  At least, I'm pretty sure I accomplished this...

Once a week interval training. 
Well, I did this except for the last week of October - the week after the 10K I was suffering from some DOMS.

Keep going with the run streak. 
I'm at day 162!!

Make it through October with my mommy gold star.
Yep, it was a busy month!  I think my star is intact.  We made it through a week of half days and conferences, which went great!  We did soccer three times a week, every week, and finished the season with a party!  

I love this one of my girl getting in on the huddle.

We hit the pumpkin patch! 

We decorated and carved our pumpkins!  

We trick or treated! 

Whew!  I think one of the reasons that Halloween is more stressful than Christmas is that there's no big break from school.  We still have loads of homework, soccer, etc. while trying to cram in all sorts of fun.  At least I stayed on top of things this year...

Try and not be so last minute with the kids costumes and getting pumpkins carved.
We were ON IT.  Ordered the costume bits from Amazon early in October for my son's Minecraft Enderman and we carved our pumpkins two weeks before Halloween.  This ended up backfiring, as our creations were moldy mush balls covered in SLUGS by the 31st.  Next year we'll let that one go until the last minute.

Get my whole family vaccinated for the flu. 
Done!  This was the first year I asked after the flu mist and, lo, it was painless!

Clean out those damn closets.
DONE! Plus I organized my own closet and took three huge trash bags to Goodwill.  

November Goals

• Post every day on the blog for national blog posting month (NaBloPoMo).  This is going to be quite a challenge, especially once we get to Thanksgiving weekend.  But, I like the idea of a daily challenge and just exercising my brain a bit.
• Speaking of daily challenges..  Keep up with the run streak, and try to keep up with least 20 miles a week.  I just realized that I can probably hit 1,000 miles for the year if I keep up my weekly average!
• Try some new classes while I'm not training for a race.  I've got the opportunity to try a Class Pass membership and I'm SUPER excited about it, and will elaborate in another post.  
• Go to the chiropractor.  It's been awhile since I've gone and I had meant to go more regularly this year.
• Get shopping and prepped for Thanksgiving and my mom's first visit in over TWO YEARS OMG YAY!

Easy Laundry Organization (aka, the Depths of my Organizational Crazy)

(I'm attempting NaBloPoMo this year, where I write a post every day in the month of November.  Miss Zoot has graciously provided some prompts, and today's prompt was organization.)

Technically speaking, the topic was to write about some major organizational fail, and I honestly couldn't think of anything funny or really interesting to share.  Not that laundry is suuuuper fascinating stuff, but I do remember sharing my tips with someone who had a major 'aha moment' (as Oprah would say) when I somehow got into a conversation about LAUNDRY.  I figured that it would be more fun to share my oh-so-genius laundry tips!

I know so many moms that just get BURIED under piles of laundry every week, and maybe this will be a help to a few of you out there.  I'm no saint, sometimes the clean laundry gets put away the day I have to start another round - but at least it stays organized in the clean baskets.  Here's what I'm talkin' about: on Saturday I pool all of our laundry and divide it into two loads, lights and darks.  Two loads a week, that's it, except for one midweek load of workout gear.  And then, the main thing that I do to keep on top of laundry is...  organize it by person/hamper as you are unloading the dryer.

Each basket represents one member of our family and I always put them in the same position so that as I grab an item, my hands just fly to the right basket out of habit.  It's also nice to have the garbage can on hand for dryer sheets and my son's endless parade of hole-y socks.  And here's the little trick I have for never losing a sock in the dryer!  I think there's a conspiracy against women in this regard, by the way.  When my husband buys workout socks, they're a pack of matching socks - all matching each other, interchangeable.  When I buy workout socks, each pair has it's own color:

I would have no problem interchanging them if they were all the same color, but wearing two different colors is INCONCEIVABLE.  This also applies to my daughters socks, with the added irritation of solids vs. stripes.  ACK.

So, I put all those tiny workout socks and kids socks on top of the machine.  Then I go through, match them up and THEN put them in their respective hamper.

I usually just leave the baskets in the laundry room for a few days and grab what I need, and have them there for my midweek load.  My husband usually grabs his basket and puts his stuff away whenever he gets a moment and I try and have the kids grab theirs.  

There ya go.  There's a glimpse into the level of my crazy.  But, I must say that I don't feel overwhelmed by laundry.  Maybe it can help you, too!  It's always good to...  

  

This Weeks Eats 11.2.14

Ah, Halloween has come and gone, thankfully.  Although, I'm pretty happy with how it all went down this year.  There wasn't too much stress with parties or too many obligations, costumes were easy and the kids seemed pretty laid back about it all.  We do a local 'safe Halloween' on Main Street and the kids trick or treat at all the businesses while they close the street to just pedestrians.  Afterwards, I take them around our neighborhood and there's usually a lot of whining to go to 'just one more house.'  This year, though, they were totally cool with finishing up and getting into their loot.

my Minecraft Enderman and Fairy Princess

Hopefully this is how things continue for Halloweens to come.  For now, it's time to start celebrating the REAL holidays, to start eating delicious food and drink delicious things like Baileys!

It's officially the holidays when we get our 1.75L bottle for the season, which we did this weekend.

Last week, the 'Fancy Pants' chicken dish was a real disappointment.  I used my own fresh and dried herbs, in lieu of a prepackaged soup mix, but I'm thinking that even with the packet it would have been just blah.  However, the Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce from Bon Apetit was delicious!  It tasted like an elevated version of our basic Pomodoro sauce - probably because of all that butter, even though I used six tablespoons instead of eight.  Plus, it was lovely to just toss everything into the oven.  This week: 

• MONDAY - Pizza
• TUESDAY - Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas (from Skinnytaste)
• WEDNESDAY - Pioneer Woman's 'Fancy' Mac and Cheese (leftovers from the freezer!)
• THURSDAY - Buffalo Chicken Burgers (a favorite Pinterest find from Will Cook for Smiles)
• FRIDAY - Chicken and Veggies Stir Fry in Peanut Sauce (trying a new recipe I found via Pinterest from The Endless Meal)
• SATURDAY - Date night!
• SUNDAY - Rachael Ray's Caution Flag Chili (a VERY old standby)

As always, I'm linking up with Org Junkie, Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!

NaBloPoMo - Giving it a Shot

Ah there's nothing like deciding something at the 11th hour!  I have about 5 minutes left of November 1st, but I'm going to try and do NaBloPoMo, wherein I write a post every day in the month of November.  Thankfully one of my favorite bloggers, Miss Zoot, is graciously offering up some daily prompts for those of us who are sometimes lacking inspiration.  Her prompt for day one was 'firsts.'

In this very small window of time that I have before the day is over (Ah!  I just realized it's daylight savings and I just gained an hour!), the thought that jumped into my head was of course all sorts of my kids' firsts.  Those standout moments like first words, which was always 'dada' in our house - damn that 'd' consonant. Or passing the swim test, which my son did this summer, are moments that are definitely top of mind.  

Or, ya know, when your daughter makes that first crucial decision: Team Edward or Team Jacob - she chose wisely!

But, I also thought of how wonderful it is that I still get to experience my own 'firsts' as I get older, and older...

Sure, maybe they're not as monumental as those first words or steps (obviously), but if you look at the littlest things as a new adventure, even stuff like a run streak or making my first espresso at home can be pretty exciting.  It's even more exciting than our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge this year, and that was a pretty monumental experience.  And, of course, this is my first year in a new decade and I love the idea of a challenge - especially a daily one.  So bear with me while I try to exercise my brain as well as my typing fingers for the month of November.

Snohomish River Run Race Report

This summer I was so glad to have the opportunity to get the word out about this race along with an entry to run.  I had been looking forward to it for a VERY long time, and planned the 10K as a goal race.  But when I got an unexpected PR at Beat the Blerch (another great race put on by Snohomish Running Company), I wasn't sure what my goals would be.  I decided to keep up with my training and aim for a time that confirmed I was truly in PR shape - maybe something within 10 seconds of the Blerch run.  I'm quite sure I succeeded in this, although it won't be reflected in the race results.  It just goes to show that even in the best events, the tiniest problem can have really big impacts...

I must admit that it if it wasn't for my intrepid race buddy Dawn, I might not have stumbled out of bed in the pitch dark after getting very little sleep the night prior.  Additionally, I had weird muscle aches from an hour long adults vs. kids soccer game with my son's team the night before (those U8 kids are FIERCE competitors).  The night was filled with wind storms, a broken fence and a short power outage.  I was worried about what the weather might bring the next morning and was kind of dreading the race.  It was a pretty early start compared to most around these parts - 8AM for the half marathon and 8:15 for the 10K.  Thankfully Dawn got our packets the day before and we had those extra 15 minutes, since we were both doing the 10K.  

Once we parked (which was super close and easy this year) and checked our bags, things were looking good and off to an auspicious start.  There was Nuun!  Yay! I hope this is now a regular thing at Snohomish Running events.  I was really glad to have some to whet my whistle beforehand and the rain looked as if was going to stay away for the duration.  It was perrrrrfect running weather in the low/mid 50s and cloudy and I felt great in my new arm warmers with my singlet.

I started out near the front and got into a nice groove for the first 2-3 miles.  Hard, but not too hard, and tried not to look at my watch.  After my watch beeped mile 3, I kept my eyes peeled for the turnaround - expecting a cone or volunteer around mile 3.75 or so, as that's where I thought they told us the turnaround would be during the pre-race briefing.  Just after 3.5 miles I saw some girl just mosey over to the other side and start going back the other way, and my first reaction was - seriously?? Is she just cheating right in front of me??  Then I saw that people were waving to each other and saying we went too far.  Crap! I was paying attention!  I looked down at my watch and it was reading 3.75ish, so I was thinking that I caught the turnaround just in time.  I thought wrong.  As I was running, I started passing people that I already passed on my way out - even walkers.  So clearly, some people ran as much as 7.5 miles and there had to be people who ran as little as 5.5.  I could also tell by the signs that the mileage was totally off and I started to think, welp, I have that recent PR - I don't need to keep pushing it.  I walked through a water station, but then decided to keep at it and just hit lap whenever I got to 6.2.  I must've looked pretty funny, gunning it towards my imaginary finish line nearly 3/4 of a mile before the actual finish line, but I'm glad I did.  

Splits!  It's been for-ev-er that I've included them in a race report and didn't do something silly with my Garmin, thankfully!  I'm super happy that my hard, but not too hard pace for the first 3 miles was pretty much at my 5K PR effort and it's pretty obvious where I started to question whether I wanted to 'race' in mile 6, averaging a 9 minute mile.  Cumulative time for 6.26 miles was 53:51 per the Garmin.  One second off from the Blerch run and I'm going with that.

Right after I finished that .26 of a mile.  I started my cool down.  I did a brisk walk for a few minutes and chatted with a lady next to me that pretty much did the same thing!  Then I jogged it through to the finish line and got my medal, which is really spiffy, and reminiscent of the Snohomish Women's Run.

  

Am I mad?  A little.  I suppose it's a good thing that I got that PR last month, otherwise I would have been a bit more pissed, seeing as how this was a goal race.  But, mistakes happen.  I understand there was an issue that kept the volunteer from getting to the turnaround on time.  And the race directors did send a email apology, taking total responsibility and offered everyone who ran the 10K a 25% discount towards a Snohomish Running Company race in 2015.

Will I run it again?  Abso-freaking-lutely.  This is for sure my favorite 10K.  It seems like many 10Ks are added on to 5K races, where you run two loops.  NO.  Just, no.  Either give me one big loop, or (even better) a straight, flat, out and back like this race.  I also love the new start location in downtown Snohomish.  It had a much better vibe and it was way easier to park and get to the start.  I also love the addition of Nuun on course and water bottles handed out at the finish!  And of course there were lots of good samples (Kind bars and Oberto jerky), bread, bananas, cookies and hot soup (although, just chicken noodle this year).  I'm a big fan of the cozy cotton race tees, as I usually go for the men's shirt and wear it for kicking around or for pj's.  

matches my fave red plaid pj pants!

I gather that the women's tee ran a bit small this year.  Really, it's lovely that races offer women's fit tees.  But, for me, they don't fit any better than the men's.  They're either too tight, too short in the waist, too ridiculous, etc.  One day I hope that I can get a cool beer mug, pint glass, coffee mug or tumbler, maybe fun plastic wayfarer sunglasses, or pajama pants (!) in lieu of the ubiquitous race shirt.  A girl can dream... 

This Weeks Eats 10.26.14

Whoooeee.  It's been a weird day around these parts!  Starting right around 12AM, too - when this happened:

As I was trying to get some shut eye before the Snohomish River Run 10K, I heard an all too familiar sound of a tree breaking apart and falling behind our house.  We love our very green, and very private backyard.  But when it rains like crazy and the wind picks up, old dead and wet trees tend to break and fall.  This is the third time in just over nine years that one has fallen on our yard and broken the fence.  So I suppose that's not too bad.

Then, the race was fun and I was on pace for another PR when we all realized that the turnaround wasn't marked.  FRUSTRATING.  I ran a 7 mile 10K.  Other than THAT, it was a great race and I'll recap it soon.

THEN, we were supposed to go to our favorite annual Halloween carnival at the local Y which ended up being cancelled because the facility's power was still out.  Womp, womp.

So THEN, we decided to get some errands done.  We each took one kid with us and my husband hit Costco while I went grocery shopping, and you would've thought people were stocking up for the apocalypse.  Apparently everyone was hitting our local Costco, Safeway and Trader Joe's because others were without power.  

Long story short (too late?), it was a slog of a day.  But we persevered and have all our supplies for a yummy week of eats.

• MONDAY - Pizza
• TUESDAY - Satay Chicken and Roasted Broccoli (old linked recipe from About.com)
• WEDNESDAY - Bucatini with Butter Roasted Tomato Sauce (trying this new one from Bon Apetit)
• THURSDAY - 'Fancy Pants Chicken' (new recipe I found via Pinterest)
• FRIDAY - Chicken Fajitas with Frontera Sauce and Fixins
• SATURDAY - Top Sirloin Steaks, Baked Sweet Potatoes and Wedge Salads 
• SUNDAY - Greek Turkey Meatball Salad (a regular favorite on our menu from The Perfect Pantry)

As always, I'm linking up with Org Junkie, Mommy Run Fast and Jill Conyers - be sure to check out all the great weekly menus!