Warrior Dash # 2 - Warrior Alabama

Sara, Jennifer and I decided to have a girls weekend in Alabama.  We left Friday afternoon and headed to Clay and Sara's lakehouse at Smith Lake.  We ate dinner at this fabulous restaurant close to the lakehouse called Talk of the Town.  We then went to the lakehouse and the neighbors were there having drinks on the patio.  We unloaded our things and went over to join them for a drink.  They were quite entertaining.  They had a fire and we sat around the fire talking.  About 11:00, the three of us decided it was time to go get in bed.  It was going to be an early morning to get up and get dressed and head to the Warrior Dash.

We got up, got dressed and headed to breakfast at Talk of the Town, omg...their breakfast is AWESOME!!!  After breakfast we hit the road to Warrior, Alabama.  Sara was blazing a trail down the interstate when she spotted a Alabama police officer on the entrance ramp.  She said a few ugly words and bam, he was behind us with his lights and siren on.  Needless to say, we pulled over and Sara got a speeding ticket and we were looking at our exit few a few maybe 100 yards in front of us....

We got to the parking area and waited for Tiffany.  When she arrived we hopped on the yellow dog school bus and he delivered us to the Dash site.  We checked in, duct taped our shoes, had a photo session and got ready to run our second Warrior Dash.

Jennifer, Me, Sara, Tiffany

Showing our love with Sharpie tattoos for our best supporters, CRF and MCB

I did't think about the elevation changes in Alabama.  This Warrior Dash was 3.2 miles of up and down, up and down mountains.  We completed the course in an hour and 10 minutes.  I have a video, but I have not edited it yet.  After completing the warrior dash you can turn your transponder in for a free beer, they have live bands and everyone hangs around listening to good music, eating turkey legs, wearing mud and enjoying themselves.  We had a blast dancing and acting like fools (just like everyone else.)

We headed out to the yellow dog drop spot and caught a ride back to the parking lot.  We parted ways with Tiffany and headed back to Tupelo.  We stopped at a subway and got sandwiches and hit the highway.

We had so much fun and are looking forward to the next mud run:))

One of the best obstacles...leaping FIRE!!

WARRIOR DASH # 2 COMPLETED!!!  TIME TO ENJOY;))

Tree Farm - Secca Round 3

Once again another weekend comes around and we found ourselves gathering gear together to head out early on Saturday morning to Billingsley, Alabama for the 3rd Hare Scramble in the SECCA series.  Clay and Sara picked us up and away we went.  We got to Billingsley after a few wrong turns (the directions weren't quite right) got the guys registered, unloaded and set up.  Chuck and Clay warmed up their bikes, got their gear together and we had a while to sit and relax before the race began.

It got time to gear up and head toward the driver's meeting, when Chuck got on his bike he realized his battery was dead!  The 450 doesn't have a kick start only an e start, so he was pretty much dead in the water!!  He and Clay decided to try and push it off and let him run it for some laps to hopefully charge the battery so it would crank on the starting line.  They pushed it off and got it cranked.  He rode it and headed to the starting line.  Clay told Sara if Chuck's bike didn't crank for us (me and Sara) to push him off.  I told Chuck and he was hesitant because if the lost the bike on the track, he would not be able to restart it.

They began the race and when it got to Chuck's row, I stood on the sideline with my fingers crossed that his bike would crank (for if it didn't, I knew he would be devastated)  the green flag raised and the bike didn't crank!!  Sara and I ran out to him and he said no, do not push.  The next row got the green flag and he said yes, let's push it off.  So the most awesome pit crew (Sara and I) got behind the bike and began to push him off.  Several attempts left us standing there with a dead engine, as Chuck was about to call it over, two men came and helped push him off.  He was the dead last guy to leave the starting line and recovered to 8th place in his line out of 18 riders!!

At the end of the first moto, both guys came in dirty as could be!!  The dust was terrible!!  They were having a great time.  Chuck was pretty stoked that he was able to pass and end the first moto in 8th place.  We asked the guy parked next to us if he had a battery charger and he did (he was in a loaded out motorhome, so we kind of figured he would).  We put the bike on a trickle charger and the second moto the bike started.  Thank goodness, not sure we could have pushed him off again.

At the end of the second moto, the guys came to the truck and we bathed them with ice cold bottled water out of the cooler (all we had), they changed and we loaded everything up.  Clay wasn't feeling well, so he was going to sit in the truck.  When he got in the drivers seat to crank the truck, he realized the battery was dead.  He asked a man to jump us off.  I had gone to throw away the garbage and as I walked back up to the truck I saw Clay remove the jumper cables off the truck and pass out and fall to the ground.  Sara screamed and ran over to Clay, hollering his name and tapping him on the face.  I ran to the back of the truck and got Chuck (who had NO idea what was going on), several people around saw the commotion and came to see if they could help.  We were all worried and in just minute or so, Clay woke up and wondered what we were all doing standing around him.

We think his sugar dropped and he passed out.  He has since been to the doctor and they can not find anything wrong with him.  We got Clay in the truck and headed home.  We are so very thankful that he is ok.

Oh, the memories made while racing dirtbikes.

Monster Mountain - Secca Round 2

The second race of the season was at Monster Mountain in Tallasee, Alabama.  We were really excited about going to this race, because this is where Chuck proposed to me in December.  We had it planned to leave on Friday afternoon and spend the night.  But on Friday at lunch Clay and Sara sold their truck.  So they get two drops and we took this race as a drop and did not go, seeing as though it was so far from Tupelo.

Chickenhouse Secca Round 1

Chad, Brad, Chuck and Clay Pre-Race

The first weekend of September found us packing up dirtbikes and heading to Clanton, Alabama in the very early morning hours of a Saturday.  Clay and Sara (our boyfriend/girlfriend couple) stopped by the house and picked us up, we loaded up the Tahoe and headed out to the Chickenhouse Hare Scramble.  Clay and Chuck (pilot and copilot), Sara and Amelia (pit crew) and Clay's little brother and sister, Hayden and Paige with Bad Brad and Chad following behind us in another car.  Everything went smoothly on the ride to Alabama, we stopped, gassed up, and everyone got a biscuit and drink at the gas station.  We arrive in Clanton at the Chickenhouse and proceed to get the guys registered and the tent set up.  The guys raced and three of the four placed and brought home wood.

Chuck during the race

It was HOT!!  Clay got sick and did not finish the second moto, but still ended up placing and bringing home wood.  When Chuck finished the race, he wasn't sick, but he was rather pitiful.  Sara and I had to step up our game and load up everything!!  We earned our strips for Best Pit Crew!! We stopped and ate supper at Chili's and hit the road home.

Chuck with his 2nd Chickenhouse trophy

St. Jude Half Marathon

So a few of the Dirty Dashing Divas decided it would be fun to train for the St. Jude Half Marathon in December.  So after many text messages and a lot of encouraging, Sara, won me over with a comment about my bucket list.  So Tuesday morning, I got online an registered Chuck and myself for the half marathon. So beginning on Monday, May 21, we will begin Hal Higdon's novice training for half marathons.
http://www.stjudemarathon.org/halfmarathon.htm

Girls Weekend

Last weekend, we had two of our nieces, come to Tupelo and spend the weekend with us.  Chuck went and picked them up in Columbus on Friday afternoon.  When I got home from work, they were all three at home waiting on me.  So the girls and I planted the front flowerbed, and Chuck started the grill for hamburgers.  We decided to watch a movie and have a quiet Friday night to rest up for the events on Saturday.
Saturday morning we got up and had McDonald's mcgriddles for breakfast, then we walked down to the stop sign on Chester and anxiously awaited the Gumtree runners, after the race we went to the Gumtree Festival downtown and walked around the festival.  Chuck and I found a piece of art we both really liked and the artist is Jimmy Criddle, the preacher that married us.  He is about to move to his own church.  Since he is part of us and our beginning, I bought the piece of art.  It is very special to me.
After the festival, we went to eat lunch at Connie's and then on to the Flea Market.   Mid afternoon, Chuck was tired from all the shopping, so we took him home and headed to the mall and hobby lobby.
Aubrey was wanting an earring holder, so we got the materials to make some.  They were both very excited with their creations.  We then headed out to the Corey Smith Concert at Fairpark.  We did not stay for the whole thing, because it was misting rain during the whole concert.
We got up Sunday morning and went to Church, out to dinner with my family, mammaw and pappaw, and my aunt, uncle and her son, Andy at Outback.  We went back to the Gumtree Festival with my family for a little while and came home and changed clothes and packed up and headed to Mantachie for Ms. Karen's Mother's Day celebration.
We had a great weekend with the girls!
But when we got home from Mantachie, we both crashed...

KTM World

The weekend of May 4, 5, and 6th we went to Cedartown, Georgia with Brandi and Jason Peters, Danielle and Jason Passmore, Ashley and Will Breaux, KC and David Breaux, Ana and Eric, Brooke and Jayden and Bridgette for a little dirt bike riding.  We stayed in a cabin, had to use the bathroom and shower in a bathhouse (shared with many people) and cooked dinner on the campfire.  There were several motocross tracks and many, many miles of trails.
Chuck and I loaded up the truck with bikes, gear, food, just about everything but the kitchen sink, and headed to Georgia.  We got to the cabin before the others we were sharing it with, so we claimed the only double bed in the cabin.  KC and David slept in the 2 twin beds and Will and Ashley slept in the loft.  We rode all day on Saturday.  Chuck and I got up Sunday morning and drove on back home,  everyone else stayed and rode after a few small rain showers.

The Girls

DIRTY DASHING DIVAS

On Saturday, April 21, Jennifer and I joined 10,000 people in Jackson, MS for the Warrior Dash.  OMG!!!  This was so much fun!!!  We had shirts made up and we had a group of about 15 girls that all dashed together.
Our team name, Dirty Dashing Divas -A random group of girls, who became friends, and decided to reach a goal TOGETHER.. Each has her own reason for "dashing" but they all have the same goal. FINISH this monster of a race! 

                                                                    Amelia and Sara

Jennifer, Sara, Tiffany and Amelia

Sara and I decided to wear our go pro cameras on our heads to capture each and every moment of this day.  We had so much fun and cannot wait to so another!!!

My first time out of the country
Sunday, March 18, 2012

Sunday morning our flight to Jamaica left out at 6 am.  We got up and got our stuff and headed to the airport to catch our flight.  We flew to Atlanta and then on to Jamaica.  We were greeted at the Jamaican airport to a bar and bathrooms.  We waited only a few minutes and were then shuffled off to a small van for an hour ride to our resort.  It was an interesting ride, we got to see a lot of the country side, ocean, poverty, people, etc.
When we got to the resort, we were greeted with a glass of champagne and a wet wash cloth.  We waited with another couple to get checked in and shown our rooms.  Eric and Stacy were from Iowa and were celebrating their 11 anniversary.  We ended up meeting up with them several times and made many memories.
We stayed at the Couples - Negril.  It was fabulous, I cannot say anything but good things about the facilities, people, food, etc.  This place was fabulous.  Our schedule was very much the same during the week while we were there, we got up, ate breakfast, went down to the beach and claimed our spot for the day, went to the grill and had lunch, back to the beach for the afternoon, then to the room for a shower to get ready for dinner and bed.
We didn't ever leave the resort except to go the airport.  We did snorkel, go on a glass bottom boat ride, ad night snorkel.  We became close to Milton and Jovan in the dive shop and Otis and Ricky at the pool bar. The day we went snorkeling, it had been raining and was very overcast, after only a few minutes of being in the water, Chuck held his hand up and he had lost his wedding band...Nothing we could do, so we continued on snorkeling.  When we got back on the boat, we told Milton and Jovan, and they told us they would go back and look for it.
The next morning the phone rang at 8 am and it was the dive shop, they FOUND his wedding band!  We got dressed and went down to the dive shop to reclaim his ring.
The night snorkeling was awesome, we saw lobster, blowfish, octopus, squid, sting rays, moray eel, starfish, and a few more.  It was fantastic.

This is us with Ricky and Otis and our friends, Eric and Stacy, on our last day in Jamaica.

Wedding Night

We unloaded the bike, changed clothes, and repacked the car to head to Memphis to begin our honeymoon.  We were so hungry, we stopped off at one of favorite local spots, Lost Pizza, to eat before driving to Memphis.  As we were walking to our car in the parking lot, we spotted Chuck's brother, Jimmy and his wife, Lori and daughter, Cortney.  We spoke to them and quickly got in the car and drove to Memphis and stayed at a hotel close to the airport.

Wedding

At the church, we got dressed and I headed to the sanctuary, where my soon to be husband, Chuck and our photographer, Jeff were waiting to see me for the first time on Saturday.  Jeff had Chuck turn his back to the front of the sanctuary and had me enter from the front of the sanctuary and walk up behind him and place my hand on his shoulder.  We paused a few moments and then he turned around to see his soon to be wife and kissed me.

We took pictures and then we went back to wait for everyone to be seated and the wedding to begin.  The ceremony was beautiful and very sweet.  Chuck got choked up and made every lady in the church cry.  After the ceremony we took a short walk, just the two of us, to the reception, via the sidewalk (we were both hot and it was cool outside).  What a fabulous feeling to be married to your best friend.

As we walked around the block, there was a man sitting in a car, who questioned us as to when we were going to leave the reception.  He was a newspaper photographer, who had heard that we were going to leave the reception on Chuck's dirtbike.
At the reception we greeted our guests, ate cake, drank green punch, laughed and visited with friends and family.  When it was time to leave we got on the dirtbike and rode off and around the block (as we turned onto Main Street, the train of my dress got stuck in the chain and sprocket.  Chuck got off the bike and pulled my dress out.  We continued around the block and ended back at the church.  Everyone was surprised to hear our story about my dress.

We then took off again, my parents live down the street from the church and we had parked Chuck's truck and trailer there to get the dirtbike home.  As we came down the street, Todd, the newspaper photographer, took our picture.  We loaded the bike up and headed home to unload, reload and head to Memphis.

St. Patty's Day, 5K Run
Saturday, March 17, 2012

I had a great idea sometime in early January, and joined a running group that culminated with a 5k run on St. Patty's Day.  We had already set the date for the wedding and so I decided how much fun it would be to get up and run a race the morning of our wedding with a few of my honorary bridesmaids.  So Jennifer and Sadie joined me at Ballard Park on Saturday morning and ran the St. Patty's Day 5K with me.  We then stopped by Sadie's house for a QUICK shower, and Kristi and Jennifer escorted me to Pontotoc to see Tony and get my hair and make up done.  When we arrived a very sweet friend, Sara, had dropped off the makings for mimosas.  After a fun hour or so at Marty's Hair House, we flew back to Tupelo and headed to the church to get ready for the wedding.

Bridal Luncheon
On Friday, March 16, 2012, several of my aunts, Kathy Stubblefield, Beth Daniels, Angie Drake, Anneil Gillentine and my sister in law, Jill Collins, honored me with a bridal luncheon at Harvey's.  We had a great time.  Everyone stood up and told how they knew me and/or Chuck.  It was very sweet to hear each persons account.  I had to act like my daddy and take the floor and tell how each person there had impacted my life in one fashion or another.   I recounted stories of a special memory of them and me, and as I went down the table, I realized how lucky I am to have so many women in my life.
After the luncheon,  Jennifer, Kristi and I went and picked up my wedding dress at Kay's and ran a few other errands.  We got ready and went to the church for the rehearsal and then we all went to Bill and Jim's in Aberdeen for our rehearsal dinner.
I spent the night with my mama and daddy.  Chuck stayed at my house with Patrick, Jill and Tatum.

Engagement Picture Shoot

                       

Jeff sent me the rest of our engagement pictures today.  He did a fabulous job. We are getting very excited!  Picture #5 is my favorite!!  23 days until our big day!!

Engagement pictures

Monday, February 20th was a beautiful day!  Chuck and I got all dressed up and met our friend and wedding photographer downtown for our engagement picture shoot.  We had a great time!  We took several pictures at different locations downtown and then we went out to EP lake and took a few out there.
For those of you who will be in pictures at our wedding, you are in for a treat, Jeff is one of the funniest humans on the planet and a great photographer.  Here are two pictures from yesterday.

                          Picture for engagement announcement in the paper

This man makes me so happy!

Silence hides Violence 5K Run

A few weeks ago, 2 of my friends that I have known since childhood signed up for a running group.  We run 3 days a week and the training culminates with the St. Patty's Day 5K Run.  There is a prize for the best costume that day and we are planning on taking home the prize :)
The 3 of us, Jennifer, Sadie and I have signed up for several runs.  Sadie and Jennifer have not only been friends of mine since we were kids, but they are also 2 of my honorary bridesmaids.  The run we did today was Kaitlyn's senior project.  It was a 5K run at Ballard Park.  We are planning on completing the Amanda Price Memorial 5K run in New Albany March 10th, the St. Patty's Day 5K, March 17th, the Warrior Dash April 21st, and the Gumtree 10K May 12.  We have a lot to train for :)
So this morning we laced up our running shoes to raise awareness for Domestic Violence, to help out a senior with her project, and to train for our upcoming events.  It was rather cold this morning.  As we proceeded to the starting line, we decided we would get towards the back of the crowd.  After completing several other runs in the past we thought we were placing ourselves in a decent starting place.  Well, needless to say, somehow we were stuck smack in the middle of the WALKERS!!!  When the starting whistle blew we took off and almost ran over several people, as we worked and weaved our way through the crowd to an opening, a very sassy older lady yelled out at us that the runners should have been at the front of the line.  Not sure why she was so vocal, seeing as though she was behind us when we started so we did not pass her, anyway we started at a good pace and we all three stayed together for a few minutes. Jennifer has a bum ankle so we were trying to be careful and get her through the race without injuring it anymore that it already is.  So after a few minutes of jogging, Jenn and I slowed from jogging to walking. Sadie took off and rocked the 5K.  We did well with running and walking and pacing ourselves.  We set goals of where to run to, of course we walked up the hills and ran back down them.  As we weaved through the trails and track at Ballard I saw the finish line and was pumped that we were going to make it in under 35 minutes (yes, this seemed strange at first considering we weren't pushing hard because of the ankle, but hey, it was possible.)  So as we rounded the corner I told Jenn, we got this up the hill and we will run from here to the finish.  Start at an even pace and the closer we get speed up and make this run yours, as I finished saying those words we sprinted to our goal line....
The closer we got I saw the couple in front of us go past the line and down a small hill and toward the main loop of the track.  We began to wonder and as we got even closer I realized everyone was running back toward the way we had already been, what, WHAT was going on...and as we reached our goal I realized, it was a water station...so I grabbed a cup and swished my mouth out twice and off we went to finish our run.  We ran and walked and walked and ran.  And when we were in view of the finish line (the real one, the one with the race clock, with big bold red numbers) I reminded Jennifer of how we were going to finish strong on our first race of 2012.  We start running in and I spot Sadie coming back to run us in!  Sadie finished in 34 minutes and some odd seconds. I ran on ahead and cross the line in 41 minutes, Jennifer and Sadie were close behind and Jennifer finished in 41 minutes and some odd seconds.  We did it! We completed our first run of 2012!  We made it ours.  I am very proud of us, all of us, every single person that got out of the bed this morning and completed this run in the COLD.
So to celebrate and recover we decided to treat ourselves to The Stables, a local watering hole in Tupelo that has wonderful food.  Our post race recovery was a cold beer and an order of cheese fries!  Perfect treat for a run completed.

Side note: I have ordered a Garmin running watch, that we will use for the upcoming races, to improve upon our time and work up from where we finished today.  We will be able to set it for intervals and the watch will tell us when to run and when to walk, instead of us having to try and keep up with it and make ourselves accountable.  We now have a starting point, so will work from 41 minutes.  I am setting a goal for us to finish the next race with hopefully at least 5 minutes shaved off of our time.
So Jennifer, that means we will be right on Sadie's heels (if she doesn't try to shave 5 minutes off her time, which is possible.)  She is a machine.

We all went out to eat  at Woody's yesteday to celebrate mama's 62  birthday.  I am so thankful for the people in this picture and so very glad we all got to spend time and MANY laughs together yesterday.   
I wish I had a picture of Pappaw's parking job in front of Woody's, I was trying to capture it on my phone, but there was a lot of commotion going on.  As many of you know North Gloster Street in Tupelo is a MAJOR thoroughfare and Woody's sits right on the road.  Pappaw being the gentleman that his mother raised him to be, was trying to get my very short legged Mammaw as close to the front door as possible.  When turning into the parking lot he realized the only open spot close to the front door was blocked by a median.  He learned to drive in the Army (this being so, you can NOT tell him anything!!)  So with a scrape of the bumper he proceeded to drive the Cadillac over the obstacle blocking him from his front door parking, so his lovely bride would not have far to walk. 
No one really made a fuss at his parking decision until it was time to go and we all realized that he was going to have to back over the median and out onto North Gloster.  The cars that were on either side of his car had not moved, so the Collins' kids took to helping back him into the street.  We had a crowd of onlookers, as Daddy blocked the right hand lane in Mama's car with the flashers on.  Tatum was trying to keep cars from ramming into mama and daddy, I was watching and wondering what he was going to tear up as he backed this low cadillac back over the median.  Jill was a wreck and did not want to see the results, Chuck was in amazement.  Patrick was livid, wanting mama to take the keys from Pappaw and not ever let him drive again.  He made it back over the median and onto Gloster and slowly Mammaw and Pappaw putted down the road.
When we arrived back at Mama and Daddy's we gave Kay and Harry a strict talking to and told them that they WILL listen to us and they WILL do what we say when they are old, and at 85 about to be 86 they will no longer have keys to a vehicle! 

David, Anneil, Mama, Amelia, Chuck, Tatum, Patrick, Jill, Daddy, Mammaw, and Pappaw celebrating Mama's birthday 

 

On a side note Chuck and I are on day 6 of our 24 day challenge and he is down 12 pounds and I am down 10.  We had a crazy weekend and are learning to change our lifestyle.  It sure is hard to eat a chargrilled chicken wrap with no dressing while everyone else is eating fried chicken.  But we have an ultimate goal and it is gonna be worth all the hard work and dedication!  We (Chuck and I) both took turns snapping pictures of each other before we started our challenge.  I am not sharing my before pictures at this point, but when I reach my goal I may share them.  I am using them now for motivation, and let me tell you they are motivation!!

Day # 2 (ughh...)

Day # 2 started out rather eventful for me.  I should be old hat at this fiber drink, but this morning I could not get it down.  Each time I tried to swallow the fibery, textured, thick citrus shake, I absolutely tried to throw up.  My gag reflex was working overtime.  I was standing over the kitchen sink with my fiber shake in one hand and an extra large tervis tumbler of ice water in the other.  I would take one gulp of the fiber shake and follow it by an even bigger gulp of water.  Tears streaming from my eyes, 4 gulps and 2 extra large tervis tumblers full of water and day # 2 fiber shake is in the books and my stomach is rumbling...

I did not eat breakfast until later this morning, that whole fiber shake incident, and I did not want anything to eat.  I had a banana about 9 and a fruit punch spark at 10.  I had a can of tuna, a half of a large tomato and a boiled egg for lunch.  My afternoon snack consisted of an orange and an orange spark.  For supper I was feeling lazy so I ate another can of tuna, the other half of my tomato and another boiled egg.

I am feeling pretty good, the worst times are mid afternoon when I crave a reese's peanut butter cup, a diet coke, a milky way, a cupcake, oh and my mind wanders as I think of all the snacks I would love to get my hands on...and I remember the dress, my beautiful wedding dress and those swimsuits for Jamaica.  I can resist all those mid afternoon snacks, it will be worth it.

On another note, I have gotten several calls/texts about our wedding invitations, how creative, fun, do I need my ticket to get into the church, etc.  We also completed our third and final counseling session with Jimmy Criddle, our pastor, and you will be glad to know (since we already mailed invitations) he passed us with flying colors!

One month, one week and one day!!!

Love this!!

YOU'RE OFF TO GREAT PLACES
TODAY IS YOUR DAY
YOUR MOUNTAIN IS WAITING
SO...GET ON YOUR WAY!!!
                  - DR. SEUSS

The Sweetest Flower Girl, Sarah and Awesome Ring Bearer Ben

Advocare 24 Day Challenge
Day # 1

So today Chuck and I decided to start the 24 day challenge from Advocare.  We are hoping for great results, just in time for the wedding and honeymoon.  We have taken before pictures and hope to have after pictures that show REAL results.

The challenge consists of a 10 day herbal cleanse (fiber shakes and vitamins) followed by 14 days of MNS (Metabolic Nutrition Systems) and a meal replacement shake.

NOTE:  I have already started this challenge once and had no apparent results, I went to an Advocare mixer and met Alicia, who told me I was instructed wrong and there was a very specific list of foods you can eat and food you don't eat during the challenge. Imagine my surprise, so needless to say, I ordered another challenge kit (I didn't want Chuck to feel left out - so I ordered him one too!)

So today, we started out on an adventure to healthier, happier and more energized Chuck and Amelia.    The fiber drinks on days 1-3  and 7 - 10 are pretty terrible, not bad tasting, they just have a texture that is hard to stomach.  But hey, we are 1/6 of the way there already :)

I have to admit, diet coke has been the worst thing to resist all day.  I had a meal replacement shake for breakfast, an orange, lemon pepper tuna and a few strawberries for lunch, a banana, and a salad with a little grilled chicken, lots of tomato, boiled eggs, fresh pineapple, craisins, and organic mixed greens with just a sprinkle of lite raspberry vinagrette, 2 sparks and extremely ridiculous amounts of water.

Have I lost my mind, I think that is a YES, not only have I committed to this 24 day challenge, maybe longer, I have re-enrolled in BootCamp Ines - a 3 day a week running program, I have also signed up for 3 - 5K runs before our wedding (with the last one being on my wedding day, *note we are getting married in 1 month, 1 week and 2 days from today).  I have also signed up for the Warrior Dash, April 21 in Jackson, MS.  Only one more to contemplate...Gumtree 10K...I think I can, I think I can, I think Chuck and I may run this one together!

We weighed this morning and we will post results after the first 10 days.  And I know, Chuck will lose twice as much weight as I will, and I will be happy for him, I will be happy for him (although I am the one who needs to lose the most to look fabulous in my wedding dress!)

OUR WEDDING INVITATION

Oh what can change in a year!

Today is my mama's birthday, Happy Birthday to the best mama in the world!!  Today also would be my 8th wedding anniversary.  This time last year I was very bummed and trying to figure life out - for those that do not know me, I had just kicked my husband out of the house in late January and I was getting ready to sign divorce papers.  I battled with thoughts like, I don't want to be a 33 year old divorcee, who wants to marry a woman that has already failed at one marriage, and who wants to marry a divorcee?  I read a quote from a friend on facebook - "You may not be where you thought you would be, but you are where you are supposed to be, where God intended you to be all along"  I could not get those words out of my head.  It was my God talking to me telling me everything was going to be ok.
He was going to take care of me and little did I know, he was preparing me to meet the man he had hand selected for me.   I will blog about all this later, just know I met my Prince Charming, and we are planning our wedding.
So today one year later, on my first un anniversary :),  Chuck and I went to the Courthouse and picked up our marriage license and then went to the post office and mailed the invitations to our wedding, St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2012!
Oh what can change in one year!!