Midweek Confessions

Mid week confession time again! I'm glad because that means it's Wednesday and we are a few days closer to leaving for the beach.

*My brother is graduation high school today and I literally can not wrap my head around it. That means that on this day 5 years ago I was sitting in graduation rehearsal anxiously awaiting my time to walk across that stage. Stephan was there to cheer me on as I got my diploma and I was just praying I wouldn't trip up the stairs and totally embarrass myself. I know those thought won't be running through my brothers head because he honestly doesn't care what people think of him. I admire him for that! He's confident in his own skin and I am proud of him.

*I'm a little jealous of my brother. He's off to Auburn in the fall and he knows what he wants to be when he "grows up". That's something I was never sure of, well at least career wise. I always just wanted to be a wife and a mom. Now I'm both and it's wonderful but sometime I find myself wishing I had a degree of some kind, just so I could say I accomplished something that huge.

*This morning when I went to get Ephraim out of bed the smell of poop was overwhelming. We had a poo explosion that consisted of a little boy having a bath before breakfast, sheets, a shirt and a changing pad being trashed and Stephan and I not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the situation.

*Now that my sister "in-law" is pregnant again, my baby fever has intensified. *Sigh* I will just have to continue to suppress the want/need for another baby until we start looking for another house.

*I have not done couch to 5k in a week and a half because I did something awful to a muscle in my leg (right by me knee). I'm thanking the Lord that it is feeling almost 100% again so I can get back to running! Let's pray for NO more injuries!

Couch to 5k and Dinner

In my meet me on Monday post I mentioned I was going to start getting back into running. Before I had Ephraim a friend and I were training for the Mercedes Marathon {we were just doing the half marathon} here in Birmingham. I had gotten up to running 7 miles at a time and then I found out I was pregnant. Well, I decided to do nothing the whole nine months. Horrible decision and next time around I will stay in shape while pregnant. Then, I broke my knee in October and it took a lot longer than expected to get back to 100%. Now my knee is back to normal so time to start running again. Yay! Stephan and I have started couch to 5k. If you haven't heard of it you can go here for more info. We use the iPhone app 5k runner. We did day one on Tuesday. It was a 25 minute work out with a 5 minute warm up, 5 minute cool down and in between we would run a minute then walk a minute and a half. Yesterday we did day two and it was a 30 minute work out with more walk/run intervals. I highly recommend this program. We are training for the Color Run coming up in September.

Here are my stats from day two! I cant wait to continue the program. Stephan did really well too. He hates running so I am very thankful he's being such a good sport and doing this with me.

After couch to 5k day 1 we decided to try a "healthier" dinner. 

Pork Chops and Fresh Green Beans

Lemon and garlic are some of my favorite flavors so I was so excited to find this recipe for fresh green beans. It's so simple and they turn out delicious. The only thing I do different than the recipe is, I add a little fresh lemon juice over the top before serving.

Here is the pork recipe:

{adapted from Giada De Laurentiis}

Ingredients:

*4 butterflied boneless pork chops

*2 eggs

*3/4c fresh grated parmesan

*1 1/2c whole wheat panko bread crumbs (I added some Italian seasoning and some rosemary and garlic seasoning to the bread crumbs)

*4tbsp light olive oil

*Salt and Pepper

*Lemon wedges for serving

Directions:

Whisk eggs in a dish. Place parmesan in a separate dish. Place panko in a third dish. Season each side of the pork chop with salt and pepper. Coat the chops with cheese patting to adhere, then dip chops in the egg then the panko patting to adhere. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pork chops to the skillet and cook 'til golden brown and the center reaches 150degrees. This should take about 6-8 mins a side, depending on how thick your chops are. Transfer to plates and enjoy! We also added a little fresh squeeze of lemon juice over the top of our pork chops before enjoying.

Bon Appetit