Wedding Update!

The countdown is also on until the BIG wedding day! Only 172 more days until I'm a married woman.  Wow, that seems so soon.  Thankfully I've been using Wedding Wire to keep me on track as far as what needs to be done in what order.  (You can also check out our wedding website HERE).  

Thankfully my honey is super talented in PhotoShop, so we designed our own Save the Date cards (pictured below):  Most of the inspiration for the photos came from PINTEREST!, but the idea to do the back side as a racing bib was totally mine!  Can you believe it?  They turned out much better than I anticipated and since we did all the labor ourselves we saved some $$$ too!

Front

Back

Photo credit for the Save the Dates goes to the talented Mrs. Rebecca Dodson.  You can see her website HERE , but sadly (for us, not her) she has moved to Nashville, Tennessee (and is expecting her first BABY!!!!).  She has done several photo shoots for us in the past, and is AWESOME.  Here is a link to our engagement shoot and Rebecca was also able to capture our engagement on film.

Here are some of the other vendors that we have chosen:

Accommodations - Brooksville Holiday Inn Express.  You can find their website HERE

Photography - Ms. Harmony Blackwell.  When it came to booking a photographer for the wedding, we were a little lost.  (As we are on a lot of wedding things).  Luckily, Ben went to college with fellow architect, Harmony Blackwell who has recently gotten in to photography.  Check out her website HERE!  We are very excited that Harmony has agreed to take part in our day

Flowers - Ms. Pamela Verschuere.  Pam is admittedly bad at internet and e-mail, but her telephone number is 813-505-6043.  Pam actually did the flowers for my sister's wedding in 2005.  She is very knowledgeable about flowers (which helps because I'm totally ignorant in regards to flowers) and very competitive with her pricing.

Catering - Luis Rovira of L & L Events.  You can contact Luis via his website.  Luis is super flexible and very nice.

Wedding Dress - Patricia's Boutique.  If you grew up in or around Pasco or Hernando counties, they you know Patricia.  I actually got my Senior prom dress at Patricia's.  They were really friendly, and I'm totally in love with my dress (which will remain a secret to most until April 13th).  The only downside of Patricia's is that they are really heavy in to pageants and suggested that I get my alterations done on my dress in November.  For an April wedding.  Dislike. So, if you know of a good seamstress in the area, please let me know!

And that's pretty much all we have done so far.  I've also been using my Bridal Bargins books (that I bought on Amazon to save money, but you can also find it HERE!)  The book has some really good ideas that I would have never thought of.  That's pretty much where are are at, it seems like a lot of work but it's pretty fun and exciting to research and learn more about weddings.

The end of an era

Sadly, this weekend, my BFF Kelly will be moving to Birmingham, Alabama with her husband Keithy-poo.  While this is going to be a very exciting time for both Kelly and Keith, it will be a sad weekend for myself.  I first met Kelly circa Fall of 2001, in Pensacola.  We both went to UWF and worked at the same steakhouse.  I call Kelly my Malibu Barbie friend.  If you aren't friends with her, you will totally want to be her friend just so you can be around her infectious (in a good way!) personality.

Here we are around 2003ish with my old roomie practicing our Foosball skills.  In college, Kelly and I were quite the Foosball sharks.  The poor men of Pensacola...

Once I graduated in 2004, I moved back to the Tampa area.  I begged Kelly to move here for several years.  But she was in graduate school at the time and had a great job.  The issue with Pensacola, is that it's mainly a transient town.  There is a military base, a college, a Christian college, and hurricanes.  A few years later (around 2008), Kelly got a job in Land O' Lakes as a guidance counselor and much to my surprise moved to Pasco county.

Sometimes when you have been away from a friend for a few years, you wonder if your relationship is going to be the same or if you will be too different now.  And although Kelly and I didn't see eye-to-eye on every situation (who does?!?), we were just like peas and carrots again!  Here's a little trip down memory lane:

Molly's Pushing It (real good!)

Gasparilla Parade 2009 (this is the day I met Ben)

MacDintons (cheers to new friend, Amanda!)

DMB Tailgating 2009

Fitzgerald's for my birthday

First of the broken arms at Beer Garten

Being cultured at the theatre

Time for tea - National Museum Day at the Tampa Bay History Museum

Halloween

Still sharking at foosball in Pensacola

Four Green Fields

World of Beer

More foosball (yes, we are that good!)

St. Patrick's Day at Four Green Fields

St. Pete Beach (with new/old friend, Michelle!)

Kelly's housewarming!

DMB tailgating 2010

Drinking Keith's delicious cider!

Howl at the Moon

Hands down the best date ever at Ryuu

Gasparilla 2011

Lori's visit 

Biff!! (This is the first broken leg)

Pensacola reunion!

The fabulous wedding of Keith and Kelly (LOVE Kristen's face in this one!)

Mmm, PETRAs!

Michelle's goodbye :(

Another date night at Bar Louie

Tommy's Paradise Grill for Lori's visit.

The Loving (?) Hut

It's been quite the adventure.  Good luck to Kelly and Keith and their new adventure in Birmingham, we will be up to visit soon - wild horses couldn't stop me! :) Love you, guys!!

First visit to the ONE-derland! Totally not going to the ER!

YESSS!!!

This week has been one amazing whirlwind.  I spent Monday - Thursday in Tallahassee.  Some of the really excited things I got to experience in Florida's capital is meeting sitting Supreme Court Justice, Peggy Quince; sitting in several House and Senate committee meetings; meeting Senator Anitere Flores and House Representative William Proctor; and touring the Governor's mansion.  It was really a busy time with tons of meetings and events so working out everyday wasn't so much of an option.  I did get to hit up the gym twice, but not really ideal for the week before a half marathon.  Oh well.

Coming home Thursday night was the best feeling EVER!  It was so nice to shower in my own bathroom and sleep in my own comfortable bed (with my cute honey).  Friday night Ben and I went on a little easy run in our neighborhood.  He got in a new pair of shoes that day and wanted to break them in, but it was raining a little bit when we walked out the door.  Not wanting to slosh around on the first run, he quickly switched shoes and we did a nice 3.5 miler.  And, of course, it stopped raining by the time we started....

Here he is with his new prized possession!  (Special thank you to Natalie and Tracey at Suncoast Running). The Brooks site at the expo were also selling the Launch in the new color, so there were quite a few other runners with the same ones....womp womp.

Saturday morning, we set out to go to the EXPO for Rock and Roll.  Our plan was to get there early before it got too crazy with the parking situation.  The plan worked because we got FREE two hour street parking right next to Tropicana Field.  Holla!  We had to wait a little bit before we could get in, so I snapped his picture of the boys patiently waiting to go inside...

Here we are in "Madrid"

And here are some of the wonderful women who I'm fortunate enough to get to run with:

After the EXPO, we went to Ferg's for lunch and then headed home.  We were meeting up for an early dinner of spaghetti and meatballs provided by Amanda and Chris.  The meal was delicious!  We were home by 7 pm (party animals!) and in bed by 9 pm.  The 4:30 am wake-up call was brutal!  I think it was worse because it was so darn cold outside!

We headed out to meet up at Chris' house and then we were going to carpool down to St. Petersburg.  We did pay $15 to park (such crap) and then we were fortunate enough to have our own photographer who moved our car for us to the finish line. I can not even express how great that was!  

The actual was race nothing shy of excellent!  I have to say that I owe everything to Chris and Ben for pulling me through and encouraging me the entire race.  The downhills, crowds, bands, and the signs were icing on the cake.  Here is the official finish!  Sub 2:00!

Participant Detail

Finished In:

01:56:33

3199

Laura Kelly

Port Richey, FL

Age: 30 | Gender: F

• Overall: 1726 out of 7006
 
• Division: 128 out of 755
 
• Gender: 694 out of 4562

• 5 Km
• 6 Mi
• 10 Mi

• 26:28
• 52:16
• 1:26:08

• Pace
• Chip Time
• Clock Time

• 8:54
• 01:56:33
• 01:59:02

Here is a photo of myself and Ben at the finish.  It was also really cool to see the clock under two hours as well!  My Garmin said the course was 3.21, so I did actually run 1:55 for 13.1 but I'm not complaining!  The whole race was great, can't wait for next year.

Here's a photo of me "punching" Chris in the face.  This is what I say I'm always going to do to him if he ever pushes me too far.  Needless to say, I've never punched anyone in the face.

First Rock and Roll Half Marathon!

Our anniversary is actually today (February 13th).  Three years ago we went on our first date (on a Friday the 13th).  Neither one of us knew what the future held for us, but it's been one amazing ride.  I can't not put in to words how lucky I feel to have someone like Ben who is so smart, funny, patient, and caring all rolled up in to one good-looking package!  The Half Marathon was early anniversary present to us! Happy Anniversary! ;)

I also got my first pair of trail shoes this weekend!  I'm officially signed up for the Trout Creek Trail 5k! Eekkk!  I went with the New Balance 573, can't wait to try them out this weekend.  

Now that I have broken the 2:00 mark (which still feels surreal), it's time to focus on other things.  Breaking 25:00 in the 5k and branching out on the trails are next on the list.  Hope you all have a wonderful week - Happy Valentine's Day!

Daily Mile, Pinterest Obsession, and another busy weekend!

Are y'all on Daily Mile?  The website is pretty nice, I could do without them rounding up/down my miles and times, but hey no one is perfect.  My running goal this year is to run 1200 miles.  I figured that if I kept on top of logging my miles electronically it will be easier to calculate everything at the end of the week/month/year.

So in the month of January I ran 114 miles.  I  have also burned 4 pounds, powered 15.64 TVs, saved 6.94 gallons of gas, and burned 77 donuts(!!).  You guys know know I love my statistics...

I've also been obsessed with Pinterest lately.  There is just SO much interesting, random stuff in one place to look at!  The one thing that I don't like about Pinterest is that if you don't "pin" something right when you see it...good luck finding it again.  I was trying to tell my sister about something for the wedding that I saw on Pinterest, and you know I could never find it again...  Darn.

The other really great thing about Pinterest is that there are a lot of really (and I mean REALLY) good ideas on there.  I actually stumbled across this website for a practical wedding. There are so many great ideas for keeping a wedding "in check".  The simple fact the Ben and I are sponsoring our own wedding has lead me to the realization that our wedding day isn't about whether or not I have a fancy hanger with my name on it, or an open bar, or etc...or etc...

Here's a quote from the author about memorable weddings:

I don't remember what the centerpieces looked like.  Frankly, I don't remember if they had centerpieces.  I don't remember what the brides dress looked like, just that it was white, she had a veil, and she was so happy she looked like she was shooting beams of light around the room.  I don't remember if they had programs, or much about what we ate.  All I remember is the emotion, the funny stories, and looks on peoples faces.  

Clearly, we are going to have to do a lot of the preparations and decorations ourselves, but that's what Pinterest is for, right?!? ;)

This weekend has been another busy one.  On Friday night, Ben and I met up with Kelly, Keith, Amanda, and Ryan at the Brick House on Dale Mabry.  This place is rather new and pretty good.  Their big claim to fame is the "beer bong" that they bring to the table and beers with a kick (i.e. BeeSting - Guinness with OJ).

Yesterday was my last long run before (inaugural) Rock n Roll St. Pete Half Marathon.  (I'm race number 3199, in corral 3)  It's been a few weeks since I've gone "long" and I really needed to have a little more confidence going in to next weekend.  Chris and I decided to meet up at his place and do a 10 miler on Bayshore.  I was planning to use my Gu gels for the first time to try out my race nutrition plan.  My friends at Suncoast Running hooked me up with a sample of the Mint Chocolate flavor (which was delicious!).

For the Space Coast Marathon, I used Shot Bloks (which worked really well), but I find it hard to chew and run at that same time.  My plan was to take a shot blok (black cherry, with caffeine) before the run and then the Gu at about 45 minutes in.  I'm happy to report that the plan worked perfectly. Here are the splits:

Laps11

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 1:28:53.6 10.01 8:53 1 8:55.0 1.00 8:55 2 8:33.8 1.00 8:34 3 8:56.8 1.00 8:57 4 8:47.6 1.00 8:48 5 8:59.3 1.00 8:59 6 8:52.4 1.00 8:52 7 8:59.2 1.00 8:59 8 8:51.4 1.00 8:51 9 9:04.2 1.00 9:04 10 8:50.7 1.00 8:51 11 :03.1 0.01 6:52

If I'm able to maintain under 9:00 minute miles I will hit my goal of a sub 2:00 half marathon.  Yesterday was  more of a trial run for next weekend.  I haven't seen the weather report for next weekend, but yesterday was pretty warm.  Ben, Chris, and I have decided to run the race together so I'm really excited about having support and a little bit of a push.

After the run was over, we decided to head to First Watch to refuel.  I'm so in love with this place!  I got the Fresh Fruit Crepes, my favorite:

Afterwards we met up with some family for a picnic at Al Lopez (perfect weather!), hit up Sam's Club (super fun the day before the Super Bowl!), and then went to the Land and Sea Market.  Land and Sea was AMAZING.  I've driven past this place a ton and have been meaning to stop since we moved in to our new place in July.  We landed up getting one of the packages they offer pick 6 for $26:

1 Chili or 1 Seafood Chowder

½ lb Spinach and Artichoke Dip or ½ lb Apple Walnut Chicken Sala

1 lb Deli Turkey or 1 lb Deli Ham

2 Stuffed Chicken Breasts (Over 12 Varieties)

2 Basa Fillets

2 lbs. Boneless Chicken Breasts

2 Bourbon Marinated Steaks

2 Chicken Mignons (Cajun, Lemon Pepper, or Greek) or 2 lbs.Ground Chicken

2 Tilapia Fillets

4 Chicken Burgers (Choose from Feta, Cheddar, Buffalo, Spinach and Feta, or Plain)

8 All Beef Hot Dogs

I can say with all certainty that we will be going back to Land and Sea, for sure!  Ben and I cooked up the stuffed chicken breasts last night, and they were delicious!  This week I'm off to Tallahassee for most of the week (Monday - Thursday), so it will be interesting to run in the hills a little more than normal.  More importantly, I want to make sure that I eat well and drink plenty of water.  Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!