Eeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess where I'm headed tomorrow morning, bright and early?!?!?

Here...

I'm taking my boys to Surf City tomorrow and meeting up with two of my girlfriends from high school that I used to play volleyball with, Dani and Wendy!  Can I just tell you how excited I am?  It's like I can already feel the stress melting away.  I don't know what it is about the ocean that has that calming effect on me, but I'm so thankful I live close enough to enjoy it as often as I can.  I hope one day I will actually LIVE at the beach so that this is an everyday thing.  More pictures to come after our daytrip to Heaven...

Goo Goo!!!!!

I love the Goo Goo Dolls...  I feel like their music was the soundtrack for my early adult life.  And today I bought tickets to go see them this summer!  YAY!  I'm so ridiculously excited.  :)  My friend Wendy is coming with me to the show and it's going to be a great time.  In honor of the awesomeness that is everything Goo, I present this video...

Iris

I did it...

So I've decided that I am going to run a marathon in January.  Yeah I know - insane!  It's always been a lifelong dream of mine and I figured Why not now?  So I decided today was going to be my first run.  I don't usually run - I haven't really run in years.  I used to really enjoy it when I was in middle school and I was on the track team.  But I was never a distance runner - I was a sprinter!  I ran hurdles!  So the thought of running 26.2 miles scares the absolute shit out of me.  But I had to start somewhere, so I decided today was the day.  I headed out to run around Lake Lynn. 

Now, for the record, I've attempted to run around this lake before and I usually make it about a mile in and I walk/run the second half.  Well not today, buddy!  I ran the whole thing - ALL THE WAY AROUND!  No stopping, no walking... I did it!  And it felt amazing!  GO ME!!!! 

I know it's going to be a long 9 months of training, but if it all goes as easy as that did today, 26 miles is going to be nothing.  Baby steps...

Yay for spring!

This is my favorite time of year and this is pretty much why...

My whole yard is a compilation of flowers from one side to the other and I get so excited whenever I see the first blooms!  Between azaleas, day lilies, oriental lilies, knockout roses and hydrangeas (more on those later), my house is surrounded in some of nature's most beautiful accomplishments.  I can't wait to plant my butterfly garden this weekend so that I can add to the excitement in the backyard.  :)

Quote of the day

Any amount of happiness, no matter how long it lasts, is worth having.

Ahhhhhh... Family...

Today I ventured up to Bethlehem PA for my niece's christening and I have to admit, as much as I was going because this was a big deal for Elizabeth, blah, blah, blah... I have to admit I wanted to go because it was a chance to hang with my cousins. Grace, Joseph, and Erin are some of the funniest people on earth and there was no shortage of laughs!! I wish we all lived closer together. I envy people who grew up with their big and extended family around them all the time. I guess that's another unfortunate byproduct of being a military brat. :-(

Dear Thursday...

I OWN you.  Just thought you should know.

GPOYW

I'm still getting the hang of taking pictures of myself with this new iPhone.  I feel like every picture I take gives me an enormous forehead!  A friend told me it was user error (thanks Summer...) but I think it's just the way the camera on this phone was made.  For instance, I took this picture and you could see right down my shirt!  Thank goodness for cropping.  haha

See what I mean?  Check out that 'fard!!

Wow, God came near...

They say the Lord works in mysterious ways and I've really seen that today. Within a four hour window I learned of the death of one child and the birth of another. Interestingly, the baby that was born today was named Gabriel, the angel of God. Maybe his guardian angel will be the baby that went to heaven earlier... It's a sweet thought...

My heart is breaking

I just got the absolute worst news possible from a friend just now and the words stung as if I had said them myself. "We lost the baby. We went in for an ultrasound and there was no heartbeat." Stunned, I sat here wondering what to even write back. Oh my God. Why her? Why does this stuff happen to the best people. Tears streaming down my face, my heart breaking, I wrote her back, knowing nothing I could say would comfort her. So I prayed...

Ahhhh spring

This is going to be me tomorrow at lunchtime...

It's OK to be jealous.

WHY??

Why is good childcare so hard to find?  I feel like I've spent more time lately dealing with nanny issues than should be allowed.  Ugh.  Off to find another daycare for the baby...

Hail to the chief

So it became apparent to me this past week that my mind works in strange ways.  Well DUH, you say!  But honestly, it's really weird.  I went to pick up a friend of mine from work on Friday afternoon so that she didn't have to brave the metro yet one more day, and she works directly across from the US Capital building.  I mean, what a cool view you have when you look out your window!  What I also realized is that every single time I see the capital building... I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME I drive by, the first line of "hail to the chief" plays through my head. 

Don't know what Hail to the Chief is?  Click here

On the road again...

It has become apparent to me that I don't like traveling for work anymore. In the last three days, I have spent 12 hours on the road and another almost 12 hours in airports. Granted I had some successes with each trip this week, I'm so ready to just have some normalcy. How did I travel like this all the time?? I can't believe this was actually my lifestyle for over a year!

The 'Nothing'

There are many days that I believe that God is watching out for me. Yesterday was one of those days... I tried in vain to drive home from Washington DC to Raleigh and what should have taken me 4 hours or so took almost 12 hours! Not only was traffic particularly bad in DC, but there were incredibly bad thunderstorms up and down the east coast. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm terrified of storms... Lightning specifically. And yesterday's storm had plenty of lightning. The theatrics in the sky were unbelievable. Between the wind and rain, flashes of lightning would practically paralyze me as I drove. I took a picture of the clouds at one point because they looked like "The Nothing" from The Neverending Story. It was creepy.

What I found out later is that there were over 70 tornados in North Carolina last night. I would have been scared half to death during this storm because I was all by myself. Thank you God for watching over me and keeping me out of town while this weather happened.

Check out these pictures of the sun finally burning through once I got past the worst of the storms...  it was truly unbelievable.

So much for the diet..

I am working out of my company's DC location this week and the best part of coming to town (aside from catching up with friends etc!) is the fact that our office is located directly above Georgetown Cupcake.  If you weren't aware, they have their own show on TLC called DC Cupcakes, and the place is VERY popular.  And why wouldn't they be??  Their cupcakes are amazing!  So far since I've been here, I've had a key lime, chocolate banana, red velvet and 2 cherry blossom cupcakes.  Just totalling up the calories in those 5 cupcakes is giving me an anxiety attack.   Oh well, they are worth every single one...  :)

I always suspected...

So I was summoned to my 5 year old's school this afternoon because they wanted to discuss with me the results of the testing they did on my son last week.  I had requested that he be tested for the academically gifted program because he's been having a lot of behavioral issues lately and I suspected he was just REALLY bored in school.  Well, I was completely validated.  Brier scored off the charts in all areas, including three categories where he was in the greater than 99th percentile for the entire nation.  In other words, my child is an evil genius.  Yeah, I knew that already. 

Thought for the Day...

Wow, it's so pretty outside...

It's 75 degrees out today and the sun is shining... and I'm sitting here, behind my computer, wishing I was out there in it.  :(  Waah. 

This is my view from my office...

GPOYW

I'm stealing this theme from Leah Greenwood because I think it's hilariousl.  It's Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Wednesday.  And because I usually post some depressing shit on here, I thought I would make this funny.  So here you go - one of the first pictures I took with my iPhone....

You're welcome America....

Live like we're dying...

I shamelessly love this song.  Like A LOT.  I heard it today on the radio and I've been singing it in my head ever since.  Thank you Kris Allen...



Sometimes we fall down, can't get back up


We're hiding behind skin that's too tough

How come we don't say I love you enough

Till it's to late, it's not too late



Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come

And we could make a feast from these crumbs

And we're all staring down the barrel of a gun

So if your life flashed before you,

What would you wish you would've done



Yeah, we gotta start

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking

If every second counts on a clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying



We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying



And if your plane fell out of the skies

Who would you call with your last goodbye

Should be so careful who we live out our lives

So when we long for absolution,

There'll no one on the line, yeah



Yeah, we gotta start

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking

If every second counts on a clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying



We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying



Like we're dying, oh, like we're dying..

http://www.elyricsworld.com/live_like_we're_dying_lyrics_kris_allen.html



We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying



You never know a good thing till it's gone

You never see a crash till it's head on

Why do we think we're right when we're dead wrong

You never know a good thing till it's gone



Yeah, we gotta start

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking

If every second counts on a clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying



We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying



Like we're dying, oh, like we're dying..



We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Gotta live like we're dying..

Wow, it's been quite awile...

Yes I've been absent from the blogging world for awhile.  That's probably a good thing - I had alot of stuff to do!  Just a quick update:

1. I'm back working full time.  Which means that I not only have a decent paycheck again, but it also means I am chained to my computer most of the day.  Which is good news for you blog-loving folks because I will be updating more often!  haha

2.  I have been working my ass off at the gym since January.  I started working out twice a week for a trainer - his name is Chris, he's amazing, by the way - and I have seen some MAJOR progress.  And when I say major, I'm talking I have lost 6 inches in my waist...  That's unbelievable.  I plan on working out with him for as long as I can afford to.  It's worth it - I feel stronger (and sexier! hehe) than I have in years.  That's so worth it to me.

3.  The kids are doing great.  My oldest is almost done with his first year of kindergarten, and the baby will be turning TWO YEARS OLD in just a few weeks.  Where in the hell did the time go??  They are both crazy and keep me on my toes, but what do you expect from two adorable little boys?

4.  We are getting sod in our backyard soon.  If you have followed my sod saga over the last two years, this is significant.  Since we built this house in 2004, we've never had grass in the backyard.  Like EVER.  It's just been an eclectic mix of rocks, weeds and patches of what I would classify as concrete that was just dumped back there.  So I am very excited to be to open the back door to let the boys out to play without having to say "watch our for the rocks".  It will be so pretty and I'm planning to put in a butterfly garden in the back corner.  This is an idea I had a few years back, so I'm happy that it's all coming together.  I will be taking a trip to the farmers market in two weeks to pick out all of my plants.  YAY!

That's about all for now.  I'll try to make sure I update this more often.  I may even steal post ideas from my friends who keep blogs too.  Like Leah's, for instance...  she does "Gratuitous picture of yourself Wednesday."  I'm going to be starting that too.