Disney Princess Half-Marathon - Part 1

I realize now that I never wrote about my half marathon experience other than just mentioning it in my post about what I did during lent.

I ran a half-marathon. Like legit ran it. No walking (other than water and potty breaks of course). No stopping. I ran it. I didn't run it fast, but I did run it and I am so proud of myself for it! I want to do another one, I just need to figure it out.

Recap of the whole amazing weekend in February when I went to Florida. It's a long one, so today is just everything leading up to the race. :)



I left for the airport on Friday afternoon. Molly dropped me off and I checked in. I'd never flown by myself before, but I was so excited that I wasn't the least bit nervous at all. My flight from Columbus to Cleveland ended up being delayed several different times (we had lots of ice that morning) and about two hours after we were originally supposed to depart, we actually did. In the meantime, I had made friends with this cute old lady in the waiting area who was also going to Florida to visit her 'snowbirds' (her daughter and SIL).

Our plane actually ended up boarding at another gate and we got on the plane from the runway/outside area. Basically it was like I was boarding Air Force One. I pretended to be Jackie Kennedy, not going to lie. The plane was super small - one seat on one side, two on the other - but I was really excited. The flight was georgous and by the time we got in the air it was time to land again.

Just a little smaller than Air Force One!

By the time we landed and exited, I was informed that I'd missed my flight to Tampa. Fantastic. So I rushed to the United counter to get a new flight. While waiting in line for what seemed like FOREVER (it really wasn't) I realized that I'd never grabbed my suitcase from the plane since we had to check them plane side. Luckily, a nice man brought it to the gate area. Good thing cause I had NOTHING on me. That would have sucked to get to Florida to realize I had no suitcase. So the other nice man (sarcasm) at the counter tells me that the next flight to Tampa is at 8am the next morning. It's currently 3pm on a Friday. I was not staying in Cleveland overnight, especially since my house was only two hours away. I get a new flight to via Chicago, then to Tampa but instead of arriving in Tampa at 6pm, it's now going to be 11:30pm.

The weather was crappy on Earth, but in the air it was beautiful!

A young girl with a baby is also heading to Tampa, so we become friends and hang out in the Cleveland airport during the layover. Once in Chicago - after I talked to this cute boy on the flight there - I explore O'Hare, grab a slice of pizza and people watch. That airport is huge and amazing.

I finally get on the flight to Tampa. We watch the movie Maverick and I fall asleep between two strangers on the way there. I wake up to the show "Subergatory" and get really confused thinking that the guy from the movie and the guy from that sitcom are the same person for a while. Nope, I was just asleep that long.

Erica picks me up and it's one of those meetings from the movies where we run into each others arms at the airport gate. Yeah, we are those friends. :)

Friday night consisted of heading back to her place and going to bed. I was pretty exhausted.

Saturday morning, David made us pancakes for breakfast. We were originally going to leave super early to get to Orlando, but with my late arrival Friday night, we decided to take our time. Around noon we left and got to the expo to get our race numbers and goodie bags. There was no wait at all, which was astonishing. At the expo we got to make encouraging signs for each other, where we both included "3 steps to fly" without planning it. That was our motto from our high school hurdling days. We also met Ali from The Biggest Loser, became a fairy, met Cinderella and Erica bought a cute Belle shirt.

My name on the list of everyone that was running!

Ali Vincent from The Biggest Loser.

We were so happy to meet Cinderella!

After the expo we went to Downtown Disney, ate at an awesome sandwich shop, walked around the stores and got a milkshake before heading to our hotel. We had to get to bed pretty early since we were supposed to be on our bus at 3am the next morning! 3AM!!

We laid all of our clothes out and snuggled under our princess blankets that Erica had made us. :) Love that girl.

All laid out and ready to go in the morning!

I'll share more about the race tomorrow. This post is already long....

What time we were ready to go! That's 2:50AM!

1 Year

Last year on the Thursday after Memorial Day, I picked up a little ball of fur from the Winking Lizard (our meeting place) and became a fur mom, aka a crazy cat lady.

How I ever came home to an empty house, I will never know. She has greeted me at the door every single day and I don't think I've slept a full night in the past year, but that's ok because she's the cutest thing I ever did see.

(I could do without the cat hair though. I seriously wish I could not have to use a lint roller every morning. Everything has a little negative to it, right?)

Mom's had me for 1 hour and takes me to a bar.

I have worms. :(

I have a whole queen size bed to sleep in now.

I want to be a model.

She's taking me to get fixed.

She gave me a bath and I am NOT happy.

I hate when she takes pictures of me.

I'm so cute!

Wake up mom!!! It's time for breakfast.

I love to snuggle. When I want to snuggle, of course.

And now I'm done with the cat pictures, because I realize I'm obsessed and this is probably why I'm single.

Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday morning I got up extra early to make it home to the vet by 9. Bowie's little stomach had been kind of swollen and I was a little worried that maybe she was sick. I thought she'd been cured of the worms, but I wasn't so sure. So I researched online and basically diagnosed her myself with a cancerous tumor and figured they'd have to put her to sleep on the spot. No joke, that all went through my head. 

I get to the vet and am all worried I'd leave without her. Nope. She's fine. She's just a little chunky. So they put her on a diet and the nice vet wrote out a plan for her so she doesn't eat more than 201 calories a day (she currently eats 512 calories a day). Needless to say all weekend she was whiny because she was starving. Her food was cut in half, I'd be hungry too.

lounging with my chunky monkey.

Speaking of other chunks.....Posey needs a diet too, but supposedly the vet says she's "perfect."

Posephious.

Sunday morning we got up early (again) and Molly, Tyler and I went to the cemetery with Dad. We've done this every Memorial Day for the past 4 or 5 years.

First we went to Rushtown to visit the grave of my grandparents and my extended Wickham family. My grandpa is a veteran of three wars as well as our fire department, so he has a very decorated grave. His parents are right next to his grave and his twin brother is on the other end of the cemetery. It's always so emotional to visit this grave because my dad is an emotional person to begin with and I just get sad because I didn't get to know them and have just a few memories of them.

We also went to Mt. Latham Cemetery to visit my Grandma Primer and Aunt Annie, along with all of my Mam's family. It sits on top of this hill and his just gorgeous if you look one way over the hills. If you look the other way it is not so pretty.

That afternoon we cooked out at Mam and Papaw's and Molly, Tyler and I went fishing.

Molly singing an Americana song on the back of the truck.

When we got home from the cookout, Dad and I visited more cemeteries. Is that creepy? I like to visit and reminesse about good times with people that are no longer here on Earth. Dad tells lots of good stories too. Teresa was on her way to Mound Cemetery at the same time, so I finally got to see where Erin's Grandma Millie is buried. I have looked and looked for years but never found it. Now I know.

One grave we pass that always makes me cry is one of my dad's friends. He tells the story every year about how these two friends were on their way to Hungtington, WV one night and crashed on the way there. He was supposed to be with them that night, but he didn't go because he didn't have any money to spend. I'm so happy that he wasn't with them that night.

We also went to Waverly to visit my great grandparents on my Papaw's side and Erin's Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. While there I saw the graves of a few other people, like the Waverly student who was killed in a car crash last fall at age 16, and parents of people that I went to school with. It was just a very sombering evening and I'm glad that I got to spend it with my papa.

Later that night Molly highlighted my hair. I don't really think you can tell that much of a difference since they are just brown highlights, but they are there.

Monday we went to the Reds game at Great American Ballpark. It's no Wrigley Field, but we did have fun even if we were in the last row of seats.

Tyler's eating beef jerky. How much more American can you get. :)

I had plans to work on my tan all day. Seats were in the shade.

When I got home my passport was in the mailbox, so it looks like I'm all ready to head to the Caribbean now! 60 days left.

What a great Memorial Day weekend.

10 years

Sunday was Piketon's high school graduation ceremony. I didn't attend this year because I didn't really know anyone graduating that well and we already had plans to cookout and visit with my grandparents.

This year marked 10 years since I graduated! 10 years! That's crazy. It seems so long ago, but yet almost like yesterday too. 

2003 :)

I'm right above the "S" in School.

Later in June our class is having a reunion but I'm unsure if I'm attending. The family is leaving for vacation that morning and I don't keep in touch with very many that I graduated with. We will see.

Saturday night was the Piketon All Class Reunion. I went to that and was one of two people there from the Class of 2003. Awesome turnout. ha.

2% of my graduating class at the reunion.

High Street Lunch #2 & #3

Weeks 2 and 3 were much more uneventful than the first week of our High Street Lunch Tour.

We've skipped over the 5 billion Asian restaurants between Lane Avenue and Woody Hayes and are trying to mix it up. Be diverse away from only eating Chinese.

We went to Crazy Corky's Cafe. It was just a quaint little place in the bottom of the bookstore plaza at Woodruff and High. I used to eat a Corky's Cafe when I worked downtown, so it was similar. Just crazier? :) I got a grilled cheese, which was yummy. I don't remember what Adam and Jill got. And Suzie joined us this week too. We sat outside on the patio and took zero pictures.

Week #3 actually got two stops because we went to Sicilia Fine Italian Specialties (aka the pizza place attached to Out R Inn) for Stacie's Surprise Congratulations Party. We wanted to do lunch there one day, but it doesn't open til 4pm so holding the party there was perfect.

I'm not in the picture, but it's at Sicilia's. I took the picture. Congrats Stacie!!!!

Then we went to Buckeye Donuts for lunch on Friday. I'd never been there, even as an undergrad. I did not get the full Ohio State college experience at all when I was a undergrad. Not even close. I'm so thankful that I get a second chance to redeem myself now.

Anywho, I had chicken strips at Buckeye Donuts. Jill got French toast and Adam had a gyro or something like that. We also got donuts for the road. I got a Buckeye donut, because I love chocolate and peanut butter. It was just ok - it was real peanut butter on there, not the yummy mixed kind that you find inside candy buckeyes. So that made the donut really rich and almost too much for me to eat!

yum. yum. yum.

My first Buckeye Donut.

Solid peanut butter right there in the middle. YUCK!

Weekend of Repurposing

Friday afternoon Molly and I went to a few estate sales in Columbus to see if we could score any goodies. And we sure did!

The first place we went had stuff, but not much. Mostly garage stuff. Lots and lots of nails for like $.25/box. And tools.

The second place we went was our goldmine! They had so much pretty stuff. If I was a millionaire I would have told everyone to get out of the house, that I was buying it and all the furnishings. Then I would have redone the house to fit my style of course, but I loved everything about it. It reminded me of grandparents. Not mine necessarily, but I know that house was where someone my age grew up visiting their grandparents. Maybe. More on that later. :)

Molly found a reclining chair that she liked for $25. She plans to recover it in cheetah print fabric. And I found a couch that is so comfy and LONG in a pretty mint green/aqua color for only $100. It was $145, but I talked them down. There were lots of other lovelys there, but that's all we got.

Saturday after my race, Mom, Molly and I went to Amish country in Northern Ohio. We went through lots of antique malls and I found lots of stuff I wanted, but didn't buy anything. Pinching those pennies for the cruise this summer. We did eat at Der Dutchman and it was delicious.

Noodles!!!!

Molly with her noodles!

The couch I bought with some pillows on it. need more.

Mixing bowls I found in Berlin, but didn't buy. If they would have had S&P shakers, I would have gotten those.

Wax paper and foil dispenser in one of the estate sales. I also found a letter inside this, that was old and looked like hate mail from the wife to the husband!!!

Iron hook I got for my back porch. I'm trying not to look 'crazy cat lady' just more like 'Fishes Eddy'.

I actually went to the estate sale three times. Once with Molly, once to pick up the couch and once with Cara just to look around again (We biked there from Grandview!). Lots of bargains. Estate sales make me sad because of all the stuff that once belonged to someone and people are just coming and taking. But at least the five things I bought will get a good home. Ha. And I may have gone so many because one of the guys working was a hottie!!! :)

Race for the Cure

I participated in the Columbus Race for the Cure again this year.

I ran in memory of Grandma Primer. She was a breast cancer survivor in 2000 at 90 years old! (So was her twin sister Annie!) :) So it is very special that I do this race in memory of them.

Running for a reason, or someone, is always more motivating than just running for fun. Even though I know I should be running for myself in all my other races (and practices), but I just don't.

This year my plan was to run with Cara. It was going to be her first 5K since she started running a few months ago and I was excited to run it with her. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to her before the race started, so we got separated. Bummer. But I ran the race by myself and all was good. I didn't PR, but I didn't stop either and it was an easy race for me. My side never hurt, I never felt like stopping and even thought I hurt my knee again a few weeks ago, it didn't bother me either. Score!

My time was 35:34. That's slower than the Dogwood 5K I did back in April (33:34), even though I walked in that one. But like I said, I had the hurt knee and I didn't ever feel like I was killing myself, which definitely happened at the Dogwood.

There are a few more races that I want to do this summer. I'm planning to run the Dash for Donation with Stephanie and her friends and family in memory of her little Addy. I'm looking forward to that because I haven't seen them in so long.

I'm hoping to find a cool race to do in Washington DC sometime this summer or early fall. How amazing would it be to be running and pass all the monuments? Anyone know of anything like that? :)

And now a few pictures from Saturday's race. I didn't take any from the actual race, which is the opposite of last year when I was snapping them the entire run.

All finished with my sign that I didn't actually wear, but had tucked in the band of my shorts.

All the peeps at the finish line!

Meeting up with Jess and Cara, Junior League friends.

And, the Dispatch did a video from the weekend and Michele is in it at the 1:51 mark hugging her friend and a breast cancer survivor. So many touching stories from this weekend and I'm glad to be a part of such a meaningful race!

That's actually her you see on the screenshot with the hat on hugging the lady in the pink!