No AM group run today.

The group I have been meeting with for a couple of weeks decided we would run Monday and Wednesday this week. We normally run on Tuesday and Thursday, but with Thursday being Thanksgiving - we just adjusted.

There was a discussion on our FB group page about running this morning. It seemed like a few girls were on board. When my alarm went off at 5 this morning I promptly checked the FB page because that last thing I wanted to do was show up and have no one there. One girl posted last night that she wouldn't be there this morning because she thinks her hip flexor is jacked (bummer). Another girl's husband is out of town and she has a daughter who she, obviously, can't leave in the morning to run. I knew that another girl was sick yesterday, but she intended to run today. I ended up texting one of the girls because I had a bad feeling that I would be the only one to show up. I'm glad I did because, sure enough, I would have been there by myself. I snuggled back into bed and went back to sleep for a few hours.

So it sucks about not getting a run in this morning, but I think I am going to do some speed work/intervals on the treadmill at the gym tonight. Tomorrow morning or after work I am going to do some cross training at the gym. Wednesday morning we are hopefully still meeting so I can get some easy miles in before the Turkey Trax 5k on Thanksgiving morning.

I did get in a little less than 4.5 miles on Saturday before we started tailgating for the Mizzou game. My 5am wake up call seems to be getting easier and easier each time. I went to the normal spot that I meet our group, but decided it was too dark and uncomfortable to run there by myself. So I drove across town to campus where I knew it would be better lit and more traffic. I just took off and really didn't have a route or a plan in place. I basically just ran until I was running out of time to meet to shower and meet our tailgating friends. It felt pretty good and I ran about a 9:20 pace.

That 5am start to my day really kicked me in the ass about 6 that evening. I was done. A full day of tailgating and watching the football game.did me in. Justin and I grabbed some Thai take out and vegged out the rest of the night. We were in bed by 9:30.

And I will leave you with some tailgating pics. :)

Justin and I showing off our "black out" outfits for the day.
I told him he looked like a cheerleader so we posed accordingly. :)

Justin with his bestfriend's sister who is, obviously, much taller than him.

MIL, Justin, and Me outside of the stadium

Family friends.

Hi

I suck at this blogging thing. Woops.

I enjoy reading other blogs that have daily (sometimes more than once a day) updates, but I can't seem to get myself in a blogging routine.

A little update....

My first half marathon is ONE.WEEK.FROM.TODAY. Holy cow! Time has flown by since we signed up in October (?). My running has been near non-existent this week. You would think with the race being so close that I would have the motivation to lace up my shoes and hit the road. Not so much.

I am feeling extremely nervous and anxious. I am not sure why. I really wish I could go into this race with the attitude of "just finish with a smile and enjoy yourself." I can't seem to wrap my mind around that. I am, apparently, too competitive and tough on myself. Competitive might not be the right word. There is NO way I will win this race or even come close. It's more competitive with myself. I know the time that I am able to achieve and now it's just a matter of doing it so I don't let myself down. Stupid mental side of running getting to me.

I have had 3 (and hopefully 4 after today) 10-11 mile long runs in the course of my training. I feel like if I can run 10 or 11 miles then I can run 13.1. I want to save that 13.1 for the race. I want to have that feeling of miles 12 and 13 to be the longest I have ever run to be in this race situation. Hopefully I don't eat my words and the wheels won't fall off after 10 or 11 miles.

My long runs have ranged from a 9:20-9:33/mile pace. That 9:33 pace came on a long run after a night out the night before. It was pretty miserable. So I like to scratch that pace out of my mind. 9:20/mile or faster is what I will be shooting for. Again, I wish I could just ignore the numbers and just run to run. It won't happen so I might as well share my goals with other people. More pressure does me good. No? Oh.

I am so excited for the trip to Nashville. As I have mentioned before - I am going with 3 of my very good friends from college. This will be the first half marathon for all 4 of us. I can't wait to experience this major accomplishment with these girls. And I REALLY can't wait to celebrate said accomplishment next Saturday night. :)

I am starting to make lists for packing. It's a little overwhelming doing a race so far away and being gone for 4 days. That's a lot to pack. I tend to over pack anyway...add a race to the situation and I can only imagine what my suitcase is going to be like next week.

I have been stalking weather.com for the next Saturday's forecast. It looks like a high of 78 and partly cloudy. That 78* could be a bit balmy, but with an 8AM start time I hope it's more low 60s to begin with. Missouri weather hasn't been that warm just yet so I am hope I am able to deal with that minor detail of heat.

So to the runners who read this blog:
Any advice, tips, etc. for my first half marathon?
How do I shut off my brain and just enjoy the experience?

Truffle Shuffle race recap

**Better late than never. :) Truffle Shuffle 5k in Overland Park, KS 3.5.11 My first 5k of 2011! Yay, finally!! Let's start with discussing the weather. The week leading up to the 5k was pretty darn good weather. 40s-50s. Nice. I was excited for a warmish 5k too. Wrong. The temperature dropped in a hurry Friday night. The forecast said 30* with an 11* windchill. Oh.em.gee. This was going to be like my first 5k on Thanksgiving all over again. Sure enough - cold ass temperature and lots of wind greeted me Saturday morning. Lovely. I wore long tights, Mizzou shorts (we were in KS and Mizzou was playing KU), long sleeved cold gear shirt, fleece 3/4 zip up, ear warmer, and gloves. To say that kept me warm would be a lie. My fingers were freezing. My toes were cold. My legs were cold. My core felt like it kept a good and warm temperature though. The race was held at a community college. Everyone huddled inside of one of the buildings on campus before braving the cold weather. I ran this race with one of my good friend's from college (she is one of the 3 I'm going with to run the half marathon in Nashville). It was a little difficult finding them in the sardine packed building. For me - there was no warm up, no stretching, none of that. I usually don't do a significant warm up pre-race, but I could have used it in those temps. The beginning of the race was pretty uneventful. We ran around the parking lot a bit and then made a turn towards a gravel trail. It was odd, for me. I have never run on a gravel trail. Parts of the trail were packed down and other was very loose gravel. It was a difficult surface to run on. The trail did all sorts of turns and things. It was basically a couple of miles packed into a small surface area...if that makes any sense. I hated it. There was no change in scenery. There was not much change in elevation. Boring. My time reflected how cold, bored, and uncomfortable I was with the trail. 27:37. I was 8th in my age/gender group (out of 29). The cool thing was that a 25 year old girl won it all. Me gusta. It was great to get to run a race with a friend. Unfortunately, for H, this was her first race. This was NOT a good first race, in my opinion. And some pics.... PS - Don't ask me why the formatting sucks on this post. I swear, whenever I had more than a couple of pics to a post that blogger freaks out. I'm sorry for the lack of a paragraphs. I tried multiple times to redo it, but failed.

Final day of 2010....

I ran my first 5k race on Thanksgiving day. I had a blast and instantly started searching for my next race. The soonest one that would work with my schedule was New Year's Eve. I signed up in mid-December...I was, somehow, the 9th person to sign up. I thought that was odd with the race just being a couple of weeks away. That actually made me nervous that it would be an incredibly small race. It wasn't too terribly small. There were about 280 people that participated. This was about 100-150 less than Thanksgiving, but still an OK size.

The race began at 4pm. The temperature at that point was about 59 degrees. It was unbelievably great. I decided to wear shorts and short-sleeves because it was so warm. I didn't really research the course of the race. The majority of it was through downtown Columbia and part of Mizzou's campus. It was a little windy that day anyway...but add to that larger buildings and it was SUPER windy. In hind site, I would have probably worn capri tights instead. The temperature dropped about 10-12 degrees by the time I finished the race. Brrrr.

My time at my Thanksgiving race was 28:06...I was very pleased with that. I was so pleased that I was nervous to run another because I was worried I would never be able to beat that time. I completely underestimated myself for my first race (I expected 30-34 minutes) and I underestimated myself once again on New Year's Eve. My time for NYE was 26:08. I was very pleased and even a bit impressed with myself. I suppose upping my mileage as I train for a half marathon makes a difference with speed as well.

I placed 93 out of 280 who finished. I was 3rd out of 17 in my age/gender group.

I look forward to improving my times as I continue racing. My goal for 2011 is to get my 5k time sub 25 minutes. After my race on NYE - I feel much more confident to achieve this.

Speaking of the half marathon training - this will take place in Nashville, TN with 3 of my favorite girls from college. I am really excited to accomplish this distance for the first time together. Pardon me if my blog becomes very running concentrated. It's become a beloved hobby.

Tellatubbies (sp?) at the finish line.

Me, post-race, with the tellatubby (sp?).

Holy catch up!!

Five months without blogging. How did that happen?? Where does the time go?? I will do a fairly brief catch up post and then probably go into more detail on the individual things. Otherwise, this post might take hours to write and read.

Here we go....

-To start, I will say that we are still living with the inlaws.

-Justin and I are both still very happy to be back in Columbia. And we are both really liking our
new jobs.

-The month of May was fairly uneventful. We went to a lot of my little brother's baseball games. It's great being back and barely missing a game.

-June was a bit more eventful, I guess.
--We went to St. Louis for a weekend anniversary get-a-way. It was very nice (pics to come in a later post.
--I had an impromptu reuniting with some very close friends. Unfortunately, it was not
under good circumstances. One of my very bestfriend's mom lost her battle with cancer.
--We made a trip to Kansas City to watch the Cardinals and Royals play baseball. That was a
good time because it was a reuniting with friends under much better circumstances.
--We watched a ton of little league baseball in the month of June as well.

-July....
--We housesat for my mom for a week (EXCITING STUFF, PEOPLE! :)). As little of a detail
as that seems - it was great to stay a week away from the in-law's house. I am sure they
appreciated having their house to themselves for a week as well.
--I visited my pal Abbey and her family at the Lake of the Ozarks for the 4th of July. It's
always a lot of fun with Abbey and her fam. Good people.
--I began the south beach diet towards the end of July. I am still on it...and this will definitely
have its own dedicated post.

-The only big thing that happened in August was that I started on the evening shift and started
taking call at work. I miss being on days, but I have to work my way up the ladder.

-September was, of course, the beginning of football season. We also house and child sat for my
dad and stepmom a week in September. My little brother is 12 so it was kind of training for the
day we decide to have children...kind of.

That has brought us to now. That's where my time has gone in a nutshell.

I wonder if anyone has noticed my absence from blogging. I also wonder if anyone will notice that I am back to blogging. Leave a comment if you are reading this to let me know that/if someone is actually still interested.

Edit: UGH, I see blogger still sucks at formatting. Sorry for the wacky format here.

Moving...

Moving sucks.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who actually enjoys moving. If they do, they are nuts. And by moving I mean the actual packing, loading boxes/furniture into a truck, unpacking, and putting away everything.

We attempted to move from Kansas City this last weekend. Unfortunately, since Justin started his job at the first of the year and I didn't start until March (and I left KC about 2 weeks after finding out I got the job) - we did ZERO packing before leaving for Columbia. We packed up the bare minimum that would get us by in Columbia. Other than that, everything was left in KC.

That was mistake #1. And mistake #2 was made by thinking we could get our entire house packed and moved 2 hours away in a weekend.

And, fear not, there was a mistake #3. Mistake #3 came when I got off work on Friday evening. Justin asked if I wanted to wait until Saturday morning to leave for KC. I agreed and continued to make mistakes #4 and #5 (are you still with me??). We met up with the fam to have some drinks Friday evening and then met up with some friends to close the bar down Friday night (collectively mistake #4). I then woke up at the crack of dawn (7:30...that's the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning for me) to watch my little brother play baseball. He had a double header starting at 8. Of course, I could not leave after the first game so I stayed for the 2nd (mistake #5). I didn't leave Columbia until about 12:30 on Saturday.

So if you are following...that's Friday evening and half of Saturday wasted. When I finally made it to KC, Justin was already there and at a friend's house because he didn't take a house key with him. OYE! I needed a nap at that point. So I asked Justin to let me sleep for 45-60 min. That turned into about 90 minutes because he was enjoying the company of his friend. So it's now about 5pm on Saturday.

Instead of getting right to packing/moving then, we decided we should grill burgers. So while the boys prepared and cooked burgers, I packed. I got a few boxes packed on Saturday...but no where near the amount we needed to pack in order to be ready for the in-laws to bring a trailer to load up on Sunday morning.

After dinner (oh and a movie) on Saturday night, we were worthless so we went to bed. We planned to get up around 9 on Sunday. As you can probably imagine, that didn't happened. We started packing about 10:30 on Sunday morning...with the in-laws planning to arrive about 12:30 ready to load things up.

Believe it or not, we got about 60-70% of our house packed and furniture disassembled by the time they got there. I was impressed with us considering how the rest of our weekend had gone.

By the time 6pm rolled around on Sunday we were D-U-N, done. :)

We still have about 25% left to do. Unfortunately, that means another planned trip back to KC to finish.

I hate moving under any circumstances.

I have quickly realized that I hate moving when it's:
A. moving long distance
B. completely put off until the last minute
C. preceded by slacking and procrastination (goes along with b).

I don't plan to move into another house until we can afford to build it how we want and make it our forever home. Other than that, we will move some things into an apartment in the mean time...1 apartment followed by 1 house and then never move again is the plan for right now.

And just based on this post, we can all now tell how good we are at executing plans. :)

STL Mardi Gras 2010

As I posted about last year, I went to the Mardi Gras celebration in St. Louis, MO again this year. Although my post last year said that I wanted my next Mardi Gras experience to be the real thing in New Orleans...that just didn't happen.

The Mardi Gras in STL was a lot of fun this year...I had even more fun than last year. I made the trip with Tiffany, Beth, and Abbey. We stayed in Washington again with Katie (at her parents).

Katie just bought a house (closed a week ago) so we got to take a tour of that on Friday night. I am so excited for her to become a homeowner. I have to say that she is putting my home ownership to shame...we haven't done many home improvements since buying our house 19 months ago. And in one week Katie has ripped up carpet, removed walls, painted, framed walls, and probably even more than that. I cannot wait to see progress pics..and see it when it's all finished.

After touring Katie's house we went back to her family's house. My absolute favorite part of their house is the hot tub. We spent some time in there catching up, laughing, having a couple of drinks, and just hanging out. We went to bed at a decent time because we knew we had a long day ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday morning came and we slowly got moving. We got up early enough that everyone could get ready at their own pace and there was no rushing (plus!!). We left Katie's parent's house around 9...we made a pit stop at McDonalds and Walmart and then met Katie's boyfriend to head to St. Louis. It is about a 40 minute drive.

The rest of the day was spent with good friends, lots of good people, drinking, and people watching (again, this year, the best part). We couldn't stay past sun down (same as last year) because it was too cold. So this year we went back to Washington and went to the bar instead of straight home. That was a good time as well. I never seem to have a boring time when I visit WashMo. :)

After the bar it was time for more hot tubbing. Only about half of us stayed up for that...and we were in there for about 3 hours (maybe not the best idea to be in there so long).

It was a great weekend and I am already looking forward to next year. :)

And the pics....

The group...Tiffany-Katie-Beth-Random puppy lady-Me-Abbey

Partner porta-pottying...invented by Katie and Beth.

We encountered some pretty interesting people. :)

There are more, but blogger is being weird about dragging pics from Flickr at the moment so that's all I can do for now.

ETA: Ugh, there's that formatting issue again. Blogger won't let me double space between paragraphs. Sorry for the jumbled mess.

Oh happy day!!

I am in a bit of a funk today. I have been off work for a week now. It's been a great break, but in the back of my mind I know that I am not getting paid for this week (and the next half week I have off before starting on Monday). It takes some of the enjoyment out of it all. So that's my funk...





My funk has disappeared a bit when I logged in to find this joyful post from MrsTote. If you haven't already, check out her blog. She has some amazing recipes and is quite the domestic diva...I know she loves when I call her that. :)

Onto the joy that is this post...I was tagged by Katie at A tote's life (see link above). It's a fun, day brightening tag so here we go...





The rules:
_List 10 things that make you happy.
_Tag 10 bloggers and link back to the person who tagged you.


Ten things that make me happy:

1. Blog comments...hint! hint! :):)

2. Lazy days with Justin.

3. Snuggling with my puppy...especially on cold, winter mornings.

4. Hanging out with friends.

5. Tailgating.

6. Watching football.

7. Meeting fitness goals..whether it be keeping my calories in check for a day, meeting my goal for minutes of working out in a week, etc.

8. Sunshine...oh how I love sunshine.

9. Mexican dinner dates with Justin.

10. My family...all crazy sides of my family.


And I now tag....
MrsEyeCanSee at The Juice is Worth the Squeeze
Michelle at See Michelle Blog
Renee at A Taste of Life
Tiffany at Baby Fish
Shalay at Writefully Yours
Amanda at Amanda's Life Commentary

Amy at Newlywed News
Casey at You Call It Madness But We Call It Love
Allie at Simply Allie
Amy at Life in the Junction

**Sorry to anyone who has already been tagged. :)

See ya later!

I had this whole post thought out in my head to write yesterday. Today was my last day of work...

At this time last night, I thought I was a-ok with that. I thought I might shed a few tears, but I never expected to be completely heart broken and for it to be so tough.

Even driving into work - I was cool with it being my last day. I was thinking, "yeah, I can do this. Bring it!"

I walked in and went straight to human resources so that I could get my immunization records and discuss rolling over my retirement to the new job. When I walked into my department, a bunch of my coworkers were there to "surprise" me with goodies and food. It was so nice of them. I managed to hold it together through everyone talking about my last day.

I quickly learned that I did not prepare myself for the types of feelings that I felt today. I was not prepared to hear how much I would be missed. I was not prepared for tight hugs that I knew were coming from the heart. I was not prepared to be missed by my favorite cafeteria lady that I saw everyday...and who I might not ever see again. I was not prepared to think about possibly never seeing some of my coworkers ever again. I was not prepared to clock out for the last time at that hospital.

Even more than all of that - I was not prepared to say goodbye to the coworkers who I consider good friends...and a couple my best friends, even. Some of these people I went to college with. Some of them were there when I was a student and when I became a full time tech. And some of them came in between.

This was the first place I worked where I was putting my major to use. I started as a student and was hired post-graduation. I only worked there for 4 years, but those 4 years were very important in my life.

I created bonds with those people. We would hang out after work. I could vent about life to them and they could do the same to me. We could fight one day and make up easily the next like nothing happened. I am going to miss them all so much.

I know that I want to be in Columbia...there is no question about that. It does not, however, make it any easier to leave the life that I have had for the last 4 years (at my job/hospital) and 7 years (since I moved to this city after high school). I am so excited for the next chapter in my life, but it's a bittersweet feeling.

If I could transplant my hospital and friends into Columbia - I would be in heaven. Obviously, that's me living in a fantasy world.

Life is about the changes and challenges. I am ready to face them full steam ahead. That's why I left work today saying "see ya later" and not "goodbye." I know I will see many of them again..and keep in touch with the majority of them. They all know that my journey started there and they understand that this is what is best for me. It's great to have their support as difficult as it is.

**And I want to apologize if this post is jumbled, rambling mess. It's hard to put into words the many different feelings that I have gone through in the last couple of weeks...and specifically the last couple of days.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day to everyone. I hope that you have been surrounded by friends, family, spouses, children, and whoever else you love today.

Unfortunately, I only got to see Justin for 30-45 minutes today. I went to St. Louis with the girl for the Mardi Gras celebration (like I did last year). I will dedicate a post specifically for Mardi Gras later this week.

On our way back home (to KC) this afternoon, we stopped in Columbia so I could say hey Justin and the family. It was tough leaving, but I will be there for good later this week.

I have never been big on Valentine's day. While I enjoy there being a holiday to celebrate the love in your life...I just don't get the overpriced candies, flowers, and waiting hours just to have dinner that you could have in half the time the following day.

Enjoy the ones you love today (and everyday).

Happy holidays!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season. Justin and I had a great Christmas with our families. Hopefully it is our last one that we have to drive from KC to Columbia. *fingers crossed*

We both had to work Christmas eve (2-1030 for me and 830p-7a for him). That's just the joy of being hospital employees. We drove home after Justin got off work on Friday morning. The drive was not fun - it was through a snow storm. We made it though.

The entire weekend was BUSY. We had about 6 different Christmases with different families. Unfortunately, for us, the holidays means lots of running around to different places. We never get to spend as much time with each family as we would like.

I just have a few key points from this holiday....

1. I drove about 80 miles through a snow storm down i-70 on Friday morning. For anyone that knows me or my mom - you know that is a MAJOR accomplishment. I absolutely hate driving in the snow. I freak out.

2. Oreo balls are my new favorite thing. I am trying to figure out how I made it this far in my life without discovering them.

3. Board games with the family might be my absolute favorite thing to do. Board games with anyone, really. I love them. Apples to apples, Taboo, Catch Phrase, Guestures...any of them. We had a big (12 person), 2 hour game of Guestures on Friday night. That was a blast!

Again, I hope that everyone has had a great holiday season. You may (or may not) be pleased to find out that one of my new year's resolutions is to blog at least 3 times a week. I might need anyone who reads this to hold me to it. Feel free to ask questions in the comments on topics that you might want me to talk about.

From the Foster's, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So proud of my hubby!

As I mentioned in my last post - Justin just accepted a job in our hometown (Columbia, MO). Like I said, we are super excited, nervous, scared, happy, and many more emotions all rolled into one.

Justin just wasn't completely satisfied with his position as an x-ray tech for the last couple of years. With each passing day, he seemed to become more and more unhappy with his job. It was pretty clear that he needed a change. On top of that - we wanted to be able to move back to our hometown in the near future.

An opportunity presented itself a few months ago (probably 4 or 5 months ago was when it was first mentioned). It has been a slow moving process, but Justin has made the trip back and forth to Columbia countless times for interviews, meetings, gatherings, etc. for this job. All of that traveling has paid off. He accepted the position last week. He will be in orthopedic sales.

Unfortunately, we purchased our house just 16 months ago. So now is not a good time to put it on the market. We don't have enough equity to make money. We would actually probably lose a large amount of money at this point if we attempted to sell. That is our first dilemma in this major change in our lives. Our hope at this point is that Justin's best friend and his wife will rent the house from us while she finished chiropractic school. That would give us some more time to hopefully allow the market to turn back around in our favor.

On top of that - x-ray jobs are pretty hard to come by in the mid-west in general...let alone in Columbia. As of right now, there are zero x-ray jobs for me to apply to. So I will be keeping my job in KC until I can find something in Columbia.

This is where the anxiety comes in. Justin and I have never lived farther than across town from each other (in high school) or across campus (in college). We will now live about 2 hours apart. This is temporary, but it still freaks me out. It all kind of hit me this weekend. I will be living on my own for a few months. Eeeek!! To any local friends reading this - you are welcome to stay the night at any time. :)

Justin will be staying with his parents at least until we sell the house. We haven't thought too far in advance as we are taking this transition one day at a time.

I am so incredibly proud of Justin. He has taken all the necessary steps to getting us back to our hometown. He has worked very hard to get this position.

Please send your well wishes our way as we begin this journey.

Happy Halloween!!

As I said in my last post, I am not a huge Halloween fan. When I was younger, all of my costumes were store bought. I think if there were some creativity involved, then I might have enjoyed the costumes a bit more.

We basically went to Walmart a couple of weeks before Halloween, got a random costume, trick-or-treated the night of, and had candy for months.

There was no real thrill for me...except in kindergarten when I was PeeWee Herman. I loved that costume. All of the pictures are at my mom's otherwise I would share them. I used to LOVE PeeWee. I may or may not still rent the movies from time to time.

As time went on, Halloween still wasn't a big deal for me. When I got to college, it was a HUGE deal amongst many of the people I went to school with. I don't even remember dressing up for Halloween in high school so I was pretty surprised when I realized how big of a deal Halloween was in college.

However, Halloween was a big deal because girls got to dress in the most sluttiest (word? or no?) outfits and call it a costume. There certainly was NO thrill in that for me. I preferred to keep my TnA covered, if ya know what I mean. First of all I don't have T to flaunt so that takes away that option. I do have the A, but I like it clothed.

Really?? Does she have to have to have that short of skirt on? Granted, she has the body...which 80% of the time the girls in these costumes most definitely do not.

Some of the girls I played soccer with and myself decided that we would create/buy the most conservative, goofy, and dorky costumes ever. My freshman year, we were clowns. We bought costumes that came with a big hula-hoop thing so we would have very round middle sections. I will post a pic of that some other time (I am stuck at work right now with no facebook access...oh the horror!!). We had a blast being the only girls not dressing skimpy. We got some funny looks which was almost the best part. It's like people never in a million years expected anyone to show up with that much covered.

To this day Halloween is just another day for me. I do like going out and being with friends on Halloween. I like seeing the creativity in some people's costumes. I just hate seeing girls in skimpy outfits...especially the ones that really should not be in skimpy outfits.

Creative? VERY! Hilarious? VERY! Slightly disturbing? Maybe a little. :)

I will admit that my costume for tonight is a bit more skimpy than any other costume I have had. The skirt is a little short, but I have very opaque black leggings to wear. I am going to be a punk rocker. Should pictures be taken, I will post them. Unfortunately my camera and the camera on my phone are both broken so I will not be taking any photos tonight.

So I hope this Halloween blog post finds you well, on a sugar high, and decked out in an amazing costume! Enjoy! Happy Halloween everyone!!

#487

Reason #487 that I love my friends: we make contracts before we go out.

About 75% of the time (and probably more so now that we don't go out as often), we create contracts of random things that have to be accomplished during our night out. It just adds to the fun. :)

I can only find a picture of one of these contracts, but this is just a taste.

Typical things on these lists:

-specific shots to take

-a certain # of pictures to take for the evening

-a song we must karaoke

You get the idea. We have fun. :)

Wait for it....

We are having major computer issues in the Foster home. I got a laptop for high school graduation 6 years ago...Justin got a desktop for HS grad 6 years ago as well. Needless to say, it's time for us to get a new computer.

We typically only use the laptop these days. It's just easier. However, the laptop is being very finicky about when it will turn on and when it won't. You never know if it will want to turn on today or not. Good times. On top of that, when it does turn on it won't connect to the internet. Perfect! Of course, it chooses to turn on late at night so I can't call our internet provider to fix the internet problem.

So needless to say, my updates might be few and far between until we get a new computer.

And to add to the lack of technology in our house, I can't find the cord for our external hard drive. I have tons of pictures from the last two weeks (wedding and girls weekend) that I can't upload to our computer even if it was working properly. I have to upload pics to the external hard drive because the hard drive on our computer says it is low on space. How?? Yeah, I have no clue. I have cleared out everything I can possibly think of (pics and documents have been moved to the external hard drive, we have removed programs that we don't use, etc.). The lap top is just done for!

As for last weekend, I can give a little update but it would be so much more fun with pictures. We made the 2 1/2 hour trip on Friday mid-day. This got us into Springfield at a decent time so that we could have lunch, do a little shopping (SO not needed for me!), and just hang out. We played a little Catch Phrase and had a couple of drinks before going to the bar. We had fun that night, but we were all looking forward to Saturday night for the real fun.

Saturday came and I had plans to meet up with Justin's at his friend's house to meet their new twin baby girls (ADORABLE!...again, I need pics for this post!!). After I left, my girls and I had a nice relaxing day at the pool. The weather was perfect (when the sun was out, a bit chilly when it wasn't) to just lounge around on rafts and hang out. It was great.

Saturday evening we played some more games (of course Apples to Apples!) and had some drinks before heading to dinner. Dinner was delicious...mac and cheese, amazing! After dinner we went to piano bar. Piano bars just about lead the list of the most fun bars to me. I love them. After the piano bar we went to Moonlight Delight, Midnight Delight, Midnight Rodeo, Midnight Hodeo...take your pick. It's a country bar that you can get into if you are 18...last time there were high school students there in prom attire. It is a blast! Of course we go there a bit later in the night every time so that might have something to do with it.

After Moonlight Delight, we went home and made all kind of (un)healthy foods and went to bed. Sunday was a veg out day all around. We hung out on the couch and watched a couple of movies before heading back to Kansas City. The drive home was loooong, but it was an awesome weekend. I cannot wait to go back!

As if the last few weekends have not been eventful enough, I have another exciting weekend coming up. I am going to the lake with a few friends. One of my friends, Abbey and her family, have a house down there. It should be a good time as well. Not to mention, Mizzou kicks of the season again Illinois on Saturday. Abbey's family love Mizzou as well so we will definitely be catching the game amongst all the other festivities. I am also anxious to see Oklahoma State host Georgia. That should be a good Big 12 v SEC match up. As much as I am not a fan of OSU, I am rooting for the Big 12 all the way.

Hopefully I can have some updates with pictures included in the near future. Until then, this will have to do. I hope everyone has a great week!

This weekend.

I cannot even being to tell you how excited I am for this weekend!! I have so much to look forward to...I cannot wait.

First of all, I am off on Friday so I have a short work week and a long weekend. That is always nice. It's too bad I have to use vacation time in order to have off on Friday. Oh well, it will be worth it.

When Justin gets off of work on Friday we will head home to Columbia. He will either be off the entire day or he will only have to work 0600-0900. Either way, we will be home about mid-day/early afternoon on Friday.

Friday evening my BFF, Katie, is coming to Columbia. I am super excited about that because since she has moved away I only see her about every 3 months or so.


Friday night we have a game night planned with my family and Justin's family. I am about the biggest fan of game nights ever. I love board games. My favorite right now is Apples to Apples. If you have never played, add it to your list of things to do in the near future. It is a blast. Game nights are always a good time...I am excited to have Katie join us for this one. :)

Saturday is 4th of July (duh!) aaaannnddd my mother-in-law's birthday (how cool is that??). I am pretty sure for as long as Justin and I have been dating, we have gone to his grandparent's for the 4th. They live on a private lake that is very fun. We will be going to their lake again this year. I am pretty excited for some time in the sun and on the water. I have all appendages crossed that it will not rain. That will definitely put a damper on my weekend.

Last year I brought a little concoction I like to call the Paint Can to your 4th of July/MIL's bday celebration. I believe I have started a new tradition. I definitely plan on bringing the ingredients to make 2 or 3 of these Saturday. They are great on a summer day. :) Plus, I love me some Vodka so that makes the paint can just as good for me.


Happy 4th of July to everyone! I hope your work week goes by quickly and that you have good weather for whatever you are doing to celebrate.

My grown up husband.

I always thought that it would be me to become the grown up first. This weekend made me realize that Justin is beating me to it. :)

While I had a girl's game night on Friday and went the Royals game on Saturday - Justin stained our deck and painted our patio furniture.

And there is my random thought for the day. Happy Monday to everyone. It's a short week for me and our 1 year anniversary is on Sunday. Yay!

Justin's birthday.

Here is one of my promised posts....

I planned a surprise birthday party for Justin. It took place on May 9th which was a couple of days before his birthday. My grand plan was to have our family come to KC and have some friends surprise him as well. I wanted everyone to surprise him at the golf course. The guys would go play golf and the girls would do whatever to get ready for the rest of the day.

This plan sort of happened. Some of our family came. His parents and brothers were all there. My dad was not able to come because my brother had a baseball tournament. A couple of his friends who had planned on being there were not able to show up. So the only friend that was able to golf was Brian. That was fine. He was surprised none the less.

Justin and Brian.

There was one little snag in the plan about a week before everyone came. Justin was invited to a work BBQ and he was very excited about going. He is newly interested into meat smoking and this is what his coworker was doing so he wanted to be apart of that. I was very concerned that he would be disappointed that I had planned all of this and he would not be able to go to the BBQ. I made sure his coworker knew that he would not be coming. Luckily, Justin was not disappointed.

I had the family surprise him at our house since getting him to the golf course would have been impossible otherwise. The guys golfed and the girls went to lunch, did a little shopping, and prepared for the BBQ at our house. When the guys got done golfing they came home and BBQed. It was a fun night of a couple of drinks, rockband, Apples to Apples, friends, and family.

Peace out Twitter.

I attempted Twitter and I didn't like it. I update my facebook status like crazy, but I could never remember to update my Twitter. Oh well, I tried. I am going to get rid of my account. Farewell Twitter. Maybe some other time I will try to pick it back up..but for now, Facebook is enough for me.

In other news, I am going to visit my bestfriend over memorial day. I am super excited. I will have some pics of that, I am sure.

I have a bunch of things to blog about with a bunch of pics. I just haven't had the time. I have pictures from my trip with Beth to Springfield to see H (which was a BLAST). I have pics from Justin's surprise birthday celebration. I don't have a ton of pics from there, but it definitely deserves its own post. And then Friday night Rick and Amy had their wedding reception so I have pics (AND VIDEO!!) from that. We had a lot of fun, but we definitely wish we could have gone to their wedding in the Dominican.

So lots of new pics and entries should be coming soon. We'll see if I have the time to post all 3 events this coming up week. Now that I joined the gym, I guess I actually have to go to see results. :)

Oh dang!

The weekend is upon us...FINA-FREAKING-LY! It's crazy that many work weeks seem like they drag on, but here we are at the 2nd of May. The 5th month in 2009. Crazy.

This weekend is going to be a blast. I am so excited. Beth and I are leaving for Springfield tomorrow morning to visit H. This is our first time visiting her down there...she always comes to KC to see us.

The three of us together are a trip. We have so much fun together. This weekend won't be any different, I am sure of it. Apparently Springfield has a Cinco De Mayo pub crawl tomorrow evening. If the weather cooperates (which really is not looking good), we will be participating in that. I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow. I will, of course, miss the husband (cheese ball, I know)...but I will deal.