Catching Up...

Whoa, it's been a long time since my last post! I have been inspired by a few of my favorite blogs to write a blog and yet, it doesn't seem to happen! Thus, it has been almost a year since my last post. Oops. So much has happened in the last year so instead of writing a forever long post, here is my abbreviated list of the past years happenings!

• Found out I was pregnant two days before flying to Scotland to visit my dear friends The Adams.
• Flew to Scotland and Greece! 
• Got morning sickness in Greece... still having trouble eating Greek food. 
• Ran a 15k instead of the 50k at the S.O.B. 
• Had a fun summer of weddings, bikes, swimming, running, and yoga. It helped me feel better!
• Started the school year out teaching my first year of first grade ( have been teaching Kindergarten for the past 6 years). 
•  Grew a pretty large belly which turned out to be a pretty large baby.
• Sawyer Paul was born on February 15th weighing in at 9lbs even. 
• Sawyers sweet little cousin was born two days before him.
• Enjoyed three full months of maternity leave. 

That brings us up to today. I go back to work on Wednesday and I have mixed feelings about it. I miss my school kids and all of the staff. I work at a fantastic school and it will be nice to see everyone before summer break. On the other hand, I feel like I am just starting to get a hang of this parenting thing! I love spending my days with my new little man and I am going to miss him while I am work. Thankfully, summer break is just a month away. I look forward to walking to farmers market, sitting outside, taking Sawyer for runs in the Chariot, and many camping trips. I sure hope Sawyer likes sleeping in tent!

Introducing Sawyer

Sawyer- Two Months Old    Picture by Benjamin Edwards Photography

Scotland!

I am in Scotland! I arrived here on Tuesday and have been busy sight seeing, running and biking ever since. I am loving every bit of it.
It is quite a bit different from the Central Oregon high desert that I am accustom to. It is very green here and for good reason. It rains here... a lot! I love seeing the green fields that go on forever. Most of them with sheep, cows or chickens running around. The rain doesn't seem to bother them much. I love seeing the ocean and rocky beaches. I could have spent hours looking at all the treasures that have washed ashore. I love the accent. I could sit in any coffee shop or pub and just listen to people talk! We met one farmer on a run and talked to him for quite some time about life in general. I loved it! I of course also love seeing one of my dearest friends and her family that lives here in Scotland. I have missed them deeply.

RAIN!

Andrea (the friend I am staying with) is training for an iron man! She is doing it for charity and raising money to help a little boy in Africa go to school. This is good news for me as I need to be training for my 50k as well! We spent today riding our road bikes out to the small town of Faulkland. It had a castle right in the middle of town! We saw a lot of beautiful country towns on our ride. The unfortunate part of ride was that it began to rain very hard once we got into Faulkland. We were drenched and very cold. We decided to try and take a bus home instead of riding the 22 miles back to St. Andrews. One problem, the buses don't allow bikes. Bummer.  To make a long story short, we ended up calling Andrea's husband and he was able to pick us up. Thank goodness.
I look forward to many more adventures while I am over here!

Running.... a long ways!

I have always loved running. I started running in middle school and haven't really every stopped. My style and competitiveness has changed but everything else remains the same. I love to run. Running has a way of turning a bad day into a good one. It is simple, put on a pair of running shoes and head out the door. I prefer trail running over road running and I am fortunate because I have trails near by.

I ran my first marathon when I was 19. I had a great experience and this kicked off my love for the longer distance. I have since "retired" from the long pavement pounding races. I found that I wasn't really enjoying running on roads for 3 1/2 hours. It hurt and my recovery time was weeks! So, I quit the road marathons and took on a new way of running. Trails.

Trail running fills me up. I love the different terrain, the ups and downs, curves and corners. The sound of the wind rustling the trees and seeing all sorts of nature. Most of the time I am either in the mountains or near a river. Living in Bend has given me the opportunity to run on some pretty amazing trails. I have completed numerous trail races ranging from 10k's to 30k's. Just last weekend I ran in the Peterson Ridge Rumble. It is a 20 mile run through the forest just outside of Sisters, OR. This was the second time I have run in that race and I plan on doing it many more times!

Last year I read, Born to Run. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to be inspired to run a long ways on trails! After reading it last year, I signed up for Peterson Ridge for the first time. This year, I have a new personal challenge. A 50k. Yep, 31 miles of pure trail wonderfulness! When I first signed up (last Friday), I had a mini freak out session and went right down to Foot Zone, our local running store. I bought a copy of Ultra Runner Magazine and just happened to run into Jeff Browning, a local ultra marathon runner. He calmed my nerves, gave me some tips and sent me on my way. I am now thoroughly excited! I managed to talk a few more of "girls club" running partners to do it also! That will make the training doable. We will be running in the Syskiyou Outback or SOB 50k on July 9, 2011.
Wish us luck...

Simple Pleasures

I find that sometimes in life the most simple pleasures are the best.

Yesterday was an exciting day at the Thomas house. Nick found out that he has been chosen to be one of three new hires for Bend Fire! The process has been long and full of emotions. Yesterday made it all worth it. We are so grateful and excited. 

We got to celebrate with friends yesterday and our emotions were running high. Today, we were both exhausted and needed some down time! We made a simple dinner and ate it by candle light. 

I recently graduated from yoga teacher training. This dinner was completely inspired by the dinner my yoga teacher made for us at our graduation ceremony. It was a simple vegan carrot soup, bread and asparagus. I enjoyed every bite of it.

I truly believe that a sit down dinner with homemade food, that is absolutely made with love and care, is one of  the most simple pleasures out there. Nick and I cook together as much as possible. I hope that never changes. Eating healthy, cooking together, and enjoying it sitting down together is extremely important to us. That doesn't mean that we don't enjoy a good treat afterward.

Cuppa Yo is just down the street from us and we had a reason to celebrate! Nick gets the same yogurt flavor and topping every time, vanilla with gummy bears. I on the other hand, love to change it up! So many new flavors, so little time. Tonight I went with grapefruit, snicker doodle, and cake batter. I put a few blueberries and butterfingers crumbles on top. Weird combo, I know. I honestly couldn't decide which flavor to get so I tried them all. Why not. Simple pleasures, what can I say. 

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! I say our, but it will most likely be just be me (Heidi).
I love reading other people's blogs and because of that, I have always wanted to start my own blog. It will be about a little of this and a little of that.
We live in Bend, Oregon and feel thankful for the life  that we lead here. This will give you a little look into our little lives in really big world...
Thanks for joining us.