birthday photo journal

I attempted to keep a photo journal of the birthday celebrations from yesterday!  And so began my 27th birthday celebration.

The celebrations began with a bouquet of roses that arrived Saturday from Ecuador!  Mike likes me to be able to enjoy the flowers a few days before my birthday as well as on my special day.  They smell wonderful!

On my actual birthday, the office surprised me with some cookies from a highly secretive bakery in town.  They were quite delish.

My friend Ashley gave me a super sweet new running hat with my very first monogram!  I’m pumped to debut it this week at track practice.

I came home from a good day at work to a few packages, sweet cards from family and little treats from Mom and Dad.  Mike surprised me with a cookie cake (he had them decorate it with a triathlete image… so awesome!) and a certificate for a massage at a local place.  Yessssss. Avi of course was super involved in the celebrations, especially when it came to the eating of the cookie cake.

We then finished out our evening enjoying Mexican at a new place a friend suggested and took a little shopping trip to JCPenny… 20% off storewide then an extra 15% off from my email coupon… yes please, I’ll have one of each!

Just all around a great day and night, celebrating all of the blessings God has allowed me to enjoy.

And I made up for all of those blessing with a killer sweat session this morning of heavy weights and wind sprints on the treadmill!  Happy day after Birthday to me!

spring has sprung

We are actually having a spring season this year!!  Our winter lasted way later than anticipated (but likely started later than it should have) and usually goes straight from winter to summer.  Spring has sprung – trees are green, azaleas are blooming, tulips are finished and most importantly spring training has begun.  We have cool nights and mornings and warm afternoons.  It’s awesome! (But summer’s a-comin’ and that’s my favorite!)

Springtime brings the beginning of triathlon training.  Triathlon training brings exciting and not so exciting things.

Not so exciting things:

1. Mountains of laundry (we’re only 2 people!) 
2. Food crisis – With limited time and increased fuel needs, food consumption can become more of what is quick and easy than what is nutritious.  The cravings of a person who rode 30+mile bike ride only to follow it with a run tend to be quite strong.
3. Really really really sore muscles 
4. Lots of dirty dishes
5. House chores that suffer (i.e. lots of water bottles and dog hair everywhere!)

The good part is although the season brings challenges there are exciting things as well (otherwise we wouldn’t torture ourselves).

Exciting things:

1. Precious time with our pup (spring training adds anywhere from 10-20 hours a week that we’re out of the house, so we take advantage of time together when we can)
2. Body Change
3. Friends!!
4. Sweat Sessions
5. Pushing ourselves
6. Learning to clean my bike chain (note to self- maybe you should not let an entire year pass by before you clean your chain again!)
7. Early bedtimes!
8. Early Mornings
9. New “equipment” -shoes, outfits, swimsuits, etc

Overall this picture describes our feelings on the spring season… Crazy eyes, grin or gritting your teeth (both probably apply) and thumbs up that we’re ready to face what comes our way.  Happy Spring to you!!

happy birthday Michael!

Yesterday was a very special day for Mike!!  It was HIS BIRTHDAY!!  And let me tell you just how thrilled he was leading up to his special day… get’s that from his dad I hear – “It’s just another day” – blah blah blah… I don’t take any of that nonsense, so we celebrated (and he secretly loves it so don’t worry!).

-  Treats and special notes in the lunchbox  -

-  Birthday cheesecake with candles  -

- Dinner out with friends -

Tuesday night I whipped up a cheesecake so when Mike arrived home from work yesterday, we opened a few gifts, tried some things on and ate a piece!! Yum!  I even surprised him with a few candles =) We then rushed off to youth group where they sang him HBD and then out to dinner with friends.  Chili’s gave him a molten cake for free!!

It was a wonderful day celebrating a wonderful man who couldn’t be any hotter

can I get a WHOOP WHOOP?!?!

Ok, that might be weird to do in public, but don’t lie, you know you want to

Well happy birthday babe!! I love you and am thankful to have celebrated the last 8 years with you and can’t wait for the ones in years to come.

color me rad – blue boogers

Our race season has begun!!  And it started with a flume of color.  Last year was so full of races and training that come December we were completely burnt out.

So, we started the season out in a fun way, and chose to run the Color Me Rad 5k!  It was fantastic and better than last year (mostly because it was sunny this year instead of dreary and rainy).

before

after – please notice my freakishly green hand!!

It was a lot of fun.  There were over 9,000 racers this year, so we’re glad we were able to start in the second wave of people.  And even with limited training we finished with fantastic (unofficial) times.  If you have the opportunity to do Color Me Rad (which are all over the country), DO IT!  It’s a lot of fun, untimed, for all skill levels (and non-skill levels), old and young alike.  It’s just about having a blast and getting color bombed.

I almost forgot to come full circle to the title.  Yes most of the color comes out of your clothes and off your body with the first wash.  But I was definitely blowing blue boogers for the next few days =)

happy birthday Sandy!

Over Easter weekend, my family was able to get together and celebrate Aunt Sandy’s 50th birthday!! The last few years have been trying as she’s battled breast cancer and now is facing it’s metastatic bigger brother!!  It’s been a nasty fight, but we are very thankful for another year of life and a new drug she’s on that is keeping her side effects relatively low.

Lovely meals with the family

family favorite – chocolate sauce (with brownies and ice cream)

very tough game of pictionary (sample words: Spare rib, warehouse, etc)!

the view

    Time together

Happy birthday Sandy!

florida vaca

I did check!  My last post was 3/12… so it hasn’t been quite one month since my last post.  And I still remembered my password =)

We recently got back from our vacation to Siesta Key, Florida.  It was wonderful seeing Mike’s family (minus Kelly and Adam!! =(  next year hopefully!)  The weather didn’t cooperate quite like I had hoped but it was still nice and we were able to get some sun.  Our first two days had heavy fog, all day.  Like you couldn’t see more than a few buildings down on the beach.  So we sat out a little (with sunscreen!! not to worry mama, you taught me well) and walked a lot.

Then there was a day of afternoon storms, so of course, we headed out to the beach with our boogie boards!  Red flags were flying but that means big waves right?  ok ok … I know!  We came in when it started to rain but had a great time playing in the waves.  The boys played deeper than me with the bigger waves.  I did try to swim out with them but after fighting for forever and still not getting anywhere, I decided to play it a bit safer in the shallows.

not a serious bone in either of this mongrels

One morning walk on the beach we ventured to the north end of the island and out on a newer sandbar that developed this year.  It is HUGE!  We saw a pup of devil rays on the bar.  They were a ton of fun to watch and swam super close to us.  Here is a pic I found so you know what I’m talking about.  We saw dolphins too a few days later.

The last few days were a high of maybe 62 with winds between 15 and 25 mph!  It made for some nice walks on the beach and better afternoons at the pool.  Most of the time you were able to lay out at the pool because the sun was warm enough between gusts of wind to keep you from shivering to death!

The condo we stayed in was made for small people…

We were hoping to go paddle boarding like we did last year but it was too windy and cold.. so we found other activities to keep us busy. We enjoyed some excursions into town and grandma’s keylime pie as well as one from Publix.  Both were fabulous!

Overall we had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go again soon.

And this is the cutey we came back to =)

this and that

I’ve been busy at work, which used to be primo blog time; therefore, blogs are fewer and farther between.

The month of march has begun!  Crazy to think the first day of spring is only 8 days away.  Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

I received free peanuts for peanut butter from a coworker… I’d better get cracking!

We drooled over a few boats at the boat show

and are totally looking forward to this summer!

and there was a pretty sweet car there too!

We went to a fancy auction party for Optimist Club and bid on a fitness basket and won!  We received a gift card for shoes and 3 months to the gym. So, I got a new pair of shoes for lifting =) Plus I didn’t want Mike to outdo me on colorful shoes!

Free scoop of ice cream at Brusters (Double chocolate chunck with a waffle cone)

only catch was you had to wear your jams! YOU DON’T HAVE TO ASK ME TWICE!

Recorded my first time running since December.  Needless to say, I was a little burnt out after our 2012 season which lasted from Feb- Dec… so I took a little time off.  Trail running was a great way to start back  and it felt pretty good.

I got my first business cards ever! So cool

Mike caught us sleeping last night.   (Avi was just keeping his spot warm… but I don’t think he believes me!)

Well now you’re all caught up! We head off to the beach in a few weeks so there should finally be some good blog reading in your future.