Flora and Gromit

It's been almost a month and both Flora and Gromit have been getting along fabulously!  It didn't start out that way, but things have definitely smoothed out and they've been playing together every day.

A week after we got back from Portland, we thought things were going well, so we put them together in an enclosure for about an hour.  We came back to this:

Flora had bit Gromit.  Well, we waited a few days and his eye started getting swollen, so the vet made a small incision above his eye to let some of the pressure out.  We were mean and made him wear the cone for a few days while it healed.  Even the vet wondered what he could have done that pissed off Flora enough to bite him.  Flora was very sorry and even tried to lick the wound to make it better for him. 

They both love to cuddle on the couch with me.

And the other day, I even caught them playing together!

We are just so happy that they're getting along, even if they got off to a rough start.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Eric and I traveled back to Portland for Thanksgiving weekend to visit our family and friends.  But before we were allowed to have any turkey, I decided to run the Give 'N Gobble 5k in Sherwood.  Eric, Andrea, Jessi and my Dad walked it together.

 They gave us these cool turkey hats that we all wore on the course.

 The siblings.

Here we all are finishing! (Note: Not in finishing order)

 Doesn't Dad look like he's dancing a little bit?

 My picture was faked since I finished like an hour before everyone else.  Ok, I'm not that fast, but I finished 20 minutes before everyone, so there wasn't anyone to take a picture.

So after the turkey trot, we headed over to Eric's parent's house and had dinner with his Grandparents and Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  The food was amazing, and since most of us did the 5k in the morning, we burned off enough calories to have seconds!  Right?  RIGHT?!?!?

At the end of the weekend, we got to finally bring my dog, Gromit, back to Tennessee to join Flora.  We had to get a special sized soft crate so we could carry him onto the plane with us.  Of course, no doggy flight is complete without a little bit of doggy downers (my favorite part), and he was nice and calm the entire day.  I wonder if you can use these all the time?

 Everyone kept coming over and saying hello to him and he was a perfect gentleman.  Gromit was wonderful as well!

We are so happy our little family is complete!

Sorry, its been a while...

*Turns around* Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you sitting there - for 6 weeks - waiting for me to put up a new blog post, because, you know, my life is so awesome.  :)

Well have I got a few posts for you to enjoy!  A lot has happened in the last little while, so I will be doing a few posts today so you can see what I've been up to!

Purple Heart

I apologize for kind of slacking on my blog duties.  I know you all are anxiously awaiting an update from me, since my life is so interesting.  haha

Anyway.

For those of you who don't know, my husband, Eric, was shot in both his legs while he was deployed in Afghanistan on Easter Sunday.  What a great Easter that was.  NOT. 

Long story short, he earned the Purple Heart.  It's awarded to American soldiers who are wounded in combat.  It took them 6 whole months to finally give it to him.

Eric didn't want a big to-do when he was awarded the Purple Heart, so only his Company, and Yours Truly were invited.  A Lt. Colonel presented the award to him.

Thanks Eric for blinking during that picture!

For those of you who have never seen a Purple Heart, its the award on the left.  The other two awards were presented to other soldiers, but Eric has also received them.  The one in the middle is called an Army Commendation Medal.  You pretty much get it for deploying.  The award on the right is called an Army Achievement Medal.  Eric's Company earned it because they won the Itschner Award, naming them the best Engineer Company in the entire US Army.  It was pretty exciting!

100,000 miles is a long way to go!

I hit a huge milestone last weekend.

I finally ran 10 kilometers.  For you Yankees out there, that's 6.2 miles.  It may not sound like a lot, but it DEFINITELY feels far while you're running it.  Especially the last .2 miles or so (as evidenced my the look on my face...or lack of one).

I didn't quite make my goal of 1:10, because of a ridiculous hill that I had to run TWICE, but I was within a few minutes of my goal, so I'm ok with that.

Besides, since it was my first 10k ever, I PRed!  For those of you who have no idea what that means, PR = Personal Record.  So it can only get better from here!

Now, I know what you're thinking...Marissa, does this mean you've finally run 100,000 miles?  Um, no.  Not even by a long shot.  I'm about 99,800 miles away from that goal.

But my car has driven that far as of this week!

Yup, in almost 6 years, I have driven over 100,000 miles in my little Civic (aka Mabel).  That's a lot of driving!  I think it was all that driving between Vancouver and Portland.  Each one of those trips was at least 700 miles!  Damn.

Clarksville Never Fails to Disappoint!

A few days ago, I took Flora to her first vet appointment.  Don't worry, nothing's wrong with her.  I just wanted to make sure, in case something's wrong, that they know her history and everything.

Well anyway, I was talking to the vet about walking her and she told me about the Clarksville Greenway.  It's a newly opened park on an old railroad line.  It's mostly shaded and paved.  The best part?  It's about 3.5 miles in and 3.5 miles back.  I instantly thought, "OH!  I can run there, instead of running in the middle of the street in my neighborhood!" 

And I guess I can walk Flora there. 

She just spent about 5 months on a farm in Indiana at a foster home, so she's not really used to a lot of car and "city" noises.  Not that I'd call Clarksville a city, but you get the idea. 

The Greenway would be perfect for her, since its super quiet with almost no noises.

I decided this afternoon that I'd take her there to check out the area for a short walk.  Obviously, I'm not going to take a 15 pound Boston Terrier on a 7 mile walk.  I'm not cruel like that.

So we pulled into the parking lot and there was a little hut with bathrooms.  There was even a doggy water fountain.  You push the button on top, and water comes out of a fountain into a bowl at "doggy level."  It was awesome!

Then we started walking on the paved path.

And I was thinking we'd walk about half a mile in, so it didn't make for too long a walk. 

Just past the quarter mile marker (there was markers, 5 points for the Greenway!)  I noticed this:

I thought, hm, that's weird.  There weren't any signs indicating that the path was closed at the parking lot?  What the hell? (-10 points for the Greenway...for those of you keeping score, that's a total of -5 points.)

How could there be construction?  This path is only a year old!

I was going to come here for a run on Sunday to switch up my super hilly, no sidewalk neighborhood, but those dreams have been dashed. 

I looked at the Clarksville City website and it doesn't even mention a closure.  Apparently it had been closed for 6 months or so over the winter because of a storm knocking a tree into a bridge on part of the trail.  Wouldn't it be finished by now? 

I'm disappointed, Clarksville.  Why must you always give me something that seems awesome and then take it away?

Flora the Explorer

For the last few months, my husband, Eric and I have been looking for a dog to adopt.  We decided before we officially started looking that we would rescue a dog, rather than get a new puppy.  One of the reasons we wanted an older dog is because of our dachshund, Gromit.  He just turned 5, so it was important to find another dog that is at the same activity level as him.  Another reason is because puppies are a lot of work and it would be nice to have a dog that already knew the basics, like walking on a leash, basic commands and house training.

Well, we have found that dog.  Her name is Flora and she is a 7 year old Boston Terrier.  Flora hasn't had the easiest life.  She has lived most of her life in a puppy mill in Missouri.  In May, she was voluntarily surrendered to the Southern Cross Boston Terrier Rescue group.  She was spayed and put into a foster home, along with a few other dogs. 

She is very sweet, and quiet (the complete opposite of Gromit).  She hasn't had a lot of human contact, but she is slowly warming up to us. Yesterday, we drove up to Terre Haute, Indiana to pick her up.  Then, we had a 4 hour drive with a nervous dog back to Clarksville.  She was pretty calm in the car and even fell completely asleep on my lap for a minute or two.  We stopped several times so she could stretch her legs and go potty, and we noticed she was very inquisitive and curious about everything.  We decided we would nickname her Flora the Explorer.

Last night, after she had calmed down, she made herself comfortable in my favorite blanket.

This morning, I discovered that she REALLY likes squeaky toys, and she would chase it down the hall and try to squeak it.  It was so great to see her play, since she had been very skittish yesterday after we picked her up.

All in all, we are very excited dog-parents, and we are looking forward to her opening up a bit more and becoming an awesome pet.  We are excited for the future!

Bootleg Race Pictures

Happy October everyone!  Eric and I left the windows open all night hoping to cool down the house.  Well we woke up and the house was 60 degrees.  BRRRRRRR!!!

I finally got some of the official pictures of me before, during and after my race last weekend.

I thought I'd share the, ahem, bootleg copies, since I wasn't willing to pay $24.99 each.

I'm not even making that up.

So, thanks to screen print, I was able to save them.  Please pay no attention to the Marathonfoto Proof watermark on them.

Enjoy!

The husband and I before the race.  Since we woke up at 5am, it looks like he is still asleep.  I'm ready go, though.

Mid-race, obviously still early, since I'm still smiling and waving.

I'm "sprinting" to the finish.  It's cool how I levitate while running.  It's not cool that I heel strike.

After I finished, I was handed my finisher's medal by some cadets.  I get REALLY red and swollen when I'm running.  I wonder how I can stop that from happening...

I hope you enjoyed my pictures.  Stay tuned later as I will have some exciting news to share with you!!  And before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant.

Women's Half Marathon

Today I ran a race.  It was the 5k that was a part of the Nashville Women's Half Marathon.  Unfortunately, I'm not quite ready to run 13.1 miles at one time.  Hopefully sometime soon.

I've run several races, but none as large and as organized as this one.  There were corrals separated by expected finishing time.  The race started on time.  There were organized water stations and bathrooms along the route.  There was several breakfast items for the finishers, including chips (yum!).  They even had my first name on my bib!

It was so great to be part of such a large, energetic crowd.  Jo Dee Messina, a country singer, who lives in Nashville sang the National Anthem before, and even ran the 5k. 

I felt pretty good about my race, especially since my training runs involve tons of endless hills in my neighborhood, which can be very demotivating at times and I hadn't run nearly as much as I would have wanted to.

My official time was 32:59, which placed me 34/94 in my age group and 139/601 overall.

My average time was 10:37/mile.  My GPS tweaked out a bit at the end, so I'm not sure what my 3rd mile split actually was.

While this, by no means, was a PR, I was proud of how I did and my husband definitely was proud of me, as well.  I even got a cool medal to remember the race!

Enchilada Lasagna

I'd like to share a secret recipe that has been in my family for many years.

10 years to be exact. 

During my first year of University waaaaaaay back in 2001, my friend Fiona (hi Fi!) came home with me for spring break and taught my family how to make enchiladas, the real Mexican way. 

Well since then, after a few adaptations due to ingredient unavailability, and general preference, it has kind of morphed into a different dish all together. 

Don't get me wrong, the flavors are all still there, but it looks...slightly, er, different.  More like lasagna.  For some reason, in a country where portion sizes are constantly getting bigger, I was shocked to find out that the corn tortillas have shrunk to nearly half the size they used to be.  So gone are the days of being able to make proper enchiladas.  Of all the things to shrink, why couldn't they have picked something more useful, like making the buttermilk carton the size of a cup, which is the only measurement you'll ever need for a recipe.

Ok, enough about my rant.  Here's the recipe:

Enchilada Lasagna

2-3 chicken breasts
garlic powder
seasoning salt
cayenne pepper
12 corn tortillas
1 - 28oz  can of green enchilada sauce
9 x 9 inch baking dish
2 cups of shredded mexican cheese, or 1 - 8oz package of queso fresco.  Your choice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1) Season the chicken breasts with garlic powder, seasoning salt, and cayenne pepper (or any other seasonings you want to use) and microwave them (trust me here) for about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the meat) until they are mostly cooked.  Cut into small, bite size pieces.

2) In a small pan, warm a tortilla until its soft, about 30 seconds to a minute on each side.  Tongs are an acceptable tool to use here. 

3) Dip the warm tortilla in some of the enchilada sauce (I use another pan) and put it in the baking dish.  Repeat 3 more times.

4) Put half the chicken, and sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over the tortillas.  Then pour some of the sauce over so the layer is a bit covered, like below:

Take 4 more tortillas and repeat steps 2-4 above.

Take 4 more tortillas, warm them, dip them and put them over the top.  Then pour the remainder of the sauce and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.

Pop it in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

And there you have it.  Enchilada Lasagna.  Enjoy!

Lazy Sunday

Have you ever just had a lazy weekend?  Like, really lazy?  Like, you didn't shower or move from the couch except to make something to eat?  Well that's the weekend the husband and I are having.  And we're loving it!  Well, Eric's about to love it more since we're about to watch football.  Yeah.  I could think of a lot more fun things to do than watch football on a Sunday afternoon.  Like plucking my eyebrows.  Or taking out the trash.  Or weeding.

We plan on venturing out today on an exciting field trip: To Wal-Mart to get a binder for organizing all my recipes that I've been printing out and trying.  It's exciting and you can't take that away from me.  Perhaps I'll even make something tasty to show you later.  But only if you're good.

And now I will leave you with this.

Pizza Night

Today is Friday and you all know (or will know) what that means in the Richardson House...PIZZA NIGHT!!!  This is a tradition we started back when we first moved in together as a way to unwind after the (usually) hectic work week.  We used to order pizza from a place close to our house, but recently we've decided to go the "healthier" route and make homemade pizza.  But is pizza ever actually healthy?  I say yes. 

 So, with a little help from our good friend, Jamie Oliver, we have been churning out our own homemade pizza pies every Friday. 

Fortunately, it makes a ton of dough, so we always have enough for 2 weeks.  That's right, we eat 1/2 ton of pizza dough every week.  I know, I'm shocked I don't weigh 1 million pounds too!

 Our other tradition is to catch up on TV shows from the week while we eat our pizza.  Tonight we finally caught up on the end of last season's Modern Family in preparation for the new season starting next week.  Funniest.Show.Ever.

Usually we watch the Biggest Loser on Fridays while eating pizza.  Don't judge us.  The husband told me that its the only reality show he never wants to be on.  I hope he also never wants to be on the Bachelor, because well, that would be extremely awkward.

In the beginning...

Family, friends, random people from the world wide web, I'd like to welcome you to my blog.  I'm sure most of you have figured out by the title that I have been inspired by my recent move to Clarksville, Tennessee from Vancouver, British Columbia.  I'll probably talk about that a lot.  I'll also probably write about my love of running, music, baking, eating, etc.

I have a lot to say (most of the people in my life already know this!) so I just want to give you all a glimpse into my mind.

Enjoy!