Hey everyone – Sorry I’ve fallen behind in the posts. The last couple of days have been busy – and yes, I am one year older now, as yesterday was my birthday.

Yesterday I woke up and opened a couple of presents right away!  Ben’s parents got me a year subscription to Runner’s World magazine – yay! (As for the photo – this was taken first thing in the morning!)

This was definitely on my list of things to get for 2009.  I am so excited to read my first issue from cover to cover!

Ben got me one of the best gifts ever. An iPod Nano! I never thought I would be one of “those people” who needed two iPods. But my 30 GB iPod is just hard to run with – and the Nano is so much easier to use for exercise, etc.  I loved running with it yesterday!

For breakfast yesterday, I had a glass of orange juice a small cup of coffee and a piece of honey wheat bread with Barney Butter! I opened my jar of Barney Butter as a birthday present to myself. It really made my toast even more wonderful!

After a while I went to the gym with my new Nano!  For some reason, the run today was not fantastic. After 2 1/2 miles I was ready to throw in the towel and call it a day.  I walked for a minute or two and then went to my favorite song on the Nano – and guess what? It totally inspired me to run another mile! I was on the tread mill for forty minutes and it was a mix of walking, jogging and running. I covered just over 3 1/2 miles.  Thanks for the inspiration, Nano (and Ben)!

Another fantastic birthday gift was my new heart rate monitor from my mom!  Last night I opened a pink F6 Polar Heart Rate Monitor… I cannot wait to go running with it.

After the gym, I had to run to the Chestnut Hill Mall and in route I had a Peanut Butter Cookie Luna Bar. I was so glad that I had a bar in my gym bag – it was the perfect post-run snack.

Ben and I met back at home – and he had a couple of bags of groceries from Trader Joe’s for our small dinner get together we were hosting. We both got to work – Ben cleaned the house (yay!) and I cooked!

We were expecting about ten people for dinner – so I decided that a baked pasta would be easy enough for dinner.  I cooked two boxes of penne pasta, two packages of lean ground turkey and made two 9 x 11 Pyrex dishes of baked pasta with turkey, mozzarella and tomato sauce. It was a big hit! My mom and Lara brought salads, which was key. I also enjoyed some baked chips with seven layer dip that Ben bought from Trader Joe’s.

Here is what my dinner plate looked like:

The salads were fantastic! Lara also made a homemade salad dressing with olive oil, balsamic, basil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, sugar and hot sauce – the dressing would normally have Dijon mustard, but we did not have any on hand. The dressing was wonderful.

Later in the evening we all enjoyed an AMAZING birthday cake made by our favorite pastry chef, Eunice (owner of our favorite bakery, Bread & Chocolate, of course)!

My birthday was a fantastic day.
Today has started out well – Ben made my birthday breakfast, the day after. Whole wheat pancakes (so light and fluffy) and reduced sodium and nitrate free bacon – yum!

I definitely need to get to the gym today. But right now Ben, Lara, my mom and I are all sitting around in our pjs watching Sleepless in Seattle and having a great Sunday! Motivation will hopefully come to us soon…

I hope everyone is having a great start to 2009! Get your run on, ya’ll!