Turkey trax 2011 recap

Thanksgiving morning I ran my first race since July (I think). I was definitely itching to race.

At the beginning of this year I set a goal to run a sub 25 minute 5k. The race I ran on new year's eve 2010 was in 26:08 so I thought knocking just over a minute off my time shouldn't be too difficult. Well, here it was the end of November and I was still chasing that sub 25. I ran a St. Pat's race where my Garmin said 24:55, but my chip time was 25:08....wah! wah!

The weather was going to be wonderful for the race this year. I remember last year being fuh-reezing. It was in the low 30s or high 20s (I can't remember). This year was expected to be in the mid 40s. Perfect. I ended up wearing capris and a long sleeve tech T under a short sleeved shirt. Well, the mid-40s didn't come around until later in the day (even though the forecast said mid 40s at 8:30am when the race started). So I was a bit chilly, but even 40* is better than low 30s. :)

My dad ran this race with me and my mother-in-law walked/ran it also. It's great to do these races with other people. It's much more enjoyable to me.

Me, MIL, Dad

I knew my dad would beat me, that's no secret. He is a speedy guy! We still lined up together to start. This was a huge race. Prior to this one - St. Pat's is usually has the most participants with less than 700. There were more than 1000 people doing this 5k on Thanksgiving. That's crazy to me. I was happy to hear the guy on the PA system pre-race instruct the walkers and folks with strollers and dogs to start near the back. This usually helps some of the congestion at the beginning. Of course, there are people who ignore that, but every little bit helps I think.

So, we start out (no starting mat for timing, FYI). It's pretty congested at the beginning, but the street is pretty wide and everyone was able to spread out since there was no traffic.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting or noteworthy about this race. I thought it was fairly hilly, but my dad disagreed. About mile 1-1.5 (or maybe more) was a gradual uphill. That wears you out eventually. I did get passed by a lady with her dog during this hill. They were really moving and it made me wish my dog would run with me for that extra push. I remember last year getting passed during that hill by a guy pushing a double strollers...so I guess this is a win for me this year. :)

My pretty girl, Lucky Anne.

Luckily, after that gradual hill it was pretty flat for a mile and then a VERY steep hill at mile 2.4(ish). It wasn't very long, but at the point in the race it felt like we were going straight up. It kicked my butt.

Once we climbed that hill - we had just over a half of a mile to go and almost a quarter of that was on the track. I tried to really kick once I got the track (less than .25 of a mile left), but I only made a decent sprinting effort for about 100m and slowed a bit for about 200m. That 200m felt like forever so when I got to the final straight away I tried to give it hell.

I still missed my sub 25 even though I felt like I really pushed myself. Bummer.

Some stats:
Garmin time - 25:26 (I forgot to turn my watch off of a couple of minutes so this is my "moving time")
Garmin pace - 8:17 ("moving pace")
Official time - 25:15
Avg pace - 8:07
Overall place - 176/904
Division place - 10/73
Sex place - 55/140

Last year I ran this race in 28:06. So, even though I didn't get in under 25 minutes - I could definitely seem huge improvements in just a year of racing.

For anyone curious, my dad definitely beat me. His time was 22:XX. Maybe someday we can run a 5k at the same pace...probably not. Haha. And my MIL knocked 7 minutes off her time from last year so that's wonderful.

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.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Football season has kicked off, my friends. NFL preseason started a couple of weeks ago. College football started last night. This is my favorite time of the year.

We are season ticket holders (along with the ILs) for Mizzou football. We have gotten our tailgating routines down to a science...almost. There seem to always be a couple of hiccups and speed bumps regardless of our intense planning.

Tailgating prep started last weekend. I completed the first couple steps of vodka infused gummy bears. So far - they are very yummy, but definitely very sweet. The tailgating totes were also busted out and organized. Apparently we left a bag of chips in one of the totes from last season. Oops. :) The coolers are being packed tonight and we may even pack up the truck bed since tomorrow's game is at 11am. Tailgating time is going to be limited so the more we do ahead of time the better.

I am very anxious to get this season started. Our starting QB from last year (Blaine Gabbert) decided not to return for his senior season and entered the NFL draft instead. Our new starting QB is James Franklin. He got some snaps last year and I think he is going to do just fine. It is, of course, a little nerve wracking when a new QB takes the reins.

I have grand plans to get up at 0530 to get in some sort of run tomorrow morning. Our tailgating begins at 8 so if I want to run - it has to be super early. I tend to be awful when it comes to getting up that early to run. We'll see if the butterflies in my tummy for Mizzou's home opener will get my rear out of bed to run tomorrow morning.

Happy football season to you. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Any big plans?? Races?? Tailgating?? Who will you be cheering for this football season??

Go Mizzou!!

ps
As I was finishing this post - an ESPN analyzer chose Missouri as his choice for the underrated team in the preseason rankings (they are currently at #21). I like to hear that.

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?

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.

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. :)

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!!

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!

Fab weekend.

I am getting ready to wrap up the weekend and head to bed. I figured I would write a little post about our weekend now or else it might not get done. And we had such a great weekend that it would be a shame to not recap. Unfortunately, my camera was dead the entire weekend so I have no proof of this amazing weekend. :)

The weekend started with a surprise birthday party for my stepmom. My dad did an awesome job planning everything and keeping it a secret. Somehow, he got my stepmom on the golf course the evening of her birthday. While they were golfing, we got a room inside the country club set up for the party. My dad sent us a text when they were making their way onto the 9th tee. One of the country club staff members tied some black balloons to the flag in the hole. We watched them walk closer to the green and then everyone that was there for the party walked out to surprise her. Saying she was surprised was an understatement...she definitely cried.

Once we surprised her, we all made our way into the party room and got the party started. My main job for the party was the create a slide show for her. We kicked the party off with playing the slide show. Not to toot my horn or anything, but that slide show rocked (toot! toot!). She cried again...and so did I. I am a sucker for pictures set to music. I will pretty much cry every time.

We hung out at the club until about 11 and then we headed to my dad's to continue the party with her closest friends/family. I am not certain on the time my stepmom went to bed, but a few of us (including me, my dad, Justin, and some other friends/family) stayed up until about 3 or 4 in the morning on my dad's back deck. It was a lot of fun.

Needless to say, Saturday we needed some recovery time. We left my dad's around 11am on Saturday and made our way to my inlaws. They were out of town, but it's easier for us to stay there with Lucky. After eating some lunch, we all (Lucky included) fell asleep. We slept from about 1 until 4. It was a much needed relaxing day.

We might not have woken up, but we had another birthday party to go to that night. It was a birthday party for Justin's cousin, Jenn. She turned 16 today (Sunday). This party was a bit more low key, but definitely also a lot of fun. We had some good food...including cake and ice cream. We were going to go swimming in their pool, but it started to rain. We watched a bit of the Chief's preseason football game. It was pretty boring so we played Monopoly Deal. It's basically Monopoly in card form. It was a lot of fun. We played that game for about 4 hours. I am sad to report that I did not win a single time. I could have continued to play for 4 more hours, but Justin was ready to go home. We left a little before midnight. It was great to just hang out with the family and celebrate a BIG birthday for Jenn. :)

We used Sunday as another day to relax. We slept late, ate some lunch, watched golf, and napped on and off throughout the day. Speaking of watching golf...we witnessed golf history today. Y.E. Yang won the tournament (PGA, maybe??). He is the first Asian person to win a major tournament. I am not a big golf fan, but it was definitely cool to watch history in the making. I never thought I would be blogging about the winner of a golf tournament, but this definitely deserves a shout out.

We got back to KC around 8:30 tonight and have been doing laundry and a bit of cleaning to get ready for the week. Fortunately for us, we have a short work week. Justin only works 2 days and I work 3 days. We are leaving Wednesday evening for Iowa. Justin's cousin, Kyle, is getting married this weekend. I will charge my camera so I can have show some pics of that (hopefully).

I hope everyone had a great week. Happy Monday..ick.

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.

1st place!!!

We spent a bit of this weekend at the baseball fields. My little brother, rian, had a tournament.

He is quite the little ball player. He pitched about 2-3 innings each game. When he was not pitching, he played center field or 1st base. I think there were only a couple at bats that he did not get on base.

It was fun watching him play. And it was even better that they got first place. :) congrats to the 10u Columbia Starpath!!

Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is our 1 year wedding anniversary. I can't even believe that it has been an entire year. At this point last year we were having the time of our lives at our reception. Our wedding was amazing..really, it was.

Our anniversary weekend was every bit of amazing. After our piss poor excuse for a garage sale, we dropped Lucky off to be boarded. We made our way to the Legends at Village West...a shopping and entertainment area in Kansas City, KS. We checked into our hotel and went to dinner. We stuffed ourselves full and then had some time to kill before the comedy show. We walked around to a few shops and wasted some time before the show.

The comedy show was OK. We went to one last summer that was MUCH better than the show last night. We still got some good laughs in and a few drinks. After the show went sat on a patio and had a couple of drinks. We heard some good music coming from a bar next door so we went in to take a look. Although it was good music, it was incredibly too loud (maybe that's why we could hear it on the patio next door).

We decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel room. Without going into too many details, the room was awesome. It had a whirlpool and a fake fireplace (which was kind of odd). And let me just say that bubble bath and a whirlpool do not mix very well.

We got to use our toasting flutes again. We had a bottle of pink champagne...even though neither of us even like champagne. The top tier of our wedding cake is at Justin's mom's so we will eat that next weekend when we go home.

We slept late Sunday morning - so late that we missed the continental breakfast (damnit!). After we showered and check out of the room, we went to lunch at a BBQ restaurant. They had some amazing bloody mary's. Yum!

After lunch, we decided we wanted to go see a movie. We went to buy tickets only to find we were 15 minutes late for the show we wanted to see. We had 2 hours to kill so we hit up Dave and Busters for some fun in the arcade. For the record, I beat Justin 4/5 times playing pop a shot. That's usually how it goes. He did beat me 2/4 times at Trivia and 2/2 times at the horse derby. It was a fun way to waste some time.

Finally it was time for the movie. We saw Hangover....which was HILARIOUS!! I highly recommend it and I'm not even a movie person. After the movie we picked up our little girl from being boarded. She was so excited to see us, but very tired after a session in doggy day camp. As I type, she is passed out on the couch (as she has been for the last 4 hours).

Now that we are home, we have just been lounging around, watching movies, etc. It has been a relaxing day after a very awesome weekend of celebrating.

I will make a better wedding picture post tomorrow (when facebook will let me view all of them...because I am too lazy to plug in our external hard drive).

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!

Let's try this again.

Here are the instructions from Wikipedia to moose. Just ignore my first (intoxicated) post about the rules. :)

The players gather around the table and decide as to which side of the ice cube tray is the "give" side and which side is the "take" side. Usually the right side is the give side and the left side is the take side. In some variations, a cup of whatever alcohol that is being used is placed in the center for the ice cube tray to be placed against and rotate around. After this is decided and set up, players take turns trying to bounce the quarter into the ice cube tray.

When the quarter lands in the ice cube tray and it lands on the "give" side, then the player who bounced the quarter into the tray can distribute as many sips to any combination of other players as there are squares that were passed over by the quarter. When the quarter lands in the ice cube tray and it lands on the "take" side, then the player who bounced the quarter into the tray has to take as many sips as there are squares that were passed over by the quarter.

If the quarter lands in the furthest row (or last two squares on either the "give" or "take" side) every player has to put their hands to their heads, mimicking a moose's antlers, and yell "MOOSE." The last person to do so has to take the "main drink" (also known as moose cup). (Other variations include the person has to fill their drink and then empty it).

However, if a player yells "Moose!" prematurely when no one has made it in the cup, he or she must drink the bowl. If the quarter lands in the bowl on a players turn he or she must drink the bowl and lose a turn.

If the quarter lands on the ice cube tray but does not fall into a square, this is a social and everyone must take a drink. If the quarter ends up in any person's drink, the player that bounced the quarter has to finish that person's drink.

Sometimes, if there is a tie when players yell "MOOSE!", then players put their thumb onto the table. The last one to do so, drinks the main drink or moose cup.

Our variations: if you bounce the quarter into the cup at the end of the tray then you get to chose who drinks what's in that cup. And if the quarter lands on the tray but not in a slot then you make a rule. You can change the rules to your liking.