Chocolaty S'mores Rice Krispy Treats

So there is a first time for everything, so today I bring you a quick yummy recipe! 

This weekend I enjoyed not having to wake up before Mr. Sun, instead when I finally crawled out of bed, I turned around and crawled into my couch and watched some Food Network with my little bear.

Just an episode into Pioneer Woman, Hailey looked up at me with wide eyes and said 

“Can we make rice crispy treats? I can help you!”

So sure enough, we got to work and taking cue from Ree we came up with a S’more Rice Krispy Treat, adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s Nutella Krispie Treats.

Super Yummy and Chocolaty!! 

The stuff

The Little Bear's Action Shot!

TADA!! Mission Accomplished!! 

And then there's this

Over the past few months I haven’t been able to write like I really love to. Mostly because I wasn’t sure about much of anything at the time. My brain was on over load with so much more than just running. None of it seemed to fit here in my blog. 

We gave my guest bathroom a makeover DYI style, planned our big family vacation and we knitted ourselves closer to family while facing health issues. Even though I was in training mode with running my mind was focusing on so many other great and wonderful things.

For the first time in a long time now I am looking forward to writing and I hope this leads to something new, something better and something different. So I’m changing my blog a little, I hope you don’t mind :)

I've always known and in the past few months it’s only been reaffirmed to me in so many ways that I’ve always run my life in faith, not only when I started physically running. No, my life of running in faith began many years ago, when I became a mom at a very young age living a very unstable life. I reached out in faith for something more and ended up being blessed beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Some days were hard, others might have been harder but in those days leaning on faith got me from point A to point B.

So hang in there with me if you don’t mind and we’ll explore this life together. I promise to blog about all the good stuff and I’ll continue to exercise and run but I’ll also write to you about all the other things I haven’t shared with you in the past like – family, friends, fashion, travels, DIY’s and life in general. 

These days I find myself running in faith, with little bit of coffee and a whole lotta love.

The Not-So-Marathon

4 5K's +3 half marathons + 2 marathons =  104.1 miles 

As most of you have figured out by now, I didn’t run the Chevron Marathon instead I did the Aramco Half completing it for the 3^rd year in a row. Ultimately it was the best choice for me, although I was the die-hard captain encouraging everyone to train hard and do the marathon last year. I’m not sure exactly when I fell away from the goal of doing marathon maybe it happened in bits and pieces now that I give it more thought.

I have always been the poster woman for “running is awesome” “if I can do it anyone can” and I always would explain it this way – When I started running the closest gym to me at the time was about 20 minutes away and I figured a good work out would take 45 minutes (at least right?) so why go to the gym taking an hour and a half out of my evening when I could walk right outside my house and run for 30 minutes and end up at my own front door! Running is awesome!

Except at the peak of my training I would go out for an 8 mile run on a week night and take me over an hour and a half, come home stretch and shower and taking up almost two hours of my evening at home! or a Saturday morning for a 17 mile run?! Wait what? How did that happen?!

The answer is easier than you think, if you ever thought running was impossible and suddenly you train and realize you can run 3 miles, you feel invincible! You feel like you’ve accomplished something you didn’t realize your body could do, so if you can run 3 miles that must mean you can run 6 miles and if you can do 6 miles you must be able to do 12 miles and 12 miles is almost a half marathon, right? Of course if you can do the half marathon you must be able to do a full marathon. See easy right?

Not so easy, some of us take more work than others. In the end I knew I could do the marathon just not in the time allotted to do it (6 hours). I had become quite obsessed with the idea that I could do it too, no matter the time it took, or the pain (running injuries) or the stress. Then we went on vacation and it was the first time I missed two of my long runs, although I made a vow to run while on vacation I quickly gave into the fun and relaxation instead. I came back thinking I would make up for lost time but I found myself stressing out about it more not to mention covering up nagging injuries. I found that just a few years earlier when I first started running and when I was healthier and fit and full of energy I now was sore, tired and just plain worn out (and hungry)!!

One morning during Christmas break I woke up worried about not having gone out for a run like I was supposed to on my training plan, I made up my mind that I would bust out the jogging stroller and I would take my little bear with me on a run. Until that is, my little bear crawled into bed with me – I asked her about going with me on a run and she said yes and we both fell right back to sleep. Maybe that'e when I made up my mind...

One day I’ll meet that 26.2 for now 13.1 will do the trick :)