Let Me Save You the Trouble

So, this morning as I was getting ready for work nothing sounded good for breakfast. Seriously, nothing. So I forced myself to eat some almonds and I decided that I would buy one of those bottled smoothie things from the cafeteria. And then I remember that I was working out of a different office today, and it turns out that they didn't have a cafeteria, but the did have a vending machine with Muscle Milk brand protein shakes in it, and I figured it was better than nothing.

I was wrong. Nothing would have almost certainly been better. It was the single most disgusting thing I have ever chugged down in my life. It was cloyingly sweet and tasted totally artificial (unsurprising, since The bottle label is like "Muscle Milk. Contains no milk"). And, even worse was the after taste which lasted for HOURS. It wasn't until well after lunch that the after taste truly went away. So, do yourself a favor and just say no.

White Wedding

I'm not really sure where the first half of November has gone, but some of it went to a quick trip to Utah for my brother's wedding, which was pretty fun and a nice break from the death by training that's been going on at work. I flew out last week Thursday. And let's talk about this for a minute. Through Thursday of last week Utah had been having absolutely gorgeous weather. And Virginia had been having really, really cold weather. This is what happened starting Friday morning:

It was snowy and cold pretty much the whole time I was in Utah. Wanna know what the weather was like in Virginia while I was in Utah? Gorgeous. Wanna know what the weather was like when I came back? Cold. Cold, cold, cold. I swear Winter is messing with me.

ANYWAY, so I went to Utah for my brother's wedding. Friday was a lot of getting ready for the wedding, but before that, I stole Loo and we went to visit one of my dear friends who I hadn't seen in years and years. She's got an adorable little family now, and a busy and awesome sounding life, and it was a delight to spend some time with her catching up.

Then Loo and I did a quick spot of shopping during which I somehow got conned into buying more sweaters than I set out too, and we bought the happy couple a sausage and cheese basket, because it seemed somehow appropriate.

On Friday night there was a pizza party for the families, because, well, none of us had ever met Bearded Brother's fiancee before. So we ate and laughed and then we played Two Truths and a Lie and laughed even more. There were a lot of people, because, big families, but it was fun, and Bearded Brother and Fiancee seemed happy.

And then it was the wedding on Saturday. Which was lovely. Here are some pictures.

 

Saturday after the wedding we put my Aunt's house back together and then pretty much just chilled for the rest of the evening, which was really nice after all the work of the wedding. When I get married, I'm going to pay someone else to do all of it. Seriously.

On Sunday I got to spend the whole day with Momma Bear and the kiddos! Their sacrament meeting (worship service) was put on by the children and it was adorable. And then we spent the rest of the day chilling at home. The kids showed off their sweet dance moves and we had yummy food, and caught up on life and stuff and it was super fun. The Bear family is pretty cute:

Getting home on Monday was kind of an ordeal. I spent a lot of time trying to find someone to pick me up from the airport, to no avail, and eventually decided that I would just take a cab, which in the end turned out to be a good choice because I landed about two hours later than anticipated. I'm usually okay with delays because, meh, they happen, but these seemed particularly ordealish, probably because I was rushing from one plane to the next, and so grabbed a really, really disappointing sandwich to eat since I was super hungry and thought I was pressed for time. And also because a good hour of the delay was spent in the airplane on the runway. Nothing worse than that "so close, and yet so far" feeling while being squished in a puddle hopper. But, I made it home and back to more training. Whee!

Anyway, welcome to the family to my brother's new wife. I'll come up with an adorable blog moniker for you eventually!

Morning Run

In The Battle of the Morning Run, sometimes I win, and sometimes the hills win.

Today, victory goes to the hills.

Today I...

...got up really early to make it into DC to run in the AIDS Walk 5K. I don't know what my official time was, nor could I even give you a best guess, but I'm betting it was a personal best because after mile two I decided that I needed to pass anyone I could see who was wearing pink, which kept me running strong through the end of the race.

...hurried back home to meet my visiting teachers at La Madeleine for lunch. That was yummy and fun!

...took my insurance payment (that FINALLY arrived) and paid off the balance on my car loan. I am once again consumer debt free.

...went to Target. It still sometimes blows my mind a little that I can just go to Target whenever I want.

...made a tutu and a witches hat for the costume I planned to wear to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...checked the oil in my car, filled it up with gas, cleaned out the accumulated junk of the past two months, and vacuumed the interior.

...whipped up a batch of rice crispy treats.

...went to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...wrote this blog post, and then took my exhausted self to bed.

I Rocked That

Here are some things that I've totally rocked lately:

• Ran the whole 3.6 mile loop that I've been doing. I'd gotten the first three down, but either direction I run, that last .6 is all uphill and it was killing me. On Monday, though, I totally rocked that run and could have gone further had time permitted.
  
• Two weeks of daily journal writing. Some of you are stellar journalers. I am not. But I totally rocked that journal writing these last two weeks and made an entry every day.
  
• Deep cleaned the house. I was just going to do a "presentable for guests" job on Saturday and then I rocked that cleaning job and my house is STILL sparkling.

Here are the things I'm planning to rock in the future

• The splits. I've been taking a ballet class and will probably add in some yoga, and hopefully in a few or several months, I'm totally going to rock the splits.

• The hymnbook. This week marks the start of Project Hymn Book -- I'm going to start with hymn number one and spend 20 or 30 minutes a day practicing until I know it, and then move on to hymn number two until I get through the whole book. This is obviously going to take more than a year, but I'm going to rock that hymn book.

Good Things

I don't love being cold but I do love pretty Autumn trees.

And getting cozified with piles of blankets.

Also, I found a replacement for Big John's. It's nice to have a regular place again.

I don't actually love these shoes, but I'm muchly enjoying my ballet class.

And I'm enjoying being one of those active people and having a running trail right out the back door.

Stylin'

I know that many of you look to me for all your fashion guidance, so as a service to you, I thought we could take a minute today and appreciate the awesomeness of my running outfit lately. Behold:

I think you'll agree that this is the most amazing running attire you've seen in a while. You're dazzled by the bold choice of color and delighted by how great those sweats fit. You wish that you had a sweet cloche to get your hair tufts to flare out like that. You're thinking, never in the history of all my days have I seen so fabulous a running outfit. (And/or one you're making emergency call to the fashion police right this minute.)

You're welcome.