I swear I’m done whoring my blog out to get free stuff. Which DID NOT work. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I would love to have those shoes, in case you didn’t get that. Anyway, I’ve been a little distracted from the blog. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading my select blogs religiously. It is a great FREE way to get motivation, or remind myself I’m not the only crazy one out there.

The weather is rainy, rainy and occasionally cold. The sun came out for a week or two before all this dampness came back. It was nice to have a few sweaty runs before the hat and long sleeves came back out. Glow-rific!

(Seth in the background scrounging for food)

While not running, I’ve been expanding my candy consumption list. These were very strange, and stuck in my teeth a bunch, but tasted yum. I bet the cherry and coconut ones are good too.

I saw these crazy color hot chocolate packs and NEEDED them. The tiny colored marshmallows look a little sad when you add them to the hot chocolate. I think I would rather buy my own mini colored marshmallows to add. It was a good thought, but not the greatest.

Crevan update. He is growing up to be super cute and rather well behaved and is getting over some of his fears. He is still shy around some people and can’t be approached too fast. Mornings are extra lazy before work!

I will leave you with this. Yes, he did lay like this himself, and proceeded to stay while we laughed at him like crazy for a good two minutes before he finally got up. Enjoy

So… I have a HUGE crush on the new New Balance Minimus Trail shoes. Janae at The Hungry Runner Girl is giving a pair away!!!! OMG I think I will pee my pants if I win. Thankfully I look at her blog at least once a day. Slight obsession. Wish me luck!

OK rain, give it a rest. Our backyard should not be half covered by a lake, the kitchen floor is now always a dark muddy tan instead of white, I am tired of being stuck inside, and wet puppy does NOT smell good.

With that said, I would still rather the rain than the very cold and snowy. Ive been able to go for runs. Woohoo! I’m on a role this week. I can deal with cold wet toes and some drizzle. Ive been logging them all from Runmeter on my phone which sends them to my dailymile account. It’s nice having all my information in one place.
Thought I might share my usual music I listen to when I run. I mix it up sometimes, but these are the albums I count on 75% of the time.

This is my #1! The beat is great without being annoyingly overwhelming. I count on this album to make me feel better and let me go longer distances because there aren’t uninteresting songs that I need to skip through. HIGHLY recommend this!!!

Ive ran the my only two races to this next album. It helps when I need to be a little more intense and focus on what I’m doing instead of zoning out. Not something I listen to other than when running, but I can count on it when I need to hype myself up. There are the few songs that I sometimes skip through which can be annoying.

Last but not least is the newest addition. Ive only ran to this album a couple times in the past week and I love it. Maybe its the rainy days and pensive attitude, but it works. The only problem is, the CD gets a little more mellow half way through so by the end of my run I contemplate changing music, but its a good start. The first song is my favorite.

Icky icky icky day. First it was warm with cold rain, then decreasing temperature, then huge flakes of snow. Muddy paw prints are all over the kitchen.

While perusing the interwebs this morning I came across a recipe for pumpkin frozen yogurt. Two major tiers of the my food pyramid needed filled: pumpkin and ice cream.  Turned out pretty delicious. The tangy-ness of the yogurt was a little strange at first, but it didn’t take long to get over that.

Look what I found today! I LOVE Chobani yogurt and I have also always loved lemon yogurt. AMAZING!!!!

Even more exciting are the racks we got for the Scion. When it finally warms up we can kayak again!!! Crevan thinks the racks are cool too! He loves going places in the car. He tends to be restless, but calms down more than I thought he would. (Don’t be deceived by the picture. He only laid down for a few seconds, and he is actually strapped in with the seat belt.)

Rowan love, ice cream, and a few episodes of Doctor Who. A good end to a crappy weather Saturday.

What kind of ice cream/frozen yogurt should I make next???

I haven’t posted in awhile so there are quite a few baking excursions I haven’t shared. Here are pictures of a few.

These span from October and are probably the most unhealthy things I made over that entire time The more sugar, the more photogenic. Last week I made the best cookies Ive had in a long time. Blonde Macaroons!!! They are amazing and even more so with Nutella on them. Didn’t last long enough to take a picture. Maybe next time.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks.  Crevan Riddle Wigglebottom is here. He is sweet and adorable, and we have had the hardest time adjusting. The feelings and thoughts we’ve had about him and our situation have surprised the both of us. We knew it would be hard and take time for adjustments, but we didn’t know how emotional we would get. For the first week it was almost impossible to enjoy him. We were constantly filled with guilt and uncertainty. ‘He is so bored and lonely. We can’t stay home all day with him, and he has no other dogs to play with.’  It was also hard because it took him awhile to adjust. From just having surgery and being separated from his 10 siblings, he wasn’t having a wonderful time either. Nights in the cage were spent howling and crying. We tried EVERYTHING to make him OK. Earplugs were a must for any sleep at all. If he peed on the floor, jumped over the gate, or flipped out all night long, it felt like we failed and he would be traumatized for life. He is just a puppy, and there are so many people who get puppies and who have full time jobs and lives. He will be ok.
*Sigh of relief*
The past few days have been incredibly better. Crevan’s bladder capacity is increasing, and he sleeps throughout the night with no crying!!!! I can’t say the same for the times when we are gone during the day, but he still doesn’t like to be alone. I can’t wait for the day when he doesn’t have to be crated. I feel horrible keeping him in there. Friday night when we were getting ready for bed, he walked into his cage on his own and went to sleep. I could have cried from happiness! He is probably the cutest puppy ever.

Soooo… I need to start getting in shape again. I was doing so well last summer, but I have higher goals this year so I need to get off my bum. There are certain things I want to get that will help, like a new pair of running shoes, but I’ve told myself I can’t until I’m committed again. Reading blogs that inspire me to run have been helping. Lately I’ve liked The Hungry Runner Girl. Maybe its her obsession with skittles that inspires me.
Thanks to Dad I have a spinner for my bike. It’s very noisy and I’ve never been a huge stationary biker, but since I haven’t been able to motivate myself to get out in the cold and run, its a good start.

Crevan didn’t seem to mind the noise.
(Sorry about all the yellow bad lighted pictures.)

On to food. *YAY* Seth made ‘chili’ yesterday. Or as I call it, taco soup. Delicious!

He also brought me breakfast in bed last weekend. Toast, orange, coffee with creamer from my dinosaur, and Kashi cereal with dried marshmallows. Oh, and also a puppy and two kittens. It was a full bed. Of course, I spilled creamer. Then Crevan slept with his head in it and smelled like vanilla creamer for the rest of the day. Bonus.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Oh yeah, we bought a roof rack for the car. Sweet. Hurry up warm weather, I want to go kayaking.
(And Matt, we are looking at reviews and pricing tents, sleeping bags, and packs!!!!!)