It's that time of year again!

That’s right folks, my birthday is less than FIVE days away. Which means, I am now officially accepting birthday gifts. (But to be clear, I will unofficially accept gifts all year round.) Let's be honest, I've been compiling a wish list for the past 360ish days. But who's counting. Oh right, me. I'm counting. 

First up on my list - a TRUCK.

What would I do with a truck you ask? Oh, very simple. I would immediately turn it over to Taylor so that he would SHH and get off my case about not letting him have one. 

Probably not that exact truck. Actually I have NO idea what kind because once I hear the word "truck" I immediately shut down and instead start thinking about teacup pigs.

OHMYGOD.

Are you dying yet?

Anyways, if you feel compelled to buy us a truck, you're going to have to call Taylor for the specific requirements on that one. There Tay Tay, are you happy? I put it out there in the Universe, hopefully the Universe rewards us. 

Next up - patio furniture. 

Because THIS is what our patio currently looks like.

Oh wow, gorgeous. Pull up a bucket, or better yet, a wooden stake, and have a seat! And enjoy the scenic views of the parking lot. It’s a lovely homestead. Anyways, THIS is what I would like for our patio to look like.

And THIS is what I will settle for.

And it’s on SALE! I came this close to buying it, but then I remembered how redneck and charming our current set up is, and I refrained.

Third on the list? STEAK.

I'm serious. 

ILOVESTEAK.

Yeah, I googled filet mignon. That happened.

And then, NEW SHOES.

Because my shins are starting to hurt which means my Mizuno’s are PISSED they haven’t been retired yet, but I’m poor so I force those bastards to work until their last dying day. So yeah, that completes my list. For now. Probably.

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Mmmk. Back to real life now.

Running streak is still going strong. Well, I might be lying about the strong part. But it's going. 

Yesterday morning was a 530am track workouts with the non-serial killer. 1.5 mile warmup and cool down with 7x200m squeezed in between.

It's been three weeks since we started and we've gotten progressively faster every week, and THAT makes me really really happy. 

And then this afternoon I squeezed in an outrageously hot 2 mile run through some neighborhood hills. 

Not gonna lie, it SUCKEDDD. That was mostly my fault, for waiting until noon to run. But today I am super thankful for the way running makes me feel. It clears my head and lets me hit the reset button, even if it's just for 17 minutes and 23 seconds. #SAPPY

Then there was dinner. Oh, dinner. 

(This is actually last night's dinner but I forgot to take a picture of tonight's so WHOOPS. My bad. Brown sugar bacon pork chops with corn and broccoli for the win!)

After dinner, I whipped up THIS homemade 5-minute strawberry frozen yogurt from Just a Taste. 

It totally hit the spot. I really love when I stumble upon a recipe, and I have all the necessary ingredients sitting in my fridge already. (Cause we all know that if I have to leave the house to go to the store, I'm going to come back with a $200 Target receipt, a Walking Dead board game,  peanut butter Pop-Tarts, a push-pop, and a guilty face.)

And now I'm here on the couch, enjoying fro-yo and watching Mud with my husband, celebrating the fact that tomorrow is Friday.

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat

PS: If you aren't already, follow me on BlogLovin! 

Wedding Dresses, Half Marathons, and MORE Miley Cyrus

In case you can't tell, life has been kindove a whirlwind since the whole "HOLY CRAP WE ARE ENGAGED" thing. It's only been 11 days since the proposal (seriously?!) and already I'm counting down the days until we are Mr & Mrs. I don't know how you engaged people ever get anything done because my brain is swimming with wedding related thoughts all day long. Yep. I am that girl. I can't tell you the last time I googled something non-wedding related. Except for this morning when I googled "Miley Cyrus VMAs."

Now y'all know how I feel about Miley. First off, I truly don't understand what is up with her tongue. WHY. Just WHY? PUT THAT THING AWAY. I am not even comfortable posting a picture of her performance because Y'ALL - I have never been so dumbfounded in my life. And I am a person who embraces all things awkward. But really. I just. Really. There are no words.

Anyways. Let me catch you up on wedding related things.

• We have a date! April 25, 2014 (AKA the perfect day)
• We have a venue! The night we got engaged I just started googling venues in the area, found one I liked, ran it by Taylor, went and toured it out two days later, liked it, and booked it! Turns out I am a very speedy and decisive bride.
• I bought a dress! Here's the story on that...

My best friend and Maid of Honor (Allison) is moving to Oregon in January, and she will be there for a year. With my schedule, her schedule, my mom's schedule, and the fact that we are only having an 8 month engagement, it was decided that the best time for wedding dress shopping was ASAP. Meaning Saturday. So that morning I woke up to this :)

 

So me, my mom, Taylor's mom, and Allison all headed over to the first appointment. 

I tried on less than 10 dresses at a local small business and decided on a GORGEOUS dress that fits me like a glove. I kid you not, it's like it was made for me. I got a spectacular deal, paid cash on the spot for it and walked out the door wedding dress in hand!

  

Ahhh!!!!

People always talk about how stressful and crazy wedding planning is, but let me tell you from my eleven days of expertise, it is SO easy! Kidding. I'm sure it will get harder. But for now it is crazy fun. After finding the PERFECT dress we went to a fun girl's breakfast, talked wedding stuff, and then went our separate ways. I went back home to Taylor and proceeded to squeal with excitement for the ENTIRE rest of the day. I feel like I have a huge giant secret and it just might kill me, and somehow I'm supposed to make it all the way to April 25 without showing every living person pictures of my dress. I'm not so sure I will make it. 

That afternoon we headed out to Dallas to meet up with my friend and former college roomie, Alli. We headed to Time Ten Cellars (favorite!) for wine tasting and chocolate and then over to Gin Mill for a follow up beer. 

 

That wasn't quite enough calories for us, so we headed over to Chuy's for dinner where Allison made her second appearance of the day.

The rest of the night was spent dancing, singing, and staying up wayyy too late. 

The next morning I was up bright and early at 5:45 for The Hottest Half Marathon.

My trusty BFF/paparazzi was there to document the absolute hell that was this race, so I'm going to wait until for those pictures before I do the official race recap, but let me just say - OW.

If you are wondering who the creepy guy with the mustache is - that's Tyler, my racing buddy who ran the Cowtown Half with me in February. 

    After the race, a serious shower, and nap, I headed to meet my family for a goodbye dinner for my little brother who is leaving for college TOMORROW. Holy crap where did the time go?!?!!? Since I ran 13.1 miles that morning and burned what I'm guessing was 42 million calories I had THIS for dinner. And licked my plate clean.

After dinner, laughing, and lots of pics, I got home to see this, which of course made me cry.

Love that little boy/GIANT grown man SO much!

Life is such a crazy whirlwind of fun these days! Happy Monday!

LOVE&HUGS,

Nat