La Jolla Half....Check!

I did it! 13.1 miles of fun, torture, and victory. I did it. My last post left off at me telling you guys that I would be running in my very first half marathon. The La Jolla Half. One of Southern California's most rewarding but difficult runs....let me tell you, it was challenging. When I signed up for this race, I knew that it had hills, I knew that every review of the race said, this is a great run but it's hard. I said, hills? got it...no problemo. With proper training and runs that included big hills, I would strengthen my legs, lungs, and mind. Well I did just that.

I realized that this race was a lot more to me than just 13.1 miles. As a runner, this is my joy, my life, and with every challenge I gain something. Signing up for this race meant more than just a free t shirt and an official time. It was a goal for me that I never knew if I would be able to accomplish. I know that I am not a professional athlete, and to some, a half marathon is nothing. But to me this is the beginning of many years worth or races.



I didn't realize how emotional I would be with this race. There was never a thought that I wouldn't be able to run in this race, but there was definetly a thought in my mind that I would get a bad time...with that, I was determined to get under 2 hours. My official time was 1.56.45, but my watch time was 1.56.33 (I had to stop to take my long sleeve shirt off). I told myself, ok, the biggest hill is at mile 5.5, this hill was steep and killer...even for me and I am good with hills....After that I knew that it would be a little easier mentally and physically. There were a few more little hills and at mile 12 one more bigger hill. I say bigger, because after 12 miles, it sucks...you just want to be done. At that point, my left quad started to cramp and I just powered through it...Made it to the top and sprinted down to the finish line. Unbelievable. I had to hold back tears...yes I know, I am emotional, but this was a far greater deal for me seeing as I did this race alone and sorta on a whim. As mentioned in my previous post, my parents and Nick were there to cheer me on. It was so great to see them at the finish. I was so happy. We went back to the hotel, showered, got ready and we went to lunch at this really good greek place in La Jolla...not sure if it was really good because it was truly really good or if it was just because I just burned 1,300 calories and I could literally eat a whole cow. Either way, it was perfect. :)

And as a little reward to myself, I bought me a new pair of Toms. In yellow :)

Due to the events that will be taking place this year, i.e. 4 weddings, 2 newborns, 1 fabulous wedding to my love, and a honeymoon, I will be signing up for at least 1 more half before the end of the year. But next year my friends, will be a whole new year....I will be running in my very first Marathon.....The Los Angeles Marathon to be exact! And then one more race that I have been wanting to do for years...the Nike Womens Marathon in San Fransisco....let's pray that I get picked in the lottery.

Conquering the La Jolla Half

It's been a while since I last wrote on my blog...my apologies, yes, a lot of fun things have happened since I last blogged about fabric but I didn't have pictures to support my day of trying on bridesmaid dresses or going to Baby Cakes Bakery which was amazing by the way, please go. There has been one thing that has consumed my thinking, and that my friends, is the La Jolla Half Marathon.

Those of you that know me, know that I love to run. I love it! So way back when, August to be exact, I was searching races and came across the La Jolla Half. This is like my dream....well not really, but let me explain.

I love love love La Jolla....there is this seashell store off the cliffs that just looks like your typical little store...well, it's not. You can take like 200+ stairs down (steap stairs) to this little cove and by the time you are at the ground you are practically floating in the ocean. Amazing. Our parents used to always take us when we were little.

Ok, so we have La Jolla, we have the beach...I am obsessed, but who isn't right? We have the sun. Forecast says sunny with a high of 68, a little on the cooler side but I'll take it. Then we have a 13 mile run through Torrey Pines alongside the coast the whole way?! Sign me up! As of August 2009, I have been signed up for my very first Half Marathon. :) I have been training as much as my work schedule permits, running those hills (by the way, mile 7 of the race has a 400 ft. incline within 1 mile...holy moly), buying the proper race gear, made my hotel reservations, now on my taper week, I am ready to go!

Nick and I will head out Saturday morning to pick up my race packet, hang out, possibly meet up with his buddy, and Sunday morning I will set out to conquer one of my goals on my list :)

Stay tuned for my blog about my experience, as well as pictures of course :)

How Many Yards Do I Need?

That seemed to be the question all weekend...For myself, this is a little harder than for most. I am zoning in on my "inner Martha" and tackeling yet, another DIY project. This time kids, I am making napkins. for. 150. people. And I am not much a seamstress.

I feel that I need to preface this post with this, I am creative, I enjoy decorating, planning, and incorporated unique ideas with everything I do. So for our wedding, why would it be any different? A list of things I have done or plan to do is on an earlier post, scroll down if you haven't read it.

So throughout the past 5ish months, I have carefully planned the colors, the decorations, the dresses, etc....I have a lot of the aubergine (plum) color, a lot of the orange color, and very very very little of the pops! of magenta....hmmmm...something's wrong here, I wanted aubergine, orange, and pops! of magenta....not aubergine and orange? The flowers that the I am holding will have some magenta, the other flowers may have some magenta, but other than that, there is no pinkish magenta color anywhere. I have slightly been avoiding this situation just because I felt that it would just come to me and I think it was also a little bit of a pain to have to think of more ideas....Even for me, I can only handle so much of DIY projects and I am up to my ears in DIY projects...I don't need another one! Well that all came to a halt last week. As I was reading my websites and getting ideas, it came to me.....Why don't I make my own napkins with patterns that will have magenta?! This shouldn't be so hard right?

One thing about me is, once I have an idea, I do it...so how will I accomplish this dawnting task? With help...tons of help. My sister figured it all out, the dimensions were calculated, I saved the email, and printed it out so I could take it to the store. I went out and bought fabric, which I need to tell you, it is so cute! It will go perfectly with my table clothes and I think will add a nice little touch. I will learn to sew better (my grandma from Texas taught me but apparently I didn't take that lesson with me as I grew up), and most importantly I have saved myself just a little bit more money.

Stay tuned as I update my napkin adventures!

A Rather Engaging Afternoon

Since the day we got engaged, we already knew who would be our photographer: Kat Musacchio. As my sister's Mother in Law, a fabulous photographer, it was a no brainer, we would use her for our wedding. She has taken my family photos for a few years now, and when I knew that she would be coming down for my sister's baby shower, we had one day to get the engagement pictures done. Kat was also present the day Nick proposed at the beach, she captured every minute of the wonderful day, took tons of wonderful shots of everyone, the beach, and the sunset; however, there was one place that I just knew I wanted pictures taken. Nick's fire station. Every second of our wedding planning process has been spent making sure that this wedding will be us, the pictures, the songs, the venue, the flowers, down to the center pieces. I felt that his work is a huge part of who Nick is, just as the beach is about us, I knew that the station said a lot of who he is and what his passion is.

So we set out at 3 on Good Friday, after a stop at Office Depot (Kat got an amazing deal on a new SD Card) we were on our way to Loma Linda. Once we arrived, the boys working were washing his truck, we thought, perfect! it will be clean for us to take pictures with :) We started taking pictures on the anitque fire engine, also known as the Mack Truck.

After warming up a bit to the camera we were good...Kat was able to capture one of our favorites, below:

The truck was clean and waiting for us! One of our favorites from this part of pictures:

After the station we went to Redlands where Nick grew up. Kat and I both shared the next vision and were set to find the perfect spot. We wanted an old building with exposed, bare materials, so he drove us to the older part of the city, and found this building....awesome! I just love how Kat was able to capture all the right angles...

I just can't get enough of this one...makes me laugh :)

On our way home, Kat mentioned that she wanted to shoot a little bit more up the street from my house. The sun was right, the location was set, and it couldn't have been any better.

What a Weekend!

And what a weekend it was....I have been waiting to put up a post on here for a couple weeks, because being the planner that I am, I knew I wanted to blog about a fabulous event that has just passed....Talitha's Baby Shower!

Talitha had come to me months ago and asked if I would plan the Southern California shower for her, of course I said yes, are you kidding?! It would be fun! I started putting together ideas that I wanted to do, checking out sales, and various stores seeing how creative I could get. I think I am taking a break from going to Michaels for a bit...however, they are having a huge sale right now so if you need to get some crafty supplies, right now would be the time to do it. Anyways, I took pics along my planning process so I could blog about it afterwards. Please feel free to take a looksie, comment, or whatever you would like.

A week before the shower, our kitchen table looked like this: Controlled Chaos, if you will.

First, it began with the cake diapers. After emailing all the lovely mamas that I know, I went to Target to buy some diapers....did you know they come in sizes? I just thought they stretched! I bought two boxes, one box in size 1, another in size 2/3. We decided to make a game out of the diaper cakes, Guess How Many Diapers are In Each Cake? So fitting for the event I thought. In case you're wondering, there are 140 in the big one and 91 in the small one...I packed those bad boys in there! By the way, I had a very handsome helper with the big one, Nick hand rolled at least half of those diapers with rubber bands!

As I spent my lunches shopping at Michaels, Pier One, Target, etc...I found some fun little prizes like this Rate that Wine Note Pad:

Once I was finished gathering all the prizes, I wrapped them in tissue paper and put some ribbon on them:

Next up: Food.....we ordered Tal's favorite, Buca di Beppo, had a local baker make some Red Velvet Cupcakes, and washed it down with various wines, ice water with fresh cut lemons, and mock champagne that was a hit!

It's now present time! Talitha's little girl received tons of cool clothes, super cute bikinis, and fun little shoes! She is definitely going to be the best dressed little booger in Oakhurst! Take a look at some of the pictures some of Tal's expressions are priceless!

We also had prizes to give to some of the guests during the opening present time. We had a random timer go off and whoevers gift Talitha was opening was the winner! Now looking back, I kinda feel it would be fun to give a gift to the youngest attendee: Emmy! :) Look at her cute little dress!

All in all, it was a fun afternoon with the ladies. I had a blast planning it and loved spending time with the fabulous women who came!

For another person's perspective please click here:

http://themusacchioproject.blogspot.com

Stay tuned for my next post: Engagement Pictures!