Queso

Cheese. That's what this post is about.

A few years ago I got sucked into the blogging world. My sisters wrote post after post about their cute marriages, cute pregnant bellies, cute babies, cute toddlers, etc. I look forward to the fun updated pictures and happenings of my friends and family. Then I discovered my favorite part of blogging- food blogs. Cookie Madness, Picky Palate, The Recipe Girl.. I check my sidebar daily to explore new fun recipes, step by step directions, and fancy pictures that I call "food porn." Somehow salivating over images of delicious, naughty food, leaves me dreaming of sugar plums and chocolate chip cookies.

That was cheesy, wasn't it?

Speaking of cheese, that's what blogs are made of. The monster, disobedient, terror of a child suddenly is the perfect dream baby who only spits out cute cut and paste sentences, always smiling perfectly for the camera. The kitchen counter that is normally covered in mail, crumbs, and library books is showcasing perfect lighting, a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and perfectly packaged ingredients. But somewhere between the blogs about food, families, fashion, friends, there's a little bit of the etc. I guess that's the category I try and fit into. I don't blog all that often because I don't have a whole lot to say. Well, that's not true. I have a whole lot to say. I just say it outloud (or maybe via text or email) to anyone that might be reading this.

As part of my new years resolutions, I am going to try and update this a little more often. Hopefully my posts will be less cheesy, because as part of my new years resolutions I am also cutting out cheese. The real kind. The kind you put on pizza, sandwiches, pasta, enchilidas, or even just eat alone if it's that kind of day. I am also eliminating the rest of dairy, grains, and anything processed/full of preservatives. That leaves me to lean protein, non starchy vegetables, nuts, berries, and eventually a little more fruit. This "Paleo Revolution" is not about losing weight, but being healthy. I am excited to live a little cleaner and increase my athletic ability.

Last February I signed up for the Rock and Roll half marathon without thinking through the consequences. But between February and October I was sore, achy, tired, and overwhelmed. Somewhere along that path I also became more toned, lost weight, and found a passion for running. I challenged my body and mind, and realized that I have the power to accomplish so many things that I never thought I would be able to do. As a very overweight child and teenager, I made excuses, played the victim, and chose food as an outlet. As a fit adult I am happy to say that I can set healthy goals, work hard, and accomplish them. Up so far for 2011 is the Platte River half April 10th, and the Colfax full May 15th. After this last month of over indulging, I am excited to get focused and work hard toward running that marathon in May.

Since I can blog about whatever the hell I want (yup, it's MY blog, so I can say hell), I figure I can use this a digital training journal/outlet/ranting message board. It's more exciting than my dating life(non existent), friend drama(no drama here), kid stories(I might be member of Amazon mom but I don't have any real kids), or anything else most girls my age might be blogging about. Since I'm hanging up my bakers hat I'm going to try and get a little more into paleo recipes/cooking. Just don't expect any cheese in 2011.

friendsgiving

Since I wasn't able to go to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving this year, I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner! My friend Dave decided to come out from Utah and brought his roommate, Josh. A girl from work, Kelsey, also joined in on our friendsgiving dinner. Dave prepared a delicious turkey and incredible mashed potatoes. Kelsey brought green beans (with bacon!!), and homemade sausage stuffing. I handled the rolls, and of course, dessert. I finally got to put my Cuisinart ice cream maker to use that Victoria bought me for my birthday, and made Maple Butter Blondies. Yumm.

After I picked Dave and Josh up from the airport, we headed to Wash Park for the 37th annual Turkey Trot. It was a 4 mile run around the outside, then inside of the park. It was crazy packed, and a lot of fun. It was especially cold and I think my lungs are still recovering. I finished in 34 minutes, which was my fastest pace yet. It was a good thing we got a quick run in before all of the eating we did alllllllllllllll day long.

It was really fun to have my friends hanging out, watching football, and preparing dinner. We even got to eat at my kitchen table. Even though it wasn't my first Thanksgiving away from home, it was my first Thanksgiving being without ANY family. I am looking forward to being with the family for Christmas.

Half Marathon

We were with out internet for a really long time, but we are back to having it so I guess I should probably blog a little more often. I will make it part of my new years resolutions, and if it's successful, there will probably be a post about that.

In February my friend Kim signed up for the Rock N Roll Denver marathon. She mentioned that she signed up, and asked if anyone else wanted to do it too. I casually mentioned that if there was a half I would do it. I don't think I realized at the time that I wasn't just going to run 13.1 miles 9 months later, but I was going to complete several weeks of running 30-35 miles.

Training was a semi easy task for awhile. 6 or 7 mile runs were challenging, but not hard. As I increased my long runs to 8, 9, 10, 11 miles.. I was ready to back out of my commitment. But even though I dreaded my long run days, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment after I completed them.

And so race week came. I cried every day. Not really about running, but worried that I would over sleep, or eat the wrong things, or not have anywhere to put my keys. With the support of my friend Nick who dropped me off at 5:45 am, my trainer Joe who encouraged me, and countless "you can do its" from clients, I was ready to tackle the 13.1 miles.

I got to the race early, stretched, tried to keep warm (41 degrees), and tried to relax. I chatted with a few people hanging out, and waited in my corral to start. I was in the 13th corral so when the race started at 6:55, they released the first one, and then each one 1-2 minutes apart.

The first few miles were a breeze. It was cold, and felt good to run. I tried to soak it all in without dumping all of my adrenaline on the first couple of miles. We were 3 miles in before I even saw a sign of how far we'd come. I thought to myself, "Wow, that's almost a 5k" which was the first race I ever did last November. The first few miles were also through lower downtown (LODO), which was really cool to run through. Around mile 4 we headed up 17th which was a hill. Good thing it was only mile 4, because it was a pretty good incline. We ran down 17th, through city park, and even crossed my street. The familiarity of it was kind of cool.

The worst part of the race was around mile 9, when we arrived at Cheeseman Park. It was uphill, and had it been mile 6 or 7, I probably would have stopped to walk. But I had just eaten my GU and was ready to finish up. I trudged up the hill, and headed back toward downtown where the race ended. The last mile was downhill (same hill but different block at the uphill in mile 4), and you could see the finish line at the end. It was nice to be able to see the end in sight and rush to the end.

Since it was my first long race, I didn't really know what time I would finish in. I was hoping I would finish around 2:15, but would have been happy with anything under 2:30. I trained around a 10 minute mile but just wasn't sure. I ended up finishing in 2:01:09 which means I ran a 9:30 minute mile. I was absolutely thrilled with my time but of course wish I could have made it under 2 hours. It definitely gave me a time to beat. I felt great when I finished and definitely could have gone a little further. Not the whole race again, but that is something to work towards too.

Fire

Monday evening I was at the gym when the lights flashed. A few minutes later a slew of fire trucks raced by the window. Shortly after I received a text from Danielle asking me if I saw the smoke. She told me that a powerbox had exploded and that the power was out. Seeing as it had reached 102 degrees on Monday, I took my time at the gym so I could skip the air conditioner and lights being shut off.

As I got closer to home, I realized that the power box she had mentioned was actually an Xcel power substation. I had to weave through the neighborhood to get home, and as I got closer I realized why. The explosion was one street away from my own. I parked my car and walked over to the next block to see what was going on. There was smoke, ash, and soot everywhere. People were swarming to the scene to see what was going on. It was clear that the explosion was more thsn just a little fire.

When I entered my building, there were alarms going off. I trecked my way up the 5 flights of stairs, only a little bit of dim light escaping from the hallways. The building was silent other than the alarms, and it felt empty like I wasn't supposed to be inside. My apartment was like an oven, and you could see nothing but flashing lights and smoke outside my window. I started searching the news on my phone to find out if the power would be coming back, and in the process found out that 31,000 people in Denver were without power due to the explosion. As it got darker outside, my apartment got creepier and creepier. I felt like I was in 911, and suddenly had visions of trying to run down the 5 flights of stairs to run from a fire.

Thankfully I had a friend that let me stay at her apartment that night. I later found out that power didn't come on til after midnight. Xcel has proceeded to call my phone every day at odd hours of the night and morning warning me that because we are sharing a power load that our power has to be shut off intermittently. It is a miracle that only one person was injured from the accident.

finally

It's been awhile since I sat at my computer and typed out the happenings of my ever so exciting single life. Mainly because lately none of our neighbors have been kind enough to let us leech off of their internet connection. In fact, I'm typing this out in Word until I can take my laptop somewhere with wifi. It's either this or peck at the tiny keys on my cell phone screen, which would only lead to predictive text creating all kinds of interesting twists to my otherwise plain and repetitive life.

I left my jacket at home yesterday since the sun was shining (as it almost always is here in Colorado), and the highs were close to 70. The heat wave when I got into my car after work was comforting in a "spring has arrived" kind of way. Having the windows down and my radio turned up made for an enjoyable ride through rush hour traffic.Oh what a tease Mother Nature is! This morning was beautiful, but by 4:00 wet, heavy snow was pounding down covering my car in a slushy mess. While driving home in it was grueling, the 2.2 seconds I stood in it to de-ice my windshield wipers left my teeth chattering and my wet clothes clinging to my ice cold skin.

Hopefully spring will decide to come back and stick around for awhile. I am looking forward to long Sunday walks, and laying out at my pool on my days off, watermelon, outdoor concerts (Muse, Paramore, Lady Gaga..), not having to reshave my legs after getting goosebumps from being so cold, and so many more things that the sunshine has to offer us.

In recent happenings (we'll stick to recent instead of revisiting anything noteworthy since my last blog post in October), there are definitely a few things worth mentioning. About a month ago I ventured to Salt Lake for Erik and Cori's wedding. Erik has been one of my very best friends since we first moved to Utah. I was won over when I first met Cori during a stop they made to Denver over the summer, and was thrilled when I heard they were going to tie the knot. I offered to do Cori's hair and make-up and loved spending time with both of them the day of their wedding. I was so excited to be able to see so much of my family while I was there. I have a video of Harper dancing to Lady Gaga on my phone that makes me laugh so hard I cry every time I watch it. Even though Tyson has been home from his mission since December, this trip was the first time I got to see him. Aubrie and Greg left for a cruise the day after I got there, but I was able to see them and spend some time hanging out with Hailey and Gavin the next morning. I am so blessed to have such an amazing family.

During my trip to New York, Julianne introduced me to her sister in law Sarah. Sarah is a fashion designer in NYC with a clothing line called Edelweiss by Sarah. She just finished her fall/winter 2010 line and wanted to do the photoshoot for it outside. Because the weather in New York has been so terrible (maybe somewhat like we're experiencing now?), she decided to come out here to have Julianne shoot it. She hired me to do the hair and make-up for it, and it was a truly amazing experience. With 16 looks to shoot we spent all day outside at Bear Creek park. That has probably been my favorite day I've spent in Colorado. Trees and fashion, two of my favorite things brought together. And I feel like it is important to inform you all that for the very first time in my life, I squatted outside to pee. I hope you're all proud.


As part of my new years resolution, I signed up for a half marathon in October. I could have signed up for one sooner, but I felt like it would help keep me motivated beyond getting ready for summer. Besides, it's the Rock n' Roll marathon! I have been running at least 5 days a week, trying to reach 25 miles on the treadmill, plus the elliptical and weight training. One of my running frustrations has been headphones. They never stay in my ears! I'm constantly adjusting them, plus sweating through a pair about every 3-4 months. Recently I discovered the Vapor by Nike. They are an ear bud with an adjustable back. Clear sound, comfort, no adjusting! Also the cord can shorten if you are running with an arm band so that you aren't getting tangled up in them. I am possibly doing a 5k next month, definitely doing a 10k on Memorial Day, and moving outside to the pavement once the ice has melted. I am also working on some other new years resolutions that I will update about on a later blog post, which hopefully won't take me 4 months to get around to writing.