The Purpose of Pets...

Is to provide endless hours of comic entertainment for their owners, right?

Doesn't your typical Friday night involve a laser pointer and driving your dogs crazy?!?

Domestic Diva

I don't do the lion's share of cooking in our household.  But the urge hit me to cook this weekend so we invited our neighbors over for a Sunday morning breakfast.  I decided to make Lemon Ricotta Pancakes.  I used this recipe.  Kris was nervous about straying from the tried and true Aunt Jemima pancake mix, but these were delicious!  The ricotta made the pancakes light and fluffy and the lemon wasn't strong but a nice touch.  

Pancake Batter

Pancakes on the Griddle

In addition to the pancakes, I also made blueberry sauce using this recipe.  The blueberry sauce was an awesome compliment to the lemon pancakes.  My neighbor also made homemade lemon curd from her own recipe.  Here is a recipe you could use for it as well.

Blueberry sauce cooking

Here is my final confection put together, the pancakes with lemon curd, blueberry sauce and a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar.  Bon Appetit!

Finished Product

Happy Birthday Scout!!

Yesterday, my little baby Scout turned six!  I can still remember the first night we brought her home.  It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.  Kris made the suggestion that we should think about getting a dog.  It didn't take anything more than that comment for me to have called every golden retriever listing in the papers.  One that was five minutes away from us had one female golden retriever left.  I said we would be there in ten minutes.  We got in the car, went to the house and I was completely smitten with Scout the first time I met her.  There was no discussion.  Kris was writing the check and I was in the car with our newest family member.  It is amazing the love people have for their pets, and vice-versa.  We were truly blessed the day Scout was born!

Below is Scout the first night Kris and I had her and then on her 6th birthday yesterday sharing her birthday penguin cookie with Luna.

Baby Scout the first night we had her

Scout (on the right) sharing her birthday penguin cookie with her little sister Luna

Feeling a Little Blue

So blue has been a favorite of mine in terms of colors.  It brings out my eyes, it complements my blond hair and in the summer it is the perfect complementary color to a tan.  In the winter, I tend to go much darker with my nails but that is a little harsh for the summer time.  I saw a post on the blog Cupcakes and Cashmere and loved it. 

This past weekend I was at the store and found Essie's new summer collection full of blues.  I purchased these two bottles:

On the right is Turquoise and Caicos and on the left is Aruba Blue

I did the Aruba Blue color for the toe nails and did the Turquoise and Caicos on my finger nails.  In following the idea that was on Cupcakes and Cashmere's blog, I also added a little bit of sparkle to the ring finger.  I dipped a small paint brush in top coat and and then dipped it in Martha Stewart Turquoise Glitter and added it to the ends of my nails. 

Here is the final result for my finger nails.  I was pretty excited about it:

They remind me of the waters from my Caribbean vacation in April, and what is more happy than that?!

"The Weather is Here, Wish you were Beautiful"

Since I am having to play catch-up, I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from the Caribbean vacation.  You will understand why I didn't want to return!  I also was able to have a life-long dream come true on this vacation by swimming with dolphins.  I have always had a love for dolphins and whales.  When I was younger, my grandparents actually adopted a bottlenose dolphin in my honor.

St. Lucia

Grand Pitons in St. Lucia

In St. Lucia we went on a catamaran tour to the Grand Pitons and saw where the original Dr. Doolittle was filmed.

Tortola

Kisses from Maggie the Dolphin in Tortola

Holding Maggie in Tortola

Tortola was where dreams came true with the help of Maggie the Dolphin.  If anyone ever has the opportunity to do this, I highly recommend it.  The trainer was asking who wanted to go first and I had already swam out to the middle of the lagoon - that was how excited I was over this.

Baths at Virgin Gorda

Went to the Baths at Virgin Gorda, which was amazing.  The caves were strenuous but beautiful.

Hanging out at Honeymoon Bay in St. John

In St. Thomas, we walked around the dock area and then headed to one of my favorite places in the world - St. John.  We hiked up Lind Trail towards Honeymoon Bay.

Zipline in Antigua Rain Forest

Antigua was the zipline through the rain forest.  I have always been RIDICULOUSLY afraid of heights.  Somehow I was placed as being the very first person to go on the course.  I quickly had to get over my fear of heights.  I did have a minor tantrum when we were on a top stand and was told I just had to jump straight down 20 feet to the bottom landing.  But oh no worries, the suspension will catch halfway down.  My survival instincts went in to overdrive - it was not one of my finer moments.  I was trying to convince a 6 year old that she should go first.

Swimming with sea turtles in Barbados

In addition, to my love of dolphins, I have a love of turtles (although not the snapping variety) as well.  I used to have a pet turtle named Raphael - yes I am a product of the 80's and it was after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  So I always love turtle adventures.  My dad has a video from this and we are both underwater and he points to the first turtle we see.  You can hear my squealing "TURTLE!!!" in a trill voice underwater!

Fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Lastly, Puerto Rico- we hiked around the fort, ate at the restaurant that invented pina coladas and stayed in a hotel that used to be a convent and is supposedly haunted.

Miss Me Much?

I realized the other day that it had been two months since my last blog posting.  Unacceptable in the blog world, I know.  In April, we went on our vacation to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. John, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia.  It was amazing.  I did not want to return!  In May, I went to Nashville for a work conference and just got back this past weekend from Chicago for a work conference.  Classes are wrapping up and the couple week vacation will be a nice break for me to enjoy before chaos starts back with two classes!  So with all the traveling behind me, I can get back to the important things - like blogging!

I am still here, and having crazy ideas...

I know I have been awful about blogging lately - the ever-growing list of to-do's at work keeps growing and that coupled with completing teaching two classes, giving their finals and doing final grades all hit when pollen decided to rear it's ugly head.  I got super sick with bronchitis and a sinus infection, on top of awful allergies.  So that has been my past couple weeks, just trying to survive!  I am finally back to feeling like me again and the teaching two classes has now gone down to only one class, so I am hopeful that my stress levels will reduce some.  I have also been trying to get everything ready for vacation which is now down to only 7 days!!  I cannot wait!!  Sun, sand, clear oceans, fruity drinks with umbrellas, swimming with dolphins all await me!!

In other news, I have picked up running.  For anyone that has known me for long, the fact that I am/can run at all with all my health problems is a feat in and of itself.  For those that have known me longer, the fact that I am running considering my hatred of it is another feat.  We used to have to run with dryland for swimming.  It was pure and complete torture for me.  I would have preferred my coach just put me in the water and let me swim five miles over running a half a mile.  I would never complain about the hardest of swim practices, but the minute he made us run a mile the complaints would start flying.

Fast forward several years, and I am about to have my back surgeries.  The doctor is going over the long list of things I will never be able to do again.  One was running, which at the time, I was completely OK with that.  My thought was, "Wow, wish I could have had these surgeries back in high school then I would have had a legitimate excuse to get out of running for dryland!"  Recently, I have been trying to get back in to shape.  I know so many people that run and rave about how fast it gets them in shape.  Add that to the whole I-like-to-prove-people-wrong and the whole super stubborn streak that I have and I decided to just try and run to see how it felt.  I ran for the first time last summer about two miles with Scout.  It wasn't pleasant, but was exhilarating at the same time.

This year, one of my resolutions was to continue with the working out and getting back in shape efforts. Having a vacation and being forced to be in a bathing suit expedited that process.  So a few months ago, I ran with the girls for their walk, and survived.  I then went to the gym and did the elliptical and wanted to try the treadmill to see if I could.  I have taken the approach of cautious optimism.  I doubt my ability to run and try it just to see if I can actually do it.  Then the one day, when it was all said and done, I logged 4.5 miles.  I wasn't completely sore or dead and my time wasn't awful.  The next day, I tried it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke and was able to do it again.

It has gradually been that approach that was now got me to the point of logging around 25 miles of running.  I have been able to get my mile run time down to 10:45 for at least the first mile, averaging 11:30 a mile.  The one day I wasn't going for quickness, I just wanted to see if I could go any further on distance.  I ended up logging 7 miles that day.  Two days later I was back in the gym and my thought was that must have been a fluke, there is no way I can run that kind of distance.  So I tried it again, and logged 7.5 miles.  I will say that my friends that touted the vanity aspect of running are correct.  Since doing this, people keep telling me how weight is falling off of me.  The other benefit is how strong and empowering it feels.

I had never considered running events at any point in my life.  This past weekend I was in Wilmington for a friend's birthday and was talking to several of her friends.  A lot of them are big marathon, triathlon and runners.  It came up that I hated running and preferred swimming.  One told me that surprised her because of being tall she thought I would be good at it.  I said well I have started to run some and don't hate it, so I guess that is progress.  She asked how far I had been running and I said prior to getting sick I did two days at 7ish miles and was logging on average 20 miles a week.  She said, "Kelly that means you are now a runner."  Those word combinations have never been put together in reference to me.  Later we were talking with another friend that had done her first full marathon last year and her second a few weeks ago.  They were talking over the fears and concerns of doing one and it was mentioned that if you can average on your long run 7-8 miles, then you can handle a half-marathon.  The one friend said if you can finish a half-marathon, then you can do a full because at that point it is mostly mental.  The one friend looked at me and said, see you could do a half-marathon.