On August 11th I will be moving back to the DC area! I grew up there but I have been away for almost 9 years! I am very excited for this move. It's a brand new chapter for my hubbie and I! We are in the process of finding a place to live and a job for me. Maybe I will update this more when I move :P

A long weekend in DC

My hubbie and I were invited on a last minute trip to DC by this super cute couple:


Dustin and Caitlin

The metro was our primary source of transportation!


Dusty and Cait have friends who live in that area so we had a free place to stay. We packed more than I have done in a year into 3 days... seriously I have the shin splints/sore calves to prove it! I can't even imagine how many miles we covered. To keep up our energy up, every day was started like this:

I was introduced to the Dirty Chai Latte... ohmygoodness! A chai tea latte with a shot of espresso! I like tea but I am a coffee girl through and through so this is perfect!! Mmmm now I want one.

We visited quite a few museums. I didn't take a lot of pictures because Caitlin took care of that. Her professional camera takes pictures a little bit better than the camera on my phone. Here are the few I did take though:

Fords Theater, this is where he was shot.

I can't remember where I saw this but I liked it a lot. You can barely read it but it was a quote from Abraham Lincoln. People was trying to bow down to him as their liberator and he said , "Don't kneel to me. This is not right. You must kneel to God only and thank Him for the liberty you will heretofore enjoy. I am God's humble instrument". I thought that was so cool. If only it was still like that today....

This was at Mt. Vernon. Chris wouldn't let me have a baby pig :( Perhaps because they turn out like the mama?

These were also taken at Mt. Vernon. I had been here as a kid but I had so much more appreciation for it this time around. Washington was an amazing man and it is so beautiful there. The quote above says, "George Washington was one of the few men in all of human history who was not carried away with power." - Robert Frost. I think that's what made him such an amazing first President.

Apparently this is what I would have looked like as a monkey before we "evolved". Ha, good thing I don't believe in that because that's just scary!

On our last day there we rode bikes from DC to Georgetown.

We were on a cupcake mission! Sprinkles and Georgetown Cupcakes are both really popular places. Some swear by one and others swear by the other. So we decided to make our own decision and visited both.

Sprinkles is owned by the woman judge on Cupcake Wars. It was really hard to decide which one I wanted to try because they all looked so good. I finally decided on the Black and White and my husband got the Coconut. My friend got Banana and her hubbie had the Irish Cream. They were all so good but the Coconut was definitely the show stopper! SO good! My favorite part of my cupcake was the actual cake. It was so chocolaty and moist!

Then it was off to Georgetown Cupcakes.


There a show on TLC called DC Cupcakes filmed here. There was a line when we got there but it was only about a 10 minute wait. Again it was hard to choose but I went with the Toffee Crunch and so did my friend. Her husband got Mint Chocolate and my hubbie had the Chocolate Birthday Cake. The best part of these cupcakes was the frosting. It was so creamy and delicious. So Sprinkles won with the cake and GC's with the frosting. If only they combined the two :)

While I was in Northern VA I got to meet up with my best friend of over 10 years, Erin!!! It was sooo awesome to see her. I miss her so much. She is one of those rare friends that I can go forever without seeing but we always just pick up right where we left off!

We met up with her as well as her boyfriend and mom. I loved seeing them all! We went to Cheesecake Factory and I ate soooo much at that meal OMG. Avocado rolls and Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes.... words cant express the yumminess. Speaking off food below are pictures of other food eaten:

Salmon, wasabi and cucumber on a bagel... delish.

An orange, beet salad at a a really yummy pizza place we ate at. Very tasty!

And of course fro yo! I had never been to a pinkberry so of course I had to see what all the hype was about.... WOW I get it now... so good! Their original tart is to die for.

Well that's all Ive got! The trip was uh-MAZING! Probably one of our best! We had so much fun with some incredible friends :) I wish I was still there!

Next post will be about running... or lack thereof :(

OMG

So it's official, I will be running my first half and full Marathon this year! I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, I mean who is crazy enough to pay that much money to run 13.1 miles/26.2 miles!? Well apparently I am... so expect to see my adventures of training
for these two races :)

I will update this one day soon, I promise ;) I just feel like everyone else's life is so much more interesting so I just read those blogs!

I always see WIAW on other blogs I follow but until now have not actually participated!

I started the day with a smoothie. I can't even remember the last time I had something different for breakfast... what can I say I am addicted to them! Quick, easy and tasty!

1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, a frozen banana, a handful of frozen mixed fruit (pineapple, strawberry, peach and mango), 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder and a couple ice cubes! Delish!

Lunch was Creamy Southwestern Pumpkin Soup and an orange. I am going to a Soup Swap this weekend so I had to test this recipe out before I make 6 quarts of it! I think it's a winner!

Here is the recipe for anyone interested:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-southwestern-pumpkin-soup-1000000048843

My snack was a Clif bar and chia seeds in preparation for my trail run. The Clif bar was not as good as I thought it would be, oh well!

Dinner was another salad monster. Mixed greens, pico de gallo, avocado,white kidney beans, pecans, chicken and balsamic vinegar.

I drank 4 tablespoons of this today (2 before breakfast and 2 before dinner).

Apparently there are some pretty incredible health benefits, my favorite being a flatter tummy!So I said what the heck Ill try it. I honestly like the taste of it so I have nothing to lose!

My workout for the day was the trail run I mentioned. Me, my husband, and some friends are going a 5 mile trail race this Saturday and wanted to check out the course! I think we ended off course a good bit but it was a good run, about 3.5 miles.

Well there you have it =]

Friday, Friday, FRIDAY!

Hmmm so what's new in my life? Not much! That's why I haven't updated in forever! I just don't know how interesting running, trying to eat healthy, work and school are to you guys...

Oh well it's interesting to me so here goes...

This past weekend I did a race called Run 4 Their Lives which is sponsored by a ministry called Freedom 4/24. This is a cause my husband and I really have a heart for. Extreme poverty forces many girls and women to sacrifice their bodies and dignity in order to provide for themselves and their families. The race is $24 to enter. This pays for a girls "fee" freeing the woman or girl for 24 hours and taking her off the streets into a safe haven. At the safe house, the exploited woman or girl will be shown a permanent route out of the sex industry through the provision of education, food, appropriate employment, and physical, emotional, and spiritual health care. Check out the website for more details : http://www.freedom424.org/

So the race was a 5k and I got 28:24 which is a 9:11/mile pace. I wish it was a little better but I am happy with that considering I am fairly new to running. Below is me finishing the race. It's my first intense running picture.. pretty excited!

I ran for a little girl in Guatemala named Eva.

I have recently started eating clean which means sticking to all natural foods... nothing processed. My husband and I are doing it together. We are not going to be ridiculously strict about it but we are going to try to stick to it about 85-90% of the time. The biggest reason I have started doing this is because I really think it will help with running. I want to get more serious about running and up my mileage a bit. I have a 5mile race coming up on the 12th. I am excited for this because I have only done 5k's so far so this is getting me out of my comfort zone!

Since I started eating clean I have had a lot of fun making different salads. Fruit and nuts in salad is pretty much amazing! So are kidney beans! I can always use new idea though so if anyone has any recipes let me know ;)

Mixed greens avocado, pecans, carrots, white kidney beans, onions and balsamic vinegar as the dressing. Mmmm!
So these are some things I am excited about:

Finally being a senior in college... it only took me like 5 years to get here lol! I will be done with my undergraduate in Education in about a year! Wooo!

A new Bible study that started last night called The Truth Project with some pretty amazing girls. I know that God is really going to challenge me through this study and I am stoked about it!

The Holidays!!!!

There are other things too but this post is long enough so I will end it here =]

HAPPY FRIDAY!

One day I will post about my weekend on a Monday... I promise! This past weekend was pretty awesome. Friday night the hubbie and I just had a chill night at home. Saturday I did exactly what I had planned. I met my good friend Erica at 7am and we did a 4.7 mile run and then we did a 3 mile hike on some trails. I was pretty excited because our average pace was 9:34 for the run.... I am usually closer to a 10 minute mile. I thoroughly enjoyed it =] After that I went home showered and went over to Erica's place and we watched the first two twilight movies and ate Indian food. It was great and between the exercise and the heavy food I fell asleep early and slept hard that night! On Sunday I pretty much read all day and cuddled with the doggy I was watching. My dog Sammie is not cuddly at ALL so it was nice to have a dog who wanted to be close to me! I think I will be begging Chris for a lap dog now! I almost finished my book One Day. It's pretty good but I have a feeling the movie will be better which I hardly EVER think. The book is just kind of... drawn out. Still good though. So yeah not a very eventful weekend but I have no complaints =] The past couple days I have had some really good runs, I feel like I am actually getting faster which makes me feel good!!

In other news, I am going home/on vacation on Friday for 10 days! Chris and I wanted to get away and have some time to ourselves before the craziness of law school begins! So not only will we get that time together but I will be able to see my family as well. I am super excited and Friday cannot come fast enough!

Well so long for now! Here's a couple pictures for you 3 people that read my blog...okay I exaggerated.. you 2 people!

My hubbie surprised me with this book that I wanted and I LOVE it!! It had some amazing tips that I really think are going to be very beneficial!




Am I the only one who "squeals like a monkey" (my hubbies words) when their favorite magazine shows up in the mail?!





Just one of the gorgeous views on the hike!