In other news…

On top of starting a business that is probably the scariest and ultimately very rewarding thing I have ever done I have decided to train for a half marathon in October.  I have gone completely mad I know.  I still haven’t done my 5k for the month of June and I want to run a marathon (I have done 3.1 miles a couple times in June and I have been in the 33-35 minute range for all of them)??!!!  But it isn’t official and so I can’t call it really doing a 5k and today is the last day to do one in June. Dang June went by FAST!  There is one is Worcester, MA tonight but that is soooo farrr awayyyyy. 

So 5k to 1/2 marathon….am I nuts? Well in a nutshell, yes.  But I have other nuts who will be **hopefully** running the half marathon with me.  One of my co-workers asked how my running was doing and it was actually doing well.  I have been running about 3 times a week and feeling really good, but I haven’t really stretched my legs and gone past the 5k mileage.  Just kinda sticking to the safe 3 miles.  So when my co-worker told me about the 1/2 marathon in the town we live in and that a group was trying to do it…I thought this might be the push I need to go from safe 3 miles to not so safe 13 miles.  It sounds really crazy, but I have already passed my comfortable safe 3 miles last week and what do you know it didn’t kill me.  It was difficult and I was a hot sweaty mess after the run, but stepping off that treamill was amazing after completing a new goal. I have felt that accomplished since the first time I was able to run a 5k.  Only into week one and I was already having milestones. I have definately already reached the non-comfortable zone!  YIKES!

Now a couple things I told myself…

• Hal Higdon is the God of running. My friend Ellen is his partner in crime. Don’t try to be cool and steer from their training plans.
• If I don’t finish the training then I will NOT be running the half marathon. No need to break a leg on a race.
• If I don’t finish the training then I will shoot for a 10k, 15k for October instead. At least it would be more than a 5k
• If I make it to Week 10 of the training sessions then I will be signing up and registering for the race. no sooner no later.
• If I DO make it through the training and I DO run this 1/2 marathon the only thing I will concerned about it doing it. No time goals.  Just a finish goal.

Now I know I am going to hit some obstacles such as August training because I work 12-14 hour days for about 3 weeks straight.  Somehow I am going to try to find the time/energy/effort to do my training those weeks.  July is going to be HOT. HOT HOT HOT. Although running on the treadmill has gone fairly well when I start creeping up in distance I know I will want to be outside and July heat may prevent me from doing this.  My husband is not having any part of this race except to stand on the sideline and scream is head off for me.  So right now we are in the gym the same amount of time when he goes with me, but soon he will be leaving me in the gym for me to continue running.  Somehow him being in the gym keeps me going even though he is downstairs and not running.

BUT I have the support group on FB and my co-worker to keep telling me to get my arse running.  I have the fact that I hate making a goal and not making it and failing.  I have the fact that it is Week 2 and I haven’t quit yet (small victories).  I have the fact that it is summer and I get through the initial training without much night commitments/weekend commitments and try to push myself physcially.  I have my husband’s support even if he is not running he is pushing me to complete my goal.

 

So with all this being said has anyone else ran a 1/2 marathon? Any great websites about running a 1/2 marathon that you would recommend? Am I really as crazy as I think I am? Will you still read my blog if I fail and do not run this 1/2 marathon?

Happy Hump Day!!

Big News!

For my faithful readers you probably have seen a bit of a drop in how stellar my posts have been this month.  I appreciate you sticking around and waiting for me to bounce back as I have promised each week.  Well it is finally here and my awesomely awesome posts are back.  I have been consumed by oh just a minor project day/night and so blogging has been put on the side burner.

There is a reason for this and I am VERY excited to announce the start of my new business…

It has been quite a whirlwind, but I am happy to say that we are open for business and BEFORE my goal of July 1st. Gosh there is so much to be said regarding the past few months and all the crazy behind the scenes action that went into announcing this endeavor.  For now though I will bask in the glow of finishing my first official maternity shoot this weekend.  Take a peek at what I have been working on over at my photography blog and let me know what you think. And no worries this blog will still be in full force…

I am glad to be back and I am thankful for July to arrive…

Thank you woman in the blue…

So on Friday I had the day off and I went to a new beach that I had never gone to…alone.  It was actually pretty relaxing and I really enjoyed the beach with a cold refreshing lemonade.  Now I didn’t get there until later in the afternoon and so I was being a cheapo and didn’t want to spend the entire 10 buckaroos to only stay a few hours.  So I did what every cheapo does…found a lot with metered parking.  Now this was outrageous meter parking…aka 25 cents for every 10 minutes…say what???? But I sucked it up and paid five buckaroos.  Now I was getting close to my time tickering out and I didn’t know how many times the meter men really came and checked the meters but I only wanted 20 more minutes in the sun.  Could you give me 20 more minutes in the sun meter man?? I risked it and stayed an extra 20 minutes but the entire walk back to the car I was anxious to see the windshield.  I just knew I would have a parking ticket..I was just hoping it wasn’t for a crazy amount.  {and realizing maybe I should have paid the extra 5 bucks and did all day parking!}

Well I round the corner and I find a vision in blue saving the day.  She was having some drawn out conversation at her car with the METER MAN!!! She was asking him questions about holiday parking, or the festival that was going on this weekend.  Whatever the deal was she SAVED THE DAY!!! The meter man was 4 cars from mine and surely would have given me a ticket.  I tried to be as casual as I could getting to my car, but he could see me in the corner of my eye.  I shoved everything in the car as fast as I could but I needed to throw away my old lemonade! What is a girl to do.  So I left the car door open as I threw my garbage away {meter man can’t give me a ticket with stuff ready to leave in the car, right?} Just as I was about to pull out the meter man go to my spot and looked at the expired meter and just smiled.

Thank you woman in the blue for saving me from “x” amount of dollars in a ticket.  I have learned my lesson next time I will just pay the 10 dollars for the full day. 

{not the best picture of the blue lady but I was scared she would see me!}

 

I also want to thank the lady in the black bathing suit, with leggings, and a sports bra running next to me this weekend.  I had to do 4 miles on the treadmill and I didn’t think I was going to make it, but you kept me so entertained I did all 4 miles!! {I totally wish that I had a picture of this, but I couldn’t get a picture without making it obvious}.  If she ever returns to the gym in this outfit I will be sure to bust out a picture–obvious or not.  It just must be taken for the sake of this blog. 

Anyone else try to take random pictures of people in their lives?? Ever get caught??

Friday Foto!

so this Friday Foto is a little latebut I have a great excuse because I am doing this all day long…

being a beach bum 🙂

later today i am heading to a baseball game for the start of an exciting weekend!! go spinners!!

hope everyone has fabulous weekend plans and I will see you on the flip side…

Change

Change is a funny thing.  One minute I am really loving change and dive right into change.  One minute I am embracing change and really growing from change.  Then the next minute I am loathing change and really miss my routine and my safe zone and my peace of knowing things aren’t going to change.

I have been living in the in between of change for the past 3 weeks and on Monday I will be jumping right into the large sea of change.  3 weeks ago I was thinking about the move across the street and all of the packing that needed to be done.  Then the 2nd week I did the actual packing and moving and was completely in the new space by the week end.  This past week has been about moving over my office to the new builidng and starting next week I will be completely living in and working in a new building. 

and today being my last day of being in my old building and giving in my keys this afternoon I was hit with a tidal wave of emotions and one of them being I don’t want this change as much as I thought I did at the beginning of the 3 weeks.  Or maybe it is just I am not as ready as I thought I was for this change…for some reason being in the in between for the past 3 weeks has made it feel that nothing is changing around here and I will be doing the “same thing different place”–but today I realize this is not so. 

I will be working with a different housekeeping department and I will miss the head housekeeper dearly, I will miss my co-worker being right across from me as he throws wads of paper across my desk, I will miss the companionship in the office as my new office I will be alone, I will miss being able to go downstairs to see the main office and be familiar with all the ins and outs of this building.  I will miss having someone to walk over to lunch, a meeting, an event with because I will in an office by myself.  I will miss the team effort and collaboration and the decision making as a team.  My building will be my own and the decisions I make for it will be final rather than bouncing ideas with my co-manager of the building.

Although I have had the keys to my new office for these 3 weeks I have been my office for a total of perhaps 15 minutes.  I keep taking the walk across the street and finding something that needs to be done before finally moving the office completely over to my new building.  I probably will find myself Monday morning making the trip across the street out of habit and will quickly realize that the space is not mine anymore. 

So Monday is a new change in my life as I start a new chapter and although it is just across the street it could really be on the other side of town because life will be different on Monday.  My walk will be different, my phone number will be different, my tasks will be different….I will be different. 

I keep telling myself that change is a good thing, and in reality it is a great thing and I am sure on Monday I will be giddy with excitement like I normally am  on a first day of school.  Yea it may have been the same school, but the teachers would always change. BUT today I am loathing change and wishing for this very moment that everything could stay the same…

How do others feel about change? Take it? Leave it? Love it? Hate it? Quick to adapt? Slow to change?

Overheard in our household…

If you were outside our window this weekend you might have overheard this conversation…

Husband: I already miss our old couch.

Me: Really? It has only been 2 days without the couch

Husband: I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.  The last time I slept on the couch I didn’t know it would be the last time…

Me: Well you could go across the street and spend some time with the couch if you need to.

Husband: No there is no TV at the couch anymore.  Man, it is like losing a family member. This couch was like a family member to us. This is depressing.

Me: {blank stare}

Jump ahead two days later while we are in Best Buy and we walk by some beautiful big screen TVs {that my husband just drools over every chance he can get and has wanted one of these since FOREEEVERRRRR!}

Me: So if you had to choose between buying one of these awesome flat screen TVs or a new sectional which would it be?

Husband: Couch. Hands down. No competition.

Me: {blank stares again}

Do all men get this attached to their couches? Our old couch wasn’t “ours” in the first place and belongs in the apartment we moved out of–and it was great but not to the point of a family member. We had a sectional couch and now we have two regular couches and every night my husband tries to reconcile with the fact that we do not have a sectional anymore.  He squires and sighs and pushes cushions out of the way only to pass out in some awkward position.   So we have this great FREE couch, but how many bets do we want to make that we will be visiting the furniture store in the next 6 months to buy a replacement family member?  

love at first sight for my husband {not our old couch though}

Seasonal Loves

Now that summer is official here I have some summer loves that come out only for summer {with some new loves sprinkled in this year!}.  Pack away the slow cooker and get out the grill because summer is officially hereeeeee! YIPPPPEEEEEEE!!!

I am an avid Dunks fan BUT I am now a New Carmel Frappucino Light fan! Deliciousness in 130 calories. Thankfully Starbucks is a little drive so I really really really need to have the urge to get these!

Blue Hydrangeas!! I bought some last Friday and I am love with them as they sit in my living room.  I never have the urge to buy fresh flowers from the local market, but with it being spring and having a new home I am loving it! They smell great and they are a wonderful addition to our place.  Totally worth the few extra bucks.

With no great summer series on we have started to go back to the good ole’ days of West Wing! We always get the urge to watch West Wing as we quote it quite often, but normally our days are set with our TV so we put it off.  NO need to put it off in the summer though!! We are also involved with CSI but are waiting to get Season 7 in the mail.  Summer is a time for sunshine and beaches, but it is also part of watching reruns of great TV too!

My kind husband just bottled MY very first wine! Well it is white and it is a peach chardonnay and so even though my husband did all the work he really made this for me and for summer.  I can’t wait to take a refreshing drink of this and made this my summer drink! With 25 bottles of this deliciousness I better be ready for some peach chardonnay! I am also looking forward to making this into a sangria for the summer months…who is with me??!!!

Now I am a seasonal girl with ice cream.  I really only eat ice cream during summer and then my passion for ice cream fades.  I am the blandest icecream eater in the entire world. don’t judge me! I like vanilla soft serve ice cream on a cone.  Sometimes I am dangerous and have strawberrys on top of my vanilla soft serve ice cream.  My father in law who is a guru of ice cream tells me that soft serve is not ice cream so if soft serve is not a qualifier for eating ice cream then I never eat ice cream.  HAHA! 

 

Anyone have any favorites that come out when summer arrives?? Anything you only do in the summer?

101 in 1001

I am not sure if anyone reads this 101 in 1001 day list, but for me it is a constant reminder of my life to do list.  Nothing having to do with bills, groceries, or picking up the dirty piles of clothes.  This list is purely about accomplishing things in 1001 days.  Sounds like a lot of days, but they are flying by FAST.  Thankfully though I have been able to cross some great ones off my list since the last time I updated my readers in this post and this little diddy…

#3 Purchase a Mac Computer {aka go to the dark side}

I purchased it on Saturday and the entire weekend it sat in a box in the middle of our living room.  My husband kept asking when I was going to open it, but honestly I was scared to open it.  I have no clue how to use a Mac computer.  When purchasing said Mac Computer I looked under the table to find the large box it would accompany said awesome computer.  The tech guy laughed and said oh no it is all in there…and points to the monitor.  ARE YOU FO’ REAL????? SOLD! So finally during my lunch break I took the Mac computer out of the large box in the middle of the room and my life is forever changed.  It basically reads my mind and for a moron with computers this computer is ideal.  I am loving it and I have had about 10 seconds with the thing. 

 

Welcome to our humble home….

#29 Print all photos and put into a photo abulm

So this one I didn’t print all the photos, instead I made this great blurb photobook.  It will stand the test of time and we have looked at this book multiple times.  It is the most used photobook we have to date and with our harddrive crashing 3 weeks after we put this book together it made me realize how important pictures are to printed and not stuck on some random harddrive and how important external harddrives are.  HAHA! Go here for my review

#37 Give away old clothes to good will

Okay so this one I had to cheat a little bit and I needed some help {a lot of help!}.  Friday I ran a ton of errands one taking the 3 bags of clothes to goodwill. They have been in our apartment for 6 months and really I needed to bite the bullet.  So I searched online and it took me to a Boys and Girls club that had a goodwill drop off.  First problem was that my husband took the GPS in the other car so I had to navigate without my trusty sidekick Phil Phil. OHHH NOOOO! That is okay Iphone came to my rescue…So I get to the location and there is no Boys & Girls club and it is now an apartment complex.  A really bad apartment complex in a really bad neighborhood.  Dogs were barking…seriously I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  I looked up a second location got all the way to the location and it was CLOSED DOWN and boarded up.  People all I want to do is help get some clothes to people who need it!!! I was sweating by this point because it was 87 degrees and my air conditioning wasn’t working. GREATTTTT.  So I headed up to Nashua for another errand and I looked up a Goodwill location which was only a mile away from where I was. AWESOME! I get there and they are closed!!! 3 strikes and I am outta there! So thankfully my lovely father in law will be putting them into Goodwill in their hometown where we know they are OPENED.   I still get credit for this one though, right?

#85 Go to the VEGAS!!!

We all know about this little trip and if not you missed out on this post, this one, and yup even this one.   I am so happy I was able to cross this one off the list because it is a place that you have to see to really believe….

I still have a long way to go to completing my 101 items, but I am so thankful that I had made this list because it gives me some great direction and great focus.  With life getting so busy it can really blow you by without noticing how much you have accomplished or how much you still WANT to accomplish.  I am 10 items completed–I better get a move on some of these items!!! I am hoping that this summer before my life gets hectic once again I can really focus on my goals and my dreams for the year. 

Any goals that you have? Do you have a  list of your own?

Does it suprise you…

-that with 3 days into moving I am 99.9% moved out AND I am 99.9% unpacked {seriously turbo mode this week fo sho!}

-that we laughed the entire way through moving and unpacking until the last hour when we fought over kitchen curtains

-that my husband has to ask me 1,232,232 times “hey babe where is X…” because I went turbo mode and packed and unpacked most myself

-that all I can think of at this moment is ironing my living room curtains and putting them up

-that I want to buy some newly fresh flowers to put in our rooms because I am loving being moved in EARLY

-that I had a small tantrum in Target that involved me wanting to buy a cute storage ottoman in red and a rack to put the wine cooler and receipe books on {i didn’t leave with either}

-that after all the packing and unpacking and trips across the street I lost a pound this week {THIS is what I have to do every week to lose weight?!}

-that I fell in love with sectional couches even though I wrote them off 5 years ago and so we already miss our mr.blue couch

-that sleeping on the “wrong” side of the bed is weird, being on the first floor is cool yet scarier than living on the 13th floor {peepers!}, having my own nightstand and not the radiator is AWESOME, and kitchen counter space is priceless.

-oh and that today in Massachusetts we have yet another holiday today…Bunker Hill Day.  I am waiting to take my day off next Friday, but thank you Massachusetts for another awesomely awesome holiday.  What would we do without days like this and evacuation day?

 

Happy Bunker Hill Day!!

What is in a name?

I was on my phone yesterday evening after a long afternoon/evening of packing and unpacking when I let out the biggest SQUEAL!!! My husband thought it was my back or knee acting up as I tried to move my body from the couch.

nope try again husband.  my squealing had to do with this 80s icon…

we love you kelly!! haha!

Who most recently was pregnant….

Why is this so significant to blog about you say? Every celebrity has been having a baby…

Well she gave birth and named her baby girl Harper RENN….yup RENN is now uber cool and has some style.  I always thought my {new} last name was short and needed some pizzaz like in the name Rennato!  But if  keeping it simple with RENN  is good enough for Kelly Kapowski then it is good enough for me.   My husband had a good laugh for the rest of the night that after an entire year of being married THIS is what I needed to embrace my married name.  Who knew?!

Needless to say we had some great belly laughs over this news and ended a long day of moving on a high note.  And welcome Baby Harper Renn…great things lie ahead for all future Renns of the world!

PS: I want to be able to shove my feet in some heels when I am 8 months pregnant, please?   

Anyone else have a celebrity that has YOUR name? Does it matter when picking name out if a celebrity has the same name?