Just Plodding Along

With the new year coming up it is always fun to look back on what has happened the past 365 days. This year has had its ups and downs but overall it has been a great year! We got to live close to the Windy City and explore much of what it has to offer. Chicago is a fun place and I am glad we got to live near there and have some adventures there. The same goes for Milwaukee. If you ever get the chance to visit either I recommend it. I got into the Chicago marathon. A happy 30th birthday present to myself. Sadly we had to say goodbye to our dog Nellie.   I ran several half marathons in pursuit of my goal of running 30 halves before turning 30.  I ran the Wisconsin Marathon.  Followed shortly by the Chicagoland Spring Marathon, followed shortly with an Achilles injury that stopped me from running for six weeks. Lesson learned- sometimes breaks are good. My sister got married and I got the be the official wedding photographer. Fun in the mount

This morning I ran 20 miles....in the rain. The entire 20 miles it was raining. I may have been a bit bitter about this. The cool thing was that my coach met me for the last four to try to squeeze out some speed on tired legs. And even though I was cold and miserable and throwing a complete shit fit in my head we managed to run 4 miles at an average pace of 9:27. Whhaaaaaa. That was a huge confidence boost and I am lucky my coach is nice enough to also run in the rain. On to more fun things! Yesterday D and I hit Hotlanta for some adventures. We hit the Aquarium, World of Coca- Cola, Trader Joe's and The Vortex. Fun, shopping and food. The perfect day. For those of you who may not know I have a weird fascination with marine life. So I was super excited for the aquarium. Probably more so than is healthy. The Georgia aquarium is the largest in the world and they have some incredible displays.  They have a tank large enough to hold like five whale sharks. Whale sharks are t

 Christmas eve we made homemade pizza and hot chocolate with the fancy marshmallows. Fancy marshmallows make everything better. After a day of Christmas movies and eating it was early to bed so we could get up early and open presents!!! I love to make French Toast with this type of bread for Christmas morning. It reminds me of my mother-in-law who made it for us one time when we were with them over the holidays. And it is so delicious. You know what would go better with this dessert tasting bread- syrup! Breakfast on Christmas done right.  But you have to open presents first. None of this waiting around. Max got to open his first and was very excited to get a new green dog toy. I made out like a bandit. My BF Maren got me this pancake ornament. Love! She fully supports my love of the breakfast foods. Plus I got sweet smelling lotions and lip stuff and a food processor and cast iron dutch oven (I feel these are gifts for me as well as D who will likely ben

Last night was the Big Dog and several other businesses owned by the owners Christmas party. They provided dinner and we provided the desserts so I baked some cookies. It was fun to hang out with friends Nicole and myself- another awesome Big Dog employee and eat of course.  We found out we are getting North Face jackets as Christmas gifts. Super excited about that.  Speaking of gifts D got one of his Christmas gifts early today when I took him to go get a massage. And then as a second gift I made him go to Sam's Club with me. Okay that was a gift to myself. Look what we found! Biggest bottle of wine ever. Merry Christmas to me. This morning it was pouring rain so I did not go run. Instead I have a track workout at 7 p.m. Running in the evening is weird for me and I am not sure what to do with myself. I did manage to make it to Pilates and my abs have been on fire ever since.  Last week I ran around 46 miles with a 5K race thrown in. Running

Well you could probably do without another post about how tired I am so let's try for something new. I am hangry. Oh wait that is not new either. Here we go: The Bad Our rental house got broken into and all our appliances were stolen. I am still a bit annoyed by this but what are you gonna do... well besides probably fill out a lot of insurance paperwork and have to get pushy with the management company. The Good There is someone out there with a bigger foot than mine. This find is pretty exciting. (I wear a size 12 in women's in case you were wondering or want to buy me shoes). That shoes is a size 18 men's. Suddenly I feel dainty.... or slightly less Sasquatch like. What are those snazzy shoes I am sporting? Why they are my new Altras. I don't run in them because my Achilles would probably snap and fall off but they are super comfortable for standing around in and walking and taking body pump. Actually I kind of love them. Christmas gifts! On Tu