the fever

we've got the fever.....and the only cure was more twilight.

Yes, I went to the midnight showing of Eclipse last night/this morning. I'm not sure if it was full-fledged twi-hard fan-dom or just some silly fun with good friends, but I had a blast.

Meet my super-cute friends Julia, Julia, Joe and LeeLee:

(please note the ridiculously large cup of coffee that leelee has in her hand)

the line outside the theater.....and leelee's reaction (ok, it was totally staged, a la "the hills" style)

and, of course we had to have paraphernalia displaying our allegiances:

seeing all the crazed tweens outside the theater totally made me think of this:


ahhhhh. crazy times at the concord mall.
now please excuse me while i nap on my desk.
at work.
i'm feeling really old.
and tired.

family (birthday) traditions

i had a blast on josh's birthday last friday. i know that's not exactly what's most important, but hey---its my blog, so i talk a lot about me.

we went to cabo fish taco for dinner....uhm, delish! new favorite in charlotte for sure. thanks grant for the suggestion! see how happy we were to be eating there! (ps, josh made me take this picture down the street from the restaurant....he likes to play it cool like that)

i love the jones family. they are so sweet and loving; and they have some awesome family traditions. i guess that's what you get when you marry one of the 5th generation boys to be born on the family farm land.

yummy tradition number one: "red velvet" birthday cake. why, you may ask, is that red velvet cake in a bundt shape? ahhhh, because its not technically a red velvet cake. its actually an old-fashioned pound cake (think pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound added to your frame for every slice you eat) and then dye it red....and ice it (of course) and you end of with the jones' version of a red velvet cake. but boy, oh boy, does josh love it!

awesome tradition number two: quilts! josh's grandmother gave josh a quilt top that her mom made back in the 1970s. the polyester is amazing...nanny had some serious flava. i snuck down to my dad's house in south carolina and put the quilt together for a birthday surprise!

after my sisters and i went away for college, my dad and stepmom turned our room into a giant sewing room...complete with this baby:

i'm not exactly sure what's she's called, but she's genius! my dad helped me use said-genius machine to sew the top, batting and back together:

it took us six hours to put it all together....and i still had to finish the binding at home. muchos besos papá! i couldn't have pulled this off without you!

and what was josh's reaction to the surprise birthday quilt? blue steel and total adoration:

i love my sweet husband.

i love my sweet husband's family.

i love my sweet husband's family's traditions.

thirty three never looked so good

Josh is 33 years old today. Wow. 33. I'm shocked; not because of the age but because of the history. Is it really possible that we've been together for nine birthdays? I think about the birthdays that we've celebrated and the years in between....some really blessed and some tough seasons too. But in all of it, I'm so thankful that the Lord has given me Josh to celebrate with. I love him now more than ever and a lot more than I thought was even possible (I'm being serious, not cheesy, promise!)

So cheers to the man that leads me to Jesus, makes me laugh, pursues me, is a steady support, is crazily talented, is passionate about ministry, loves his family, cooks like a mad-man and is somehow reliable and unpredictable at the same time.

So sorry to have taken him off the market ladies :)

love him.

The Pink House

The Pink House in Weaverville, NC is my new favorite vintage store. The place is incredibly well stocked, has the sweetest owners and is super inexpensive. Check out this duvet cover and pillow sham set that I got for a measly $19!! I'm in love with the pattern....

And I love the way it makes the guest bedroom look! It adds a little pop of color and a little more layering is always good too.

And those blue pillows? How sweet are the embroidered flowers? Ok, they're actually cloth napkins that I turned into pillows....but it works!

I think my guest rooms are getting girl-ier and girl-ier. Oh well!

129 days and counting

I think I may have gotten in a little over my head. How far over my head? 26.2 miles to be exact. Oh lawd.

I've been hanging out at Windy Gap the past couple of weeks. Its been great and I've got tons of stories to share....but just this one for now: I've succumb to peer pressure. Yes, its finally gotten to me.

While at camp, I snuck off one day to run a half-marathon with my friend Allie. It was her first half and my second. We had so much fun running and lounging around by the pool after the race. The folks at camp were so encouraging, offering tons of support and pats on the back for us both.

But then the talk began about our next race. We mentioned that we'd signed up for the Rock and Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon and that we were excited about running the race and spending labor day weekend with some of our college girlfriends. Mostly, we got more support. Buuuuuut, we did get a few, "oh, another half? that's good.......so when's your full marathon?"

Excuse me, what? A full marathon? As in 26.2 miles? As in 13.1 miles farther than I've ever run? As in that's long enough to make me bored in a car, and you're asking me to run that?

Then marathoners seriously starting coming out of the woodwork. Here I was recovering from a half marathon, basking in my new PR and I was getting slammed about how much more fun marathons were.

I expected to be peeved....or pissed....or angry. But I wasn't. I was jealous.

I felt like I wasn't a real runner. But these marathoners were. After all, don't know you about a dozen people that have run a half-marathon? But how many people do you know that have run a full marathon?

So, I'm doing it. Peer-pressure may have gotten me to the sign-up......so, hopefully it will carry me across the finish line. Here's to the next 18 weeks of training. Yikes.

new personal record

This has been a months of repeats and records. I ran my second half-marathon and another 5k....those are my repeats. My records are: 1) shaving 18 minutes off my half marathon time and 2) dropping 3 minutes on my 5k time. Yes, I've been a little running focused recently :)

I ran the Civitan 5k (in Hendersonville) with my friends Bethany and Shannon last Saturday. We got up waaaaay too early to get to the park in time, but still had a great time. Nothing like a run (or a big breakfast afterwards) in the morning to solidify a friendship.

The race was a great course, mix of trails and hills. There were a few muddy spots, but we managed to stay upright and come in with some good times. Speaking of good times....guess who won her age group?? Me and Bethany!!

I was floored. I don't win stuff. And while I've enjoyed running, I feel like I've transitioned into more of a distance runner (where its only the miles that matter) and not necessarily a quick-win-her-age-group kind of runner. Ok, to be honest it was a relatively small race with only 4 girls in my age-group-----but I'm still counting it as both a win and a new personal record. Now, what do I spend my $10 gift certificate on???

ikea crazy

oh, ikea. i love you for so many reasons; cheap prices, crazy swedish styling, strange foods.

and also how excited my friends and i get when we shop at your store:

i told my friend laura to pose for a picture in front of the ikea store

i guess she just couldn't contain her excitement

(please still be my friend laura!)

wedded bliss

i love a wedding. i love a wedding that i get to go to with josh.....because this happens:

why is it so hard to get this man into a suit?
i love it!
thank you to laura and grant for getting married!

roommate love

I had some of the best roommates in college. We did ministry, cooked, giggled, avoided work and survived a huge apartment fire together. I know they'll be my friends forever. Its really quite a cool feeling. I still catch myself saying, "I'm on the phone with my roommate" or "I'm going to see my roommate" which is so strange since I've been married for six years and haven't lived with those sweet girls since then!

Maury moved in with us our senior year. She was a transfer student and a friend-of-a-friend. Initially, I wasn't too sure about her.....after all, I didn't know her at all. What if she was weird? Like the pick-her-boogers-and-wipe-them-on-your-bedspread kind of weird. Or the i-pretend-like-i'm-a-character-off-of-star-trek kind of strange. But, she wasn't. She was actually kind of awesome. The more I got to know Maury the more I realized that I had always needed her to be my friend and hadn't even known it. She had a knowledge of the Lord that I craved, a free-ness to love that I envied, a dedication to her work that inspired me, a stroke of genius in the kitchen and a killer diet coke habit.

After the big apartment fire during our senior year we moved into Maury's lake house. Which, if we weren't getting much school work done to start out with....we certainly weren't getting any done at the lake! Our friendship grew through the loss of our material possessions (and our obsession with Friends dvds.) I really can't imagine where I'd be, or what my life would be like, without Maury. She's the friend that I can call for a recipe, encouragement, accountability and shoe shopping. And unlike some of my other roommates (ahem, Cat and Val) she lives just down the road. We get together every once in a while for dinner (and a serious gab session!) Last night we met up for Japanese....hence my greasy looking face....I swear the guy cooking nearly caught us on fire.

Maury has been so good to me lately. I've been dealing with some crappy stuff and she's been such a good listener. She puts up with my rants and raves, is patient and remembers all the little details. I leave all of our time together literally praising the Lord for her friendship. Thank you Jesus for Maury!!

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

i heart marc

chelsea called to tell me that there was this fantastic jacket at our local goodwill that i had to try on. hello love!!!

a fabulous marc jacobs jacket for $4.99?
yes please!!!!

another week, another half

So, I'm a runner. I feel almost confident saying that. I know what stigma I've got about runners and/or running......but I'm still having a hard time joining the ranks.

My friend Allison and I ran the Ridgecrest Half this past weekend. It was my second half marathon and I loved it. My first half (in Charlotte) was really tough, both physically and mentally. But this one was different. I'm not sure if it was running the whole race with a good friend, being in the mountains, watching the sunrise (it was at 6am!) or what....but I enjoyed it. I found myself singing along to my ipod, smiling and even dancing a little bit (if that's even possible while running!)

What were the results? I ran 2:05:47. A new PR for me! It was nearly 19 minutes faster than my time for the Racefest half marathon. And Allison did great too. She finished around the 2:15 mark and finished 14th in our age group! Did I mention that this was Allison's first ever race...of any kind...as in, she's never run a 5k before and just got an awesome time on a half marathon? Yeah, she's a phenom.

And let the picture montage begin!!

before the 6am start:

and after the race:

yes, we wore our medals when we went out to lunch
and yes, allison looks cute and i'm wearing compression socks with running shorts