Friday, November 18, 2011

Two years later...

Wow. Life gets busy and the blog gets neglected. Let's see, I've got boys in 2nd grade and Kindergarten and they both love school (Hallelujah!!). They're also both doing really well at school. It helps that their school is awesome and they both have amazing teachers.

And with all my "free" time I'm now going back to school full time to get my Master's of Education. In addition to that, I've gotten more serious about running and when the boys started school back in August I started training for a Half Marathon. My goal was 2 hours and ten minutes. I finished the Athens half mary last month in just under 2:07 (I think it was 2:06:55). VERY happy with that. I have some really great friends who helped me get ready for it. I never could have done it that fast without all of them. Leah and April became my workout partners back in the spring. We started out doing Insanity with Sean T. Oh man, it truly was INSANE. But when summer started we decided to start walking and running at the track instead of doing Insanity. And we have kept it up. Some weeks are crazy and we only get together one night, other weeks we exercise 4 mights and one afternoon together. It sure has made a difference. Then Eric told his running buddies about me running and one of them told his wife and she texted me about starting to run together. I'll tell you, Robin is F-A-S-T. She's a machine. We do 5-5.5 miles once a week. There's hills. Big hills. And she doesn't let up. I usually have to walk at some point but she just keeps running. Wow. But she pushed me and I'm a better runner for it. And Eric has always been a big supporter. He's always encouraged me to run and had faith in my ability. I love him for that!

Eric, on the other hand, is taking a break from running. He did run a marathon just over 2 years ago and I think he wants to run another, but it will be a while before that happens. Three months ago he had hip resurfacing surgery. This was an alternative to total hip replacement. Instead of cutting off the whole head of the femur they just whittle it down some and put a new cap on it along with a new socket for that to fit into. He now sets off all the metal detectors at the airport. And speaking of the airport, Eric's job has changed greatly. He works for the same company but in the corporate arena. He helps with internal audits of safety and environmental procedures among other things and this requires traveling. He averages about one week a month of traveling. Sometimes he gets to go to exotic locales like Oklahoma and Tennessee. But he also has spent a lot of time in San Diego as well as trips to Maine, Virginia, Modesto, CA, the Philippines, and Brazil.

Okay, now that we're all caught up, on to the real reason I'm here. I have a problem. Well, maybe not a problem, but it is definitely an addiction. An addiction to pinterest. I love that sight. Man can I find some AWESOME things on there. Like this Praline Pumpkin Cake that is personally responsible for me gaining about 5 pounds. You may think I'm joking but I'm not. This cake is AWESOME. Apparently I think the word AWESOME is AWESOME. Anyhoo, I think I've made it 4 or 5 times in the past month. And I'm planning to make it again next week for Thanksgiving. I think what makes it so divine is how the praline layers kind of soak into the pumpkin cake and make it oh-so-moist. Oops, sorry about that little drop of drool on the screen. Let me dry that off for you... There, that's better.

The surprising thing about this cake is how easy it is. You use cake mix and store bought icing and just jazz it up. I know of 4 people who have tried this cake since I made it and are planning to make it for Thanksgiving too! So without delay, here a link to the recipe: Praline Pumpkin Cake and this is what it looks like (I took the pic with my phone so please excuse the quality)...



I do have other pinspired creations (I think I just made that word up!) and I will be sharing those with you in the future.

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