Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Yup, that about sums it up. [Can that be considered a “summary”?!] I made the move to Orlando at the beginning of June, and let me tell you: Murphy’s Law has sucker punched me right in the jaw.

Since this stud decided to go traipse around Afghanistan, I did the move alone. [Well. Me and a couple of movers.]

Here’s how this story goes.

Katy moves to Orlando. During a tropical depression.

Katy leaves debit card in Jacksonville, FL at mother’s house, and realizes it at the gas station 2 hours away when her gas light is on.

Katy realizes she only has one washing machine hose.

Katy is told her dryer plug doesn’t fit the outlet.

Katy doesn’t get cell phone reception AT ALL in new home.

Katy replaces dryer plug all by herself and is ready to give herself a pat on the back and say “Boo-yah” to all her Facebook doubters… until she plugs it in and there is no electricity.

Katy says “Screw it” and goes to Disney World for the evening. Comes home to a working dryer. Disney cures everything. [Then gives herself a pat on the back and smugly looks at her Facebook wall.]

Katy’s internet stops working.

Katy’s dryer stops producing heat.

Katy says “screw it” and goes to Jacksonville for a week. Comes home and finds both still not working. Jacksonville doesn’t have the magical powers of Disney apparently.

Katy gets new kitten. First kitten hates new kitten. House is a war zone.

Okay, okay. Maybe this stuff is easily fixed [a few calls to various service desks and changing phone providers], and maybe it’s extremely obnoxious to refer to yourself in the third person while dramatically exclaiming how you have the hardest life EVAR, and maybe I should give the cats more than 18 hours together before I start crying over how my children [yes. my cats are my children.] hate each other, and now me as a result, but. But. BUT. That’s what grown-ups do, and does this look like someone who wants to be a grown-up??

P.S. I dyed my hair again.

Just kidding. All whining aside, the worst part is obviously being separated from my husband, the rest is just growing moving pains. Not to mention, like I told Shane… by the time he gets home, I’ll be a washer and dryer expert.

I did get a new kitten. She’s a baby [3 months old] and super rambunctious. I named her Cheshire because I love my Disney kitties. Bagheera hates her, but I love them both dearly so I hope they grow on each other soon. Wanna see her? Of course you do.

Sorry about the random pillows. My brother is obsessed with making her forts/beds.

Alright, I’m off. We’re doing a little trip to Disney tonight to catch the fireworks. Have a great day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Well I’ve been busy painting, traveling, watching my newest obsession (Downton Abbey!) and moving. A hurricane (I exaggerate!) hit my hometown last night, so it’s been quite a Memorial Day Weekend.

But even in all of that, I haven’t forgotten what this day means.

Never forget the sacrifices of the few to protect the many.

Shameless BFF Plug…. and Some Pictures

Two weeks until I move!

Needless to say, we’ve been pretty busy around the house, packing and cleaning and trying to enjoy what little time we have left in our pretty little beach-house. It’s a shame we won’t get to enjoy the summer here, though I am very excited to start our life in Orlando!

Here are a few glimpses into our lives via Instagram! (I am pretty obsessed right now, lol)

Shane brought me roses! It was a mixture of “Just Because” roses and “I’m sorry I went paintballing after work without you” roses. They made me laugh.

Going out to dinner for “Military Spouse Appreciation Day”. Hey, I’ll take whatever holiday I can to go out on a date with my hottie!

Actually enjoying the beach! We took off our rings to put sun lotion on, and I thought it made for a pretty picture. Don’t worry, we put them on quickly! Too much value (sentimental and financial!) to lose in the sand.

Modeling my very first homemade dress!! I am so proud I actually sewed a dress (with quite a bit of help from my friend Jess!), though I do think I’m going to put the hem up a tad shorter. Not “streetwalker” short, just to the top of my knees, I think.

No, I didn’t draw that. I’m not nearly talented enough to even come close to creating this (just ask my husband who is subjected to my Draw Something skills.) My best friend, Ellie H. drew this as Day 5 (best friend) in a “30 Day Drawing Challenge” and I’m obsessed with it. I think I should try and talk her into giving it to me….

You can check out her other stuff, I just love the stuffing out of her style.

Ellie's Website

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m off to work on packing some more! Have a great day!

Disney World Magic: Hollywood Studios/Animal Kingdom

Hey guys!

Taking a break from packing to share another vacation recap. On our second day in Orlando Shane and I went to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Those are the two smaller parks, so it’s easy to do the park hopper and knock them out in one day. This was perfect for us, because we had three days left on our park-hopper pass, so doubling up on one day ensured that we would be able to visit all parks.

Shane had never been to Animal Kingdom, and neither of us had been to Hollywood Studios, so we were pretty excited. We went to Hollywood Studios first, and headed straight for the Aerosmith Rocking Roller Coaster. I had heard all about this from my friends, so I was pretty pumped.

The line was super short and we pretty much walked right through. I really liked it, but I wanted to head to the one ride I had heard about since I was a child. Hello, Tower of Terror! I am absolutely in love with this ride, I even loved the line décor! It was so freaking cool!

I only wish we had gone on it more than once, since the ride changes, and you can have different endings! We didn’t know this, however so we continued exploring.

We checked out a few more rides, then headed out to catch a bus to the Animal Kingdom. We didn’t get too many photos there, but we still had a great time.

We rode the Expedition Everest, which has a fun twist, so it was great seeing Shane’s reaction to it! Then we did the rapids ride, which left us pretty wet! But the majority of this park we spent walking around perusing shops and trading pins! We love the Disney Trading Pins, and I was in search of a Bagheera pin, in honor of my kitten!

It was another wonderful day courtesy of Disney!

Okay, I seriously have to get my butt in gear, so I’ll be packing for the rest of the day. OH! I also finally got Instagram, so feel free to follow me! My username is Katefreak, Have a great day!

Video Break

 

Hey guys! I will continue with the vacation recaps later, I have a few things to do today, including Family Day on base with the Marine’s unit. Until then, check out this video I made for my bestie. See ya later!

 

Disney World Magic: Epcot

I love Disney so very much. Disney World in Orlando is one of my favorite places, and I know Shane feels the same way. He even proposed to me in front of Cinderella’s castle in 2010! Needless to say, we try to visit whenever we can.

This trip we managed to make it to all four of the major parks at WDW, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. [Magic Kingdom is my favorite, by the way.] Usually when we visit the parks we are with a larger group, but this time it was just the two of us, which was nice.

[We love going with a group, but sometimes it’s nice to do something with just the two of us!]

The first day we went to Epcot.

They are currently having their International Flower and Garden Expo, which is basically an explosion of gardens and topiaries all over the park. The Epcot website says there are more than 75 Disney character topiaries on location! We managed to snap a few photos with some!

Not to mention the Snow White + the Seven Dwarves and the Woody + Buzz photos from above. [Side note, I know a lot of people are mourning the loss of Picnik. Try out Ipiccy, it’s very similar.]

We had a wonderful day just walking through the World Showcase, riding rides, trading pins, and just enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

It was one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time. I love vacation!

Vacation Catch-Up

Howdy.

So, I’ve actually got a lot of things to blog lately, finally. [The past few months have been a blur of boring nothing happening, so I haven’t bored you all with blog fluff. That has changed!]

Starting with the most amazing vacation of my freaking life! My hottie husband is deploying to Afghanistan soon [For the record, I am not handling it well… but that’s a story for another day!] so we just spent the last two weeks on his pre-deployment leave. This included a trip to Kentucky for a wedding –> Pensacola to see my favorite roomie ever –> Jacksonville for Baby Bro’s birthday –> Orlando for Disney fun / apartment hunting / school applying –> Jacksonville for family / friends visiting –> Orlando for more school stuff –> Jacksonville for final goodbyes –> back to North Carolina.

Whew. That was a mouthful (and a whole bunch of driving!). I’m thoroughly exhausted and unbelievably happy. I’ll try to do a post on each evolution, but here’s the highlights!

+ I GOT ACCEPTED TO MY SCHOOL! Oh wow, I’m so excited. This not only gives me something to do [besides cry myself to sleep over a Ben + Jerry’s container] while the Marine is gone, but a means of gaining employment once we no longer have the security blanket of military paychecks! I’m starting the Aveda Institute of Orlando on June 28th!

Now I just have to buy lots ‘o black clothing. [I’m a Florida gal, I like bright colors! I own like one article of black!] Okay, to be honest I’ve already drug the Marine to all kinds of stores to stock up. Retail therapy, what?!

+ My wonderful friend Jess [also my savior from the depths of North Caroline loneliness!] got married! She was the most gorgeous bride [she can pull of retro better than a pin-up girl!] and it was such a beautiful, intimate wedding. So happy for the newlyweds!

+ Two of my oldest friends had their first child! [Full disclosure, I introduced them! Now THAT is a story, haha!] Izzy and Greg were high (and middle for her!) school sweethearts, and finally gave us a bebe to spoil! I might just steal this little angel. [Too creepy? Nah!]

+ Two words. DISNEY WORLD!

+ We got an apartment in Orlando. Now we just need to pack up our beach house. [I’m so sad I won’t get to spend the summer at the beach. Biggest downside to moving.]

That’s the cliffnotes. There are about a thousand little details, but I’m off to enjoy this drive [aka read my book.] Have a wonderful day!

Big News!

Hey guys!

Our little family is about to make some BIG changes.

[Not in the pitter/patter of little feet way. I promise this is not a pregnancy announcement!]

Shane and I have decided [after a whole lot of talking/soul searching/thinking/stressing] that he will not be re-enlisting in the USMC. He does plan on joining the Reserves, but will no longer be active duty.

We’re also moving. To Orlando. In June.

I plan on starting school and getting us established in a new city while he finishes up his contract. It’s a pretty huge step for us, but we’ve decided it’s the right one for our family. So, Orlando, here we come.

I’ve been researching apartments in the area, and I think I may have found the perfect one…

So! There it is, our big news. I’ll be sure to share updates on the process as they happen. Hopefully this goes smoothly, though… moving rarely does for me.

Have a great day, y’all!

My Experience With Mighty Mo’

Hey guys!

I was just looking through old photos, and it made me very nostalgic. I realized I’ve done some pretty cool things, especially during my military years. I figured I’d take a moment and share some of them with you guys. (in other words, I’m taking a trip down memory lane, and I guess I’ll invite you on the journey!)

I went underway with the USS Missouri. Twice. (Underway is a Naval term meaning a ship is no longer at port, or in layman’s terms: out to sea.) The USS Missouri (nicknamed “Mighty Mo”) is the USN battleship that is most famously known as the site of Japan’s surrender during WWII, and was the last battleship in the Navy to be decommissioned. It is now located at Pearl Harbor, and serves as a memorial museum.

Needless to say, since 1992 when Mighty Mo was decommissioned, it’s been pretty impossible to go “underway” on her. However, in 2009, the ship needed to transfer to dry-dock for repairs. Several units in Oahu were contacted asking for volunteers as line-handlers to help the historical ship cross the Harbor to the Naval dry-docks located at Naval Base Pearl Harbor. I immediately volunteered. This was, after all, a once twice (once for the journey into dry-dock, and once again for the return) in a lifetime opportunity!

So my best friend Ally and I got up long before the sun and made our way to the ship. Obviously I have issues with caking on makeup when getting ready that early….

We arrived at the USS Missouri, and had some time to meet up friends and chat for a few minutes before they broke us up into line handling groups and gave us instructions. (These were sorely needed, since the last time I had any line handling training was in boot camp, almost 5 years earlier!)

Once we were away from the pier, we were pretty much on our own to entertain ourselves. They had some of the museum tour guides on board, so we got a free tour (although the artifacts usually on display weren’t on the ship, for preservation reasons!). I had been to the USS Arizona memorial before, but never the USS Missouri. It was a beautiful day on the water, and even though the trip across the Harbor was quick (30-45 minutes if I recall correctly.) it was an amazing experience. Once we arrived at the dry dock, that’s when things went down hill.

It took about 8 hour (I think, though it may have been longer) for the ship to get settled into the dry-dock and for the water to be pumped out, and we couldn’t leave until it was finished. We were extremely unprepared for this, since we had only about 12 hours notice we were even doing this. (Literally, my supervisor had called me at home the night before!) We had no food, no drinks, nothing to sit on, no shade. There was a small portion of the inside of the ship we were allowed, but most of it was deemed off limits, since there was no electricity, and it was deemed a safety hazard. We did manage to entertain ourselves. Adapt and overcome, right?! ;)

They did send up some chips and bottled water from the pier at one point, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Basically, we all got a nice lesson in the Navy’s unofficial motto:

All in all, it was a fantastic experience that got this Sailor out from behind a computer screen and on a ship. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Luckily, it was only a few short weeks (or months…) until they were requesting volunteers again for the return home. I didn’t even hesitate before signing my name up! :)

St. Patrick’s Day Fun

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a fun (and safe!) St Patrick’s Day! Our friends invited Shane and I to go to the St. Patrick’s Day festival on the Emerald Isle yesterday morning. We originally had plans to stay home and clean the house, but those flew out the window. Next thing you know, we’re decked out in green and ready to go!

The festival was okay, lots of carnival-type food and local businesses who had set up shop. My biggest complaint was there were so many people packed into such a small space, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Honestly, I was just so glad to get outside and enjoy some beautiful weather! I even found this gem at one of the stands.

Yeah, I can’t wait to hang that sucker up! Lol. I was also on a mission to drink green beer this year, since I’ve never done that. Yes, I know it’s just food coloring in beer, that’s not the point! I’ve always wanted to, but every SPD since I’ve turned 21 I’ve either had duty, was working, or was deployed. So I decided this was the year. We went to a local bar/restaurant here on the island because our friend has been raving about its food since we moved here, and they had a bagpipe player.

The waitress comes and takes our drinks order, lo and behold, I guess it’s illegal here to put food coloring in beer, so no green beer. Boo. Oh well, Shane and I just ordered melon-tinis to get our festive on. I ended up drinking both of them, since he wasn’t a big fan. Our friend was right about the food, though. It was phenomenal! We plan on going back for one of their trivia nights.

We came home and relaxed the rest of the evening. All in all, a pretty great day! Today we’re cleaning the house and grocery shopping. I’m also going to squeeze in a run, I mean, how can you say no to this?!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Bitten

It’s official, I’ve been bitten by the obstacle race bug. (Also any race involving the undead!) I have two more races this year to sign up for (though neither are obstacle courses), the Zombie Buffet 5K and the Never Quit 5K.

The Zombie Buffet 5K is a road based 5K in downtown Jacksonville where you start at one location, the zombie horde starts at another, and then you meet in a contamination zone. You then try to escape the zombies from taking your life (another flag based event) and get this! If you are ‘killed’ early enough, you are able to go through a transformation and start chasing down survivors yourself! Ellie said it sounded like a big game of tag, lol. I think it sounds fantastic, so I’m definitely signing up for that.

The Never Quit Beach Fest 5K is a beach 5K on Jacksonville Beach that I did last year and had a blast. It’s an out and back course on the sand, and I’m going to try to PR with this race. My current PR is 28:59 (from Africa!), and I think I can beat that with training, especially since I live in the perfect location for beach run training! :)

Last year’s Never Quit Beach Fest

I am also going to try to incorporate some barefoot running training in, since running on the sand is perfect for my Vibram 5 Fingers! (Speaking of shoes, I need to go purchase some new running shoes, mine are done for!)

I want to do more obstacle races this year, but Shane and I decided that would be ‘our’ thing to do together, and he is deploying, so I don’t really want to do them without him. Not to be all sappy, but he’s also my best friend, so things are just not as fun without him anyway. Road races are totally ok, though. ;)

For next year, we’re looking into another Run For Your Lives (or two, hopefully they pull out more SE stops than just Atlanta, Florida would be ideal!), the Animal Kingdom obstacle race at WDW (missed being able to do this one by 2 weeks, boo.), a Warrior Dash, Swamp Romp, etc. All of these are obviously dependent on times/locations/$$$/where the USMC decides to move us next.

Well, I’m off to do some laundry and immerse myself in my new book. (I’ve so been slacking on reading lately! Too much reality tv/XBOX, not enough reading. This morning I started Delerium by Lauren Oliver… I foresee this being finished by tonight!

Run For Your Lives Race Recap Pt II

Hey guys! Time for the rest of the race recap for Run For Your Lives! I left off right as we were starting to run. I’m going to be honest here, the run gets kind of blurry in parts, so I’m going to remember it the best I can! We took off in a group and it felt like FOREVER until we hit our first zombies (which was probably a good thing, since I was more focused on the muddy ground than my surroundings!!) but in all reality it was probably only a tenth of a mile!

We came across some huge hay bales, and at first I just started to run beside them, but ran into a zombie, so I panicked and climbed up onto the hay bales! I t was crazy! We passed the hay bales and a few more zombies and re-grouped. We ran into another group of zombies (basically they were placed in a stagger on the trail) and we sprinted and twisted around them, all while trying to not fall on our faces! Shane and I got split up from Ellie and Ryan at this point, so we just kept going to the next obstacle.

Next we came up to two pools of water with huge logs going across them. You could climb over them, swim under them, or try to run on the mud between them. I ended up going over some, and between others, depending on where a zombie was placed. (I was trying to not go underwater…. little did I know.)

We made it through this, and regrouped with El and Ryan. Ellie had lost a flag by this point, but we were pretty much whole. Here is where it gets slightly fuzzy! We slowed down to basically a walk because the mud was so slick we were unable to move quickly without losing our footing. I lost my first flag RIGHT before the first water station and I was so disappointed! We stopped for a water break and by this time Ellie was infected!

We moved on, and right after the water station was another infected area, with about 10 zombies. The strategy was to run through in a group, and then scatter. Well, I started with a group, but one zombie was coming after me, so I doubled back and ended up with 5 zombies on one side, and five zombies on the other, and I was ALL ALONE. We all kind of stood there, and I let out a few expletives. Finally I decided to just sprint through, and while I was trying to evade a girl zombie, I fell.

I fell and busted my knee, and the girl walked up to me, knelt down (took a flag!) and asked if I was ok. I was trying to stand up, and I think I said yes, and started running again. The rest of the zombies made halfhearted attempts to capture me, but I think they just felt bad for me. I made it through with one flag left, and Shane was yelling “Are you ok?!” I wasn’t. My knee was busted up pretty badly, but I didn’t want to stop. So I kept going.

Next we came up to a very large puddle and Ellie kind of… face planted. Someone in our group shouted “You ok R2D2?!” (She was wearing a crocheted R2D2 beanie.) She was, and just jumped up and started running again (with much more grace than my fall, I might add!) and we were off again. We came to a rectangle pool of water about 3 ft deep we had to cross. That’s where I did my own face plant. I was expecting the depth of the pool, and kind of slipped/belly flopped into the pool. Whoops. It was like a shock to system because the water was SO. COLD. No zombies at this obstacle, but unfortunately there were some right before the second water station… and I became fully infected. So I made it right before the 2 mile mark.

By the time we got to the 2 mile mark my knee had swollen up to resemble an egg… but it wasn’t really hurting so much anymore. We did the rope ladder climb, this was the worst obstacle for me, because I’m not a big fan of heights and the rope was super muddy and slippery. So I took it a little slower than most, but made it through no problem.

The boys ended up running ahead since they needed to stay with the group to increase survival chances, but Ellie and I couldn’t run anymore. We came to a hill, and trying to climb the hill was an adventure. Think of it like this: take a Slip-N-Slide on a hill, cover it with dirt and KY Jelly and orange dye. Then try to run up it. That’s pretty much how slick this hill was. Even the zombies weren’t running after you, they just sort of reached. The mud was CRAZY!

Then we saw the lake. First thought in my head was: Alligators? Cottonmouths? It’s the Florida girl in me… what can I say! So I start to walk into the lake/pond/orange body of water and WHOOSH! Drop off into the coldest water I’ve ever been in. (Slight exaggeration, but that’s what it felt like at the time!) I lost my breath, and the only thing I could manage was a doggy paddle (and I’m a swimmer!!). Once I crawled out of the lake the first thing I said to Ellie was “There goes any idea of a polar plunge!”

Honestly though, I think the cold water shocked my system, because there was no pain for the rest of the race. We made it to the maze, which unfortunately some people before us had torn down part of it, so we didn’t get to experience it to it’s fullest, though Shane and Ryan did (they were pretty far ahead of us by now!). Major shout out to the zombie cat lady with the zombie cat! <3 <3

Then there was a wall to climb with a slide on the other side, landing in saw dust. Thankfully this was near the end, because sawdust and running do NOT go together! Major chafing! Then came the gauntlet. Basically a whole bunch of zombies. Ellie and booked it (or at least thought we did… Shane said he and Ryan were watching us, and we were walking. I think he’s crazy!) through them, and slid down the mudslide to the finish! Collected our medals and we were done. Here is a video (not mine!) I found on the RFYL Facebook page, it’s long, but it’s awesome!

[Just making sure you know, this is NOT my video, nor do I appear in it… though it might have been my wave, not sure. Here is the link to the video.]

Whew. I’m not done. <3

After collecting our medals there were showers provided, but alas, they ran out of water! So we just sucked it up, walked the very long and very cold walk back to the trucks  to change. We got some pictures first! Sorry I look like a total jackass, I swear I don’t have to pee, I was SO COLD, and honestly just wanted to change!

Ellie and Ryan!

Shane and I

Birthday girl!

We walked back to the Apocalypse Party hoping to find Iron E. Cummings and grab our free beer! We lucked out and ran right into him, he was super nice and totally cool about taking more than one photo! We forgot all about asking for autographs, not that we had anything for him to sign anyway!

Infected!!

Survivors!!

Totally off topic, but I now have met and taken photos with TWO cast members of The Walking Dead! The other was with Norman Reedus (who plays the character Darryl) when he and the cast of The Boondock Saints 2 came to Africa on a USO tour for the Troops. He (and the rest of the cast) were absolutely wonderful, BTW. Super friendly and said such wonderful things in support of the military.

Back to RFYL! We got our beer, grabbed some food, but honestly… we were ready to go. We had already ruined two sets of clothes and shoes, and I really wanted to shower and take care of my knee. They had medical services on site, of course, but it wasn’t that serious, I just am dramatic and have a low pain threshold, haha.

We took a few more photos, like with this zombie we found strolling around.

We headed back to the hotel and showered and honestly… went to sleep. We were exhausted. Such an amazing day, though. I can’t wait to do it again next year, and I really want to look into (and may have already done so…) more obstacle like races.

I HIGHLY recommend this race. It’s fun, messy, and totally worth the bruises. I’m off to eat some BRAINSSSS now.

PS we finished in 1:17 and were a part of the 1 pm wave!

Run For Your Lives Race Recap Pt. I

You know, I really thought I loved zombies before yesterday. Well, I can honestly say it’s nothing compared to how much I love zombies right now.

Before I get started on the race recap, let me throw a huge shout out to my best friend, Ellie. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUFF!!! I love you so much, now let’s go eat some BRAINS!!!!

Ellie is a Sith Lord and I’m an Eskimo. (There’s really no doubt as to who is the cooler one in this relationship. She wins by a [muddy, slippery, full of infected undead]landslide.)

In celebration of El’s birthday (and our love for anything zombie related) we (Ellie, her boyfriend Ryan, Shane, and myself) signed up fpr the Atlanta location of Run For Your Lives on March 3, 2012. It’s an oostacle ridden 5K with a very fun catch. Scattered throughout the course they have zombies who try to take your life!

Your ‘life’ is actually a flag belt with three flags on it, and if the manage to grab all three flags you are then considered infected. Finishing with even one of the three will label you a survivor. (I was under the impression there were separate finisher’s medals for survivors vs infected, but they were the same. No big deal of course, just an observation.)

We stayed at a hotel about 40 minutes away on Friday night, with plans to camp on site Saturday night. (Those plans did not workout, but more on that later!) Friday night a rather large Thunderstorm rolled through the area, but the weather on Saturday morning was not awful. It was overcast and raining slightly, but since we were expecting more thunderstorms, we didn’t think it would be too bad.

It was however chilly (only in the 50s so for a lot of people that’s not chilly at all… but it is for us, especially when it’s raining!) and I wasn’t expecting that (thank you early spring for giving me a false sense of warmth security!) so I didn’t pack any jackets for us. The only reason I even had my warm coat was because I wanted it as a cover during the drive and grabbed it last minute. (Thank God I did! Poor Shane didn’t have a jacket, so we shared it a lot!)

We were registered for the 1:00 pm wave, they recommended arriving around 2 hours early to allow for parking and packet pick-up. Parking was super fluid and easy, but I was worried about a snag when it came to packet pick-up. I had registered under my maiden name, and all of my identification has my married name on it!!

Luckily they were cool with it, as long as the name on my waiver matched my id. (No lawsuits from me!) Bag check was a super easy also, though I think that depended on what time you went there. There were super busy times and really big lulls. We got lucky! I did make the mistake of checking my camera as soon as we got there, though! So I have no pre-race photos at the actual event. Here is one from before we arrived though!

Don’t worry. I put that hair in a ponytail as soon as we arrived!

So we walked around and watched the waves before us go (they were in 30 minute increments) and the finishers cross the finish line (and slide down the mud slide!). Honestly, though, we were mostly trying to stay warm. The temps were in the 50’s, and it was raining and the wind was blowing pretty fierce. Also, both men didn’t have jackets. They may be from Washington, but that wind had some bite! We shared jackets as much as possible. Lucky for Shane, one of my favorite activities is snuggling that boy!

When it got closer to our heat time we made our way over to the starting corrals, which were broken up into three lines.

We decided to go with the Entrée because we had trained at a 10-11 minute mile pace. While we were waiting, we decided to use the mud as face paint. (Yeah it’s probably gross, but we ended up with it all over our faces anyway!) I wish we could have gotten pictures of our face paint, but mine was hand print on the lower half of my face, Ellie had claw marks on her cheeks, and Ryan had his entire left side of his face painted. Shane opted to remain clean for as long as possible.

When it was finally time to line up, we started to walk down the tunnels, or tried to at least!! The mud was so sticky that our shoes created a vacuum with every step, so we fought every single step we took! I was wondering how on Earth we would be able to run when we couldn’t even walk!

I just want to take a second to point out that Iron E. Singleton who plays the character T. Dogg on the television show The Walking Dead was at this event. We lucked out, and he actually came over to us and opened the corral gates for us! I absolutely love that show, and it was such a trip to have that happen! Once he pulled back the gate and said to “Run For Your Lives!!!” we were off.

I’m going to take a breather there, because this is a long post already and I don’t want it to become a tl;dr. I’ll finish up with the race recap tomorrow, and I promise it won’t be more than that. It was only a 5K after all!

Back to Normal Life

So glad to be back home with my husband and my little kitten love monster! I love being home in Florida, but there is no question in my head that I belong with them, even if it is stuck up here in boring old North Carolina. Did I mention this is the view from my sewing XBOX room?!

   Not too shabby, huh? :) I would complain about the power lines… but I like electricity.

Yesterday my mancat got off work early (like 7 am early…) so we got to spend the day together. We did what any newlywed couple in the throes of the honeymoon stage does on work-free day after being separated for a week.

We cleaned the house and did about 18 (exaggerating slightly) loads of laundry. Welcome to marriage… :)

I also started P90X Insanity last night. I did the fit test, and let me tell you… I am so out of shape it ridiculous. I’m determined to finish it, though, and told Shane to nag me about it. He’s great at nagging supporting me. :)

Well I’m off to do more cleaning (cleaning out the DVR totally counts!) and lick my wounds before kicking my ass at more Insanity tonight. I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Taking Pictures

We had the most beautiful weather yesterday. The majority of the day was 79 degrees and cloudy, with a pleasant breeze blowing. So I spent a good part of the afternoon outside with my mom and brother, a few guests, and the cat and dog.

Meet Sunni. He was an abused runaway cat that my brother noticed on the property years ago (he was like 4 or 5). My mom started leaving a little bit of food out for this mangy, skinny cat, so he stuck around. Eventually he became very approachable and integrated himself into the household. Now he is a complete part of the household, complete with shots and (hated!) visits to the vet. He’s a spitfire, though and will bite or claw you if he feels you are out of line, as he likes to be the one in charge.

Now here’s Tebow. Tebow was adopted from the pound (my mom asked them to contact her if they ever got a golden retriever, and they did almost immediately), but he has health problems, so we are trying to get him healthy again. He is the sweetest dog, though he does smell… Haha.

Tebow and Sunni get along great, except when my brother gets in the middle, then Sunni gets mad. (No people or animals were hurt during this shoot!)

I had a nice afternoon taking pictures of the boys and the animals. I just got my DSLR camera for Christmas, and I’m still learning how to make pretty pictures. Here are some of the ones I took.

 

I think they came out pretty nice, but I’m kind of (read: completely) an amateur, so who knows.

In other news, my mom scratched herself on a rusty wire yesterday hard enough to draw blood, so she called the doctor to ask if she had outgrown her need for a tetnis shot. She’s so silly. Of course, the doctor said no, and she had to go get one today. She is a trip, and has made a big fuss out of a shot, because she’s not a fan of needles. Happy Birthday, to her right?! Lol.

Well, I’m off for the day. Tomorrow we’re going out for a girl’s day, so that should be fun! Have a great weekend everybody!