Grab the Kleenex

Our dear friends Nikki + Nate had a BANGIN’ wedding back in September and recently got their videographer’s view of their big day. This is too good not to share. These two should give classes to couples on writing your own vows. I dare you not to cry!

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Turkeytinis

Getting ready to throw down Turkeytinis at AngelPoints

I hope everyone had a great, conversation and turkey-filled Thanksgiving! Matt and I are currently sitting on our new couch [finally!] recovering from a delicious night.

For the second year in a row, Matt and I celebrated Friends-giving, since both of our families are far away! For Friends-giving, each person brings  a couple of different dishes to take the load off of the host and add some of their favorite dishes from home. Matt and I brought appetizers and Matt’s infamous scotcheroos. We made mini-caprese, pumpkin dip, and a pistachio-cranberry goat cheese log. All were really delicious and I recommend them for any holiday occasion/party! In addition to stuffing ourselves, an intense game of RISK went down, with the winner TBD! Our extra naughty puppy also joined us for the celebration.

Naughty Pants.

Friendsgiving was actually Matt’s second Thanksgiving dinner. AngelPoints, the company Matt works for, had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday with loads of leftovers that even I got to enjoy! He also brought scotcheroos to this party, but his main feat was to concoct a turkey-inspired cocktail. I can’t imagine ingesting this beverage, but Matt said that the office really enjoyed it!

Without further ado, I present to you mixologist Matt’s finest beverage:

THE TURKEYTINI

•  vodka
• vermouth
• turkey stock
• garnished with a turkey olive

Per Matt, mix the first three ingredients together in a martini shaker. Pour & garnish with piece of the turkey wrapped around a pimento.

Le Turkeytini

Cheers!

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Marathon Paparazzi

I love measuring things on the "Sweet Caroline" scale!

Nikki and Nate did an amazing job supporting me during the marathon! They made a hysterical sign, captured all of my best moments on their paparazzi camera, and took me out for a disgusting burger post-race!

Recently they shared those photos with me and I had to post them! Some of them are pretty hysterical! The picture of me hugging Nikki is one of my favorites.

Best "hug form" goes to Nikki

I still can’t believe that Matt spontaneously ran 10 miles with me or that I even ran 26.2! What a fun day!

I was happy to see that Matt and I were both smiling a lot in their footage! That was the main goal. Finish the race with a smile on my face!

Jokes and jokes and jokes

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[Cross] Country Roads

I haven’t done a very good job of explaining why we left Houston, so here is the 30 second sound byte version: I loved my job(s) in Houston. Loved them. I worked with awesome staff at both the Elementary school and the private practice. I had the best little kids and really liked going to work. The district I worked for, Houston Independent School District (HISD), is/was MASSIVE.  Per the 2009-2010 census there were over 202,000 students in HISD. A large number of students within that 202,000 required speech and language services resulting in the caseloads in Houston getting up above 65. Being responsible for this many students is ridiculous and ultimately leads to crappy quality of treatment and astronomical amounts of paperwork. Very few speech pathologists jump at the opportunity to drown in paperwork and provide crappy therapy to hoards of children, so the district needed a solution. contract speech therapists. I signed on as a contracted therapist that worked for a contracting company instead of directly for the district in August 2010. This meant that while my salary was significantly higher, I had great benefits, 401-K, etc I also was significantly more expendable.

In April, Matt and I had a big talk about what was next for us, and had decided to stay in Houston for one more year and move to California in the Summer of 2012. We found a new apartment, got our dog, and had a plan. Around that same time, HISD did a bunch of reorganizing after looking at the massive budget deficit (side note: there is no income tax in Texas, which causes a myriad of problems that I’d love to get into, but then Matt will remind me that this isn’t a political blog and to cut the sass), and ended up having a plan of their own, which resulted in reorganizing (read: cutting) my job and the jobs of about 110 other contracted speech therapists, occupational therapists, etc. That was enough of a sign for Matt and I, so that is why we packed up our zen-gardened apartment and moved across the country. ROAD TRIP!

To finish up our cross-country trek, 13 months later we decided to stretch out our road trip and see as many people as possible! We stopped in Albuquerque, to stay with Nicole and Dr. Major, my dear friends from Marquette, Phoenix, to stay with my extended family including a stop at this guy’s warehouse, and San Diego to see our good friends Kelly and Cedric (who introduced Matt and I) tie the knot.

Enjoy the condensed slideshow version of Road Trip Adventure Part II!

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Marathon Eve.

Banner at Union Square

The night before the marathon was a really cool experience. The Nike team and Team in Training staff made Marathon Eve extra special.  From the expo to the dinner, it all was so thoughtfully planned out and executed.

Matt and I were in a rush to get to the Team in Training Inspiration Dinner so we quickly ran through the Nike expo at Union Square to pick up my bib, but it would have been cool to spend more time there. From what I could see, there were apparel stands, smoothie making bicycles, running form analyses, and more treats from Paul Mitchell and Neutrogena.

Carb loaders.

The Team in Training Inspiration Dinner that was held at the very neat Moscone Center on Howard Street. I didn’t really know what to expect from the dinner, but once we got close to our destination we heard tons of cheering and clapping. Starting at the door and leading all of the way down the stairs to the reception room were lines of TNT alumni, coaches, mentors, and staff, with noise makers, cowbells, whistles, and signs, clapping and cheering for all of the TNT members (YouTube Team in Training Inspiration Dinner Nike Women’s to get the full effect). Throughout the training process, our coaches and mentors would always thank us for participating, but I never really registered this notion or internalized this because I was more thankful for them for turning me into a legit runner. But at that moment, I realized, that I had raised over $2500.00 to help find a cure for cancer and that was totally tear-inducing. Matt said it reminded him a lot of Penn State’s Thon. It was hard to keep it together.

Do I look legit?

Once I pulled it together, I got to see my Team that I hadn’t trained with since August and enjoy a carb-filled dinner. There were a variety of motivational speakers and very talented athletes that provided us with last minute advice. They stressed that it would very hard for the runners to sleep because of all of the adrenaline, but to just lay in your bed with your eyes closed, even if you can’t sleep to rest.

When we got back home, I finally got to try on my TNT tank and put my bib on my shirt. I felt like a superhero in my purple TNT tank!  Once all of my lucky clothes were laid out (Lucky hat from my brother that I’ve trained in the whole time, favorite green shorts, Th0rlo socks, purple watch, etc), I had one last carb-loaded cookie and luckily passed out.

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