Inked

In honor of two special people and as a constant reminder to myself. 

When I found out my Mema had breast cancer it was super scary. I consider myself VERY lucky that I am 27 and have all 4 of my grandparents living. I had never dealt with cancer before in such a personal way. My view of cancer was cancer = death. I know that isn’t true, but it seemed to be true for those I knew. It was my view and it scared the crap out of me.

My Mema decided to fight the cancer and do whatever it took to survive it. And fight she did! She never lost faith. She fought it and never gave up. She was always positive throughout everything, even when the chemo and radiation was literally causing her body extreme pain.

When my Aunt was diagnosed, I got mad. I didn’t understand why my family had to deal with this again. But we did. She was strong and determined not to let this beat her either.

Mema and Susie are both cancer free. 

Breast cancer has touched my life and changed my perspective forever.

Every time I look at my tattoo I will remember my Mema and aunt and how hard they fought and how they never gave up. They kept faith and won.

No matter what I am up against. I know I can fight it. Every time I look at my tattoo I will be reminded to have faith no matter what stands before me and to fight no matter what and never ever give up. This year I have had to do a lot of that personally, but nothing I am up against was as hard as their fight, so I can face it! 

The time I met 2 country singers

First a little back story: I grew up in a dot on the map small town in Georgia until I was in 5th grade. Then we moved to Maryland. I still remember a lot of people from GA, and thanks to Facebook, I even keep in touch with many of them.

Fast forward to September. I am driving home from car hunting with dad in Frederick, and I am sitting in traffic at 10pm because living near Washington DC is a treat. I hear a song, and the DJ says the name Brantley Gilbert. That name sounded so familiar, then it hit me, GA! So I googled him and what do you know, it’s a kid I grew up with in GA. My mom and his mom were friends and we had play dates. We weren’t in the same grade, but I still knew who he was.  I called mom and dad freaking out. Mainly because someone from small town Jefferson GA made it big in country music!

I got the CD right away, and pretty much listened to it for 2-3 months on repeat. I was a fan!

So last Friday, my dad’s super awesome friend got me the HOOK UP. Brantley is currently touring with Eric Church and they were playing in Salisbury, MD. About two and a half hours away. Long drive on a Friday after work, and normally I wouldn’t drive that far for a concert but this was Brantley and we had Meet and Greet passes for both artists. I was so excited, and NERVOUS!

We were first in line for BG and he seemed to remember us (well, Dad and Mom really) I was just trying not to make a fool of myself!  He signed my CD and we took a picture together and then we were sent on our way. Crazy! We went and got right back in line to meet Eric Church, so that we wouldn’t miss BG’s show.

Here we are meeting Eric Church. Apparently he smelled really good. I was super sick so I couldn’t smell him. Bummer! HA!

So on all the papers for the meet and greets it said no cell phones allowed and no cameras. So being a good girl I left them in the car. Then I decided I wanted my phone so I could take pictures of the concert (and lets be honest, I was having anxiety without it lol) But it was in the car, and we were in line, and there were huge No Re-entry signs everywhere. But in true super mommy fashion, mom once again saves the day at the concert (I guess I never did make that blog post – I will, soon actually) she talked someone into letting her run to my car and get our phones so we could take pictures. Everyone else in line had their phone even though it said no cell phones. Thanks mom!

Then it was on to the show! Here are some pictures. They are cell phone quality but look pretty good considering. The ones I zoomed in don’t look as good.

Mom and me during BG.

Lindsay and me waiting for Eric Church to come on.

This was when we stalked the trucks and buses before going into the show. You know because you never know if they might come out of there.. HAHA right ok.

 

I knew some of Eric Church’s songs, but after the concert I downloaded the rest of his other album and have been listening to it on repeat all week. (notice a pattern with me – I am a freak)

SO much fun! Even though I was sick, and lost my voice from the sick/singing/screaming combo, it was 100% worth it. LOVED it.

Thanks again Lee! Seriously! You made my year!

I love my job reason:123456789

I often call the girls baby. I am not calling them a baby, just my little name I call them. 

Today I called Sylvia baby because she was sick and I said "let me get you home baby" She said, I am not a baby. 

I explained that she is right, she isn't a baby. She is a big girl, but baby is a name you call someone you love, like sweetie, honey, darling.  I asked what she would want me to call her. She picked Honey. 

Evelyn piped up with "call me Jelly!!!" 

I died laughing! 

Every am, the girls have a waffle or English muffin with peanut butter and Honey or Jelly (you guess who is who!) 

SO CUTE!!

Misery is better with company

My bff was in town this weekend (more on that later :-D ) We decided we would go for a run Saturday am. We talked to our friend Heather and decided on 10am.

When we went to bed Friday night it was snowing, and I thought, I swear if it is snowing tomorrow I refuse!

Guess what, it was snowing. We texted and played the I don't care, its up to you game. Since no one called uncle out we went!

We did the high school loop and then then another lap to bug our friend Richie.

Since my knee is stupid we took it slow and I did stop and stretch a few times. We ended up with 7 miles. :-D

I normally would NEVER run in the snow, but since I had friends to run with I did, and it was FUN! :-D

I suck and didn't look at the camera when my mom took the pic, and she was using a phone to do it so we didn't try to get another one because it would have made her mind explode (hehe love you mom)

Aubrey would like the world to know, the water bottle was mine, I made her hold it so i could take a pic. She said water while running is weak. I said she is a brat :-D

I LOVED running with my bff and I CAN NOT WAIT for Marine Corp Marathon with her! I really hope we run it start to finish together, but I am worried I might slow her down, so I might send her on her way!

Special things

A couple Fridays ago I went to visit my mom’s parents. I had a Dr. apt right up the street from their house, so I planned to stop by and visit them after.

We sat around after dinner talking and watching Wipeout, which for being so dumb, is hilarious, but we all know I have a special place in my heart for people falling (it is why America’s Funniest Videos is a show I can usually not pass when channel surfing!)

Mema brought out her little brag book to show me.  It was really neat to see what she probably took to work to show all her friends.

I took some pictures of it with my phone.

Pretty neat! Wonder what I will find next time I go to my grandparents?

I remember one time recently I was at my dad’s parents and I was asking about my dad’s Ph.D dissertation. They went downstairs and brought out this leather bound book, all 400 or so pages of my dad’s research paper. Nice. I read about a page and decided it was boring (sorry dad!) but pretty cool to see!

OH, AMEN!

I am really excited for The Vow. I haven’t read the book, but I know basically what it is about.

I saw this picture floating around the internet, and I am not going to lie. I agree, whole heartedly 100% AMEN!

January is over already?

Not sure how it is February 2, but it is! It feels like April 2 though! You don’t see this winter hating girl complaining though.

So I made goals for January, and I feel like I did pretty well.

Lets look back:

-No missed training runs: Well, I haven’t run since Jan 12, but I am not calling this a fail. I did something to my knee and it hurt to run. So I stopped and tried to let it heal. It is getting better, I did a slow half mile on Tuesday that was pain free. Slow and steady and I will get to race! I go to the dr tomorrow just to be sure!

-lights off, tv off, computer and phone away by 11(on work nights):  I did really well with this one, until school started. Then 11 turned into more like 11:30 before I put the books and computer away. However, on more than one weekend night I was in bed asleep by 11. OH how old I have become

- 3 water bottles a day: Easy Peasy

-church 3 times: Happy to report that I went to church 3 times in a row, twice in a row to the new church – however, looks like 3 of the 4 Sundays in Feb I will be in the Frederick area. And it starts over again….this time I won’t wait 4 months to go back!

-Put away clothes after laundry: I did my laundry again yesterday, and everything is put away and hung up, except the stuff on the drying rack! Go me!

February goals are all similar and with the exception of the goals that are repeated or changed a bit, I plan to keep working on the January goals since they are all good for me!

Drive like the girls are in the car- I don’t know about you, but when I am driving myself I drive stupider than when I have 2 precious lives in my hands. (ahem, mom and dad, please skip this part)  I use my phone while driving and not just for making calls, I drive faster, sometimes more angry.. yea its stupid but true. One day I was thinking, if I can drive safer with the girls why can’t I for myself. So the phone stays in the purse or in GPS mode while I am drive.

Cross train and or lift 2 times a week- I have done a lot of cross training in January, thank you knee, but I need to be better about it in the future even when I am running. I need to spend some time doing some strength work too. Good thing I have a new gym membership to help me with this!

Stay ahead of class reading- right now I am reading for next week in all of my classes. That’s great, but its easy to fall behind and end up scrambling to get the reading done and get the assignments finished, I don’t want to do that this time. Being hurt has really helped me with this, I can read while I elliptical, I can’t read while I run.

Sleep by 11:30- this means lights off by 11:15ish. School will wait til tomorrow, always will.

Vitamins Daily- I go through spurts of doing really well taking my vitamins, I suck these days. I need to get better about it.

Clothes away- its nice to not have baskets of clothes laying around.

 

So that’s February, now off to get some reading done before the girls naps are over!