Moo

For all you moms out there, this is about 7 minutes worth. Moo.

You all know I love showing you pictures.

So here they are...

I love how Selah is staring at Mike here.

I bought the smallest bike on earth at a scholarship fundraiser for my school this weekend. It's called a Strider and is basically a kid's bike with no pedals. They teach kids to balance and move on a bike while the kids push the bike along with their feet. They also give them the freedom of speed so they can keep up with adults that are walking. There are several little kids on campus in the 2-3 year old range that skipped training wheels and are riding regular bikes around like champs! Selah's legs need to grow a few more inches before she can try this one out, but hopefully she'll be on it this Spring.




Why do babies make such an incredible mess when they eat? Why doesn't it bother them to have their faces covered in sticky food?

Family Photo

The 3 of us on a hike up East Creek today.

Typical

Last night:
10:00 to bed
10:30 Selah hungry, feed her, back to bed
11:00 call from student, go to dorm to check on him
11:45 back to blissful bed
1:15 Selah hungry, feed her, back to bed
4:30 Selah hungry, feed her, back to bed
6:00 Selah up for the day, Mike up with her
6:45 me up for the day

Not to bitch, but after doing this for the past 6 1/2 months, I'm a little sleepy.

“Living passionately is not about wealth, a fairy tale existence, or having it easy. It is about enthusiastically setting goals, and working through storms on the way without hesitation. It is about deciding everyday to utilize talents you’ve been given and to live, love and grow.”


I wrote that a few years ago in a newspaper article for Mike's high school student newspaper. He used it today for his XC kids as their "quote of the day", which I appreciate. I like the quote (and am honestly a little surprised that I wrote it) so I thought I would share. It will be a good one to share with my healthy habit club girls.

just a taste

After much request from the grandmas, Mike and I obliged and had professional photos taken of Selah last week. The photographer sent us a few unedited ones and the one below is my fave. We should have the rest of the photos in the next couple days.

Flippin' Sweet Moves

This was such a fun weekend! Our good friends Mark and Katie came to visit. It was Katie's only break in her fast track teaching program and they came to see us--what a treat. The weekend didn't exactly go as they expected. Usually when we get together we do things like climb rocks and ski tours, but this weekend we met Jesus. That's hay-SOOS for you whiteys.

I don't know how many of you have been following my FB updates, but Mike and I have been having a few issues getting the elk from whole legs in a cooler on the porch to nice little white packages in the freezer. Tuesday, I took it to the only game processing people within about 100 miles, walked in the door, picked my jaw up off the floor after seeing the $350 price tag, got back in my car and drove home. Mike and I got psyched and proceeded to debone and carve up an animal for the first time since either of us had moved away from our fathers. We worked from about 5:30 to about 10:30, at which time we ceased to be psyched. Our eyes were sore, our fingers were covered in elk goo, the floor was a disgusting mess, there was way too much good meat in the trash, and we had only finished one of the smaller quarters...ugh.

Wednesday came and went, no butchering to be had. Thursday too. We were dreading starting the process again and the elk was going to spoil if we didn't get on it. Friday, I went to the local Carniceria and bought beef fat. For you non-hunters: it is customary to add a little fat to elk burger because it is so lean it will not stick to itself and burgers will fall apart. That's where I met Jesus. I had already called and knew that the shop wouldn't butcher the elk. But my proposal on Friday was different--I asked the guys behind the counter if they would butcher it for me after work. After some run-around, one agreed and I was to bring the elk to the shop at 9:00pm. Meanwhile, Mark and Katie showed up, I made an AMAZING curry that I will share later, we ate, drank, etc. Nine o'clock rolled around and the boys loaded up the cooler with the remaining 3 elk quarters and drove to meet Jesus and Giovanni at the Carniceria. As they approached the door with the huge cooler, the boss man looked at his employees with a frown. Apparently, they had expected him to be gone by closing time. El Jefe and the butchers traded some words before Giovanni stuck his head out the door and said, "Uh, out back or your house". To our house they came.

I wish I would have videoed the entire night. Jesus and Giovanni had the most incredible knife skills I have ever ever ever seen. I could have dressed in spandex from head to toe and they could have swung their knives around for a few seconds and my clothes could have been on the floor and my skin unscathed. They meant business too, even refused cervesa while they worked. They butchered the rest of the elk in an hour and a half. It was SO COOL! Mark and Mike wrapped up the meat, Katie labeled it, I just kinda stared at them in disbelief. We paid them $80 each, not bad for guys who normally make between $5 and $6 an hour (apparently they aren't even getting minimum wage). I will SO be calling them next year. Not the evening our friends expected during their visit, but definitely one none of us will ever forget.

Giovanni on the L, Jesus on the R, Katie looking on.




Not a great video, but the best we had from the evening. Here they were trying to tell me how to make fajitas.

Mike had a XC meet Saturday so the rest of us had a relaxing morning. I gave them a campus tour--not a bad looking place in the fall, eh? Here is Katie riding around the school. After the tour, we rode to town and hit up the thrift store.


Selah in the Chariot.

Mike arrived home around 3 and we all decided we needed to get out to do something, though none of us were very motivated to do anything requiring much effort.

So we shot the guns. We tried to get the dirt bike out as well, but it had a flat.
Selah could not hear anything through the earmuffs. She didn't even look up or flinch when the guns went off. And they looked so cute on her!

Mark had never shot a rifle or shotgun before so he had a blast red necking it. Mike taught him how to shoot clays with the 20 gauge....he was kind of successful. Katie had never shot a rifle and caught on very quickly. She's a little Annie Oakley.


Mike explaining how the shotgun works.


Katie working the 243.


Me with the 300 Savage, my dad's gun from his childhood.



Awww.


Selah feeling over it.


That night, Mike made us elk medallions wrapped in bacon, grilled asparagus brushed in balsamic vinegar, and sauteed potatoes, onions, and carrots. Yummm. M and K don't eat beef, so the elk was a very special treat of red meat.


Katie sweetly giving Selah a bottle.



They made friends...


Selah is always standing up in her crib now!

Is this normal at 6 months???

We all ran about 5 1/2 miles together this morning before they headed home. It was gorgeous out today! It was so nice, I did another 10 miles this afternoon with Selah. Felt awesome, too, and trying to get ready for the Vegas marathon in December.


Mikey and I taught ourselves how to make sausage today. We made about 10 pounds of Italian sausage, beer brats, and beer-cheddar wurst. Not the nasty fake cheddar and fatty sausage you can buy in the store! Where else can you get super lean, free range, grass fed, organic, 100% fresh and natural meat made into a sausage with real cheddar cheese and a good microbrew? Can't wait to try those!


The extruder fits onto our hand meat grinder. You put the casing on the extruder and guide it as the meat comes out. When you have your desired length, you twist the casing and cut it. Easy!

Our finished product.

SUCCESS!!

He did it! Mike shot his first elk this morning! I got a text at 8:49 that said "got one". There is hardly any reception out there, so even trading texts was difficult. I was so excited, I couldn't decide what to do. I tried tracking down some elk-packing help without success, then tried to buy a freezer, then decided to just go help him pack the thing out myself. The freezer guy informed me that it did not need to go straight into the freezer, but rather needed to age a few days first. As soon as I had that info, I headed into the woods. He shot it exactly where we had scouted last night and I found him on the trail with ALL FOUR quarters in a huge pack on his back. After taking the majority of the meat home to clean and put on ice, we hiked back in to the carcass to get the remaining meat. He is super proud of himself and I am so proud of him! Although we both grew up hunting, we have not really done so since moving away from our parents. We tried a bit last season without success, so this is really exciting for us. Mike hopes that next year my dad will join us to teach us how to properly field dress an animal. The loss of his own dad was especially poignant today, as hunting was something they shared for many years and his dad is the first person he would have called with the news. He shared with me that he really never thought he would actually shoot or even see an elk, but had really looked forward to some solitude in the woods with thoughts of his dad. The elk is just a bonus.

Sorry if you're squeamish, here's the animal.

Selah helped pack out her first elk! She looked hilarious in the Ergo on Mike's back. He is so broad, she was completely starfished across his back. Apparently she was comfy, though, because she was asleep within about 5 minutes.

Possibly the secret to his success today. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I found this in the shower this morning.

Walking the guns

Last year, Mike and I became pros at walking the guns. We actually look really hard for elk, but have very little luck seeing any. Today was opening day for rifles, so we went for it after Mike's morning cross country meet. The autumn colors are beautiful right now.

Poor little Selah under the orange vest. She now fits in the Ergo piggyback, which is very comfortable.

Big blue eyed smiling baby in the evening light.

Selah learned how to sit up last week. It was very sudden--one day she couldn't and then all of a sudden she could. Now she does it all the time and seems to love it. She is trying really hard to crawl. You could almost call it a real crawl....tell me what you think.

Gem

I snapped this little gem with my phone while playing in bed with Selah today. It's always a challenge to get cute phone pictures anymore because she LOVES my phone so much, all I can get are shots of her hands trying to grab it from me.

There's something missing...

Mike, Selah, and I went for a hike last week up Avalanche Creek, on the southern flank of Mount Sopris. The colors are changing right now--the oranges, reds, yellows of the aspens were breathtaking.

Little one finally fits in the Ergo piggyback--so comfy!!

And here we are yesterday after my half marathon. What is missing????

About 12 inches...

I ran it in 1:48:16, which is a PR (personal record) by almost 50 minutes. Considering my only other half was last year's Vegas at 5 1/2 months prego, I guess a 50 minute improvement isn't that impressive. I was happy with my time, which was 8:15/mile pace, even though El schooled me with her 1:38. I have never been great at the road races, but it was nice to just tune out and not to have to think about every step and every rock! El and I both thought of this as the first step towards next summer's hundy. I call it "hundy" because the words "one hundred miler" look way too scary.

There was also a 5K option yesterday, which Mike and Selah won! They were in the paper and you can read the article here. Mike has an official stroller PR of 19:12 for the 5K now.

__________________________________________

Thanks for all the great ideas regarding the new healthy weight loss group with my students. We had our second meeting tonight and they did the following:

• Calculated current and goal weights and BMI's (charts will start next week per their request)
• Formed accountability partners for exercise. They agreed to partner up and exercise together 4 mornings this week. I had them write down the time and place that they would meet. Their exercise instructions were to run 1 minute, walk 1 minute for 30 minutes. I also encouraged them to just get out and walk if they had unexpected free time.
  
• Agreed to use the salad plates as dinner plates. The plates are smaller, which will help control portion size.
• Agreed to drink a large glass of water with every meal.
• Agreed to have 1/2 of lunch and dinner plates consist of veggies.
• Agreed to keep food journals for 3 of the next 7 days, including 1 weekend day.

They all though this sounded doable and they're still motivated and excited. I'm excited too! I really hope this works to develop healthy habits without obsession or eating disorders. Thankfully, none of these girls have disordered eating behaviors. Keep the ideas coming if you have more!