Weekend of Food, Fashion + Races

Good morning friends!! How was your weekend?

Mine was the perfect mix of busy and not-so busy, just how I like them. How about a recap to catch us up to speed? Cool.

So glad you’re excited for it…

(Just ignore me. Clearly I’ve had too much coffee…)

Weekend of Food, Fashion + Races

I wasn’t really feeling like myself on Friday, but I managed to kick a migraine by mid-afternoon and was able to return to my normally scheduled routine of housecleaning.

It’s a good thing too, because I get a serious case of anxiety when our house is messy more than a short period of time. I’ve become quite the robot on Friday mid-afternoon and nights… clean, easy dinner, then chill.

By the way, I am in love with all 50+ of you for linking up with Friday Favorites. As much as I enjoy putting those posts together, I love reading your favorites/favourites posts even more! Thank you all for making it fun!

Since Scott was busy, I decided to have a “me” night that started with a trip to Marshall’s. Besides my (almost) monthly Stitch Fix subscription, I haven’t been shopping for anything new for months.

I was on the hunt for sweater dresses, tights, and maroon skinny jeans and come out with exactly that… and more, all for under $100.

I love when that happens! #score

Suddenly, I blinked, and it was close to 9 p.m. I was hungry. I guess I forgot about dinner being all on my own. That alone really surprises me. On the verge of becoming hangry, a Chipotle chicken salad with all the salsas and guac (and a side of chips, obviously) tasted like heaven!

Before I headed back home, I stopped into K-Mart per Scott’s request. He saw the store near us was going out business and asked me to stop by to re-stock on some essentials for the house.

It was like Black Friday, y’all. Everything was at least 20 if not 40 percent off!

I left with plenty of soap, laundry detergent, air fresheners, toothbrushes, deodorant, office supplies, a new Swiffer steamer mop, an air mattress, and enough dog treats to last Roadie for months.

If that’s not turning up on a Friday night, I don’t know what is. Hehe.

It looks as though the whole K-Mart brand might be going out of business?

I thought it was just the location near our house, but when I asked the nice lady at check out, she said they have stores closing across the country.

The night was an all around win for bargain shopping!

Saturday started on a great note with a full night’s sleep (finally) and a family breakfast at home.

It had been a while since I made real bacon and real eggs, so I gave it a go and sided it with coffee (duh) and a slice of wheat toast smeared in cherry apple butter from the cider mill.

We had some down time with the animals and I couldn’t help but to laugh at them. Spoiled rotten those fur balls are.

Scott is saluting Queen Aspen (perched on three pillows) while Roadie curls up in a ball on one. I just can’t. Not one of them really understands the concept of personal space. It’s cute.

Scott had somewhere to be shortly after, so I got dressed and drove over to Clarkston to register for a half marathon the next day.

Oh yeah… that half I was supposed to run this day?

It didn’t happen. Obviously.

I was actually toying with the idea of doing one Sunday instead when I found out about it last week. It was closer and later in the morning (i.e. less freezing out), so I took the migraine as a sign to just go for Sunday.

I had the option to late register and pick up my race packet all at once, so that’s exactly what I did!

I was thankful that there were spots left. I got my bib number, my tech shirt and headed home. Realizing I was out of mid-race fuel, I stopped by GNC to re-stock on Gu chomps.

I made it home by the afternoon and dug into my leftovers from Chipotle for lunch. That was another highlight for sure.

I spent the next few hours doing projects around the house and spent some time on the blog. Before I knew it, 5 p.m. rolled around and I met Scott at the arena to pick him up for church. Neither one of us could go Sunday morning, so we like to make it on Saturdays when that happens.

We saw our friend, Stephanie, there and invited her to join us for dinner afterwards. It was time to carb up!

We made the five minute drive down the road to Alfoccino in Auburn Hills. Knowing I had a race in the morning, I wasn’t shy when it came to ordering something with holding power and digging into breadsticks.

The salads came out family style and were very good.

I decided to make my own pasta and chose gluten free noodles with marinara sauce, chicken, and steamed mushrooms. Was the gluten free noodle decision hypocritical for my carb loading? Possibly. But none of the other noodle options sounded good for some reason.

So, I did what I always do and listened to my body. Plus, my plate was the size of Vermont… so there’s that.

It did the job, nonetheless. I had to take half of it home, but I made sure to finish strong by devouring about half of this tiramisu.

It was a wonderful dinner followed by scary movies (Saw marathon) before bed. There’s a sure fire way to ensure you’ll get the minimum amount of “good” sleep the night before a race. #fail

I was excited to start my race day (Sunday) later than the crack of dawn for once! The Clarkston Back Roads Half Marathon was scheduled to kick off at 9:30 a.m. and I was all about rolling up right before 9 a.m.

It was a great race! The course was plenty challenging with the inclines and unsteady rocky surface at times, but overall, it was an enjoyable race (minus the thirty minutes I wanted to die from the hills…)

Regardless of how I got there, I was pumped when I crossed the finish line and saw my time at 1:58:31. That’s a new half marathon PR, y’all!

I’ll be sure to share the details in a full race recap later this week!

I refueled and toured the after party for a hot minute, then ran back to my car to get out of the cold. It wasn’t getting any warmer out there.

I stopped by Panera on the way home to grab a Hazelnut coffee that might have been the best one I’ve ever had.

Okay, that’s probably being a tad dramatic, but when you finally get to have your “morning coffee” at 1 p.m. it’s a glorious thing.

I ran a hot bath as soon as I got home and sat there soaking up the warmth for a good fifteen minutes. My legs weren’t hurting too bad, so I saved foam rolling for after lunch when I got out.

I heated up leftovers from Saturday night’s dinner and devoured every bite in record time. Then I kind of just plopped here for a while…

 

I got my act together a couple of hours later and spent the afternoon catching up on emails and such before going to church.

I am volunteering as a high school small group leader with my friend Alex on Sunday nights and it’s been a great end to my weekends!

All right… it’s time to get moving. I’ll see ya back in a bit with the results from the Reader Survey a lot of you filled out a couple of weeks ago. Happy Monday!

>> Liking up with Katie for MIMM.

Questions of the Morning

• How cold is it where you are right now?

Does it feel like fall, winter or spring/summer? (<- if so, let’s trade.)

• What was one highlight from your weekend?

My answers: you saw all of my highlights and it’s in the 40s!