Weekend

Hello.  My name is Michelle and I am an absent blogger.

It's been a whole week since I posted!!  Boo.  Clearly, though, y'all have survived during my blog drought, which I was not at all really worried about!  Phew!

As much as I {heart} springtime and all it's warmer temps - sun is out longer - trees are blooming - pollen in your face - goodness, {ok maybe the pollen part isn't actually so good!} springtime is a busy time!!

But I'm surviving & there's only 28 school days left!!!!  {The Hallelujah Chorus is playing...do you hear it?}

Here's what I did this weekend....

:)

What were y'all up to?

Weekend Recap

We had a great & super busy weekend over here!!  

Friday we got in a good workout then parked it on the couch for the evening!  We watched some of the Boston bombing manhunt unfold and then I fell asleep.  Shocker!!  I know :)

Saturday was an earlier morning for a workout & then it was baby shower time!

Gale had such a gorgeous baby shower!!!  

Unfortunately I did a craptastic job at taking pictures...fail!  The pictures probably wouldn't have done it justice anyway!

Some of my SIL's family threw the shower & they outdid themselves!!  They incorporated purple and grey which are baby Scarlett's nursery colors & had an amazing brunch spread complete with a waffle bar, quiches, yogurt & granola, heath bar scones {!!!} and fruit.  {Sadly I did not partake in all the yumminess!  Ughh...dang clean eating, sucks the fun out of parties!!  Haha}

  We played a fun little game...they had balloons all over the house with baby pictures of Gale and a question attached to the bottom of the string.  I learned a lot of interesting facts....like babies are born without knee caps & the most teeth a baby ever had at birth was 12.  TWELVE teeth y'all!!!!  WTH!?!

Ok I digress...

Lots of baby loot!!

Baby Scarlett's nursery...

It's hard to tell in this pic, but the back wall is a gorgeous deep purple and the bedding is purple & grey!

Love that dresser!!  And the bassinet!  Doesn't her nursery look like it's straight off the page of PBK or something!?  So chic!!

And the mama to be with her mom & sisters :)  Stole this one off Facebook :) Remember how horrific I am at taking pics?  Yeah.

After the shower & all day Sunday there was lots and lots of painting!!  Seriously, so. much. painting!  I can't wait to share the full details, maybe this week!?  But in between painting we made time for family dinner Saturday night, a 3 miler Sunday morning {my fastest ever I might add!} & family breakfast :)

Brandon's apparently deep in prayer and I'm definitely not on any kind of technology...what!?

Some how after painting all day yesterday, I still managed to grocery shop & do a little food prep before collapsing on the couch during Game of Thrones!

Today was a Monday.  So.... 'nuff said about that!

How was your weekend friends!?!

Friday Favorites

I just like Friday's.  Friday's my favorite!

 via

For obvious reasons, Friday is one of the best days of the week!!  So to celebrate it's awesomeness, here are my favorite things about {this} Friday....

It brings the weekend!!!  Duh!!  Captain Obvious here ;)

It also brings my husband home & my family to town!!  B was home Monday night in exchange for traveling Thursday night.  Can't win 'em all I guess!  And my SIL is having a baby shower this weekend!!!  Hard to believe baby girl will be here in about 6 weeks!!  Can't wait to meet my new niece!!!

There are officially 7 weeks of school left.  7!  That sounds manageable, yes!?  Let's hope!!

We're having turkey burger's for dinner with some homemade sweet potato fries & fruit!  Yes, I'm already thinking about dinner.  We all know a fat girl lives in me, let's be real!

It's rest day!  Girl needs a day off from the gym!!  No workout today, ya know, besides vacuuming my whole house!

This song on the radio on my way to work this morning!  Oh Phillip Phillips...you've done it again! Love this song...makes me happy and reminds me of my man!!  Have I mentioned he comes home today?!  :)  Happy day!

Happy Friday, happy weekend, happy!!!

Easy Weekend

Oh how I love my weekends, however, short as they always are!!!  Wahhh....seriously, can't we all band together to do something about this serious not problem & extend weekends!?  I really need a 3rd day!  Oh to dream.... :)

We were off to Raleigh this past Friday, doggy in tow, for a little business and pleasure.

Berkley had his first stay in a hotel (oh yes...we were those people with their dog at the hotel!) and did so well!!  He loved meeting lots of people, having the run of the room, and a lower bed so he could actually jump up onto it!  Haha, still slept in his crate, though like a champ!  Our little crate sleeper :)

Since we were away, it was one of those times where you're forced to relax, and I can't say I minded!  The weather was gorgeous, I got a good workout in each day, strolled with Berkley in a park nearby, did a little work, played a little candy crush, laid around!  Not too shabby y'all!

We grabbed a delish dinner out Saturday night at Cantina 18!  If you're in the Raleigh area, go there asap & have a skinny margarita!!!  So good!

I spent a good portion of my afternoon yesterday grocery shopping & then food prepping in the kitchen!  Eating clean, while not hard, does take some serious prep!  Well worth it, though!  After all...

;)

Manic Monday today wasn't so terrible, so I guess I can't really complain!  And I'm glad to have my hubby home for an extra night in the wake of everything that happened in Boston today!!

via

In the midst of all that's awful, this quote gives me hope that maybe people are inherently good.

via

There are always helpers!  Today, seeing the first responders run towards the blasts, we know some people are inherently good and it restores you just a little in the middle of all this evil.

I hope your Monday was easy and your loved ones are accounted for and hugged extra tight tonight friends!  Talk soon :)

Loving Lately

It's Wednesday y'all!  Which means it's practically Friday eve already, so we're keeping it light around here, k!?

Some of my fav bloggers do a post every few weeks featuring their most current obsessions as of late.  I have a couple things I'm currently swooning over so I figured I'd hop right on the bandwagon :)

Seche Vite  Y'all!!  I've seen April post about this miracle top coat a few times and have no clue why it took me so long to go buy it!  It's the next best thing to having your own nail toaster for at home shellac manis!  But let's be real, I'm not buying an at home nail toaster.  Ain't no body got time for that!  I wouldn't toy with you my friends, this top coat made my nails dry super fast & shine like I just walked out of the nail salon!  I'm sold.

I take lots of beauty advice from April y'all!  Girl knows her stuff ;)  She posted about this mascara some time ago somewhere on social media & I didn't wait very long to pick up a new tube to try out.  I was then in love with my fat, gorgeous lashes!  

2 tubes later I thought I'd switch it up and try something different.  Aka the twitterverse has raved about Falsies so I thought I'd give it a try.  Mistake, mistake!  If it ain't broke... I gave it a good 3 or so weeks and Falsies just didn't do it for me.  Back to my L'Oreal love!!

I bought this fun spring pink last week on spring break and now I'm obsessed!  Essie Muchi, Muchi :) I'm a sucker for a pretty pink nail and this is the perfect shade!!

I think I'm behind the times with this one, ha!  I've never been one to wear foundation.  Thanks to mother nature and maybe some good genes I've always had pretty clear skin {ya know, except for those awkward teen years} and never needed to wear foundation.  Too heavy and just yuck!  

So when all the rage about BB Cream started I was less than interested.  But I've mixing it with my moisturizer and now I'm hooked!  Feels light and makes me glow {ya know, in my opinion} ;)

This radio is the bees knees!!  It's from Uncommon Goods & my MIL got it for me for Christmas.  We have enjoyed the heck out of it so much already!  It blasted some country while we sipped a few adult beverages in our driveway a few weekends ago {we're so classy!} and pushed me through a little at-home-outside WOD yesterday afternoon!  Awesome gift!

This article.  Go read it!  It's long, but for real, go read it.  It has everything to do with why I wrote this post last summer!!  And completely sums up the same exact thing I would tell my previous 18 year old self or an 18 year old asking for my advice.  Well said Mr. Turner, well said.  It's a scary world out there y'all!

throw back

A run/dinner date with this pretty lady tonight!  The weather is too gorgeous not to!!  It's calling us to the greenway and to a patio somewhere with a cold glass of white wine!  :)

Happy hump day friends!!

Charleston For the Win

Welp, sadly, all good things must come to an end and I guess Spring Break 2013 is no different. SB '13 has now come and gone, although I'm still romanticizing our brief love affair in my heart.  I'm going to keep the love affair going a little longer and recap the end of the week and our trip to Charleston!

Friday morning we were off to Charleston, SC for the Cooper River Bridge Run!!

We dropped Berkley dog off to be boarded for the first time...

We sure missed this cuteness, I mean how could you not!?!

But a mimosa at Southend Brewery upon arrival really made up for it :)

We picked up our race packets at the super crowded expo, checked into our hotel & then waited on our friends to arrive!

Lisa & I - my twin!

The weather was awesome so we headed to the rooftop bar Vendue for drink numero uno :)

We sort of made a progressive evening out of it and headed to Mad River for drink numero dos & then headed to happy hour and an amazing dinner at Fleet Landing.  Yum!!!

Found a new koozie ;)

Since we had a mere 6.2 miles to run and an early wake up call the next morning, we figured we should turn it in early(ish)!

Race day, we had to wake up super early, stand in the cold for our shuttle, find our corral amongst forty some odd thousand people, then run up and across a ginormous bridge and into downtown Charleston!!  

Cold & on the shuttle!

That hill can suck it!!!  Oh my word, I wanted to walk so bad!  Haha

Finish!!!  Hallelujah!

Sweaty & done!! :)

I've obviously let go of any vanity I had and went ahead and posted these gross pics of myself.  Just keepin' it real y'all!

It was definitely fun race (ya know, once it was over!) & I'm glad I got the experience, but will I do it again!?  I dunno...  My hilarious (and half Kenyan) friend Mindy at Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake recapped her run here!  She basically summed up my exact feelings on this race!!

I'm no Kenyan, that's for dang sure, I'm just impressed I made it in under and hour!!  I'll take it :)

We celebrated post run at probably my most favorite spot in the whole world...Folly Beach!!

Clearly our first stop was Lost Dog Cafe for celebratory peach mango mimosas!!!

"Into each day, put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of Folly, and a cupful of good humor!"

We had a drink at the beach bar, napped while the boys played....it was a perfect post race afternoon!!

My handsome man!!

We kept the party going with 89 cent rum runners at the hotel bar & an amazing, for real, so, so ahhmaaazing dinner at Anson's!

I was sad to wake up Sunday because it meant reality was right around the corner.  Boohoo!!  (I'm so spoiled right!?)  But it did mean back to my sweet boys at home :)

Today, was, well a work day.  Haha, just 43 and counting (yes, I'm counting!!) til my next love affair with summer!  Thanks for the good times spring break!

I'm so glad the weather has started to look more like spring, I fully plan on enjoying it this week!

Hope your Monday treated you more like a Thursday!  At least it's over right? ;)

Spring Break Lovin'

Oh Spring Break, how I love you!!

I am in full blown spring break mode this week and loving it!!  It's so nice to not have a packed agenda, sleep til 730, be able to run errands, meet friends for lunch and dinner.... oh yes, spring break and I are having a full fledged love affair!

Last weekend, my friend Lisa and I knocked out a 5 mile run on the greenway in prep for our 10K this weekend down in Charleston!  It was then necessary to follow our run with brunch and mimosas at Toast to celebrate Spring Break and all it's glory!!

Mmmmmm!

For Easter, Brandon and I visited a church that meets at the high school right beside us, then changed out of church clothes & into our workout clothes for an Easter workout at the track.  The gym was obviously closed due to the holiday so we made up an outside Easter WOD!

Brandon captured my best side in action...thanks for that!

Monday, my sweet friend Rachel had lots of us bloggy ladies & their baby girls over for lunch! Between the 4 of them, there are 5 baby girls from 3 weeks to 5 months!!  So neat that all their little girls will grow up and all be the same age/in the same grade together!  I was so glad to finally get to meet Faith's girls and Katie's brand new little bebe!  And since Faith has twins, I got to pretend to have a baby too, haha ;)

Katie, Faith, Me, Ashley, & Rachel

I spent a chunk of my Tuesday morning sitting in Toyota's waiting room as they serviced my car for it's 60K mile check up.  Paying that bill was fun.  NOT!  Ughh...money spent on maintaining cars is the worst!!  I could think of so many other things I would rather spend that money on!  But alas, it is wise to take care of what ya got I guess!!  Oh adulthood....sigh.

Last night was much more fun!  A bunch of girls went out to celebrate my friend Lisa's birthday (which is actually tomorrow)!  We met at Vine American Kitchen for dinner and drinks (and cupcakes!  Shhhh) and it was so much fun!  I'm so blessed to know so many wonderful women!!

Lane, Sara, Me, Whitney, Lisa, Courtney, Laurel & Dana

We will be celebrating Lisa's birthday pretty much all weekend long in Charleston!!  :)  The weather was looking dismal for tomorrow so we decided to cut the trip short a bit and not head down til Friday morning.  It will still be lots of fun, though!

I made the mistake of checking my work email today!  Not smart.  It got my mind swirling on all things school!  So I took a nap to sleep it off :)  No more of that til Sunday night when I need to mentally prepare, haha.

B took tomorrow and Friday off so I'm excited for a day to relax together tomorrow before our fun weekend away!

I wish Spring Break and I could make this love affair permanent...I should really look into that ;)  

Hope everyone's having a splendid week, spring break or not!  And if you're working, at least you're already over the hump!!

Spartan Race Recap

Weekend before last, we completed the Reebok Spartan Sprint here in Charlotte!!!  

I was waiting on the website to upload their pictures before I recapped, but sadly there were only about 3 that were actually of me and where my eyes are open!  And none of Brandon :(  Oh well, here's the pics we did get!

As you can tell from this picture, it was rainy and just yuck out!  Oh, and cold!!  A lovely 50 degrees with drizzling rain.  Thankfully the rain did stop before our heat began!

Here we are, clean, dry and cold!  My brother Josh was running it, too!  We met up with him shortly after this picture.  This was Brandon's 3rd Spartan Race (recaps 1 and 2), Josh's 2nd and the 1st for Andrea and me!

To be honest, I was basically terrified at this point!  Haha!  I think it was mainly just fear of the unknown.  5 miles through the trails of the White Water Center and obstacles and mud and cold.  The weather was really playing with my head!  Mostly, though, I think I was scared that it would be too hard and I would feel completely defeated.

But I'd already paid to do it, so come hell or high water (or cold weather and rain) I was going to run the race!  

Thankfully, Andrea and I planned to run it together!  Once we got going we warmed up (a bit) and started feeling good!  It was at about mile 2, even after the first few obstacles of scaling walls and traipsing through the (chilly!) Catawba River, that we looked at each other and said "I know we're only at mile 2, and maybe this will get really terrible, but so far....it's really fun!!"

Lots of mud was involved!  Crawling through, wading through, you name it!

Josh and his buddy getting after some burpees!  

If you couldn't complete an obstacle...you had to complete 30 burpees!  I think Andrea and I did about 120 burpees!?  Haha, we couldn't complete the monkey bars, rope climb, javelin throw, and the traverse wall.

Brandon beat us all and his time from last year by 14 minutes!!  He finished just over an hour at 1:02!

How awesome is this picture!?!  Haha, Josh finished before us at an 1:27 and took over 30 minutes off his time from last year!

Andrea and I finished at 1:37!!

B was at the finish line cheering us on!

Let me tell you, friends, finishing that race was such a high!!!  Wow!!  Seriously, best feeling ever!!  It just goes to prove that when you put yourself out there and try something new or hard or scary, it pays off!  I'm so glad I didn't let me fear talk me out of it.  It was completely worth it and I'm already excited about next year!  (Just going to hope for warmer weather!)

Thank goodness for the heated changing tents!  Dry, non muddy clothes felt amazing!

We're Spartan finishers!!!!

B and I celebrated that night with some much deserved drinks and Bad Daddy's!

And, my mud bath must've been good for my skin and hair that day!  Haha ;)

My take away from all of this.....just do it!  That's been the approach I've been taking with my workouts and eating habits lately.  Either you do or you don't.  It's that simple!  So just do it!  Seriously, whatever it is.  Maybe it's not an obstacle race that you're facing, but whatever is staring you square in your face, just do it!!  I bet you'll surprise yourself and come out on top!

So....who's joining our Spartan Race team next year!?!  Any takers!?  :)