Angry Julie Monday

Wordless Wednesday: Chasing The Puck

July 11, 2012

It’s a busy summer. So busy that I almost forgot that it’s time for Wordless Wednesday. We are watching a friend’s roller hockey game right now. The kid was practically licking the glass.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed.

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Naptime Momtog, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

And, I can’t forget Krystina from Lollipops whom does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Photography, Wordless Wednesday 9 Comments

World Market Fly Away Giveaway

July 9, 2012

Today I’m so excited to be teaming up with

and

and some amazing bloggers to host a giveaway you don’t want to miss!

List all Bloggers hosting giveaway:

Angry Julie Monday

Double Duty Mommy

The Pinterest Project

The Scrap Shoppe

504 Main

If you haven’t visited Cost Plus World Market, here are just a couple reasons to pop into a store near you and do a little retail therapy.

World Market carries everything from home decor to in home and outdoor furniture to varieties of local and international foods and wines. They truly have something for everyone and their eye for color and design can and will brighten up any home.

Right now when you shop at World Market and spend $20, you will receive a 15% off voucher to purchase a ticket to fly anywhere Southwest Airlines flies. Not only that, but you can enter to win a trip for 4 anywhere Southwest Airlines flies, including hotel accommodations and a $500 gift card to do a little shopping.

That’s a pretty awesome in store promotion and sweepstakes their running, right?

Well, Cost Plus World Market wants to spoil our awesome reader’s a little more:

Let me tell you about our prizes

GRAND PRIZE:

We’re giving ONE awesome reader two Southwest Airlines tickets to go anywhere Southwest flies and a $100 World Market gift card!!

RUNNER UP PRIZES:

That’s not all, we’re also giveaway away 3 $100 World Market Gift Cards

Here’s how you can Enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms & Conditions on tickets:
The winner will receive two (2) tickets redeemable for round-trip airfare for two (2) people on Southwest Airlines to any destination serviced by Southwest Airlines. The tickets are valid until December 31, 2013.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by World Market. I was compensated for it. All opinions are mine.

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie

Going The Distance, #40milesinJune

July 6, 2012

During the first week of June, I committed to run 40 miles in June. Marta had the great idea for this challenge and a ton of people posted their mileage on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and their blogs. I use Daily Mile to track all of my mileage for running. I checked my account today and saw that I did 92 miles in May. Holy crap!!

#40milesinJune Photo via Haus of Girls

On the 17th of June, I hit my 40 miles in June, but kept going. I knew that we were going camping the last week of the month, so I had to get my mileage in. We did a ton of hikes while camping, plus I walked to the village for wifi, quite a few times. At the end of June, I logged in 63 miles total. Several of June’s miles were ran with Angry Kid riding his bike alongside me.

Chose Your Own Path

I’m still running. It is super hard to find time to run during the summer with all of our activities going on, and then you also add in the heat! I’m waiting longer and longer at night. Sometimes, I run at 8pm or so, because it has finally cooled down. I ran around 9:30am this morning because it was super overcast. I was quite thankful for that.

Committing to my run regime has taken over a large chunk of my spare time. Laundry is piling up, emails are overflowing, and my house is not as tidy, but I really don’t care. Choosing my own path, and following my running goals is also setting a good and healthy example for my family. Plus, I have another random topic to talk about.

Do you want to go the distance?

45 miles in July! Are you with me?

I’ve already done 10 miles so far.

Photo via Haus of Girls

I swear I haven’t turned into a super running freak. I am slow. Like turtle slow. I also need to start making To-Do lists. Like really bad!

Filed Under: Just Julie 4 Comments

4th of July 2012

July 5, 2012

For the past several years, I’ve ran the Surf City 5K on the 4th of July. I usually do it with my friend, Monique. I also signed up Angry Kid for the kid’s race. I’m all about the theme and I went all out this year with my “running costume”.

I figured that you wouldn’t be able to miss me while I run wearing my red Team Sparkle skirt, Blue UnderArmour tank, Black Lululemon Run: Shorty Short under my Team Sparkle Skirt, White knee highs from Target, Saucony Kinvara 3’s with blue pom poms (handmade by me), and a white Lululemon headband.

We got up at the crack of dawn, 6am, and made our way to Huntington Beach. You have to get there early because they close down certain streets, and it can get very tough to find a parking spot. Finding a spot for a Chevy Tahoe is a bit of a task. But we made it there, and found parking.

I had Angry Husband take a picture of Angry Kid and I before my race started. It was early and we were both tired.

I placed myself into the middle of the pack at the starting line of the race. Because as the announcer stated, “You only want to be up at the very front if you are wearing very bright shoes and run a 5-minute mile”. I may have the bright shoes but my mile pace is a little more than double that. My blogging friend, Jenn, sent me this picture that her husband took of me. I tried to look for her while I was running but I never saw her. Total bummer.

That was the “thank god, I’m almost done” face. I was almost finished. Surprisingly, I wasn’t all red. I usually turn bright red when running. Oh, and I had a total Garmin FAIL while running. I went to hit “start” when I crossed the start line, and my Garmin battery went dead. Sigh!!! I like to use it to check my pace while running. I kept hitting refresh on the run’s website to check my final time for the race. My final time ended up being 34:11, much better than last year’s race which was 40:42.

As for Angry Kid’s race, well that is a story in itself…

All of the kids lined up in front of the starting line to get ready for the one mile run. The announcer told the parents to step back a little to make room for the little kids. Because of the crowd, I went on the other side of the start line to run along with Angry Kid when he comes through. Well several kids came through and I did not see Angry Kid. I walked back to the starting line and saw Angry Kid over to the side crying with race officials helping him out.

It turns out that while Angry Kid was running, he tripped or was somehow tripped and ended falling and hitting his head. I’m still not sure what exactly happened. He finally calmed down and the race announcer, Rudy, told him (Angry Kid) that he could push the button to blow the bullhorn on the start of the kid’s 1/2 mile race.

Well, the kid pushed the button for the 1/2 mile race, and then he started running the race. And he tripped again. I think the crowd overwhelmed him causing him to trip. He took down a woman and her daughter when he went down. It was bad. After he got up, he had two bloody torn-up knees. Somehow Monique and I got him to walk the rest of the race, and then run a little at the end to get his medal. Angry Kid is fine now. He got some antiseptic spray and some bandaids. I needed a cocktail after all of that drama!

And because we had all of that kid race-drama, I declared outloud, “Where are we going for breakfast?” We picked the first place we saw on the way home, iHOP. I got this strawberry-banana pancake goodness. It was good, like real good.

After breakfast, my family went home and relaxed for a bit. We are still trying to organize everything after our camping trip. Our garage is chaos. We got caught up on the Olympic Trials, and maybe even napped a little.

We had some chicken for dinner, and walked out to a corner of our neighborhood to view the fireworks that our HOA puts on. I advised Angry Husband that my friend, Sharon, had a big group of people out in her cul-de-sac to view the fireworks. We live in the same HOA, and so we walked a few blocks to her house. Angry Husband was impressed with the direct view that she had.

I am still not done editing photos from Yosemite. So I did not bring my DSLR to photograph fireworks. Plus, I’m always so critical of my firework photos. I used my iPhone to take pictures. I think they turned out “good enough”.

This Holiday in the middle of the week thing was weird this year. I’m still exhausted from all of it, are you? I need another day off.

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie, Orange County, Parenting 12 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: First Tooth Lost

July 4, 2012

While we were in Yosemite last week, Angry Kid had quite the milestone. He lost his first tooth! He is going into second grade in September, and we have been waiting for his teeth to start falling out. I blame my genetics on the slow tooth loss because I was like 10 or 11 years old when I lost my first tooth. Ya, I know, weird…

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

Project Alicia, Better in Bulk, By Word of Mouth Musings, Crazy About My Baybah, Dear Crissy, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud, Naptime Momtog, Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, The Divine Miss Mommy

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

And, I can’t forget Krystina from Lollipops whom does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Filed Under: Parenting, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 7 Comments

The Drive for Caring and Challege, Feeling Alive

July 3, 2012

While I was in Yosemite last week, I had some downtime. I brought the book, The Charge, with me. It seems that I’m always in a hurry lately and I don’t spend enough time reading like I used to. It was my first time camping and I had a ton of apprehension about the trip. It takes a lot for me to unwind and let my Type-A personality relax. Because everyone else was sitting around the campfire reading, I thought that I should join in.

The premise of the book is about “activating the 10 human drives that make you feel alive”.

Two of the 10 Human Drives mentioned in the book, really stuck out to me and my current status: The Drive for Caring and The Drive for Challenge.

The Drive for Caring

When one thinks about caring, you automatically think about caring for others. In this instance, I’m talking about caring for myself. I currently have a little motto, “you have to care for yourself first, because no one else will”. It is my choice to be healthy, exercise, and take care of myself. Nobody can do that for me. For the past few years, I’ve let stress and other things take over my life. I used to be more physically fit, but any free time that I had to work out was taken over by exhaustion.

By doing a 5K run in March, I realized how out of shape I was. It was embarrassing. I hadn’t run that slow in a long time. I immediately decided to start running more and to set some goals. My first set of goals was to improve my running paces, which I’m still working on. Lately, I’ve been averaging four miles every time I run. There was no way that I could do that a few months ago.

Because of my running, I have found a whole new community of people to talk to. I talk and interact with other runners through social media. We talk about races, our pace times, goals, and current topics in running. At least all of the time that I spend on the computer applies to some kind of physical fitness. Even if it means researching physical fitness. That still counts right?

The Drive for Challenge

I am not really a risk taker. I usually am pretty conservative about doing things in life. Going on a camping trip was way out of my comfort zone and going hiking while I was there was just an extra step.

Staying in Yosemite provides lots of adventures for exploring the outdoors. There a several day hikes that you can do while you are there. There is a shuttle that drops you off at different points along the valley, which is usually the beginning to a hike. All of the hikes are rated by the distance, and how strenuous they are. Before this camping trip, I was not much of a hiker, and either was Angry Kid. With fourteen people in our group, we had some kind of excursion/hike planned every day. I really didn’t consider the option of not going on the hike. I also didn’t give Angry Kid the choice. I’m such a mean parent. While I was hiking, I just took it all in. The area was beautiful, and the views were breathtaking. It isn’t everyday that I hike a waterfall.

Going on these tough hikes was quite a challenge for me, because my legs were not trained for hiking. Sure, I’ve been running a lot lately, but there aren’t that many hills near my house. My calves were a tad bit sore the entire time that we were on vacation. And the kid, no complaints from him. He even did a 6-mile hike one day. At the end of the trip, I asked Angry Kid if he was going to go on some longer hikes next year, he replied, “Yes”. I also plan to go on longer hikes next year, but first, I will train a bit.

My next challenge is running a 1/2 Marathon. I’ve been training for a few months, and my race is in October. Wish me luck!

Order your free copy of The Charge today!

Share with us what makes you feel most alive for a chance to win a High Performance Academy Online Seminar with Brendon Burchard, author of The Charge (valued at $1,000).

Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Burchard Group Sponsored Conversation. The opinions and text are all mine. Burchard Group Sweepstakes and Rules.

*Regular blog comments are closed on this post.

Filed Under: Blogging, Just Julie

Hello Monday, The Camping Edition

July 2, 2012

Hello Monday!

Hello Reality and Back to Work!

Hello to Roadtrip to Yosemite National Park last week!

Angry Husband’s truck was quite full on the way there. Our stuff plus several other people’s things were packed into the back of the truck. It was a tad bit embarrassing.

Hello to Inspiration Point at Yosemite!

We left at 2am Sunday morning with some stops in between. So VERY early! Of course, Angry Kid woke up about 3am and was wide awake and quite chatty!

Hello to a waterfront view!

We stayed at the Housekeeping Camp in Yosemite. This was a our view.

Hello to lots of hikes while in Yosemite!

Angry Kid went all the way up to the top of Nevada Falls. I was impressed.

Hello to Yosemite Falls!

We hiked around lower Yosemite Falls last Monday.

Hello to Angry Kid enjoying his vacation!

He went a wee bit native while on vacation. My BFF, Stacey, said that he looks like “Huck Finn” in the pictures.

Psst….there’s a deer in the top right corner of the picture. The kid didn’t even notice.

Hello to a ton of laundry and stuff to unpack!
Hello to reality and life in suburbia!

Hello to a busy Holiday week!

Angry Kid will be at soccer camp 4 days this week!

HELLO MONDAY!!!

Linking up with Lisa Leonard’s Hello Monday Series!

Filed Under: In The Home, Just Julie, Photography 5 Comments

Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Cupcakes

June 30, 2012

These cupcakes are super simple to make but they will totally impress your guests for the upcoming 4th of July festivities. I’ve posted about Rainbow and Camouflage Cupcakes before, so this recipe is just a variation of those previous recipes. I made these for my son’s birthday party in May and they were a huge hit!

Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcakes from Hello Cupcake

Yield: 24 standard cupcakes

Ingredients:

18.25-ounce box cake mix (French vanilla, devil’s food or yellow)
1 cup buttermilk, in place of the water called for on the box (the box will call for more water than the buttermilk you are using)
Vegetable oil (the amount on the box)
4 large eggs (in place of the number called for on the box)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Directions:

Using substitutions above, follow the box instructions to mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at low to medium speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and beat until thick, 2 minutes longer.
Split the batter into bowls and add color. I used Wilton’s icing colors, royal blue and red-red.
Spoon the colors one by one into the cupcake liners. Fill them about 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove cupcakes from baking pans, place on a wire rack . Cool completely. I waited about 30-45 minutes before icing them.

Note: I used Duncan Hines White Cake Mix for my cupcakes. White cake mix stands out and is brighter than yellow cake mix.

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

(Depending on how many cupcakes you are making, you might want to double or reduce by half.)

Ingredients:

10 oz cream cheese softened
10 oz butter unsalted room temp
1.5 lbs of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of lemon juice
2 tbsp of cream (heavy or whipping)
1.5 tsp of vanilla

Directions:

Beat cream cheese and butter on med until fluffy, about 3 mins. Add powdered sugar, then liquids.
Beat on med-high/high for about 3 more minutes. Taste. If it still tastes sugary, beat for another minute.

Note: This makes about… 1.5 qts so I can usually frost about 2-3 dozen cupcakes depending on how much I pipe.

*You can add Wilton icing color once again, to color the icing/frosting. I use a Wilton 12-Piece Cupcake Decorating Set to pipe on the icing. I used the 1M Star Tip on my cupcakes. I then used a container of red, white, and blue sprinkles on top of my icing for that extra patriotic touch.

Find your favorite serving display, and bam…they look super fancy!