Friday Favorites, 8.10 - I'm baaaack!!!

I’m baaaaaack! 

So much has been going on this week and I have so much to fill you in on!  I do have to say, I MISS my daily blogging therapy and promise to never take such a long break again!  Today is Friday, and I normally do Friday Favorites, but honestly, these are going to be more like tangents since I have so many random things to fill you in on!  Umm, yeah, this is gonna be a bit of a long one! J

Here are my Friday Favorites (a.k.a. tangents).  Let’s start from the beginning!

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 On Tuesday I had a couple of people who deserved TROPHIES in my book: 

1.     Rachel, the bestie!  She received a HUGE promotion at work, and is going to be a big boss at her school now.  Wooohooo!  So proud of her and I know she is going to do a fantastic job!!!  We went to the school board meeting to watch her get officially announced in her new position and then went out to dinner at PF Chang’s afterward to celebrate.

2.     Javier, the hubby.  He receives a huge trophy for being so thoughtful!  He met us at the restaurant because he was coming straight from an appointment that he had been at all day.  And when he walked in, guess what he had in his hand?  Flowers.  For the bestie on her special day.  That’s one of the things that I love about him, his attention to detail.

3.     Who doesn’t get a trophy?  Me!!  I hurt myself during my workout on Tuesday.  I know this may be a silly question, but do women have groin muscles like men do?  Well if we do, I hurt mine!  I went to an earlier class than I normally do on Tuesday’s because I needed to make it to the board meeting on time to see my friend.  The class that I go to on Wednesday’s with the instructor that totally kicks my butt…well, that same instructor gives the same class on Tuesday’s too, and that’s the one I went to.  When I walked in (about ten minutes late) they were already fully into the workout!  So of course, I did the smart thing and instead of taking a couple of minutes to warm-up off to the side, I jumped right into the workout!  This is the instructor that I told you recently got certified in CrossFit and has since changed the structure of his class to make it straight CF.  I definitely ain’t complaining!!!  We were standing on steps with 3 rizers under each side doing lunges, forward and backward, and I had a 10 pound weight plate in each hand.  On one of the lunges backward, off of the step, I felt a pop in my muscle at the top of my leg where the thigh meets the hip.  The pop was weird; it was so shocking and quick!  That’s when I did smart thing #2 and kept going full-force for the rest of the class instead of stopping.  Oh, and then I ran 2 miles on it later too.  Needless to say, that was noooooot the smartest thing I’ve ever done!  It took me back to my high school days when I continued to play basketball after I had torn my ACL and when it popped out I would just pop it back in and kept going like nothing was wrong.  Ouch!!  #craziness 

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A quick Run streak update:

RUNstreak: as of tonight, 70 days and counting…

My “groin” or whatever it is that I hurt is feeling much better after taking it easy during my workouts for a couple of days.  I continued with my runs, though so as not to break my run streak.  I have to admit, though, that Tuesday night’s run and Wednesday morning’s run were ROUGH.  I was hurting sooo bad that I had to stop and walk some.  Way more often than I would have liked!  And while I was able to finish the two miles each time, I did end up having to walk quite a bit, and being that I don’t normally do this, my anal-retentive self is having a hard time calling those real “runs.”  My hubs tells me that I should give myself a break and give myself credit for even trying to run while injured.  I guess I’ll listen to him!  I may have  had to stop and walk some but I still did more running than walking so I’ll still count it!  I felt muuuuuch better during yesterday’s run and am feeling almost back to normal today!

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The “Greatness is ours” Nike commercial.  The Pr and Marketing people at Nike are amazingly good at their jobs!!  They are right on the money. Every. Single. Time.  This latest commercial, in two words?  Inspiring and motivating!  I read a little bit of background about the young man who made the commercial and his story is great!!  You can read about his story here.  What I love most about this campaign is the fact that it lets us believe that there is already greatness within us all.  In a time where we are all inspired yet humbled watching the Olympic greats, Nike tells us that we may not all be Olympic athletes but we all have miracles within us.  It’s beautiful, really!

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Friday favorites – OLYMPIC edition:

-         Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings win gold – love, love, love them and have been following them since High School!!!  I know I mostly talk about Basketball, which was undoubtedly my favorite, but I played (and loved) Volleyball too.  They were my favs then and they continue to be my favs now…and I WISH they would go for Gold in Rio in 2016 too!

-         Alison Felix – 200m gold FINALLY!!

-         Kenya’s David Rashida setting the World Record in the Men’s 200m race – love his story because he is such a nice, simple man from humble roots…and he runs to make his country and fellow tribesmen proud!

-         Women’s Soccer team wins the gold…and gains redemption from losing the World Cup to the same team last year

-         Ashton Eaton winning gold in the Decathlon – although no one really doubted he could do it, it was nice that he actually did do it.  I love that he’s so down-to-Earth, and in an interview I watched with him and the silver medallist, Trey Hardee, whom he considers a friend, Ashton credited him Hardee with helping him train to be more successful.  Talk about humble, which is an unknown concept for some athletes celebrating their Olympic success.  I don’t wish to take anything away from Usain bolt because his athletic accomplishments are impressive to say the least, but it’s nice when an athlete doesn’t’ feel the need to toot his own horn.

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And my last favorite and something you GOTTA TRY – I made this crazy simple crockpot Bar-b-que chicken earlier this week and it was thebomb.com!!!!  I can’t take credit for this recipe; I didn’t make it up myself, I actually saw it somewhere, I just can’t remember where!!   Here’s my version of the recipe:

 

“Crazy good” Crockpot Bar-b-que Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

1/2 c diced red onion

1 cup diced pineapple

1 bottle bar-b-que sauce

Preparation:

1.        Place the chicken breasts at the bottom of the crockpot and put the onion, pineapple, and sauce over the top of it.

2.      Put the lid on, turn it to LOW and cook it for 6-8 hours.  Enjoy!

That’s it.  So easy and delicious, my favorite two things!  I made drop biscuits, homemade coleslaw, baked beans, and corn to go along with it.  We had lots of leftovers of the chicken and I froze it for a quick meal sometime next week.  I’m thinking next time we’ll make pulled-chicken bar-b-que sandwiches.  I will definitely be putting this one on the menu rotation!

Five questions for you:

1.     What are some of your favorite things right now?
2.     What was your favorite workout this week?  When you get injured, do you take it easy like you should?
3.     Have you seen the Nike commercial?  What are some of your favorite inspiring commercials being played right now?
4.     What are some of your favorite Olympic moments so far?
5.     What was your favorite meal that you made this week?

Mini-Vacay Recap: 4th of July

I apologize for being a little missing-in-action.  The familia and I took a mini-vacay for the 4^th of July and we just back into town last night!

Mini-Vacay Recap

Wednesday afternoon we headed for Victoria to visit mi madre.  Man, I have really been go-go-go for the last three weekends and I love it!  That’s what the summer is supposed to be about!  Family, travel, food and fitness!

I woke up that morning and went for a long run.  I ran 6 miles and when I got back, the hubs made a “Tortilla Española” for brunch. Potatoes, eggs, leftover diced chicken, and red bell peppers.  It was delish! 

Doesn't look too hot but I promise it was yummy!

After brunch, we packed up the car and headed for Victoria. 

Halfway there, we made a pit stop at Prasek’s in Hilje.  Prasek’s is a family owned and operated smokehouse and I’ve been going there since I was little!  They have the best…well, everything!  Choclate cake, kolaches, sausage, peppered turkey jerkey, pulled pork sandwhiches, pecan pie, cookies…these are just a few of may favorite things from there!  We only get to eat stuff from there like once every two or three months so when I do you better believe I am not worried about calories or fat! J

We got to Victoria, headed to my mom’s and that night went to watch the fireworks display.  It was beautiful and

I was really impressed with the quality of the show. This year they had it out by Victoria Mall, and I must admit it was fantastic!  And that’s saying a lot because I am used to Houston’s fireworks celebration!  After the show we went to Wienerschnitzel (again…it is one of my Mom’s favorite fast-food restaurants) and then went home to rest. 

The next day (Thursday) we went shopping!  We went to the Victoria Mall and perused many stores.  We were there for most of the afternoon and got some pretty good bargains!  I made out with some great stuff, including these bad boys!

Just couldn't resist these blingy shoes!

I also know now what my next pair of sneaks will be:

Nike Free 4.0, baby!

 That night the hubs went on a 4 mile run with me on the same trail that I ran on last time.  It was awesome!  We ran and chatted the whole time and before we knew it we were done.  I love running with my hubby!  I usually lrun by myself with my music but I really enjoyed the company.  After all, he is my favorite person to hang out with!  After our run we relaxed and vegged out in front of the television with my mom and our little one.

The next morning the hubs got up early to go do some shots for his photography portfolio.  He wanted to get some good shot of downtown, Old Victoria as the sun was coming up.  I decided to skip my run and go with him.  That was kind of hard for me!  I’m such a one-track-mind, crazy-focused kind of person when I get something in my head.  But I try to remind myself to enjoy the spontaneity of life too.  I mean how often do I get to go with him when he goes out to shoot?  And it’s not like I couldn’t go running later, right?  I’m really glad I went with him!  We (even I got in on the action!) got some great shots and even had a romantic breakfast at a little whole in the wall Mexican restaurant.  It was a beautiful morning.  Here are some of the shots that I got:

The old courthouse in downtown Victoria.

The gazebo as the sun is coming out.

Beautiful red brick building, now a restaurant.



My hubs, the photographer.

That afternoon we chilled with my mom and got our stuff ready to come back home.  We hit the road and for the next two hours, made our way back to Houston.  We got back in town late and the hubs, bambina, and Bella were all gracious enough to come on my run with me.  Well, almost, anyway.  I ran and they walked around in the field behind the school that I run around.  I ran a quick 2.6 miles in 20 minutes and we came home.

Overall we had a nice mini-vacay filled with family, food, a little shopping, and relaxation.  It’s always nice to go back home and run around my old "stomping grounds."  For me the old saying proves true, time and time again: there really is no place like home.