Settling In

I know its been a while since I've posted something. I've been super busy! We ran the 5K at the Hoover Met last Saturday. It was pretty much the most unorganized thing I have ever done. Basically, you could either do a one mile walk or the 5K run. Most of the people there were doing the walk instead of the 5K. You would think that the people running the 5K would either go a different route than the one mile walkers, or at least go before their walk started. Nope. Everyone started at the same time. Justin and Rob and I were all walking behind a marching band and finally Rob decided to run around them and just follow the orange cones. Justin and I stayed behind the band to try and figure out what to do. As soon as we saw others passing them too, we made a run for it as well. We ended up having to ask several people which route was the route for the 5K runners and NO ONE seemed to know. How do you organize an event and not know where the track is? At least put up signs that say "5K runners this way". They told us to follow the orange cones, but there were orange cones everywhere in the parking lot. We finally figured it out, but there was no way we could time our progress.

We also went to the Birmingham Baron's baseball game last Thursday where I saw TONS of people that I hadn't seen in years. Justin and Rob have been getting the backyard ready for football season. They hung Rob's plasma on the brick wall outside and bought a mini-fridge and bar with bar chairs. They played PlayStation pretty much all day Saturday.

Our friends Seth and Bob came over Saturday night and we all decided to go to Iron Horse to see Fly By Radio play. I haven't seen Seth since high school and Bob since college so it was great to see them again and we all had such a blast at Iron Horse that night. The next day, Justin and I went to Oak Mountain State Park to go to the petting zoo and see Peavine Falls. It was still kind of rainy because of Fay so we couldn't go horseback riding, which is what I REALLY wanted to do.

My mom wanted me and Justin to come over to her new house for dinner on Monday night. My step-brother Todd and his wife Susan were there as well. We grilled out and ate some cookie cake :) I just wish I would have gotten to see my little man and little girl.

I start my job today at BMSS (I don't have to go in until 1:30). I'm sure I will have many interesting stories after this weekend since its the opening of football season. Saturday will be a HUGE day around this house :) ROLL TIDE BABY!!!

So much to do...so little time

There is so much going on with me right now! Every single time I look at my calendar for the rest of the year I have to take a deep breath. I literally have something going on almost every weekend until after New Years. How sad is that? Most importantly though, I AM MOVING HOME TOMORROW!!! I am so unbelievably excited. I have one last talk with HR at 3:30 and then I'm going home to put everything in my car and drive back down south! I'm leaving my furniture and other "big" things in my apartment until the lease is up on November 30th. I've got a few trips planned to come back to Nashville, so it would be nice to have a bed to sleep in and a free place to stay.


The following Monday, my mother is having a "Welcome Home" dinner for me as well as her and Mike. I say her and Mike because even though I am permanently moving back to Birmingham, they are moving into their new house that Mike just got done building the weekend before, so it's really a "Welcome Home" for all of us. All of my mothers children are desperately praying that this is the last house they will live in. My mother and Mike got married on 3-2-01 and have lived in 6 houses since then. Mike's a builder in Alabama so its convenient for them (and for me when I build my house).

I will start my new job that Wednesday. The next weekend is labor day and is the only weekend that we don't have something huge planned, which is strange because it's a holiday weekend when most people plan things. My dirty sanchez will be turning 25 on the 29th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARINA!!). Football season kicks off on the 30th. BAMA is playing Clemson and Auburn is playing Louisiana Monroe. More than likely, there will be a rather large party at the house. Naturally, I will be the only BAMA fan there...but I don't care. We're planning on cooking for everyone and playing "washers", a rather dumb yet amusing game, that Auburn people play a lot. We might go to the pool or do something small on Labor Day, but I doubt we'll be traveling anywhere.

The next weekend is BAMA vs. Tulane and Auburn vs. Southern Miss. Justin asked me to go with him to Auburn to actually go to the game. He already wants me to go to the Auburn vs. Vandy game in Nashville with him and now he wants me to actually go into the Lion's Den. He might be pushing it...but I guess I'll do it since he's so good to me and has done numerous other things for me such as helping me move up three flights of stairs with no help from anyone else :) At some point I will have to buy the "House Divided" car tag...


The next weekend is going to be MY FAVORITE WEEKEND!!! My entire family is going to the beach. My step-dad rented an 8br/6ba house on the beach with a pool for the week. Unfortunately for me and Justin, we can't come until Thursday when everyone else is coming on Wednesday. The last time we were all together like this was probably Christmas. It will be my mom and Mike, Lindsey and Jeff with Anderson and Lydia, Jennifer and Jeff, Susan and Todd, Mike's nephew Shaun and his family, and me and Justin. Justin is actually going to be flying into Pensacola on Thursday (hopefully...this is still in the works right now). I'll be leaving after work on Thursday to drive to FL's highpoint (since Justin's already done it). From the highpoint, I will pick Justin up at the airport and then go meet the family late Thursday night. That's still leaves us 2 1/2 days at a private beach so that makes me happy :)

I could do this for every weekend till Christmas but that would make for a really long blog entry and I need to get back to work. (I needed a brief break from auditing benefit plans for a just a minute).

CAN'T WAIT TIL TOMORROW!!!!

5K's, 10K's, and Marathons

So I just registered for the Vulcan Run in Birmingham, AL today. This run is one of the most popular runs in the state and I am very excited about it. I have lots of friends that do 5K's and 10K's and such and its always something I've wanted to do, but just never done it or felt like getting in shape enough to do one. This time I'm actually going to do it and train for it. Vulcan Run is a 10K race, which means its about 6.22 miles. I've run that on a treadmill before (though it has been a while) so I feel confident I can do it again.

I'm planning on running several 5K's before the 10K run (a 5K is about 3.11 miles). However, I would LOVE for my 10K to be a training for the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham. Marathons are 26 miles and a few hundred yards or so. I've never done a marathon before and, like most marathoners, will be happy just to cross the finish line. I don't know if I can handle the full marathon though, so I am planning on doing the Mercedes half-marathon in February 2009, which is 13 miles. Justin is planning on doing the half-marathon as well so it will definitely be convienient to have a training buddy. The downside is that January through March is a busy time of year for me (those dreadful 10-12 hour workdays) so it is going to be unbelievably hard to keep up a workout schedule to make sure I stay in shape right before the race. We'll see how it goes though. I've already created my marathon training schedule which I start doing on September 15, 2008. I plan on running 5 days a week with Saturday and Sunday being my big runs for the week. It's a 20 week long training before the big race!

The Vulcan Run is on Saturday, November 1st. Stop by and see us :)

**Shout out to Lauren Owens Kelly, who tried to get me to run 5K's with her while she was still living in Birmingham and to Lillian Quarles, who tried to get me to run the Music City half-marathon in Nashville with her. Love you both and sorry it took me so long to get into the marathoning :)

www.vulcanrun.com

And, interestingly enough, this years Vulcan Run is sponsered by JRAG, a company that my step-brother's wife works for. Susan if you weren't preggers then you would be running with me, whether you liked it or not!