More Greenline Adventures

After work yesterday, K and I decided to explore some more of the greenline and head out past I-240 towards Shelby Farms. Our adventure east came to a quick halt when we hit some trail blocks. All of the greenline is not open yet and we found one of the stopping points so we headed back the way we went before to see what was going on west of Highland. We made it not quite a mile past where we picked up yesterday and had to turn around because of another stop on the trail. We found a brand new bridge out there and the trail ended shortly after that so we turned around and headed back to the house. We wound up doing about 10.33 miles in an hour but my run keeper shows more because I forgot to turn it off for our cool down.

After our ride, we went back to the house and chilled. We got caught up on Big Brother and So You Think You've Got Talent and I cooked a light dinner. I made  honey/cilantro/garlic/lime glazed mahi mahi, roasted green beans and sweet potato fries.

It was good but I made the same glaze before and used it on some fresh salmon and it tasted a lot better that way but the mahi was super moist and the veggies were very tasty. After dinner, K and I played with Jalapeno for a little while and treated him to his very first taste of a pistachio.

He was a big fan!!!

Once again this morning, I could not wake up early enough to get a workout in. I am going to have to get this straightened out. It's not like I've been going to bed lately, I am in bed by 10 or 10:30 almost every night. Ugh!

For breakfast, I made some "fried" egg and turkey sausage sammys. K even got cheese on his. I skipped it since I am really trying to watch my calories. I really, really, really want to lose these 10 stupid pounds. Here's a pic of mine sans the cheese and with a side of berries:

I cannot put in words how good these berries are :)~

I got to work and hit the ground running. I have a whole lot coming up over the next few weeks and am trying to prepare what I can now. I hardly noticed the time flying by until my stomach started growling and I noticed it was 10:30 already so I had a handful of pistachios to hold me over til lunch.

I ran home at lunch and heated up a piece of mahi that was leftover and made a bowl of sliced cucumbers topped with some salad vinegar and goat cheese. It was cold and refreshing which was perfect since our heat index is 105 degrees today.

I was still a little hungry after this so I busted out the homemade guacamole and baked corn tortillas from last weekend. It hit the spot!

Midtown-Shelby Farms Greenline explored for first time

After work yesterday, the rains cleared up for a little bit so K and I took advantage and jumped on our bikes. The skies didn't look like we would have time to make it the Shelby Farms and the trails wouldn't have been ridable anywho so we headed west to ride the High Point neighborhood. A few miles into the ride, we came upon an opening to the Midtown-Shelby Farms greenline, which we had been wondering where we could pick it up since everywhere you see it near our house, it is running under bridges. We decided to explore it and got on at Highland. We rode it all the way past White Station. We got off before hitting I-240 so we could know exactly where a pick up point was for it close to the house. We had a good ride, especially after we got on the greenline considering we didn't have to worry about being run over anymore. Here are our stats:

Not too bad, especially considering K was working with a knee that was still sore. After our ride, we got cleaned up and decided to have a couple of cocktails. Last weekend, I went looking for the Morgan Metallico Chardonnay that I had on K's birthday at Flight and couldn't find it so I picked up another bottle of chardonnay that said it had a lot of fruity tastes in it including green apple and mango.

It was decent but it did not compare to the Morgan Metallico and I like a pinot grigio better so I doubt I will be a repeat buyer. While hanging with my man and the doggies and enjoying no responsibilities, I snacked on one of my all-time fave snacks since K didn't want to eat until late.

I love love love love love anything dipped in Sabra hummus but especially a delish tortilla :) After watching some of the MLB Home Run Derby and Jaws (yes, the original was on and it was hi-sterical) we caught up on Big Brother (a new season started last Saturday ((((:) and ate dinner. Left over drunk chicken, jambalaya and some premade cous cous that I got at Costco and tasted pretty good. The storms went crazy right before we went to bed and lasted through the night. 

I made a super duper huge smoothie this morning. I used 2 servings of the triple berry yoplait smoothie mix and added some protein powder, flax seed and soy milk. I didn't mean to make it so big but it was the 1st time I used the yoplait frozen mix and didn't realize there were 2 servings in each little bag, so I was still enjoying my smoothie as I drove to work in the icky weather.

 

I had a dentist appointment at noon about the infection that has been festering on my front tooth and didn't receive great news. I am scheduled to get apical osseous surgery next week and am hoping that will fix the problem. Apparently, it is some kind of almost reverse root canal. If it works, everything will be good. The crown doesn't have to be removed or anything for the procedure. They cut a whole in the roof of my mouth and go in that way instead of going in through the tooth so that will rock, if it works out. If not, I have to get an implant, which I will not be happy with at all. We will see. After my appointment, I had a meeting about an upcoming Sex Offender Saturation we have coming up and then grabbed a late lunch. I packed another sammy like I had yesterday, grabbed some shredded cabbage and tossed it with ponzu and Thai sweet chili sauce and had some more of the oh so good in my tummy blueberries :)

Happiness vs. Joy

Here is a great entry I read from someone else's blog today and wanted to repost so that I would always have it:

happiness versus joy.

Something that I’ve always thought to be true is that there is a difference between happiness and joy. Most people use those terms interchangeably, and, in fact, it’s quite easy for me to get the two confused (more often than I would like).
To me, happiness is a feeling that is a result of life’s circumstances. For example, being with my loved ones makes me happy. Being on vacation makes me happy. Eating good food makes me happy.


Joy, on the other hand, is a state of being. An attitude. A choice. Having joy often leads to happiness, but not always. In fact, I would argue that one can still experience joy in the midst of life’s trials when happiness is particularly out of sight.

So, how can one experience joy? Do I think that someone can just wake up one morning and decide that they’re going to be joyful? Not exactly. Sure, there are probably some people that choose to be joyful no matter what and say it comes easy to them. Me, on the other hand, I must seek a source of joy. And in my life, that source is my faith in Christ. Without the peace, comfort, hope, and love that comes from my relationship with God, I’d feel so…empty.

My problem is that I seek and find so much happiness in my life that I put my faith (my real source of joy) on the backburner. And 100% of the time, in the end those things that make me happy still don’t complete me. Even that which I hold dearest in life – my family and loved ones – they alone can’t bring me joy. That’s why I feel so blessed to be able to know the true and living God, without whom I’d be completely lost! And also without joy.

I think that to find true joy, you’ve got to dig pretty deep. Sometimes that’s a scary thing to do. Trust me, I know. But I think that in order to live a truly healthy, happy, and full life – that “soul searching” is a very necessary step.

No more lala land

Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing!!! I woke up with a horrible stomach ache, like none I've ever had. It felt like there was a ball of fire in my tummy and that I would throw up lava at any given moment. We lounged all morning and then K went and picked up lunch. I had a pimento cheese sandwich from Holiday Ham with their tomato bisque for lunch.

After lunch, we did a whole lot more lounging. Betty called and let us know she made it home from the beach and said that Dale had ribs cooking on the grill for her. K and I decided that sounded really good and my stomach was feeling better so he ran to Central BBQ and picked up a slab with all the fixings and some wings and my gosh, it was all so stinking good!

When I woke up Sunday morning, my tummy was hurting again but not as bad. I really wanted to go to church but didn't have it in me to get up and shower and get ready....horrible excuse, I know :(((( I decided to throw on a baseball cap and run to the store and do a little cooking. I got stuff to try my hand at a drunk chicken and some jambalaya, all a first for me. I got back from the store and we made some lunch. I made more guacamole and homemade baked tortilla chips and we also had a sammy to go with it.

I cannot tell you how good the chips and guac are and I bought some bagel thins to make the sandwich and they were yummo too! After we ate, I got everything chopped and prepped and cooking. After everything was going, we set up the redneck riviera and relaxed with magazines by the pool all day. It started raining around 5:30 so it was time to call it a day at the Riviera. I finished the cooking and was halfway thrilled with the results. The drunk chicken was AMAZING! I stuffed some of my fresh rosemary under his skin and in his body cavity and covered the outside of his skin with poultry seasoning. I used half a can of Coors Light with some liquid smoke to stuff inside him and blocked the top hole with a potato. I cooked him in the oven at 350 for 2 hours and then turned the temperature down to 175 for another 3 hours.

It totally fell apart on me when I started pulling it apart. It was moist, tender and delish. The jambalaya on the other hand was a bit of a let down but I learned a good lesson and next time it will be great. It had a super fantastic taste but the rice was wayyyyyyy toooooooo mushy. I let the jambalaya simmer pretty much all day, which would have been ok, if I wouldn't have put the rice in until the end. Next time it will be the bomb though!

The mushy rice didn't stop us from eating it up though. I also made a pot of black eye peas and some wheat rolls to go with everything. After dinner, I decided that I needed a really good laugh so we watched The Hangover again.

It absolutely delivered. I think I had forgotten how funny it was. We laughed a ton and then hit the sack early to head back to work, which means we did not win the powerball drawing Saturday night.

I had full intentions of waking up early this morning and getting a workout in but that didn't happen.  I hoped to get in a bike ride with my man after work but the bottom of the sky just fell out a few minutes ago so I guess I will go with Plan C, the elliptical. The pups refused to go out this morning so I had to force them and then this it what they did:

Refused to leave the door and go potty so I had to leave them outside while I went to work and leave them under K's supervision since he was still in bed enjoying the rain when I left. For breakfast, I made a "fried" egg, turkey sausage mcmuffin with mustard.

It was stinking delish! I knew I wouldn't be home for lunch because I needed a pedicure so I packed this plethora of veggies (carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers) and fruits (cherries, blueberries and strawberries) with a turkey/ham sammy to eat at the office.

The blueberries were so so so so so so good! After lunch, I ran over to the County Commission meeting because there was a resolution to take away a lot of our vacation/sick/bonus days that they were suppose to be voting on. Surprisingly enough, they decided to push the vote back for two more meetings, which will be after the election. Politicians SUCK!

Another Beach Vacay

I got off work Friday and picked J up from Roy at the Farmer's Market and we ran some errands.We spent Friday night doing laundry and packing for our trip to meet K's family in Perdido Key, FL. We left Saturday morning around 9 and got to the condo around 5, we got a little lost on the way, taking a new route and I fell asleep and didn't keep K on the right path but it wasn't too far out of the way. Ryan, Allison, Matt and Jade were there when we got there. Betty, Kathy, Kyle, Christina, Mary Katherine and Anna Claire got there later, they had gone to mass right before we arrived. Our condo was awesome!!! Here's a link to it: Windemere 1008 

They were very strict on the smoking policy too.

We loved it and had so much fun staying with everyone. It was like a giant slumber party :) The 1st night there, we got a beautiful sunset.

We hung out at the condo and ate and played cards.....pretty much the story of every night we were there!

We got up Sunday and had a ton of sunshine. I went for a 3 mile run to the west of the condo and then we hit outside as soon as we could. J wanted to hit the pool first so we hung out there before the beach.

We flip flopped back and forth from the pool to the beach. The beach surprised me. The oil couldn't be seen in the water, there were little specks on the beach that could be seen when you were on the beach and there was no smell what so ever. The red flags were out but it wasn't because of the oil, it was because there was a storm system in the gulf and the waves were crazy. I have never seen the water down there as rough as it was during this stay. After a long day outside, we all headed up for happy hour and to hang out by the grills and pool while Kyle cooked us steaks for dinner. Before the trip, we decided each couple would be responsible for cooking dinner one night.

I'd say I got quite a bit of sun for one day.

Sunday night was spent just like Saturday night.

I got up Monday morning and went for a 3 mile jog, this time to the east of the condo. It rained on me a little bit. I hoped it would be a quick beach rain but it continued all day. I decided to go ahead and get my meal ready since it takes a while to make the Cajun meatloaf and had to be inside. J, K and I went to the souvenir shop and J got a temporary tattoo of the Browning Deer and to the grocery store to get all of the ingredients for my dinner.

We got back to the condo and had it to ourselves pretty much all day. Everyone else had gone shopping in Foley at the outlet mall. I cooked all day long making Cajun meatloaf, mashed potatoes, butter noodles with Parmesan and roasted broccoli. We finally ate around 9pm and everyone loved it, which I loved. It makes me happy to make people happy with my cooking. After dinner, we stayed up super duper late playing cards. The last time I noticed the time, it was 3am.

I woke up early Tuesday morning to this:

So I went back to sleep! After getting up and hanging around the condo for a while, Christina and I decided to take the kids to the pool because they had some serious cabin fever. So they swam and we stayed under the porch and got some good reading in.

We got hungry and decided that it was a good day to go to the Hula Hula Tiki Bar for a shrimp burger. J, K, Betty and I packed up and headed to Orange Beach. We arrived and found that Melanie's store was still going strong.

I had eaten a big breaky and Betty wasn't that hungry either so we decided to split a burger. They were kinda disappointing. They were good but different and not as good as they had been last year when we were there. K and I guessed the restaurant had been sold because we didn't see the owners that were there every time we went last year. Betty thought the burger was really good and I guess it was if you didn't have the one from last year to compare it to. When we got back to the condo, the storms had stopped so we decided to hit the beach. I got in some more reading time.

J, Matt, Mary Katherine and Anna Claire got in some digging time.

And a father/son combo did not get in the sailing they had hoped for.

The waves and wind were crazy and they could not get their sailboat to stay upright. They eventually said to hell with it and took it apart and left it on the beach. We stayed on the beach and got in all of the sun we could before going back up to the condo. Jade cooked and made us crawfish etouffe for dinner. It was so delish. I stuffed myself and was asleep by 9:30. Everyone was worn out from playing in the waves, drinking on the beach and staying up til 3 the night before.

We were suppose to leave Wednesday but K said if the weather was nice, we would stay another day and we woke up to an absolutely beautiful day!!!

We got down to the beach by 10 and spent the whole day out there, well everyone but poor K. His stomach problems came back and he spent most of the day in the bed. He said he was going to make a doctor's appointment when we got back though :) I soaked up some sun, played with J and the girls, enjoyed more of my book and we all enjoyed the huge waves.

We spent the last night totally chillin and trying to eat up some of the leftovers, played a few hands of cards and called it a night pretty early.

We got up Thursday morning, had some breakfast, packed our bags and hit the road. We got home around 7 and bummed the rest of the night.

Yesterday, J and I went looking for the Wii baseball game he was saving his money for. It took us going to Costco, Sam's and Walmart to find it. We went to see Despicable Me (which was awesome!!!) and then hung out for a little while until it was time to take J to meet his dad. We ate lunch at the theater, which consisted of giant tubs of soft drinks and popcorn. J insisted on saving the popcorn tub to make a mask like the Gremlins had in that movie.

After meeting Jack to drop off J, I went to the grocery store and picked up things to make guacamole and nachos, went to the liquor store and picked up wine and came home and spent a super chill night with my man, some good food, some decent wine and not much goin on from our front porch view. It has been a pretty good week :))))))

J is home!

I got a call from J around 12:30 yesterday and he was safely in Kim's car headed home from camp. (Kim is Ben's mom.) They stopped in Jackson for a little while to visit her parents and then were on their way home but before they could make it, the boys crashed. She sent me this picture:

My sweet little angel :) K picked him up from Ben's house and they were waiting on me when I got home from work. I swear he looks like he grew 6 inches in the past week. We watched the DVD of his week at camp and it was really great. We got to see him shooting his coke can in the sniper contest, him loading a muzzle loader, riding the zip line, canoeing, slip and sliding, fishing, and lots of other fund things. He said he had so much fun and the dvd reflects it. K was super totally jealous and said he was going next year!

I was craving spaghetti so I cooked a big pot of sauce with ground turkey instead of beef, some roasted broccoli, bread and picked up a salad from Lucchesi's. It was very yummy.

K spent most of the night doing laundry, getting ready for our SECOND BEACH VACAY this year!!!!! so that I could have the washer and dryer to night because J has tons of nasty, dirty clothes from his week at camp. We also watched Modern Family and Police Women of Memphis off the DVR and to bed early :) 

I woke up pretty early this morning and was going to get up and exercise but never got around to it so that will be on my short list of things to do today. I made a turkey sausage, "fried" egg and cheese mcmuffin for breakfast with a banana and it was fab but I'm already starting to get a little hungry again. I'm leaving work today at noon to get a jump start on errands to run before we leave for the beach. J went to work with Sissy and Roy is picking him up and taking him to lunch with the guys. 

K's maiden voyage

I couldn't wait to get home from work so K and I could go test out his new bike. We went out to Shelby Farms and rode the Tour de Wolf and the Chickasaw Trails. The tour de wolf was fun and exciting as always (it is a 6.91 mile trail that is mostly wooded). We only crossed paths with one no shoulders and I only got flung off my bike twice. K loved his bike and said it was super comfortable, except the grips. They were very slippery. He is going to have to get new ones and I am going to have to remember to wear my helmet. My noggin was awfully close to a tree one of the times I popped off. Here are our time stats:

Not bad. We decided that we will start kinda training for a duathalon by riding the tour de wolf and then running the chickasaw. I think I am as excited about his bike as he is. I love having someone to ride with and now once the weather gets nice, we can ride to Midtown for lunches or drinks on a patio. I LOVE doing that! And also love it because I love riding the trails but am a scaredy cat and won't do it alone. I need someone to go in front of me to clear the no shoulders and I need someone there in case there is a major injury since I come off my bike pretty regularly.

After our ride, we were pretty hungry and I didn't have anything at the house to cook. I've been craving some Vietnamese so we went to Pho Saigon. We started with a shrimp spring roll.

+

K ordered the beef with mixed vegetables and rice dish and I had the vermicelli with pork and shrimp bowl. I was not excited about K's choice but it was better than I thought. The gravy that came with it was pretty tasty and my vermicelli bowl was yummy as always. And as always, I forgot to snap a pic until we were already eating so here's our mess more than halfway through.

By the time we finished, it was pretty late (in our minds at least) and we went home and went straight to bed.

This morning I did 45 minutes of the elliptical/strength circuit before getting ready for work. For breaky, I had a Fiber One blueberry muffin that I baked last night, a "fried" egg with cheese and salsa and some grapes. Today I used Pam for the egg instead of butter and it was just as delish!