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. :)