Thanksgiving ... TIME FOR PIE. Which I'll run off with strangers.

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

I love how I'm 29 but my parents still have to document whenever I'm cooking.
Making Artichoke Spinach Dip Stuffed Mushrooms. Recipe.

Yup, I'm a dork.

The mushrooms were a hit. Also, any leftover filling is good (uncooked) with tortilla chips.

The place cards were turkeys made from my niece's handprint. They also had magnets on the back.
Also my sister-in-law is only a few craft projects away from being the next Martha Stewart.

My brother Mark (one of the hosts) is ready to get down to business.

Cuddling with my niece after dinner.
Her shirt said "Everyone is Thankful for ME!"
As the only grandchild and niece or nephew in our immediate family, yes, that is very true.

Triple-layer chocolate cake, pumpkin pie!!!!! and wildberry pie

The Sailor made triple-layer chocolate cake from scratch. His best one yet! :)

"She's part Texan."

This morning, instead of shopping (I never shop on Black Friday anyway, unless it's at a resale store), I got up early and met up with some other lady runners for a 9.5 mile run at Waterfall Glen. FINALLY. I keep hearing about Waterfall Glen, I'm glad I finally had a chance to check it out. It was a nice trail, although some parts had zero shade - something to keep in mind when summer rolls back around. Also FINALLY in the sense that I FINALLY dragged my lazy butt out of bed early on a day off to meet up with a group for a run. And even though we were running for 97 minutes, it went really fast! And not just because we ran faster than I would have if I were running alone.

Post-run photo taken on Amanda's phone by super fast dude in short shorts.
But they are always in short shorts. Source: TooTallFritz.com.

Of course our group was one-third blogger. In the white shirt is Amanda, and Kelly is in the front, second from right. And I'm in the blue top/navy blue jacket.

And as if that wasn't enough, I went to a 1.5 hour Tribal Belly Dance workshop tonight. Actually, it felt good. I guess there is something to "cross training" and using different muscles. Maybe tomorrow I'll even go to the gym and swim a few laps! My legs could use a break.

How did you spend your Black Friday? 

P.S. I'm still accepting donations for my Active Bands giveaway :)

Happy Thanksgiving! That for which I am thankful and unthankful.

This year, I'm thankful for:
The usual: a job, a roof over my head, a loving husband, my health, good friends, etc.

But I'm also thankful for silly little things. Like this one in particular:

Related: I am also thankful for snuggies.

And this little thing:

My niece. Such a little ham.

I'm thankful for Christmas lights!! Seriously. Wish I could leave them up all year. They make everything look happier: 

An old picture. We moved out of this apartment in 2010.

I'm thankful for the internet. Seriously. Can we just stop and reflect on the greatness that is the world wide web? Because stuff like this exists, and has been viewed over 49 million times. 

Scratch that, that is not why the internet is awesome. It's awesome because it's connecting me with other local runners and hopefully I can stop forcing my husband to run so many races with me. It is also awesome because I could buy a new power adapter for my laptop for $25 less and without making a trip to the Apple store. It's awesome because I've raised $40 so far for the American Cancer Society just through this blog. Want to help me raise more?

OK! Enough with the happy.

I am unthankful for:

Terrible skin. Seriously. I look like I'm 16, not 29.

My car. I guess it could be worse, but so far this year I've spent probably over $1,000 in repairs on that car. Including replacing a less-than-one-year-old alternator and tire.

Reality TV. All the yelling. Stop yelling! And stop giving shows to people who don't actually DO anything.

The "Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays" people. I don't usually get "political" on here, but is Christmas not a holiday? Someone is offering you a friendly greeting, and you are offended?

People who train less but run faster than me. Seriously. I hate reading the "About Me" section on a running blog and they write about how they barely trained for their first half marathon and finished in 2:15.

What are you thankful and unthankful for? 

P.S. Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow morning! I'll be doing the Running For Kicks 4 Mile Turkey Trot with The Sailor, one of my BFFs and some of my other blogger friends (two of whom I've never met in person).   

Halloween

So I decided not to be Sailor Sweetie for Halloween. I wanted to wear a wig. So I was Velma Kelly, or some sort of classy 1920s jazzy flapper.



Anywho, I went to my lovely friend Teresa & Donovan's house for a Halloween party. We compared cameras.



And then Teresa and Donovan decided to take us into their basement .... to show us the "secret room" in the back of the basement, which turned out to be .... a racquetball court. I lucked out and snapped this photo:

Memorial Day

This morning I went to a Memorial Day parade in my town. It wasn't a traditional parade - it was just members of the VFW, with marching bands from the local junior high and high school marching to the local cemeteries in town (three along a stretch of a main road). I caught up with them at the second cemetery (about three-quarters of a mile from our apartment), and then followed down to the last (and largest) cemetery. During that ceremony, I cried a little bit, thinking about the sacrifices the hubs is making, and how proud I am of him.

Right after the ceremony ended, I really started to miss him. For some reason, looking at my cell phone hit me with the fact that he's not here. I don't know why. It's weird what things trigger those feelings. I started walking home, really missing him. I wish I had my buddy (that's what we call each other), and without him, I have to do everything alone. That's hard to think about right now. All the simple things we would do together - go to dinner, go to a movie, hang out with friends, or just sit at home together - I'm doing alone, missing him.


Memorial Day also always made me think of my Grandpa (Navy - WWII) and my Uncle (Army - Vietnam). I miss them both a lot. My Grandma was with Grandpa when he was off at WWII. I wish she were still alive so I could talk to her about it, and how she dealt with it. I couldn't imagine. I mean, we're apart right now, but I know the hubs is safe. I don't know how I would cope if he were to get deployed.