Fall Oatmeal

This morning I had my favourite oatmeal yet!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1T wheat bran
• 1T chia seeds
• 1/4t cinnamon
• 1/4t pumpkin pie spice (can use cinnamon instead if you don’t have it)
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 apple, chopped
• enough boiling water to make it the desired consistency
  
  It was like pumpkin and apple pie! Seriously, so dang good.  Annnnd if you are wondering or care, it was less than 300 calories and like 15g of fiber for a LOT of food that fills you up really well and keeps you going all morning! 

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

my loyal supporter, even
though he hates running
and thinks I'm crazy ;)

I'm going to chalk this one up to a big success!

The night before I couldn't find my iPod, I couldn't sleep, I was in a bad mood, I already had wicked cuts on my feet, and I just didn't really want to do the race.  Not so good!  Finally, around 1:30am, I fell asleep.  I woke up at 4:20am, had my classic PB and banana on toast, then Sam drove me down to Mapleton (he's the best).  

As for the race organization, I have some beef with how things were run.  Even though it has been going for about 15 years, they are quite disorganized.  There is a lack of responsiveness to questions, their website is a mess, and they have this arrogant attitude about things.  Packet pickup was a mess with only one line and one person handing things out, the start line wasn't set up when we got there, apparantly the finish line wasn't set up yet for the first person down, and they just didn't extend as many courtesies that most races (in my limited experience/knowledge) do.  They say it's "elite" and thus only finishers get shirts and the top 100 get medals, but somehow I feel like that's moreso a way to save money.  

Anyway... On to more positive things. The actual course was amazing.  It had a nice gradual downhill that didn't destroy my knees, some uphill for a challenge and practice for the St. George, and even though they started half an hour late the trees provided some good shade.  Lots  of local kiddos were out spraying people with hoses if they wanted to cool down a bit more, haha.  I think the course is the reason people come back.

hello orange shirt man

So, on to results.  My gps watch said 12.85mi, and a pace of 8:10.  The thing is, with all of the turns the watch might not be accurate.  It's more "connect-the-dots" and so it can be off.  So I don't know if they marked things wrong, my watch was wrong, or I just did very well at navigating turns.  In any case, here's what the official results said:

Race time: 1:47:03 (pace=8:10)

Chip time: 1:45:14 (pace=8:01)

Overall placing: 248/1074

Gender/age placing: 6/57

Anyway, I think I'm going to count the 1:47 as my time, since it has the same pace as my Garmin.  So there you have it- I shaved at least 5 minutes off of my last race!  I think 6th is also the best I've gotten for age group results.  I'm really pleased with how things went even though my heart wasn't really in it this time.  Now there are only 41 days until the St. George marathon.  EEK!!

The desk is done!

We LOVE the aqua blue paint!

Do you like the fancy chair?

I'm going to paint another desk this colour if anyone is looking for a fancy aqua desk ;)
No but seriously-  I can't wait to paint some more stuff!! I find it so much fun, and I think it's a great hobby.  I've got big plans for the book cases!

Bad timing!

You should never try new things on a race day.  Don't wear shoes you haven't worn in, don't eat new food, don't wear a new shirt (by the way, I am team "anti-race-shirt-for-the-race").  Well, I'm going to extend that rule to "don't wear new cheap flats the day before a race".  In the 1 mile walk to work my feet got destroyed. I currently have band-aids in 5 places.  I really, really hope that those places don't get a lot of friction in my running shoes tomorrow or I am not going to have a pleasant 13.1 miles!

Ah, well... I don't have that great of expectations for this race anyway.  Not only has my running sucked lately, but I've been asking the race committee questions and getting very little or very unhelpful responses, which just isn't a good sign.  Being unorganized can lead to late start times, inadequate aid stations, incorrect mile markers... There are websites that do race ratings, but I've never found a super complete one that people actually keep up to date.  The race is also usually pretty established for it to show up, and by then they usually have their act together.  If anyone knows of  more reliable race eval site, let me know!

Molly VS Bellatrix comment

A comment made by an anonymous person on my Molly VS Bellatrix post:

"Wrong point entirely - Its a mother protecting her children. The raw fury of a mother whose children have been harassed and threatened for years, one son maimed and another lost just minutes/hours earlier, and now her lone daughter comes under attack. She loves her children, even her 'adopted' Harry and Hermione, and now someone dares strike at them in front of her. Only a fool would dare to seperate a mother from her children."

Did you not notice that it said "JKR's A:"?  JKR= J.K. Rowling, the author of the book.  You can find your own meaning from books, sure, but that was the author's intention and you can take it up with her if you think she's wrong :) I don't think you're wrong- because obviously that's a part of it, but the meaning goes beyond the surface.

White power!

 Courtney pointed out how my "Whites go caaaamping!" post sounded like the race.  Little did she know that I already had a post just about that in my queue! Here's what I had:

I have to be careful with my last name.  Sometimes I'll write a sentence with it, and then realize how awful or funny or strange it sounds...

"Welcome, Whites!" (BUT NOBODY ELSE!)

"Whites- welcome to Canada!"  (Everyone else... meh)

"I love the Whites" (...I'm not a hater!)

"I love being a White" (Yeah, it's pretty swell)
...and my favourite slip-up:
"...with the White clan" (I used to always say "hangin' with the Brooks clan", but I think I'll go with "White fam")

:\

But here's a precious last name story: in high school my friends and I had a "human Clue" party, where we dressed up like the characters and played the game on squares painted on the floor and whatnot.  I was Mrs. White. Little did I know... ;)

I love this guy!

Oh, how he humours me!

It just makes it worse better that even our name is "White"

Whites went caaaaamping!

Sam fixing the mess I made of the rain fly from refusing to read directions.

I guess it wore him out.

Tasty tinfoil dinners!  We only had one fork, so I ate with scissors.

The perfect s'more.

Oh baby, what a good view!

Best picture of the trip!

Summer Beak Project!

An apartment complex was doing renovations and getting rid of some desks and couches.  Sam was at work, but I had the truck and I'm kind of a boss and loaded up a couch and three desks.  I even made it up the stairs with one one of the desks!

Why three desks?

One for us, and two to sell! Or two to leave on the curb if nobody wants them, I guess.

I would also really, really like to paint the bookshelves and tv stand.  Since we can't paint the walls here, we had might as well make the furniture more interesting!  I tried getting Sam to look at pictures with me to decide on colours, but he got bored after five minutes.  So I guess that means I get to do what I want!  I told him I would just paint everything bright pink, and he said to go ahead.  So my options are wide open.

I can't decide on colours either, though :(  It's so hard!  I know kind of what I want though, I think.  But even then, I picked up a ton of paint chips.

Pictures do not accurately portray the colours, unfortunately.  I suck.

Anyway, here are some pictures of colour ideas:

Thoughts? I don't even know.

Whites go caaaaamping!

This was the ONLY gif I could find of this! What the heck!

Sam and I are going camping for a couple of days =D  I'm SO EXCITED!  We got some camping stuff for our wedding last year but we're only now getting the chance to use it!  It also just so happens to be the last couple of days before our anniversary... So it didn't take us a whole year to get out and use it ;)
I just love camping.  That was what my family did for vacation every year, and that's what I would do with my friends every summer between semesters at college.  To me, hanging out around the fire and sleeping in cozy sleeping bags in a tent (or under the stars!) is way better than fancy restaurants and expensive hotels.  Getting dressed up and going out is fun and has its place-- but so does cargo shorts and bandannas! If you haven't had an epic tinfoil dinner or a fire pie (I don't even know what to call them for reals, haha) from Frache's sammich maker, you don't even know what you're missing.

Anyway- I'm pretty stoked.  Just a few hours of work, packing, and we're off! Woo hoo!!

Bear Lake 2011

For the long weekend we got to go to Bear Lake with the family and family friends.  It was so, so nice to get a break from school and work and just relax and play!

There was bike riding...

...riding the wave runner...

...eating massive pizzas...

...but mostly doing this! Good life, eh?