Four things Survey!

I haven't been tagged to do this survey (since I don't really have any online friends, ha), but I'm going to do it anyway. :)

Four names that people call me other than my real name:

1. I don't really have any nicknames! I always say when I have kids I'm going to give them names that lend themselves easily to nicknames.

2. 

3. 

4. 

Four jobs I’ve had:

1.  Lifeguard

2.  Zoo Keeper (I volunteered so not technically a job, but it was for a summer)

3.  Teaching Assistant

4.  Medical Device Tester (neat!) 

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:

1.  How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days

2.  10 Things I Hate About You

3.  Love Actually

4.  Two Weeks Notice

Four books I’d recommend:

1.  Eat and Run

2.  Ender's Game

3.  1984

4.  Perks of Being a Wallflower

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Morocco, Indiana (people often think I'm about to say I'm from Africa when I say I'm from Morocco)

2. West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue!)

3. Chicago, IL

4. 

Four places I’ve visited:

1. Beijing, China. Went on a trip with the marching band--tons of fun!

2. Tuscany region of Italy. We went here for our honeymoon. :)

3. Manila, Philippines. Went here for 2 weeks for work. Awesome trip.

4. I went to Spain after I graduated high school--and I'm going back next summer!

Four places I’d rather be right now:

1.  Definitely back in Yosemite--what an incredible trip!

2. Somewhere where it is more than 30 degrees!

3. With my cute nieces

4.

Four things I prefer not to eat:

1. Black olives--they are the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.

2. Pickles! Even when I was a kid I'd hate if the pickle juice got on my sandwich--I still feel the same way about it. Gross.

3. Oysters. I've never actually eaten them, but the thought makes me want to puke.

4. Cheesecake. This one doesn't disgust me, but I put it on because people are usually shocked. I just don't think it's very good.

Four of my favorite foods:

1.  Veggie burrito

2.  Brownie with ice cream on top

3.  Mashed Potatoes

4.  Homemade bread

Four TV shows I watch

1.  Parenthood

2.  New Girl 

3.  The Mindy Project

4.  Everybody Loves Raymond (I haven't watched it in awhile, but I think I've seen every episode)

Four things I’m looking forward to this year:

1.  D's sister having her baby girl! :)

2.  A sprint tri in Spring

3.  Getting my big qualifying exams out of the way (and hopefully passing them!)

4.  A Spain trip with the orchestra for Spring Break and a trip to Spain for a conference in summer!

Four things I’m always saying:

1.  I am freezing! 

2.  I better go for a run.

3.  What do we have to eat?

4.  Nova, stop! (Always chewing on stuff or getting into things she's not supposed to, ha!)

Thanksgiving Recap

Hello all! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, black Friday, and weekend. Let me start off with a recap of our Turkey Trot. We ran a 5k on Thanksgiving, the same one we had participated in last year; however, they moved locations. I was slightly worried because this was the course

which I thought looked very twisty-turny for only 3.1 miles. It ended up being quite nice though! It was pretty cold, actual temp was about 28, but it felt much colder. So cold that D started the race with his winter coat on. -_- I was not a fan, but the course had a short loop before it went past the start, so he was able to just drop it off there. Despite the cold, I felt really good, and was determined to run fast (for me). I ended up with a time of 26:04, which is a PR! I was very pumped to do so well, and my friend Bethany (who lives close, so also runs the Turkey Trot...as does her whole family), finished about 20 seconds behind me and D, which is a PR for her as well! Good day. :)

After that, we went home for a quick breakfast, and to get ready for our first Thanksgiving feast which was in Indy at D's aunt's house. We drove there, and ate some delicious food, drank some delicious wine, and got to visit with lots of great people. We left there around 3:15, stopped at home to get the doggie, then went to my parent's house. There weren't too many people there (just my sister and her family, and my grandma), but my aunt and uncle did come a little later.

We ended up spending the night at my parent's house, then drove home around noon, after eating breakfast and coloring with some cute little girls. :) The rest of the day wasn't extremely exciting, but it was definitely relaxing. On Saturday we went to a coffee shop all morning to study, then came home and cleaned out the gutters, raked the yard, and picked up sticks. Maybe not my first choice of things to do, but so glad it's done, and our yard does look much better. D's dad also came over and put up some blinds, so now we FINALLY have all of our windows covered. It is very awkward to feel like people can see into your living room at night!

Today we had a slow start, but I'm planning on getting a semi-long run in before the rain (it certainly looks like it's going to rain anytime now), and D went to campus to work. After I run, I am going to work on some research and study some more for area exams. We had a fun extended weekend, I hope everyone else did too! We didn't do any shopping on Black Friday, but I am considering trying to get some good Cyber Monday deals. :) Have a good rest of the weekend!

Our Anniversary!

Today is our two year wedding anniversary! :) I have such good memories with D and I feel so lucky to have him in my life. He truly is my very best friend. Let me take you back through our relationship a little bit. :)

At the end of my Junior year of undergrad, it was one of my best friend's 21st birthday. We went out to dinner (giant margaritas, anyone? :) ), and then went to the campus bars, since it was her first chance to do so. At the first bar, one of our other friends met us, and she had a few extra people with her. One of them (spoiler alert: my future husband, ha!) was talking about doing tensile testing, which was similar to what I was doing at my internship, so I started talking to him about it. We only talked a little bit that night, but I saw him again the following Thursday (leaving a different bar!). We went to McDonald's together and had root beer and fries (so romantic, right?), and started to get to know each other. 

D left soon after that to go to Pennsylvania for an internship, but we were both excited to have met a new friend, and we texted each other once in awhile over the summer. When school started again, we didn't see much of each other, but then Laura brought him to Andrew's surprise party at our apartment. I was super annoyed that he didn't tell me he would be there (and maybe I was a little tipsy), so I made him leave (well actually, we voted! haha), but after that we started talking again.

At the beginning of November we finally realized that we wanted to be more than friends, and we decided to go out on a date. It took about two weeks after that for me to realize that he was something pretty special. :)

My friend Katie, D, and I at my Senior Day football game

Our first Halloween celebration!

We had a great Spring semester together, and since I had already accepted a job in Chicago, D decided to come with me. He found a job shortly after, so we found an apartment together in the city. We enjoyed living in Chicago--lots of bike riding, outings with friends, and new experiences.

During Christmas break of 2010, Dustin and I (and our friend Anthony!) took a trip to New York City to see the ball drop for New Year's. We made our way through the crowd and ended up around 52nd street and 7th avenue where we waited about 4 hours until midnight. It was cold, but a very memorable New Year's Eve.

One year later in 2011, we went back to New York for a vacation. Dustin had been hinting about getting engaged, but made it clear that he did not yet have a ring, so I had no idea that anything was going to happen on this trip. On Wednesday, December 28, we went out for drinks in the evening, but then I was tired, so we went back to the apartment to take a nap. We planned to get up after a few hours and go to the Empire State Building since neither of us had ever been before.

Around midnight, Dustin started trying to wake me up. I said we could just wait until tomorrow to go to the Empire State Building because I wanted to keep sleeping. He kept insisting that I get up, so finally I gave in and got up. We hopped in a taxi and rushed over to the Empire State Building. There were very few people there so we got to avoid the lines and the view from the top was amazing. 

Us at the top of the Empire State Building

After we spent some time at the top, we went back down, and Dustin suggested that we go for a walk. We went to Times Squre, which was mostly empty (a very different sight then normal!). After walking around for a little while, we stopped at a McDonald's for ice cream. We sat there while we ate, and then Dustin suggested we walk home.

We started walking when I realized that Dustin was looking for a specific place. I asked him what he was looking for and he said he was looking for 52nd and 7th avenue where we had stood the year before for New Year's Eve. When we found it, he turned and faced me, then got down on one knee. I said yes, and the rest is history! :)

Two of our engagement pictures--we took them in Millennium Park in Chicago

We went back to Purdue to start grad school in the fall of 2012, so we decided we should get married sooner rather than later, before grad school got insanely busy. We decided on November 24, 2012. It was a beautiful day surrounded by both of our families and all of our best friends. 

Walking out of the church

Driving off to the reception in our limo

Like I said, such great memories! Tonight we plan on going to dinner and just spending some time together. I made him a photo book with a bunch of pictures we have accumulated over the years. Hope he likes it. :) Have a good day everyone!

Thanksgiving, my sister coming to visit, and two adorable little girls

Hey all! I am getting very excited about Thanksgiving coming up, mostly because my sister is coming on Saturday and staying for a week! She lives in Atlanta, so I only get to see her a few times a year. Here are some pictures of us.

At her wedding

Last Christmas

She has 3 kids: an 18 year old boy, a 6 year old girl, and a 3 year old girl. I love all of them to pieces, and am so excited to see them.

Emily (3 year old), Austin, and Isabella (6 year old)

Their whole adorable little family

Here D and I are making cookies with Emily and Isabella last Christmas.

They are coming Saturday and we're going to an indoor water park, how fun. Then they are staying with my parents for the week, and I plan on going there at least for a few days, plus seeing them on Thanksgiving. What a great week. :) Hope everyone else is getting some good family time in too!

Snow!

It is November. Sorry, I just had to remind myself considering it has snowed 3 times in the past week. Not normal Indiana behavior...although, Indiana weather is pretty much characterized by being non-predictable. The snow has been beautiful though. It keeps snowing just enough to cover the ground, so it makes everything look like a winter wonderland. :) The temperatures though...I could stand to add at least 10 degrees there. For example, look at the forecast for today:

A high of 23! Really. That is just ridiculous, Indiana. Please adjust accordingly. :D

Nova is experiencing the snow for the first time. She seems to really like it! She does seem confused why she can't smell the ground though. Yesterday I let her in and her whole nose/snout was covered in snow. It was pretty much the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Tried to get a picture, but she immediately rolled around on the rug and knocked it all of. I suppose she was cold, but she could have at least had the decency to let me get a picture before she warmed up. :)

I am getting so excited about the holiday season! My sister is coming to Indiana next Saturday (yay!), so I'll get to spend some time with my nieces. We are doing a Turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning (which, I almost have my parents talked into doing with us!), then going to Dustin's aunt's house for lunch, and my parent's house for dinner. Ha! We are going to go into a food coma by the end of the day. I guess I better be working out everyday up until then so things don't get too out of control. ha. Have a great day, everyone!

Winter Running!

Because of a combination of being super busy, and the loss of several hours of daylight, the past few weeks I haven't been working out/running enough. Of course I shouldn't make excuses, and I need to just alter my schedule to do everything I want to do. Today I brought workout clothes with me to campus so that I can just go straight to the co-rec on the way home. As a side note, I did a lot of running this summer, so I didn't go to our university rec center much, but I really take it for granted. It is such an awesome facility, check out some pictures:

Our huge aquatic center

The front entrance to the co-rec

View as you enter the facility

There is also a running track that overlooks several different gyms (making running in tiny circles somewhat more interesting, a rock climbing wall (you can see part of it in the last picture--bottom left). Even making this post has made me more motivated to get to the gym. What motivates you to go workout?

Weekend Fun!

Yesterday we went to see Interstellar in IMAX with a group of friends. I was not impressed. Part of that may have been because it was almost 3 HOURS long! I do not have that long of an attention span, apparently. Afterwards we were going to go to the most delicious burger place in Indy, called Bru Burger (if you live in the area and haven't been, you must go!), but the wait was insane, so we went to Weber Grill instead. It was alright. Overall though, it's always fun to take a trip with friends, so I'm glad we went. :)

Today we started out the morning by sleeping in, which was great! Then we made potato bowls, which are possibly my favorite breakfast ever. We cook red potatoes with veggies and seasoning salt, then put over-medium eggs on top. Yum! I would show you a picture, but it never lasts long enough to get a picture of. :)

For the rest of the day, I'm going to go to campus to get some stuff done, go for a run, and hopefully buy some cold weather running gear online. This reversible headband is on sale at Kohl's, so I'm thinking I'll get that.

I'm also still searching for the perfect gloves. I think I want some that are fingerless gloves, but have flaps to make them into mittens. Sounds perfect because my hands get hot, but not hot enough to completely take the gloves off. Have a good Sunday, everyone!

Motivation from an Olympian

Last night, Billy Mills came to Purdue to give a talk. If you don't know who Billy Mills is, stop everything you're doing and watch this video.

He is a Native American from South Dakota, so he talked a lot about the struggles that he faced growing up as a minority. He kept stressing that perceptions affect our lives so much--our perceptions about what we're capable of, our perceptions of others around us, other people's perceptions of us--they all directly affect our lives. It was very interesting to hear from this incredible athlete that he had many moments of doubting himself. He felt like he didn't belong, even when he worked very hard and clearly had proved himself as an athlete. You can read more about the talk here.

After leaving his talk, I felt very motivated. Not only about running (although watching him win from behind in the Olympics was pretty awe inspiring), but about life in general. One of his main messages was that it is important to have dreams, because dreams keep your soul in tact. He feels like if you don't have dreams, you don't have anything driving you, and it is very likely that you will feel incomplete. I am making it a personal goal over the next few days to think critically about what my dreams are. There are things that I'm currently pursuing, but I need to take some time to directly identify my true dreams. I encourage all of you to do the same!

On another note, I went for a run this morning. When I checked the temperature on my phone it said 30 degrees, which caused internal complaining about the cold, but I told myself that training my body is good for so many aspects of my life. Complaining isn't a good habit to get into, and I don't want to be a person who focuses on negativity. Once I told myself that, I actually felt content, and I had a great run. One thing I love about running in the cold is that I can keep my pace faster than in the summer--it makes me feel proud of my running. :) I tackled just over 3.5 miles this morning, which was a great way to start my day. :)

One last thing--my body warmed up pretty quickly during my run, but my hands were freezing. Does anyone have any good suggestions for running gloves? I can't handle many more runs where my hands go numb! :) Have a good weekend everyone!

Busy Week!

This week has been insanely busy! For my Master's work, I built a balance board that can be modified in real time. Basically, I can control how hard or easy it is to balance on the board. This can be interesting, because it can put healthy people in unstable regions--allowing us to learn about instabilities and why they occur. The balance board looks like this:

Now that I've finished my Master's, part of my PhD work includes testing the board on different human populations. I did some pilot testing for my thesis, but now we are doing full blown studies with college-aged students. The testing takes a little less than an hour and a half, and we just put people through various conditions on the board. We've already tested 7 people this week! It's very interesting work and I like getting to see people use the board I built, but it sure is exhausting.

Outside of school work, I haven't made time to run much this week. I did a 3 miler on Tuesday morning before I went to campus, but that's it. Hopefully today I will squeeze in at least 3-4 miles and maybe some time on the stationary bike. The time change is killing me since it's dark by the time I get home! Have a good rest of the week, everyone! :)

Monumental Half Marathon--Race Recap

D and I made it through the half marathon yesterday! :) I wasn't too worried about finishing, but since I hadn't run more than 3 miles in the past two weeks, and because of my slightly injured foot, it had crossed my mind. Luckily, I didn't feel anything at all from my foot--whew, what a relief. The only downside of this race was that it was freezing! Seriously so cold. It was 28 degrees at the start, and on tv they said it felt like 16. The wind cut right through you. Brr.

Miles 1-3 were easy peasy. Our pace was slow because of the crowd, but we felt good. [Side note: we started with the group trying to pace 9:30--how were there so many people walking in front of us?? I don't care at all if people want to walk, but it is really frustrating when you can't even run at your pace because you are weaving around people walking down the center of the road. :-| ] Around mile 4, we heard our names, and saw my parents waving frantically at us. My mom even ran down the sidewalk with us for a few seconds because she was so excited that they had found us. :) Immediately after that, we ran into our friend Si who was running the full marathon. We ran with her for a couple miles (note: these were our fastest miles!) until we got separated. That brought us to about mile 6. At mile 7, the half marathon route broke off from the full, so the crowd thinned out quite a bit. I felt pretty great until just after mile 8, when my freezing hands were starting to really bother me. Not a huge deal, but I could tell I was starting to get uncomfortable. 

Around mile 10, my calves started to really tighten up. I've never had this happen before I think it was because of the cold--I was wearing capris, so my calves were exposed. This tightening lasted until the end, and made the finish very unpleasant. D was a champ though, and continuously kept trying to motivate me. Around mile 12.5 there was a huge crowd, which pumped me up a bit for the finish line. We finished with a time of 2:08:52, which was a little slower than my time last year, but I was still pretty happy. D's parents and my parents both came to watch, so we immediately found them, then went and ate a delicious breakfast. :) 

Here we after the finish. We are standing next to the giant pile of clothes that had been picked up near the start. Since we were both freezing, we contemplated going through the pile for warm clothes, but decided against it. :) 

Today I've been relaxing for most of the day. I have a little bit of work to do before tomorrow morning, but we are going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a football game and celebrate our half (D's first!). :) 

Half Marathon Eve

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone has very fun plans to dress up and go trick or treating, or hand out candy and get to see all of the adorable/scary/creative costumes. I was very excited to get to hand out candy this year, since we finally moved into a house in a neighborhood, rather than a normal college campus apartment complex (which kids don't really come trick or treating too). Unfortunately, because our half marathon is tomorrow, the expo is tonight, and we need to drive down to Indy to get checked in. Here is the schedule for tomorrow morning:

And here is the weather forecast for tomorrow morning:

It has been so beautiful here in Indiana lately--great running temps in the morning and evening (~50 degrees). This cold is moving in this evening--I haven't run in 30 degree weather since February or March! I know that I'll be ok, but it does throw off my outfit I was planning. And D doesn't even have any cold weather running gear, so I have no idea what he will wear! No big deal though, we'll get it all figured out and tackle this half marathon. Next time I update it will be a race report. :)

Pumpkin Bread!

Oh my gosh, I just made pumpkin bread, which I have never made before, and it. is. delicious. I was making it to send to my friend for her birthday, but I decided to make two loaves...thank goodness I did because it smelled amazing while it was cooking and I don't think I could have possibly resisted eating it. Here is a picture of the two loaves:

The smaller one I will send to my friend, and the larger one I am going to devour. I hope I can manage to save some of it for D. :) I also have a cinnamon candle burning, and I put new potpourri out, so our house smells like a Fall Explosion. I am so happy right now.

Studying for a grad level vibrations class doesn't seem so bad when you can do it with delicious bread and coffee. I think I should make a habit of this. :) Also I figured everyone would want to see a picture of Nova--she has to be in whatever room I'm in, so here she is laying on the kitchen floor while I was making the bread.

Resting After Injuries and a Crazy Doggie

Hello everyone!

After my last post, I was feeling very good about running, but my foot was hurting. It started to feel better a few days later, but (stupidly!) I went rock climbing and then it was so painful I could barely walk! It basically hurt right where this picture shows, specifically under my second toe:

This was very concerning considering I was only 2 weeks out from my half, and because...well, I walk a lot, and walking was hurting me a lot. I am very proud of myself though, because I have not run in over a week, and now it doesn't hurt at all! I hate taking time off from running, especially with a race coming up, but I knew I would regret it in the long run (hehe, no pun intended) if I didn't let it heal properly.

In other news, we have been training our dog to do different tricks and she learns so fast. I am super impressed with her, and I'm happy that we decided to add her to our family. :) Sometimes she does things that make me a little crazy...

Nova looking at me as if she'd done nothing wrong...after tearing up her whole bed

BUT overall, she is a great dog, and I love having her around. Even when she does stuff like tear up her bed, she still manages to look so cute that I can't be mad for long. :) Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Running to Achieve Balance

The past few weeks have been incredibly overwhelming for some reason. I have been very busy with research, and the class I'm taking is a lot of work--which I am able to accomplish after feeling dumb for about 10 hours of working on it. Plus our doggie has had a lot of energy which is hard to deal with when we get home around 9 pm, and makes me feel bad that we haven't been devoting more time to her. Overall I have just been left feeling very overwhelmed. I have been trying to figure out how to deal with it in a constructive way, but everything I tried (yoga, taking a break to watch some Netflix, taking time to think through everything on my to-do list) just left me feeling more behind. We even put off our long run on Sunday, due to a combination of being busy and the constant rain we have been having. I felt a lot like this:

Yesterday, we finally got to the long run, and somewhere in those 9 miles I started to feel better. The run took a long time because it started raining and was getting dark, so we went into the university rec center to finish it up. Once we were done, we had to walk back to campus to get our stuff, then walk home, so the whole event took almost 3 hours. Even with that amount of time spent not working on school stuff, I felt so much better!

It's interesting how your mood can change due to random things. I'm trying to remember how great I felt after the run, so I can keep feeling that all day. :) It's easier said than done. At least it's already Thursday, woo!

Long Weekend

This weekend was our Fall Break, which doesn't mean too much for graduate students, since we are still expected to make progress on our work, but I did have a fun weekend and took most of Monday off. I was supposed to get a long run in (9 miles), but it never stopped raining, so I will have to do it today even though it is still raining! Let's do a quick run through of my weekend fun. S

Saturday one of my best friends, a roommate from undergrad, came to Purdue to visit. She brought her boyfriend who I had never met before, so it was great to meet him. We went to the football game against Michigan State, which could have been really awful (we haven't been playing very well this year, and Michigan State is one of the best teams in the nation), but we actually held our own.

If you check out each quarter, we were actually doing quite well until half time. One of my good friends here at Purdue in grad school went to Michigan State for undergrad, so it was a healthy rivalry. I was really hoping that we'd beat Michigan State because it'd be an upset, and it would have forced her to give Purdue some love. :)

Saturday night we were worn out from the game, so we stayed in and played Trivial Pursuit. I don't think I have ever played before, but it was really fun! We didn't know a lot of the questions (in our defense, the game was from 1981, so things like Entertainment were rather outdated), so the game took a long time, but I think everyone had a good time. On Sunday morning we drove a half hour to see one of our other roommates from college, who recently bought a house, which is so adorable! We got to spend some time with her and her husband, which was great, and then we explored their house. It made me feel slightly inadequate, since I am still at Purdue (although I have graduated, left, and returned), and here she is with a beautiful house. They were even talking about having kids! 0_0 On the drive home though, I tried to put things in perspective, and realize that we are working hard to better ourselves here at Purdue, and that it's not healthy to compare your life to others. It reminded me of this great quote.

Monday I spent most of the day relaxing, which was nice. Tuesday I was mostly back to work--ah the life of a graduate student. Hope everyone has a great week!

Updates!

It's been awhile since I've posted--school has been extremely busy. No excuses though--I'm trying to get into the habit of blogging regularly, because I know it's good for my mental health. :) Last night Pentatonix came to Purdue, so we went to see their concert. It was awesome! If you haven't heard of them before, check out the video below.

They had such high energy, great vocals, and overall put on an amazing show. If you ever get the opportunity to see them live, I would definitely recommend it.

In other news, running has been going well. I got some new kicks, which so far I love.

That's all for now. Loving running in the refreshing fall weather! :)

Exciting News

Very exciting news! On Friday night, my husband went to Indy to help his parents with some errands, so I decided to go out to a bar with some friends. He had the car, so the plan was that he would come pick me up when he got back into town. He texted me around 11:30 saying he was almost back, so I said my goodbyes and went out to wait for him. When he arrived, I hopped in the car, started talking to him, and he said "shhh!" and pointed to the backseat. He had brought home a beautiful puppy dog!

A new doggie!

We had been talking about getting a dog for about a month now, and he had actually told me that friends of his parents had a 6 month old lab that needed a home. I thought she might be a potential dog for us, but then he had told me that she was a rescue and he wasn't sure if we should get a rescue. This was just a lie to throw me off so that he could surprise me! We spent all weekend deciding on a name, and we ended up choosing Nova.

Because my schedule is being changed around quite a bit with having a doggie around, I'm going to start trying to run in the mornings. I did a very short run this morning, but I had slept longer than I wanted to, so I didn't want to take the time to do a longer run. Tomorrow I'm going to try to knock out 4 miles bright and early.

That's all for now. Time to go play with Nova! :)

It's a Yoga Pants Kind of Day

Yesterday my husband and I ran 6 miles around campus, which isn't an exceptionally long run, but is the longest I've done in awhile, and this morning I was definitely feeling worn out. I decided that even though I had to work office hours in the morning, and give some interviews for a Women in Engineering program in the afternoon, I was wearing yoga pants. Paired with a nice top, they look semi-professional...right? It makes me want to buy a pair of these black dress yoga pants from Betabrand. What a great idea.

Black dress yoga pants from betabrand.com

Maybe it's because I'm hungry, or because it's hot out today, reminding me that it's the middle of summer, but I cannot stop searching for delicious recipes for the grill. I try to eat  as clean as possible, and I tend to primarily maintain a vegetarian diet. I do eat meat every once in awhile, but I make a  conscious effort to avoid it the majority of the time. This means that when I post recipes, they will mostly be vegetarian--give them a chance, they can be as delicious as the meaty alternatives!

First of all, I love this bread recipe by Artisan Bread in Five. It is extremely easy to make, and you can keep the dough in your refrigerator for up to two weeks! The loaves have crunchy crust and a perfect interior. Here's a picture of one of my misshapen yet delicious loaves.

Homemade Bread

Back to the grilling! I found this list of 38 Vegetarian Grilling Recipes, and at the moment, I want to eat all of them! The grilled herb garden pizza sounds especially delicious at the moment. That's all for now--I'll go back to daydreaming about eating copious amounts of food. :)

Introduction to Me!

Hello everyone!

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for awhile now, and am excited that I have finally pulled the trigger. First, a little background about me. I'm a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering (ME), focusing on bioengineering. I finished my Master's Degree in the summer, so I am officially a PhD student (yay....kinda!). It's a lot of work, but my focus is really interesting--it's an interdisciplinary project between ME and Health and Kinesiology. It's fun to be merging two departments because I learn so much, and I get to interact with lots of unique students and faculty.

In addition to the academic part of my life, I also enjoy athletics. In high school I was a three season athlete: soccer, swimming/diving, and track. When I got into college, I still swam every once in awhile, but for the most part I wasn't working out very much. This left me mentally and physically unhappy! After graduating in May 2011, I moved to Chicago and started biking everywhere. This jump-started my exercise routine, and the following spring, I began running. I had always sworn that I was not cut out for distance running--I have a long torso but short legs (a swimmer's build! Watch this interesting TED Talk about ideal body types for various sports), but I kept at it. For the first year I ran sporadically, until I decided to sign up for a 10k in the summer of 2013. I followed a training plan for this, and finally started to enjoy running. After completing the 10k, I immediately signed up for a half marathon, scheduled for November. Here is me before the half, feeling cold and nervous.

Me before my first half marathon in November 2013

The half went really well and I decided that maybe I actually liked this whole running thing. This year, in addition to some 5k and 10k races, I participated in a Ragnar Race. This was a relay race from Madison, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois, with 12 people per team. Each person runs three separate legs. The running never stops, so there is a good chance at least one of your legs will be in the dark! My legs totaled just over 16 miles. It was hard (recovery doesn't happen well when you stop running and immediately go sit in a van for the next 5 hours), but it was a ton of fun. My team was awesome, and I enjoyed participating in a unique running experience.

Our Ragnar Crew in front of our sweet van

Currently, I'm training for a half marathon (same one I did last year!). This time my husband is running it with me. Which reminds me of something I forget to mention--I'm married! :) My husband is also a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering; this is great because we both have someone who understands the struggles of grad school. He's the smartest, most capable person I know, and I feel lucky to have him by my side. We got married in November of 2012.

Immediately after we had walked out of the church

That covers the basics about me! I hope for this blog to be a space to talk about trudging through grad school, running, cycling, and other components in the life of a twenty-something girl! I hope you'll stick around. :)