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It's been a rough week around here for many reasons and I'm really looking forward to 5 days off work.

We found out earlier this week, that my dog, Duke, is not doing well. Although earlier blood tests showed him to be healthy, blood test now, to check the thyroid we thought was a problem, reveal many more issues. Unfortunately for many reason there is not much we can do, but give him a lot of love and hope that we have a little more time with him. Right now he still eating, he is just really tired and lacks much energy because of sever anemia. It's hard. He's still so young, only 6 1/2 but boxers are known for these things. He is such a good dog. Hard to imagine it around here without him.

An older picture of my youngest son Zach and Duke pretending to be a lap dog.

Eating this week is also a bit of a challenge. Yes we have Thanksgiving, but I also had a birthday. You know how that goes...far to much food. I have managed to get my veggies in so far for the HBBC challenge and some exercise. I will be posting an update of food and exercise post at the end of each week.

Ton's of congrats to both Aimee and Kathleen for finishing IMAZ! It was so exciting and stressful to track them all day! I am so very proud of both them and can't wait to hear all about it!

I am doing a turkey trot tomorrow. It's the same one I did last year and had hoped for a good time. However, since my running has been minimal due to the butt pain (although it is really pretty good right now) and it does seem to bother me the most on hills, up and down, and this course is pretty much up or down hill I don't know how well it will go. However also running is "my racer" from the Skirt Chaser so it will be good to chat and catch up with her some. And then it will off to the parents for a fabulous meal! What are your plans for the day?

And since I'm having a looonnngg 5 day weekend and today is supposed to be BEA-U-T-I-FUL, I'm going for bike ride.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that even with all the not so good things that may be happening in your lives right now that you, like me still have many more to be thankful for.

So much going on!!!

First I just want to give a shout out to Kathleen and Aimee who will be doing IMAZ this weekend! I am just so excited for both of them! I'm sure that many of you know them from blog world, and that is how I've met them originally, but I've also had the pleasure of meeting and racing with them several times, including this time we all raced together at IronGirl last year. It was so much fun! I can't wait to watch you ladies achieve the goals you have worked so hard for! Good luck and have fun Aimee and Kathleen!

Next up my other new friend Jill is hosting a Holiday Blogger gift exchange! It seems unbelievable to me that last year at this time I didn't read her blog or know Jill. We have had some great adventures this year including training for and completing our very first Century ride together! Go jointhe gift exchange! You know you want to!

Also the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge starts today! There is still time to sign up if you haven't! This is a first for me to so I'm also excited about it! Nothing like a good challenge to help minimize the holiday damage!

Partly because of the challenge and partly because I always feel like I'm missing something I'm also going to enter the world of Twitter. I am hopelessly lost over there so any helpful hints you can throw my way would be great. You can find me at @ujusthavetotri .... I think....

Now with all that being said I better get my butt out and put on some miles!

Happy weekend all!

The best thing I ate this week? I'm trying to remember and struggling to tell you the truth...the soup I made was for sure a contender but I think I'm going to go with the Italian Sausage sandwich I had at work on Wednesday. Every year we do a customer appreciation lunch at work. The owner of the company makes Italian sausage, meatball and Italian beef sandwiches we serve to the customers. (See #3 from The Thursday Three) One good thing came out of this and that was the fact that the Italian sausage sandwich I had was TO-DIE-FOR...this was without a doubt some of the best sausage I’ve had, (he gets it from and Italian Deli every year)it is soft and slightly spicy the sauce was perfect, the rolls the perfect mix of crusty and soft and the hot pepper on top yummy! It was so messy and delicious! And since this is the only time of year I have one it was much enjoyed

Now it’s your turn...I want you tell me the best thing you ate...and remember it is all in the description, make my mouth water!

Three thing Thursday – Things I’ve noticed

1. Even though the scale is within about 3-4 lbs of what I was at all summer the decrease in exercise has changed my body in bad, bad ways.

2. Why is it when you are trying to watch your diet everyone brings you food?

3. People can be so incredibly rude and inconsiderate, especially when it comes to something that is free. I must make sure I’m making more of an effort to be considerate.

What's for Dinner? Neely's Chickpea, Ham and Swiss Chard Soup

Can I just say good stuff!!!! I actually got this recipe from my boss about a year ago. I had no idea who Neely was but it sounded good and I finally got around to making it and I'm sorry I didn't try it sooner. Recently a friend of mine posted a picture of herself with the Neely's on Facebook. So when I pulled out the recipe again I finally put two and two together. Now to be honest I can not tell you the last time I had bacon, and cooked with it? I just don't ever do that. But it made a huge difference in this recipe. The taste of the bacon in the soup was unbelievable! When I hit those smokey flavored bits it was heaven! And really it's 3 pieces of bacon slit between several servings so how bad can it be?

Neely's Chickpea, Ham and Swiss Chard Soup
4 Servings
Total Time: 1 hr 15 min.
Prep 20 min.
Cook 55 min.

Ingredients
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
1 (6-ounce) piece smoked ham steak, diced into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I used 1 teaspoon)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 small bunch, stemmed and sliced into thin ribbons
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
1 (16-ounce) can chickpeas or black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
Hot Sauce and Worcestershire sauce, as needed (I tried the Worcestershire in one small bowl, didn't care for it and wouldn't use it again and because I used a whole teaspoon of pepper flakes I really didn't need hot sauce)
Grated Parmesan, for garnish (I used it but don't think I would miss it)

Directions
Add the bacon to a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat








Fry until crisp, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and reserve.



















To the same Dutch oven,(I removed all but about 1T of the bacon fat although the recipe didn't say to) add the onion, garlic, and carrot, and saute until the vegetables are tender, roughly 4 minutes.

.



Add the ham steak and red pepper flakes and adjust the seasonings
with salt and pepper, to taste.
Add the Swiss chard and saute
until it begins to soften













Stir in the chicken broth, chickpeas or black-eyed peas, and the canned tomatoes with their juices. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook for 30 minutes.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Splash with some hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese and bacon.

If not this what?

So over the weekend I attended the Roller Derby championships. It was the first time I’d been although I’ve been wanting to go for over a year. My mom, aunt and I went on the spur of the moment and yes we might have been a wee bit out of place but it was fun. The crowd was different than I expected. It was mostly female and I’m not sure I’ve seen that many tattoos, big tattoos in one place in a long time. It took awhile to start to catch on to what was going on and a girl sitting in front of us filled us in on some of the rules and game play. Loved, loved, loved the girls names like Bloody Mary and Physco Babble. It was however not near as aggressive as I thought it would be but there was some pushing and shoving. I gave some thought to what it would be like to try it, always looking for the next challenge you know. I’m pretty sure my old body couldn’t take the falling and skidding across the floor not to mention the fact that I’m not that good on skates. There was a time in my life when I thought of myself as a little bit wild and rebellious, which I think, would fit right in with the roller girl image, and hey I have a couple of tattoos that I could make bigger. Anyway it did get me to thinking that if I had to give up running and triathlons what would I want to do in its place. What hobby would I pick up? Is there another sport I would like to give a try? Softball? Tennis? I just don't know.

What about you?

If not this what?

Cautiously Optomistic...

So I've run twice in the last 2 days. Not far and not fast (not that I'm ever fast) but I ran. Day one Friday 1/2 mile in I could feel my "cheek" wasn't pain but I could feel it for sure, by mile 1 1/2 I felt tightness in my outer thigh. Called it good at 2 miles. Today I went out and had virtually no pain. There were just a couple of times (mostly on hills both up and down) I did take it easy and walked for 30 seconds every 1/2 mile. I did 3 miles and for the most part felt great! I'm thinking of possibly one more ART session but I'm not sure if I need it or if I just need a little more time for the inflammation or irritation or whatever to heal. One of the great parts about getting to run today was that I was able to wear my new shoes. Even though I've had them for about a month I've only put 15 miles on them.....yea I've been running a bunch. I seriously love how I feel when I run in these shoes. Even if I'm not any faster, I feel faster. My feet are just so light it's like they float.

Because I am cautiously optimistic I signed up for this and this.