Beer, Potatoes, and Sheep

Well non-existent blog world, I've been away for a while because I have been in the land of beer, potatoes, and sheep...yep, you guessed it...IRELAND. Tal and I took a wonderful vacation to Ireland as soon as I was finished teaching. We spent about 10 days in and around the cities of Dublin and Galway. We wished we could have seen more of the country, but that probably would have meant renting a car. About that...they drive on the wrong left side of the road. Something I could never get used to in Australia a few years ago and still couldn't get used to here. I had a hard enough time remembering which way to look when crossing the street, I can't imagine trying to drive on the street! 

We did so much and it although we were there for over a week, it feels like a whirlwind vacation, except for the plane rides. Let's just say we spent a lot of time sitting on the runway because of mechanical issues,  standing in line to find our lost luggage (we got it the next day), running to customs in Ireland to get home (wasn't prepared to schedule time for the) circling over Pennslyvania because of storms. Here are just a few pictures from our vacation. 

Trinity College Library--A book nerds paradise. Its a tough call now if I want
this library or the library from Beauty and the Beast in my future house.

Cliffs of Moher--Pictures cannot do it justice. Absolutely breathtaking! 

Connemara...I could live here and be a sheep farmer :) 

Kylemore Abby--I felt like I was at the Irish (way more prestigious) version of Sweet Briar.
Definitely could have gone here when it was a boarding school :) 

We did get to spend a little bit of time with my sister, Mackenzie.
She was the excuse reason for our visit after all.

Of course we had to stop by the Guinness Factory and learned how to pour the perfect pint.
I can pour it, but I definitely don't like it! Ireland is definitely a beer Guinness driven country.
I need to find myself a county all about wine :)

I'll save my favorite picture and spot for last. Let's see if anyone knows what it is...

Alright. Do you know? It's a bridge in Ireland that the tourist companies are fully taking advantage of because of the fame it got with a certain Irish dreamboat in a movie that was based in Ireland (I don't mind). Any guesses? 

It's where Gerard Butler meets Hilary Swank for the first time in P.S. I Love You! Super cheesy, super touristy, but I loved every minute of it :) 

Now that I am home and have shared some of my pictures from my trip, I am ready to get back on the bandwagon. At least I am going to try. I tried to run yesterday and my knee still wasn't having it, so I am not sure how that is going to go right now even though I have a race in September and my first Half Marathon in February. I have no excuses anymore. I am done with teaching for the summer, I am back from vacation, Tal is home to help me with Zeus. There is nothing that I can use as an excuse not to get going again. I think this summer is what I really need to get started and get in the habit of working out and eating right. 

No Turning Back

Registration opened up last night for the Disney Princess Half Marathon and I debated whether or not to actually sign up. I went back and forth and couldn't decide if I wanted to wait or if I should just do it. It probably doesn't help that I went to the Rheumatologist the day before and he told me to stop running. Obviously running is not the best thing for your body, but I guess its even worse for the lucky people with RA like me. So I had to decide, do I listen to my doctor or do I go with my gut and prove to myself I can do this race?

Well folks....there is no turning back now. I have officially registered for the Disney Princess Half Marathon. What did I get myself into? I guess committing will really force me to get my act together and do this. I think this is something I need to do for myself. I need to prove to myself that I can commit to this and complete it. I am; however, a little worried about not completing under 3 hours and 30 minutes. I would hate to be that girl that gets pulled off cause she is too slow. If I did the math correctly (which is possible, but I am not very good at math) I should finish just under at about 3 hours and 25 minutes based on my 8K time. My biggest concern with that is I did a lot of running in the beginning of that 8K and wasn't following my 3 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking routine. So.....maybe I won't make it. I guess as I get closer in my training I will figure it out.

So, that is that. Training needs to get kicked in to gear....oh wait I leave for Ireland in oh....4 days. Yea, maybe training will get kicked into gear when I get back (I hope!).

The Dreaded Before Picture

Alright everyone (well no one right now cause I have yet to get the guts to share this blog with anyone) I have finally decided to take before pictures. Today is Transformation Tuesday over at Mama Laughlin Fit Camp Facebook Page and it kind of hit a nerve with me today. Every week I see so many amazing women and how they have come so far and it is always inspiring, but I still have that "I will never look like that" mentality. Well today I saw a girl who was about 160 and looked like I look and then she showed her after picture at 135. That is what I want to do! I can be that girl! One day I will post pictures to Transformation Tuesday and maybe one day (before that) I will use this blog as accountability and motivation for others. 

As much as it scares, frightens, terrifies (anything of the sorts) me, here goes nothing. With the ups and downs I have had lately, just seeing these for myself was a bit of a kick in the butt, but maybe knowing they are out there will be even more. Enough avoiding....here it goes. This is me now at 166 pounds. 

  

Here is to less ups and downs...No more excuses...Making it work...and getting down to my goal weight of 140 by the time I get my braces off (February/March of next year).

Wheel out the DIY

Along with getting my butt in gear with working out (which I did...3.5 miles and some pilates yesterday) I decided to stop sitting around on Pinterest all day and get to work! I went to town on my apartment and cleaned everything! I mean scrubbing, spraying, everything. The inside of the microwave even got cleaned...ohhhhh...ahhhh.

Since the school year is wrapping up and I have less to do with lesson plans, I figured this weekend would be the perfect time to start working on a DIY project that I have wanted to do for a while. Plus, Tal wasn't home and I wanted to surprise him with fixing up our patio. A while ago I was on Pinterest (surprise surprise) and saw this beauty from Country Living Magazine.

Aaaaaa-mazing! I wanted one and when I went home to visit and saw my neighbor had one in his driveway I wanted one even more! I asked my mom if we could ask for it, but she said that her boyfriend could just get one from his work....YES! Thank goodness for working with the power company and having a whole bunch of those electrical spindle things laying around at work. I had to wait because one of those puppies would not fit in my little Honda Civic. Luckily my mom came down for a visit about a month later and I got my beauty. 

Zeus couldn't help but make an appearance :) 

As impatient as I was to get this beauty, it sat looking like this on my patio for about 2 months. I guess school and life just got the best of me. I was determined that it would be my first project once summer started. On Thursday I decided to go to Lowe's after work and get everything I needed to put my table together. Well, I didn't really plan much out, except that I knew I wanted to use rope around the middle part. So with a little wandering and looking like a lost puppy I stumbled across the vinyl flooring section. Hmmmm...this could work. I remembered watching a Bath Crashers episode where they used cork flooring and said it was easy to cut. I couldn't find any cork tiles, but figured the vinyl wouldn't be much different. So I laid out 4 different colors on the floor and picked the one that was the darkest to kind of get close to our dark kitchen cabinets. 

After about two days of work and a sore thumb from cutting all my pieces with scissors (I know scissors weren't the best and most accurate choice but they were all I had and I am a bit impatient with getting projects done) I ended up with a beautiful table! 

I was so happy with it. I was worried that the vinyl flooring would look stupid or wouldn't piece together well, but I think it's great. I might still go back and add something around the edges to smooth it out, but I haven't decided yet. Since I had a beautiful table I figured I needed to spice up the patio a little more. I found a nice outdoor rug from Garden Ridge for $50 and went to Wal-Mart to get a pretty plant and some hanging lights. With a little TLC my patio looks like a place I want to be now. 

I think my flower and gnomes are perfect for the table. I've had those gnomes since Christmas (part of my obsession with white ceramic figurines) and they finally have a home now! I can't wait to show Tal and to start working on more DIY projects over the summer! 

Eat, Party, Sleep, Repeat

Well, I did really well working out (for the most part) until the end of this month. Any teacher out there can tell you that the end of the school year is CRAZY! With the end of the school year craziness (only 8 days left!!!!!!) and being away for memorial day weekend I kind of fell off the bandwagon and wasn't really able to get back on this week.

Tal's roommate from college was getting married back home this past weekend so we went up for the wedding. Being out with everyone was so much fun and the wedding was a blast, but I totally feel into the eat, party, sleep, repeat mentality for the weekend and let all of my working out and eating healthy just fall by the wayside. It didn't help that I just couldn't force myself back into a routine when I got back home.

I've officially decided to get back on track this June and get my butt in gear. My hopes are that I can be gone from work all summer and return at least 15 pounds lighter (about 5 pounds a month). I keep kicking myself that I could have done this a long time ago and been 15 pounds lighter before summer, but you know what I am starting to realize that I really can't do anything about the past and I have to stop pushing it back to another week and another week and another week. That's how I got myself here in the first place. I contemplated waiting until July to get started because we are going to be in Ireland for 10 days, but I am hoping that I can walk a lot and just try to watch what I eat.

It's a new month, it's a new me! I saw myself get down to 163 and now I am back up to 166 after only a week. I can't do this! No more excuses! It is now or never!

Nom! Nom! Nom!

Peanut Butter...who loves it?!? Everybody, that's who! Peanut butter is probably one of the best foods (aside from sweets) out there in my book. Honestly, if I could have it my way, it would take up majority of my food pyramid. I could honestly eat an entire jar of peanut butter by itself and I have come close before.

Peanut butter is my go to snack. I figure a small spoonful will help tide me over when I am hungry. Well, that small spoonful turns into two spoonfuls, which turns into three or four. Before I know it, I have eaten half the jar. I just can't help myself! Unfortunately, I don't like (ok....honestly...haven't tried) the healthy peanut butter. I'm super picky about my peanut butter. I have an obsession with love Skippy Reduced Fat Peanut Butter. No, I will not eat JIF or Peter Pan or any of the other crap out there, heck I won't even eat normal Skippy. Don't judge--I used to bring my own jar of peanut butter to swim meets in college so I could eat it with breakfast at the hotels and not have to use their peanut butter.

As much as I have an obsession with love peanut butter I really have two options. I need to learn how to control myself and find better snacks....or I need to get brave enough to try healthy peanut butter and learn how to like it. I think it really needs to be a combination of both and I need to figure it out soon before I let peanut butter and snacking ruin everything I have been working toward. 

Menu Monday

Food....Food is something that has always been a battle for me. I love food, but I love food that is terrible for you. I could sit and eat cupcakes and chips all day and be a totally happy camper. Unfortunately, you can't live like that (although I am still waiting for someone to make vegetables taste like chips or a cupcake). As much as I love food, I am a terribly picky eater. I'm talking PICKY. I grew up only eating food that was cold, processed, and typically in the white or close to white color family. I didn't eat a lot of fruits and barely any vegetables. So it has been quite the process in expanding my palate. I have come leaps and bounds from where I started, but still don't try a lot of recipes because of the taste (or my unwillingness to try the new taste). 

We try to make a lot of our meals during the week and sometimes I get adventurous enough to try a new food. Pasta is a staple in our house and we usually make pasta at least once a week, but since I got my braces we can't use pasta sauce anymore. I found this recipe on Pinterest for a pasta that didn't have any pasta sauce and figured we would give it a try. Of course as soon as I showed Tal, he didn't want it because there was no sauce and therefore no flavor. Well, Tal plays tennis on Thursday nights and I am on my own for dinner so I decided to make it then for myself. I was a little hesitant too, but it was delicious and great for the summer because it isn't too heavy. 

Summer Pasta with Olive Oil and Tomatoes 

Adapted from BigSisLilSis.com

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2-3 garlic gloves (depending on taste)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 container of small cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated or shaved) 

1 lb of whole wheat penne 

Combine oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt and simmer on low in a medium sauce pan for about 5 minutes. Slice half of the tomatoes (I like to slice them into fourths because I don't want them too big, but you can do halves if you want) and stir them in with the sauce mixture. Let simmer for about another 5 minutes. Cut and add the rest of the tomatoes (however much you prefer). 

Remove from heat and let sit while you are making the pasta. You want to start this before putting the pasta on so the tomatoes have time to sit. This allows some of the juices from the tomatoes to mix with the sauce. Cook the pasta as package directs for al dente. When pasta is done drain and mix in a large bowl with sauce. Add parmesan cheese and season with a little salt to taste. 

So easy and super yummy! It is a great summer pasta that isn't too heavy and perfect for a quick and healthy dinner.