Well gosh. It sure has been a while since we last caught up. It’s been kind of crazy up here.
WHY, you ask? Well most of you already know, but … Mr. Grumpy popped the question and… I SAID YES! Actually – let’s be honest. I think the exact words out of my mouth were, “Are you really asking me?!?! Is this real life?!?! OMG YES, YES, YES!!!” Long story short – we’re engaged and knee-deep in wedding planning. Here’s some pics of our engagement session by Mindy Sue Photography (who is seriously the BEST – if you’re looking for a wedding or life-event photog. look no further. Mindy is basically my new BFF and her pictures make me not look like a deranged squirrel, so I’m especially in friend love with her).
Of course, you’re probably wondering how Mr. Grumpy asked. It was pretty perfect – we were getting ready to head out to his parent’s house for our holiday (yes, I’m talking Christmas it was THAT long ago) celebration. In true Cari fashion, I had NO idea that he was trying to ask me to be his wife. So here I am running around the apartment, turning off all the lights. Then, after turning off the hallway light (the last one that was on), I hear Mr. Grumpy in his I-cannot-believe-you voice say, “Cari!!!!” – so I turn the light back on and there he is, in the hallway, getting on his knee. Then I realized what he was doing and immediately started crying, shaking my head up and down and hugging/smooching him. Then, we tried to call all our friends and family and NOT ONE OF THEM answered the phone… Which would only happen to me! But, eventually they did and we’ve been celebrating ever since!
Now, this winter was especially rough. Hello – did you guys hear about the Polar Vortex? I mean that was no joke. I literally did not leave our apartment until last week – and the 10 days I spent in Colorado with my fantastic fam celebrating the wedding (pictured below!In most of these, I was laughing pretty hard. Not sorry.)
So after the long, long winter, man – am I ready to thaw out! So ready, in fact, that I already have my first real bad sunburn, compliments of The Ohio State University (we went for Mr. Grumpy’s little brother David’s college graduation last weekend and apparently I thought I was exempt from sun lotion). But, it was worth it David!! (I was basically the only person tweeting live from the graduation ceremony…)
https://twitter.com/carijeanne/status/462996121636196352
https://twitter.com/carijeanne/status/463015474888843265
https://twitter.com/carijeanne/status/462969677358977024
Because the weather is beautiful and I need to be in shape come October 25 when we say, “I do!,” Mr. Grumpy and I signed up for yet ANOTHER half marathon. Yes, the answer is YES – I am crazy. This means that we start training THIS WEEK. Part of me is excited and the other part is just asking myself, “Why. Why do you do this to yourself, Cari?” Well – sitting in the apartment for five months straight taught me something – I become a true blue Mrs. Grumpy when I can’t go outside. I also do not have the same metabolism as I did at age 23. I also developed a pretty bad addiction to Candy Crush, which ended in me having to completely delete the app from my tired, old iPhone 4. Therefore, it’s time to get my butt in motion. So, starting this week – I’ll be sharing updates on my training, wedding planning and healthy eating as we get closer and closer to the Big Day. Bare with me, folks.
Mr. Grumpy stumbled upon this handy tool on the ASICS website – you just put in what day your half marathon (or whatever your goal is) is, add your previous time (if applicable) and set a goal for this race. Then, it creates a complete training schedule for you at the click of a button. What’s great is that you can adjust your running days (for example, I refuse to run on Fridays, so I just switched my rest days) and you can change your pace at any time between easy, average and hard. What’s even better about it is that you can log all your runs and sync your schedule not only to your Google calendar (or Outlook) but also to your Runkeeper app. And if you miss a run (which happens), then you can easily reschedule.
So – if you’re looking for a handy training tool for whatever your next running adventure may be – you should definitely check this out – myasics.us. You won’t regret it! Or you might depending on how much you want to run…
What was for dinner tonight you ask? Homemade Chipotle bowls!
Here’s a quick recipe:
- 1 cup brown rice, cooked in chicken broth
- 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 lb ground turkey (we use Jenni-O brand!), cooked and seasoned with paprika, smoked chipotle pepper and season salt
- 1 cup of frozen red peppers, onions and green peppers, sautéed and thawed
- 1 can of black beans and 1 can of pinto beans, drained and heated over medium heat on the stove
- 1/4 cup of low-fat cheddar cheese (optional)
- 1 can of no-sodium corn with green and red peppers, drained (we kept ours cold like salsa!)
- 1/2 red tomato, diced
- 1 cup of chopped romaine lettuce
Combine as you like it! I usually put the rice first, then beans, then turkey and cheese, the corn, lettuce, tomato and top it with the hot peppers and corn. But – it’s your bowl, so go through the line just like you would at Chipotle! Boy, this is a LOT cheaper and you’ll be a lot less tempted to put the “bad” ingredients Chipotle offers like the barbacoa or the sour cream. Enjoy!