Needing a Break

After much thinking, prayer and talking with my husband and loved ones,  I have officially decided to take a break from the blogging world.  Whether it will be temporary or indefinitely, I’m not quite sure.

I’ve wrestled for a couple of weeks now with an uneasiness in my heart about continuing to blog.  I know that blogging is a big committment and I was prepared for that and loved it but now feel as if it taking my mind away from other things I need to be focusing on.

I want to take this time to focus on more of what I desire and what God desires for my life.  I desire to love my God more deeply, serve Him, serve His people and discover His direction for my future. I desire to have a deeper, more satisfying marriage with the taking time I put into blogging and turning it into dedicated time to my husband and our relationship.  I desire to keep running, biking and strength training, but doing it more for pure enjoyment, rather than pressure to be able to blog about it.  I desire to eat healthy, clean and as organically as possible, not because it’s expected of me as a health and fitness blogger, but because I want what’s best for my body.  I desire to run away from the guilt that sometimes ensues when I do indulge in chocolate, pizza, burgers, hot dogs and ice cream, because it’s sometimes too much pressure to keep up perfect appearances 100% of the time.  As you can see, there is much that I desire and I’m not saying I can’t do all these things with having this blog but I have felt a stirring in my heart to take a step back and re-evaluate.

I do, however, want to excessively thank each and every one of you (personal friends and blog friends) for being so supportive these last few months with my journey with eating to be kind to my body, training and completing my first marathon and just living to be my best and healthiest self no matter the situation.

I don’t know what the next steps in my life look like but am excited to find out.  I will still remain a faithful Twitterer and Facebooker so follow me, and I can follow you and keep up with you all!

I do believe I will miss you all and have moments of missing blogging about events but this is best for me right now and I hope you all support me and pray for me through this break.  Love you all.  Peace be with you.

Heavy Eyes

Good morning, Sunday! It feels like it’s 5 a.m. rather than 8 a.m. right now. I’m guessing I fell asleep around 11 o’clock last night so I ended up sleeping 7 1/2 hours but my eyes are still feeling very heavy right now.

I’m being a good wife this morning. The hubs was asked to lead worship at a church across town and I came with him 3 hours earlier than the service starts for his rehearsal. We didn’t think it made any sense to drive two cars so I’m passing the time by blogging and reading.

I’m diving into the book, “Adopted for Life” by Russell Moore who is the dean of the School of Theology where the hubs is obtaining is Masters degree, Southern Seminary.

It makes me so excited and anxious to start the adoption process so we can bring our children home. When I think about it, my heart and body ache to have my chidren in my arms. I can’t wait for those glorious days when we meet for the first time.

Ok, before I let myself get all teary and emotional, I’ll move on.

I grabbed a muesli bar as we left the house so I’d have something to hold me over until lunch.

Carman’s is always a dependable choice. I really love their Apricot flavor.

I already ate half and am saving the other half to eat in an hour or two.

Ok, I’ve been trying to figure out why my appetite has been on steroids lately. It absolutely is relentless and I know it’s not just me making it up in my head when the hubs is even commenting on it. I can’t seem to get full and as soon as one meal is over, I start dreaming about the next meal and so I pine with hunger for the amount of time in between meals.

I think I figured it out. I think I am confusing thirst with hunger. My water intake has drastically dropped since the marathon and I believe that is what is preventing me from feeling satiated. I’m not getting enough water into my system.

So I grabbed a water bottle when we walked out the door this morning and plan on drinking, filling it up, drinking, etc. P.S. I do not buy bottled water as I usually use a refillable bottle to be more green and use less plastic but we have a few bottles from some of my races.

I’m prepared to be properly hydrated today and see if that makes a difference in me pining for food 24/7.

Hopefully this is a simple solution to my problem. We’ll see how today goes. The pastor and his wife are taking the hubs and I out for lunch today and then it’s back home so the hubs can lead worship at our church for the night services. It’s a packed day and night for us folks! See you after lunch!

Party Number 2- Done

We are back from the wedding and reception and are pooped. It’s been a busy day and I am happy that I’m about to climb into bed.

The wedding was great. It always brings tears to my eyes to watch people step into holy matrimony. I find myself thinking back to our wedding day and it was so perfect that I can’t imagine what we could do differently to make it any more special.

The bride, Kim, walking down the aisle.

To her groom, Andy, who was waiting anxiously.

After we got in the car after the wedding, I wanted to take a picture of our rings.  This is one shot we forgot to get on our wedding day!  Boo!

Which, by the way, isn’t the hubs original wedding ring.  He lost 20 pounds after we got married and his other titanium ring was way too big!  So we bought this new titanium ring when we were in Vegas on a vacation a year and a half ago.  And I have to say, I like it better than the original.  Another fun fact: My engagement ring is actually the hubs grandmother’s wedding ring.  We had my two bands custom made to match.  Makes it that much more special to me.

We headed to the reception and sat down with some finger food appetizers first.

Then the wedding party arrived and it was time to eat.  I was sure to get a lot of green on my plate since my plate from the graduation party was lacking in the green.

Salad, green beans, potatoes, cheese tortellini, chicken cordon bleu, and beef tenderloin.  Oops, can’t forget the roll.

I waited around just to grab some cake.  Such a pretty presentation.

The pictures I took of the slice of cake I grabbed weren’t good at all because of the low lighting so you’ll just have to picture a slice of strawberry cake.

Here’s us… not the best picture because we are worn out but it will suffice for now.

We have an extremely early morning ahead of us and another jam-packed day tomorrow.  So who knows when I’ll be able to blog.  I might be iPhoning it tomorrow morning.  I’m hurrying off of here so I can wash my face and climb into bed.  A 6:30 wake up call is going to come way too fast!  Nite!

What’s your favorite part of a wedding?

I have two: Watching the dad give his daughter away ALWAYS brings tears to my eyes and when the couple is first announced as Mr. and Mrs. to walk back down the aisle to leave.  That was such a special moment for our wedding and will never forget doing a little jump and squeal as I turned around, grabbed my bouquet of flowers and my husband’s arm for them to announce our new name!  I loved every second.

Party Number 1- Done

We’re back from Patrick’s graduation party and we had fun hanging out, enjoying our rooftop deck and eating some good food.

We love our rooftop deck for parties but I love it especially for laying out and getting some sun.  They had some cornhole set up for gaming later.

And I got to show off my now normal looking toes!!!  So excited that my toes are completely back to normal as of last night!  Summer, flip-flop weather ready!

We had a photo shoot on the rooftop before the party began.

He’s pretty stinkin’ sexy.

Take one for me:

Take two because I didn’t like the first one as much.

Much better!  Now onto the par-tay!!!

I had a couple of bites of potato salad, baked beans, taco dip, a few chips and a hot dog.  Not too filling but just right.

Just right, especially after a few bites of decadent dessert.

A chocolate chip cheesecake ball which I didn’t finish all of and two bites of each cupcake (chocolate fudge and lemon).

I’m learning to share my food more and more so I don’t find myself overindulging.  Works like a charm.  Such a simple concept but being raised in the South, I was taught to clean my plate and it’s hard to get out of that mentality most of the time.

When we went inside to say goodbye, they had the fondue rolling so I dipped one strawberry, one piece of pineapple and one bite of banana in the melted chocolate.  With a couple of plain pieces of pineapple too.

The hubs, me, Jack, and the college graduate, Patrick.

The sweet dog, Marie.  They had to adorn her with a barrette with the University of Louisville’s colors for where Patrick graduated from.  I love little Miss Marie.

And she loves me, obviously.

We couldn’t stay long because we’re off and running to a wedding after a quick wardrobe change.  I have loved today already and I know it’s only to get better with witnessing another man and woman entering into the blessing of marriage.  It only gets better by the day, people, better by the day.  Can’t wait to go throw on my party dress and have a blast tonight with my groom!!  See you later gators.

Leisurely Saturday

I have had the most leisurely Saturday morning and have enjoyed every second.  I slept in until 8 this morning and ended up falling back asleep until 10!  How crazy is that?!  My body was screaming for rest.

I woke up and enjoyed watching some shows on our DVR and decided after an hour or so that it was time to put some food in my belly.  So I did.  I had the other half of my wheat bagel from yesterday.  Scooped the bread out of the middle.  My new addiction to save tons of calories without sacrificing any taste at all!

I don’t even miss the extra bread!

I added some cream cheese.

Grapes and half a banana on the side for some fruit intake.

I loved my breakfast even thought it was so simple.

Before I knew it, it was time to start getting ready for the graduation party for a friend we’re headed to… right next door to our loft.  They are our next door neighbors and we’ve become great friends with them.  Love that I can walk two steps and be there!  I’m all ready to go.  I curled my hair which I haven’t done in AGES!!  I think it’s fun for today.

What do you all think?  Good for a fun graduation party and then a wedding in a few hours?

I’ll see y’all in a little while with some fun pictures from our parties!!

Happy Saturday!