Final Hurrah

I've been noticeably absent, & I come bearing an explanation. ;-) I re injured my foot recently, & I've been in a bit of a funk about it. It was hard to even think about coming to my "running blog" & pretending to post with any optimism about potential runs or reading about all of your runs & getting inexplicably jealous. I know - I'm lame. I'm working my way through the funk, and I think I'm ready to not be an entirely depressive Debbie Downer. :-)

Things we've been up to over the past few weeks

• Multiple trips to the beach. Fantastic weather on the Oregon coast (80 degrees!) which is rare & so much fun.
• Tire blow out on one of the beach trips that involved me + 2 kids stranded on the side of the highway for several hours in an extremely scary area (no room to pull over, not crime-related). I ended up having to climb over my car & pull the kids out of the window, which is how I re injured my foot.
• Preparing for my big boy's first day of Kindergarten! I'm getting teary just typing this. He starts on Tuesday & I'm anxious & excited at the same time. Nick is going to big kid preschool this year, and I'm crossing my fingers that it goes well. He's not a huge fan of change.
• A cousins trip to an indoor water park (Great Wolf Lodge). Great times were had by all.
• A fantastic family beach trip with my immediate family (Michael, parents, sister, nephews) - SUPER fun.
• A trip to the zoo with my favorite little ladies.
• A major fall off the monkey bars resulting in a split lip & chipped front tooth
• My dad in the ICU due to a mountain biking injury. (He's recovering nicely).

I promise to become a more regular blogger again. The summer was crazy getting the boys where they need to go each day for camps, & it cut into my blogging time. But, I'm continuing to try & stay in shape, and keep a positive attitude as I work through my injury.

Here's a photo dump of the summer fun. :-)

Cousins beach trip:

My beach bunnies on a (rare!) sunny day at the coast

The offending monkey bars + two of my best friends kids on a play date:

My grown up boy at his Kindergarten orientation meeting:

Two of my favorite little ladies + Sam at the zoo, in their "explorer" outfits:

My dad, on the beach, two days after leaving the ICU & the day after having his chest tube removed. Dude is hardcore:

We're at the beach this weekend for one final summer hurrah before school starts & the madness of soccer practice, swimming & carpools begins. And, it's supposed to be 82 tomorrow. Beach picnic!

I hope all of you have fabulous Labor Day weekends. :-)

Things I love

I'm in a great mood today, so here's a little list of things I'm loving right now:

1. The smell of grass on a sunny day.
2. The taste of a tart margarita. Michael is a wicked bartender!
3. I'm going to an indoor waterpark with my sister + our four boys on Friday, & can't wait. The cousins love each other. ;-)
4. I'm taking an entire week of off work - next week! That hasn't happened in a very long time.
5. This mozzarella, peach, & basil salad. It's the perfect summer salad.
6. Oh, and this little thing called running. I alternated running/walking on the treadmill yesterday & although it was slow, I ran for 1.25 miles total. (Doctor approved, and no foot pain afterward.) I can't tell you how amazing it felt to run again!
7. And of course, I couldn't let it go without a few leftover pictures from my fabulous Las Vegas girls trip!

My sister & I, on the plane. . . Giddy with excitement.

This slightly blurry picture of my sister in the elevator at the Encore, because I think she looks amazing!

And, this picture becuase I love my hair, which is rare for me. ;-)

Here's a lovely bathroom shot from this morning.

Outfit details:
Black wrap sweater - Nordstrom
Fuchsia top - Loft
Silver necklace - Macy's
Dark denim skirt - BCBG
Black wedge sandals - Alfani/Macy's

What are you loving right now?

All you party rockers in the house. . .

The current favorite song of summer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8 :-)

The boys have possibly been listening to too much music in the car. Top 5 favorite songs are:

• Afrojack - Take over control
• Adele - Rolling in the deep
• LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
• Jessie J - It's all about the money
• Katy Perry - TGIF

And yes, I've been a huge slacker. The boys summer program was moved to a different location, & my commute is now triple the time each way, which has interfered with my blogging time. ;-)

But, in awesome news. . . the doctor thinks I'll be able to slowly start running again (think run/walk combos) in September! I'm thrilled.

Weight:
In weighty news, I'm up a few pounds after my latest vacation to Las Vegas with the girls. However, it was an epic trip, so I'll deal with the fall out. :-)

Outfit:
Scary bathroom photos are back!

Details:
White sheer sweater - Loft
White tank top - Loft
Peach skirt - Forever 21
Sandals - American Eagle
Dorky face - still here

I bought the skirt for a party this weekend - my nephew had a Mario themed birthday party, & I was supposed to be Princess Peach. Of course, it ended up being hot on Saturday, so I wore a sun dress instead. I decided to rock it today, as the sun is actually shining. Summer has finally arrived in Seattle, it seems. :-)

Food:
My eating has been pretty good, punctuated by wild days of summer barbecues (umm, Saturday), vacations (lots of champagne & steak). I'm committed to dropping the couple of pounds I've picked up, and hitting my summer goal - I'm about 4.4 pounds away, which seems doable.

More to come, but here a few vacation pictures!

Can you guess which one is my sister?

Running: help me get back in the groove! Any tips for someone starting fresh and/or coming back after a long break?

The great closet cleanout

Last night I tried on every item in my closet that I haven't worn in the last month, & pulled out everything that didn't fit, I don't wear, etc. Mostly, things were too big & I have a huge stack to donate. I'm a little embarrassed to even share how much I got rid of, but we're all friends here, right? ;-)

• 31 tops
• 7 dresses
• 8 pair of pants
• 4 skirts

My closet is now remarkably pared down, & I can easily find things. Wow! Love that. But, given that this is the lowest weight I've been at since before I had kids, most of the clothes I have left are pretty old (7-8 years, I would guesstimate.) I'd like to lose 10-12 more pounds, so I'm not clamoring to shop at the moment. Also, I'm trying to save most of my fun money to continue to pay for my trainer (albeit much less frequently than I'm going now), so we'll see how I do on not replacing everything I ditched. :-) It's pretty embarrassing how much I had in the closet.

Outfit:

• Coral sweater - Forever 21
• Coral tank (underneath) - Loft
• Silver necklace - Macy's
• Jeans - Rock & Republic, courtesy of Costco
• Silver shoes - Chinese Laundry (Ross)

Workout:
I worked out with my trainer yesterday, & it was another killer workout. I warmed up on the elliptical for 10 minutes before she got there, & then we did 50 minutes of punishing circuit trainer. Ouch. I can tell I'll be very sore tomorrow. :-)

Food:
Yesterday was a pretty good day - I was a little over my calorie goal, but was pretty pleased with my choices overall.

Breakfast - homemade waffle + coffee & fruit
Snack - mini Clif bar
Lunch - protein smoothie & salad
Snack - nuts
Dinner - leftover barbecued chicken dipped in hummus
Snack - fruit + handful of Pirate's Booty

Do you clean out your closet with any regularity? Are you a clothes hoarder like me? :-)

Return of the ugly bathroom photos

I know you've missed these gems, so it's back!

Here's my outfit for today. Yes, I cheated & wore sandals. We're having one sunny day this week, so I busted out my sandals. And, not that I don't have sympathy for those of you dealing with the intense heat. . . but this has been the most terrible summer ever in Seattle. Rain. Rain. Cold. Rain. Ick.

Details:

• Lilac sheer top - Express
• Nude tank top - Loft
• Amethyst necklace - Tiffany & Co
• Jeans - Chip & Pepper, circa 2002
• Sandals - Jeffrey Cambell, Ibiza

Workouts:
I squeezed in an extra workout in preparation of my next (and sadly, last) trip to Las Vegas this summer. Let's just say that my glutes were so sore from my trainer workout on Thursday, that going up & down stairs was ridiculously painful. Ouch. Yesterday I closed the week with 60 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the bike, & a bunch of stretching/foam rolling.

Food:
My eating was great yesterday, until I went out for dinner with the boys. We went to a laser tag/bouncy house party at our gym, and went to the gym cafe afterward. Problem 1 - I let myself get crazy hungry. Problem 2 - I had a huge workout that day. Anyway, I ate my healthy pizza (love this cafe, they publish the nutritional information for their entire menu - awesome!) & after the boys were done, I snacked on their fries, 1/2 a leftover chicken strip, & part of Nick's frozen yogurt. Fail. The scale punished me this morning as a result. Double fail. :-(

• Breakfast - 2 homemade waffles with 1 tsp butter + fresh berries & coffee
• Snack - protein smoothie
• Lunch - peanut butter & jelly sandwich, nectarine, pistachios
• Snack - berries
• Dinner - healthy barbecued chicken pizza, followed by french fries, 1/2 a chicken strip, & frozen yogurt

The semi-awesome news is that normally, when I've blown it, I continue to shovel additional food in my face. Last night, as soon as we got home from the gym, I brushed my teeth & put whitening strips on my teeth - a sure fire way to guarantee that I'm not going to be eating anything else. It helped limit the caloric damage. :-)

And, in semi-related running news, yesterday was supposed to be the big 1/2 marathon that I trained months & months for. It was terrible weather (rainy & cold), so I had a lot of sympathy for my fellow runners, but when I was at the gym yesterday, thinking about how it was supposed to be my big day, I was totally & completely jealous of a woman on the treadmill. She put in 8 miles & made it look so entirely effortless. She was speedy, totally in shape, & enjoying her run. My foot is starting to feel better, but it's been so long since I've run, I feel like I'm going to be starting from scratch when I do finally get cleared by the doctor.

What's made you jealous lately?

The blue dress

I'm in love with this dress. I saw it at Nordstrom over Memorial Day weekend, & fell in love.

The hair is courtesy of the Encore salon - we all know I can't achieve that on my own.
My dress - Nordstrom
Shoes - Ivanka Trump (I only  have one pair of dressy shoes that I can wear at the moment)
Necklace - Jcrew

My mom's dress - Express
Shoes - Michael Kors

And, a close up of the hair, which I'll be trying to convince my sister to recreate next weekend. A girl can only afford so many salon visits, you know. ;-)

In this picture, it looks a little bit like the dress is holding on to my chest for dear life. . . it's not normally that low, I promise.

Fitness
I've been sticking to my 5x/week workouts, & my trainer is kicking my trash all over the place. I bought a trainer package a month ago, and have about two weeks of workouts left with her. It's been amazing to have someone push me so hard. We're currently meeting two times/week (one in the pool, one more focused on weights) & I've noticed a huge difference. I hope I can push myself as hard as she does once I'm on my own.

Food
Food has been good lately. I know I'm going to be wearing my bikini next weekend surrounded by a sea of hot 25 year olds. (Seriously, I swear every young woman with a 10 out of 10 body heads to the Encore pool in the summers).

Here's my recap from yesterday
Breakfast - fruit, coffee, spinach + egg on a bagel thin
Snack - dried fruit/nuts
Lunch - salad + protein smoothie
Snack - mini Luna bar
Dinner - Greek salad (ate just under 1/2) with gyro meat on it (heaven) + 7 fries. Seriously, I counted, because the Greek fries have shredded feta, lemon juice, & oregano on top, & I can eat the entire plate by myself. It's all about containment with those fries.

My weight is up about a half pound from my last trip, so I'm hoping to bring that down by next week's trip, which is totally doable!

What about you lovely peeps? Any big fun summer plans this weekend? We're taking the boys to soccer practice & a Star Wars themed birthday party. :-)

Anniversary Trip with the parents

I'm back, with pictures! We took my parents to Las Vegas for their 40th anniversary, & it was an excellent time all around. We stayed at the Encore, had amazing rooms, spent a day by the pool in the cabana, shopped (just the girls), did a full spa day (my parents first time!), & wined & dined our way through Las Vegas. Yummmmm. . .

Can you believe this beautiful couple has been married for 40 years?!

And, yes, my mom is wearing zipper heels . . . she's very trendy. :-)
Here are a few other pictures

My dad, mom, myself, & Michael. I'm wearing a black bandage dress (Express) + a Jcrew necklace & black Ivanka Trump heels. I have a BCBG clutch. My adorable mother is wearing BCBG & Michael Kors. I'm sure you're dying to know that both of the guys are wearing Hugo Boss suits.

The ladies, at the Wynn before dinner at SW.

More to come tomorrow, but I'm back and hitting the gym hard to unwind the damage from the trip. I did manage to work out 2 of the 3 days we were there, so it wasn't all bad. And, of course, I have my last Las Vegas trip coming up next week (a girls trip - absolutely cannot wait!), so I still have heavy bikini incentive.

Question for you:
What is the best meal you've ever had? Be specific!

For me: we had the most amazing meal at SW. Steak, seafood tower (see slightly awkward picture, below), beet salad, asparagus, and a chocolate souffle. Add in a fabulous bottle of wine, & it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. . .

And, the dessert at Botero? Died & gone to heaven. . . those are ice cream cake pops & a chocolate mousse "ice cream" bar

Or, if martinis are more your speed, I highly recommend the blue cheese-olive stuffed massive martini at Olives. It will knock you off your feet. ;-)

Viva Las Vegas! More pictures tomorrow. . .