Anniversary Weekend!

Hello blogland!  Yes, it's Tuesday & I'm just now getting around to recapping the weekend. Whoops! Yesterday was eventful & requires a post of it's own :)

However, today is just perfect!  The weather outside is definitely frightful, very cold & rainy slushy out, but inside I'm baking, the tree is glowing & Michael Buble Chrismas is playing on Spotify!!

We had a wonderful anniversary weekend!  It's so nice to set aside some time to be together & to celebrate another year!!  It started with these bad boys I picked up Friday afternoon…

Gluten Free Salted Caramel & Wedding Cake cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes!  So tasty & worth every calorie ;)  We snuggled this guy on the couch & watched some TV…

Saturday morning started early with a special WOD made by one of our members & former marine as a tribute to the Marine Corps for their recent birthday.  Hopefully I'll get around to making the video of their workout one of these days…

I just watched & then worked out with the 830 class, but the guys did an awesome job!!  After classes, B & I headed off for a little spa day!

We got a couples massage & mani/pedi's at a little spa near uptown.  It was still nice & very relaxing, but definitely not the nicest massage we've ever had.  Afterwards we stopped for a red cup & then did a little bit of shopping…

I told B it wouldn't be a date unless we took a car selfie ;)  And red cups must be documented! {Please excuse my hair in all these pictures!  Ughh, too. long.  I finally had an appointment with my favorite hair girl ever on Sunday & she worked her magic, as always!}  We had a little while until dinner so we stopped a World of Beer for a Tour of Thanksgiving…

So good!  We also tried a Blueberry Cobbler beer, so yummy!

We ate at Sullivan's & it was excellent!!  Great service & an even better steak!  On the way home we stopped off & got our Christmas tree!  We sure picked a beauty, so full & now our house smells amazing!  We did most of the decorating Saturday night & finished up Sunday.  This is our finished product…

It feels very cozy & I'm so pleased!  I still need a new tree skirt, but it took me 18 months to get curtains in our bedroom, so ya know.  Hopefully I'll snag one down in Georgia or at least before Christmas is over :)

For some reason, we like to punish ourselves & endure ridiculously long workout sessions on Sundays, so I went to Flywheel with a friend & B worked out with Warren, then we met them at the box for more weightlifting!  I left B home alone Sunday night & ended the day with a delish dinner & even better conversation at CowFish with Ashley & Rachel.  Love getting together with them!  We always just pick up right where we left off!  Down to earth people are my kind :)

It was a great weekend!  We were sad we couldn't work out a trip away this year to celebrate our anniversary.  But we work for ourselves & we're growing a business, so there's great work to be done & we wouldn't trade it for anything.  I'm just grateful to be celebrating another year with B!!  Here's to many, many more!

SuperFit Games - My 1st CrossFit Competition!

This past weekend I competed in my very first CrossFit Competition!!!  And I lived to tell about it!  :)

SuperFit Games

Brandon & Warren and Meagan & I participated in Team SuperFit Charlotte at CrossFit Steele Creek & it was an absolute blast!!

It was a very long day, starting at about 7am, with 3 total workouts.  None of us made it to the 4th & final WOD, but in the end, we were all ok with that :)  We all finished strong & are proud of our individual performances!

CFSC ready to go!

B & I - bright eyed & bushy tailed!

My awesome partner Meagan!

Boys getting warmed up

WOD 1 - 10 min AMRAP (As Many Rounds as Possible) of 10 Shoulder to Overhead (presses) and 20 Toes to Bar

The boys rocked it out!! They finished with over 8 rounds!

This is my "oh my gosh, have we started yet, I'm so nervous" smile.  And our fun friends from CrossFit Huntersville were in the lane next to us - Michelle & Lindsey :)

Meagan rocking the presses!

I was pretty proud of my T2B in the beginning, best I've ever done!  By the end, my grip was gone!

I love SOH!  It's my favorite!

Here's a video Brandon got of Meagan and me :)

We finished with 4 rounds + 9 more presses!  We wanted at least 4 rounds, so goal accomplished!

WOD 2 - 150 Double Unders (Single Unders for us scaled peeps), 50 Deadlifts, 25 Front Squats - 6 minute time cap

The guys did so great!  They had to complete 50 Deadlifts at 275lbs & 25 Front Squats at 185lbs!  Talk about heavy!  They finished in about 4 and a half minutes…strong men!!

I'm so proud of Meagan & I!  Meagan rocked that 135lbs deadlift - she got 20 right out of the bat!  We both cleaned 95lbs like it was our job & front squatted it like a boss :)  This was definitely our favorite WOD!  Us girls like to lift heavy ;)

WOD 3 - 10min EMOM (every minute on the minute) of 10 Hand Release Bar Over Burpees with max Power Snatches in remaining minute

Here's some video I got of Brandon & Warren getting after those Burpees & Power Snatches!

Warren took the burpees & B handled the snatches!  They finished with 72 total Snatches!

And here's a short video of Meagan & me!

I took all the burpees & Meagan rocked the snatches for us!  We had a total of 66 Snatches!  (Oh & yes, the lights powered down for a few just before our heat started.  GPP baby - general physical preparedness - we're even prepared to workout in the dark! Ha)

It was such an awesome day!!  I more than earned this beer :)

We treated ourselves to a big ol' gluten full, cheesy, delicious pizza as a reward for our hard work!

Who knows…maybe I have more competitions in my future!?  Either way, I'm so glad I did it!  I was never really an athlete growing up so competing is not something I'm used to, but it was such a cool experience!  I don't post these pictures to brag, but to encourage anyone reading!  Seriously, you can do anything you put your mind to, even compete in amateur CrossFit competitions!! :)

Happy lifting!

I'm baaaack!

Why hello there little blogosphere!  It's been a while a little over 3 months!  Whoops.  I sort of fell off the face of the {blog} earth!  Obviously, you all noticed!  I mean how did you survive without me!?

I didn't exactly mean to drop off the {blog} planet, but it just kind of happened.  I was kind of stuck in this rut back in July, if you recall.  I tried to keep on blogging, but the rut won.  Rut - 1, Michelle - 0.

I still don't really know why I backed away so suddenly.  I sort of felt fake this summer in my blogging life.  I don't know why....I've never been fake on this blog or tried to convey a picture that doesn't really exist of my life.

It kind of just felt like I was blogging to put on this pretty show, to keep up with this chore.  Looming over my head...but I had a lot going on and I just didn't want to, to be really honest!  I couldn't keep up with my blog...it felt like work.  So I needed a break.

I wanted to be in my life, be intentional.  And that meant letting go of the blog, and of twitter, and Pinterest for a while.  So I let go!

I kept reading all of your blogs!  I still love keeping up with everyone's lives, but I think I just needed time away to miss my blog.  And, finally, after 3 months....I miss it!  I miss recapping our weekends, funny stories, sharing pictures, & recipes.  All the good ol' boring stuff!  So I'm going to give this another chance & hopefully keep this journal going.

I'm baaaaack!!  And just know that's a very loose term ;)  I may only still post once or twice a week or not a all a week here and there, but, I want to be back!  So here goes....

3 months in a nutshell!

End of July/August

I ran the Electric Run with some friends, we continued to enjoy drinks in our driveway (because we're classy!), worked out (a lot. duh!) at the box, & traveled to the Mitten for B's work summer party - we got to see our cutie nephew Weston oh so briefly, step our feet into chilly Lake Michigan & enjoy a rodeo!

September

We enjoyed double dates with great friends, celebrated Labor Day, threw an awesome Mustache Bash for Brandon & Warren's 30th Birthdays, and celebrated our friends' Greg & Ashley's wedding in the beautiful city of Charleston with good friends :)  It was such a great weekend away!

September/October

We celebrated multiple Oktoberfests, got new tattoos, celebrated lots of October birthdays with sweet family in town, killed some more workouts & got some sweet new Reebok CrossFit gear - it was like Christmas in October!

More October & early November

We bought a gorgeous new chair for our living room (which I feel is finally complete!), drank lots of Cottonwood Pumpkin Ale (our new fav!!!), snuggled our cute Halloween pup, & enjoyed a wonderful weekend away in the Mountains with awesome friends!

It's been a great & busy couple of months!  I'm already feeling so mushy & thankful approaching this Holiday season....busy or not, there's always so much to be thankful for & I love documenting it all here!  I'll try to fill in the gaps here & there on these last months when I can & I'm going to be more intentional about blogging.

So if you're all still out there, still reading, thanks!  It's good to be back!

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? ;)