After working all week long like a crazy person and being completely out of my mind, I haven’t had much time to breathe none the less watch the Royal Wedding, workout or blog. I did tivo it though, and you can bet Sunday night when I get home I’m watching it. Alas, I check my phone mid-day, tired, hungry, overwhelmed and I get these two texts from B.

“I saved the royal wedding for you if you wanted to watch it!”

“it makes me so excited for ours!”

source

Le sigh. Love, love, love. Now gotta make it through the weekend. Can’t wait to catch up on life and see this guy! Deep Breath, onward!

xoxo

Finally! I feel like I’m getting back into the fitness groove. I asked for some suggestions of keeping my running interesting a few posts ago and got some great suggestions. I think switching up my music, my route and going to the gym intermittently will definitely help keep things interesting. I had two amazing workouts on Friday and Saturday this weekend before going in a twice baked potato coma yesterday. I really have a great leg workout that I’m loving at the gym, and it includes a 1 mile run to the gym and a 2 mile run back. My legs are STILL sore from Friday! Saturday I did arms at the gym and it was a great workout, thankfully those are functioning better than my legs. I will have to recap those workouts that I’m doing because I feel like they are quick, easy and really push me. Besides working out this weekend Bryan took me to pick out my wedding band for my Easter present!

I’m going to just get a simple band that I can wear on my right hand and when I’m  not wearing my engagement ring I will wear it on my left hand. I am so excited but sad that I don’t get it until next February! Shea and I did a lot of spring cleaning this weekend, going through our closets, cleaning out stuff, cleaning parts of the house. It was nice to get a lot of stuff put away, and she even went through her closet and got rid of a lot of clothes, I was so proud of her. I love throwing things away, and she… does not! I also worked on this lovely little Easter decoration and hung it in our house.

It’s just a rainbow of paint chips cut out like little eggs! It brings some color into our house. Now I must take it down and save it for next year. I even got festive and dyed eggs. I seriously don’t remember the last time I dyed Easter eggs and I went big and splurged for the 2.99 egg kit instead of the 1.99 one and I love the vibrant colors.

And, now I have a new favorite thing to eat. Hardboiled eggs! I have never tried one before and I did this weekend, and it was amazing! Now I am obsessed! I don’t know why I haven’t tried one before but man they are delicious. We also took engagement pictures this Saturday and I’m DYING to see them! I don’t know if I can wait any longer! :) So overall a pretty productive weekend, minus my Angels getting SWEPT by the Red Sox! Heartbreaking! This week will be crazy at work with the OC Marathon but I’m excited to work another event. It makes me so happy to see everyone at the starting line and to know that everyone is embarking on a journey I’ve done before! It’s a great feeling.

Here’s to an awesome week!

xoxo

If I had a dollar for every time my mom told me, “I just thought the fabric was so cute!” I would be a millionaire. She always said that, I think partly to justify her spending so much time in fabric stores and money on fabric. My mom made beautiful quilts throughout the last ten years of her life, and had little quilting pals, and loved to spend hours and hours looking at fabrics, cutting, sewing, trying new patterns. I truly love the quilts she made for me, even though I was such a brat and only wanted ‘huge quilts’, because I didn’t see the point of a lap quilt. I have two king sized quilts, when looking back, realizing how much MORE sewing went into that to make it so huge… what was wrong with me!

When I went to college, she started sending me pillowcases so I would get mail at school, even though I was only 45 minutes away from home. I never knew how much I would cherish my quilts that she made me or the little trinkets she would send.  How they would become the solid memory of how much my mom cared for me, was proud of me and loved me. She used to make me pillow cases for all the holidays and for little things I loved. Flamingo pillow cases, chicken pillow cases, fast food pillow cases, sushi pillow cases, valentines pillow cases, Christmas pillow cases, I probably have 30. I remember when she made me this pillow case and I promised her when she gave it to me, over seven years ago, I wouldn’t use it until the time was right. I remember looking at it and thinking that time in my life when it would be right to use it was so far away, and I would probably never use it! I loved how she always tried to justify the random and fun pillow cases with the ‘I thought the fabric was just too cute!’ line, and she definitely did that with this special pillow case. Which I totally agree with, the fabric is ADORABLE!

I realized I still hadn’t taken it out last night. I don’t know why I didn’t, but it was almost like it made everything official, even though I have been engaged for over 2 months. I reached into the chest I have with stuff that reminds me of her and special things that she’s made for me and my brother, and I saw it, sitting on top of the chest and I knew it was finally time. I could finally use it. I took out the pillow case that I thought was the best one she’s ever made, the one that I haven’t ever used yet!

With little wedding cakes and a strip of pink hearts and rings all over the pillow case, I knew my mom was smiling down on me and reminding me that the fabric was just too cute to pass up!

I thought about this post for a while last night. A lot of time, planning a wedding without a mom is tough. It causes a lot of emotions to come to the surface that you didn’t think were there anymore. I am so lucky to have great figures in my life who take the time and make sure I feel extra special during the ‘mom’ moments. Most of the time I keep my posts pretty non-personal and running/fitness related, or try too, but I knew this would be a memory I wanted to keep written down somewhere. It’s those moments that make a difference. Thanks for thinking ahead Mom!

xoxo

So last year I was lucky enough to go to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for the first time, and this year I made it back there again for another great weekend reppin’ a city I love! Our company is in the same building as the Grand Prix and leading up to the event, it starts to get the hustle and bustle just like how we get come any of our events. Everyone is racing around and making trips back and forth downtown. It also is really cool to see the signage go up throughout the city and the grandstands and track being built leading up to the race. It’s pretty exhilarating to know that our city is involved in such a cool event, and that it brings so many neat things to Long Beach.

We started off the day grabbing some food from a concession stand. Now, those corn dogs were the SMALL corn dogs and they had already taken like two bites of them! Sheesh! But it was actually pretty tasty. We then wandered into the lifestyle expo and walked around there for a while. It’s so different to see a different Expo than the Long Beach ICB Marathon Expo in there, and it’s amazing how much set up goes into everything. We got some beads and random stuff in there and sat in a few cars. We also saw a sloth. That was pretty random. We had to stop by the Danica Patrick Merchandise booth as well, since I had to get a picture with my name!

Before we knew it, it was time to head outside for the start of the race! We had great seats and we were watching the cars warm up. Once they are on the track it seems so quick and the race started before we even knew it! One really amazing thing was the fly over that took place before the cars took off and right around the time the National Anthem was sung. It was SO loud and amazing to see them fly over so quickly. B was talking about that all day long! A really bad picture, but it was a really cool moment. Thank you to all those who serve!

Next up the cars were off. They started quickly and we didn’t even realize the race started. They zoomed by quite a few times. We watched for about 30 laps and then decided to walk around for a bit. Last year we stayed in our seats for the entire race, so we wanted to walk around and see what was out there! There was a lot of areas to walk by and we had a lot of fun seeing everything that everyone was offering. It was also nice to stop in a restaurant and see the TV’s that had it playing. It’s cool to see Long Beach from above!  It was cool to go down to the other side and see the turn and more of the track.

This is more close to the turn where the cars travel right in front of the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was a much more secluded area an there weren’t as many people there which was nice. There were even a few cars that crashed right out in front of us on the turn. That was pretty exciting. We got some margaritas and were just enjoying the over cast day and walking around and seeing more of the track. It was such a nice day out, even though I ended up getting fried on my shoulders. I should have known better! We finally stopped and watched the end of the race in Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was nice to be out of the sun for a bit and the place was serving up specials all day for the race.

I have no words for these two pictures! When we were walking around we found this cut out and took a picture in it and when we were just about to leave the boys found this train and got in? I don’t know know why they did that but then of course, I had to take a picture.

Here is more of the track, and where we were standing to watch the regular cars race after the Indy Cars raced. This race was much different than the Indy cards because it was all different cars racing and they were racing like maniacs! I couldn’t believe with how much abandon they drove. They were willing to crash and clip and take the corners so hard, it was great! Definitely a different feel than the Indy Cars. Overall, another great day in the LBC and I’m glad that the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is becoming a tradition! It’s so much fun just to head down there. Another great idea we had was to get dropped off and picked up, and it worked like a charm! No dealing with parking or traffic, and no one having to worry about being the DD. Again, like last year, it was easy to follow along and though Danica didn’t win, it was still a great race! I love the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach! It’s awesome to see my city come together for such a great event!

Great way to end off the weekend!

xoxo

So this past weekend, in lieu of working out at all, I was doing lots and lots of wedding activities. This weekend I’m going to make up for the non running by putting in some miles and I’m looking forward to running tomorrow morning as well. A lot of people have told me that I’m far ahead of schedule with planning, which is great. I also have to take into account that during the month of August, I’ll be in Europe for the month, and September – December are crazy, crazy times at work, so I won’t really be able to do anything at all during those months besides conceal the black circles under my eyes. Once January comes around, we’ll only be a little over a month away! So I know right now is prime time for me to keep chugging away with the planning. So this weekend some wedding activities included something that sounded like the most fun of all wedding planning, and included awesome food, the tasting! Since we are getting married in Camarillo, CA, we made the hour and fourty five minute drive out to Main Course CA‘s kitchen for the tasting. We were greeted with a huge Welcome Bryan and Danica sign and the table was set so cute! I was so excited. I have been working with Rachel from Main Course for a little over a month on the menu, which was all totally her doing and I was SO excited to actually get to meet her, and sit down and have a feast!

When we arrived, we sat down to a veggie tray and warm foccacia bread, which was the most amazing bread I’ve possibly ever had. Straight out of the oven, it was melting in our mouths. Everything that Main Course CA does is farm fresh and all their sauces are home made. What a difference that makes, their ranch, my favorite dipping sauce, was amazing and the butter for the breads was seriously something to write home about. Bryan loved the fact that everything was made there. He is the cook in our relationship and always is making his own sauces and food at the firehouse. It’s really bad at his station to ‘pick up sauce at the market’ and they think that all sauces must be hand made. This proves that they are a little crazy. After that we polished off the great veggie tray and bread basket, we had the three appetizers we are having passed at the cocktail reception.

I forgot to take a picture of this before I took a huge bite it but the cheese, the Kobe beef and the perfect amount of pickle. SOLD on the mini slider! I am a mini slider lover and always get them at many different places, but man, this one was Bryan’s dad’s favorite! It was so fresh and cooked to perfection.

The little fries in the willow cups had ketchup at the bottom and they were great. I really loved the presentation and how easy everything was to eat and carry. I always feel like I want to eat appetizers, but then it’s like where do you hold it and hold your drink and the napkin, it’s a lot going on. But these were perfect and the perfect amount of fries and crispiness!

But these, these were AMAZING! They are little mini corn dogs, with mustard and a little salsa, all made out of farm fresh ingredients. Now, I love a good corn dog, but this with a whole wheat bun was DELICIOUS! I didn’t realize what a difference it makes, but it did. These were Bryan’s favorites. He loved it all but he was raving about the corn dogs, and I was too! The little plates they come on are adorable and convenient.

They had an awesome sangria and served coke with our meal which is also going to be served at the reception and will be what the flowers are in on the tables! There was so much thought that went into the meal and the sangria was amazing. I am so over the moon with everything that Main Course has done.

Then it was onto the meal that will be served at the reception. Rachel and Allison took such great care of us, and it was just a delicious meal, we couldn’t stop eating.

Clockwise: We had the salad, which was really good and I even had a little bit. That’s saying a lot because I don’t eat salad. It had a light dressing and was almost like eating fresh veggies instead of a regular salad. Next we had an amazingly moist chicken with a tomato salsa on top of it. I was surprised how great the chicken was because a lot of time, the chicken can get dried out. Then there were the short ribs which melted in your mouth, the horseradish was the best I’ve had, and again, I don’t even like horseradish sauce. It was so sweet and had a hint of apple. Yum. Then we had my request, the macaroni and cheese, which was by far, some of the best mac and cheese I’ve had! It had the perfect crust and the tomatoes in it were so fresh and it was cooked perfectly and Parmesan cheese is a personal fave.  The grilled veggies captured the wood fire taste perfectly. Bryan’s dad compared them to veggies from a perfect BBQ and finally the fingerling potatoes with the tomato sauce were the perfect compliment to the meal! I was in food heaven, for sure! Throughout the entire meal we couldn’t stop talking about how great everything was and tried to pace ourselves for the icing on the cake, well pie!

We both don’t really like cake, so we opted for pie for our reception. It matches our vintage country look we are going for as well. It was gorgeous and the whipped cream was maybe the best thing I’ve tasted, ever! It was perfect and not overwhelming at all and totally matched the pie flavor. It was overall the best meal I’ve had in a long, long time. Rachel and Main Course totally outdid themselves and I am so excited for everyone to eat all of it at the wedding! Bryan’s parents were in love with the food and thought everything was great as well.

So I would say, the wedding tasting was a huge success! We are so excited to work with Main Course and know our food will be amazing at the wedding. I am so thankful for how hands on they are with me and how helpful they have been from the start. Rachel totally understands my vision and I’m so excited to have her team there for me on my wedding day!

xoxo