Letter to Everyone

Dear Friday,

You are my favorite. 

Dear Strength Workouts,

Me and you? Twice in one week? That's definitely some kind of record.

Dear Mom,

Thanks for using your knowledge of how obsessed I am with birthdays + how much I love dessert + how much I love surprises and combining them to create the best birthday treat ever!

which brings me to...

Dear Nothing Bundt Cakes,

I don't even understand how something so delicious can even exist. Seriously, you are making the world a better place and I love everything that you stand for.

Dear Katy Perry,

I'm not sure why you were in my dream last night, but it reminded me...

 A) How fantastic your documentary was (seriously y'all, tears were shed) and

B) How much I love you and am ready for your next album.

Dear Family,

I really love you all. Thanks for such a yummy birthday dinner and for spoiling me rotten.

Dear Tomorrow's Run,

Please have mercy on me. I am nowhere near ready for you. The heat, the humidity, and the onion rings and cookie cake for dinner may not have been the best choice. However, Garmin will make you way more fun than usual.

Dear Friends,

Hurry up and get out here. I'm ready to get my birthday on.

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Birthday Presents and Bacon

This morning started early. Like real early. 

I would just like to clarify that is indeed, 4:45 AM.

I met with a trainer at my gym on Tuesday night, and he gave me a free strength training session that absolutely kicked my butt and left every last muscle in my body sore as hell. Needless to say, he is officially on my hit list, and the minute I can manage to make it out of bed without screaming in pain, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. Okay fine, I'm kidding. He was awesome, and I am actually crunching some numbers to see if I can use him in a during marathon training a couple months down the road. Anyways, the point of that story was that Tuesday night my lead legs would only carry me about a mile and a half, so I was determined to squeeze that missed run in this morning. 

My alarm went off at 4. I was at the gym and on the treadmill by 4:45, and done with my run by 5:30. I do not early love morning runs, but I did love the fact that I'm pretty sure my legs were still asleep and unaware that they were even moving until like the last half mile. 

Also I was so sleepy that I accidentally stole the gym towel. Oops. 

Not the first time that's happened, and probably won't be the last. 

You know it's going to be a good day, when the first thing to greet you on the Yahoo home page is an article on the 12 best grilled cheeses. Y'all. It's BACON GRILLED CHEESE! 

Um, yes. Say no more Yahoo. Bread, cheese, and bacon are officially on next week's grocery list. 

Aaannnd speaking of bacon...

Heaven will be filled with bacon and the Gos. I am sure of it.

After work I headed home to start dinner. I had leftover angel hair from last week's pad thai, so I whipped up this recipe for dressed chicken breasts with angel hair pasta. I really liked it, but Taylor wasn't a big fan. But to be honest I was a little distracted...

BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!!! 

Tater is the best. He had to do some serious research and make approximately 80938413 phone calls to track down the purple model, but he did it and I am one happy girl. And now I can't wait to go for a run! Smiles all around.  

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Your daily reminder

I'm going to be honest and tell you that 94% of the reason I'm checking in to give you your daily reminder that my birthday is in exactly SIX days away. And apparently all the delicious restaurants in my life are equally as excited about it. 

 

I also want to remind you that Glee is STILL awesome. 

Our weekend consisted of being surrounded by really really really awesome friends for three straight days. 

There was food and games and all types of fun and one of my absolute favorite things about summer is the fact that you don't have to pack any actual clothes because you just get to live in your swimsuit.

 

Also in case you were wondering, Miss Peyten says hello and that she is still in the number one spot for world's most beautiful baby. 

 

Yes it was an incredible weekend and I probably would be curled up in a ball crying about the fact that it's over if I didn't have the Bachelorette Premiere in T-minus 2 hours to look forward to. 

This ad is ridiculous.

That show really does improve my quality of life by a solid 40%. I love the DRAMA!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

I really didn't want to but I'm SO glad I did

I have a serious question. 

What in the world are tootsie rolls made of? Free high fives to whoever can tell me. I do realize that I could find the answer to my question with one swift Google, but opening up another tab sounds like way too much effort right now.

Tonight after work I was in the worst "I-hate-myself-I'm-not-ready-for-bikini-season-my-life-sucks-so-bad" kind of mood, and I did NOT want to run. Like at all. What I really wanted to do was go home, turn off all the lights, crawl into bed and have a 6 hour glee marathon with myself, and maybe some Reese's too. I told myself that maybe if I made a trip to Target and walked around for an hour then maybe I could get myself psyched up to run.

Um, no. Not so much. 

But I still headed over to the gym because I'd already missed one of my runs this week and if I missed 2 out of 4 I'd be a massive failure at life and I was feeling way too fragile for that type of self disappointment. My half marathon training plan has me doing 5 miles of speed or hills on Thursday. I did hills last week, so this week I knew I needed  to do something at least remotely resembling a speed workout. My runs have been pretty slow lately, so again, this sounded like the very freakin last thing I wanted to spend my evening doing.

It's funny how you can start a run hating your life and finish a run absolutely high on life. 

I LOVE RUNNING.

Here's how it went:

-Easy 2 mile warm-up at a 9:22 pace

-0.25 mile at 8:00 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.25 mile at 7:53 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.50 mile at 7:47 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.50 mile at 7:35 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

-0.25 mile at 7:18 pace

-0.25 mile recovery 9:00 pace

I realize that workout looks super non-sensical and random. It totally was. But it was fun. It kept me breathing hard and best of all it kept me super entertained and helped my run fly by. Mission accomplished. I'm excited because I feel like I'm slowly but surely getting back into half marathon shape and my pace is finally getting back to what it should be. YAYs all around.

(Side note: Whenever my pace reaches the 8:30 min/mile or quicker mark, I always give a sympathy nod to the guy on the elliptical directly behind me. Because he gets to witness the most attractive aspect of a poorly ventilated gym treadmill run - butt sweat. Don't judge me. Your butt sweats too.)

After my run I was starving. The weird dinner saga continues...

I know that looks disgusting. I can assure you, it was not. That is my new favorite delicious smoothie concoction (bunch of frozen fruit + Naked juice + orange juice + pineapple juice = HOLY CRAP YUM), a black bean burger, and the rest of the broccoli that has been sitting in my freezer for three weeks. That plate was clean in approximately 17 seconds. 

Guess what we are only one work day away from guys....

My plans are:

PARTYFRIENDSPARTYFRIENDSPARTYFRIENDS!

Taylor's friend Andy (who graduated a couple weeks ago) is having his graduation party on Saturday. This is amazing for the following reasons: 1) POOL TIME! 2) FISH FRY! 3) I LOVE THOSE PEOPLE! Also in case you haven't been paying attention, The Bachelorette premieres Monday night.

Yes, I am a little excited. 

Tootsie Rolls - yay or nay?

Who's going to be tuning in to this season of The Bachelorette?? 

It's such a ridiculous time suck but I am addicted and there is no cure. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

3 Countdowns and I've been seduced yet again

Dear Self,

Let's talk about how exactly you were planning on running 6 miles without shoes, a sports bra and missing one sock?

You are an idiot.

Yeah. So that didn't happen. Lesson learned - don't pack your gym bag while half asleep. My shins were super achy all day anyways, so when I got to the gym to find a bag full of nothing I took it as a sign from God that I was supposed to skip my run and instead make cookies for dinner. And when God speaks to you, you don't ignore him.

Oatmeal chocolate chip freakin YUM.

 Don't worry that wasn't all I ate. I put a valiant 3 minutes of microwave effort into my actual dinner

Verdict? Eh.

We're switching topics now. So, tell me if this ever happens to you.

You know how the Victoria's Secret dressing rooms have the most perfectly soft and romantic lighting that makes you look super skinny and tan and manages to convince you that you are really rocking that overpriced bra and that you too could be a VS angel??? Right. So you make it to the checkout, swipe your card, and walk out of the store with your head held high and your little pink bag in hand. And then you get home to your $3 light bulbs and realize that you just spent $54 on a purple bra that can be seen through every single shirt you own and oh by the way you are still just a 34A and there's nothing angelic about that.

Yes, that is actually me. 

Okay, well I think that Target has now implemented that same perfect lighting trickery into their produce department. Because when I went to the grocery store yesterday I could've sworn to you that I picked out the most gorgeous, lucious strawberries in the whole world, and tonight I pulled them out of the fridge and they were so ugly and pathetic that I actually felt embarrassed for them. So that was upsetting. Clearly I've been seduced by Target yet again. That's like the 45th time this month.

Are you ready to hear about the three things I am counting down to???? In order of importance:

1. COLORADO VACATION!!!!

My excitement has gone past the point of ridiculous and wandered into the realm of borderline psychotic. I am literally incapable of thinking about anything else. I've already started mentally packing and Google Earth stalking all the places I want to go. Yes, as I've said, I'm freaking out.

2. MY BIRTHDAY!!!

Oh no big deal, just 12 days until the greatest holiday ever. Just for kicks and giggles here are pictures from my last four birthdays.

22

22 AKA Bday in Vegas!

21

AKA the best birthday in the history of EVER.

20

AKA the one where the waitress at Benihana took away
my wine glass and left everyone else's because apparently I look like I'm twelve. 

19

AKA the one where I was a chubby bunny but it's okay because Taylor is adorable.

3. JALAPENO HALF MARATHON!!

(You forgot we were listing countdowns didn't you? It's okay, I did too.)

I'm actually a little afraid of this half because it's going to be 14,000 degrees outside and I don't know how to handle that. But if I pretend like I'm excited and not completely terrified then maybe I will actually get excited. Maybe? We'll see. 39 days and counting!

Questions because I'm chatty today!

Does the VS dressing room seduce you too? 

Surely I can't be the only one.

Who else skipped their workout today? 

High five. Normally I'd feel bad, but it's hard to feel guilty when in t-minus 8 hours I will be sweating/cursing the day I was born in spin class. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

Waiting until the last minute

I realize that I'm about four years behind, but I am now in love with Glee. I can't stop watching. So an advanced apology to all my co-workers because there is a good chance that I will break out in song and dance in the breakroom tomorrow.  You are welcome. Weekend recap comin' at ya...NOW!

Saturday morning Taylor and I were up bright and semi-early to head to the Color Me Rad 5k. I did a pretty good job of convincing Taylor that pop-tarts are a very nutritious and common "runner's breakfast." He totally bought it. 

We signed up for the Color Me Rad awhile back and ran as a team with a group of friends. We ran the 10am wave, which was way hotter than anyone of us had imagined it would be, but still pretty fun. 

Oh and, FYI, temporary tattoos are a pain in the ass to get off. I would know because I spent all day Saturday and Sunday walking around restaurants and stores sporting a "rad" tat. Very cool. 

I really did try to get a variety of color on me, but for some reason Taylor and I only managed to get hit with mostly orange and yellow. And not even that much of it. Color fail. Oh well. I think what I enjoyed the most was getting to run a little bit with Taylor. I can count on one hand how many times we've run together, and this was our first official "race" to run together. And I've already started making plans in my head to run marathons together. Poor Taylor. 

In summary: hot, fun, and a little overrated. I'd probably be alright if I never ran a color run again, but I see the appeal, and it's definitely a fun thing to do with friends. 

After crossing the finish line and downing a refreshingly cold beer, we made our way to a burger place called  Shaw's, where I demolished a guacamole bacon burger. 

Fun fact about me: if a restaurant has sweet potato fries-I'm going to order them. It's just a given. 

After lunch, we headed over to Rahr & Son's Brewery to hang out. I could only stomach one pint because it was about 1000 degrees outside and really I'm just not fancy enough to enjoy a beer that doesn't have the word "lite" in the name. I did enjoy my free glass though. 

 After all the fun, we headed back home to scrub off the sweat and color. We were pretty exhausted from our day, and we chose to deal with that exhaustion by taking a 3 1/2 hour nap. I woke up all frazzled and grumpy by the fact that we'd just slept away the better part of an entire evening and then Taylor said "Chipotle" and I perked right up. After Chipotle, I had to satisfy a craving that I'd been having the past couple of days:

Are you really overwhelmed and impressed by the beautiful background of this picture AKA Taylor's living room? I thought you would be. Just don't let it distract you from the magnificence that is DOUBLE STUF OREOS! Sometimes I forget how much I love Oreos and that is exactly why I do not keep them in my house. I am not exaggerating when I say that I ate half of this container. I repeat: I am not exaggerating. 

I was really worried that because of the excessive length of our nap, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, but I was wrong. We were passed out by 12:30 (per usual for me, not so usual for Tater Tot). We slept in until about 8:30, and when Taylor asked me what I wanted to do for breakfast my immediate response was "WHATABURGER" because the taquitos were calling my name. 

I strongly believe that every meal should be followed by dessert, and that includes breakfast. So I was forced to wash my taquito down with a few Oreos, just to even things out. 

In all the craziness of the weekend, I realized this afternoon that I'd majorly procrastinated my half marathon training weekend run. Um, oops. So I peeled myself off the couch and headed to the gym around 6:30 for my 8 mile run (AKA 72 minute Glee watching marathon). 

(Oh and an empty gym makes for a really happy Natalie.)

  

Just let me know when you guys start getting tired of the gym selfies, k? 

I have to be honest, after all the crap I ate this weekend (oh and I forgot to tell you about the onion rings dunked in ranch that I had during Sonic's happy hour today) I was pretty much expecting my run to be reminiscent of the enchilada run/debacle from a few weeks back - but it totally wasn't. In fact, this may have actually been the most undeserved, perfect run of all time. Obviously this means that I need to precede each run with an order of onion rings, right?

Oh and in case you were wondering - today is exactly TWO WEEKS until my birthday!! Now I'm off to celebrate with more Glee. Come on y'all, it's not going to watch itself. 

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat