LOVE the COOL Weather!!!!

Finally.......God decided to give us some cool weather! I have been waiting for this for forever! It has felt like it has been forever that I have been running in the heat as well as everybody else I am sure. This morning Brian and I set out on a 3 mile run. I have been trying to get Brian to run with me for a while now and he has been so busy that he hasn't been able to. Plus, he tells me that running is my thing and he does not want to get in the way. Oh well, that does not bother me, he is in shape and does what he needs to do to stay in shape!

With Fall, comes fall colors, smells, sights and so much more. I already have my house decorated with fall items here and there and I have a smell called Baked Apple that is all over my house! I love it so much, because it makes it smell like Fall and Christmas are coming.

Plus, on top of all that fun stuff, they are starting to sell.....

PUMPKIN!!!! I am beyond excited, because not only do I like pumpkin pie, but so does my husband and my family. This is usually what I make for both sides of the family. Last year I learned how to make pumpkin cheesecake, and while it is not that good for you, it is so GOOD!!!! I will try to make some soon and post a recipe! It is delicious!

We will see what I have time to make. The last pie that I baked was a Chocolate Cream pie...

I am just now starting to figure out how to do the mirangue (spelling) on top. It took me a while to get it, but now I can do it just right!

For running news, it is my tapering month. I just finished running 6 miles this past weekend, and then next weekend is my longest run before the half. I will have 12 miles, then I believe it is 6 miles, 4 miles, and then 3 miles maybe. I have to look at my schedule again!

I hope everybody is enjoying the beautiful weather outside. I have already washed my car and finished painting a room. :0)

Check out this awesome giveaway!!! The Stick 101

Longest Mileage YET!!! 10 Miles

I do not have much time to type on here because I am going to be so busy today. This past Saturday I was able to run 10 miles. Yes, I said it, 10 MILES!!! I have never ran that much in my entire life. Maybe over the time span of a week or so while I was in athletics, but never on my own!

I started out running 2.5 miles away from my house and then did 2.5 miles back. That gave me a total of 5 miles. When I got back to my house I refueled my body with water, gatorade, and some GU chomps (my new favorite energy supplement). 

I really like the Cranberry Apple. They do not taste near as liquidy going down my throat. The regular GU's are hard for me to get down.

After I refueled my body, I went back out for another 2.5 miles out and in. I was able to run most of it pretty well, but I did have to walk some because my knees would get the better of me at times. The roads that I run on are not flat at all and are very bumpy, which is good, because the race that I am training for has worse streets then that.

At the 9th mile, this is what I was looking at...

This was the last mile I had to go to get back home. My legs felt like lead whenever I was running that and I knew I could do it, just not very fast. The sun was already up and it was not yet hot, but it was getting warmer. Surprisingly I was not sweating that much, and I usually always am.


Did I make it back home you ask? 

After 2:17 minutes and 31 seconds, yes I made it back home. I stay pretty consisitent with a 11-11.5 min. page. I know that is pretty slow for most people, but I am happy with it, and I am running longer then most people. I am not running this half to prove to anybody but myself that I can run a half marathon!

YES!! I did it. My longest mileage yet!! I am so excited about this.  

Right after my run. I was not that sweaty because thank the good lord, he gave me cool weather to run with that Sat. and that a bunch of humidity and nasty hot weather!
In a couple of weeks I was informed by my schedule, that I have to run 12 miles. I am not even sure where I am going to run to get 12 miles done! I am still trying to figure that at.

It should make for an interesting run though!

A surprise from my Husband!!!

I have had a rough past couple of weeks between going back to work, and some family stuff. It has been an emotional time period for me. My husband Brian noticed that I had been having a tough time through this so he went out and surprised me this week with something. I came home from work and Brian and I had to help my dad find his phone. He had dropped it somewhere. Well as we were walking Brian tells me that THE BED BROKE in our bedroom! I was so upset and did not even know what to think, because it is a fairly new bed. I was running numbers through my head of how we were going to afford a new bed and so much more than that!
He told me not to tell my dad yet, so I did not, but I still did not know what to think. When I got home, he told me to go look at the bed and see if we could do anything about it. I walk into our bedroom expecting our bed to be flat on the ground and I looked all around the bed because....

IT WAS NOT BROKE AT ALL!!!!!!

I could not figure out what that boy was talking about. Well, I was on the other side of the bed and I look up to see something on my bed. Guess what it was.....

I was beyond excited whenever I saw this. I have been wanting one of these for myself and my classroom! It is something I would never be able to bring myself to buy, but I have been wanting one.

Excuse how crappy I look. I had just finished cutting down bushes outside in the back yard!

We hooked up the Bose system and Brian and TJ (our Boxer) started dancing to the songs! I love him so much. He can always make me smile some how.

TJ and I dancing and smiling at the camera!!

In running news, I ran one time this week. I need a small break from all the running I was doing. I was getting way to burned out! I ran 3.5 miles. This weekends run to come! It was an interesting one!

Long Mileage and I finally Signed up!

I haven't been able to blog in a while because I have been busy working all this past week! It has been a crazy week full of long evenings, so by the time 10 pm came around I was tired and did not feel like doing anything!
Anyways, last weekend I was supposed to do 8 miles. At that time I was not planning on running with anybody and was trying to figure out what my route would be and where I would run. I live in the country, so there is a lot of open roads, but a lot of them have dogs that come out on the road and are not very nice.
Brian and I decided to go see his family for his sisters birthday that weekend. So, I got to run with her on Sat, since she is training for a full marathon and I am training for a half marathon we ended up having to run the same mileage! We set out and did 6 miles and then came back to home base. We refueled at that point and then set out on our own for another 2 miles. It was so hard to get back started, because I had stopped running and did not want to run anymore. But, we did it and I finished my first 8 mile run!

It felt so great that day. Hardly any humidity and the sun was not out yet!

After that, we had birthday fun to celebrate with Karen and her family. But I did crash for about 3 hours after I ran that 8 miles.

Brian and I got to ride in Jason's dad's convertible mustang! I had never been in one and it was so AWESOME! I loved it, but I never want one. It was such a tight sqeeze in and out of there.

One of our favorite places to go where Brian's parents live is O'Charleys. It is one of a kind and I have only heard of it being in Louisiana. We ate there that night for Karen's birthday. I had a shrimp pasta, So GOOD!

Karen and I also made these necklaces! We saw them on a website and they were $20.00. I knew there was another way to make those for half the price. We went to hobby lobby, found the supplies we needed and off to create we went. Karen's is the one on top and mine is on the bottom. This is what the front says.

And these are the back! I love it! I can not wear mine until after October, but I am excited that I made them!

I just finished my other 8 mile run today. I was hoping that God would allow the cool weather to stay around all day and guess what.....HE DID!!! Thank you Lord for the cool wind and no humidity! I ran 8 miles with no problem and all by myself! I only have 5 more miles to go before I get to my half marathon goal!