Christmas with the Mullerts

It's been a very exciting week at the Mullerts household. We hosted the Baylor Outdoor Adventure tacky Christmas sweater party on Tuesday night only to have our refrigerator quit working. Actually, we still don't have a new fridge and I am surrounded by four ice coolers filled with food that we are praying will make it till Saturday. Meanwhile, Mark and I are hosting our Christmas with the Mullerts holiday get-to-gether. Its actually a winter formal and its time to dress up!  We've asked a few friends to come over with a bottle of their favorite red wine and I am making some appetizers. 

So far, I have made a lot of new yummy recipes: coconut flour bread, coconut flour brownies, crackers, black bean hummus, traditional garlic hummus, french bread, and soon some bruschetta to put on top. I am super excited about my new found love for cooking healthy recipes.  So is Mark!  

I have been seeing a nutritionist the past two weeks and have found discovered some new information! I have an intolerance to fruit sugar, brown sugar, honey, milk and a permanent allergy to soy. I have taken a few whole food supplements plus a few supplements to decrease the levels of mercury and aluminum that was found in my body as well.  It is a very interesting technique - Nutritional Response Testing. You can read about it here. I think it's really interesting. I'm not sure how convinced I am that it does what it says it does, but I think it at least helps me listen to my body and respond better to it. I have actually been not eating any fruit, fruit juice, sugar, honey, or any other sweet things for the past two weeks. I have really seen a great response in my body but it is hard during the holiday season. I do my best but still eat a sweet or two at a Christmas party. 

Mark has been busy with work and trying to sell old stuff on eBay and making me fun meals, like my "love pizza".  At least that is what he calls it.  It was so tasty and a fun surprise after a long day of work.  He has been very sweet and helped me with getting my bootcamps set-up.  He even did one and was sore for a week!  We are doing our best to live in the moment and are really excited about spending time with family and friends over the holidays.  

One really awesome thing is that we got our first tree together.  We went to Home Depot, yes the big box store.  We had romantic ideas of going to cut down our own tree and realized we live in a city in a state with not a lot of pines.  So, we arrived there at 6:53pm and they had already started closing down.  Mark said, "it is not 7:00pm yet.  We know what kind we want."  The salesman was really nice and showed us a few, and said, "this one is on us since we already put away the credit card reader.  Merry Christmas!"  We felt so blessed.  We strapped it on the old Subaru and headed home.  I felt so inspired to decorate, I bought tons of decorations in preparations for all of our parties.  Canaan even got in the spirit.  The house is really starting to feel more like a home.  We are still very much in love and our hearts skip a beat when we see each other across the room.  

More holiday blogging to come...

~Kenda

don't be a hater

all right you blog followers...don't hate.

mark and I are still in love as madly as ever, still haven't eaten out (well, i (kenda), had a "big" snack at FFT the other day), and are loving life together. Actually, we are both adding a few things to our resume. Mark is growing his ebay business and I am growing my personal training business. I created a website: fitwithkenda.com and have started hosting boot camps. If you don't know what a fitness boot camp is then watch this. I am having a blast doing so and it's been a great way to meet potential clients and workout as a group. I hear that my workouts are tough, but then again: why not? 

Tomorrow we leave for Hereford to spend Thanksgiving with my grandparents and extended family. I am excited for these next few days off. The work hours seem to be creeping in and causing me to slowly suffocate. These days off will give me a much needed breath of fresh air. I am in charge of bringing cookies to grandma's house. Of course, I can't just bring any kind of cookie! I had to go on a hunt to find the healthiest recipe I could. I found two. Check them out below. While in Hereford we are going to spend black Friday in Palo Duro Canyon mountain biking. Our good friends Hilary and Dave just raced there and gave us a bunch of good beta on the trails and layout. 

http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/search?q=super+charge+me

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art68314.asp

If you try these recipes, let me know what you think! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

PS: don't hate. :)

sweet potatoes and poodles

Right now, I am:

eating my delicious sweet potato crispies (recipe below)

drinking a coca-cola classic (only on the weekends!)

researching how to make my website better (www.fitwithkenda.com)

and, of course....

missing my husband! 

Mark left for a week in San Diego yesterday. He had some vacation time that needed to be used before it vanished into the point of no return. I did not have any vacation time to spend, which leaves me here...in Waco...updating the blog about how much I miss my husband. It has been quiet around the house today. My day started with a road ride with my friend Sarah. Actually, it was a bit eventful beforehand. I snoozed my alarm a little too long and soon enough I was supposed to be meeting her at our pre-planned meeting point and I was just getting my bike out of the garage....and then I had to change my tire. I have to remember that when I am finished airing up my tires, it is ALWAYS important to fully unlock the air compressor before yanking it off of the valve. You can imagine what is next. I quickly changed my tube and put my tire back on...with the help of Sarah. Unfortunately, my bike mechanic is not here. 

We had a great ride even with the wind against us coming back. It was the first ride of the Fall and with that, jackets (or arm warmers) were required. We rode 30 miles and finished on University Parks. I am convinced that University Parks is a wind tunnel. Regardless of which way you ride, it always seems that you are riding into to the wind. After the ride, I have been enjoying Sunday. Usually I feel overwhelmed and pressured with the week ahead, but today seems to be different. 

Last weekend, Mark and I - with some good friends - rode in the Waco Wild West Century Ride. We decided to ride the 50 mile route and it proved to be a fun yet challenging ride! We saw a few funny riders that included a man riding with his poodle attached to his chest (allowing it's paws to rest on the top tube), a family of 4 on a tandem bike, and of course the riders with helmets with a mohawk on it. Our next race is on October 25 - Bear Downs. Last year it was quite the event and hopefully it will turn out better. (long story, another post). This race is composed of a team of 4 riders, 1 bike, and 40 laps around Baylor's campus...all at night. It was a blast last year and we hope to take 1st this year. 

Mark and I continue to eat healthy, the best that we can. We are still cooking our meals at home and enjoy doing so! Mark cooked a really yummy meal the other day that included: couscous, chicken, black beans, red bell peppers, and onions. This week I am trying a new Salmon recipe, which I hope I like so I can cook it for Mark when he returns. As for my sweet potatoes: did you know that sweet potatoes were just declared the healthiest food! The Center for Science in the Public Interest (a well-respected health watchdog in Washington DC) rates foods for the maximum amount of nutrients. Sweet Potatoes are roughly 130 calories a pop, give off 2x the daily recommended amount of Vitamin A, offers tons of Vitamin C, lots of potassium (can you say, "goodbye charlie horses" and sore muscles) and provides slow burning sugars which keeps you full longer. You can imagine how much I love sweet potatoes. Here is how I prepared mine this afternoon:

How to make the best sweet potato crispies ever:

1. Slice the sweet potato into slices (about 1/4 of an inch or thinner), then cut in half. (they should be half-circles)
2. Warm up your cast iron skillet (or regular skillet) with grapeseed oil or other (go for canola or olive) on medium-low
3. put your sweet potatoes inside the skillet and stir, making sure both side of the potatoes have oil covering it
4. pour 1/8 of a cup of water into your skillet and cover for 5-10 minutes. This allows the sweet potatoes to soften before you cook them
5. remove lid and finish cooking - you may need to add a bit more oil just in case. Don't allow your potatoes to stick to the skillet
6. they're done when you say they are! I like mine soft and crispy, but you may like them more crispy then soft.
7. enjoy!

top 10 things we love

Well again, I have fallen off the blogtastic wagon. How do people keep up with these things? Mark and I have been super busy. I actually hate that word and/or phrase. "I'm busy". I wish that we could move through life slower and not feel the impending pressure to do much more than what our little ol' bodies can do. 

Mark and I are most likely riding in the Waco Wild West Century Ride...ok, we don't want do the 100miler, but maybe we can squeak out the 50miler? Last time we signed up for a ride like this we intended to do the 35miler but missed the turn-around and had to do the 50miler. Yikes! We just haven't been on our road bikes in awhile and for use to sit in the saddle for the length of the 100miler, well...I don't think that there is enough Chamois in the world to help us out.

Last weekend I competed in the Ft. Hood Sprint Triathlon. I found out about this tri on Wednesday of that week and couldn't pass it up. It was FREE!! That's right, a normal Sprint triathlon runs about $75 so when this one was free...well, I had to do it. I figured I could at least finish. Up to that point, I hadn't swam a lap in 4+ months or been on my road bike for 2+ months. I ended up doing quite well though, thanks to all the hours I have been on my mountain bike pressing my aerobic threshold as well as my job teaching 8+ fitness classes a week. (don't worry, they are not all intense)  I finished 1st in my age group (20-29 females) and 5th overall women. It was awesome to see so many people out there competing in their first triathlon. Mark was great as ever and cheered me on with the only cowbell in the whole crowd. I felt loved! 

We have still been cooking all of our own meals and only eating out when we are out of town. We did eat at Freebirds when we were out for the triathlon - and it was yummy! For the first time in my life, I ate the whole burrito (those things are big!) and chips and salsa.  I don't think we've taken a lot of pictures of our meals lately, so I thought of incorporating a few of our favorite meals in our "top 10 things we love"

10.  Our water: we have three 5 gallon water jugs that we rotate through. As of right now, we drink about 8 gallons a week - so, we are filling it up a lot.

9.    We love home made bread. So far, I have been trying new recipes as I discover we have the ingredients for it. 

8.    Our dog. he barks like crazy when the crazies are outside. good thing too, we live in the hood.

7.    Bison. We have tried Bison in the form of hamburgers and steak. One thing we always forget though: it cooks fast!

6.    Redbox. Although the marketing for $1 movie works on us, never fail it ends up being a $5 charge because we forget to take it back.

5.    Trying new wine. We are into Cabernet Sauvignon - know any that you would recommend? (remember, we are on a newly married budget)

4.    RutaMaya coffee. This weekend I traveled to Austin, TX to pick up a 2lb bag of this coffee we love...but they were out. sad day for the Mullerts.

3.    Sundays. Mark and I love Sundays because we actually get to spend the whole day together! Today we cuddled, worked on bikes, did loads of laundry, blogged, and more!

2.    Sweet Potato Fries! We have been making our own thanks to the Big Daddy Deep Fryer from our friend Kelsey!

1.    Each Other! We are madly in love with one another and are so grateful for this time in our lives. 

The Binky Episode

Well it has been a bit since our last post. Life has been busy for this couple. Mark has been working with a bunch of student groups as the school year gets kicked off and Kenda is getting ready for all the Fall programming at the gym. Kenda was gone for much of last week at Dallas Mania, a fitness expo and conference for fitness professionals.

It was a weird feeling being at home while she was away. I am usually the one going on long trips and adventures, and found it odd to be in the reverse role. I began to think, what does she wonder about while I am gone? I was wondering how her day was, what new things she was learning, new stories to share, when would I talk to her next, etc... I spent the week planning for the semester and had a team raft building event at Baylor. We are loving what we do, just wish we had more time to see each other. I wish we had teleportation like in Star Trek or maybe a jetpack. Texas is so big that you don't want to mess with it.

We continue to eat in and enjoy each other's culinary craftsmanship. It has been fun to share those meals with each other. We would love to start having folks over and spend some quality time with friends and family. Be ready for invitations soon.

On a side note, Canaan, our beloved Golden Retriever has given up his solemn oath to never have a binky ever again, and has now fallen madly in love with a blanket...

On the menu recently:

Steamed wild caught salmon, long grain rice, and famous Kenda Mullert Salad. Oh and a new Chilean Shiraz we were trying.

I have always been a proponent of listening to what your body is telling you. Well Kenda's body is telling her to eat meat. She has been mostly a vegetarian for the last year and is slowly easing into it. I have not had red meat in a few years either. We have decided to start eating organic Bison Burgers. Surprising enough we can find them at our local H-E-B. Also, we had the biggest salad I have had as long as I have been married and fried Kale chips. So good. They taste like potato chips when made correctly. An important part of a balanced dinner.

Kale Chips- Kenda speciality.

Overflowing salad of spinach, romaine, kale, carrots, red peppers, and goat cheese.

Spinach and asiago cheese ravioli and sweet potato fries. Can't get enough of them.

Ditto
While Kenda was gone I ate another Bison burger- this time with jalapeno jack and avocado.

The Herring clan over for lunch- Quinoa, rosemary chicken, Kenda bread, salad, and assorted appetizers. And Mrs. Mullert's new favorite tea: Good Earth Original.

Kenda has been baking at least two loaves of bread a week. We are both benefiting from her creativity. We have had flaxseed bread, coffee bread (with actual coffee in it), white, wheat, and others. I love her enthusiasm for trying new recipes! We are having tons of fun and are so in love it is crazy.

Our goals this week are to live well, eat whale (jusk kidding well), sleep well, find a website name, and walk Canaan more. We have got to get him away from that blanket. :)

after our whole day apart.

I know, I know!  It's almost been two weeks since we post last. Rest assured, we are still going strong on our pledge to not eat out!

Although, last night through us a curve ball. You know that massive, random flash flood downpour we had yesterday in Waco? The 60-80mph winds that also created more problems then just a few branches in the streets? Those winds also wracked havoc on our power system here in our quadrant of living. We were without power until 830am this morning, which means no air conditioning. Miserable. It was a bit frustrating to see power in our neighbors across the busy street in front of our house, and to know that all of our food was slowly becoming unedible. 

However, what everyone else in our quadrant didn't have - I had. I have the best husband in the world. Yesterday, was also our 1 month anniversary. Sure, we are a little silly but we had a moment to celebrate. I came home to no electricity, but I also came home to a surprise. Mark had bought me flowers, wrote me super sweet card and had made us both fresh Mojitos to sip on. We had planned to cook our salmon, asparagus, rice, and a yummy salad on our dragon fly on our porch, but decided not to. Instead we took advantage of Taco Tuesday and a gift card we had received from a good friend here in Waco. Our time last night at Rosa's was a walk down memory lane. When we were dating, or whatever you call it, we would go to Taco Tuesday faithfully and stay until they closed (or close to it). We would chat about life, work, dreams, and of course our dogs. 

When we got home Mark whipped out his best husband card again and took care of our food that would spoil overnight by making ice bags and filling it with our favorite foods in a mini cooler. He also busted out his battery operated fan and put that in our room to keep us cool at night. 

I am leaving tomorrow afternoon for a week-end conference up in Dallas. I am excited at the opportunity to participate in a lot of workshops that will help me become a better fitness instructor and fitness director. Mark has a long day at the challenge course on Saturday and we both are exited about our Sunday at home together. So far, this month has been the best month of my life. I have the best life, I really do. I am married to someone that loves me so well, encourages me to push past what I selfishly want to do, speaks truth to me when I cannot hear it, and makes me mojitos for days that are stressful. I am more in love with Mark today than I was yesterday. I hope that this continues for the rest of our lives. We love spending our time together and always look forward to that moment when our eyes meet each other after our whole day apart. 

Shark Attack & Ninja Knives...

Well, here we are another week into married bliss. Kenda and I love being married. We are going through the usual hassle of figuring out name changes etc… I was thinking about it, we did not have a wedding planner as we wanted the wedding to exhibit our unique character, to be a part of the process, and definitely to save on costs too. But a post-wedding planner seems like a good idea. Someone that would get your house in order when you return, get all the necessary paperwork for changing names, bank accounts, social security, driver’s licenses etc… Maybe help us with a budget. That would be nice.

In other news, I have gained 6 pounds in the last 3 months. That may not seem like much, but it has taken me the last 10 years to break 150. It is more of a big deal as I don’t like to spend much on clothing and all my 30 and 31” pants are like, “We don’t like you and my 32” pants are like, hey buddy, welcome to the party!” Not long ago, when I did not exercise I would lose weight. Life flies by quickly. Now with grey hairs of wisdom in my beard, I believe I need to be more proactive in my approach to fitness. I have usually counted on my outdoor career and bike racing to keep me in top shape. However, now that my job is more administrative based and I have not raced once in the last 2 years, I need to turn over a new leaf.

So, my dear wife and I are going to be training for a Triathlon in San Marcos and now a Duathlon in Bryan. Both races are in October, so should be a bit cooler too. I am looking forward to getting back into racing and spending that time with Kenda. We would love to race with some of our friends if anyone is interested? Kenda has decided to take on morning running with Canaan and I am hoping to get out and do some more fishing as well. Texas has some big Bass and I have a hankering to reel one in.

This week has been fun in the no eating out corner. We have had some great meals. One night, we got home late, with a mostly empty fridge. I asked Kenda if she wanted to eat out, and she said, “No way Jose, are you crazy!!!” I was just teasing. Pretty much the only stuff we had was salad fixin’s and some eggs. Perfect. We had a great omelette with fresh peppers, onions, tomatoes, & garnished with avocado. Of course.

This next week is going to be a really busy week for the both of us, but after that we hope to start inviting friends and family over to partake in the home cooked goodness.

This was something a little new. We found some fresh caught wild, never frozen, Black Tip Shark at the store. Normally we go with Salmon, but since it was Shark Week on Discovery channel, and we like branching out we tried it. We created a lemon & ginger marinade, ground black pepper, tsp. olive oil, basil, tsp. maple syrup (Mark's idea), and ancient sea salt. It turned out pretty well. Mark would have liked to grill it instead of bake it, but I think he also just wants a grill. We had fresh organic asparagus, long grain rice, and the best salad of the week.

Sometimes when you get home late you just want something easy. This was our easy meal. We occasionally buy frozen pizza, but we cannot leave them alone. Mark is into mods. He will try to modify anything. We added goat cheese feta, olive oil and basil. It was wine night too. We tried a Pinot Noir. Usually we are into the Cabernet or Shiraz, but this was the week to branch out.

We have two good friends, Hilary and Dave. They grow vegetables the good old fashioned organic way down new College Station, TX. They gave us a heaping bag full for our wedding shower a couple of months ago. We mashed up and ate with homemade wheat bread, green beans, and of course a Kenda Especial salad.

Look at these beautiful potatoes. I don't even know all the varieties, but I can assure you this, they are tasty baked, fried, or mashed.

Those are my wife's beautiful hands cutting the fresh produce for our Omelettes. Notice the Shun Damascus Paring Knife in her hand. That is the same metal that Samurai's have used for centuries to conquer ninjas. Imagine what it can do to some lowly vegetables. Many layers of steel goodness in one blade.
Classic omelette laden with cheese, grilled veggies, and avocado. Breakfast for dinner was a hit in the Mullert household. Stay posted on our adventures and ponderings.

Love,

Mark & Kenda

Two weeks Married & 1 week of no eating out...

So, we are now officially two weeks married. We have had a week of the real life, back to work, Texas heat, trying to unpack, organize, and live together. It has been fun to enjoy homecooked meals with my sweetie. We have taken turns cooking. I have been under the weather all week and Kenda has taken care of me. I guess I over did it with all the traveling this Spring and Summer. When at work the other day, some of the staff said they had not seen me since May, and it is true, with all of the trips and trainings I have not been home much. I hope to have a less hectic schedule this Fall.

You may have read in our previous post that we are not going to eat out for an entire year. Yes, you heard right. We want to do this for a number of reasons, saving money, enjoying each other's company in a quieter setting, and eating more nutritiously. Many have said that we will fail, it can't be done. It is the first week and we did want to mention that there are a few exceptions. 1) If it is a work function to go out to eat, we will attend; 2) If someone else is treating us, we will certainly go out; 3) If we have a gift card from Christmas or getting married for food, we will take advantage of those. However, whenever possible, we will encourage others to come over, or to bring take out over, so we can share fellowship and a great meal at home. Also, we love to be invited over to share fun food and recipes with others. We are entertaining the idea of having themed nights and having folks over, so stay posted...

The following are just a few samples of the many meals we have shared together this week. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised that my bride woke me up today with coffee and freshly made muffins. Well actually she woke me up with a knock on the window because she forgot her keys when she went for a run, I let her in, went back to sleep because I still feel gross, and then was reawakened to the smell of muffins. Of course all these meals are nutritious and Canaan Approved!

This is an organic Quinoa seasoned with Ancient Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, a pinch of garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, and thinly sliced Morningstar California Turkey and Avocado patties. It was light, savory, and suprisingly filling.

We have been eating salads all week. Maybe too many salads for Mark anyways. The veggies were all organic and included: carrots, lettuce, onions, orange and yellow bell peppers, and of course avocado. This photo was taken half way through the meal as we were so hungry. We had sweet potato and buckwheat pasta with sauteed green beans with garlic cloves. It was fantastic!

This is our staple food. Mexican. You can't go wrong. Garlic & chipotle salsa, fresh guacamole, and Mark tried a new bean and cheese enchilada recipe. Yum...

Mark is feeling sick, so I decided to make him some soup. We also had baked sweet potatoes, and cracked black pepper Triscuits for the soup. He loves me.

We have found our Triathlon that we will compete together in. It is the Martindale Triathlon in San Marcos, TX on Saturday, October 30th. Kenda will bike, we will both canoe the San Marcos River, and I will run. It will be fun to train together and then race together. The biggest challenge will probably be finding time to get into sport specific shape for it, plus finding time to paddle together. We certainly encourage any of our friends and family to come out and compete or support us on that day. This is a fantastic opportunity for folks that have been afraid to do a triathlon because of how long the swim is, now you can have that multi-sport experience and don't have to worry about breathing water.

Also, one other thing. In some of my discussions I realized that we have a number of folks check out our blog, but very few comment on it or follow it. So, we urge you to join on us on our adventure together. You can vote to see if we will make the 1 year challenge on our poll, you can ask us questions, or share fun recipes. Stay tuned for more adventures in marriedom.

Love,

Mark & Kenda

Honeymooning on Highway 1

Our honeymoon was a blast! Mark did a great job arranging for hotels, meals, adventures, etc...

For the longest time, Mark said that we would be honeymooning in Bellmead - and for those of you that don't know where Bellmead is, it's across the railroad tracks in Waco. (in every bit of what you think "across the tracks" means). But, Mark confessed about a month out that we would be spending a week on the coast of California. It was perfect!

We stayed the night in Dallas on Saturday at Hotel Palomar. It was a great hotel and with a super chic urban restaurant called Central 214. We had a great meal and celebrated by ordering salad, soup, entree, dessert, and of course wine! We flew out the next morning via Southwest to San Diego. From there we began our adventures! Our honeymoon got off to a great start at Enterprise Rental Car. We had reserved a Toyota Prius (as practical as we are) only to find out that they had checked all their Toyota Prius' out...so they offered a free upgrade: a 2010 Red Convertible Mustang. WOWZERS! The wild horse cannot be tamed - that was our motto (or at least Mark's). It makes his fast happy- 300hp and 27mpg, not bad.

We started driving up the coast and almost immediately were halted by the onslaught of traffic in the greater Los Angeles area.  After two hours of gridlock at 3pm we kept driving north and took a brief respite in Santa Barbara, before stopping for the night at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort just outside of San Luis Obispo.  Here we got to experience our own personal hot tub (w/hot springs mineral water), a labyrinth made out of rocks (used for contemplation/meditation), a beautiful walking trail and yoga classes (well, we didn't wake up in time for that one). From there we traveled into town and got an Americano from a fun coffee shop, The Black Horse, that we made sure to visit when we were traveling back down south. After our coffee, we headed for Big Sur. Of course we stopped several times along the way, one being a town called Morro Bay. This was a really neat town to stop in, just off the PCH. It has an enormous granite boulder emerging from the depths of the bay, ominous in nature. We also had a great meal at the Flying Dutchman and some yummy ice cream down the street. We kept driving on the PCH and saw incredible sights -   stopping to take pictures of the incredibly fascinating coast line. One important stop worth mentioning was at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We took a short hike and found the waterfall that Mark has visited before and always wanted to bring his wife. We continued on and made it to the River Inn Lodge in Big Sur. We stayed and ate at their restaurant. The cool thing about almost all of the restuarants we ate at while on the coast was that most of their produce was grown in their own garden, all organic, all local, all natural. AWESOME! It was delicious!  The next day, we visited Andrew Molera State Park and almost got bitten by a rattlesnake.  Well at least we were really close. It was fun to see all sorts of shelters and art made out of driftwood.   That afternoon, we began our journey further south to TreeBones Yurt Resort.  It was so cool! By far it was our favorite place. One night we at their sushi bar (fresh sushi!) overlooking the Pacific Coast....breathtaking!  And Mark ate dessert, which he never does and was really impressed with sticky date pudding made by an Australian chef.  If you ever get the chance to stay at Treebones do it!  Also, they have one of the most obscure accommodations on earth- THE HUMAN NEST.  

We left Treebones and headed to San Diego on Thursday, staying in SD on Thursday and Friday nights at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. On Friday, Mark took me to the SD Zoo....which was awesome! We saw tons of animals: Gorillas, Monkeys, Elephants, Pandas, Polar Bears, Lions, Tigers, oh my! I loved it!

Our honeymoon ended with a reception in San Diego hosted by Mark's parents. They did such a great job planning, organizing, and inviting all of the family and friends that were close to them and Mark. We were so thankful that so many people came! I had great time meeting everyone and hearing stories about Mark when he was growing up. 

Well, that was our honeymoon. We spent the day on Sunday in Waco sleeping in and running errands. We currently have a path carved out in our study so we can get to our desk and then back out to the hallways. We have so much stuff to sort through, plan, and organize. Not to mention, thank you cards to write! That's actually the best part. 

Keep checking our blog for another post about our adventure of not eating out for an entire year! Coming this weekend! 

Love, Mark and Kenda

9 days and counting

201.92

Well, we are off to a great start! Mark and I had an awesome honeymoon traveling up and down highway 1 ending at a reception in San Diego hosted by Mark's parents (my new in-laws). We plan on blogging about our honeymoon and posting pictures in our next post.

We just wanted to say Thank you!

THANK YOU! We had a blast at our wedding and were overwhelmed with the love and support that we felt at our ceremony and reception.

We plan to continue blogging about our adventures in our first year of marriage. Here are a few highlights to spark your interest:

1. We are committing to not eat out at a restaurant for our entire first year of marriage. Another blog post to come (rules, reasons, and excitement) about this adventure.

2. We are going the natural method, meaning we could have an addition to our family in 9 months.

3. We plan to complete a triathlon together (relay style) this year.

So much to spark your interest! I hope you guys keep following our blog. It's sure to be a crazy adventure in the Mullert house.

Much love,

Mark & Kenda

Leaving the mountains!

We are sad to say that we are leaving the mountains and heading to where subarus are a rarity.

We will be married in a little over a week! Wow!

Stay tuned!
Love Mark and kenda

Final Days in CO III

Final Days in CO II

Final Days in CO

Our Life Together III

Our Life Together II

Our Life Together