My BIG Surprise.....and B2B recap!

As I mentioned Friday, I have had a secret/surprise I've been keeping since the end of February. My friends that I work with and me were preparing and planning to run in the Brew to Brew, which we did last year as well. That wasn't the surprise though. The surprise was that one of my good friends that worked at the hospital with us before moving to Colorado last May, came back for the race. She agreed to join us and we decided to keep it a secret from the rest of the team. Such an awesome surprise for everyone and we were all SO pumped to spend time with Amanda. The surprise:

We had a pasta dinner at my house Saturday night to carb-load before the race Sunday. We left Topeka about 5:40 Sunday morning for KC. It was a great day with friends, minus the 20+ mph wind we ran directly into. Not a nice time. I ran 4.8 miles in about an hour....I'll take it considering it was the farthest I've ever ran and it was more hills and wind than I'm used to. We had a good day enjoying hanging out and having snacks and just relaxing. I was done running by noon so had several hours to just cheer for my teammates. We are already excited to do it all again next year! After the race was completed, we went to The Salty Iguana, a mexian restaurant in Lawrence and had LOADS of water and some mexican food. We got back to Topeka a bit before 7:00 and were all SO exhausted! Thankful for a fun day with my friends!

The team before we ran:

Me before I ran:

The team after the race:

Shhh!

I have a HUGE surprise/secret that I've been keeping for over a month! It's going to be revealed this weekend and I couldn't be more excited!!! Also, this weekend is my second time participating in the Brew to Brew, a relay race from KC to Lawrence I am doing with a group of friends. I'm pumped to spend the day with friends in what is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL weather...also excited to get my 4.8 mile leg behind me! Will fill you all in soon on the big surprise! Oh, and happy April Fools Day! Any good pranks?!

Brew to Brew...

Last weekend I took part in the "Brew to Brew" run with some friends from work....this was my first race....since track in high school....so it's been awhile! This run is a relay from The Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City to Freestate Brewery in Lawrence and is approximately 44 miles. I ended up running the first leg of it, which was marked as 4.3 miles and it was tough! The whole day we cheered on our teammates and drove along the race trail dropping off a runner and picking up the one who just finished. It was perfect weather for this all-day outdoor excitement and since my work was done by 9:30 I got to relax and enjoy some snacks and cheer on my friends! We are hoping to do it again next year....definitely worth it!

Did I mention they gave us free beer at the Boulevard before we ran?! Yum! Nothing like beer at 8:00 in the morning!!

We survived! Here is us in Lawrence. Happy to still be friends after 7 hours in a car together!! :)

This holiday is brought to you The Pioneer Woman.....and Jesus.

For Easter my sister came up from Dallas and we had a low-key weekend of shopping, going out to dinner and then Sunday I hosted a non-traditional Easter lunch before Meg flew back to Texas.

When we were trying to decide what to have to Easter, we decided to pick something out of "The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook" that my fantastic friends Lindsay and Kylie gave me for my birthday. I so LOVE this cookbook! I love to look at it, read it, imagine that I have time and calories to cook something from it every day. It is marvelous....and my family is equally enthusiastic about it, even my dad.

So, since we're not big ham lovers, I finally decided on the non-traditional lasagna.....and it was GOOD!!! It involves making your own sauce, adding fresh spices and cooking sausage and hamburger. Yum! I also made the French Pastry Puffs in the book for breakfast Saturday morning. Very sweet and delicious (sorry, no pictures of those little guys). Here are a couple pictures of the lasagna and my favorite people on Easter. Oh, and I had given up Diet Coke for Lent, so of course it was a part of the Easter celebration! :)

Snow Bird

My sister is in Kansas this weekend for a bachelorette party in Lawrence. And she apparently brought snow with her. Whenever she is here for the most part....it snows! Glad to see you Meg, but next time leave the snow in Texas!

Hard to believe this is my backyard on the first day of spring!

Come out, come out wherever you are....

Yesterday we got another round of snow.....probably 3-6 inches (I am horrible at guessing). I am SO over winter! The cold, the snow, the slush, the extra layers of clothes....etc, etc.

To entice spring out, I have put away all winter decorations and put out my centerpiece for spring and bought a basket with flowers for the front door. This ought to bring the temperature up, right?!

Welcoming spring with a new dish....

I'm not sure what caused me to want to make this....I have had it before, but today I decided to make "Strawberry-Spinach" Salad for dinner. Maybe it's all the great strawberries we've been eating lately, or just sometimes you need to have a good salad. I made chicken covered in crushed cornflakes and my favorite cornbread to go with it. Pretty tasty!

Here is the recipe I found online for the salad if you want to try it:

1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

2 (6 oz.) bags baby spinach

1 (16 oz.) container strawberries, quartered

1 (4 oz.) package crumbled blue cheese

1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds

Bottled red wine vinaigrette

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix all together and serve.

Per the recipe, you can also substitute the almonds, blue cheese and red wine vinaigrette with pecans, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.