Three Things Thursday

Workout: 30 Day Shred + extra cardio and abs

Before I hop right in to my three things...my boots came and they're waiting for me at my grandparents house!  We leave in less than 4 weeks now - how crazy.  It's going to be so good to see my family.  Have I mentioned I miss my sister?! People used to ask all the time if we were twins, but we're actually five years apart.  (That means I'm going to look like an old woman long before my time. Ugh.)  It stinks not to be able to just send her a text or call whenever I feel like it.

Ok, so down to business...

1.  I was going to do some cooking for supper, and I had to open a new package of flour.  "...Oh, hello weevils! Let me sift you out." (We can't buy new flour, etc. every time we find bugs in it, or we'd never have any flour at all)

"No charge for the extra fiber"

2.  The guys got a call from the game officer here asking for help to take down a couple of hippo not far from here, so this evening the boys are out doing that.  Hippo is very good meat! I'm not a meat lover by any means, but it doesn't have the slightest hint of a strange taste.  It's tastes almost exactly like pork, but maybe even more mild.  

Also, I do have a Dad.  I never have pictures of him on the blog because he doesn't like his picture taken, but I was able to convince him to let me take one. Lookin' good in the camo, Dad!

3.  Now that I've been doing the Shred, my biceps have been getting pretty big...I might even have to cut back on it.  See what I mean?

Bahaha, sorry - I'm easily amused. I'm crackin' up over here. {clears throat}

Cooked up anything good lately?

Do you use workout dvds at all?

Granny Bikes 101

Workout: 6 mile bike ride + ab work


Some things just make the start to your week that much better...

Like pretty flowers...

Doggie whiskers...

A Sweet Pea candle making a room smell good...

...and going biking with the bro-man.  Let me introduce you to our bikes!  

That is the one that I use.  It's sturdy and well built - you can cycle along at breakneck speeds without having to worry.

Occasionally, though, I find myself humming Doe, a deer...

This is Jake's bike! Slightly more modern and aerodynamic, you can feel confident even doing cool tricks like The Superman.

{The neighborhood kids got *such* a kick out of this)



A great Monday, and biking mission accomplished!  I seriously do love our bikes. And my brothers. 

                                        

Pms Pizza and the Grillmaster

We've decided to cut way back on our sugar intake, so to celebrate our new lifestyle change, I made an insane dessert.  Enter chocolate dessert pizza.

I mixed up a super easy recipe for sugar cookies, rolled it out like I would pizza dough and cooked it.  Then I spread hot fudge on the still warm crust, sprinkle coconut on as the "cheese", then added a few mint chips and crushed peanuts.  Since I used hot fudge instead of nutella for the "sauce", I stuck it in the freezer so it would keep firm.  This was so good.  I think the proper name for it is PMS Pizza.  You can use fudge like I did and eat it cold from the freezer, or if you use nutella, you can eat it warm and melty!

Chocolate dessert pizza:

- 1 crust

- Nutella or chocolate spread for pizza "sauce"

- Add any toppings you'd like

Luke and I teamed up to make supper tonight.  We had philly cheese steak wraps and fresh pineapple, and it was delicious! I made up some tortillas, and Luke cooked up the meat and made a special sauce.

I was wearing an apron and told Luke that he should wear one, too.  

And there he is - the grillmaster himself! Luke blogs over at All Things Manly, and you should probably head over there to check it out.  Right after this picture, I said "Okay, now take one of me for the blog!", but then my camera died.  That's probably a sign of some sort.  

Like chocolate? Ever get cravings for it?

Yes, and yes. 

If you cook, do you like doing it alone, or with other people?

I'm usually a solo cooker\baker, but sometimes it's fun to team up and crank some music!

Oh, and look who's cute as a button!

We've had these sheets ever since I was like 5 - I love them because that means now they're the softest sheets in the world.  

The Hungry Runner Girl is having a great giveaway - go enter, quick!
:)

Three Things Thursday

Workout: 30 Day Shred, level 2




Alrighty, I'm takin' the plunge with the Three Things Thursday.  Hopefully it won't turn into Things-you-wish-you-didn't-waste-your-time-reading Thursday, heh.


1.  I've been wanting a pair of cowgirl boots for quite a a while and saw this pair a long back.  I finally ordered them today so they will be waiting for me when we get to my grandparents house in 5 weeks.  Good thing I just went ahead and ordered them because there was only one pair left in my size!  They'll go great with either jeans or a skirt\dress.  Tell me what you think...

2.  My mom and are I are starting to do some cooking to stock the freezer so the guys will have some ready made food for while we're gone. I made a couple of quiches to stick in there - impressively enough, we managed to actually put them in the freezer instead of having one for supper that night.  

While we're away, we don't want the boys to go by Red Green's (anyone out there know who he is?) motto: "The two main food groups are meat, and salt!"

3.  Random gross story.  We have some strawberry plants in our backyard, and every evening I go out to water them.  Since we try to conserve as much water as possible, I usually water them with the dogs' water.  A bunch of birds also like to use the dogs' water bowl for their birdbath\toilet.  One evening I had finished watering the plants when I noticed a tiny, perfect red strawberry.  I checked to see if it had a bunch of dirt on it - nope - so I ate it.  It was only afterwards that I realized it didn't have dirt on it because I'd just rinsed it with the dog\bird water. Gag.  Now I probably have the bird flu.

Like boots in fall weather? What's your favorite fall accessory?

I'm rich!

Time escapes me! It seems go to by so fast, and yet so slow at the same time.  Sometimes it seems like the day won't end, and then before I know it the week is over, and that blog post I was going to do three+ days ago never happened.  I think I need a posting schedule.  Maybe a Triple Tangent Tuesday, or something else that starts with the same letter (obviously that's a must).


Anyway, even though I haven't posted too much lately, I'm on my way to becoming one of the big bloggers.  You better hold on, you guys.  I earned a whole 17 cents from Foodbuzz.  That's right.  Keep your eyes peeled for my blog to be featured in a magazine soon!




Remember this post about Folic Acid? Well, I thought I'd give y'all an update.  Most of my diet consists of vegetables, but I guess there was still some things lacking in it.  The biggest symptom I had was insomnia. Bad. (Another symptom is paranoia, but I blame that on watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds...)  This is the girl who never used to be woken by a huge thunderstorm, and could sleep in any bed as well as her own - aka, insomnia, what's that?  Now that I've been taking supplements, I don't really have it.  It could be coincidence, but I'm going to keep taking the supplements just to be safe.  You could see my dark circles coming from miles away!

source

That picture reminds me of the time when I used eye shadow to fake a black eye and briefly tried to convince my dad that my sister had done it.  Of course he didn't believe me since that was not likely, but it looked real enough to make him think I actually had a black eye for a few minutes.  "Just joking, Dad - look, hahaha!" I don't think he thought it was quite as funny as I did. Hmm.

I actually haven't done much running lately. Since we got back from Malawi, my schedule and Jake's have been a bit different, so I've been trying to do other things until things are so that I can jump back in again.  We were able to go for an 8 mile bike ride this afternoon, and it felt fabulous to get out and get moving!


My mom and I have started doing the 30 Day Shred.  I found out that it is true - it makes you do more when you feel like Jillian is standing over you telling you that your last pushup wasn't deep enough.  I was reaching up to do my hair the other day when I realize a strange swelling on my arm.  I was about to call an ambulance when I realized it was just my bicep that had grown. False alarm!




I smell popcorn, and I need to go check it out.

Ever played a great practical joke on someone? What was it?

Do you have insomnia?

Yum.

I made this the other day

2 scoops of chocolate ice cream that was getting freezer burnt, instant coffee powder + some leftover coffe, & topped with whipped cream and Nesquick to make it look purdy.

~

Proceed to drink and not spill on your shirt. 

Malawi: Part 2

And here's part two! Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, staying in the village for three days.

The wife of the couple we were staying with (Lina is her name) planned a ladies' seminar out in one of the villages.  It was arranged that the ladies would come in on trucks and stay for about three days while the seminar went on.  A grass fence enclosed a large area where the ladies listened to lessons, ate and slept.  

There were about 750 women, so I couldn't even get a picture of them all! This is Sunday morning as we were all gathered after Church.  Those brown things hanging are fish from the lake.  They'd hang them up to dry.

Thankfully, Lina, my mom and I were able to sleep in this brick house that belonged to one of the church members.

This is the room we stayed in - this is the view with my back to the door.

This is looking towards the door.  People here usually don't have wooden doors, lots of times there will just be material or an old lace curtain.

No indoor toilets, so this was our toilet for the time we were there.  Alot nicer than most, actually!

Often times the little buildings that the toilets are in don't have doors, so they design them so that you can't see right in.  This is how it would look from above...

You have to ask to "enter" before you walk in, or else you could have an unpleasant surprise, heh.  Almost happened to Mom, but thankfully not me!   

Funny story: There are cockroaches in the choo (toilet), and, of course, they would come out at night.  One of the nights we went out there and I went in first.  I started stomping around, trying to scare the roaches away from the hole.

Mom: "Linz!! What are you doing?!"

Me: "There are tons of roaches in here and I'm trying to get them away from me!"

Later that night Mom had to use the restroom, so she got up and walked out to the choo.  What she didn't know was that the door automatically locked from the inside, so when she tried to get back in she was locked out!  Thankfully there was a window in our room she could knock on and and tell me to let her back in.

The ladies were nice and heated some water for us over the fire in the mornings so we could bathe - this was our shower.  Again, this had the same building design as the toilet, so there was no door.  

We were right at Lake Malawi, and it was beautiful.  You'd think it was the ocean!

This is the kitchen that the ladies cooked in

There would usually be ugali (similar a thick clump of cream of wheat), beans, cooked cabbage and goat.

One of our translators was due any day with her baby, and surprise! she went into labor on one of the days we were there.  Lina took her to the hospital in Lilongwe, and the baby was delivered that night.  So for quite a while Mom and I were in the village, with no car, and not able to speak the language.  The weekend went fairly well, except for not really knowing what we were supposed to do since we couldn't talk to anybody!

______

What's a weird experience you've had?

I don't think this one really counted as weird, just interesting!

_

Go check out Stefanie's blog where she's introducing me!

Malawi: Part I

Sorry for being a bit late in getting this post up - our internet wasn't working, and then out power went out...anyway, finally here it is! I missed all of you and reading your blogs while we were gone, but we had a really great trip.  We visited Malawi in 2006 and it was so good to go back again.

We left at 3 a.m. on the 12th, and got there at around 7:45 p.m.  We drove for a long time...

 

Hopefully Malawi won't become a complete dustbowl.  They take down the trees for lumber, and don't do hardly enough replanting to balance it out.  We'd drive along the road and it looked like a tornado came through.  Or the part in Lord of the Rings where Merry and Pippin take Treebeard past where Saruman has destroyed the forest.  We wouldn't go too far before we got to where they cut and stacked the lumber.

These are what most of the little towns look like

It's interesting because Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa, and yet because of foreign funds Lilongwe, the capitol, is actually quite a modern city.  Compared to Tanzania, anyway.  See, there was even this modern pizza place in town we went to on one of our days off. "Pizza Inn - It must be the pizza!"...I guess it must be since that's all they serve.  I guess Luke wasn't feeling too good.

There were fuel shortages in Malawi, so people would line up along the streets in  long queues to get diesel and petrol.  

 ...

On weekdays besides Wednesday (our day off) we'd get up early and go to different villages and teach for four hours from 9-1.   Thankfully there were breaks - I'm used to sitting on wooden benches for a long time without a problem, but sitting on plain concrete can get uncomfortable after a couple hours.  Last time we visited my dad taught the men, my mom the women, and my sister and I the children.  I really missed teaching the kids this time - they're just too precious.  This time around everyone was together and Dad taught a class on personal evangelism\how to share the Gospel with others, and it was fantastic!

Saturday classes were actually in town, so they went from about 1-5, and on Sundays we would visit different congregations.

Luke, Jake and I would pile into the back of the truck...

...and we would stop to pick up our translator, then be on our way.  The drive would usually be around an hour - an hour and a half. 

It was so frustrating, because people don't speak Swahili down there, so we weren't able to communicate with anybody past a hello.  

We weren't able to do any running while we were in Malawi, but the people we stayed with actually had a pool so we went swimming alot in the evenings even though it was freezing!

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I'll have to post a part II a bit later since it would be too long for now - stay tuned, because it may be the most interesting...it involves staying in the village for 3 days with over 600 women!

If you could go anywhere in the world, expenses paid, what place(s) would you go?

I would love to visit Egypt, Greece, Italy, Ireland - pretty much everywhere if I could. 

Is anything exciting happening with you all?

 

 

We're back! New post coming soon

Hey friends! Just a quick note to say that we made it back to TZ safely, and had a great trip.  I'm going to do my best to put up a real post tomorrow with a bunch of pictures.  I've missed reading your blogs, and I'm excited to catch up on all of you!

Just to tide you over...

I just can't help myself.  This pup went wild when I got back home - isn't it nice when pets miss you like crazy?!