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