Category Archives: Daily Life!

Family Christmas Photos

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Happy Thursday!! It has been a crazy crazy day today. I’ve barely had time to sit down, let alone write an insightful post for you all. BUT luckily we got our Christmas photos last night! And I love them. We got the picture CD and our Christmas cards should arrive in the mail by the weekend. Nothing like cutting it close, eh?? I know. I’m so behind schedule.

But since I’ve had a crazy day, I’ll just let you look at some of my favorites from our shoot with CaraDee Photography.

IMG_1905sm IMG_1908sm IMG_1915sm IMG_1922sm IMG_1923sm IMG_1934sm  IMG_1929sm IMG_1919sm IMG_1930sm IMG_1943smAnd last, but not least, is my favorite that we chose to go on the front of our cards –

IMG_1911smYay for the snowy photos! I love them. Nick isn’t fond of them though. He doesn’t like that he ended up pretty red-faced in a lot of them. But in his defense, it was around 15 degrees so we couldn’t quite help that. 🙂

I’ve already ordered a ton of prints online and hopefully they will arrive in time to take along to our family Christmas celebrations. Have a great night!!

Two Weeks Until Christmas!

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Isn’t that exciting/scary/overwhelming all at the same time?! I love the holidays, but this year I’m falling wayyyyy behind with the Christmas stuff. I feel like I just got my decorations up, and now the holiday is almost here! I can’t believe we are only 2 weeks away! I haven’t wrapped a single gift yet, so my tree is still completely empty.

image(10)Sad tree. It really needs some presents to keep it company. Hopefully I can get a couple done tonight and the rest on Saturday! I need to kick my holly-jolly booty into high gear with all of my Christmas stuff. The festivities begin this weekend at my girlfriend Carley’s annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party. Mac is going to come with us and wear his new sweater!

photo(123)Ohhhhhh someone is cute! He loves parties and people and attention, so he will probably have the time of his life in that tiny sweater. She’s been having this party since our college days, and it’s always a blast. I’ll be making some goodies to take along, including an awesome (and unhealthy!) ranch dip with bacon and cheddar cheese and some lighter/healthier oatmeal cookies. I have some bananas that will be overly ripe and ready for baking with by the weekend. And don’t worry, I only supply the dip, I don’t eat it. WAY too much dairy for this gal to handle.

Morning Run

So I don’t have much to report regarding my run from this morning. It was cold. It was icy. I made it to 6.5 miles. Typical stuff. 🙂  BUT….I got honked at.  😦  And not in a nice way. It was one of those, “Get out of the way, you idiot!” honks. And I’m still angry about it.

The sidewalks are covered in snow still, so I was running on the roads. I was running against traffic and dodging cars to the best of my ability. When I got honked at, I was basically in the black-ice covered ditch, and there was no oncoming traffic. They could have easily just swerved slightly like the rest of the vehicles I met. But no. She honked. And I started yelling several choice words before I even knew what was happening. I was fuming but was kinda over it by the time I made it back home.

Lesson learned: People that work at the Kraft plant I run by are pure evil (I saw the car pull into work right after they honked), and I need to avoid Bennett street until the sidewalks are melted. I’ll take a different/friendlier route tomorrow morning. 🙂

I brought a treat to work to have along with my breakfast to set me back into a good mood.

photo(51)Fiber One Peppermint Brownie!! Omg, these things are tasty. I don’t care for the regular Fiber One brownies. I think they taste like a dry, health food. But add in some peppermint chips, and they are pure heaven.

image(13)I’ve had one a day since I found them at Wal-Mart last Friday, and I think I need to go stock up on some more before the holiday season is over! Chocolate + peppermint = a happy Christine.

Tonight I’m meeting Nick right after work to go look at our photo proofs from the snowy shoot on Saturday. I’m hoping and praying they look good, and we can get some ordered right away. In an ideal world, I will have some wonderful photos in hand by Christmas to hand out to our family members. But we’ll just see how that plan goes.

Once we make it home, I’m going to put on some Christmas tunes and start on the gift wrapping process. Wish me luck!

Have a great night! And remember to be nice to pedestrians and those dedicated runners you see out and about during your daily commute.  🙂

Another Snowy Day

Daily Life!, Running, ,

Hey there! How’s your Tuesday going? Mine has been pretty good since we had about 4 more inches of snow overnight! It was that really good kind of snow too: nice and fluffy. The little snowstorm made for a peaceful evening that is perfect for sitting by the fireplace. Which is exactly what I did last night with Nick and Mac. 🙂

Morning Run

Since we only had the snow and no more ice yesterday, I decided that I would wake up early and attempt another snowy run. My running shoes have great traction on the snow, but the ice….not so much. I woke up bright and early to an additional 4 inches of the fluffy stuff. It was so pretty! It was also my coldest morning run yet.

photo(6)Yikes! The wind was calm though, making this temperature at least tolerable. And, thankfully, most of the roads around my house had been plowed at some point during the night. So I headed off down the road at a much slower pace than normal.

My first mile was a 10:15 pace. I finished my 3.6 miles with an overall pace of 9:53. For a girl that has a normal pace of 8:30 or faster, this is a little hard to stomach. But the snow covered roads are a good excuse for slowing down a bit. Better to be safe than sorry!

I also freaked out some of the MoDot crews this morning. They were out in full force at 5 a.m. with the plows before the morning commute happened. And I don’t think they were anticipating seeing many runners this morning! Several slowed wayyyyy down for me even though I moved out of the way. I just smiled and waved them on. I kept thinking…”Keep on driving. I’m okay, just a little crazy.”  🙂

I headed back home by 6 a.m. to get ready and out the door early to beat some morning traffic. Driving in the snow doesn’t freak me out – it’s the other drivers that freak me out. And it was a slow and slick commute mostly.

image(12)But I made it to work safely and even early! I had trouble focusing though for the first half of the day. It was too pretty outside my window.

image(11)The day has passed pretty quickly since lunch though, and I’m excited to head out to Jazzercise shortly. My classes have been cancelled here and there since last Thursday when the snowpocalypse first hit. So I am ready to sweat with my ladies tonight! I’m teaching my regular back-to-back classes tonight, so I’m hoping a few students brave the weather with me.

I’ve felt kinda ‘off’ all day, and I’ve decided it’s because my workout regimen has been on a hiatus for almost a week now! I’ve gotten in a couple short runs, but I’m definitely needing my Jazzercise fix. Two classes tonight will do my body good and set me back on track.

Have a great evening!!