It's Been How Long?!

Holy crap. It's been four short years since I signed my life away and purchased this house. 22, alone, apprehensive and pretty much lost in the world; I initialed here, here, here, and there and then signed my name at the bottom and boom, it was mine. Well...it belongs to the bank, I just get to make the payments ;)
Lucy and I moved in here in a matter of one afternoon. With the help of my wonderful family, in came the 100 dollar couch (which doubled as my bed for the first week) and the few boxes I had salvaged from my previous life. I was leaving behind the most unhealthy living situation a I had ever been in. (NOT refering to the one-month stint living back at Dad's, referring to the 8 painful months that lead up to it) I had finally broken the stronghold of an unhealthy, controlling, and self-dimishing relationship. And a funny thing happened...my life began!! I was free. I was independent (instead of codependent), friendless, self conscious, anxiety-ridden, and up to my eyeballs in debt. But I was finally free.

As much as I complain about this place....about the HOA being all up in our biz, about the parking (or lack thereof), about the toilet to human ratio, and the ugly blue fence and fake wood counter tops....it really has been "home" for this little stint of life.

The walls have changed color, furniture has come and gone (except for that damn couch); and over the past four years, Lucy and I have slowly been enveloped in this wonderful little life of ours and become the family we were destined to be.

before

after

another before

Most importantly, some additions have been made to the household. We've welcomed our favorite nephew into the world while living here, we've welcomed home our hero, and we are blessed to return here each night to lay our heads to rest.

 Looking back at the girl who signed those mortgage papers, I can barely recognize her. It's been challenging and wonderful, fast and fulfilling. Four years ago I never would have guessed that we'd be here at "The M&M" living this wonderful little life.
 

hockey at the M&M

love at the M&M

security at the M&M

summer relaxin' at the M&M

Runnin' for a Reason

It's been a challenging summer here in Colorado. Earlier this week, the CSPD lost one of their Officers in a traffic accident. To me, this was one more indicator that we all need to slow down a bit. We need to put down our Starbucks and our cell phones (I'm admitting I'm guilty of this too) and tune back in to reality.

You can see details about the Fallen Officer here. My Dad has been a Police Officer my entire life, so these tragedies always wrench on my heart.

Yesterday after work, I gathered up some flowers from our flower bed and walked them up to the spot of the accident. I knew it would be a bit emotional for me, (Few things make my eyeballs leak. This is one of them.) so I planned on running it out on my way back to the house. It's less than half a mile away but I extended the run long enough to regain composure. I can't imagine what it must feel like for the fellow Officers to have to put that black band across their badges and continue to head on in to work.....Thank you for what you do! The fellow Officers and Officer Tyner's family are in my prayers.

 It's a somber subject; but to end on a positive note, if you locals are looking for a 5k to do later this year, I recommend the The Peace Officer's Memorial Run. This year it's supposed to take place October 20th. I can't find registration information yet but I'll be sure to share as the event gets closer. I'm finding that some of these races that directly benefit a great cause have some of the most reasonable registration fees and, unfortunately, the lowest turnouts. Find a cause you believe in and throw your race registrations their way. And if you feel compelled, take some flowers up to Austin Bluffs to show some appreciation for someone who gave their life while protecting yours.

Food Freak

It seems I'm finally understanding the concept of cheat MEAL, and not "gorge yourself on anything and everything that sounds tasty because you already blew it today." I've really been focusing on making myself think "no, I don't need item x, because I've already eaten item y today." Because, when you think about it, would you accidentally step on a rusty nail and then  just go ahead and ram it in your foot further because it was already in there? No. That would be silly. So why do some of us do that very thing with crap food? hmm

Do you give yourself cheat DAYS or cheat MEALS?

I absolutely love two things about downtown Colorado Springs. Precisely two.

1. Sonterra's warm roasted tomato salsa. (drooooooooooooll)  If I could figure out how to make this stuff, I'd never need to leave the house again. I'd just order in the tomatoes and such and sit on the couch in roasted tomato bliss.

2. Sonterra's Chicken Salad. Look at the chipotle peanutty goodness drizzled on here. Those tortilla strips? Just pretend they're not there...after all, I passed up Scooter's coffee AND an offer for a FREE Starbucks to enjoy all these chips without guilt.

Scooter's you say? Yes!!!

Scooter's opened TODAY, and I pass it on my way to work every morning. AND they have a drive through....dangerous!

While I waited for the screw to be pulled out of my tire yesterday (yeah....bummer huh?) I hopped over to Sunflower Market (love this place!) and took advantage of their sales. Mangoes for 50cents each and cheap organic cantaloupe! Plus, some goodies for the hubs. I also grabbed some sunbutter because this girl talks about it so much on her blog I had to try it out. It's like expensive, sweet peanut butter. Curiosity sufficed.

For anyone keeping track, this makes the total grocery purchases in the past week precisely $111, and I'm nowhere near needing a for reals grocery run yet. ;)

Grilled Beets

Mondays are a challenge. Accept the suck.

I use Mondays like a sprinter uses starting blocks in a race. This is where the whole rhythm of the week gets put in motion. What pace are setting yourself up for?
Goals for this week?
1. Try the "Reaction Cycle" class at the gym. I tried spin once. I hated it. After some research, it seems that this may have just been a case of a bad instructor. So I'll give it a second chance. Also, it's pretty hypocritical of me to want to teach classes but not attend classes.
2. Finish this <!#$@=&*+"-$# Fitness Nutrition final! I'm six horrible questions away from my certification...procrastinate much??
3. Get rid of some junk. Every time I turn around in this house, I knock something over.

What are your goals for the week?

I started off my week early (after a few snooze buttons) with what I call a (Sort of)"Fran Sandwich" at the gym. Since I'm no longer at a crossfit box, I try to make the globo gym work for me and I crossfit it up as much as I can with the having to share equipment and all. It went something like this:

2x 400m run with 90 sec rest between
21/15/9 dumbbell push press, lat pulldowns, hands off deck pushups (I call these hands off pups, because I'm funny like that)
2x 400m run with 90 sec rest between

The for real Fran work out is 21/15/9 thrusters and pullups. The barbells were all occupied this morning so I subbed dumbbells. We have no pullup bars (this is sounding like a lame-wad place to work out)..... anyways,  I don't feel the same benefits from lat pulls as I do from pullups,so  I tossed in the hands off pups. It went well. 

I came home from work with a grand plan of making a scrumptious pork loin with beets and greens. (A recipe from my Power Foods cook book.) Things were going great until thirty minutes into cooking the beets in the oven I realized it had only heated up to 145 degrees! .....Totally thought the hot water heater would be the first appliance to go...... The good news is, if we buy a black one we can finally have two appliances that match! Like grown ups!!! 

So, the beets went out on the grill with the pork loin. Grilled beets, who woulda thunk??

I was so sick of this meal by the time it finally finished cooking that I just tasted the pork and packed the rest up. I'll fill you in tomorrow after lunch.  

The best pork loin I've ever grilled up. And my grilled beets and greens..

"Rubbed Pig" recipe:

1 pork loin of some pork chops

2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/2 tsp cumin

dash black pepper

dash cayenne pepper

dash sea salt

Rub on pig and grill to 160 degrees center temperature.

 Apparently Lucy loves beets. I can put that in the file with asparagus and apples. I fed some of the greens to the bunnies too. We all "eat like rabbits" at the M&M residence....except for the hubs. He had pizza for dinner. Speaking of rabbits, look how big Darla is getting!!!!!

Look what I pulled out of the garden! Purple carrots!
(the wee ones will be rabbit food)

The Incline and Roller Skates

I started my Saturday here...

...at the Manitou Incline, up with the sun.

 I used to make fun of the "Incline people." I'm not a huge fan of Manitou Springs, it makes me feel uncomfortable and parking sucks. I also didn't used to like mixing my hiking (recreation) with my training (fun, but focused). I enjoyed having hiking as an option for rest day movement and exercise. THEN...I tried the incline. Then I ate some crow for breakfast afterwards. If any of you locals have not checked it out and are curious, you might be surprised as well. You can find info here. (Although I suppose it's still not legal to climb here, so I'm not "recommending" it by any means.  Soapbox- please leave your dog at home. The occasional whiffs of dog crap while huffing up the side of the mountain are not enjoyable, and your dog is not having fun either, it's hot and tiring and chaotic. Just take Fido for a walk later, you need to work out the lactic acid in your thighs anyways.

I don't understand the green "morphsuit" but whatever blows your dress up I suppose.

My time was not awesome.So not awesome, I'm not even going to tell you!!! But, excuses are like buttholes right? (Everyone has one and they all stink...) So here's my excuses....no, reasons, why I know I sucked.
1. Lack of proper hydration. I did not drink enough water Friday and did not fuel properly Friday night.
2. Loooooong hiatus. This was my first time at the incline since June-ish. (I can't even remember, which means it's been awhile.)
But, I do know that I gave it my all out effort. The soreness in my legs and rump are letting me know that I got in a for real workout, which always makes me happy. The good news? I logged 3.5 miles roundtrip froo the car to the top and back down Barr Trail...all before breakfast.

How do you judge your workouts???

Easy to see why I love this place, right?

Then I helped clean up the mess from the renters over at my dad's house.

Us germaphobes always have things like latex gloves on hand.

...and ended the day here, at the roller rink with my man.

Doesn't he look thrilled?

Do any of you other Springs kids remember how freaking
ridiculously delicious the Skate City ice cream always was?
Well it still is.

My bum is sooooo sore and my feet were pretty tired yesterday, so I'm glad the only thing on the agenda for today is a birthday dinner at Hooters... oh and, playing with my new steam mop!!!

Lucy's pretty stoked too.

Froceries

Today was a pretty awesome day, probably because I started the day with sprint intervals.

Whoops, socks don't match.

...And also because today was "food prep day." ...mainly because it's the first day I've had time to do it. I've just been pulling stuff out of my ass for about the past week until now. I'm not gonna lie, I kind of look forward to grocery shopping. I'm such a lame, I know, but I like it. Especially at my grocery store. There's bonus coupons and card member savings and sometimes, if I get in the right checkout lane, Cliff will sing as he rings up our groceries. It's pretty awesome. You're jealous aren't you? I'll go ahead and warn you now, the next few moments are going to be a total brag in your face about how awesome my favorite local grocery store is. Ready?

Reason #1- it's not as yuppi-fied as Whole Foods, so the fact that I have on my gym
shoes and work clothes is no big, most of these folks are in their pj's.

I bought groceries for M and I that will feed us for the next week and beyond and I spent- before coupons- $83.34. Think about it, that's about two decent trips for dinner at a restaurant. Not bad for an entire week of REAL food plus staples and bonuses.

I'm no liar, $83.34 before coupons. Just look at that meaty, vegetable goodness!

Look at this masterpiece! It's a crossfitter's dream!
Fresh veggies, steak, bacon, chicken, frozen veggies for the busy days... mmmmmmm

Aside from a loaf of bread for the hubs (ain't I sweet?) and some greek yogurt, this cart load was all-out paleo. Yay me! Oh yeah, and I bought some tissues. I was going to cut yogurt out for the next few weeks but then I read this girl's super amazing blog and read one of her amazing ideas. HFS, put my protein powder in plain greek yogurt!!!!!! I'll let you know how that works out. I'm excited. I did spoil myself by getting the Palisade peaches (little pieces of Colorado Heaven) instead of the California peaches which were on super duper sale. It will be worth every sweeet delicious peachy bite. We used to sell these yummy Western Slope peaches at my uncle's fruit stand in the summers. yum yum yummers!!!!!

The biggest scores of the day were cucumbers at 79 cents each and fresh spinach for 99 cents a bundle (about three small bunches). I use the leafy parts and feeds the scraps to the bunnies, it's a double win :) I promptly brought  the cukes home and made my grandmother's delicious cucumber onion salad.  While dinner marinated and grilled and whatnot.

Pre-packaged and ready to nosh! I added radishes from our garden. they were bitter. Fail.

I can has a cucumber???????

Enough about the groceries, on Sunday my husband and I headed up Quandary Peak near Breckenridge!

sunrise on the mountain

isn't this state just frickin gorgeous!?

I almost forgot! Know why I love Dutch Brothers?? Because a hungry me in the grocery store is no bueno. Luckily, I swung on by and grabbed an acai superberry smoothie so I didn't raid my local King Soopers. Ph, um the whipped cream on top? That's just a bonus ;)

Lunch Break Wisdom

I grilled pork chops last night. First, I marinated them in whatever I found as I rummaged through the cabinets. On that note, I need to stop setting dinner on the table with the tagline of "I pulled this out of my ass so it won't hurt my feelings if you don't like it." Not so appetizing. I'm gonna work on this.

we got weddinged!

I suppose I should get my wedding commentary out while I still remember it...

Here's what happened.....

the world caught on fire

the cake exploded

half of the flowers froze overnight in the fridge, Jamie remade all the
boutonnieres 10 minutes before people arrived because she rocks

and well, it wouldn't have been our wedding if Lucy hadn't Houdinied her way into some sort of packaging and eaten something she shouldn't have!

M kissed the bride and we got weddinged!

and then we got our shine on

But here's the way it all went in my head.....

I thought ordering bulk flowers and doing everything myself was a great way to save money.....

so I spent Friday night making 8 million centerpieces

....and stabbed myself six times making boutonnieres, corsages, and bouquets.

Then I slept as good as Lucy does

I woke up early, walked Lucy, killed ten thousand and twelve ants with my ghostbusters spray thing, made some cole slaw, bought a football at the dollar store and went and got my hair done with three of my favorite ladies.

the world still caught on fire

Daddy walked me down the aisle 

(...And I had no idea that I had horrible, awful tan lines.)

Family members drove for hours and hours and miles and miles to come show their love and support. And dear friends showed up and endured the heat with us as well. P.S. we got weddinged on the hottest day of the year (at the time, I'm sure we've passed it now)

Some very important folks were missing, but they all had reasonable excuses, I suppose. (I'm only kidding guys, I know you were out protecting our nation's freedom, training to squish terrorists, and fighting forest fires.)

We had a beautiful, funny ceremony completely handcrafted by my amazing brother

We ate and I actually had the chance to visit with everybody who showed up. I think. I even had the mental capacity to serve mygrandfather a diet soda. Ha! take THAT, David Tutera!

I stressed over leftover food

Remi helped me serve a delicious, made-with-love cake

and then we got our shine on

Some really awesome people put in a lot of time and energy, and I will never ever be able to thank them enough! The world may have caught on fire, the cake may have exploded, Lucy may have shanghied the sandwich buns, and I might have had the worst tan lines this side of the Mississippi...but the cake still tasted divine, the flowers all died eventually anyways, and it was a wonderful day spent with family and friends which means that

every single little thing was absolutely perfect.