Get'cha Head in the Game

Ok, people... I fully admit that I have absolutely sucked at blogging for the past month and a half. Sure, I may have had an excuse during my month of travel, but for the past few weeks? I don't really have a good excuse - I've just been lazy, I guess. I haven't even commented on a post in weeks! Sheesh... and I call myself a blogger...

Anyway, I've decided that my laziness ends now. I'm back in the game. I miss blogging and I miss reading all your lovely blogs - I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do!

And speaking of catching up, I think I'll kick things off with my long overdue photos from Oregon.

Even though my trip to Portland was for a work conference, we were able to squeeze in quite a bit of traveling. This was my third time in Portland and let me tell you, I absolutely love that city. I'd move there in a heart beat and I've been *subtly* sneaking some Portland Fun Facts into conversation with Daniel to try and convince to relocate to the Pacific Northwest... so far, he hasn't taken the bait (but, I haven't given up yet!).

Haystack Rock at Canon Beach. Apparently, it this in the movie Goonies:

A shot of city from one of Portland's 10 bridges over the Willamette River:

This is Portland's unofficial motto:

Waiting in line at Voodoo Doughnuts (I was kind of boring and only got the Neopolatin; if I hadn't been so stuffed from dinner, it would've been all over the Bacon Maple Bar):

One of my favorite shots from the Portland Rose Gardens:

Multnomah Falls:

Showing my love for the beautiful landscape of the Columbia River Gorge:

Did You Miss Me?

Holy moly! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted, or even visited any blogs!

Things have been a little nutty around here. I spent the last few weeks packing, unpacking, repacking, adjusting to new places and then trying to catch-up on things at home. July has positively flown by as a result (and how the heck is it mid-August already???).

A few days after our camping trip, I went on an overnight staff retreat in the Poconos and a few days after that, I left the for a week-long work conference in Portland, OR. There will be more on Oregon later - here's a sneak peek for now:

Last week? I crashed. You see, sleep and I already have a love/hate relationship, and when you throw jet lag into the mix, it's not pretty. So, it took me an obnoxiously long time (and lots of coffee) to get back on East Coast time and feel less Zombie-like. It's amazing how 3 little hours can make such a big difference.

And now it's (finally!) time to get back to blogging. I'm excited to see what you've all been up to and share some of my fun stories from the last few weeks!

It's good to be back :)

Is It Really Over?

Yes, unfortunately my the sound of my alarm clock blaring at 6:00 this morning made it perfectly clear: Our vacation was officially over.

Although the week was rather low-key, we had wonderful time camping along the Oswegatchie River. Aside from a few excursions and a trip to the Alexandria Bay Drive-In Theater (to see Despicable Me, which was precious, btw), we did a whole lot of nothing. Which was exactly what we wanted to do.

In the car, at the beginning of the Northeast Extension - Me:"Make an 'I'm-excited-that-we're-on-vacation face!'". I look constipated, and Dan didn't even try...

Freshly picked raspberries and home-grown squash, all cut up and ready to be fried (and of course, a bit of Merlot ready to be sipped)

Fire feet... waiting for the corn to cook

A boy and his guitar, strumming love songs by the fire

An impromptu dessert idea - raspberry and chocolate pastries (topped with a bit of whipped cream, these were delicious and super quick and easy to make)

One of the two fawns we saw

Waterfalls at Greenwood Creek

Daniel in Nature

Roasting hot dogs, a must when you're camping

Our wildflower bouquet of daisies and black-eyed susans

After my first day of "re-entry", I'm already ready to go back... camping trips are totally better than working. Do you have any vacation plans this summer?

And the Winners Are...

Cassandra @ Cassagram

and

CJ Sime @ Simply Simonson

I used the random number generator from Random.org to choose the winners, but since I was having issues trying to copy the image into my blog, you'll just have to trust me that it told me the winners were 3 and 5 :)

Cassandra will be getting the set of record bowls and CJ will be getting the clock. I'll be contacting you guys shortly!

Thanks to everyone who entered!!

Outta Here!

Oh. My. Gosh!

I am officially on vacation!!! I've been *ever so patiently* counting down the days... hours... minutes all week... all month... since we planned this vacation. And, It's finally here!

Aside from a couple long weekends here and there, this will be the 1st vacation that Dan and I have been on, just the two of us, since we got married (well, except the honeymoon, of course. But, here's hoping we don't run into as many problems... my fingers are crossed!)

Tomorrow we'll be heading to upstate NY for a week of hiking, swimming, marshmallow roasting, cribbage playing, grilling, reading in the sun, quad riding, drive-in movie watching, and relaxing by the fire... Doesn't it sound just perfect? I already feel more relaxed just thinking about it.

My hand-painted record clock and record bowl giveaway will remain open while I'm away, so get your entries in! Thanks to all those who have entered so far and for the sweet compliments about my work - it's always nice to know that there are other people out there who like your creations (it might be just the push I need to get my act together and open my Etsy shop once and for all).

I'll announce the winners on Sunday, July 18th, so stay tuned!

Hope you have a great week <3

Wordless Wednesday: 4th of July Weekend in Batavia

If you love the dresses the girls are wearing, check out my sister's Etsy shop, Knotted Wear, for more

Don't forget to enter my give away: a hand painted record clock, and set of 3 record bowls.

110th Post Celebration and Giveaway

After an unplanned blogging hiatus due to a crazy week and a lovely long weekend in Ohio (more on that later), I'm back to celebrate my 11oth post on Little Miss Scatterbrained!

When I made my resolution to start blogging (again) at the end of December, I wasn't sure how long it would last. But, I'm super excited to be into triple digits and still going strong! I'm thankful to have "met" a number of wonderful bloggers over the past few months - thank you for commenting, following, and for making me fall in love blogging. You all are awesome!

As promised, in honor of my 110th post, I would like to present my first-ever giveaway!

Two winners will be selected - the first will win a hand-painted record clock and the second will win a set of 3 custom-made record bowls.

The clock will custom painted with this poppy design according the winner's color specifications:

Here are a couple close-ups of the design, with and without the flash:

This clock is painted onto a plastic, red, semi-transparent record and will come with one AA battery. I have one more red record like this, and the winner can choose that one or a black vinyl record. I can also add more detail to the petals, if desired.

The bowls will also be custom made for the winner - they can be painted or simply spray shellacked to preserve the look of the record:

To win, simply comment on this post and tell me which you would rather have: the clock or the bowls. That's it!

The give away will be open until Saturday, July 17th and the winners will be chosen via Random Number Generator and announced and contacted on Sunday, July 18th.

Good luck!!

I Hate Running - Log 13: Heat, Humidity, and Lots of Sweat

I'm not sure what else to say about running last week, except that it was hot.

And not just "hot", but that sticky-100 percent humidity-thunderstorm warning-over 90 degrees-heat wave-check on the elderly and your pets-excessive heat warning type of hot.

As a result, I wimped out a bit and only ran for 3 days and didn't push myself as much at all. I kept to my plan for the first interval (running for 12 minutes), but for the second interval, I started out with a longer recovery walk and was lucky if I ran for 5 more minutes after that. Yuck-o!

Despite being truncated, each run this week ended with the same result: a very sweaty Brittany.

This week should be better. Today we're supposed to top out at 97 degrees with a heat index of about 103 (so, guess who is not running today?), but after that, the temperatures are going to drop a bit. If all goes according to plan, we'll be down to 78 by Thursday (I am so looking forward to that).

Running in this heat is also making me wonder what it's like to run in other extreme. When winter rolls around, I'll be curious to see which is worse: running during these sweltering days of summer or running during the bitter cold days? I've mentioned before that I'm a straight up, stay-indoors-all-winter type of wimp when it comes to the cold, but I don't know if it can be any worse than running through a constant wall of humidity.

If you've been running for a while, which do you prefer: running in the heat, or the cold? Do you have any advice for combating the hot, hot weather?

Coming up this week, I'll be doing 2 intervals: running for 15 minutes and walking for 2. I'll also be adding in a 7 minute warm-up from the most recent issue of Runner's World that will help strengthen my core and gluts and help with balance (since my core is currently rather puffy, I'm sure it can use some strengthening... ditto for my gluts).

It looks simple, but since I'd still consider myself a novice at this whole "fitness" thing, it's probably going to be kick my butt for the first couple of days, so wish me luck! Hopefully, though, it will kick my butt in a good way and be helpful as I get ready for my first 5K and later for the Half Pig.

If you're out running this week, be safe and stay cool!

Approximately 18 1/2 in 31

My deadline for my 31 in 31 list officially came and went as of yesterday. Did I manage to get it all done? Not quite... but, I did accomplish over half of it.

Completed Tasks:

-Try out a new hiking trail.

-Run for 10 minutes straight.

-Check out Liberty Thrift and Little Liberty.

-Go to China Town.

-Bake something fun (I made oatmeal butterscotch cookies - which received rave reviews! - and sour cream pound cake).

-Finish reading The Complete Guide to Pregnancy and Birth by Shelia Kitzinger.

-Start reading Ourselves as Mothers, also by Shelia Kitzinger.

-Play mini-golf.

-Go swimming.

-Do something new with my hair (I didn't do anything exciting... I've just been trying to do something other than my signature low pony w/ a side part).

-Help my aunt move into her new apartment.

-Go camping in upstate NY with hubby, Leah @ The Suburban Gal, Jim, and Ellie.

-Find my iPod and load it with new music (go figure, it was in the purse the whole time!).

-Try out a new, local farmers market (went to Highland Orchards in West Chester, PA to pick strawberries)

-Make strawberry jam.

-Find and purchase a couple of cheap, summer dresses.

-Re-vamp my blog (big thanks to Steph @ A Grande Life Goodies for my cute new blog design!).

-Scope out the library and see if they have any books from the DONA reading list and/or buy a couple more online

That's 18 officially crossed off. What about that 1/2 that I mentioned in the title? I got started on a few other tasks, but just didn't get them finished in time:

-Spring clean and organize the apartment:

Honestly? The only reason I actually got my butt moving on this one is because I knew that it was on the list (and ominously positioned at the number 1 spot!). Organizing is so not my forte and I just plain hat cleaning. But, for the sake of my list, I did clean out my front and linen closets, completely de-constructed my (stupid, glass) TV stand and gave it a good cleaning, cleaned off and reorganized a few shelves, got rid of a bunch of stuff, and make my desk look more presentable. I have a lot more to do, but it's a start!

-Make 2 more record clocks:

I have one in the works!

-Drop 6-8 more pounds:

I dropped 4 more pounds since making this list, so I was close! I'm not disappointed, though. I'm still averaging about a pound a week and have lost 15 overall (woot! go me!)

-Have all the parents over for dinner:

My "mistake" here was giving the moms the option of either coming over for dinner or coming over to go shopping at the outlets. The outlets won hands down. Us ladies had a fun day of shopping, but the dads stayed home. So, dinner is still in the planning stages.

Even though I didn't complete my list, I still feel like I had a pretty productive month, and I'm kind of in love with this whole list-making thing these days. I love being able to cross things off and see how much I've accomplished. Plus, when you have a list to refer back to, it's so much not to forget wanted you to do - brilliant!! Why didn't I think of this before?

What about you... are you a list-a-holic?

Me and my Daddy-O

December 1985:

November 2008:

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy Pie! :)

I Hate Running - Log 12: Moving On

Keeping it short and sweet today with just the nitty gritty details:

I moved my Challenge Day from Sunday to Monday last week because it was thunder storming all day on Sunday (I'm all about running in the rain... but I do not mess with lightning!). On Monday, I ran for 20 minutes, walked for 5 and then ran 5 more.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I walked 3 minutes as a warm up, ran for 10, walked for 3, ran for 10 and walked for 5 as a cool down.

Next week, I up my running time to 12 minutes and I'm going to work on actually getting my first 5K scheduled! I'm aiming for sometime in August. If you live in the MontCo, PA area and know of any good, local 5K's - let me know!

Wordless Wednesday

Top 2 Tuesday: Guilty Pleasures

The topic this week on Top 2 Tuesday is Top 2 Guilty Pleasures. Being the dork that I am, this was an easy one ;)
1. The Hoedown Throwdown

The Hoedown Throwndown tops the list because it actually rolls three of my guilty pleasures into one:
-Super cheesy Disney Channel tween shows
-Country music. (Although I guess this can't really be considered country music, but in the movie, it's a country line dance, so for the purposes of my guilty pleasures, it's close enough. Which brings me to the third...)
-Line/fad dances. I pretend to hate them because I look ridiculous when I dance, but really, I think they're a lot of fun. Maybe my secret love for line dances is due to the fact that I won an Electric Slide contest when I was 7? (and, in case you're wondering, my prize was the Two Princes single by the Spin Doctors on cassette tape).
2. Anime
It all started with Digimon when I was 14.... and then came Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, which featured such classics as Dragon Ball Z and Outlaw Star, and of course, there were the early morning Sailor Moon re-runs on one of our local channels.
I'm not as into as I once was, but I still love Sailor Moon (I own the entire series on DVD... in Japanese... with subtitles), have a few anime theme songs on my iPod, and can't walk by the (now extremely large) manga section in the bookstore without browsing for a little while.

What are your guilty pleasures? Visit the Undomestic Mama to play along.

I Hate Running - Log 11: Running for Kenslee

I started running at a local trail last week because the loop I've been doing through my neighborhood has become less accommodating as my runn times are increasing. In order to avoid some nasty hills, I've been more or less running up and down a somewhat busy road. Now that I can run all the way up, and most of the way back down in one shot, I keep having to stop mid-run to cross. It's really been throwing off my groove, if you know what what I mean.

So, off I went to the Audubon Loop, starting at the Mill Grove Park, which is just a short drive from my apartment. I'm pretty sure it was love at first run.

Although it is parallel, and butts quite closely, to a main road, it is bordered on the other side by lovely meadows and walking paths. It weaves in and out of the trees so you don't always feel like you're running right next to the traffic and it's frequented by runners, walkers, and bikers, but never seems crowded. The trail also has just the right amount of gentle sloping hills that add some interest to the workout without making my legs feel like goo. I give two enthusiastic thumbs up - fine holiday fun!

In more exciting news, I have made my first big running-related commitment! My sister, Carlee, who trained for and ran her first marathon two years ago, has convinced me that if I really train for it, I'll be ready to join her to run a half marathon by May 1, 2011. More specifically, we'll be running the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati, OH.

I'm only slightly frightened by the prospect of being ready to run 13 miles in less than a year. But, I have an amazing reason to stay motivated: my niece, Kenslee.

Kenslee was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder earlier this year called Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD). In a nutshell, this means that her body has trouble breaking down and storing glycogen. It's not an acute disease, but it is something that she will have to deal with her whole life. Presently, her condition is under control, but there there is the potential for long-term affects to her liver and kidneys as well as a lot more unknowns as she gets older. More information on the disease can be found here.

But, what does this have to do with running the Half Pig? Since this disease is so uncommon, there are only a handful of fundraising opportunities directly associated with GSD foundations. So, Carlee thought, if we'll be running anyway, why not raise money for GSD while we're at it? Of course there are a lot of details to work out, but come May 1, 2011, one way or another, we will be running for Kenslee (I'll keep you all posted as more details develop). There is no better motivation than that.

Brand Spankin' New!

You may have noticed that my blog looks a bit different these days? Let me be the first to welcome to the *new and improved* Little Miss Scatterbrained!

I take absolutely zero credit for the new loveliness of my blog. I owe it all to the talent of Steph @ A Grande Life. She designed the background, the signature, the header, and the button (did you see that I have my very own button?! How cool is that?). She was also very patient me, the blog design newbie, as we worked to get it all up and running. Thanks a heap, Steph! You rock!

Be sure to check out Steph's other blog: A Grande Life Goodies for all your custom blog design needs. (Trust me, she's awesome)

He's onto Me...

The other day, on the way home from work, I told my husband that I needed new pants why do I need new pants, you ask? Because mine are getting too big!! I blame running :)

This was the rant that followed:

"Now wait a second. You say you 'need pants', but I know exactly what's going to happen (you do, do you?): You're going to go to 14 different stores and get all upset because you can't find 'anything that fits' (true statement - all that low-rise, skin-tight nonsense was not made for people with hips! I actually hate shopping for pants). Instead you're going to come home with 3 t-shirts and a cardigan (well, if I'm given a budget to go shopping with, why would I let it go to waste just because I couldn't find what I was looking for?). And you're going to start telling me in detail how cute they are and what good deals you found (because I'm an awesome bargain shopper and the world needs to know about adorable clothes at 90% off!). And a week later? You're going to complain that you need new pants (um, yup)."

Yeah. He's totally onto me ...but, he still told me that I could go pants shopping this weekend ;)

"Jam" Packed Weekend

I haven't been too on top of blogging this past week. It's been a busy few days, and alas, I didn't even spend a single second on my computer this weekend. Crazy, I know!

I should also confess: I've been delaying my next post partly because I'm planning my first giveaway. I'm pretty darn excited about it! Here's the reason for the delay: Originally, I wanted it to coincide with my 100th post, but since you are currently reading my 100th post (woohoo! triple digits!), and my giveaway is not quite ready... I'm pushing it back a bit.

So, I decided that since the first 20 posts of my blog were actually imported from my previous blog, Newlywed Adventures, technically this really isn't #100, right? I'm going to split the difference and do my giveaway in my 110th post. Now that I've written it down and made it public, I have to stick to it! Are you curious yet? I'm not spilling the beans until 110!

But, in the meantime, I'll regale you with the scenes from my jam packed weekend.

It started out with a dinner at Panera Bread with Amy @ Little Miss Moon Blossom and Kara @ Lil Miss Wisecracker where we enjoyed refreshing strawberry poppy seed salads. After that, it was onto the Greek Festival:

We made it just time to watch these guys do some traditional Greek dances. They were fantastic! And the costumes? Amazing!

We didn't do much at the carnival except wander around and play the Frog Bog game. Sadly, none of us won, but we did end up with this sassy picture:

We concluded the evening with a trip to Zwahlen's for some of the best ice cream in town, and an impromptu trip to the movies and the grocery store.

Saturday, I spent most of the day with my hubby. We relaxed by the pool, spent some time reading, and swam for the first time this summer! It was glorious. I am ecstatic that our apartment complex has a pool. I'll be spending many lazy days over the next few months.

Sunday, Vickie @ Little Miss Suburban Homesteader drove to PA to teach us how to make strawberry jam.

Planning our "jam session" was a bit chaotic, and even after a few location changes and a couple time changes, Vickie almost wasn't able to make due to car issues. Thankfully, her car ended up being ok and we were able to rendezvous with her Highland Farm where we picked the main ingredient for our jam: the strawberries!

And, my goodness, were they delicious!!! Just feast your eyes about these little beauties (thank goodness we got more than we needed and were able to let the snacking ensue):

Down to business! We mashed 5 cups of berries:

Brought them a wild boil with the pectic and sugar all mixed in:

And filled up nearly 9 jars with gooey goodness:

Here's the finished product, cooling on the counter and popping away as the lids sealed:

Yes, the jam is just as delicious as it looks :)

(I also managed to knock 3 more things off my 31 in 31 list this weekend!)