Three Things Thursday

1.  Summer has hit full force here in NH.  I feel like we just skipped spring and ran straight into summer!  It was a glorious weekend for running and biking and that's just what I did.  I cycled 13.6 miles on Saturday, ran 3.1 miles on Sunday, cycled 19.6 miles on Monday, and ran another 3.1 miles yesterday.  And through my travels over the weekend, I scored a new bike helmet and cyclying shirt.  I'll share pictures soon, I promise!

2.  Happy National Running Day!  Unfortunately I will not be out running today.  After four straight days of exercising and the weather being on the uncomfortable side, I'm taking today off.  Are you getting out there for a run?  Put in an extra mile for me!

3.  Did you enter my Allied Medal Display giveaway yet?  Because you should.  Your odds are pretty good so far!

Happy Thursday!

Three Things Thursday

1.  I got in an awesome run yesterday after work.  I was initially bumming because it was sunny all day and then it was cloudy when I got out of work.  Boo!  I set out anyway and we feeling pretty good.  At about mile 2 I ran into a snow squall.  At this point I passed a car that was about to turn into their driveway, but waited to let me pass.  I waved thanks and then noticed the man in the car behind the first car.  He was giving me a big thumbs up.  Totally love when strangers are so supportive.  That really helped my power through the rest of my run and it put a smile on my face.  By the end of mile 2 the sun was back out.  I did 3 miles total with negative splits.  Sweet!  I'm finally starting to feel 'normal' running again.

2.  Check out this awesome shirt my mom picked up for me:

Is that not perfect or what?  I've had to resist the urge to wear it on every run.

3.  My brother's hockey team made the playoffs and the first playoff game was last night.  It was late, but I went anyway because my brother is graduating this year.  It was the most exciting game of his I've ever been to.  It was close the whole game, each team scoring and playing hard.  Unfortunately, our team lost 4 to 6.  But I've been watching my brother play hockey since he was about 5 and it is amazing how different it is to watch.  When he started all the kids would go after the puck at the same time.  Last night's game was well played and it's a bummer they lost.  But I was proud of my brother and how hard he played.  Hopefully he can find a pick up league to play in to be able to keep playing.

Three Things Thursday - Holiday Edition

1.  Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  My blog has been hibernating for the holidays to spend time with my husband and our families.  We  had an awesome Christmas.  Santa brought me everything I wanted and my husband did the sweetest job filling my stocking and picking out a gift.  It really showed how thoughtful he is and how much he listens when I say that I like things.  I really am blessed!  The greatest gift was having Patrick in NH with me for five days and being able to relax and spend time together.  He is now safely back in ME while I continue working in NH.  I head back in another week or so.  What was the best gift you got?

2.  A Little Confession:  I am back with Weight Watchers.  My mother graciously gave me WW for Christmas.  For a year.  I'm really happy to be back because the past few months I have been eating crap and not working out.  While my schedule really was busy, I've made a lot of excuses and it's time to buckle down.  Personally, I need the accountability of something like WW to keep me on track.  I'm still adjusting to their new plan and with the holidays, I have not lost anything yet, but I'm looking forward to figuring out their new plan and sticking to it.

3.  This weekend I'm headed to Meredith, NH to spend New Year's with one of my friends.  We used to take turns visiting each other and spending the weekend, but this sort of began to fall by the wayside with our work schedules and my wedding.  I'm very excited to get away for a girls weekend.  My friend is really into making jewelry and so inevitably we spend the weekend crafting.  I love coming home with something new to wear!  I'll be sure to post pictures if we make anything.  However, I want to try to convince her to go to the outlets as well!  What are your plans for New Years Eve?

Stay tuned for my Year in Review Post!

Three Things Thursday

1.  In exactly one week I will have my life back.  And boy am I looking forward to that.  Finals exams will be over, papers and projects will be done.  I'll be heading back to NH for break to work and make some money (a definite plus).  I'll have some work to do on my thesis, but I won't have physical chemistry to distract me.

2.  We're having our holiday party tomorrow and I'm looking for relaxing and visiting with friends.  We have tons of food, so we're hope for a good turnout or we're going to have tons of leftovers.  I'm also thinking that a few cocktails are in order to celebrate the last day of classes.  Hooray.

3.  Our Christmas tree is up.  This is our first married Christmas so we wanted to do it right.  We wanted a real tree, but unfortunately we're not allowed to have a real one.  Fake is better than nothing!  Here's our tree:

Three Things Thursday

1.  Today is the last day to enter my Sof Sole Giveaway.  Your odds are pretty good at this point - so enter!  How can you not love free stuff?

2.  I was totally going to go for a run after I got back from grocery shopping, but then my friend called to tell me he was going to stop by.  I forgot to ask him what time he's coming by.  I would hate to be out running when he shows up.  I guess that means I'll definitely get out there tomorrow.

3.  We are heading home to NH this weekend for Columbus day.  My dad and my brother share the same birthday (on Monday) so we will be celebrating as well.  I'm looking forward to a bit of a break and having some time to catch up with family.  And maybe a stop at the outlets on the way, if Patrick will stop the car and let me out.

What's everyone else doing this weekend?

Three Things Thursday

1.  Shocker of all shockers: I just got back from a run!  It feels really nice to be back to running.  Although as a result of taking so much time off, I have to work on building up a base again.  It's really tempting to think that I can just go run three miles, but that's probably not the best option right now.  Baby steps!  I am really proud of myself for getting my workouts done in the AM to beat the heat.  I also prefer morning workouts because I feel pretty burnt out when I get home and the last thing I want to do is exercise.

2.  Patrick and I are officially moved in to our very own apartment.  While we lived together last year, this is the first time we are living by ourselves.  It's nice for a change.  I promise some pictures with in the next week or so.  It's really tiny, so don't get your hopes up too much!  :-)

3.  My semester has officially started as well.  I'm not really sure how I feel about it.  I think I'm just kind of over it.  I do need to write a thesis and that's making me nervous.  Mostly because right now I'm just not interested in doing it.  That may stem from the fact that I have no idea what my thesis is going to be about.  I know it will get done, I just need to find some direction and motivation.

Three Things Thursday

1. I won't leave you in suspense: my pro pics came in yesterday!!! I am so excited. My biggest fear with my wedding was that I wouldn't like my pictures, but I love them! There are so many great shots and some awesome candids. Now that I've got all those, I'm going to get a recap up. I only wanted you to have the very best. :-) I won't torture you too much and I'll share a couple of my favorites here:

My mom and I:

The whole bridal party:

With my girls:

And my favs of Patrick and I:

And, last but not least, my absolute favorite:

2.  I finally got my haircut.  I grew my hair out for the wedding, even though I knew I was going to wear it up.  So I guess I could have kept it shorter, but I'm glad I didn't.  It looked really nice for the wedding and now it is all gone!  I feel about 10 pounds lighter.  Here's a before pic (not the greatest, but I picked it to demonstrate the length of my hair):

And here I am fresh from the salon.  I really love it like this.  However, I'm a bit too lazy to do this all the time.

So here's how it looks most of the time.  My hair is naturally curly and I just assume let it do its thing.  Besides, I think this look is cute too.

2.  Did I show you the best wedding gift ever?  It's from my wonderful new husband.  Check it out:

I am soooo excited to have a Garmin.  I'm tempted to wear it everywhere, but I've been limiting myself to workouts only.  Having it definitely motivates me to get back into my exercise routine (and I need all the help I can get right now!).  Patrick got a new bike and we're dog-sitting this week in a neighborhood that is right next to a bike trail so we've been doing that.  Last night we went out after dinner when it was cooler and the trail was shadier.  It was a great ride and I'm loving having stats that are accurate.  I'm a number cruncher, so this thing is addicting.  Once I get back into a regular workout routine, I'm really hoping that the Garmin will help me have more productive and higher quality workouts.

Life is good!  :-)

Note:  All the wedding photos were taken by Amanda Perkins Photography.

Three Things Thursday

1.  I'm getting married in 9 days!!!  Are you sick of hearing about this yet?  Too bad.  I'm going to keep talking about it while I can.  I'm definitely starting to get more excited about it.  I think I've been hesitant to get too excited about the whole thing because I don't want to feel let down when the day comes.  But something tells me that no matter what happens, I won't be let down.  Besides, I've put way too much time and effort into this day for it to not meet my expectations.

And no, I'm not nervous.  I think about the things that could go wrong, but then I just don't think about it anymore.  I figure what's going to happen is going to happen, so why bother worrying about it?  I'm more nervous about being able to pay our bills after the wedding.  But I'm not worried about the wedding itself or our relationship.

2.  It's an official heat wave (over 90 degrees for 3 or more consecutive days) here.  I think we're on day 6 now.  I like summer and warm weather, but I'm ready for it to cool down just a little bit.  More than anything, it's the humidity that's killing us.  It zaps all my energy (read: lack of exercising) and make me want to consume copious amounts of ice cream.  You can imagine how that's working out.

3.  If I have to take another trip to Michael's (local craft store), I'm going to go nuts.  Usually, I love this store.  I like to scrapbook and crochet and stuff and that's were I get all my supplies.  But lately, all my trips there have been for the wedding.  And every time I think I'm done, I realize that I need just one more thing.  It's like a bad addiction.  I look forward to shopping there when this wedding is over and I can enjoy it again.

Three Things Thurdsday

Did you check out my giveaway yet?  No?  Well you should...

1.  I haven't exercised since Sunday.  Yesterday was National Running Day and I really wanted to get out there.  Well, I had told my family I would cook dinner and I ended up having to go to the grocery store instead.  So today I brought my running stuff with me to work and I plan on running home from here.  Luckily Patrick works at the same place so he can take the rest of my stuff home.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it's not raining when I get out of work.

2.  Tonight I'm meeting up with a friend for dinner.  I've actually known this person since I was in first grade.  I actually kind of find it impressive that we've stayed in touch all these years.  We really only get together in the summer so it will be nice to catch up and see what she's up to.

3.  We're starting to get more and more RSVPs for the wedding.  It's kind of fun to check the mailbox when I get home.  Although I must confess that I was a little relieved yesterday because we got a 'no.'  As much as I would love for everyone that we invited to come, it would be better, in terms of budget, if a few people said no.  While some people may find that a horrible thought, I think I'm not alone in thinking it.  There are just so many people that you have to invite, that by the time you get to add people that you want to invite, you're already over the limit.  And whoever says that "you don't have to invite people, it's your day" is lying.  There are definitely people you have to invite that maybe, deep down you don't want to.  Oh well, it will all work out.

Three Things Thursday

1.  Yesterday:
My mom and I waited until after dinner to go for a bike ride.  It was over 90 degrees here for the second day in a row and it was still pretty hot when we went out at 6:30.  It was good to get a ride in though because on Tuesday the heat totally zapped my motivations and I didn't exercise.  It could have been the same story yesterday, but I'm pleased to say that I got out there.  The only tough part is that when I go with my mom I have to remember to go slower so I don't leave her behind.  I'm used to cycling alone, so it's hard.  It can also be frustrating when you know you're going to stop for ice cream at the end and you just want to get there and she's dragging behind you.  See that, I'm so mean that I care more about ice cream than my own mother!

2.  Today:
This afternoon I have my second dress fitting.  My maid of honor is coming with me and we're going to hang out and grab a bite to eat after.  This is nice because at my first dress fitting I drove the 30 minutes to the shop only to put on the dress and take it off within 15 minutes.  It was kind of silly how short the appointment was.  I'm hoping I get back early enough so I can squeeze in a run after dinner.  We'll see what happens.  If not, I'll just have to do a couple extra laps around the mall.

3.  Tomorrow:
Tomorrow is Friday.  Which is so very welcome because it's a 3 day weekend!  My plans include sleeping, exercising, and generally sitting around and doing nothing.  Tomorrow Patrick returns home from a short trip to Maine that he had to take to finish up his student teaching.  I'll be very happy to see him.  And with any luck, I'll be able to get in a longer bike ride tomorrow.

Three Things Thursday - Triathlon Style

In honor of my triathlon this coming Sunday, I'm going to post an update on each of the three components.

1.  Swimming
So I came home to find out that my parents canceled the family gym membership at the local Y.  That would be where I swim.  So that's kind of a problem.  Fortunately, I was a swimmer in high school and the swim is my strong suit in the race.  Therefore, I'm not too worried about it for right now.  I think I'm going to look into a summer membership because I can't go the whole summer without swimming.

2.  Biking
I'm feeling pretty good about the bike.  I think I am in better shape than I thought I was.  Considering I'm only going to have two or three rides under my belt before Sunday, I'm not terribly worried about it.  I'm more worried about getting my water bottle in and out of my holder.  Although, at my last triathlon I drank a lot of water on the ride because that's what I read everywhere.  But once I got to the run I had to pee the whole time and it was kind of painful.  I think I'm going to take it a little easier on the water this time.

3.  Run
Yesterday my dad and I went for a run.  Mind you, I haven't really run in about a week.  Well, my dad really likes to try and "push" me to go faster.  It's like he's trying to train me.  It's actually kind of comical.  He stays just enough ahead of me so I have to chase after him.  Sometimes he slows down so I can catch up, but then as soon as I get there, he speeds up again.  We did a little over 3.5 miles at about a 10:30 pace.  I was pretty happy with that.  My goal is to keep my legs loose for Sunday.

Three Things Thursday

1.  The fire alarm went off at 3am this morning.  At first I thought it was the alarm going off on Patrick's phone, then I realized it wasn't.  Talk about freaking scary.  Poor Patrick had no clue what was going on and was flailing everywhere.  And I must say that it's really hard to see when you have this bright strobe light flashing through the darkness.  I'm not sure what set it off because there wasn't actually a fire (probably just someone cooking....at 3am).  Anyway, that is an experience I would not like to repeat.

2.  Patrick graduates on Saturday and that means packing up this apartment!  While I'm excited that we're heading back to NH for the summer, I am also not looking forward to the fact that I have to do a lot of this packing myself.  Patrick is still student teaching so he's gone all day and we've go to be out of here by 5pm on Friday.  That doesn't leave much time.  Yikes!

3. I'm starting to feel like once I get home I will be pulled in a million directions to do a million different things.  There's work, and triathlon training, wedding stuff, birthday parties, starting my thesis and appointments.  I hoping I still have some time for myself somewhere in there!

Happy Thursday!

Three Things Thursday

1.  So far I have been really good about staying focused on school, even with the wedding looming.  But now we have less than 3 months until the wedding and the invitations are probably going to go out in about a week and a half.  I'm just so much more excited for the wedding that I really could care less about schoolwork.  However, if I bust my butt, I have the potential to get a 4.0 this semester.  I've been really close a couple of times, but I'd actually like to do it this time.  I'm committing myself to this goal and I hope you all keep me accountable!

2.  All this school work does have me a little stressed out.  I'm trying hard to fit everything in and to stay sane.  Working out is one of my favorite ways to de-stress.  However, my alarm didn't go off yesterday and I ended up not getting a workout in and that let to crankiness all day.  Today, I'm planning on a longer run while the sun is still shining, before any thunderstorms roll in.  How do you de-stress?

3.  So in my Health High 5K recap yesterday, I mentioned the lady with a stroller a lot.  Well, turns out one of my readers knows this woman and sent me the link to her blog.  I guess it's a small world.  I sent her the link to my post.  I hope she gets a kick out of it.  I know I would!

Happy Thursday!

Three Things Thursday

1.  Patrick finally found a wedding band he likes!  Yay!  It has been a long search.  Too long.  He was surprisingly picky about it, but I was ok with that.  I felt he deserved to be picky about it and find something he really liked.  After all he did supply me with a beautiful engagement ring.  I felt the least I could so was make sure he had an equally handsome wedding band.  Here's a picture of it (sorry it's no the best):

2.  Tonight is the Symphonic Band concert.  Patrick is the principle saxophone player in the band.  And tonight it extra special.  Tonight is his last official concert in his undergraduate career.  I say official because Symphonic Band will go on tour next week and perform at a couple places around the state, but this is the last on-campus concert.  It is also special because Patrick won the solo competition and it the featured soloist this evening.  I'm just so proud of him.  I can't wait to hear his piece!  He is such a phenomenal player.

3.  Today, instead of working out, I had a lunch date with a friend.  Honestly, I don't hang out with my friends very often so it was a nice treat.  And really, most of my friends are people that Patrick had become friends with during his first year of school.  I don't really have a bunch of friends that I guess I would say are "exclusive" to me, if you get what I'm saying.  I definitely feel like I need more social time outside of just hanging with Patrick or my roommates.

Three Things Thursday

1.  The sun is finally back out here in Maine.  Hooray!  Originally I was going to make this week's Three Things Thursday about my pet peeves, but I'm in a much better mood now that the sun has returned.  I find that my mood it completely correlated to the weather.  Do you feel the same way?  I just think I need the vitamin D.

2.  Speaking of sun, Patrick and I booked our honeymoon to Cozumel, Mexico!  We have been going back and forth on this and we finally decided (after much research) to just do it.  We're staying at the Park Royal, which is an all inclusive resort for six nights.  We figured we'd have fun no matter what because we'll be together.  I'm a little nauseous just thinking about it because a) I'm so excited and b) I just dropped a ton of money all at once, which makes me slightly uncomfortable.  But then I look at the pictures and I get excited again.  Here are a few I stole borrowed for the Travelocity website:

3.  How could anything else on this list compare to that last one?  Other than the fact that my morning class was canceled today.  And really, I had the best intentions of getting some homework done, but instead I've sealed all the envelopes to my invitations and read blogs.  Oh well.  I was also going to try my new workout DVD, but both the Xbox and the PlayStation we have in this apartment are not working.  Go figure.  I'm trying to do a yoga DVD to relax and instead these machines won't read my disc which just makes me more aggravated.  I guess I'll have to go for a run later or maybe hit up a spinning class.

Three Things Thursay - Mail's Here!

One of my favorite things ever is mail!  I love sending it and I love getting it even more.  So I was really excited to come back after two weeks in NH to find my mailbox full of stuff and to have 3 packages waiting.  So today I'm going to share 3 of the cool things I got.

1.  Recently, Erica hosted an Inperspire towel giveaway and I won!  I love winning!  And here's the towel:

I've taken it to the gym already and it was by my side while I did my workout video.  It's nice and soft and I love the inspirational message.  There are other great towels.  You can find them here.

2.  Recently Genesis and her pal went to Vegas.  She had a contest of who could guess where she was going and I won that too!  The prize was a t-shirt from Vegas.  I love the color and can't wait to wear it in this beautiful spring weather we're having.  I have to wash it first though.

3.  And the final package I got contained some super nerdy mail.  I recently became a member of the American Chemical Society because we're reinstating our student chapter here in Maine.  And since I referred another member to ACS I got this sweet thank-you gift:

That's right.  I got a periodic table of elements throw blanket.  For those of you who didn't know, I'm a chemistry major.  I love nerdy things such as this blanket.  I even have spice jars that look like the periodic table of elements.  So if you ever see anything nerdy and think of me, please feel free to send it my way!

Three Things Thursday

1.  I'm back safe and sound from San Fransisco.  My mom and I had a great trip, but I'm happy to be home.  I took tons of pictures and I plan on getting them organized and doing a recap post on that.  I will say that we saw a TON of stuff in the four days that we were there!  We did a lot of driving around the city and just seeing what there is to see.  I would say that my favorite part was the trolley car ride!

2.  I have been getting a lot of wedding stuff done while I've been home over the last two weeks.  I'm glad I'm getting this stuff done now because it puts me in so much better a place when the end of my semester rolls around.  However, because I've been using my afternoons after work to do wedding stuff and visit family, I haven't had much time for exercise.  I'm looking forward to going back to Maine so I can get back into my exercise routine.

3.  While in San Fransisco, I discovered that I have seasonal allergies.  It was spring out there already and the whole time I was there I was sneezing and blowing my nose.  Now that I'm home, I'm fine.  However, wehn spring hits here, I think I'm going to need to start taking something.  Any good suggestions?  I've never had seasonal allergies before so I'm a bit at a loss as to what I should do.

Three Things Thursday

This seems to be pretty popular in blog land, so I'm going to give it a whirl!

1.  Today I feel like an 80 year old.  I found my first gray hair (yikes!) and my knee has been all tight and sore ever since the weather went crappy.  Never mind that Patrick and I already go to bed around 9pm.

2.  When you walk by someone on the street, is just a smile enough to acknowledge someone you know?  I say Hi to people when I pass by and no one ever says anything back.  I think it's kind of weird.  I'm just trying to be friendly.

3.  I only have one class tomorrow and then I'm headed home for break.  I'm really excited.  I plan on getting a bunch of wedding related things done.  And my mom are traveling to San Fransisco a week from today!  So many exciting things coming up!