Maybe this won't be so bad after all

Remember that time I went out for a three mile run and was feeling so good at the turn around point I decided to keep going and make it a four mile run?? Yeah, I can't believe it either.

 

Training for my spring 1/2 marathon starts on Monday and I was doubting if I'd be able to run the first 3 mile workout my plan called for. It a gorgeous 70 degree day in December so I decided to go out this morning just to see how I would do. Turns out all of these step and cycle classes are paying off in leg strength and overall endurance. Last sping after being religious to my training plan for the GW Parkway 10 Miler I set a PR. I ran that at a 13:54 pace, today I finished my 4 miles at 12:19. Holy cow. I would have blown my 5k PR out of the water by over two and a half minutes.

 

While I know all of my training runs won't be this amazing, it's a good way to start off. I'm totally stoked to really get into it and get those longer miles in.

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Five on Friday

Instead of listing 5 things I'm loving lately, I think I'll try a more themed version. This week are my favorites from this holiday season. Grab your box of tissues and enjoy!

Five: Home For The Holidays. One time at the mall I saw a guy pull off an amazing proposal and it was all I could talk about for days. If I ever saw something like this, I'd lose my mind.

Four: The 2013 Hater's Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog Because, who needs a whole Gingerbread Estate?

Item #54-5873732 Gingerbread Estate

Williams-Sonoma says: "(not shown)"

Price: $249.95

Notes: What the fuck? I can't see the estate? The house itself is 57 bucks. How much larger is the estate? Is it so large that it can't fit within any standard camera lens? Does it have a fucking golf course? I want a gingerbread estate with a chocolate moat and armed taffy guards and maple butter gates, and if someone tries to break in, my peppermint security alarm alerts an elite group of butter toffee SEAL members to come shoot hot caramel right in your fucking EYE. I doubt the wisdom of investing heavily in a gingerbread estate. The gingerbread estate market is a bubble that is bound to burst and send shards of stale icing all over us.

Three: John Lewis Christmas Campaign (Those Brits get me everytime)

Two: A hilarious Advent calendar

One: This is my favorite. I'm sure you've seen it by now, but just in case, I wanted to share it here. WestJet Christmas Miracle (I might have shed some tears during this one)

Enjoy!!!!! Hope you have the happiest of all holidays! Enjoy the family and delish food and the magic of the season.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Five on Friday

I'm going to join up to the Five on Friday link up. I want to put my own spin on it and do a theme each week instead of just 5 random things I'm loving right now.

This week is 5 Blogs I'm loving Right Now. These are my set aside time to really sit down and read their posts instead of just scrolling through and skimming. Now in no particular order.....

Five: 

Reneé at Sassy Wife. We were IRL friends first and now that she's living halfway around the world, as soon as I see a post from her, I take the time to read it and find out what she and her husband are up to. They are going on amazing adventures over in The Philippians, but I miss her like whoa. Can't wait to see her so soon when they come back for Christmas!!!!

Sassy Wife, Classy Life

FOUR:

Liz is a blogger up in Canada who has traveled the world then returned home to Toronto. I found her blog a couple of years ago and literally went to the beginning and read everything. She is so open and honest, one of those bloggers that I feel like I know. I've emailed her when I'm in a situation I think she'd appreciate and can relate to, tweeted her, and she always responds. Go check her out. Love her. 

One Twenty Five

Three: 

Nicole over at A Life Less Bullshit has been through some things in her time. I love her BRUTAL honesty and her take no prisoners attitude towards life. Her posts require me to turn everything off and focus on what she's saying because it's going to hit close to home. She is all about challenging yourself to reach your dreams. Her last post challenged everyone to instead of making New Year's Resolutions like "lose weight, make more money..." , declare you big scary "I can't even imagine actually accomplishing that" goals. I loved reading everyone's responses and being in AWE of what everyone wants to do. It made me think about what my BIG goals really are. Another post from the spingtime challenged me to stop making goals or dreams and JUST DO IT. She basically said "If you want to be that girl that never misses a work out, GO TO THE GYM. If you want to be that person that really has her life together, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER". I think about that all the time. Stop dreaming, start doing. Go check her out if you're in a rut and really need to get your butt kicked into high gear.

A Life Less Bullshit

TWO:

Cely is down in Texas just cracking me up. This girl is FUNNY. She finds the best stuff on the internet. Every Friday morning I look forward to her Friday morning posts. I literally laugh out loud every week at the ridiculous things she finds and shares each week. If you need a good laugh, click over right now and add her to your blog roll. Don't forget to read the comments, there are some funny people that chime in over there. You're Welcome.

Running Off the Reese's

One:

I just stumbled onto Kate's blog a couple weeks ago. She is known as The Pinterest Hair Girl. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to make up and skin care, I'm good with the basics, but not much beyond that. Unfortunately, as cliché as it is, once I hit 30 I started noticing that my skin was not as perfect as it had been at 25. I had not been in a routine of wearing make up regularly, but I started feel pretty gross with my skin being so out of whack. I had been getting a Birchbox for about a year, but didn't really know what to do with everything I had been sampling. Kate has a million tutorials about make up, skin care, and hair and just posted a series of her Favorite Things. I literally took notes on her favorite products and am hoping for some Nordstrom's or Sephora gift cards this year in my stocking so I can get a few things.

The Small Things Blog

What are your favorite must reads in your blog roll? Share below and we can all get some new and fresh reading material!!!

Wednesday Weigh In

This one is for Dana since she's the only one to speak up last week. :)

I'll get right to the point:

OFFICIAL WEIGH IN:
Down 11.4 since my birthday!!!

Yes, you are correct. That is the exact same as last week. After my recent successes, it's hard to be happy about maintaining, but it's not a gain, right?

The 30 day challenge at the gym ends tomorrow, I got my final weigh in done this morning. Just over 5lbs in 30 days, not bad. I think I got burnt out this past week. It's HARD being strict during the holidays. I've thought about not doing the 60 day challenge that starts soon, but my only reason for not doing it is because I want to pig out and go nuts for the next 3 weeks. But that's the whole point of starting the challenge right before Christmas and New Year's, right?

Do you buckle down the diet during the holidays or do you take time off to just enjoy the season?

Wednesday Weigh In

It's been a couple weeks, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten. And it hasn't been bad news. Just wasn't sure how into weekly updates everyone is.

So this 30 day challenge at the gym has turned out to be super motivating. Knowing someone else is going to actually see that number on the scale is enough to scare me into eating pretty well. Every Wednesday morning I hop on that scale after class. Having someone else watching the numbers spin and finally settle on the final total is Biggest Loser style drama.

I've always been very private about my weight, it was a HUGE day in our marriage when I confessed to hubs how much I weighed. My biggest reservation about even signing up for this challenge was that someone I liked and respected would be seeing that number every week. Who knew that person looking over my shoulder was the one last piece of motivation I needed.

OFFICIAL WEIGH IN:
Down 11.4 LBS since my birthday!!!!!

I'm 38% of the way to my goal and still have 9 months to go!

I'm down 23.6 lbs since Jan 1 of this year. I am so close to 25 I can taste it. Right now is the lowest I've been in probably 3 years and I'm so stoked to just keep going.

The gym is starting a 60 day challenge once this one finishes up, you bet I'll be signing up for that one as well. Better keep this momentum going!

How are you powering through the holidays? 

Do you like the weekly check ins or maybe every other week or monthly?????

Kitchen Confessions

My great friend Reneé over at Sassy Wife, Classy Life is hosting a weekly series of Kitchen Confessions. This week it is my turn to spill my guts about my first time hosting a holiday meal for the In Laws.

Head on over to read my Confession and leave your own Kitchen Confessions in the comments.

When you're done with that, scroll through her recent posts, she has some incredible adventures living in the Philippines for a year. They get to take some AMAZING weekend trips! I'm so jealous!

Also, don't forget to Like SassyWife on Facebook!!!

My New Favorite Spot

After 18 months in the house, rooms are starting to come together one by one.

I've slowly been working on getting our master bedroom to the point of complete. We had found a good deal on Angie's List for painting and had that done in late July. The color is one shade darker than our kitchen (Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy). I was nervous about going so dark, but figured if it turned out terrible, you can always repaint. I found the picture at World Market and didn't even notice how perfectly it matched the pillow at the foot of the bed until it was up on the wall.

Two weekends ago I made huge strides in getting closer to complete. I had purchased the curtains from JCP in August and tried to hang them right away. When my first bracket was looking to be screwed into a metal stud, I thought it was above my skill set and requested hubs to bring in back up in the form of one of his buddies who are pretty handy.

Two months later, the curtain rods still sat on the floor, the brackets and hardware littered my dresser and the curtain panels remained in their packages at the foot of the bed. The ladder and tools were sitting in my craft room and in the way. I was ready to reclaim my space, so last Sunday I decided those curtains were going up with or without any outside assistance.


I pulled out the power drill, ladder, and tool bucket and got to work. I got all seven brackets up without too much trouble, got the curtain rod up and then started working on ironing all of the panels. The curtains I bought had the tabbed tops, but I prefer the look of drapery hooks. I ironed each of the tabs back and you can't even tell they are there.

Now that curtains are up I just have a couple pictures to hang up and I'm calling the room DONE.

BEFORE

(with paint swatches on the wall)

AFTER

I can't decide if I should hang the dachshund pictures up over the night stands again. Should I put those back up or find another spot for them? 

What projects have you been working on around the house?