There's No Turning Back Now...

...and no, I'm not talking about our wedding!

I officially registered for the Columbus Marathon on October 16! Once July hits, the price of the race goes up $10 every month so I figured I'd take advantage of the cheaper price of $65, which seems like such a steal after paying $130 for Boston in the past. I will start seriously training for the race in mid-July and already have a 5K & half marathon lined up before October. I've been feeling really good lately while running and have even lost a few pounds so I'm hoping come October 16, I will finally break 3:30!

The scariest part of the registering this early? I had to register using Todd's last name which will become my last name in August. I'm not quite used to seeing my first name with his last name yet.

Wedding Wednesday

I had a hard time thinking of something creative (and not too expensive) to get my bridesmaids who hosted my first wedding shower and Todd's mom and sister who hosted my second wedding shower. While Todd & I were registering at Crate & Barrel a couple months back, I found the perfect summer gift: lemonade & dip mix!

Gifts wrapped in pink & gray with thank you notes

A variety of the lemonade & dip mixes so everyone would get something a little different

Wedding Shower #2

On Sunday afternoon, Todd, myself, and my mom drove up to Leetonia (Todd's hometown) for my wedding shower hosted by my soon to be mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It was a garden themed shower & everything was absolutely amazing from the decor to the food. I was a little overwhelmed since there were some family & friends that I had never met or only met once or twice but it was really nice to finally put a face to a name. The weather was beautiful and I couldn't have asked for a better second wedding shower.

Todd & I before the shower....he even wore our wedding colors again

My mom & I

One of the beautiful tables set up....the plates were pink & gray too!

The centerpieces were also the favors...flowers potted in a chalkboard pot

The food & drink tent

The punch & watermelon drink with champagne were delicious

The sandwiches were a huge hit!

We had cheesecake for dessert & I had requested chocolate peanut butter cup

Two of the guest tables

Opening lots of presents

Todd & I after the shower...Todd wasn't actually there during the shower, he was up at his cousin's with all the other guys hanging out by the pool

Um yeah, we can hardly step foot in our guest room now because it is full of presents from both the showers

Oh wait, don't forget about those too! Please note the kitchen aid mixer on the floor....seriously excited about that one!

Now that we've sent our invitations out and we're starting to get RSVPs back (32 yes and 2 no as of yesterday!), I'm bursting with excitement and not sure how I'm going to wait another 8 weeks until Todd & I become husband and wife!

Weekly Recap: June 20-26

I had a busy week of workouts--4 days of working out in the AM and the PM! I'm slowly building my mileage up and should hit double digit runs in the next couple weeks. I had a fantastic negative split 6 miler on Saturday, starting with my first mile at 8:19 and finishing my last mile at 7:32.

Monday: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit (40 min)
4 mi (7:56 pace)

Tuesday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class
4 mi (8:08 pace)

Wednesday: Insanity Pure Cardio (40 min)

Thursday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class
taught 1 hr spinning

Friday: REST

Saturday: 6 mi (7:52 pace)
taught 1 hr Intermidiate TRX

Sunday: 6 mi (8:32 pace)

TOTAL: 20 mi

Worthington Farmer's Market

After a fantastic negative split 6 mile run (8:19, 8:02, 7:50, 7:49, 7:40, 7:32) and teaching a great 1 hour Intermediate TRX class, Todd & I ventured to downtown old Worthington for the farmer's market. I already went once last month with my Mom but wanted to bring Todd this time around.

Some of the vendors set up in front of the Worthington Inn, which was built in 1831

More vendors

We stopped inside Blue Frost Cupcake for a quick treat. They just opened about 6 months ago and I was excited to try out a cupcake or two. They had an amazing window display with their cupcakes--a summer cookout scene:

"Burger" cupcakes on the grill and "corn on the cob" cupcakes made with jellybeans to look like kernels of corn

"Pie" cupcakes

Lots of flavors to choose from

Todd & I each got a mini cupcake; vanilla/vanilla for him and buckeye (chocolate & peanut butter for me)....and I couldn't turn down some "shots" of icing to take home for later

Once we devoured our cupcakes, we walked around the farmer's market a little bit longer, sampling some food along the way. Todd was most excited for the vendors selling cheese (one vendor had about 15 different flavors to try!) and I was excited to get more veggie burgers from Luna Burger.

A few of our finds: mozzarella cheese, colby dill cheese, and cheesy rosemary flatbread

Once the farmer's market started to wind down, Todd & I stopped for a quick glass of wine at House Wine...the perfect way to end our late morning adventure

Early Morning Insanity Workouts

I mentioned about a month ago that Todd & I had started doing Insanity in the mornings. The workouts are supposed to be done 6x/week and finished within 2 months. Due to teaching classes in the morning and running, we usually get to do Insanity 3x/week, which means it's going to take us twice as long to finish. We have a few more workouts before we get into the second phase of workouts which are longer & more intense. I can actually see a difference in my body since starting Insanity and I absolutely love the workouts. They're great because they're less than 1 hour, I don't have to leave my house, Todd can do it with me, and it kicks my butt!

Check out our set up & some picture before our workout yesterday and after:

We have to hook up my laptop to the TV to do Insanity and move the coffee table to the side then we have plenty of space

Before the workout at 5:30 AM

After the workout at 6:15 AM (Todd changed his shirt right before we started the workout)

Another "after" picture....Todd definitely was sweatier than me

Wedding Wednesday

As of Monday, our wedding invitations are officially in the mail! With 2 months go, I'm getting very excited about Todd & I getting married. I can't wait to come home and check the mail everyday for RSVPs. I mentioned before that my Matron of Honor designed our Save the Dates and she also designed our invitations. Todd & I were very pleased with how everything turned out! We also just got our engagement pictures back from Memorial Day weekend so now we need to decide which ones we like the best for our guestbook at the reception.

Our box of invitations ready to be mailed

The outer envelope with our cutomized calligraphy return address stamp

Calligraphy Return Address Stamp from foryoo on Etsy

Our invitation

Map with addresses & hotel information

Reception card

RSVP card

RSVP envelope

Everything all together

Wedding #15

On Saturday afternoon, Todd & I attended our 15th wedding together. My good friends, Courtney and Craig, were getting married and I couldn't have been more excited for them. Courtney is part of the Sexy 7, my group of best girl friends from high school. I was lucky enough to also go to college with Courtney, which is where she met Craig at the end of our junior year. A little over 7 years later and they were getting married!

Todd & I were running a little late to the wedding, in large part due to it taking longer than expected for Todd to fix the brakes on his car, but we snuck in right in time to see the bride walk down the aisle. In fact, we had to sit in a special side section as to not interupt the processional, but I think we actually ended up with some of the best seats in the church. The ceremony was beautiful and I think everyone, including Courtney & Craig, were ready to get the party started.

Bridal party with the bride & groom

Me, Megan, and Lynn outside the church....Lynn was a bridesmaid in the wedding and will be my Matron of Honor in exactly 2 months.....Megs will also be a bridesmaid in my wedding

Since we had just a little bit of time to kill in between the ceremony and the cocktail hour, a bunch of us drove to the Westin, the reception site, and headed to the hotel bar for a drink. We hung out for about a half hour before heading upstairs for the cocktail hour.

Todd & I

Quite a few of my favorite people at the cocktail hour

Some of the girls at the cocktail hour

Around 7:00 PM, we headed inside the ballroom to find our table for dinner. I was happy to find out Todd & I would be sitting with Megan & Brian as well as Dave & Liz. Lynn, who designed my Save the Dates as well as wedding invitations (which will be mailed today!), also designed everything for Courtney's wedding. I absolutely loved the menus as well as the favorite cookie boxes that had macaroons her sister-in-law made.

Menus & favor boxes

Todd & I at dinner

After dinner, toasts, and cake, the rest of the night consisted of lots of dancing, lots of laughing, and lots of ridiculousness in the photo booth.

The gorgeous bride with Megan, Lynn, and myself

Todd trying out his server skills with Brian...I'm still not sure where he snagged the entire bottle of wine from

I might have had 3 pieces of wedding cake.....again, I'm not exactly sure how that happened

Todd & I have 2 more weddings in the next 3 weeks before our wedding in August. The next wedding up is for another one of my good girl friends in the Sexy 7 and I can't wait to hang out with everyone all over again!

Weekly Recap: June 13-19

Since I was in Houston at the beginning of the week and it was extremely hot & humid outside, I was luckily able to take advantage of the local YMCA and take some fitness classes there. I was very impressed with not only their selection of classes but also how many people take the classes. There were almost 30 people in the spinning class on Monday morning and 40 people in the boot camp class on Tuesday morning. It was nice to actually take a class for once and push myself just a little bit harder than I do when I teach. I do need to get my running back on track since I plan on running the Columbus Marathon in October. I'm going to officially start training towards the end of July so right now I need to get my base miles up to around 25-30 miles/week.

Monday: 4 mi (8:01 pace)
1 hr Spinning (YMCA in Houston)

Tuesday: 1 hr Boot Camp class (YMCA in Houston)

Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance (40 min)

Thursday: taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class
taught 1 hr Spinning

Friday: REST

Saturday: 7 mi (8:14 pace)
taught 1 hr Spin/TRX combo class

Sunday: taught 20 min core & taught 50 min spinning

TOTAL: 11 mi

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Since I only went into work for a few hours on Wednesday after getting back from Houston, I actually had time to make something for dinner other than pasta or pieorgies. Kraft recently came out with a new Philadelphia cream cheese product, a cooking creme that can be used as sauce for pasta or in my case, sauce for enchiladas. I'd bought this product about a month ago on a whim and knew Todd would like it. We hadn't had Mexican food for awhile so making chicken enchiladas was a huge hit. From start to finish, it probably took about 40 minutes to make this meal and we were able to get 4 servings out of it.

The key ingredient: Philadelphia Cooking Creme Santa Fe Blend

The finished product

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp oil
3 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
1 can (14.5 oz) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme, divided
1/2 cup Mexican Style Shredded Cheese
8 flour tortillas (6 inch)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Cook and stir onions in hot oil in large skillet on medium heat 4 to 5 min or until crisp-tender. Stir in chicken, tomatoes, 3/4 cup cooking creme and shredded cheese.
3. Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining cooking creme. Cover.
4. Bake 15 to 20 min or until heated through.

from Kraft

Much Needed R&R

If I've been MIA the past week or so, it's because I was in Houston with my Mom visiting my Grandma and a bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Todd was camping & white water rafting in West Virginia for his bachelor party so it was the perfect opportunity for some rest & relaxation while visiting family. By the way, how crazy is it that Todd just had his bachelor party? Our wedding is going to be here in no time!

My Mom & I left last Friday morning and arrived in hot & humid Houston in the early afternoon. There hasn't been any significant rainfall in a few months so everything was extremely dry and brown. Even though it had been pretty warm in Ohio the past couple weeks, it was nothing like Texas heat. We were there for 5 days and everyday it was between 97-100 degrees with 90% humidity. I got up a couple mornings to run before the sun came up and I couldn't last more than 6 miles. I mean, I would sweat while walking from the car in the parking lot to the grocery store!

We stayed at my Grandma's house and spent our time there helping my Grandma run errands (she can't drive), shopping, having an ice cream sundae party with the family, and working out. Even though I was only gone for 5 days, I felt like it was just what I needed to get re-energized for work and wedding planning (66 days to go!)

A quick peak into my time in Houston....

Hanging out with my Grandma

Running outside and taking spinning & boot camp classes at the YMCA

Eating some good Texas BBQ

Laying out at my Grandma's house

Going to Super Target (yeah, we don't have one in Columbus so I was pretty excited)

Does anyone else remember this drink from childhood? I'm pretty sure this has been sitting on the shelf at the grocery store since 1994

After getting back late Tuesday night and taking yesterday to get my life back in order, I feel ready to tackle the rest of the summer (including lots more wedding planning & going to 3 weddings) before our wedding on August 20!