Hot Chocolate 15K

This weekend I'm running in my first real race and although I know it's going to be cold and I'm going to have to get up insanely early (I think 5AM) I'm pretty excited.  One good thing is that since I'll be running I obviously don't need to shower first, just roll out of bed, get dressed in lots of running layers, hydrate, have my banana and drive downtown.  When I started running in July I wouldn't have thought I could do 15K.  The first couple of weeks I had to do intervals of walking in order to even make it 3 miles.  Little by little I started pushing myself further and further.  I know I can do the distance (with some brief intervals of walking).  I've been taking it easy this week - skipped running yesterday as I did Trunk or Treat at Little Man's school, and tomorrow I think I'll just go for a walk. 

What I'm really excited about (aside from the mug of chocolate goodies at the end - check that thing out) is the actual course.  We'll be running through downtown Chicago along the lakefront.  As long as it's not super windy, it'll be a really pretty course for a run.  It'll be really cool to be able to run on Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. 

Any tips from veteran runners as I prepare for Sunday would be appreciated. 

Jack o Lanterns & Jack o Peppers

As I've mentioned one of my favorite parts of Halloween is carving pumpkins. Luckily as each year goes by the kids are willing to do more of their own.  A couple of years ago I would end up carving 3 pumpkins.  My husband would do his own, I'd end up doing the kids cause they didn't like touching the goop and weren't able to use the sharp tools.  After everyone was in bed I'd carve my own.  Not ideal but we always wanted everyone to have a pumpkin.  Anyway, here are this years jack o lanterns....

My husband's is the top one.  He does the same face every year, but I guess now that my daughter's are following my lead and going away from traditional face jack o lanterns, it's ok.  The mummy is mine.  Little Reader did the witch and carved most of it herself.  Little Hugger did all the stenciling and prep work on her cat, but I had to do the carving.  Little Man didn't do much aside from tell me how he wanted his carved, but that's ok he's only 3.

We got lots of compliments on our collection from the trick or treaters and Little Man especially liked pointing out his scary pumpkin to anyone who commented on them.


The night before Halloween I decided to make a Halloween themed dinner that I saw on Pinterest.  I wasn't sure if my kids would eat it as they're not really fans of stuffed peppers but they ate them this time.  Here are our "jack o peppers".

Here's a link to the recipe I used.  I didn't time it right to use the crockpot though, I put them in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes and they came out perfect.  The only change we made was adding some shredded cheddar on top (I may mix it in next time)

31 Days Wrapup

Ok, ok I flaked out on the last couple of days. Still I am pretty impressed with myself for how long I was able to stick with it as I didn't plan ahead nearly enough. There were a few topics I wanted to cover that I never got around to so may just write those up as regular posts at some point. Still since I also posted things that weren't technically following my theme, I wrote 41 posts which is more than I have any other month.

I may try this again next year as I did enjoy the exercise, it forced me to think and write about a lot of things that have been buzzing around my brain for a while bugging me, and I feel like I did accomplish my original goal - working through some issues in order to head in to the holidays more at peace.

I only followed three other people's series and now look forward to going back to the nest and checking out some of the others. I think there were over 1200 different series.