I Love Productive Weekends!

Chris paiting our bedroom!

This past weekend was fun and productive! We started off by running in the Charlotte 10 Miler down in Ballantyne. I won a free entry to this race from Theoden’s (running) facebook page. It worked out well for a running workout Chris had planned for me. I am running the Wrightsville Beach half marathon on March 17th, so just a few weeks left to train. I have a goal, just not sure I am going to be ready for this goal in a few weeks time.

For this race, Chris had a plan for me to run a two mile warm up, then run the first two miles of the race at an 8 minute pace and get progressively faster with each mile. Then a mile cool down to finish. I was a little worried about a hill I heard about around mile 8, almost 6 miles of the race was ran on the greenway, so you think it’s going to be a flat, fast race.

That morning we woke up before 6am to heavy rain. We debated even driving down to the race in the cold rain. I decided since I was awake I might as well go, even if I don’t want to run, I could at least cheer others on.

As soon as we got down there and parked, I realized I forgot my race bib at home! Luckily, they were very kind at registration and let me have a new bib, since they were so nice about this, I decided I had to at least run. So, we went back to the car, sat in there to warm up and headed to the start line just in time for the race to start. No warm up for us, and also decided to just use this as a training run, no workout.

Chris ran with me, and we didn’t end up following the workout as planned, but still did get a good workout. Although, that hill before mile 9 was not pretty. I thought the two previous hills into the neighborhood were the hills people were referring to, but when I saw the crazy hill before mile 9, I was not very happy. I started running, but decided I was going to walk. I gave up. Chris tried to encourage me to keep running; saying the last mile is all downhill to the finish, but I did not believe him. I figured he was saying anything to get me not to walk. I did not like this hill, you go up a steep hill, then turn and go up another steep hill. As soon as we made the next turn, it was all downhill to the finish. I do wish I had previewed the course and knew about these last two miles before the race, because then I would have beeen mentally prepared.  My 9th mile was 8:44 pace, yowza! Then my last mile was 7:15, it was such a nice last mile to the finish line.

Overall I finished 14th female and 2nd in my age group, with an average pace of 7:46. Overall it was fun, and I would do this one again.

When we got home, we got to work in the master bedroom. We recently bought furniture for our bedroom, so we had to paint the room in preparation for the delivery on Friday. We chose a light brown color, not exactly what I had in mind, but I think it will look good with the furniture.

painting over the green walls





the finished room, waiting for furniture

won't be empty for long

We are also having my treadmill that is currently at my parent’s house in NY brought down in a few weeks. So, we had to make room in the other rooms for this. We re-arranged our guest bedroom and also our workout/movie room. Soon we will have a treadmill along with our bike trainer in here. Chris hung up a projection screen and mounted a projector on the opposite wall so we can watch movies while working out or relaxing.

workout/movie room

sitting down to watch a movie Saturday night

Sunday, Chris was able to clean out the gutters, finally. It seems like it is always raining down here so we were glad to get this finally taken care of on such a nice day. We also got a bike ride in through Davidson earlier in the day. It felt like a spring day and it was nice to be outside enjoying the weather!

Chris's Dad helped holding and moving the ladder

Just 40 more days until our wedding!!!

Less than 2 Months!!

Our wedding site, how beautiful is this?!!


Chris has been reminding me lately that I have not posted anything on here in a very long time. So, I am going to give a wedding update. We are now just 52 days away from our trip to Jamaica, and 55 days away from our wedding! I am trying to make sure we are getting everything done that needs to be done. We’re almost there, I still need me dress alterations, Chris’s wedding ring and a few minor items finished/bought.


We came close to missing the deadline for getting our documentation sent in for our marriage license. Since we booked our trip/wedding almost a year ago, I couldn’t remember what we did do and what we didn’t do. Apparently, we did not fill out the application for our marriage license, to make our wedding legal. We found this out on the Friday evening of my college girl’s weekend for my bachelorette/shower/birthday celebration. We needed to have our application sent in, along with a notarized copy of each of our birth certificates. This had to be received in the Sandals/Beaches Miami office at least 60 days before our arrival in Jamaica. We had just 8 days, 5 business days, to get our birth certificates copied/notarized and delivered to the Miami office. This was a little stressful, considering if it was not received in time the resort would not perform our wedding. Also, Chris did not have a copy of his birth certificate so he had to make time to visit the office of vitals downtown to get his birth certificate. He was also, of course, out of town until Monday evening. Thankfully, it all worked out. He got his certificate on Tuesday, I had mine notarized and we overnighted it down to the Miami office. PHEW!!

As I mentioned earlier, my college girl friends organized a shower/bachelorette/birthday weekend for me here in Charlotte. This was the last weekend in January, and we had such a great time! It is so fun to get together with these girls; it is always like no time has passed when we all hang out, just like old times! Catherine, Jaime and Kara planned the fun-filled weekend, it was perfect! Jess flew in on Wednesday from Colorado, Kara flew in Thursday from Ohio, Beth flew in Friday from Long Island, Shannon from Chicago and Faz from NJ (she almost didn’t make it with the blizzard we were getting in Charlotte :))

We started the weekend with a home cooked chicken parmesan dinner at Catherine’s house, hanging out and catching up with some wine, of course. (Thanks to Catherine’s husband, Matt, for sponsoring us with endless wine this weekend!) Saturday morning, a group of us headed out to get a cold run in before the festivities began. They had a shower for me during the day, followed by a little flip cup outside and then a trip to the bowling alley for food and a couple games. After that we came back to Catherine’s house and got ready to go dancing uptown! It was such a great weekend and I’m so thankful for all my friends who planned the weekend, flew down to Charlotte to celebrate with me, and my friends in Charlotte who came over/out to celebrate with us all!

I think everything else is on track, we’re getting very excited! We have 25 guests coming to celebrate our wedding with us in Jamaica! All the minor details are taken care of, and we are getting anxious!!

I have been slowly working on my bouquet for the wedding, it is almost done. I started this project last year, after seeing a picture of a similar bouquet on Pinterest. I just hope it all stays intact on the flight to Jamaica!

Our dining room table has turned into my crafting table!


I saw these shoes as soon as I walked into the store and fell in love with them right away. I love these shoes, and am excited to wear them with my wedding dress!

My wedding band came in as well!

I would post a picture of my dress, but guess I shouldn’t do that before the wedding. I love it! Will post pictures after the wedding!

Other than that, we have been busy doing work in and around our house. Chris and I took a trip to Greenville, SC last weekend to celebrate both of our birthdays together. We took Flat Stanley with us as well (for Alex's classroom.)

We stopped at Crowder's Mountain on the way home to hike!

Life has been treating us well this year, so excited for April 6th!!