Kayaking and cougars

Summer is almost ending for most of the kids around here, but I still have a whole entire month of summer vacay left, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.  My mother very lovingly woke me up today and twisted my arm until I agreed to go walk three miles with her.  I decided to ONLY because she asked nicely. 

Today I also took an old friend kayaking down the Little River.  Too bad I don't have pics to share, but after 3 miles of paddling, my arms are hurting.  It was a great way to cool off today with the heat index being well over 100.  Boo hot summer!

THEN, as if my day wasn't already super cool, the 9 year old that lives down the road from me called me and asked me to go ride bikes with him!  Umm, of course this cougar said yes!  I love sweaty dates! I told him I'd only go if he took me out for ice cream afterwards.  Apparently, 9 year olds have empty pockets these days.

Tyler makes a great bike date. Does anyone notice how tall my seat looks?  Yeah, and that's a men's bike.

Right after biking, I went to big sis's house to see the kiddos and Kinsi lovingly agreed to an impromptu photo shoot with me, sweaty and all.  The things my nieces and nephew will do for a chance to appear on the blog.

That's my sweet girl.

They had some friends over tonight, and my girl Gracie matched me!!  We looked so cute.  Gracie is a girl after my own heart.  She prefers anything neon including pink, green, blue and purple.  I've taught them well.

She'll understand one day that documenting important twinsie moments is, well, important.

Did you have a good Thursday?  Are you a cougar?  What color would you prefer to don while training?

Will work for cake.

That's right.  I sure will work for cake.  Each week, different church groups visits our campground to do programs for the kids.  Anddd, they just happen to bring our employees food.  Strike that, not food.  They tend to bring baked goods.  This week's special: cake.  Lots of it.

Pleae ignore the big sliver I already ate of it.  Kidding, of course. 

I did allow myself one teeeeeensey weensey tiny piece since I had a good run this morning. And that was that.  I was able to squeeze in 7 miles on my bike tonight and barely broke a sweat.  I was actually hoping for some humidity so I could sweat, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. 

You betcha. 

Do you ever treat yourself after a good workout?  Would you prefer the heat solely to get your sweat on?

What up wednesday?

That's right.  I had to show Wednesday who was boss this morning by dragging my booty out of bed and attempting to run.  I had decided beforehand to do a warm up walk, then do a 4:1 run/walk ratio.  But after I warmed up and started to run, my body was feeling really good.  (which by the way NEVER happens while running).  I told myself that if I could make it past the 4 minute mark and still feel good then I would just keep running until I reached a mile.

My plan worked.  I made it to a mile then did a recovery walk.  Then I pushed myself enough to run back.  For the first time in over 4 months, my run actually felt easy.  I wasn't breathing too hard and my legs weren't cursing at me.  This is major improvement.  But maybe it is the fact that I was running so slow.  Who knows?  Running is running.

Lap 1: 12:06   .75 miles warm up walk

Lap 2:  11:06     1.00 miles

Lap 3: 6:39     .41 miles walk for recovery

Lap 4: 15:56    1.43 miles.

Total 45:49  3.6 miles.

Yay!

Oh no she didn't!

Wouldn't YOU be rather driving a Titelist?

Have you ever changed your workout plan mid-run?  Remember the first time a run felt easy for you?  Do you play golf?

Apples 2 Apples

No, not the game.  Although I'm a huge board gamer, I've never actually played that one. Have you?  Invite me next time.

After sleeping in today, I finally drug myself out of bed to get some breakfast.  My grumbling tummy insisted.  I don't know if I mentioned it, but the air conditioner in our house is not working properly, so our house is wayyy hot.  So I'm limited to a fan.  And it blows.  Play on words, people. 

Eating not 1, but 2 apples while cooling off with good ole Lasko.

When I got to work today, it was discovered that one of our fellow coworkers had made us homemade, fresh, warm, hot, gooey muffins!  Not just any muffins, blueberry muffins.  I was sooo super excited and overjoyed until I bit into one.  They had bananas in them too.  Umm, not a fan. 

One muffin for each hand.  Duh. 

Well, beggars can't be choosers, but I politely gave the muffins to some park rangers that come in everyday.  Pay it forward y'all.  Hope y'all had a blessed day, and my shins were thanking me for taking a "rest day" today.

Have you ever played Apples to Apples?  What is your muffin of choice?

Tan lines and temptations!

Umm, so it was really hot today.  But that didn't stop me from waking up before 8 to meet Yvonne for a morning run/jog/walk.  Super hot.  Super humid.  But we prevailed.  It felt so good to sweat.  We stopped at the police chief's house to use his water hose as a water stop.  When we went walking two days ago, niece Kinsi said "You look like you are about to die" as I walked through the door.  Thank you 7 year old honesty. 

After doing 6.5 miles, we met up with my momma for an additional 3.5 so we hit double digits today.  Heck yes!  The result?  See below.

Compression shorts really make some sexy tan lines.

I still had to work tonight and boy were my shins hurting.  I strongly considered taking an ice bath tonight, but chickened out.  Plus, we don't have any ice.  But tomorrow is a super big day since the president of our corporate office is visiting us.  In his honor, I made a new friend.

I have real life friends too.  Promise.



And just so y'all know, working in our general store is super super tempting because I am surrounded by junk food all. day. long.  Really super hard, but I resist.  Bless my heart.

I spy with my little eyes: Salt and Vinegar chips!

Do you ever get bizzare tan lines?  Do you ever have to deal with daily tempation?

Bondi bands and bricks!

I just love my days off.  They almost always consist of sleeping past ten and needless to say I always wake up feeling super refreshed.  I spent the first of my morning cleaning up around the house and preparing some meals for the week.  My kitchen looked like it was straight from Chopped. I had chili brewing in a crockpot, shrimp grilling on the stove, and chicken grilling in the skillet.  I was all over the place, but I'll be thankful later this week when I can grab it and go.

After taking an afternoon catnap and blog stalking, I trekked over to the post office to see if I had any new mail.  Sure enough I had this envelope waiting for me:

It was a package from BondiBand.

In case you didn't know, I won a giveaway from my friend Kim's blog.  I got to pick any BondiBand I wanted and it was all mine.  After narrowing down the choices to my top 20, I did about 78 rounds of eeny-meeny-miney-moe to finally end up with this one:

Live, Laugh, Run.   Just not at the same time.

I was super pumped because I've been waiting for it and dying to try it out.  Since today was the first day of using it, I don't feel like I can do a proper review just yet.  But stay tuned because I'll be sure to let you know how awesome it is. 

It makes me look semi-cancer patientish, but I do love it!

I went on a 3 mile walk with my momma this evening and yikes was it hot.  We even did Chesnut Hill and the humidity was killing me!  After coming home, I was feeling super motivated, so I hopped on my bike and put in a quick 5 miles.  I've been reading lots of blog posts about "brick" workouts, so I tried it tonight.  Sort of.  I did my 5 mile bike ride, then opted for a 1 mile run.  I did the mile in under 10 minutes, but I felt like death.  Legs were on fire, and my lungs were collapsing. 

At least I came home to a bowlful of chili and this baby:

Mmm, watermelon.  We'll consider this my upperbody workout today.



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!

Babies and bikes and bondibands!

After sleeping in today, I got to watch my sweet baby cousin for the morning while his mom got some work done.  He was the sweetest thing and I was lucky enough that he took a 2 hour nap.  Dalton is only 7 months old but already weighs 23 pounds.  Carrying him around is a workout in itself.  Love that sweet boy!

How can you not love him??

Then me and the madre walked 3 miles and it was muggy as all get out!  Seriously.  I was sweating bullets and trying not to die.  During my April half marathon, Momma really messed up my bicycle and here we are three months later finally getting it fixed!  Thank goodness.  We spent two hours at the bike shop getting them to fix the brakes and cables.  Yay for being able to use biking as cross training again. 

Do you love giveaways???  I dooo!  My good friend Kim  is currently sponsoring a giveaway and her special prize is the super awesome BondiBands.  So go on over and check her out HERE and hopefully you can win.  But you'll have to beat meee!

I really love this BondiBand

What else do you have in store for the weekend?



No red carpet?

I've been seeing these blogger award posts coming into my Google Reader and have been totally enjoying learning such random facts aout all you amazing runners.  Well, finally the fabulous Nikki at The Worth of My Sole chose me to recieve a Blogger Award.

Nikke is so neat and loves the Karate Kid just like me and hates cold weather too.  We are destined to be BFFs!  She has the cutest little family and even loves frozen yogurt.  I hope she doesn't think I'm a complete blog stalking ceep.  But, go check her out and bask in how fabulous she is.  Thanks again, Nikki! 

Now I need to go hire Rachael Zoe to be my stylist for the awards that have no red carpet.  A girl can dream.  Well, here goes my blogger award post:

Favorite Cartoon Character

No caption needed.

Favorite thing to photograph

Best nieces and nephew award.

My favorite thing to cook

Cupcakes.  (My best friend Ashley made all these because she has patience.  I don't.)

My favorite exercise

Beating a boxing bag senseless.  Please disregard the face.  I promise I'm nice in real life.

Favorite movie

You're killing me Smalls.  The Sandlot is a classic.

Favorite article of clothing

I have a slight obsession with Nike Tempo shorts.

Favorite flower

Pink gerber daisies.

Favorite breakfast

Biscuits and sausage gravy.  MMMMM.

Favorite book I've read recently

The movie was great too!

Favorite place to be

Anywhere on the water.

Add your own:

Favorite day of the week

This song is strangely addicting.

So there you have it.  My post about myself for my blogger award.  Here are the SIX awesome bloggers I want you to get to know:

Kim:  Another Running Mom

Heather: Endless Jubliee

Megan: Fit Crafty English Teacher

Julia: Pain, Pride and Perseverance

Rachelle: Running for Trevor

Kristin: Running to Somewhere

Happy Tuesday, and consider this my acceptance speech.