Whelp...that's been an epic fail!

Typically, Money does talk and talks a lot! But as one can tell...I haven't been talking for about 5 months or so...it's a super long story that will one day be on here...one day!  It's a lot, a lot of life learning and hardship and redirecting and figuring things out for the first time in my life.  It's a lot of tears and a lot of heartache, but at the end it's a lot of happiness and love!  So..an epic fail has occurred on many, many levels...probably the biggest ever! But...I'm still here, still kicking and that's what matters at the end of the day! I wasn't sure I even wanted to blog anymore and it's highly likely that I don't...we'll see. This blog just kinda happened because I'm trying to avoid reading a bunch of law cases for my class!  Lots has changed in my life, more than I thought imaginable, but here I am!  Join me in my new journey if you will...it's been a super bumpy ride to here, but I think here might be a great place! Oh yeah! And I turn 30 this week!  Start praying now!

Oops! I Did it Again!...Well, Not Oops...Surprise!

Carter's birthday was March 3rd, so the sneaky little thing that I am, threw him a surprise party a week and a day later on March 11th!!!! This surprise party was not so easy to pull off!  It was on a Friday,when we were still working.  I had to figure out how to get him distracted after school for about 2 hours before he got to his house.  How?  Great question! I didn't have a clue what to do!  Then we met some new friends on Sunday and like the little facebooker stalker that I am, I stalked our new friends and asked for their help on Monday morning!  I invited them to the party and threw in...any way you can take Carter golfing on Friday?  New Mike said he was on it!  (Thanks New Mike and thanks for reading the blog! You may be the only one besides my mom, who has been forced to!) Well, next thing I knew it rained ALL WEEK!!!!  Carter had already planned to be out on Friday to play golf and then announced to me that if they couldn't play on Friday because of all the rain,he'd just take the day off! NO!!!!!!!!  That is the exact opposite of what I needed!  I probably wore New Mike and all the others out because I kept texting all week, asking them what they thought was going to happen with Friday!  Thankfully, they played on Friday and I was able to sneak away for a half day and pick up food from Newk's and desserts from The Cup!  So yummy! It was a perfect evening and he DID NOT have a clue!  I did it again!!!!!

UT Tood, the Whites and the Pattersons sitting around eating!

Sweet Paisley eating a cupcake! Yumo!

Heather, Jade, and Me! Great friends for many years! Have so much
fun with these ladies! Love them!

Carter with his presents of 40! I asked everyone to bring 40 of
something Carter would like!  He ended up with donuts, gummy bears, candy, etc!
The best was 40 lottery tickets! See the next picture! Big D totally won $107!

The winning ticket!

So happy at the end of the night!  Great party for a great guy!

Whitestone 30K...um that equals 18 and a little .6!

Today I ran the Whitestone 30k!  This is the longest race I've ever done.  The most I've run is 13.1 and that's only during my half marathons, so running, what I thought at the time of  running and racing, 18 miles was huge!  I honestly didn't know if I could do it or not.  I didn't run any extra miles during the week...actually didn't run any miles during the week because my right hip acted up last Sunday and I literally could not walk on it.  So, I was really nervous about the 5 more miles, plus the fact that I hadn't run all week and my hip was acting up.


I went to mom and dad's in Kingston last night to stay the night, since Whitestone is in Kingston on Paint Rock Road.

All my stuff laid out the night before.

Me in my childhood bedroom, it always makes me smile to go home again!

I got up around 6.45 to do the coffee, wake up routine.  Mom and Dad went with me, which I LOVED and we headed out the door by 7.30.  The race didn't start until 8.30, but I think you had to be checked in by 8 and it's a 30 minute drive over there!  Although, interesting story....I grew up (where my mom and dad still live) on Paint Rock Ferry Road and I made the comment that I wondered if there was a ferry that went between the two roads...wouldn't you know it, back in the day there was one!!! Ha!!!! Look at me using some deductive (or inductive..those two confuse me!) reasoning!

Dressed and ready to head out the door!

Right before race time!!!! Hair is down
and I'm wearing that HUGE headband thing
because you couldn't listen to headphones
so I snuck 'em behind that hair and headband!!!!

Whitestone Inn, a very cool little bed
and breakfast!

The starting line, people milling about!

The race started with a HUGE downhill run...made you feel good before you started running the 18 other miles you still had to do!  The first 3 miles I kept having the following conversation in my head You can do this...Well are you sure 18 is a lot...Shut it, you got it...Oh this is going to get rough...Mom and Dad are here, I can always call them....Should I act like I'm running a half and then 5 more?....Should I act like I'm running 5 and then a half?...Should I break it up into 5s????? So the first 3 miles were quite entertaining!  I have never felt more anxious about a race!  I just had no idea if I could physically keep running.  My hip had been sore, my foot has it's own mind and can at any given time decide it's done and doesn't want to do anything else!  By mile 5 I had settled into the race and felt really good.  I had decided to break it down into 5s.  Plus, that's when I took Gu's, so it was perfect!  Around mile 6 it started raining!!! That's right! Please look back at the picture of me before the race...I do not have rain gear on!  The forecast the night before said no rain and the sun was blazing when we started off!  Dang the rain, but it felt good...it was getting a little warm...my only concern was that my phone and ipod (that I wasn't supposed to have) would get waterlogged and become kaput!  The rain was a great distraction for awhile.  It continued to rain on and off for the rest of the race.  Nice ice for my hip?  Foot? Knee?  After I got to mile 13, I called Carter (who was at church) to let him know I had made it that far and that I thought I could do the entire race.  I called Mom and Dad at mile 15 to check in and let them know would be about 30 more minutes!  After mile 13, I was so excited to be running that I just kept running!  I was listening to music and that helped so much! I think at mile 17 I did a little dancing while running!  Thanks Erick Baker!!!!  At mile 16, I picked up a little furry friend that ran the rest of the race with me...kinda fun!  At mile 17, there was some lightening!!!! Eek! I ran faster!!!!  The rain was bad enough, I couldn't handle the lightening too!  At mile 18, I was smiling and happy, glad to be down...oh wait! What did you just say to me you cute, dry, volunteer, there's .6 more to run before I get to the finish?  You mean my math skills aren't good enough to know that 30k=18.6?  Really?  WHAT!!!!!  So I ran that last .6 miles...totally didn't know I had to!  So much for knowing my numbers!

At the end!!! Still smiling! And soaked!

Loved having these people with me!!!!  Loved seeing
them at the finish line!  This was the first one
they've been to!

Please take a look at that hot mess of a hairdo!!!!  Gotta love the rain!

Mom, Dad, and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast after the race, then I went back to their house to shower and clean up.  I went back home to nap for a little while, then Carter and I went to Red Robin for a little cheeseburger to celebrate my success of running 18.6 miles!

Love their cheeseburgers and campfire sauce with the fries!

 I don't have another race until April 3 (the Knoxville Half Marathon).  I tried to find some close by for the month of March, but there wasn't any! Oh well!  I'll make my own half marathon one Saturday, complete with a new t-shirt!!!!  March is a busy month with Carter's birthday this Thursday, Lip Sync Friday, then Spring Break and Folly Beach!!!!  The last week in March is cheerleading tryouts! Busy, busy, busy!!!!

Erick Baker Again?

Erick Baker concert again? Yes, please I do think I would enjoy that! Well, that's exactly what Carter and I are going to do tonight!  Erick's playing in Chattanooga and call us crazy, but we are totally going to run down there for the show!!! So excited! 

Erick Baker @ The Bijou

Last night Carter and I, along with my mom and dad, went to see Erick Baker at The Bijou!  He is, hands down, one of my absolute favorite singers and artist!  Last year he was playing a special Valentine dinner concert at the Square Room and I was so torn on whether or not to go, but had downloaded numerous songs and in the end waited too long to buy tickets...it was sold out, 2 nights in a row.  Luckily, he played at The Bijou in April and Carter and I jumped on those tickets and that night I fell in love with his music!

In April 2010, @ The Bijou

We met at Oodles Uncorked for dinner before the show.  None of us had eaten there before and it was really, really good!  Will be making a return trip without a doubt!  Dad had the duck marsala (quack!), mom had a house salad and their famous mac-n-cheese (which I did sample and it was really, really good), Carter went with the cheeseburger and I decided on a tomato and mozzarella salad with salmon.  

Oodles Uncorked is at Market Square, so we walked to The Bijou from there. It's about 1/4 a mile.  We got in, found our seats and prepared for an amazing show!

Erick started with Unbroken Promise, which is an amazing song he wrote to his wife.  He sang a handful of songs with just his guitar and no other instruments, then the band came out and played with him.  Erick is one of those singers that feels every lyric, every note, when he plays and sings.  He loves what he does and it shows in everything that he sings.  

He has a new album coming out in August, with another show at The Bijou to have the release party! Mom already told me to buy her and dad tickets too!  So happy that they loved the show as much as I do!  A song that is going to be on his new album is Night and Day.  This has now become my most favorite song!  

So the video of the song will have to come later! I can't get it to upload!

Definitely looking forward to the next time I get to see Erick play...which is in about two weeks!!! YES!!! Carter and I are going to Birmingham the Saturday of Spring Break to see Erick and Will Hoge....I will be in heaven!  And then the next day we are headed to Folly Beach with mom and dad for the week!!!!  Lots of fun stuff coming up for sure!

Off to run....18 mile race next weekend!  Gotta put in some miles today in preparation!

Strawberry Plains 1/2 Marathon Recap!

I pretty much ROCKED it this time around!!!!  I ran it thirty minutes faster than last year, which I think is pretty much amazing!  Very happy with my time!


I woke up around 6 am, to do the coffee, breakfast, wake-up thing!  I already had all my clothes laid out the night before.

The race didn't start until 9 am, which was super nice, but I had to check in and get my bib and t-shirt by 8.30 am.  Here's a big difference with this half compared to others.  Most halfs, in fact, every single one I've been to, you have to pick up your bib the night before.  For this half, you don't even have that option, pick up is not until 8.30 am.  This is a very small half compared to most races I've done.  It only costs $35 and it starts at a school in Strawberry Plains.  I dressed in the first layer and headed to the starting point, which was 30 minutes earlier than the actual race start time.

The weather was really good for the run.  It was chilly starting out and of course I had my many layers on!  As you can see from the picture, the need for toboggans and gloves was there.  I bought North Face mittens and put hot hands inside them for this race and what a difference it made!  My hands actually started sweating around mile four and I had to take them off!  I'll take that over those frozen fingers from the last race.  

I ran with this guy Justin starting around mile 3.  It was his first half, first long race period, and it was nice to have someone to run with and to encourage on his first half. His wife was running the half too, but took off and left him on his own!  You couldn't listen to music on this race, so running with Justin kept me from getting bored.  That's a lot of miles to just think to yourself!

The race really wasn't bad at all.  The first 3 miles are on a pot-hole full road, which makes running a little bit of a challenge.  You have to dodge the pot-holes and make sure you don't twist your ankle, or in my case, step wrong with my left foot.  It reminded me of the trail race I did...and hated!  The rest of the road was good, except it was an out and back so the last 3 miles were on that some pot-hole filled road! That's all you want to do for your last 3 miles; concentrate on not falling!  I saw a group of five wild turkeys! A little afraid they would attack me! I know how those big birds can be when runners are near!  Any of you that live in Kingston and have experienced the attacking, hissing geese can sympathize with me!  They handed out gu on mile six and again on mile ten.  I took one at mile six and took one for the road (a.k.a. my next race) at mile ten.  As usual, mile 9-10 and then mile 11-12, was hard!  They always are though! It's like your so close, yet not there yet!

Happy finisher! I ran this in 2.15!  Not bad for the first half of the year and not really ever training to run any faster! Next up is the Whitestone 30k...which is 18 miles! Not going to lie....VERY ANXIOUS!  My plan isn't to run 18 before the race, which is next Sunday, just to get up and run it on Sunday!  My dad is going with me (Yay for Big Poppa Money!), so that if I get to certain mile, like 14, I can call him and he can pick me up or send out some people or whatever needs to be done!  My fear is that my foot will say NO MORE!  I'm praying it doesn't and that I can breeze survive those 18 miles.  The most I've done is the numerous 13.1 miles at a time! I'll accept some walking, but secretly I really want to run all 18! It would just be amazing!

Strawberry Half...coming right up!

This Saturday will be my first half marathon of the year!  Very excited!  Last year this was my first half marathon ever and I totally went into it without a lot of thought!  I thought I had been running lots of miles...like 8-10 every day! WRONG!  My little watch that was supposed to be computing every step I took accurately....FAILED ME! So, here I am running, what I think is 8-10 miles everyday, and think what's 13.1!?!?!  Can do!  WRONG! (again!)  I did it, but it was hard!  By the time I got done running the 13.1 miles, my incorrect, no longer, cute and cool watch, told me I had run 18 miles! Off much?  So those 8-10 daily miles were actually 3-5 miles...big oops!  Those 13.1 miles were not easy.  I didn't think the end of the race was ever going to come. I hated cows and horses and the beautiful scenery by the end...HATED IT!  I wanted to give up, wanted to not be running, thought I was going to die!  I didn't die and I didn't stop! I made it the whole way...it was just hard!  So, this Saturday means a lot to me and makes me a little anxious! I just remember how hard it was last year and don't want a repeat! Of course, I now have a trustworthy garmin (Garmie!!!!) and run 10 miles almost every weekend, so 13.1 should be a breeze! We shall see though! More to come when I get done!