Family Time

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!! We had a great one! The week leading up to Christmas was pretty rough. We had a GREAT bake sale and surpassed our goal of $5,000!! Unfortunately, the girl that we were doing the benefit for took an unexpected turn for the worse a couple of days before the bake sale and passed away the night after our sale.

So, I was super busy that week with an unexpected funeral and helping her sister with a few things. The day of the funeral, I got a surprise in the mail from Anne, which really brightened my day.
She was my Blog Buddy in a Christmas exchange. I got this super awesome coffee cup (LOVE IT) and some unpictured bread which was amazing. I shared it with my grandmother and we are both in love. (And if you aren't too mad at me in being belated in thanking you, we would both love the recipe!) I apologize profusely for being behind in thanking you. I really loved the gift.

The kids and I have been doing a lot of this lately....

After all of the hustle and bustle of fundraiser planning (NEVER underestimate how much time that takes if you get a whim to plan one! ) and holiday stuff, it has been nice to kind of lay around. I've let exercise be an "if I get time" this week and I'm okay with that. Next week is a new week and a new year and snuggle time and play time are important!

I have to share a couple of great gifts I got in case you have any gifts coming up that you need to purchase (my mom's birthday is Jan 18th and I'm always out of ideas!).

First of all, from my friend Susan, these awesome bendable cutting boards and knives. Color-coded for food safety, each of the cutting boards has a picture -- poultry, fish, beef, veggies-- and a matching knife. LOVE this idea. And, if you are a vegetarian, you can always make up your own system.

My mom got me this SUPER AWESOME gift. A table top ov en. It has a convection setting, broil, etc and is big enough for a 12 inch pizza or pie. It heats up in a snap and I am in love. This will be even more handy in the summer when the kids want something really small and I don't have to heat up the whole oven. It will save some electricity also! I think it came from Wal Mart and was less than $100 (I think). Great gift!!

If you are wondering what is in the oven, it is a wonderful (and in no way nutritious) appetizer that I am pre-making for New Year's Eve. It is from one of my favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman. (the link takes you to the recipe). They are insanely good (and look better when cooked!

My brother (who gives the best gifts ever!) (and is SINGLE ladies!) got me the Pioneer Woman cookbook and I am drooling. On a sidenote-he got me the coolest Nike shirt EVER with little patches on the front and one of them is a walking waffle iron. LOVE IT!

And on a final note, I went to a Weight Watchers meeting last night to get the information on the new plan and to watch my BFF lead her first Weight Watchers meeting. I also need to rid myself of these 6 pounds I picked up over Christmas. I really slacked and took it all (literally!) in this Christmas! (see above!) and it's time to get it back under control!

So, if you are doing the new plan or thinking about it and have comments/questions, leave a comment or email me (littlemp at gmail dot com). I'd love to hear your feedback or suggestions from those who have been on the plan for a few weeks. I am finding that most of the choices I had made on the old plan haven't changed that much. Really, just the snacks and breads.

Have a great week!

Race Report-Dash around the Square

Saturday I did a 5K in my sister-in-law's town. She was going to do it with me, but had strep throat, so I did it all alone in a very unfamiliar town with an ipod that wasn't charged; therefore, no tunes. :(

However, I had fun. The hubby and kids came (which is rare) and snapped my first ever "in action" racing photos! This is me so super happy to see my family (because the race was almost over). I've been having some pretty bad calf and ankle pain for about a month. This race was a little better, but the pain has required frequent walking breaks. :( The cute knee-high Christmas socks had began to ride down at this point. Oh well. The kids were doing this before I got close enough for them to cheer.

I finished in 30:15, which I was more than okay with due to the frequent walking breaks. I could tell I felt better than the week before and the time showed that. The week before the breaks were super frequent and my time was 31:11.

I don't have any more 5Ks on the schedule until January, so I am going to try to work out the issues with the calf and ankle and start 2011 strong.

I am working on Christmas cards this week. If you want to be the lucky recipient of a Christmas card from me, email me your address! littlemp at gmail dot com!

I hope all of the Christmas festivities are going well for y'all! I have been baking up a storm! And thanks for the well wishes on our fundraiser. It's this Saturday and we are really expecting a great turn out. A small group from my graduating class (the girl we are raising money for is a little sister of a classmate) is going to go eat Mexican afterward and I am so excited to catch up with some of them!

Have a good week!

Short and Sweet!

Just a short post. We are on a little mini vacay (which includes a 5K in the morning!) and are currently relaxing in the hotel. We have been shopping and will go to see SANTA in a little while. The 5K in the morning should be interesting. I think Billy the Exterminator is supposed to be there. LOL!

I have been working really hard on a fundraiser for a local girl who is battling cancer and that has been going great! We have our big bake sale (think over 50 cakes and TONS of individual treats!) next Saturday and will draw for our two raffles and also be selling hot chocolate. We hope to make around $5,000, so I hope this is successful!

Have a great weekend!

What a fun weekend!!

I have had such a fun weekend so far! The whole family (minus the hubby at work) volunteered to ring Salvation Army bells. (My brother would die if he knew this was on here) My race shirt from the morning soooo does not go with the apron. We had a lot of fun. You really can't judge who will or will not give or the amount by looking at people. It's quite the opposite of what you would think.

However, if you want to do something to teach your kids about the less fortunate this Christmas and have a really good time, call your local Salvation Army and volunteer to ring bells.

And, yes, I mentioned a race. The Bah Humbug 5K (what a fun name!). It benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and had a new venue this year. It ran through Antique Alley which is a really cool downtown area full of antique shops. It was a 2 loop course.

I was okay with my time (around 31:11). I am well aware that I can do better, but some calf and ankle problems coupled with too much alcohol the night before didn't go well together. But, I had fun, so what more could you want? I met up with a few people I knew beforehand and then went out for an awesome breakfast afterward.

I have made a new friend and here we are after the race was over. She also had a friend with her and this was her first EVER 5K. How fun!!

We went to IHOP afterwards and I ate the most amazing breakfast EVER. Nutella crepes with bananas inside and strawberries outside. I couldn't finish more than about half, but it was amazing!!

I also received some goodies in the mail this week. I ordered from Lift Your Sole on Monday when Tall Mom posted a Cyber Monday Sale. I ordered Monday and received on Thursday. Super fast! The necklace is gorgeous and very high quality. It came in a cute envelope with STICKERS too. How fun!

Here is the necklace. CUTE! There is a story here and when I can type it all out in detail without boo hooing (the kids are playing in the room with me right now) I will have to tell it.

I also ordered some Bondi Bands this week and they came super quick! They are cute as always.

I hope you are having a great weekend! :)

A Perfect Friday Pre-Race Pick Me Up

Read this news article from one of our local newspapers. If that doesn't lift your spirits and make you want to go for a run, I'm not sure what will.

Have a great weekend. I'm going to try to PR the Bah Humbug 5K tomorrow. We shall see.