Leeland's Birthday Extravaganza

My husband is twenty-five!!  We celebrated the weekend with lots of cake, pretty presents, and family fun time.

Here he is with his Barbie present from his sister and Trevor.

Lee and I with his pineapple upside down cake at his Grandma's.

Blowing out his candles at my parent's house on Saturday.  Notice my awesome new blue purse.

Jello cake, yum!!

A quarter of a century old!

Baby sis painting her room.

Baby sister's note to Baby Brother.  She came home from college and was less than thrilled with the state of the bathroom.

Food (Round Two)

6:45 am- Another QT morning.  Actually, every morning is a QT morning.  Let's just be honest.  It was my first time to try a Slim Fast optima bar.  My stomach was pretty upset later, and I'm not sure if that caused it or not.

8:30 am- Breakfast at school.  I ate a few bites of the eggs (I swear they put ham grease in there) and the inside of my cinnamon toast.

11 am- Lunch- I decimated this plate.  Yum.

2:50- Mid-afternoon snack.  One of my co-workers got this Sprite for me, and I ate one piece of chocolate out of this before conducting a home visit.  I was bored and nervous.

4:45 pm- Snack at school.  I ate the crackers, ham, and cheese that I didn't eat in class Monday.  (Which is only four, don't get too excited.)

7:30 pm- Waiting for my parents to get home to eat dinner.  I was about to lose my mind from my extreme hunger, so I ate three or four of these.  I regretted it instantly.  I need to put healthy snacks in my purse.

8:30 pm- My parents made it home from the grocery store.  BBQ chicken commenced.  Yum.  I ate two sandwiches, which I never do.  I told y'all I was hungry.

Oh, and the sweet potato fries.  I love these.  As well as the "pink sauce" Laurie introduced me to.

Food and Feet (Two things that should never be mentioned together)

Hola!

Today I finally jumped on the bandwagon to participate in the photodiarying of my food intake.  So here is my day in review.  Yum!

I started my first day on the early shift today, which means I have to be at work at 7.  Breakfast isn't served until 8:30, so I'm going to need to figure something out so that my days don't always start with a million calories from Quik Trip.

That's lemonade in my cup.

Chicken and chili crispitos (I ate this one and most of another), rosy pears, and green beans with onions and seasonings.

One of my co-workers made this delicious tray of joy.  I think I ate four.  I wanted to eat them all.

A mid-afternoon snack.  I am addicted to these things, along with several of my co-workers.  When our cooks go grocery shopping and ask us what we want, these always make the top of the list.

Beverages to get me through class. A skinny cinnamon dolce white mocha without the whip, and 25 ounces of agua.  And my beautiful Victoria's Secret lipgloss.

Dinner between classes.  Oikos blueberry Greek yogurt, and half of a Deli Fresh combination (a grown up Lunchable.)  I just ate the roast beef and swiss crackers.

The nice thing about the new schedule is that I can manage to squish a quick workout in between work and class.  I ran 3.05 in 30:47.  Not great, but not bad either.  After battling a major rib cramp (it can happen, look it up) and having to walk a few laps, I'll take that time.  It's just that now I know I can break 30 minutes for a 5k distance, I want to do it every time.

All of my running goodies.  I used my pink Superfeet insoles for actual running for the first time- SUCCESS!  Where have these been for the last two running years?  They made a huge difference to me. Lauren (my sweet sis-in-law) generously gave me her Ipod after receiving the Itouch for Christmas.  I rarely run with music, but really enjoyed it today.  And in another great feat, I actually made it to the gym with my Nike+ Sportband and the shoe chip today.  A negative aspect of the Nike website is that it won't let you manually input runs if you didn't use your Sportband.  So it looks like I've only run twice since January.  Boo.

Officially Registered

I am officially registered for the tenth annual OKC Memorial Half Marathon!!!!!!!!  Eeeeee!!!

It's real now- no going back.  They have my $70 and a piece of my heart.  What a meaningful event.

AND....I set a PR (personal record) today!!  3.05 miles in 28.14 minutes. 

Frozen Fingers, Frozen Toes, Frozen Eyelashes, Frozen Nose

Today was a crazy busy and very fun day.  My alarm went off at six to run, and I talked myself out of it because the "sun wasn't up."  Well duh, it's winter and of course the sun is not awake that early.  I rolled over and ignored it.

Unfortunately, the alarm went off again.  Lauren (my beautiful sis-in-law)  and I coach Upward cheerleading, and we had an early game.  I climbed out of bed and managed to make it there.  Our little cheerleaders are adorable and never stop talking.  They are also so hilarious and creative.  Here is a picture they insisted I take of them "sleeping."

How sweeet are they?

After the game I ran home and started getting ready for a Premier Jewelry Show.  I have been selling Premier for almost a year, but haven't done a show in a few months due to the hectic schedule of my full time school and my full time work.  My friend Tara (a home-based educator at CARD Early Learning Center with me) wanted to do a show, and I was thrilled to do it for her.  Her house was decorated in a really unique, funky style.  I especially enjoyed her leopard print carpet on the stairs and in the game room.  I think the show went well, and hopefully she'll get a lot of free jewelry.  Premier has a promotion right now that if a show goes over $450, the hostess earns 50% in free jewelry as opposed to the normal 30%.  She wasn't quite there when I left, so if anyone wants to put in an order, just let me know.

Here is a picture of one of my favorite pieces.  It's the Devotion necklace.  The best part about it is that the pendant has a magnetic closure, and is also reversible (the other side is just silver and black.)  I usually take the pendant off and put it on a couple of other necklaces that I like.  (Photography by Laurie Ariola, lrariola@gmail.com)

After the jewlery fashion show, I went back home and snuggled with the puppies a bit.  I love my dogs and have missed them lately.  I finally amped myself up for a run, and set out for a few easy miles.

Here a few pictures of my run.  I was inspired to do this by reading this blog.  I found her in the forums of Runners World magazine and enjoy her.  She's funny, fashionable, and it seems like the girl can run.  I'm impressed.

Getting bundled up at home...yes, I realize I don't match.  Nothing I had on matched.  Usually I care, but I don't really have any cute sets of winter workout wear.  Winter clothes are so expensive! 

At the trail...supposedly it is only 8/10ths of a mile, but all of my other sources (excluding the sign at the actual trail) cite it as more.

Construction.  It's never ending.  I used to park where the scooper one is.

My new shoes! 

If this is really how I move when I run, then I need to work on my form!!!  Why is my left foot turned inwards so much?  I also learned that when running, both feet leave the ground.  Who knew?  Okay, Derek, Cory, and Trevor all knew...but it was new to me.

Stretching after the run.  Hard to do in such freezing weather.  My rear was cold on that pavement!

I tried to take a picture of the temperature about a five times.  I ended up in the mirror reflection, but it proves that it was 39 degrees out there.  Brrr.

I'm making it my goal to run three times next week.  I'm going to aim to do four miles on Saturday and catch back up to where I was.

Good night!  Sleep tight!