Lots of exciting news!

Before discussing my exciting news, let me get the running-related updates out of the way.  After blogging last weekend, I decided that I should get my 10 mile run finished as early in the week as possible.  Sunday night I packed everything I would need to run right after work the next day.  Monday evening I drove to a nearby bike/running path and set off.  I ran 10 miles in 1:44 (avg. 10:22 pace).  Unfortunately, that night I started to feel kind of bad.  I then spent the rest of the week sick due to allergies.  My nose was running, my head had sinus pressure, and I was coughing.  I am mostly recovered now, but I do still have a cough at night.  I did manage to get in two three mile runs on Friday and Saturday.  Friday my Garmin was dead, so I am not sure how long it took, but Saturday's run was in 30:19.  I also did a very easy arm and ab work-out this week.  My run on Friday was a bit interesting.  I kicked a squirrel.  Don't worry, he seemed to be okay.  The little bugger darted in front of me and before I could jump out of the way my foot collided with him.  I know what you are probably imagining, but no, he did not go flying.  He simply darted up a tree.  I am pretty sure he was alright.  On Saturday I had a bumble bee run into my right leg, bounce into my left, then bounce back into my right before flying away.  I think he was alright too.  I hope.  Oh, in a completely different topic, can you believe I have had tinnitus for a year now?  Luckily it is not as bad as it was at the beginning, but unfortunately it is in both ears now.

In wedding-related exciting news, last Tuesday we went to check out a wedding venue which was holding an open house.  Chris and I went along with his mother, his sister Jessica, and my good friend Caitlin.  We enjoyed delicious food and meeting various vendors.  Ultimately, we decided that it is where we want to get married, and we reserved our date!  That's right, we officially have a wedding date!  Sunday, November 4, 2012!  The venue is perfect!  It is a bed and breakfast in a historic local inn.  It has a delightful intimate feel that I wanted as well as a courtyard which is wonderful since I love the outdoor feel.  We will hold both our ceremony and reception there, and will have our ceremony standing in a gazebo (a childhood dream of mine).  I absolutely cannot wait!  I personally did not want the traditional giant banquet room reception and while we are both religious, we do not belong to a local church. This venue just fits perfectly!  I took a lot of pictures, but I am not sure I want to share them just yet.  It would take away from the surprise feel of it all. 

Now that we have a date, I feel that I can finally officially ask my bridesmaids to be my bridesmaids.  I have come up with an incredibly nerdy way of asking them, which I cannot wait to share (obviously after I ask them... since some of them read this blog).  My idea is inexpensive, but absolutely dorky like me.  I am sure it will make them laugh.  I also know that my lovely niece, Joy, will be my flower girl, my godson, Nick Danger, will be my ring bearer, and his two newly adopted brothers Jay and Kobe will be ushers.  I am sooooo excited that two of my best friends now have a house full of boys! 

The boys! Photo taken by James at Portrait Innovations

Yesterday Chris and I celebrate three and a half years of dating!  We made a delicious dinner at home and had wine from the San Sebastian winery.  We also went to see the movie Hall Pass which was funny.  Additionally, we are planning for a big trip, which is the last of my exciting news.  We are going to ITALY!  Our dear friend Nick and Federica were married nearly two years ago, but they never had an official ceremony.  They have decided to have the ceremony in June in Italy, where Federica is from and where her family live.  Chris completely surprised me by telling me he would buy us tickets to go to the wedding.  I am so completely excited!  We went to a local camera and hobby store today to look for a new camera bag, but they were closed.  Then we went and had tea at Dandelion Communitea Cafe.  This was our first time going there, and we enjoyed it.

 

 

Life is just absolutely perfect right now!  Back to working on my bridesmaids questions.  I hope you all have a splendid week!  I shall leave you with some pictures of my little Zack sleeping next to me on the couch.

 

 

Weekly post

I did not blog this week because I was super busy with work.  I love it when my research finally starts cooperating again!  I found out a new trick that just turned my usual 4 hour experiment into a 10 minute experiment!  SWEET!  We also celebrate our friend Nick's birthday, which was a lot of fun.

That being said, I did manage three runs this week, but the farthest was only 3.58 miles.  I was hoping to do 6 miles, but it just did not happen.  When I set out for that run it was far too hot outside.  By three miles I felt a bit light headed from the heat.  Better not to push it in the heat.  But it's okay.  I am aiming for a ten mile run this week no matter what.  I have 19 days until Crooms 16 mile run.  Will it be my best run in terms of time?  Absolutely not.  But that was not the goal of this run.  The goal was to have fun, and I will!  I have been wanting to get into trail running and this will be it.  I wish I had run on more trails before hand, but oh well.  I'll survive.  I just booked my hotel room for the night before the race (thank goodness I finally found a hotel that was not fully booked!)  This will be my first race that I am going to completely by myself.  My poor Chris is not only going crazy trying to get the last project of his college career finished, but he is also sick this weekend which means he is not being as productive as he would like.  He will have to spend every weekend trying to finish this project.  But that's okay.  I fully understand.

As far as my runs this week, on Monday I ran 3.58 miles in 32:40, Friday 3 miles in 29:06, and Saturday 3 miles in 28:53.  My other goal of an arm and ab work-out was accomplished but by a bare minimum.  I did some crunches and push-ups.  Not much but better than nothing.  I refuse to get stressed out over not working out as hard or as much as I want.  When life is busy, you just have to roll with it.

I would have run this morning, except I had wayyy too much fun last night!  I went to a friend's bachelorette party complete with a drag queen show as well as lots of drinking and dancing!  I had a wonderful time (minus the male genital paraphernalia... not really my taste, but I went along with it for fun).  I slept in for a while this morning, then I spent the day grocery shopping and cleaning.  It feels good to relax now that all the cleaning is done (minus putting away the laundry.... I hate putting away laundry!)

This coming week will be busy yet again but will also be exciting!  On Tuesday we are going to check-out our potential wedding venue.  Well we already went to see it once, but on Tuesday they will have the entire place set up as though a wedding is taking place.  All of the vendors will be there for you sample their food, etc.  I cannot wait!  Chris's mom is coming into town to go with us, and I think that his sister is going too.

I hope that you all had a wonderful week last week and will have an even better week this week!

Hello all!

Today marks one month since my first marathon.  I am scheduled to run the 16 mile trail Crooms Fool's run on April 9th (26 days!), and I have not run farther than 3 miles since the marathon.  I also have not been running on trails.  I am a bit nervous about this, but school has kept me busy, and I am trying not to stress too much.  I have been maintaining at least 3 runs a week at least.  I intend to run at least a 6 mile run this week, a 10 mile the following, and hopefully at least a 13 the next week.  I wish I knew someone else who was running this race well.  I still need to make my travel plans.

Life has been fun and busy, and I am hoping that I will keep up with blogging more regularly now.  Here is a recap of the past two weeks:  Last Saturday I did a 3 mile run before meeting up with Chris, my Aunt, and my Uncle for breakfast.  Then Chris had to go back to his parent's house to work on homework, but I got to spend the day with my aunt and uncle.  We went to Venice beach and collected shells.  It was so nice.  I had not been to the beach in ages.  Later we hung out on this 102ft yacht that my aunt works on.  We met up with Chris and his family along with the captain of the yacht and his two super adorable little girls for dinner.  There we celebrated Uncle Bill's 50th Birthday!  (Which was on the 11th, the same day that Ken, of Barbie and Ken, turned 50!)  Those girls were my instant best friends.  After dinner, my aunt and I went to the marina bar to have a drink and do some dancing.  That is where the weekend got amusing.  We were offered several free drinks.  In fact, I even had a guy buy me a drink, ask me how committed I am to Chris, and offer to buy me a ring full of blue diamonds and to take me to Australia.  When I politely explained that I already found my knight-in-shining-armor, he told me that he would give me jewelry and trips and that if I did not have dinner with him before I got married that he would be absolutely crushed.  That is when he gave me his business card.  We had a good laugh about it after he left.  Now the night went from creepy amusing to fun after my aunt and I met this 76 year old man who offered to buy us drinks (we were drinking water, but for the record he was not hitting on us.... this guy was so sweet!).  He and my Aunt Nora had a great time on the dance floor while I was dancing with a Canadian gentleman.  He told me that he was married for 50 years and lost his wife 6 years ago.  He gave me the following marriage advice:    (1) Trust 100% or get out now, (2) Never go to bed angry, and (3) Take trips every year.  I think the man is brilliant.  All-in-all, the weekend was absolutely wonderful!  I had the best time with my family and Chris's family.  I really am so blessed!

Dolphins playing

Celebrating Uncle Bill's 50th Birthday!!! 

The singer came and sang to me 5 times.

That's the creepy guy with my awesome Aunt Nora

Aunt Nora and the super sweet guy who gave me marriage advice

The room I slept in on the boat

My bathroom on the boat

My first pineapple on my 6 year old plant!

This past week I did two good arm work-outs with 5 lb weights and ab work-outs.  I did not feel like running at the beginning of the week, so my runs happened Thursday (3 miles with Chris), Friday (3 miles on the dreadmill), and Saturday (3 miles with Chris).  This weekend we went to see the movie The Adjustment Bureau, which I really enjoyed!

Now I am off to do some relaxing before heading to bed.  I hate losing an hour of sleep, but I am happy that I will be able to run on my own (in the daylight) after work!  I hope that you all have a wonderful week.  Oh, and please keep Chris's family in your prayers.  His grandmother on his dad's side passed away.

AMAZING!

TGIF!!!

Quick work-outs

Both yesterday and today, Caitlin and I ran 3 miles (yesterday in 31:35 and today in 30:22).  Today I also did an awesome arm work-out with 5 lb weights and some ab work.

And that is about all I have tonight.  Time to enjoy some mango keylime pie with my sweetie.

Have a wonderful night all!  I will leave you with an adorable picture I found on Pinterest (seriously love this site!  Let me know if you want an invite).

Baby fox... Don't you want one now? [pin source]

ABCs list about me

I thought I would take the time to fill out another post that has been going around the blogosphere.

A. Age: 29 (last year until what I am determined will be an awesome new decade)

B. Bed size: Queen. But I cannot wait for a king.  My handicapped kitty, Kirby, loves to sleep with us, and he prefers to take up as much room as possible. 

C. Chore you dislike:  Putting away laundry!  I rock at washing it... but then it stays in the basket forever.

D. Dogs: I really, really, really want another dog.  That being said, not until we have a yard for a dog.

E. Essential start to your day: Breakfast and caffeine.

F. Favorite color: Purple!

G. Gold or silver: I think with my hair and skin color that yellow gold looks best on me, but I love white gold too (and rose gold while I'm at it).

H. Height: 5’5”

I. Instruments you play(ed): None.  I'd love to learn the piano.  And I intend to take lessons one day.

J. Job title: Graduate research assistant

K. Kids: I love my niece!  Especially when I can give her back to her mom when she's fussy.  I look forward to having my own kids one day.

L. Live: Good ole sunny Orlando.

M. Mom’s name: Cheryl.

N. Nicknames: Jes

O. Overnight hospital stays:  Only as a baby.  I was born 2 months premature.

P. Pet peeves:  Close-minded people.  And Chris putting the toilet paper roll on backwards.

Q. Quote from a movie:  I'm terrible at remembering quotes.

R. Righty or lefty: Righty.

S. Siblings: step sister named Charlotte (29), full sister Renee (almost 27), half sister Clara (18), half brother Robert (16)

T. Time you wake up: Monday through Friday–6:30 (usually, but not always). Weekends - whenever I want.

U. Underwear: I wear it.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: Peas.  Gross.

W. What makes you run late: Chris.

X. X-rays you’ve had: My hand when I was younger (some bone age scan thing I had done), teeth, foot (was not broken)

Y. Yummy food you make: Smoothies.  Random meals.  I do not have a specialty... yet.

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Penguins and otters.