noBOLOGNA

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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?

New Design + Thanksgiving (part 1)

Happy Monday!!

Maybe you notice the updated blog design – I got tired of messing with my own design and my navigation bar continued to not work, so I buckled down and bought a fairly inexpensive design that was super easy to put together!  Etsy is great for finding pre-made blog templates for those of you looking!  I’m excited to be back up and running.  I was having a lot of issues around Thanksgiving with the blog, so I ended up not posting or re-capping at all, but Thanksgiving was a wonderful time had by all.

First, my weekend was pretty basic.  Didn’t have a lot of plans, did a lot of cleaning and rearranging, got the spare room ready for my sisters to come to town next weekend, did an 8 mile run (it was supposed to be 10), had coffee with a friend, and went to Whole Foods!  My marathon training is going…. okay.  I’m just a couple miles behind on my long runs, but I’m feeling stronger and more confident.  I really need to focus on strength training – it’s be lacking.  I also need to focus on being more active in the evenings.  I do my runs like I should, but I also spend a lot of time watching TV or messing with the computer.  Running, but then leading a sedentary life style is not going to cut it!

Breakfast this morning was delicious toast with peanut butter, banana, honey, and cinnamon along with a comforting cup of french vanilla coffee.

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Now for my very late Thanksgiving Re-cap (Part 1)

Nick and I arrived to Gainesville later in the day on Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  When we got there, his siblings weren’t at the house, but we spent some time with Kathryn & Nick’s dad until they arrived.  Nick and his siblings were so excited to spend some quality time together so naturally we had a late night planned.  A good many strenuous games of Jenga ensued!

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We finally headed off to bed only so we could wake up really early for our day at Disney!  We left the house around 6am and got there in time for opening at Epcot.  We definitely picked the wrong line to stand in because the people in front of us had NO CLUE what finger they used for their magic band.I kid you not…. the guy asked him, “What finger did you use the first time you scanned your magic band?”  The guy said, “This one” and held it up.  The cast member replied, “Ok, use that finger.” and then the not so smart person in front of my proceeded to use a DIFFERENT finger.  I didn’t get it, but finally Nick and I made it in line for Soarin’.  Soarin’ is one of our favorite rides!  After Soarin’, we decided to have breakfast in The Land.

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I ordered the eggs, hashbrowns, french toast, and biscuit platter.  It came with sausage & bacon, but I passed that along to Nick.  The hashbrowns were absolutely delicious!  So much flavor to them.  The rest of it was pretty basic, but still very good & satisfying.

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Nick ordered a breakfast Panini that came with eggs, ham, and some other stuff.  He thought it was really good.  He made a comment about how there are good & bad things to me not eating meat… The good is that he gets the meat that I don’t want (i.e. the bacon & sausage), the bad is that when he tries something so delicious, he wants me to experience it as well, but I won’t eat it.  That’s what he said about the Panini.  He really wanted me to try it, but I couldn’t.  He also likes how me not eating meat helps incorporate more vegetarian dishes into his life though.  There are definitely some give & takes when you’re with a non-meat eater, but then again… that’s with any relationship!

After breakfast, we went and did Figment & Captain EO.  We had never done Captain EO before, but It turned out really good.  Not gonna lie, it was kind of nice seeing Michael Jackson performing.  Around this time, we were ready to walk around the world.  I was able to purchase my dad’s Christmas gift while there and I also grabbed some German chocolate for us all to share when we got back to Gainesville.  It was a little chilly, so we grabbed some warm Apple Cider while we looked around.

Our next stop was Animal Kingdom, but unfortunately it was SO CROWDED!  Ridiculously crowded in my opinion…  we didn’t ride a single ride while we were at Animal Kingdom.  We did manage to get a vegan donut, my favorite!

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After that, we decided to head home a little early so we could spend some more time with Nick’s siblings before they headed out of town the next day.  We enjoyed our day at Disney, but I’m so thankful we chose to head back because we had such a wonderful evening together.  On the way back to Gainesville, we saw the coolest sunset.

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I’ll recap part 2 later, for now I need to get ready for work.  If you’re interested in reading about any other of my Disney adventures, then check those out here!

Have a great week and I’ll talk to y’all soon!

First Sub 30 5K!

Hey there!  How did y’all’s weekend turn out?  Mine went well with the exception of Mississippi State’s first loss of the season!  It was unfortunate, but both teams played fairly well.  I’d say that touchdown was questionable, but what’s done is done.

On Friday night, Nick arrived in town with my little sister.  My mom made Mexican and we all just hung out eating & chatting.  I was pretty tired already and I had a 5K planned for Saturday morning, so Nick headed home about 9:30 and I went on to bed.  My alarm went off bright & early on Saturday to get ready for my race.  I went and picked Nick up and we stopped by Chick-fil-A so he could get some breakfast and then we waited for the race to start.  My goal was to do my first sub 30 5K and much to my surprise, I DID IT!

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The course was hilly.  My toes and fingers were numb for the first mile and a half.  It was a rough morning to run – so cold!  Luckily the wind wasn’t a huge issue.  I came up on the finish line and saw 29:30, so I booked it in to finish right under 30 minutes.  The second I slowed down, I dry heaved.  It was a painful race and it made me realize that I certainly don’t run in the cold enough.  I think my breathing had a hard time getting comfortable and by the time I finished, my head & chest hurt that it caused the dry heave.  After the race, Nick and I ate at Corner Bakery.  It was delicious!  I got the Farmer’s scrambler with potatoes and toast.  I ate the entire plate, plus some of Nick’s oatmeal.

When we finished up breakfast, I headed home to shower and change and then we met up with Nick’s dad to help him put in some fence posts.  I had the grueling job of running to Chick-fil-A for everyone.  They worked and I ate all the fries.  True Story.

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We finally headed to the Tailgate party to watch the game.  Like I said, it was less than stellar for us Mississippi State fans so moving on….

After the game, we headed out to Primos to meet Nick’s mom and her boyfriend for dinner.  (I know, we eat a lot.)  I got the 4 veggie plate with mashed potatoes, dressing, pasta salad, & mac & cheese with a side of cornbread.  It was absolutely delicious!  Afterwards, I dropped Nick back off at his dad’s and we watched 2 episodes of Friends.  His dad is borrowing my series collection right now since he was recovering from his open-heart surgery.  He’s loving it as much as I do!

On Sunday, I spent the better part of the morning lounging around and eating cinnamon rolls with my peppermint creamer coffee.  I finally got dressed and headed out to get Nick.  We went to his Grandma’s house for lunch with his mom and her boyfriend.  His grandma just got out of the hospital for fluid buildup in her lungs and they’re running tests for some other things going on.  Hopefully they’ll figure out what it is and get her on a good treatment plan.  She’s 82 and as talkative as can be!  She still lives alone and makes her own trips to the grocery store.  We helped her bring in 4 large cases of water that we later learned she had put in her trunk all by herself.  She’s sweet and we certainly don’t get to visit with her enough.  Nick made a comment that he wishes he had stopped by to visit more often when he was going to school near where she lives.  It made me think that we all miss opportunities like that to spend time with the ones we love.  It was just a good reminder to cherish the opportunities that are presented to us to spend time with family & friends, even when it’s not so convenient.  The time we spent over there yesterday was wonderful and it was good to see her up and about.

Sadly, it was time for Nick and my sister to head home, so I finished off the weekend with some Criminal Minds & cleaning my ridiculous room.  I also did some Laundry.  Well, that’s it!   I had a nice weekend at home.

  • What did you do this weekend?
  • Any races in your future?  If so, what’s your goal?

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