Each week, I read a bit, surf the web, chat with friends and make to-do lists that sometimes get accomplished, and sometimes don’t.  One of the many reasons that I started this blog was to give myself that little bit of motivation to actually do some of the things that I discover through the week.  So, I’m sharing some of my findings each week with you.  Here are my discoveries this week:

I’m a teacher and the Back-to-School advertisements, shelves, and chatter is coming full force this time of year.  After doing this gig for 17 years, I still love the first days of school.  When I was little, I loved going shopping for supplies and new clothes with my siblings and mother.  Still to this day, I can’t escape the aisles without throwing some supplies into my cart, but even more exciting, is that I still purchase myself a new outfit for the first day of school.  So… when these came in the mail the last week…. I couldn’t help but get excited for the new school year.

The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale always comes at the perfect time, and J.Crew has preppy teacher written all over it.

This week also happens to be a big week of racing in my neighborhood.  Some of my friends are heading to San Francisco for the San Francisco Marathon.  In particular, I’ve been watching in awe as my most steady running partner has started to own the road.  She has become a beast on the hills and is busting out quick miles while looking like running is her job.  I’m not going to divulge too much, because as a runner myself, I know how much having outside pressures or the feeling of letting someone down can jack with your mind, but I feel with all my heart that she is going to KILL IT!  The rest of my neighborhood, and lots of visitors, will be running the Wharf to Wharf here in Santa Cruz.  This is a HUGE race giving back a lot of dough to our local schools.  I’m excited to join my teammates and friends on the course this year.  Look for a follow-up post on the race shortly.  In the meantime, I stumbled upon this quote from i<3torun’s Facebook page and found it fitting for the weekend’s events.  

Finally, my hubby and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary this week.  We have plans to go to a Giants day game followed by a delicious dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.  You might say… Giants game… for an anniversary???  Don’t judge… we love our Giants (and I love Timmy a ton) and if you haven’t had the garlic fries then you simply can’t understand.  Yum!  Because I can’t eat garlic fries AND the whole anniversary cake (each year I have The Buttery recreate the top of our wedding cake), I have decided to have Juliette and Dietmar (special friends that also played a HUGE roll in our top secret wedding plans) come share the cake with us.  I’ve been dying to make this Honey Chipotle Chicken Bowl with Lime Quinoa recipe that I found on the blog How Sweet It Is.  I may need to make a few changes to accommodate some dietary needs, but I can already smell the deliciousness of this dish.  

Hoping your Saturday is full of joy and the chance to do something extraordinary!  Enjoy!