Run To Rapid City Update #4

Exercise Update for the Month:

I ran a total of 21 times in June for a total of 107.23km. I am slightly disappointed in this total, but as my mom reminded me, June was quite the month for me at work, so I guess I should be happy I got the 107km in. I also worked out on 17 days, and rode my bike once. Hopefully everything will increase during the summer!

Running:

So at the start of the year I was having a very difficult time motivating myself to get out the door for runs as I had no goal. I had done a pace goal two years ago and had done a mileage goal last year and just really didn’t know what to do this year. That’s when the amazing and wonderful Kathy of Sewing,etc on WordPress offered an awesome suggestion. She suggested that I virtually run to visit her. Now Kathy always offers so many interesting suggestions and I would dearly love to see her garden, bunnies and all her sewing and knitting projects, so this seemed a great idea. I immediately set off for Rapid City.

So far I have ran 674km and am in the Spokane Valley. This is the largest suburb of Spokane. It is a larger city of 99,000 people.

This is one of their tourism pictures. Unfortunately it’s not that colourful right now.

I am 17 kilometers from the Idaho state line and can’t stop wait to start working on a new state.

Back to Quiet?

My last brother and his family left today so we may just get back to quiet relaxation.

Exercise:

Once again I managed to get out for a run right away this morning. It was literally fifteen minutes from awaking to out the door. I ran out of town as I went the opposite way, so I did a few laps around the local field and then went back how I had yesterday.

I also got a BeFitDavis workout in. It is one I had skipped before because it had lots of jumping in it and I have someone living below me, but not here. It was 45 seconds each of squat jacks, scissor jacks, single knee drives, high knees, and pop jacks. I managed to get through all of them twice before my parents arrived back home.

Family:

My brother, SIL and nephew stopped in this morning. We bonded while shelling crab. 🤣🤪. I always love seeing them so it was a nice visit before they left for the other parent’s place.

Stitching:

I sat down in the sunshine this afternoon with the plan to knit for one hour and stitch for one hour. Unfortunately, I brought everything for knitting but the one page of the pattern that I am on. I will have to look it up tomorrow I guess. I ended up doing about an hour of stitching which was quite lovely:)

Reading:

I am still working on Beach Read by Emily Henry. Scrabble is definitely slowing down my reading.

I am so tired that I think I might be off to bed already🤣

Have fun!

AJ

Score!

I might have found the score of the summer today.

Exercise:

I started the day by going out for a run around the neighborhood. By the way everyone was staring at me, I don’t think many people run around here. I know why too- the whole town is hills! I got 6.10km in so just have to make sure that I do at least 3km tomorrow. I can’t believe I’m having trouble getting to 100k this month when so many months this year I’ve been doing about 150km. Oh well, I will try to get out again in the morning.

I had planned to do yoga, a walk and/or a workout too today, but didn’t get to it.

Family:

The guys in the family went out boating so us girls hung out. We started by checking out a store that is closing down in town. I was really upset because I’ve had luck with shoes there the past couple of summers.

We had to go in one at a time and my mom and SIL sent me in first because I take the longest to make decisions. This time there were no decisions to make- I just took them all:)

There’s no way I can resist Birkenstock’s at that good of a price! I have enough for life now!

The rest of the day was just spent hanging out chatting.

My dad got clams and crabs for dinner. I’m not sure whether it was the sun or the clams, but I was too sick to eat crab 😥😰😱. I’ll have to make up for it at breakfast!

I’m off to sleep off whatever is wrong with me.

Have fun!

AJ

Relocation

I was so tired by the end of last night, that I couldn’t even write a blog post.

I was up super early as my brother and sister in law were picking me up at 6:30am. The trip was calm and went quite well. We just stayed in the car and played on our phones.

I ran into the DQ and grabbed an ice cream cake on the way to the house.

It was great to see my parents and my brothers and even one aunt, uncle and cousin came over. We were outside so hopefully we kept everyone safe.

We did up hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner along with an amazing ramen salad my SIL made and potato salad my aunt made.

The best part- we actually got a new family photo! As usual we were missing people, but at least we got one!

It was a great day and hopefully the start of a great holiday!

Have fun!

AJ

Stretching My Skills with Sally

Last year I tried a few of Sally’s Baking Challenge items and quite enjoyed the challenge of trying new things. Most of the people in my life asked why I was doing this, thankfully there are people like Abbey! I was talking with Abbey of Three Cats and a Girl and we decided to both try these challenges and then link up to talk about our results, so please check out her attempts too. I was really interested in doing this because I knew she would be doing the recipes as called for while I would need to convert them to gluten free and dairy free. I should say that I change as little as possible and just sub in gf and df ingredients to see if the recipe will still work.

It is so cool that when Kathy read about Abbey’s and my challenge she decided to join us so make sure you go read about her baking adventures! They always look professional and yummy!

The June baking challenge was for ice cream sandwiches. Now I love creamy deserts so this sounded really good even if it had chocolate in it.

I knew this weekend would be busy so last weekend I whipped up the brownies. Just like Abbey, I had to cook mine longer and they still were a little gooey in a few places. I was just hoping the freezing would help. The only difference in my brownies was that I used Bob’s Redmill 1-1 Flour and Earth Balance vegan Buttery Spread. The brownies were easy to make and I had no trouble spreading them like Sally did.

The most difficult part of this recipe was finding enough dairy free ice cream without going broke. Now o don’t keep ice cream in the house and usually just go to the local ice cream parlour when I have a craving, so when I looked in the frozen foods section it was a shock! The cheapest option was fourteen dollars and it only went up from there! There was no way I was spending fourteen dollars on ice cream for a recipe when I had already had to buy sugar, cocoa and pans! I checked out three different grocery stores and finally found some Breyers Dairy free that was an acceptable cost, though it was vanilla with peanut butter ripples. I thought it would be okay as peanut butter and chocolate go together.

I smooshed the ice cream onto the bottom brownie, though I really should have let it sit out longer first, and then topped it with the top brownie and popped it into the freezer overnight.

This is what came out of the freezer. I took these to work for my crew of friends there and they inhaled them. One friend did say they were very rich, but everyone raves about them and they were easy to make. I would count this baking challenge as a success.

Now for my Saturday:

Exercise:

I wanted to start out my holiday on a good note. I stepped on the scale to face reality and then headed out for a run with Sarah. We were running Hyde Creek again (where we ran into the bear last week), but decided to do the other side of the river. We were going along great until 2.44 when Kula, the dog, went crazy. We couldn’t see the bear, but decided to just turn around and tack on at the end. It turned out to be a slow but nice run:)

House:

I have spent most of the day doing the last of the laundry and packing. I have packed way too much and still think I’m missing some key things- like shorts! Oh well, my dad always said to pack half the stuff and double the money and thankfully I’m going somewhere with stores and laundry this year.

I did take a little time out and walked over for an ice cream. I’m really going to miss my ice cream treats while I’m away. I got ice cream two days in a row because I couldn’t figure out how to take some with me.

It was a lovely treat to sit on this rock and enjoy the ice cream in the sunshine. Callie was so sweet to give me a little taster of some of the other vegan kinds on top of my raspberry pistachio.

Reading:

I have started a new book today called Beach Read by Emily Henry. This book was recommended to me by Mildly Granola. I’ve only hit chapter four, but so far I am really enjoying it!

Well I’d better go get my garbage and recycling out since I’m being picked up very early tomorrow.

Have fun!

AJ

Happy Summer!

I know that summer officially started six days ago, but for me it started at 1:15 today.

Teaching:

I went in at my usual time today, finished cleaning up my class library and sorted some files and then had to sit around bored until my principal finally let us go home at 1:15pm. It really bugs me because most schools didn’t even have to show up today!😖😖😖

Family:

The first thing I did was to call Gus and see if he wanted to go for a celebratory ice cream. We went to Vashti Rose, which even he admits is the best ice cream around! I had a scoop of vegan raspberry pistachio and they put a little of their new vegan Rocky Road flavor on top and they were both amazing! Gus has the maple pecan and the cookies and cream and said they were wonderful too. Callie and Hamid didn’t even charge me for mine- they said it wasn’t happy summer from them. They really are wonderful people!!!

Reading:

After a lovely two hour nap and two loads of laundry I forced myself to finish the book, The Doctor’s Husband by Ann B Harrison. I really didn’t care for this book. The lead female was conniving and unbelievable, the father was stereotypical and not well rounded, everything was way too convenient and who gets married after one date?!?!

Exercise:

I did a BeFitDavis workout of wall sit, side planks, clam shells, leg drop to reverse curl and lying hamstring curls and then added on squats, plié squats, bicep curls and overhead tricep extension.

I’m hoping to do lots of exercise and healthy eating this summer so I can erase June from my body! Mom get the fruit salad and the salads ready!

Well that’s it for me.

Have fun!

AJ

So Close!!

I am so close to being done I can almost taste it!

Teaching:

I had no kids today, just parents and kids picking up report cards. I was disappointed in two of them. The mother of one of my hardest kids didn’t even say thank you and then I had another parent walk in, grab the report out of my hand and walk out without saying anything:(. I don’t expect gifts, but a thank you would be nice!

We also had a variation of the grade five leaving ceremony. It was great we could have something, but I missed being able to hug and give handshakes. I taught almost every kid who left this year.

Now the only problem we’re having is trying to get our admin to let us go at noon tomorrow like every other principal does. She says the optics would be bad. Like they aren’t when she leaves every day before lunch😖😖

We shall see what happens.

Exercise:

I went right from work to a run around the river with Dennis. I was even tempted to get into the river it was so hot. Dennis has a great run, but mine was a struggle. I guess it wasn’t turn.

I also did five minutes of abs, but only because I didn’t want to do anything!

House:

I got my floors swept, vacuumed or washed so I am happy. I just need to do laundry tomorrow now.

I haven’t done anything else to tell you about.

Have fun!

AJ

Almost There

Today was my last day with kids in class all day, even though it was just two kids.

Teaching:

We spent the morning doing a virtual field trip to the Amazon Rainforest since we learned about rainforests last week. We also did some fun puzzle and colouring sheets.

After recess the kids helped create our posters for the car parade. Then this afternoon we watched the movie, Monsters Inc. I always love this movie!

It was an incredibly low key day though I did spend some time starting to switch over my word wall from tattered white letters to bright magnetic letters. Amazingly the different colours don’t bother me.

After school we had a teacher car parade. I went in the backseat of my teaching buddy’s car and her husband drove us. He made it very fun! We were yelling happy summer and waving to the kids and he kept honking the horn and yelling, more parade. He’s so crazy, but I think everyone had fun and there was a really good turnout.

Exercise:

I met up with Sarah for a run around the river and we ended up running in a rainstorm. There was a mist coming off the water. The skies opened when we were 3/4 of the way, but hopefully it helped with the humidity! We only did 4.4km so I desperately need some mileage over the next week as I’ve only done about 84km this month:(

June is always a tough month for exercising and eating and I am definitely noticing that:(

Reading:

I am trying to force myself to read this book, The Doctor’s Husband, but it is painful! I don’t know how my mom read it?!?!

Well that’s it for my day- a very boring last day!

Oh and I didn’t have to do housework as I did my Wednesday job on Monday this week and I am purposely not grocery shopping this week.

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday

It was a good day!

Teaching:

We had no kids today but had the A-L kids who have been remote learning come in and pick up their report cards. It was great to see some of my kids, but really tough to not hug them.

I spent the rest of the day tidying and going through files.

TV:

While organizing two files I managed to watch the first book episode of The Crown. My friends at work have been recommending this to me and I have to admit that I really enjoyed it.

Exercise:

I met up with Dennis for a run, but he was having a really tough time breathing so we cut it short at 3.3km.

Trivia:

I went back to my usual Tuesday night trivia, but didn’t know much in the first round.

Where is the singer The Weekend from?

Ontario

What was Darryl on The Walking Dead prefer as a weapon?

Crossbow

Which team drafted Russel Wilson in the NBA?

Texas Rangers

Who were the three famous guitarists for the Yardbirds?

Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck

Which guitar brand did Jimi Hendrix set on fire?

Fender

Which drink was taken into space?

Tang

Who was married to both Nicholas Cage and Michael Jackson?

Lisa Marie Presley

Which coffee slogan was “good to the last drop”?

Maxwell House

In the music round I was responsible for knowing:

Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich

You’ve Lost that Lovin Feeling by The Righteous Brothers

What is the term for two controversial items together?

Oxymoron

What is the centre of an atom called?

Nucleus

Oh and I’m trying to wear my more interesting shoes to trivia since I don’t wear them to work, so here are tonight’s

Well that was it for me:)

Oh but for those keeping tabs on me- tonight’s job was changing my sheets and doing a whites load of laundry and it got done. One job closer to holidays!

Have fun!

AJ

It Only Took a Moment

I had a great moment in my day and it was a good reminder.

Teaching:

We read stories, ran, sorted school supplies, did a nature scavenger hunt and did our annual cloud activity. Every year we take the children outside and read the classic book, It Looked Like Spilled Milk and then we have the kids look and see what they see in the sky. I always love what they come up with. Today we had flamingos, hamburgers, dragons, lego pieces, etc. It is a highlight of the year for me.

My sushi lunch that my EA kindly picked up for me.

After I got back from the grocery store I had a message to call a parent. I was worried that she was upset about the report card, but decided to call right away as it’s usually better to not put these things off. It turned out the parent just wanted to thank me for my hard work with her daughter this year. It was so nice to hear as I really haven’t felt like I’m doing very well at either online or in class teaching. It only took that parent a moment, but it really changed my day:)

Cooking:

I left school quickly so that I could get to the grocery store to see if they had ice cream. They did and I made my recipe, but you’re going to have to wait until next week to hear about it.

Knitting:

I am making progress on the sweater I have started:)

Exercise:

I really didn’t feel like doing anything tonight and so just did 8 minutes of abs.

I really don’t have much to report now that I write it out!

But for anyone who read yesterday’s post- I did get my bathroom cleaned today.

Have fun!

AJ