Running From My Spanx: September 2012

Monday, September 24, 2012

New House ("Before" pictures)

We FINALLY get to move in to the new house!! Hoorayyy!! We have TONS of work to do in the house, so I'm sure it'll be a construction zone for the next few years, but more on that later :) for now, I'm just excited to be moving in!

Kitchen into dining/living room

Kitchen/Laundry

I thought I would hate these cabinets but I think I'm liking them!

Living room

Living room out to the patio

Just another view :)

Looking back at the front door. Garage to the right.

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Master bedroom

Balcony off the master

Master bath (tiny :( )

Bedroom #4 balcony off the front of the house

Another view of bedroom #4

"walk in" closet

upstairs bath

Skylight/window in upstairs bath

Our first night in the new house. Bottle of Champagne and some lawn chairs. :)

We technically haven't moved in yet, because when we got there we realized they had turned the water off to replace a pipe. That would have been nice to know. :( It is now 3 days later and the water is still off so we have been driving back living out of suitcases. Boo. I'm hoping it's fixed and on before the end of the week!

More before & after pics to come :)

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Birthday Fun

It seems like we never get to go out and do anything fun with everyone anymore, but we had a good excuse this time! Kayla's birthday! Definitely a reason to hit up Osaka for hibachi dinner and some martinis and head downtown for the night :) Craig of course came out with all of the girls .... I think he secretly liked it because of all the food. We met up with more friends later, but here are some pictures from dinner and early in the evening!

Just wanted to throw in a post to remember this night out! Love getting a chance to get together with friends :)

Waverly Picnic

This year was my first experience with the Waverly picnic, and let me just say it will be an annual event for years to come! I kept laughing when Craig would mention it to me because it is such a small town, I thought it would definitely be a lame thing that only people who grew up there would enjoy. I was wrong. It was pretty fun! Here are some pictures-

Annual mud volleyball game

Katelyn, Heidi, and I

Craig and I didn't participate in the mud volleyball tournament, but we did get to see a couple of the games. It. was. a. mess. I don't know if i want to participate next year or not! Eeek!

Race Day!! (Finally)

Here are some pictures of my first annual Abe's Amble 10K ... I plan to continue running it every year! It is supposed to be the "hard" race in Springfield. The course is fairly hilly for central Illinois :)

I had been slacking horribly on my running (I still am) so I was terrified of this race. Maddie had been training for a while and this was her first 10K. Our pace was fairly close so we decided to run it together. That was about the best thing that could have happened!! She definitely drug me through it and I did the same to her. The hills were a nightmare but the weather was perfect! I finished this 10K 6 minutes slower than my last 10K... which was fine by me considering my "training" ... or lack thereof. As always, Craig finished the race (he won 1st in his age group!) and came back and ran the last leg of it with us. He is always supportive :) I apparently didn't take pictures of my Abe's Amble 2012 shirt or my number by itself but oh well. Another thing to note - this was the first race I've ever ran with the shoe chip! (you can see it in the first picture). I know it's a stupid thing but I was excited about it. For some reason it felt official.

Short and sweet post :)

The drive through the "Fly Over States"

I am WAY behind on my blogging! I am backing up all the way to my Texas trip in July! It'll be short and sweet.
I drove the entire 12 hours from South Dakota to Oklahoma where we met up with my family around 1am. It was the longest. drive. ever. I drove through most of the "fly over states" during this trip and I have no desire to do it again! We crashed on the couch for a couple of hours and then jumped in the car to continue on to Texas. Dad, Mom, Jana, Ashley, the girls, Katelyn and me were on the road all day and got into New Braunfels that afternoon. We headed straight to the hotel to get cleaned up and I dropped Katelyn off at her friend's house. The rest of the extended family were slowly but surely filtering in through the afternoon. That evening, we went to dinner on the River and then to happy hour at the winery where the rehearsal dinner was held. Here are some pics!

My brother and Craig had late flights getting into Texas, so they were arriving at the hotel right when we got back. To say the least, it was really nice to see Craig after 4 weeks of being gone! <3

My family of course went stayed up all night long outside by the pool - it was a blast! It was so good to have everyone together! The next day, we hung out by the pool and around the hotel, then started getting ready for the wedding. Here are a bunch of random pics...