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December 24, 2014

Christmas Eve 2014

Merry Christmas Eve!

I’m really looking forward to the next two days with my sisters! Due to work and Nick being back home for the Holidays, I really haven’t had a chance to spend much time with them. I’m off the rest of this week through Monday and although I have a trip planned over the weekend, I’ll be perched at home with my wonderful sisters! Let’s just jump right in and do a quick re-cap to get y’all back up to speed on my life.

MARATHON TRAINING
It’s going fairly well, but has a lot of room for improvement. I was sick for a week & a half, so I finally got back to running this past weekend. I only managed 6 miles on Saturday and they brutally painful. My hips & joints were pretty sore after that. I rested on Sunday, but then did another 4 miles yesterday with Nick. If you’ve been here long enough then you know that Nick’s family is just naturally athletic. Here I am, training for a marathon and here Nick is, out of shape & running a mile or two every couple of days and he still finishes his 4 miles before me. I was able to keep up with his pace for the first 2.5 or so, but after that… I let him be and took it a little slower. My muscles were pretty tight, so we stopped to stretch mid-way in our run. I’ve been learning a lot about proper nutrition for my marathon training and I have some major improvements to make! I’ll be writing out a full blown regimen for myself so that I stay on track these last 2 months before the marathon. I want to be as prepared as possible and right now… what I’m doing… it’s not going to cut it for the remainder of my training. Once I get a format finalized of keeping track of all the things I need to be doing, I’ll share that with y’all! I’m off to run 6 miles today and 4 tomorrow with a whopping 14 mile long run on Saturday, but considering the most I’ve managed to do up to this point is 8…. I don’t see 14 happening right now, but I’m going to do as much as I can!

SATURDAY

On Saturday, I went to a beautiful ballet with my family hosted by Ballet Magnificat. We are so blessed to have a ballet company right here in Jackson, MS that is globally well known for it’s dance & performance. It was a free event, but they were accepting donations. It was a long 2.5 hour performance with a short 15 minute intermission, but it was so fun and really beautiful! I didn’t get many good pics of the performance, we were high up and the lighting wasn’t great. After the performance, we went and ate Mexican. These days, I’m always disappointed in myself when I have Mexican because I leave feeling overly stuffed and gross. I either need to cut back on the chips & salsa, order something that won’t make me feel so gross, or stop eating Mexican out all together! Probably the latter.

Saturday night, Nick and I had were able to attend an engagement party for a high school friend of mine. Unfortunately, I didn’t snap a picture together, but I did get to see my very best friend who has been living in Colorado the past few years. I’m so incredibly blessed by this friendship that words could never express how I feel about Patty! We hung out during the party and then headed back to her husband’s parents after the party to chat even more. I was great friends with Matt, her husband, in high school and then when he went off to West Point for school, we became the best of friends! I have a very honest soul…. and I simply tell it like it is. There have been so many times in my life where that has distanced me and a friend, I have regretted that honesty component of my personality because of the amazing friendships I’ve had in the past that no longer exist. Oh how I wish I could go back and change what I said or held my tongue. What’s beautiful though is when you find a friend who appreciates your honesty and loves you for that and returns the honesty to you. Not in hateful ways, I can assure you… the things I’ve said to friends in the past were never to be hateful, they truly were meant out of love, but they weren’t necessarily received that way. Patty has been brutally honest with me in the past and that is one of the reasons I love her so dearly because I need that in my life, I WANT that in my life. And I’m so thankful that she allows me to be the same way with her, although I’m fairly certain I need the brutal honest opinion a lot more than she does haha – she is simply one of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing! I will say that despite the few friends I’ve lost in past years, I’ve gained just as many who truly appreciate this aspect of my personality and although Patty was the first friend that I felt truly understand this about me, she certainly wasn’t my last.

Ok, enough sappy about my BFF!

SUNDAY

Sunday was a full day of travel from Jackson, MS to Brownsville, TN. I went and visited another one of those truly honest and beautiful friends of mine that I can be 100% myself with! When I arrived, we spent the better part of the morning just catching up. I loved hearing about her new job & adventures in Virginia and I gave her a quick run down of things here with work & Nick & my marathon training. Her parents arrived back from the store and we made a few snacks to enjoy throughout the day while we chatted.

Lacy got a little jealous that I took a picture of the food before I asked to get a picture with her haha which is understandable! So we attempted our first picture together, but forgot that we both have glasses now. We attacked each other with our glasses a few times before snapping this beauty.

Our day was pretty relaxed, we went to Walmart for a few things and were going to attempt a craft project, but that didn’t end up working out because we didn’t have the right screws for something and then Lacy’s mom accidentally stuck the screw driver in her finger. We gave up on that project for the moment. We went through some of her mom’s cardigans and clothes – I left with 2 bags full of stuff. I also landed myself 3 pairs of jeans. I think I’m set for the rest of winter! Another fun thing we did – my hair! Lacy bought 2 new styling products the day before and she wanted to test out the curling on my hair. She did a great job and my hair was all bouncy the rest of the day. The look even lasted me through Monday which was perfect because I woke up too late to wash or do anything with my hair for work.

Our day ended on a few high notes – dinner which included corn on the cob, creamed cornbread, sauteed veggies, mashed potatoes, and black eyed peas. We also began planning out our training for the start of 2015 with our beautiful Erin Condren Planners!

It was the most perfect day with the most perfect friend! The rest of the week, I’ve been finishing up Christmas shopping and spending time with Nick. Now I’m off to spend the day with my sisters. Vanessa is wanting to try Vegan for the month of January so I’m about to introduce her to Vegucated! If you’ve ever thought about going vegetarian or vegan, I highly recommend watching this fun documentary. Hope y’all have a very Merry Christmas!

Are you ready for Christmas? Is your shopping done? Or will you be out today shopping for last minute presents?
What are your Christmas Eve traditions?

December 10, 2014

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

Good Morning!

I’m off to Java Jog this morning with Mary Lindsey. Excited about a good run, good friendship, and free coffee! All of my favorite things in one! Let’s jump back to yesterday though. After work, I headed home for a quick Arm workout from Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers. I was short on time, so I didn’t complete the whole workout and on some of the reps, I chose to do 10 instead of 15. It was a good guide for an arm workout and I definitely know it would have been a struggle completing the whole thing. I kept switching weights because some of the reps seemed more difficult than others. Overall, I’m happy with the arm workout I got yesterday.

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I rushed home to freshen up and then head to Whole Foods to pick up some treats for the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. I had never seen it before, but the girls at work raved about it! I was looking forward to seeing what all the hype was about and I must admit that I got sucked in. For our girls night, I picked up wine & cookies. Apparently Whole Foods has this pretty decent wine for a whopping $3! I was eager to try it. Cheap & Wine = a happy Heather. Turns out, it was pretty dang good for a $3 bottle of wine. I now have my new go-to! I planned on getting macaroons, but come to find out, one small cookie was worth $2. It was a struggle for me to purchase 4 macaroons for $8 when I could get a box of 24 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for $8.99. I went with the 24 cookies.

Katie brought guacamole and then Rachel made the most delicious potato soup & biscuits! It was a perfect dinner for the chilly night we were having in Mississippi. She made sure not to put any bacon in it for me. I seriously adore my friends when they accommodate my dietary choices because I know they don’t have to and I’d survive if they didn’t, but they usually go out of their way to do so and I wish I could express how thankful I am for doing that.

So what were your thoughts on the Victoria Secret fashion show? In my opinion, Taylor Swift did an awesome job! All of the performances were amazing and the girls were absolutely stunning. Some of them I wanted to spoon feed this cheesy potato soup too, but for the most part – stunning! I think Ariana did a good job too, I enjoyed her mash up, but I definitely think Taylor stole the show.

I’ve got to say, I’m a true believer in the VS fashion show now. The costumes were beautiful and it wasn’t skanky like I expected it to be. It was tasteful and elegant and the girls were down to earth and fun. I’m looking forward to watching it again next year!

Have a wonderful day friends! Did you watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show last night?

December 9, 2014

Thanksgiving Re-cap (Part 2)

Hey there!

Hope your Monday ended on a high note. Mine ended with a 4 mile run at the gym. Running on the treadmill isn’t my favorite, but when it gets to be too dark outside I don’t feel comfortable running by myself for too long. Once I got home from work I was starving so I knew I wouldn’t survive a 4 mile run right away. I opted to make a quick dinner instead and run at the gym later. Dinner was random and a little desperate. Vegetarian sausage sandwiches & Flaming Hot Cheetos. Not my brightest moment – but the bread was Ezekial bread, so at least that was healthy and the sausage came with plenty of protein. The cheetos were just a filler and they were quite tasty. While I ate dinner, I also did some studying for my Series 65. I really need to get this test out of the way because I have something I really want to do after the fact. I haven’t mentioned it on the blog yet, but once I’m done with this test I’ll share all about it!

I had every intention of waking up bright & early this morning, but I got sucked into some last minute games of Candy Crush. I was still in bed my 10, but I could have been in bed by 9:30 and awake by 5:30 instead of 6:00. I’m trying to improve my sleep habits and the amount of sleep I get. Ideally I’d get 8 hours of rest each night. I’ve started making my bed in the mornings this week so I’m not tempted to lay in bed when I get home and watch tv, plus it’ll tell my mind that it’s time to wake up as I make it and also tell my mind it’s time to go to sleep when I start pulling the sheets down. Hopefully these mind tricks will work!

Let’s finish up recapping my Thanksgiving since I’m already so far behind – why wait another day?!

So after we did Disney, we headed home early to spend more time with Nick’s family. We arrived to town and headed straight out to dinner at Copper Monkey.

I neglected to get a picture of the food, but I had a grilled cheese & tomato basil soup. It was a really delicious combination and it his the spot with how cold it was outside! After dinner, we had plans to go to the driving range and hit some balls. Now, I’m fairly awful at this. I’m pretty sure if Meg was there to see it, she’d be ashamed to call me a friend! Nick was our champion of the night – he hit almost every single ball over the netting.

Am I even standing correctly? I have no clue!! Nick tried to give me some lessons…

It was a night filled with laughs! You could definitely tell that the siblings all enjoyed their time together over the holidays. It’s a very rare occurrence for them to be together at the same time! We missed Kathryn all evening, but she wasn’t feeling well and was ready to get home after dinner to put the baby to sleep and to get some rest herself. When we got back to the house, we played a little more jenga, of course! On Thursday, we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal and unfortunately, I didn’t document much of that. Nick’s dad & sisters left town after lunch and the rest of our visit was extremely relaxing. There was some sweet baby holding (omg… i die over the picture below!! Cade seems so focused on Nick!), there was good food, delicious pumpkin bread thanks to Kathryn’s amazing mom (seriously, she’s the best!), and we found ourselves playing Monopoly on our last night in town. That one was intense… I’m pretty sure Kathryn sold me the Boardwalk for $1 just to get under Trey’s skin. Happy to say that their marriage survived, but it was tense for a while haha!

On our way home, we met some new Disney friends, or at least people we would assume would be our friends based on their go cart with Sorcerer Mickey & their license plate said MicMin. BFFL.

We had one more pit stop to make before heading to Jackson and that was to Hattiesburg for a wedding of 2 sweet friends! There was next to nothing for an actual vegetarian to eat, but since I occasionally eat fish, I went for the Shrimp & Grits + Crawfish Mashed Potatoes + Tomatoes with balsamic dressing. Everything was heavenly!! Shrimp & Grits just make the perfect combination. The wedding was very small, but every detail was absolutely beautiful! We had a great night dancing & eating!