Happy Trails!

"Beyond the very extreme of fatigue and distress, we may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources of strength never taxed at all because we never push through the obstruction."
                                                          -William James, Born To Run

My first trail race- HARD!

Crossing the start line- me, with Erin not far behind (grey headband)

Miraculously emerging from the woods and heading for this finish line!

My running group!

Homemade Granola Bars!

Hey there!

So I tried out a recipe for super-healthy homemade granola bars today, and they turned out to be so freakin delicious that I had to share the recipe. I started with a base recipe and then added what I wanted to. Here it is:

1 2/3 cups oats
1/3 cup oat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried mulberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
2 tbsp whey protein powder
1/3 cup 100% natural peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
6 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp corn syrup
1 tbsp water.

Preheat oven to 350

Line 2 8x8 inch square pans with waxed paper, and spray with a non-stick cooking spray

Mix dry indredients and wet ingredients separately, then toss them together and press the mixture evenly into the pans.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.

*note: the Bulk Barn is my most favourite place to find most of the listed ingredients*

Here's the finished product:

As you can see, when I tried to cut it into squares it crumbled to pieces. That's because this is the only corn syrup I had in my cupboard:

For obvious reasons I decided not to use it...hence the crumbly-ness.

Oooopssss!!!

Delicious nonetheless :-)

TUSAL

Phew, I almost forgot! Here's my TUSAL for May!

Tear!

Okay, I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to the royal wedding. I openly said that I didn't care, they're just people getting married and people needed to calm down, I wasn't going to watch it....etc, etc, etc.

I do have to comment on it though because it was such a momentous event and for no reason at all, the day before, I got super excited about it and couldn't wait to watch!

The problem was that where I live the ceremony was starting at 6am. I had to be at work at 5am. But the good news......we have a TV in our lunchroom! So at 6, Bakery Barb, Roz and I ran upstairs and watched on the who-knows-how-old blurry TV. Soooo fun!

I mean seriously, LOOK how happy these two are!!

I do have a thing for Prince Harry........so I had a great time watching him too :-) This wedding contained all of the elements it takes to make good TV: humour (I found it hilarious that the ring wouldn't go on Kate's finger), suspense (William not being able to turn around and see Kate for so long was killing me!), drama (the little girl covering her ears added a little dramatic effect- would she cry? Would she scream?), and sentiment (seeing how happy these two are together definately tugged at my heart strings!).

So. Those are my thoughts on the royal wedding.

Some More Progress!

Happy sunny Saturday to you all!!!! It's finally not raining! Yay!

So I have some Crazy January Challenge progress to show you, of The Sheltering Tree that Holly's working on for me. She's getting way further on this than I am on anything I'm working on right now. Amazing!!

Are any of you guys on Facebook? I would LOVE it if you'd take a minute and visit "Ted on the Roof- The Final Sitting"

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Ted-On-The-Roof-The-Final-Sitting/192540264115696

Ted is Holly's husband and has been raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada for the last 9 years. This is the 10th and final year, and he's spending a week on the roof of the grocery store Holly and I work at. There's going to be a different dinner outside every night, a silent auction, bake table and other festivities! So please check out this page, "like" it, and support a great cause!

:-)

A Little Progress!

Hey!

Hopefully you guys all had a great Easter! Mine was good...busy and quiet all at the same time LOL. Work was really busy, but after I got the craziness of Thursday and Saturday out of the way I went to visit my Grandpa for a few days, which is always my favourite thing to do :-) The weather was cold and rainy so we didn't do much...which gave me lots of time to stitch! I made a fair bit of progress between stitching all day Sunday and the 8 hours in the car. I worked on the same two I've been working on lately- Catch the Wind and the Peace Tree. Here they are...up to date!

As you can see, I'm totally "right on schedule" HA!

And, as I prepare to go force my group to run hills in the pouring rain, I'll leave you with a cute pic of my Cooper. This is how he stood the entire time my Mom was out while we were at my Grandpa's. He was clearly horrified that she left him with ME of all people, and stared out the window for a full half hour. Poor Coop LOL!

I'm An Aunt!

This is my new adorable little nephew Reimer (sounds like Rymer), named after the Toronto Maple Leaf's goalie. He's only 8 weeks old and I LOVE him!!