Happy Halloween!

It’s been a fun but busy week around here. So busy in fact, I forgot about an early morning Wednesday morning Relay for Life meeting…ugh. I made it, but I was kinda late, and I hate forgetting things. When I try to do too much, my brain gets jumbled…after this weekend though, two of my big projects will be over….then it will be time for DISNEY!

Happy Halloween! I had coffee in my Halloween Mickey mug this morning! :) We are allowed to dress “in costume” today, but this is about as far as my department is going this time around.

I like my Mickey bones shirt…his skeleton glows in the dark, which is perfect for my work department (Radiation Oncology)!

The remainder of my week was spent doing this during daylight hours….

….and more of this during daylight hours….

…whew.

The evening hours were spent working on a project for Sunday night at church. The ministry I coordinate has most of the Sunday night service (big eeeek), so I’ve been working on scripts and certificates and everything going on there. I can’t wait for Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. My fence and the church project will be complete and I can begin packing for DISNEY!

1 week from today, I’ll be in my happy place with friends!! Aaaah! I can’t wait! Thanks to Jen for the above picture…she found it and I borrowed it! :)

What’s your Halloween plans? Are you/can you dress up for work? Hope you have a great day!!

Villains

Scattered throughout each runDisney event are characters…some heroes, some classic, and some villains. Today’s Wordless Wednesday theme is Villains, so I’m going to share a few that I’ve spotted at races over the years! Thanks to Deb at Focused on the Magic for hosting!

Side note: I’ve never participated in the Tower of Terror 10 Miler but I would love to in the future. (I hear that course is full of Villains!) Unfortunately, ToT is not on runDisney’s lineup of races for 2015.

Although I wasn’t on a race course for this final picture, I was on a cruise after running Disney’s Princess Half Marathon weekend! Stretching it much…maybe. Oh well. Works for me!

Who’s your favorite Disney Villain? Putting this post together made me realize that I really need to spread my wings and venture out more!

Recipe: BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

On Saturday night, I decided to be adventurous with dinner. I found a recipe that called for crock pot pulled pork and it sounded delicious – two problems…I didn’t have time to let anything sit in a crock pot for four or eight hours and I didn’t have any pork on hand.

That’s when this recipe came about…BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. It’s super delicious and not too bad in health terms, either!

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Adapted from: Skinny Mom

Ingredients:

5 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 medium sized sweet potatoes
1 cup of frozen chopped onions (or fresh, your choice)
1/2 cup of reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup of BBQ sauce (check the sugar contents to make sure you’re using a sauce that’s not terribly high in sugar)
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

In a large pot on top of the stove, combine chicken broth, onions, and chicken breast. Chicken broth will not cover chicken breasts, so add enough water in pot to cover.  Add seasoning as desired (I used a few dashes of Cajun seasoning aka Tony’s). Heat to boiling, then cover and simmer for 35-40 minutes (until middle of chicken breasts are cooked).

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash sweet potatoes and pierce each one with a fork several times. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake x 45 minutes. Flip halfway through baking.

While chicken and potatoes are cooking, prepare seasonings in a small bowl. Mix chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Also prepare BBQ mixture – in a separate bowl, combine BBQ sauce, apple cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce.

Once chicken is cooked, remove from pot and drain. Sprinkle half of the seasoning mixture on top of chicken. Allow to cool so the chicken is easy to handle with your hands. Once chicken has cooled, shred each piece with a fork and knife on cutting board. After chicken is shredded, sprinkle remaining seasoning on top and stir to coat.

In a smaller pot on stove, combine shredded chicken and BBQ sauce mixture and heat until warm. (Save a little bit of the BBQ for the final step.)

Slice each sweet potato and fill with meat mixture.

Drizzle remaining BBQ sauce over each potato.

Serve and enjoy!

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Chicken, onions, chicken broth, Tony’s Cajun seasoning, and water.

Sweet potatoes ready for baking!

Half of the seasoning mixture sprinkled on chicken….allowing chicken to cool before shredding.

Shredded chicken with remaining seasoning sprinkled on top.

BBQ sauce mixture

This dinner was really delicious! I can’t wait to make it again!

Servings: 4

Click here if you’d like to see the original, slow cooker pork recipe.

Have you ever tweaked a recipe, then really enjoyed the results?

Running and Fence Staining

Well, it was another fantastic weekend in my corner of the woods! Sushi with friends on Friday night for a birthday celebration, running on Saturday morning, church on Sunday, and staining our wooden fence in between is what consumed my weekend.

So many people in my twitter/facebook feeds ran races this weekend – if that was you, I hope your race went well! It sure was a beautiful weekend for running or spending time outdoors!

Saturday morning brought another beautiful sunrise during our 8 mile run around the lake. Just one more weekend/long run and I’ll be ready for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon!

The headband was a birthday gift from one of my best friends. The print is sparkly and I thought the saying matched the Mickey Marathon shirt well! :)

After the run, my husband asked me to stop by Best Buy to see if the iPhone 6’s were available. Well, I finished running at 8 and Best Buy didn’t open until 9a.m. – what’s a girl to do? Breakfast at Panera was my sacrifice. I mean, I had to eat breakfast you know!

I got the iPhone 6 for him and brought it to him at work (he was so excited) then I went home and began the process of staining our wooden fence. This is a project I’ve needed to work on for about two years but kept putting it off. I finally decided to do it this week, since the forecast called for pretty weather days!

I wasn’t sure how long it would take to stain, so I lathered on the sunscreen and got to work!

Fyi, I used a paint brush to stain the fence. I discussed the option of a sprayer with several people and I was advised to go the old fashioned way. (Nerd alert) I’ll admit, I kind of felt like Tom Sawyer white washing a fence! Teehee…I know I know. Ok moving on.

In all, both front sides (facing the road) of the fence took about 3 hours to stain.

It’s amazing the difference a coat of stain made – I absolutely love it! 

Also, that eye sore of a building seen behind the fence is not ours – it’s our neighbors. It looks like it’s in our yard, though. Ugh.

Here’s the color/brand of stain we used:
Olympic Maximum Stain/Sealant in one
Semi Transparent
Dark Mahogany (same color as our backyard deck)

Now the daunting task lies before me….

The inside of the fence. Yikes. I’ve definitely recruited Jason to help! Hah! If I work diligently on it every day after work, I think I’ll have it complete by the weekend. *Crossing my fingers* Here’s hoping!

How was your weekend? Run any races? Hope you had a great one!

Homecoming and Fitness Friday

Last week/weekend, my local University held its annual homecoming festivities! One of my best friends and I have this tradition – the homecoming parade. We were in the parades while in school and we’ve been attending them together almost every year since we graduated. I love it! It’s so much fun to see the community on display while rooting together for our favorite Southland Conference team!

Here’s a few of the floats. One of the fun things about this year was the University’s Anniversary….celebrating 75 years!

The tourist bureau always shows a good time, decked out in Mardi Gras gear!

The Clydesdale horses (yes, THOSE Clydesdale horses) were a huge hit for this year’s 75th celebration! They marched in the parade and were on display at the stadium throughout the weekend for everyone to see.

These. Guys. Are. HUGE. For real, y’all. Huge. I was blown away by their size!

Game night!

One of the horses was brought on the field during pregame – look at the size compared to the people around him! Each horse has a name, too…I thought that was cute. :)

Saturday night’s game served as a girls night. I haven’t seen these two ladies in quite a while so we had a lot of fun! Our team won, too…no better way to end a homecoming celebration than that!

We might have also enjoyed one of these at Chili’s after the game! :)

Now that I’ve yacked your head off, here’s my workouts for the week:

Currently training for:
Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon
Louisiana Half Marathon
Rock ‘n’ Roll NOLA Half Marathon
Glass Slipper Challenge

Saturday – 14 mile run
Sunday – Rest Day 
Monday –  3 mile run
Tuesday –  Rest Day 
Wednesday – 4 miles with Jason 
Thursday – Felt bad all day – unplanned rest day
Friday – 3 miles

This weekend I have an 8 or 10 mile run followed by a 6 mile run the following weekend – then it’s taper time for the Wine & Dine Half!! Wahhooo!

How was your week? Any weekend plans?

Fall Décor 2014

Fall is well underway and cooler weather has slowly introduced itself to Southwest Louisiana (finally)!  I spent some time decorating my home for fall this year, so here’s a peek at the way we like to celebrate the fall season in my neck of the woods!

This front door wreath is one of my favorite additions to my fall collection! It was super easy to make – here’s a step by step tutorial if you’re interested!

Gotta have Disney accents! :)

At the front entry way, I swapped plain tea lights in the wall scones for orange ones. I also added a Halloween frame with a photo from 2013’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, a fall candle, and a decorative bird.

Our dining room table has several new touches including decorative pumpkins and gourds in glass vases.

The napkins, napkin rings, and table runner are from Bed, Bath, & Beyond, purchased last fall.

Another swap – these two wall scones held candles until recently! I purchased small glitter pumpkins from Michaels and put them in place of the candles.

Another new addition is the pumpkins on the fireplace. Purchased from Hobby Lobby this year.

My absolute favorite piece is Cinderella’s carriage. Also purchased from Hobby Lobby several years ago.

Hi Mickey! :) The scarecrow to the right was given to me by my grandfather after my grandmother passed away.

Breakfast nook.

These frames are from Pets Mart - we took Pixie to the Howl-o-ween costume contest several times.

Kitchen décor! I love fall scents, so several Bath & Body Works wallflower plug ins can be found throughout my home. This one is my favorite because it also serves as a night light!

Mug tree filled with fall themed mugs. :)

Fall touches in the guest bathroom.

There you have it, the majority of the fall touches scattered throughout my home. Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great day!

Do you decorate for fall? If so, what’s your favorite fall décor item?