Sugar & Spice and everything ~Rita~

Changes in a Weekend.

2011-09-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

hey hey, the fall season is officially in the air here in raleigh-it was freezing this weekend. i already got out my heated blanket and down blanket, so i have a good 5 layers on my bed at night now:)
football season is starting strong- went to the ncsu v. south alabama game with some roomies saturday night. kristin's family has the coolest tailgate spot and some sweet seats-so that was a real fun game!(although rainy & wet & cold)

went to bug-fest downtown

ate some bugs. no bid deal. haha actually i couldnt do it- im prettysure it's against my pescatarianism therefore i was justified in not participating:)

me & Melissa being hipster:

my 2 old wonderful roomies came to hang out with me sat night too after the game (jordane and rachel, sister) we always have fun. really they just make fun of me while i beat up on them..so it's great fun!!! but rachel had to go and get married, so it was a bit of a challenge to be roomies. haha just kidding, i love my bro Jon!

Long run Sunday AM with some teammates put a limp in my step the rest of the day..haha but that didnt stop me from supporting my team at the Mag Mile downtown (it was also a block away from church...so that was pretty convenient) everyone raced so fast- im so proud of everyone!! and a little sad i wasnt running..
but me and meghan had raced friday evening at the adidas xc 5k with a bunch of collegiate teams, so we had our fun!
my dad biked down to the race, it was his 60th birthday!! looks great right?!

after some time studying for the LSAT (which is in 2 weekends-pray for me!!!!!) and talking with Emily, we got ourselves ready to go to see Leagues and Mat Kearney at cat's cradle! and what a great concert!

my roomies Shelby & Jill were there too! and we stood up front with Jane & Austin!!oh- and a bunch of drunk old women who were funny but obnoxiously intoxicated.

highlight: mat threw his guitar pick at me at the end of the show. at first i was like, what?! did he just throw something at me! haha and then i saw what it was.. guess it was okay:)

all-in-all, it was a fun weekend, im blessed with great friends and family and serve a great God!

Last First Day

2011-08-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

school started today: no more sweet summer, no more nights of no homework and tests, no more riding the bike around raleigh at crazy hours, no more spontaneous adventures with andrew, no more ice cream...wait a minute, who am i kidding. im still doing all that plus more here in my last semester at the good ole ncsu.
Watermelon Festival with the team was so much fun, except the race started at 10:30 and the heat index was like 110 degrees already.

Meghan won for the women and she was called up on stage in between the 5 yr old girls' beauty pageant and the boys' cowboy pageant

we went to a wine tasting event at Vineyard Vines at Southpoint. interesting experience because it was me and andrew (2 college kids) and a bunch of old adults who were trying to be high-class wine snobs. atleast, that's the vibe that i got.

and there was a sweet bathtub in their bathroom...im sure it's normal for people to take a picture of a public bathroom right?

and the last week before school started, i was invited to go on family vacation with the Vanovers in Key Largo, FL for a week! so ill just show some highlights.
Florida was infested with iguanas! no lie, they were everywhere and i was scared.

i had also made the mistake of watching shark week ALL WEEK long before we left for our adventure to the beach, so needless to say, i was a little scared about getting my feet in the water. so i tried not to. except the pool in our back yard, i knew that one was safe! well safe because i had this guy beside my side the entire trip!

went para-sailing/ yup thats us way up there, 1000 foot rope!

went to Key West to watch the sun set

hung out with this kid and his camera

we had to find a beach with sand because the keys have no sandy beaches ironically...so we rented a boat and ventured out to a sand bar where i found this little guy. (dont be fooled, i was forced into holding him)

Amy (andrews' sister) had her 25th birthday! (and that's her newly wedded husband, David)

went to the Everglades! this was one of my favorites because there were crocodiles and alligators everywhere!

this alligator handler was crazy

but then we got to hold the babies! so cute right. mom said i could keep him

and this guy was "real" as in in the wild and not behind a fence!

crazy to think that i feel so much more protected behind a line of fencing from all these guys....hmmmm

went to Miami Beach one day...but the weather was not cooperating. so we were sad. they kicked everyone off the beach- note the sadness in our faces.

but it cleared up in 20 minutes and we all got to play out there in the shark infested water...so much fun.
-the storm coming in:

and my favorite pic of the trip:

andrew has a bunch more pictures. but those were my phone ones.
hope everyone is having a great day. im just having fun making friends with my professors and watching all the wide eye freshmen with their campus maps and wide eyes.

All in a Blurr

2011-07-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

Carly & Buddy are officially married now:) and it was so so nice to have all of my best friends around to celebrate the night too!

i love love hanging with all of these people-such a fun wedding group!!!

me and andrew were obviously having some issues...

but we quickly resolved them:)

because...we had the awesomest place to stay in greensboro!- The Proximity Hotel! which the bride and groom spent the night there too before flying out for their honeymoon in costa rica..haha and Carly was dead serious when she said she wanted all of us to come by her and Buddy's room...not gonna happen!

Kathryn & Joel stayed with us and we had a blast! But the reason we stayed here is because my aunt invited me to a cooking class at Lucky 32, and i agreed because really good free food was involved(no brainer). anyways i sit with Rachel and we are just talking the whole time and eating whatever goodness the chef is making and finally we get to the end of the class and he says "raffle", i perk up. and i won the grand prize! woot woot a nights stay at the proximity and $60 food votures for the restaurant in the hotel and Lucky 32 in Greensboro.
Oh here we are living it up. just pretending we're rich and we do this all the time.

needless to say, we all dined and slept pretty well after the wedding:)

fast forward to the next weekend------>
Mountains! Blowing Rock to be exact. Girls Weekend with some old and new friends.

we had a lot of fun, but the thing i absolutely loved was floating down the river on a air mattress. yup best idea ive ever had. you dont get wet, no snakes,fish,perannahs, sharks, etc will get you AND you dont get hurt when you bump into a rock. i know im a genius-feel free to get urself a $10 air mattress from walmart and do the same.

and then Emily & Smathers dropped me off in Lenoir Sunday AM so i could help mom & pop & uncle david with the Lenoir properties.
ps: it's never a good mountain trip in NC mountains unless you go here:!!!! (probably my favorite place in NC..i grew up here)

so a big part of my summer is being an intern! i absolutely love my internship this summer with the government. and i love getting to hang out with some new co-workers too!

but eric had his last day today so the whole office threw him a party and we prettymuch cried:( he is going off to police academy.

ill write about that later, im actually not sure how much im allowed to say about it...

so anyways- guess what?? another wedding!!
Gessica & Stephen had their "couples shower" and they were just too cute:)

the girls chatted in one corner while the guys played games on their iphones...silly boys.

but we all had fun!

Other than that, getting ready for the Watermelon Festival (in murphesborough i think?) with the RRO team this weekend AND only 1 more week at my internship and then Family Vacation to the Florida Keys with Andrew's family!!!! im only a little bit excited:)

Time Flys.

2011-07-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

So it's already July, kinda skipped out on those June posts..oops.
well ill kinda give you a flash update with pics because i like pictures.
after getting back from colorado, i got to start my fun two jobs that i love love love.
it's with the government, and thats all i can say. but what i really love is getting to meet friends and Andrew for lunch dates everyday downtown! this is at the Wilmore Cafe, we've been there a few times for our devo/coffee lunch dates.

he brought me flowers to work too! "Just Because" and everyone at work was pretty jealous and really wanted a boyfriend like mine because they all made sure that i knew that:)

i got to attend a cooking class at Lucky 32 in Cary with my aunt, mom, and Rachel.
i really didnt pay much attention the the head chef because me and Rachel needed to catch up, but his cooking was amazing!

AND even though i didnt listen to the boring cooking stuff, i sure did perk up when they were calling out the raffle prizes, and it's a good thing because i won the grand prize! woot woot, it's a night stay at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro at $60 food gift card. http://www.proximityhotel.com/
and one of my good friends Carly is getting married in 2 weekends in Greensboro so me and andrew and joel and kathryn are going to stay there for the night of the wedding! it's such a sick hotel! so sweet in fact, that the bride and groom are staying there that night too! haha.

Andrew also surprised me with a "Sushi Picnic" after church one sunday in the Rose Garden, one of my favorite places.

Been to some great places downtown with some great friends:)

i got to run for work the other week for special olympics! i know who does that? our office was "carrying" the torch from Wendell to the Wake County line to pass it to the Raleigh PD. it was a good 10 miles or so. had a great time getting to know some of the local highway patrolmen and attorneys in my office.

and this is one of my friends at the office, Ashley, she is an intern there and she's been there for a good year now.

done a few races too. this is from the Running of the Bulls 10k in Durham. it was a good race, but real hot and hilly, so that was no fun.

we have the Watermelon Festival coming up in late July! Our team gets real excited about festivals with races, they're the best! We've already run the pickle festival, blueberry festival and i think there was another.
but with summer, always come weddings!
Amy's wedding (Andrew's sister) was beautiful, it was a Providence, her and David (her new husband) their home church in raleigh.

she was beautiful and they are perfect for each other:)
me and my (hott) date:

and my best friend Megan got married last weekend too! i was so excited to be a part of her big day. it was a super-fun and southern wedding with a beautiful couple.
Bachelorette night:

Getting our nails did:

rehearsal dinner:

the bridesmaids in blue:

the beautiful bride to be:

first dance!

it was such a fun night and i am so happy for megan & michael!

Been hanging out with my girls that are here in Raleigh a lot. i love our little girls' night get-togethers, we always have fun no matter what we are doing.

oh and my new obsession is Whole Foods pizza, because you can call ahead and pick it up whenever you want it and it's all organic and it's decently cheap and it's filling and it's sooooo good!
i got abbey addicted too:)

went to the beach (figure 8 island) for july 4th with some great friends! it was fun to chill on the beach even though i hate nothing more than going out into the ocean. (the sharks are always there learking in the dark..thank you Jaws for teaching me this)
oh and it's shark week in 2 weeks, who else is pumped??!!

we got to watch the pretty private firework show from the dock for the island!

summer has been fun & real busy so far, cant wait to have more fun this 2nd half!
ill try to keep it updated a little more, no worries:)

Endless Horizons

2011-05-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tuesday am we all decided to head up to pikes peak-we all got in our cars and headed an hour toward the mountain..once we got to the entrance and noticed the fee per person was ridiculous, the most southernest old man told us that the mnt. was closed to the public on a count of too much snow and ice...WHAT?! so our other family decided we should go to the "Royal Gorge" in Canon City, which is a good 80 miles away from where we were-
so ofcourse me and rachel downed a red bull, because i dont know if anyone else sees this as a problem, but we only have only had a chance to get coffee in the morning when we wake up-and thats all, no 5:00 oclock pick me ups. so we had to resort to this:

we were quite excited for that car ride. dad was not a happy camper..haha
so we arrived at this royal gorge and it was huge! but we had to pay like $25 per person just to get in..dumb.

the gorge was pretty cool to walk across on the bridge, dad got real scared-even though he designs bridges for a living...ironic??.. anyways we took this cable car back across the gorge with like 30 people in it. it didnt feel safe. this was the view.

but there were some cool animals there

and plants

and we went down into the gorge on the rickety elevator thing- it was neat though to go down that far

once we got back to the rental house we made dinner and watched "Dispicable Me" in the theater.
when we got up the next morning, it was hailing! yikes. heres our roof

so we were supposed to watch Darrell in a parade in the am, but it got canceled after we got to the campus. so he toured us around the campus, which had a really nice chapel-

later that night, Darrell had his official commissioning ceremony on campus.
Darrell being sworn in:

and they ran out of champagne glasses, (sparkling grape juice) so rachel and jon improvised:

Anyways: Darrell is officially a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Air Force!
our family with the graduate:

the next morning: wedensday is graduation day; apparently the whole town of colorado springs comes to this graduation since it's in the academy stadium and open to the general public.
it was cold in those bleachers!

but me and rachel spotted this cute little shepherd police doggie

the ceremony was really nice- over 1000 graduates, so it def took some time to get through them all.

then our family ventured to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.

i figured out i want to live in this training center- now i just gotta get good at something...is fixie biking a sport? but we did see the athletes walking around the center and our tour led us to watch them work out, it was real cool! but obviously you couldn't take pictures of the athletes, they said it might distract them. by the time we arrived back home, the Strovers family had made a steak & veggie dinner(& a fish option for me!). then i ran some hill repeats (the only type of running to do here in Colorado Springs because its so hilly) and then we had "family time" in the pool.

tomorrow: plan is to hang out in denver and do some hiking and biking- our family loves that kind of stuff-and hopefully i can sneak in a longer run around the flatter city once again!

plus/minus

2011-05-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

and this is our view from the house..that white mountain is pike's peak! apparently they are getting 1-5 inches of snow tonight! but it's mid 70s where we are, so that's pretty nice!
i figured out some of my pluses & minuses for living in CO:
Pro:
-garmin picks up satellite signal real quick
-beautiful scenery
-everyone bikes
-low humidity
-everyone has subareas!
Con:
-Everyone also mo-peds (cept u don't have to wear helment)
-Windy, huge tailwinds
-elevation takes a while to get used to, aka bloody noses!

we went to church at Darell's (my cousin who is graduating from the air force academy) local church that he attends here: Woodmen valley chapel
it was real contemporary and the message was good, i enjoyed the music too!
then our family and the strovers went to eat lunch and then to the "Garden of the gods"

there were people climbing on the rock faces, and it looked reallllllly scary.

BUT i know if andrew were here, he'd be all over those rocks/mountains!
oh and this is called the "kissing camels" haha pretty cool right.

then we headed to REI and got some grocerys and came back to the house to play on the trampoline and swim in the indoor pool.
it's pretty obvious that me and rachel never had a trampoline growing up...:) we (and jon too) jumped for a solid hour

jon getting mad air! (he used to be a skateboarder..)

welp: that was our monday and now half of us are chilling watching a movie in the theater in the house (i know, it's ridiculously nice) and im chilling on the couch. tomorrow we're going to tour the olympic training center! im real pumped to see this!
i think my pro side wins for Colorado, atleast for the denver area, so what im really saying is that if i ever had to live here, i suppose i could:)

Worlds Apart

2011-05-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

This past monday, me and andrew took the long drive up to new york and stayed in long island a few days with his cousin. andrew was there for "business" and i was just along for the ride, but i really had fun in the big city and even riding in the car!
While andrew was doing his business stuff,i hung out with tom, and he showed me around some cool places

other than that, i just hung out..and ofcourse found my coffee:)

and off to the other side of the country is the beautiful state of colorado.
even flying in i loved the view. it's worlds apart from the big apple- bc in the city, there is NO grass except for in central park...kinda depressing.

since we flew into denver, we decided to hang out here for the day.

the city was real cool, i would love to live here: lots of bikes (fixies) and the stereotypical rei/outdoorsy folks and lots of organic places! so my kind of place

rachel and jon went into the denver zoo and saw all the elephants and polar bears and monkey and peacocks and all the others! they said it was real cool, and mom and pop took a walk around this huge park surrounding the zoo while i took a run, i ran to the heart of the downtown area and back thru some neighborhoods. there are some sweet houses near downtown, and the altitude didnt seem to affect me because my run felt great! then we all met back up after 2 hours and went to our cousins house in downtown denver. they made salmon, turkey, and portabello mushroom bugers for us! it was really nice of them and they have an awesome modern/urban house. we headed for colorado springs at 10:00ish our time, so 12:00ish raleigh time. got to our huge rental house and just passed out.

EGGS

2011-04-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

Easter Break was so fun, I enjoy spending time with the people i love.
things i love most about easter:
colorful things
sundresses
deviled eggs
remembering Jesus' resurrection (although we should keep this in mind daily)
family time
seeing everyone at church
sunshine
family easter egg hunt (with money ofcourse)
and im reminded that school is almost out for the summer!

I also got to witness my good friend Austin Simmons get baptized at Providence Baptist church on Easter Sunday morning. What a praise!

and then me and andrew raced over to Vintage's service, which was held at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium where all the campuses came together as one! it was such a great service, with so many good songs and teachings from Pastor Tyler. i am so thankful to be a part of vintage 21

then me and andrew had a brunch at humble pie, which is such a good brunch place downtown. we had a good time talking and enjoying the beautiful weather!

BUT now it's back to fun school and "Dead Week" is already here, which really means "this is the worst week of my life" SO: ill be writing papers and stuff all week long, yay.

Boston

2011-04-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Meghan, Jenn, Rachel, & me: we arrived Saturday mid-morning at the Logan airport just in time to get Laurel from her flight in from Richmond. Meghan's parents dropped us off at Fanueil Hall for lunch and to tour the city. We talked to a bunch of people from everywhere around the country, Canada, Great Britain, and all over the USA. Me and Rach had the "Clam Chowdah", and it was soooo good.

then we found some other teammates, sean, dave, and their wives and found Ben Franklin's grave! oh and John Hancock.

Went to the Expo, which was really cool because me and rach just went around talking to the sam addams people and nike and cliff bar, & Gu people and getting free samples...haha rachel is obsessed with those Gu Chomps..haha she wants them for work. but there were SO MANY people in the city this whole weekend, so from being in the city that saturday, me and rach kinda hated the city, also we hate the cold! we decided to NEVER live up north too:)

Meghan's family picked us up from the subway station around 5
(we really liked riding the "T" subway!)

so we headed back to her house in Reading, MA to where Mr. & Mrs. Hegarty had a feast prepared, like catered and all! and a large part of their family was there to eat with us too, so it was really funny to hear all of the Boston accents, i seriously could not stop laughing, and ofcourse they thought we were saying words weird too! haha it was fun to stay up and talk and laugh with all of them.

Sunday AM we got up when we wanted, so for everyone else, it was like 8:00, but me and rach made sure to sleep in a little, so 10:30 we got up. team did a short easy run to kick out the lactic acid and stretch (which i never stretch, so why start now??) went into the city to meet Kirby and my other friend, Melissa, who just happened to be visiting the city this weekend! it was fun to catch up and get coffee with her!

Our team ALWAYS eats pizza the night before a big race, so: we got pizza and chilled at Meghan's house and laughed and told stories. went to bed about 10:30, but i couldnt get to sleep until like 12:30 because im not used to going to be so early! geeeez
Alarm sounded @ 5:00 which is kinda crazy that we had to get up so early for a 10:20 race start! i know crazy right?! but we made it to the buses, and it was so so crowded. theres nothing like seeing a thousand bright yellow buses lined up along the streets.

After the 40 minute bus ride to the start, we just chilled in a huge grassy area with the other 25,000+ runners.. and waited and put icy hot and vaseline all over our selves.
This crew went in the first wave, the 10:00 wave!

and then me and meghan and jenn and dave were in the 10:20 wave, which i barely made my corral and had to run like a mile to get there within 30 seconds of them sounding the gun! talk about stressful!
I went out way too fast, because first off: i was trying to pass people because i just hate running behind people and so close to people, it was frustrating. but i also hate running behind people, so if i have sight of someone in front of me, i will try to pass them unconsciously. But: you can check out my race report if you really care about the race logistics. Raleigh Running
The tired but excited runners!

The best sideline cheerleader ever!!!

Rachel is training up for her marathon i see & i am hating marathons at the moment:)

When i got back to the airport, Andrew surprised me with flowers and picked me up!

When I got back Jon had done this to my car!

He's so talented, it even has the full race course! maybe he should decorate cars for a living??

ALL-IN-ALL it was a great trip to Boston with the RRO team and family!~
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful texts and calls and messages!!!

Times They Are A Changing.

2011-04-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

So two of my dear friends are both getting married this summer! yikes!! but weve had the funnest lingerie showers for the both of them

The Beautiful Megan in the middle:)

and the Beautiful Carly with all of her lingerie:)

me and Mary thought this was funny, i mean a super classy rich neighborhood and then you have a bra in a wreath. so great.

Girls at the beach for Paige's 22nd birthday! although, i did end up getting a rash on my feet, which is No. 1 really odd and No.2 really nasty looking!

and Andrew was the token boy with all of us girls....haha but we all got real burnt that day. it was the perfect beach weather forsure!

OH and i found my engagement ring for the lucky guy who wants to think about marrying me:) haha way kidding, but i mean, i think i could rock that on an everyday basis, dont you??

not by Choice, but by Chance

2011-04-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

and by that i mean i finally got my garmin watch:)!!! i've always wanted one real bad, but not bad enough to shell out 200+ bucks for it ya know...so it was kinda decided for me today when i was handed one!! how was it handed to me? well... i ran in the cary road race 10k this AM and i ended up beating all the other female racers, so i got this as a prize! but it's so sweet because it's gps and itll tell me my pace and distance and even heart rate if i get the strap. (runners tend to care about this stuff)

so im real pumped to get out there and use it, but i will refrain from doing another run today..and go in the AM!

NCAJ

2011-04-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

The North Carolina Advocates For Justice is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association dedicated to protecting people's rights through professional and community legal education, championing individual rights, and protecting the safety of North Carolina's families -- in the workplace, in the home, and in the environment.

I've interned for the North Carolina Advocates for Justice for about 9 months now, and next week is my last. Bittersweet because i love all the people and the advocacy and legislature work but i need to move on to other opportunities in the legal arena. But my two advisers, Liz and Andrea, have been so good to me. they always make me feel appreciated and worthwhile, even though im the little intern for the office. This internship is really the place where i initially decided that i was interested in law school and prettymuch things NOT involving forensics (even though i still have my minor in forensic science). Since NCAJ's member base is over 4,000 lawyers and paralegals, it was pretty easy to find others who could tell me about the things they love about law and being a lawyer in NC. but i've been able to do a variety of things for NCAJ and ive learned a whole bunch about being a lawyer, and i suppose that is a good thing.

Jury Duty

2011-04-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ok, so not "real" jury duty, but close. everything was the same with the small exception that the case is not a real case and the outcome has no affect on society. but other than that yeah, it's totally real:) This mock trial was held at Campbell Law school on this beautiful friday afternoon where other L1 law students had to be part of the jury too, but they had to be there, i was there voluntary (crazy i know). But my boss at North Carolina Advocates for Justice is head of North Carolina's Mock Trial Program so i figured i should probably participate, but i had a lot of fun. the other jury members were fun to get to know and i picked their brains at all of my law questions.

The case was a civil case involving a substitute bus driver who had dropped off two sisters on one side of a 6 lane road and they were expected to cross to the other side to get to their respective house. and the older girl was hit and killed by a suv coming the opposite direction...long story with many details and witnesses but i wont fill you in on all of those. The jury came to a deliberation based on the evidence presented, and i feel it was appropriate. i also got to be the foreman for the jury, so that was cool explaining our verdict to the judge. Needless to say, if you get the chance to participate in a mock trial, you should def do it. although i may have enjoyed it so much because i love law and trials and arguing my point and figuring out different angles.

and i was talking to one of the campbell law students, and he said i could have his 3 foot stack of LSAT prep study books that he wont ever look at again...so i suppose that's good although i would like to delay my studying for the LSAT for as long as possible...hmmm maybe i should wait til after boston...no after finals..that sounds good:)

And March is already gone..

2011-03-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

geeeeez. see ya March, that was short.
so after spring break, which i got to learn how to snowboard..and uh that was prob one of my more painful experiences, by far more worse than the 50k Coach Sean made me and Meghan do in January..but yeah: my knees were so swollen and bruised, but im not complaining, it was so fun and totally worth it! and Kathryn & Joel & Andrew are so much better at skiing and snowboarding that it's just real sad. but we had a lot of fun in the mountains!

Next up: Megan's Lingerie shower that Bee, Abbey, Kelley, and me threw for our lovely bride to be! The shower got me even more pumped to see her walk down the isle in June!! i cant wait!

i thought it would be a good idea to hang up everything she got on a laundry line across the room so you could see it all,..boy she got a lot of stuff..haha Michael will have fun...:)

The next morning, i got to get up at the crack of dawn, no really, it was 4:40 for a 7:00 race start out at the American tobacco trail. and i guess it was a good thing that we arrived so early because a few of the buses didnt make the start!
i wont bore you with the details of the race, but you can go to the Raleigh Running Team Page to get a full race report if you want.
but there's coach (me and meghan's pacer for the race) after the finish of the race with our little medals.

Spring Break '11

2011-03-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

My much awaited Spring Break is finally here! and after a week of literal hell, I finally got my break. Last week was awful, I got the NoroVirus on Sunday night and got to spend all of Monday in bed and throwing up. BUT, Andrew was there to take me to Student Health and I got some intense drugs that knocked me out. So: I felt a little better the next few days but unfortunately, I had a paper due and some mid-terms...therefore i got to study and write when not in class or at work. And I got the joy of babysitting two special kids all week, which included getting them ready in the AMs and to the bus stop and being there at night. but Andrew helped a little, this is Sebastian, and he's sooooo sweet. just really clingy.

The moment I had my final class and exam, I was thrilled beyond measure even for this week break. For the first part of the break, I worked at Sacrificial Spring Break with my church Vintage 21. My good friend Haley first organized and planned this event last spring break and we since all of the work we did was so well received, we couldnt help but expand and do it again this spring break!
Day 1: we deconstructed in a church in downtown, meaning we tore up a few layers of carpet and wood flooring and then preceded to nail all the nails out of the wood strips and then bundled these hundreds of wood planks. Long day

Day 2 & 3: was spent building a house from the foundation up! i've never seen this process being started either, so it was a learning experience for me; but these houses are through Habitat for Humanity and they are for single parent families or low income families with limited means or a lot of children with limited space. These houses are more than a hand out, they're a hand up for the families.
Our main tasks were to nail together the frames of the house and other random pieces and the level out the ground inside the foundation of the house for the inspector.

We also had a saltine challenge, and when i say we, i mean me and one other girl because i was real hungry and someone said you cant eat 6 saltine crackers in 1 minute. i didnt believe him---
but he ended up being correct... who knew.
My talented friend Austin Simmons and Andrew came out to the job sites to shoot some footage for the projects that everyone was on during the week, here's a glimpse:
http://vimeo.com/20890712

and now i am in the mountains with Andrew, Joel and my good friend Kathryn -->

We are straight chilling for the rest of the week. and it's snowing here on top of the mountain!!

big news

2011-02-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

my weeks have been blending together. spring semester is always so so busy. this is how i felt one day at 5 in the morning just studying in the dh.hill..
OH How I Love Schowlll; i feel much older now BECAUSE i found out that i get to graduate next semester! (like December 2011) yup i calculated my number of necessary credit hours to graduate and i only need 16 more! because im taking my internship class this summer, 4 credit hours, but you have to pair it with an internship involving my major...so criminology. and ill let you know what i end up doing for that...i have some job leads though, just waiting to hear back. and the other exciting thing is that i will have 12 free credit elective hours; therefore i could take Bee Keeping 101 if i wanted! or 12 PE classes! so well see how i use my time... hopefully wisely. but probably not, because well using my time wisely seems to not be my thing since im writing this in class. huh..atleast i realize the problem right?.

New Sponsors

2011-02-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Say What?! yup no more racing with "The Athlete's Foot", our team is now officially called: Raleigh Running Outfitters-Fast Coaching Academy (long winded right?)
each racer has a Bio page on the RRO website:
http://www.teamraleighrunning.com/
but our team blog is http://fastcoaching.blogspot.com/ which Meghan writes a majority of our race reports and other real interesting/useful/sometimes not so useful info on the other days. She's da best!
Other sponsors for this year include:

We're all real excited about the change thats been made and hope to keep racing hard this season. Really, we're just a group of runners that love to run. And we all get along, meaning we all tolerate Dave making fun of us and Sean making wise cracks and Meghan's crazy mother stories and ya know, ive known these people wayyyyyy to long now that i think about it:) & i love it!
i started running, yes like actually running, around senior year in highschool after i dislocated my knee. I meet Sean & Dave at a local run from a local store up on Ridge Road. Dont even remember why i went, but it was fun and i kept going back cause i kept getting faster. And i think one day sean asked if i wanted to run with a team he was starting with another local running store, & that was like 3 years ago and here we are! plus about 30 wonderful people & teammates and numerous runners within the community! I absolutely love talking to gunuine runners. They are so unique and quirky, just like everyone in our running team...crazy would also be an accurate description:)

This guy

2011-02-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

So there's this guy...Andrew. he's pretty neat

we started dating in late December, so i guess i havent really dated him too long, but i have seriously loved every moment we've spent together.
when he first asked me to be his girlfriend, he took me to our "Secret Spot" and tried to ask me through the cans with a string connecting them. Yup, that didnt work, but its the thought that counts right?! haha

We have done A LOT of fun things together over the last 2 months, I mean how could i expect less, it's Andrew?!
We went downtown for New Years and watched the acorn drop

he makes a lot of nice dinners for me, cause well im real lazy when it comes to cooking and i would rather just eat than take the time to cook..haha but im real good at making salads! AND Andrew has tweeked his diet a little bit for me, since im a pescatarian and all. He just loves eating fish and vegetables all the time:)

and i made him fish tacos last night, yup: first real meal i made for him!
He took me on a fancy date to the Angus Barn one night, i think he was craving a steak or something.. it was soooo good

Went to my good friend Rachel Mercers wedding, now Rachel Roberson:)

OK, but my favorite date by far (not that i dont love them all) has been LION KING!
Somehow, Andrew got front row tickets, for the student price... yup he's good at talking with people and then Mike from the running team hooked us up with VIP parking! so we literally parked and walked 10 steps and were at the DPAK, it was so nice. AND we went to Mellow Mushroom, which if you know me, is by far one of my favorite places to eat! The show itself was hands-down the best performance ive ever seen, the costumes were crazy and creative and the singing was outstanding! Simba was my favorite, a little 8 year old boy!

Went to a hurricanes game with my roomie, and they won in overtime! AND there was like 5 fights!

and, the other day i was real stressed cause school work and other things..and he came by my house and blindfolded me, put me in the jeep and he got me some sunflowers (one of my favorites!) and goodberrys ice cream (my definite favorite!) the flavor of the day was mocha, which made the day even more better!

Then Valentines Day came around and i told andrew that i had to get up at 6:00 to run and go to work and so he woke his little butt up at 5:30 and came over to wake me up! We were both real busy valentines day, so it was good i got to see him even if i did just wake up and my hair was crazy
and he didnt just BUY me flowers, he MADE me a flower! Who does that?! i love this thing!

Although, i think one of my favorite things we do together is read and study Proverbs. God is showing us a lot and i really like being able to grow with Andrew in that way.

So this only covers like 1/4 of all the great things he does for me
Every girl should have an Andrew. but not mine, sorry:)

Why Hot?

2011-02-15T13:12:00.001-08:00

Hot yoga has taken a huge hype recently. Specifically, the Bikram yoga creates either a strong love or a big opposition from those that practice. It challenges the body and mind simultaneously, all within a 90 minute period. There is a 26 posture standing and floor routine, holding each posture twice.

Why is it called hot yoga? Well, it’s not because the positions are “hott” per say, it’s because it is 105 degrees in the studio room. The intense heat allows the yogi to soften the body fairly quickly in order to increase flexibility. Since the air is so thick and moist, it increases the rate of perspiration exponentially.
Duration: 90 minutes
beginners and advanced yogis are welcome. Even the most experienced yogis can focus on deeping the connection with your spirit, mind, and body.
I personally love the feeling of dripping sweat because it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. It’s also great for stretching my stiff running muscles out every week and giving my body a chance to focus on other parts rather than my intense quads☺
Just make sure you bring some H2O to replenish those lost fluids.
BUT I have to be careful after the yoga session because if I go to class right after, I have “yoga head” where you just sit there mindlessly and space out…not too good when your professor asks you questions.

Christmas anyone?!

2010-12-18T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well, Tgiving is over and Christmas is right around the corner! This is by-far my most favorite time of the year. I love having a break from the heckteckness of school, work, commitments, and just life. Finals are finally over, and i did a lot better than i was expecting in all of my classes, guess my professors really liked me this semester. haha just kidding, studying helps too.

My good friend Rachel Mercer is about to get married! so we had her lingerie shower the other night. It was so fun & eye-opening. There were a lot of married women there that loved letting all of us younger girls what married life is all about...and after that chat, i guess i cant wait to be married:)

My Bible Study girls met at Caribou Coffee one morning for our end of the year party and fun. We played dirty santa: meaning you can steal each others gifts. I dont know how i feel about this game, i mean it could turn out good but then again you could lose what you really want! Good thing i got what i wanted; Courtney had made the cutest most vintage earring holder. She painted a shutter with a cute knob on it and i put it up in my room and i love love it:) I just love my Bstudy!

Raced a lot this past month, and now i get a 2 week break. no worries, our next big race is 1-8-11, the Frosty 50k. Coach talked me into it: i've never really wanted to do anything over 26.2, but what can i say: im a pushover...
CrossCountry Nationals was held in Charlotte last weekend, it was CRAZY competitive! as it should be: but still, the field was so fast.

But TAF was well represented. Laurel came from Richmond to race with us too!

Plans over the break:
Family time (haha i love how i have to schedule this)
Running
Work at Ten-Thousand Villages
YMCA
Hot Yoga
read a book
daily God time
finish season 2 of Dexter
write Christmas letters
buy presents for family
hang out with highschool people
play in the snow with Beo!!!

It's almost HERE!

2010-11-17T07:30:00.000-08:00

T-Giving ofcourse! the only day where no one really care how much you eat, actually, no one really ever cares about how much i eat, so nevermind. haha,guess it's justifiable in my mind. Our house already put up Christmas lights everywhere in our house and our pretty tree, a little early, yes, but i just love Christmas things.
Been keeping busy with school & work & running & Crusade & just hanging out
but i love it! i love college.
Ran the Wilmington half the other weekend with Gavin, Meghan, Alli, Tim, Rusty, and others. Good race, but me and Meghan went into it without any goals, we knew we were still a little tired from Steamtown. but we still finished real well, Gavin was 2nd overall, Meghan was top 5 and i finished top 10, so i guess that was good considering we weren't really trying. Alli also ran so fast in her 1st half, under 1:50!

Next weekend was the Old Reliable 10k, Laura Berry won it for the females! she used to be in youth group with me at Forest Hills Baptist Church, and she just rejoined the TAF team this past month and is such a great addition to the team!

Went to the Matt Costa concert in Carrboro last Thursday, but not before meeting up with Mary Catherine to chat at Open Eye Cafe (my favorite coffee shop!)

Jill had here fabulous 21st birthday this past Tuesday, so some of the roommies celebrated at 518 West. and while we were sitting at dinner, this huge charter bus drives up to the valet, and out steps the entire Clemson Men's Socccer team, alright:)

NCSU played Wake Forest this past weekend, actually they crushed them! but it was fun to watch. Im actually visiting Wake Forest Law school next Monday, not that i will ever be smart enough or have enough money to attend such a prestigious school. BUT, it'll be good to get some information and meet some people. i really like their campus.

me and Rebecca went to a "Conversation on the Constitution" at Campbell Law School on Monday and that was very interesting to me because they were speaking about human rights and the trafficking problem, esp here in North Carolina. I have a really good friend that counsels trafficked victims so since becoming close with her, i have become much more aware of the issue and have done a lot of research on the problem and what we are doing socially (which is a very time-intensive process)

Happy November! Bye October.

2010-11-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

I really liked October, if that's possible to like a month.
Weather was great, leaves finally turned at the end, i can wear sweaters and not be frozen to death like now, ncsu football games, can have peaceful runs just chilling with nature, don't sweat everywhere when i get off my bike, most importantly: pumpkin spice lattes:)
went to Lenoir to help the family with the remodeling the other weekend, really pretty up there!

went to the fairWe were watching the tractor pull, so legit!

car got fixed finally! love ya dad:)

pumpkin carving

went with Emily to the fanciest fundraiser of my life, at the Angus Barn Pavilion, we had a chef for each course, 7 courses, i was excited to say the least:)

our house, the Duplex of Dreams, got a puppy! Her name is Raleigh, she's a pound puppy... meaning they were going to put her down soon! She's the runt at 6 weeks,the roommies named her Raleigh, so sweet!

-made a life decision last week: i decided i want to pursue a law degree.
-today was the law fair at NCSU, so i spoke with some of my perspective schools, obviously UNC LAW (cheapest option and closest to the family) and a few law schools in San Francisco.
-On Saturday I will be taking a practice LSAT test, which is going to be terrible i know but im excited to see where i stand. (it's a 4 hour test)
-i think my intended focus is policy law, since i've been interning with the north carolina advocates for justice this semester, i have loved every minute. We work with over 4,000 lawyers and paralegals providing CLEs, community work, and other programs. Great people, great advocacy group.

met the new chancellor and his wife. we talked about his wonderful ice cream decision, moose tracks. You just cant go wrong, i told him. and he probably wonders how i got my ambassador position...

oh-and these are all of my lovely Roomies! I absolutely love them all and we always know how to have fun, even if i dont see them for days at a time. Where does all my time go??!

and then TAF is traveling to Wilmington for the Battleship half marathon on Sunday morning, so I'm pumped to see where i will finish post-marathon.

Can't wait for a fun November!!

Steamtown Marathon 10-10-10

2010-10-11T03:52:00.001-07:00

The tiny town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, produced the best marathon I have been a part of, logistically and race wise. Although I was more than a little disappointed that I did not get to see Jim or Michael Scott from The Office, I did get to see all of the buildings that they do show in the opening of the show.

Okay, so the trip up there: well my mother & father wanted to come along, so we decided to head towards PA on Friday, arriving in Luray, Virginia for the night. The next morning we toured the caverns because mom had remembered coming here when she was a child, and apparently I have been there before too because I remembered everything about the tour, but it was real interesting and all the stalagtights and stalagmites were magnificent!

Drove the rest of the way on Saturday to Pennsylvania where we checked in and met up with Sean, Meghan, Keith & Dan who had driven and flown up that day. We had a good pre-race run, although we found the littlest park possible so we had to loop around it several times and we all looked completely insane because we were all wearing our compression socks and it was just a site. After the run, we felt pretty good, although Meghan was dizzy because she cant see without her glasses and nope, she wasn’t wearing them☺ Mom and Dad found some Italian place close by so I decided we should get vegetarian pizza, my pre-race favorite. Coach Sean always gets 2 slices and a beer for pre-race so over the years, I have also adapted this: minus the beer, ofcourse. After we chatted for a while, we headed back to the hotel room and Meghan slept with me so Sean and Keith could have their own bed for a good nights sleep.

4:45 came too fast: we got all of our stuffs together, met everyone in the lobby, and headed outside where we got smacked by the cold air. We had ice on the windshield. Got to Scranton, and loaded up on a school bus that took us 45 minutes out to the starting point. We chilled in a school gym for an hour and took multiple bathroom breaks before they called us to the starting line.

The canon sounded, YES, a literal canon was fired and it scared the crap out of everyone, if it didn’t already blow up their ear drums. Me and Meghan were huddled together, and the plan was for us to stay together for prettymuch the whole race because we both didn’t really care for what times we were getting, we are already qualified for Boston, so we were just shooting for sub 3:30, knowing that 3:20 was likely. Right off, we saw John Tate who bid us good luck and likewise. The race director wasn’t kidding about the down hills in this race. The starting line was a downhill; it was ridiculous. And it was obvious that everyone was trying to bank time, because most of the people around us shot out of there in a full sprint. Our first mile was a steady 7:30, and we were holding back a lot! Then it kept coming down, and around the 2.5 mark, I kinda started getting ahead of myself, thinking Meghan was right behind. Nope, she wasn’t, so I kept going pretty fast, like 6:47 down the 4th mile so I slowed to a 7:00 pace for the next few miles, actually until mile 15. We went through the “rails to trails” section where I met 3 other guys in red tops, so we kinda bonded. They asked what I was shooting for and I said like 3:30, they were like, “dang it girl, you’re a little under!!” haha so I slowed down in the coming miles, because I started hurting, not because they said that. Anyways, took my gu’s at mile 8, 16 & 22 and man do I love the mint-chocolate chip gel, probably gonna start eating it at meals. Okay, maybe not. What really got me through the last miles were the fans and the volunteers and the old man waving his cane and dancing. It was just fun. And people kept saying “good job girl” or “you’re the 15th girl, you got it!” or “go big red!” (yeah, I loved that one….). And the scenery was gorgeous: leaves turning colors and tall buildings and quaint towns, I think we went through 13 different towns, that was a good change of pace. And the hills at the end were manageable, I even kinda liked them, because my hamstrings were about to fall off from those downhills, but I survived and pr’d by 19 minutes (at Kiawah last December I did a 3:36) with a 3:17:36 officially.

Overall: Team TAF did excellent, with atleast 4 PR’s! Hard training DOES pay off...eventually:)

What's the heck is a Pescetarian??

2010-09-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well that's a great question!
When one is a pescetarian, they have the best of both worlds! They are a mix between vegetarians and the good-ole carnivores. Also known as pesco-vegetarianism, my diet includes eating seafood & shellfish and excludes other animals. And no, I don't ONLY eat fish, i also eat vegs,fruits,eggs,grains,dairy,nuts. (yes, people really ask me that)

Why do it? health: (The fattier) red meats are normally high in saturated fats and I can live without bacon.
Numerous studies have shown fish to raise HDL levels and provide Omega 3 fatty acids (the good fats)

not too worried about the mercury poisoning.

My poor Runner:

2010-08-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

i wrecked.

pretty bad huh?

Sad Face

i only have a mild concussion.
O-well, off to the beach:)

New Digs

2010-08-02T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'm finally moved! out of good ole Champion Court and into the "Duplex of Dreams" over on Clark Ave. with 6 other girls, so ill do that math for ya; 7 of us are living here:) it's great. it's taken 3 days, but i can now see the floor in my room and it's all coming together. Mary helped me tremuendulously, actually she pretty much moved and decorated all of my things. She's the best! and since she's a nomad, she gets to sleep with me for a while until she moved in. Cleaning the old place was such a chore, man i don't want to do that again...ever.
Oh and im finally done with my research on the farm in the corn fields. but this is some of my lovely team:
and YES, i can definitely say that i will never work with corn again:)

Saturday morning, the TAF team met at Old Reedy Creek @ precisely 6:00am to get started on our long run, we did gate-to-gate and guess who took off right after the warm-up? Laurel! Her and Sean were doing 6:20s easily. so me and Meghan ran a moderate 6:45s with Dave & Ali & others following close. and Jennifer caught up with me and Meghan after the turn, she got lost... Then the Half-tastics showed up @ 7:30 so we did 6 - 8 miles with them, but dont worry, it was much slower. like 8:15 pace! after Cup-a-joe, everyone went to rest in anticipation for the night to come.
Gavin has planned out this elaborate event called the "Raleigh Run" where you run to 7 bars in or near downtown raleigh and drinking atleast one drink at each of them. (Don't worry, for those of us under 21, we stuck with good ole water, and when i say "we" i actually mean just me, cause i'm the baby)
this was the start to our epic night:

most of the pictures get a little inappropriate, so ill just keep those to myself. But i was the "designated runner" instead of "designated driver" haha get it. So i made sure that no one got hit by a car and i had this neon Tron-like neon vest to make sure that we were all seen (thanks Aunt Kathy) and in every picture, all you can see is my glowing vest,..haha it's great. and my twin, Lauren Bishop came too! i love love her! she runs on the NCSU cross country team and works at cup-a-joe, so people think we're twins. oh-and we look a lot alike:)

So the route consisted of:
Cafe Catura
Sauced
Woodys
Ugly Monkey (saucer was carding)
Boylan Brew Pub
Sadlacks
Village Draft House
it turned out to be a great time, and no one got real hurt, so im applauding my efforts as "DR". although Laurel and Ali did fall on the sidewalk, but nothing too bad.

Now im sticking myself infront of the tv (after my run ofcourse) dont know if you've heard about shark week, but it's consuming my life this week, prob not good. but tonight they are telling you what to do if you find yourself in shark infested waters..(and how often does this happen??)

I didn't stop sweating this entire weekend-

2010-07-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

-and i loved it! but seriously, it was hott.
Friday & Saturday was the birthdays of my two good friends: Mary & Elizabeth

Will, Elizabeth's boyfriend threw Eliz. a surprise b-day party, and we actually surprised her! it was great
Another big group went out to Mellow Mushroom on Friday night to celebrate more with them, and Haley came from G-boro! i split the mega-veggie with Mary, ofcourse:) and then they went to see the Parimore concert downtown in the new outdoor amphitheater, and i went to play with Beo!
Saturday AM came all too soon, the Cup-n-Cone Tour 50 miler commenced at 7:30 with 700 riders off, rode at some point with Meghan, Sean, Dave, Sam, Keith, Nicole, John, Deelap, Tim and ofcourse Dad! Best part: ice cream at the half way mark AND the finish. i have found that one can't get enough ice cream, ever.

the rest of Saturday was spent by the pool with Paige and some guys from the Ymca. although the pool was almost as warm as the air, but better than nothing i suppose.
Sunday we started early with an awesome 14 miler starting from the Farmer's Market. Meghan mapped it out for us, and the group consisted of Meghan, Paige, Keith, Newt, Dan, Ali, and Brian. it was prob 85 degrees by the middle of our run and it felt like 1000 by the time we got back. but it was all worth it because we ate at the Farmer's Market Restaurant, and that place is just good! Brian wanted to eat there because he's leaving for Korea next week!
After Vintage, Jordan and Mike Cherry had their farewell party at the Boylan Brew Pub. it's Bittersweet. i'm really going to miss having Jordie try to give me hugs and me always being sweaty from running and her always giving me the advice i need. they are both moving to California next week for CityYear.(it's a program designed to stimulate city partnerships within the inner-city schools) It was nice to talk to everyone that i haven't seen this summer and Rachel and Jon brought Beo!! (I may be a little too obsessed with this dog).
But on to the next week, it's my LAST week working on the farm in Clayton. Also bittersweet; actually it's more sweet, i think i'm pretty ready to be done with agriculture, i like grocery stores:) although i will miss all the farmers and other students, and the free produce. but i prob will never eat corn again:) ever!

man it's hot here.

2010-07-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

i started nannying for the 2 cutest kids last week. Emory is 4 and Elizabeth is 5-6 months; they both require full attention, which is fine, although it does prolong my want for kids anytime soon. haha like that would happen anytime soon anyways. And yes: i'm still working away on the farm in the mornings. The corn is super tall and now our job is to inoculate it (give it a fungal disease) by mixing the disease with water and punch it into the stalk of all of our test plants. so that's been a fun job to say the least. But it is cool because this specific disease was discovered in some corn in Africa and it was making the people sick and die, but they found that it was because wheat is normally planted in the field following the corn harvest, so all of those nutrients and diseases were being transferred into the wheat crop, which is not as resistant as the corn. But my "research team" now consists of 3 guys, and me. So we talk about cars, girls...and food. haha.

This past weekend, i doggie-sat for a friend, which consisted of me sleeping with the dog (how spoiled) but the mom told me that he likes to chew on stuff, so try to keep the doors shut and all. So without thinking twice about this, i left the dog and the door open to my room to go meet some friends. Came back like not even 2 hours later, the dog had gone through my bag and it looked like he had just thrown all of my clothes eveywhere on the floor, so then i see my chaco. and this dog must seriously hate me, it looks like he just ripped straight through all of the straps in one swoop.

least to say i was pissed. so i shut him out of my room for the night (he usually gets to sleep with me). In retaliation, he chewed through my macbook power cord. 2 points for the dog. zero for Rita.

On Sunday met up with Sean, Dave, Meghan, Keith & Erica to do the good ole Turkey Creek Loop and more. It wasn't that bad either, i have found that whenever anyone starts running in front of me, i feel the urge to speed up. I guess this is good for races, but not for a timed training run when you have 8 miles left. o-well maybe ill learn.
Went over to Centennial to watch the criterium races and guess who was racing?! Walker! & John Crow! So i got to watch them, they are intense level 1 riders now, sponsored by Inside Out and others. They got 2nd and 4th overall.

Other than that, i'm just trying to pack up some things in good ole Champs before the move next week. and doing birthday things with people because it seems like everyone's b-day is in july! geeez! signed up for the "Cup-n-Cone Tour" 50 miler for this Saturday, i think i really just signed up for the unlimited amount of ice cream:) yup im a sucker. took the bike in to get fixed today with Ed, so hopefully ill have my bikie back before then. and i found out that i really like soy milk:)

this is the epitome of my summer all summed up into one pic.:

Busyness

2010-07-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

I’ll start with Friday: I always find myself in the 3:30 Hot Yoga class on Friday afternoons, it’s just good to unwind from the week and get ready for the weekend.
Anyways, mom,dad, Ray, Jon, Will, Keith & Lyn all ventured over to the Durham Bulls baseball game which I don’t even remember who they played.
But they won, and there were fireworks afterwards! I also made sure to get Rachel’s name on the big screen for her Birthday, but told the guy to put “Happy Birthday Rachel Beard” instead of “Rachel Hunt”…ooppps. Gotta get used to this marriage thing.

Saturday morning comes way too fast, so mom comes with me to the Triangle Triathalon over at Harris Lake. I raced this last year so I knew the course real well and was pretty confident that I could do better than last year. Swim was decent, no leeches on my body this year! But I still feel like I may have gotten some bacterial infection from the water..who knows, ill watch for symptoms. Right after coming out of the Bike transition, a large woman (also known as an Athena) decided to stop right in front of me: so I did the only thing I could do: swerve left into the cones to avoid her and did a big old face plant into the pavement. Got some good road rash and hit my head, thankfully they make you wear helmets during these races, but other than that, I got up, put my chain back on, and got to pedaling again. Then I noticed my shifter was completely jacked to one side and my wheel was definitely out of alignment. So I thought O-well, guess the worst thing that could happen is that I wreck…again. And I already had blood dripping down my leg so I wasn’t too worried about that☺ anyways, run went great, favorite part of the race. I ended up placing 3rd in age, and beat my time by 7 minutes from last year.

On to Hunter Elementary School for Vintage’s Sacrificial Saturday where a group of 30ish came to strip an entire hallway of paint from probably 30 years ago and repaint it blue and green. And It looked darn good when we got done!
Sunday was Little Rachel’s 23rd birthday! But I had to work in the corn in the AM, then I got to meet up with the team for our long run in Umstead, then to the Joe. Our family meet up at the Olive Garden for birthday lunch- hmmm that place is so good. And I got Ray the new RayBans, man im such a great sister. Haha Then I went over to Jordan Lake for Laurel’s farewell party with the TAF team.

She’s moving to Richmond tomorrow and I’m really gonna miss her, she’s been my friend/running buddy for 2 years now! Best of luck to you Laurel in Richmond! Don’t worry, I’ll visit you soon☺

4th of july festivities

2010-07-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

The long weekend commenced with First Friday in downtown Raleigh.
went to the Busy Bee Cafe with the TAF gang and then cruised with "Merc" (my lovely bike) & "Phiona" (Ed's bike) & other Raleigh kids with bikes.

The next morning was the "Great Raleigh Road Race" which was a 4 miler starting on Hilsborough and circling some neighborhoods, and racing back along Hilsborough St. the last mile. Full Race report can be found at: TAF Blog

My time last year: 28:48
This year: 26:11 , just a little bit of an improvement id say (2.37) haha.

Sunday started off with the "Firecracker 50k & 100k" with Dad & Meghan & Sean. We did the 50k route, and i think our favorite part was the free ice cream at the end of the ride. I'm a sucker for ice cream:)

That evening some of us went to the Schnek Forest to watch the fireworks from the fairgrouds.

and the fireworks were definitely not as good as years past, or maybe since I'm older now and don't think ALL fireworks are the coolest things in the world, I can tell the difference between the good and bad ones. haha, either way, i had fun.

54 MUST DO LIST while attending NCSU

2010-06-17T14:00:00.001-07:00

This is according to some site that i found,
but i put a + by the ones ive already done,...not too bad.

54 Things to do at NC State

1. Run the Krispy Kreme Challenge. +
2. Paint the Free Expression Tunnel. +
3. Learn the NC State songs. +
4. Tailgate at Carter-Finley Stadium. Don't forget to play cornhole. +
5. Campout for NC State vs. UNC basketball tickets. +
6. Throw a snowball in the Court of North Carolina. +
7. Support NC State's athletic teams. +
8. Get involved in a student organization. +
9. Pull an all-nighter at D.H. Hill Library. +
10. Eat a scoop of Howling Cow Ice Cream. +
11. Whisper in the Wolf Ears. +
12. Read Technician to stay up on campus news. +
13. Support breast cancer awareness. Attend the Hoops 4 Hope game. +
14. Participate in Service Raleigh. +
15. Protect the Free Expression Tunnel at Ram Roast. +
16. Check out the latest fashions at Art to Wear. +
17. Take your picture with Mr. and Ms. Wuf. +
18. Make the Dean's List. +
19. Study Abroad.
20. Participate in Shack-A-Thon. +
21. Visit each of NC State's campuses (Main, Centennial, and the Vet School). +
22. Support local farmers at the Campus Farmers Market. +
23. Vote in the Student Government elections. +
24. Watch a movie at the Campus Cinema. +
25. Fight the "Freshman 15" by working out at the Carmichael Complex.
26. Check out a Fraternity or Sorority. +
27. Get to know your campus leaders. +
28. Pet a cow during Ag Week. +
29. Rub the Strolling Professor's head before your first chemistry exam. +
30. Support ARTS NC State. See a performance at Thompson or Stewart. +
31. Ride the Wolfline around campus.
32. Listen to WKNC 88.1 FM. +
33. Go to your professor's office hours. +
34. Attend an event during the Pan-Afrikan Festival.
35. Show your school spirit at an event during Homecoming Week. +
36. Volunteer at Service NC State. +
37. See the Bell Tower lit RED. +
38. Scout the team at the Kay Yow Spring Football Game. +
39. Experience the Chocolate Festival. +
40. Support businesses on Hillsborough Street. +
41. Start the year off with Wolfpack Welcome Week. +
42. Make a late-night Cook-Out run. +
43. Go on an Alternative Service Break trip or volunteer through CSLEPS. +
44. Eat a 'Block S' waffle at Fountain Dining Hall. +
45. Join an intramural team through Campus Recreation. +
46. Learn the NC State's Alma Mater. +
47. Celebrate Founder's Day. NC State was founded on March 7, 1887.
48. Jump in the lake at the Polar Plunge.
49. Visit the Career Center and start planning for your future. +
50. Order a class ring and let it sleep in the Bell Tower.
51. Kiss the wolf statues for good luck. +
52. Join the Alumni Association.
53. Go to class. +
54. Stick gum on the Dan Allen Tunnel. +

My Summer job

2010-06-16T17:03:00.001-07:00

Official title: Corn Breeder/Researcher
Location: Clayton (middle of no where)
USDA and NCSU Crop Science

Thus far, I have learned an exponentially large amount of agriculture related topics that I had no intention of ever learning in my lifetime. Although, it is very useful to know how to run a plow. The farm workers are GREAT! they're sweet older men and...well...typical farmers. and some of their accents are so thick i don't even think they're speaking English.

Farm life is great, Early to rise (5:00am morning wake ups) and supposed to be early to bed, but i forget that part most nights.

Our farm in Clayton is the central farm, but we have other "blocks" of corn on other farms located throughout NC, like Caswell, Plymouth, Laurel Springs, Salisbury, Sandy Hills, etc.

Since working in early May, some of my duties have included: planting, counting seed, counting yield, making stakes & tags & labels, self-pollinating and cross-pollinating, inoculating (giving the corn fungal & bacterial diseases), and my latest task was to help out laying irrigation pipe...ALL around the farm. that took a week.

AND we have the Doppler 5000 in one of our fields!! yeah, the same doppler that gives you an updated weather forecast on the hour! i just really hope im not getting any radiation waves because of this thing.

Today me and Ben almost ran over a snapping turtle, and i didn't believe that he would snap. so we poked him with a hoe. He snapped! and freaked out and i thought my leg was in danger, but thankfully he crawled away. Turtles are scary things, you are just going to have to trust me.

New Toy

2010-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Just got him today, so i haven't thought of a name for him yet. but i should prob learn how to ride with no brakes pretty darn soon. this will be fun:)

My new BFF!

2010-06-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

BEARS...in a corn field!

2010-06-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, believe it.

So all summer (the past 3 weeks) i've heard about "the bears" at Plymouth. but i figured that i would never actually see any, especially 15 feet away from my face.
We drive up beside the wheat field and i hear my boss, Dale, say "Oh-boy"...
and i see 2 bears just sitting in the wheat field picking the stalks.
Needless to say, i got super excited!

But then our van scared them in the corn field. The same corn field that we are supposed to be working in ALL day long. Some of the other farmers saw the bears run in there, so they started hollering and walking through the field to scare them out. Me and Emily decided to stay at the van and use our keys as a scare tactic to deter the bears.

This did not work. The big bear all of the sudden pooped up 15 feet away from our van through the corn stalks, saw us, stood there for a second, and decided to get out of there (thankfully). I almost peed myself. and Oliver jumped on top of the van. We are just so bright out there on the farm..

Anyways, that bear sprinted away, actually it looked more like a fat man trying to run away.

So that bear was gone, but where was the other bear? I asked myself that ALL day while i counted corn in that field. My adrenaline was racing the entire time, so that prob wasn't good for my heart rate, but i kept violently turning around at every noise because i thought i was going to get mugged from behind by this bear.

Thankfully, I didn't.
but this is his foot print, a little disturbing if you ask me!

Can't wait til we get to go back to measure plant and ear height!

Getting Hitched

2010-06-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

Who knew weddings were soooo tedious? not me.

Im just going to take you through a few of the steps/parties that are involved in planning a spectacular event that you will only go through once in your lifetime (hopefully) and remember forever!

First step: get a ring
Jon & Rachel have mastered this.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1161739449176

Second: Propose
After making Ray a wonderful dinner, Jon arranged for both of our families to meet at Caribou (how suitable) for after he popped the question.

& Now the planning of parties begins!

the first party was a Pampered Chef party, thrown by Jon's cousin Laura, in honor of the bride to be, with a barbie cake and all! (we got to decorate her!)

then there was the official bridal shower thrown by my Aunt Kathy & Cousin Lyn & me
it was at Bass Lake Center and it was gorgeous if i do say so myself:)

the next party was thrown by Father dearest, and i think it was just an excuse for him to shoot his new gun with the boys, but he also gave Jon a grill.

then it was the Bachelorette weekend! I somehow got the Wesley's beach house in Atlantic Beach, actually, it was a mansion. let's just be honest.
and im not gonna say what we did this weekend. it was fun.

finally, we get to the wedding weekend.
Mom threw a Bridal luncheon for little Ray at our house
and we played "pass the gift around to the music and unwrap it when the music stops and tell a story about Rachel" so that was a great game, long name though.

Then it's time for the dress rehearsal at Forest Hills. After that, it was BBQ time, catered by Laytons. I heard it was very good, because us pescatarians can't eat pig:)
I played with Emory the whole time, he's the cutest kid!

Then the wedding day! 5-30-10
After MUCH preparation, we made it to the church ON TIME and the happy couple are finally wedded!

me and mother dearest

AND now im tired of just re-capping everything! geeeez
so if you want to see how the happy couple are doing, you check them out at http://jonathanrachel.blogspot.com/

Transitions

2010-05-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so many things have been going on, i feel like i haven't had time to breathe this last month/semester. But, school is out,im officially a junior, the wedding is almost here, all of my friends have gone abroad (either to study or for missions or moving away for a real job), and my summer job starts tomorrow!
Brittany & Katherine - Progue
Megan - Italy
Kimberly & Caleb - Argentina
Andrew - Africa
Emily - India
Dave - Mexico
Mary Catherine - Guatemala
Mike - moving to California for Teach for America
just to name a few... BUT, ill be here, in my favorite city for the summer, so im excited to see what it brings!

Rachel graduated yesterday with her Bio-medical Engineering Degree. She's obviously the child with the smart genes, guess i got the "good at running" genes.??. if that's possible.

and this is possibly my favorite photo of Rachel and I, it just speaks for itself.

and thankfully she will be working in Raleigh!!! yay, so her and Jon got their condo, near Caribou, where else? and they are halfway moved in already, it looks great! AND they're getting a German Shepherd June 22!!! so im pretty sure i will be over there 24/7 and they will hate me:) o-well

also: two of my good friends just got engaged:
Carly & Buddy
Rachel & Brad
im feeling old. but Congrats to both of them!!

k-well im about to meet up with some TAF friends to go play at Artsplosure in Moore's Square, it's a festival that has lots of neat art and crafts from local artisans to ones across the country! should be fun.

Rita Rocks Raleigh at Raleigh Rocks

2010-03-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Keith for that title. haha

Although, I kinda spaced out during this race, I guess I was enjoying it too much. It started out COLD, like 30 degrees, which is really like 10 degrees when you're used to 70 degree days in Raleigh! anyways, the course was the normal Up Hilsborough to Clark to Blue Ridge & back, so that was un-entertaining. It was great to finally beat good old Dave; although, he has probably done literally 10 half-marathons since the beginning of the year. So, I'll let him slid this time.... Nicole & Jennifer & Laurel came out to cheer, oh & Mother-Dearest! Everyone ran an awesome race, and even the half-tastics! I'm just so proud of them:) Then we went to the Joe. Usual.

I had to take a quick shower & power nap, then off to Umstead for the 100 Miler Ultra Race!

No: I did not run 100 miles, that would be ridiculously crazy! These ultra runners are just sick, who wants to run/walk that much?! I got to pace with a nice guy, Nathan, from new Jersey, he's done almost 100 of these ultras. He was a beast to say the least. ALthough he did throw up some Goo gel on me, 5 times... kinda gross.

This is my new friend Nathan, I'm pretty sure he was happy once I got finished talking to him for 2.5 hours:) :

It was great running through the dark with only the moon to light the way, glad I was with people though, it can get scary out there! Sean told me I should have parked over at the Art Museum to run the 5 miles into the park and race start, pace the 12.5 miles, run back to my car. SO: that would've made over 35 miles on Saturday; and I was thinking about it, but I'm kinda glad I didn't because it got Really Dark in the park, and I'm not the best with directions..so it was probably a good thing. Plus-I'm not trying to run an ultra! but good idea coach!

All in All, my hamstrings and quads a just a little sore, it also probably didn't help that I ran with Laurel, Meghan, & Newt the next morning.

Sacrificial Spring Break

2010-03-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Fall semester, my co-leader, Haley Simmons, had a grand idea of putting together a spring break project locally, in Raleigh. After much planning, Vintage 21 had 75 fully committed students on board.
Monday & Tuesday: Although I had to skip out SSB, I job shadowed through a program with CALS (college of Ag & life sciences), but it was very informative and I learned much more about what I do and what I do not want to do in years to come.
ex: do not want to sit in a cubicle and research statistics about juvenile delinquents.
do want to dress in cute professional clothes and walk around the court house

I got to sit in on multiple juvenile court hearings and see what those kids were there for: geeez kids are bad these days.

Wednesday: My first real day on the job consisting of mulching, planting flowers, digging, playing frisbee with cute kids, and painting

Thursday: I got up for the morning coffee/devotional time with Justin, Caleb, Weezle, Kerri and I was just going to bike to Vintage with Andrew.
except for the little detour we took when he sliced his leg open (yup i could see the bone) so we went to the Emergency room.

He got 10 stitches, and I watched!

Friday: we held a car wash! Thanks to Brittany Knox's creative mind!

God worked through us at Hunter Elementary in so many ways! The teachers and faculty prayed with us after we were finished, the parents could not stop letting us know of their gratitude, the local police came by to see if we needed anything, the children didn't want us to leave, and so many more things that God was at work. He is so great! I'm excited to go back and play with all of my new friends at Hunter!