2011: My Year Was AWESOME!!

2011 was probably by far, the best year I’ve had yet!! :)  I really can’t imagine 2012 being any better… but it can probably get close ;)  Here’s my 2011 in recap:

JANUARY:

- I registered for my first marathon

FEBRUARY:

- I ran for the first time with my new Garmin :)

MARCH:

- I went back to school
- I baked and decorated my first cake

APRIL:

- Had a flashback of High School prom lol

MAY:

- Told you all a bunch of pointless info about myself
- Made my Sub-25 5k goal!
- PR’d and almost made my Sub-2 hour Half-marathon goal

JUNE:

I GOT MARRIED!!! :)

JULY:

- I turned 24

AUGUST:

- I celebrated my 1 year blogiversary
- I quit my job of 7 years

SEPTEMBER:

- Went to a running store for the first time and bought new shoes
- Ran the most miles ever in a month (71.45 miles)

OCTOBER:

- I ran my very first marathon!! :)
- I started working as a substitute teacher

NOVEMBER:

- Only ran about 2 miles the whole month while school got crazy busy

DECEMBER:

- Started working out again after getting a 4.0 for the quarter
- Had a wonderful first Christmas as a married couple
- Decided I LOVE my life and am so blessed…. not for the first time though ;)

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! :)

Wedding Videos

Well, Christmas marked the 6 month anniversary of marrying my best friend!!  I can’t believe it’s been 6 months already… craziness!!  In order to celebrate, I thought that all of you, my blog peeps, would like to see how my wedding went down…  Some people took videos for me so I’ll post them in order of how they happened so it’s kinda like you’re at my wedding back on June 25th!! ;)  Enjoy…

Wedding Processional:

 

“The Kiss”:

 

His Surprise to me was singing L.O.V.E. to me!  I loved it!! :)

Perspective 1:

Perspective 2:

Maid of Honor Speech:

Groomsman Speech:

Bouquet Toss:

Garter Toss:

 

There ya have it… It was such a fun day…. Best day of my life! :) 
I LOVE my husband and can’t believe we’ve had a wonderful 6 months together already!!  If you want to see actual pictures you can go up to the tabs and click on “wedding updates”… the pictures are all the way down on the bottom of the page!  I hope you felt like you were somewhat actually at our wedding!! Thanks for coming ;)

Christmas Time was here…. and now it’s gone…

I absolutely LOVE Christmas, it’s my favorite time of year!!  It always seems to go by so quickly too… I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got to spend some quality time with your loved ones!! :)  That’s always my favorite part! :)

After Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Before Christmas Morning Service

 

Santa was good to me this year…

In my stocking:

- Pepper Mace
- Carmex Lip Balm
- Comfy Socks
- Candy

A Vera Bradley Wristlet:

Jewelry: 

2012 Cleveland Indians Calendar:

 

The movie “Audism Unveiled” (it’s about the oppression of Deaf people… all in sign language, no audio, but it does have captions if you’re interested… it really opens your eyes):

Dress clothes for work:

 

AND Running Clothes:

Triple Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Recipe

Recipe can be found HERE

 

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa (I used Ghirardelli)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking chips

White Chocolate Frosting:
     1/2 cup white baking chips
     4 ounces cream cheese, softened
     3 cups confectioners’ sugar
     1/3 to 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies

 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Combine the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until set.  Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

3. In a microwave, melt baking chips; stir until smooth.  Cool.

4. In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth.  Beat in melted chips.  Frost cookies; sprinkle with peppermint candies. 
(note:  I just put the round peppermint candies in a blender and set to chop for a couple seconds to get them sprinkle-like)

Yield: About 6-1/2 dozen

 

Peanut Butter Cornflake Cookie Recipe

 

You can find this recipe HERE

Ingredients:
      1 cup – White Sugar
      1 cup – Corn Syrup
      1/4 cup – Butter
      1 cup – Peanut Butter
      6 cups – Cornflakes

 

Directions:

Bring sugar & corn syrup to a boil. 

Remove from heat & add butter & peanut butter.

Melt, pour over cornflakes.

Mix together and spoon onto wax paper.

Makes 50 cookies

          

Five For Friday (and a winner)

1. Wowsa… this time is so busy, but I LOVE Christmas time… It’s my favorite time of year!! :)  Mostly because our whole family is together during Christmas and we have LOTS of good memories of Christmas growing up… 

 

2.  I’ve been busy baking (recipes to follow)

 

 

3. AND… wrapping gifts

 

4. I know this is supposedly a running/workout blog (mainly)  with a hosh posh of other things… Well mostly its been mainly just hosh posh lately and the reason is because I haven’t really been working out a lot lately… I’ve tried to change that around this past week and have been doing a new workout DVD to try to get my mojo, passion, or whatever you want to call it, back.. more to come on that later too…

 

5.  The winner of my athletic giveaway featuring Anti Monkey Butt and Stopain according to random.org is…

#11 -

 

Congrats Christine!! Email me your info and I will forward it on! :)

 

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season and not getting wrapped up in all the hustle and bustle but able to spend time with family and loved ones and remember what Christmas is all about! :)

Wedding Pictures: The Reception

Yes, I know that come Christmas, it will have been 6 months since we got married… and I’m still dragging out the pictures lol… what?!  It was the best day of my life!! ;)  OK… so life just got in the way… it didn’t slow down any once we got married believe it or not ;) lol

If you missed any here are the previous wedding pictures:

GETTING READY
THE CEREMONY
THE DANCE

And now… “The Reception”…. we didn’t have a sit down dinner, we had cake, punch, and nuts and pretzels… enjoy! (I know I did!)  :) 

Remember you can click an image to make it larger! :)

 

 

Then my sneaky husband had a surprise for me… I had no clue it was coming!!  lol… He sang me a song… L.O.V.E.  … yep, it was hilarious and sweet and all sorts of special!! Video to come… hopefully!! :)

 

CAKE TIME!! I LOVE THIS PICTURE SEQUENCE!!

   

 

 
              

HEADING OFF TO OUR WEEKEND GETAWAY… AKA: HONEYMOON

The End!

It was the absolute best day of my life… wait, I can’t say that… each day we’ve been married has just gotten better and better!! :)  I LOVE being married to my best friend!!  He is amazing and I am so blessed to have him in my life!! :)