I Took My First Little Blue Pill Last Night...

This past weekend was full of more wedding festivities, that included a  Crawfish Boil Engagement Party in Lafayette! 

These are just a few pictures from my camera (my future father-in-law has many more on the way!) But a little synopsis....

Going into this party I was expecting your typical backyard boil, very low key and not all that big of a deal (to be honest)....Was I ever blown away by our hosts and hostesses! The Saloom's have a group of friends the "Supper Club" who wanted to throw the party for us, and the location was in the backyard of one of the families. Walking in, the backyard and deck was spectacular. The tables were decked in the red table cloth theme with such cute lamps and accessories, and the pool even had floating floral arrangements. Shown in the 2nd picture was the sign in table that had adorable hats and aprons for us to wear for the night (my hat had a veil while Adam's had a black bow). Now to explain the first picture...This boat was set up near the back of the yard and every time a certain song played during the night we had to stop whatever we were doing and run to the boat and "paddle" ourselves around the pool! We were the entertainment (comedy!) for the night but it was such a unique and cute idea, I really loved it and would use it when planning a party! 

Thank you so much to everyone who put in so much work, it was really perfect!

Now moving on to the title of this post....this is where my Mom is sitting reading this hoping and praying that the title means anything else than what she thinks it does, that I wouldn't actually write about something like that in a blog for the world to see. Sorry Mom.....

Its what it looks like....last night I began the great adventure of  Birth Control. Dun Dun Dunnnnn....

This shouldn't normally be a huge deal. There are a lot of women out there on birth control, but ....not all of those women are trying to run at the elite level getting paid to perform.

I have tried to do my research, I really have but that darn Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan just aren't open enough on their contraceptive methods! I jest. This was really a hard topic to research there are not books about what birth control works best for the elite distance runner or the trials and errors of what others have done in this particular field. There is the common side effect of weight gain, which could be detrimental to my poor bones, or the shot which even causes a loss of bone density! And the added hormones which have been known to make a woman, well a little crazy, and i'm sure Adam can vouch for the fact I don't need any "extra crazy" on my current crazy level :) There was the IUD option, which the Dr. quickly opted away from...which left me with hmmmm...one option. The Pill. 

I went with the Dr.'s recommendation of Lo Loestrin, which he assured me would 1) only have a weight gain of about 2 lbs (I figured I could live with that) and 2) would NOT make me crazy! (I was seriously asking everyone who came in my room if these were going to make me crazy, they probably thought it was too late for that! lol) 

So far I did not wake up today with any abnormalities, though I wasn't expecting to....We shall see the effects that this will have in the upcoming months and how Lo Loestrin affects the training of a distance athlete. 

Anyone have any running with birth control stories? 

Whos Wedding?

While I titled my article "Whos Wedding", I don't want to restrain myself to just wedding themes but instead open to the broader other milestones (actually just having babies, since that is what began this lengthy thought)....

Since Adam and I got engaged there has been this constant worry from whoever that would worry (ie. my Dad, future mother in law, unknown others) that the wedding will be my design and desires and reflect very little of what Adam has always "dreamed" for his wedding.
The planning of the wedding has actually been mostly my ideas and thoughts, only because my groom doesn't give a rip if there are decorations in the church or center pieces on the reception tables (much to my dismay!) And BELIEVE me his nonchalant attitude is not from being excluded in the wedding process, but an actual lack of caring about much more than 1) people there 2) food there.....

Throughout this process I have been constantly reminded that the wedding is half yours and half Adam's (never by Adam, i might add :) ), so everything you do needs to be a decision between the both of you and what you both want for YOUR day. Now, don't get me wrong I completely agree with this! And I have been trying my best to pull opinions out of Adam for the last year and a half, but.... At the same time I think back to 9th grade with Kelli at the lunch table.
We spent a good several weeks throughout our days planning out "Our Future Wedding". And it didn't end there, why is there always some type of wedding in chick flicks?  Why do women love going to weddings? Why did I already have the "white" theme of my wedding picked out long before I knew I was going to marry Adam? I have been planning this day for, if not my whole life, then in depthful thinking for the past 10 years! And people want to tell me I have to share everything with this guy (my love!) who still hasn't given our table decorations (or anything wedding related) a second thought...Whaaat?  Now how in the heck does that work?
This whole thought came to me today during my lunch break, I was checking facebook and innocently stumbled across a status asking a question about regular diapers vs. cloth diapers. I spent the rest of my lunch researching about cloth diapers (this wasn't my first time either).
Adam and I are NOT planning on having kids anytime soon, like seriously another 5 years down the road. But for some reason or another I am researching my very future babies diaper needs! And the thought occurred to me how similar this was to the "equal wedding clause". I have been pinning nursery room ideas, researching baby things when I get the itch, looking at baby clothes if we pass by with Mom, spending my lunch break researching diapers .....many many many years in advance.....and when the time comes i'm going to have to give a whole half of the decision making to Adam, despite the fact he will have never ever ever ever thought about which diapers would be best or spent years thinking about colors for the nursery.....
Hopefully Adam will care as little about the diaper choice as he does of if we use Hydrangeas or Roses ;)

Oh wait I have a Blog??

Hello Friends!

So this whole "blog thing" was very fun for the while last go round, but dealing with faulty internet at my Nacogdoches apartment, and a slow computer blogging quietly fell by the wayside.
I have thought about the blog over the last year and had every intention of starting up again after the wedding, but after reading (stalking) some beautiful blogs my motivation has been restored!

How can I describe briefly what has been going on.....running is always present, then there is this wedding that is (almost) 3 months away!
Recently Adam and I have been traveling and having many wonderful showers thrown by such sweet friends and family!

With Mom and my future Mother-in-Law

Ugh so blurry!

The wonderful hosts!

The sign out front for us

Such a sweet picture Ethan and Grandma

Some gambling going on here...

Our Casino party hosts

Waiting to bid on the gifts 

Just the beginning of all the wedding Hoopla to Come!

Two Weekends of California!

So to catch everyone up...
we have been in the very thick of track season!
All of my friends and family have been traveling almost every weekend it seems like to different track meets around Texas (and for me and a few others, and the country!)

So lets start waayy back at Easter weekend. That weekend was the first Stanford meet held at where else, Stanford (which is right down the road from San Francisco, I didn't know that before I went!).
I went to run the 5k, my second 5k of the season with hopes to bring my time down to the 16:30s!

The heat I was in went out very slow, and for my racing I generally like to run in the pack for a while and pass people as they start to tire. But that was not meant to happen that day, No sirree after several laps of 20 girls all bunched together and running slow times I couldn't take it anymore I made a out of character move for myself and took the lead trying to speed us up! The rest of the race went a lot better and I ended up 4th overall with a time of 16:35 (an 18 sec pr!).
We had two more guys from Team Green run the 800 and 1500, but after that we had the afternoon and night left to drive down and explore San Fran!

 

Driving Over the bridge!

I was seriously so excited!

View of Alcatraz from our picture spot

The city of San Francisco

Ryan, Me, and Chris (I think this was Chris' Idea lol)

We flew back on Easter Sunday so I got to eat my Easter Reese's egg that night driving home to Nac :)

This past weekend we were back in California but instead of San Fran we headed to a place called Walnut right outside of  L.A.! We were going to one of my most favorite meets the Mt. Sac meet! 

If you know me very well then you know for the past few years the Mt. Sac meet is the big meet we went to and its always so much fun for several reasons. 1) Obviously- Its in Cali and not only Cali but the L.A. area so you get to do things like fly into LAX (last year, not this year though) and have those experiences and 2) Its a very competitive meet where you get to watch some of the best in the nation and world compete! All around its always a pretty good time!

This year was no different than in the past, I came to race: the 10k. I was in the Olympic Development heat and excited about the goals I wanted to hit. 

The race in itself actually like the 5k at Stanford went out a little slow...correction: the 10k always goes out a little slow but this race stayed a bit slow. But unlike the 5k I knew that this was much longer of a race and I did not want to have to be the lead man.  So I made the decision during the race to stay with my pack of 3 even though we were going a bit slower than the times I was planning on going.

The race ended up shaking out where I got 4th (again lol) and had about a 40 sec pr from my last 10k!

A few picts from the trip...

The View from our hotel

Can't leave with out this picture :)

Caught up with the SFA team Friday 

The start of our recovery day camera run!

The perks of running the invite or the Olympic Development...you get your name on the bib. Oh yeah! 

Always a wonderful time in Cali!

   

Rice Meet and Hunger Games

Whew Tuesday is done with and the good part of the week begins (my one class is Tuesday nights so I generally am pretty glad when Tuesday night is done)

Recap of the weekend:
This past Friday night was the Victor Lopez Classic held at Rice University.
Adam and I drove down Friday afternoon, after his mile repeats.  The Rice meet is historically pretty good, the competition the weather, and its a meet I look forward to every year. (This could possibly be because I have done relatively well at them the past few years but hey who knows? lol)
[HiStOrY of my past rice meets]
2009- 17:57 (this was my first time to break 18)
2010- 17:34 (ish somewhere around there)
2011- 17:17
2012- 16:53
Thats right....i'm no longer a 17 min girl, as Coach Snelling would say :)
The race itself I was not incredibly happy about, I ended up getting second overall I wanted a little better and I believe I could have done better but I'll take a 25 second PR and go with it....at least until next weekend at Stanford.

After the meet my parents, Adam and I race over to a restaurant called Bucca di beppo, before it closes and have some fun at a spunky little Italian restaurant.

I don't think this picture really does it justice, but image this many pictures all over a maze of rooms throughout the restaurant. It was a lot of fun :)

The next morning/afternoon we headed back to Nac and on the way I started reading....The HUNGER GAMES. I officially finished it Monday and I am ready for the 2nd book and to see the movie 

Though most people have seen this already lets just post it for kicks anyways.....

 

Spring Break Rodeo with the Band Perry

Last week was so nice and relaxing, being home with family and friends. But this week has been the complete opposite, today has been the only day where there felt like a bit of lag time in the evening. So of course little time (or no time)  has been donated to blogging....

Last week though was so much fun....I started out the week in Lafayette with Adam, we went to a friend of the family's wedding and along the way had several wonderful crawfish dishes!  The next big event was the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with Robbie, Amanda, Kelli, Trey and the Graham Kiddos! We watched THE BAND PERRY and ate some rodeo food mmm

Before we left...I should get a tan or something!

Amanda and Brittany learning about dairy 

 Kelli and I talking to the cows 

We found a truck, and in turn a nice place to actually sit for a while :)

So I encountered several Louisianans over the break (my in-laws and my two future roomies) and I was so shocked to hear that they really didn't know what the rodeo was! When I told someone I was going to the rodeo they replied "which rodeo" I kind of laughed and replied "no, THE rodeo" 

The Band Perry was terrific!

Group picture afterwards with everyone

Later on in the week was dedicated to TEAM GREEN. In June I plan on moving to the woodlands so all Thursday and Friday was filled with apartment hunting with Marie, Kadi and Amy. 

                                       You have met Marie before through our other running adventures, and here are two  other additions to Team Green. Meet Kadi and Amy! These are my future roomies... were gonna have fun :)           

On Saturday we ran at the TSU Relays in Houston. We ran the 800 and 1500 with new personal PRs for me of 2:22 and 4:39 (I had never ran the 800 before so it was gonna be a PR either way).

Tomorrow I am headed down to Rice for meet 2 of the season, running the 5k tomorrow night!

Parmesan Chicken Bake, Focus Test

Some time last week I found (on Pinterest of course) a recipe that caught my eye and looked completely delicious!
The Image that caught my eyes:

Parmesan Chicken Bake!

Last night I decided to give it ago and I my taste buds were overjoyed with the result!  It was so simple to make, only taking about 10 minutes to put together and then after the oven viola! I cant wait to make this for my family over the break! (p.s. family I am making this for you over the break!) 

Here is the video from the website with easy step-by-step instructions....

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2008/02/end-of-chicken-parmesan-as-you-know-it.html

On more of a running note: 

Yesterdays work out was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :) 

I had my best mile repeat workout to date!

6x mile w/ 2:30 min recovery

Mile 1)5:27

2) 5:29

3) 5:26

4) 5:27

5) 5:23

6) 5:18

Getting ready for all of the races that will be starting soon!

After work yesterday Adam and I had a meeting with Deacon Gary to discuss the results of our focus test that we took the week before. 

[A focus test is a test given to to engaged couples by the church that asks about 200 questions over the many dimensions of relationships.]

It was so much fun answering the questions and wondering what Adam had put down, so we were excited to see what we had differed and agreed on!

Woo excited about focus test!

The cover of our test...

We scored high on our first section but our financial planning section was kind of low...but we knew that was going to happen since I marked uncertain on pretty much all of them lol. (come on were college kids how certain can you be on financial decisions right now!!) He said we would work on that one.....

We had a lot of fun with Deacon Gary, we got to talk about our wedding, kids, our family and our faith! I think this should be a test everyone needs to take, even if for married couples as a refresher!