A few of my favorite things...

aka, What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving...

...my parents! 

...the nice cool weather we're getting.  I'm not a fan of cold weather, but the temperature change is nice.  Especially for running!

...pretty, sparkly nail polish

...that our Holiday Freak Streak challenge starts tomorrow!  You should join up!

...my awesome friends!

...this picture of Lily!

makes me laugh every time! Not sure why she's making this face but it amuses me.

...houses decorated for Christmas!

...and of course, this guy:

Holiday Freak Streak!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Mine was productive and time well spent with family.  I was so not ready to go back to work yesterday!  We painted the entire house minus the master bath over the long weekend.  I think it would have pushed us over the edge if we painted one more wall, but the color looks nice for selling a house.  I'm pretty impressed that John and I alone completed our house in just two days...that's an accomplishment for ya!

With the holidays coming up, I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets busier and eats a bit more junk food.  It's just too good to pass up!  This year, a couple of my friends and I are doing a running challenge!

It was inspired by Runner's World's challenge, but we didn't see it until yesterday so we made our own official challenge (see, we have a poster).  It starts December 1 to January 1, (2012 ahh!) and we will be running at least one mile, hopefully more, every day.  Even the busiest person can find time to squeeze in one mile a day!  We're hoping this challenge will give us the motivation to keep moving through the holidays.  One of my friends, Krystal, is the most motivated runner I know, so I'm sure she'll be kicking my butt if I try to slack!  Let me know if you'll be joining in and we'll keep each other motivated through this busy and fun time of year!

Pumpkin Galore!

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is one week away!  I'm excited about it, but also a little weirded out that it's almost here already!  Where has time gone this year?!

I can't wait to start preparing, making goodies and enjoying family and the little traditions John and I have started over the years!  Our first married Thanksgiving!  Nothing in our plans will change from the past few years, but it's still a fun little milestone!

I thought I'd share some dessert recipes today that are or at least look delicious so you can start prepping for them if you're so inclined to try any.

I found this recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake online.  

A local radio station mentioned it this week and it looks tasty and easy!  I haven't tried it yet, but it's tempting!

I've also mentioned the Pumpkin Cookies and Pumpkin Bread here.

Finally, the traditional dessert: Pumpkin Pie!  

(The link also has a recipe for Apple Pie if pumpkin isn't your thing)

And if you're looking for something for breakfast, the lovely Meg from Henning Love posted an amazing Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll recipe too!  I can't wait to try that one this weekend!

What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions??

Mine is running the Turkey Trot 5K the morning of Thanksgiving every year, then getting ready for the first meal (John's family's) while watching the Macy's Day parade.  And spending the day with our families!

What desserts do you have every Thanksgiving?? 

Life and Running

I realize that lately I suck at blogging.  I'm sorry.  Life has been busy.  Last week was crazy busy again!

I...
...celebrated my grandparent's anniversary at dinner

...worked late, I have my first audit tomorrow since taking over our office manager's role..ahh!

...finally got to spend time with my hubby on Thursday night for an impromptu date night...we made dinner and ate together and got to spend more than 30 min together before bed time ha!  It was fun!

...got to catch up with a good friend at John's game and meet my sis-in-law's adorable niece!

...manually labored all day Saturday and Sunday...got a good workout in involving concrete, sledgehammers, and chainsaws.  Yes, I used those things.  I can be handy!

...almost got a puppy, but things just didn't fall right for this weekend, but maybe soon??

And now we're just about caught up.  All caught up except one thing.  Running.  I got in 2 runs last week.  I took off the first half of the week from running since I ran at Savannah last weekend, and did a 2 mile run as my first one out to see how I felt, then a 6.07 mile run on Friday night.  The run went awesome!  I felt good.  This weather really is my happy level for running!  I'm now trying to figure out what races to run next.  I'd like to keep it at a 1/2 marathon and under.  So far, I'm signed up for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and am thinking of another local half a week or so later.  So, here's my question:

What are the fun spring races that your are running?!

I'm looking for a few to keep me motivated!!

Let's play catch up!

Sorry about the silence since last week.  Work has been crazy busy as have my evenings!  I'm hoping to settle down into a better routine eventually but between working late, going out of town a lot and other things, life has been crazy!  How about a cute picture of Lily to get us started??

Friends?

Today is my grandparents 59th wedding anniversary!  We'll be celebrating later tonight!  

How cool is 59 years?  

I say it's pretty awesome!

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Catching up:

Last Tuesday, Robin and I took our mother-in-law to a cooking class for her birthday.  We did this last year and had such a good time, we did it again this year!  I thought the class would have posted pictures by now, but I just checked and they haven't.  The theme was Julia Chiles, so you know the food was good!  Our little group of 3 was responsible for cooking rolls, a carrot souffle and a love salad.  A lot of her famous recipes were cooked by each group in the class and we feasted at the end!  Bonus, they give you the recipes so you can take it home and make everything you like yourself!

Wednesday was my last training run before the race.  I got out of work pretty late and wanted to try to beat the darkness so I got in 5 miles...last mile was an 8:40.  Yay! I also found my love for compression sleeves, which I also enjoyed at the race last weekend.  I feel like they helped my calf muscles not to be so sore later and I had no problem with my shins!

Thursday, I went to a huge Tupperware tent sale they have to benefit the United Way each year.  I got a ton of stuff for only $61!  Check out my loot!

I met my friend there and we shopped away.  My second mom works there and it was her birthday so I got to spend some time with her too!  

Friday we were off to the races!  You can read about that here.

Is anyone else loving this time change as much as I am?!  I popped out of bed the last two days!  Last night, I wanted to go to bed before 8 haha.  The time change is helping me get back on my desired schedule!  Up early and to bed early!  I'm even thinking of trying to get up and run in the mornings now that it'll be light out!  Score!

Savannah Half Marathon

This was the first of the Rock n Roll series races I've done.  I've always heard awesome things about them, so I definitely wanted to get in on one.  We had originally planned on picking up our packets on Friday, but John had changed projects and is in the busy stages of a new, big building starting to go up, so, we didn't leave until around 5 on Friday to head up to Savannah.  I knew this ahead of time, so after initially freaking out about not getting our packets at the expo, I called and they said we could pick it up the morning of the race.

We got into town around 10, got checked into our hotel and got everything ready for the next day.  We were asleep by 11.  The alarm went off at 5:30.  We got dressed, ate some food and went to pick up our packets, giving us enough time to walk back to the hotel and to the start by 7.  We were lucky enough to be less than 1/2 a mile from the start.  They only gave us our race numbers before the race and told us to pick up the rest after the race.

We eventually got in the corral and waited for the race to start.  The national anthem started was sung a few minutes before the race start, accompanied by "I Love Rock and Roll", but they finally got it together and knocked off the background music.

I was representing the Disney Marathon.  I wish I had another shirt I love so much to run it, but they give out a comfy shirt!

About 20 minutes after the start, we were off!

Brothers

Go Robin!

We started out running over an overpass, through some sides roads, and then through some neighborhoods.  The residents in this area really came out to cheer!  They were all happy yelling 'good mornings' and clapping for us!  It was pretty fun.  Then we had a bit of time where we were running through industrial areas.  We were keeping at a 10:00/mile since none of us were sure how we'd do that day.  We were feeling pretty good.  Around mile 6-7 we had to make a pit stop to the port-o-pots and then we were on the road again.  

I believe it was around mile 8, we started getting a little more into the downtown area of Savannah and there were crowds everywhere.  It was great and made me want to punch people all at the same time.  I enjoy the crowds cheering.  Love it.  Need the motivation.  And I know watching a endurance running race isn't that exciting for those who aren't passionate about it, but get off the course!  There were people way off the curbs causing us to have to go through bottlenecks every so often.  It annoyed me.  I feel that there should have been race officials making sure people stayed off the course. Disappointed.  Rant over.

I had a side cramp starting at mile 8 and became ridiculously crippling between 10 & 11.  Robin and I fell back from the guys because she was also battling a side cramp and walked a little.  I'm pretty sure it was where we were running in the roads and the slant because they were both right side cramps under the ribs.  Haven't had one of those in forever!

Somehow going through mile 12, the cramp disappeared and I sprinted out the last .2 miles.

I thought the half race course was pretty good. It is in a pretty city, but you don't go through it as much as I expected we would.  The course was pretty flat.  There were a few elevation changes, but I didn't think they were too bad at all.  I would probably rate the race a B+.  I'm not sure if I would do it again there, but I had an enjoyable experience.