pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting - perfection!
If today's Pins indicate anything about me over the next few months, I'll be a very well-dressed lady on a sugar high with cute pumpkins on my porch and a buzz from my bourbon pumpkin milkshake.
Is anyone else needing this long weekend as badly as I am? It has been beyond cray-cray at my office this week and I'm just plum worn out. This was not made any better when I woke up at 3am this morning, sat straight up and bed and proceeded to the bathroom as if to get ready for the day. As I passed through I saw that the clock on the stove read "3:02" and promptly headed back to the bed. I don't know what's up but I just can't seem to get enough rest! Oh, and when people tell you that training for a marathon is exhausting and time consuming and "Have you lost your mind?!"... yea, they're being honest. Running 20+ miles every week sure will suck the fun-life outta you, let me tell ya. I feel like all of the movement should be giving more energy but as of now, I've yet to have that happen. I have 13 miles on the schedule for tomorrow morning. In case you're unfamiliar with the running world... that's a half marathon. I'm running a half marathon tomorrow morning, just for kicks. If you never hear from me again, it's been nice knowing y'all. If I survive the fake-half, Brian and I have a day date to head to the Deutsche Bank Championship for the day! He gets volunteer days through his job that he has to use that don't count against his vacation time, so basically boyfriend has spent the last two days at a golf course wearing a really big bucket hat that he is EXTREMELY excited about and watching pro golfers play golf all day. I think the extent of his duties is to tell people to be quiet and not go past the rope barriers on the course.
Basically, he's in heaven. Since the majority of our dates are planned by me, I've gone full-force-excited into this whole thing. It doesn't hurt that I get to wear a VIP badge for the day and eat and drink as much as I want. Hey, running 13 miles DOES have its benefits. The gates open at 7am but since I'll be trucking my caboose along at that point, I'd imagine (hope) we're going later in the morning. If you'd like to spend your morning watching the Golf Channel, keep an eye out for me! I'll be the girl hobbling around with a beverage in her hand...s. I only REALLY love Sundays on long weekends because it's like you have a mid-weekend! And it's a lot easier to justify Sunday Funday when you don't have to be up before motherlovin' dawn the next morning. But THIS Sunday... I am excited to announce... that my evening will be spent with the most wonderful man.
He's great too, and he'll totally be there as well. This guy is gonna steal the evening though:
Oh, Darius. I am SO excited, my friend! For the third summer in a row, we get to see him in concert! Two years ago we saw Hootie and the Blowfish (awesome, amazing, hoarse the next day from scream-singing "Hold My Hand" and "Let Her Cry" at the top of my voice) and then last summer we saw Darius by himself (hello tears EVERY SINGLE TIME I hear "Southern State of Mind") and it was even more amazing. I don't know how the show could get any better, so let's just say that my expectations for Sunday night are mucho-high. The best part is that the venue he's been at these last three years is called the "Music Circus" so there are tons of people there, it's circular seating so there's literally not a bad seat anywhere, and the stage very slowly revolves the entire show so everyone gets to see DR's bum! I mean... face. And awesome School House Rock tshirts. Truly though, I'm so pumped.
I may have tried to justify purchasing and having these lovelies shipped overnight to get here by tomorrow but, alas, I must eat and pay rent.
I mean really-- what's a $600 pair of boots for a Texas gal?
So between 13 miles plus golf all day tomorrow, Sunday Funday + Darius, and a Monday which I'm sure will include some sort of Brian-family-get-together where I must present myself nicely and put on non-yoga pants and prepare a wonderful dish from scratch... I've got a packed few days ahead of me.
I'll be back Monday with pictures from the festivities, don't you worry your pretty little heads. Here's to a fake half marathon!
It has been a sweet forever since I've blogged but I kind of have a really good reason this time. For serious.
I'M RUNNING THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON.
NOVEMBER 4, 2012, I will line up with 40,000 other nutjobs and will voluntarily run 26.2 miles through FIVE boroughs and cross the finish line in Central Park.
I've been training since July but hit a snafu with the blogging aspect of my life. Knowing that I wanted to document my training experience, I started a separate blog for that purpose (mainly because I sometimes share things on THIS blog that I'd rather not be broadcast to everyone and their mother back home). When I created the second blog I did so under the same email address that I use for this one, so they were linked, as in if I didn't but some sort of privacy block up on one of them, EVERYONE was gonna see/read EVERYTHING.
So I blocked this blog... my baby. And I have MISSED IT. I've still been following along with everyone and faithfully reading YOUR blogs but since the other blog is solely dedicated to running and fundraising, I couldn't really chat about things there like how adorable Kate and Wills looked at the Olympics:
To send to Mama and Daddy in Texas. If that works out, I'm contemplating a "house divided" wreath for our apartment, featuring the Cowboys and Patriots.
Just as soon as it's chilly outside and I can dedicate an entire Saturday, with football on in the background, to make this, I'm getting started. And wine. I'd imagine I'm going to need a lot of white wine to fuel me through this because can you imagine getting all the way through to the very last ruffle and spilling a glass of Merlot across it? I would tell them to wrap me in the skirt and put me in my coffin because I'D BE DONE.
Word of Wisdom, Learned from Many Pinterest Projects: When having a craft attack, I'm trying to space out buying the supplies so I don't go for broke once I'm ready to actually start... because that's usually what happens. I decide on Friday night that Saturday is going to be Craft Day and end up leaving Michael's $50 poorer. So knowing that these will be used in the fall/winter, I'm starting to buy now. As for the gallery wall that I've decided needs to be put together this weekend and will be buying frames for on Saturday... well, we can't win them all.
So, that's my update. If y'all would like to stop in to my running blog, knock yourselves out! Any encouragement or support that you have to offer is soaked up, believe me. It's been quite the experience up to now. Going into the training, I knew that it would be intense and take up time, but now that I'm deep in the middle of it all, it has definitely had its overwhelming moments. If I'm going to stretch well, run 4-5 miles or put in 60 minutes of cross training, plus my strength training routine, I'm at the gym for at least an hour and a half EVERY. DAY. It is insane. I know it will be worth it on race day, but right now it's a big adjustment. I'm exhausted and the Olympics did me in. Staying up until midnight every night does not an early morning runner make.
In an effort to truly put 100% into this training, I'm back to focusing on getting good, clean food into my diet and not refueling after 9 mile runs with Taco Bell (adios, you deliciously processed bean burrito, you). And Points... I'm back to tracking PointsPlus, even though I'm not paying for WW right now. I've never been a big stretcher and have also realized that if I'm going to make my body endure miles and miles of constant motion, I've gotta reward it with a good cooldown afterwards, so I'm trying to get better at that. There may even be a little "Yoga for Runners" going down in our living room on the nights that Brian has softball. It's good-- I'm fancy and SO LIMBER. But not really. Not at all. It's been a loooong time since the days of jump splits on the football field. Like 10 years long time.
It feels good to be back, my friends!
The Running Blog
(Because I totally have more than enough time to keep up with two blogs plus train, work, eat, shower, sleep, and not forget my family/boyfriend friends. Jump on the crazy train!)
You know you've had a good first part of your weekend when Sunday consists of waking up, showering, perhaps eating a McDonald's Sausage Biscuit with a Diet Coke and curling up on the couch to watch Bravo TV all day long. Not that I did that today or anything...
Brian's cousin is getting married in July, and his fiancee and I are good friends and he's basically brothers with his cousin, so we're both in the wedding (yay!). Both in the wedding = co-bachelor/bachelorette parties this weekend! They landed at the airport at 9am Friday morning, and while the boys picked the cousin up and headed straight to Atlantic City, the girls picked up the bride-to-be and headed off to do our own thing!
We went to her final dress fitting (obviously I won't be posting pictures but the dress is gorgeous!) and then took the bride to lunch. After a few errands, we headed back to my apartment where we set up shop at the pool. It was the most perfect pool day, and since it was just the bridesmaids (the day before the big party), it was the kind of low-key day that was definitely needed.
The bridesmaids at the pool! And the bride-to-be (center in aviators).
me and bridey!
The next morning we had plans to head to the beach but were greeted with a 60 degree, cloudy, VERY windy day. We decided not to risk it and headed into Boston early to decorate the suite and just have everyone come and hang out in the room pre-shenanigans.
standard "pin the co*k on the jock"
what's a bachelorette party without snacks and plenty of drinks!?
bridey opening some lingerie
congratulations candice!
the bride and her future sister-in-law
the bridesmaids!
on the way to dinner!
so excited to be a bridesmaid and a part of her big day!
Not documented for the blog are all of the shenanigans that took place post-dinner. Lots of drinks and dancing, followed by a little pizza delivery to the hotel room at 2am. Also, when did dancing at a bar become like an exhibition of ladies for the men? There were about 12 of us together so we had our own little dance circle going on, but the guys were lined up around the entire perimeter of the floor, just staring at their... prey? When the guys got too close to one of the girls, one of us would grab the other and pull her into the group-- definitely the best way to dance (unless boyfriends are there, obviously).
Also, I didn't know a single song that they played that we danced to. It was still fun to dance, but I for sure felt like the awkward old lady on the dance floor when the big hit songs of the moment came on and everyone went nuts and knew every word... and I just kind of smiled and bobbed along.
#OLD
The boys are currently driving home from Atlantic City... eight hours. Considering I heard from Brian at 4:45 this morning saying he was heading to bed... I am NOT envying their car ride home today. I also have to get it together enough to show up for a BBQ for Brian's family's Father's Day... thing.
On that note, Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful, amazing, supportive Daddy that I could ever even imagine having. Through all of my ups and downs, my good decisions and bad, from living at home to moving across the country to Boston, he has been right there by my side, encouraging me through it all, knowing that as much as he wants to always protect me and keep me right by his side, that the best thing that he could do was to let me make my own decisions, grow up and become my own adult.
There isn't a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't be the person that I am today without the support of my Dad. He's the hardest working person that I know and he's been through so much these last few years with his leg injury. I admire him so much for working so tirelessly for our family, for always doing whatever he had to do for our family. He is my hero and I hope that he knows that every single day.
This was for sure one of those mornings where I turned my alarm off four times before getting out of bed.
4:50am: the time where my big ambitions last night to hit the gym by 5 were immediately squashed 5:45am: the time i typically wake up to get ready and make lunches and not be rushed 6am: the time that i wake up to do the aforementioned stuff but am tight on time 6:15am: the time when i rush to the shower, rock a twisty-bang hairdo because i did NOT have time to mess with my hair, and throw whatever i can find into our lunchboxes.
Today, of course, was the 6:15 option. I just could NOT get OUT of BED. You'd think I had some wild and crazy weekend but no... no, it was pretty low-key.
Friday night we were super sassy and made BLTs. Well, I made a BLT-- Brian went to "take a quick nap" and ended up conking out at 7 and sleeping until about 10. So I did what any girl would do-- I ate my BLT while catching up on Bethenny and Giuliana, obviously. So basically when he woke up at 10, I was heading to bed. I would also like to note that we love our casual Friday nights. After a week of working plus my crazy commute every day, the last thing that we want to do is go out and battle the bars. We like to instead opt for evenings on the couch in our PJs with pizza, Blue Moon/wine and Dateline. I haz no complaints!
My weekend routine is typically to be up and running (like literally pounding the pavement for miles) by 6:30, then I come home to shower, grab my lists and such, and head off for my Morning of Me time. It's lovely. My first stop is Weight Watchers, where I stay for the meeting, then head to Target (they share a parking lot-- score for me, eek! for my bank account) and proceed to inevitably spend $75-100 on things that I didn't know I needed until I saw them. After that, I swing by Trader Joe's to grocery shop, Panera to pick up breakfast, DD for our coffees, then it's home to lounge on the couch with the boy for a bit. Sometimes we run errands, sometimes Bri does his thing and I hang out and clean and catch up on my shows. Regardless of what we do during the day, together or apart, Saturday night is ALWAYS our date night... and I love that. Whether we get dressed up to go out or stay in and cook together, it's nice to have that one night to look forward to where you get to relax and reconnect.
... Unless I'm babysitting. If that's the case, then I throw pasta together for him while I'm running out the door, which was very much the case this week. On occasion I babysit for a sweet family with three redheaded little boys, ages 8, 6 and 4. A positive this week was they were already bathed and fed and in pajamas, so we spent the evening leading up to bed watching this little gem:
Does anyone else remember this movie? It was painful to watch-- Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum. Ah, yes. After this cinematic treasure, they were off to bed and I had several hours to relax with a book. Who says babysitting doesn't have its perks? Luckily I wasn't out TOO terribly late because I knew I needed to be nice and rest for...
... MY FIRST 10K!
Oh yes. It happened. I was up bright and early yesterday morning getting ready, stretching, making sure I had all of my race necessities together, and then we were off!
Brian snapped the obligatory pre-race picture, wished me luck, and headed back to his spot to watch for me. Honestly, going into this race, I was not in a great mental place. With having been sick the past three weeks with a chest cold, a bump in my training road for a good week, I was worried how much endurance I might have lost-- I've felt rundown and just so tired lately.
Once I started running, I was able to find a good pace, and was pushing enough to be running fast-ish, but not so fast that I was going to tire out. My game plan had been to take into account my having been sick and take a small walk break at mile 2, if I needed to, with water, then keep coming. Well, here came mile 2-- no water. I pushed through to 3 and just felt very out of it-- it was like my legs were completely detached from what my mind was telling them to do. At 3 1/2 miles, I finally found water and slowed down to take a quick breather. After I'd started running again I immediately felt tired and started to get a little worried if I was mentally enough in the race to actually finish, which is crazy now that I look back. To distract myself, I started dedicating every song that came on my iPod to my family and friends-- "Alright, I'm running 'Where You Lead' for Mama. 'Glory Days' goes out to Daddy!"
My saving grace came at mile 4-- I'd told Brian before the race that I thought this might be the kind of thing where I could REALLY use some support somewhere between the start and finish but he was worried if he'd be able to get through the streets or not. Lo and behold, his dad found a way and they were waiting at the mile 4 marker. A big inside joke with me and Brian is the Wilson Phillips song "Hold On," which he knows every. single. word to.
Wouldn't you know it that as soon as I saw him standing at the mile 4 sign this song came up in my shuffle? I cannot lie-- the tears started. He was taking pictures and all I could think was "I'm crying! I'm running and I'm crying! I'm crying because I have to keep running!" so I put on my brave face and pushed through. As I went down a hill and started to come up... there he was again. I'm not kidding, it got me through the race to see him there cheering for me. As I passed him I yelled "It's 'Hold On'... I'm crying!" and kept running.
Typical.
After a steady mile incline on a road and the biggest hill of my life, I finished in 1:06:31. I was hoping for better, but I guess that gives me something to beat next time! I'm happy to say that I finished my first 10k though. As miserable as I was immediately after, by last night I was already looking at more upcoming races. Without a cold and missed training, I'm excited to see what my next time will be! Love that running feeling!
Once I got home and showered, I put on my favorite PJ pants and retired to the couch for the rest of the day. We watched Mad Men all afternoon and dinner was ready in the CrockPot. All in all, a lovely Sunday afternoon.
And just a tad bit more of REALLY exciting news-- I'm going home to Texas next weekend!! I'm SO EXCITED. I'm needing to rest and recharge and have meals cooked by Mama. And a haircut.
It's the little things.
To wrap up this (way longer than intended) blog post, do yourself a favor and swing by
It is the most beautiful, perfect day outside here in Boston today! Sadly, I only experienced a brief half hour of this as I made it a point to get out and walk around at lunchtime. The wind is also blowing so extremely hard that a watched a tiny little thing who was definitely close to my age hold on to a light pole as she waited to cross the street.
Moral of the story? Some days it pays to have a li'l junk in the trunk, as this bod was blowin' NOWHERE.
I think I'm having spring fever because I have been extremely productive today and contemplated approximately 72 things I'd rather be doing than sitting at my desk. They include
*sitting on a patio while partaking in a Blue Moon (3pm is a totally acceptable start time for Happy Hour) and... nachos. Or queso. Or something else my PMS-ridden self is craving
*enjoying a cup of PinkBerry (regular tart with berries and coconut!) outside
*sitting on a porch with a good book... and a pillow... and a glass of iced tea
*sitting at the beach with a good book... and a blanket... it's still chilly here
*going for a long, luxurious run all around downtown (totally killing two birds with one stone: the wind = resistance training, right?)
This week has felt exceptionally long, so our plans for the evening consist of BLTs and soup + wine + Mad Men. Although I'm fairly confident we're two of the last people in the world to jump on the MM bandwagon... I'm now riding comfortably and never want to get off! Obsessed, to put it lightly. Obsessed to the point that I've planned Sunday's dinner to cook in the Crockpot all day so we can have an uninterrupted Season 1 marathon-- whoop! I'm babysitting for little ones tomorrow night and have my first 10k race on Sunday morning.
MY FIRST 10K, PEOPLE.
My mind? Is a little freaked out. I had an awful chest cold for a solid two weeks which definitely derailed my training, though I've never stopped running altogether... I'm just worried my endurance has run down a bit. And the top of my right foot is feeling extremely tight and catch-y (not catch-y flashy, catch-y "Oh! That's not good...") so I'm just trying to stretch and stretch and do lots of warming up before exercise. As much as I'm craving a good run outside tonight in this gorgeous weather, I think I'm limiting myself to the elliptical for my workout, and then attempting an easy run tomorrow morning. 6.2 miles-- holy moly. On that note, I'm outta here.
(pardon the f-bomb, but this little card is what got me through today!)
This past Saturday we attended the wedding of Brian's mom's best friend's daughter... whom I've met twice. Ever. We weren't expecting to have a fabulous time (someone was mad about missing the Bruins game) but it ended up being a really fun night. There might have been a Table 1 Chant, commentary on the happenings on the dance floor (we were seated on the second floor), poof comparisons (my real vs a bump-it) and a lot of dancing... eventually barefoot... in a little spilled wine. I am nothing if not classy! Ending the night with cold pizza, it was a fun time all around.
Off to the wedding! The Bruins were on, moving left to right across the radio, NOT on the TV. Oh well...
Photo shoot in the car! Always have to send a pic to The Mom when I'm all dressed up.
Delish sliders. Tinier than my palm. I heart them.
Boyfran. I don't know why this is blurry.
Bridgie, one of Brian's older sisters.
A girl's gotta have her options.
Jana!
All in all, we had a fabulous night. I can't lie-- I definitely get wedding fever at times, especially when we're guests to one and I leave at the end of the night thinking "That was kind of perfect-- mental note for this and that and that and this." It was the perfect wedding for such a laidback and fun couple... whom I do not have a picture of. Whoops! I told you, I've met the bride twice-- I'd have awk flouncing up and asking for a pic, particularly after beverages were consumed (note: see "options" photo above). Makes me excited to plan the big day someday myself! Weddings are the best!
Oh, and I thought I would be just... down for the count on Sunday. Somewhere between the late night slice of cold pizza and two glasses of water at 2am, my body said "You're a champ!" and while I lazed around and did nothing on Sunday... I felt fab. Win!
I'm wife to BGK, new mama to CFK, and dog-mom to Molly, working to hold on to my Southern roots while living in Boston. I love a good pair of yoga pants but never pass up a chance to get all prettied up in heels and curl my hair while sipping a glass of wine. I love laughing 'til it hurts. I am terrified of whales, deep water, and the dark. TV commercials often make me cry. I don’t do well with decision-making. I have a special place in my heart for all things Southern. I love life and am learning to live it without regret while slowing down to smell the roses and soak up every second with my people. I am a hopeless romantic and believe in fate. I have a thing for Bono and Bruce.
