a thought to ponder...

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Happy Fall Y'all

Happy fall y'all! I adore lil punkins... therefore... I decided why not buy some and do a little decorating?! Now I typically set them around the house in random locations; however, in this home with a mantle, my dear fresh basil gave me a wonderful idea... place them on the mantle. I love them.

this past weekend I got to do a little adventuring in Baltimore while Derek was attending a conference. I got to join him at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel at the Inner Harbor. It is a wonderful place with great amenities including an extremely fluffy bed, a great gym, coffee bar and it's attached to a mall! What more could a girl ask for?! I had some tips from a dear friend about spots to visit while there~ had a wonderful time adventuring through the inner harbor and Fell's Point. If you are ever in the area and want a great lunch spot, I suggest stopping at Kooper's Tavern. The outdoor seating looks directly at the sailboats... its a wonderful sight.

Another highlight of the weekend was the social event for the conference. the group rented the club level of the Ravens football stadium which was adorned with fun drinks, great food and wonderful music! We had a great time enjoying the company of others and a little bit of dancing!

We look forward to another trip to Baltimore for a stop at Red Star which came highly recommended!

and perhaps... part of a new thought in our minds about a puppy might have been sparked by this wonderfully chill painting as we left a fun weekend in Baltimore...puppy thoughts to come shortly...

Philadelphia ING Half Marathon Finishers!

Our half marathon weekend was full of great friends, pasta, Alex's Lemonade water ice and running!

We started off attending the Expo on Saturday. Two of my fabulous college roommates, Julie and Kate, came in to town, one to run and one to cheer so we made our way into the city for lunch at Reading Terminal Market. It is a wonderful historic spot in Philly... a few people ate thai food and I ate at a wonderful southern cooking spot with famous macaroni and cheese! It was wonderful! After lunch, we attended the ING Expo where we picked up our numbers and sampled a few different products including cytomax (an energy drink) that we did not love, muscle milk (which is a bizarre name for an oddly tasting drink) and MGD64 the new beer that has 64 calories which we decided tasted similar to Mich Ultra with a bottle of water added to it! We had a blast bouncing around with orange sunglasses which they were happily handing out.

We enjoyed pasta with friends that night and ate some Alex's Lemonade Water Ice in honor of our running shirts and "team" of runners! The next morning we were up early for our start of the race. I for one love a simple banana and a new favorite, thomas's flat breads that are a combination of a roll and a pita pocket with some crunchy organic peanut butter. I would strongly recommend this combo to any runner looking for a good pre-race breakfast!

The weather was GORGEOUS. It started out in the mid 50's and at the end of the race was in the low 70's! We could not ask for a better running day! The corrals were organized well, and the beginning of the race was flawless. The biggest decision of the morning was to wear, or not to wear a running jacket... and finally, both meaghan and I decided to leave them with our cheer team.

The run itself was awesome. Few hills, great scenery, a few good cheering spots (where we saw our awesome cheer team!!!, thanks yall!!), great distance between water stations, plenty of Gu at the energy station, a little bit of music, and a lot of people but spread out enough that we never felt like we were tripping over others. It was also super fun to wear our Alex's Lemonade stand shirts, we were easy to spot and we were running for a cause all at the same time!!! As many of you know, I am not a talker when I run; however, for some reason during this run, Meaghan and I chatted from about mile 5 through mile 12! When you are ready for a race, and you need someone to help distract you from a throbbing finger, chatting is the perfect solution!



Looking forward to the next race... the Richmond, VA half marathon on November 14...in just 49 days! My family is going to run the 8k while Katy, a dear friend from Vanderbilt, and I run the half marathon~ should be a great time!

Ready Ready Ready...Ready to Ruuuun...

So the countdown to the ING Half Marathon in Philly has begun... 1 week from today! Now this training has been interesting... it has been hot and humid so the beginning was treadmill training but then had to switch to outdoor running... so I decided I needed to make a hard core purchase. See the photo with that crazy water bottle?! I decided... I should really be drinking water while running for over an hour so I became hard core. Now wearing this water "belt" was an interesting experience for a few reasons...

1. it bounces around alot
2. it is fascinating how other runners move out of your way when wearing this. I am convinced that it is some sort of symbol of... I am hard core. So people move out of the way!
3. I am really not hard care which made it even funnier wearing this!

More updates to come this week as we all get ready... in our Alex's Lemonade Stand running shirts!!!!

Lilly Winners!

We are SO excited to be named LILLY LOVER DAYS WINNERS FOR 2009!!!!

I looked down at my new blackberry tour (which I happen to love) and noticed 14 messages. Now I enjoy a good text message conversation but to look down and have 14 messages and multiple missed calls was a bit alarming. So I started scrolling through to see who was calling and what could be so important... when I realized... the messages read... CONGRATULATIONS... YAY for you...You've Done it...with these messages, I have to admit I was a bit perplexed!

I thought to myself, what have I done? What have I won? And that is when I learned from a dear friend in Charlotte, NC that Derek and I WON third place in the Lilly Lover Days Competition for 2009!!!! I was SO excited, I called Derek immediately to share the great news! Now we are waiting excitedly for our Lilly Beach Tote fillllled... yes... filled says the competition rules to the brim with Lilly beach goodies (Don't worry we will take some photos when it arrives!!!)! We are super excited and are thinking of some creative ways to celebrate our big Lilly win!!!