July Foodie Pen Pals Reveal

Hello All! It's that time of the month again. It's the time where I reveal what awesomeness was sent to me in a box from a random location of our country!

This month I was paired with Kassandra Raux over at http://runninglongislandnyc.wordpress.com. She sent me some great things. Some things that I hadn't ever tried and was excited to try. The only problem is, I forgot to take pictures of everything before I dug into it all. I bought replacements of things that I could find, but forgot to take pictures of them, too.

So I'm going to scour the web to see if  I can find pictures of these items on their websites!





 I got two Lara Bars. An apple pie bar and a lemon bar. Very yummy!

I also got some new kale chips that I had never tried before, a chocolate bar with flax seeds that was good, new mango (which I haven't tried yet because I'm still working on the mango from June), and probably my favorite thing from the box - salsa!

 My salsa came from The Brooklyn Salsa Company which so happens to sell all of its goodies online! Try them. They are good. I don't like spicy foods so she got me the Mild salsa The Pure. It's so good. I'm making burritos for dinner tonight and this is definitely going on top of them.

I cannot for the life of me locate my Kale Chips package and I know I didn't eat them all. I was going to find the company and post a picture of them, but alas, I cannot. But everyone knows what kale chips look like. They are green, crunchy, and a little bit different!

My mango is from Go ManGo! and it's simply organic, dried mango slices. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Also - the chocolate didn't last long and we threw the wrapper away. I'm sorry to say that, but there is no photographic evidence of what was sent to me in the way of 70% dark chocolate with flax seeds. Oh well. All you need to know is that it was good!

I turned 30 on July 12 and probably the sweetest thing (other than the chocolate) was the birthday card that Kassandra sent to me. It was fun coming home from a trip to NYC to a package on the table with a birthday card inside.

It was a good month for food! This month I sent my box of goodies to Annica Russo over at http://www.annicanicole.com. Check out her post to see what she got, if you are interested.

Here's a little bit you need to know about FPP if you are interested in joining up:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.
If you’re interested in participating for August, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by August 4th as pairings will be emailed on August 5th!

Getting back into the swing of things

I've been failing recently at my marathon training. I have basically taken two weeks off. I have run here and there, but I've not gotten any long runs in at all and I really feel like I'm slacking. Actually, I don't feel like it, I know I am. Here's this week's excuse: I turned 30 on Thursday spent 10 hours in a car between Wednesday and Thursday, 4 hours on Friday and Sunday, and 10 hours today. When was there time to run? Friday morning? Sure. Saturday? No, not really because we walked around New York City for 12-15 hours. Sunday morning? Yep. But I left my sneakers in State College and we didn't go to bed until after 2 a.m. so there was no way I was going to be running. This morning we got up, got ready to go, and hit the road. It's a long way to drive and we needed to stop and see family on the way home.

So that's my excuse - there was time and I didn't take it. It's my own damn fault. But guess what. I had an amazing weekend. So here's what I'm going to do this week. Hopefully get up tomorrow morning and run or go to the gym. Then I'm going to do the one that I didn't do on Wednesday, maybe (I've got a big event that I need to be at at 7 a.m., so that might not happen). Then on Thursday, I'm going to run again. Friday I'll hopefully take the day off. Saturday, depending on where I am (traveling again) I'll cross-train. Sunday I HAVE to run 5 miles. Just 5 miles. I can do 5 miles in 1 hour.

Yes, I know that 1 hour to run 5 miles is a lot for most people, but guess what? I'm not most people. And I've determined that as long as I am doing something, then it's a whole lot better than doing nothing. So, like I said last week, I'm going to get my ass back into shrinking mode and for two reasons: My half-marathon is in 9 weeks (gasp!) and because when I weighed myself on Tuesday last week, I'd lost more weight. I'm down 10.8 pounds since the beginning of April (again, I know that's slow progress, but it's progress nonetheless).

Here's the picture of the very shapely booty that I shared in last week's post. Enjoy!

I realize my ass will never look like this, but it's a great motivator!

Now here's the updated training plan for the marathon. Since the race is in 9 weeks, I'm going to start with 5 miles this Sunday and just add a mile each Sunday until my race. I'll keep doing my training runs during the week and then I'll just go out and run the race! It'll be wonderful! I'll be wonderful! And as long as I finish the race in under 3 hours, I'll feel like a successful half-marathoner. Over three hours is okay, it's just not my goal.

Maybe I'll post more updates about my progress this week.

Turning 30

I may have the blues. The turning 30 blues. I am sitting here in the bed (at 7:00 on a Sunday evening) finishing up chores for the weekend and thinking about what to pack for my trip coming up this week. I have been meaning to blog more, but there doesn't seem to be anything of interest going on lately to blog about.

I have fallen off the half marathon training wagon with family problems and birthday parties taking its place. I know that's not an excuse and should, actually, be a motivator to run more, but I just haven't done it. But, that is changing this week. We've modified our workout schedule for this week to accommodate a car ride and I think that my blues are around as a result of too much fun, not enough run(ning).

So - why, might you ask, do I think I've got the turning 30 blues? Who the eff knows. I have been super excited for my birthday, as usual, but as soon as my friend left today it was like uh-oh it's literally just around the corner. I was perusing Pinterest for a picture of '30' and found this:

I'll be Triple-X on July 12!

It made me smile. When I saw that I actually realized that I don't have the blues about turning 30. I'm still really excited about it. I will get to see everyone that I love (mostly) on my actual birthday. Really the only person missing from the day will be my mom, but I'll see her the week after. I've mentioned a couple of times the trip I've got coming up. Here's a little more on that:

Wednesday night after I get off work, David and I are going to drive up to PA. My awesome mom-in-law is going to babysit (our precious cats) for us. We are staying in Virginia one night and then driving the rest of the way Thursday morning (my actual birthday) up to my grandma's house. She's going to make me a birthday lunch! I'm excited about that. There is nothing quite like grandma's cooking. I don't know when the last time I spent my birthday with her. After what I'm sure will be a superb meal, we'll be heading to my dad's house where I hear tale/tell (not sure which one, let me know in the comments below what's correct) that there might be a small gathering of friends. Small, fun get together, with people that I've known for half of my life at this point. I can't wait!

Friday morning we are going to pack up the truck and head on to one of my favorite places:

New York City!

Dad & G have a place in the Bronx so we'll stay there, go to their favorite little place to eat on Friday night - Antonio's - and then head on in to Manhattan on Saturday. There's a lot that I want to do, but one thing that I know is happening is the Murder at the Met Scavenger Hunt. I did this once before in 2006 and had a great time. My dad and G have something mysterious planned for 1:30 that day. I don't know what it is, but my father said that I'll probably pee my pants from excitement... That's a lot to live up to, but I'm sure that they can, and will, succeed in making it a super surprise! We are also going to be going to dinner at Aqua Grill with one of my best friends and her fiancee (they just got engaged in Paris).

Sunday I think that we are going to try and go to the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx before we pack up and head back to PA. David and I will be returning to the lovely, overheating South on Monday. I'm really looking forward to all of this. We haven't been to New York since June 2009 or 2010. It's been too long.

As I've typed out this post I have realized more that it's not that I'm worried about turning 30. My blues are simply caused by the fact that I have to work for the next 3 days before I can leave for this amazing trip! I do have a couple of things to accomplish before we leave town though. I have to pack, obviously, buy $100 worth of fireworks, and get in three days of workouts.

My race is fewer than 80 days away and I need to get my ever shrinking ass back into shrinking mode!

June Foodie Penpals

This is a bit late, but I have had a busy month and never took the time to do it right after I got my pictures taken. I got my package from Alex over at Healthy Life, Happy Wife. Boy, oh boy. Did I hit the big time. She sent me some great goodies that I hadn't gotten to experience before. Let's take a look.

This is everything that was in my box!

 All of the items in the photo below are from Trader Joe's. I've never been to a Trader Joe's before, but there is one opening in Knoxville. It was supposed to open in June, but since it's now July 1, and they are still not open I don't know when it's going to be ready. I'm really looking forward to that! The green mango is excellent. A bit tart, but sweet, too. The brownies are made with non-fat vanilla yogurt and cooked in the microwave in a coffee cup. Yum. The fruit strips and juice/puree is really tasty, too.

All sorts of yumminess from Trader Joe's.

 Oh my goodness. Those snapeas are stupendous. The kettle corn is phenomenal. It was sweet, but not too sweet like kettle corn can be sometimes. And it's lite, so it had fewer calories than real kettle corn.

I'll be buying more Snapeas.

 Alex sent me some homemade lemon meringue cookies along. They were good. I'd never had meringue cookies before. I haven't had the peppermint tea yet, but it's been a little too hot to enjoy hot tea right now. 

 I'm always looking for something to eat on my long runs. These sport beans are good. They have the same texture as jelly beans, but they don't taste exactly like jelly beans. They work, though, and that's the most important thing. Especially in this heat.

Energize before, during, and after!

I loved everything about this package. I think that I've said this every month, but it keeps getting better! I'm looking forward to this month's package - especially since I turn 30 on July 12.

Thanks again, Alex!

And now it’s time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.
If you’re interested in participating for July, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by July 4th as pairings will be emailed on July 5th!