Another Re-runner

My girlfriend Sara was mentioning how hard it is to get out and be active.  It is hard.  Life happens. 

Cheryl and I had started a long distance running pal 'thing' a while back to try to commit us both to running on a more regular basis.  I mentioned it to Sara who was interested.  I named it rerun and the idea is that we run to the same music on the same day and then hold each other accountable for it. 

For lack of much planning time, yesterday we took the Katy Perry Pandora Station (which resulted in a bit of a random mix for my run including My life Sucks without you, All-Star and Teenage Dream.)  Sara didn't share you play list but she did successfully navigate 2.6 miles on her first day!

I have this new thing about running west from my house.  I always use to run east.  So now I don't plot my run, I just kinda go.  It's an awesome freedom to know I can do it and it seems to make the time past more quickly, so as of this moment I have no idea how far I ran, but I'm about to find out...

So thanks to the marvels of map my run I found out I ran exactly 1.5 miles (there were also two stair cases involved).  That explains why it went so quickly .:)  Still, it wasn't that long ago I couldn't run a mile without dying, so I count it a victory! 

So thanks to Sara for being another motivator for getting other there everyday!

Guess who has two thumbs and is writing a novel?

This guy!!

Yep, I'm writing a novel.  Likely a terrible novel.  Likely a way to close to real life novel.  Likely a novel I'll never let anyone read (as if you want to read it...)  Still, I'm writing a novel.

See?

Thanks to Jen for the challenge.  I'm adding a tag so you can follow along with my progress this November.  NaNoWriMo.  Wish me luck!

Wedding Planning: Flowers

At the time of our wedding, I wasn't big on flowers. I thought they were pretty, and I've always I liked the ones that smelled nice. I just didn't have favorite flowers,  Hence my bouquet being somewhat unique and not actually involving flowers.

We hired a florist, told her our vision and then let her run with it. When she came to our tasting she had a variety of different flowers types in our wedding colors, all of which looked nice.

Our big 'decorating' scheme was based on our vases. We wanted our handmade ceramic vase favors to serve as our center pieces for the table. We quickly realized 10 was too many per table, so half decided on a smaller arrangement.
  
These are the samples from our tasting:

We were very happy with the results.  I don't think we gave her any comments other than we decided to add an overlay to the tables.  

As far as the actual ceremony, I was always more excited about the decorations there.  We had looked through all of the Disneyland galleries of previous weddings but I just kept thinking they were too busy looking.  We wanted something simpler, more classic.   I couldn't have been happier with the results.

For every concern I had about the venue, our florist had a solution:

I don't really want to put fabric but I think it's too plan between our heads and the top of the gazebo.

Enter chandelier full of flowers.

This walk way is way too wide and I don't like the look of the plain concrete.

Enter sprinkled flowers, wide runner, parasols.

We didn't give her much guidance on the bouquets and boutineers, but they came out beautifully.  

 

Considering the small amount of direction I gave I was so impressed with all of the details I missed that our florist covered. 

If you know anyone looking for a great florist, I would always recommend Shelia with Green Left Designs.

I love him; and he loves crazy...

Who knew a balloon could say it all??

Happy Birthday Gavin.  I love you.

Year old wedding cake

Since before our wedding, people have been warning me about how bad year old wedding cake is.  "No matter what you do it will be dry and nasty." 

Well, I can't deny it didn't look as beautiful as the day we were married:

But my husband is the Super Googler.  It may not have been as good as the day we were married, but he did a fantastic job and it was more than edible.

So we set a table, shared a toast and closed the book on a rough year. 

I love you, Gavin.  Thank you for making me your wife.

Happy Annivesary to the ground! :)

Sorry, blog readers.  Inside Joke. 

Last weekend was our first wedding anniversary.  It's been a rough year for us, still even the bad times have reminded me that I wouldn't trade our love for anything.  I am also so grateful for our wedding.  There were SO many times during the planning of the wedding that I literally tossed the plans on the floor, picked up my purse and said "That's it, let's go to Vegas."  I am so grateful we didn't.

Now, for all time we have that one perfect day as a representation of our love.  Perfect weather, perfect location, perfect pictures, even perfect snafus.

I love you, Gavin!

As a wedding gift from some very special friends, we received a first anniversary romantic get away to Big Sur.  So last weekend, we packed up the the car and headed to Post Ranch Inn!

Not long after we started dating, Gavin and I drove his car from Illinois to California.  It was a fun trip.  We talked, sang, laughed, and shared our life stories.  This drive equally enchanting (okay, the last hour on the way home was a bit daunting, but other than that amazing).

The hotel was gorgeous, inside and out.  Even the bathtub had an awesome ocean view!

 We had big plans for how we'd spend out days in Big Sur, but with a view from your bed like this:

How do you leave?

So we mostly hung around the property.  We watched the animals, hiked and even saw a deer!

It was pretty funny actually.  We were walking along this trail and I saw a deer very close to us.  We were standing there looking at each other for so long that we figured out it was fake.  Just as I was feeling embarrassed for being duped, it turned it's head walked away.  When we turned the next corner on the trail, it was standing there looking at us again!  It was so beautiful.  I was half convinced it was animatronic.  I'm too Disney, I guess.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend of nice Champagne, bird watching, relaxing and mostly remembering and celebrating the most important thing in my life, my husband.

Happy Anniversary, Gavin.