What's On Our Walls Link Up

Since I've been sort of lazy with updating the blog lately, I've decided to use a link up to get my butt in gear this summer.  We've officially settled into our summer lazy routine of hanging out, sleeping in and going to the pool!  Pictures of Ella--my fish--swimming soon!  But for today I thought it would be fun to share what's hanging on our walls.  I change our walls (paint and pictures) often so I thought documenting what they look like now would be fun!  I'm linking up with Momfessionals for her mothly link up, sadly this is my first and only link up...  :( So here goes...starting with the girls rooms first:

Ella's Room:

 

My sister in law is AMAZING when it's comes to artsy things and she has created a lot of the art work you will see on my girl's walls.  She made this to hang in Ella's bathroom...

And the photobomb by Mia.  :)  Ella's room theme is from Pottery Barn Kids-Daisy Garden, so I incorpoated a lot of flowers.  I bought these flower at Nebraska Furniture Mart a few years ago.

Ella asked me to take a picture of her ruler!  We measure how much the girls grow.  Ella wants me to measure her every single day...Also, take note of Mia's blue wall art.  She added her personal touch to the walls.  :)  Ella got the princess clock for Christams and wanted to hang it in her room.  It took me a minute to get over the fact that it doesn't go with our "theme".  I try to pick my battles.

The trend lately for kids rooms has been to add the name of the child or initial of the child somewhere in the room as a decoration.  Well, I like to follow trends, so my SIL so graciously painted these letters for me to match the Daisy Garden theme.  She created these from scratch just by looking at the pattern.  She is awesome! 

I found this picture at Home Goods for like $60--it's huge and matches the PBK Daisy Garden theme perfectly! 

 



 

Mia's Room:

A little disclaimer about Mia's room.  I wanted to pick a pattern or theme for Mia's room as I did for Ella.  I searched and searched on PBK and couldn't find anything that I loved.  So I did a random internet search and found the cutest (freaking expensive) baby boutique online.  They had the cutest light pink and taupe leopard print pattern that I just fell in love with.  I ordered a bumper, lamp shade, curtains, and bed skirt and it cost a million dollars it felt like! :)  So instead of ordering the wall art from them that was like $80 for one canvas, I begged my SIL to make them for me!

Mia's trendy letters...again courtesy of my awesome SIL!!  She did leopard--seriously--free handed leopard print....

Both of these picture were painted by my SIL.

 

 I love how they turned out and the girls love to show off their art work created by their Aunt Mimi!!

Here are some pictures from the rest of the house.

Stair steps for each of the girls at newborn, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months.  I displayed their 1 year pictures else where in the house.

They love to look at pictures of themselves as they walk up the stairs.  :)

 

So there you have it!  Not every wall in our house, but definitely some of my favorites!

Talk soon,
Britni

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Just trying something out here...will be back soon to post now that schools out for the summer!!

Until then, stay cool and dry my friends!

Talk soon,
Britni

A Recipe and Me Teaching

Since the title of my blog is Somewhere in Between, I thought I should at least attempt to write about something other than my family--although I love them dearly.  On Monday night, as Sean was at yet another baseball game, I was stumped on what to make for dinner. I had only two requirements...since it was just me and the girls it had to be easy and something the girls would eat!  My sloppy joe's!  They are so so good and so very easy.  Here is the recipe:

 

Britni's Sloppy Joe's:

Ingredients/Shopping List:
1lb of ground beef, turkey, chicken, whatev (I typically use 93/7 or 96/4)
1/8 -1/4 cup of brown sugar
2-3 tablespoons of yellow mustard
1-2 teaspoons of garlic powder
1-2 teaspoons of onion powder
S and P to taste

Directions:
Brown the meat and add all spices
Add mustard, stir
Add brown sugar, stir
Let simmer on low for 5ish minutes and taste add more of whatev  :)

I just realized I left out the garlic powder and salt in this picture!  Wow, I need some work on this posting of recipe's...



I just eyed the mustard in this picture.  I stir it in and then taste it and add more if needed.
 

All finished and ready to devour!

I literally eye this recipe.  It was hard for me to even come up with exact measurements.  You cannot mess it up!  Also, if you are not a yellow mustard fan, this dish is still for you!  My husband hates mustard, well any condiment really, and he love these!  I usually serve these on hamburger buns or sandwich thins with a veggie and potato...green beans and tator tots--sometimes a salad.  My kiddos will usually add a fruit of some sort to their meal--applesauce, fruit cup, berries...This is the easiest thing ever to make and everyone loves it!! 

And because I don't talk about my teaching job enough on here...we are nearing the end of the school year--only two more Monday's.  The other day in Accounting I was doing some practice problems on the board and I always have one student sit at my desk to work the computer.  Well, on this very crazy spring day my student took my phone and decided to take a billion selfies, so that was a fun surprise that I didn't know about until way later!  But they did manage to snap a picture of me in action!  Teaching adjustments and looking good! :) 

There you have it...I do actually teach! :)

Have a good rest of the week!  We can push through, it's almost Friday people!  We got this!

 

 

Talk soon,

 

Britni

Weekend Recap on Wednesday!

Hello there!  Wow, what a week we've had already and it's only Wednesday.  We had a great, but busy weekend and it doesn't look like the craziness is going to let up anytime soon. 

On Friday night Sean had a baseball makeup game that came up out of the blue and we already had plans to attend First Friday's (an art show downtown) at one of our friends work.  Since I already had my mom babysitting the girls, I went ahead and went with Brook by myself.  Her husband, Anthony met us there from the airport.  It was a really good time and fun to hang out and drink wine--but not too much fun because I was scheduled to run a 10k the next day!  :)


Hsd so much fun hanging out with this lady on Friday night!

Shopping around in the art district!  Found these really cool sunglasses...may have had a couple glasses of wine.

The 10K I ran on Saturday morning went well.  I was tired and not feeling great, and to be honest, it took me a good 2 miles to really warm up, but in the end it turned out alright.  I ran the entire race with my friend Kerri and thank goodness for her to keep me going!  We ended up finishing first and second in our age group with a time right around 51 and half minutes.  That ends up being about an 8:14 minute mile pace and let me tell ya that was tough to maintain towards the end!  

 

Here we are after the race, thankful it is over!

 

Saturday night, we BBQ'ed at my friend Brook's house. It was gorgeous out so the kids played outside all night long.  My girls were exhausted (and stinky) by the time we finally pakced up to head home.  We grilled brats, chicken breasts, veggies and corn.  I made strawberry shortcakes for dessert and they were a huge hit with the kiddos.  I ALWAYS forget to snap pictures on my food...



 

They played forever in that car!  They LOVE taking turns driving eachother around...Ella like a grandma and Hudson like a madman! :)

 

 

On Sunday, we had small group at our church and it was our turn to provide the meal!  I love preparing food for people and we decided on a sandwich tray, fresh fruit, a summer capreese salad and chips.  For dessert I made a couple of pans of brownies, one with walnuts and one without!  By the time we made it home from church both girls were exhausted!  After very long afternoon naps we went to dinner with my dad at Roadhouse.  A good way to end my weekend...with a steak and quality time with daddio!  Won't ever hear me complain about that! :)

 

Hope you had a good weekend, friends!

 

Talk soon,

Britni

 

F-R-I-D-A-Y

Oh thank heavens it's Friday!  This week has absolutely flown by and I have a list a mile long of things to get done today, but I decided this was entirely more fun! :)  This week was a little dreary here, but today and the weekend are supposed to be gorgeous!  Hoping we are all healthy and can enjoy it.  Speaking of healthy, I stayed home with Mia Moo yesterday. She was running a random fever that wouldn't be shaken by any meds. Very strange.  She's still not 100% today, so I hoping by this weekend she is feeling better. 

We did a lot of this yesterday....

Still smilin' eventhough she had a 102 degree fever!

 Ella had kite day at her school on Monday.  Sean went with her to fly kites at the end of the day! This is a day that Ella looks forward too spending with her daddy, and I'm okay with it because I can't fly a kite to save my life!  Last year, we had a dud of a kite.  It was like a dollar at Target and it sucked, plus it was really windy last year.  Needless to say, the kite broke in like 2 seconds and Ella was super disappointed.  This year, I splurged on a $7 kite from CVS and it was awesome!  Mom for the win! :)  Here are a few pics of Ella flyin' her princess kite--would you expect anything less???

Sean informed me that their kite flew the highest...not that's it's a competition or anything. :)

We have a crazy busy weekend which includes a 10k for me tomorrow morning!  It has been so nice not to stress about following a running schedule this week, though!  This week my workouts consisted of some elliptical time, on outside run for about 4.5 miles, some HIIT training on the treadmill, Nike Training Camp strength workout and some weights.  It was awesome to change it up a bit!  I'm hoping to PR tomorrow at the race and beat my previous 10K time of 52 minutes! 

We also have a fun night tonight with some friends planned and then a family BBQ tomorrow night.  Finally we will cap off the weekend with our church small group.  Love that time to focus on my faith. Whew, that sounds too busy for me, but at least summer is almost here!   Only16 more days...not that I'm counting.

Have a good weekend, friends!

Talk soon,
Britni

Long Distance Running Sabbatical

OMG...let me tell you all about the race from hell!  Actually, the entire race wasn't from hell just the last 3.5-4 miles or so...  :)

Friday night I loaded up on good food and carbs and went to bed early in preparation for the big race.  I had hopes of PRing in this race and maintaining a pretty strict pace for myself in order to reach my goal.  I have prepped for this race big time---like for 12 l-o-n-g weeks.  I was sick of training and really excited for race day. 

When I woke up on Saturday morning at 5:50am I was feeling pretty good.  I wasn't able to stretch and warm up as much as I wanted because we hit some major traffic into the race and had to pretty much pee and sprint to the start line.  I did a few stretches and was thankful for the run to the start line to get my blood flowing.  I'm not much of a warm up person anyway, so this usually doesn't effect me too much.  If I throw my leg up on the mailbox to "stretch" it out a bit before a run, I call it good.  :) 

The race started and my friend Kerri and I were keeping a fast pace...like too fast.  Everything I read said to start 10ish seconds slower than your ideal pace...well we were like 40-50 seconds faster than my ideal pace.  I was feeling good; great in fact so I just went with it, but in the back of my mind I was worried I was going to die out at the end...

At the 6.2 (10k) mile mark we were running a 8:06 minute mile pace and finished the 10k in 52 minutes!  We were flying and I still felt pretty good.  Then we hit a large hill at mile 7-8ish that slowed me down a little bit, but not too much.  Around mile 9 is started to sprinkle...not a big deal at all.  But I could tell my pace was slowing at bit to the high 8:50's.  At mile 9.5-10 it was a full on rain.  I was soaked--like drenched from head to toe with puddles in my shoes.  And to top it all off my shoes would not stay tied.  I had to stop 3 times to tie my shoes...I think I could have at least been a minute faster if I didn't have to do this.  I was so annoyed.  I was cold (weird, I know), wet and miserable for the last 3 miles of the race.  At about mile 12 it started hailing on us for about half a mile so that was fun.  The hail was literally hitting me in the head--it hurt!  Finally, all rain and hail stopped for the last half mile or so and I could tiredly finish the race. (with one shoe untied because I refused stop stop a fourth time to tie my shoe when I was so close to finishing!)  My pace dramatically slowed down to 9:30 minute mile for the last 2-3 miles, but luckily my quick start to the race helped me redeem myself and I finished in 1:57 minutes; which is right at a 9 minute pace--my goal was accomplished and now I am taking a sabbatical from distance running...at least until this Saturday when I run at 10k! :) 

The best thing about the Garmin half (besides the company) was Starbucks after!

This week's workout have been pretty low key.  On Sunday I did 25 minutes of the Elliptical and and Fitness Blender stretching workout from YouTube.  On Monday, I did a 5 minute elliptical warm-up and then a Nike Training Camp "Strong" workout.  I did about 35 minutes of it and I'm pretty sore today.  It incorporated all sorts of full body exercises.  Tonight, I plan to run outside with my friends Kerri and Katie--I love group runs--the time passes so quickly!  We shall see what the rest of the week brings in terms of workouts. 

After the race on Saturday I did about 550 loads of laundry and laid around the house...I was tired.  On Sunday, we went to dinner with my family to celebrate my little sister getting her first big girl teaching job!  She graduates from college in May and is so excited to start her career as a teacher!  It was so fun to celebrate with her!

So proud of my little sister on getting her first big girl job! 

Love this guy!

So besides the race, our weekend was low key and fabulous! (and I guess the race turned out alright too!)

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Talk soon,
Britni

It's Friday!!

It's Friday, whoop whoop...not that I'm excited or anything! :)  This week feels like it has dragged on forever!  We've had testing at our school, which means block day all week--a block-a-thon!  It's exhausting, let me tell ya! 

I'm looking forward to a low key weekend, where I plan to clean (a little) and catch up on laundry (a lot).  And by catch up I mean actually move it from the washer to the dryer and then actually fold it and put it away...I struggle a bit with that last part.  :) 

Before I sign off for the weekend, let me leave you with a Happy Friday picture of the girls.  This morning both girls were in such a great mood (shocking since Ella was up later than me last night) and Ella climed into Mia's crib to play.

Love it when these two are excited to see eachother in the morning!  It melts my heart!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

 

Talk soon,

Britni

Easter with the Jarvis'

I'm back (and much sooner than I anticipated) with our Easter weekend recap!  What a crazy weekend it was, but we had so much fun!  Our holiday's always turn into weekend "events" because we have so much family to see.  This holiday was no exception, but suprisingly, I felt more relaxed than I usually do around a holiday.

On Saturday morning I was able to squeeze in 10 miles with my friend Kerri before I had to be home to shower and get ready for church.  It was a solid last run before my half this weekend and we were able to maintain around a 9 minute pace for much of the run.  Running a 9 minute mile is my goal for this weekend's half.  We shall see.  I'll be sure to update on my race results on Saturday afternoon!

After my run, I was able to shower and get ready for our church Easter egg hunt.  After the hunt our church had an Easter church service that was family friendly.  It was crazy with all the little one's in church!

How is it that Nani's Easter basket for the girls is bigger than the one they recieved from "The Easter Bunny"??

Ella is obsessed with these princess; courtesy of her grandma for Easter.

Decorating Easter cookies at our church Easter celebration!  These bad boys saved us during church!

On Sunday, we went to my mom's for lunch and then to Sean's side of the family for an egg hunt in the afternoon.  It was great to be with family the kids loved hunting their eggs.  We ate an over abundance of Easter candy--I still am and I can't stop!

Waiting paitienly to see their Easter baskets!

He came!

 

Love that face!

Just a quick recap of my workouts this week...I am in a taper week since the half is this weekend, so my workouts have been small.  I ran (on the dreadmill both days) on Tuesday and Wednesday.  My workout on Wednesday was pretty good.  I did a 20 minute HIIT workout alternating at a 9-9.5 for a minute and then 6.5 for a minute.  I finished it up with a Fintess Blender tank top arms workout and abs.  Today, I am going to try to get in a quick 2 miles with my friend Kerri and then call it good until Saturday! :)  Looking forward to trying new workouts next week!  I've already begun pinning things I want to try! 

Talk soon,
Britni

Ella's First Soccer Practice Game

Ella had her first ever soccer game last Wednesday.  Since I haven't blogged in foreve' you wouldn't know this...Not that I'm complaining, but this time of year (ehh, hem) baseball season and the end of the school year is crazy!  I feel like I'm a single parent most days which makes me exhausted.  By the time I work all day and come home, attempt to squeeze in a run so I don't totally suck at this half marathon, run my kids to whatever activity I've signed them up for at the time, bath them and put them to bed, I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone write a blog post.  Oh yea, and I feed them too--I see I left that out!  So I've decided not to lose sleep over it and just blog when I can...with that being said I have some major catching up to do.  So here goes...

Ella's first soccer game.  They practice for the first part of the time and then scrimmage for the second part.  She picked out her cleats, shin guards and socks at the store---all pink, of course.  She liked it pretty well, but we've learned she needs to get more aggressive, so we're working on that.

She did score her first goal and couldn't wait to come over and tell us all about it!

She also did a whole lot of this...we are working on being more aggressive! :)

Last Saturday Sean had baseball practice and then he stained a deck for most of the afternoon so I took the girls to our friend Jensen's 3rd birthday party at Monkey Bizness.  That place is such a blast for my kids.  Ella loves playing there and is pretty much old enough/big enough to conquer all of the obstacles courses and climbing things they offer.  Mia, on the other hand, is brave enough, but not strong enough to conquer all of this yet, so she needs some assistance, and when daddy is at baseball that assistance comes from mommy!  Needless to say, I was working up a sweat helping Mia on all of the activities.

These crazy kids at the birthday party!  Mia just want to be apart of the action!

Love it when these two play together!

 After the party we headed to Subway (Ella's favorite place--no joke) for an on the go lunch as we drove to Ottawa to see my sister play in her last home softball game.  It just happens that it was the pink game and my mom threw out the first pitch with a couple of other ladies who have battled (and won!) the fight against breast cancer.  It was gorgeous out, so that was fun! 



Since I started this blog post a week ago and am just now getting around to finishing it, I can't remember what else I was going to write about, so I'll leave it here for now. 

I am getting closer to my half marathon and will be so glad when I'm not a slave to my running workouts anymore.  I've been noticing that people have been posting on fitness blogs/websites that their running times are getting faster and they are doing less actual running, more HIIT and strength.  So I think after this half I'm going to give that a try and see how it goes.  It can't hurt to switch it up a bit.  Looking for a new challenge...not sure what it's going to be yet, but I'm on the hunt!

And I leave you with a picture of today's quick workout--not my fastest, but not too shabby either.

Praise Jesus that tomorrow is HUMP day!  I can do it!