My schedule...

My puppy Lambeau..pronounced Lam-bow...the 13th love...I have 3 nieces and 8 nephews... 12 grandkids in my family.... 13th love?! Well, Kate is having her SECOND kid *(Who I think is a boy...but I haven't seen her! I've been right 90% of the time...) Lambeau is MY baby. He knows me as mommy. He knows I'm STRICT and LOVING. He's the best puppy ever, almost FULLY potty trained and a LOVING boy...all he needs is a strong guiding CRATE TRAINED hand which he is getting!

This is me turning 25 on 10/24/09 at 11:30pm:My hubby Brian (affectionately known as Bri) planned a PERFECT bday weekend! Saturday night: Birthday dinner with friends...4 different couples who didn't know each other but LOVED each other. AKA amazing. Brunch on Sunday was my college friends...and then Green Bay lost...WEEK RUINER.

Ok this deleted because of my stupid Vaio. I LOVE MY VAIO. Maybe it's blogger and facebook, but seriosly, when I click something BAM on the previous pg with no abilite to go back! Here's why I've been MIA...

So, happy bday 11/4 to the previously mentioned Kate! She's awesome and expecting...I love my sissy and get sad when she doesn't text me (I'm blessed with 3 AMAZING Sisters: Melissa, also known as Meliss, Jennifer also Known as Jen, and Katelyn, also known as Kate...Kate is my clostest in age...but we all have the middle name ANN!)

Anyway, here's my schedule, in case you were wondering schedule:

Mon: Work 8:10 - 3:07; really, arrival is at 7:35am (Homework in the evening) make a GREAT dinner

Tue: Same as Monday (Homework in the evening) Make a dinner with leftovers

Wed: 8:10-3:07 work, 4:50-7:20 college, homework done in breaks, on the subway, etc (hopefully Bri has leftovers

Thu: 8:10-3:07 work, 4:50-7:20 the HARDEST class, thesis class 7:30-9:10...I haven't weighed myself.

Every other day: I'm going up stairs, eating healthily, I'm doing as much activity, and I'm about to go back to the gym, maybe even Sunday. Go back to the gym, why do you ask? I pulled a muscle during EARLY October due to Bronchitis in my upper rib cage/chest, therefore disabling me working-out wise in every which way. The pain can't be described: laughing, pain. Turning, pain. walking, pain.

Now I'm back.

I have some inspirational stories for later. But how are you?!

alright seriously I'm so busy

AGH SOOOOOOO Here are the causes of my recent departure from blogging YET AGAIN:

- I got sick. Well, I was sick for half of September, and my little cold turned into bronchitis. Pretty sure I have accute bronchitis because I get it every time I get a cold. I finally got an prescription right after we moved, and then the next week I got a 48 hour bug; fever, dizziness, nauseous, the whole shabang. So yea, I'm finally feeling healthyish. Oh yes, and I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle right around the top of my rib cage, which has moved from being a STABBING PAIN every time I moved to an intense pinch. Running/gym has not happened in a while...since my half marathon...this needs to strange. Body, get yourself together and be HEALED!

- Work has been nuts. My commute is about 10-15 minutes longer, and has made me OCD with leaving early and ensuring I have a good 20-30 minutes to get my act together before classes begin. This means less sleep, more train time...and boy do I have stories!

- College classes are NUTS. I have one paper due this week, one huge one next week, and another the week after...they just keep coming! And with readings! This is getting a bit overhwelming, but I have to keep reminding myself that after this semester (Which can't end soon enough, I will only be taking one class next semester and I will be DONE!

- I am doing a Friday Club at my school. This means I stay for an extra 2 hours Friday afternoons and teach YOGA! I'm actually excited for this, first of all for the pay (It's like double time), but also because I get to help kids learn healthy lifestyle habits, which my kids NEED!

- Trying to be a wife. Shoutout to my Brian, he is seriously the best husband in the world. From waking up and making me bagels for breakfast, letting me turn on the light to find my clothes while he's sleeping, taking out the garbage, washing dishes, getting my prescriptions, unpacking, paying bills, dealing with the CRAZY cable people, and loving me despite being under the weather WAY longer than one should be, he is seriously the best husband in the world. I read the letter he wrote to me on our wedding day last night and I cried. He is more than I could have asked or imagined for.

Alright, enough of the gushing and soft stuff! HOW'S THE RUNNING?!?!? I'm so lost without it, and can't wait to be back in the game! Brian is joining me for the Thanksgiving day race.

Oh yes, and I turn 25 on the 25th, this Sunday. GOLDEN BIRTHDAY HERE I COME!

LET'S GO YANKEES!

moved in, yes. unpacked, no.

I hate moving. Let me say it again: I HATE MOVING. Seriously. I lived in the same house all of my life. my husband moved 13 times (military kid) and subsequently, because of my sickness, took over the packing. Well, we're moved! The unpacking has started, and will continue/end/wish it will end tomorrow. Bri is going to work at 9, I have till about 5 to unpack and organize (we have church at 6). The picture above is my next door neighbor. And no, this isn't any ordinary grocery store, it's an INTERNATIONAL grocery store, with all sorts of cool things. And when I say next door, I mean 15 feet from my front door. Ladies, this could be good/dangerous.

In other news, We're still trying to adopt a puppy (facebook friends know this), an English Bulldog to be precise. I'll keep you updated. And I'm joining the new gym tomorrow. Completely UNSORE from the half marathon = amazing. AND I waited on a major player in the Guinness franchise at the restaurant today...very good tipper. Serving Saturday coming tomorrow.

Half Marathon recap: lessons in humility

First of all...I DID IT! I survived and I made it across the finish line! We're in full move transition, moving day is October 1, so stay tuned for pictures!!!

Race report:

The course: AMAZING. It was 55 and SUNNY when we got to the start and that is my PERFECT weather for running! Half was on winding roads in the country in East Hampton, some was on a dirt road in a beautiful trail, and the other half lined a beach.

My race: UGH, if there ever a lesson in humility, this was it! As of Friday night before the race, I was NOT running. I was exhausted, sick, coughing and blowing my nose. I went to bed at 8:30 after a WONDERFUL meal cooked for us by Alyssa's wonderful mommy. I told Laurie that if I still felt the same way in the morning, this would not be happening. I woke up the next day rejuvinated and alive! I felt better than I had in a week. Sleep is a miracle worker. Why was this race such a lesson in humility? Well, I was slow. REALLY slow. But Brian had made me promise to come back in one peace, so I had to keep that promise. I started with Laurie but quickly lost her because, well, she's fast! (Her time was 145:49...CRAZY runner!). I missed the Mile 1 marker, and right before I saw the mile 2 marker I thought "I can not do this." But when I saw the mile 2 marker, the countdown began. If I could get to mile 9, I could finish. 7 more miles. My first three miles were 10 minute miles, including stopping at every water station and drinking/walking for 30 seconds. By the time I hit 5 miles, my time was about 1:01, still decent with all my water slugging!!! After mile 6-7, I started to fall into a SLOW rhythm, but it's where I needed to be. I made a few friends along the way; one liked my shirt and we discussed the red dress run. Another was named Carrie, who I met with her friends around mile 6, and then again around mile 10. She and I chatted for a mile or so; she had flown in from Hong Kong the night before to do this! Around 11, I met Wendy. I'm honestly considering doing a "missed connection" on Craigslist for Wendy! She lives 8 blocks from my new apartment, super funny, and I gave her one of my cough drops! She had been sick too, I didn't feel so alone. I lost her in the middle of mile 12 though; I felt nauseous and almost threw up! My lesson in humility took place as I was passed by every. single. person. I usually can do a bit of passing, but seriously, I got passed by everyone. EVERYONE. I was so sad, but I prayed the whole time for Laurie, my husband, my family, anything that came to mind to distract me. I kept repeating these verses:

-I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
- I submit my body to the plans of God (I think that's a verse...)
- I have the mind of Christ.
- No weapon formed against me will prosper.
- I am beautifully and wonderfully made.

And then, in mile 13, this was my mantra: YOU ARE INVINCIBLE. And the famous "Remember the Titans" line, "Fourth quarter...fourth quarter....fourth quarter...." Yes people, I needed extra oomph to finish this race!

Mile 13-13.1: I rounded the corner to the sound of cow bells, cheers, and race commentators on loud speakers. I saw people everywhere cheering me on. I saw the clock click onto 2:28. NO WAY I was having a 2-3-0 in my finish time! So I sprinted. I mean SPRINTED. 2:29:44! At the end I ran passed my new friend Marie, whose husband Steven was running in his first half! To add to the lesson in humility: I started dry heaving at the end of the race. Badly. Thankfully there was nothing in my tummy to throw up, but a few people stopped to see if I was ok...embarrassing...yes I got over it.

I got some post race goodies and split like a banana! We returned to NYC around 4ish after regrouping at my friend Alyssa's AMAZING Hamptons home. Pictures of the kitchen will be shown.

Final thoughts: This race was HARD. I was passed over. and over. and over. I had trained, but this flu/cold/sinus infection almost got the best of me. I am a runner. I ran a half marathon. I am a runner. My legs are sore. I am a runner. I will do this race again. I am a runner.

AND THE YANKEES CLINCHED THE DIVISION! WAHOO!

Half Marathon...less than 48 hours away!

This is a picture of me at my first half marathon in April! It has been that long since I've run 13.1 miles...SHAME! Race report to come soon....here I come Hamptons Half Marathon!

Here are my hopes:

1. That I beat the marathoners!

2. That I don't get sick

3. I'm not coughing up flem (sp?)

4. Blisters will be minimal

5. I don't get discouraged

6. 2:15

Brian has made me promise not to over do it...I haven't run in over two weeks because of stresses in life/sickness (I think I may have had the flu...swine flu anyone?!), and I'm still not 100%...perhaps 90%. So I've made various promises to walk if I feel sick, and there is no shame in resting. I'm leaving directly from work tomorrow with my friend Alyssa, who is GRACIOUSLY hosting us with her mom at their house in South Hampton! Her mommy is a GREAT cook and is preparing us a FABULOUS prerace meal! Yummy!

Wish me luck! GAH I'm so excited to get back out there!

Serving Saturdays...

So here's a quote from one of Bri's tables today (I had no entertaining stories)

Guest: "We'll have bbq wings and jerk wings."

Brian: "Ok."

Guest: "Aren't you going to write this down?" (With a LOT of attitude)

Brian: Pretty sure I've got it.

Word of advice: When ordering, even if it's complicated, don't mess with your server. Chances are we know what we're doing, or we can fix it if we make a mistake! ;-)

P.S. The wings came out without any trouble.

100th post! Giveaway winner! I'm alive! Big News!

Wow this is going to be a great post! Ha, it's bigger than I thought it would be...a few weeks AFTER the original deadline! First of all, congratulations to Melissa W, winner of the giveaway! I put all the names in a hat, for lack of a better system (I know some of you other bloggers had some site or something but I kept forgetting to look it up on your past posts!) and my New York City friend won! Melissa, your prize is coming!!!

So here's some big news...

WE'RE MOVING! Currently Brian and I live in a studio, which is subsidized by the school he works for. However, due to strange but true circumstances, Brian was laid off from his teaching job. Therefore, we lose our apartment...October 1. We found this out right before the Thursday deadline of the giveaway, hence the craziness of my life up until now! First of all, Brian began working full time at the restaurant we've kept as a part time job, completely a blessing and he's happy to have a break from the regular grind for now. Then we began apartment searching, which we started and ended the day we found out we had to move (Thanks, God!), then I began teaching and night school (3 classes), thus my absence from blogging! I've also been absent from running. I will now go through each of my distractions:

APARTMENT SEARCH: We found a great place. It's in Astoria, just 25 blocks from where we live now. Top (third) floor of an individual apartment building. The owner is a dentist, who has her office on the entire first floor, her family's apartment on the second floor, and two apartments on the third floor. We got the bigger of the two, a one bedroom with a balcony, nice size living room and open kitchen. Lots of windows and sunlight! I really like the area, it's halfway between where Brian and I each used to live, so we're very familiar with area. It's way more "city" than where we live now, which is more like a neighborhood. We're also looking for a dog to adopt...stay tuned!

SCHOOL: I don't really like to blog about my job because people can look me up, but everything is going well. I'm currently testing all the kindergarteners with my AMAZING ESL TEAM, basically to see if these new little kiddies speak enough English to not need ESL services. LOTS of official paperwork. We've probably killed a forest x2.

COLLEGE: AGH it's ok. Mulicultural Education, Theories of Second Language Acquisition, and Developing Your Thesis Question. Yes that's 3 classes, 8 credits total. YUCK! Multicultural class is actually turning out to be good, Theories is AWFUL, and Thesis Question is stupid. But this means I will be DONE this Spring! All I will have is the "Executing Thesis" class next semester!!! That's AMAZING! My master's degree completed in May...I'm so close it's RIDICULOUS! That's the only thing that's keeping me going right now.

...and my absence from running. No bold title here. My 1/2 marathon is next weekend, and I have run in 2 weeks. Ugh. I'm nervous to say the least. I ran a little here and there but nothing of substance. And now I have a cold. TRIPLE UGH. Thankfully I have the cold now and not next weekend. Brian has made me promise to take it easy and to not aim for time...and I've agreed to it. This is going to kill me, because it's in the Hamptons, and I know my friend Laurie is going to do an AMAZING job, but training in the summer was NOT for me. The heat negatively affected me numerous times.

So, that's all for now. I've been thinking a lot about blogging, but never got around to it. I will be doing a couple of different things, including Tales from the Subway Tuesdays (Anyone watch The Soup? Tales from Home Shopping???), and Serving Saturdays (Table stories when I wait tables...). I figured I needed to get some sort of consistency and use my HILARIOUS NYC moments to entertain the masses.