One Year....plus a Bonus Giveaway

Today is my blogging anniversary. When I started writing, I wasn't sure which direction this blog would go, I treated it as an online journal, to work through what was going on in my head on a day to day basis. I wrote about my kids, all of the great "homes" I've been lucky to live in, how I missed a job that I loved. I needed to figure out what I truly enjoyed in my life, to see which path I was going to go down next.

Fast forward a year, and I realize I enjoy several things: making a happy home for my husband and children, being a good sister, daughter and friend, running, cooking, and of course, eating. I decided to challenge myself in my running, it's something that has been a part of my life for over 20 years, and I took a big step and ran my first half marathon. Now I'm gearing up for a full. I take comfort and pleasure in cooking and eating good food, and realize if I eat right the majority of the time, I won't feel guilty about eating chocolate, or drinking wine. I enjoy writing, and I love to find humor where you least expect it. I've made some friends through this blog, and I thank you for reading my ramblings.

That said, I'm excited for this next giveaway. Last summer I did a 30 day Smoothie Challenge, made with Amazing Grass. I love veggies, but I'm not a huge fruit person, so I figured if I blended the fruit with the Amazing Grass, I would get a good portion of my 7 -9 servings in one shot. I haven't been compensated by Amazing Grass for my views, this is really how I feel. This stuff re-hydrates me after a long night of listening to Mike snore, and there were a couple of times during the winter when I felt a cold coming on, and I slammed a few extra servings, and my symptoms were gone. My Dad uses it now, as do a few of my friends.

My first giveaway was with Amazing Grass, and that is what I have to give away today, a sample pack of their Organic Green SuperFood Whole Food Energy bars. Two bars each of the Original, Chocolate, Berry and Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars. Each bar has 2/3 of a serving of the SuperFood drink powder, which is what I put into my smoothies.

To enter, check out the Amazing Grass website, and leave me a comment.

For additional entries (please leave a comment for each), you may:

1. be a follower, or become a follower of my blog.

2. spread the word, via your blog, twitter or smoke signals.

3. become a fan of Amazing Grass on facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

4. tell me what you like to use for energy, either to get through the day, or through a workout.

This giveaway ends at Midnight EST, on April 25.

Peace out my friends.....

What's another word for steep?

Great run today. The good thing about having a lousy run, is that it's almost guaranteed that the next run will be great.

I was a bit nervous about this morning's 7.5 mile run, I hadn't run this part of the course yet, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course it was freezing cold, instead of last weekend's shorts and tshirt weather, and even though my ipod craps out in the cold, I brought it anyway. I made a new playlist that I thought would motivate me on the hills.

I felt really good in the beginning, but hung back at dreaded Colvin street, it's about 3/4 of a mile of steady incline, and at the end it switches to a steep incline. It was definitely hard, but not impossible. Then it turned flat for a while, until we headed into a park, and up a sharp hill. I focused on taking shorter steps, and tried to pretend I was hiking, just to make it up. Everyone in my running group wore their new group shirts, so it made it easy to see where people were along the course, which was fun.

The rest of the run was smooth sailing, I was surprised when I realized we were almost done, I felt like I could go farther, which is a good sign. I ran the last mile or so with another gal who ran at the same pace, it was nice to chat through to the end.

And thankfully my ipod lasted the whole time, here is what I listened to (and yes, I have Miley Cyrus on there):

Who Are You - the Who
Seven Nation Army - the White Stripes
Live Like You Were Dying - Tim McGraw
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
Breathe Me - Sia
Relator - Pete Yorn & Scarlet Johannsen
I'm Shipping Up to Boston - Dropkick Murphy's
See You Again - Miley Cyrus
LDN - Lily Allen
Just Dance - Lady Gaga
My Life Would Suck Without You - Kelly Clarkson
When Your Mind's Made Up - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
If I Ever Leave This World Alive - Flogging Molly


Tomorrow marks one year of I'm A Sleeper Baker. As I'm noticing more and more, that year went by quickly. So check in, because I have yet another giveaway, and I'll give you a hint, it's green. And no, it's not money, although that would be fun.......

Three Things for Thursday, including a Giveaway

This week went really fast, I forgot what day it was when I woke up.....but it's Thursday, and this is what I'm thinking:

1. Now that my marathon plan is set, I need to start researching training plans. I've been looking at one from Dean Karnazes, but I'm not sure.

2. my training run on Saturday is 7.5 miles, on the second part of the Goat course. The hills are "steep but quick." okaaaayyyy.......

3. New Giveaway! Ever had Vitalicious Vita-Tops? They're all about guilt free indulging. The tops have zero preservatives or artificial anything, with 6g of fiber, 3g of protein, and 8g of whole grains. And only 100 calories.

Some of you guys (like you Julie) who live in the Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH,WI), can get Deep Chocolate VitaTops (12-pack) at Costco for the next 4 -6 weeks. But if you've never had them, I just so happen to have a 12-pack of the Deep Chocolate to give away!


To enter, leave me a comment saying what time of day you think you would eat your Vita Top.

And for additional entries (please leave a comment for each):
1. follow me or tell me you do so
2. spread the word, via your blog, twitter, or facebook, and tell me you did so.

This giveaway ends April 15th at midnight.

mmmmmm........chocolate (cue the Homer Simpson drool).

NYC is out, but MVP is still in

I didn't make it into the NYC Marathon this year. Bummer. My friend Jennifer didn't make it either, double bummer. Going home to do my first marathon would have been fantastic, but like they say, better luck next year.

So that means the MVP Rochester Marathon is going on the calendar! I ran the half marathon last year, and it's a fairly flat course, and since I lived there for five years, I would love to run through my old stomping grounds in a marathon.

Barefoot Angie Bee has a Nuun giveaway going on, and she gives you five extra entries if you write a poem, so this is what I came up with:

I love how running makes me fly,

Although at times it makes me cry.

In sun or snow, and sometimes rain,

I always look for a chance to get out there again.

I won't be posting the after photo

Before I get into my green bean debacle, I wanted to mention a giveaway that Tara at Colorado Runner is hosting....a pair of sunglasses by Ryder Eyewear from their Adrenaline Essentials collection. Tara's was the first running blog I ever read, and she's a pretty funny chickie who is training for her first marathon, so definitely check out her blog.

Do you ever tempt fate by saying something like, "Oh the Jeep is running okay, maybe we can look into buying you a Garmin..." then something goes wrong with the Jeep and you end up spending $600 to fix it? On Saturday we planned on using the grill for dinner, and Mike mentioned that there was something broken on it, but that he might be able to fix it himself. We were making grilled chicken seasoned with Adobo, spicy green beans, and sesame noodles. Instead of putting the green beans on a tray and roasting them in the oven, I decided to wrap them in tin foil, and cook them on the grill instead.



So I toss the beans with olive oil and chili garlic sauce, and Mike gets the chicken going, and boils water for the noodles. These peanut sesame noodles are our newest obsession. They are organic soba noodles, that come with a packet of sesame oil, and peanut sauce. You just mix it together after cooking the noodles, and they are SO GOOD.

Mike took the chicken off, and I opened the beans, decided they needed more time, and threw them back on. Then I got engrossed with watching The Ten Commandments (gotta watch it every year, even if it's five hours long) and forgot about the beans. Next thing I know, I look through the screen door at Mike, who has the grill open, with huge flames shooting straight up in the air, and I'm talking flames. Mike had to dump water on the grill to put them out. I think the olive oil leaked from the packet of beans that I guess I should have maybe possibly closed a wee bit tighter.........because the oil caused the fire that ignited something else in the grill that leaked onto Mike's hand as he was shutting off the propane, which ultimately gave him some nasty burns. And fried the grill.

Well, the beans were burned, but today we got our tax refund so we can buy a new grill. And I will stick to putting beans in the oven. At least for a few weeks.

From One Extreme to Another

Last night I had a wacky dream. I was running a race in a large building, and I had to run into a room, chug a beer, sign my name in a book, then run to the next room. What that heck is that about?!?!

I ran another training run this morning for the Mountain Goat, which gave me a feeling of redemption after last Saturday's Virtual 10K. As I had suspected, I really did run farther than the Nike+ipod indicated, I ran closer to seven miles, in an hour and seven minutes. The only reason I figured it out was because after today's run, a fellow runner said his Garmin read 6.97 miles, while the Nike+ read 6.22.

And honestly, it felt like seven, it was a hard run. The steep hills begin at mile one, I charged right up, but I got hot, even though I had on a Tech shirt and shorts. It's crazy how much the weather has changed in a week, last Saturday I ran in 20 degree weather, this morning it was about 60 degrees, and right now, at five o'clock it's 89!!!!!

Around mile three I felt a bit of a stitch in my side, which was annoying because that hasn't happened in a while. So I slowed down, had some water and kept it at bay. I have to say how nice this one guy was whose house is on the route, he set up a water station in his driveway, and further up was another station, with a couple of cub scouts helping with the clean up.

At mile six, I was feeling tired, probably because I've been used to running in the cold, and this was my first warm weather run in months. I was wicked thirsty, we passed a Burger King, and I'm not a soda drinker but I felt like running right in there for a large, cold, bubbly Pepsi over ice. Then I made the mistake of looking at my reflection in an office building window, my form is terrible. I was hunched over, lurching along like, well, Lurch. But I decided to just suck it up, and get the last half mile over with.

So that run is done for another week, next week they are switching to a different section of the run, apparently these hills are very steep, but relatively quick. Whatever that means.

I wanted to give a shout out to two bloggers, whose giveaways I won last week! Thanks to Suzy at Running on My Time, for the Starbucks giftcard! It was funny that I won, since she won my book giveaway. Thanks also to Brad at Eat N Listen, for the Flavorwood BBQ Grilling Smoke cans. Brad is a food blogger who loves bacon, one of the first posts of his that I read was about a basket he made out of bacon....bacon!!

So now I can plan on sitting outside in the warm weather, drinking a latte, and smoking some meat.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Two Hundred

Well what do you know, this is my 200th post. So to celebrate, I'm going to write 200 things about myself........April Fools!

Did you ever put a Peep in the microwave? They blow up like balloons, it's hilarious. I like to put two on a plate, facing each other, with a toothpick stuck in them like swords. When you turn on the microwave, as they grow it looks like they're jousting. Great entertainment for adults and kids alike.

I'm not a huge Easter candy person. I used to like the Cadbury Cream Eggs, but now they're too sweet for me. If I eat the Cadbury Mini Eggs, I just bite off the more pointed end and toss the rest. Not a fan of jelly beans. I would eat my chocolate bunny though, I would stick it in the freezer, then break pieces of it off and dip it in peanut butter. yum.

So the Easter Bunny is bringing just a small amount of sweets for L&E, along with.....clock radios. Luke has been asking for one for a while, so we figured it would be funny to have the bunny bring it.

I got an email from NYC Road Runners this morning, which made my heart lurch, but it was just info about how you can watch the lottery live on April 7th. I've still got the logo taped up next to my laptop on my minuscule "vision board."

I'm wondering if I'm going to make my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2010....I ran more in March than in February, but I need to do the math to see where I am now, and where I need to be. I keep looking at my bike, hopefully I can take a spin on it this weekend.

Lost was good again this week! I heard that the price of a commercial for the finale is going for $800,000....that's like Superbowl prices.

By the end of the week, it's supposed to be in the high 70's, low 80's.....do I dare say it's time to break out the running shorts?!? I'd better buy some sunscreen......