Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots to be thankful this year! Matt and I are both so happy to be back on the West coast. We feel extremely blessed to have great jobs that challenge and fulfill us, and give us the funds to live a very comfortable life. We are missing all our wonderful family and friends, especially since this is our first year to have Thanksgiving just the two of us. But there is also something very special about celebrating the holiday as a couple.

This morning we took part in the 17th Annual 5K Run to Feed the Hungry, along with about 30,000 other people. We had so much fun and hope to make it a tradition every year we are in Sacramento for Thanksgiving. So if you want to come visit us for Turkey day, bring your tennis shoes! The starting line was about eight blocks from our house so it really couldn't be more convenient for us. The course runs through the neighborhoods near our house and people hung out in their front yards to cheer people on. Some houses had bonfires, others had bands playing for the runners. Lots of people walked with their kids, pushed strollers, etc. so it was a very casual walk/run. We should have started with the timed 5K but started with the Fun Run group so we spent a lot of the time weaving in and out of walkers. I bet we ran an extra quarter mile from all the weaving we had to do! While we were grateful to burn a few extra calories before we consume a ton, the event was actually focused on raising money to help those less fortunate in our community. What's not to love about that!

Now, on to food! Fortunately making a big feast for two is really pretty easy. Last night I got the orange cranberry sauce, pumpkin ice cream pie and fruit salad out of the way. Now the turkey is in the oven, the green bean casserole is in crock pot and the sweet potato casserole is waiting to go in the oven. The table is set and we're sipping on cold beers, watching football.

And the dogs are keeping each other busy. Yes, you read that right, dogS. We are puppy sitting Cali, my coworker Jessica's dog. She and Bounce are about a month apart in age and very similar in size. They played together a few weekends ago and really couldn't get along any better. Don't be fooled by the picture, they are a lot of energy and can't figure out how to calm down while the other one is around. Hopefully they figure it out soon, as Cali is staying with us until Saturday afternoon!

So that's our Thanksgiving so far! Hopefully all the food turns out. (You never know with me, I have plenty of failed attempts at cooking...just last weekend I butchered pecan pie and had to throw the whole thing away. But I gave it a second try and got it right.)

We are thankful for all the loved ones in our life (That's you!).

Doing what I do best...

Lounging and watching for squirrels!

Life is good, if only I didn't have kennel cough and a parasite. Fortunately it isn't anything some good drugs (and extra snuggling) can't cure!

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Down and Dirty Mud Run

Some accused us of being crazy (cough, Dad, cough) for voluntarily running and crawling through mud pits. And yes, maybe it is a little crazy. But really, so much fun! It isn't very often in our adult lives that we just let loose and jump in mud puddles, go into lakes fully clothed, etc.

The 5K Mud Run was sponsored by Merrell and held at Folsom Lake, just outside of Sacramento. The location was perfect! It's gorgeous, especially early in the morning.

How early? We had to get up at 5:45 am and let's just say that was not the highlight of the day. We were TIRED! And thankfully they had heaters out because it was also cold (at least we were still clean).

We finally hit the trail after waiting what felt like forever. It was a much harder course than Matt and I anticipated. Perhaps if we trained it wouldn't have been as bad. But the hills were just killer. One in particular had just about everyone walking (except Matt!).

The obstacles were the big unknown factor and fortunately they weren't too hard. There were six in total. I had visions of a big wall to climb, that I just couldn't get over so Matt had to shove me over. That didn't happen, but there was one obstacle that I kind of wish he could have hoisted me up a little! There were three subsequent wooden bars you had to jump up to and pull yourself over. They were no big deal for Matt with his 6'1" stature but with my 5'3" stature, it was significantly more difficult.

So after running maybe 2 miles we had our first small mud pit to cross through. Then ran roughly 3/4 mile more and we came to the biggest surprise of an obstacle. Walking through the lake! We had to walk around the perimeter of the swimming area. It was slow moving for sure, with the water getting to about my chest at it's deepest point. Then we ran another 200 yards with our shoes slooshing to a soapy incline obstacle.

Then came the fun part! The big mud pit! We crawled and crawled and made it through to cross the finish line. No records were broke, with a slow time of 45 minutes. The fastest time was 26 minutes I think so even those speedy runners were slowed down with the obstacles and lake detour!

I am glad we did it. It's a fun thing to do at least once in your life.

Probably not something you want to do on a regular basis considering we both threw out our shoes and I had to wash our clothes 4 times before the mud came out and my white sports bra will forever be a shade of light brown.

These are our shoes after washing off, I should have captured them beforehand!

Zags are Back!!

Zag basketball is back and I couldn't be more excited! The team is ranked #12 to start the season and the non-conference schedule delivers lots of tasty match-ups against the nation's best. I'm excited to see how the Zags stack up! If the 117-72 season opening victory is any indication, it could be a special year. Here are three thoughts stemming from the big opening win:

- It looks like the 2010-11 edition of the Zags will be able to score from the perimeter. The post scoring was never in doubt heading into the season, but the Zags drained 13 threes led by Gray and freshman, Monninghoff. If the Zags can keep teams honest on "d" with a decent perimeter game, the offense could be one of the nation's best...easily.

- To sandwich in a complaint amongst all the superlatives from tonight's blowout: the Zags played lousy perimeter defense, in my opinion. Too much collapsing into the paint and giving up open looks, and way, way too much fouls on three point attempts (I think we had four)! Against a stronger shooting opponent, that could be an achilles heel. I do have to point out: all our crashing the paint did was yield a 57-16 rebounding margin (in a word....domination).

- Dower is amazing. I can't believe he's a redshirt freshman. That he comes off the bench only serves to reinforce my excitement about our dominant frontcourt. Wow.

Portland VisionWalk 2010

My brother, mother and I have been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), a genetic eye condition that causes limited peripheral and night vision (read more about my RP experience here and here). On October 23rd, Cara and I returned to Portland to participate in the 2010 Oregon VisionWalk, a fundraiser for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Here are some of the highlights:

(1) The walk was held under typical Northwest grey skies, but the forecasted rain held off. In fact, we were even blessed with an occasional sun-break - perfect walking weather! Cara and I are claiming responsibility for bringing the sunny Sacramento weather with us to the Rose City.

(2) Our team, Believing is Seeing was 15 members strong and we were all looking quite fashionable in our bright yellow team t-shirts (which my dad and brother designed together).

(3) Thanks to all our friends and family for supporting us in this worthwhile cause. Our team raised $4,075 and as a whole, Oregon VisionWalk raised nearly $35,000!

Here are a few more photos to tell the story (in no particular order). Can't wait until next year!

Becca and Mark getting geared up for the walk


About one-third of our AWESOME team:


Cara and her sister, Megan, making sure we all walk our three miles


James and his wife, Ada, before the walk


The extended Hoag family before the walk


Poppy + Becca (and her balloon dog)


Trent was able to snag a lap-long piggy back ride!


Matt and his brother, James, hamming it up for the camera

Adventures in being domesticated

Today marks a milestone in the Hoag household. Our very first poached eggs! I may be late to the party, but I had no idea you can poach an egg using simply boiling water and vinegar in a saucepan, but sure enough, you can! Thanks to the internet, we have a new egg cooking technique! My guide? E-how.

Once I had a pot of boiling water I added some vinegar (didn't bother measuring) and then stirred until I had a little whirlpool going. Then simply poured the egg (already cracked and hanging out in a small bowl) into the eye of the whirlpool. While it was cooking Matt and I stared at it wondering if this method really worked. Hard to tell as you can see below.

But after 3-5 minutes I used a slotted spoon and found this:

Mmmm! Success! (This was Matt's second, as you can see the remnants of egg #1 on the plate.)

Okay, maybe I shouldn't feel so accomplished as it was really easy. But I just love learning new things. Matt got to listen to me sing "I poached an egg, I poached an egg, I poached an egg" on and off for about thirty minutes this morning. What a great Sunday morning!

So tell me, am I late to the party? Did you know you can poach eggs like this? Have you done it before?

Pumpkin this, pumpkin that

Fall is my favorite season. I just love so many things about it. Today we took Bounce on a walk through the neighborhood and I just couldn't get enough of the leaves on the ground. I love to drag my feet, seeing my shoes swim through the leaves. I love stepping and hearing the crunch below me. I love the smell of leaves on the ground

Oh, but this blog post isn't titled leaves this, leaves that, now is it? I also love all things pumpkin. In fact, I am sipping on one of these as I type:

Pumpkin recipes are definitely some of my favorites. I have my standby pumpkin muffins that I make every year. And this year I couldn't help but try out a few other recipes. So far I've made my muffins plus:

• pumpkin scones (cheated and used a boxed mix but they were good!)
• pumpkin crepes (seriously delicious, but aparently crepes are hard to make...my presentation was not pretty!)
• pumpkin butter (yum yum yum - and check out the many ways you can use pumpkin butter, including the pumpkin crepes above.)
• pumpkin granola (really enjoyed this, but found that I needed to bake for longer than the recipe called for.)
• pumpkin bars (this recipe was from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and umm, I messed them up by accidently omitting baking soda, but I bet they would have been good!)

And though I haven't made one myself, I've been enjoying plenty of Soy Starbucks Pumpkin Lattes. Mmmm. Since there is pumpkin season is still upon us, I'll be baking up a few more pumpkin recipes, like pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin ice cream pie. Plus at least one more batch of the muffins! Here's the recipe for the muffins. I got it from a fellow WSU grad student back in 2005.

1 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon dry ginger

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup water

1 cup canned pumpkin (I actually used the whole 15 oz can)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, stir together wet ingredients, then add to the dry, stirring until batter is just combined.  Pour batter in a greased, floured loaf pan. Put approx. 2 tablespoons in cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes. Frost with cream cheese frosting (optional).

I definitely recommend the muffins. And pumpkin spice lattes. And the pumpkin crepes. And the pumpkin butter. Okay, so I recommend them all, all but the pumpkin bars without baking soda!