Livin' the Dream in Lima

Gosh, summer is flying by. How have I already been off school for a month already? I've been busy doing all my favorite things - running, baking, spending time with friends & family, laying out by the pool. It's pretty much pure bliss. Running-wise, I'm gearing up for the Freedom 5km here in the Bean Town on the 4th. Last year, I ran 20:05 , but hadn't been training much. Well, I was training, but not really for speed. I think I've come pretty far since last July and am gearing up for a PR (sub-18:50).  I've been running 1-2 speed workouts a week as well as a 10-12 mile long run. On Monday, I set out for a 5-mile tempo run at goal pace of 6:35-40 pace. I nailed it and finished with a 6:32 average (which is almost how fast I raced the 5km last year!) The best part is that I felt awesome  the entire time. So I am very excited about the 5km a week from today. Baking-wise, I've been making lots of cupcakes. Surprise, surprise. I'm actually t...

Remember when you were a student how the end of the school year was always spent running around like a crazy person trying to get projects finished, study for tests, and wrap up all the little loose ends? Wel, it's like that for teachers, too, except maybe worse... the month of May is over halfway done, and I don't know where it has gone! And they brought this precious one. Last weekend, my parents came out to visit. While my Business Man and dad worked on some house projects, my mom and I (naturally) headed down to Columbus for some shopping and girly time. It's always best to leave the mess at home. Plus, we were celebrating both  our birthdays and  Mother's Day, so it was definitely necessary. Trying to self-photo with the iPhone. Not so successful. The best part? We were both equipped with lots of gift cards and birthday money, so very little spending was done from our own pockets. Gotta love it. The other best part? These chocolates they were handi...

Just some things... and today is Thursday. Thus, Thursday Things! 1. My birthday present from my Business Man came in the mail this week. And I am so excited... they are so comfy. And now I want a pair in every color. 2. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week , if you haven't heard. Yesterday, my Seminar kids and I had a little fun decorating cupcakes for all the teachers in our school. I found this super cute printable cupcake wrapper , and then we frosted the cupcakes and covered them in red sanding sugar. A little piece of a pretzel rod and half a green candy coating disc, and we had 4 dozen miniature apples to give away! 3. Because of Teacher Appreciation Week , our principal bought us all lunch today from Lee's Chicken . Oh my... it had been almost 2 years since the last time I had eaten fried chicken. And it was bangin'. I was a little nervous to go running this afternoon because I usually have a pretty sensitive stomach, but I was juuuust fine. ( Note t...

Just some things... and today is Thursday. Thus, Thursday Things . 1.     I woke up at 4:45am this morning and could not fall back asleep. I wasn't planning on a morning run, but when I was still awake at 5:10am, I figured why not? 8.4 miles in before 6:30am... not too often that happens on a weekday. Or any day as a matter of fact. 2.     Last night I baked 8 dozen mini cupcakes, three different flavors. Mini cupcakes are so  cute... my favorite was the mini version of my Monster Cookie Cupcake . I challenged my Business Man to take one down in just one bite (absolutely delicious!) but he wouldn't partake. Such a party pooper. My dining room table last night. Multi-tasking at its finest - Facebook-ing and frosting cupcakes. 3.     Speaking of my Business Man, the night before last night I was making these Tiramisu Cupcakes . (What can I say? It's been a cupcake type of week.) The base of tiramisu is sponge cake. He absolutely loved  ...

So today totally felt like summer. Besides that whole I-had-to-work-today  thing. No worries guys... only 50 days of school until sweet, sweet summer. Not that I'm counting. Seriously! Today was 72*F and sunny! I met a friend to run this morning, and we had an awesome run. But then the weather was just perfect after school so I had to head out again. First double in quite some time... college perhaps? (We used to do 2-a-days every Tuesday & Thursday.) We even broke out the grill tonight... and grilled up some BBQ Chicken Quesadillas. Another twist on a classic. Charred to perfection. Just some grilled chicken breast, monterey jack cheese, Sweet Baby Ray's, and leftover caramelized onions. And a bit of cilantro. YUM! I'm thinking we'll have another variation on these 'dillas tomorrow night... buffalo chicken, perhaps?  In other news, can anyone guess what important holiday is tomorrow?! Hint hint - I'll be celebrating with some of this . And...

Sooooo... this week has been interesting to say the least. Hobbling around in my boot at school has been such fun.  The funniest moment of the week at school happened when we were evacuating the building on Tuesday to the bus garage about 2.5 blocks away. Quote from a student: "Mrs. A! If you're having trouble walking, I can totally carry you! You sure you don't need a lift?" And I just laughed. And one of the girls in my class got onto him... "Ewww, why would she want you  to carry her? She can walk just fine! And even if she couldn't... she'd probably make it work somehow!" So to said student - Thanks, but no thanks. I'll manage .  But other than that - the boot has been treating me well. My foot pain is almost * completely * gone, which is fabulous! I have been able to run the past few days, pain-free. I've still been icing like crazy, which helps a lot. My parents are visiting this weekend (woo hoo!), but you know what that means -...

Gosh, this past week has been crazy !  It all started with a bomb threat and evacuation of our school on Wednesday. Imagine 1000+ students and teachers walking 3/4 mile down the streets of the Bean Town to make it to the Civic Center from the high school. No worries... the threat was false, and everyone was safe. Sure made for an interesting (and short) day of school Wednesday. Kudos to our students (and teachers) for keeping calm and collected.  Thursday afternoon, I visited the athletic trainer at school in regards to my foot. I'd had a rather painful run Wednesday morning, and wanted to get an opinion from someone who actually knows their stuff. (One can only do so much google diagnosing.) She was afraid it was a stress reaction, and suggested I go see an orthopedist at the sports injury walk-in clinic at OIO . So, Friday morning, that's what I did. A few hours and an x-ray later, we determined it is NOT a stress reaction! Woo hoo. But it is a pretty bad case of...

Today I freakishly woke up at 4:30am with no alarm. I had planned on getting up at 5:15am to run, but when I woke up naturally at 4:30am... I decided to roll with and get a start with my day. Instead of an easy run, I now had time for SPEEDWORK! So off to the gym it was. I had never been to the gym that freakishly early before... good thing it' s 24-hour gym. That is 5am, not 5pm. I had mile repeats on the schedule for this week, but after seeing a couple people on Daily Mile with 800m workouts recently, I decided to trade up my 4x1600m w/ 800m jog for 8x800m w/ 400m jog. Basically the same thing, right? Goal pace of 3:10/interval. Since there is really nothing on TV at 5am, I brought along my phone so I could jam out to some ridiculous pop music with my newest app - Pandora . Too bad my headphones decided to flake out on me after one song... Lady Gaga's Poker Face. (Maybe that's a secret message? Don't listen to Lady Gaga?) So, then I stared at the wall. ...

This week has been BUSY!  Yesterday I had an afternoon training meeting for school from 12-3pm. Best part about it? It didn't start until 12pm and my sub came in at 11:15am... which meant I got to eat lunch at home! It felt so weird to be home during the day. Our training was 'Active-killer' training... aka what to do if someone comes into school with clear intents of violence and killing. Fun. It was actually really neat to learn what should be done... so often we think " Just be quiet and hide !", where we really should be getting the heck outta there, even if it means dropping from a second story window.  Of course the training had to be on the one day of the week that my Business Man was in Kentucky overnight for a meeting. I checked that my doors were locked multiple times last night before I went to bed. --- Today we had a bake sale in my Seminar class (basically a homeroom that meets once a week.) I've got mostly girls so we decided to ho...

Reasons Why I'm Happy Today 1. Today we started our second semester at school. Because we are on block schedule, that means we get new classes every semester. And, I have actually taught all the classes I am teaching this semester before, which means I have the majority of my lessons planned out already! Woot woot! If you're a teacher you know how nice that is. If you're not... just imagine your workload being cut in half.  2. I was picking up some groceries at Meijer today and stumbled across this beautiful display. It took all that I had in me to just keep walking. I probably would have let myself buy one Valentine -themed baking item, except that I might already have four varieties of Valentine sprinkles at home. All cute little heart-shaped pans! And sprinkles! And cupcake liners! 3. I just looked back at my marathon training from last spring , and realized I didn't tackle my first 16 mile run until mid-February. And this go-round I've already run ...

It might seem like I always cook beautifully delicious meals and desserts for my Business Man... that he must be the luckiest man in the world to live in this household. (Well, he is, but not due to the food. He's lucky because he gets to live with me!) The beauty of writing a blog is that I get to choose  what goes on the blog. So what if I only choose to post the recipes that are deliciously successful? So, I thought I'd go back through the pictures & recipes that  didn't  make it on the blog this year... at least we can all have a good laugh? First up is a peanut butter-caramel corn ... for which I had high hopes. I was in charge of bringing snacks to Bible study that night, and thought that peanut butter-caramel corn would be just perfect. Until the peanut butter-caramel mixture got all crunchy and wouldn't spread over the popcorn. Huge clumps of peanut butter amidst random popcorn pieces. Gross. I was lucky we had a brownie mix in the cabinet. ...