This weekend I worked the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Expo, which was quite fun. I saw and met many people. Good stuff. Working expos isn’t that bad but it’s just long hours. But meeting people and talking to people is always fun.

So that was Friday and Saturday, all day long.

Thanks to Angry Julie for this awesome picture

Sunday, I wanted to try to redeem my running spirit and went out for a run. I knew I wanted to get at least 6 miles in but didn’t know how my body would hold up after being on my feet at the Expo. I finished with 10 and a smile on my face, which hasn’t happened in quite some time. Thankfully my body did great and I am not to sore except for my hip today, which has been happening on longer runs lately. I did run faster than normal and did actually enjoy the run for the first time in a while. I felt strong and happy. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining and I ran in a tank top!

I had a conversation with Tara last night about training and the upcoming Arkie Marathon. We both have seemingly been struggling with running it seems and though we both are committed to running the Full Marathon in Arkie, we both are not having a grand training sesh this time around. We both have been not having a problem running around 10 miles to 13 miles, and then the other miles just seem to intimidate us and we are both not even attempting to increase our mileage right now. So therefore we had a brilliant idea of running the first 13.1 miles, and then trading off from running and walking. I think it’s the “Galloway” method. So from miles 13 – the end of the race, we are going to walk a minute and run five minutes. We are both excited to run the race, spend time together and just hang out. What better way to spend time together, than suffering through a marathon together?

We discussed how we were both okay with this idea, and both are still committed to the full. Therefore that switches up my training a bit with keeping pretty consistent to running a long run (10-13 miles) on the weekend, and shorter runs during the week. We also talked about how we will have fun running the last half, and enjoy all Arkansas has to offer along the route! I mean, how many times will I ever be in Arkansas?

Also, this weekend, B’s brother left for New York! He was offered a job there and he moved away. It all happened so fast and it was so exciting and we had a little going away dinner with him this weekend.

So tonight it’s back to the gym for me. I have dilligently been tracking my food via the app that I found and am seeing some results. I know it takes time and the fact that small results are showing up is helpful in the motivation category. I also just feel better, so that’s good!

xoxo

So this is not related to running, but something that B recently created and I love it! And since today is a rest day, I thought I would share it with everyone. I showed him the idea of a Pallet Board Flag and then he was pretty excited about it and wanted to make one for the house. The inspiration ideas are here here and here

He started off collecting some Pallets and then took them apart and nailed some of the wood pieces from the front of the pallet and placed them on the ‘frame’ he constructed. He nailed them all down to the frame and even made one that was a little broken to make it look a little more ‘ragged’, like an actual flag. The boards he selected were all selected very specifically. He took apart three pallets to collect these few pieces.

Then he caculated what he needed to do to make the stripes and stars and how many he could fit on there. He penciled them all on the wood and then started painting. The hardest part, according to him, was painting the edges of all the stars. He is very good at calculating all these things, and made sure that everything he drew on there was straight and looked good. I don’t have patience like he does.

He finished painting it yesterday and I love the way it came out! He did such a good job with it.

We are going to hang it in our bedroom above our dresser, once we get our bedroom furniture set, which is hopefully in the near future. He has to add a few things to the back of the flag to hang it from, because it’s pretty heavy to have on the wall. I know if I really wanted to create this, I could have done it, so I know it’s a good project if anyone wants to try it. I will have to share a picture of our room, once it’s completed in a few months and the flag is hung! I love it, and it matches our mirror and pretty much entire home decor so well.

xoxo

So running has made me feel like this lately

A big fat MEH. I’ve REALLY struggled on my last few runs. I don’t know why. I just can’t get it to click, and if it does click, it’s the last mile, so I can’t decide if that is only happening because of my complete joy that my run is over. Most of the struggles have happened over long runs. Those 3-5 miles though, I’m doing much better on. Able to keep a much more consistent pace and not completely hating my time out there.

Anything over 5 though? I basically HATE it. I don’t get it. I know Arkie keeps getting closer with each passing day. I need to get through that, and this ‘training’ and then it’s onto different things. I look forward to changing it up. Lately I have been loving the gym, biking and I’m thinking a little baby tri is in my future. When I say baby tri, I mean short, short distance. Right now, long runs are really putting a damper on my running style and overall love for running, and I have come to the realization that I want to get faster, in shorter distances, like how I used to run. I love running short distances, and I love running fast.

I need to keep my head up and remember that even though my runs are not great… I’m still getting them done. I’m actually pretty proud of myself and the training I’ve been doing lately, even with the mehtastic feeling I am having towards running. It might not be fun or pretty, but it’s still happening and I’m not giving up.

So for now, I will contemplate buying this pillow…

It is what it is. Arkie is approaching. After Arkie new and exciting, different things are in my future. I’m struggling with running but it is what it is, and hopefully some good runs are on the horizon!

xoxo

This race already happened a week ago and I haven’t had the chance to post the recap. I got the entry off my friend Billy’s blog and his contest to win an entry. I honestly trained very poorly for this race. I should have been running more, but alas, I wasn’t and the only person to blame was myself. Oh well, I was still excited to get out there and run, with a medal at the end of the race waiting for me.

That morning I saw Billy and we tucked ourselves in the 2:00 group. The start line was small and I didn’t realize how small the race was. We took off and it was a pretty morning, the weather was nice and cool and Billy left me right around the 1.5 mile mark. I was cruising along quite slow and glad he left me. I didn’t want to keep him down with my slow pace.

This was actually the first race that B came to, longer than a 5k! Miles kept ticking by and I just was bored. I don’t know why but I felt like I was running so slow and I was just tired. Meh. I guess that is what not training does for you. Around half way, I saw B on the beach path and was super excited to see him! He snapped this picture of me running. :) I did have to go to the bathroom basically the entire race, but I held it becuase there were lines at every single one of the portapotties at each aid station.

Notice what a pretty morning it was! I LOVE airplanes and watching them fly, so it was a pretty fun course that ran right around LAX, which is chock full of airplanes taking off all morning. It was heaven watching them all go off and to hear them flying around. I loved that part for sure! I wore my Team RWB shirt and also my Team Sparkle Skirt and Race Legs! Loved the outfit :) I will be doing a Team Sparkle review this week as well :)

I did, for some reason, notice that there weren’t a lot of water stations, but it might just be me and running larger races and how I am used to water stations every mile. Meh, maybe I was just thirsty. Maybe I just wanted to drown my sorrows? Who knows.

The views were great. The course was a tad hilly and the hills came later in the race, when I was already cursing myself for not training. And when I say hilly, it’s mostly just up overpasses. I would say about 2-3 maybe 4 small baby hills. I probably am being a baby about it, but alas, my lack of training was pretty much making me hate life. I just couldn’t find the groove. So I walked, enjoyed the planes and even saw a ton of dolphins out swimming. Good times. I tried to point it out to another runner, and she seemed much less enthused about said dolphins.

Around mile 10 I basically wanted to give up. For some reason I just wasn’t mentally there. I couldn’t pull it out to keep running. I ran walked… and finally finished. It wasn’t my best or worst time but the fact that I couldn’t get my mind right was just odd to me, and bothered me. Oh well, the race is done and I got in 13 miles. I met up with a co-worker and B who were waiting for me at the finish line.

We went to the Tripel after, a great burger joint in Playa Vista. They were serving brunch and we partook in some of their awesome food. We had a golden monkey beer to celebrate.

YAY for B’s first race. Though it was not by any means a stellar performance on my part, but seeing two of my favorite people at the finish line made up for it! The big shiny medal was pretty cool too :)

The medal was really heavy and I like it a lot! It has a little spinny thing in it that says 13.1, which is pretty cool. At the finish line, I guess I missed the signs that said there was a festival area, because I just walked away and didn’t see anything. I guess it was around the corner and at a park? I don’t know how I missed this but alas, this was waiting for me at the Tripel… YUM

I ate half of it and it was awesome and everything I wanted after that race. It was a good race and a fun way to kick of the ‘racing’ season of 2012! Glad I got to run the event and score that awesome medal. I am disappointed with my time (2:15ish I think?) but alas, that’s what you get when you don’t put a lot into training. I attempted to run 16 miles last weekend and was squashed at 10 miles. My legs were just thrashed the entire run and I was so uncomfortable. I figured taking a week off of the long run would be okay and finished with 10. Shockingly enough, I feel so fresh now so I’m going to attempt the long run again this weekend. I have really been struggling with running lately. So many mediocre runs that I think Arkie will be my last full for some time. I truly am starting to get the itch to run faster, shorter distances, which I haven’t done in quite some time. We shall see after Arkie and how that goes!

xoxo

One of the main questions I got was HOW! How did you get on the show? Here’s how it happened.

We got engaged on February 2nd of 2011. My maid of honor, Shea, nominated us for the show, without me knowing the following day by going on wetv.com and sending in the audition information. They were casting at that time. Her and I were contacted two weeks later with a response that said if we were interested in being on the show, B and I needed to send in a no longer than 10 minute audition tape including all our wedding plans we had thus far, a ‘table’ of my stuff, just like you saw on our episode, what we were struggling with during planning, etc.  We also had to fill out an application which was about 10 pages long about both of us.

I sent that in the first week of March and literally thought nothing of it ever again. I never heard anything back, and we went on planning our wedding, looked at venues, spoke with catering companies, started crafting, booking things, etc. Had our engagement party in April. The first weekend of June, I got a call saying that we were picked to be on the show. I hadn’t heard from them for over three months. Things were a whirlwind after that. So, basically, it was all thanks to Shea, a million times over.

Heide asked “I would love more Deets on David… he seems fantastic and wondering how much you really got to interact with him!”

David is literally one of the nicest people I have ever met. He truly is that wonderful and fantastic and he is completely like the guy you see on TV. We taped three days for about 12 hours each day before the wedding and then of course, the wedding day which was about 18 hours of taping. You are with him all the time and you get to hang out and everything. The crew also exists for the show and I would say there are about 15 people with you at all times. On the wedding day there was a crew of about 30 people. That’s a LOT of people around you all the time, but it is fun. David is hilarious, kind and amazing. Same with the crew. Great people, so blessed throughout the entire experience, and you do forget the cameras are there… not all the time, but sometimes.

Laura asked “Was there anything that you didn’t like that happened? Or any choices David made that you would’ve changed?”

Hmmm, honestly, there was nothing that I didn’t like. I loved everything. I guess the biggest thing I was fearful of during the process was him changing it to something else that wasn’t what we wanted, but I believed him when he told me that he liked our stuff. The only thing that kind of bummed me out was that the bridesmaids weren’t standing up on the steps at the church, but it wasn’t a big deal and I think just because I didn’t know about it it magnified that they weren’t standing up there.

When he showed us the reception, and I saw how similar it was to the original vision I  had, it was so overwhelming and a great feeling. The only thing I think I ‘missed’ was since everything was really short notice, to keep the location/venue a surprise, we didn’t get invitations and I’m a paper/stationary FREAK… so I was a little bummed on that, but we did have programs and escort cards which I have in a shadowbox.

Rachel asked, ‘Who is your photograher and how did you find him?‘

Our photographer was one that I looked at all the time, Jonathan Moore. Hands down, I love his work. He LOVES color, and is a sports journalist so he captures a lot of movement. I loved his portfolio and the fact that he captured sports pictures, because I know capturing more than just weddings was pretty legit. He actually showed me a few pictures that he got at the LA Marathon and I immediately was obsessed. Our wedding, I would think, was very hard to capture with us ALWAYS being pulled in many directions with so much going on, but he captured EVERYTHING, and managed to get some amazing shots WITHOUT the cameras, which were everywhere. There were so many moments when I looked up and though, wait! We need Jonathan here, and he’d be creeping in the corner, already two steps ahead of me. Not only is he a great photographer, but he put up with me asking him about a million questions if he got ‘all the pictures I wanted’. I am seriously in love with all our pictures and cannot believe what a gem he is and how lucky we were to get him to capture our special day!

Erin asked, ‘How did you find out how to make the boutonniere?!’

I found it on a website that I looked at frequently when planning our wedding, Green Wedding Shoes! Here’s a link to the one I kind of copied. I didn’t use a feather and I used fabric that I cut out to mimic the feathers. The fabric, was of course, gingham. Then I glued buttons on to them at the bottom and glued a little baby ribbon bow to the bottom as well. I found a heart button and put it on Bs, the rest of the guys just had navy, red and white buttons. It took two days to complete them all, not to bad and I thought it was cool that they could keep them if they wanted. I was so happy when I found out David kept them! I loved them and was pretty proud of them. :) I put Bs in our little shadow box we have of wedding stuff. Just an FYI though, Burlap is the worst fabric/material to work with. It stinks, it falls apart and frays and it’s little hairs get EVERYWHERE! :)

Krista asked, “I’m obsessed with your dress! I’m just curious, do you know what the price tag of it was (gotta know how much I oughta save for a similar one haha) also I know totally nosy question but did David/the show pick up the tab for your entire wedding!? ”

The price tag for my dress, was I think…and don’t quote me on this was 16,000. I didn’t get to keep the dress though, and I think of it all the time. Wearing it was the most amazing experience of my life. By far the most glamourous, beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes upon. Here is a great blog about the dress and designer from the store that it is from. Since the wedding day, I literally have thought about going to the store to see if they still have it just to see it again. It was made by Ines Di Santo.

So onto the next question, which I got often! Who pays for this?!

We were informed that we must paid for our photographer (if we wanted one, but we didn’t get any of the ‘shows’ photographers photographs) officiant, and DJ. We still got all our wedding party gifts and paid for our hotels that we stayed at as well. One thing that was the hardest decision when going on the show was the fact that we already had our wedding planned… and so all those deposits for catering, decorations, floral, venues, you don’t get back or reimbursed for. But the show did pay for a lot, obviously, but you give up ALL your control, over everything AND you know nothing.

Danielle asked many questions! :)

I may or may not have missed this from your blog or the show… but what was your something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new??

My somthing borrowed was the dress, I had a blue rose on my garter, My shoes were new and the something old was, according to Shea, ME! haha I actually didn’t have one specific ‘something old’

Any advice for other brides? Is there one thing you learned or wish you had known?

Honestly, relax and enjoy it. I had pretty much absolutly no idea what was going on at my wedding. I had no idea how it would turn out, if David would keep it similar to what I planned, or how I would react to anything, but guess what, I got to marry Bryan and that’s all that mattered. I think it’s easy to be caught up in the wedding part of an engagement. The big party, what people think about your wedding, how the wedding will turn out, will people have fun, and people forget that YOU ARE COMMITTING YOUR LIFE TO SOMEONE FOREVER. That is crazy. Celebrate love and don’t get lost in the little details. Make the little details count, but don’t let them overwhelm you, and don’t be crazy.

Your brother wasn’t really on camera, did he choose not to be?

That’s just how it was edited. He was there for everything on our wedding day.

Did you like the edit of the show? Were there things you wish they had shown or vice versa?

I actually loved the outcome of the show. With probably over 30 hours of us on film that they had to condensed into an hour, I’m so happy with how it came out. I didn’t get to see the show before it aired live or anything that was filmed that they had to use for our episode and I was nervous how I would look. It’s scary. I honestly don’t remember crying that much, but I guess that I did! They captured all the right moments that I wanted to remember and it was so special to see it on tv!