Baby It's Cold Outside

So, I'm back with more details about my weekend! Friday night was fun. Uneventful, but fun. Greg and I watched Friday Night Lights (yet another t.v. show that I'm obsessed with. Although it's nowhere near as exciting as Lost or as drama-filled as Grey's Anatomy, it's still so good). And then we talked. And then we went to bed...How exciting, right?

Saturday Riley decided she needed to wake me up nice and early. Like 7:30am. Which is crappy no matter which way you look at it. I skipped running (more on that later...it's a long, long story that I don't even know how it will end), so I attempted to sleep in 'til 8. Then I got up and planned out a long grocery list and meals for our week. I'm so, so excited about yummy, warm dinners in this COLD fall weather! (Seriously...it's cold here! It's overcast, rainy, windy, and 52° outside!) Anyways...Greg and I went to the grocery store and hurried back home so I could speed to downtown Austin and end up at the wedding site 20 minutes early...(this is the point where Greg would make fun of me for hating to be late, but we'll skip that part).

I was nervous for the wedding but strangely excited too! Allen got there at 4 (the time I was supposed to be there) and then set to work familiarizing me with the new camera and then we started shooting. I've never had 8 hours of "work" pass so quickly - I really, really enjoyed the wedding. At first, it was hard for me to be super creative because I was kind of nervous...but I think I started to get better towards the end of the night. Or at least I hope I did ;) Allen gave me a new lens to practice with and hopefully I'll really start improving. I'm very excited.

Now...about that running stuff. I'm pretty sure it's going to be impossible for me to do everything I want to do right now. Or actually, not just what I want, but also what I need to do. See, I have classes, work, a husband, a dog, a house (that really needs to be cleaned), dinners to be made, homework to be done, weddings on Saturdays, church on Sundays, and running 25+ miles a week...and hopefully some relaxation time in there too. So as of right now, marathon training is on hold. It's not physically possible for me to get up at 5 am, run 10-15 miles, and then work a wedding for 8-10 hours. I was exhausted, worn-out, and sore on Saturday - I can't imagine what that would've been like if I'd run 12 miles that morning too. I still want to run a marathon (I think)...but it may not happen this year. It may not happen ever...I'm still trying to figure all that out. I'm NOT giving up running though - you should still expect to hear more stores like "Dear Car-Honker" and lots more complaining...I'm just not going to be marathon-training anymore...or at least not for the next 5 weeks. I'll re-evaluate at that point in time.

I hope you're all having a great FALL day! It's freezing outside, but it feels so good. It makes me want to go get hot chocolate with marshmallows and sit in front of a warm fire. Or get cozy under lots of blankets with some good movies and then sip apple cider and eat soup. Did I mention how much I like fall yet?



P.S: Dustin, I promise I'm reading your blog. I just have been a bad commenter lately. So write on. :)

It's October!!

I'm so excited that it's October. And it's officially fall - my favorite time and month of the year! Greg and I were at Target on Friday night and we saw all these cute costumes in the Halloween section at the back of the store. They even had costumes for dogs! I really was hoping that they'd have a hot dog...I'm the mean mom that wants to put my "weenie" dog in a hot dog costume for Halloween! She would be too precious in it though. I may have to go search some more for one :)

This weekend was really fun. But definitely not long enough (are they ever?) My run on Saturday morning went REALLY well. We only did 4 miles because it was a track workout. The exercise we did was called the Magic Mile. You basically run a mile as fast as you can (but still stopping to take your walk breaks) and it tells you what a realistic time goal is to run the marathon in. My magic mile pace was 10:14 and according to that, a realistic time goal for me to run the marathon in is 5 hrs 44 min. I'm really not focused at ALL on time...just on finishing. But it was cool to think that if I do everything right in my training I could run a marathon in under 6 hours relatively easy.

I baked, took pictures, and cuddled with my husband pretty much all weekend. It was wonderful and SO relaxing! I was planning on making fall sugar cookies...but did you know that it's nearly impossible to make red icing? So I have yellow cookies, orange cookies, and pink cookies...and then since I couldn't make red I decided to just make a pretty blue instead. Greg says they're Easter cookies now. I say I don't care what they are, they're yummy! I'm really starting to understand settings on my camera well and it's becoming more "instinct" than me having to sit there and think "hmm...which way do I need to turn this dial now?" We watched Knocked Up too...which was funny. But had a lot of bad language and several scenes that definitely did not need to be in there! I really like Katherine Heigel...she's also on Grey's Anatomy (she plays Izzy) which I also really like.

I've been doing much better with contentment these past couple days. Every time I catch myself thinking, Ahh, I just want to be in a house already!! I think of how much easier it is for us to live in an apartment right now. There is no lawn to mow, no mortgage to pay, more reasonable electric prices, and our puppy can pee on the carpet and shred the carpet without us being too distraught over it all. Life is good and so is God!

Class is getting ready to start...I found out that I made a 94.8% on my first test (yay!!!) and I'm waiting to see what I made on my second. I think I did alright, but I definitely did not put 100% into it.

You are all in my prayers!

Rainy Tuesday

For some reason, my mind thinks it should be fall. I love fall. Okay, so I guess September technically qualifies as fall, but it's Texas...and fall doesn't come until like Thanksgiving or sometimes even Christmas. But goodness, this rain and cool weather today has got me dreaming of Halloween. I have a serious obsession with that holiday. I hate that some people make it all demonic; I for one only like the things I associate with it - like jumping into a huge pile of orange, red, brown, and yellow leaves in Chicago that my dad had just raked in our front yard (and then getting tickled for doing so!), drinking spiced apple cider and hot chocolate with mini-marshmallows, and going to a pumpkin patch and picking out my very own pumpkin. I remember having Halloween parties at the barn, dressing up horses and then riding around in the crisp October air. Bonfires at the barn after our Halloween horse show is one of my best memories from middle school. I remember sitting at football games and cheering (even though I had no clue what actually happened in football until college). I love carving pumpkins and I especially love seeing all those adorable kids in their Halloween costumes. I think I have an obsession. And I'm so excited for October to get here!

Mmm...I miss horseback riding. I miss so much the rush of flying over 3' jumps on a powerful horse. I miss the sweet smell of grain and hay at feeding time. I miss spending hours upon hours in a grooming stall brushing my horse until he was bright as a penny. I miss the sound horseshoes make on a concrete floor. I miss taking trail rides in the field and galloping down the hills. I think most of all, I miss that connection that a girl can only have with a horse - that complete trust. One day...one day soon, I will ride again. It is a passion, and if you are passionate about something, you know that you never can never be 100% content unless that passion is in your life.

Work was work...again. I'm trying to stay positive about my crappy schedule. Trying so hard and getting so, so frustrated at the same time. I'm trying to shut up while I'm there. It would be too easy to just shut my mouth and not complain, but for some reason I like to make things difficult for myself. It would also be too easy to not eat work food. I swear they are trying to make me fat - all those greasy, buttery, fattening foods that they feed to the kids. And then they make us sit down while the kids our eating and my stomach is growling and I fall into the temptation of taking "just one bite" of whatever it is that we're having for lunch or snack and then it's all downhill from there.

I'm done for now...well, almost. One picture to share. Wherever we're going, Riley wants to go too!!


Goodnight, sleep tight,