Color Runniversary

July 8th, 2012.  One year wedding anniversary.  Color Run.

YAY!  We made it one year!  I'm so happy to be married to this guy, it's insane.  To celebrate our insanity, we decided to do a 5k, but not just any 5k.  The COLOR RUN.  Every kilometer you get slammed with color powder to create a very colorful body/runner.

We started off all white, and ended up rainbows!  It was so much fun.  AND, it was Mike's first 5k ever!  He finished like a pro too. 

The color was some cornstarchy substance that murdered your lungs as you were running through it, but it was worth it.  It was centered around the Art Museum *cue very confused tourists*, and afterwards there was a huge party with music and color.  Everyone threw color at the same time and it turned into a huge color cloud.  It was an awesome experience.  And it was especially awesome because Mike and I did it together!

I was really excited for Mike because it was the world's largest color run ever, and the third largest 5k ever.  I think that's a pretty cool way to start your running career. 

I hope there is always a color run around us on our anniversary because this would be an amazing and fun tradition to do every year!

Here's some pictures and a video of the "color cloud" experience!

xoxo

Yeah, imagine being right in the middle of that.  Crazy, and super fun!  I wanna do it again right now!

T-minus 8 days!

That's right folks! Eight days and we'll be hitched! I cannot wait!

This summer has gone pretty fast, but I've made a point of enjoying the time I've had off. I think I've been pretty successful with that. I run almost everyday, and I really enjoy the scenery here. I think it's beautiful, especially with the sun hitting the tops of the hills in the early morning. I've also taken time to catch up with some movies I've been meaning to watch. I've hung out with a couple friends that are still in town. I take naps with my lil' kitty girls. The boy and I hang out, stress-free from school. Oh, and you'll all never believe this...I've started cooking. I figured, "Hey, I have all of this extra time....might as well learn to cook!"

The start of Thai Chicken Stirfry

I started with a Thai chicken stir-fry. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the finished product, but golly! was it delish! The boy even liked it. I put pea pods in it as well, and they were super fresh and sweet! I made the sauce from scratch too. I know those are words you probably never thought I'd speak. Let's say it one more time for good measure, from scratch.

Coconut Crusted Chicken Strips

The next thing I made was Coconut crusted chicken strips with a homemade pineapple-mango salsa. I know! Sounds tasty, and it was tasty.

Peach Turnovers

And lastly (so far) I made Peach Turnovers. I never thought I was a baker...mostly because the last time I made cupcakes, I almost forgot the eggs. {READ: Almost, as in, I didn't, but I didn't notice I forgot them...so if there wasn't someone else watching me, they would have been a flop.} But these were surprisingly easy, and they were ohmygosh heavenly!!!!!!!!! I even made icing from scratch, and because I love sugar, I added more powdered sugar than required, and it made it even better! The boy even loved them :) I'll admit it, I was licking the icing from the bowl.

I'm cooking again today for Momma. I've gotta figure out what I want to make, but I'm hoping to use a lot of fresh veggies, because they are so good, and good for you! I'll keep you all updated.

In unrelated news, the boy and I celebrated our bachelor(ette) parties these past few weeks. The boy went up to MN to his Aunt and Uncle's lovely lakeside house. I was seriously jealous. It sounded like they had tons of fun, but I don't know how much fun because they all say, "what happened at the bachelor party, stays at the bachelor party" ;) Ohhh boys..

I can't wait for the wedding, and I can't wait to finally show my dress, shoes, accessories, hair, everything! It's been way too long to keep these secrets from everyone, including the boy. (His suit looks fabulous, by the way.) Every time someone mentions my dress, I cut them off mid-sentence because I don't want them letting something slip accidentally...{You all know who you are... ;) }

It's also been way too long since I've seen some of our family, and I'm ecstatic that most can make it! It will be such a great day/night. We are so very excited.

I will try to write one last time before I'm a Mrs.!

<3

Busy Bee

Hello again folks! It has been awhile. Sorry about that! I’ve been busy with finals, then moving, then my clerkship, then my wedding. Whew!

We’ll start where I left off! Finals. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNNN..... It wasn't that bad ;) They went well. Grades came back very good, so I’m pleased with that. I’m now officially a second year optometry student!

The day after finals (and a very fun night out in the city I might add ;) ) we moved back home for the summer. We stopped in Ohio for our half way rest stop with the boy’s family for a day, which is so totally needed. A seventeen hour drive is zero fun in one day. The gas prices were also ridiculous. It was $4.53 in one city!

Of course the kitties came with too! They were just peaches. They both slept almost the entire way in their cute little kennel situation.

So precious.

They have also been getting along at home as well. They both sleep on the bed with me at night, so they must love each other more now than ever. I think the drive helped them bond. Lily is still eating Tip’s food, so we’re trying to put her on a diet. If anyone knows anything about how to keep a cat from eating, puhleeasssee let me know! She’s turning into a large lump of fuzz. Yeesh.

Home has been nice and relaxing. It’s been somewhat warm weather, and not too humid yet. Let’s hope it stays that way for the wedding! No rain or may flies! ICK. The only real weather problem recently was a tornado. That old native American legend “where three rivers meet, no wind can defeat” decided to stop working a couple weeks ago. There was an EF-2 tornado here in the city no less, and it definitely defeated a few blocks. I’ve never seen tornadoes in the city, only in the country, so it was surreal. The worst part was that we have no basement here, so when the siren went off, we had to drive to the boy’s house for safety. I honestly had no idea what was going on, and my mom had to inform me that there was a tornado siren. (The same siren signals a fire truck leaving the station in PA, so I was confused for a moment.)

We get to his house, and he was gone. I immediately start getting scared. Mom was gone all morning, and I was left without a car, so he came to rescue me from my unsafe location when the siren went off (thinking Mom was still gone). Little did he know that she had come home, and we were already on our way over. I was freaking out a tad because the news had just spotted a tornado about a mile away from where I live coming towards my house. No phone calls were going through either. I stayed upstairs waiting for him to get home, but I knew he would go inside my Mom’s to find me which would take even longer. About five minutes later, I see him speeding down the street into his driveway. He noticed the cat carriers were gone, so he figured we went to his house. The kitties bonded during the storm too. J

We stayed upstairs, along with his dad watching the storm pass. It was crazy windy and really scary outside. Later we found out that a tornado ripped apart a couple blocks close to downtown. Thankfully no one was hurt.

Speaking of storms, right now in my hometown in IA and NE, there is some serious flooding of the Missouri river which is impinging on my Aunt and Uncle’s house, and might possibly affect my Grandma’s house. I’m very scared for them all. My Aunt and Uncle live right on the river, so they have already sand bagged the river side of their house. I guess it could last all summer which is tragic. I talked to my Grandma today, and she said it could affect her house as well which is far away from the river. I really hope it doesn’t get to either, especially my Grandma’s. I love her house. I’m hoping the boy and I can still make a trip to see her this summer. I’d swim there if I had to.

I’ve also been doing my summer clerkship for school. It’s three weeks long, and 105 hours of work. I have one week left. Woo! Then I can finally have a summer….sort of. I also have 18 optics lectures to finish before July 25^th for our summer optics course. Well, I’ve already done four. Of course I’m trying to get them done a.s.a.p. Blah. What happened to my “summer”?

What else is going on….oh yeah…the wedding! I can finally let my life be consumed by my creative ideas and wedding planning! I love it. We’ve gotten almost everything done. I can’t wait! We are both incredibly excited for everything! It’s coming quite fast, which can be good, and bad. Good because we can’t wait! And bad because that means I almost have to start my summer semester on the East again…

I’ve been doing a lot of wedding prep too. Floral appointments, dress fittings, finding shoes, make up practice, hair practice (soon), skin care, exercise, etc.

I run a lot so fitness isn’t really an issue, but I’ve started doing Pilates. Phew! It is so hard. I actually use videos from YouTube because it’s free, and I can get a full 40 minute workout from them. After the first day I could barely move. I had no idea I was so out of shape! There is this one move that works your shoulders. You barely move, but man, does it work! Hopefully I don’t have man shoulders by the wedding.

Also, as I’m sitting here I have white strips on and a green mud face mask. I look quite attractive I must say. I would take a picture but....no I wouldn't take a picture. It’s funny how ugly you have to look in order to look good later on. Ick. This mask smells weird too. And how about these little white strips. Does anyone else have the problem where it seems like once they are on your teeth you start salivating like mad?! I mean come on! They are only on my teeth, and I definitely don’t want to eat them, so I have no idea why that’s my body’s reaction to them. A couple more weeks of these, no longer. The boy is also doing his boy beauty routine, which so far consists of nothing different than normal. ;)

Oh! I almost forgot! The boy, one of my bridesmaid’s and I went to a festival this past weekend. Her boyfriend was playing in a band at this fest, so I finally got to meet him which was awesome. We also ate tons of fair food (yum!), and watched the locals. It was about an hour and a half away in the middle of nowhere USA. The main attraction of the night was a “burn out” where you have 15 seconds to burn out your car’s tires. Whoever makes the most smoke, wins. Just burning tires…for the fun of it…ruining tires…for the fun of it?....I don’t think I’d ever willingly sign up for that contest. Of course I can make a fool out of myself anywhere, and I thought the smoke was from a chicken-Q (chicken barbeque), and I really wanted to eat some chicken. A nice couple at our table set me straight, while laughing a little. The boy said they probably thought I was some silly “city girl”. Cue pouty girl "humpf" right now.

I’ll leave you with this. The other day at work flowers were delivered…for me! I’m only there three weeks, but in that time, I got flowers! Of course they were from the boy, reminding me that it was our last “dating” anniversary. Seven years of dating. I guess we didn’t get the traditional seven year itch. Instead we got the itch to get hitched! He’s so sweet.

I'm baaaacckk!

It's been one heck of a month that's for sure. I'm finally able to catch up on my blogging.

What's new? Hmm..Not much has changed. It's insanely nice out here though. Weather has been in the high 60's since a couple weeks ago which is fabulous! I have one month of school left, and no more cramming! That's the good news of the month.

This past week I went to Bloomingdale's to get some new makeup. I normally don't wear any foundation, but my cousin (wedding day makeup artist) had suggested I get some actual foundation that wasn't cover girl. My $7 staple is no more. So after class one day I decided to take the at most 30 minute trip to the mall to get this taken care of. Spoiler alert: It took three hours.

I walk in, bee-line to Clinique because I heard it was the most natural and light looking. I immediately get a little bit apprehensive because a "thinks her makeup makes her look 10 years younger but it really makes her look older" blonde dinosaur decided I would be her target for the day. Judging by the fact that her makeup made her look about 70...I didn't really have much confidence.

I told her I had no idea what I was doing, so she started trying different colors of makeup. I thought one of them looked alright, so I bought it. Go outside, look in the mirror in my car....OH DEAR GOD. I looked like an oompa loompa in natural light. Once again, I bee-line to clinique, but this time I told her I looked like a spray tan victim, and she decides to try another color. This time she learns, tells me to go outside and take a look, and then make the decision based on natural lighting. Still looked horrid. My face was three shades darker orange than my pale white neck. No go. She tries another one, I think it's the best we're going to get, so I buy it and leave. As I'm driving home I ask the boy (he was with me the whole time, but shopping elsewhere in the mall) does my neck look the same as my cheek. Nope. Okay, now I was getting frustrated. I flip around, and we're now headed back to the mall.

This time I decided to stay away from Bloomingdale's, and we go into Macy's instead. My walk was considerably slowed, and I didn't bee-line anywhere, I just kind of wandered around until someone decided to fix my skin.

In comes Terry. Ohhhh magical Terry. She was from Estee Lauder. I told her my story, and she sits me down to work her magic. Within the first minute she got my orange skin color removed, moisturized my face (had no idea I had dry skin until I felt what moisturized skin was like), and found the perfect shade of pale. The best part was that before I even had to mention the natural light issue, she told me to go take a look by the window. She also used a foundation that wasn't really a foundation at all which I loved. I hate cake-y makeup.

Oh, did I mention that Ms. Clinique dinosaur was a bit uncontrolled with her makeup brush? Oh, well she flung it all over my face like a crazy person. I swear she thought she was Rembrandt or something.

Anyways, two days later I wake up with this.....
Viral Conjunctivitis. This my friend is not pink eye, it's worse. Pink eye is bacterial conjunctivitis. I have viral, and viral means it lasts two weeks. I'm contagious for two weeks. It also randomly feels like someone is pinching my cornea with their fingernails which feels just dandy. Let's just say it's a good thing I'm in optometry school. All of my eye care is comped.

Moral of the story, let Terry from Estee Lauder do your makeup.

Tasty sparkle

The other day the boy and I went to Bredenbeck's Bakery in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. This is my favorite bakery in Philly so far. They are very reasonably priced, and they have the best cupcakes. We got two chocolate cupcakes, a vanilla creme cupcake, mocha cupcake, canoli, and Mr. snowman cupcake. They also make amazing pound cake. Incredible.
Mr. Snowman was my favorite. Not only was he cute, but he was covered in icing and frosting. And his head was a gigantic dollop of buttercream frosting. yum. I love sugar. As you know, so I figured this would be the perfect dessert. However, all of the sugar was bit much. I couldn't finish his hat because it was too sweet. Who would've thought.

Speaking of sugar. We had a full health work up done in our organ lab today, and I don't have diabetes. Shocking, I know. I actually had no idea I needed to fast until about 10am, and by then I was starving (Cheerios for breakfast, makes for a bad fasting day). Another classmate enlightened me, and once I knew I couldn't eat until after our lab (Read: 5pm), the only thing I could focus on was eating.

By the time I got my blood taken, my blood glucose levels were at a hypoglycemic level. Oh, good.

Our lab doctor asked me if I had eaten. .....No...you told me to fast. Nevertheless, I lasted until I made it home. I have decided to try and cut down on the sweets. I'll keep you updated as to how successful this actually is. A few other interesting morsels from the lab: I have bradycardia (which I've known about for a long time, and it's because I run so much....{flex} strong heart), and I have super low LDL and super high HDL. Yay for health.

I also got a super amazing, incredible, awesome email the other day. It was regarding something I entered into a contest for, and somehow, I won! It involves the wedding, and it's pretty much my new favorite thing. I took a picture of a part of it. This accounts for the sparkle in the title.
Exam on Monday means I should probably stop being distracted by sparkly things.