Livin' the Dream in Lima

Also known as my first marathon where I DID NOT WALK! Woo hoo! (That was my one & only goal going into this race.) Biggest medal ever. I signed up for the race just 6 weeks before, so I didn't have much time to put in a lot of quality training. I decided to take a laid-back approach to this marathon and remember why I love running - because it's fun.  My Business Man and I headed down to Columbus Saturday afternoon, and strangely I was not nervous at all. We hit up the expo for some goodies. (Thank you, King's Hawaiian, for the 7 free product coupons!) Love that the tech shirts are long-sleeved this year... seems like I always need more cold weather running gear than hot weather running gear. Somehow we scored an awesome deal on a hotel room  corner suite. I swear, it was bigger than our first apartment. Bedroom, complete with lounge chair and hot tub. Bathroom with a double shower (with 3 shower heads on each side!) And then a full living room with a pull-

I saw this idea for a blog post on another site, and thought I'd have some fun with it. Two foods I cannot get enough of: Peanut butter & pumpkin butter on a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel. It's the perfect fall lunch. Can I also mention that I love the fact that I get to eat lunch at home and actually toast my bagel? And not cram bathroom + lunch prep + eating + chill time all into a 26 minute lunch period? Mellowcreme pumpkins. Enough said about that. Two people I got to see this weekend: I drove over to the other side of IL to attend my BFF Talen's bridal shower. It was a lot of fun. This was the only pic I snapped of the day. Doesn't she make a gorgeous bride? Haha. I got to meet my mom for breakfast at Cracker Barrel on my way back Monday morning. Nothing like catching up over coffee & bacon. So good to see her.  Two new clothing purchases: I got my first maxi skirt. There was a deal on Pickyourplum.org and I ordered one for jus

This past Saturday, I held a grand opening for my little cupcake counter downtown. It was so much fun! (And so much work, haha.) The cupcake counter has been open since the beginning of July, but I wanted to do a grand opening of sorts to make it 'officially' open. If that makes any sense. It turned into more of a grand opening/fall open house. My parents even came out to visit and help with it! They haven't been to visit since the cupcake counter has been open, so that was fun. As soon as they got here Friday afternoon, I put them to work. Yes, my dad learned how to use the blow torch on the S'mores cupcakes. He did a pretty fantastic job, if I do say so myself. (Mom, you did great with the pecan pie filling, too. :-P) In addition to having cupcakes for sale at the counter, I planned a few more activities to ramp up the excitement of the day.  I held a Create-a-Cupcake Contest in the days leading up to the grand opening... anyone could submit th

Yea, that happened this week. It's actually now only 5.5 weeks away. Yikes! Sure, why not? I haven't been in a running routine since I was training for Boston last spring. Through May & June, I kind of lost my running mojo and it was really hard to get motivated. I told myself I was 'recovering' from Boston. (Which is totally legit.) Somehow I squeaked out a 5k PR on July 4, without doing much speed work at all. I've been running most of the summer, but no real training plan or focus. At the end of August, I found myself telling someone that I was still 'recovering' from Boston... 4 months later. Lol, don't think I can use that as an excuse any more. :-P So, one of my running buds here in the Bean Town runs the Columbus Marathon every year, and I have run the half-marathon the past couple years. I've done a few of her long runs with her, and last weekend we did 14. I felt pretty good, so I decided to go ahead and sign up for t

Long time, no blog, haha. I thought I was a bit overdue for a life update so here goes... My Business Man and I have had a great summer... super busy, but super fun. I haven't taken a TON of pictures, but I have been faithfully Instagram-ing... so here's our summer, Instagram-style. We've been working on remodeling the kitchen since May, and it's just about done. Just missing some lighting and a few switch plates. Perhaps I will write a blog post with before & after pics at some point. (Haha, yea right.)  This drawer might be my favorite part. I am so much more organized now, I love it! I got to spend some quality time with my BFF Talen. She came to visit the Bean Town for an entire week (!) and it was so much fun. Running, episodes of Friends, cupcakes galore... it was almost like college. Except no math stupid homework. Rockin' the glasses. I also had an ulcer in my eye for two weeks at the beginning of summer. That was real fun.

Boston. What an experience.  By God's grace, I was not anywhere near the finish line when the explosions happened. I had finished the race around 1:40pm, and walked the couple blocks to the family meeting area to meet up with my Business Man and BFF Talen. After visting for awhile, we headed to the car around 2:40pm, ten minutes before the explosions happened. We didn't even realize anything had happened, because we were in the car on the way to our hotel about 10 miles away. After receiving several texts & calls, we flipped the news on to see what everyone was so concerned about.  It was so surreal. Just one hour before, I had run by the same exact spot. Crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.  Immediately, I started contacting my running friends that were at the race. After learning they were all okay, we sat there in the hotel room for 3+ hours, just watching the news coverage.  I have such a bittersweet ball of emotions about the whole experien

Well, it is here. Time to head to Boston! The original plan was to drive the 13ish hours today, but after spending some time on Priceline last night, we ended up with a great deal on flight + car rental.  16 weeks of training, and I'm ready to go! It's crazy how much the taper helps... just a few weeks ago I was so over  running. Just get the darn marathon over with already. But now, after having a couple laid-back weeks and lower mileage, I am ALL ABOUT THE RUNNING! I cannot wait to toe the start line on Monday and unleash the beast.  Kicks for the race I have been so blessed to have awesome training partners through this awful winter... despite the nasty snow, wind, freezing rain, I got in more outdoor runs than I ever have in a winter. So a big thank you to Amy and Jim for motivating my butt out of bed at 5:30am multiple times a week. So glad we are done with this weather. I was talking to my students about the race yesterday, and told them that I have run ove

One of the best parts about being a teacher is spring break, for sure. (And Christmas , I mean winter break, and obviously the three months of summer vacation.) Life has been insanely crazy busy the past few months... between teaching, filling orders for  Sara's Sweets , making desserts for The Met , and training for Boston, there hasn't been much down time.  My Business Man and I booked a cruise with my parents months  ago for spring break, and it was the best decision ever. Seriously, it came it exactly the right time. After such a long, nasty winter (and running through a long, nasty winter), it was so nice to spend a week in the sunshine and 80-degree temps. The cherry on top was that we had no cell phone service at all! No distractions, no emails, no voicemails to tend to. No responsibilities for an entire five days! We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves. Don't worry, we managed to fill the time. ;) We cruised with Royal Caribbean on the