Five Things

{five things I have a passion for}
1. My husband. He is the central thing in my life and I always want to show him how much he means to me.
2. Learning about history. I really love listening to podcasts and reading books to get a broader knowledge on all the random things that have occurred throughout time.
3. Teaching. Perhaps it's because I'm bossy but I love showing people what to do.
4. My puppy dog. Duh.

5. Yarn. Knitting. Anything involving yarn or knitting. 

{five things I'd like to do before I die}
1. Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro has been on my bucket list since I watched an IMAX movie about it in the 10th grade.
2. Buy/own/wear a pair of leather pants that look really amazing on (a teensy bit shallow but gosh darn it...I want it).
3. Make babies!!
4. Backpack through Europe and doing all the stereotypical touristy things like pretending to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa and being sung to in a boat by an Italian man in a striped shirt.   
5. I want to run the Easter Island marathon.

{five books or magazines I've read lately}
1. Winger by Andrew Smith
2. The Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
3. The Delirium Series by Lauren Oliver
4. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Greene

{five favorite movies}
1. Donnie Darko
2. Grease
3. Life Is Beautiful
4. Steel Magnolias
5. Charlie Bartlett

{five places I'd love to travel to}
1. India is my number one destination right now. 
2. Masaii Mara Wildlife Reserve in Kenya
3. All over Italy
4. Costa Rica
5. I really want to take my husband all along the west coast to where my family is from. He has never seen the redwoods or the beauty of Oregon and Washington.

{five things I say alot}
1. 'I do what I want.' This is usually given as a sassy explanation to my husband about why I didn't do a chore or task like I said I would earlier.
2. 'Who do you think we are? The Rockefellers?' This is something that I picked up from my mom and once again, is said in a sassy voice whenever we talk about finances.
3. I sigh a lot. Loudly and probably at inappropriate times. It's just a form of stress relief but it's kind of a ridiculous habit.
4. 'Who's got a big stick?' No weirdo...I don't say this to my husband but rather my puppy dog whenever he finds a stick in the backyard to play with.
5. 'I can't hear you.' My husband seems to always want to talk whenever I am brushing my teeth, doing dishes, washing my face, etc. I have my head near running water and he decides to talk to me about something from the other room. It happens without fail.

{five blogs I love} 
1. The Other Juliette. Such a funny and witty lady. If I could pick any blogger who I would be BFF's with, it would be with this gal (said in a completely normal and non-stalkerish sort of way).
2. It's Kayla Layla. So this lady has only been blogging for like a month, maybe two but she is already one of the sassiest, funniest ladies around.
3. Kisses and Croissants. If you have ever had the dream of going abroad, falling in love with a frenchman, marrying said frenchman and then moving to France permanently - read this blog. This girl did it and writes about being an American in France and all the fun things that come with marrying someone from a different culture/background/language.
4. Nat the Fat Rat (now Hey Natalie Jean). She is a blogging goddess and made the cutest baby in the world. I love me some Huck!
5. Hubby Jack's Blog Attack! The only male blogger that I read and the only one I will ever need. Think of Jim from the Office, and a little bit more attitude and you have Jack.

Find me on instagram, facebook, pinterest and twitter. Because I am cool like that.

 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Currently...

Reading - This past weekend while camping I read two really enjoyable books. The first was this month's book for my 'Not So Young Adult' book club at a local bookstore. It was called 'The Shadow of Blackbirds' by Cat Winters and was a historical fiction/young adult/paranormal/mystery book all about the year 1918 with WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept through the US that year. It was also a ghost love story and I do love myself some ghosts. 

The second book I read was called 'Winger' by Andrew Smith and I didn't know a thing about it when I started reading it. Didn't even read the blurb on the back or anything. Just liked the cover and went with it. It started out as an endearing and hilarious book and ended up being probably in my top 5 books of all time. I don't want to say anything about it really because I really think it is just better to go into it blind. You just need to know that it is a young adult fiction novel and from the perspective of a charming 14 year old boy. I have already told my husband that he has to read it during his winter break this school year.

Watching - I may be the only person in America still watching this show, but every week I watch 'Siberia' and hope that it either a) explains itself or b) redeems itself. I am so confused at what the heck is going on, mad at it for not divulging more plot, and disappointed in the writing....but yet I keep watching it each week to my husband's chagrin.

Eating - We got a little bit lazy in the cooking department these past two weeks with me being sick, going camping and then coming home to an empty fridge. As a result, we went out a bit and many of my favorite foods were eaten such as Chipotle, take-n-bake pizza, biscuits and gravy, ice cream, more pizza, Moe's burritos, fried green tomatoes, and more pizza. It's been a delicious two weeks for my belly but a bit sad to my saddlebags.

Working On - Our home has been a complete mess the past two weeks. This is one of the first years that we have lived in the same place two years in a row, so I am trying to do a deep clean of the place and doing all the sort of crazy cleaning you do when you are trying to get back your security deposit. But I am moving slow thanks to my business doing well and not so thanks to being sick. So this Saturday, my partner in crime has agreed to help me clean the ceiling fan blades, bleach our windowsills and take a toothbrush to our grout so we can finally get this place settled again.

Thinking About - One of my favorite memories from camping this weekend was bouncing around ideas and brainstorming with my husband about the book that I want to write. You guys have no idea how many good ideas John has. I swear, this book is going to be all of his ideas and my voice behind them. I now have pages of notebook paper with details on what I want this book to be about and where I want it to go. I still have a ton of gaps and content that needs to be filled, but I finally feel like I have enough of a concrete idea that I can actually put pen to paper.

Listening To - I don't know when it happened and I fully blame living in the South, but guys....I like country music. I can't believe it myself, but Luke Bryan has stolen my country heart.

 

Mantra - I read this quote in a magazine over the weekend and I have seen it three other times since then. I feel like the universe is really trying to pound it in my head.

via etsy

Am I alone in watching Siberia and do you have any good book suggestions? I need some new ones!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Oh hey there...

Oh hello. 

After having a cold that knocked me off my feet for a week and then taking a long weekend to go camping, I haven't been around these parts much lately.

But after spending the weekend going 'balls to the wall' and eating a bag of non-vegan marshmallows and my body weight in guacamole, I am back with a vengeance (and a tummy ache).

Sidenote: I ran 17 miles today and my body H.A.T.E.S. me right now. Feeding my body crap for a week and a half and then pushing it to it's breaking point with running makes for a sad Ashlee and sad tummy.

But back to more awesome things. Like camping with an adorable puppy and handsome husband.

If you don't remember, I recently wrote about my last camping experience here and our encounter with a bear. Needless to say, I was beyond terrified to go camping again but decided to suck it up and went back into the woods armed with a bear bell and bear mace (which I bought off of a stranger I met online and had to go to a local gas station to get the goods/exchange money. Isn't the internet so weird?).

Other sidenote: I am pretty sure my punctuation on that last sentence with the parenthesis was way off and I am sorry if that bothered you or you judged me for it. I get confused and flustered with commas and parenthesis. I have been told by many of teachers that I am too comma happy.

So besides having bear mace in hand and better flashlights than before (so I could peer into the woods every minute after it got dark), I still was unbelievably stressed out the first night. My anxiety level was at an all-time high and I honestly didn't fall asleep until the sun began to rise in the early am. From 8pm to 6am, I was convinced that a bear was sneaking up on me to maul me to death (or steal my marshmallows). Each night got a little bit better but I never did sleep through the night and had terrible nightmares when I did finally pass out. 

Wait...wasn't I supposed to be talking about awesome things, not how much of a freak I am now about bears? 

So on to the cool things...

/My husband made me some of his amazing guacamole to eat for lunch/dinner one day. I was in an avocado lover's heaven\

/We stayed at a campground called Cooper's Creek and it definitely lived up to its hype for our black lab Cooper. PS...we may or may not have been swayed on staying there because of the name.\

 You can see the creek in the background on the right hand side of the photo. 

/Cooper is a very good and appreciative camper.\

 

/Our camping trips consist mostly of reading, drinking, playing games and letting our inner pyros out.\

/On Monday, we hiked up a little bit of the Appalachian Trail which was a first for me and it was so incredibly beautiful. I have to remember that not all the pretty mountains are in Colorado. Although most are. Also, I get to cross this off of my 52 in 2013 list.\

 

/Guys....fall's coming. And isn't nature so cool.\

 

I hope you guys had a great labor day weekend and are pretty much recovered from whatever mischief you found yourself in. 

 

 

Linking up with Sami for some Shenanigans. 

PS....I'm embarassared to say how many shots it took to get this pic and now looking at it....I don't look all strong and awesome, just awkward and constipated. 

 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Marathon Monday (on a Tuesday) - 4th Edition

I think this dog enjoys mocking me sometimes. I mean...I am supposed to be shaming him and he acts all bored and yawns. 

He's all like 'whatevs Mom. I'll vomit all over your favorite yoga pants and then proceed to rub it into the mattress because I do what I want.'

Well besides cleaning up puppy vomit, I spent the day doing chores because we have been little piggies lately and this place needs a deep cleaning. I was *almost* half way done and then that little guy set me back a few hours with his added mess (by the way...that mound of laundry in the background was what was on the bed that I washed today and was trying to put away).

Have I talked about vomit enough for you yet? Yeah? Good. Let's move on. 

I haven't done any sort of marathon training update in a bit, so I thought that I would fill you in on where I am at with my training, how it is going and whether or not I have pooped myself yet on a long run (hint: I haven't). 

Last week was an 'easy' week meaning that I had four runs total and they were 4, 7, 3.5 and 11 miles in length. Every few weeks is considered an 'easy' week on our plan. Basically the long run for that week is a few miles less than the previous weeks so your body can do a little bit of recovery. In other words, three weeks ago my long run was 13 miles, two weeks ago it was 15 miles, last week it was 11 miles and this upcoming week's long run is 16 miles.

This week is week 8 of the 17 week training plan. I have only missed one run (I think) that I didn't make up the next day so on that front, I am doing WAY better than the last marathon training plan. I think only running four days a week is perfect for me. Giving myself three non-running days a week really makes me happy and seems to push me to actually get out and run. Knowing that once I run I get the next off is a lovely and motivating thought. 

My running time is getting a bit better thanks to the cooler temperatures. I had a few long runs a month ago where I ended up at a 13:00 minute mile pace due to lots of walking and water drinking, but with my 8 mile and 11 mile long run last week where it was 70 degrees out when I ran, I averaged a 10:30 mile. I am curious to see how the 16 mile long run goes this week. I don't expect a 10:30 pace, but am shooting for an 11:30. 

On the weight loss front, I have been hovering between 149 and 150 lbs still. I've been around this for about three weeks now and haven't really noticed any changes in my body. I did get into a bad habit of eating way too much for about two weeks when I was PMSing, so this week I am working on fueling my body, but trying to not overeat. I have set a goal of trying to get to 145 pounds by September 26th (our 4 year wedding anniversary). Hopefully with eating better and this increased mileage, I can get through this weight loss plateau with a healthy 1 pound a week loss.

Also, something that I need to work on is drinking a lot more water. I did great for a few weeks and was consuming over 100 ounces a day, but with the poor eating habits came poor water consumption. I didn't drink enough water yesterday on my 11 mile run and got so insanely dehydrated afterwards. I had to work at one of the boutiques I sell at and actually ended up vomiting (a green smoothie no less!) while working because I had such a bad dehydration headache/nausea. Drink your water kids!!

And that's the last time I talk about vomit in this blog post. Promise!!

I am getting back on track though and am right around 70 ounces for the day. I have to chug some water soon to help me reach my daily quota!

Can I just interject and say that I am so happy that I work from home because when you drink so much water, I love just being able to walk 10 feet to pee. How do you office workers do it? Does everyone just think you have a bladder infection or something? I would be so self-conscious about it and imagine that I would always talk about how much water I drink to my co-workers so they didn't think I was ill or something. 

Back to running...

This week I am running 4 miles on Wednesday, 7 miles on Thursday, 4 miles on Friday, resting on Saturday with my long run of 16 miles being on Sunday. My long runs are usually on Saturday but I didn't do last week's long run until yesterday due to traveling so I am slowly moving my schedule around to get back to Saturday runs.

Along with that running schedule, I plan on adding strength training to my schedule twice this week on my 4 mile run days. I love the Jillian Michaels DVD, 'No More Trouble Zones' and will be doing that 45 minute DVD both days. I am hoping to get a little bit of muscle definition going and if I can handle the two times a week strength training sessions, I am going to add a third one in on one of my rest days. 

So .... that's about it! I was thinking about doing a blog post in a week or two about what I am eating during this training period as a vegan. Just in case you were interested in how the heck I get my calories.

By the way, sorry for the lack of photos in this post. I look pretty bad whenever I am done running, so those sorts of photographs don't happen often, but here is a random photo of me in running clothes with my husband and mother-in-law at the end of June. 

 Kind of related to the post right? 

Have a great night everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Oh hey...

Oh hey....

how's it going?

Good? Good.

Didn't mean to step away from blogging last week but I didn't make my usual weekly schedule and it threw me all out of sorts. I still haven't made a weekly schedule for this week, but I plan on doing it first thing in the morning (pinkie swear husband) so hopefully this week is a little more productive and less chaotic than last week.

No real direction for this post, just a general sort of updates post with terrible transitions.

TRANSITION!

Last week I received an unexpected care package from my lovely sister-in-law. I am absolutely digging this new trend of people mailing me random gifts. Please continue this!!

I got some sweet pictures from my niece and nephew, Trader Joe's 'Just Mango' fruit slices (so delicious), beauty samples she had hanging out in her house, some fabric she thought I would like and an adorable running skirt.

Seriously...how cool is she? I am actually eating the last bit of those mango slices right now and you all need to go get yourselves some asap.

Also on Friday, I got another care package from my mom (well....it was mostly for my husband) but it included a box of wine (she knows how much I love myself some boxed wine) and some chocolates for me.

I ate all four pieces of chocolate in the time that it took me to find my camera and take a photo.

I inhaled it.

TRANSITION!

Thursday we headed back to Savannah for the weekend. Man oh man....did we miss it.

Friday I had a business meeting in my favorite place in the world.

Can I just go ahead and live in a yarn store now?

My husband and I like to play a game called, 'when we have money' and my future is always revolving around owning/working at/sleeping in a yarn store.

After my business meeting we went to the mall to buy my husband a new suit.

Did he need a new suit? No.

He has four perfectly good suits at home.

But during the packing of his clothes for this trip, he needed to bring along a suit for a fancy cocktail dinner on Saturday with the law firm he worked at over the summer.

He grabbed from his closet his pinstripe navy blue dress pants, his brown tweed wool dress pants and a different shade of navy blue sports coat.

Once we were unloading the car in Savannah at 11pm on Thursday we noticed the mistake and that he would look quite ridiculous in any combination of the three things, so we were faced with the dilemma of a 9 hour car ride or spending $160 on a new suit.

So we got to spend Friday doing his favorite activity ever (HUGE SARCASM) and buy him a new suit.

TRANSITION!

Saturday I did my hair for the first time since March. Meaning I spent 45 minutes blow drying and straightening it. Hair is so much work!

Since we had that fancy cocktail party to go to that evening, I didn't just want to throw my hair up in its usual ponytail. I wanted to look all pretty and grown-up.

We arrived at the cocktail party looking all fine but I was soon agast to learn that we were spending the entire evening outside.

OUTSIDE!! In 95% humidity.

My hair quickly went from sexy and sleek to this....

TRANSITION!

Last night we spontaneosly decided to go see some live music and we were rewarded with seeing the best concert of our lives from a band we had never heard of before.

Sorry Backstreet Boys concert from 2000. You've been replaced in my heart.

The group was 'Band of Heathens' and the two main guys from the band were giving an acoustic performance last night and it was so good. Their voices were incredible and the song writing was top notch.

Here's a little taste...

The opening act was amazing too. The bass player was the absolute most happy guy that I have ever seen on the planet and watching him dance around and have fun was so contagious. John and I both had smiles on our faces after watching them for a half dozen songs.

TRANSITION!

Today we got our AC fixed. We actually haven't had AC all summer long and while it wasn't fun, we looked at it like an opportunity to cut our summer electricity bill a bit (glass half full kind of folks).

We had ceiling fans and one little fan we moved from room to room (a little white trashy we know) so we weren't too bad, but it was always around 82 degrees in our place.

We finally asked to get it fixed yesterday after coming back from our weekend away and being hit by the sticky heat of our home. The AC guy came today while I was out for my long run and I can't tell you how pleasant it was to come back home from an 11 mile run and to be greeted by a wave of cool air.

The AC confused my body though because I got all chilly while getting ready for work (it was set at 67!) so I left the house in jeans, a sweater and a hat and then looked like the fool walking around Atlanta when it was 80 degrees out.

TRANSITION!

Today was John's last first day of law school. Only one more year to go!

I bet it is going to go by incredibly fast.

Well....for me I guess since I don't have to do any work. Probably not so much for him.

That's about all the updates I have here. Linking up with Sami for her weekend shenanigan's.

Have a great night everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~