Thanksgiving Day a Success

Thanksgiving is a great time. A time to reflect on everything we are thankful for in life. Which I have much to be thankful for! It's also a time for good food and company. Both of which I hoped to enjoy. The problem was, I was cooking a Thanksgiving meal for the first time ever and with company coming over. Thanks to Geoff it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had thought. He was a co-cook in the whole operation. Also Cyndie, his mom came over early and helped us out. First of course we ran a 10k race Thanksgiving morning to add to the excitement.

Here's what we made:

• 9 lb Organic Grass Fed Turkey
• Enough Homemade Stuffing to serve a small army
  
• Gravy
  
• Mashed potatoes
• Fresh steamed green beans
  
• Spinach Salad with carrots and green pepper
  
• Sweet potatoes
• Cranberry Orange Walnut salad
• Rolls
• 8 lb Ham (Geoff's mom brought)
• 2 Pumpkin pies & whip cream (Geoff's mom brought)

We were so hungry we forgot to take a picture of the table before everyone started eating. So here's a picture afterwards. Left to right: Geoff's Dad, Geoff's Mom, Geoff's cousin's husband, Geoff's cousin, their baby, Geoff, me and one of our dogs.

I finally own Bookshelves!

Here are our new bookshelves from Room and Board. We love them. Thanks Mom for helping us with the purchase! It's been absolutely wonderful having our books in one place. I think the shelves and the fact it is getting cold out, will increase our reading time. :) As I was putting books on the shelves I realized there are a number of them that I have started reading but never completed. Time to dig in...

Also the pictures on top of the book shelves are a wedding present from Kyle and Laura, thanks guys! They are perfect!

Hike In Maryland

Geoff, the dogs and I headed out for a hike last weekend. It was cold but beautiful. The leaves were in full color, partially on the ground and partially on the trees. The dogs had a great time. I think their favorite activity is running around in the woods. Well that is after eating and sleeping. Those are definitely higher on the list.

Our Halloween Costumes

Here are our Halloween costumes. We headed to D.C. for the a party on Halloween and then all strolled around Georgetown. Crazy time. The sidewalks were overflowing with people. There were barracades up so people would stay out of the streets, but to not much luck. The cops where pushing everyone back onto the sidewalks. There was about as many tourists gawking at all the dressed up people as people dressed up.

There were some really good costumes. I wish I had brought my camera. But I was just glad to had made it down there given I was flying out to MN the next morning at 5am. Geoff & I had our pictures taken so many times by others. Almost felt like a movie star for a moment... I was a little nervous about all the folks there with REAL Afro's, but luckily they all loved our costume & wigs & wanted their picture taken with us.

Geoff & I in costume


Geoff & I without the wigs

Life Update

I am crazy busy these days, as I knew I would be. Lots to juggle with work, wedding planning, coaching GOTR (Girls on the Run), coaching COT and EFFD TNT (Team IN Training) triathlons and doing my own Ironman training for IMUSA.

I've wanted to do more reading and research on coaching athletes but I think that is going to have to wait until after the wedding and Ironman. I bought some really good books. Here's the two sitting on my desk:

• Scientific Training for Triathlates
• Advanced Sports Nutrition
  

I'm finally getting around to spending my Xmas giftcard. I'm thinking of getting this and this. The top is useful the dress is just fun. :)

I uploaded some of my wedding ideas/ favorite photos to a Picasa Web Photo Album. Here's a link...

Wedding Prep

Doggie Snow Time

Well all headed out to play in the snow this last week. What fun. The dogs wore their coats to stay warm and their booties to protect their feet from the ice, as the field was all ice. Total slip and slide! We've had snow and ice for over a week! It is finally starting to melt today.

 

 

 

 

Wedding Location Pictures

Briar Patch Bed and Breakfast
The location of our wedding.















Reception Hall
Brand new building for receptions. It is located right next to the main building and cottage.















Reception Room
This is the reception room I am thinking of using. There are actually three rooms, two of which are finished. Picture is from the bar area. Door on left goes into the kitchen.















Bar Area
This is the bar area between the two rooms. The wood and glass doors in the backgroup goes into the unfinished room.















Reception Room
Picture of our reception room from the ktichen area.















Other Reception Room
This is the unfinshed room. I was hoping it would be done and ready to use as it's gorgeous! There is still a chance it will be done by May but not sure if I want a last minute change if it is.















Arch for Ceremony
This is the arch I am thinking of using. I can decorate it however I'd like. These decorations are left from a previous wedding. I still need to pick the location of the ceremony outside. There are many options.

Life Update

Wedding count down: 94 days to go!

Life seems to have gotten busy! It feels so nice to finally be connected here in D.C. to some activities and people.

In December I accepted a second job for a non-profit (in addition to my Software Developer job) as a coach for Team In Training Triathlon program. It won't be a hugh time commitment once things get going. Just right now there is just much prep work in the evenings as we get everyone signed up and excited. So far we have 59 people on the team for two different Triathlon races. Our first practice is tomorrow morning at 5:30am in D.C. You know what that means? I have to get up at 4:15am. Ouch. But I'll be back home by 7:30am, 6:30am CST time and ready for the day.

I am also continuing to coach Girls on the Run. Luckily it doesn't start until the end of February. I just couldn't say no to all the girls last fall. They are so fun and really, really wanted to participate in the program this spring.

Ah, the wedding plans. I've put in some good time planning and have gotten some important details nailed down. Last Tuesday Geoff and I drove down to Richmond , VA and meet with our caterer. Fantastic meal! She is going to do all the food and our cakes. The big wedding pieces left are: rings, florist, rentals, and music. Plus working on the details in all the other areas. Whew. Wedding planning is sooo much work! Where's my mom and sister when I need them!

Well today I'm working only a few hours at the job and instead doing some wedding stuff...

Laura
p.s. Geoff got me a POWER METER!!! I'm going to try and set it up today :)

Wedding Website

We finally finished our wedding website and sent out most, but not all, of our Save the Date cards. We decided instead of sending out invitations, we would use a website. Our Save the Date cards referenced the website where everyone can get details about the wedding and RSVP.

www.geoffandlaura.com


Laura

National 1/2 or Full Marathon?

So this morning Geoff and I were looking at signing up for the National 1/2 Marathon. But before signing up we decided to look at the course for the 1/2 and full. Upon analyzing the marathon course Geoff, the same one that wasn't a fan of all this crazy marathon training stated:

"We need to do that"

Does anybody know what got into him? Has he really turned into a marathon runner?? I do have to say it looks like a really good course with a small amount of runners compared to Marine Corps marathon. Looks like we might be doing another marathon...

Triathlon Update

( Pic of our doggie loving life in Virgina Beach, Va with us. Boy was she happy! )

• Ironman training is hard. I'm doing way more training now that I have a coach. I'm around 14 hrs a week of training.



• I finished my USAT Level I Coaching certification. Now I just have to finish the exam then I'm official.



• I got a new side gig. I start coaching Team In Training in January. I'll be co-coaching around 75 or so athlete's on the bike and run portions of a triathlon.



• I threw my Girls on the Run banquet last Tuesday. It went really well. The girls are great... I couldn't resist, I decided to coach again in the spring.



• Geoff is getting really fast in the water and he's enjoying swimming. Any day now he's going to be passing me up.

MN Xmas Trip

I've made it to Minnesota for my Christmas vacation. Lots of traveling this last month. November I went to Oklahoma, last weekend I was in Flordia and now I'm in Minnesota. (All the time I'm spending at the airport is getting old.)

I however am very glad to have a week and a half here to visit with my family. I was up at my sister's all weekend. Here's my nephew at their children's Christmas show. He's one of those with the big red bow on.

Sharing the Passion

We finally got our basement wall done. We made it a wall of race memories we've done together. We hung a picture stating 'Sharing the Passion' and plan to hang all our race numbers around it. It wonderful to be passionate about the same thing. (Thanks Yndestad's! We got the idea from you.)

Urban Cross Mud Fest

Cycle cross race number 2 of the season. Who would drive 2 1/2 hours in the pouring rain to race? Yep, that's right Geoff and I. Talk about mud. Geoff really wanted to race so we decided to go even in the rain. When we got there I still wasn't sure about racing. I decided to just warm-up and see how I felt and how my IT band was doing. I was really nervous about racing, but how could I go all the way to Charlotsville, VA, be dressed and ready and not race?

Here's me on the race course. Tons of mud!








Here's me after the race. My bike and I were covered in mud but excited as ever as I had won my first race!







Here's Geoff during his race. He had taken a good wipe-out in the mud right before this.

Marine Corps Marathon

Geoff completed his first marathon two weeks ago! Here he is at the start looking all nervous. He did a great job and ran a 3:52. He was shooting for a 3:30 but didn't get any running in the three weeks prior due to a bike crash and also made the typical rookie mistake and went out too fast. He's already talking about what he would do differently, which is a great sign for me since I love running marathons :)



While Geoff ran, I biked around on my Cycle cross bike. I still wasn't up for running due to my IT band injury. Here I am cheering him at mile 23. He headed right for me when he saw me! I also got a chance to help out for an hour at the Clif Shot aid station with friends at 13. Who new giving Shots could be so much fun? I then caught up with him at 22 and followed him all the way to the end.

I really had a fun time given I was suppose to out there racing too. Actually ever since the marathon passed I haven't been as fustrated with being injury, which is nice. Now I really just have Ironman USA to look to.