What makes me happy?

 

Vacuum lines in the carpet and the fact that my parents are on their way from Alabama to support me in my first half-marathon and celebrate L's 6th birthday make me happy!

Am I the only crazy (OCD-ish) person that thoroughly enjoys a freshly vacuumed room?

Another one bites the dust!

 

I can't believe this baby is about to turn 6 in 2 1/2 weeks and just lost her 2nd tooth tonight.

Where in the world does time go? It really is true that the older you get, the faster time goes. And although she is not a baby anymore, it still makes me smile when she says "Mom, do you 'dial'  your hair?" (dial=dye/dyed) It is the last "baby word" she has and I can't dare correct her. She'll learn sooner or later what we dye our hair and not dial it, but for now my baby can say whatever she wants!

5 days until race day

Only 5 more days until my first half marathon. I'm a little bit excited, and a little bit nervous. I am so excited to finally be able to check this off of my bucket list and add that 13.1 sticker to my car that my sweet sister gave me for Christmas. And I'm mostly nervous because I haven't been able to train like I had intended.
A couple of weeks ago I started getting these weird "spots" on my skin that you couldn't see but felt like a burning rash. I had just talked to a lady about her husband having shingles and it sounded very similar to what I was experiencing. So I kept waiting on these horrible rashes to appear and nothing ever did. It started with one on my stomach and then one on my back then those went away and I had a spot on my arm, then my hand and then my leg. They were uncomfortable, but not unbearable so I just waited and waited for them to either go away or turn into something more. Nothing every appeared, but one day my body just hurt. I felt like I had the body aches you experience with the flu but had no other flu symptoms. I called a few doctors to see if I could get in to see what was going on but since I had never gone to the doctor in the 4 years we have lived here no one could take a new patient until Monday and it was a Thursday. So I took the next available appointment for Monday morning. The next day it was even worse. I felt very fatigued as well. After laying in the bed all afternoon my husband decided I needed to go to Urgent Care. It was a Friday and he didn't want me to be in pain all weekend. So off we went and after all of my bloodwork came back clear and she insisted it couldn't be shingles because of the patterns of my "spots", she wrote me a prescription for an antihistamine and steroids.
It seemed to be helping because I felt much better the next day, but Sunday experienced the soreness again. So I kept my appointment for Monday and went and saw another doctor. He asked me a whole slew of questions and looked me over and determined that my symptoms weren't really pointing to an obvious problem. So he sent me up to have some extensive bloodwork done......9 different panels of bloodwork! But I was feeling so good I decided I would wait until my medication ran out and then determine if it had "healed" me or was back to square one. That Thursday was my last day of medication and spent the whole day in uncomfortable soreness and pain in my muscles and joints. I decided at that point it was best to go ahead and get the bloodwork done to help figure out what exactly was going on. And that is where I am now. I had the bloodwork done Friday and I am now waiting to hear back.
All of that to say I haven't been doing a whole lot of running the past couple of weeks. On top of not feeling good, it seemed to constantly be a dreary, drizzly (or pouring) rainy day around here. But after going to the doctor on Monday and getting the ok I knew I didn't have a choice. I was going to do this race one way or another. I had been planning for it, training for it and determined to "get 'er done!" And actually the runners block had disappeared and I was itching to get back out there. So on Wednesday I told my husband I was going to go on an easy 2 mile run but it felt so good I ended up running 3 miles. Then on Friday I ran 4 miles and Sunday ran 5 miles. After my run Sunday I quickly determined I had my first case of food poisoning. I will save you the details, but it was not pretty. It kind of set me back again, but tomorrow I am determined to get in a good 6 miles and then I think I'm going to take it easy until Sunday. I've been hydrating up with lots of water this week and I have my outfit and new running shoes ready to go. So I think I'm going to be ready to go. I have to go pick up my race packet this week and then keep hydrating and carb up the few days before the race. I am ready and I know I CAN DO THIS!

My running mantra:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -Philippians 4:13

BLT Dip and a little Roll Tide!

For those of you who know us, we love a little thing called Alabama Football. My husband eat, sleeps and breathes it and tends to associate dates with Alabama football games. We have an "Alabama room" in our house and my poor daughter whose birthday is in September will never be allowed to have her parties on Saturdays because those are reserved for football. All of that to say when Alabama played in the National Championship Monday night it was a big deal at our house. We have converted all of our neighbors into Alabama fans because we are sitting outside watching the game in the garage with a tent full of food in the driveway every Saturday in the fall and you can bet everyone comes over. Monday night was no exception. We piled our friends and family in our garage (aka "The Man Cave").

We cooked and put out our BAMA decorations and then watched The University of Alabama stomp Notre Dame to become the National Champions for the 2nd year in a row. ROLL TIDE! (Sorry, had to get that in there somewhere!)

 What was ALMOST as big of a hit as Alabama winning was this BLT Dip I made. 

It was from a Betty Crocker recipe I found and it was A-MAZING! It will be making an appearance again and again I think because it was a big hit and went FAST! And in addition, it was so easy to make. Here is the recipe:

1 pound bacon, cooked

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup sour cream

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese

1 tomato, seeded and chopped (I used 2 of those small Roma tomatoes)

1/4 cup chopped green onions 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix mayonnaise, sour cream, and cream cheese in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Crumble bacon into mixture and stir. Add cheddar cheese, green onions, and tomato and mix well. Pour into a shallow dish or pie pan and bake for 20 minutes or until bubbling. Garnish with additional green onions, tomato, and crumbled bacon. Serve with corn chips.

Free Clothes and Running Funk

I can't believe it but my half marathon is less than 3 weeks away! I have been in such a running "funk" that I'm starting to not feel prepared. I don't know if its the constant rainy, dreary weather or the busy holiday season we just got through but I just don't feel like running. Actually, 2-5 mile runs sound great but when my training schedule calls for 10, 11, 12 mile runs I just don't want to do it. I'm up to 10 miles now but making myself do it again has proven to be tough.
Actually, the 2 things that have me excited about running are my new running shoes and my new, FREE running outfit! I actually got a FREE jacket and pants from Old Navy a few weeks ago through crowdtap. Crowdtap is a marketing-type website where you answer questions (called quickhits) and the more you answer the higher your status and the more opportunities you have to sample products. My first sample was through Woolite. I got 10 samples of a new detergent for darks. Very cool, but my latest sample was even better! I got to pick 1 top and 1 bottom from Old Navy's activewear line. FOR FREE! So I went shopping and tried on a few different running outfits with my half marathon in mind. The selection wasn't too big, but I was kind of narrowed down by looking for something appropriate for my race.

I did have fun trying on different looks and styles!

I settled on a black jacket and black cropped pants. What I like about this outfit is the jacket is light, so it will provide some warmth since my race is in January, but I'm not going to have to take it off after the first mile. And its all sweat absorbant so no nasty sweat stains and it keeps the sweat off your body. Yay for free, awesome running clothes! Thanks crowdtap! If you're interested in joining crowdtap, click here. It's not time consuming and its really easy.

I ended up getting this shirt too! It was only $6 and I love a good bargain. I couldn't pass it up!

Happy New Year!

It's 2013! Happy New Year!
I can't believe it is 2013. This year holds so many great things for me and my family. To name a few, my first half marathon is only a few weeks away, my husband and I celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in March and in May I turn 30!! I know these are just a few of the amazing things God has in store for me this year and I can not wait to see what kind of blessings He pours out upon us.

Now that the holidays are over and things are somewhat back to normal (minus my house still full of Christmas decorations) I wanted to share one of my Christmas projects I made this year. I included a picture of my floating wreath chandelier in my last blog and wanted to share how I made it.

 

 

I started with a package of ornaments, a small wreath, ribbon and fishing line.

 



I took the fishing line and tied it to the ornaments then tied the other end to the wreath. I held the wreath under my chandelier to see how long I wanted the ornaments to hang. I tied all 4 ornaments to the wreath and made them various lengths.



Then I took the ribbon and wrapped it around the wreath.

To make the bow I started with the tail at one end and made a loop on the other end. Then I went back and forth spacing each loop away from the other. Finally after all of my loops filled up each side I took the other tail and wrapped it around the center and knotted it in the center.

 

Finally, tie fishing line on the wreath and then tie it to your chandelier.