How can you run slow in shoes like this?!

Welp, I ended up signing up for the 5k this Saturday!

I decided to wait to sign up for all 3 races. As much as I wanted to, I figured it wouldn't be the smartest thing... so I'll see how the 5k goes, and if it goes well I'll sign up for the rest.. and maybe the half marathon?!

Now I'm debating purchasing these running shoes! I know it's only a 5k but I just think they scream "You'll have an awesome race if you wear me!!!!"

yes?

On that note, I'm off to take my babies for a walk and get ready for physics... yuck! :-/

Happy Monday!!

A little Lainey Bug

School hasn't allowed me to put much time into doing photo shoots lately, but yesterday I was able to do one!! My friend Tammy brought her 6 month old baby, Lainey, over for some photos.

This girl was seriously SO cute!! She smiled the whole time!!! And I LOVED all of her little faces - I just had to share a few!!! (I'm not even 1/2 way done editing yet!)



And now I remember why I love photography! *sigh* Sometimes I wonder if I should just drop out of school and do it full time?!?!

Noteworthy Mid-Week News (or something)

Today seems to be just FLYING by.

I woke up at 7:30 (slept in woo!), went for a quick run (20ish minutes), and by the time I showered and made breakfast it was already 9:30 and time for me to leave the house. How does that happen?!

However, I'm sure when I hit my physics class in 2 hours, time will stand still. That's just how it works.

--- P.S. for breakfast I made THE most AMAZING milkshake smoothie ever. It tasted like & had the texture of a chocolate milkshake!!! Except I didn't feel guilty drinking it!

Ingredients: handful of spinach (fo'realz), 5ish frozen strawberries, some ice cubes, some vanilla almond milk, and a scoop of this:

This had to have been the secret ingredient. I mean I know it's called "triple chocolate shake" but I wasn't expecting that one little scoop to totally cancel out the taste of the spinach, strawberries, and almond milk AND actually make it have milkshake consistency! SO GOOD.

+ healthy.

& filling.

win.

Try it. You're welcome in advance.

--- I just finished my physics homework. That means my brain is officially done working for the rest of the week. W=Fd, that's the formula for work in case you're wondering.

I was actually pretty proud of myself though because when I was done with my homework I looked up the answers to the odd ones in the back and they were right!!! Hopefully that means I did the even ones right too.

-- Speaking of class, I didn't have any on Monday because it was Presidents Day.



I didn't even know it was Presidents Day until I found out I didn't have class. I think we were the only college around here that was off, but I'm def not complaining.

Also, I like President's Day because it was kind of like Christmas at the outlet mall last weekend.

I went to spend the day with my Aunt Kathy and we hit up the outlet mall. Outlet mall prices + Presidents Day sales = super awesome deals!! And not to be cheesy, but spending the day with my aunt Kathy was even better than the sales -- srsly, she's my daddy's only sister so I love hanging out with her and being able to talk about him. I think I learn something new about him every time, plus she understands how I feel and we're a lot alike so it's pretty awesome.

--- I ended up not running yesterday (it was dark by the time I got home). I ran this morning but it was cold and I couldn't breathe through my left nostril so it wasn't the best or the longest run, but it also didn't hurt in the leg/hip/piriformis region so I guess that's good. Gonna take another go at it before I decide on the race(s) or not though.

--- I had some head shots taken this weekend by a professional:

and by a professional I mean B. But really those terms are basically interchangeable nowadays. I don't know what I need head shots for but now I have some in case I do. Thanks B!

--- I downloaded the ZipList app the other day. If you're the main grocery shopper in your house, please download it immediately. It is awesome!!! You make your grocery list right on it (you can even do it from your computer) and then you have it with you at the store on your phone! and you can add recipe ingredients right to your list from the app... so quick, easy, and helpful! Plus I've discovered so many awesome recipes I want to try from it. And it's FREE!

---I will now leave you with a recipe.

photo from here; my cake didn't turn out this pretty, but it was [probably] just as delicious!

Last weekend I made an Oreo Pudding Poke Cake. Except I made mine "low-fat."

Here's what you need:

• chocolate cake mix
• 2 boxes of pudding (technically the recipe calls for oreo pudding but I couldn't find it)
• oreos (reduced fat if you want, well, reduced fat)
• diet soda (yes)

So basically, you make the cake as directed except, instead of oil & eggs you replace them with the diet soda. You can also do this to any boxed cake mix to make it lower fat. Any kind of diet soda works. I used diet Mountain Dew ;)

Bake as directed.

Then poke holes in it and cover with the pudding. Since I didn't have oreo pudding, I crushed up some oreos and put them in my white chocolate pudding. Then you put more crushed up oreos on top!

Also, I used almond milk instead of cow's milk in the pudding.

Even with all of my random substitutions, my cake turned out yummy!! It just didn't stay together as well, I'm guessing because of the lack of eggs, but at least I didn't feel quite so guilty about eating a large piece!

Happy Hump day!

How many crowns does a princess need?

Ha! My mom's friend Deneen is SO FUNNY. That was her comment on my Facebook status this morning when I said To sign up for the Triple Crown or not... that is the question.

I am really debating this. Really, really, really hard. I want to SO BAD. I haven't run the entire thing since 2010. (I did the 10k last year but...)

2010! I can't believe it's been that long already!! I remember that year so well... it was my first year running, everything was brand new. Each distance was new to me. First I did the 5k... I knew I could run the distance but I also PR'd and my momma ran it too! The 10k was my first 10k ever and it involved a slight disappointment, but I also loved it I met my goal all at the same time! And the 10 miler? Well, that was the first time I actually felt like running my first half marathon was actually gonna happen and I was so proud of myself.

I guess that year it all just made me feel so accomplished. Running distances I never thought I could do. It was all so exciting.

Then last year I was injured. This year, I'm still injured a little bit. But I miss running. I miss the excitement of the spring races around here. I miss that feeling of accomplishment and excitement. So now... do I sign up or not? I'm coming off injuries, at the very least, if not still slightly injured... so do I sign up for fun and hope for the best? I really imagined that by now I'd be better, I'd be faster. What if I run them slower than I did before? I also don't want to be stupid about it and hurt myself again/more.

Plus, my aunt Kathy bought me the most amazing running outfit this weekend when we went shopping!

I super love that shirt!! I have super awesome pink shorts to go with it!! Now I NEED A RACE TO WEAR IT TO.

Oh, and because someone will probably ask... YES I could just sign up for the 5k, see how it goes, and then sign up for the rest accordingly (or not). BUT -- if you sign up for all of them at once you get an extra shirt! And let's be honest, shirts are pretty much the main reason to run races! yes?

So what's a girl to do? #runnersproblems

I have til February 25th to decide. UGH.

Welp, my plan at this point is to run 2.5-3 miles tonight and see how it goes and then go from there....

#pleasebenicetomerunninggods

GUILTY!

V-Day & 2.5 years!

Today marks exactly 30 months since my B asked me out on our very first date! 30 months! Seems like s0o0o0 long ago and just yesterday all at the same time.

So to celebrate or something, Josh planned a short little trip to Costa Rica!!! Behold:

Awesome, right?!

Well it would be.... IF I WAS INCLUDED!

Unfortunately (for me) it was a work-related trip. One which required him to be gone on Valentine's Day AND our 30th monthiversary!!! I don't know why his company didn't take into consideration our love and see the need for me to go as well. I just don't get it!?!

Don't worry though, B assures me he is working hard and miserable and misses me and blah blah, but I've seen pictures of his previous "work-related" trips......

Surfing in Costa Rica
AHH B had long hair in '07!

Zip-lining in Costa Rica


Snorkeling off the coast of some exotic island near Malaysia (Oct. 2011)




Drinking wine in Malaysia

Yep, looks like he's workin' hard to me ;) ***

According to the evidence, he's probably been sitting on a beach drinking Hummingbirds all week. Lucky duck.

Thankfully he gets home tonight so he'll still kinda make it for our 30th monthiversary! Not in time for a re-creation of our first date at Chick-Fil-A but at least he'll be in the States again! YAYAYAY! My little Valentines and I sure do miss him!

Love those babies :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and got to spend it with people you love! Even though my B wasn't here, I still had a wonderful evening with my momma and my fur-babies and that's all that matters! ♥

*** I hope a disclaimer isn't really needed, but just in case my sarcasm wasn't picked up -- I wrote this post all in fun because I KNOW Josh has been working hard in Costa Rica! He works hard every day and the Bostons and I are thankful and appreciative of everything he does! :D And if I traveled for work I'd sure hope I could go surfing and zip-lining, too! I think on this trip though, he was just busy avoiding earthquakes! Thank goodness he's okay!! (also thank goodness I didn't hear about the earthquake on the news because I would have been so worried!!!)

My first WOD!

WOD = workout of the day. It's a CrossFit term. :)

I went to my first WOD last night. Remember how our friends are opening up their own CrossFit gym? Well, last night they held an "open-WOD" so people could get a taste of what CrossFit is all about. And? Well, it was awesome!!! I can NOT wait for it to open up full time! I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to drop my current gym membership and join them over there!

From what I understand, there's a different WOD every day. And the point of CrossFit is to do different exercises all the time, to constantly keep your workout varied and changing. The exercises are short but are done at a high intensity. Apparently CrossFit is used as training for like the Navy Seals and stuff. Hard.Core. For example, our workout last night consisted of 8 different exercises, done for 30 seconds each - then rest for 1 minute. Repeat 3 times. So our total time of actual working out was 15 minutes, including the breaks. 15 minutes, y'all. I was a little skeptical if I'd actually feel like I'd even done anything after only 15 minutes, but let me tell you -- when we got home last night I was exhausted. Like, I almost went to bed at 8:30. I did not want to even move. I was literally more worn out than I am after I've worked out at the gym for 2 hours!!! It was insane.

The exercises we did were -- squats, burpees, push ups, double unders, overhead lunges, sit ups, sprints, and kettle bell swings.

B was there again for more photography services. THANK GOODNESS, because now I know what I look like while working out. ((which, for the record, I think body-builders like but us normal folk could probably do without the incriminating evidence))

This is me doing double-unders. You know, where you are supposed to jump and get the rope under you twice during each jump. I know that it looks like I'm not even jumping at all, but don't let your eyes fool you. I was actually doing one-legged double-unders. Clearly.

Lunges are pretty fun all the time, but especially when holding a giant weight above your head. Then they are REALLY fun!!

This was my first time ever doing kettlebell swings. Or actually anything with a kettlebell. Verdict? I didn't hate it.

So yeah... the whole workout reminded me of my favorite circuit/interval/crosstraining class at the gym (that they got rid of!!! rude) except on steroids. I think interval training is my favorite way to workout. I like it because the exercises are always changing so it keeps you from getting bored and it makes the time go by fast. And CrossFit is like that ALL THE TIME! It's like it's made for me or something!! Plus I think interval training is the best for your body because when your exercises are constantly changing, your body can't get used to the workout and therefore your body will constantly change too! I'm also excited about it because it will give me something to focus on since I can't really run much right now, but some of the WODS do incorporate running. And bonus! It will make my whole body fit, as opposed to just my legs like running & spin class do. Apparently then the gym opens up we'll get to super crazy cool stuff like flip over huge tires, gymnastics moves, whatever the heck "thrusters" are, pull-ups (which I couldn't do to safe my life right now but Case assures me he can have me doing multiple ones in no time!)

Thanks for the great workout, Case & Renee!!!

For more on what CrossFit is go here.

Hole be gone!

You guys, MY BLOG IS MAGIC!!!

In my last post, I wrote about how we had a hole in our basement ceiling that has been there for 2 years!

TWO WHOLE YEARS.

So I wrote that post on Tuesday and on Wednesday I came home to this:

At this point, I was a little concerned because he was making the hole bigger. Pretty sure he was doing it wrong. But what the heck do I know? About holes in the basement ceiling? nottathing.

So anywho, by Thursday (last night) this was the current status of the hole:

I don't think it's at finished status, but it's definitely not at big giant hole status anymore.

WTG, B!

Wow! The hole had been there for 730+ days and then I write about it on my blog and it's [nearly] fixed in 2! Bam! MAGIC! I wonder what else I can write on my blog that will transpire into real-life happenings. Hmmm.... dear little blog, let's go to Hawaii!

Completely un-related, but I thought it was time for a phone-photo dump!

((as you can see, I totally ended up buying those Boston Terrier Christmas stockings from Pottery Barn!! Josh was less than thrilled, but umm.. I got them both WITH embroidery for the price of ONE of them at normal price! I guess it pays to buy Christmas stockings in February! And yes, Kosmo and Lola LOVE them, obviously!!;))

HaPpY fRiDaY!

Can we be DIY-ers?

So this is my "vision board" for our living room:


Give or take the rug. I was thinking I'd just go with a California Shag carpet-like rug (as seen above in poor quality) but I've since found a [much more expensive :-/] BEAUTIFUL patterned rug that I've fallen in LoOoOvE with!

(not that it matters because I'm not buying any area rugs until Lola 100% quits chewing on rugs! They seem to be her favorite chew toy and I can't be replacing a $150+ rug every week)

Anywho, I am slowly but surely collecting the above pieces to complete our living room makeover! I know that Josh could care less (when I met him the walls were totally BLANK!) but I guess making a house into a home is a girl thing!

The biggest "project" is the entertainment center. I have always LOVED built-in bookshelves/entertainment walls... but since our house didn't come with any, I was going to settle for the white entertainment center you see above.

(and by settle I mean I really love it!)

UNTIL.... Josh has decided to channel his innner-Ty Pennington and build everything himself. He's being all project-oriented lately. It started a couple weeks ago when he decided he was going to build a computer from scratch.

So, you know, he did. NBD. I pretty much do that every day.

Okay, aaaaactually, it seems a bit crazy to me but he assured me that it was easy. Sweet! I'll put that on my list of things to do right behind build a diesel engine from scratch. The thing starts up in about 4 seconds and doesn't make a single iota of a noise while it's running. I'd say he did good.

He also recently got a professional-quality photo printer. Guess we don't need mpix or Shutterfly anymore! And he's been mounting his pro-quality prints onto foam board. Like a boss.

So that's pretty neato. He's like super jazzed about it in a cute little geeky sort of way. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts wallpapering the entire house in foam-boarded photos of the Boston Terriers. Lord knows we have enough pictures to do so.

When he brought them in to show me, I thought he resembled someone but couldn't quite put my finger on it...

OH YEAH!

MOSES WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, of course!

((p.s. while Google-searching for the above image, I learned that Moses was stoned when he set the Ten Commandments, according to a researcher. I am just wondering how they would have figured that out....hmmm... I'm sure it's totally accurate, you know, being on the internet and all....))

So anywho. Now Josh is all like no need to buy an entertainment center when I can BUILD one! He even picked up this book and I didn't even ask him to:

*Sigh* He sure does know the way to my heart ;)

Armed with this book and Pinterest I am now chalk full of inspiration for fun built-ins!!! A few of my favorites:

I like the arched tops... the doors that close off the TV... the in-set lighting...

I'm sure my entertainment center is second in line behind his office bookshelf/desk that he's wanting to build (again, no need to buy a desk when you're awesome like B and can just build one!)

Seriously, is there anything he's not good at?!?!

We've also talked about re-doing the laundry room to make it a bit more into a mudroom.

I think a little bench with some coat racks and cute little cubbies would be a lot more beneficial and functional than the wall of shelves we have in there right now that mostly collect junk ;)

So can we be DIY-ers?! Who knows. I read all kinds of blogs of people who totally renovate their entire houses and do a million home-improvement projects all the time, you'd think we -- okay, let's be honest Josh will be doing most of the work, but I promise I'll help!! -- could do these few "easy" projects, right?! But then again, we still have a hole in the basement ceiling....

It's only been there for two years! :-/

BUT he did whip up these awesome shelves for me in about 2 days before too...

which I have, thankfully, since decorated a little bit better. ;)

Interior design is definitely not my forte, but it is FUN for me!! We'll see how these build-it-yourself projects go! I'll post any progress we make here... but who knows, it could be another 2 years before we get to it! :-p

Foot Fetish

Last night we were watching a movie in bed and Lola starts barking & growling out of nowhere! This is not totally unusual, but we could tell she was barking at something (a lot of times she barks at nothing.) At first we couldn't figure out what she was barking at, and then realized it was my foot.

Yes, apparently my girl is scared of feet.

Needless to say, it was pretty hilarious.

Oh, Lola.

P.S. My fuzzy striped socks are from Old Navy and they are AWESOME.

Makeovah!

I put up [another] new look on the ole blog today! I know, I know... I need to quit. It's not totally done yet, but it's good enough for now! Don't worry, I'm sure I'll change it again in a few weeks :-p

Josh and I are off to see Jim Gaffigan tonight... and eat hot pockets!

Happy Friday!!!

Things that are awesome: CrossFit & my boyfriend!

So I posted about CrossFit a teeny tiny bit, waaay back in the day. Like a year ago. I wanted to get into it, I tried, but it was hard because I had to do the WOD's (work out of the day) by myself, at my gym where they didn't have all the necessary CrossFit equipment. Plus I thrive on people interaction -- especially when working out -- so the working out alone part was probably the biggest drawback for me. Especially when I really didn't know much about CrossFit so it would have been very beneficial to have someone there who knew what the heck they were doing because some of that terminology and those exercises are crazy.

Sure, I coulda joined a CrossFit gym... buuut they're all in Louisville (most likely farther than I'd regularly want to drive to go work out) plus I didn't want to spend more money on another gym membership when I already had one. So I kinda gave up on it.

WELL. Fast forward a year later and GUESS WHAT!?

Two of our friends, Case and Renee, are opening up their own CrossFit gym LOCALLY. How COOL is that?!? And Josh has been their official photographer, taking some [awesome] photos for them to use for promotional purposes and can I just say that I think they are so super cool?!

My B is like a PRO!!! I think these photos are so awesome!!!

I'm also excited to start CrossFit again! Or rather, start it in general. I guess doing 3 WOD's in my life doesn't mean that I ever got really into it. So I'm excited to start it up and really make it a part of my workout routine! It's supposed to make you fit over all and get into the best shape of your life. Here's a little video about it if you have no idea what CrossFit is:

Plus, it's supposed to be awesome for runners -- they say that CrossFit people who train for a marathon only have to run something like 1/4 as much as a regular marathon training program. Don't quote me on that, no idea if that's totally accurate but it's something like that. CrossFit is supposed to make you super FIT.

Maybe I'll even get abs like Renee!!

The new gym is scheduled to open up in March -- if you're local, Like them on Facebook to follow along for updates!! If you're a local lady, Renee is doing a WOD "preview workout" for us girls that she promises ANYONE can do. If you want info on that, e-mail me and I'll give you the details!

My mom & I went shopping last weekend.

Kosmo and Lola got new toys from Grammy.



HAHAHA. Totally perfect for them.

(I probably don't mention it much on here, but poor Kosmo has to "go" a lot ((A LOT)) nowadays since his surgery and the removal of his small intestine. And Lola? She barks a lot when she's outside. At everything and nothing. Kosmo barks almost never but Lola is a loud-mouth. She gets that from her papa ;))

Also, please notice that the "yappy hour" toy was already destroyed. I took these pictures about 10 minutes after we'd given them the toys. Boston Terriers = professional stuffing & squeaker removers!