{ 9 Year Wedding Anniversary }

Today is our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary. Hubby planned a day and night in Toronto for us on Saturday. We have an overnight babysitter so we are going to relax and enjoy our evening in the city and sleep in the next morning (is it sad that's the part I'm most looking forward to?!?!)

I saw this idea for gifts on the hour as birthday or anniversary gifts from Thirtyhandmadedays.com and thought I would do that for Josh.

I decided to put together 9 gifts - one for each year of our marriage and put a little recap note with each gift of that year of marriage. It was really fun - and actually challenging - to look back at the last 9 years. I thought I would easily remember everything that happened during each year, but I need to pull out scrapbooks and look through the date stamps on my iPhoto to get it all organized. If I can keep this up it would be a great way to look back on 15, 25, 30+ years of marriage together.

My Notes on what happened each year

Since today is a work day I centered most of my gifts around what he might be doing at that time of the day: breakfast, post workout food, coffee, afternoon snack, etc. But then I threw in a few things that were more of Anniversary type gifts: funky socks he's been asking for, wallet, movie tickets, Toronto Soccer tickets.

Here's a glimpse at the notes from our years of marriage and the gifts I sent with him.

Pre-workout Banana Muffin

                                    

Post workout smoothie & granola bar

I gave the funky socks with year three, but I forgot to take a picture

Just a nice note!

Movie Date Night!

Toronto Soccer Tickets!

New Wallet with picture already inside!

Afternoon Snack!

Afternoon Coffee Pick Up!

I packaged them all up and wrote the times of when (or approximately when) he should open them throughout the day. Before I went to bed I left them with a note in a bag by his workout stuff for him to see in the morning. 

This was the text I received this morning. I would say he was excited about the bag of gifts and I was glad I got him excited for every hour to see what the next "year" brought! Isn't that what marriage should be about? Being excited about al the years together?!?!

Happy 9th Anniversary Honey! 

A New Trend in Races

Saturday morning after our 20k run we headed out for breakfast – sometimes the thought of some runny eggs with toast & bacon is the only thing that gets me through those last miles! Our waitress asked us what group we were apart of and when we said a running group she got all excited to tell us that she was thinking of signing up for a mud run with one of her girlfriends. She asked if we did runs like that. No one at our table had ever done any of the Tough Mudder (which is what we assumed she was talking about) races.

After she left we got to talking about this new trend in races/competitions. There seems to be so many popping up such as, The Tough Mudder, Color Me Rad, Zombie Survivor, and Prison Break. A little about these races:

Tough Mudder - Montreal

Tough Mudder takes you through an obstacle course of mud, 10,000 volts of electricity, ice water, & fire. It’s a 10-12 mile course that you only “finish” when you have encouraged/helped your entire team over the finish line. On the Tough Mudder website it states that “marathon running is boring” – Hey I’ll take a “boring marathon” (which I HIGHLY disagree with) to getting electrocuted any day! I was happy to read that part of the fee for the race goes to support the Wounded Warrior Project which Tough Mudder races have raised over $5 million for. The project supports injured veterans.

Color Me Rad

Color Me Rad is a non timed 5k run that has become quite popular around the U.S. and Canada. You start out with a “shirt as pure and white as your granddaddy’s dentures” as the website puts it and the race blasts colored cornstarch at you along the way. The friends that I’ve seen participate in this seem to have a VERY fun time. It’s seems to be a great opportunity to get your girlfriends together and get dirty in a colorful, girly kind of way! This is a run that I MAY be able to get talked into one day. As of late I have not signed up for any 5k runs. Racing as gotten to be so expensive and I find 5k runs to be really crowded especially with new runners. If I’m going to pay an entrance fee for a 5k race I’d like some of the money to go to a cause like cancer research, the homeless, a food bank, or humane society – the Color Me Rad website mentions that this run will “brighten your day. . .and liven up your Facebook page”

Zombie Survivor

I’m not sure if the origin of this run comes from the AMC show The Walking Dead or not, but the thoughts of both the show and run creeps me out. Zombie Survivor run is held in Calgary, Canada and is a 5k run and obstacle course while being chased by – yep! Zombies! This is a timed 5k run, but the ultimate goal is to get to the finish line with at least one “life” (flag) left.  Not only will Zombies be chasing you, but you will also have to get through 10-12 obstacles along the way. This is not something that interests me at all! This is some straight out of one of my nightmares – I hate the idea of being chased by something as gruesome as a Zombie.

Prison Break Race

“You have been convicted of a crime you did not commit.” Prison Break is a 5k run held in 3 different areas around Ontario (Ottawa, Montreal, & Dumaine De Radar in Montreal). This run sounds similar to the Zombie run. You are given a belt with 3 flags, you run a 5k course with 15 obstacles and prison guards looking to take your flags along the way. If you cross the finish line with at least one of your flags left “you are free and a handsome man or beautiful women will being waiting for you with a cold beer.” If you have lost all your flags “you will be punished and sent to the mud hole.” The only part of this race that I can get my head wrapped around is getting a cold beer at the end from a handsome man – but I will have that at Chicago and that handsome man will be my hubby!

Chicago Marathon

I get why some people might think running long distances is boring and not enough adventure for them. My answer to them is run with a group! I really don’t care to run by myself, but running with the group is fun. We share stories, laugh at ourselves and support each other through those last miles. At the end of most every half marathon and marathon I’ve ran there as been a beer garden and a drink ticket for the racers in our kit. Spectating marathons can be a bit tricky depending upon the course, but whether we have known someone running or not, my husband and I have always gone out to cheer on the runners of the Twin Cities Marathon that runs right through our neighborhood in Minneapolis. Hearing the cheers from anyone while you are running a race makes it fun and motivating.

Twin Cities Marathon

So while these ultimate/adventure runs are just not for me, they are obviously popular and more and more are being created. Maybe I'll get talked into one some day! Never say never, right?!?!? 

Long Weekend Fun = Sad Goodbye

My Mom was visiting this last week. It was a Holiday Weekend (Victoria Day - celebrating Queen Victoria's Birthday) here in Canada. We had beautiful weather, great food, really good drinks & fun adventures all with my Mom here with us. She and I went on 4 runs together over the 8 days she was here! That was a lot of fun for me! 

It was really sad to take her to the airport yesterday. Each visit the twins are older and more aware of how much fun it is to have their Grandparents around and more and more devastated when they leave. It really breaks my heart. More on my feelings on this "assignment" we are on in a later post - I want to keep this one up beat!

A few other blogs I follow of friends I have met here in Canada did a recap of their long weekends in photos. Seems like a good way for me to sum up our fun time with Nana as well! Thanks La Dauphine  and Cherry Pie Twins for the idea!

Planting a Vegetable Garden with Nana!

I'll write more soon about the vegetable garden and our unexpected guests munching on it! Argh!

Taking Nana out on her first "treasure hunt" aka Geocaching

See my post on Geocaching here. This find was called "Dude, I lost my car"! Super fun!

Finding the Cache in the lost car!

When we are not using Saturday night as our date night we often entertain at home and always have Saturday Night Steak. I tried a few new and really good recipes. We invited some of the running friends my Mom has gotten to know on her visits here. See the recipe for the layered hummus dip here and I'll post about the others (Strawberry White Chocolate Tiramisu & Blue Cheese & Pear Crostini & Strawberry Margaritas) soon! 

Saturday night steak with running friends!

Another Geocaching adventure in our friends new neighborhood of Bronte Harbor. We didn't find the first one, but luckily there was another nearby!

Geocaching, beach walk, & lunch at the Fire Hall

We ended the long weekend and my Mom's visit with a Victoria Day BBQ and invited over my cousin (actually my Mom's first cousin, my 2nd cousin) and his partner. 

Mike, Nana & Logan playing a game on the iPad

I hope you had a fabulous long Victoria weekend if you are Canadian - it was wonderful weather here. If you are American do you have fun plans for the upcoming Memorial Weekend? I wish safe weather for everyone this weekend after the recent devastation! 

Summary Saturday

Training
Sunday - watched hubby run his first marathon! See my recap here 

Monday - run: 15 min warm up (WU), 3 minute fast/2 min recovery x 3, 15 min cool down (CD). This run took 35 minutes and was 5.6k in distance. The WU and CD are meant to be just that, run them slow. I ran my WU and CD around 6:10/km. Then pick up the pace  for 3 minutes, not an all out sprint just a bit faster than the WU and CD. I ran my 3 minutes around 5:20/km. The 2 min recovery should be back to the WU pace. Repeat the 3 min fast/2 min recovery 3 times. The idea is to keep the 3 min fast all at the same pace. So not to go too fast the first round that you can't keep up that pace for the third round. 
strength training: Monday nights are legs at the cross fit gym I go to. Click here for a post on strength training. Our leg workouts typically include A LOT of squats and lunges. Last night was no exception. I'm going to feel this workout on Wednesday! It's always two days later when the soreness really kicks in! 

Tuesday - 60 min bike ride pulling the twins in the buggy - that's nearly 70 pounds of extra weight! They sure have grown from last summer!

Wednesday - run: 15 min WU, 6 hill repeats, 15 min CD
strength training: upper body, this was a high intensity, quick upper body work out! 

Thursday - off
Friday - off

Saturday - 11k run, it was a cool overcast morning Perfect running weather!

Web Find
You will see a trend in my blogging that includes me partaking in "adult beverages" as my husband would call them. I really like most adult beverages but I would say my favorites are margaritas, beer, red wine and gin & tonics (like I said I pretty much like them all)!

This week's find from around the web caught my attention because of the name Margarita Tarts. Yum! I'm saving this recipe to try soon. I was thinking of serving it for a dinner I will be hosting for my cousin who is visiting from Portland, but it looks like a put-together-right-before-you-serve-it kind of desert so I'm off on the search for something I can prepare ahead of time instead! Click here for the recipe from A Couple Cooks.

Margarita Tart from www.acouplecooks.com

Tuesday I scheduled with a friend of mine who has twin boys the same age as ours to go Mini Putt Golfing. We were the only ones there and the boys had a blast! It was a beautiful day! And only in Canada would the 18th hole be a hockey rink and goalie! 

Goals for the week:

I feel a cold coming on. . .ugh! My goal for this week will be to stay healthy!

My Mom is coming to visit this week. I'm excited to have her help us plant our vegetable garden.  

I did really well this last week getting up before the boys did and have some quiet time with my coffee. I'm hoping to continue that this week, but whether this feeling I have amounts into a cold will probably determine that. 

What is your favorite "adult beverage"? Do you get up before your children in the morning or are they your wake up call?

Have a great week!

New Running Shoes

I was probably due for a new pair of running shoes prior to the half marathon in Nashville. But by the time I realized that it was too close to the race day to get a new pair. 

There are many different opinions out there about when to get new shoes. I usually ask my Mom! Ha! She has been running since I was born - 34 years - so I consider her an expert in when is the right time to switch out shoes. 

The shoes I ran with for the half marathon in Nashville had trained for and ran a 30k race at the end of March. I got them shortly after the half marathon in Montreal so that was 7 months and lots of miles!

I went to a running store our group often ran from during our winter training program. It's an independent store in downtown Oakville, Ontario called the Running Company. Not to be confused with The Running/Walking Room. I really tried to avoid shopping at big corporate fitness places for something as important as shoes. I feel like they aren't often staffed with knowledgable people and could steer you in the wrong direction. Your feet are the most important piece of "equipment" in this sport of running so I don't trust mine to just anyone. 

I've got to know the owner, Greg at the Running Company well and feel confident that he is placing me in the best shoe for me. He is quite up front that if something isn't working with the shoe - even after running with it outside, I could bring it back for a new pair. I had similar service at an independent store in the Minneapolis area of Minnesota where we used to live called TC Running. 

So when should you get new running shoes? There are a lot of different opinions, but I think it comes down to how much running you are doing. A pair of shoes could last you a year or more if you are training for and running 5 or 10k's. You are probably not accumulating too much mileage on them. However, if you are training for and running a couple half marathons or a full marathon you may need to get new shoes every 6-9 months. 

I was ready to donate my shoes to Greg at the Running Company this week because of how wet they got at the Nashville Half Marathon (see my recap of the race here and read about my wet shoes here). But Greg recommended I get them dried out and then alternate when I wear my old pair with my new pair in order to get my new pair broken in, but not worn out for Chicago Marathon in October. He said I should wear my new pair for my Saturday long runs and wear my old pair for my weekday short runs. Sounds good to me! I will give it a try.

As you can see I went with the exact same pair of shoes this time around. I have really narrow feet and running shoes are naturally wide. Asics run more narrow than other running brands. I have ran in Nike & Mizunos before and I have liked these Asics as of late. My Mom ran for years and years in New Balance. To me they were THE running shoes, but they are much too wide for me. 

Another thing to note is that most often you will buy a pair of running shoes that are a size or more bigger than your everyday shoes. This is to give your toes more room to move and avoid those dreaded bruised toes and/or lost toe nails. I wear a size 7 every day shoe and my running shoes are a size 8.5. My toes are really sensitive and even with all that room I still get bruised and lost toe nails! But it's better than when I first started running in size 7 running shoes. 

Click here for a really good summary (articulated better than I just tried to do) about when to ditch the old running shoes on the blog for the group I run with. If you find yourself looking through the blog you will also see a post on me! 

How often do you change your running shoes? Do you alternate between pairs? Are you loyal to a particular brand?

Happy Earth Day!

The sun is shining today, there isn't any snow on the ground or in the forecast, and I'm hoping to run tonight without a stocking cap on! Yippee!

We are a fairly "green" family. I try to remember reusable bags when grocery shopping. Most stores around our home outside of Toronto, Canada charge 5 cents per bag if you don't bring your own. I really like that they encourage people to bring their own reusable bags, but what gets me is that if you forget them at home (which unfortunately I sometimes do) they sell you a PLASTIC bag? I don't get it - encourage the reduction of waste, but only offer something that could take 100 years to decompose if at all as an alternative.

When we first moved to Toronto we were given the instructions for our waste: Every week our Green Box would be picked up which is a kitchen compost - pretty much everything goes in here: paper towels, meat, egg shells, and all other table scraps. The Blue Bins are also picked up each week - which is the recycling of paper, cans, plastic, & aluminum. If there is anything I do consistently in life, it's recycle. I cringe when I'm at someone's house and they have a soda can or plastic bottle in the trash. It seems like the easiest thing we can do to be "green".

The schedule for what is picked up when!

What got us when we moved here is that all other trash would only be picked up every 2 weeks. After kitchen composting and recycling we didn't have that much more trash to pack up - except for diapers. I didn't go the cloth diaper route with the twins. I may have if I had only one baby at a time, but I didn't even consider it once we found out we were having twins. Disposable just seemed so much easier. But, having 2 kids diapers sit in your garage for 2 weeks especially over the summer months was just gross! It was pure motivation for me to get them potty trained this winter in order to avoid that stink over this summer. Success! They only use 4 diapers a day - 2 at nap time and 2 at bedtime.

The list of what goes where!

This spring I decided to plant a garden with the boys. We started some seeds in the house in a green house type kit. We planted lettuce, carrots, pea, green bean, and zucchini seeds. We must be doing something right because we have little plants coming up!

Our little sprouts!

I don't really have a green thumb at all. My Mom is a master flower & veggie gardener so she guided me a bit. I figure if we only get a carrot and pea or two it will be a fun summer project for the boys and I and maybe even encourage some veggie eating by two little toddlers!

My Dad was visiting this weekend and I had him put together this raised bed garden for me. We used the plans from Vegetable Garden Planner. There are rabbit droppings in the yard and I've seen a couple hanging out when I go to let the dog out late at night so we put a wire fence up around the garden to keep them out!

What do you do routinely to be "green"? Did you do anything special to celebrate Earth Day?