Part of life is having a good ponytail

Arizona Rock n Roll Half Marathon Recap

2012-01-23T20:57:00.000-06:00

Well I survived another race.

It's only taken me a week to finally get around to recapping it. I blame a mid-week work trip to New York and some much needed house cleaning this weekend for my delay.

So, back to the race recap.

I flew into Phoenix on Friday night. After grabbing some dinner, my cousin and I called it a night fairly early. On Saturday we did the usual: slept in, ate breakfast, survived the expo, figured out parking for the next day, drank lots of water, ate sushi, watched football, drank more water, ate pizza, and went to bed early.

Obligatory race outfit pic.

We woke up bright and early, grabbed our gear, some food to eat on the road and drove the 15 minutes to our exit. We then ran into traffic. Lots of traffic. All trying to exit the same place.

Then I realized I forgot my Garmin. Sad day.

I guess in years past the Phoenix race started in downtown and finished by Arizona State University. This year the marathon kept the same course but they changed the half marathon to start and end right by the ASU stadium. I guess when they made this decision they didn't factor in that there is basically one exit off the highway. Why not take some back roads? Being that we weren't locals, we weren't about to risk taking any route or exit other than the one listed in our packet.

See that line of white lights. That's the bridge we are all trying to get across.

Having friends that put on major events and races I tried to put some of the blame on us. Maybe we should have left 30 minutes earlier or even an hour earlier but honestly that would have only put us crossing the bridge...maybe. As we continued to sit in traffic, it became clear that we were going to miss the start of the race. But so were all the people in line behind us.

I was starting to have anxiety about missing the start. So we tried to distract ourselves with eating our bagels and peanut butter, listening to top 40 hits and talking about the people that were getting out of their cars and walking to the start. We didn't have the luxury of abandoning our car being that we weren't getting dropped off and we were sporting my cousin's company car.

Finally, after an hour of trying to exit the highway we were crossing the bridge. So close, yet so far. After passing about 5 cops that were standing around NOT directing traffic we made our way into the parking garage. We found the nearest port-o-potty, took a quick pit stop and then started jogging to the start. We were shocked when we came to the starting line and they were calling out corral 8. We were in 12. We had made it! {We later found out that they had delayed the start slightly. There was also a light rail at the start that passed periodically that slowed down the start.}

Honestly, I vaguely remember any of the race. I knew I felt good and we were staying on pace. We did have a lovely conversation with some stranger about the benefits of ice baths. It's amazing the knowledge you can gain for a couples miles about ice baths. We think he was a ghost. He appeared out of no where and disappeared just as quickly. We later saw him educating others on the benefits of ice baths.

Yes, we are matching. No we didn't plan it.

Remember how we sat in the car for an hour drinking and eating? Well, I had to go to the bathroom starting at about mile 3. I was able to last until mile 6 or so. After the fastest bathroom stop in my history of races {I must have an over hydration issue because it's seriously happens every race} we were back on the road. Being Garmin-less I'd occasionally ask my cousin for our pace. We were rockin.

Thumbs up.

I remember thinking we got lost at one point because we were suddenly no longer in the city but what felt like the middle of the desert. I also remember thinking I might die at mile 11 or so, like I do every race. I also remember thinking I look ridiculous in these compression shorts but they are a life saver for my IT band, so...don't care.

Jazz hands.

As we approached the finish my cousin and I decided to sprint the last .1 of the race. No one else around us did. So that was awkward. Almost as awkward as this finishing pic.

More jazz hands.

I'm not sure how I did it. Not only did I survive the race but I PR'd! I finally beat my fastest race, which happened to be the first half I ever did. The sixth time was the charm.

After grabbing some water, stretching a bit and grabbing a bagel for the road we pushed our way through the crowd back to the car. It was weird not having anyone to meet at the finish line but it was also nice to get out before traffic got too bad.

Hi Mom- We finished in our matching outfits and matching camelbacks.

Moral of the story: I still don't like Rock n' Roll races, too big, too unorganized, not nearly the number of bands as they promote, the entry fees are too high etc. But at least I got a PR! 2:13:52

xoxo

Kelly

P.S All photos were taken by my phone, unless they have a huge "Proof" across them. Those I borrowed from MarathonFoto. Please don't sue. I promise to buy a photo at some point in life.

How did this happen?

2012-01-12T09:43:00.000-06:00

I'm running another half marathon on Sunday.

Well, I guess I signed up for the race is how "this" happened. But I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking, especially since it's a Rock n' Roll race and they aren't really my favorite {Or maybe it's just the San Antonio Rock n' Roll I hate with its terrible humidity in November. Or maybe it's just the outrageous entry fee prices I hate}. I guess I'll have a true opinion of the Rock n Roll series after this weekend. Luckily, my favorite cousin is running with me so we can suffer together. We will also be able to have a much needed weekend catching up on life in fabulous Phoenix.

At one point in time this blog was more focused on running. I'd post my weekly runs, work outs, goals, etc. Life slowly took over the blog and running has slowly taken a back seat. So, to recap my fitness/training the last few months:

Have I been training? Yes....some.

Have I been running as much as I did for other races? No. Am I ok with that? Yes.

Have I been incorporating more strengthen training {via boot camp}, interval training {via boot camp and sprints on the track} and cross training {commuting via bike} this go around? Yes.

Do I think I'll PR this week? Probably not.

Do I want to try and improve my previous race times? Yes.

Is the main goal not to die and to have fun? Definitely.

<Insert motivational tag line>

{Let's do this. Just do it. Cheers to another race. Let's get this party started...oh wait, I think that last one relates to Zumba. But you get the idea.}

Kelly

Resolutions, Goals, Mini-Goals, Blah, Blah, Blah...

2012-01-05T13:52:00.002-06:00

I've gone back and forth on making any New Years resolutions or goals for 2012. Honestly, I've had issues re-entering both work and life after the holidays so I think I've been too lazy to write them more than anything. I'm sure you are tired of reading about everyone's resolutions anyway, I know I am.

My struggle, like most, is making some bold claim at the beginning of the year and then never achieving them or looking back at what those bold claims/resolutions even were. Even if I made resolutions with specific numbers attached: i.e. 10 pounds to loose, 20 books to read, 5 states to see etc. I never stick to them.

I considered making monthly goals. They seem more feasible given an set amount of time to achieve them. Honestly, I'm not sure I'm dedicated enough to writing/achieving/recapping monthly goals. Even though it would create some blog content...The rest of my life is one big "to-do" list I don't think I want my blog to become my "to-do" list keeper.

This year I want to keep it simple. For me I want 2012 to be the "Year of More."

I want to say I Love You more.

I want to unplug more.

I want to travel more but at the same time stay home more.

I want to visit friends and family more but I also want friends and family to visit us more so we don't have to leave town :)

I want to eat better....more often.

I want to be outside more.

I need/want to purge more stuff.

I need to slow down more and enjoy the life we have in Austin.

I want to cook more.
I need to stretch more, foam roll more, and ice more.

I want to run more miles and more races. See above to make this happen.
I want to bike more to work and on the weekends.

I want to save more money so maybe one day we can move out of our 1950's duplex rental and buy a house that has insulation and heat. {Did I tell you about our lack of heat? It's like camping in our home.}

I want to read more, both on my new Kindle and the old fashion way.

I want to give and receive more hugs.

~~I want to write a blog post that sounds like a "Live, Laugh, Love." poster.~~ We can cross that one off the list I think I just achieved that.

Hum...it appears I just wrote the resolution/goal/2012 post, you know the one I've been tired of reading everywhere else on the internet. But at least I kept it real. With "More" being my only goal I should be able to achieve at least a few of them.

Also, at least I left off drink more booze as a goal. I think that's moving in the right direction for 2012. Baby steps people. No...not those baby steps. There will be no actual baby steps in 2012.

Kelly

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000-06:00

Hope you have a wonderful 2012! Now let's start working off all those holiday pounds.

Cheers!

Kelly

P.S. Sorry the whole 2011 recap in pictures didn't happen, in short we worked, we slept, I ran, we talked about moving and going back to grad school...then didn't do it, we ate, we purged our stuff, we traveled to see family, we honeymooned, I finally finished recapping our wedding, we went to weddings, I went back to bootcamp, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary, I completed my first Pinterest project, and we went snowboarding in Utah. Woohoo!

Our Christmas

2011-12-30T17:00:00.001-06:00

We were able to spend Christmas with our loving family and wonderful friends in Oklahoma. We had a whirlwind tour of visiting family and eating. Lots and lots of eating. Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to a loved one this holiday season. Losing someone you love is never easy, losing them around the holidays makes it even harder. So, this recap won't be full of festive pictures {because honestly I didn't take any, hopefully someone did...} or the awesome gifts we received because it became clear that those things don't really matter. Spending time with our Families and celebrating the reason for the season is what really matters most.

Please say a prayer for my Sister-in-law and her family. Her Dad lost his 18 month battle with cancer last week.

xoxo

Kelly

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:30:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Love,

Brandon, Kelly & Max

Holiday Season

2011-12-21T12:52:00.001-06:00

As I was updating/cleaning up/reviewing my Facebook timeline yesterday {which is really a pain btw--I'm having to clean up things from "The Facebook" days that isn't necessary for my mother, grandmother, or employer to see. Not anything super scandalous. Just the occasional "colorful" status update. But still it's a pain}. Anyway, I soon realized how little I've dedicated to the holidays on the blog this year.

There was no pumpkin carving post at Halloween.

No showing off of our pumpkins.

There was no recap of Thanksgiving at home in New Mexico with the Fam.

Or talks of how Maxwell wants to move to the mountains so we can run and play and not be a wussy city dog.

Or even discussion of the disgusting mustache my husband decided to grow.

You might be thinking "Oh, He was growing it for the Movember..." No, he just decided to grow one and kept it long past November 30th. I hate it.

Soon, it was December and our house was full of projects. I feel like I only touched the surface of our happenings when I revealed our Christmas decorations. {Please note all presents with the exception of 1 or 2 have all been purchased, wrapped, shipped if necessary and are ready for transport to Oklahoma. I rock}.

We have had some super top secret crafting projects lately. They involve lots of sewing! Hopefully, I can reveal my mad sewing skills and Brandon's sweatshop/quality control skills after Christmas gifts are opened.

Finally, I don't know who plans on taking a vacation in the middle of the craziness that is December but we did to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. We spent 3 nights in Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City and had a fabulous time.

There wasn't any fresh powder on the slopes but we had a great time anyway snowboarding at both Snowbird and Brighton. Side note: Everyone in Utah is a professional skier/snowboarder. I am not. This is bad for the self esteem when the Justin Bieber look a likes and Shawn White wannabes are kicking your butt.

As you can see the disgusting 'stache was still around in Utah. Thankfully it is now gone!!! It's a Christmas miracle!

After our second day on the slopes we drove over to Park City and had a wonderful dinner! Any good blogger would have the name of the restaurant, pictures of the food and a picture of us eating said food etc. I don't. I'm not a very good blogger.

Honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to go back to New Mexico or Colorado snow again. The Mormons did find the promise land of great snow.

And awesome Christmas tree decorations {outside Brigham Young's house}

And multicultural nativity scenes. Or as they were once referred to by a family friend "Activity Scenes".

In short, Utah rocks. Let's go back.

Yes, I just crammed 2 months of posts into 1 super long "Holiday" post but I'm lucky I got this one together. Let's be honest my "list" of things to do is OUT OF CONTROL {Like everyone else in the world}.

It could be hit or miss the next week so: Merry Christmas! Also, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Happy Boxing Day, Happy New Year etc. in advance!

xoxo

Kelly

To Tree or Not to Tree is no Longer the Question

2011-12-06T10:00:00.000-06:00

Thank you for all of your suggestions!

I decided to bite the bullet and go with a fresh, baby tree. It just doesn't seem like Christmas without one. After various stops at Lowe's, HEB and Home Depot I finally found one that was the perfect size. It might not be the perfect tree but it fits our space and I was able to use the bucket idea from Pinterest. I think this is the first idea I've ever actually used from Pinterest. For $20 I was able to get the tree, the stand, and the little tin bucket. At first I was going to put it on the ground but upon further scrutiny we decided it looked best on the end-table when you first walk in. {Yes, Brandon had input on the tree placement but little else.}

We even got our stockings hung. {I attempted to start making Brandon's, as the one hanging is temporary, but I think a trip to my Grandma's is in order. I need help.}

So, due to the small size, and wussy branches, I had to be selective on which ornaments I used. Anything remotely heavy was automatically out. I decided to go with a red, white and silver theme, mainly because I had holiday balls in those colors and they were light in weight. I'm not usually one for "themes" on my trees but I thought a color palette looked best on this little tree. {Warning this part gets lame} You see....

Once upon a time a little snowman

Fell in love with a snow-woman.

And lived happily ever after.

I now realize why my siblings think I'm so lame.

So, it turns out we have lots of snowmen oranments in red and white :). There are a few holes that I need to fill in but overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Between getting the tree up, decorations out, and some presents ordered it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Merry Christmas Y'all.

xoxo

Kelly

To Tree or Not to Tree

2011-12-02T09:47:00.001-06:00

Living in 850 sq feet has its fair share of challenges. Like having enough room for my shoes. Or having enough room for more than 2 people over at any given time.

Or my current dilemma...having enough room for a Christmas tree.

I don't like to decorate the day after Thanksgiving or even anytime in November for that matter. I like to have time to recover from too much turkey and pie. But this year I started thinking about Christmas early. I blame the semi-cold weather we've been having. This week I decided to drag out the decorations....before Dec. 1st. The horror! {Also, how is it already December?} I soon came to the harsh reality....I don't know if we have room for a tree this year.

So, rather than focusing on our lack of space, I started to put out the few decorations that weren't sold in our garage sale last spring. The most fun was finding the tree and ornaments that I bought after Christmas last year at Target.

I also kept one of our Christmas cards from last year and framed it to be displayed. In theory, it will be fun to look back at all of our Christmas cards on display. In practice, I'm not sure how long it will last. Yes, I put some pine cones, berries, and rope of beads into some vases and called them "decorations."

You might recognize our "pine-cone-hangy-things" from our Wedding. Last Christmas my Grandmother made one of them into a Christmas version for us.

This was my attempt at something to hang above our fireplace last year. It went up on the wall again even though we don't have a fireplace because I haven't been very crafty this year.

So, that concludes our current decorations. Sad I know but when you're dealing with only 850 sq feet I feel it's best to keep it simple because I don't really want it to look like Santa threw up in our living room. The other sad thing is I haven't even gotten my stocking out....and haven't exactly made Brandon's yet either. I bought the template last fall and haven't started working on it yet. I'm hoping by next Christmas he'll have a stocking....Wife fail.

Anyway, back to the question at hand, To tree or Not to tree? What should I do about my desire to have a tree but no real space for one:

1) A little baby tree in a pot

Source: housetweaking.com via Kelly on Pinterest

2) An even smaller tree to put on the entry table

Source: bhg.com via Kelly on Pinterest

3) A Charlie Brown Tree

Source: victoriamag.com via Kelly on Pinterest

4) No tree at all but put ornaments on some garland {Why did I sell the garland last spring? Why don't I have a mantle?}

Source: smallnotebook.org via Kelly on Pinterest

5) No tree at all but get a new house plant that will hopefully stay alive longer than just the holidays and decorate it.

Source: google.com via Kelly on Pinterest

6) Or realize I'm crazy, that it's not in the cards this year and have no tree at all....

Help.

Kelly

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T17:57:00.001-06:00

Hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends!

If I had thought ahead I would have put together a post of all the things I'm thankful for from the past year...but it didn't happen. We are all so blessed to be happy and healthy.

Today, I'm thankful for being at home in the mountains with my family, wonderful husband and crazy dog!

I think it's time for more food and football! And pie...

xoxo

Kelly

Old Married Folks: "Green Thumb"

2011-11-16T20:30:00.000-06:00

Like I mentioned before this "Old Married Folks" series could alternatively be title "Evidence we're turning into hipsters and/or hippies." This post is no different...It might be worse.

Earlier in the fall Brandon and I decided to plant a garden because naturally that seemed like the old married thing to do. Brandon and I have been notorious for killing plants {another example of why we aren't ready for kids...we have a hard enough time keeping up with Maxwell}. So, we didn't want to invest too much money, time or resources into a full fledged garden.

So, off the local nursery we went to pick up plants and soil. I don't have the patience for planting seeds so baby plants it was. We started out with basil {I know it's the end of the season but it was still in the 100's when we planted}, spinach, broccoli, and onions.

We started out with 4 spinach plants because we like spinach. We eat a lot of it and use it for smoothies in the morning.

Freshly planted.

Unfortunately, we might have planted it a little too early and since the Texas heat continued into the fall our spinach slowly started to die.

But eventually the temps dropped and our spinach was thriving and became a spinach producing machine.

Well, fast forward to now and we still have one plant going strong. The other three are dieing slow deaths.

We foolishly planted 6 broccoli plants. They died real fast, blame it on the heat or the drought or our lack of skills. So much for our vision of having fresh veggies...I think something started digging into our pots which didn't help our cause any.

Our final green thumb experiment involved onions. We got a few green onions outta the batch but overall it was a bust.

So, we aren't starting our own full fledged backyard garden and we definitely won't make it through the winter. We'd totally die in the olden times when you actually had to grow your own food.

Luckily, if things get real bad we will totally survive on pickled goods. I won't drag Brandon into this hipster web I'm about to weave... but I went to a pickling class last week. I wish I could say my co-workers dragged me to the class {which they did} but my inner hipster, who loves pickles, really enjoyed the class. I'll report back after Thanksgiving on my first attempt at refrigerator pickles. I had to do a combo pack of carrots and dilly beans because the group was running low on supplies.

Pickling is actually very easy, who knew? Kate, the girl who taught the class, showed us ways to can pickles that don't require a hot bath. In other words, it's easier but you have to eat them within a month or so and can't leave them on your shelf until the next Y2K. I think I totally lost any street cred I ever had.

Finally, our green thumb, or attempt to support someone that has a green thumb, or attempt to pick up a hipster card continues with our joining of a CSA {Community Supported Agriculture}. Luckily, someone named Johnson can grow some veggies in this town because it sure isn't us.

I'm still not sure if this falls into the hipster, hippie, "Stuff white people like" or concern for our overall health as we turn into an old married couple but we are going to give it a go for a bit. Luckily, we were able to ride our bikes {Brandon now has a milk crate on his bike} to pick up the box of goodies tonight. You might as well dedicate an entire post on "Stuff white people like" to us we are a walking endorsement.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm actually going to do with all of this stuff, especially since I can only identify about half of the items we received. Luckily, the Johnson Backyard Garden website has storage, prep and recipes for all of the veggies they provide.

No, but really what do I do with all of this... I guess I'm not ready for this part of being an old married hipster. Luckily, I can just pickle it all if things go south.

Kelly

P.S. Now, you might be thinking that people in the country have been gardening, pickling, and getting veggies from their neighbor for years...which is true. But when folks in Austin, like us, try to participate in these activities it just looks like another win for the hipsters. Luckily, Melissa opened my eyes to the world of Hipster Girl today. Obviously, I made two versions of my brown haired hipster.

With the exception of the "sleeve" what does it mean when my closest looks very similar to the accessories featured on the site... Oh right, I'm just trying to be cool and fit in with my "new crowd."

Old Married Folks: "No Car Weekend"

2011-11-13T19:35:00.001-06:00

Looking ahead to other posts I have planned for this "Old Married Folks" series I realize we could alternatively title these "Evidence we're turning into hipsters."

This weekend we embarked on a "No car weekend." Ironically, it was suppose to be a very heavy car/driving weekend. We originally had planned on going to see my Grandparents, who live 6 hours away. Unfortunately, my Grandmother was diagnosed with a highly contagious bacterial infection on Friday before we were scheduled to leave. So, we found ourselves at home this weekend with no plans. And being old married folks we obviously didn't have any friends to call up to hang out with. Or clubs we needed to go out to. Or whatever the kids do these days.

So, rather than spending 12+ hours in the car this weekend we ended up not driving at all. After getting home from work on Friday our cars have yet to leave the driveway and unless one of us randomly needs to go to the hospital tonight then we will have completed our first no car weekend.

This might not seem like a big deal for someone that lives in a city with good public transportation or in a central downtown type area but this was quite an accomplishment for us. This doesn't mean we sat on the couch and never left the house either. We did watch a lot of football but....

We also rode our bikes to get dinner on Friday.
We went on a run Saturday morning {Yes, WE. Brandon has started to slowly take up running}
On Saturday we rode our bikes to get a late lunch and grab a couple beers.
This morning Brandon rode to two different stores to pick up a couple things for breakfast. {The first one wasn't opened yet. He's the best, he brought me cinnamon rolls}
This afternoon I wanted to go shoe shopping but the stipulation was we had to ride our bikes. So off to Marshalls, DSW, REI and Nordstrom Rack we went. Unfortunately, I didn't find the shoes I wanted but it was an adventure. Turns out there aren't many side walks or bike lanes outside our usual neigborhood trips. {We are now those smug bicycle people when there aren't bike lanes, sidewalks etc.}
On our way home from shoe shopping we stocked up on a few groceries for the week ahead. Luckily, it was a small trip this week so they fit into my sweet new basket and messenger bag.

I'd say 20+ miles on the bike this weekend is way healthier than siting in the car for 12 hours. I hate that we didn't get to see my Grandparents but I look forward to more weekends on our new found transportation.

Yes, we are totally turning into hipsters. Except for the whole fixed gear bike part of being a hipster. No, we like our 24 speeds. And if we aren't turning into hipsters we are just trying to accomplish the entire post on "Stuff White People Like" on Bicycles.

Kelly

P.S. I thought about Google mapping our bike travels to show you our adventures but then that would mean you'd know where we live and that would be creepy.

Old Married Folks: "Projects"

2011-11-10T19:17:00.001-06:00

When I first saw Old School I thought this was a joke:

No, one would ever in their right mind spend Saturday working on "projects," going to Home Depot/Bed Bath Beyond/ etc.

Oh, how times have changed.

Life as an old married couple has turned into many a weekend at Home Depot/Lowe's/Ikea/Target and we don't even own a home. Nope, we're in a crappy duplex we're trying to make a home.

Friday nights that were once spent going out are now spent on the couch "resting" for Saturdays. Saturdays that were once spent day drinking with friends now involve manual labor at home. We've been busy the last couple months working on cars {well one of us}, finishing gallery walls, making curtains, hat racks and more. {I mentioned these projects before but didn't have any photos. I bring them up again because obviously I needed material for my first post in my "Old Married Folks" series}.

Anyway, I briefly discussed the gallery walls that I created sans wedding photos. Well, I finally purchased wedding photos to go in the frames, which obviously led to more holes in the walls.

Living Room

Extra Bedroom

We also have places to hang our coats. With some help from Brandon and some hooks from Home Depot I made a coat rack out of the left over wood from our wedding sign.

Finally, I've complained multiple times about having window units. The other thing that is really inconvenient about window units {other than overall sucking} is trying to find curtains for them. Everyone else has moved up to the world of central air, so window treatments are lacking. So, with the help of Ikea fabric, a little sewing and some ironing I created a curtain for our room.

{I need to learn how to take better photos}

I could go into Brandon's car projects but honestly they are really boring and he has his own internet friends {don't tell him I told you but he has his own "blogging friends" on this forum for his car}.

Next on my made up series on being old and married....other old married things.

Kelly

Pain in the Butt

2011-11-07T14:59:00.001-06:00

I recently started running again.

So, in addition to a couple days of boot camp and my Friday bike rides to work I decided to start running a couple days a week. Running in the fall and winter in Austin is way more enjoyable then running in 110 degree heat in the summer. I'd rather freeze any day than die of a heat stroke. So, naturally a couple days of good runs have turned into "Maybe I should do another race."

What does this mean? Well, I currently have a plane ticket to Phoenix in January {it was a super deal and couldn't pass it up}. So, I'm either talking a weekend vacation to the desert in January or I'm running the Rock n' Roll half marathon. We won't talk about the longer race I'm considering later in the spring.

At some point last week I started to develop this slight pain in my butt/hip. It didn't really bother me working out or running, only while sitting at my desk at work or in the car. It was a dull annoying pain. After having a history of IT band issues, I immediately started the usual, ice, foam roll, stretch and Google search diagnosis. My current self-diagnosis is piriformis syndrome. Or a pain in the butt.

So, rather than going to boot camp on Thursday I did some easy yoga to try and stretch out my hip/butt and started rolling on a tennis ball {a Google treatment find} Well, the pain in the butt showed up a little during my boot camp on Saturday morning. I didn't make it any better by trying to run 5 miles later in the morning. Talk about the worst 5 mile run ever {not necessarily because of the pain, which there was some, but because I started cramping from to eating too much before. Rookie mistake}With more ice, more stretching, and more rolling I decided I needed new shoes. {I always wait too long to replace them...}

Sunday afternoon Brandon and I rode our bikes to the Texas Running Company downtown to get fitted for some new kicks. After doing a gait analysis on film, Brian {My sales dude. We are practically BFF's now. He runs Track and Cross Country for UT. He's kinda a big deal. At least in my mind he is} brought out a variety of brands that fit my {poor} running style. The first pair he had me try on were some Nike's. I tried to nicely explain to him that I'd try them on but I have a narrow foot and in the past Nike's haven't worked for me. {Growing up I could never wear the "popular shoes" ie Nike, Adidas, Reebok etc. No, my Mom would take us to the next town over to this weird specialty shoe store that had narrow shoe sizes. Well, let's say I was sportin' New Balance before they "cool." It has basically traumatized me for life and now I have shoe issues.} So, anyway I tried on the shoes Brian recommended and whatta know, they fit great. After eliminating some Ascics and New Balance it came down to some Brooks and the Nikes. Well, after sporting Mizunos for the last two pairs of running shoes, I've gone to the dark side. I feel so "cool" now.

{Please excuse the poor picture quality due to a humid/fogged up camera on my phone this morning. Also, please ignore the spinach plant that appears to be coming out of the shoe. More on gardening in a later post.}

Anyway, it might have been a selling point when Brian told me he also trains in these shoes {I'm a total sucker} and that they won't get filthy on the Town Lake trail. And like I said, we are practically BFF's so I trust him. He even helped me with some stretches for my hurt hip. In all seriousness, I'd highly recommend Texas Running Company, because they analysis your stride on film. Unlike some other running stores in town that have you jog a bit in the store and then push whatever shoe they are trying to sell at that point in time.

So, this morning I took them for a short run with Max and they felt great. The pain was really dull and not nearly as bad as Saturday. But don't think I'm all self-diagnosis via Google and no professional help, I've backed off of my training a bit and have an appointment next week with the folks that fixed my IT band at the Airrosti clinic. I'm going to get rid of this pain in my butt before it gets out of control like I let my IT band.

Kelly

P.S. My opinions on the awesome service and imaginary friendship with Brian and the folks at Texas Running Company are totally my own. They have no clue who I am, other than the sweaty bike riding girl who bought some running shoes on Sunday.

First Anniversary Recap

2011-10-31T09:10:00.000-05:00

Our first anniversary turned out to be an interesting one.

Even though our anniversary was on Sunday {Oct. 23} we decided to go out to eat on Friday night. We went to Braise, a new-ish restaurant that we'd heard great things about. To make a longer story short, we never actually ate dinner there. We weren't sat until 45 minutes after our reservation, the Chef came out and blamed the wait on "people eating slow" {really? you are going to blame your customers?} and after being seated we weren't acknowledged or offered water, bread or wine for over 10 minutes. This was a small restaurant folks and super annoying to see the 3 servers continually walk by you. {I've waited tables at a variety of restaurants which made me more annoyed. Just give me some bread and water and I'll be ok for a little while.} Anyway, the tipping point was when we realized there was an 8 top that was seated when we first arrived at the restaurant and they hadn't eaten anything.

We walked out. Moral of the story, good food or not we won't be going back. We ended up finding another place to eat and drowned our sorrows with a bottle of wine and dessert.

The highlight of the weekend was the event we attended, on behalf of my work, for the local public radio station KUT. It might have been the free food and free booze, or maybe it was my brush with NPR fame, Steve Inskeep {Yes, we had a "moment"} but we had a great time.

We wrapped up our anniversary weekend with a nice night at home. We had steaks, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic bread and mashed potatoes and honestly I enjoyed it more than going out to a nice restaurant, especially after our experience on Friday. We also enjoyed red velvet and carrot cupcakes in honor of our wedding.

And drank wine that received as a wedding present. It was a great night at home.

We had intended on keeping with the traditional first anniversary gift of paper but totally ended up going all crazy. Instead, we both ended up with metal gifts. I guess if there is a metal year we'll do paper.

Brandon got tools for working on his car.

And I got a rack for the back of my bike. The sweet milk crate came from my "friend" at the convenient store on the corner, fo' free.

For the average Joe {or whatever the equivalent is for ladies} this wouldn't be very exciting. But I have started to dabble in commuting to work via my bike and I was pretty pumped about the rack. After 5 miles of riding with my laptop in a messenger bag my shoulder was always killing me but the rack totally solved this problem. So, far I have only been commuting via bike on Fridays but I might try and add in a few more days depending on the number of client meetings and the potential amount of sweating.

{PSA: Please note that I usually wear a helmet and closed toe shoes. I was just modeling the new rack/milk crate in front of the house. Safety first folks. Also, spandex is never involved in my commute. I'm not trying to be Lance Armstrong on a road bike and neither should you. Also, don't be a bad driver. There have been a few times I feared for my life. Bike lanes and sidewalks are your friend.}

So, after a bad start to the weekend things progressively got better. Now if we can just fast forward to our real anniversary celebration shreddin' the g'nar in Utah, all would be right in the world.

Kelly

Google Reader

2011-10-28T12:25:00.000-05:00

Do you enjoy keeping up with the blogs you read/follow in Google Reader?

Do you wish you'd take the time to comment more often on those blogs?

Do you hate exiting out of Google Reader to actually comment on a post?

Well, this is how I've felt for some time now.

I might be EXTREMELY late to this game but I have recently discovered a revolutionary "next" feature on Google Reader. What is this feature you might ask? Well, it basically solves all of my problems stated above.

You too can enjoy the benefits of "Next." Go to your Reader Settings. Under the "Goodies" tab scroll down until you see "Put Reader in a bookmark."

Drag that little "Next" button into your bookmark bar. Mine is located next to my Pin it button.

Now all you have to do is click "Next" and it will take you to your first unread post in your Google Reader. Click next again and it goes to the next post and so on. Now, this might not be great if you have a million unread posts in your reader OR if you subscribe to blogs that post a million times a day. If either of those are the case it might be time to do a Reader cleanse/mark all as read....

What's so great about this feature? Well, for 1) it will increase my chances of actually commenting, 2) now I get to see what the blogs I'm reading actually look like and what other features/posts I might be missing and 3) that blog gets a well deserved "hit" on their site.

So like I said I might be the last person on earth to know about this feature but I find it to be awesome. It's just another example of Google taking over the world.

Kelly

P.S. If you have no idea what I'm talking about then just smile, nod and continue on with your day.

You are the best thing

2011-10-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Crazy to think it's already been a year.

Seems like yesterday that we had our first look in the garden.

Seems like yesterday that we promised to love each other more everyday.

Seems like yesterday that we were in the mountains of New Mexico with all of our friends and family.

Seems like yesterday that we were hitting golf balls off of the #9 tee box.

Seems like yesterday that we were dancing to Ray, "You are the best thing."

Seems like yesterday we were leaving as a married couple in a sea of golden aspen leaves.

The past year has flown by. We couldn't be happier.

Love,

Kelly

P.S. Keeping with the tradition of celebrating major events after the fact, {like our delayed honeymoon} we are taking a delayed anniversary trip to Utah to snowboard in December. That's how we roll. This weekend we are laying low at home with celebratory wine, cupcakes and good food.

It seems like it's already December

2011-10-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

After a fairly relaxed, unplanned, "stay-at-home" fall things are quickly getting added to our schedule in the coming months. With family coming to visit, birthday parties, snow boarding trips, trying to visit both of our families and not to mention the holiday season in general our weekends are slowly filling up. Seems crazy to already be talking about "the holidays." Seems even more crazy that it was actually in the 50's last night.

Which brings me to my next point, Christmas cards. I'm not one to skip over Halloween or Thanksgiving, unlike Petsmart who had their Christmas dog toys out on display....but I'm already thinking about Christmas cards. If you really want to know about our Halloween plans, we are having our annual pumpkin carving contest, handing out candy, and not dressing up. As for Thanksgiving... it's still up in the air as to where we will actually be but it will involve eating. Anyway, back to the Christmas cards.

Last year, it was an easy decision. We had wonderful wedding photos that we wanted to show off and Shutterfly's card creation process made it so easy.

This year I plan on using Shutterfly again to create our Christmas cards but I have a small dilemma. We don't have beautiful professional photography, only pictures off of Facebook for the past year.

The other dilemma I'm having is all of the choices on Shutterfly.

Do you go with traditional 5 X7?

{No, we don't have a child}

Or pay more for postage and have a 5X5 card?

{No we don't have children. But we do have a black dog}

Not to mention the decision of flat vs. folded. Do you use 1 photo or multiple photos?

See what I mean? A lot of unanswered questions when it comes to picking a Christmas card. Hopefully. I'll find a good picture to use between now and official ordering season.

Have no fear, you too can start stressing about your Holiday cards. I have 3 coupon codes for 25 free cards from Shutterfly for my fine readers. So, the first 3 folks that comment below and let me know what size and type of card you would pick wins! {Make sure you include your email}. Maybe it will help me decide on our card!

Do you usually send out a Christmas card?

Kelly

P.S. Shutterfly was generous enough to offer me 50 free Christmas cards this holiday season. I wasn't required to blog about their various card options but I was happy to partner up with them to bring holiday cheer!

Life at the State Fair

2011-10-06T19:35:00.001-05:00

I attended my very first Texas State Fair yesterday.

Really it was my first state fair ever. My parents hated me and my siblings as children and would never took us to the fair. But after reviewing my bank account today I understand why.

Your first thought may be who goes to the fair on a random Wednesday? Well, my office decided to take a field trip to Dallas for the day. Turns out I'm not the only non-fair goer.

We started the day with some fried cake balls and fried chicken skins. Yes, no chicken just skin. The thought is kinda gross. How else do you start a fair experience? {Please keep in mind when I recap the outrageous amount of fried food consumed that there were 4 of us sharing}.

Before we ate too much we decided a ride on the ferris wheel was in order.

This was the only ride we went on. I've been on too many shady "i-think-im-going-to-die" carnival rides in my day and decided that the ferris wheel was enough.

Next we moved onto what I call the "healthy" part of the day. We had some corn in a cup {it was mixed with cheese and various other unhealthy things} and some cucumber sticks with cayenne pepper. I know seems random.

Before we went to, the highlight of the day, the dog shows we had the award winning deep fried buffalo chicken in a flap jack. It was good, but not crispy enough for our liking.

Anyway, back to the dogs. These were the highest jumping, farthest leaping, fastest catching dogs I'd ever seen.

I took top secret video. Training for Max starts on Saturday.

From there it was onto the petting zoo and the 1100 pound pig. None of the other animals in the petting zoo were as interesting or as huge.

And no fair is complete without a butter sculpture. Yes, that's butter. So disgusting.

Obviously, at this point it's time for more eating, fried green tomatoes, deep fried biscuits and gravy, and potato twisters.

After visiting the wine garden, the beer garden, various exhibits, and the car show we had to get ready for the main event. The pig races.

After eating a fried ball of saurkaut and fried cheesecake we watched the very short State Fair parade. But like all good things, they must come to an end. Luckily we squeezed in a fried mashed potato ball and fried snickers bar before calling it a night.

Go big or go home.

Kelly

PS. Yes, the diet already started.

Oh the Humanity

2011-10-03T21:12:00.000-05:00

I must thank my husband for being so creative and thinking up the title of this post. See Brandon, I gave you credit.

Ever since I graduated college and joined the working world I found lots of time on my hands. I was no longer juggling school, work, an internship and playing Division II golf. So what did I do with all of this free time? Well, I worked some. I ran some. I played various social sport leagues. I cooked some. I planned a wedding. I blogged some. We moved a couple times and I purged all our crap. And we can't forget all the traveling we did to see family, to graduations, to the mountains for snowboarding trips, and our latest world tour of weddings. In reality there was no free time. It was all nicely filled up with activities.

Well, for the last month we haven't had any trips, or any weddings, or any wedding planning, or any visitors in town or really much of anything planned at all. Every week and every weekend has been filled with the same question: What are we doing this week/weekend? And it's been answered with "No plans" every week. It has been glorious.

This past weekend we made plans. We volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

We had been talking about getting involved in our community for a while and Habitat for Humanity seemed like the perfect fit for both of us. Saturday morning we packed our lunch and headed to the job site. It was siding and decking day, which for non-construction types like myself means: putting on the sides of the house and the roof.

Well, roofing and standing on ladders isn't really my forte but holding a ladder is my specialty. It's hard work making sure a ladder is level on uneven ground and that the guy standing on the ten foot ladder, on the top rung, using a skill saw over his head doesn't fall off. (Yes, I envisioned him falling off the ladder and chopping his leg off). Anyway, Brandon was probably more help on the roof but I felt like I contributed to job site safety.

Overall, we had a great day and look forward to going back. Granted, I'll probably be more help on painting day. I'm really good at painting. The best part of the day was seeing the future home owner walking through the house with a huge smile on her face. It might be the best activity we've done in a while.

Kelly

P.S. Obviously, I was too busy with job site safety to take any pictures of our day at Habitat for Humanity. But when we go back I'll be sure to document it.

The great purge of 2011

2011-09-22T18:26:00.000-05:00

In the beginning of the year, I deemed it the Year of Organization. I had lofty goals to get organized and start purging. My goal to combine our two households and find a place for our wedding gifts required me to continue to get rid of stuff. This carried on into the spring with a semi (un)successful garage sale. {But hey, at least I was trying to get rid of crap.} Soon after the garage sale I read the book The Joy of Less per the recommendation of this blog. I was hooked.

I realized how much more "stuff" I could purge. How much more "stuff" I could have sold in our garage sale, {but lord knows I'm not having another one anytime soon.} I realized how much more "stuff" I could live without.

I would highly recommend the book if you are trying to take control of your closets, purge your junk, or trying to live with less. And by less I don't mean a house with nothing in it. Or one of those bare "modern" houses. I'm saying take a step towards simplifying your life and minimizing your things. {I have to say I didn't totally buy into the chapter on purging sentimental things. As someone who just got married and still has a lot of stuff from my wedding around ie my wedding dress {that I haven't cleaned} it's hard for me to buy into the idea of getting rid of that stuff. But maybe one day I'll drink the kool-aid}

One way to automatically simplify your life and purge your stuff is move. Especially moving from a 3 bedroom 2 bath house with a 2 car garage into a 2 bedroom 1 bath duplex with a carport. Yes, we moved from over 1200 sq feet to a cozy 850 sq feet. Did I mention we don't have a coat closet? So all coats are in the extra bedroom closet. Did I mention we went from a walk in closet with our own "sides" to sharing basically one side? Yeah, it's fun.

Luckily, my "Joy of Less" principles have come into play. We have had many a trip to Goodwill and sales on Craigslist since our move. We have downsized our closets, downsized our kitchen "stuff", and downsized our {my} decorative trinkets. We have implemented some creative storage solutions from Ikea. And are finally making our little {crappy, old, no central air, no hall/coat closet. black mold on window unit, think it might fall down at any minute} duplex into our home.

Well, like any good blogger should, I was going to take pictures of all these things. Both the things we got rid of and our creative storage solutions. Like, the coat rack I made from wood left over from our wedding, or the rolling cart/storage/kitchen island we love, or the armoire that houses Brandon's off season clothes {obviously I got the extra bedroom closet for my coats and off season items}. I mean yes we purged a lot but we aren't wearing the same thing everyday...Or only wearing black... Or only limiting our closet to 10 things...Or eliminating our "seasonal" clothing. Yes, if you read enough "minimalist" blogs you learn about these things. I like to think I'm a semi-minimalist, or semi-organized, or semi-inshape. See, by adding "semi" to the front you don't have to totally commit to the lifestyle. So anyway, yes It would be nice to show you pictures of these things so you get an idea of what I'm talking about and not just rambling on. But it seems as if our camera is failing us. Yep, it won't turn on. No, it's not the batteries.

So, I guess in conclusion we are buying less "stuff" because well, where would we put it? And honestly do we need it? It's been crazy. Yes, we are probably crazy. Well, really I'm the only crazy one. I just drag Max and Brandon along for the ride.

Kelly

It hurts to move.

2011-09-15T15:16:00.001-05:00

So, I started going to boot camp. Again.

Last fall I went because obviously I had a wedding to get ready for. This time Camp Gladiator and I meet again because for 1) they were a Groupon deal and 2) I needed to get my butt moving again.

What happened to my fantastic YMCA you ask? Well, we moved. My super awesome location with all the classes I loved is across town, so there is no way I'm fighting traffic in the morning or afternoon to try and go.

What about the other locations? Well, the one closest to us now doesn't offer any of the classes I've grown to love and the one closest to my work is under major construction. I attempted to go a few times but the spin class is in the middle of the weight room. Grunting weight lifting dudes beside my bike. No thanks. Oh, and the lack of A/C or very minimal A/C was the nail in the coffin. With 85+ days over 100 degrees I need some serious A/C. I like my sweat to come from my workout not for being in the building.

So, it's back to gettin' up early to do more burpees, sit ups, pushups, and lunges than I care to admit. I'm even considering running on the days I don't go to camp. GASP. Get this, I'm even considering running another half this winter. GASP. GASP.

That is if I'm ever able to move again.

Kelly

Crazy Friday Nights

2011-09-09T18:57:00.003-05:00

What's more exciting than spending Friday night at home talking about gallery walls?

Oh, going out to fabulous dinners.

Having fancy cocktails at happy hour.

Dressing up and going "clubbin" (Do people even do that anymore?)

Inviting people over to socialize.

Having a social life in general.

Well, us married folk who haven't spent a weekend at home with no plans or trips out of town since July prefer to stay home and discuss gallery walls.

You see back in July we moved into a "cute" (I'd like to think it's cute but really it's just old and kinda crappy but cute sounds more endearing so we'll go with it) duplex. We had the option to paint the walls but the catch is we would have to repaint when we moved out. So, instead of painting I went a little gallery wall crazy.

The thing about gallery walls is that they probably make more sense when you are in your forever home or even a home you own due to the number of holes put into the wall. Also, when having multiple gallery walls you have to make sure they are straight, this also equals lots of holes in the wall.

So, what's a post about gallery walls if I don't show you our current photo galleries? I say our but let's be honest Brandon has had no real input other than to tell me the frames aren't straight. Turns out decorating and trinkets aren't his thing.

Let's start in the living room. Yes, there is an empty frame hanging on our wall. Obviously, that is where our wedding photo will go. How do you choose just one? Who am I kidding we aren't just hanging one, more on that later. But really, how do you choose the perfect one to hang in your living room?

Yes, we are those crazy dog people.

Anyway, continuing down the hall. We move onto the places we've been both together and by ourselves or really by myself since 50% of the pictures are from my study abroad trip to Spain. I think just the picture is crooked but it could also be my head or the frames. See what I mean about lots of nail holes.

Moving onto our extra bedroom. We have two small groupings in this room. One I like to call "crap I didn't know where to put but didn't want to get rid of so I'll slap it on the wall together." I mean....thoughtfully planned out placement of our things.

The other I call "the shrine to our wedding" well...in theory.

Obviously, we are lacking a few photos. Even though I have disk of images from our wedding it's hard to decide which out of the 400 pictures to print out and actually frame. The hardest part is choosing which pictures of our friends and family to display. I want to have a nice mix from the entire day. I know as the years pass the number of pictures we actually display from our wedding will dwindle but for now I want to enjoy it.

Real riveting stuff for Friday night I know.

How many holes are now in your walls from attempting to hang picture frames? Please tell me I'm not the only one that will be patching nail holes when we move out. It's got to be easier than painting though.

Kelly

Is this thing on?

2011-09-01T21:04:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure what happened but it's been over a month since I recapped our fabulous honeymoon.

Oh, I know what happened. We have now reach 70+ days of over 100 degree days for the year. It has been awful. Let's not talk about the day it was 112. Remind me again why we haven't moved yet?

Anyway, moving on. I've had little-to-no motivation to do anything other than, eat gelatto, drink way too much and sit in front of the window unit. Any physical activity has been limited to a couple yoga sessions and the occasional run with Max.

I wish I could say I haven't had anything to blog about but that's the sad part, we have. We've been to two weddings, a wedding shower, a national park, a party barge, purged basically everything we own for our 850 square foot duplex and hung a gallery wall of blank picture frames {they don't have any wedding pictures in them because I haven't ordered any yet.} But rather than making up a bunch of blog posts for the happenings stated above. I'll make a long story short and bring you up to speed with a photo montage of the weddings we attended and national park we visited. Because who doesn't love weddings? And national parks?

My favorite cousin got married in the mountains of New Mexico. It was beautiful. The sensible foot wear made it even better. Oh and I made my first ever Matron of Honor speech.

The reception was in a barn. Family and friends spent many weekends working on getting the barn ready. It looked great! This is obviously before the tables and chairs were set up.

Family and friends made all of the desserts for the dessert table.

Fresh wildflowers were picked for all of the table settings.

Two weekends after cooling off in the mountains of New Mexico, we headed to Montana for another wedding. We decided to make a vacation out of it and headed to Glacier National Park. How many times do you find yourself in Montana? Well, not many and the glaciers are melting so we wanted to make sure we made it up there before that happens. We ended up backpacking into a camp site one night. Needless to say it's tough packing for a wedding and a camping trip.

We camped in the backcountry along a lake. Let's just say the water was freezing glacier water. But I think there is a video of us jumping in.

Mad fire building skillz

I made fun of my husband for this idea but it turned out to be genius. Don't tell him I said that.

This whirlwind weekend involved, flying to Spokane. Getting up and driving 5 hours to Glacier. Hiking to our camp spot. Camping. Backpacking out. Driving 5 hours to Helena. Going to a wedding. Getting up driving 5 hours back to Spokane. Flying home.

The wedding was at an old theater in Helena.

Brandon and the bride at the after party.

We are almost finished with our wedding tour. We have one more this weekend and then we are calling it quits for a while.

Look at me kicking off September 1st with a blog post. If only September 1st also meant summer was kicked to the curb and fall weather was upon us. Unfortunately, I have a feeling boots, tights, and sweaters will never happen in Austin. EVER. Not that I'm dramatic or anything.

Kelly

Wedding Wednesday: Honeymoon

2011-07-27T21:15:00.000-05:00

We survived the move, I survived my work trip, and things are semi unpacked. I think we've made it to the other side. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. But honestly it's too hot to be motivated to do much more than sit in front of the window unit. Yes, window unit. We're old school like that.

Well, all good things must come to an end. And with our honeymoon in the books I think Wedding Wednesday has run its course. It was fun while it lasted but as they say "honeymoon's over." Thank you for following along and being part of our wedding process. Crazy to think it's almost been a year.

Anyway, back to the honeymoon.

We had the best time in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We stayed for a week in an all inclusive resort. Yes, 7 glorious days in paradise with white sandy beaches and crystal blue water. It was amazing.

We ate. A lot.

We drank. A lot.

We slept. A lot

We swam.

We played golf.

We talked about parasailing but never actually went.

We snorkeled.

We drove through the country side.

We mailed post cards that are just now arriving to their final destinations. I guess they were lost at sea.

We got sunburnt.

We continued to eat anything "del mar"

We went out on a catamaran.

But mostly we relaxed on the beach.

There were also the massages, the long walks on the beach, the pounds of helado {ice cream} we ate, the 4 people on a moped and almost dying on multiple bus rides due to crazy drivers but none of those events were captured on film.

In conclusion, it was perfect.

Kelly