Blender Bottle

I was gifted this amazing Blender Bottle and I finally got to use it the other day!  If you don't already have one of these, I highly suggest you get one. I didn't even know that I wanted one until I received it!

This is the Blender Bottle Sport Mixer.

 

The stainless steel sphere is what does the magic in this bottle.

 

 

Fill it with your favorite mix ( I'll talk more about this later). Make sure the stainless steel sphere is already inside the cup before you put in your ingredients.

 

And shake away!

 

I love that the lid and the flip cap on this bottle are so tight that I didn't have to worry about it leaking while I shook it! There is also a nice little indentation on the flip cap to hold your finger over so you can hold it comfortably while shaking it as well.

 

 

After your drink is blended to your liking, you can flip the cap back and drink it right out of this bottle.

 

Here are some ideas of what you can do with the Blender Bottle:

 

Smoothies and Protein Shakes

Yogurt Smoothie                        Maple Buttercup                         Candycane Swirl

 

 

Breakfast Items

Basic EZ Omelette                                Blender Bottle Crepes                       French Egg White Omelette

Dressings and Sauces

Apricot-Dijon Dressing Sauce             Balsamic Vinaigrette                    Fresh French Dressing

Desserts

 Candy Bar Pie                     Mandarin Cream Fruit Salad                 Key Lime Pie

Beverages

Triple Juice Punch                     Pina Colada Escape                       Peppermint Malt


All these recipes can be found at www.blenderbottle.com
 

I'm actually looking forward to putting my Chai Tea powder mix in here ( I make a frozen version of Chai Tea).  Speaking of Chai Tea, I should mention that this bottle is not intended for hot drinks.

 

The blender bottle comes in several sizes and is dishwasher safe.

What is your favorite drink to make?



Maui 5K and a Concert

Because of the winter weather last week my running was minimal! I only got 9.1 miles in and they were all done on the treadmill. Like many people, I have always hated the treadmill but I am now open to taking a new approach about it. We have a fabulous Nordic Track that I am going to make more of an effort to enjoy and use to the best of  IT'S ability.  This weekend I ran on one of the pre-programed courses. It was the Maui Taco 5K!

 

This was the longest it has ever taken me to run a 5K! ( For whatever reasons, it always takes me much longer on the treadmill to run the same exact distance outside). On this particular course the inclines and pace were already pre-programed.  I had never changed the incline on my treadmill before, so this was the first time I was running with it at a 6.5 incline. It was kind of fun using a pre- programmed course because I didn't really know what to look forward to. I didn't know when the pace was going to speed up or slow down.  I am now looking forward to really using the ifit function and running on some other courses!  Do you ever use pre programed routes on your treadmill? Which one is your favorite?

In other news, I got out on Saturday night and went to a concert. (I know these are horrible pictures)
The headlining act was Marc Cohn ( with special guest Paula Cole: You may remember her from her song which was the theme song from Dawson's Creek).  Marc Cohn is special to me because he sang our wedding song "True Companion". If you've never heard it, you should listen to it HERE. The first Christmas we were married, I got my husband tickets for one of his concerts and for years we talked about how that was one of the best concerts we had ever been too. It was in a beautiful theater and still felt like such an intimate setting.  As luck would have it, I was able to get tickets again to his show last Saturday! Again, it did not disappoint. I will never listen to "Walking in Memphis" in quite the same way again!

If you are married, what was your wedding Song?  If you are not married yet, what do you want your wedding song to be?

Making Motivational Magnets!

We are doing another Friday Five link up and this week the theme is "Motivational Quotes"

I think this is a great topic because everybody loves these. I see them on Pinterest all the time and I see people posting them on their blogs frequently too.  But what do we do with these quotes after we've read them? Well, I've taken some of the ones I like and have made them into magnets!

Feel free to use or "pin" any of these that you like. ( If you hover your mouse over the picture, a "Pin It" button will appear!

Oh, and if you've read our blog for any amount of time, you might recognize some of these pictures!

So here are five motivational quotes.  Enjoy!

 

 

                                                                        

 

 

What's your favorite motivational quote? Please share it with us!

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Goals vs Plans

For the past several weeks, bloggers all over the place have been mentioning their goals for 2014 or may have recapped their goals from 2013.  We have mentioned in THIS POST, that we were not going to make a "Goals List" per say.


Does this mean we are not goal oriented? Does this been we aren't ambitious?  Of course not!

We have thought a lot about the word "Goals" lately and to us, it is something that you are constantly working towards to achieve.  We both have had goals and we both have achieved them. This doesn't mean that we will stop working hard at things and it doesn't mean that we can't strive to be better at something else.
 As far as health and fitness goals are concerned;
Lacey's long time goal was to complete the Boston Marathon: Done.
Meranda's goal was to reach a PR in the 5K and 10K distances: Done and Done.

Now for 2014, we have PLANS instead of Goals. ( Having plans sounds more fun doesn't it?)

He have six races scheduled so far and we plan to do more!
We plan to Run at Disney.
We plan to do a family vacation.
We plan to do our annual Murder Mystery Weekend
We plan to go to an upcoming concert.
We plan to run distances we've never ran before.

I personally plan my everyday out.  That's right, I get a piece of paper and pen out everyday and write down everything I need to accomplish that day. If I'm doing it, I'm writing it on the list. This includes writing down running and showering. Of course there is the every day stuff like which bills I have to pay, what I need to get at the store, e-mails that I need to respond to, and laundry that needs done. 

When I complete the task, it gets crossed of the list. I admit that some items don't get crossed off that day and so they get pushed to the next days list ( laundry seems to be one of those items that rarely gets crossed off the list).
But you  see, although small, these are still accomplishment.

As the year progress I'm sure that we will come up with some sort of Goal that we both want to achieve, but for the time being, we are just happy making Plans!

 Have you ever thought about it this way before? 

Making Another Run Disney Costume: Show Your Disney Side

Since the WDW Marathon is this weekend, it finally hit me that I better get my butt in gear and start working on my costumes/outfits for the Princess Half Marathon weekend.   That weekend will be here before we know it!

 

 

And so since we will not be participating in the WDW marathon this year ( but you can read about our time at the 2013 WDW Marathon HERE) I thought it was a perfect time to get started with my sewing ( not too mention the weather has been very conducive to staying indoors lately).

 

This is what I have come up with so far.

If you remembered my race costume from Wicked this past year, you may remember some of these pieces. Yup, I recycled them. The "Cinderella" is actually a patch. This way I can take it off and use the shirt over again for another costume.  And I was please with the skirt that I made for Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5k race, so I made this one in blue the same way. I thought about getting a tiara to wear, but then thought I would wear my blue Run Disney Sweaty band instead, since I hadn't wore that in a race yet!  I'll be wearing this outfit for the Royal Family 5k race!

 

I'll be running in Pink for the Enchanted 10K.

 

This outfit is a work in progress. I suppose it might end up being a Sleeping Beauty costume, what do you think?  I need to find a different top to go with it though. I also have a pink running outfit planned for the half marathon on Sunday, so I'm not quite sure which pieces I will use for the 10k and which I will use for the Half.

So there you have. This is my progress so far. Lacey is working on a pretty cute costume as well, and I think my mom is working on one too, so I'll have more pictures to post as the month goes on!

What projects are you currently working on?

*I'm linking this post up with Deb from Focused on the Magic ( sorry I am a bit too Wordy).
 The theme this week is "Show Your Disney Side"

The Calendar Conundrum

 

The Calendar, something we all use, we all have and something that we both decided to make a commitment to in 2014.

 

 

What do I mean by this? Well, in June of 2013 I participated in my first Virtual Race. I was committed to a certain amount of miles to be completed in a certain amount of time. To keep track of these miles I wrote them on the calendar. After the virtual race was over I tried to continue keeping track of my miles. Sometimes I remembered and sometimes I didn't.

So as we closed out 2013 I decided to add up all the miles ( at least the ones that I remembered to record) that I have completed between June and December. My total ended up being 316 miles. Not too bad for only six months. I believe if I would have started recording at the beginning of the year I may have been able to exceed 500 miles.

So after talking about this with my sister, we both made a commitment to start recording each and every mile on our calendars! 

Have you always recorded all your miles? If not is this something you will start doing?

( Even though I record my mileage on my Garmin, it was actually fun to add all the calendar miles up at the end of the year. Something I will look forward to doing next New Years Eve!)

~M

How do you RUN, READ, REST?

 

I admit that I personally wasn't very active this weekend. I am hoping that Lacey had a better weekend than I did. I can't wait to hear about it!

 

Friday night I could feel a scratchy throat starting to develop, so as soon as I woke up on Saturday morning I took a spoonful of this stuff.

 

Have you ever had Buckley's cough suppressant before? It is awful but it works!  It taste like what I imagine Vicks vapor rub would taste like if you put a spoon in the jar and ate it! I am sure to hold my nose shut just like a child would as I swallow the mixture!

 

I was still a little sore from my run on Thursday, so I did muster up enough energy on Saturday morning to do some leg stretches with my Xfinity Band.

 

After that, the rest of the day ( I mean weekend) was spent lounging around with this sweet girl. My throat was not scratchy anymore but I continued to be drowsy, my head and eyes hurt, and I was sneezing uncontrollably.

While I was lounging, I got online and checked my local library to see what new books were available. Before I discovered blogging, I use to be a huge book reader. I use to commute a pretty far distance for my job, so I was no stranger to audio books as well. I was renting and buying books on cd all the time. Then I discovered that I could download books from my local library right to my I-pod, for FREE!  This was perfect for summers when I could sit out by the pool and listen to my book.  Bliss!  I haven't listened to an audio book for some time now.  In fact, I was thinking about it this weekend. Could I download a book on my I-pod and listen to it during my long runs?  I admit that when I listen to my music, half the time I don't really even remember the songs that play during my run. I may not even be paying attention to it!  If I were to listen to a book, would I be able to concentrate on the story going on? Would I be too concentrated on the story and forget about my surroundings and therefore compromise my safety?  Would I really slow myself down as a run because I am listening intently to the story ( I can tell that I do this when I drive. If I need to concentrate on something, like directions, I drive slower)?

How do you feel about running while listening to an audio book? Have you ever done it?

Just in case you are considering audio books ( for your run or your commute OR your upcoming flight to Disney) I'd love to share a few of my favorites!

Lacey and I both love all Danielle Steel books (Please don't judge us)!


Echoes is a historical fiction novel. It's set during World War II. Truly one of the best stories I have ever heard!

 

Another great audio book By Danille Steel is Bungalow 2. This one is a bit on the lighter side. Lacey and I both have actually listened to this several times on our travels.

 

Sophie Kinsella's Can you keep a secret was the first audio book I owned. This one is probably my all time favorite and I have listened to this one several times as well.  Sophie Kinsella's characters are always British and the storyline is always set in London. (Think Bridget Jones). Just beware that you WILL Laugh Out Loud when you listen to this! 

 

 

And then of course I discovered that Sophie Kinsella was the author behind the Shopaholic Series. I think there are 5 stories in this series (I still need to listen to the last one). These of course are a blast to listen too!

 

Have you ever read/listen to any of these books?  What's your opinion on listening to an audio book on your run?

~M
I hope you all had a great weekend!

P.S Did you know that Sophie Kinsella also writes under the name Madeleine Wickham? ( I read somewhere that Sophie Kinsella is her pen name because she didn't want her real name on the Shopaholic series because she wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.)