Rain, rain...

I stole this picture :)

The past couple days have been ridiculously rainy. I come home from work drenched and have to put the blow dryer on my shoes for an hour to dry them out. I walk with my feet completely submerged in water just to get to my car in a flat parking lot. Florida is a moody woman with her crazy weather. Travis and I have been sharing my car since it isn't very safe (at least in my opinion!) for him to ride his motorcycle with several inches of water on the road.

I love the rain.

Lindsea vs. The Button-up Shirt

(Yes, my photography skills leave a lot to be desired, but you get the idea... )

About 8 years ago I bought a black button up shirt with cute embroidery on the cuffs and white pin stripes. BUT... it was too small. I can't even remember why I bought it, though I'm sure it was somewhere along the lines of, "I'll lose a few pounds and it will be perfect!" 8 years later, I have never worn it, yet it continues to make the college back and forths, Boise, Utah and Florida treks. In the back of my mind was the thought that it WOULD fit me soon. It has been tried on about 4 times a year and it was always too small. It isn't so much that I love the shirt as it has become a competition and challenge to wear it.

Well the other day I decided to try it on and.... it fit!! I was in shock when I was able to button up every single button. Awesome. I kicked some button-up shirt booty and wore it out today.

New Goals

In an effort to better prepare for the upcoming half and full marathons, I have decided to start now. My schedule keeps changing along with the weather and I'm hoping a weekly mileage goal will prove more doable. Right now that goal is 15 miles a week. 5 times of 3 miles is a good base to work from and then I can add a mile or two every week.... hope Travis can keep up!

May 8th: Pig Jig 5K
September 5th: Disneyland 1/2 Marathon
October 31: Marine Corps Marathon
January 8th: Disney World 1/2 Marathon
January 9th: Disney World Marathon

We are hoping that running the 1/2 marathon in September will help us train better for the Marine Corps one so we don't embarrass ourselves too much. The Disneyland 1/2 Marathon goal I set for myself is 2 hours 30 minutes which would put me on pace for my Marine Corps Marathon goal which is 5 hours. That is 1 hour and 39 minutes less than my last marathon, and a pretty decent time.

Disneyland 1/2 Marathon

Ok, so it has been almost 2 months since we ran the FULL marathon here at Disney World and I'm getting excited to run another race. Travis keeps coming up with all of these marathons we need to do, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't extremely tempted to run them. The next race I will run will be the Pig Jig 5K while we are home for Apple Blossom. It will be followed (hopefully!) by the Marine Corps Marathon (full 26.2 miles), Disneyland 1/2 Marathon, EPCOT 1/2 (can't remember the name), then the Disney World 1/2 Marathon followed by the Disney World Marathon the very next day. It's called the GOOFY for a reason!

The Marine Corps Marathon has me very excited since the route includes various monuments in Washington D.C. It's a way to see the sights that you don't always get to enjoy. I am also looking forward to the Disneyland 1/2 marathon. Trying to get family to go for the weekend and run with us has proven a little challenging, but I'm still hoping! Janae, Rissa and Whit have all expressed their interest in going. It will be a lot of fun.... promise! If I am able to run a full marathon, anyone in my family is capable of finishing the 1/2. Most of them could kick my trash too. It will be fun! :)

The feeling of accomplishment after finishing a race like this is enough to make me want to do it again. And it's a wonderful family bonding time! Nothing says I Love You like running, sweating and going through a *little* pain... TOGETHER.

Illinois

We made it back and had a blast on vacation. I enjoyed getting to know the rest of Travis' family and the dry cold in Illinois. Curling my hair in the morning didn't seem futile when it was still curly late that night! Oh how I miss that.
The trip was relaxing. It was nice not to have the few days we were there jam packed with activities so we could just enjoy it. The first full day we were there we went to Carbondale (sp), where his little sister goes to college and went out to lunch at a fun lodge. We ate family style with fried chicken, potatoes, chicken and dumplings, gravy, corn, beans, biscuits, coleslaw and my new favorite... apple butter. It was all delicious and of course I ate way too much. Thankfully we walked to the top of, well, to be honest, I don't know what it was. Something with a lot of stairs, where we took pictures.
It was fun to go to a family ward again on Sunday. Singles wards just aren't the same or as homey. Sunday night Travis took me for a drive around his old college stomping grounds. Putting the pieces together never gets old. I like putting a mental picture to the stories I hear.
Monday morning was spent shopping with the parents and the afternoon was passed playing card games. There is a place called Fitz's that we went to in St. Louis that is a pop bottling company that has a restaurant in it. You can see the bottling equipment and when they are actually using it, watch the process while you eat. It was scrumptious and I introduced a few of Travis and Sarah's friends to fried pickles.
I didn't want to come back to work on Tuesday, but after a trip to White Castle, we got on the plane anyway. The country scenery is missed though. I am definitely a country girl at heart.
One of the highlights of the trip happened on Monday and didn't even happen in Illinois. My new nephew was born! Poor Travis that had to put up with me using his iPhone to check my brother's blog every 20 minutes to see pictures. He is an adorable baby!

Novel Idea... a MENU!

Thinking of ways to save money, I decided to make a menu and then go shopping once for all the meals during the week. I know, it is not a very original idea and people have been doing this for ages, but it is new for me! Before I would go to the store and decide there what I wanted to make. Inevitably this would lead to more trips to the store later on because I forgot something... and who goes to the store and doesn't see something else that looks good too? So this last week I spent 25 dollars on lunch/dinner food and I have plenty of stuff left over! I love that feeling. The only thing is coming up with meals that sound good before I go shopping. Any ideas?

Miami

Sarah had a mission companion flying from Cali to Chile with a layover in Miami a couple weeks ago. Travis and I had the day off, so we all made the 4 hour drive (stupid tolls) to Miami. We made it there a little early so parked the car in a residential area and walked along a sidewalk that doubles as an ocean barricade. It was fun to see the skyline of Miami and try to figure out which building glows gold on the CSI:Miami opening credits. By the way, I have no doubt in my mind why they picked Miami for a CSI.... more later.

Sarah's friend left her cell phone at home, so her son called from California saying she landed and was downstairs waiting. This is the Miami airport, we need a little more than just "downstairs" to find a person. But we headed over to the airport and when we didn't find her on the first drive by, had an interesting time trying to get back. No, Travis was not driving (neither was I), but he wishes he was when we finally found her after a couple more drive bys the airport and just as many large loops through Miami to get back to the airport. I enjoyed the scenic route, but by the time we found the friend, we only had 2 hours with her.

We headed to South Beach to get dinner. We drove by Miami Ink, I didn't see the sign. But we drove by it! After walking down the streets finding a cheap place we found the food factory. We only had 1 hour before her flight at this point. Did I say it was international? She was not in any hurry though so Travis insisted and put our orders to go. We were able to eat the mediocre food and fight traffic back to the airport. I think she had 20 minutes by the time we got there to make her flight. Since she didn't have a cell phone we don't know how that went. Travis took us to a gas station to fill up for the ride home. It was one of those places where you don't feel comfortable going inside the convenient store. On our way out from the station we realized we must have stepped in gasoline because it smelled in the car. Travis stopped the car in a back alley and we scraped our shoes on the grass. An oversized van started heading towards us as I scrambled to get back in the car. I didn't want to make CSI.

The ride home was uneventful (other than the tolls charging us an arm and leg!), and I can now say that I will never (in this case I can say NEVER) want to live in Miami. No thank you. I'll stay where I am at for the time being.