A day of silence

http://www.newtownyouthandfamilyservices.org/donate.php

Friday Funny

I saw this at Target and had to share (for the Christian Grey fans), ha!!!

Happy Friday!

These are a few of my favorite things

Do y'all remember how Oprah used to do her favorite things show every year?  Of course you do. I loved it.   She still does it in her magazine and as I was looking it over the other day I was inspired.  So I decided to make a list myself!

Disclaimer:  If you are one of my family members please refrain from robbing a bank and buying me this list. :) It's for fun blog purposes only.

Here you go!

I love to lounge.  Victoria's Secret Pink is a longtime favorite.  So soft and comfy. I love the boyfriend pants and the super soft tees.

Cute slippers.  We try not to wear shoes in our house and I've destroyed all of my socks as a result so I love little slippers these days. These are from Loft.

Running gear!

!st column: Old Navy compression jacket, GapFit pants. I have both of these and love them.

2nd column: Garmin Forerunner 10, Lululemon brisk run gloves, Swiftwick socks.
I always wear Swiftwicks, they are my lucky socks:) Plus they are made right here in Tennessee and I'm a loyal girl.  My hands freeze so good gloves are a must. These Lulu's are on my list, I love them! I'm also planning to get a good watch to help control my pace and take training to the next level.  Runners, what watch do you like? This Garmin Forerunner 10 is a pretty good price compared to other models, should I invest in a better one or will this do?

3rd column: Lulu wishlist:) Runder Under long sleeve shirt and Run for your Life crops.  Love!!

K-cups!  They feed my coffee addiction! I dearly love that making a cup of coffee is so easy.

Photography stuff! This book is on my list.  I shot pictures for a couple of friends this year and they really inspired me--I hope I can take it to the next level next year and reeeeaaaally polish the skills.  So grateful to them for trusting me to do their pictures and for believing in me:) I know, that sounds sappy but it meant a lot to me.

Monogram necklace: these are everywhere and I love them.  Guess I'll jump on board this train too.

Pandora charms.  My mother in law gave me this bracelet years ago for my birthday and she, my mom, and Mr. C are working to fill it up.  It's a favorite! Mr. C recently surprised me with a charm that has a sneaker on it for my running. I loved it, I'm such a cheeseball.

Okey dokey, did I leave anything out?  If you have some favorites, share them!

Mama said there'd be weekends like this

Well, do I tell you we had a fabulous weekend, or do I tell you the truth?  :) There were definitely some highlights but we didn't start off so great.

Bad news first:  Friday we realized my external hard drive was failing.  And I save ALL of my pictures onto this drive.  Mr. C likes for me to do this to keep my computer running quickly.  And so it's what we do. But when I was editing Christmas card photos this year, I had some trouble with the hard drive being slow and not loading some of the photos.  We actually did not panic.  Just figured it was no biggie because the hard drive is pretty new.

I took the drive to Geek Squad where they determined it was quote "On it's way out".  So I still didn't panic, I paid them to do some data extraction.

They called me Saturday and told me they couldn't retrieve any files.  Now I panic.

That means I've potentially lost every picture we've taken for the past 5 years (and beyond). Every.single.one.  The pictures of me in the hospital on the days my children were born, family vacations, my wedding, firsts, Christmases, birthdays, our documented lives.  Locked up in a hard drive that won't read.

To say I was upset would be an understatement.  My heart was broken and I thought I was going to throw up.  I know it isn't the end of the world. I know far worse things can happen.  But I'm still sad:( And I'm SO disappointed in myself for not keeping them in additional places.  Sure, I have hard copies here and there, but I didn't archive outside of that hard drive.  Boo hoo!!!! How did I overlook that?  I'm so mad at myself.

We are in the process of finding a company/lab to try and extract my files and I'm really hopeful.  Mr. C's computer will read the drive, it just won't open any files.  So we are hopeful that a lab can save my pictures.

I'll let you know how things go someday soon hopefully.

Now let's focus on the positive!

Frickles from Burger Up, always a good thing!  Since I had run 8 miles that morning I decided to be healthy (er) and get the quinoa / black bean burger.  Then I sat there drooling over Mr. C's juicy bison burger with fried jalepenos.  I will be ordering a REAL burger next time.  So many lessons this weekend!

Wine, always a good thing.

Boys, always the light of my life.

Holiday plaid, a good thing.

Friends and their beautiful Christmas cards, precious.

Teamwork at Home Depot; priceless.

Hope you've had a happy Monday:)

Random!

It seems I can't get lots of time at the computer these days so this post will have to cover a lot, aka be random.  Here's what's up!

• Last weekend was great!  We went to a friend's birthday party, I shot some family pictures for a good friend (so fun!), and then we got our Christmas tree.  Here she is!  And thank you to the kind lady who offered to take our picture, I'm finally in one, yay!

• Thank you to my sweet blog friend Sara who sent me the prettiest notecards (that she made) --  gorgeous! 

• Today I have an appointment with my orthopedic Dr. to go over the results of my MRI.  You know what? I'm not even nervous.  I know my knee is fine.  I just know.  Yesterday I ran the fastest mile of my life, a 7:19 (woohoo!).  I know that's not fast for many, but I ran 12 minute miles in high school (not a fast girl here!) so that's an improvement.  I have had great runs lately and finished a 6 miler on Sunday with almost no pain.  I felt like doing cartwheels!  I reeeeaaally want to run another half.  The next one planned is in April, the St. Jude Country Music Half, and I'm planning to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington next fall (the WHOLE 26.2, eek!). I had hopes of running New York but I'm not likely to get in.  But that's okay! I'm excited to get past this injury and train.  It has become such an important part of my life and brings me so much joy.  Plus it makes my jeans fit better.  And workout clothes are comfy.

Source

• I'm trying a new face cream, Korres wild rose.  It has no chemicals, gets great reviews, and I hope I love it. I'll let you know!

• My Christmas cards are done and on their way--thank you to Sweet Birdie's Nest for creating my favorite card to date!  Love.these.cards.  Love!

• Did you see the thing on Pinterest about stringing your Christmas lights up and down the tree instead of all around?  Since I'm the light hanger in my house I decided to try it and it worked so well!  I finished in 3 seconds and wasn't covered in sap with pine needles in my pants.  Thank you Pinterest. The boys selected colorful lights for the second year in a row.  I prefer white, but it's not about me;)

• So excited for Christmas this year, the boys are so darling and it's funny to hear their little conversations about it.  I need to start recording some of them!

• I want to spend a million dollars at JCrew.  I can normally keep myself out of trouble by not going into the store but I stopped in last week and just wandered around daydreaming.  I want to hug and kiss this plaid shirt.  I did not leave with it, but I wanted to.

And this plaid skirt.  Adorable.

Happy day friends!  Linking with Shanna for Random Wednesday!

Playing catch-up!

Hey friends! I've missed you!  Let me try and catch you up quickly (idea loosely based on Christina's 'currently' post).

The following photos should be part of that Awkward Family Photos game...

Thanksgiving:  It was great! In spite of the looks on my family's faces, dinner was yummy and we had fun.

I mean really.

This one's blurry, but at least they smiled!

Currently reading:

Have been working on:  Christmas cards.  Finally finished editing pictures and Sweet Birdie's Nest is on the job:)

Favorite meal this week: Hot and Sour Thai Soup: Tom Yum Goong by Tyler Florence; that's a mouthful! I was a bad blogger and didn't take a picture. Here's the recipe, it's delicious and easy but has a few specialty ingredients so you'll need to head to Whole Foods.

Currently wearing: big cozy sweaters. It's cold, brrrr. My sweet mama treated me to this one from Loft.

Also wearing Mizuno Wave Inspire 8's.  More later, but in a nutshell, I'm in love with these shoes.  I had an MRI yesterday and will update my knee situation soon. Had 2 runs this week with no pain! Woo hoo!

Oops, I wore my compression sock backwards, who does that?:)

Currently watching: The Voice, Revenge, and NASHVILLE.

Current favorite treat: these truffles from Whole Foods. I eat one (yes, just one:) every night with a cup of decaf. So good!

Currently enjoying: watching my little men decorate for Christmas:) It's priceless.

So glad it's Friday, what a busy week! Y'all have a great weekend!

Ina's Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts

A recipe, as promised!

Ina's Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts from her cookbook Foolproof

Ingredients:

Baking spray with flour, like Baker's Joy
2 cups All purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 extra large egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups whole milk (I used 2% and it worked fine)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

TOPPING:
1 stick butter (I used original Smart Balance instead)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 2 doughnut pans well.

Into large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  In small bowl whisk together egg, milk, melted butter, and vanilla.  Stir wet mixture into the dry until just combined. Don't over mix.

Spoon batter into baking pans filling each about half full.  (If you over fill, the batter connects on top and looks like a cupcake instead, don't over fill!) Bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 5 minutes and tap out onto sheet pan.

To top, melt 8 tablespoons butter in an 8 inch saute pan.  Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Dip each doughnut first in butter then in cinnamon sugar, either on one or both sides. Or be creative!

Voila! As Ina would say, how easy is that?  Tip: Don't over bake them!