Valentines Day!

 Yay! So today is mine and Michael's first Valentines Day as a married couple!...ok yes we celebrated it on Saturday because I had a midterm today and he had work but it still counts. PLUS I made him a card and we ate the dessert pies his mom brought over the other night and we watched an episode of DVRed "Perfect Couples" while we ate Kroger brand mac n cheese. But who's to judge on what is romantic?!

Due to the fact that I should be studying right now for the CPA exam (this is my life) I will leave you with the song that Michael and I did our first dance to at our wedding! I love me some Ray Lamontagne! His voice is soooo soothing. I used to set my IHome on 30 minute "sleep" and fall asleep to his lovely voice... here it is : "You are the best thing"

I hope you  enjoyed your day of love. We humans were made for love. Husbands, boyfriends, friends, family, I hope you were shown love today!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails.  

                         - 1 Corinthians 4-8

Reasons to Envy my day...

Some of these you may realistically be envious of, others may just imply sarcasm and I'm really looking for sympathy!...

Reason #1- LEGGO OF MY EGGO!


Yes, today, for dinner I had Eggo waffles. Please be jealous, because I have been craving them all weekend and my lovely husband picked them up yesterday and I haven't had the opportunity to eat them until tonight. And they made me completely happy.

Oh, and in case you were unaware. There are rules for eating/preparing Eggos. First of all, you do NOT microwave them. Apparently Michael microwaves them and eats them like tacos dipped in syrup. Weird. Weird. Weird. NO, you MUST toast them, to the perfect crispiness. Then you must apply a limited amount of butter, cut them evenly based on the squares on the waffle and then smother in syrup. The end.

Reason #2 - Awesome dog family

Ok, so I seem obsessed with my dogs, right?! I'm really not, I promise, they kind of are like children though! Well today at Michael's parents house, Michael's sister Andrea brought her 2 dogs, Brit and Jemaine, over for lunch. It was an awesome dog party. Which one is not like the other?! Willis of course haha! Jan, Michael's mom, is feeding them leftover lamb and has the full attention of the puppy brigade! Super cute!

Reason #3 - Studying is super cool

Ok this is one of those sarcastic ones...but hey....I learned some stuff today. What did you learn?! I'm sure you were relaxing, watching tv or enjoying the nice weather or something...well I was ...uh...expanding the wealth of knowledge in my brain. So. be. jealous.

Reason #4- My bible study group is awesome!

You wouldn't even understand this because of how awesome they are. But we make jokes together. Laugh together. Share the Word together. And pray for each other together. How awesome is that?

Reason #5 - Husband off work at 9:30 AM

Who wouldn't want to hangout with such a big stud for the day?! I mean, he's pretty awesome and helpful and cool. So you should be envious!

Reason #6 - I had THREE, read it, THREE desserts with my lunch today! AND freshly baked by Mrs. Catherine Hamilton chocolate chip cookies at Bible Study! (Oh ya know, no big deal, it was a off day from running)

Dessert #1: Bread pudding with whiskey sauce
Dessert #2: Samoas (girlscout cookies) ice cream
Dessert #3: Strawberries dipped in melted chocolate

Reason #7 - (places up north can be envious of this one) RIGHT NOW - it is 49 degrees outside! FINALLY WARMER WEATHER IS ON ITS WAY! What is more exciting than that?! uhhh...not sure, but I am pretty darn excited about feeling my extremities again when I am outside!

Well that's it for today folks, a girl can only do so many things in a day that you should be envious of... :) Hope you all had a great Sunday...what a fun busy busy busy couple of weeks I have coming up!

Our First Married Early Valentines Day Saturday Celebration!

Yay! Saturday! Well, silly body woke me up at 8am this morning so started the morning off with some Special K and some "Parenthood" and then some Becker while waiting on the hubs to awake.

Once the Meechael was awake we journeyed up to the gym for a good workout.

Running Feet!

 This past week was the first week of the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1/2 marathon training schedule, and although I've been running a little bit more than suggested during the week, I still was committing to a long run of 5 miles. And you know one thing I must admit?! I think I am getting used to this whole running on the treadmill thing, which I have always hated and Michael has always loved. And I have always talked down to it. But this COLD COLD COLD winter has made me love the treadmill, so making the switch back to outdoor running soon will be interesting. But hey, this week apparently we will be seeing the 50's! WOO!!

Well the 5 mile run went really well. Michael was telling me a could do it under 45 minutes (9minute miles) but I didn't want to commit. Well guess what?!? I ran it in 41:33, which is an 8:18 mile. hahah, I guess it really wasn't a problem. I hope I keep the speed work up because I would like to beat my best 1/2 time of 1:52, that I did with Becca in Indy, but let's just say I'm shooting for under 2 hours for now!

After the workout Michael and I tiredly headed back home. I attended to my Becker classes a bit more while Michael did his usual Internet surfing. Well then it was time for the UK game. We won't really discuss that. You know, they just tend to disappoint while playing away. That's all I'm saying.

Well I was a kinda bad mentor today, not really, but I had told Adrielle I'd get her at 4 and I guess my long run really tuckered me out cause I feel asleep on the couch after the game, like passed out. I woke up at like 10 til 4 and rushed to get Adrielle. She's been asking to play "Guitar Hero" on the Wii for weeks, so we played for about an hour. My wrists were killing me afterward but it was fun! When I took Adrielle home she gave me and Michael Valentines with mini Airheads in them. Dang, I hadn't even thought about getting her something. FAIL MENTOR. Maybe I could get her something for next week?!

Well tonight was also the night that Michael and I decided would be best to celebrate Valentines Day, considering I have a midterm on Monday and his schedule is super unpredictable (today was Michael's first day off in like 10 days, he works tomorrow morning). We originally planned on Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops but then all of the sudden out of the blue Michael's mom is at our house with a basket full of Valentines Day goodies for us!! You rock Jan! In this basket she had 2 mushroom and spinach stuffed chicken breasts from Critchfield's Meat Market, 2 different slices of pie, a bottle of sparkling wine, Chocolate covered pretzels and a Valentines day card!

It was soooo sweet of her to bring over and we switched our dinner plans to chicken. We also had homemade mashed potatoes and broccoli casserole (I like to have my veggies plain, but I think Michael gets tired of plain peas, green beans, corn, etc, so we spiced it up with a cheesy casserole, can't go wrong with cheese!).

The apron Azra made me for a bridal shower!

 Dinner was great. We had it by candlelight. The candles we used were given to us by Miss Amanda Myser at a bridal shower.  She gave us a whole bunch of different colored candles that had different meanings.

The candles for today were bright pink and are for your first Valentines Day together. Also, just so you all know, Pandora has Valentines Day stations so we listened to that in the background! After a lovely dinner we popped open the sparkling wine and used 1 of the 5 sets of champagne glasses we own. I had never had this stuff before and it was yummy and sweet. I decided to give Michael his Valentines Day gift then. I had ordered him 2 different baseball shirts (baseball season is quickly approaching, yay warmness!), the Indians and the Cardinals. Michael loves baseball and these are his 2 teams, although he is kind of ashamed of the Indians (I liked the Indians shirts better than the St. Louis shirt I got him anyway!). But he was very surprised by the gifts! Afterward, we nestled down to watch our recorded Thursday night comedies together, 30 rock, The office,  and Community.

Funny scene of Michael opening the sparkling wine:

Cork about to pop out

Do you see the tail the cork made out of the bottle?!

enjoying his candlelight dinner!

Enjoying it as well!

One last thing. Carson is famous. Yes, yes he is. What you don't believe it? Check out the awesome Kroger "Value" brand of dog food Michael found at Kroger today (which, by the way was like $4, this stuff has got to be full of flavor and nutritional ingredients for our dogs, right?! haha). That little sneaky dog has been creeping out of the house to be a dog model, displaying himself for the world to see on dog food bags. Crazy thing. He better watch himself!

Well that was our "Valentines-ish Day". Hope you enjoyed your Saturday and goodnight!

Sun-shiny study day!

Hello readers! Today was another nothing out of the ordinary day.

-I woke up and headed to the gym at 6:15, ran, came home.
-ate my usual bowl of Special K
-Watched a little tv
-Showered

And then I decided to open up the front door so the sunshine could come in through the storm door. The dogs love sitting in the sun, kind of like cats. Well as nice as the sunshine was, cue horror music.... the sunlight revealed random pee dribble spots all over the house...ahhhh..nooooo!! Carson apparently has bladder control issues and when excited or knows he is in trouble, leaks a little on the carpet. Well I guess we couldn't see these spots in the dreary daylight of winter, but with the sun shining in I could see everything. And then I noticed spots on the walls, where the dogs and bumped up against them. So my cleaning instinct kicked in. And the scrubbing began. After about an hours work on our downstairs, it was clean! woooo!!! Sometimes a good scrub of the house is such a satisfactory thing, the end results are worth it. Yes, I could have cleaned more but it was study time!

Tonight at the Florence Critt home we played "Minute to Win It Games"!
 
It was hilarious! The games we played were (realize, competitors have 1 minute to complete each challenge):
-Chocolate Unicorn - stacking/balancing 6 chocolate snack cakes on your forehead
-Cookie face - without using your hands, put a cookie on your forehead and try to get it in your mouth
-A game where you have to separate 2 different colored M&Ms into different bowls by using a straw, the team with the most M&Ms win
- A game where you put vaseline on your nose and move cotton balls from one bowl to another using purely your nose
-Breakfast scramble - the fastest to put together the front of a cereal box that has been cut up into pieces.
-A game where 2 people compete together, each only using one hand, One partner has a sock on their hand and the other doesn't and the goal is to wrap as many pieces of candy in a minute as possible.

If you go on the minute to win it website they have a ton of games listed to play, but these were the ones we picked. It was definitely a fun thing to do and the girls were pretty interactive, plus all the leftovers from the game made great, chocolaty snacks!

I also played around with the camera today, here are a few pictures I took and a couple Michael took:

His ears are ALWAYS flipped back

This is how Carson treats his big brother Willis all the time! RESPECT

Willy-mo sitting in his favorite spot in the house, the bean bag chair! The dogs fights over it!

Michael took this close up of Carson

One of my favorite things, I ate popcorn while Michael and I watched "Kick Ass" (Michael took this one too!)

Well thats it for today! See ya tomorrow!

Dinner with Dusty!

Well today was a pretty normal day: run at 6:45 (improved my 4 mile time to 33:30!), shower, school, homework, Becker, CLAAASSSSS (which lasts an eternity)...BUT WAIT.... What was different about today?!?!

DUSTIN WAS IN TOWN!!!!!

In the car together!

In the Dominican Republic together!

Hanging out at his house in Louisville

In Ireland together

In London together

In Spain together!

 In case you are unaware, Dustin is my little bro bro. Well not little, but younger, by 13 months that is! Dustin is a University of Louisville Mechanical Engineering student and ended up in Lexington today interviewing an engineer from Lexmark (printer making company based in Lexington) for a group project he is working on. I'd tell you about his project but it is WAY over my head, like WAY. All I know is that they are supposed to redesign this particular printer part that controls a part of a printer that I didn't even know existed. But anyway. Being in Lexington meant he got to have dinner with his sis sis and Meechael!

We debated for a while on where to eat and we ended up chowing down at Drakes. Dustin got some Alfredo Pasta with beef in it, I got their crab rangoon sushi rolls (delish!), and Michael got fish and chips. (tonight I learned I like fish and chips, it's a little late to learn after you've been to London twice and Ireland once haha!). Anyway, since it was a Thursday evening it was kind of crowded, therefore there were no real tables left. We were forced to sit at the awkward bar thing that faced a wall and was about a foot wide. No room for error when eating or your plate would tumble onto your lap.

Despite the awkward seating arrangement, I had to lean back so Michael could talk to Dustin, we had a good time talking and hanging out together! I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my bro, we've been through a lot together and have come to really appreciate each other.

One of my favorite things that I get to do with my brother is travel. My dad has taken us traveling since we were young, due to his Delta flying benefits. When I was in 5th grade we went to London and 6th grade Paris. We went to a lot of Caribbean islands. For spring break we went to London with a group of friends in college. And most recently Dustin and I ventured to Madrid, Spain and Dublin, Ireland. Traveling is something we both really enjoy and I'm glad we get to do it together!

That being said, I'm glad I could have dinner with my bro and my hubs. An enjoyable evening. Now for the rest of the evening I will think about studying. Tell myself I should be studying. And then maybe study a little bit. If I'm lucky. (this studying thing is getting a bit redundant!)

As for you all, hope your Thursday was wonderful and that you are as excited as I am about the warmer weather headed our way!!

Peace readers!

Lela, Laundry, and Lack of Leisure

Hello friends!! So today was  a pretty good day, even though it wasn't super fun, it was productive and I enjoy that!

This morning Elyse picked me up around 6:30 to run at the Johnson Center. I felt like I dominated my 4 mile run on the treadmill and was energized for the rest of the day. After the run I worked on homework for a while but then around noon I headed up to school to meet my friend Lela for lunch at the Student Center. This is the only picture facebook has of me and Lela. It's pretty awesome and a pretty old picture, October 2008 CSF 80's party I would say!

How awesome do we look?!

Lela is a friend of mine who got married this past summer too! Our meeting for lunch ended on a kind of sad note because this will be the last time I see her before she moves with her cats and her hubs to Charleston, WV (her hubby got a new job there!). We had a lovely lunch together though, chatting about a ton of things and it was a nice way to break up my day! Also, we got to discuss blogging, Lela recently started a blog so that's another thing we have in common besides our married-ness, shortness, and awesomeness to say the least.

After lunch Michael texted me to say he was going to take call for the evening. So I planned on a night of studying alone with the pups. Well, much to my surprise, Michael ended up not taking call, which means I don't have to be home alone tonight! YAY! AND I had a dinner buddy! DOUBLE YAY! I cooked dinner as quickly as I could when I heard he was coming home! YAY YAY YAY!

Speaking of Michael being on surgery I must say ONE good thing that has come of it so far (I'm not saying that surgery is bad, I just feel for the boy getting like no sleep every night, but he really loves it so I am 150% supportive! :) )..... LESS LAUNDRY! 

Nobody like laundry!

 With Michael wearing scrubs everyday at work (which he gets to leave behind for people at the hospital to wash because of the nastiness that is probably on it) the only clothes that I really have to wash are my own and a few things of his. It's wonderful, the laundry basket doesn't fill up every 3 days which is super spectacular! Although, with me running a lot more often recently, I tend to run out of workout clothes a lot quicker and wearing a lot of socks (2 pairs a day), therefore, I have to do laundry. But at least there isn't a ton of stinky boy laundry! ;)   (I love my stinky boy!)

Oh and remember how I created a solution to Carson's bed eating problems?! Well just take a look...

Carson figured out how to get under the duct tap and here we are again, in the same fluffy situation. The fluff balls are like tumbleweeds that drift across our house and somehow make it upstairs, sometimes I am shocked as to how things make it to certain places of the house. Or for example, today I used the apple slicer to cut an apple and then immediately put it in a baggy into my backpack. Well, when I was eating my apple today, well lookie there! Yes, a black Willis fur had made it's way onto my apple. I guess my doggies just want to spend the day with me! But really, you don't need to leave your fur on my food, why don't you just write me a nice note with a paw print on it for a signature? That'd be great!

One last thing, these are some super cute stickers Michael got me yesterday along with some AWESOME smelling perfume! With no help from me, he did an awesome job!!

Googly eyes are always a plus!

Well that's it for today! More snow is here and I am really sad about that and I am really sad about the cold temperatures, but according to the weather, warmer temps are on their way towards the end of the week and beginning of next week. I love when it's warm enough that my car locks don't freeze, so let's look forward to that! :)

Good night world!

Lucky Number 3

 

Well, I can't believe it! Today, on February 8th, 2008 Michael and I started dating! I cant believe how much has changed and that we are now married!! Crazy right?! 


On Feb. 8th of 2008 Michael took me out on our first date, even though we had been hanging out for a while up to that point. He took me to Buddies Bar and Grill, in Lexington. So to celebrate this first date, Michael and I had dinner at Buddies this evening. We didn't order the same things, which I kind of wish I did because what I got was not very good, but Michael definitely had the honor of making the clean plate club! We decided to hit up dessert after dinner by going to DQ because it had snowed today...
Well at least we thought it snowed today. I mean, waking up with a good amount of accumulation would lead one to believe that it had snowed. Also, when Michael left for work at 4:45 and white flakes were falling from the sky, you would believe that it was snowing, well if you are a sane person at least. But according to this particular DQ, located right next to the UK hospital, it did not snow at their location. Meaning, no buy one get one Blizzards, but we got blizzards despite the lack of them upholding their promotion.  Silly DQ!!


Well that's all I really have time to write. I have approx. 34084250894026 x 4 things to do. And there are 17 days until my CPA exam. Let's just say I am looking forward to a very non-fun weekend. 


I wish I could write more about today and the significance of it but I can't!


Oh and GO CATS --- we are currently beating TN ---- but who knows with us?


Lastly, shout out to Mrs. Lauren Clouse who had her baby today!! Congrats girl!