30 Before 30 = FAIL!

Ok, so I failed miserably at my 30 before 30 list. I guess that's what happens when your life seemingly does a 360 AND you get pregnant after writing the list. Here's the update...

#1 - Run a 5K and a 10K - DONE!
#2 - Work on learning Spanish - I never even attempted it. Do a few episodes of Dora count?
#3 - Write a wedding day letter to Brenna - I'm going to do that before her birthday, I promise.
#4 - Pay for a stranger's food - I always forget. I'll do it this week. I think about it when I'm sitting at home in my pjs a lot!
#5 - Camera in manual mode - Nope.
#6 - New kitchen backsplash - No new kitchen. This one isn't my fault.
#7 - Close on houses and move in - No closings. Again, not my fault.
#8 - Cook a Thanksgiving meal - During my first trimester of pregnancy? Yeah, right!
#9 - Read Bible - I started the one-year Bible and made it to about the March chapter. I'll pick it back up in March.
#10 - Flashmob - Never found one, but I did look.
#11 - Overnight camping trip - Again with the whole morning sickness thing...
#12 - Read 4 classics - Nope. But I have read 11 books since New Year's.
#13 - Finish the HP books - DONE!
#14 - Watch the HP movies - We're on #4 so far, so about halfway there.
#15 - Blog 2-3 times per week - I'm working on doing better.
#16 - Decorate for Christmas - Not exactly what I had in mind since we're in a rental. Bummer.
#17 - Plan a garden - No plans for moving yet.
#18 - Handwritten letters - Unfortunately no.
#19 - 4 Homemade Christmas gifts - I did make some, so we'll call that a win.
#20 - Iphone - Obviously it involves spending money I'm successful!
#21 - Guitar - Um, no.
#22 - Harley ride - I had a few planned with our friend Dave, but the weather was uncooperative.
#23 - Jump in leaves - YES!
#24 - Zoo - YES!
#25 - Weekend trips - No, but I did host two of my BFFs here in NC. So 50% win?
#26 - Wine tasting - Knocked up wino....no thank you.
#27 - Letters to teachers - No. I really need to do this.
#28 - Find a church, make a friend - I think we've settled on a church. No church friends yet, but I've met a few moms in a moms' group.
#29 - First get-together at new house - No new house. :(
#30 - Hokies - YAY! And they won!
#31 - Celebrate my 30th - WOOHOO! J and I hung out in Greenville last weekend while my in-laws watched Brenna. It was a short but much-needed trip. I guess it became a babymoon, too!

30Before30 - #24 - Zoo Time

Yesterday we woke up to a 60 degree forecast and a day with no plans. So I mentioned to Jonathan that we should take Brenna to the NC Zoo. He kinda thought I was crazy at first I think (it's 1 1/2 hours away and I had just got hoe from a 6 hr round trip to Bristol) but he warmed up to the idea. We decided not to worry about nap time (a first for us, seriously) and just do it, I'm so glad we did! We got to the zoo about 11:30 and walked through the North America section - where we saw seals (Brenna's fave I think), turtles, fish, snakes, elk, a bobcat, an otter, and an owl. We ate lunch about halfway through and then headed to the animals we were most excited about in the Africa region. We saw a lion, a red river hog, chimps (including the cutest baby chimp), gorillas, elephants, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and a rhino from a distance. We were all tired by this point, but the giraffe and zebra field was so awesome. We talked to the chimp trainer for a long time about their child-rearing practices, and Jonathan talked to some arborists about the trees and bamboo there. Everyone was super friendly. Brenna loved being able to run and look since it wasn't crowded at all. On the way back to the car we got to see the grizzly bear wake up a little. We met a couple there who told us the walk is a 10 mile walk if you take all the trails. We didn't take them all, but we took a lot of them! Shesh, no wonder we were all tired! I liked that the zoo had animals more spread out and in more natural-like habitats than most zoos I've seen. All in all, it was a great family day! Enjoy the pictures!

Loved walking! Only time she fussed was when we put her in the stroller.

posing with the gorilla

cutest gorilla ever

"big kitty cat"

Mommy, Brenna, 18 month old chimp, and her surrogate mommy

cuteeeee

:)

"Mommy ride a efunt"

We finallllllly found the elephants!

Brenna wanted her to go swimming.

with Daddy

"jafs"

coolest part of the zoo.....at the VERY end

We had a great time!

30Before30 - #13 - Finish the Harry Potter series

I did it today! I've been reading like mad for the past couple weeks. I finished books 1-3 before we moved (I'd read 1-3 previously several times but kept having to start over). I read 4 before Christmas. This month I finished up 5-7. I kinda feel like part of me died. Here are a few of my thoughts....

I loved it way more than I thought I would.
Book 4 was my favorite.
Book 5 was my least favorite.
I am kinda indifferent to the ending. I kinda knew it'd end that way, but the events leading up to it were a surprise.
I thought the whole deathly hallows thing was weird, cause it kinda came out of the blue. I heard it was because people had kinda figured out all her secrets. Wonder if that's true.
I really like Ginny. She's feisty like me, but cuter.
Neville is awesome.
I bet Hermoine and Ron had uglyyyyy kids.
I wanna go to Hogwarts.

Now I just have to make J sit through 8 movies with me. I hope they don't disappoint.

30Before30 - #23 - Jump in Leaves with Brenna

We had a fun weekend in October at my in-laws. We tried to get B to jump in leaves, but she wasn't too interested! Maybe next year!

She was definitely more interested in putting leaves in the bird bath.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

30Before30 - #1 - 5K and 10K

Recently I've really been trying to run at least 3-4 times a week. I've never been much of a runner, but when I train it seems like I can get the 5K distance at least down. I've been running about 2-3.5 miles on most of my runs, and my time is getting a little faster, although still a little slower then I was running before I had Brenna.

I signed up to run the Star City Women's 5K in Roanoke last Saturday, October 1. We woke Brenna up at about 7 and headed to Roanoke to get started. I was feeling pretty good, and the route was pretty easy. I ran the entire way, minus about a 1/10 of a mile walk up a really steep hill past the 2 mile mark. I crossed the finish line at 32 minutes, 24 seconds. This put me at a 10 minutes, 27 seconds average mile. I say you can probably take 10 seconds off my time since I was closer to the back of the starting pack. It was faster than the time I got on the only other 5K I ran back in 2009. I was 114th place out of 220 people. I was 12th in my age division (23-29) out of 33 runners. All in all I was proud of myself, and I was thrilled to see my cheering section at the end of the run!

Ready to run!

Almost to the end!

Brenna go to play with my finisher's medal.

So, about 2 days ago I decided I wanted to run the entire Huckleberry trail (I'll post about this trail soon...) before we move. It starts at the mall near our house and goes all the way to downtown Blacksburg. I've run most of the trail by starting at different points along it over the past 2 months or so. They've added a little bit to the trail at the mall end, so it makes the trail about 6.1 miles total. It's relatively flat with a few hills along the way.

Today I parked my car at the mall end and told Jonathan to pick me up an hour later at the other end! I just felt like I could do it today, so I went for it! I stopped to go to the bathroom (a new improvement to the trail!) at about the 2 mile mark. I stopped to let a car pass at about the 2.2 mile mark (Hey, just trying to be honest about the run!). I stopped 3 other times to walk up some bigger hills, but only walked 1/10 of a mile each time. I stopped at about the 3.6 mile mark, the 4.4 mile mark, and the 4.8 mile mark. I ran the entire rest of the way! I caught up with Jonathan at about the 2/10 of a mile to go and I just kept plowing on. I said to him as I passed, "I ran the whole thing!" and I know he was as shocked as I was to have done it! I got to the end and turned around and ran another little bit so I could get the 6.2 miles officially done, since I know this is the distance of a real 10K race. It really wasn't that hard of a run. The first mile of any run is always the hardest for me, and I couldn't tell much of a difference in 6 miles vs. 3 miles in my breathing or how my body felt. I'm not sure HOW much further I could have gone, but I felt good at the end of the run. I ran it in 1 hour, 13 minutes, 1 second. I kept an 11 minute, 46 second pace and supposedly burned 733 calories. Thank you Nike+ GPS!

I made it to the other end!

I wish I would have taken a picture of myself at the start of the trail also!

30Before30 - #30 -- HOKIE GAME!

Jonathan and I got to go see the Hokies play today. We were supposed to be in Bristol, but it turned out that we didn't have to go, so we got some tickets from friends of friends. Lisa and Kevin were SO SWEET and came to watch Brenna for us. We then lucked out and got a parking pass from Jonathan's old boss. So, we headed over and go to tailgate with Darin and Lyndsie and their family for awhile. It's fun to tailgate with them, but it's also funny because it's a mainly Giles County tailgate, so I always see some people that I know. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes not so much. Today I got to see my sweet friend Patti, who is my good friend Sheri's cousin. She is a physical therapist at Macy, and I miss seeing her!

We spent the first 3 quarters in the West stands - which was nice because it wasn't in the sun and we had a great view. The Hokies were ahead all the time.

We went over to sit with Darin and Lyndsie for the 4th quarter, and things got a little bleaker. We lost the lead - but luckily they scored a touchdown to retake the lead. Miami couldn't score again, so we won with a score of 38 to 35. GOOOO Hokies!

This may be our last Hokie game for awhile, and we enjoyed the time together and the beautiful weather!

30 Before 30

I'm turning 30 in less than 5 months. It makes me hyperventilate just a little. Anyway, I decided to make one of the *30 Before 30* lists. Here's hoping I can accomplish most of these, if not all! You should make a list too! You could even do some of my fun things WITH me if you want!

1. Run at least one 5K race. Run a 10K (even if not an "official" one.)
2. Work on learning Spanish.
3. Write a letter to Brenna to give to her on her wedding day.
4. Pay for someone's food in the car behind me at a drive-through.
5. Learn how to use my camera in manual mode.
6. Put up a backsplash in our new kitchen.
7. Close on both of our houses and move in.
8. Cook a Thanksgiving meal by myself.
9. Read the entire Bible.
10. Be part of a flashmob.
11. Go on an overnight backpacking trip with Jonathan.
12. Read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, and Pride & Prejudice.
13. Finish the Harry Potter series.
14. Watch all 7 (or 8?) Harry Potter movies.
15. Blog 2-3 times per week.
16. Decorate my house for Christmas. I mean REALLY decorate it!
17. Plan out my garden to be ready to plant in the spring.
18. Write 2 encouraging handwritten letters a week.
19. Make at least 4 homemade Christmas gifts that I'm proud of.
20. Get an Iphone.
21. Learn to play one song on the guitar.
22. Ride a Harley.
23. Jump in leaves with Brenna.
24. Take Brenna to a zoo.
25. Go on a weekend trip with just my sister. Go on another one with a good friend. Who's game?
26. Go to a wine tasting.
27. Send a letter to at least 3 prior teachers and tell them how awesome they were.
28. Find a new church. Make at least one really good friend there.
29. Throw an awesome first get-together at our new house.
30. Watch the Hokies play (preferably the ACC Championship or Bowl Game).

and for the Grand Finale....
31. Celebrate my 30th with my hubby somewhere fun!