Blog All The Things!!!

Okay so I've been pretty awful with blogging lately. Shame on me. Between my new freelance gig at this amazing marketing firm that pretty much has full-time hours, my other on-site full-time job, blogging for this wedding chapel, planning a wedding and having a social life...it gets rough keeping up with my personal blog. Between my last post and now I've celebrated my 25th birthday, signed up to die on July 21 (will get into this later), landed an amazing freelance job as Content Manager for a great marketing firm, celebrated Valentine's Day with my one and only and getting ready to celebrate Josh's birthday! Oh and binged on all things amazing that is of course not limited to acquiring new outfits to replace the donations that were made and making plans for the summer.

So first thing is first. I revealed that I have signed my death waiver and have done so by registering for the Super Spartan Race on Jul. 21. The Super Spartan Race includes running 8+ miles and overcoming 20 obstacles climbing over walls, jumping over fire, crawling in mud pits and under barbed wire...and I signed up for this. I figured I needed to challenge myself some more after the half marathon...and hopefully my knee won't hold me back. After the half marathon my IT band has been giving me nothing but trouble so I've had to lay low and let it heal by doing some exercises, stretches and taking some supplements for the joint pain. Apparently this type of injury is very common among long distance runners/cyclists/hikers...but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck...a lot. Anything that hinders my running and routine in general just pisses me off.

I'm going to rock this hardcore though.

This will be my first obstacle race and so this will definitely be one hell of a run. I got this. There's no staying pretty for this one.

I also signed up for the Get Lucky 7k in March which will be my first race since my injury so I'll have my fingers crossed. I still need to ease my way into running longer distances again since it's been nothing but a hassle running outside and dealing with getting sick. If I can somehow survive the Spartan Race...I will be golden. Until then, I will live in fear and anticipation.

After my sister turned 30 at the end of January and myself turning 25 at the beginning of this month..it's just crazy to think about how time certainly does fly. Although I feel very weird saying that I'm 25...I'm pretty happy with where I'm at right now and what the future will bring me. I have my dream career, I'm getting married to the most amazing person ever, I've accomplished my health and fitness goals and I'm still childless. I'm still wearing my student debt shackles, but lets not talk about that. INSTEAD lets post birthday celebration things!

For my birthday, my co-workers reaped the benefits of my crazy baking concoctions. This year I still made my red velvet cake pops, BUT I also tried out this new recipe for Oreo truffle brownies. They turned out kind of messy since the layers didn't stick too well after letting it all set in the fridge...but apparently they changed lives. First, I made the brownie/truffle mix, added a crushed Oreo layer with cream cheese, and THEN spread melted Godiva chocolate on top for the last layer. *WARNING, if you are counting calories...run the other direction.*

The cake pops were a hit too with the white ones having a hint of mint in the frosting. I needed to be all festive with Valentine's Day coming up soon too.

 Once I got home, Josh took me out to one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Biaggi's....where I binged on wine and my favorite shrimp/pasta dish that could have easily fed four small children. No regrets. My birthday usually lands on a day during the week so I was ECSTATIC that this year I could fully celebrate it on a Friday. The following day I celebrated with my family minus my fav big sis since she wasn't feeling up to snuff. We went to Niko's Lodge and I must say....the food was good but the whole ambiance of the place was way off and too loud. I turned 25 and I felt like I had to have a hearing aid since I couldn't hear anything due to all of the noise. What made the night though was celebrating my birthday with the people I love the most though. :)