Happy birthday husband!!!

Today is husband's birthday!  The big 2-7!  He's getting so old that one packet of birthday candles just won't cut it!  After next month though, one packet won't cut it for mine either, so I guess I should hush up. :)  I managed to make him a birthday cake, for the first time ever.  I'm not much of a cake decorator, but I was pretty happy with how the cake turned out.  Here it's!

Since he likes golf so much now, I figured I'd do a golf themed cake.  (Pinspiration here)  Timothy called it his "lucky hole in one cake" and claims that it made him play golf better the next day.  :)  Not sure about that, but it did taste pretty good.  And he seemed to enjoy it.

His parents came down Friday night to celebrate, and took us out to dinner Saturday night.  Guess where?  Bonefish!  Starting to see a trend here?  He got a pretty blue golf shirt and some fancy new golf shoes from his parents.

Husband with his loot

Timothy and his parents

 And I guess I'll sneak in for one too

 And from me, well I let him buy some fancy dan new golf clubs he's been eye ballin' and pricing for almost a year now.  With these new clubs, he could be the next Tiger Tiger Woods Ya'll!  (except without all the cheating, for sure)  All in all I think he had a pretty good birthday.  And I think he's just getting better with age, don't ya agree? :)

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Tonight is the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games!  Even the little theater here in town is showing it at midnight, and I so want to go!  I just can't find anybody to go with me and I know I'd be ridiculously tired tomorrow if I stayed up that late.  I normally don't jump on the popular book bandwagon, I never read Harry Potter or the Twilight books.  But I read a little about the story line, and it seemed interesting.  I was also able to read these books for free on my Kindle (thanks to lendle.me), so I read them about 5 months ago and definitely enjoyed them.  There were such quick reads, and kept me on the edge of my seat.  After reading several reviews about how the film adaption is supposed to be very very similar to the books, I started wanting to see the movie.  And tonight is the first chance!  Sometimes it stinks to be a responsible adult with a real girl job. :(  So all of you out there going to see it tonight, I'm so jealous and hope you enjoy it!  Happy Hunger Games!

Roses

Remember when I said a couple of weeks ago that I had cut back my 49 rose bushes?  Yes, you read that right...I have 49 red knockout rose bushes.  Well I gave them a pretty good whack, from about 5 foot high, to about 3 foot high.  I thought maybe I had gone a little overboard on them, but within the past 2 weeks, my rose bushes have put out a ton of new growth and now they're just loaded down with buds, just waiting to bust open.  About a week and I think I'll have a yard full of rose blooms.  I'm excited!  Spring is in full swing here in south Georgia!  Here's a sneak peek of one rose that's already decided to bloom.  The others need to follow his lead!

Grandparents!

This past weekend my grandparents came to visit us and to see our house.  They got here Friday right after I got off of work and they treated us to dinner at Granddaddy's BBQ in Thomasville.  It was so good!  Friday they also gave us some goodies: some nutty buddy bars, some cream soda (yum!), and my grandmother gave me her home economics book from high school. 

 Timothy said "oh did ya'll get to keep your books?" And she said "no, I just kept it."  Haha.  My grandmother, the rebel. :)  The book was titled "Experiences with Foods."  Believe me...I have had some gooood experiences with foods!  It's been neat to look through it and see all of the pictures of women in their high waisted poofy dresses and bouffants pulling a roast out of the oven for their husband who just got home in a suit and tie.  I love old books and cookbooks, so that was right up my alley. 
For dessert Friday night we had some homemade apple cake that my grandmother had made.  There's a bit of an inside joke behind that cake.  When I was about 10 years old, I think, I was spending the night with them one night, when my grandmother and I decided to make a homemade apple cake.  We got all the ingredients together, measured them into a mixing bowl, and then put the mixing bowl in the stand mixer.  We turn the mixer on what we thought was low, and the thing just takes off.  Batter is flying everywhere, and we're screaming and grabbing at the bowl trying to get it to stop!  I think we ended up just throwing a towel over the whole thing.  We had a really good laugh about it once we finally got the thing stopped, and then had to spend like 10 minutes cleaning the batter up in random places around the kitchen.  We still talk about that day and laugh.  It is definitely one of my favorite memories with my grandmother.  My grandparents have always made me laugh and take the time to teach me things and do things together. 
Saturday morning me, my grandfather, and Timothy made brunch.  PawPaw taught me some of his tricks, since the "big country breakfast" has always been a specialty of his.  We made biscuits, country ham, eggs, and hashbrown casserole and pigged out. 

PawPaw and husband making breakfast (I would include a pic of myself but I was looking rough!)

 We then spent some time on our back porch enjoying the beautiful day and PawPaw gave us some much needed advice on our grass and plants.  My grandparents have always been a wealth of knowledge and so encouraging to me and my sister and I will forever be grateful for that.  My Nannie is also one of my most religious blog readers, and gives me motivation to get on here and jot down a word or two every now and then.  Love you Nan and Paw! 

Us on the porch.

Hope everyone's week is going well!

Company!

Thursdays are the days for my long runs of the week.  The plan is to run 3 days a week.  The first two days are pretty easy, a lot of intervals.  And the 3rd day is a longer run that gets longer and longer each week.   I decided that each week I would do the first two days of running on Monday and Tuesday, and then do my long run on Thursday.  That way I get the running over and done with during the week and don't have to worry about it over the weekend.  And over the weekend, hopefully I forget how miserable running is and hopefully get some of my motivation back. 
But anyways, today I was scheduled to run 2 miles.  Last time I was running regularly, about a year ago, I had some problems with my right foot.  The muscle on the top of my foot spasms about every other step.  It doesn't neccessarily hurt, it's just really uncomfortable.  It draws my toes under and doesn't matter the amount of stretching, type of shoes, surface I'm running on, icing, bengay rubbing, or complaining I do, it always happens.  It's kind of discouraging and at one point last year, I had it x-rayed to make sure I didn't have a stress fracture.  The x-ray I had done didn't show stress fractures (kind of making it pointless to even have it done) and the doctor suggested a more expensive x-ray.  Didn't have that done.  And after not running for about 8 months, it's still doing it, so it obviously isn't a stress fracture.  So today while I was running, my foot was spasming and my shins were hurting (my lungs are totally fine, as are my thighs and calves) so I more or less shufflejogged the two miles.  But I got it done!  Anyways...somebody call the waaambulance right?  And so I went to McDonalds for dinner to reward myself.  Yep, getting fattening food, while wearing these pants.  But anyways...I promise I'm not going to become one of those people who only talks about working out all the time. 
In other news, my grandparents are coming to visit us this weekend.  Yaaaay!  I'm so excited for them to come see our house and visit with us.  Hope everyone has a quick Friday!

Galaga

Sometimes when I'm driving, I feel like I'm inside of a game of Galaga.  You know, this game that used to be in arcades (my dad and mom love this game, and they're pretty good at it!):

Except instead of dodging drone/bee looking things, I dodge cars.  Car slams on brakes in front of you to turn without a blinker, you stop quickly.  A driver pulls out right in front of you, despite the huge gap in traffic that is just right behind you, have to swerve into another lane.  Driver tries to turn left from the right hand lane, across your lane of traffic...you try to swerve, end up t-boning them, running your truck up a sidewalk and through a light pole.  Yep, that really happened to me.  Fortunately, my car didn't explode like on Galaga.  If only we were able to shoot little b.b's at the cars like you can on that game.  And your score goes up for every horrible driver whose tires you shoot out.  That'd be pretty cool. 

Are those my pants?!

Today as I was preparing for day 5 of my quest towards a 5k, I decided to wear some capri length tight running pants that reveal all of those unsightly lumps and bumps that cause my rear end to look like a slab of braille for a bind person to read.  I decided on these gosh awful things because a. it was too hot to wear long pants, and b. running shorts get that chub rub thing going on between the thighs, causing the shorts to ride up.  None of these options are attractive, besides maybe loose sweat pants, but I was sweating just thinking about wearing pants, and decided for the lesser of the two remaining evils.
So I walk through the living room, dreading running and I pass husband in his chair.  His 6'2" tall, naturally skinny body relaxing in a big cushy chair.  And he looks at me and says "are those my pants?!"  It should be noted that he has a pair of baggy athletic pants with the same coloring, but they are made to suit his tall, skinny frame.  I looked at him, and said "do these LOOK like they're your pants?" (in that smart alec tone I use so well) along with a dramatic pinching and releasing of the fabric, to emphasize their tight elastic evilness.  He just looked at me and said "uh, yeah."  So I shook my head and left.
And as I was running, I came up with the decision, that my husband either thinks that a. I am taller and fatter than he is, thus causing his normally loose and floor length pants to be really tight highwaters on me, and b. he still does not realize that the tone of voice I used in my question means he should back quickly away from an affirmative answer. 
Nothing he could have said would have motivated me more to run.  Here's to spandex! 

Cheeeese!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  It's getting hard to find things to talk about on here that I think will interest people.  I'm planning on doing my big post tomorrow about my trip to Hilton Head, just don't have the patience to write all of that right now.  Daylight Savings Time is mean and inconsiderate.  And because of it, I feel more tired than usual.  Plus, I did day 4 of my running stuff today and cleaned out our garage when I got home.  So I'm just ready to chill tonight.  But I thought I'd leave you guys with a little picture.  This is a snack the husband and I had over the weekend:

When I was in Savannah a couple of weekends ago, I got some cheese honey from the Savannah Bee Company.  That's what is in the bowl with the glare.  :)  My dad has honey bees, and I usually use honey that him or husband's uncle gives us.  Their honey is wonderful so I'm kind of a honey snob now.  This honey was a blend of different types of honeys (is that the plural of honey?) and has a pretty strong flavor.  Perfect for eating with, say, cheese!  Soooo...above that is some sharp cheddar cheese that I got in Hilton Head at the Freshmarket.  There are very very few things in this world that I love more than cheese.  I recently told my mom and sister that if someone told me that I could only eat bread, cheese, and chocolate for the rest of my life...I would be a-okay.  To the right are some pears.  Side note on that: I don't think I've ever just eaten a pear.  It's always weirded me out when people just bite into the pear, skin and all.  So I've just never eaten one, save the few that surprise you in those yummy fruit cups.  It's like oh squishy peach, oh soft pineapple, oh ew gross what is that weird gritty textured thing?!  Can I get an amen?  Pears have just always thrown me off.  But I've heard (who knows from where?)  that you're supposed to eat pears with cheese? (Maybe I'm remembering it from the movie Princess Diaries.  Genovian pear and cheese dessert?)  So I gave it a shot.  I kept asking Timothy how I was supposed to cut this thing?  Do I peel it?  I just can't eat the skin, it looks like it has leprosy.  Does it have a core?  How do I slice it?  Is this ripe?  Is it supposed to be crunchy?  It was just...it was a fail.  But we ate it anyway, because that's what snooty cheese and honey and cracker eaters do, dangit!  I think?  Oh, and the crackers.  They were the fanciest I could find at our local Wally World.  The box said they were waiter crackers.  But husband kept calling them what-a-crackers.  Like What-A-Burger, the restaurant.  By the end of our snack he had said what-a-crackers so many times that we both wanted to go to What-A-Burger.  Luckily for our waist and wallet, the closest one is like 25 minutes away.  So anyways.  The honey and cheese and cracker combination was actually pretty delicious.  I had my doubts, but somehow the flavors just worked.  Alright people, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and got a lot accomplished!  

Hibachiiiiiiiii!

Today when I got home from work, first thing I did was put on my uniform.  My uniform consists of sweat pants, a tank top, a zip up athletic jacket, fuzzy socks, house shoes, and hair in a bun.  This outfit was so lovingly named my "uniform" by my husband.  He has always made fun of me for wearing these clothes at home.  Funny how his derogatory attitude about said sweat pants changed when he was introduced to the wonderfulness that is wind pants a couple of months ago. 
Anyways at about 5:30, I'm in my sweats, sitting on the couch, just enjoying being off of work, when husband gets a phone call.   "See you there at 6:30?  Ok, sounds great!"  To which, I supply a quizzical brow and a mouthed "what?!"  Timothy: "errr um let me ask Julie Anna and get back to you!"  He then proceeds to tell me that we've been invited out to eat at a Japanese Hibachi Restaurant with some friends of ours.  But he can't remember the word Hibachi so he mimes cutting up pieces of food really fast, and flipping it in the air, and flames.  I supply the word Hibachi and tell him he's really good at charades.  Now, we don't have many friends down here so any time we get an invitation we usually jump on the chance to have more than each other as amusement while eating.  But my sweat pants! Oh my beloved sweat pants!  We had only just begun to chill for the day!  So with a grumble, I get off the couch, reapply makeup, curl my hair a little, and put on a cute and uncomfortable outfit.  We get to the restaurant and the waitress tells us that there are not any seats in the room with the Hibachi grill (is that redundant?  Doesn't Hibachi mean grill?) and that we will have to sit in the other room.  It smells good and we're all hungry so we decide to just sit in the other room.  Well alllll through our meal we hear flames and drums and gasps and laughter and happiness and everything else that is Hibachi.  They were totally trying to passive aggressively rub it in our faces. 
In the end though, the food was delicious and we had a good time with some friends.  We always enjoy their company and I was very glad that they had invited us to dinner.  It was definitely worth parting with my dear sweat pants for a couple of hours.  You'd better bet your buns that as soon as I got home I put them back on though. :)  Hope everyone has fun plans for the weekend!  Hopefully I'll post pics from my girls trip to Hilton Head soon!

Voting day!

Did you guys do your civic duty today and vote?  I did!  Here's proof!

My voting precinct is at the airport here in Cairo and there was only one other person there when I went at lunch.  Last time I voted was in Houston County and there were a lot more people, I actually had to wait.  It was nice to be able to vote today and it only take about 2 minutes.  A small town certainly has its perks!  Hope you guys voted! 

Hello!

Well I"m back from my little bloggy break and my wonderful weekend with my mom and sister.  I'm going to post about the trip sometime soon, but right now I'm just too tired.  While gorging ourselves on food this weekend, me, my mom, and my sister all decided that we were going to run a 5k together.  I have finished two 5ks in the past year and a half, and found that I was more motivated to run when I knew I had a scheduled 5k for which I was training.

Here's me after my first 5k in November 2010.

Me on the left and my insanely fit sister-in-law Kelli on the right. 

I actually got a trophy at this race for finishing 3rd in my age group (it helped that there were only 4 people in my age group.)  Kelli got 2nd place!

 

And here's me at my second 5k February 2011 (on the left in the blue pants) .  It was freezing cold on this run.

So since I am no longer in the shape I was for these runs, I decided to do the ""Couch to 5k,"" and my mom and sister decided to do it with me!  I've heard good things about the running plan for that program, so hopefully it will work for us.  We got lucky and there's two 5ks for us to choose from on my birthday weekend in April, which is when I'll be up their way next. The program is for 2 months, and we have just 6 weeks, but each week you only run 3 days, so we'll just have to do an extra run each week.  Today we did our first run, and it wasn't bad!  We'll see if I'm still saying that 5 weeks from now.  I figured putting it on this blog, and having a little extra accountability will keep me motivated.  So keep me accountable people!  :)  Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend!

Partaaaay!

Leaving tomorrow for the beach with my mom and sister!  We're going to Hilton Head, and I'm so excited!  We've got a lot planned, and hopefully it doesn't rain the whole time.  I probably won't be back until Monday, so I hope everyone has a good weekend!  I know I will!