Utterly Exhausted!

I slept 9 hours last night. I'm STILL tired. I don't think I've ever gone a whole week without blogging. Things were a little crazy.

Tuesday I ran 5 miles

We had some cold weather last week & I actually had time to stop at Starbucks on my way to work!

Thursday I ran 5 more miles. I ran it after work because it was 33 that morning & I had to be at work early for a meeting. I was so excited to see mile 5 at 9:36. That's my fastest mile ever!

Friday night we were back at Caliente for dinner & then we went to our Church fair for awhile. We got to visit with a lot of people that we don't see very often.

Saturday morning Scott & Lydia were running a race so I met them & got Logan. We went & got donuts for breakfast & we played at my house for a little bit before going to the fair.
Logan found Dean's readers. He kept saying "they're awesome, you can see stuff close".

Logan rode this once & decided it didn't go fast enough.

 

Charli & Logan - he loved this ride & laughed the whole time & said it tickled his tummy!

Logan LOVED Charli!

Logan wanted to go fast so Dean rode this one. When the ride was done so was Dean.
Stafford rode this one with him because he couldn't ride by himself, he wasn't quite tall enough & I was feeling a little queasy! I normally ride everything with no problems. I kept telling Logan I needed to take a break but he wasn't having it. I bribed him with cotton candy so I could sit for a few minutes!

When we were leaving Logan told Dean "I tired, hold me".
It didn't take long for him to fall asleep. Once we dropped him off we went home & got ready very quickly for Church. After Church we went to dinner at Acme for an early birthday dinner for Dean.
The char grilled oysters were soooo good & there was tons of bread to sop with. YUMMM! Then we went back to the fair because the Chee Weez were playing. They were so good!
Cindy, me & Dean the photo bomber. I look like I need darker makeup but I swear it doesn't look like that in person.

Cindy, Suzy, Jackie, me & Steph hiding! We had such a fun night!

This happened Sunday morning!
10 miles in 1:51. I was super excited. I was really excited to see that mile 10 was 10:17. I know this is incredibly slow compared to some people like my brother who ran 10 mi. in 1:08 Saturday morning but for me it's great! So according to the plan I've officially completed it & should be able to run a half marathon next weekend. I, however, do not feel the same way. The race is 3 weeks from yesterday so I'll continue to train for the next 2 weeks running 11 Sunday & 12 next Sunday & then start the tapering process. I'm still in shock that I'm doing this. The last 1.5 miles of my run all I could think about was a Sonic Dr Pepper. I have no idea how that got into my head. When I get close to the end of a run it gets hard for me so I try to distract myself with my thoughts. It's not difficult. I have so many random things running through my head all the time it's a wonder I get anything done. I decided that sometime yesterday I'd have a Sonic DP. I went grocery shopping so while I was out I  got one.
There isn't a Sonic close to my house but it was worth it to drive a little out of the way to get it.

Once I got home all I wanted was a nap but it wasn't happening. I was up to my eyeballs in little yarn lamb ornaments that I'm making for Church. Amelia-Ann, Claire & Maddie are 3 of my favorite girls that used to hang out at my house all the time but are now in high school with no time for me came to help. So, so glad they did. I needed the help & I love spending time with them. They're all so sweet, they brought Dean a cupcake, candy & a card for his birthday.

It was a busy busy busy weekend with no nap. I was out for 8:30 last night. I'm thinking there's a strong possibility the same will be true tonight!

Toodles!

Phone Dump

We had such a fun weekend & we took a ton of pics! We were in New Orleans Friday night for Boudin, Bourbon & Beer. It's a fundraiser for Emeril Lagasse's  foundation. There are a bunch of Chef's & they've all cooked something & we get little samples. There are lots of drinks too.

Our view from the balcony of our room. Nothing special. We were in the Warehouse District.
The sunset
Cindy, me & Jackie at the "manager's reception" at the hotel aka happy hour on a bad cruise.
My next door neighbor Jeff & me. Jeff makes us all laugh a lot.
The Food Network's Aaron Sanchez with John Besh.

A glimpse of Emeril in the orange hat with all of Mario Batali's Luigi's.
Mary Kay & Mario
Me & Cindy - Cindy is my friend that did the triathlon & was going to run with me but she got sick, went to Disney & had root canals.
I always have jacked up eyes in pics! Me, John Besh & Mary Kay. I need to figure out who has the picture where I was actually looking at the camera.
Me & Stephanie. She's one of the sweetest people I know.
Grace Potter who sings that Tequila song & Emeril.

Kitza, Jeff & Dave. We went to a bar called The Red Eye. Aside from the DJ calling me ma'am we had a great time. Although, I did redeem myself by requesting Snoop Dogg.
The hotel had a delicious breakfast but the coffee? Not so much! Thankfully, we were 196 yards from Starbucks. There's an app that tells you that!

Saturday night was the big LSU/Bama game. Dean cooked a chicken & pork sauce piquante. It was soooooo good!
We never have enough food.
Poor little Patrick was exhausted.
Mackenzie & Amelia-Ann. I was so happy they came. They're in high school now & don't hang out with me like they used to.

How was y'alls weekend?

They're Baaaack!

Red cups are back! I don't know why but these little cups make me happy! I had my first chai tea latte of the season yesterday & it was delightful!
I picked this up at TJ's & it's soooo good!! This is one of those things I have to be very careful with. I think I could seriously eat the whole box at once!
This mornings run. What I've learned from my Garmin is that I wasn't burning as many calories as I thought. My Timex heart rate monitor had me burning a good bit more than this. I have to believe the Garmin is more accurate because I should've been losing weight with the number of calories the Timex said & I wasn't. I've ran 8.3 miles this week. My long run will be  9 miles on Sunday.

After work tomorrow we're headed to New Orleans. Know what that means? I had to pack. I've mentioned how I hate packing. If we ever win the lottery one of two things will happen. Either I will hire someone to pack for me wherever we go or I'll just buy what I need everywhere we go. I HATE PACKING. We're going to an event that benefits Emeril Lagasse's Foundation. It's called Boudin, Bourbon & Beer. We went last year & it's a lot of fun. There are 22 of us going. We're coming home Saturday & we're hosting our friends for the big LSU/Alabama football game. I have zero thoughts on the game. There's no telling what's going to happen. Although, I can pretty much guarantee that something stupid will come out of Les' mouth between tomorrow & Saturday.

You know you're in the south when this is your grocery list.
Dean's cooking for the game. If you're not from around here you may not know what Trinity is. That would be onions, bell peppers & celery seasoning mix. It's a must have.

Did anyone watch the CMA's? I love Carrie & Brad together. I was cracking up. Not to mention Carrie has my dream legs. I really like Luke Bryan too.

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

40

That's a really big number.....Tuesday was my 40th birthday. YIKES! I know everyone says time flies but seriously it's very weird that I'm already 40.

Tuesday I woke up bright & early at 4:45.

4.50 miles was my first run of my 40's.

This is the most awesome combo! So, so good. Try it. You'll love it. I wouldn't lie.

Dean & I went out for birthday dinner #2. We went to Roberto's. You know, home of the best shrimp poboy. They don't serve poboys at dinner so I went with sauteed red fish with shrimp, almonds & a burre blanc sauce with asparagus & mashed potatoes. It was delicious.

Friday after work I went & had a mani.
This is I'll Take The Cake. Love the color. There's a little sparkle to it. Very pretty.

Friday night we had dinner at Caliente with friends. Just our normal Friday night.

Saturday morning I was running in a 5K at St. Joseph's Academy.
Kitzia, Cindy, Me & Sheri. Cindy & I were the only ones running. We stayed together for the first 2 mi. & then I ran ahead.  I finished in 31:26. Not bad for me. The St Joseph run was the very first race I'd ever ran & I really like the course. It's mainly through a residential section & there are lots of pretty houses to look at & then we run around a portion of the LSU lakes. By far, my favorite area of Baton Rouge. If I had an unlimited bank account I'd live on the lakes. It's gorgeous.

Saturday evening Scott & Lydia were running a 5K at Mockler Beverage. They also had a 1/2 mi. Fun Run that Logan was running in. He was so excited!
Logan was being silly. He's always so happy to see us. It makes me feel good!

He was ready to run!

He told Dean he was tired & wanted him to hold him after the race. Scott & Lydia ran the 5K & Dean & I watched Logan.
This pic made me laugh! I don't know what he was looking at.
It's rare that Logan is this still but he loved watching all the people finish the 5K. He had a front row seat to see his mom & dad finish the race.

Once the race was over it was off to Birthday Dinner #3! Allison picked me up & we met Vicki & Wendy at Mansur's. I was suprised. They hadn't told me where they were taking me. I love Mansur's! We shared the char grilled oysters  & had wedge salads. Why is it a wedge salad is soooo good? I'm pretty sure if I chopped a head of iceburg lettuce in half & put blue cheese on it, it wouldn't taste nearly as good. For my entree I had shrimp, crawfish & crab alfredo. It was delicious. I couldn't finish it so I'll be having it tonight.Then they surprised me with a piece of blueberry bread pudding with a candle in it. It was delicious too! It was so fun being able to have a girls night with my friends.

Halloween was a very exciting day for Baton Rouge. It was the day Trader Joe's opened! This is the first Trader Joe's to open in Louisiana! Dean & I went this morning. It's a great store & I'm so happy to have one in town.
My favorite flowers ever! They're a beautiful purple color. TJ's had a lot of really pretty fresh flowers & they're not expensive. I didn't get to try the 2 Buck Chuck because of the most ridiculous law in the history of laws. Our parish (remember we don't have counties in Louisiana) had a law that the only alcohol that could be sold on Sunday's was beer but it couldn't be sold before noon. Well, people realized the ridiculousness of this law & they changed it. You can buy any alcohol you want on Sunday's....AFTER 11:00 am. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB. Sadly, Dean & I were at TJ's around 8:30. We try to do our shopping early to beat the crowds. What a bummer.

My mom came over today & we went to brunch for my birthday at Frankie Marcello's. We had the Eggs Sardou. Soooo good!!  I think that was the last birthday meal I'm getting this year which is probably a good thing. I need to be running more & eating less. I'm only 5 weeks away from my Half Marathon!

How was y'alls weekend?

Toodles!

8

Yes, I'm back to numbers. I did ZERO running last week because of the hell that was the stomach virus. I've already mentioned it was awful. I lost 6.5 pounds. Yeh, happy about that but so not the way I would've like to lose it.

Saturday was a great mail day!

Happy early birthday to me! After lots of research (more by Dean then me), we decided the 110 was what I needed. I only wish the entire watch were pink or green or purple. I was responsible & didn't get carried away spending $100 extra for a cool color with features I didn't need. This watch has everything I need. It has a heart rate monitor, shows calories burned, GPS, pace & all that jazz. It's like I'm a real runner now! I also had a really cool pair of hot pink compression socks in the mail too! Love them! They are so comfortable! They are also warm. I may have to order some more colors to wear in the winter to work because my office is like the North Pole.

I planned to run Sunday because I knew we'd be out a little later than normal Friday night & I didn't want to have to set an alarm. My training plan said to run 8 miles. I didn't think it would happen. I still didn't feel like I had my strength back & I didn't feel like myself until Saturday evening. My plan was to run 5 & if I wasn't dead to run/walk or walk the last 3. Well, when I got to 5 I told myself I could go 1 more mile. When I got to 6 I told myself I could do 2 more. I mean what's 2 when you've done 6?? I did it. I ran the entire 8 mi. & it wasn't awful. The last 3/4 of a mi. was rough but I've figured out that it doesn't matter if I'm running 2 or 7. The end is really hard because I know I'm almost finished. It also didn't help that I ran out of water early because I somehow managed to spill some from my no spill water bottle. Have you ever tried to text & run? That was me as I was approaching a friends house I was asking for water. Sadly, her phone was on silent so I was out of luck. It was in the upper 50's so it wasn't like I was on the verge of dehydrating or anything.

I wore my watch! Y'all this thing is sooo easy to set up. I've mentioned that I hate reading directions. I wasn't looking forward to trying to figure this thing out. It was super super easy. Way easier than the Timex watch I used to wear. I thought that I deleted all my run info but as it turned out I just wasn't looking in the correct place.

It's really cool to be able to look at your watch & see how fast you're running & how far you've ran all at the same time without having to press buttons. When I finished the run I stretched, foam rolled & sat in an ice bath aka my pool. Good Lord it was cold! It made me legs feel good though. I even managed to refrain from taking a nap. Usually, that's my reward for a long run.

Since it's finally cooling off I managed to put my fall wreaths up.

I see that I managed to cut off part of each wreath in the picture. Oh well, you get the idea.

Happy fall y'all!!

Toodles!

In the land of the living....

Monday afternoon I wasn't feeling right. Later Monday evening I was sick as a dog with the dreaded stomach virus. I really thought I was dying. At some point I thought that I don't know how people going through chemo deal with all the sickness. There was a point that I just laid down on my bathroom floor. That didn't last long. Ceramic tile is REALLY hard. It was a rough rough night. Thankfully, at 5:30 am Tuesday Dean was able to go to a neighbors & get Phenergan. It saved me. Although, it's now Saturday & I still feel like I'm drugged. I was back at work Wednesday. I didn't feel like being there at all but I've only been there 2 months. I HATED having to call in sick.

Luckily, this all happened at the beginning of the week because we had plans for Friday night. There were 12 of us for my first birthday dinner of the year. My actual birthday isn't until next week. We went to Ruffino's. I love this place but we don't go often. There was crab meat cheesecake, a wedge salad & some awesome veal parmigiana. Veal led to a very interesting conversation about what veal is & such. It's really amazing I've made to almost 40 years old without knowing these things.

I couldn't take a good picture to save my life last night. The lighting didn't help.

Brad & Cindy, Dave & Kitzia, Jeff & Dawn & Cliff standing up in the back. The rest of the group was sitting by me & the pic is on someone else's phone.

There was really good wine!

Then back to Dave & Kitzia's for cake & gifts! It was such a fun night! I can't wait until next Saturday night & I get to do it over again with different friends. I'm a firm believer in celebrating birthday's for at least a week. Especially, big birthdays!

Toodles!