Evolution

If you asked my girls about their "Christmas List" their eyes would light up and you would hear about the wonders to be found in the latest American Girl Doll Catalog, about scooters and talking birds, MP3 players, Littlest Pet Shops and all sorts of other miscellaneous fun stuff.

Pose the same question to me and watch the look of panic flit across my face. You see my definition of Christmas list has evolved over the last few years, now instead of my personal wish list I will tell you about the Christmas letter I haven't written, the picture CD I still dream of compiling, the gifts I have yet to purchase, and the gifts that I need to purchase and still don't know what to get! AGGHH!

However, ask me what I did today to dig in to the list and you'll see the look of guilty pleasure as I tell you about how I browsed the Harry & David catalog and the Williams-Sonoma catalog and the hour I spent on the internet searching out Christmas delicacies like homemade marshmallows dipped in caramel and moose munch popcorn.

But it's still November...and when you stop by and taste the yummy things coming out of my kitchen when December comes maybe I'll have forgotten for a moment all the things left still undone.

The Courage to Cross the Line

This is the spirit of running. The determination to finish, and the exercise in mind over matter. This girl has courage! You can follow this link to the story on ESPN. A warning: the video will make you cringe!

Little taste of caramel heaven

I have to begin by professing complete picture plagiarism. These pictures were so luscious that I didn't even want to compete (and I ate and shared this Salted Caramel Cheesecake to fast to even attempt my own photos). One of my favorite food blogs to check is Cream Puffs in Venice. She started a group called the Daring Bakers and once a month they all try out a new recipe and then take pictures and blog about it. Sounds like fun to me! This wasn't actually a Daring Bakers recipe, it was just something she made. The picture on the right is from her blog and the one on the left is from Food and Wine where the recipe came from. If you follow the Food and Wine link it will take you to the recipe. This wasn't hard, and I will readily admit to not only being afraid of cheesecake but of completely burning my first batch of caramel. But at that point I was only 6 Tbls of corn syrup, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar, 6 minutes or so and one game of freecell in to the recipe. Yes, I left the caramel on the stove and sat down at the computer to play Freecell (I know, I deserved the mess). The second time around I watched the caramel more closely, a method I would highly recommend, since mine turned amber between about 5 and 6 minutes. One more "recipe note to self" after you have removed the burned pan of caramel/sticky candy to the deck to cool DON'T LET IT HARDEN. This required reheating the blackened disaster on low heat over the stove to remove the hard as rock burned mess from one of my favorite pans. But all's well that's ends well and I had Salted Caramel Cheesecake later that night to show for all my effort and that was worth it!

I DID IT!

My friend Lisa sent me the following quote this week from John Bingham....I am a runner because I run. Not because I run fast. Not because I run far. I am a a runner because I say I am. And no one can tell me I'm not. I finished my first race 10K in 1:04:54, so my average mile time was 10:26. Most assuredly not to fast, but 6 miles counts as far in my book still. The Butch Cassidy 10K started in Springdale, UT right outside of Zion's National Park and ended in the ghost town of Grafton, 6.2 miles down the road. They actually shut down the main road while we ran, which was very cool. And the course was gorgeous, with southern Utah red rock walls as a stunning backdrop. My family was waiting for me at the finish line, and Emilee, who was waiting for me on the sidelines actually ran the last .1 mile with me. I was so glad to cross that finish line! And I had that runner's "I DID IT" high from finishing something that for me was really hard. Now, Laura is trying to talk me into the SLC Half Marathon. YIKES! That's double and change what I ran on Saturday...but this little voice inside is saying come on, you could do it, how cool to be able to add that to your life list...The problem is it is still a very little voice inside, a much bigger voice is saying...let's see how 10 miles feel and then we'll talk.

Brian and I in Kolob Canyon in the north part of Zion's.

Taper Down

Wish me luck! Race week is finally here...
Thursday I got online one more time to check the race details. Four weeks ago when I looked there were only 17 women registered for the 10K. And despite tellling my girls over the course of the last few months that I just wanted to run the race and I was not going to win the race I truly do not want to come in last!! Silly, I know.
But I've done pretty well with my 10K training. This week I'm in the "taper down" phase and so I had an easy 3 mile run on Tuesday and 2 miles on Thursday. With lots of stretching and yoga in-between. Today is a rest day and by tomorrow morning I should be rested and full of lots of pre-race energy.
I have my own personal philosophy about big 'events'. If I do my best in preparation and honestly do everything that I can to be ready--than I am okay with the results--no matter what (again, as long as I'm not last...).
So, happy trails to me and if all goes well I'm setting my sites on a spring sprint triathalon.