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!!

2012 in Review & Looking Forward to 2013

2012 was a great year!!

Of course, it had it's ups and down, but thankfully more ups than downs and the ups were pretty great :)

I tried to keep my year in review shorter rather than longer.  But, let's be honest, we all know I'm long winded ;) I have noticed I have a few more followers, though, so hopefully this will be a better way to get to know me, and I'm looking forward to "getting to know" all of y'all through your pages!

In 2012....

I turned a quarter of a century in March!

In April, we went on a cruise...

And then came home & closed on our house!!

In June, I was one of the MOHs in my cousin Erin & Ryan's Wedding!

And July brought lots of beach trips...

July 4th Week in Virginia Beach!

And my family beach trip in Carolina Beach!

Then at the end of July, we brought this cutie home!

It's hard to believe he was ever this small!!

The fall brought fire pits, football, & B's 29th birthday!  My MIL came in town & we took a trip to Biltmore to celebrate that weekend!

October brought Baby Fever!

My nephews, baby Abel & Wells :)

Sweet Maggie, my friend Rachel's baby girl!

In November we toasted our 2nd Anniversary!

And I got my first tattoo!!

Looking back, I can't help but be thankful for a year of health and happiness!

Looking forward to 2013, I can only hope for the same!

I set a few goals last year.  We didn't achieve all of them to the level we may have hoped, but that's ok.  I'm not huge into resolutions because I think people don't stick to them.  But a goal, you have to work toward a goal.  So that's what I like to set!

In 2013, I hope to...

1 - Finish the Spartan Race.  My goal is finishing!  Haha, I'd like to finish around the 2 hour mark, but I'm not going to be hung up on the time.  (See B's Spartan Race Recaps here & here.)

2 - Complete the Cooper River Bridge Run around the 56 minute mark!  It's a 10K, 6.2 mi, so I think 56 minutes is totally doable, I just need to continue with my running and work on my speed a bit!

3 - Stick to Paleo as a lifestyle.  Of course, I can't do Paleo 100% all of the time.  I mean, I had to have a piece of cake at the gender reveal this past weekend.  But I do want to make sure I'm eating Paleo at least 85% of the time or more!

These are my main goals.  Brandon and I have a few house goals - furniture for the guest bedroom, maybe an outdoor patio this year?  A few spiritual goals - visiting the church that meets at the high school near our house, continuing our devotional.  Some financial goals including paying off my student loans!!  We have a few professional dreams on the horizon as well, so we'll just have to see where 2013 leads us!

I'm so looking forward to a new nephew & niece this year, hopefully a few vacations, a lots of great new memories!

Here's to 2013!!

Holiday Photo Dump

So in an effort to recap all the holidays, a rather large, massive, yet still ladylike, photo dump is in order!  I realize I'm a little late, but I can't let our Christmas & New Years festivities go undocumented!

Christmas vacay started 2 weeks ago and this was my view that night.  Sweetest thing!

Our dining room table was finally delivered on Saturday the 22nd, just in time for all the festivities!!  I was so giddy & still am whenever I walk by!  A full post is coming on this room :)

Saturday after the table delivery, my cousin Erin & I finished up the last of her Christmas shopping and got a very necessary holiday beverage!

Saturday night we hosted the 2nd annual pre-Christmas Family Soup Night!  My mom made Veggie soup and I made Chicken Tortilla soup & cornbread.  Everyone just chatted & enjoyed each other.  It was a full house and it made my heart so full!

That night, Erin & Berkley took a little catnap on the couch :)

We kept with tradition (started last year, so it's tradition now!) and went to the Panther's Game the Sunday before Christmas!

This guy is single ladies!!  For real, snatch him up!  ;)

As you can tell, it was windy & COLD!!!  So naturally, we took turns sitting in the running car to warm up!

I freaking love them!

And all of them!!

We grilled out with a bunch of friends at our house after the game & the boys made a big fire!  Good times were had by all!

We slept in a bit on Christmas Eve, then a lot of fam came over to hang for the day while the women got to cooking in the kitchen!  We postponed a bit of the cooking long enough for a little mani/pedi action & all enjoyed hanging out!!

Christmas Eve night, my brothers & SILs are always with the SILs sides of the family and my aunt, uncle and cousins go see their other side as well.  That leaves B & I, my parents and my grandmother.  So the past 2 years we've gone out to eat and then turned in early.  We came home to finally watch Home Alone!  Turns out I took zero pictures Christmas Eve :(

This is what our tree looked like Christmas morning!  Lots & lots of gifts!!

Sweet Abel sleeping through the madness :)

We watched as the kiddos opened all their gifts first!

Roen was so surprised to get her American Girl Doll!!

Wells sure was proud of his new sword!

Rob, Gale, Brandon & I went in together and got the 3 big kids Razor scooters!  They had a big time riding them in the driveway!

And I couldn't leave out a pic of all the dogs!!  7 in all, what can I say, we're a dog loving family!

It was a really loud, fun filled day!  14 adults, 3 children, 1 baby, and 7 dogs all crammed into our house and I wouldn't want it any other way!  We ate a big dinner that afternoon!  We ate and ate and then ate dessert  :)

That evening, everyone was on their way which meant Brandon & I needed to pack since we were mitten bound the next morning!  We pulled out of our driveway for Michigan at 6 am in the pouring rain on the morning of the 26th!

It rained...

And Berkley slept...

And then it snowed...

And snowed some more...

And snowed some more...

B wasn't amused with my photo taking!  I blame the snow.

It took us 15 hours and 45 minutes, but we finally made it to Brandon's sister & BIL, Ashley & Casey's, house!  It's normally only about a 12 hour drive.  Yuck!!  Still better than our 24 hour trip in 2009.  But that's a story for another day!

Berkley finally met his terrier cousin, Charlie!  And Jameson, too.

He & Charlie were fast friends.  Jamo's ornery, haha.

Thursday night we celebrated with Ashley, Casey & B's mom!  I wore 2 of my favorite presents, a sweater from my parents and my monogram necklace from my SIL.

Of course, mama Joan got the doggies gifts, too!!

This pic cracks me up!!  Sad Santa Berkley!

The dogs & their toys!

Friday we mustered through a workout and enjoyed being lazy...

Played in the barn... 

 And then toasted to good friends and a fun movie night!

We met Brandon's best friend Jordan for dinner (where I had the best Chicken Parm of my life, omg!) and came home to watch Ted with Ash & Casey!!  Hilarious by the way!

Sadly, Saturday morning, we attended the funeral of Brandon's Grandma Shuck.  I never really got to know her when she was well, she suffered from severe dementia.  It was a nice service, though, and I got to learn a lot about the woman she was!  We got to see a lot of family as well!

Saturday night was our dinner out with Brandon's mom's side of the family and our gift exchange!  

We took one picture all night.  Fail!  But it was a fun evening seeing everyone and eating Grandma's fudge!  Yum!

Sunday morning we were QC bound again.  Our trips to Michigan always seem so short, I wish they could be longer!!  It was a really wonderful visit, though!  I'm blessed to have such a great second family!

Monday, Christmas 2012 came down and our house went back to normal!  Hallelujah!!  I was not sad to see it go.  I met Ashley & Rachel for breakfast, ran some errands and then worked out.  

We really wanted to just sit on our couch for New Years, but we'd made plans to head to our friend's house party, so we grabbed dinner beforehand & then had just the right amount of fun!

Sparkles are always necessary on NYE!

Cheers to 2013!!