Out of shape!

So back on January 15th, I went back to the doctor and was cleared to run...in a straight line, haha. I have since been working out 3-4 times a week, running 1.5 miles or so each time in addition to some other stuff.

Fast forward to this weekend. My crazy husband has been in Nashville helping move snow around down there. Something like they use 50 trucks here when it snows and they only have 8 down there, 7" of snow and most of the parking lots have been driven on for the last two days and now have 2" of packe ice.....yikes! Anywho....back here where it is never pretty in the winter, it has been beautiful and sunny for the past two days. I decided the dogs would love to go to Winton Woods today and it was very nice b/c there weren't many people there.

We walked/ran the loop twice....only 3 miles.....and they were loving every minute of it. Until we got home......

They went outside.....ate dinner.....and then this.......

can we say.....out of shape much? I guess its my fault....they don't get to go to the YMCA.

First Time!

So since going gluten free in June, I have baked very little....for obvious reasons. I have made a few loaves of bread and corn muffins from mixes but the sheer amount of ingredients in gluten free baking scared me. Marie to the rescue! Marie is my very baking talented friend who was sweet enough to make me a pre-mixed gf flour! So tonight....I went out on a limb!


I decided to make gingersnaps from this wonderful website.


I was supposed to make 1" balls which I thought I was doing but they all "melted" together and I realized maybe my cookie baller is bigger....oh well, it didn't affect the taste. They are fabulous!

She says on her site that she likes a little less spice and I would have to say I like more so next time I will probably double the ginger and cloves, but the texture of these things is amazing! They are chewy in the middle, crispy on the edges.....just like regular cookies!


Oh! and another secret I learned. All my life I have used cooling racks for cookies, which usually results in half the cookies falling apart or coming out with little cris-crosses on the bottom. Solution?.....Newspaper! Yep, put your cookies on newspaper to cool. Not only does it leave you with flat bottoms, it sucks some of the extra grease (ie: calories:) out of the cookies! I can't wait to make her chocolate chip cookies.....oh and I am determined to make my own gf Somoas....or Carmel DeLites....depending on what part of the Girl Scout country you live in.

Christmas Crazies!

So, are you done with Christmas shopping? We pretty much are, mostly due to my wonderful shopper of a husband. Weird right? Heres the gist of it....

He doesn't like to shop the rest of the year but will go with me.....just if you ask any questions about how things look you always get the same answer so you might as well not ask.

He adores, no, loves....no, pretty much worships Black Friday. Its totally weird to me. Before we were together I hardly shopped that day at all. Our big day was the day after Christmas.

Two years ago he went with his aunts to an Outlet center 1 1/2 hours from here for their midnight madness Black Friday sale.....I stayed at home and slept like a normal human.

But honestly, most years he is out by 4 or 5am and I meet him around 9.

This year, with Old Navy doing their craziness, he was there at 2:30am. I still didnt' meet him till 10:00 am but we were out till around 3 or 4pm. That means he literally shopped for about 12 hours!

Are you jealous? I would be.....I mean, its the weekend before Christmas and I think we only have 2 more gifts to buy. Its a very nice situation.

Now, unfortunately, wrapping is still my job!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge

This week's challenge is Pets only and since I took this of my Somoa just over a week ago, I had to enter it! She's a great model and loves the camera but I absolutely loved how the colors and glow came out in this picture in front of our tree!

Dog Sleepovers

Its been a couple of weeks now, but we had a Bassett Hound named Daisy stay with us for a few days. It was fun and interesting. Many of you know that Somoa thinks she rules the roost so we knew that we needed to watch her. She snarled a couple of times and showed her ugly side but all in all, it was a fun adventure.

While they were not fond of it, here all three of them are in our front doorway. It was a lot of sit and stay commands and notice they aren't all in focus. It was a good try anyways.



This is definitely Daisy's favorite spot......other than my couch! :) I usually came home to her waggin her tail standing on the sofa very excited to see me! She was way more excited when Jeremy came home though. Definitely liked him!


Oh and see, Somoa is lying peacefully next to Daisy!


I couldn't resist capturing a few classic Bassett Hound pictures. The ears, the feet, the sad sad eyes!



These feet are strong but unfortunately not long enough to keep poor Daisy's ears out of everything. She has a special water bowl for that but the week she stayed with us it rained a bunch and the grass would get her ears wet every time! I felt bad for her but I guess she is used to it! We had fun with her visit! She's a real sweetheart!

Changing times

Okay not really I am just changing the look of my blog to a fall theme! Bear with me as I don't have the time to sit down and do it all at once so inbetween its going to look a little ugly and disjointed!

Blue Skies, Yellow Jackets and Changing Leaves

In only 11 days I will be having surgery on my ACL so I have been doing a bunch of stuff I won't be able to do for a while. Unfortunately, fall is my favorite time of year and I have a feeling I won't be able to do a bunch for a month or so during the nicest part

Last weekend we tailgated for the Bengals game and then watched them beat Pittsburg at home for the first time in 8 years. Since it's fall, there were yellow jackets everywhere and I was lucky enough to tick one off! This is the remains, a week later. I forgot to take a picture a couple of days ago when it was purple! Apparently I am a little allergic! I looked like some kind of crazy between my knee brace and the bee sting on my other leg!

I have also been trying to do as many photo shoots this weekend and next before surgery. I am not sure how long I will be unable to do them. This weekend was just beautiful for them. Check out a couple of the shoots http://www.erinjacksonphoto.com/

I have also been thinking about getting another tattoo for a while. I had designed one that is inspired by my favorite Bible verse and my fascination with flying. The word soar comes from the verse which says "those who trust in the Lord will soar on wings like eagles" I wanted it to remind me that even though I might be able to get through my day to day life on what I think is my own, if I trust in my Savior, I can really fly.

So, I went in to check on sheduling and prices and stuff and well, long story short.....

here it is! Its not completely healed which is why it looks a little scaley. (Eww, scaley? why did I describe it like that?) Oh well! Its on my wrist if you can't tell from the picture. It hurt but I really like it!

So, I met with my doctor this week and he said I was looking really good for surgery so I guess we will be ready to go on the 15th! I can at least be glad to catch up on books and movies over my break!