I spent the day yesterday working on my dissertation proposal DRAFT. Not even the actual proposal yet. Woof. I did get quite a bit accomplished, so I’m going to focus on that instead of how much work I still have to do. : ) I wore one of my favorite Altra shirts and sipped on a smoothie for lunch while I worked. I do LOVE that I’m getting to work from home this summer and during the upcoming year – I think it’s going to be pretty wonderful! I’ve never not had a full-time job while in graduate school, so this is going to be a nice change.

This one slept in this spot on our bed for most of the day. I love when her beard (we call it a lady beard…is that weird? Probably.) gets all smooshed while she sleeps. These dogs keep me laughing most of the day, which I love. I can’t imagine life without them!

I have NO idea how this was comfortable for Aspen, but she laid like this for a hour or so. She loves being in the sun. I even opened up some blinds for her in the guest room, but she preferred the tile. Lu, once again, wouldn’t leave me alone until I put a chair for her next to mine. She curled up and went to sleep as soon as I did. They’re spoiled, we know.


When Jake got home from work, we took the last pile of tree limbs to the recycling center, then he went to his Dad’s for a cycling workout. While he did that, I started on dinner. Jake had the brilliant idea to use the veggies I had gotten for kabobs in our pasta so they wouldn’t go bad. I knew I kept him around for a reason! ; ) So, I got to chopping! Mmm. Yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and onion.

Jake got home right as I was finishing up loading our plates! We had pasta with chicken, veggies, and spaghetti sauce, salad, and Jake had rolls. This was SO good.

Sriracha. Of course! I’m so glad to be able to eat Sriracha again after being sick. I missed it so much!

This was an accidental picture, but I liked it, so I’m posting it! ; ) We opened a bottle of 19 Crimes to have with dinner, too! It’s probably one of our favorites. I think we had the dark blend for the first time last night – it was pretty good!

Jake got called in to work around 6 am, and I definitely hit snooze a few times after he left. I wanted to get a long run in today, but I could not get out of bed! I finally made myself get up, I drank some coffee, had a snack, and got ready to run. We usually buy the almond butter out of the machines at the grocery store, but the last three times I’ve gone, it’s been broken! Boo. I miss it! We love this stuff, but I think the machine made almond butter is our favorite. We also forgot to get more honey from the farmer’s market when we were there last weekend…we need more!

I didn’t feel like running around our house, so I drove to the Y and started from there. Sometimes you need a change of scenery. I wore my pack so I could take water and carry my phone: win-win! I’m REALLY obsessed with this pack. I would wear it for every single run if Jake wouldn’t make fun of me. ; ) Also, this run was hard. Really, really hard. I felt GREAT for the first half mile (HA!), then from .5 to 12, I wanted to quit. The whole time. I had a negative attitude, my legs felt heavy, and I just didn’t want to run. I have been feeling that way all week and I hate it! I’m having an off week and I’m ready for that to change.

When I got to 10 miles, I told myself I could stop. Then I decided that was silly. I should do at least 11. By this point, my hips were killing me and I was tired. But when I hit 11, I knew I could do 1 more mile and actually get the milage I wanted, which was 12. So, I stopped being a baby (kind of) and ran until I hit 12. I may or may not have had to run 3 laps around some cars at the Y, but I got it in. Then I promptly sat on the curb and chugged water. So, it was not a great run, but it was a run and I’m glad i did it.


This is how I felt after. Not great! But hey, I only got sprinkled on once, so that’s a positive!

I came home, cooked some eggs and heated up leftovers and chowed down. I was starving! I’ll probably have a smoothie here in a little bit, too.

I’m going to spend the rest of the day working on my dissertation stuff, then I get to meet Cassie and Sam for sushi later! I can’t wait. Jake has a 100 mile ride tonight, which I know he’s going to do SO well in. He and his Dad have a 100 mile mountain bike race in Colorado next weekend! Then, it’s up early tomorrow to drive to Omaha to celebrate my cousin Grace’s life (I wrote about that HERE.). We will drive back home Saturday evening, then I think we are running some trail Sunday and RELAXING after!
I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!