She's Two & An Artist

You can't tell me you're not impressed. I know she doesn't get that from me. Really, that drawing is cool!

Nothing Like the Rush of Flying Over the Handlebars

This morning I decided to sleep in until 6:30'ish am. In my opinion, 7 am is a perfect time to run, but not to start a long run. I wanted to work out and be outside, so I took the bike on a 13 mile ride. 13 miles was the distance I planned on running.

5 miles on the trail and I fall off the sidewalk, over correct and go flying over the handlebars. No one was around, but I felt like a fool.

It happened in slow motion and as I was about to hit the pavement, I asked myself, "Is this really happening?"
"Yes. Dominique, this is really happening!" 

I keep telling myself this makes me look like a BA biker chick. Maybe this is a sign to stick with the running. I still had fun and I'll be back on the bike soon.

I originally posted a close-up of the injury, but then decided that's too gross. However, it's still posted my flickr page, for all you sick-O's.

I'm Not a Recipe Follower

I learned from my P90X experience, I'm not a fan of following recipes everyday, so I've been coming up with my own paleo recipes.

I'm only a few days into this paleo journey and so far, I'm shocked at how full I am.

For the past few days, I've been sick, so I can't wait to see how this new eating style holds up when I'm in full ultra marathon training mode. I plan on eating sweet potatoes to help me channel my carb loading. It's not pasta, but I think it'll be okay.

Friday nights, Trey and I usually watch a movie after dinner. My favorite movie watching snack is popcorn and chocolate. It's going to be weird not eating that tonight. Welllllllllllllll, it's not August 1st, YET.

Have a good weekend, friends! I'll leave you with this sweet photo of my angel. This is my new office photo. It sits right next to my main computer monitor. Oh, and that dog there is Abby, she's a friends dog. 

The Inevitable Post: Paleo 30 Day Challenge.

Okay, I'm all about healthy living and healthy eating, so this Paleo post should come as no surprise. Really, it was just a matter of time before I finally gave in.
(Said in dramitic voice ---->) The time has come!  DUH. DUH. DUH.

I can't wait to tell Trey, in person, so he can roll his eyes. Yay, the fun is about to start! Not for him, but for me.

For those who have no idea what Paleo is -- let me give you a basic 101 Intro to the Paleolithic Diet, or at least what I understand it to be.
THE BASICS
- Eat like a caveman.
- Eat meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, & some oils. Did I miss anything? Really, that's it?
- No grains. :(
- No Beans. :( double sad face :(
- No Dairy
- No Alcohol (but I just started drinking red wine)
- No processed food. I believe that includes cookies. Yes, I'm almost certain.

A typical paleo friendly meal would look like this, excpet with a lot more veggies to fill me up.


My stomach can thank The Running Couple for this one. On that note, I can blame my sugar withdrawals on them as well. It's only fair. Thanks guys! The RC has created a 30 day Paleo Challenge. It starts August 1. I have a well stocked Paleo fridge, so I feel like starting now. Why not? Please answer me, that was not a hypothetical question. Tell me to live my last week of free eating on nothing but candy. P-L-E-A-S-E! Perhaps, I will use this week to ease myself into Paleo.

I won't be going off the deep end with this 30 day challenge. TRUST ME. My main focus will be to eat Paleo the majority of the time. I will make exceptions for my recovery drink, which consist of milk and whey protein. I drink this maybe 2 times a week. And I'll also cut myself some slack, if I go out to dinner with friends or family, which is maybe once a week. I'll make a healthy decision based on the available menu and if the only thing on the menu to eat is a burger, then guess what? I'm gonna eat me a greasy burger. So, goes life.

When I do my long runs, (you know, like 13+ miles), I'll re-fuel with gel packs. Paleo is not worth passing out mid-run. Sorry, but it's not worth it. And I don't see myself doing a long run with a chicken breast in my SPIbelt. Eww, gross!

I'll also allow myself to eat nachos at least once a week, during this challenge. I can't resist them...and really, by the US food pyramid standards they are considered healthy. To top it off, that's greek yogurt. It's gotta be good.


Have I completely lost my marbles for doing this? I mean, think about what you eat everyday and now imagine if you did Paleo. So, who wants to join me? Anyone? ....(crickets)....

Do you Snack?

I'm a schedule snacker. Mid-morning and afternoon snacker to be more specific. My favorite GO-TO snacks are hard boiled eggs, handful of almonds, left-over steamed veggies, cheese sticks, or fruit.


I guess I'm not the only snacker in the family. I discovered Cheyenne raiding Nana's fridge. She managed to help herself, while I was in another room. I'm sure if she had more time, she would've pulled a chair up to the fridge.

BUSTED! 
Hey, that's the same look I give Trey when he calls me out for eating the last 6 cookies. "What, I thought you were done." Someone please tell Trey, I need the extra calories since I'm burning over 3,000 each week. 

Health Update: 
My throat hurts like someone took a metal brush and shoved it down my esophagus. Needless, to say training has taken a backseat. I've only missed one day, so that won't hurt anything in the grand scheme of things. Here is my training from last week.

Baby Shower For Evan

Sunday, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for Linda. Jomi, let us use her house. We wish she could've been there too.

This is one of the gifts Trey and I got baby EVAN.

And you can never have too many wipes. Gotta love SAM's CLUB! I use to buy wipes and diapers in bulk from there.

Linda's Grandmother made this blanket. It's not a small baby blanket, so it's something that Evan can grow into.

Linda's Grandparents.

And the rest of her family.

We went to college with Rachel. She drove in from Dallas to be at the shower.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the baby shower!

Mr. Gatti's is a Playground

A few weeks ago, when we went to Abilene, Baby drove us --  so it was only fair for Bumble Bee to take the wheel this time.

We celebrated Bella's First Birthday at Mr. Gatti's.

Family at Gatti's.

Angelica and Cheyenne riding the train at the speed of light.

They made it look like so much fun.

I wanted to ride, but only little people were allowed to ride this one.

However, nobody said I couldn't ride this...
Look, I'm a giant, compared to those babies.

We're having fun. Right?

Wait a second!

And for a closer look...Yeah, we had to stop the ride and let Chey off the ride.

There were lots of tears at the party.

But cake made it all better.

All on Board...

Big kid toys.

Sponge Bob is one cartoon I can tolerate. He's hilarious and Chey likes him too.

Here is a link to the entire Flickr album. 

Birthday Song For Bella

Cheyenne and I are sick. She has a cold and I have a sore throat. We're taking medicine and it seems to be helping. We're trying to take it easy, but it's hard because I have to prep to get ready for the week. Laundry, ironing, cooking, cleaning, shopping...the usual stuff. 

Happy Birthday Bella

This weekend, my niece, Bella celebrated her first birthday.

Her Party was at Mr. Gatti's Pizza.

What a sophisticated cake, for a sophisticated baby. I'll post more pictures, later. First, I need time to recover from this weekend. Traveling to Abilene, plus two parties in one weekend makes for a busy schedule.

This Almost Happened

Look, we having matching bikes, how cute is that?

Last night, I dusted off a bike and made up my mind: "Tomorrow I will ride." Which, I haven't done in ages.

I grabbed a bike and placed it near the entryway. READY TO GO! I set myself up for success, but my body had different plans. This morning, instead of riding, I slept in. DOH!

The calendar says rest day -- so I won't dwell on it. Maybe on  Monday, I'll ride.
I plan on using Trey's bike. He replaced the original tires (see pic below) on his bike with street tires.

Street tires, yo!

Here is a photo from the archives, Summer 2007 Trey and I were gearing up to go for a ride on the Trinity Trails. This is when we first moved to DFW.

Tell Me This Has Happened to You

To make you feel better about yourself, I will tell you what a lame-o morning I had....

5:00 am - Snoozed the alarm 

5:10       - Woke-up 

5:30       - Started my 4 mile run

6:00       - 3 miles later, realized it was not 5 am and I was running an hour behind schedule! $@%! 

I should've come to the obvious conclusion when I looked at the sky and realized it was lighter than normal. No. And there is my blonde moment for the day. 

Please tell me this has happened to you before. This summer, this is the second time this has happened. I'm not proud. 

Gamers

Looks like we have serious gamers in the house.

In baking news, drool over what I made. I ate more than my fair share. I told Trey the reason why I don't make cookies that often is because I lose all self control. You would too, if you had some. Mmmmm.

Hey Trail, Do You Remember Me?

Guess, who got all brave and ventured out to the woods? Me. And I didn't scream once.

Yes, I've been known to scream while running the trail. It usually happens, when a wild creature abruptly moves in the bushes. Saturday, I saw a snake. I had to divert my route because I wasn't sure what direction the monster was going. I backed my butt up and did an about face. I saw another reptile in the wild, a lizard about the size of a squirrel.

Since I started my run, pre-dawn,  I found a medium size grass track and ran circles until sunrise. When the sun came up, I was off to the scary trail (refer to picture below). Would you go in there?
 
Not all of it looked like that. The picture above only represents a small portion of the trail. Wish I would've known that weeks ago.

In the open area, the sun killed most of the grass, so it was runner friendly. I knew this Texas heat was good for something.

I prefer running in the shaded area.

Uphill.


Here's my weekly stats from last week, right on target. It's a brand new week and I've already ran a 5 miler. I'm off to a great start.

Gotta Work On My Form

If you are a runner, you know the latest talk is run form. While runners around the world are working on that, I obviously need to be working on my cannonball form. Summer Priority #1!

I like how Cheyenne is cheering me on....

Y'all! This pool is spoiling me. This weekend, I spent about an hour looking at pool websites. We don't need a pool, but it would be nice. In the meantime, we can enjoy our friends. By the way, I hear pool maintenance is a nightmare....well, more of an inconvenience.

How awesome would it be to swim laps in my own pool? That would be awesome. I can try to tri...

Cheyenne and I on the whale perch.

We stayed in the water until our skin got wrinkly.