May 31, 2011

"Begone bloodsuckers!"

Yesterday Jake, Luke, Carey and I decided to hike up the huge hill that's a ways from our house.  Not the "little" one by our house that we climbed before.  I should've taken a picture of the hill itself from a distance, but I forgot.  The view was breathtaking!  



We came to this ravine here - isn't it pretty?



"So I don't see any way out of here...where should we go? ...Yeah, I guess you're right, we'll go up!"



 Once we got out of the ravine we found the road again



 It started to get steep right here



 We're soaking up all the green we can before things turn completely brown



Me and....half of Luke's face.  It's hard to get both of our faces in it since he's so tall!



 There was no path at all, or even any areas that weren't a complete jungle of thorns, so we just went through it!  I still have part of one in my leg that I need to dig out......



 We finally reached the top! Here's Jake in his awesomeness.



 Luke and Carey admiring the view



 I wish you could see exactly how enormous this rock is!







 Luke in his awesomeness



Yeah, I'm the oddball in this group!



Luke, me, Jake.  (Just to clarify, Carey is just a friend and coworker, no relation)



I zoomed all the way in onto the "little" hill that we climbed before



 Here it is again...our house is at the base of it.  Annnd, the sun was really bright.  I felt like laying on top of the rock and soaking up some sun like a lizard.



Didn't take many pictures coming down because we were too intent on not falling and dying\being careful not to get our eyes poked out by branches and thorns.



We got back sweaty (and stinky. You're welcome you guys) and a bit tired, but it was so much fun!  As an added bit of entertainment I got to sit on the couch that evening and pick ticks off myself, heh heh.  "Begone bloodsuckers!"  Okay that was gross, and I kindof made it up.  I only found one on my leg as we were hiking, muahaha.



Do you like to go hiking?  If you do, where's your favorite spot?

May 28, 2011

Running, biking, and a win

First, thanks for all the comments on my last post!  I actually haven't had much of anything to blog about lately, which is why it seems I haven't for the last week, hmmm.  What a boring blogger I seem to be!

They've cut a new road along our normal running route, and when we run on it and circle around back to the house in a loop, it makes it about 3.5 miles, so we've been running and biking on that lately.  It's nice because the road hasn't had time to get really dusty or washed away to make huge craters.

I actually won a giveaway! I was pretty much floored.  My family wasn't teasing me for my giveaway entering after I won a $30 iTunes gift card from the cute girls at Always Training Trio!  Thanks girls!


Are you doing anything for Memorial Day weekend?

 

May 22, 2011

Fish cravings

Well, you might as well know that I cracked and opened up the package of Swedish Fish.  Not for fuel, just for eating.  Muahaha, so worth it!  After all, my sister Julia is sending gummy bears and those are for running purposes only.  

Eating on my fish has been so yummy, but lately I've felt over-sugared, and bleh.  Maybe it's because I eat about 2 or 3 fishies almost every time I go into my room.  Fuel for cleaning the house, people!  So, I decided to go off sweets for this week.  I admit, this afternoon I've had to remind myself not to eat any Swedish Fish, and I resisted making chocolate chip cookies tonight even though I was cold and hot, melty, gooey cookies sounded so good!

Here's a look at workouts for this past week:
Monday: We babysit the kids for a couple days, so we went on a 2 mile walk.
Tuesday: 2.4 mile run, and another mile walk with the kids.
Wednesday: 2.5 mile run.
Thursday: 3.1 mile bike ride
Friday: 2.44 mile run
Today: 3.5 mile run


Mileage is still low, but I'm just so happy to be out there building it back up again!  Loved this evening's run of a 3.5 miler.  Thankfully, my legs are starting to feel stronger on the hills.  I think I really need to do more biking like I did when we were training for our 10k, because it really helps build muscle and makes running the hills easier.  I've gotten a day or two behind on the Push-up Challenge, but I'm going to catch up this week!




Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!
 

May 17, 2011

It's up, up, up the hill we go!

(You might've noticed the subtle Lord of the Rings reference in the title there...heh heh) A few days ago Dad, Jake, Luke, Carey and I climbed the big hill that's right near our house.  I thought y'all would like to see a few pictures!  In a 1\2 mile, we had a 500 ft. ascent.  We just had our rainy season, so things are still lush and green.  I'm not really looking forward to when it gets brown and scrubby...



 The view from pretty near the top - gorgeous!







 The rocks are huge!



 Left: Luke(front), Carey(back), me, and Jake



 Hi



I was going to do a recap of last week, but I'm pooped and we're getting up to go for a run in the morning, so I think I'll hold off for now!  Also, we got an email from the Embassy telling us that starting in a couple days, they might be cutting the power from 8am to 11pm, which means we'll only have power (aka internet) during the night...so we'll see if that actually happens!

I'm thinking of starting either a Triple Tangent Tuesday, or a Three Things Thursday.  I've seen both - what do y'all think?
How is your week going so far? 


May 15, 2011

Crisis averted

I'm pretty sure someone hacked my account, and changed my passwords.  YIKES!  After sending an email to Blogger telling them, they were able to get me a link to change my password and email address in just a few minutes! Thank you.  Because, how in the world could I enter my giveaways?  You all do it too...I know it.  Just kidding! But seriously, what a relief!

Crisis averted
actual post coming soon! 

May 12, 2011

A little behind...

I've fallen behind with commenting on your blogs, but I think I'm mostly caught up now, so we're good - though I'm sorry if I missed you!  This week hasn't been particularly exciting, so I haven't had too much to blog about.  

Workout-wise, let's see what's been happening:
Monday: 2 mile run, Week 2 Day 1 of Push-up Challenge, plus ab ripperx
Tuesday: Push ups - W2D2, for a total of 58
Today: 2.61 mile run


Today's run was alot of fun, and really encouraging because my legs were feeling much stronger on the hills than they have the last couple of times!  We're also going to try and get a run in tomorrow morning.

Have to admit...I'm pretty glad I'm not only doing this anymore:





Hope you all are having a fabulous week!

 

May 8, 2011

Happy Day that celebrates Mothers!

Happy Mother's day to all of you out there!  I'm especially excited for Erin because it's the first year that she's celebrating as a mother!  Is there anyone else out there that is a first time Mother's Day mom?


 Here's me and Mom freezing to death in San Francisco


 Mom and Jake, lookin' cute!



I spent yesterday afternoon cooking stuff ahead for breakfast this morning.  Good thing, because I didn't have too much to do this morning, which is a huge plus, because I hate being rushed while getting ready for church.

On the menu was:
Quiche 
Blueberry crepes topped with cream, strawberries and powdered sugar
Hashbrowns
Fruit salad
Fresh squeezed orange juice

We have an orange tree in our backyard (along with two mango trees - they're out of season, though), and it's my favorite thing!  I love making fresh juice.


 Jacob went out and picked some flowers for a centerpiece.  Our neighbor might have been a liiitle puzzled as to why a guy was out there with a huge handful of flowers...
  

I thought that crepes were going to be difficult to make, but they're actually super easy and fast!
  


Carey (there's another family that works here with us, and Carey's the dad of my adopted niece and nephews that I told you about) preached in Swahili today, and did an amazing job!  He's almost completely fluent.

After coming back to the house and relaxing for a while, Dad, Jacob, Luke and I went on a bike\run.  I ran for the first 1.5 miles, but then Dad wanted to run a bit, so I took over the bike, and rode it back.  Jacob and I took the dogs out for a short walk too.  

Can I just again show you how cute Panya is?
 *dies*


I finally did day 3 of my push-up challenge today; these are my sets:
8x1; 10x1; 7x2, 20x1

I can already tell a big difference in my strength.  How convenient that it's three days a week, and only takes a few minutes, too!


Happy Mother's Day! 
What are your plans?
 

May 4, 2011

[Swedish] Fishing

I was planning on doing a post yesterday, but my arms ended up being too sore from starting the 100 Push-up Challenge to type.  Hmm, okay - that's not true, but I was planning on doing a post yesterday, and my arms were sore.  

What happened today:
Push-ups: 6x1, 8x1, 6x2, 10x1.  Maybe this is why my arms ached a little while I was hefting a big bowl of cabbage salad into the fridge. 
Squats: 25x1, 20x3, 15x1
Ab RipperX: It gets me every time!

What I like about today is that doing this didn't take much time at all, but still gave a really good workout.  Even though I hate squats, I decided to add some in, and doing them in a few sets was alot better than doing 100 in one go.  It definitely broke the monotony.

We also walked all around our village for about 3 hours inviting people to a Saturday Bible study we're having at a school near our house.

We've gotten quite a few packages from people lately, and it's been wonderful!  One congregation sent us a package with yummy things like jello, pudding, and chocolate chips in it.  Since we had such an abundance of chocolate chips, of course we had to make cookies!  


The evidence:


 And still warm...

 I ate 4 of these puppies
  


My sister sent a box that had some of my brother's schoolbooks in it, and also in that box, she included...

We're actually saving these to take along on runs when we need to eat something.  Yeeah...she sent these before the whole "getting sick" thing that squished our mileage.  When we work back up enough to need them, they'll be here, though!

It's only 8:45p.m., and I feel like a zombie.  I have no idea why I'm so tired, but all I know is that I'll be heading to bed very soon. Yawn.

Hope you all are having a great week so far!

May 1, 2011

So good

After getting home from worship, and eating\cleaning up lunch, watching a couple episodes of Reba on Youtube, and taking a catnap, we went for another run!  Can I even say how happy I am that we're starting back to it?  

We went two miles again today, and it was already easier than yesterday! I know that's usually the case, but it was very encouraging to see that hopefully our running ability will come back fairly quickly.  It just felt so good.

This week I decided to start the 100 Push Up Challenge!  Granted, they will be girl push ups for probably quite a while, but hey!  It's about time these noodle arms got some more work!

Speaking of giveaways (we weren't, but now we are), The Almost Runner is having one, check it out!

Mother's Day is next week! Do you have anything planned? Do you live close to your Mom?

I hope y'alls weekend has been fantastic!


What are your plans for this week?