Home

Man it's good to be back. Back on my blog, but also back home.

I've been thinking about the word home a lot lately, and what exactly it means to me. It's a word we all throw around a lot - "We are heading home for the next two weeks" - or - "It's good to be home" -  etc.

Since moving to Tel Aviv, I have struggled with the definition of home. When people here ask where I'm from, in my mind I think, "Where from as in most recently, or where I grew up? Please clarify." I usually say Chicago. Yet we did live in Baltimore for the past five years - it's where we are most recently from, and where we will eventually move back to.

Baltimore - 4th of July - 2014

Sometimes in conversations as a couple, I just roll with Andrew's response of saying that we are from Colorado. It's easier - I did live there for almost two years - and it's where eventually we want to end up. The Colorado flag still hangs over our bed as I put minimal effort into home decor and we both dream of the days when we will live next to the Rocky Mountains again.

Estes Park - December - 2013

I think home can mean a lot of things. Ultimately, my home in regards to my roots will always be the Chicago area, my favorite city in the world and where my awesome family lives. Yet my home is now Tel Aviv, where my husband and I reside, and it took up until the past week for that to really hit me.
It was interesting going home the past two weeks - and by home, I guess I mean the U.S. We hopped from Chicago to Colorado to Mexico and back to Colorado, and saw almost all of our good friends and family in the process; it was a fantastic time. Yet it was the first time when meeting someone new and asked where we were from, we both smiled and said Israel. Tel Aviv.

But to be honest I was kind of dreading coming back. I was being a huge whiny baby and was afraid to fly back without Andrew, acting as if I was being sent off to a third world country with no connections or friends. When in reality, I was coming back to our cozy apartment and some super supportive and amazing friends.

I was wheels down here last Wednesday evening - JFK to TLV is an 11ish hour flight - followed immediately by a three day competition that I'm really excited to write about next. And what I was sure would be a tearful, mopey return on my part absolutely wasn't. It was easy, comfortable, and above all else made me realize that Tel Aviv is now truly my home.

Tel Aviv - Yom Kippur - 2016

I'll wrap up by getting a little mushy. This spring has been absolutely insane - in both good and bad ways. We lost our dog daughter which will forever make our souls ache, but have figured out how to work through hardships together while friends and family rallied around us. We had several visitors come explore Israel with us, followed by a fabulous time back in the States. We have tallied 15 total flights between the two of us since March.

Fort Collins - May 2015

Today is our two year anniversary today and while at this point a low-key night of wine and sushi sounds perfect, I don't want to downplay the celebration of the past two years. It's been nothing and everything that I could have imagined, and I cannot and would not trade a single second of it - I think he would say the same.

We aren't necessarily following the cookie cutter timeline of how things should look for married couples... we won't own a house for awhile still, and don't plan to start a family while living overseas.  But I've really never been a cookie cutter, follow the recipe/instructions type of girl. I prefer to make my own odd, unique cookies. Even if they sometimes get a little bit burnt.

Cheers -

Kait

Endearing

Man I'll tell you what. As convenient and cheap as the 6 AM Chicago to Baltimore flight may be (at work by 9 AM ish) .... I'm not sure that the 3 AM alarm clock makes it worth it. Ever.

Piled on top of the daylight savings time change, this girl is beat.

Of course, much of the tiredness is also due to a fantastic weekend back home. Because I'm tired, and my brain is fried, let's do the recap in pics, shall we?

Plane ride there. Runner's World and wine, a girls best friend?

Always Southwest.

Clark Street Dog. Yes.

Three Dots and a Dash - the coolest Tiki Bar in a basement I've ever been to.

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NOW, this crappy blurry picture of the lobster taco does not even begin to do it justice. We did Mercadito for dinner in the city on Friday night with some friends, and the small plates of tacos were 

out of this world.

Comiskey sister sandwich - Danielle in the middle  :)

Saturday morning aftermath - train ride home  :)

 Chicagoland still has more snow than they ever should for March - and more coming this week I hear? Rough.

some awesome coffee from my awesome Aunt. because pumpkin never goes out of season in this girl's book.

My other little sis, Jane.

Chicago, you delivered again, big time. Thanks for the solid three day weekend. 

Now,  I leave you with two questions, and one more picture. 

1. I need some solid 'clean' recipes for the week - trying to stiffen up the diet with this impending warm weather and crazy travel schedule coming up. Any suggestions?

2. What's your favorite tiki-bar beach type drink?

And now, a picture of this endearing fox, credit to my sister whose coworker originally sent her. I'm obsessed with it... it may or may not be my phone background.

Cheers to the adorable endearing fox - 

Kait

Doggy Approval

I Facetimed with my dog, Jane, the other night. I would say that’s a pretty good indicator that this weekend was the perfect weekend to pick to go home, seeing that I haven’t been back yet this year, and I can’t have her forgetting who I am.

 

Jane the Pain.

Luckily, Jane loved my new Warby Parker glasses (thanks to all of your for the feedback in deciding) so I’ll keep them around.

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This week feels short, and busy. Maybe because it is? Monday was a ‘Work from Home’ Snow Day… and while I will complain about the snow, I won’t complain about my lunch break–

I’ve been trying to drink more water in the mornings, because I normally get to work and pound coffee like a mad woman and probably dehydrate myself. New rule – drink a glass of water before my coffee, and after.

Last night I did a spinning workout on my bike, paired with some intermediate jumping around and abs. I’m loosely following this challenge for March, I like the variety that it offers.

sorry for the weird graphic in the background

What I don’t like are taxes; I filed mine on Tuesday and for some reason I owe the state of Maryland money. I happily wrote them a check because hey they deserve it.

If we are being honest, I got pissed after H&R Block told me this, and immediately went upstairs and housed half of the paleo chocolate that I had just made. Don’t worry, the other half disappeared last night.

That’s about all I’ve got for this week. I would be surprised if I write while I’m in Chicago, don’t hold it against me. Andrew and I catch a flight back this evening, for a long weekend at home with my family and friends. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ll leave you with this cool website that Mizuno sent me in an email the other day – What if everybody ran? Check it out.

Cheers to Friday Eve –

K

Keeping it Simple

Man, it’s been awhile eh? The holidays called for some time off in all areas of life, so I took the time to keep my laptop powered down and give my fingers a rest.

Let’s talk about this crazy cold weather everywhere, eh? I know Chicago has basically turned into a tundra, but Baltimore even got down into the single digits today -  my Civic wasn’t too eager to start up this morning.

But do you know who was eager to start up this morning? Beth.

My Christmas present from Andrew was a bike trainer, which was shipped in a large box from Amazon. It was a bitch blast to set up last night, but I’m in love. I plan to get a thorough sweat session on her tomorrow after work, and can’t wait until it gets a bit warmer to do run bike run type workouts.

To give a short and sweet summary of my holiday season – it was long, and wonderful. Much time was spent with family and friends; great food drink and conversation happened. And of course a few runs.

One of my other favorite gifts was this guy:

And my favorite blog shout out of the year was text to me from my sister’s boyfriend, who decorated a Christmas cookie for me...

RKR = Run Kait Run. Awww thanks Jase you're a gem.

And of course, once wheels were down in Colorado there were plenty of lights to fall in love under, trails to fall in love on, and mountains to take our breath away. 

Baltimore quickly swallowed us back up this past Sunday afternoon as we somehow navigated the absurd delays and cancellations at airports across the nation; we got away with just a one hour delay, landing at BWI right around 3 pm with eight bags in tow between the two of us.

New Years Resolution? Learn to travel lighter.

Kidding. Let’s get real for a minute. Last year I made a very elaborate New Year’s Resolution list. It included different categories, etc. Some things I achieved – I feel like I did a great job of being pretty proactive, all injury aside. Definitely have been flossing more too.

Others, like ‘stop chewing on my cuticles’… I once again failed. Maybe this year?

Anyways, listen up. This year I’m keeping it simple. Literally.

There were points during the past year that all of my resolutions, goals and what not literally stressed me out. I found myself having panic attacks over not becoming a taco connoisseur while I simultaneously tried to do a sugar cleanse for three weeks. I reprimanded myself when I couldn’t find the time to practice my violin, and cried when I realized I wouldn’t hit my goal time for my marathon… because my fifth metatarsal was once again cracked, and running was off the table.

My body is still healing. On my to-do list tonight is to create a viable fitness plan for myself these next few months so that I can get myself into true healthy running shape. Yes I’m running, yet not that much, and not pain-free.

My point is, as far as specific running/racing goals, body goals, health goals, life goals, here’s what I’ve basically wrapped into one for 2014:

Keep it Simple

Keep it Balanced

Do it Joyfully

I want to drink more lemon water. I think I’ll do that; at least I’ll try. One of my best friends reprimanded me for not doing sit-ups ‘the right way’ – this is coming from Mr. Crossfit himself.

that guy  ^^  (& my sis)

Ok, Ok, I’ll work on my sit-up form. I’ve been missing my abs these days anyways – the Christmas cookies buried them.

I want a stronger upper body. I can work on that. And eventually, when I sign up for some races, I will set some short term goals there. But I’m keeping it simple, I’m not stressing myself out, and I’m living 2014 as joyfully as I can. After all, I did tattoo the word on myself. 

Glad to be back my friends. Share some of your resolutions/goals with me, I’d love to hear them. Let’s make 2014 one to remember, what do you say?

Cheers –

K

Mugs

I can always count on my mom to throw a new healthy recipe at me when I'm home. This morning before I woke up she left me this recipe on the counter:

Grainless Banana Bread in a Mug

I substituted almond butter into my mug, and made peanut butter for my dad. That paired with a warm cup of black coffee started off my morning swimmingly. I believe she found the original recipe here.

I've been back in the Chi now since Thursday night. Before boarding my flight, I found myself a real treat at the BWI airport:

Who knew Jamba offers Pumpkin smoothies? I opted for a small, and got it 'light' which I believe cuts out some of the sugar, shaving it down to closer to 200 cals. Still considered a treat in my book, but a tasty way to start off my trip.

Also, a big obligatory thanks to the sis and her pal Manda who braved the Chicago rush hour traffic on Thursday and picked myself and my 80 lbs of luggage up from Midway airport so that I wouldn't have to take the L. Can we just talk about how my big suitcase weighed exactly 50 lbs? 50.0. The Southwest lady at the check-in desk literally congratulated me.

Had to blur out some of Bri's offensive language.

Last night I decided to try to create my own version of a pumpkin smoothie. I threw in:

- 1/2 ripe banana 

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-3 TB honey

-1/3 cup cottage cheese (to thicken it up)

-A few ice cubes

-1/2 - 1 cup vanilla almond milk

-1 TB almond butter

-1 TB flaxseed

As you can see,  I paired that with some leftover green bean casserole and called it a dinner. I'm weird,  I know. I enjoyed the smoothie, and may throw some vanilla extract in there next time.

The weekend, in short, was a whole lot of Christmas, a whole lot of Jane, and a whole lot of snoozin'.

Grams & Santa

I stumbled upon this on Pinterest the other day and loved it. It may very well me my 2014 mantra.

I have some last minute Christmas shopping to knock out today, along with a basement workout on our elliptical/bike. Yes, I'm one of those people who waits to buy presents. It makes it easier to buy it here versus Baltimore and then have to pack them all.

Enjoy your second to last Monday of 2014 - I hope it treats you well.

Cheers -
K

Packin' and Jammin'

I'm not going to lie, this week in food has been pretty absurd, as I have slowly eaten through my fridge and cabinets to leave myself with basically nothing (but a few eggs) before I depart for 16 days. The most interesting would probably have to be this:

Cucumbers stuffed with spicy tuna salad.... sub par.

And most awesome would have to be this:

a microwaved s'more, made with nutella. Not paleo, yes delicious.

In other news, the hypochondriac deep down inside of me has convinced myself that I fractured or tore something in my shoulder. It really hurt today, and also didn't feel great on my 6 mile run.

Yet the subtle masochist deep down inside of me is telling me to continue ignoring it. I mean, even if something is actually wrong, I'm unsure that would hold me back from skiing some Rocky Mountains when I'm out in Colorado next week. If it's messed up, may as well jack it up some more right?

Kidding. Kind of.

The past two hours of my life has entailed mucho packing. I always become a bit panicky prior to leaving for long trips. What if we go to a fancy dinner? What if I decide to work out twice in one day and need extra sports bras? What if one day I want to stay in my pj's all day long? Do I need to bring all four pairs of my boots?

The answer is obviously yes. Let's see if I make it past the 50 lb weight limit. Taking bets, ready go.

It's way past my bedtime, let's wrap this up. The plan is to get up early and do a couple circuit workouts that don't involve shoulders (ya good luck with that). I leave you all with my new favorite song. It makes me really happy, and incredibly excited to spend time with both my Chicago and Colorado friends these next two weeks.

The Script - Good Ol' Days

Cheers to that -

K