Motivation to Exercise...

....Something that's sometimes lacking from my morning routine lately.  Last year, with a beautiful wedding dress looming in my future, I was really motivated to get up most mornings (4-5 times a week at that point) to workout before work, as after work doesn't fit well with eating before 8:00p-which we don't want to do.  I would crawl out of bed around 5:45a, but by the time I was dressed, I was ready to go and really enjoyed the feeling of actually having accomplished something useful before 7:00a.  But with the arrival of The Lloyd and after convincing Mike to marry me, twice, and having the dress behind me, I have slowly lost motivation to don my running shoes and get moving each morning.  Not to blame it on Lloyd completely, but we spent the first 6 months with Lloyd waking us up any time he felt like after 4:00a, and even after he was walked, he didn't quieten down, EVER.  So we tried to have him sleep with us, that didn't help either.  So we ended up two tired individuals and motivation went out the window.  Fast forward to January, and Lloyd's "giant" 40lb frame has been dragging me downstairs and around the neighborhood multiple times a day, leading to what turned out be a pretty nasty back injury.  A No exercise allowed for two months kind of problem.  Which leads to here and now, just a couple of weeks after I watched the 26.2 with Donna Runners coming down the beach on the world's coldest morning in Florida....

I came home from the race and immediately defrosted in a hot bath called my Daddy and asked him to run a marathon with me!  He used to be a marathon runner and I needed help!  He politely declined my insane proposal (neither of us are really ready for a full marathon at this point) but we did agree to partner on a marathon relay team, letting us experience how running a marathon feels (for me at least, I have no idea and am very nervous about how the whole race thing feels/goes), without actually participating in the entire 26.2 miles of torture that is the marathon.  Relay teams have four legs, each leg running 5-7 miles, depending on the leg,  Daddy thinks his friend, Tony, would run it with us for fun too, so we just need one more runner to complete our team and we'll actually be ready to do it!  The idea of running 5-7 miles is a very manageable goal, one that we can all comfortably say we can do well.  For me, personally, I'm hoping that the relay will be my start in to training for a half and then, eventually, a full marathon one day (far, far away it feels right now).  I even found some information on a long distance marathon relay in Vermont, pretty awesome idea if 11 other people want to take on this challenge with me?!?!?!

So, after trying to talk my friends in to a half marathon last year and the Warrior Dash this year (absolutely something I want to do one day....please someone participate with me!!!), I'm really hoping that we can commit and execute this really great, fun thing!  Fingers crossed, we will be running in the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh http://cityofoaksmarathon.com/! 

The point of this blog: to find our fourth runner, of course!  So, who's ready to train for a 6 mile saunter around Raleigh in November?!  It's going to be great, you know you want to do it!!  Daddy and Tony are fantastic, and no one will be upset if you have a slower (or faster) mile time!!  Seriously though, I'd love to have a friend participate in this too, there has to be a reason so many people sign up, right?!  Let me know, November will be here before we know it!  :-) 

Injury free and motivated, I'm pumped to race with my Daddy and friends!  Check one of the bucket list!

February has flown by!

I don't imagine that my day to day thoughts or activities are all that interesting to anyone, but cumulatively there have been a few great highlights from February!

Valentine's was awesome, Mike and I had a lovely dinner the weekend before Valentine's to celebrate and had a fun night in on Valentine's night!  Mike started Valentine's morning with my favorite breakfast, Italian-style, and we car-pooled work, which I think is super cute, even if it means Mike's car was in the shop and I was at work 2 hours early! :)  We came home, cooked dinner, and shared some fun gifts (I asked for Battleship, which I got, love that game!!)!  It was lovely!

Also that weekend, was the 26.2 National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer here in Jacksonville Beach.  I am going to address this at a later date in more detail, but I find it inspiring and motivating to watch people that can start a race at 6:30a in 30 degree weather (possibly the only day in Florida history it was that cold) and willingly run 26.2 miles!  Truly a great feat, and something that I would love to be a part of someday!  This year was not that time, however, so I can came to the beach at 7:00a (still 30 degrees outside) to watch the runners come down the beach for the 7 miles of the race that were on the beach.  It's incredible, people really deserve more than a medal that says that they complete it, especially when 7 miles of beach, wind, and COLD weather are involved!  Needless to say, I was awed and ready for action after watching the marathon, not to mention amazed by how much money is donated/raised with this race in the name of breast cancer-awesome!!

The weekend after "Valentine's" weekend (I'm just going to skip the ridiculous weeks that have been happening in between the weekends, work is madness lately!), Ivy came to visit!!!!!  Mike was out of town at a work conference/party time, so Ivy and I got to spend three days together, chatting about nothing and catching up!  We took a trip to "Catty Shack" in Jacksonville, a sanctuary for big cats and it was amazing!  They were having a "Baby Shower" for 5 new girl cubs: Cutest.Thing.Ever.!  We had a great time with the cats and had some fun meals along the way, checking out Metro Diner (famous from DDD) and my favorite, Salt Life!  It was a great weekend, it was so good to see my friend!! 

After that, we've just been mulling along and had a quiet weekend at home this past weekend.  We went out for beers at the Green Room Brewery with Mike's friend, Bob and his lovely wife, April, it was a really fun night!  Good beers, good company, great live music!!

So a pretty good February, all in all!  I have pictures, but I'm not motivated enough to make that happen, so you'll have to take my word for it that we did fun things!  I will leave you with-my office mate for Monday:

Probably not the best idea, but we had a good time looking at each other all afternoon. :)  Taken with my new Ipad2, courtesy of my lovely Husband who shared his work gift with me!! I'm a lucky girl! :)

Lately....

We've done the same thing for basically all of January-worked, eaten food (duh), and stayed close to home, watching movies, basketball, etc.  Nothing too exciting, but nice non-the-less.  Most notable in the last couple of weeks:

Dinner at Dwight's.  It's a tiny little place and Dwight cooks all of the food himself, where you can see him.  No really, he cooks every plate from scratch, including homemade pasta and all.  We had a glass of wine at The Wine Bar first then headed over to Dwight's and enjoyed Crabcakes (Mike had-they are Dwight's specialty) and Quail (I had-it was amazing!!!!), it was all amazing!  I didn't even know a tiny bird could be so delicious! 

Picnic lunch on the beach last Sunday!  It was only 65 degrees (I know, that's warm, but it's been nearly 80 for all of January and February so far), but it was a beautiful day for a picnic and a run around with the Lloyd.  He loves playing on the beach and having the freedom to run around (we went to a part of the beach that was completely empty so he wouldn't try and eat anyone!), it was a really great afternoon-one that makes me really love living so close to the beach and having a lovely little family (cheese, I know)!

Kangaroo Lloyd with his Daddy!

We watched Straw Dogs last night.  Still not sure how I feel about it, but I think it could have been better.  It was pretty good and the ending is, as we'd heard, pretty violent, but overall it was lacking somehow, the story could have been filled out more.  But worth seeing if you're in a "red neck viewing" kind of mood.

That's all I've got for right now, my brain is mushed after the last two weeks of insanity at work.  People just won't stop calling and stopping by, everyone is getting married, having a baby, or planning a reunion, seriously!  I was actually complaining that I have too much business booked and booking, which is ridiculous to complain about as a Sales Manager, but kind of true.  Oh well, I'm sure things will (fingers crossed) level out soon enough (who am I kidding, Valentine's is around the corner and EVEN MORE people will be getting engaged and planning wedding)! 

We're having a date with Sushi or Italian tonight and then spending some QT with that beautiful puppy of ours, and Milton, of course.  :-)  Poor Milt, always gets the short end of the stick! 

Windy ear!

LOVE that beautiful face!!!

February will a bit more exciting, we've got trips planned and 2012 visitors starting to roll in-YAAAAYY!!!