Stark has not been feeling himself since being put under for his teeth cleaning. Last night Stark hung out with Chris while he was working on the truck when they got home Stark seemed almost dazed and I sat down next to him. 

 He just laid there staring at nothing. Poor puppy. 

 It didn't take too long for him to doze off and before long he was sleeping hard. 

Just look at those pearly whites. This was good motivation to start brushing his teeth more regularly. He's gonna love that. 

Honey Nut Granola

For the last four months I have been eating a heavily plant based diet. Yes, I sneak in dairy here and there but mostly because it has been a learning process. I love how I have felt eating a cleaner diet and I want to continue to improve my diet. But as everyone importantly adds after a statement about eating healthy is that food has to taste good too. I've found that the more simple I keep the food the better it is. I can let the quality whole foods shine and I don't have to hide anything in syrup or a thick cheese sauce. I recently found a new blog that I've been learning a lot from: MyGreenDiet.com. This recipe is listed as Honey Nut Granola but I wanted to note the changes I made because I plan on making this at least a million more times. 

 Yum. Every week I splurge on a delicious granola that I find in the bulk area of Win-Co. It's $4 a pound and typically the most expensive item I buy every week. I noticed that the ingredients listed were oats, cashews, dried cranberries, and honey. Which is why I was buying it in the first place but I felt silly spending so much for something that seemed pretty doable and cheap to make. Enter the honey nut granola recipe. (These are her instructions, I added my notes.) Here's the link to the original recipe. http://mygreendiet.com/green-diet-plan-recipes/honey-nut-granola/

• 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1 cup sliced or chopped almonds
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut - I think coconut is poison so I used about 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds and 1/4 cup chia seeds instead. 
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup dried fruit (I like raisins, dried cranberries, and/or diced apricots) - I had just over one cup of dried cranberries. This made the perfect blend of oat to nut to fruit ratio. 

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a lightly greased sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.
3. While the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. Pour the mixture back onto your sheet pan and return to the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for 1 to 2 hours before breaking up into pieces. Store in an airtight container. This can be stored at room temperature for a week or two; however, it will only stay really crisp for a day or two. Store it in the freeze to maintain crispness for longer.

My house smelled like heaven on earth when this was baking. I actually received a complement when I went back to work that I smelled good. So it doubles as a home freshener and perfume, oh yeah, and you can eat it too. And it tastes like heaven in your mouth. I can't wait to make it again and try all sorts of mix ins. 

Morning Run

This morning I dropped Stark off at the vet to get his teeth cleaned. Considering that it's difficult to tell a dog to open his mouth and keep his tongue out of the way while they are cleaning they sedated him and it was a whole day event for him. After dropping him off I found myself feeling melancholy and missing my buddy. I drove to a park that I knew had a safe running trail along the creek that I would enjoy. Near the parking lot there is a community garden and the local geese were munching away at the corn cobs that were left there. It helped brighten my day and got it off to a good start.   

There's something about all of this that just makes me happy.

Ragnar Relay

I ran in the Ragnar Relay race this July with family. We had a great time and I'm ready to do it again.  We ran in honor of our family friend's one year old son who was recently diagnosed with cancer. 

I ran in van 2 with Mom, Nate, Jeffrey, Aleasha, and Janae. 

I did the double R and yeah, it's crooked. 

Janae made sure the van was well decorated.

 The numbers below our names are the miles we ran in each leg. We crossed them off as we finished them, oh goodie I love checklists.

Unfortunately it was raining and our paint was not rain proof. Until two days before the race the forecast was hot and sunny. I was really starting to worry about overheating while running. Thankfully Janae warned me of the weather update before I packed my bag. 

 Yes, I had the best hair there thanks to Janae. This lasted through two runs! Thanks Janae!

 Jeffrey's warm ups would have warn me out. He always ended up doing something that made me giggle so I had to try to catch a little. A half second later we saw Nate coming around the corner and Jeffrey was off.
All of my videos are sideways, apparently I didn't figure that out after recording Mom's sideways finish at her half marathon. So if the video works, just tilt the screen.

 They look way too cute to have been running all day and all night. Love these girls.

 The exchanges were always bustling with excitement. It was fun to see a variety of decorated vans and runners.

This was our view of our competition while we were waiting for one of the runners to go by.

Mountain Biking Somewhere Fun

 I edited these photos but I don't know where the edited versions are stored so this is what I've got. At the beginning of summer Chris and I were anxious to get outside and get active. I can't remember what trail we went to, I'll have to ask Chris before he forgets too, but we were near Mount Hood Meadows.  After work we took our mountain bikes and headed east, we were hoping it wasn't raining there. We had picked out a trail and it ended up being right above the clouds, we could see it raining below us and it made for a beautiful sunset. It was steeper than I was expecting so we hiked our bikes for a good portion of the trail and when we started to run out of daylight we headed back down hill. It was great to get out and ride the bikes. I hope we can make it happen again before the summer is over.

Chris gazing at the sunset that you can't see. 

My Mom Rocks!

I got of work early on Friday and loaded Stark in the car and headed to Timothy Lake to meet up with my parents. Chris followed us a few hours later on his motorcycle and made it just in time for dinner. We had a great evening enjoying the view of the lake and the campfire. We headed inside the tent trailer once it started raining and played rummy and crazy eights while Dad told fun stories of the olden days (when he was growing up).
Saturday morning we woke up to light drizzles and scattered sunshine. Mom checked in for the race then came back to camp to get rid of some pre-race jitters. I made sure to equip everyone with dollar store horns and noise makers and we were ready to go. After a long, all female, line for the porta-potty Mom stated her race a little after 10am. Dad and Chris were about a half mile down the trail at the road crossing looking like some mighty fine cheerleaders. I ran down the trail to meet up with them and while doing so thought, "That wasn't so bad, I should have just run with Mom." Heck, I had the pre-race stomach anyway. So, Mom made her way around the lake, the boys and I packed up camp and I changed out of jeans and into running gear. We met up with Mom at mile 11 and I jumped on in.

This wasn't your typical half marathon. It was a trail run, that in itself is a big deal, changing terrain of roots, rocks, sticks, puddles, skinny paths, and slippery slopes. Oh, and it was 14.2 miles. That extra 1.1 miles counted. Especially with a killer switch-back hill in the middle of that last mile. Lucky for Mom she had her very own pace-setting cheerleader.

It was fun for me to run the last three with Mom. I hope she had as much fun and I did.

  This was the reminder that I needed that I really do like running. Now I'm VERY excited for the RAGNAR RELAY in July. 

The setting was beautiful! I told Mom this in a variety of ways at least six times. This was part of my encouraging -you love running- tactic.

Here is Mom's big finish. I think my encouraging bantering worked because Mom came in FIRST in her AGE GROUP! Yes, she got another medal for that too.

Sorry, I don't know how to rotate the video in Blogger. 

A few weeks ago this was my attempt at taking pictures with our new camera. It was a Sunday afternoon and I was getting more help studying then I wanted. 

While everyday life does seem tedious and boring I've been trying to appreciate the stage of life I am in. I've been trying to take more pictures and record more memories but as you can see, it's a lot of self photos of studying, being sick, and eating. I think we are going to have to mix things up and go get ice cream, again. 

Hot Study Date

Chris and I have been studying a lot. By the end of the day we feel like we have been studying all day and there is still more to do. We can't change that we have to study, just where we study. Mixing up the location helps a bit. At least I have a hot study partner. 

Spoiled Sicko

I love being spoiled and Chris does such a good job at it. I've been sick for a month. With a cold that turned into a chronic cough. It's been a long month. Last week I was feeling worn out from all the coughing and just wanted some chicken noodle soup. I asked Chris if he would go pick some up for me and this is what he came home with. I love him so much. 

I've had to take a few days off from school and stay in bed. Chris has been crazy busy with school and work but I have been getting plenty of attention from Stark and Tornado.