Lucky 2013

I don’t even know where to begin to wrap up this past year.  This has been the best year of my life.  I couldn’t imagine being luckier.  I can’t lie, that also makes me a little nervous, because who gets everything they want, right?  I am going to just enjoy all of the blessings in my life and look back at the wonderful year we have had.

I’m going to try and highlight all of the best times of my year, but I am sure I will miss some things!

I was engaged as I entered this year, Chris and I had been engaged for almost a year at the start of 2013, with just four months until our big day in Jamaica!  It was also an exciting time for us because we were now home owners and still getting settled in our home, in our new neighborhood.

January is my birthday month, and this year was extra special because all of my college girls made the trip down to Charlotte to celebrate my upcoming nuptials with me!  We had such a fun, long weekend at Catherine’s house in Charlotte catching up and celebrating, having a shower and a bachelorette party.  It was so much fun, and went by much too fast!

This was only pic I could find :( missing some girls!

Chris and I share our birthdays within a week of each other, instead of doing gifts, we like to find somewhere to go for an overnight trip to celebrate and explore.  This year, we traveled a short distance to Greenville, SC.  We were able to stay downtown and explore the city, see the nightlife and do some hiking.  That was my first time in Greenville, and I really enjoyed it.

Between January and April, this was a busy time for us.  Planning and preparing for our wedding.  Luckily, we had a travel agent/wedding coordinator who specializes in destination weddings that made our planning so much easier.  I feel like this time flew by between dress fittings and last minute details.  I traveled up to Rochester, NY in March for my NY shower.  My mom put on a great shower for us, complete with my favorite Italian food.  It was so nice to see so many of our family and friends come together to celebrate our upcoming day!

Friends at my Rochester shower

Charlotte shower

During this time, I was also training for the Wrightsville Beach half marathon.  I set a goal of breaking 1:40 for the half, which I had not done before.  Chris helped with my training plan and I had additional help with my training from some of my running girl friends here in Charlotte.  I am happy to report that I finished in 1:39!  Chris ran the race with me to help, and I was so happy when I crossed that finish line and met my goal!  I would like to plan for another PR in the future, but I may wait a couple years on this goal…

celebrating after the race!

I remember being so excited in the weeks leading up to our wedding in April.  Jamaica, the trip, our wedding, far surpassed anything I had in mind.  It was just…PERFECT.  We had our good friends Jaime and Adam and Catherine and Matt with us on the plane ride to Jamaica, which made it so much more fun.  When we arrived, some of our family and friends were already at the resort and I can remember stepping off the shuttle into the resort, smelling the lemon grass aroma, and just feeling like we were in paradise.  I am not going to go on in details about our wedding weekend and honeymoon, because I have already written a blog about all of that.  Just thinking back on it all now, I would go back in a second; this was the best vacation I ever had.  Combined with family and friends, it was just icing on the cake.  I could not imagine a better wedding for us.  We both love traveling and more relaxed, less stressful events, and this was amazing.  I wish I had a trip booked there again.  We will be back to Negril!

Just married :)

making it official!

out honeymoon in Ochos Rios

Once we got back to Charlotte, I’m not going to lie; I had a bit of a hard time getting back to reality.  I missed Jamaica, so much.  More than any trip/vacation I had ever been on.  I felt a little down that it was all over, and I wanted to relive our wedding and that weekend over and over again.  It just went by too fast.  I soon came to realize that it probably was not Jamaica I was missing so much, but the year and half of wedding planning and excitement had come to an end, it was all over.  I was missing it all.  I did not expect to feel that way.  I remember watching our wedding video and looking at all of our pictures over and over again, I could not get enough of it.

Luckily, we have such great friends here in Charlotte who planned us a wonderful wedding celebration in May, when we returned.  The only downfall of having a destination wedding is that many of our family and friends were not able to make the trip with us.  Thankfully, everyone was ready to celebrate with us, when we returned.  

some of the girls at our Charlotte wedding celebration

In July, we traveled up to Rochester, NY for our church wedding and celebration with family and friends in NY.  I was able to wear my dress again, and have our marriage blessed by the church, followed by a backyard reception at my parent’s house.  It was a HOT weekend in Rochester over the 4^th of July, but luckily, we had many cold beverages to keep us cool while we danced and celebrated!  My parents had this reception catered by my favorite NY restaurant, Agatinas!  We also had a DJ and a dance floor to keep the party going.  Then we finished off the night by letting off paper sky lanterns into the sky.  It was so much fun!

Letchworth Park in NY

dancing at our NY reception

This is how fast the first half of our year flew by…in a second!

All of the excitement did not stop there.  In July I received a promotion with my company and made the switch from the medical-surgical division at McKesson to the Health Systems-Pharmacy division.  There was a chance we were going to have to move to either Raleigh or Charleston for this position, but when I received the offer, I was surprised to learn that there was a position that just opened where I could stay right here in Charlotte.  It all worked out just right.  I have been in my new position for five months now, it still feels like I am only a month in, it’s a big transition and a lot to learn, but I am really enjoying it.  I really like my new team and my new manager, and I’m looking forward to growing in my new position.

We had many fun local trips over the summer, Folly Beach, Charleston, Asheville, Blowing Rock, Kiawah Island, and Myrtle Beach.  We were enjoying every minute of it in our newly married life, then in August, I found out I was pregnant!  What an awesome surprise this was, and added excitement to the year we were having!

I am already 22 weeks pregnant, expecting a little baby boy, who we have already picked out a name for!  He is moving around in my belly everyday!  I can’t believe we only have four months left until we get to meet him.  He has already added so much joy to our lives!

In November we took a long weekend trip up to Philadelphia for the marathon weekend.  Originally I planned on running the full marathon, but since I became pregnant, I scaled it back to the half, and Chris ran the full.  On our trip to Philly, we stopped over in DC for a night to explore the city.  My family also met up with us in Philadelphia to support us in our races!

The White House

This brings us to the end of the year.  What a year it has been!  I cannot believe how much has happened and changed this year.  I don’t think anything can ever top this year.  Our wedding, the biggest event of our life, and now to come in, a very close second, a new baby to enter our life in 2014!  I thank God everyday for giving us such a good life and so much to look forward to as we start our family together!

Running, Rooms to Go, Wraps and Red Wine



My new running shoes

It has been busy as usual around here.  This was an eventful week.  We had new bedroom furniture delivered, Chris bought me a brand new pair of Newton running shoes, I ran a 5k, Chris joined It Works as a distributor and some of my girlfriends here in Charlotte through me a bridal shower with wine tasting!



As I sit here writing this on my couch, I have an It Works ‘Ultimate Body Applicator’ wrap on my stomach.  Chris joined on as a distributor for a company called It Works.  Our friend Lisa has been a distributor for the past year and has really enjoyed this company and growing her business over the past year.  I am not going to go into detail on this blog post about the company, as I am still learning, but I am trying their body contouring wrap to help tone my mid section before our wedding.  I have seen and read great results from these wraps, so hoping it helps!  I will post more about this, and maybe even some pictures once I finish using them.  I am going to do one wrap a week over the next four weeks.  I also have been taking their Greens each day as a supplement, and do find these give me more energy.  More on all of this in a later post.

Me with my wrap underneath my shirt  (and new running shorts!)

A couple weeks ago Chris and I went to Rooms to Go to purchase a new bedroom set for our bedroom.  This took a long time to agree on which set we liked the best.  We finally agreed on a sleigh bedroom set, with a dresser, two nightstands and bed frame, along with an area rug.  We chose a delivery date two weeks from when we purchased.  The night before the scheduled delivery date, their customer service department called us to inform us that they do not have the headboard for our bed, it will not be in until the end of the month, BUT they were going to give us some sort of loaner piece so the bed could still be put together.  We were not very happy about this, but this stuff happens, what can you do?  They arrived on time, but I was informed that the bed would stay in the boxes until the headboard is delivered.  Basically the loaner piece they told us about was just bed rails to hold the mattress, which we already have.  So, now we have to keep these 3 large boxes containing our bed frame in our room until March 23^rd.  We have been sleeping in our guest bedroom, which is nice and cozy, so I don’t mind so much. 

New bedroom furniture minus the bed!

I signed up for a 5k on Saturday to run as part of my long run of 15 miles.  I normally do not like 5ks, but I knew it was a good way to get some speed work in as part of my long run.  There was a 5k at McAlpine which worked out perfect, because my friend Amy was planning on running 20 miles there that morning, so she could meet me at the finish of the race to run my remaining 10 miles.  This 5k was called ‘Run Jen Run.’  All the money raised from the race was going to the ‘Go Jen Go’ foundation.  As stated on their website; The GoJenGo Foundation is a non-profit institution dedicated to providing financial assistance and emotional support to individuals and families, in North and South Carolina, who are battling breast cancer. 

The race had a great turnout, 532 participants for its first year!  It was run on the cross country course, which I had never run before.  I run at McAlpine a good bit, but I always have avoided the hill.  Chris and I ran the hill as part of our two mile warm up, and I didn’t think it was so bad; it’s steep, but short.  The downhill was the worst part for me.  It is pretty steep going down, so I naturally slowed myself down because I felt like I was going to fall.  I did not do much better with this downhill in the race either! 

I really didn’t have a plan for this race, just knew that I wanted to feel good through it so I could finish my ten miles after feeling good.  I have only done a hand full of 5k’s, ever, so I don’t really know how to race these or run these as a workout.  I decided that I should stay in the 7:20-7:30 range for the first two miles, and run faster for the last mile.  I felt really good in the first mile; I clocked a 7:17, for this mile, feeling really relaxed and having fun.  The next mile included the up and down hill, this mile was clocked at a 7:24, the last mile I did in a 7:09.  I got passed at the very end by some woman who came out of nowhere.  Chris never even saw her behind me through the whole race.  I finished in 22:17 and got 1^st place in my age group.  The best part was that I felt great and really relaxed through the whole race.  Amy met me at the finish and we ran 10 miles to complete m 15 mile run for the day and her 20 mile run.  It was fun, and even snowed, a good bit, on us!

5k Start

My 5k finish

Amy and I in the middle of our run, soaked from the snow!

The best part about this morning was something that happened right before the race.  Chris and I just finished our warm up and went to the bathroom before heading to the start of the race.  There were a 2 woman waiting on their two friends in the stalls when I got there.  One of them saw my Charlotte Running Company WWC trail race sweatshirt and asked if I ran that race.  I told her I didn’t do it this year, but I did last year.  She also said how she liked my bright Newton running sneakers.  Their other two friends came out of the stalls and I went into mine, as they continued to talk in the bathroom.  I figured they were just in there staying warm before the race.  I came out and asked them if the race started at 9, which I was pretty sure it did and we had about 10 minutes.  They said yep, we have plenty of time.  So, I went to wash my hands and one of them said “I promise we’re not creepers, but we want to give you something,” she continued to say how they are Lulu Lemon girls and have a new pair of running shorts for me.  This made my day!!  So exciting, what are the chances?!  I felt a little embarrassed since I was wearing a pair of competitor shorts, but one of the girls told me she actually was as well.  They said they didn’t expect me to wear them in the race, but wanted me to have them and try them out.  What are the chances of that?!  A $54 pair of brand new running shorts just for visiting the bathroom before a race!

After returning home, showering and eating lunch, Chris drove me down to Amy’s house for a bridal shower/wine tasting party for me!  I figured since we were sampling many wines, it would be best for Chris to drive me.  My friends put this shower together and had a wine tasting scheduled with a rep from a home wine tasting company.  It was so much fun learning about the different types of wine and food to pair with different wines.  It’s always good to hang out with the girls as well!  This was so much fun!!

All in all, this has been a fun week/weekend.  As I am sitting here, I see the clock and realize I have left this wrap on a little too long.  So, I better go take this off and see if there are any instant results!  Results are supposed to take place over the next 72 hours.  Will keep you updated.  For the rest of the day we have plans to visit Lowes, and plant bulbs!  Snowed yesterday, gardening today, such strange weather we have here!