a day to celebrate

There are TWO reasons to celebrate today:

First: Happy Birthday Heather!

Heather and I have been friends for what seems like ages, even though it’s only been about four years… WOW. Has it really been that long? We’ve been through just about everything together, from dealing with marriage stress, having a kid (her), getting out of the military (me) and even camping in the wilds of Minnesota (above). Heather, you’re one of my very best friends and I love you!

And the second reason today is special…

It’s the Columbus Marathon!

Kathy, Nicole and Susy are all running RIGHT NOW! Go girls! This was all of us last September for the Air Force Half Marathon. I miss my running partners!

10-miler = 10-fold reward

OK, maybe not a “10-fold” reward, exactly, but I did have a great day!

I planned on doing a long run this weekend since we were in East Aurora. I LOVE running there. I have my usual routes, and sometimes I mix it up. Today, because I was going extra long, I combined my usual 4.5 mile route down toward the high school with a new “village perimeter plus some” route.

The weather this weekend was unseasonably warm (upper 70s!) and I probably could have worn a tank top if I’d brought one. It was beautiful and sunny and there was a hint of fall in the air. Despite the perfect weather, my run started pretty crummily…I blame it on the abundance of sugar I had the night before at Pumpkinville (two donuts–they were small!–pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin soup–which was more sweet than savory, unfortunately–along with fries and popcorn and M&Ms after we got home). So yeah, between that and my elevated stress level and lack of sleep (Hadrian never sleeps well at other people’s houses), I wasn’t exactly running on all cylinders. I was tired and with the first almost two miles being uphill, I could feel it.

Must stretch! I always do, and Andrew never does. I don’t get how people can NOT stretch. Turns out I must’ve underestimated my abilities this morning; I averaged about 8:20/mile, which is awesome! After a couple miles I did perk right up definitely felt that “runner’s high.”

I forgot my Honey Stingers at the hotel, so I had to scavenge for portable, energy-packed foods to take with me. Thankfully, I found some nuts and dried cranberries in the kitchen–SCORE! Go Mom Layer for having 100-calorie packs of walnuts and almonds! I threw in some M&Ms to make it like trail mix, but I didn’t end up eating any. In fact, for some reason, I didn’t need more than a couple bits of nuts–must have been that sugar overload. I carried a partially full bottle of water, too. I hate carrying stuff with me, but I hate being thirsty even more.

I had to write my route out on paper–too many lefts and rights! Disclaimer: I totally spelled “veer” wrong, and knew it immediately. I would normally correct it, but I was in a rush to get out the door. I’m not sure now which I would prefer; having it spelled wrong (above), or having corrected it and proving to all my friends that I really AM as OCD as they think I am.

Andrew and I have been craving Charlie’s Diner, and I figured today would be the perfect day to go–the weather was phenomenal, and I’d just burned like 1,100 calories running…

I enjoyed my usual post-long run Sprite–absolute bliss! I fantasize about Sprite while running sometimes. There is just something about how it tastes and quenches my thirst after a long run when water just won’t do.

BLUEBERRY PANCAKES! They have the best, hands down. Super doughy and sweet and GIANT plump berries! Seriously, they are that good.

We didn’t get there until after 12:00, so Andrew ordered lunch: a BLT.

We were hungry!

After lunch, we went back to the Layers’. Andrew headed off to work, Carolyn was off watching the Bills game with Ben and I enjoyed a fantastically quiet and peaceful afternoon in the kitchen. BAKING! (I also threw in some cleaning–we’d made such a mess in just two days!)

Pumpkin bread! (Andrew always hates it when I pose like this… He thinks it looks silly.) Oh well.

I used my mom’s interchangeable pumpkin/zucchini bread recipe. Except that I changed it around a made it healthier. It wasn’t my intention; I didn’t have butter, so I used both oil and canned apple butter (like applesauce), decreased the sugar (who needs extra sugar, anyway?) and mixed white with whole wheat flour.

I made one loaf plain and mixed raisins, oats and pumpkin seeds into the other.

After I started cutting them up, (of course I forgot to take a picture of both loaves still whole) I made a tasting plate of two teeny slivers. I had to make sure they were good…

I assembled a plate for the Layers and a baggie of half-pieces for the ladies who work the front desk at the hotel, then bagged up the rest for me!

Side note: Perhaps the biggest “reward” of today was signing our lease! The short story is that we found a small house in Orchard Park to rent and God has provided an amazing landlord who will let us have Hadrian and be flexible on lease terms (less than a year). I’ll post more details later, but I can say with certainty that neither of us thought we would be as excited as we are about going into a rental! We celebrated with more rewards–pizza and wings! (We are terrible, I know. But really, on what other day can I splurge like this than on a day I ran so much?) We tried out John & Mary’s, a place on Main St. The verdict: Not bad, but no Pasquale’s!

the rest of the trip

Andrew and I got back late last night from our week-long trip to Ohio and Indiana. It was filled (to the brim!) with friends, family and ice cream. Yup. Those three things pretty much sum it up.

After spending some quality time in Indiana with Andrew’s family, we headed back to Dayton with one more vehicle than we left with. We’re now the proud owners a 2001 green Chevy Silverado, and boy does Andrew look good behind the wheel!

We squeezed in one more trip to Graeter’s to meet an ROTC-friend of mine who I found out was in town. Charlie is a weapons officer on the RC-135 and is stationed in Omaha, NE, and is currently going through the weapons school in Las Vegas. I’m so glad we got a chance to visit, even if it was only for 20 minutes or so, but I wish we’d gotten a photo!

Andrew continued on to Orrville, OH, where he had a business trip and I headed to Susy’s house for a couple days.

We ran (of course) 6 miles in 47 minutes flat — sweet! This is going to sound crazy — we kept trying to slow down, but we must have been feeding off of each other and ended up pushing it the whole way. The next morning, we thought we’d take it easy, but ended up doing 4 in 31:14 — almost exactly the same pace! This whole running-WAY-faster-than-9-minute-miles-with-ease thing is still new to me… Thanks Susy! I owe it all to you. And my 20-pound weight-loss.

After hurriedly showering, we grabbed our friend Jennifer and left for some shopping.

GOODWILL!

There are NO good Goodwills in Western New York. I think there might be some in Amherst, but it’s a bit of a drive, so I haven’t ventured up there yet. I was in DESPERATE need of clothes that fit, and I really lucked out! My haul included two pairs of Gap jeans, two pairs of American Eagle cords, a pair of J. Crew khakis (almost exactly like my favorite pair that I had to give up!), two pairs of shorts, three skirts and a pair of BCBG “tuxedo” pants (they have stripes of sequins down the sides) — not sure where I’ll wear them, but they were in mint condition, looked fabulous on and probably retailed for $100 — I had to.

Onto more Dayton favorites…

…Trader Joe, I have missed thee.

I’d already done some shopping with Emily here, but I picked up some more essentials, like granola, peanut butter and mango gummies. One can never have enough.

Sara, a house church friend who met us Sunday for lunch, told us about the new popsicle place that opened up across from TJ’s. We had to go.

It’s a little gourmet treat shop and they have all sorts of fun flavors of popsicles. Susy got the raspberry/lime/coconut, Jennifer chose the honeydew/basil/lime and I was craving the banana pudding with vanilla wafers — all were yummy!

We’d been doing our shopping at TJ’s for the soiree Susy had planned for that night — an ‘open-house’ of sorts so that all our friends could stop by to see me while I was in town! Was that not the sweetest thing she could do? Love her 🙂

While I’m gushing about Susy, I’ll just go ahead and continue. She is the most EXCELLENT wine-and-cheese party-thrower EVER. Seriously. It’s all we ever did for get-togethers at her house and they are always just fantastic. I’ve always wanted to be the kind of person who organizes and attends wine and cheese parties. Susy, thank you again for making this dream a reality.

Anna helped me make Ina’s brownie pudding for dessert. Topped with vanilla ice cream, it is heaven on a plate. Or in a bowl. It’s basically like eating brownie batter without the raw-egg grossness.

We bought wine at Trader Joe’s, made flatbread pizzas and a fresh mozzarella and tomato pasta salad with Susy’s homemade pesto, arranged meat, cheese and cracker platters, roasted garlic and set out olive tapenade and eggplant dips.

OH. MY. GOSH. Have you ever had bleu cheese with figs drizzled with honey? I hadn’t, either. I don’t even like bleu cheese, at least not very much. In fact, until a couple years ago, I thought it smelled gross. And it kinda still does. But I am telling you, combine it with figs and honey, and it’s like dessert. DESSERT. Seriously.

Our running friends Nicole and Kathy came over, and Jennifer returned as well.

Later on, Kathryn and Mia stopped by as well. These two are hilarious. HILARIOUS. I LOVE hanging out with them. I think they bring out a less-tightly-wound side of my. That, and a little wine helps, too.

We decided to howl at the moon that night and headed to the movies to see The Help. I’d read the book just before we moved, so I’d been looking forward to seeing it. It seemed like it jumped around a bit, but I love Emma Stone (although I think I liked her better about 10 pounds heavier–she just looks too skinny now) and really enjoyed seeing it with my girlfriends. Now Andrew is off the hook and can take me to see something else!

We stayed out past midnight, and because I didn’t say no to Susy’s shot of espresso from that afternoon, it was 2 a.m. before I fell asleep…

…little did I know she, just two floors above me, was having the same insomnia!

Good morning! I welcomed Susy’s espresso this time.

After our run we didn’t have time for a sit-down brunch before I left, so we went to one of our favorite haunts, Tropical Smoothie.

In true Susy-fashion, she convinced me to pop into Goodwill one more time on the way home. We learned Goodwill is a ‘two-hand’ job… Must. Finish. Smoothie. First! I scored a white J. Crew tuxedo shirt (to go with the BCGC pants, perhaps?) and a bunch of long-sleeve shirts and a Gap sweater in anticipation of cooler weather in NY soon.

I left, picked up Hadrian from puppy camp in Troy and got on the road. Andrew and I had decided to meet outside Cleveland and then continue on caravan-style.

I knew there was a Jeni’s somewhere in Cleveland, and it turns out it’s not far off of I-271! We were stoked.

It’s in Chagrin Falls, OH, which is just about the cutest, quaintest town you can imagine. Let’s just say it makes adorable East Aurora look like a ghetto.

It was a nice chance to take Hadrian for a bit of a walk and stretch our legs. I’ve been on a waffle cone-kick of late (I think it’s because it takes longer to eat than in a dish, thus more enjoyment – ha!), and I got all seasonal flavors: blackberries and sweet corn, blueberry and lemon yogurt and peach buttermilk. I told Andrew, upon finishing my treat, that I could go back and get a whole other one no problem. No joke. There is just something about Jeni’s. It’s not heavy like other ice creams, and the flavors are so light yet intense…almost addicting.

We got back on the road with three more hours to go.

I’d been craving Chick-Fil-A for dinner during the entire drive, knowing there is one about an hour and half from home in Erie, PA. I told myself not to get the cookies and cream milkshake, since I’d already had ice cream…

NOPE! I went all out. I hadn’t had a CFA sandwich in months and I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. Now that we can’t have it all the time, I figured it’d be OK to totally splurge on exactly what I wanted: a sandwich, (small) fries and a shake. And it was all I had dreamed it would be.

Andrew was holding out for a Pasquale’s pizza when we got home, which he picked up on the way. I wish I could tell you I resisted the urge at 10 p.m. at night to have a slice, but I can’t. Oh well, this morning was a new day!