Where I've been and some exciting news

So, here's what I've been up to since returning from my fabulous vacation:

 A little bit of this...

And whole lot of this...

HA. I'm kidding...mostly. But seriously. I've had so many 9 o'clock bedtimes in the past week. Recovering from vacation and coming back to face the inconsiderate bitch that is work (Coworkers-what do you mean you don't want to sit here and listen to me recall every detail of my trip and see the 400 almost identical pictures I took of the mountains while you were stuck here???) has proved to be almost impossible. 

But I'm finally catching up on work and life, which is why I now have time to drop back in and say HI! To all my blogging friends and all my other friends and all you random people who never talk to me in real life but secretly stop by and read when you are bored at work or sitting in traffic. I love you all!

 (Not equally, of course, but it's still love so just accept it.)

Now that I've caught you up to speed on all the boring crap I've been doing, I need to fill you in on my extra-curricular activities. Last week (has it been that long already? I no longer have any concept of time.) I met up with my best friend in the entire world for the showing of SOTM2!!!!

Aside from coming on an entire half hour later than it was scheduled to (WTF, AMC?!?!!) this movie was INCREDIBLE. Y'all. I could not have been more enthralled by the stories of the seven runners they followed during their journey through the Rome Marathon. I cried, and I'm pretty sure I saw Allison cry. If you saw the first Spirit of the Marathon, I promise, this was even better, and even more inspiring. 

SO inspiring that the very next day...

I signed up to run my first marathon.

Yep. Betcha didn't see that coming. I'm such a sucker y'all. 

Anyways, I've really been slacking on my runs lately. My last "feel good" run was my birthday nine-miler, and since then I've only run a handful of times. I completely fell off my half marathon training wagon, and just hadn't felt motivated. I decided a few weeks ago to skip out on the Jalapeno Half Marathon at the end of this month. Partly because I can't really afford to shell out money on a race registration right now, and partly because I know I'm not ready for it. As much as it sucks and is a little embarrassing, I'm also really ok with it. I'm not the kind of person who wants to drop almost a hundred bucks to run a race by myself that I know I'm not going to do well in. I'm okay with that. But in the past month or so, I've really been craving a "running community." Cheesy? Oh, hell yes. But right now, it's exactly what I need. I don't have anyone close to me that is into running. And on those days when I'm tired, or busy, or just not feeling it, I want to have accountability with someone other than my training plan. So after thinking about it for all of 24 hours, I bit the bullet and ran down to our local running store (Fort Worth Running Company), and signed up for the almost 6 month long marathon training program. And I am excited. We meet for three runs during the week, and one long run on Saturday mornings. I'm SO excited to be around a huge group of people of all different backgrounds and age groups and just run! I'm also excited because it's starting out really slow, easy, and letting me fall back in love with running all over again. 

I think that deserves yays and claps all around. 

And for the second piece of exciting news...

I'm going to New York!

Actually, we're going to New York! Me and the tall friend, I mean best friend.

She hit the jackpot and will be in New York having an awesome time and also doing some photography work, so I'm going to fly up for a long weekend to hang out. So your assignment is to start coming up with a list of must-do/must-see things for a quick weekend in New York. Also if you are one of my NYC readers your assignment is to email me and hit me up for a cup of coffee/a beer/a run/whatever suits your fancy while I am in town. I mean it! 

And because I have failed you and have yet to reference anything pop culture in this post...

Congrats to Kimye!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

The NOT Colorado Recap

Soooo, I went to Colorado.

 I promise I'm somewhat sorta kinda working on a recap, but I'm really swamped life and my desire to catch up on sleep, and obsessively stalking all of your blogs that I missed during my five days in the mountains, SO it may be a couple of days before that post makes its appearance. If you can't wait and are just dying to see 176 a few of my favorites from our trip, you can check them out here.

LOVE&HUGS!

Nat

Vacation here we come!

After what may have been the best weekend of all time, I can finally breathe, because as of 5pm today, I'm officially on VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, in other exciting news...my little brother graduated high school last night!

I'm sorry that one blurry Iphone pic is all I have. Here let me supplement with another one. Because two crappy Iphone pics = one decent Iphone pic right?

CRAZY proud of that guy! Also I feel old. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up this morning to this!

 

Getting through that one last work day until you are on vacation is brutal, but having a cute Ranger's tervis tumbler that your sweet coworker got you for your birthday makes the time pass by a little quicker :)

Plus, Y'ALL. Check out my fortune cookie from lunch today!

Get it?!?!!!??! Top of the world???!! MOUNTAINS??!! I know.

Our flight leaves late tomorrow morning, and I am all set and ready to go! I can usually manage to convince myself that I'm a pretty low maintenance person (no laughing Mom and Taylor) until I have to start packing...

Yikes.

I can't wait to be relaxing in a cabin in the mountains! Brace yourself for lotttsssss of pictures!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

The BEST birthday EVER recap

Before I set off on what I expect to be the best five days of my whole entire life, I thought I'd catch you up on the details of the most amazing 23rd birthday there ever was. For those of you who don't know me, (or those of you who haven't been paying attention) I LOVE birthdays. They are a big. freaking. deal.

Yeah just like that. 

Anyways, after a little family birthday dinner on Friday night, I woke up at 6:30 ready to go for a birthday weekend run and test out my new present.

It was HOT. Like crazy hot. And worse than hot, it was humid. I ran approximately seventeen steps before I was dripping in sweat and cursing the fact that I didn't adequately prepare for all the beads of sweat that continued to blind me throughout my run. After the first mile, it got really dark, and I kept waiting (fingers crossed) for the skies to open up and the downpour to begin, but it never did. It just stayed hot, and humid, and ewie. 

Around mile three I ran into my friend Caitlin which was exciting and gave me a little boost of energy and kept me distracted from the sweat situation. You are welcome for the spectacular sweaty iphone photography.

Also of note, at least half a dozen people I passed on the trails felt it necessary to make the comment...

"WHOA. That's a lot of water."

Yeah. Water. Cause I'm thirsty, moron. 

Really I'm a super high maintenance runner and require a massive gulp of water at least every quarter of a mile. And that need just intensifies when I'm running in 90 degree weather. 

This run was not at all what I'd hoped it would be. It was the slowest run I've had in a very long time, and that last mile was really really hard, but at least I had an adorable purple Garmin to document my suckiness. 

Perspective, people. 

The rest of Saturday was spent staring at the clock counting the minutes down until birthday dinner! 

What I thought was going to be a get together of about 6 of my best friends quickly turned into a group of 18 and resulted in me feeling super popular and just really really loved. 

That's my best friend who is so gorgeous that I'm really considering breaking up with her because it is rude to show up to a party looking prettier than the birthday girl. 

For the past few years, Taylor's roommate Jordan has gotten me peachie-o's and scratch offs for my birthday. The tradition continues and now I am a whopping three dollars richer. Thanks Jordy.

I know what you are thinking. It is super classy of me to carry my Rangers coozie with me at all times. I know. I'm like a boy scout, always prepared. 

Chuy's Chuy's get in my belly.

Some of my favorite girls in the whole wide world! 

Fun fact: I've lived with every single one of these girls at some point in my life! (Except for Emily in the striped shirt. But we had all of the same education classes so we may have well as lived together!)

After stuffing our faces at Chuy's we all headed over to Barcadia for drinks and games and some not so pretty attempts at dancing.

JENGA! (If I was paying better attention I would've found a sharpie and crossed out that 5/22 and replaced it with a 6/2 but my judgment may have been slightly impaired.)

As a party favor to you, I would like to present you with a video of one of my very entertaining dances of the  evening:

Yeah. You're welcome.

 Sunday morning (my actual birthday) we slept in, then went to a yummy breakfast at Einstein's where I treated myself to a birthday Dr. Pepper. I had forgotten how incredible they are. HOLY COW. So good. 

The rest of the day consisted of laying out by the pool, eating leftover cookie cake, and then heading over to my brother's graduation party.

Such a great weekend of celebrating! And the good news is...only 363 days until my birthday!

;)

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

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