a little this and a little that

Don't ya just LOVE granola. Such a great "grab n go" snack. I'll have to give props to little sis, Jordy for the recipe! She just found this recipe online.... I tweeked it a little bit, in the way that I didn't measure anything and added 2 different ingredients. Its super healthy, and you can add it to your cereal, yogurt, or snack out of cup!

Here are the ingredients:



Why you may ask why I have all the "Great Value" labels.... gotta love Wally World's generic prices people :)

  Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, unless your OCD, don't measure...put in what YOU like!



Take a look at this CLEAR picture! Why Thankyou phone camera...


On the stove, heat up a little honey, a little, peanut butter, a little veggie oil and a little applesauce. This is your "healthy sticky" that will make your granola, drizzle and stir all around and then.....

 

Put on a baking sheet (minus the dried fruit, that comes at the very end) and put in oven at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, keep checking on it and stirring it around it will burn if your not careful :)



This is the best part... I don't know how other people do it but I love pouring all of it in a big brown Harris Teeter bag, adding the fruit and doin a little shake shake... and there you have it :)

Now get to snacking :) Happy Sunday!

xoxo

Cam

I'd like to thank Akon and MJ

....for being with me on my RACE DAY in my ear, blaring, and giving me that boost of energy I needed at the beginning, and definitely at the end!

     Thats right, my race has finally come and gone and I have learned quite some lessons! First of all, I will never run a "trail" run again. I will also seek out the course myself before comitting to it and not just go by what the internet says about how fun the trail is! I should have known, "trail" = through the woods and not pavement nor flat terrain. If you haven't noticed what I'm getting at is that this was brutally hard! Not kidding! Being sick and not training two weeks up until my race had a for real effect on how I did, but at the same time I was not expecting to be running up Mt. Everest either.
    
     The morning started out awesome (and then it was all down hill from there, not literally though, the trail was 100% up hill)... Poppa Todd suprised us with a carb loaded breakfast when Jordan and I walked into the kitchen at 6:30am! Home made Belgian waffles with Aunt Jamima syrup....love that girl. When we got there, people were doing warm up runs around the parking lot, we saw some new running gear we hadn't ever seen before, and we chatted it up with a woman who was in line to get her T-shirt  right in front of us. All I can recall from the convo was that she said, "Oh yeah... it's hilly..."

    The announcer started counting down at the 10 second mark to let us begin, thats when I welcomed Akon and MJ into my life. The song was "hold my hand..." I had my head nod going great to the beat and well, thats about all I had going for me. The trail was INTENSE. At the mile one mark I began to wonder why I had running shoes on and not my dang hiking shoes, and fanny pack because thats the terrain I was trying to RUN to! I definitely had to walk, and while I should have power walked at some points to make better time I decided to enjoy the scenary and bring it down a notch (aka get recooperated).

     Have you ever heard the song "Just roll with it" by Eastin Corbin? Good ol' country song...anyways it came on my ipod at a perfect time. Right when I was coming around the bend I saw a bunch of canoes that overlooked a huge lake, and for about 12 seconds I literally thought about "just rollin with it" and grabbing a canoe, departing the race, callin' it a day, puttin' a fork in it, and DONE! Ohhh, but just as I ended that terrible thought a nice woman at a stand offered me water and said, "Your halfway, you look awesome!" Oh really, I thought... is that what you say to everyone whose struggling and has "where is the pavement" written on their foreheads? Nice woman though, thanks again for the H2O.
 
     And the 20 bucks all became worth it as I'm making my way out of the woods, I see the light (literally) and all of the hardcore trail runners cheering me on as I make it down the finish line. I turned on Akon and MJ once more and ran, ran, ran... like I was famous and on T.V. or something. I loved the home stretch, and loved how my dad was clicking away on the camera like I was on the red carpet or something, ha, made me feel famous once again! Time? I came in at one hour and 2 seconds flat!

     I'd like to end by saying *DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN*

It was tough, very tough...but I am glad little Jordy was there to run with me, even though she beat me...it was a good, lesson learned, eventful morning.  I even got a cool running shirt, toothpaste, new toothbrush, relax drinks, chapstick, and entered to win a free teeth whitening!

Before: Dear Cameron, you have no clue what you are about to get yourself into, love Trail.



Turning off Akon and MJ in action



Gatorade + Done = Hallelluja

Dunka who?

DunkaROOS! Who remembers Dunkaroos?! I have an insanely bad craving for them, right now, and for the last two months. I just looked them up online, they were the "Children of the 90's snack of all time" You can order your Dunkaroos still... but I have only seen so on Amazon.com. They came out in 1988... I was 3, but I'm pretty positive I was a sneaky little thing and took a Dunkaroo to my bed during nap time. I remember those things in the pantry like it was yesterday. I lit up when I saw them in my lunch every day at school, as well as when I opened up my "trapper keeper" to do my homework. There were my little dunkaroo friends ready and waiting to keep me happy while finishing my homework!  Its a mystery as to why I don't look like the kangaroo today....

I'm still laughing at "trapper keepers" are you? How dorky were those things!

You KNOW you loved these.... If you didn't you cheated and dipped graham crackers in regular icing. SHAME ON YOU! If I could get my hands on a Dunkaroo, It'd make my week! Amazon.com, I will be speaking with you in the next few months to come.

How to run...

From a baby that learns how to hold their head up to learning how to crawl, learning how to walk without falling and then learning how to run seems natural and oh so simplistic. It is, and should be for most people but I just diagnosed myself with "I'm 25 and don't know how to run properly syndrom..."

I am training for an 8k race March 12th in Raleigh and have been training for awhile now. Training according to my NOVICE training schedule (yes, I am a rookie long distance runner) includes strength training, conditioning, stretching, and relax days which I love! The running part varies to how many miles and what days to do them on. Sounds simple to follow, good routine, and its great except for my problem: RUNNIING CRAMPS.

I am a little dramatic, I know this :) but.... these running cramps are UNBEARABLE for real! Right up under my ribs and sometimes on the left and right side. The most frustrating part is when you have the energy along with a really good song on like this one (download it to your ipod NOW!):  Michael Jackson - Hold My Hand Duet With Akon ft. Akon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oCCnxBos10  .... AND YOU HAVE TO STOP!

So... I did a little research on trusty ol' google, asked for advice from facebook friends, even stopped a trainer at my gym to ask what the cause was and how to fix it for good! Here is my list I have composed, literally, I wrote it out so I'll remember what to do each day:
1- Do ab work (apparently your core needs to be worked before you run)
2- Take evenly spaced deep breaths while you run
3- Eat a banana an hour before you go running
4- Get some electrolytes in you (I prefer the gummy bear kind!)
5-Do not drink or eat anything an hour and a half before your run (so when your mom said to you when you were 8 at the pool, "wait 30 minutes after your pizza before you go play with Jamie" she was right, but off an hour :)
6- You need to move the lactic acid out of your body, it builds up as you run.. so drink water through the day
7- Inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth
8- Drink sports drinks occasionally, but dilute to half and half.
9- When you feel the painful monster coming on, find it and push as hard as you can upward
10-Don't run with your hands in a fist aka make them go floppy floppy... attractive right?
11- Every two steps breath in and the next two breath out


So if you can imagine, I'm counting breaths, making sure I'm stepping and breathing right, making sure my hands are not clinched, making sure i'm breathing in through the right hole and out the right hole, while all along pushing on my stomach................ This is what I felt like, are you ready? :



I am just praying this goes away!!! ...and that I can go back to just worrying about whether I'm lip singing the right words or not, that was way easier HA!

Coincidence or Fate

I say FATE.
Let me give you a definition of the two.
Coincidence: is the occurring of an event in conjunction with any some conditions, e.g. another event. As such, a coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship.
Fate:The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.The inevitable events predestined by this force. Here is what I found about Fate in reference to the bible: Only God is sovereign. His sovereign control is called “providence.” He has chosen to give us a free will, and He has created a moral universe in which the law of cause-and-effect is a reality. But God is God alone, and there are no “accidents” in the universe.

     This week was weird for me. I would say weird in a good way and that it really made me think about how God really does hear you, he really does care, he wants to share your feelings with you, he wants you to turn to him, he wants you to trust him... and what I really really learned is the more often you DO turn to him the more and more you will see him take action in your life, whatever that may be, and however that may be. Mysterious ways is how he works and I've seen it TWICE this week, and its very reassuring.
     Now when I was younger and in highschool it was always a struggle for me to understand that God wants you to Believe by faith and not by sight. I always was a believer, I just wished for something cool to happen to me, so that "I would believe even more"... sounds dumb right... well, it is. As I got older I learned that God wants us to believe in him with out seeing things directly because its all about TRUSTING. He wants us to put all of our trust in him, and the more you do it, you find you don't need to "see" miracles to feel satisfied. You will look at situations in a different light and feel satisfied just by the fact that he's got ya. Helllllllllo, he is my satisfaction, and he is the miracle in my life.
    Because of the story I am about to tell you, I do not believe in him any more than I do now... it just simply was an extra blessing for me to experience, and for him to once again tell me, "Cameron, I do hear you, I've got ears bigger than you know"... and that is a good feeling. I have serious issues with technology, whether it is losing them, breaking them, dropping them, losing warranty's and experiencing malfunctions with them (referring to the 2nd and 3rd example!) Sorry if you think this is gross, but I have to say it to make my story complete. The other morning I took out my retainer on the way to work because I wanted to drink my coffee... (Following the doctors orders, your not sopposed to drink warm drinks with it in.) So, naturally I put it in my lap and had all the intentions of the world to put it back in before I got out of the car, and what do you know technology got the best of me! (retainers are not computers or electronics, I get it, but I like to categorize them this way, go with it.) I didnt realize it until I left school, got to the gym and realized I didnt have it. After searching my car, I new it had to be in the school parking lot, so I turned around and looked. No luck. I called the orthodontist and told her my story and she said, "I'm sorry, I'll set you up an appointment, it will be $250 to replace." I was holding back my tears and could NOT make an appointment at that time so I told her I'd call her back... how embarrasing. Anyways, I was so frustrated because a few weeks before my camera broke, and a few days before my phone was stolen. At this point, "technology" is winning... lets be real. If I was writing a book, here is where I would start the chapter of the book that middle schoolers learn to label "Climax" (or, turning of events.) On the way to get my new retainer, I got a call from the place I get my hair cut, she said YOU WON! I said, WON WHAT?! I never when anything... ha! I had won the drawing they had, which I don't even remember putting my name in for, a credit of exactly $250 dollars to the Salon. FREE HAIR CUTS FOR A LONG TIME.... was all I could think about, and then I thought even more about how my retainer was $250 dollars... Coincidence or Fate? I was ecstatic and thought that my winning had canceled out the money that I have to pay for my retainer, since I won't be paying for haircuts for a LONG time. I immediately flew to cloud 9.
     The second "weird" thing of the week... I tried out two bible studies this week, first one wasn't such a great fit, and the second one I really felt a connection for and enjoyed the girls group! It came to the end of the night where prayer requests were taken. I had prayer requests, as everyone should but had just met these girls 30 minutes before and honestly didnt really feel quite comfortable enough to make a "request." So, I wasn't going to. The girl who went before me starting talking and essentially prayed for everything that I wanted to be prayed for, and in the exact same way that I would have wanted it said... it was weird! My eyes starting watering because I just could not believe what she had requested as a prayer request was what I wanted them to pray for me for, I was just to scared to do it. I left feeling a little overwhelmed, but connected, and once again assured that God was looking after me. It was fate, and it was in God's plans for that to happen because he knew I was too nervous or scared and he completely took that off my shoulders and prayed it for me through the other girl in the group. God works in mysterious ways.
     You could think these two things are coincidence if you wanted, but it is much more satisfying and fufilling to know it was fate and that God had control in both of these situations, and that he really is holding you in the palm of his hand, whether things like this happen to you or not... remember believing is not seeing. This was just two blessings I recieved this week. I hope that by telling you these stories that you look forward into this week knowing that he does hear you, whether you immediately see an outcome or not.

Have a good week
xoxo,
Cameron
P.S. This is my FIRST post without a picture, and for that I thank my broken camera :)!

The Gift of Giving

     My mom and dad for Christmas gave my sisters and brother n law and I an envelope each in our stockings. The envelope was stuffed with a printed out paper that said OPTinNOW. It was a gift card for us to use to donate to this foundation, which is, Opportunity International - End Global Poverty. Faster. We were able to go to the website and pick for ourselves who we wanted to help, and what organization we wanted to contribute to.   
     This organization is a non profit one and is very well known for providing loans to entrepreneurs located in some of the poorest places in the world. This is their opportunity to be successful, and we helped and so can you, so log on and donate.
     I gave my money to this woman below, Martha Boffah. She is 64 years old and has been running a Kindergarten classroom for 8 years now in a rented out space in Ghana. She started out by helping take care of her grandchildren and a friend of hers children and it developed into more of a school setting. She is raising money to expand this infrastructure to admit older children as well, and for school necessities, like desks and all of the basics for a classroom.

     Once I contributed they give you a website to where you can follow her and her donations that she has recieved... I looked this morning and Martha Boffah has raised her $475 for the kids!! Go Martha :)
The gift of giving is the most rewarding gifts to recieve. Thanks again moms and pops!