Weekend Recap

I was going to do this last night, but i got wrapped up in Desperate Housewives and The Good Wife and completely forgot to get on my computer :-D

Hope everyone's weekends went well... we were super busy, but it was a great weekend!  We went for our last long-ish run before the half marathon, on Saturday... 6 miles.  It was a great run... one of the best I've had in a long time, and I ran with an average pace of about 30 seconds per mile less than what I plan to run for the half, so that was a great feeling.

J took me to a new place for breakfast after our run.  The Cloverleaf Family Restaurant... it is quite the hole in the wall, but the food is amazing and it's a really good price.  I'd share the website, but they don't have one  :)

We got home and then headed to a Birthday party for one of my coworker's little girl.  She turned 5 and had a rainbow birthday.  Her mom took some of the best and most colorful ideas ever off Pinterest and made a really cute party out of them!  As I was in Walmart trying to figure out what you give a 5 year old, I came up with this cute idea...

10 lollipops, some floral foam, some silk flowers, and small flower pot and some purple ribbon, and voila!  Her mom said she loved it and that 3 of the suckers are already gone...

After the party, we headed down to a local nursery to pick out some flowers for some front yard projects we had in mind.  The result will have to wait for another day, but here's what we came home with... 

Before and afters coming soon...

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

Wedding Wednesday

About 13 months ago (yeah, sorry... I missed the 12 month mark), my awesome Maid of Honor threw my first bridal shower and it was everything I could have asked for.  My mom came down from Indiana and one of my friends who I hadn't seen in a few years, made the trip from Houston to Dallas.

We were at the most amazing winery that quickly became one of my most favorite places to visit and relax at the end of a long week.  It's the same place where J and I bottled wine for the (week before the) wedding, and it's a place that we will probably go every time we are back in the area visiting.

That friend of mine from Houston also brought her fancy camera and gave me some amazing memories of an amazing day...

Me and the MOH

Me and my Houston friend

Two awesome glasses... the one on the right was hand painted by
a lady at the winery who fell in love with my MOH and me
when we were in there a few days before deciding what wine we should serve

Me and Mom

So, here's to the memories of the months leading up to the best day of my life... we should all drink some wine to celebrate  :-D

Mini Gear

I am definitely not a runner.  I've run a few 5Ks, and I'm definitely getting better at those, but now I'm jumping up to a half marathon.  The longest I've ever run in my life is 11.6 miles and that was this past weekend, and now, in 2 more weeks, I will run my first half marathon ever... the Indy Mini Marathon, which is also the LARGEST in the entire country... something like 45,000 people are registered for the run.

My goal is to finish under the "average pace", which was around 2 hours and 29 minutes.  I ran 11.6 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes, which means that I would have 26 minutes to complete that last mile and a half, which means I could walk... right now I feel like I should be able to achieve my goal if I have a pretty good day!

SO, after we finished our run on Saturday, my coach a.k.a. my husband, decided it was time for me to get some new clothes.  We walked in to Dick's and there they were... the most amazing running pants ever.  After trying on a whole bunch of stuff, I decided that yes, I can pull off the bright colors, and so here is my race outfit...

I'm going to wear this sometime this week to make sure it's going to be good for the half.  This is the first time I've ever felt like I can actually complete the race and achieve my goals...

1. Finish the race

2. Run the whole time

3. Come in under the average time

I will say that these goals have been progressive... I started out just wanting to finish.  Somewhere along the way, I decided that I didn't want to just finish, but that I was training to RUN the race and that's what I wanted to do the whole time.

After I decided I wanted to run the whole time, and my 5K times started getting better and better, I decided I wanted to set a pace goal for myself.  It started off being 10 minute pace... then I got hurt and my training got interrupted with physical therapy and I'm not sure when I realized that 10 minute pace was not something I wanted to shoot for anymore, but I think that's too ambitious for my first half because 10 minute pace would mean an overall time of 2 hours 11 minutes.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's impossible for me to do, but I don't want to be disappointed at the end of my first race, either.

So, average pace last year was 2:29:25 and my final goal is to be under that time.

It's almost time... more to come!!

Where for Art Thou Summer?

We have survived Little 500 weekend... for those of you who don't know what that is, you can Google "Greatest College Weekend" and learn all about it.  There were apparently a record number of arrests/citations this weekend, but for those of us who did not join in to the festivities, it really just meant a quiet weekend at the mall and a quiet weekend on the trails here in Bloomington.

I'm officially 2 weeks from my half marathon, and completed my last long run on Saturday (11.6 miles).  I have a couple more six mile runs and then a couple of short runs the week before the race, and then it will be here.  The end of my run proved to be VERY painful for my joints, but I'm hoping water and Gatorade stations along the way will keep my knees and hips from feeling like they are giving up.

2 weeks from now also marks another joyous occasion for me... SUMMER!!  There are so many anniversaries coming up in the next few months, and although last summer seems like FOREVER ago, the last few months have COMPLETELY flown by.

Although I've heard that there will be record summer enrollment this summer, I'm still looking forward to a break from the students.  I am really looking forward to some vacation time, some time at the lake and a chance to explore Bloomington.

Between now and then I have the week from hell, followed by the students' week from hell.  If I can make it through this week and get some sleep next weekend, I should be ready to feel empathetic for them as they take their finals.

I can also assure you that once summer comes along, I'm going to have more time and energy to blog.  I have so much to talk about and show, and so much coming up this summer... I just need to make myself a list, take some pictures and get on here and get going!

Wedding Wednesday

I have a couple of tattoos, but nothing that can't be hidden (they are on my inside ankles) and I have no idea why I love these tattoos so much, but I do.  I think it would be super cute to get these for bridesmaids and put them on the back of their necks or the inside of their wrists... what a great picture they would make, too!

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You can check out all of my Wedding Wednesday pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Wedding Wednesday

It's been just over 9 months since I was married and I still have a HUGE stack of cards up in my craft room (a.k.a. junk room where I'm storing the wedding stuff I haven't gone through) that I want to keep, but didn't know how to keep them together and make it look good.  THEN, I found this great idea.  My goal is to have this done by our anniversary.  I'll probably do one for each of my bridal showers and then do another one for the wedding.  I'll also probably do it with two holes instead of 1, and binder rings, just because I don't know if one will hold all of our cards.  I'm actually really excited to do this project... I may have J help me with it because it means we'll have another chance to look through our cards  :-D

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You can check out all of my Wedding Wednesday pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Wedding Wednesday

I was not too worried about the look of my cake.  I went really simple and two of the three tiers were actually fake because we served sheet cake to our guests (I hate how fondant tastes).  If you are someone who is caught in the cupcake craze, but you want something SUPER fancy, or in my opinion, something with a really vintage feel, you should check out these BEAUTIFUL cupcakes!!!  I love the ones with the pink frosting and pearls the most... how pretty are these?!?!

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You can check out all of my Wedding Wednesday pins on my Wedding Wednesday Pinterest Board!

Happy Hump Day!!!

Siiiiiick

I hate being sick.  I would rather work every day of the week than have to stay home because I'm sick.  OK, maybe that's a little bit extreme.  I started feeling sick on Friday night and then I got on a plane, still feeling kind of icky, and now I have a full on cold.

I'm home sick today and it makes me feel like I'm running a race with work and it's kicking my ass.  I have been trying to catch up on some emails and I am fine when it's things that are easy for me to answer, but when it's stuff that I actually have to think about, I suck.  My brain feels like it's working in slow motion and my body is not patient enough to give it time to work.

I got caught up with a few things, and now I'm going back to my pillow... uhhhhhh, I hate feeling like this!!

What a Week!

One of the things I love most about working in collegiate recreation is our national association.  It has given me a chance to find mentors in those that have come before me, make connections with people my age, and mentor the next generation of recreation professionals.  Each year, we have a national conference where we get together to network, learn and (of course) have fun!

This past week, I got to go to Tampa for the 2012 National Conference and it was one of the best I've ever been to!  This is my sixth conference, and it definitely rivals Minneapolis for the spot as my favorite.  Everything was close by, the weather was great and some of my best NIRSA friends were there to make the week great!

I had a lot going on this week... it was one of my busiest conferences yet.  The highlight for me was getting the chance, as the chair of an award committee, to present this year's award winners in front of the entire association at the opening session.  I was nervous, but I got tons of compliments on my presentation and it was amazing to get to finish my role as the conference chair by meeting and honoring this year's winners.

I had a presentation just about every day, and I felt like I was busy the whole time.  This is the first year that I've ever been so tired that the latest I stayed out was 1:00 am, which is fairly early when you find out the next day that the people you started the night with were out until 3:00 am or 5:00 am... thank goodness I went home before then!

I came home with a crappy cold, and part of me wishes that the conference was longer so I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow, but at the same time, it was such an amazing chance to get a break from work.  It's amazing how there can be people in your life who you can see once a year, and yet, they are some of the people who you feel know you better than some of the people that see you every day.

I'm sure the next few weeks will be filled with reminiscent emails as we approach the summer, and it's kind of sad to me that there are so many people that I don't see more than once a year, at a 4 day conference, but this is going to bring me back to work energized, renewed and ready to finish up our last 5 weeks of school.