It was $0.31 night at Baskin Robbins! Thirty-one cents per scoop of ice cream. You can’t beat that. I got my favorite – mint chocolate chip.

Meeker got bubble-gum flavored ice cream like a 5 year old.

This is not nearly as good as I remember.

The offer is good until 10pm – go get some!

grape nuts, shredded wheat, and raspberries

Isn’t that the cheeriest bowl of cereal? I thought so – and it tasted like a bowl of sunshine, too.

My lunch was the same thing it’s been each day since Monday. And it tastes good every time.

ww bagel toasted with mustard, spinach, and cucumbers

I got home from work, and remembered that I had the best husband in the world. He cleaned the bathroom (my least favorite chore) and made a crock pot full of buffalo chili for dinner.

I only had a little bit because it was so spicy that I was worried I might go into early labor. Not kidding…it blew my head off.

But it all worked out in the end because it was the perfect excuse to have a wineglass full of cookies ‘n cream ice cream to cool off my mouth.

Worked like a charm.

In the 3^rd grade world…

We are studying US monuments and memorials in social studies. I had my kiddos design their own monument to honor a person or event in their life.

Most kids created a monument to honor a family member (or a dog), but this one was imaginative and made me laugh.

We honor Michael Jackson because we like pop. We also honor him because his songs are good.

Then the boys explained that this would be a wall (pink stairs on either side) with MJ’s famous black hat sitting on the top.

When lunched rolled around, I wasn’t any hungrier than normal – but I made a mixing-bowl-sized salad anyway. I prefer my veggies in mass quantities.

Romain lettuce (almost a whole head), red bell pepper, cucumber, green beans (canned), carrots, almonds, corn, avocado, flax seed, hummus + water dressing, and nutritional yeast.

Just to give you a little perspective, that’s a regular sized fork perched on the edge of my biggest mixing bowl. After the intake of all this roughage, I needed a few bites of this.

Salad, then ice cream. Balance.

All that fiber kept me FULL for the day. Dinner was light.

Spring rolls!

I soaked 4 pieces of rice paper, and then filled them with carrots, zucchini, bean sprouts, and avocado. Then I dipped them in Soy Vay Teriyaki.

And for dessert…

A little square of dark chocolate with crunchy pb. The perfect balance of sweet and salty.

I’ve got some relaxing to do before school tomorrow…enjoy your evenings!

I’ve never been wild about pizza. So I like to replace it with cake. Think I’m kidding? Just wait.

I started this morning with an early speed workout:

The wind was INSANE, and it slowed me down considerably. I am really ready for springtime to be over. Afterwards, I decided that I wanted to walk to work, which meant that I only had 30 minutes to stretch, shower, eat breakfast and get out the door. For breakfast, I chose a pancake.

Cake #1: Oatmeal + Protein

¼ cup oats, ¼ cup ww flour, 1 scoop protein powder, stevia, cinnamon

It was large and in charge. Because I was in such a rush, I actually held the pancake and my coffee in my hands while I walked sprinted to work. It was quite the sight. I ate the pancake while at my desk, smothered in crunchy peanut butter.

I took a cake hiatus at lunch and had leftover taco salad.

Lettuce, black beans, salsa, chicken, crumbled tortilla chips

After work, I hoofed it home and made some spinach/blackberry protein ice cream. Ice cream goes well with cake.

½ cup frozen spinach, ¾ cup frozen blackberries, 1 scoop protein powder, splash of water – into the food processor for a few minutes and topped with chopped almonds

I went to the grocery store after this snack, and then came home for…

Cake #2, 3, 4, and 5: Red Velvet Pancakes

Mine weren’t as attractive as the Queen of Sweet’s, but they were dang tasty. I topped mine with greek yogurt and a few chocolate chips.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Remember when it was fun to sharpen your pencils down to little nubs?

It drives me crazy when my kids do this because we are ALWAYS running out of pencils; which makes the classroom come to a halt. This is proof that they are all just being eaten by the pencil sharpener.

I decided to do another crossfit workout this morning to wake myself up with a bang. I glanced at the clock at 5:30am (while squatting with a 45# bar over my head) and realized I was kind of insane. However, it was quick, intense, and I ate ice cream afterwards.

Into the food processor went:

• 1 banana
• 2 clementines
• ½ cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 2 scoops whey protein powder (I just buy the Kroger brand)

Blended until frothy and delicious!

I have parent teacher conferences tonight, so I will get home late and (most likely) crash and go straight to bed. I hope you all have marvelous Mondays and enjoy that extra hour of sunlight this evening!

Here are the pain inducing medicine balls

I used that measly little 12# ball, where as my big strong husband used the 20# orange/black one. The basketball with ducktape is a homemade medicine ball that Meeker filled with 20 pounds of sand. I was really into crossfit
for about 5 months, but then realized that I didn’t love the way my body felt. Now I just pick and choose which workouts I want to incorporate into my own exercise routine – they almost always involve running. There is something thrilling about pushing yourself to your physical limits once in a while.

To refuel after the grueling exercise…ice cream!

Well, healthified ice cream.

Um, I’m dying. This is in the top five things I’ve ever made. Let me share:

Into the food processor went:

• ½ banana
• ½ cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 2 clementines
• 2 scoops protein powder

Blend until airy and fluffy – about 2 minutes. It’s so dang good…it tasted like berry flavored whip cream. I was jumping around the kitchen like I was the inventor of peanut butter. It’s that good – puhleeeze go make this now.

With my tastebuds and belly extremely happy, Meeker and I are off to the dog park to wear out the pup. Today is also my sweet Mama’s birthday – so we are celebrating with the family tonight!

This is my cheery mama cooking up something yummy. She’s pretty good at that.

Here is the latest thing I have been loving. I woke up around 1am last night (after going to bed early) and was hungry – so I made myself a bowl (or two) of this mess. This morning, I wanted more. Who needs milk when you can have applesauce on your cereal? (Okay, I need milk, I love it – but this was really good, too)

• Kashi Honey Sunshine
• Puffed Rice
• Spoonful of crunchy peanut butter
• Applesauce
• Chocolate Chips

Then I took my pup on a vigorous bike ride in the cold Colorado air. After we were both adequately exercised, I parked it on the couch for a lot of the afternoon to watch Psych – coffee in hand, spandex and tennis shoes still on.

Look by my feet – there’s a spoon sitting on the couch. Meeker threw it at me, and it sat there pretty much all afternoon. Silly boys.

I love my mug, and my hat (in my eyes). And my matching blue fleece.

I eventually got hungry again, and I bulked up some leftovers that we had from our dinner out at PF Changs last night. (Still living off those Christmas gift cards…people know we like to eat.)

I ordered Mongolian beef last night – and this afternoon I sautéed cabbage, carrots, red peppers, and scallions and added the leftover beef and brown rice to the veggie mix.

Pretty colors. Amazing taste.

After cleaning the house, I felt snacky– and I satisfied my snack tooth and my sweet tooth with some dessert!

That’s vanilla ice cream with the last of my peanut butter cup trail mix – which I got out of the bulk bins at Sprouts. There also may be a little pecan cookie tucked behind the ice cream. I found a batch of frozen cookies (that I made about a month ago) hiding behind the ice cream in the freezer.

What’s your favorite way to spend a Saturday? You pretty much just saw mine…

Breakfast number two – Muesli and banana

Breakfast number three (or we could call this lunch) – Omelet

• 2 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• ¼ avocado, sliced
• 1 spoonful of hummus
• Salsa

Alongside a cup of coffee and my new cookbook

Insert: 20 minutes of yoga

Two o’clock snack – crackers, fig spread and cheese

flipping through the cookbook once again…

Dinner number one

An onion, carrots, mushrooms, red potatoes and elk meat into the Romertopf
– cooked @300* for two hours.

I took one bite of the elk meat and discovered that I really don’t like it – it tasted like I was sucking on a penny – coppery and tangy. Bleh.

So, I just ate some carrots and mushrooms instead.

Insert: 30 minutes of yoga.

Dinner number two – Vanilla ice cream and a buckeye

Not the healthiest day I’ve ever had, but I’m okay with it. Once in a while, a girl just has to have a sugar cookie for breakfast and ice cream for dinner…

I slept in until around 7:30 – and lay in bed for another hour. Wonderful. Then I hopped up, threw on shorts, sweatshirt and a snow hat, and went to the doggie park for a couple of hours. The weather was nice and fall-like.

I didn’t get any pictures our morning, because with lots of dogs, and lots of water – a camera is bound to get ruined. These photos are from the website, and it looked just like this on our visit this morning.

Then I came home, chugged a gallon of water, and my appetite FINALLY caught up with me. Prepare yourselves…

I started off small with a mini-burrito that was post-race swag yesterday

These are made just up the road in Boulder, CO – and it was fairly tasty, but didn’t 3oz. of burrito love didn’t even put a dent in my hunger.

So I made a big ‘ole salad with lettuce, cucumbers, a shredded carrot, a boca burger hummus and the balsamic vinegar. I love vinegar so much that I often contemplate drinking it out of the bottle.

Still not close to full…so something sweet!

This is just Kroger brand ice cream with cinnamon – but it honestly tasted like the best ice cream I have ever had.

So creamy and delicious. But, still a little lot hungry.

More race swag – a “sports cookie” – which was just a cookie (made with whole wheat flour and whey protein powder).

Aaaaaaaand now I am currently demolishing Meeker’s leftover dinosaur of a sandwich that he ate for lunch. I think I might be close to full….one voice inside my head is screaming “stop, stop, you’re going to get fat!” while another voice is calmly saying “you’re hungry…eat” – and I am kind of struggling with which voice to listen to right now. I’ve dealt with this pesky little voice before, and I know that I need to just listen to what my body needs – especially after pushing it so hard yesterday – but it isn’t easy. Hopefully the voices and I will come to some sort of agreement before dinner tonight.

WHY I LOVE RUNNING…

However, despite that, I really enjoyed the race. After the 1^st mile, I forgot about the pain in my knee and just got into the groove.

Here I am at mile 5.

And again at mile 9, smiling away.

Something good: I lost complete track of the time and the mileage – and every time I passed a mile marker, I was surprised I was that far along.

Something better: My time – 1:58:37

My goal was under 2 hours, and I just barely snuck in under that mark. Actually, the race clock said 2:02, however my official time was the above number because it took me 4 minutes after the gun went off to get to the starting line. The Denver Marathon was HUGE…throngs and throngs of people the entire time. Lots of energy, lots of fun.

The last quarter of a mile was difficult – I was sprinting and pushing myself to the max. I love that feeling.

This was taken as I was coming down the home stretch. Head down, arms pumping. I was euphoric afterwards.

***

WHY I HATE RUNNING…

…bye-bye appetite.

I asked Meeker (who has a degree in exercise physiology) why this happens and his best guess was because while running longer distances I am burning fat – as opposed to carbohydrates – which doesn’t spike the hunger. Aerobic vs. Anaerobic exercise. But that was just his guess – does anybody out there know why my appetite disappears when I run?

However – after the race I forced my unwilling tummy to eat some of the yummiest post-race oatmeal I have ever had. Thank you Target (who sponsored the race)!

Then my awesome in-laws took us out to lunch, and I got a tiny side salad. So sad.

It tasted really good.

Then, in an attempt to get my hunger started, I suggested we go to the doggie park and walk limp around for a couple of hours. It was a GORGEOUS day here in Colorado – 80 degrees. The best news. We even played in the river with Punky. The cold water felt fabulous on my tired feet.

When I got home (around 4pm), I still wasn’t hungry, but felt sort of weak, so I had a milk/protein powder.

Then a few hours later – I started to feel the beginnings of hunger, so I made 2 batches of cheetahs.

My half…

Sorry for the blur.

These sweet ‘taters sort of woke up my stomach, and I made the most delicious and satisfying creation for dessert.

Ice cream and cinnamon on homemade frozen cookies.

Yessssss. Droooool.

All in all…a fantastic Sunday, aaaaand, I don’t have school ALL NEXT WEEK. I am one happy girl.