Pre-Valentine's Day

For those of you that don't know, Jonathan and my relationship began four years ago on the night before Valentines Day. We had been friends for about a year at this point. He has just gotten out of a serious relationship not too long before I met him, so he was never interested in jumping into another. I, on the other hand, was ready to date him and marry him 5 minutes after seeing him! :) We met at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church.
One of my friends, Josh, needed a babysitter. Him and his wife were going to celebrate Valentine's Day the night before since he had to work on Valentines Day night. I offered to watch their baby while they went out. They lived in an apartment complex. Apparently their complex was incredibly strict about their parking lots and wouldn't let you park there unless you had a visitors tag on your car....which I did not. So when they got hom around 10:30 or so, I walked out to find my car was not in the parking lot and had obviously been towed.
It's 10:30 at night (and a Sunday night, so people had to work in the morning), my parents are asleep. I decided to call my sister since I knew she would be up. I called her and told her my problem and asked her if she could come give me a ride to pick up my car from the towing company. Little did I know that she had a bunch of people over at her house, including Jonathan. When Jonathan heard that I was in a bind, he offered to come pick me up. I had no idea that he was going to be the one to pick me up, but I got VERY EXCITED when I saw his white truck pull into the apartment complex!
We called the towing company and went to pick up my car. We figured it would be a relatively quick process. It was not! We had to wait for somebody to come to the building and they said it would be at least 2 hours. Well 3 hours later, at 2 in the morning, somebody finally came to give me my car. Those 3 hours that Jonathan and I had to wait for my car were AMAZING. We talked about a lot of stuff and that was the first night that our friendship changed to something deeper...on both of our ends. It was also the first night that we held hands. I can still remember being on cloud 9 the next morning at work! We dated from that time on.

Our second year together we spend the night before Valentines Day eating at Steinhilbers restaurant in Virginia Beach. We highly recommend this restaurant by the way. It is, hands down, our favorite! Our second Valentines Day together was spent in. I was just learning how to cook and so I decided that I would make Jonathan dinner at my house. I made lasagna. It was delicious! We just ate and rented a movie. I also made homemade cheesecake in the shape of hearts (He probably doesn't remember any of this by the way haha ) This was also our one year dating anniversary!

On our second year dating anniversary, we went to eat at the Vintage Tavern in Suffolk. The food was great!! After dinner Jonathan told me that he had fondu set up at his house for us. When we pulled in the driveway he told me that he had a gift for me, but he had to get it together before I could walk in the house. I sat out in the truck for about 5 minutes and he finally flipped on the porch light, which was my cue that I could go inside. When I walked inside he had luggage for me and the luggage was full of towels (all of this stuff I had picked out). It was a great gift and the fondu looked WONDERFUL!

At this time, we also had a bulldog puppy. His name was Chubbs. He was (and still is) our life!! We were crate training him and kept him in the back bedroom. Jonathan went back to let Chubbs out and he came running down the hall with a red ribbon tied about his neck. When I looked closer, I could see that he had a ring! Jonathan then took the ring off chubbs and proposed to me. We were both crying..one of the best nights of my life!! The next day we had deteremined that we were getting married in the Cayman Islands on May 17th!

Our third year together, we celebrated the night before Valentines Day. This was our first Valentine's day since being married. We decided to eat at Steinhilbers again. It was delicous. If I remember correctly, we went to a movie afterwards.

This year, Jonathan and I have been together for 4 years! We went out the night before Valentine's Day to McCormick and Schmicks in Town Center. It was wonderful food..highly recommend going there. If you do go there, save room for the apple pie. It was the best pie that I have ever had!! Jonathan got salmon for dinner and I got crab cakes. afterward we went to see He's Just Not That Into You. Funny movie..it was a great night!!

I am so thankful for my husband. He is such an incredible man and he is the best husband anybody could ask for. He is so supportive of me and he is an awesome provider. I could not ask for anything more! The past 4 years have been wonderful!!

Tonight I am cooking him a special dinner. I will have another blog about our Valentines Day...happy valentines day to you all! :)

Our New House...

Here are a few pictures of our new house being built. I am a little behind on them, so it's a lot further along now, than what you see in the pictures. I will update the pics this weekend!

We're Back....

I have not blogged in forever.  I am going to try to do a better job with this!  Before, I felt like I had a lack of things to blog about.  This time around I am going to do a better job of keeping you guys updated on Jonathan and I's life, share recipes, and money saving tips that I have learned!

To give you a quick update on Jonathan and I.  Our new house is coming along great!  They have it completely framed, the electrical stuff is finished, as well as the plumbing.  They have started laying the brick this week and it is looking WONDERFUL!  I am so excited about moving into this house.  I am already starting to get decorating ideas and trying to get some idea of what style we are going to use.  

I am still training for my marathon.  I cannot believe that my race is just a little over a month away!!  Some days I feel ready, and others I don't.  It will be interesting.  I will say that I don't have a goal time that I want to finish in.....I just want to finish :)  I am ready for it to be over.  Training takes up so much time, and while I will continue to run when I finish the marathon, I will not be going out for 20 mile runs!  If all goes well with the marathon, I would like to train for a triathlon.  There is a new Golds Gym opening up in Western Branch in the spring and they are supposed to have a swimming pool.  I would love to get back into swimming and taking on new challenges of swimming, biking, and running.  I have already started looking at triathlon training schedules!

Chubbs and Einstein are well.  We took Chubbs into the vet several weeks ago because he had really bad itchy skin.  Bulldogs are prone to numerous health problems, allergies being one of them.  We had tried antibiotics, but nothing seemed to be helping him.  Well, the vet decided that she wanted to change his food completely.  He is not eating venison and rice.  He can no longer have anything with any other meat flavor in the ingredients.  Since we have switched his food, his skin has cleared up and he seems much happier.  However, since he can't have any other meat flavor, this means that I have to make all of their dog treats.  It can be time consuming because they go through so many treats...but at least I know everything that is going on their bodies.  During that same vet visit, we also discovered that Chubbs had gained 10 pounds in 1 month.  Needless to say, the vet put him on a diet.  We had to start measuring out his food and started giving him 4 cups a day.  The poor dog kept bringing us his bowl throughout the day.  Dieting is tough...I can sympathize with him :(   After 2 weeks on his diet, we took him back into the vet and he GAINED .5lbs!  I couldn't believe it.  The vet said to cut his food down to 3.5 cups a day now.  We take him to get weighed again this Thursday.  Poor guy!

That is pretty much all of our news....you have been updated!  I will post updated pictures of the house later.  Thanks for reading! :)

Race for Literacy Half Marathon

I decided that I wanted to try to run another half marathon before my full marathon in March.  Running has all of a sudden become so easy for me (not sure if it's the cooler weather or the paleo eating habits that I have adapted to).  The very first half marathon that I did was last April.  It was the Dismal Swamp Stomp in Chesapeake and I finished in 2hours 25 minutes and spent the afternoon throwing up.  The second half marathon I ran was this past August in Virginia Beach.  I finished in 2 hours and 21 minutes and still felt awful after I was finished running.  Third third half marathon that I ran was in Suffolk and it was called The Race for Literacy.  I am pleased and very excited to announce that I finished in 2 hours and 4 minutes!!!  I could not believe how much faster I had gotten.  The best part was that after I finished running I could talk normally and I was not really exhausted at all.  I also expected to be sore a day or two after the race, however I never got sore!  I was back at Body Pump the following Monday and back to running/training for the marathon on Tuesday.  It was a huge boost for me and makes me even more excited to tackle a full marathon!

Speaking of the Shamrock Marathon....it is only 3 months away!!  I have been training for a month now.  This past Sunday I ran my furthest distance (14 miles)  Next Sunday is 16 miles and then the following Sunday is 18 miles.  It seems almost impossible, but I am so determined!

Thank you so much for all the encouragement that many of you have given me.....it helps more than you know!

Thanksgiving

I am way behind on the blogs!!  I hate blogging with no pictures, however, I am always that person who has the camera at every event....I just never remember to take pictures!

Anyway, Jonathan and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family!  The night before Thanksgiving was spent with me cooking and getting the house cleaned for my family to come over for brunch on Thanksgiving morning.  Jonathan spent the night before Thanksgiving putting together the turkey fryer.  He was in charge of the turkey this year for his family's get together!

On Thanksgiving morning, I woke up at 5 am to do my morning run.  I had a race the following saturday, so I just did an easy 5 miles.  After I got home and showered, I began setting out and cooking all the food for the brunch.  The menu included chocolate covered strawberries, muffins, pancakes, bacon egg and cheese casserole, cinnamon rolls, and pilgrim hat cookies!  The food was delicious (special thanks to Laura for making the pancakes....I have no mastered that skill yet!!)  My parents, sister, aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins came over as well to celebrate with us.  It was a great time!!

After the brunch, I had to clean up real quick (again, thanks Laura!) and make some homemade macaroni and cheese for Jonathan's family lunch.  So, after stuffing my face that morning with breakfast, it was off to eat some more lunch!  We ate with Jonathan's family around 1:00.  Jonathan's turkey was AMAZING!!  I must admit I was a little nervous about him frying a turkey after we watched all of the you tube videos of turkey fryer fires!  He did a great job with it though, and he will be frying another turkey and a chicken for Christmas dinner!  The food at the Wetherington's was great and the fellowship was great as well!

Jonathan and I came home after a couple hours and took a short nap.  That night we went to the movies and saw Four Christmases (I highly recommend it by the way!)  Holidays are always so exhausting and they always seem to end so quick.  

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving........and a somewhat relaxing Black Friday! 

Savings!!

It might be too late for some of you guys, but in case you didn't know, Harris Teeter and Bloom are both having triple coupon savings this weekend. I have been clipping coupons for several months now and have really enjoyed seeing how much money we save! This past Thursday night at Harris Teeter, we saved $30 from coupons! Amazing!
We were also able to eat dinner last night at Max and Erma's for $12.00 due to a coupon and we saw a movie for $12.00 from using super saver coupons. It all adds up!! Not to mention I filled up my Rodeo this morning for $22!! I LOVE saving money! :)
Moving on....
Jonathan and I are both thrilled that there is no traveling required of us this weekend. It seems that every weekend for the past month or so, we have been driving up to DC/Charlottesville for UVA games and Redskins games. They games are awesome..it's the drive home that is always so long!! We finally have a break this weekend!
Laura and I are running in a race this upcoming weekend. I am running a 10 mile race and Laura is doing a 5K. The race is at Fort Story. I enjoy doing races with her..it's nice to have somebody else there. I have also registered for antoher half marathon the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am so excited to run another half marathon because I feel like my time is going to be a good 10 minutes faster than my last time. Since my last race, I have been eating Paleo. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with it or not, but basically you are supposed to eat only lean meats. fruits and vegetables.....no grains. I stick to it during the week...weekends I slide a little bit. I decided to get on this Paleo diet because it is supposed to incease your athletic stamina. Boy does it work!! The first week that I started on the diet, it was miserable. I was having bad headaches (probably due to the sugar withdrawl). But during week two , my speed in my runs had picked up remarkably. I have never been able to run so fast. I have also dropped 5lbs, so that helps as well. The half marathon will be a good way to see how I have improved. I also begin officially training for the full marathon in one week. I still cannot grasp the idea that I will ever be able to run 26.2 miles..it will be interesting! :)
Now, a quick house update...We were supposed to start last week, but it rained non stop. So, hopefully the weather will cooperate better this week. I will have pictures once there is some action on the lot!

Election Day!

Today is the day that many of us have been waiting for...Election Day!! Everybody has been saying the past couple days that you should get to the polls early to vote because the lines would be much worse later in the day. Well, I took the advice of these people....even after not getting back in town from the Washington Redskins game until 4:30 a.m. this morning. I slept for one hour and then woke up to go wait in line for......3.5 hours!!!! It was unbelievable.
I was scheduled to vote at Sparrow Road Intermediate. They had 4 computers running and only one check in computer working (the other one was already broken). Needless to say, the line did not move fast! I finally made it out of there around 9:45ish and made it to work around 10:00. What a morning!
Here is how I thought the morning would go in my head. I would wake up at the same time, go and maybe wait in line 30-45 minutes. Have time to go by Chick Fil A and get my free chicken biscuit for voting and then make it to work on time at 7:30. Boy was I wrong!!
At any rate, my vote has been placed.....and Jonathan and I went out tonight and took advantage of free Chick Fil A sandwiches and free Krispy Kreme Doughnuts...yum!!