It's Official...

I've signed up for the Atlanta Half Marathon!

And I also will not consider myself a dedicated runner.  I'm sure you've all heard about a certain aliment that runners suffer from time to time during their runs.  Last Monday I was 1 mile into my 10 mile run when it hit me.  I decided that I would just turn around because there was a porta potty at the beginning of the trial I was on.  Well I get about 10 ft when I realize that I wouldn't make it 1 mile and starting looking around for a plan b.  Thankfully this particular run I was doing in the middle of the woods, and there just happened to be an opening.  Yeah, not my proudest moment-but I those remaining 9 miles was the best run I've had in a long time!

I was supposed to do a 15k yesterday, but woke up with horrible hip pain and ended up only doing a 10k.  My hip has been popping a lot lately, so I don't know if I've tweaked something or if it was from sleeping on an air mattress all weekend.  It's still hurting, so I'm going to take tonight off and rest a little more.  The last thing I want to do is hurt myself and not be able to do this 1/2.   

Earning my Turkey

I decided that I'm going to run another half marathon!  (Ok, I really decided at the end of August, just haven't shared it.)  The Atlanta Track Club has a 1/2 marathon on Thanksgiving morning.  Since Robert and I will be in Atlanta this year for Thanksgiving, and the Iron Bowl isn't until Saturday, I thought this would be the perfect race to run in.  I'm already in week 6 of training, with 6 more weeks to go!

Up until about February of this year I never kept track of my times.  I knew in general how long it was taking me to run, but that was going off the time I walked out the door and the time I walked back in-meaning it didn't take into consideration the 5-10 minutes I would spend stretching and getting downstairs.  It didn't really bother me too much because I also wasn't running for time, I was just running because I like how I feel after running and getting some sort of physical activity in 5 days a week.  But lately I've been wanting to know my time, and try to improve. 

After my first half I joined Daily Mile.  I really like this website because I have a log of all my runs, times, and paces since March.  It gives you a report of your week's progress and lets you know how many miles you've run (I've logged 411.23 miles since March 21).  I've always known that in the summer more time was added on to my mile- Jeff Galloway says 20% increase when the temperature is above 80.  But I wanted to know how much (to put it in perspective, in March/April I had between a 8:50-9:20 pace...in late May-August I had between a 9:45-10:30 pace).  So, if you are a runner-just starting out or at it for awhile- I highly recommend this site! (and add me)

I'll keep you posted on my progress and any goal times I set for myself.  I would love to set another PR with this half-I ran my first half in 2:09:09.  But I want to evaluate it all when the time gets closer, though I am eyeing a 2:05 time- that's a pace of 9:34...

Closet Drama

Football season is in full swing, which means Robert and I are out of town for almost everyone home game during the season.  We weren't planning on going to the Florida Atlantic game, but then I found out the Velcro Pygmies is going to be playing at the Supper Club that night!  The icing on the cake is that it is a 6:00 kickoff-which may be bad because that means a full day of tailgating followed by a late night out! 

But when we aren't at Auburn, we've been dealing with our closet.  Oh our closet!  Let me give you some history first.  Back in July, while Robert was in California, I spent all weekend cleaning our closet and bedroom.  It's been a wreck for the last few months as we have been fixing issues so I got it looking nice and organized, as seen here:

 
Well, a few weeks ago, the morning of one of Robert's interviews, he walks into our closet looking like this:

He sends it to me, with a text message "my suit is under there"  Miraculously nothing of importance broke, just some of the plastic containers.  And his suit was ok after he was able to dig it out.  But it was a pain for a good week while we tried to decide what to do in there.

So on Labor Day, we decided that it would be a day of labor-and the closet would be tackled and complete.  So off to Home Depot we went for the supplies we would need.  We came home and had 3/4 of Robert's clothes hanging back up (and even finally getting rid of some in the process), when we hear a thud in the closet and walk into this...

Well darn... (ok, other words were used.  by me).  Ok, I sugar coated the process of getting it back up- it may or may not have involved a throwing fit by me after another shelf collapsed on me (just into the closet of course).  Yes, I over reacted, but I couldn't help it.  I had spent so much time on this closet that I just wanted it to go away. 

So now, after making sure studs even existed in the wall-which I've marked but we're still not 100% sold on how "studly" they are- Robert is attempting #2 of closet redo.  Who knew this would be so difficult? 

I'll be sure to post pictures when we have it done...hopefully by the weekend...

Worth the extra money

There are a lot of items I will opt for the store brand item- bread, cheese, condiments, Excedrin (I found out the maker of Excedrin make most store brands).  But I have learned the hard way there are 2 things I won't go store brand route.  Trash bags and dishwasher detergent.   

Trash bags are easy to figure out- they are thinner and the ties always seem to break on me when I'm either carrying it or even tying it.  When you have to bring a trash bag 8 floors down, then a good 25 years behind the building-you don't want your bag breaking.  It took that happening once for me to learn. 

Dishwasher detergent took me longer to figure out, and yet I still fall in the trap of buying cheap.  I've used the Kroger, Publix and a Trader Joe's brand and all have left dried food on all the dishes.  I thought it was just that the JetDry was out-but when I went to refill that, it was almost completely full.  Then I decided that I would just rinse the dishes really well before they go in the dishwasher-maybe the actual dishwasher was getting old and worn.  When there was still stuff on the dishes, that's when I finally realized that it must be the soap I'm using.  I called my Mom and she confirmed that it was most certainly the cheapness of the detergent.

Are there any items that you refuse to go the cheapo route?   

The Help

While in Seattle at the beginning of the month, I picked up The Help.  I had been asking people about it, since the movie was coming out, and decided that a 5 hour flight back to Atlanta would be the best time to start.  I enjoyed the book-even laughed out loud at some points (like when Mae Mobley uses the bathroom on Hilly's front lawn).

Then last weekend the Auburn girls and I went to see the movie.  In case anyone hasn't seen it yet, I won't give anything away, but I wasn't 100% in love with it.  My biggest qualm, they didn't develop a lot of the characters and changed quite a few things.

So, if you're thinking about seeing the movie- I highly suggest you read the book first or at least at some point.  That's been the case a lot lately with books I really enjoy and then they are made into a movie (PS I Love You book is fabulous, the movie is absolutely terrible).  I really want to see Something Borrowed, but I loved those books so much I'm just a tad nervous to see all the changes they made.

Have you guys read any good books lately?  Any books you really loved and ended up hating the movie, or vice versa?

East Coast, West Coast and back again

I feel like I'm becoming quite the traveler these days.  Typically for my job I don't have to travel much.  Since starting with the company I've traveled to Lexington KY for a conference, MN for a conference, AZ for a conference, DC for a 4 hour meeting, and AL and TN for NASCAR races.  I've been with the company for 3.5 years now-so that really isn't a lot of travel.  However, since June I've been to Englishtown NJ, Bristol TN, San Francisco CA and I'm currently on a plane to Seattle WA.

Last weekend (oh yes, these are weekend travels) I was in San Fran.  I attempted to do some research on the city-but I really didn't know what my schedule would be like.  My hotel was near Fisherman's Wharf which was an interesting area- a lot of tourists.  So I guess the real highlight of the trip was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge (yes the whole 1.9 miles each way).  It was pretty windy-but it was so amazing and scary at the same time (I'll try to post pictures later when I'm not on a plane).  The city is absolutely beautiful and I already told Robert I want us to go back and play.  *Side note, if you look up information on wikipedia.com about the Golden Gate Bridge there is an entire section on suicides-apparently more people die by suicide at the GGB than any other place in the world.

This weekend Seattle is my destination.  I wasn't supposed to go, but my boss knows my brother lives out there so she asked if I wanted dibs on the trip if someone had to go.  Only bummer part, my brother has to play Army again so I'll miss out on seeing him but I do get to explore the city with my sister in law.  I am going to try to make it a point to find some of the scene locations from Sleepless in Seattle.  I know, I'm weird, but it is one of my favorite movies (and I plan to do the same thing whenever I get to go to NYC (You've Got Mail) and I really want to go to the Festival of Lights (Steel Magnolias).

Retirement

After teaching Kindergarten for 21 years, my Mom decided to retire from teaching.  It was something she was thinking about during the last school year, but every time I would ask her about it she said she would like 1 more year.  Well, I guess Demetri was enough for her this year, and in May she told her principal she wouldn't be renewing her contract (Demetri is one of her students that for the first few weeks of school every time he went #2 my mom would hear "Mrs. Doooouggghhhhertttttyy, I'm all done! I need you to come wipe!" TMI, yes. and hilarious).

Since there are 2 elementary teachers in the family, Michelle and Karen (and Jamie) all helped to go through all of my mom's crap.  Yes, I say crap.  There is a room in their current house that all of the nonteachers lovingly refer to as "the Teacher Crap Room."  It rivals a teacher store with all of the crap that is in there (and the room is at the most 12x12).  It took them 4 full days to go through everything.  And they were nice enough to give all of the nonteachers some items as well.  The highlights of my pile: Sharpie markers (b/c there was enough to go around, and then some) and every alligator book that my Mom owned (since I have a fear of alligators, they thought it was fitting).

But what better way to celebrate 21 years of teaching 5 year olds, other than go through 21 years of crap?  A surprise party in my Mom's honor.   We held it on Friday July 15th.  My Dad convinced her that she was going to the church for a Knight of Columbus gathering.  But instead she walked into this (except with people).  

We definitely surprised her and there were a number of people from her current school there to honor her.  She also got a call from her principal from Daphne as well as many sweet letters from partner teachers, parents, and friends. 

We were also able to give my Dad a surprise in the process.  My brother had to "play Army" in Atlanta on Saturday July 16th, so after landing in Atlanta at 4pm Friday he hopped in a rental car and made the 3 hour drive to Knoxville.  Even though it was only a few hours that we spent with him, it was such a great time.  It's been since May '10 that I've gotten to see him.

Marybeth and Shane had just made the trip to Knoxville (a 7 hour drive for them from the MS coast) for July 4th so they weren't able to join us.  Tina was on a plane from Philly to Seattle (they had been in Philly to see U2 in concert and visit family) and Robert was in California for his grandmother funeral. 

Oh yes, and remember how in one of my last posts I said that my Mom had lost a lot of weight? Well she's still going strong.  Doesn't she look fabulous?