Wine Country + Half Marathon = A very happy girl

This weekend, the husband and I, alongside some of our closest friends will be running the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half in Solvang.  If you are anything like me, I had you at wine.  I love wine.....even more, I love to run, and even more than that, I love to run then drink wine with my friends.  I cannot wait.

Nick and I went to Solvang almost 2 years ago...we had a blast....our favorite winery was Fess Parker which is where this picture below was taken. 

Since Nick has started medic school, our originally plan to go up early and enjoy the day on Friday has gone out the window.  It now has been replaced with me still taking the day off but running around with my head cut off trying to get last minute things taken care of.  Some of the plans consist of going to Traders to buy running snacks, dropping our fur babies off to the grandparents, cleaning and painting (yes, painting) the floors, and last but not least...packing.  We hope to be on the road by 4 pm....which will put us smack dab in the middle of Friday traffic.  lovely. 

Once we are there, I think I will relax a bit.  I suffer from pre-race anxiety....you know how most people suffer from the pre-race jitters?  Not this girl.  I am a full on pre-race anxious little ball of anxiety.  I want to make sure all the plans work out, we have a race packet, I get to lay my race clothes out the night before, and then of course, sleep. 

My goal?  1:50.?? minutes.  I can complete the race in that time.  I know I can. 

Then it's wine time!!!  Nick and I will be reunited with Fess Parker, and the others will be able to soke up the Solvang sun and drink some yummy-in-my-tummy wine. :)

Until then my friends, have a lovely day!

PS: moving day is now 2 weeks away.  That will be saved for a later post :)

YAY :)

I can officially post this now....

we bought a house.

YAY!!

That's right folks, the Gray's are officially home owners....Escrow closes next month and then it's a marathon decorating extravaganza!!!



W. A . I . T . I . N . G.

"In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by praaer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Jesus Christ." {Philippians 4:6-7}

What a great reminder this verse is.  A friend of mine posted in on her FB yesterday and I have just been sitting on those words, thinking, and praying....just what I needed to hear yesterday.

This past week has been such an amazing, life changing, quickly moving week....{understatement!}  It is amazing how quickly God will move through your life if you let Him.  What started to be a slow, boring, slightly upsetting week became one of my favorite weeks ever!  And I have a feeling it's about to get even better.

Happy Friday All :)

To be continued...

Born. to. Run.

Some of you may have this book, some of you may have heard of this book, and some of you may not know what it is or care.  If the latter describes you, maybe this post will make you want to go buy this awesome book. 

I have heard many great things about this book such as, it got a non runner off the couch and out on the streets in no time, it changed the way runners think while running, or it actually made running fun.  I just got the paperback version in the mail yesterday (pre-ordered on Amazon for $8 bucks and it arrived the very next day it was coming out!)...actually Nick and I were sitting on our porch when it got delivered...I was so excited that I opened it up right then and there!  So I will start my new book today and I hope it changes the way I think and feel while running....to be honest, I think I am almost more excited about this book than I have ever been about anything!  Happy Wednesday!

*I will post my thoughts a/o favorite parts of the book in later posts :) 

my heart is heavy...

for many reasons....Japan, for one...my cousin and cousin-in-law (this is her husband, that I refuse to say he is just that...he is my cousin :) ) lived in Iwaki, Japan for 3 years and just recently within this year moved to Germany....what if they were still there?  God is good.
I read my friends amazing blog, where she has this charity on her page, and I have been wanting to help out since I have heard about the quake so today, I did.  I want to pass this on to whoever reads my blog:

if your heart is heavy and you want to help out, please do :) any bit helps.

My heart is heavy because of things going on personally....I continue to see God, and I continue to make Him my focus everyday....Nick and I both have made more of an effort to incorporate Him and to walk more by faith.  I can tell you that I have seen God move ever so slightly, but just because I don't see a lot of movement doesn't mean He isn't shaping our lives to be even better.  God is good.  With every tear I shed or every doubt that I have, I know that He is with me, He is with us...

This Saturday we took our dogs to the beach.  It was Lucy's first time... I think she was scared of the water...Yes, she is a Golden Retriever.  No, she doesn't care for the water.  Nick threw her in, she learned to swim, we will see how she takes it next time :)  Not the best pic of me, but she's cute :)

Aren't they cute?

Sparkling Thursday

Well, it's not so sparkly, but I feel like if I say that enough I will like this Thursday a little bit more.  Plus I love all things sparkly so I felt it just fit the title.  I also feel like Thursdays get the shaft when it comes to the days of the week and which days you like and which days you hate.  To me, Thursday is 1 day closer to Friday which for me, is Heaven because, ummm hello, that means the weekend is here!  But for others, also known as the more pessimistic kind, it means, we still have to go through the day just to get to Friday.  When I was in college, Thursday was my Friday.  I was done with classes then usually went out with friends that night, went to work the next morning, usually not feeling so "awake".  Not the case anymore....this girl has turned in her party hat for her running shoes and a bedtime nicely set at 9 pm every night.  Even on the weekends. 

Now that I am done with that rant, I realize I have been MIA lately.  My apologies.  I do want to try to get better at my blogging skills.  Wanted to keep you all up to date, remember this post?  I have already done some of my goals!! 

1. Legally change my name to Gray- Check!  Phewww...that was a toughy....after talking to the lady at the Social Security office about Hawaii and how she hated it, almost being late coming back to work (went on my lunch break), getting the stink eye because I made an appointment at the DMV instead of standing in that wretched line, and taking the new picture I am done....and I wonder if my picture turned out good.
2. Joint Checking-Almost check!  All we need is a copy of my new license and then we are set....C'mon California State Department, get on that license so I can do joint checking please!
3. Save money.  Wellll.......define save money.  I will say we are doing better with our budget and are not as tight as we were...however, I highly doubt we will be getting on  plane to go to Maui anytime soon.  In good time we will :)
4. I am going to go ahead and skip over #4 as I am still learning how to "go with the flow".
5. I am getting faster!!! and my legs are hurting because of it :)
6. The house is slowly coming together!  Nick bought me a rolling cart for the kitchen as my Valentines gift....Perfect present :)  We also got this bad boy for the wall.  Love it! 
7. Ahhhh probably the most important yet....my business.  I am happy to say that it is slowly (key word there) coming together.  I am not ready to unveil the website yet and most likely won't be for a while, but I am happy to report that I am in talks with some lovely people and it will come together.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Thursday and I hope it's sparkly for you all :) 

Transition from Hobby to Professional...

...is exciting and daunting at the same time, let me tell you.

Wanted to share my latelies as of this week with some of you.  My side business is becoming more and more real as I type this.  But as of today I now have my very own domaine name for my invitation suite business!!  My plan is to really work on it tomorrow, creating my logo and then putting it up on my professional blog :)  So I guess I have unofficially, officially started my business!  It will be a few weeks until I am able to share it with you all, I want to make sure I beautify it and get it exactly how I want it until I send it out to the real world.  :)