Mike and Liz Picture A Day

Posted on January 20, 2013 by thefasteryoupedal

A year ago Mike and I decided to do a “picture a day” blog and we were pretty successful from January to April. Then Blogger had to make things difficult on my life and change so I had no idea how to post pictures (I still don’t, but thank goodness for an IPAD with an app that I can semi-figure out).

Anyway, we both have been a little sad about not doing that blog or the old blog from before we got married up until last year (AGAIN…thanks to Blogger. Can you tell I am bitter?). So I am working on it! I was able to get the Mike and Liz Picture A Day blog up again, so here we go again! It’s not centered, but it does the job!

If you are interested….here is the link:

http://mikelizpictureaday.blogspot.com/

I’m excited to do this pre-“baby girl” so we can take pictures leading up to the day. I know that it will be harder once she is around, but it’s worth a try!

In Your Own Words

Posted on January 19, 2013 by thefasteryoupedal

I found this journal entry in my 2012 planner. I usually go through each past years calendar to see if I am missing any upcoming races or events from the previous year that I want to do. I remember writing this down as a New Year’s resolution and wanted to share it. Fill it out and post it to my comments if you get a chance:

Best beauty trick: staying active and exercising

Celebrity I admire: Jessica Biel (she is athletic looking!)

Instantly feel better: When I get a hug!

The one food I will never give up: Pizza.

My biggest accomplishment: 11 years of teaching.

I always wanted to learn: to speak fluent French.

My favorite body part: Smile.

My pet peeve: When people smack their gum.

Hidden talent: I can organize anything like a mad man!

Best mistake: Not getting married until I was 29.

First thing I do when I wake up: Pick out my outfit for the day.

Hiking and Biking The Ocho

Posted on October 17, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I have been taking it easy the last couple months now that school has started (stay tuned as to why I haven’t been racing…I’m sure you can guess!). So I decided to go on a hike while Mike biked the Ocho course. Love that course! I love how it has an awesome, long, drawn-out climb, and then once you get to the top….it’s all downhill from there!

I could barely geta hold of Mike on the downhill because of his super speed down the hill!

Meanwhile, Barney and I decided to take a stroll, and of course had to play a quick game of fetch.

We then proceeded to go the top of the hill and see what was on the other side. Since it was close to sunset, we heard a pack of coyotes VERY nearby. If any of you know me, I am insanely afraid of them, plus add the fact that my dog is miniature in size and well…we booked it!

It was nice to get a little jog in on the hike to make it feel somewhat worthwhile. I can’t wait to get back into the exercise routine again.

P.S. Here is Barney’s Halloween costume this year:

Back to School and Wrestlemania!

Posted on August 27, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I apologize for my hiatus from the blogging world, but I am back! So you will be getting a lot of posts in a row.

Back to school happened. That is why. We had to take our first day of school picture in front of the fireplace. I say “we” because Barney thought that he had to join in when it came to the picture deal, along with his friend Frog.

Then we had a friendly game of Wrestlemania with Frog…

Where he decided to throw him around a little bit for some attention.

Michael Phelps. Just Saying.

Posted on August 4, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Mike and I have been watching the Olympics, but have been really into the swimming portion of it. The other night when Michael Phelps was racing and won silver, Mike was yelling so loud at the gym (we were watching it while doing elliptical) that we may have had a few eyes looking our way. Okay, maybe a lot of eyes looking our way. I love how passionate everyone gets yelling and screaming!

I’m sure everyone notices it, but there are two parts of Michael Phelps swimming routine that I REALLY look forward to. I even will say to Mike “Wait!” if he is talking to me about something right before the race starts.

1. I call it….the Albatross

Is anyone else amazed at how jello-like his arms are when he swings them like this at the beginning of every race?

2. I call it….the WHALE.

Do any of you that swim ever put water in your mouth and spit it out? I was reading today that Ryan Lotche admits to peeing in the pool during practice.

Just saying.

Phew!

Posted on July 9, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

What a crazy week! I am so behind on my blogging that I pretty much am going to slam a bunch of pictures on here to show all that we did. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my pictures developed for our “Rafting the Rio” day, so stay tuned for a future post on that.

We did manage to get some mountain biking on the Dona Ana’s and it was awesome! I finally conquered one of the three stops that I always have to walk on Cathedral. Mark my words, I will make it up Cathedral this week. I am planning on conquering it on Tuesday night. Believe it or not, it is one of my yearly goals on my “Vision Board” blog post.

I was able to make it over this part of the course (that looks pretty easy, but I always have to clip out here because of all the jagged rocks.

It was really fun to have a lot of family around. I am the youngest of three, so it was neat to have a huge crew of brothers and sisters around. We ate dinner at a local Las Cruces mexican restaurant called “Si Senors” that makes excellent new mexican dishes drizzled in green chile or red chile sauce.

Barney was having a blast hanging out with his cousins. Since he is the youngest, he was a little more agile and faster with getting the frisbee. As you can tell, the other dogs did not appreciate that too much.

We were able to get a family photo of the whole clan together, which is a rare sight.

That’s a lot of people in one place for a week of shenanigans!

I’ll leave you with my favorite photo of the week:

Question: How often are you able to get ALL of your family members together? Do you have any traditions when you do get together?

Nostalgic

Posted on July 3, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Considering the whole country is under a heat wave right now, it probably isn’t a shock that its hotter than Hades here. Therefore, I have to sacrifice my sleep and start getting up early to work out. Yesterday, I woke up at 6 to go to the gym and felt like I had a ton of bricks strapped to my body. I have a deep respect for anyone who gets up early every day for the gym. Now that I am out of “school mode”, it’s hard!!

Today Mike and I accidentally slept in til 9 and wanted to make it out on a morning ride.

We take three-mile laps through a local neighborhood. I made a goal of five laps today and felt pretty good. One note though, make sure you get “fitted” to your bike. I haven’t done it yet and I can tell I am learning some bad habits and the position on my seat is definitely not right. I could have ridden longer, but because of that problem I had to stop. Not to mention the sweltering temperatures.

O.K. so I am majorly nostalgic and you can blame it on my family. 🙂 I am always trying to bring back stories and memories from the past. Mike says our Disney World nostalgia is a little much in our family, but I am perfectly content with it. We HAVE to go to Disney at least once a year, even if we have to go to Disneyland. I love it.

Well, I swindled Mike into being nostalgic too. Warped Tour came to Las Cruces and one of our favorite bands, New Found Glory, was going to be in it. Mike used to go back in the olden days with his friends to the Tour and I used to go to NFG concerts with my friends back in Vegas when they would be at the House of Blues. The memories are so awesome.

Seeing that we are in our thirties now, we felt a little sheepish for going, since the median age for the Tour is about fifteen.

It was so fun! I was made fun of for going, but it was really cool to hear them again and the best part was being in the crowd and experiencing the chaos of concerts. I’m not gonna lie I got a little scared when the crowd surfing started, but thankfully my tall husband took care of that. Mike’s brother Jared was there too and was brave to surf the crowds.

We got to meet the band and had them sign a poster for our loft too! It seriously was a lot of fun…even if I was too old! 🙂

Question: Have you ever done something you thought you were too old to do? What do you think are things thirty somethings should NOT be doing?

Family In Town

Posted on July 3, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Mike is one of ten kids in his family. His mom and dad just celebrated their 50th anniversary, so all the kids have come down for a reunion. That means LOTS of family in town and not a lot of time at home.

My dad and stepmom came into town too to join in on te awesome festivities. We already partook of a 9:30pm screening of “The Amazing Spiderman” the day before it came out (thank you to friends who own the theatres in town) and now we are off for some White Sands fun tonight. I can’t wait to post pictures of Barney’s first time there.

My dad really likes Cracker Barrel so we had to go for nostalgic reasons. Remember this game? You jump the pegs to see how many you have left over. I am terrible at it!

Barney has been excited to have more attention because of all the people. Before that, Frog was his only companion.

Riley is Barney’s cousin. He likes to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos and becomes glued to the screen if it’s on.

Mike and I have been trying to continue with our biking workouts. We’ve been very lucky to get them in between the schedule and heat. Mike prepared for a time trial he did and did very well in it.

I’ve been running a lot more thanks to all the 5k’s and half marathons coming up. It’s been tempting to do a whole marathon so I am hoping to get conditioned one day for that.

I have found an awesome reduced fat meal at Trader’s Joes. Go get it!

So good!

Question: Any favorite things that you like to get at Trader Joe’s? Do you have any meals you like to get that are good for you?

Goodbyes, Bikes, and Sinks…

Posted on June 22, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I have always been terrible with goodbyes. I had a roommate for a week about ten years ago, and she decided to move back to Texas. I barely knew the girl and the day she left, I bawled my eyes out. I am extremely worse with animals.

This is my class red eared slider (who has had so many names I can’t even remember its name) and she came home with me this summer along with four other animals. She is the messiest eater and the dirtiest reptile I have had to take care of. When you walk in the room, she gets really excited and swims to the side of the cage and goes crazy. The problem is, I would have to change her 20 gallon tank once a week. After going through three filters, I couldn’t do it anymore. Long story short, I found a sanctuary for her. When I took her, I was really sad. I stood there for 15 minutes watching her swim around. Thankfully, I held my composure, but I hate to say it, I cried a little in the car on the way home.

I am such a softie for animals. This is why I could never work at a vet or zoo. I would take ALL of the animals home with me.

Meanwhile, I dusted off the mountain bike and took it out for a Tuesday night ride. I’ve been preparing myself mentally for a time trial in a few weeks, so I’ve been dissing Safire (the name of my mountain bike). It was so fun and beautiful out! I’m starting to feel better after the terrible 12 pound weight gain my job created for me this year.

There was a beeeaautiful sunset that night. Only in New Mexico.

Last situation of the week, my kitchen sink. In the last year, our microwave, garbage disposal, and dishwasher have died on us. I woke up yesterday and turned on the kitchen sink and got sprayed in the face like in the cartoons when they are playing practical jokes on each other. No, the joke was that the sink was next to go.

So here is what my kitchen looks like now. I never realized how much I use a kitchen sink until we’ve been without one!

I love how Barney has to be part of things.

P.S. Leftover pulled pork with mushrooms on a mini tortilla pizza. Good stuff. Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce makes an excellent pizza sauce!

Question: Have you ever had to say goodbye to a pet? How did you handle it?

We Meet At Last!

Posted on June 19, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Barney has this routine every Sunday when we drive over to Mike’s parents house. He will be perfectly normal until we hit the dirt road that turns off to their house. Then he starts yelping like a hyena. Near the road, there is a farm house with a dog that runs up and down the fence. For some reason Barney gets extra loud and irritated at the dog. Mike named the dog “Red” and every time we get near, Mike will say “You’re going down Red!” and Barney starts acting up, as if he knows the dog’s name is Red too.

Red and Barney have never formally met, occasionally passing by each other. While playing in the irrigation ditch, Red made an appearance. And they met face to face.

It was a lot less dramatic as I thought it would be. Red growled, but Barney didn’t find it as entertaining to bark at him when he wasn’t in a car driving by.

Anyway, I have two products that I’ve tried that are really good! I highly recommend them. One is the Jamba Juice smoothie mix in the frozen food section. We don’t have them here and I miss drinking them while walking around BYU campus. Add some juice and you got some awesomeness.

I like to drink it for breakfast, but it would be good for a summertime treat too.

Another product is the Alternative Bagels. The are low-calorie, whole wheat, and have a lot of fiber!! I usually just warm it up briefly in the microwave instead of toasting it and it tastes like a pretzel. Good stuff!

You can find them in the refrigerated section at Walmart or Albertsons. Off to work!