Wedding Wednesday Woes

Time is seriously ticking away to the big day and I'm totally stressing out.  I felt like I had all the time in the world to get things done until we hit that three month mark.  Ever since then, I feel like time is slipping away much too quickly.  Alex has been an angel in helping me with all my wedding endeavors.  He personally bedazzled each of our invitations.

oh cell phone....

Over the weekend, I went for a trail run with my dad at Bull Run Marina.  I don't do much trail running and to be honest, my idea of a great trail run is Burke Lake with it's gentle rolling hills.  This was not Burke Lake.  This was hiking at a running pace.  My calves and quads were burning.  We ran just shy of four miles and I was exhausted.  I will never bad mouth running on a treadmill ever again. 

There was no weight loss this week.  I'm still holding steady at 176 pounds.  In an attempt to keep myself motivated in my efforts, I decided to see if there were any changes in my measurements.

June 13, 2012     August 1, 2012

187 lbs                176 lbs

39.5" bust           40.5" bust

41" waist            39.5" waist

45.5" hips           43.5" hips

Slow progress is still progress, right?

87 days!

It's official!  Alex and I have less than three months until we get married.  I felt like I had all the time in the world to plan the wedding but now it's definitely crunch time.  I have waaaaay too many ideas of things that I am going make or do for the wedding that I may need to start prioritizing and nixing some things.

Anyway, thank goodness it has finally cooled off a bit.  I actually went out for a run this morning and the weather was absolutely glorious!  I can't say my actual run went as well as I had hoped but that's what I get for not running more often.  My good friend Jenny gave me a visor for my birthday and I finally tried it out.  Perhaps it's the placebo effect but I felt cooler running with the visor than with my normal hat. 

I look cool, right?  ;)

The past week was good in terms of healthy eating.  I always do so much better in the summer because of all the delicious fruits that are available.  Currently, I'm in love with peaches.  Just about every night, I cut up a peach, put some cinnamon and sugar on it and pop it in the microwave for thirty seconds.  So good!  Another jewel of the summer that I discovered at the local farmer's market:  yellow watermelon!

It really doesn't taste much different than the regular red stuff but it's still kind of cool.  So with the healthy eating and getting my lazy butt out and running, it's no surprise that I lost some weight.  Currently, I'm weighing in at 176 :)

What's your favorite summer treat?

Wedding Wednesday #2

This past weekend, I went down to South Carolina to visit my sister.  It's always a lot of fun going down there because there is always beach action involved.  I have been pretty lazy about the pics so now I will overload you.

I guess I should have taken my mom's camera and downloaded some pics from it, then maybe I would have pictures of myself to post.  Or maybe I should be saying you're welcome!

While I was in South Carolina, my dad and I managed to get out for a run one morning.  South Carolina is sooo much different than northern Virginia.  I have plenty of hill training when I run near my home but in South Carolina it's all flat and easy running.  We only went four miles though since my feet have been bothering me ever since the half marathon I ran a couple weeks ago.

This morning, I took it easy and went to a sunrise yoga session in celebration of the summer solstice.   It has been a long time since I last did yoga, but it was wonderful!  I really love yoga and should try to do it more often.  When I came home, I made myself a delicious breakfast.  I made some eggs and was looking for some veggies to throw in when I found a bag of chopped up zucchini, tomatoes and onions and decided to throw them in.  Once I tossed them in, I realized they also had slices of cucumber...

I was very concerned that I had ruined my breakfast but it actually wasn't that bad (read:  I ate every single bite).

Anyway, I have been tracking my calories (with more resolve than before) and I was pleasantly surprised this morning :)  I was very good and didn't peek at the scale all week.  This morning I weighed in at 184.6 pounds.  Almost five pounds.....Good Start!

Do you have to rely on others to include you in pictures or are you master of the FB shot?

Welcome to Wedding Wednesdays

You probably heard me say once or twice that I am getting married this year.  Even though I am trying to focus on being more active and making healthier choices in what I eat, I still know that I have a lot of weight to lose and will get smaller as time goes on.  With that in mind, I bought a wedding dress in a couple sizes smaller than I currently am....

With only 17 weeks left until the big day, I need to start getting SERIOUS!  I have no idea what that means yet but it's going to start with a workout bright and early tomorrow morning :) 

Each Wednesday I will check in with my progress towards the goal.  I have the horrible habit of weighing myself every day so I will cut it down to just Wednesdays to weigh myself.  I know it's not all about the number on the scale but as of right now, it's still a good indicator of moving in the right direction.  I will also keep you up to date on my some of my measurements too.

Starting Stats
 187 lbs
41.5" bust
41" waist
45.5" hips

On your mark.  Get set.  GO!

A for Effort??

Oh, the New Year Resolution.  How quickly you are made and even more quickly forgotten.   Since we are halfway into the year, I thought it would be a great time to revisit my goals and my lack of progress on them.

My 2012 goals (as of January 2012)

• Run, walk, and/or crawl 1000 miles (approximately 20 miles a week)
• Walk 100 miles with Julia (approximately 2 miles a week)
• Get married!
• Run a half marathon under 2:22:00
• Bring my bowling average up to 120 (haha, baby steps)
• Prepare meatless dinners on Mondays
• Continue to decrease body fat (down to 22%)
• Stay positive by writing in five things I am thankful for every day

So let's take a look...For the first half of 2012, I have run 140 miles.  That leaves me with 29 weeks to run 860 miles.  It's only thirty miles a week or 4.3 miles a day :)  Well geez, if I wasn't having issues with running twenty miles a week then thirty should be cake : /  Julia and I are at ten miles for our goal of 100.  It's probably not as far as we should be but I think this goal is still manageable. 

Get married?  Still in the works...130 days left to go....

haha, I love these

Half marathon under 2:22:00?  CHECK!

My bowling average sadly did not improve much and in fact, I'm not even sure what it was when the league ended.  My best guess would be somewhere near 114.  Oh well.



What is that girl doing?

Meatless Mondays can be filed away under failed goals, however, it's because I have not been successful in this goal that I am still getting married in October.  Let's face it, Alex is a strict carnivore.  There will be no revision of this goal, it will simply be tossed out.

Body fat down to 22%  Fail.  I'm pretty sure being on track for running 1000 miles in a year would have helped me achieve this goal as well.  Did I mention that I still have a wedding dress that doesn't fit?  Yep.

Writing my five things a day that I am grateful for has been semi-successful.  I will admit that it doesn't happen every day but I have certainly tried.  I do love the idea of focusing on the good in life rather than the negative.  It's tough to do but it's worth the effort.

I'm going to adjust my running goal to 500 miles for the year so I will have to run 17.3 miles a week for the rest of the year.  I'm also going to keep writing five things that I am thankful for each day.  The goal I would like to add is fitting into my wedding dress....

What goals have you accomplished so far this year?

Running Late

Woo hoo!  I got up and ran my three miles Tuesday morning :)  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is the small victories that sometimes need the most celebration!  It felt really good to sweat.


I'm sexy and I know it

Want to know what's even better?  No, it's not money or something delicious to eat.  I ran again yesterday for 4.36 miles.  I know, I know, I'm almost a runner again!  Not going to lie, the run was rough.  The hills really sucked the life out of me so obviously, I'm still trying to get my legs back into running shape. 

Yesterday evening, Alex and I met with our photographer for an engagement photo session in Occoquan at Rockledge Mansion.  In true Andrea style, I tried to do way to much during the day so when it came time to leave, I was still trying to put a few curls in my hair so it didn't look like an air-dried mess (I know, wah wah wah).  It was no surprise that while we were trying to get there, we hit every.single.red.light.  By the time we arrived, we were twenty minutes late, I was grumpy and completely felt like calling off the session.  Luckily, Heather  is amazing and didn't act like it was a big deal at all that she was waiting around for us.  I'm soo glad that we did the shoot.  Heather showed us a couple of pictures on the screen of her camera and they looked amazing!  She said it will take her a couple of weeks before the photos are ready for us to view and I cannot wait!  I will definitely be sharing (whether you like it or not).

Are you horrible with time management too?

I'm pretty sure the Matron of Honor isn't supposed to say that

So my sister Jess and her family came up from South Carolina for the week and we have been having a week of gluttony and fun :)  I'm totally lame and somehow managed to not capture a single moment of the entire week but I would like to think that is a testament to the way awesome time we had.

Say Cheese!

I think my most favorite part was reliving college with Alex, Jess and her husband Kevin over a few drinks at my house.  I recall (kind of) reenacting the scene from "The Little Mermaid" when Ursula steals Ariel's voice.  Nothing says wild time like Disney.

Since Jess is my matron of honor, I made her do some wedding stuff while she was up here also.  I dragged her to David's Bridal and had her try on the bridesmaid dress and watched me try on some wedding dresses too.  Yes, I already have a dress so I tried on three different dresses and then asked the salesperson to bring my dress out for me to try on.  Well, something was lost in translation because my sister didn't understand that the final dress that I tried on was my dress.  I stepped out in it and she said "Um, I don't like that one as much as the others....it's too plain."  FML.

Oh well.  Today before she headed back home, I dragged to her to an open house at our venue.  Don't feel too bad for her, there were free drinks, food and cake.  The event coordinator for the venue made up a table in our colors maroon and purple.  I have to admit that this was the best selling tactic ever!  After seeing the colors in all the upgraded linens, I'm so much more motivated to find the extra money in our budget for this.

The open house and doing wedding stuff with both my mom and my sister got me really excited for the wedding :)  It also made me realize how  much I miss my sister being around :( 

Do your siblings live far away?

Does your idea of a good time involve Disney movies?

Bridal Candy

I'm beginning to find that I'm not the typical bride. My mom and I went to a bridal show yesterday and it was insane.  There were millions of brides and hundreds of vendors.  Apparently getting married means that I should want to change every aspect of myself.  There were plastic surgeons at the bridal show for crying out loud!  I could hardly grab a piece of their free chocolate before they would ask what surgeries I was interested in for my big day.  Ridiculous.

The best part of the bridal show was the cake vendors.  I have now decided that the Edibles Incredibles have my vote for the cake.  The ones we tasted yesterday were very ordinary.  None of them even came close to the density and moistness of their cakes.  No, seriously!  You have to feel the heft of their cakes to believe it.  

Why am I not eating this right now??

After we made the rounds to all of the booths, my mom and I decided it was time to head home.  There was some fashion show going on and they were going to do some raffles afterwards but I couldn't sit there any longer.  The fashion show was awful.  I am pretty sure I hated everything in it.  Eff the free name change kit.  On the upside, something epic happened last night  when I returned home...  

Who wouldn't love that face?

Julia had pop rocks for the firs time!  I love that she completely did not trust me when I told her I had some candy for her.  I suppose that will work out well if she ever meets a creepy man in an pedi-van.  Or maybe not because I was definitely having a hard time offering her the candy through my giggles.  Anyway, she wasn't trying anything until I showed her it was safe so that ruined any chance of her thinking her head was going to explode because of the explosion in her mouth.  Boo.  Oh well, it was still fun sharing a little piece of my childhood nostalgia with her.

Would you have plastic surgery for your wedding?

Which thing from your childhood are you most excited to share with your offspring?

Are you my Sole Mate?

What a lovely weekend!  On Saturday, Alex and I went to Edibles Incredible in Reston, VA for a cake tasting.  The guy Alan was lovely and very confident in his product.  I have to admit the cake was pretty yummy but I still can't imagine paying $800 for a cake.  It better make me poop gold for that price!  The best part was the remainder of the cake slices that he sent home with us.  It was enough of each of the flavors to share with both Alex's parents and mine.....we STILL had some leftover to let Julia taste after she can home from her dad's house.

Sunday was spent entirely at home.  Alex has been sick so he's been making sure our couch doesn't fly away.  I cooked up some pot roast in the crockpot and tried to busy myself with chores while it cooked.  I have attempted pot roast before and it was a FAIL.  This time it was actually pretty good.  Even though Alex hasn't been able to stomach much food today, he asked to try some.  This really isn't too surprising as I have never known him to turn down meat ;) 

In other news, I decided my Brooks shoes were not meant for me.  I took them back and traded them in for some Asics.  Real runners will scoff at me but I picked them up at Dick's Sporting Goods and I was actually impressed with the guy working the shoes department.  Usually, I get some high school student more interested in texting that fetching me a pair of shoes.  This guy actually runs and actually tried to sell me a pair of shoes that had recently been clearanced out but were still a great running shoe.  Loves to run and save money?  That's me!

I'm pretty excited to try these bad boys out!  Tomorrow I will give them a try on the treadmill and if all goes well, I will be heading outside sometime soon!  Wondering how my miles for 2012 are going?  Terribly.  Please, let these be my sole mate.  I need to put a dent in the remaining 980 miles for 2012.

What's your go-to running shoe?

It is possible to go wrong with carameliscious wedding cake?

For Anyone's Eyes ***EXCEPT for Alex's!***

Busy Saturday!  I had my second to last appointment with Patrice this morning.  We really didn't work out the legs that much but put a good hurting on the upper body.  We also worked the abs pretty good too. The real test is always the day after so I will fill you in later :)

After a good workout and a shower, I was off to David's Bridal with my mom and future mother-in-law :)  It was a day of several dresses....some more interesting than others....

I'm pretty sure I'm the anti-bride.  Of course, I came out of my dressing room and immediately told everyone that I hated this dress.  "Look at me, I'm a mushroom!"  You see, it's a convertible dress.  A longer version for the ceremony and a shorter one for the reception.  The convertible dress I had seen previously had the lower part of the skirt that zipped off under a ruffle.  It was a humbling moment when the sales woman came by and told me the short dress goes under the long skirt.  WHOOPS!  It's even more hilarious that when my mom was helping me into the dress she said "That's so weird, the long skirt seems so much bigger than the dress."  Oh my....

This is what the dress looks like when put on the right way.  Much improved!  It's so funny how when you are trying on wedding dresses, everyone has an opinion.  I had the mom (?) of another bride telling me I had found the one and another girl suggested that I try on this beaded belt with the dress.  Good choice :)

I don't like tiaras and don't think this counts as one

Nothing was purchased today but it was still a lot of fun to go out with both of the moms!  After David's Bridal, it was off to Julia's friend's birthday party.  In true kiddo party style, there were tons of sweets.  I didn't want to be rude so I sampled all of them :)  Good thing I have a run scheduled for tomorrow morning!!!

How was your Saturday?

Last Week = FAIL

This week has been a complete failure for good eating and working out.  Don't get me wrong, it has been a fun-filled and delightful week but not one that makes me feel healthy.  I have spent much of my time working on a few gifts for a friend who had her baby shower this weekend.

Guess who's daddy is a Hokie?

I really love being crafty but I'm really a jack-of-all-trades but master of none.  They weren't bad for a first attempt but they were also perfectly imperfect.  I also made a diaper changing pad for her that was VT colors too.  I did the changing pad without a pattern and many lessons were learned.

I worked out with Patrice on Saturday morning.  I felt like it was an "ok" workout but I didn't think it was stellar.  Well, I changed my mind when I woke up the next day!  My abs are sooo sore and my hamstrings are dying too.  I really think the move that did me in was the rotating push-ups.  You start by doing a regular push-up, then raise one arm straight up to the ceiling while rotating your body and putting your body weight on the arm that is still on the floor.  Make sense?  Maybe I will take pictures of that later...  It was a killer core workout.

To ensure that no calorie deficit was attained, I went over to Stacy's to help her make some lemon-curd cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries for our friends baby shower the next day.  YUM!  Quality control happens to be one of my specialties.

Later that night, Alex and I met up with some friends to play pool.  Any benefit that I gained working out with Patrice earlier that day was negated for sure by the time we went home. 

The next day Alex, our parents, and I went over to Bristow Manor for an open house.  We were able to try some of their food as well as see the centerpieces that are available with the package. 



This would be nice with a scented candle

The table runner is one of the colors I am using :)

I'm so incredibly excited to marry Alex but I hate parting with money, especially large sums of money.  It frustrates me that one single day is going to cost thousands of dollars.  I might upset family members with this thought but I wish eloping wasn't so frowned upon haha.

Was your week a PASS or a FAIL?

What was your biggest expense at your wedding?  Was it worth it?

Happy Columbus Day!

Good Morning!  It is a wonderful day to work for the government!  I'm writing to you in my pajamas on my cozy couch and I'm loving every minute of it!  I'm even more thankful that I have the day off because after destroying my legs on Saturday and my 7-mile run yesterday, I can feel every muscle that I use to just walk around.  Ouch!

I met up with the Lake Ridge Runners for a great run through Occoquan Regional Park.  After the first loop, we had completed 4.5 miles.  I was fully prepared to wimp out and do the run in two installments but luckily there was another person there that was signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k, who wanted to add on some miles.  All in all, we completed seven miles!

In other exciting news from the weekend, Alex and I went to see another potential wedding venue :)

Bristow Manor Golf Club

It's a historic 1800's manor house with wonderfully landscaped grounds.  There is no site-fee and plenty of freebies to go along with your reservation for the day!

Chiavari chairs and linens, gratis!

Napkins, mirrored tiles, tea lights and centerpieces are included too

There is a tasting next week at the manor that Alex, our mothers, and I are going to attend.  I hope the food is really tasty because that's all I am waiting for to make the decision.  We haven't looked at a lot of places but this one really seems to give us a lot for our money.  It also meets my desire to have it a historic location with an outdoor ceremony.  The other reason why I am encouraged to book this space sooner rather than later is the Saturdays in September are all booked and so is the first weekend in October!  So this place fills up very quickly and I feel like we need to act now to be sure we can get married on the weekend we want!

All in all, it was a great weekend!  How was your weekend?

8-Mile

Well I did it!  Eight miles is done and over with :)  This was NOT like any other race that I have done.  First of all, it was trail race.  Second, the trail was barely big enough for your own two feet with a hill on one side and a cliff on the other.  Thirdly, where's my medal? 

So if any of you run, you know that running can often "shake things loose."  Because Alex and I decided to just drive down the morning of the race, we had to get up at o'dark-thirty and get on the road.  This did not leave me much time to do my business.  Basically at mile five I had to find a port o'potty.  I'm just glad that there was one because, from what I hear, going out in the woods isn't too uncommon for trail running.  Let's just say that this plastic hut was NOT brought in for the run; it had been there a while.  There was a good amount of cleaning that had to be done before I could even think about hovering.  In fact, I probably would have been better off communing with Mother Nature.

Anyway, when we got back onto the trail about five minutes later, we got stuck behind some dainty runners.  Let me remind you, there was no space for passing.  Every uphill and downhill they would stop running.  I am talking about hands up in the air and tip-toeing down tiny hills.  UGH.  So I have a feeling my time would have been a little faster if I hadn't been trapped behind them for three miles.  I checked for my time but it looks like it didn't read my chip but I did cross over with my dad at the same time.  His time was 100 minutes.  I didn't achieve my goal but I was still pleased with my first trail run.

Since we were in Richmond, we decided to celebrate with a trip to our favorite place Black Sheep! I finished the race at about nine, so sadly they were only serving breakfast.  Never fear!  We at breakfast and still ordered a battleship to-go!  I had the most delicious breakfast. 

It was called Green Eggs and Lamb.  It was an egg and spinach frittata topped with spicy lamb sausage and pesto.  Alex had some delicious gaitor and yellow grits.  My dad had the Barn and Bay Breakfast sandwich.

Ham, crab, egg and Mmmm

After lunch, Alex and I went back to Maymont House to take the tour and to scope it out as a possible wedding venue.  I really loved the stone exterior and the beautiful backdrop of trees.  Here are a few pictures:

I bet this place is breathtaking in the peak of Fall!

I hope you had a great Saturday!

~Andrea

The REAL wedding crashers

Good Evening!  What a busy weekend!  This past Saturday Alex, my mom, his mom and I went to look at a couple wedding venues.  We went up to Fairfax and looked at the Civil War Interpretive Center and the Old Town Hall.

I really loved the Civil War Interpretative Center.  I really liked that it was a unique space that offered things for our guests to do while the bridal party took pictures etc.  It was also a beautiful mix of outdoor and indoor spaces. 

Port along the back of the building

Civil War Interpretive Center

Historic Blenheim

It's a very small venue and we would have to be creative with the space.  If it had a bigger event space, I would be ready to sign on the dotted line!  The price was oh-so-right though...

Next we went to the Old Town Hall.  Our plan was just to check out the surrounding areas because you have to make an appointment to see the inside, but they were setting up for a wedding and they let us come in and look around :)  It is a unique space.  I really like the idea of getting married somewhere that has history. 

The reception was set up for 120 guests but no room for dance floor :(

Ceremony in the upstairs library

I liked this space too but there wasn't any other space besides the upstairs library and the main room.  The only space available for a cocktail hour would be the small foyer.  The main room was a little on the small side so we would have to be creative with the seating so we could accommodate a dance floor.  Alex and I have both agreed, the dance floor is a MUST :)

Any suggestions on other venues to check out?

~Andrea