new Shoes

These are my new running shoes. They are New Balance 1224's I actually bought these at a shoe store for runners. I bought them at First Place sports (Baymeadows Store). They were quite busy on the Saturday afternoon when I went in. But they got to me pretty quickly. Then they fitted me for my shoes. The guy (Thanks J J) that helped had me walk around so he could look at how my feet hit the ground. Then he measured my feet. Then he went and got 3 different pairs of shoes. I tried them all on and was able to go walk on a treadmill for a few minutes. I also walked around the store. This was the best shoe buying experience I have every had buying a pair of shoes. Yesterday I took them out for the first run. The kids and I are doing the run/walk thing trying to build up our endurance. These shoes were very comfortable right out of the box. I also bought some fancy new socks. I ran 2 miles and other then being a little winded, My feet felt great. I am looking forward to putting many miles on these shoes. Did I mention I am training for the Half Marathon in February?

Beef Stew

Tonight we had beef stew for dinner. This is the ingredients in the pressure cooker. The beef is in the bottom and I had just poured in the veggies. Publix has these small bags of mixed potatoes. They are all grown in Florida(yeah!). I really like the purple ones. They turn a little brown when you cook them but they still taste yummy. There is also carrots in the pot and in the other pot is some rice. I was going to take a picture of dinner on a plate but got too busy and forgot. The kids cleaned up the back porch and set up the table w/umbrella and even a screen give us a little privacy it was so nice. Plus my Mom came over for dinner tonight. 

The pressure cooker was my Grandmothers. I love using this thing. I am able to cook the beef stew for a total of 18 minutes and the beef just falls off the fork. I can't imagine cooking it any other way. Plus each time I use this pot I am reminded of my Grandmother. My Mom still talks about this pot from when she was growing up. I have many more good meals to look forward to making in this pot. Actually both pots on the stove came from my Grandmothers kitchen. And the recipe came from Tami's Mom. Just keepin' it in the family

Running Along

Today I started my new training program. I am going to run a Half Marathon in February. Today we ran/walked 6 miles. We walked 1 minute and then ran 1 minute. So we ended up walking 3 miles and running 3 miles.  It took a little over an hour to complete. My legs are a little sore. Hopefully tomorrow they wont hurt too much. I have to teach a class at Woodcraft.

Fall is here

Fall is here. I am usually sad for that to happen but this year is a little different. I bought a canoe last year and I have been spending time out on the water. I have been doing some camping out of the canoe as well. I spent several nights camped out on rivers last winter and into the spring. Eventually it got to hot and I had to wait out the summer. Fall is here and I will be able to start camping again. 

Last night was the first night it was cool enough to sleep with the windows open. We were running the exhaust fan in my shop which pulls air through the house. This morning it was just a little cool inside. I have not had to turn the fan back on yet. It is quite comfortable inside the house with just the ceiling fans and what breeze is blowing though the house.

ear-o-dynamic

So the other day the kids and I were taking Miles for a walk and it was windy. Miles had his ears folded back tight against his head. One of the kids said he looked aerodynamic, then the other one said no ear- o- dynamic. I wished I would have taken a picture of it. But I did think it was a great play on words.