A recap

of the last month...because I am a lazy, lazy blogger.

-Post 1/2 marathon aftermath: pretty uneventful. The end of Daylight Savings Time has wreaked havoc on my ability to run after work, and since I hatehatehate the treadmill my running has been limited to Thursdays (my day off) and the weekends. Thankfully, Mother Nature has been pretty cooperative, but that's not gonna last long. I need to get over my hatred of the treadmill, though, or my running is going to go to crap this winter, and I don't want that. I did a 5k in Westerville this weekend and finished in 26:15ish which is pretty good considering my recent laziness and the uncooperativeness of my legs, and have the Turkey Trot coming up on Thanksgiving...so no more slacking off! I have found it way too easy to talk myself out of going to the gym lately, and that neeeds to stop.

-Speaking of Thanksgiving...it's on Thursday? This coming Thursday?! Holy crap, where did this year go? Gah, less than a week until we drag out the Christmas decorations for the Stanley Christmas Decorating Bonanza 2009...which equals Jason and I seeing how much decorating we can do in the time between when I get home from the Trot and when we have to start getting cleaned up to go to Uncle Mike and Aunt Shari's for Dinner #1. However, this year we'll have to relocate the loveseat and will also have Georgie underfoot, so it should be interesting. Dinner #2 will be at my parents' house, and includes my parents, their two dogs, Jason, me, our dog, my sister Alli, her boyfriend Joel, Alli's two cats, Jason's mom, AND his two sisters. PARTAY at Mom and Dad's house! It'll be a crazy mix of humans and animals, but a great time nonetheless.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here. Jason's good, Georgie's good, the house is good, work's good, and I have thusfar been successful at dodging any germs that have floated my way...so yay! I will try to be better about updating, but sadly (or maybe thankfully) life just hasn't been that blogworthy lately :P

Pain. I has it.

What were YOU doing at 7:30am on this lovely, cold Sunday morning? Probably sleeping in your nice warm bed, you lucky bastid. Me? I had been up for 2 1/2 hours already and was standing out in the cold with approximately 14,999 of my closest friends, getting ready to start my second half marathon.

Me and my bright ideas, right?

So yeah, I did the half version of the Columbus Marathon today. My sister and her boyfriend did the full. Silly people. It was godawful freaking cold at the start but fairly pleasant once the sun came up. I did a valiant job at keeping pace with my speedy companions, and finished in 1:55:42. My goal was to beat my time from the Pig in May (2:01:02) and I did just that. So hurray! Plus, my parents actually saw me finish, and my ma was able to meet me after I got out of the food line (hooray for Krispy Kremes, Rice Krispy treats, and potato chips) and give me my nice warm postrace clothes. We then wandered around until we found my dad, and proceeded to Rise and Dine for breakfast and warm beverages. Lucky for us, we had plenty of time to eat and make our way back toward the finish to catch Alli and Joel. Al had to make a pee stop, and poor Joel was having leg cramp issues (it was his first full marathon) so their pace had slowed a bit but they both did great.

My mom took a lovely picture of me running by on my way to the finish. I look like a gazelle. But, my camera is upstairs. And I don't think I'll get off the couch for the rest of the night. So that picture will just have to wait.

Please think of me tomorrow, as I painfully shuffle through seeing a full day's worth of kids. If my productivity hadn't been SUCKING lately (damn you, flu season) I'd pray for cancellations. But bad productivity=needing kids to show up, no matter how much pain I'm in. At least I'll have the ibuprofen that my sweet husband is currently picking up for me. Hooray anti-inflammatories!

Three weeks...

'til my next half marathon...eep! When I did the Flying Pig 1/2 in May, it seemed like training stretched out forever...not that it dragged, just that it was nice and stretched out. And today I realized I only have three more long runs left until the race! Craziness I tell you. One of those long runs was supposed to be today, but Mother Nature decided to be uncooperative so I'm running tomorrow.

Otherwise, life is good here. House is good, new job is good, married life is good. I wish I had something to rant and rave about, but right now, I don't. So here are some Georgie pics instead...

"Mom, why can't I drive?"

I love my yard!


Not as much as I love chewing on my monkey though!

Football, schmootball...I'll just nap on Mom's feet instead!

Thankful Thursday...aka a few of my favorite things

This post was inspired by a post with a similar title from my friend Andrea at This Year's Love. Said title got me thinking about things/people/places I am particularly fond of right now, and why. Plus, Thursdays are usually Thankful Thursdays on a message board I frequent. And I'm killing time before I get in the shower (yes, I know it's 1:15 on a Thursday. Hooray for days off!). So, in no particular order...

-My hubby. Even though he annoys the crap out of me on a fairly regular basis, he is damn funny and keeps me on my toes. Plus, he loves things like South Park, Supertroopers, and Transformers as much as I do, and will watch them with me anytime. Even though we just watched it the night before. Oh yeah, and he's cute.

-My dog. We do NOT know what we did before Georgie found her way into our lives, and it's only been five months. She is the greatest little snugglebug ever, and loves everyone and everything that she meets.

-My family. They're a little nuts, but whose family isn't? In the end, they stick by you no matter what...even if they think you've lost your mind and are rolling their eyes at you when you're not looking.

-My/our friends. I say "our" because Jason and I have amassed quite the amazing group of mutual friends, thanks to our time served at Champps. Between our mutual friends and the friends we had BEFORE there was a Lori and Jason (believe it or not, there was such a time), we have the most amazing group of friends ever. They are endlessly loyal, and will stop to help each other out in a heartbeat.

-My house. Even though the light fixtures are outdated, the previous owners obviously loved yellow paint a LOT, and the downstairs bathroom needs to be remodeled something fierce, it's the perfect house for us. And after 7 months and 90+ houses of searching, we BETTER have found our perfect house.

-My job. Not just because I get to help kids, but because I don't have the same slightly insane productivity requirements that I had at my old job, I don't have to deal with a school contract in addition to clinic stuff, and the computers are a LOT faster :P

-Having Thursdays off. I had Fridays off for two years, and thought life couldn't get any better than that, but after two weeks of having Thursday off I have seen the error of my ways. I get far more done...when I'm not slacking like I am now.

-FOOTBALL SEASON! Now, by January I will be so sick of football it won't even be funny, but for now I'm pumped. Nothing says fall to me like the start of OSU football season.

-The end of summer/start of fall. I get to drag out my fall decorations, pumpkin scented candles, and Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin anything. Plus, the weather is GLORIOUS.

-Farmer's markets. I always end up spending all the money I allotted myself, but end up with all kinds of goodies. Plus, it gives me the opportunity to buy more organic and/or locally grown stuff, which we're trying really hard to do more of. And it's so much cheaper than organic food at the grocery.

I could go on all day, but that's the stuff I'm particularly loving/thankful for right this second. We all need to remember to stop and think about this stuff from time to time...puts things in perspective.

Helloooo, August!

Or should I say, goodbye August? Because it's the 18th already, holy crap!

What's new with me? Let's see here...
-I started my new job yesterday, working for a local children's hospital at a couple of their close to home/satellite centers. What does this mean, you ask? Not a lot...I'm still making kids talk for a living. But now, I have my own office, get to do allllll my paperwork online, and I GET TO WEAR SCRUB PANTS AGAIN! Trust me, after over a year of wearing scrubs followed by almost two years of NOT being allowed to wear them, this is a big deal.

-Laura and Eric get married on Saturday...yay!!! I went up to Put in Bay with the girls for Laura's bach party a couple of weekends ago, and definitely left part of my liver on the island. And that's okay. I found a fabulous dress (white with a black/gray leaf pattern) at Macy's on Sunday that will go fabulously with my bright blue wedding shoes and purse...SO excited to get to use them again!

-Saturday wedding (and staying at a hotel) mean that Georgie gets to stay with my parents Sat night/Sunday AM. THIS, in turn, means that Jason and I are babysitting my parents' dogs Max (85 lbs of mellow golden retriever/lab mix) and Molly (70 lbs of NOT mellow golden retriever) next weekend. These two + Georgie = almost 200 lbs of dog in my house. Whoooo needs a dog fix?

-Not much longer until football season, yay! Granted, by New Year's I'll be sick of it, but right now I can't wait. Especially since Jason and I got USC tickets, thanks to his awesome grandpa...I can't wait!

So...that's about it. Off to figure out what to wear to work tomorrow...scrub pants perhaps?

Some thoughts...and some dog pics

As of this past Sunday, Jason and I have been married for one full year. 365 days. Wheeee! Here's what I don't get-when we first got married, so many people told us that the first year of marriage would be the hardest one. Um, if the rest of our marriage is as easy as the first year was, we'll be set. Yeah, we had minor spats, but nothing that we didn't have before we got married. You don't clean enough (his gripe), if you want me to clean more then YOU get to clean the bathtub every once in a while and do you even know how to use the tub cleaner? (my gripe)

You get the idea.

I also feel that living together for two years before the wedding helped the transition from "engaged" to "married" be considerably more smooth. When we got back from Yellowstone, it was like "Okay, we're married. Back in our apartment, with all our same stuff (we were storing the wedding gifts at my parents at the time), but really life doesn't feel all that much different." And yeah, I have a new last name. And we have lots of new stuff, which is amazing. But I feel like not having to deal with the stress of moving in together and learning each other's annoying habits (ie clean freakness or allergy to cleaning the bathroom) on top of adjusting to the fact that you are stuck with that person for the rest.of.your.life made things a lot easier.

(And yes, I am saying that while my husband is somewhat of a neat freak, he HATES to clean the bathroom. I mean, hatehatehate with the heat of a thousand suns. I could tell you some gross stories, but I won't, just in case you're eating.)

Since we just hit a year of marriage, this also means that it's been a year since our trip to Yellowstone. Easily one of the most amazing places ever...I would go there again in a heartbeat, and hope to do so before we have kids. Or when they're small enough to pawn off on my parents.

How does one celebrate your 1 year anniversary, you ask? Let's see here...I got us tickets to see Journey on August 26th. YAY!!! We also had a kickass housewarming/anniversary celebration party. For us, kickass meant a shitload of food, a keg of Bud Light, and 156 jello shots. Plus the four cases of beer our friends picked up after the keg was kicked...at 1130pm. Mind you, we TAPPED the keg at 6pm. So I'd say the party was a rocking success, if these pictures of our tired Georgie and Jeff's tired puppy Ozzie are any indication...

The day after...

They're so sweet when they're sleeping!

Okay, so I'm a BAD blog mom

It's been over a month since I updated this bad boy?! Really?! I knew it had been a few weeks, but damn. So, on with the updates.

House-We now have furniture in the living room AND the family room! Woohoo! We got a kickass new sectional, chair, and coffee table for the family room, and moved the couch, loveseat, and table that were in the family room upstairs to the living room. We lovelovelove the new stuff, and so does Georgie :D I'll post links to pics, once the store's website decides to quit being a painintheass.

We also have a shiny new chain link fence, which is AWESOME. Georgie is finally learning that she CAN go off the deck and into the yard without one of us right there, so woohoo for that. Speaking of the deck, we finally got around to replacing the rails of said deck (they were in horrible shape) and it looks SO much better. I'll post pics once we waterproof it...which we were going to do today, but Mother Nature has decided otherwise. Biotch.

Dog-She's fantastic. I took her to get her toenails clipped yesterday-since Jason and I are big ol' wimps, we let the vet's office do it. She did phenomenally, and officially weighs 40.3 lbs. So she's put on 7 much needed pounds in the last three months, and is just about the perfect size. Needless to say, we ADORE her, and she's doing great! I'm lazy and haven't uploaded pics, but I will soon.

Work-is work. Kids telling me about their Rey Mysterio masks (he's a professional wrestler, for those of you who don't know), kids grabbing my hair, kids hitting themselves in the head...the usual. On the upside, no poop, puke, or bloodshed...and that's all I can ask for.

Life in general-pretty damn good. Ol' Boy and I hit one year of marriage next Sunday (aaah!) and are celebrating by throwing an anniversary/housewarming party. Hence the need to waterproof the deck. My anniversary gift to him is tickets to the Journey concert next month...and I managed to wait exactly 10 minutes after I ordered the tickets to tell him :D We're both pretty pumped- "Don't Stop Believin" was the last LAST song at our reception, and holds a special place in our hearts.

On a running related note, the half marathon I'm planning on doing here in town is October 18th. Meaning I have to start training soon...booo! At least I don't have to worry about any huge hills this time.

Aaaaand that's 6 weeks worth of updates crammed into one post...I promise I'll be better about posting. At least, I'll try :D