Monday, September 23, 2013

Winner, Winner!!

Hey folks!!!
Good Monday morning to ya!!
My weekend has been capital C-R-A-Z-Y!!
So, I'm just coming to ya to announce the winner of my follower appreciation giveaway!!
(My weekend and Royce's birthday party post will have to wait till later this week...when my head is screwed back on straight!!)

Thank you to EVERYONE that entered my giveaway!!
I am so excited to have each and everyone of you!!
So, without further adieu...
Random number generator picked
153....which is...


Congratulations, Megan!!
Please email me so I can send you your winnings!!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Give it Away, Give it Away, Give it Away, Now!

Just a quick reminder to enter my giveaway now through Sunday!!
 
You can go here for a run down on the loot!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

100 Follower Appreciation Giveaway!!

So, I thought about doing a giveaway when I reached 100 followers WELL before I even reached 100 followers!
And when it finally happened in June, I started working on getting the deets together for the actual giveaway...

And now here we are, in September and I still have not let y'all know how much I appreciate each and every one of you!!
(For shame!!)

Well, since those cruddy situations have been having some positive and beautiful changes...
And since my son is turning 2 this Sunday...
And since September is month number 9 and that is my favorite number...
And since fall is right around the corner...
And dammit...just because y'all are so gosh darn awesome...

I AM NOW DOING MY 100 FOLLOW APPRECIATION GIVEAWAY OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!!

That's right, a couple of my very favorite things...most of them having to do with working out/running, because I couldn't have gone through this transformation without the help and encouragement from y'all.


And a few other must-have's for good measure!!


Here's the loot:

A Bondi Band! These things have been my saving grace this summer in the heat and humidity!
Wicking that sweat so it don't be drippin' in my eyes!
Now, I know the weather is starting to cool down some, but we still sweat!
Plus it can double as an ear warmer. (Bonus!!)
Heck, I even wear it sometimes when I do my Jillian Michaels workouts...cos Lord knows that bia makes me sweat!!

Zico Chocolate coconut water!
This is my go-to for after workout replenishment.
It tastes like chocolate milk with less calories and fat AND has 5 electrolytes and as much potassium as a banana!
Boom!

My very favorite Luna bars: Chocolate Dipped Coconut and Iced Oatmeal Raisin.
Luna bars are the best pre-run (workout) snack in my opinion.
They're not too much to make me feel sick and full, but just enough to keep me going!!

If I'm doing a run longer than 6 miles, I take a GU Energy gel!
Chocolate outrage is the only one I can stand because it tastes like chocolate icing that I would eat by the spoonfuls straight out of the container!
These aren't for everyone, so why not take the opportunity to win a free one to try for yourself!! :)


A $10 Starbucks gift card.
Cos, duh?!?!? 

And last, but not least...
A necklace made by my incredibly talented sister, Shannon!
We liked the idea of it being motivational and fashionable!!
"Push Yourself"...a constant reminder to do just that!
And the dictionary meaning...for when you really need that extra push! :)


So there you have it, folks!!
Enter the Rafflecopter below and random number generator will help me pick the winner on Sunday, the 22nd...my baby boy's 2nd birthday!!

Happy Entering!!
and THANK YOU!!!!!!!

Monday, September 16, 2013

My middle name is "Whirlwind"!

So, last Monday, I laid some heavy stuff on y'all!!

Just a few updates!

Baby Jase:
His catherization was last Thursday.
It went well.
Now they are just waiting to hear when his heart surgery will be.


Baby Gabriel:
They took his feeding tube out.
Breast feeding and bottle feeding have not been going great, but they are committed to really working at it!


Tony:
I went up to be with my friend, Kelly in Pennsylvania from last Tuesday to Thursday.
During that time, Tony opened his eyes, spoke his name, Kelly's name, and followed commands.
He's made great progress and as of yesterday, was able to take his feeding tube out and start on a liquid diet.
Their September 28th wedding has been postponed and they are both handling it well.
Right now, their biggest priority is Tony's road to recovery


Thank you all for your kind words and prayers!
I was pretty sick of hearing cruddy news, but it feels like these situations are starting to look up!


This weekend, I had the Color Run in Richmond, VA.
A group of us from the running group where I live were all doing it and 2 of my very best friends from Pennsylvania came down to run it with me!
We had a blast!



And how sweet are our group's running shirts?!? The lines on the tread of the shoe are the names of the roads we run on in our town. Love them so much!!

The rest of the weekend was filled with 2 different birthday parties and this little Mama trying to catch up on sleep!


This week will prove to be just as busy.
My son's 2nd birthday is this coming Sunday so we'll be having his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party then.
Someone please tell me why a birthday party entails total house renovations the week of the actual party....
No, just us?!?
Shoot me!!!


Also...Cheri Clouser...if you're reading this, email me!!
You're a no reply blogger and I wanted to tell you about a 5k I'm doing in Chambersbug, PA on October 19th.
You should run it too!!

Monday, September 9, 2013

120 hours...

A typical Monday's post would consist of too many sentences about the goings on of my Saturday and Sunday.
This past weekend was lovely, a 7-mile run with some friends, a baby shower and a family reunion.
Followed by a low key and lazy Football Sunday watching my Steelers lose. (WOMP Womp womp...)
This pic was obviously taken pre-game!

But today, on this Monday, I want to share some very important situations going on with too many people that I know and love.

First off.
I've made very brief mention of my friend, Candice and her son, Jase that was born on June 28th.

About half way through Candice's pregancy, they found out that the baby had DORV (Double Outlet Right Ventricle) - a condition where your pulmonary artery and aorta come into your right ventricle rather than separate ventricles.
When Jase was born, they actually found out that he also has a condition called Dextrocardia; where the heart is backwards and located in the center of the chest leaning towards the right.
Jase is scheduled for catherization on September 12th and then heart surgery will be approximately 2 weeks after that!

We are doing a fundraiser to raise money for the cost of Jase's surgery, travel (the hospital is about 2 1/2 hours from where we live) and lodging for however long they will need to be up there on September 21st.
We are having Independent vendors such as Stella & Dot, Thirty-One, Mary Kay, Scentsy, Oragmai Owl and more set up so people can come and shop. And a portion or all of the proceeds go to Jase.
If any of you would like to order anything online to go towards this, just let me know and I can get you the online websites or whatever you need.
I also have tickets for the 50/50 drawing we will be doing the day of the event.
They are $1 a ticket and you don't have to be present to win!
Again, if any of you are interested, just let me know!! :)

And please pray for sweet baby Jase, his parents, the doctors and medical team as Jase goes through heart surgery!


Another friend had her baby, Gabriel August 23rd and has yet to bring him home.
When he was born, he had fluid in his lungs and trouble breathing.
His lung collapsed twice so he was put on a ventilator and a chest tube was put in to pump medicine to his lungs.
He's been transferred to 3 different hospitals since being born.
(This third, and most likely final one is the same hospital that sweet Jase was born at and will have his heart surgery! Praise God for UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA and their incredible staff!!)
Since being at the 3rd hospital, Gabriel has been slowly but surely improving!!!
He has all of the vents, chest tubes and oxygen taken off of him.
The only tube left on him is his feeding tube.
As most mommies know, breast feeding is not an exceptionally easy task.
Since Gabriel is used to food and nourishment being pumped to his stomach, he doesn't want to have to work for it.
Please pray for Gabriel to continue to improve, to learn to eat on his own, and to come home!!
Gabriel's parents, Colette and Derek, also have a son, Uriah who will be 2 this Friday.
How incredible would it be for this family of four to all be in their own home on Uriah's 2nd birthday?!?

Uriah and Royce are good buddies!! : )



Now on to a good buddy of mine...
Kelly and I have been friends for about 17 years.
Kelly met an incredible guy and they are set to get married on September 28th.
I am beyond proud and honored to be a bridesmaid and stand beside her on her wedding day.

However almost 120 hours ago, on Wednesday, September 4th, Kelly's fiance, Tony was in a terrible car accident.
He's had 2 surgeries on the bottom part of his right leg to repair the many broken bones, etc. And a 3rd surgery is on the horizon.
Tony had a large laceration on his forehead that they had to stitch together by layers.
Since that accident, Tony has been sedated and has yet to fully wake up.
They have been on a roller coaster ride of Tony coming out of sedation, becoming aggressive and combative which results in elevated heart rate and blood pressure, and then back to having to sedate him to calm all of that.
Tony has responded to Kelly's voice when she tells him to calm down, but only for 30 seconds to a minute and then he gets aggressive again.
They did an MRI of his brain and neck and saw that there is no neck/spinal injury so they were able to take the neck brace off of him which they were/are hoping is one less restraint on him that could cause less aggravation while coming out of sedation.
The MRI did find that some of the nerves in his brain are sheared.
What this means, we don't really know until Tony wakes up...
to see what or how he's different and what he remembers, etc.
The constant roller coaster of coming out of sedation, and longing for your love to wake up, combined with worrying of what he will be like when he wakes  is weighing heavily on my dear friend.
I mean, the stress of a wedding 3 weeks away is anxiety-inducing enough...
this situation on top of all that?!?
I cannot even imagine.
Please join me in praying for Tony to come to, to be the same Tony, and for his long road to recovery!
Please pray for Kelly in dealing with all of this!




One last prayer need.
I just got word that a family friend's mom just got news that she has liver cancer.
She has been in the hospital for her heart for awhile now.
Since her heart is only working at 24%, she is not able to undergo Chemo treatment.
Please pray for her, her strength, her healing, and for her family.



I'm so fucking sick of grimm fucking news!
Who's got great things going on in your life!! I wanna hear some good news!

I hope all of this news didn't put a damper on your already Monday blah.
But I believe in the power or prayer and just wanted to ask all of my dear blogging friends to send some up as you can!
Thank you! 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

It's been awhile...

So....remember the time I took an unintentional blogging break for 2 weeks?!?!
Yeah, that definitely just happened!

Life has just been so effing busy!!
I know we all complain about being too busy, but honestly, I'm bored when life isn't on the run, so what can ya do?

Can you please just humor me for a second to tell you about how we have absolutely NO free weekends in the month of September.
None.
Zip.
Nada.
Every single minute of every single weekend day in September is packed full!
So, I'll see y'all in October!!
(Not really...but seriously...)

Not to mention that September is my son's birthday month.
And mama loves to party plan.
But she has to loves to party plan on a super tight budget!
So every other second spent not working, running, sleeping, eating, taking care of my child during the week (cos we've already discussed weekends are O-U-T out!) will be spent crafting up a Mickey Mouse storm.



I know there has now been 3 weekends that have passed that I haven't shared every detail of every second  with y'all.
And I know how y'all are just dying for each and every detail.
But for everyone's sanity sake, let's just leave it as....they've been packed full of greatness!

This past weekend we were back in my hometown of Pennsylvania for a long 4 day weekend.
It was absolutely wonderful and filled with lots of family, friends, and food and absolutely no running!
And speaking of Pennsylvania...I don't think I shared my awesome new phone cover!
Thanks Mama Laughlin for the heads up from this adorable little Etsy shop: Studio Cicada

And since I mentioned running...
I had a personal goal of running #80milesinAugust.
87.4 miles!Boom!

And I mentioned before that I have recently started running with some girls in my town.
I love it and love the relationships I'm forming with them!
One of them is a member of this running club an hour and a half away from us.
She gets one of the running coaches from this club to email her a weekly training schedule so that's what we follow!
It's almost like having my own personal running coach!
The 3 main other girls that I run with are training for a Full Marathon in November.
I, out of nowhere really, decided, "Hey, I should do a Full too!"
I am unable to do the one they are doing, but there is one nearby the weekend after theirs so crazy woman over here is following their plan from the running coach to prepare for my second half and first full.


I'm stoked and scared all at the same time!!
My biggest fear in doing the full is when and where and how many times I'll "hit a wall".
I know in my half, it was about miles 8-10 where it was a serious battle inside my head that was I had a very hard time getting past it.
My fear in running this Full, by myself, is getting over and past those mind battles when the race is twice as long.
Any marathoners out there care to impart your insight and wisdom on that one?!?

Thanks for accepting me back into your lives even when I neglect all of you! :)
Stick around cos I've got a few things in the works....
Some super awesome results (I'm talking B&A's, ladies) 
And a giveaway of my favorite things! (You know, the one I was planning when I reached 100 followers...that happened in May or June...better late than never??)