Will Run For Pie

Hey Gobblers!!!

How is everyone?  Sorry I’ve been gone for so long.  We traveled for Thanksgiving and you know how that goes….

So Happy (late) Thanksgiving from your favorite Runner in the Delta.  :)

Tom and I trekked it East for Thanksgiving to my hometown of Knoxville, TN.  If our summer vacation is Withers Gone Wild, then Thanksgiving is FrazierPalooza.  It is a lot of family time, let me tell ya.  But we love it!

We got in late Wednesday night and slept like rocks after traveling 8 hours with the rest of America down I-40 with a truck full of luggage, Thanksgiving delicacies, and two dogs (yes I said two dogs…more later in this post).

I was up before the sun to go run the Fleet Feet Knoxville Hot to Trot 10K!  I do this race every year and my dad has a tradition of coming along as my photographer and cheerleader. 

First picture of the morning:  I can’t believe I’ve put this on the internet to live on forever.

  Just keepin’ it real, you know.  This one’s a little better.  Ehhhh…who are we kidding, not really. The first time I did this race in 2009 I did the 5K instead of the 10K and completed it in around 32 minutes or so. Last year I did the 10K in 1:06, which I was happy with at the time. Earlier this fall, Bex and I did a 10K and my time was again around 1:02:58, but the course was VERY hilly.  Knowing that the Knoxville Hot to Trot course was fairly flat, I was DETERMINED to beat my time of 1:03.  I had a goal to come in under an hour if it meant making it in 59:59. This meant keeping under a 10 minute pace which I am not accustomed too but I had to at least start the race giving it a shot. I hit the 5K mark around 29:30 which was a 9:30 mile…right on track to meet my goal!  Much to my surprise, the second half of the course felt just as good.  I checked my watch every half mile or so and was shocked to see my pace stay around 9:30 the whole time! I was feeling great so I just kept it up.  For the last mile, I sprinted during the chorus of each song on my iPod, and slowed to the 9:30 pace for the verses.  This made the last mile go by so fast and helped my overall pace.

I crossed the finish line at 57:58 and was THRILLED with this time!!  Average of a 9:21 mile.

WOOOOOT!  Holla for a Thanksgiving PR!  This has really boosted my confidence about the upcoming half marathon on Saturday.  I am really excited to see how I do.  Fingers crossed it goes half as well as that 10K.

After the run and quick grocery stop, my dad dropped me off at my mom's where we showered, ate breakfast (during which I REALLY tried to pace myself because I knew I had a day-o-eating ahead of me!) and watched the parade on TV with our four-legged children.

My mom’s dog, Pepper:  He has a very hard life as you can tell. All this traveling has worn Reba out, but she sleeps with one eye open as to keep a watch on her most prized possession: After relaxing a bit we gussied up a little and headed over to my dad’s.  Another Thanksgiving tradition of ours is to take our Christmas card picture on Thanksgiving day. 

We started out by the pool in my dad’s back yard.  It is a very beautiful pool but these pictures just didn’t do it for me for a number of reasons. 

1. This isn’t our pool, and I’m afraid it would look like we have this big fancy pool at OUR house, when in fact all we have is a yard full of chewed up tennis balls in our back yard.
2. The sun is in our eyes, and Tom looks kinda mad.  Even though I know he was having a BLAST taking these pictures.
3. Reba looks like a feral dog we picked up on the side of the interstate.  Either that or the goofy inbred hymenia from the Lion King.

So we tried one full-body pic….mmmmm notsomuch.  See #2 and #3 above.

After taking about 7,203,320 pictures, we finally just flipped a coin landed on this one.  What do you think?!Hahahaah…just kidding!  I think we’ll go with something along these lines….we got out of the sun and this is cuter to me and a little more casual or something.  More ‘us.’I ordered my cards at www.CardsDirect.com again this year but more about that in a later post. By the time our photo shoot was over, the rest of the family had arrived.  My dad’s brother and his family came in from Greenville, SC.  I had not seen my cousins since I got married so it was great to spend time with them again!

Here are Molly and Andrew!  My fun sweet cousins, how I have loved watching them grow up into polite, well-rounded, cooler-than-I-ever-was-or-will-be young adults! Early in the afternoon the cooking began!  I contributed an awesome apple blackberry pie.  Well, it turned out awesome. There was a little berry-juice-overflow-age (yes that is a technical cooking hazard) into the bottom of the oven and it may or may not have smoked up the whole downstairs of the house. 

And we may or may not have had to open every single window and door. 

And the fire alarm may or may not have gone off for 20 minutes. 

No big deal.  It tasted so great, everyone forgot about how smoky their clothes smelled all night. Obviously, it was a good thing I had brought the pie since we were in serious danger of not having enough food.

Getting dinner prepared was a group effort.  With lots of supervising, taste-testing, and fire-department calling (just kidding on that last one…kind of.) This is a picture of me and all my step siblings!  From left to right:  Tyler, and Ryan (Louise’s sons), Ryan’s wife Cami, their daughters Amaya and Phoenix, and of course me and Tom.Louise and Amaya did a beautiful job of decorating the table!And it looks even better with many of the people I love gathered around it…   After dinner we did this for about two hours, wishing we had worn yoga pants instead.   It was a LOVELY day and just made me realize how many things I have to be thankful for.

On Friday we ate with my mom’s family.  Mom said she wasn’t going to force turkey on us two days in a row so we had an AMAZING beef tenderloin.  It was a smaller crowd than my dad’s and we just lounged around all evening and enjoyed each other’s company.

My Aunt Lynda and our Great Aunt Betty My Aunt Lynda, her dog Misty, and my mom: Speaking of Lynda’s dog Misty…Misty was the second dog that rode with us from Tunica!  Long story short….

Lynda is a big time poodle-lover, and her beloved poodle Simba died a few months ago after a long and lovely life as Lynda’s four-legged son (Simba was preceded in death by his brother Onyx about a year before that). 

A couple of weeks ago Tom ran into our good friend Nancy, who mentioned that she was looking for a home for her female poodle.  So, being the incredibly quick-witted, considerate, smart, and handsome guy he is, Tom immediately thought, “Eureka!  Aunt Lynda!”  After both Nancy and Lynda thought/prayed/talked about it, Nancy decided to give her poodle to Lynda! So we were the transport for this sweet affectionate girl.

She and Reba curled up in the back seat and slept the whole way to Knoxville.  And when Misty met Lynda, it was love at first site. I am so happy that all worked out so well!  After a few nights with Misty, Lynda said, “This is the dog I’ve been praying for!”  Who doesn’t love a happy ending during the holidays?!

Tom and my Gigi….Gigi is my mom’s mom.  Isn’t she gorgeous and young-looking for 85?  So pumped I’ve go those genes. My cousins Jack and Zoe…okay so help me out with some Celebrity Doppledangers, will you?  I feel like Jack looks like some teenager celebrity but I can’t put my finger on who it is!!  Jack is a very talented guitarist, so maybe it’s a musician I’m thinking of?  Help me out here.  Sidenote…last I checked he was 8 years old and now he’s 6 inches taller than me.  How’d that happen?

And as for Zoe…well, I think it’s painfully obvious who she looks like!!!

Do you see it?  I totally think she looks like Dakota Fanning.  They are both so beautiful, and although I cannot speak for Dakota because I don’t know her personally, Zoe is just as beautiful on the inside! 

Siiiiggggghhhhh…what a lovely family I have.  Nothing like the long weekend at home to remind you how blessed you really are!

We were able to hang out with some of my high school friends on Saturday but alas there are no pictures because I was too busy talking and laughing so I apologize.  I’ll do better next time I promise!

Until then….

Count your blessing every day and take time to notice where God show’s up for you in your life!

I am thankful for YOU this holiday, and will fill you in on all the awesome half-marathon weekend festivities next week!

Football, Socks, and Push-Ups

 

Hey Gals!  Hope you’re having a great start to your week.  We had a FUN weekend with family in Starkville at the Mississippi State/Alabama game.

Tom and I are a house divided since he went to State and I went to Alabama.

Sara Whit and Brian have a tailgate with a group of families, so we hung out there pretty much all day before the game.  Lilly was in her element with all her friends…young and old…there!

Giving Baby Hunter some love!

There was lots of corn hole, food, and smack-talkin’!

Myra even came in town for the occasion.  It was her birthday on Saturday so she brought some friends from Nashville!  It was so fun to see her and her friends, and have the whole family together!

Myra with Lilly, and her good friend Emily with Hunter (her nephew).

  I LOVE this family pic!  Usually the only time we get a family picture is on Christmas Eve, so it was nice to get one in all our football wear!  Of course I’m the black sheep that went to Alabama and didn’t wear maroon…can’t help it.  SISTERS!!!!  Love these two more than I can handle!!

It was a super fun weekend, and Alabama won!  Woop-woop!

While at the tailgate, I ran into a friend who reads the blog…Hi Mandy!  You can’t lurk on the blog anymore now that I’ve called you out.  :)

She loved the sock bun post, so I wanted to do a follow-up.  I wanted to tell yall that there are two ways to do a sock bun. 

1. First, put your hair in a pony tail, then roll your pony tail into the sock bun.  This is what I did in the picture below.  This is a more secure sock bun, if you’re going to be wearing it all day at work and running errands and whatnot.  2.  The second way is to just pull your hair on top of your head and roll it into the sock bun without putting it into a ponytail first.  You have to have pretty long hair to make this work, but I have done it a couple times with no problems.  I just use some bobby pins to pin up the loose part underneath, if that makes sense.  Sorry, I don’t have any pictures. 

So.

I tried way #2 one night after a shower.  I dried my hair about 80% of the way, so it was still a little damp when I put it up.  I slept on it like this and much to my surprise it didn’t fall out too much.

In the morning, I took the sock out and was left with THIS:

Gorgeous, no-heat curls!!!

I need to give credit where it’s due, though, with this blog which inspired me to try it.  I stumbled upon her picture on Pinterest and was so impressed!  And even more impressed when it actually worked on my hair.

It was trial and error, though.  First, I tried the overnight sock bun using method #1, and when I took it out in the morning, there was huge crease where the rubber band had been.  I always have that problem with my hair, so I really wasn’t surprised.  Then when I tried it WITHOUT the rubber band, it was perfect.

I need to be honest and tell you that my hair really only looked like this until about 2pm that day (this picture was taken at about 7am) before pretty much all the curl fell out.  But, with the right product and hair type, you could probably get this look to last all day!  Again, just trial and error with your hair type and lifestyle.  :)

So there you have it…..the Sock Bun Curls….who knew?!?!

On the running front, we are down to the final weeks before St. Jude Half Marathon!  I feel great about it, and am really getting excited.  Bex and I ran our 11 mile long run the other day and did it at about an 11:00 pace.  Just right!

St. Jude 2010 

I figure that if we can do our long practice runs in the 11:00-minute-mile range, we will be right on track for race day because our race pace will be slightly faster…hopefully. 

Also, Bex and I have decided to do the 100 Push Up Challenge.  Have you heard about this?

I have the upper body strength of a T-Rex, so I am in some serious need of upper body workouts.  When training for a running event, I am SO BAD about making time for strength training.  I know it’s important, but I just have run, run, run on the brain and never manage to work it in.

So Bex and I thought this would be a fun way to work in some upper body stuff.  You are supposed to do an ‘Initial Strength Test’ to determine what level you fall into for the challenge.  The test is basically just doing as many push ups as you can before falling into a sweaty, quivering heap on the floor.

I was able to do 12.

I told you.  Captain T-Rex, right here.

But I will keep you posted as we go week-by-week and increase my strength!  I was able to talk Tom into doing it also, so that should be fun.  He is in a totally different level then be, being able to do 30 push ups for the initial test.

Go check it out and try it for yourselves!

I am not sure if I can get to 100, but I am wondering if getting to 50 consecutive push ups by December 31 is an attainable goal???  I’ll let you know!

Have a great week, everyone!