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)

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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!

Wind and Water

I decided to go run last night (well my schedule told me I had too) at the lake close to my parents house. It was so nice and peaceful. I started out running and went all the way around the beach and then back. It ended up being .85 miles, which I was very surprised about. This is the view that I had while running...

It was so peaceful and so relaxing. The wind was blowing just right so it felt good and was pretty cool, verses it being hot wind. Now, I have heard that running in the sand is the best workout you can get, because it is not as hard as running on pavement, but you still are using more muscles to force your feet out of the sand. That is exactly how it felt though, was trying to force my feet out of the sand. It was so tough.

If you look behind me, you can see the rocks that I was running...well I take that back, I mean jumping over. It felt great because I love to jump, and just trying not to break my ankle while jumping was hard enough, but it was fun! I was running right by the water so I had to becareful not to fall in.

Now, I know you are probably just thinking, this is just a hill. What about it? Well this hill is the hardest hill I have ever had to run up before! I have only been able to run up it a few times and yesterday was not one of those times. My parents freaked me out and told me that they had seen wolfes in the woods where I was running a few weeks ago, so of course while I am running I am looking all over the woods to see if I see anything.
Well on my way back, I saw....................

A WOLF!!!!!!



J/K I did not see a wolf, but I did see a while tail deer, but I couldn't get a good enough picture of it! That is the 4th one that I have seen this week while I am running. I love being able to run in the country. You never know what you will see.

I am hoping to sign up for the Jazz half in just a few weeks if my nerves do not get the best of me!
Going to go make some Sugar Cookies. I got the recipe from Running with Sass and I am hoping I don't butcher them.
Have a GREAT day!

Oh, check out this awesome giveaway...What's in your running bag?

Christmas Where????

Brian and I were talking about going to Disney in June of this next year and that is what our plan was going to be....if I would have gotten a job. Going to Walt Disney World in June is pretty pricey because it is a peak season to go. Well, we went ahead and scratched that idea and decided we would just wait...until we started looking up prices for Disney at CHRISTMAS.
We debated about it for a while and couldn't decide for a long time, but we decided since I am not going to be teaching, this would be the perfect time for me to go! It would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. So.........

I am so excited about going I can barely stand it! I have wanted to go to Disney at Christmas for so long now and see everything they will have going on. We are also going to get to see Stephen Curtis Chapman, and he has been one of my favorite artist since I was a little girl! I know I will have a report for whenever I get back, but I am trying to get everything organized now!

On running news...I ordered a Sweatyband from runningskirts.com the other day and was able to get free shipping and a free water bottle with some chapstick! It was runningskirts birthday, so they were doing a special. They were so awesome to me because, I had missed the one day sale and I called them the next day and they still gave me the discount.

Here is the water bottle and stuff that I got....

Sorry, it is sideways. I couldn't get the picture to switch around! I am going to wear the sweatyband soon! I am so excited about it!
Only a couple more weeks and I have to sign up for the Jazz half. I think my nerves are getting the best of me now, because I am getting nervous just thinking about running it. 

3 Half Marathons in 6 months!!

Okay, so it turns out that I might be running 3 half marathons in 6 months. That is a little overwhelming to me right now. I know that I can do it, but it is still a little nerve racking. I am going to be running the Jazz Half in New Orleans, the Rock and Roll New Orleans and then the Rock and Roll Dallas! I am excited about the two Rock and Roll ones, because I can get a 3rd metal for running those two in the same year!

I thought about running the Rock and Roll San Antonio, but I have heard horror stories about that one, and I am probably going to be teaching as my first year at that time.

So I will be running the New Orleans Jazz Half Marathon in October 2011.

Then, in Feburary I will be running the Rock and Roll Mardi Gras Half.

Then, if I am not crazy tired, I will be running the Rock and Roll Dallas half marathon.

Now, this is what I am excited about. If I run and complete the Dallas and Mardi Gras rock and roll races, then I will get this........

Now, even though I did not run 26.2 miles at one time, I did it within 2 months! I am super pumped about this medal and it is kinda helping me to train now!
I have to sign up for the Jazz Half pretty soon. It is the cheapest one! eeek! I am starting to get nervous about it....it is 3 months away!