on my front porch looking in.

When I look back at all I have done today, I really want to high five myself in the mirror.  For serious.  If waking up before 7 am doesn't deserve a medal, then I don't know what does.  I met BFF to give her some stuff for her speech this morning, then came home to meet Missy my marathon coach and her biking buddies for breakfast. 

Brunch at Riverstone.

In celebration of a friend's birthday, I took all seven women tubing.  For most, it was their first time.  It was a bit chilly since the sun wasn't out, but we still looked good and got an arm workout from paddling.

River Rat

My poor friend Ryan had to walk down with us to take the traditional group blog photo.

Since they were in my neck of the woods, I had to show them how the locals do it.  A few of the gals got out to go rock jumping with me and the deep bluffs we have at our river.  I spent a good five minutes trying to convince Sharon Spezia to jump off.  She is scared of heights and still climbed up and jumped off so props to that Go Girl. 

Olympics 2012.  River jumping edition.



After alllll this fun (and a quick nap), I met some girls from work in town to go healthy grocery shopping.  They are just beginning a fitness routine and trying to get healthier, so I guided them through the grocery store.  I racked up on about two weeks worth of food, including the latest issue of Cosmo.  Yeah. I'm cool.

Kim Kardashian and watermelon.  Perfect combo.

We ended the night by a quick sushi trip.  I'm soooo not a sushi eater, so I stuffed my face with shrimp and rice.  One of the girls just bought her first home (!!!!), so we hung out for a while there afterwards and broke in her front porch.  I led them through a short circuit of plyometrics and ab exercises.  We barely accomplished anything since our abs were getting enough of a workout from laughing.  Good times, good times.  There is just something totally relaxing about sitting on the front porch on a hot summer night, dontcha think?

Are you  a sushi eater?

Umm, gelato not so coolato.

After a hard day of working today, I met up with my girl Ashley to head into Knoxvegas.  We had to go to a meeting at her work, so I socialized among her coworkers while she pretended to be all grown up.  Boring.  Butttt she promised me that if I was a good girl and behaved myself, then we would go out for gelato afterwards.

Ummmm, yay Mom!  We left our GP at home so trying to find our way to the gelato shop was a little scary with all the homeless people from downtown checking us white girls out.  Lock doors.  Now.  We finally made it and Ashley parked on the street by a meter (such a big girl), and we went in.  It was our first time there, so we got a feel for the place and had a few samples too.

At least the sign looked cool.

After testing our tastes on baby spoons, we both settled on a combination of Chocolate and Birthday Cake.  We are twinsies remember.  I had to pick my jaw off the ground when they said that it would be six dollars...for one.  I paid anyway since we were "experiencing new things".  We grabbed a seat and I really liked the rich, thick, heavy taste until I found a hair in my gelato.

Shut the front door, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars, do not ever come back.  Post our momentary freakout, we trashed our cups and got the heck outta there.  One thing Ashley and I do not do is hair in our food.  Oh well.  Props to us for trying something new.

That's twelve dollars, people.  Ebony and Ivory.

It is what it is.  But tomorrow I have to wake up SUPER early to meet Ashley and give her some visual aids for her summer school speech class.  BFF of the year award, I know. Then I'm gonna go for a quick run then meet up with my biking ladies for some tubing.  Pip Pip Hooray.  Get it, shawty.  Oh, and in case you weren't already jealous of my super awesome life, check out the presh bow that Ashley has on her gearshift.

How preshhhhh.

Tell me, have you ever had gelato?  Was it coolato?  What all did your Wednesday consist of?

if you ain't first, you are last.

Famous last words.  My apologies for the lack of posts this last week.  I've been working nonstop, then did a spur of the moment mini-vacay to Alabama to see some friends.  I know you mised me.  For today's Saturday inspiration, here is a sign I saw in a store window in my little town. 

Optimism can take you anywhere.  Preach it, Jake.

In other news, I won a giveaway on my friend Kim's blog.  So ironic, especially since she was the winner of my last giveaway.  So cool I know, and I pinky promise it wasn't rigged.  I won myself a BondiBand and am so excited!  The hard part will be picking which one to get. 

Speaking of giveaways, Cassie from Always a Blogsmaid, Never a Blogger is hosting a giveaway this month.  Head on over and sign up for it.  She is such a fun girl, and always has cool adventures to tell.  I promise you'll like her, so go stalk, but don't enter her giveaway tooooo much, because I wanna win!  :)

Oh, and here is a picture from my shopping trip with my best friend this past week.  I came out and this was on my door.  True friendship, lemme tell ya.

I'll forgive her...this time.

Happy Saturday!

Another award?

Geez louise.  Can't believe that Julia over at Pain, Pride and Perseverance picked ME for the One Lovely Blog Award.  I'm really grateful that someone somewhere actually likes this blog and likes me.  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Thanks again, Julia.  You go girl!

So now I'm apparently supposed to share 7 lovely things about myself.  This works out perfectly since I LOVE talking about myself.  ;)

1.  I may be an only child, but my best friend Ashley and me pretend to be sisters.  Seriously.  We dress alike sometimes and when in public use terms such as "our mom".  Yeah, we are cool.

Don't tell me that you can't tell we are twinsies.

2.  I was a pirate in my previous life.

Mhmnmm.

3.  I'm not the most fashionable person in the world.  I live in my Nike tempo shorts and a tee shirt.  99% of the time, I don't care what I'm seen in.  I'm even guilty of wearing these in public:

I must be from TN, because I'm the only ten I see.

4.  I was raised by a single momma.  She has done everything for me and made many many sacrifices to provide everything I need and more.  And we look alike, so she enjoys the fact that people sometimes mistake us for "sisters".

Pink ladies.

5.  I'm kindasorta a neat freak about certain things.  One of these things is NOT my car.  I practically live out of it and people can rarely sit in the front seat unless they chuck everything in the back.

Evidence

6.  I have always been an English junkie.  My freshman English teacher played a pivotal role in this, then I took AP English my junior year with another fantastic teacher.  Post high school, I remained in touch with them and we all ended up becoming racing girls.  Both ladies have been a big part of my life, and I'm thankful that our friendship didn't stop after high school.

Myself, Amanda, Kelly, and another teacher at Amanda's baby shower.

Who knew that English could lead to racing?

7.  I'm a huge baseball fan.  I played from kindergarten until 5th grade.  Now I enjoy watching it on tv, playing it with other people, and watching my nephew play.  For my 19th birthday, myself and 19 friends went to ATL to watch my Braves play.

The nosebleed seats didn't stop us from being on the jumbotron!



So there you have it.  A little more random bits about me.  Thanks so much Julia for picking me.  Happy weekend!

Supernanny!

After reading this post, I just know that my phone is going to start ringing off the hook.  After a long day at work today, I got to nanny for some kids at my church.  It was their parent's 16th wedding anniversary, so of course I said yes.  These kiddos are awesome and always willing to do whatever fun idea I bring up.  Tonight following dinner (and not a second later), we headed outside to do intervals.  Nanny of the year, I know.  We did a mile of running/walking and I thought I was dying.  Those poor kiddos. The middle child is a fitness fanatic apparently because he even did P90X with me after our mile outside.  Yay for fit kids.

Those poor children have no idea who I REALLY am.

As if I had not tortured them enough, I had to show them my awesome Wheel of Fortune skills on the Wii.  I took home 86K in cash and prizes, thank you.  Then while watching a movie, the youngest one told me he had a loose tooth.  I tried to convince him to let me pull it with pliars, when he just jerked it out and blood gushed from his mouth.  Wow.  Oh the joys of having children. 

Little dude has already lost a bunch of other teeth.

Finally pulled the sucker.

Feel free to call me to nanny for you anytime :)

Over the hill

Thursday was my best friend's father's birthday. He turned 40, so it was kind of a big deal.  Ashley and her stepmom worked so hard to plan a party and keep it a surprise.  The plan was a cookout, but a ridiculous downpour "damp"ened our plans.  Please laugh at my play on words.  We had pork tenderloin, filet, and lots of other fixin's.  Ashley baked cupcakes for dessert and all was delish.  Her dad was truly surprised.  Following the party, her brother prepared a fireworks show as a birthday present.  It was so much fun and I loved celebrating Mr. Latham's big over the hill! 

Cute cupcakes!

My best friend is beautiful.  Boys: stay away.

Happy Saturday!

As promised...

Okay y'all.  I know you were terribly disappointed that my Pilot Fireball 5k Race Recap didn't have any pictures since I didn't have my camera.  BUT, there is good news!  A friend who also did the race had some pics on her camera so I just stole them from her.  Thank goodness she did because I know how much y'all love looking at my sweaty self.

Chelsea, myself, and Stephanie pre-race.  (Did y'all know I was this tall?)

Post race sweaty/nasty/yuckiness.  Love it!