After All, There's Only One More Sleep till Disney

I can't believe that after nearly a year of planning, tomorrow I will be barreling toward Disneyworld with my husband and two best friends. I can't believe I've spent literally months and months training for a half marathon, and it is finally here. I can't believe that the first time I ever see Cinderella's Castle I will be running through it. I can't believe how much my life has changed in one year.

I know it may sound crazy, but completing a half-marathon in Disney world will be a completion of such a big dream for me (if I finish of course). I just don't know how to deal with the nervousness and excitement I'm feeling right now. I just hope I can sleep tonight. But if I don't sleep tonight, I can sleep in the car.

I can't wait to overload my little space on the web with a million posts about my adventures when I get back. But right now, it is just Orlando or bust.

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Project Life 2015: Week 6

I got my images in the mail on Wednesday night, and I immediately headed up to my hobby room to scrap week 6. I usually wait till the weekend, but being that I will be out of town this weekend, I didn't want to risk falling too behind. I kept this layout pretty simple, so it only took me about 25 minutes in total. Project Life is as fast or as time consuming as you choose to make it, this week I chose FAST! But it is still pretty.

For side one, I shared pictures and journaling about my group therapy activity I did that week, and a weekend baby shower I went to with mom. I also used a picture I snapped of a doll house in Hobby Lobby. Only because I am fascinated by those houses every time I go in there! I dream of having one and building a collection of tiny doll house furniture.

For side two, I included food experiences. These were my recent trip to I Heart Sushi and trying out Sub Zero Ice Cream. I also did a blurb about my last long run pre half-marathon. One of my favorite parts is I included the e-mail I received after Adam registered me for the Dumbo Double Dare. I finished the layout off with a week in review card, which was just a general recap of everything I did, and on it I stamped the dates.

Materials Used:

Project Life Core Kit: Kraft Edition
Project Life: Date Stamp
Tiny Templates


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Valentine's Day, Lion King, and Itta Bena

I really had a wonderful weekend this weekend. You know the kind of weekend that leaves you on a high going into the work week? That is exactly how this weekend left me feeling. Although it could be that at the end of this work week, I'll be headed to DISNEYWORLD.

Adam and I had a really low key Valentine's Day. Over the last year, Adam and I have been each sharing one of our all time favorite shows together (for him it is The West Wing, for me it is The Gilmore Girls). We have evenings where we do nothing but watch those two shows. So I picked him out this card, You are the Luke to Lorelai, as a cute way to share what he means to me. I also gave him a Gigi's Cupcake as a little treat. If you are wondering why I'm not sharing any pictures of Adam's gift to me, it is because he ended up paying for my whole weekend excursion on Sunday as my gift instead.

I was up obnoxiously early for a Sunday. I went by the local Starbucks for my low-fat, Flat White latte, started blasting the show tunes, and plugged in the address for the Orpheum in Memphis, Yes,  I drove three and a half hours twice in one day because I had tickets to see Lion King with one of my best girls, Anna, and her family.

I had never been inside the Orpheum theater, and it is BEAUTIFUL. Very ornate and very 1920's themed. I was excited about this performance, especially because we had purchased VIP seats. I have never sat so close at a play before. We were in the first couple of rows, and we had a great view! Like so close to the actors, that if they were sweating, you would have seen it.

I can not say enough about how amazing this performance was! It was so inventive in how they represented the animals. Awe-inspiring, really. In the beginning of the play, the animals even paraded through the audience! The play was touching and funny. I may have had a big old crush on adult Simba. Roar. There were times, as my nieces would say, that it got me right in the feels. I was tearing up at parts.

If you have the opportunity to catch it, GO SEE IT.

After the play, we walked a few blocks down to Itta Bena restaurant. Itta Bena is B.B. King's restaurant (named after his home town). Itta Bena is located on the third floor of the B.B. King's club. If you didn't know about it, it wouldn't be a restaurant you would just stumble upon. It's a hidden gem. It is just gorgeous. I loved the blue tinted windows and low lighting.

We all ordered different entrees, drinks, and desserts, sampling each others as we went along. I chose the signature she crab soup and hand-gathered field greens salad. Both were amazing, my favorite part was the lumps of goat cheese in that salad. I did get a dessert. One of my favorite desserts of all time is creme brulee. They had a Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, so I had to order it.  I think I'm nuts for spending so much money on a dessert that I could only have a bite or two of. But when I tasted that dish it BLEW my mind, and I knew it was so worth it. Everyone agreed it was the best dessert we ordered. 

Of course, after all the fun, I had to drive three and a half hours back home. I got home around 11 p.m., was too hyped to sleep, so I stayed up way too late. Monday was rough, rough, rough. But the whole weekend was so excellent, that I just didn't care.

At the end of the weekend, Anna posted the picture of us from the restaurant on facebook, She captioned the picture, "I love this girl, we had so much fun."

My thoughts exactly.

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Sub Zero Frozen Ice Cream & Yogurt

Last Saturday night, my mother and I went to a baby shower for a coworker's daughter who is having twins. It was a nice time, but we had been there two hours, and they hadn't even started opening gifts! I did not want to stay there all night, so we ended up heading home early, and mom still wanted dessert, as we weren't there long enough to get to the cake cutting.

I had heard about this place in Madison called Subzero. So I thought it would be cool to check it out, so that is what we did. I'm always looking to try new and novel things.

At Sub Zero, they have ice cream for all sorts of dietery needs-sugar free, gluten free, and even diary free! And you can get ice cream, yogurt, or custard. What is really cool about this, place is your order starts out as a liquid, and then you add in your flavors and mix-ins, and then they freeze it with liquid nitrogen at something like -321 degrees. It's really fun to watch!

This was perfect for me, as we were able to get sugar free ice cream, and I never get to eat ice cream usually. We went for the cake batter flavor, and it was sooo good. We really enjoyed splitting it. I would love to go back and try more flavors, as they have a million. 

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Project Life 2015: Week Five

I have to say I'm really loving the layout I completed for project life week five. Maybe it is the blue/pink color scheme or the little instagram pictues I glued to the cards, but I'm really diggin' it.

For side one, I documented getting our magic bands in the mail (which serve as our hotel key, theme park ticket, reservations/fast pass keeper) for Disney and the 24 viewing party that we recently resumed (and the weight loss surgery friendly meal I cooked for that occasion). I also pulled some shots from my instagram, and then I did a little journaling about the pictures as well. Lastly, I clipped the circle off of one of my Studio Calico cards, and then glued it to another card to mark the beginning of the month.

For side two, I decided to make a list of the shows I've been catching on netflix since we cut our cable. I thought this was a good time capsule kind of a thing to include. By the way, I love, love, love Once Upon a Time. So good. I included a picture of the famous peg game they put on the tables at Cracker Barrel, to document a Sunday brunch with Adam. And I still am enjoying documenting my runs, as they are a huge focus in my life right now. I also included a pic of the oatmeal cookie I had a few bites of to refuel after my run. Delish. 

One of the instagrams are of a beautiful sunset I caught one night after work.  So pretty that I decided to pull over and snap a photo. The other is from the morning I woke up to flurries and frost. 

Materials Used:

Project Life: Honey Edition

Studio Calico: Cirque

Tiny Templates

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Dumbo Double Dare Ya

I may have lost my mind a little bit or fallen down a run Disney rabbit hole, but before I have even completed my first run Disney event, I signed up for my second. Well, technically Adam signed me up for the race today, as he has the magic touch with the run Disney website.

Not only will I be completing the Disneyland half-marathon, I will be doing the Disneyland10k the day before the half-marathon. That is a total of 19.3 miles, and it will be the next step after conquering the half-marathon distance This challenge is known as the Dumbo Double Dare, and it takes place in California (of course).  It will be the first week in September. 

If I complete the challenge (and complete the Princess Half in two weeks), I will get 4 medals after the two races in Disneyland. The 10k medal, the half-marathon medal, the dumbo double dare medal, and the coast to coast medal (which you get for running a half-marathon in Disneyworld & Disneyland in one calendar year). I'm all about the bling.

This trip I'm taking with my mother, and not only are we going for the races over that weekend, we are spending a whole week out there. I've been to Disneyland twice before, and I loved it. My mother has never been to any Disney parks, so I'm excited for this mother/daughter adventure. I will also get to touch base with some of my California friends.

Last night, mother and I booked our flight to good ole' John Wayne airport in Orange County and a week long stay at the Disneyland hotel. I'm so thrilled to be staying at the oldest Disney hotel. And not to mention, I have never been to California Adventure, and I am really looking forward to checking out Cars land.

Mostly, I'm pleased to be continuing my training by taking on new running challenges and spending a week on vacation with my mother. We haven't done that since NYC.

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The Last Long Run

Tonight I completed my last long run before my half-marathon, which is exactly two weeks away (eck)! I went ten miles. I had hoped to be going the full distance by now. But I got a little behind due to my wisdom teeth surgery, but I'm pretty sure I can get to 13.1 miles on race day, even if I have to walk the last couple of miles.

Plus, I feel like there will be something special about the first time I ever go 13.1 miles being on race day. 

I was pretty pleased with my time. I completed the ten miles in 2 hours and 12 minutes. That is an average of 13:15 a mile, although several of those early miles were in the 12 minute range. So that leaves a whole hour for me to get in three more miles on race day, since the race has to be completed in 3 hours and 30 minutes. 

I felt pretty good throughout the whole run. The last time I did an 8 mile plus run, I ended up feeling pretty dizzy and sick afterwards. This was most likely due to my mistake of choosing not to hydrate during the run. So lesson learned. 

This time I popped two bottles of coconut water into my mailbox, along with some Gatorade energy chews. Every two miles I would stop and drink some water and have a few chews, before getting going again. This HELPED a lot.

Besides some soreness (which is to be expected), I feel pretty good now that the run is done. I'm feeling pretty confident about the Princess Half tonight, although I'm sure I will be pretty freaked out race day (because I know myself). 

So now 5 short runs is all that stands between me and my journey of becoming a half-marathoner. I just can't believe it.

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Project Life 2015: Week Five

I haven't blogged in a week! I can't believe it, I haven't gone that long in forever. Part of the reason is I just haven't been up to much. With our big Disney trip only two weeks away, I have had to keep the adventures to a minimum because I want to blow all my money on vacation. So the last few weeks have been training runs, working, and coming home to watch a ton of netflix.

Tonight, after my typical Friday afternoon routine of watching a Disney movie (I really can't help myself, it makes me so happy to see all these classic films that I haven't watched in over 20 years) in my ever growing movie collection, followed by a Rip Van Winkle sized nap, I sat down to do my project life layout for week four. I hadn't taken many pictures over that week, so I was pleased to be able to finish a two page spread.

Click on images to enlarge.

I used mostly soft colors for this week's spread. I love all the yellows and pinks. It feels pretty girly but in the best way!

On the left side, I focused on little things from the week. I thought about my daily routine, which is play therapy at work. So I snapped a picture of this memory game I have that I often play with the children. It's funny, you think I would beat children at this game. But I'm so distracted by the conversations I need to be having with the children and writing the progress note, that I almost always lose horribly.

I included a little bit about the lunch at the tea room I had with my mother and a picture of that amazing red velvet cake. I also included a little insert about the book I just finished reading.

The right side was all about the weekend for the most part. The late night run to sonic for treats for Adam and an unsweetened, raspberry tea for me. I did two inserts for the runs for cookies virtual 5k I completed, which included my stats from that run. I also did a little week in review card with all the little details from the week. Lastly, I did a little card to document my new love for salted caramel protein hot chocolate. 

Materials Used:

Project Life: Amber Edition

Various Studio Calico Kits (mainly Far, Far Away)

Week in Review Card

Instagram Template Card

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