Everyone is Talking About It!

Everyone is talking about it. Yep. Fall! I couldn't be happier. My friends know that summer is my least favorite season. Mainly because here in central Virginia we experience pretty hot and very humid weather. Augh! Some years it can be pretty brutal. Back to fall....I love the clothes. Jeans, boots, sweaters. Throw on a scarf and go. I wish I could wear jeans and boots all year. I love the cool crip air. I love the smell of wood burning fires. I love having a fire in our outdoor pit. I love the changing of the leaves. I love riding the Blue Ridge Parkway and shooting pictures of the amazing colors. Okay, you get the picture now. I love fall!!

So, I have been busy in the yard prepping for fall and winter. My husband came home to this beautiful site in the driveway....mulch!! I'm sure he was thrilled, but it had to be done. Who doesn't love fresh mulch in their flower beds? Yes, I was so sore by bedtime that I could hardly move from working with the mulch, but so worth it.

You can't have fall without mums! So, I ran out and bought mums. I had a few empty spots in the garden from flowers that bit it over the summer. Perfect timing that mums were out. Yeah, I know mums don't last that long, but they are so awesome while they last and a perfect start to fall.

 

I love these cool fall days and sitting outside by the fire. Now that the mulch is down and the mums are planted.....pumpkins are next. I just love fall and hope you are enjoying it too!!

 

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Quick Go To Meals

I don't know about you, but on Sundays I don't always want to cook a big meal. Some weekends require quick and easy ideas. This weekend was one of those quick easy meal days. And we wanted something filling. I quickly decided on one of our favorite go to meals....chicken and black bean quesadillas! We love them! I usually try to grill more chicken than needed for this dish as to have enough leftover for another dinner the next day.

Quesadillas are easy enough after you get everything chopped and sliced and then it's just an assembly line of ingredients ready to cook up. I added a few green peppers and onions to make it a little more filling. I like to sauté my veggies a little to soften them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All done! Open up a bag of chips, add salsa and sour cream and this meal is complete....to us anyway. Our lives and schedules are so crazy these days that it hard to meal plan and even harder to come up with new dinner ideas!

What is your go to meal that everyone in the family loves??

 

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Ahh, the smell of coffee.

Coffee....one of my addictions.  I admit it.  I'm making up for lost time because I was probably 30 years old before I would touch it.  Call me a late bloomer.

My friends call me a coffee snub, but I love good coffee.  Not the cheap stuff either.  I would rather go without it!  Give me Starbucks any time.  Yes, I'm one of those people.  I'm a Starbucks fan and buy a bag of beans every week.  Now if I could get one of their Starbucks ball caps I would be happy!  Not only do I love their coffee, but I love to hang out there with my nook or iPad and read while sipping on coffee.  If only I could  convince my boss that I would be more productive setting up my mobile office there....hmm will have to work on that one.

Now I will drink other coffee, but it has to be good coffee.  We brew Dunkin Donuts at work and I like that too, but not my favorite.  And believe it or not, but I will drink McDonalds coffee too when in a pinch.  So, I see why some call me a coffee snub....kind of.

When the Keurig came out everyone just knew I would run to the store for that one.  Nah, we drink way too much coffee each day for those Kcups.  I would be broke buying those things.  I certainly see the appeal and it makes a good cup of coffee, but that seems best for those that only have one coffee drinker in the house.  I like my brewed pot of coffee.  I love it even more with my Cuisinart coffee pot with built in bean grinder.  Yum!!  And of course we must add a little sweetness to enjoy with our coffee...like cupcakes!  I think I'll open a new business call Coffee and Cupcakes.  Yep, I think that would be my dream job :)

Hello August...do you feel the change?

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's August already.  August is my least favorite month of the whole year, so I'm ready for it to pass quickly.  It's something about August that feels different.  Even though fall weather is still such a ways off, you can still feel the swift in the season already.  Never mind that it's HOT and humid outside, you can still feel a change happening.  Could it be because....kids are starting to panic that their summer vacation is quickly coming to an end....school teachers are in denial that they are having to return back to the classroom ALREADY....and the tv is full of back to school ads.  Everyone is losing that laid back lazy summer day feeling that floated them through June and July.  Last minute vacations are squeezed in, school supply lists are out, school uniform shopping is needed...the panic is setting in all over with parents!  Yep, feeling the change.

My husband is a school teacher and even though he still works summer school he loves the laid back summer schedule.  And we were one of those people squeezing in a late summer vacation before school started.  We just got back from Charleston SC and had a great time.  However, August is a very hot and humid month to vaca in Charleston....note to self plan a spring return visit...not August!

So, do you feel the change?  Next we'll be heading out to football games, the evenings will start to get cooler and the leaves will begin to change...... I can't wait! 

Here are a few of our summer pictures.  I hope everyone is grabbing their camera and snapping pictures every week.  Remember it doesn't have to be a special occasion or vacation.  Take pictures!




Summer evenings fishing with the family



Folley Beach SC

 

Lost my running mojo...

Here I go again. I've lost my running mojo.  It happens from time to time, but not for this long.  I'm searching and hoping and I will not give up until it's found!

It has been almost 3 years now since I stumbled into running.  And I mean stumbled since I was never very athletic...ok, NEVER athletic. I started out slowly and then joined a few girlfriends and then we soon had a small group linking up several times a week to run.  I loved it.  Then one of us had the crazy idea of signing up for a half marathon!  I know, we temporarily lost our minds.  Especially since none of us had EVER ran more than 5 miles, and that just about killed us.  One of us suggested the Shamrock half marathon in VA Beach which is in March and I thought that would be perfect since my annual girls beach trip is in June every year and I would not be struggling to lose 10 pounds in the spring prior to the next trip.  Oh yea, sign me up!  Ok, call me stupid, but I was determined to do it, especially since my husband just kind of smiled when I told him our idea.  And nothing could fuel me on more than the thought of accomplishing something that my husband hadn't done!  Oh yeah....that fueled me on!

Yes, I had trained poorly for the 5 miler race and lost a toenail, blackened a few toenails, countless blisters and terrible hip pain, but I was determined to train properly for a half marathon.  Geez, I had no idea the training would be the hardest thing I had ever done.  Many times I thought I was WAY too old to try to be a runner in my mid 40's!  I had been battling terrible hip pain anyway and soon was told by the doctor it was arthritis and he prescribed meds that made me feel good as new.  So, whats a little arthritis??  I was determined to move on.

I researched training plans and found one that stretched out for about 3-4 months.  It started out slow and I was able to build the miles a little at a time.  The plan was easy to follow, but man I wasn't prepared for the time commitment. That was probably the hardest part for me!  I really had to plan out my weeks and squeeze in all of my runs and never miss the weekend long run.  Once the miles started to get higher those long runs on Saturday were starting to get brutal.  Especially when the temps would drop to 35 degrees.  Two hour runs at 35 degrees was hard on my old body.  All was going fine until we got up to about 9 mile runs.  I soon learned that my body is done at about mile 8.  Anymore than that and I'm going to hurt all day from my run.  Then throw in the cold temps and I started to dread the last few weeks of training and just wanted it over.  Thank God for my two running buddies because they kept me going at the end.

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Race day came and I didn't feel completely ready, but I was more than ready to get it done and take a nice long break from running for a while.  I'm not going to lie, it was a tough race.  The wind and the cold was tough and I was not totally prepared for it, but it was by far one of the most exciting races I have ever ran.  It was amazing running with thousands of runners!  The sheer excitement of the large number of runners pumped me up more than I imagined it would.  Sure my time totally sucked and I had hoped for a much better time, but I finished the race and proud of it!!  Of course my first thought at the end was check it off my bucket list and I will never do it again....but never say never.

Anyone seen my running mojo????

13.1 Miles done!!!

Early mornings

I'm finally able to load a new post.   I worked for a couple of hours on a new posting last weekend and lost my whole post before I could post it.  Augh! I have had issues with my laptop and typing a blog post on my ipad isn't the easiest way...so it has taken a while to get back to my blog. 

So, it's the weekend.  TGIF!  I know many of you feel the same way.  I'm curious, how do you spend your weekends?  Do you frantically run around catching up on household duties?  Do you spend one particular day playing catch up and cleaning and spend the other day playing?  I live for Saturday mornings.  It's my favorite part of the week.  And I mean early morning.  I love grabbing a steaming cup of coffee and my ipad and catching up on social media, the news and reading blogs.  It's the perfect quiet time for me and I need that time to myself.  Lately I have tried to enjoy my saturdays with fun things and leaving Sunday afternoons for cleaning up and laundry catch up.  I like having a whole part of the weekend without the pressure of cleaning and catching up if we don't have a household project to fill up the weekend.  While training for a half marathon earlier this year (the post I lost last weekend and will try again later) I would meet up with my running buddies for early Saturday runs.  I enjoyed getting that in early and not having to fit it in the rest of the weekend. 

This morning I got up at 5am to join a friend of mine from my photography club to catch a few sunrise pictures.  Man, we were not disappointed!  If you can drag your butt out of bed before the sun comes up, God will reward you with an incredible sunrise show.  Totally worth the effort this morning.  I've posted a few pictures from this morning. 

So, I'm curious....tell me how you spend your weekends?  I would love to read your comments :)  Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to stop and snap a few pictures. 


This was actually a sunset picture that I took a few weeks back and just love! 

 



What are your hobbies?

What comes to mind when I say hobbies?  Knitting?  I think people are more into hobbies these days than in years past.  And I don't mean just knitting.  There are scrapbooking clubs, dinner clubs, mommy/baby clubs...the list goes on and on.  I love different types of clubs.  I love learning new things and meeting new people.  I joined a book club years ago, but quickly got tired of paying big money for just released best seller books.   Most of those books didn't interest me enough to get past the first chapter.  SO, I started my own book club.  Social media really helped put the word out to my friends and soon Chapter Chat was created.  That was 3 years ago now.  It's still a fairly small group, but we have a lot of fun.  We meet up monthly for books, food and wine. 



Book club goodies!

I told you we ate a lot at book club.



We do read books too....really we do!



In January I joined a photography club.  My husband gave me a Nikon for Christmas and said I would probably never learn to use it.  That was motivation enough!  My friend sent a message out on facebook that she wasn't into reading books, but wanted to start a photography club instead.  I jumped at the chance.  It has been a blast!  Most of us in the group haven't a clue how to work our cameras, but we are having a blast learning a little each month. 



Yes, more food at our photography club.

Laptops, ipads, cameras and cell phones usually cover the table at our meetings.

What are your hobbies?  I would love to hear about them.  I'm thinking about a new club...recipe club!!  I'm still working out the details, but will share soon.