Vida

In a couple weeks I'm running another half marathon.  I've done very little training, which terrifies me a bit.  A few days ago I decided I needed to at least get in a 10 mile run to prove to myself I can do it. To run the 606 from our place, running there, running the whole thing, running home totals a bit over 6 miles.  That's about as far as I've run this season.   As I passed the midway point, I remembered why running has always been my therapy.  I started feeling really annoyed about things.  Then around miles 6-7-8 I was fighting back tears.  By mile 9 I felt great.  Clarity.  Perspective.   I know I can do it now.  

Mike & I have been going back and forth on honeymoon plans.  He's starting his graduate program a week after our wedding.  Originally we thought we'd just put it off for our one year anniversary.  But let's be real, maybe we can go somewhere for our anniversary AND somewhere small for our honeymoon, just to celebrate the two of us. First we thought, we'll drive to Nashville or Memphis for Labor Day and spluge on a fancy hotel. Now we're exploring doing one of those searches on kayak where you say, take us anywhere, whatever's the least expensive.  We think we'll take a look right after the wedding and just go, we're last minute planners anyway.  A surprise for everyone! Have you ever done something like this?  Any tips?

Yesterday was Monday.  I was beat from the weekend.  I didn't want to drive to the grocery store.  I needed to cook something for dinner. My go to summer dish popped in to my mind: one-pan farro with tomatoes I walked over to Target after work to get some tomatoes and I was good to go.   Highly recommended.

Does anyone besides me sometimes (read: often) choose wine bottles based on their label? My sister picked this one out but I would have picked it up too.  I'm also very drawn to labels with bikes. Just a note to kick start your week :)

Things are a bit crazy around here lately.  It's a good thing the weather is finally taking a turn to motivate me. Thursday before Mike left for work he told me everything he's stressed about.  With our wedding and move and start of grad school (for him) in the near future we have a lot of things we need to prep for. We're really doing our best, but sometimes it's too much.  For the past...month ish...when Mike gets home from work I have a list of what we need to accomplish that night.   One step at a time. So yesterday I decided we needed to take a break and go for a walk.   We ended up at Rocking Horse's patio where they have $4 drafts on Thursday and talking about what we need to do, but it was at least a step away from the to do list.

Saturday Morning discussing Napa vs. Sonoma: Boss: "I did a little research and I saw a comparison.  Napa is for the Land Rover, Sonoma is the Jeep Cherokee."  I now understand this reference since Mike has many favorite car shows. "We're not Napa people." That was all the convincing I needed. My boss was planning to go after we finished work Saturday and fly back to Chicago Sunday.  Mike was on his way out to join me and we hung out in San Francisco for a few days.  We decided we would rent a car for one day and head out to wine country. We started out early and visited Big Muir National Park first.   Then we made our way to Sonoma.  We started out at Buena Vista since it has a lot of history.  Then we eavesdropped other tasters to figure out we would go to Ravenswood. I loved it.  I was pretty exhausted from the push to get through my work event Saturday and then Mike & I walked over 10 miles on Saturday and Sunday.  Mond...

Mike is starting St. Louis University's urban planning graduate program in the fall!  September 1 is our official move date, but Mike will be there a couple weeks beforehand to get started.   I think it's fair to say we're both experiencing some mixed emotions, but we're excited for new things!   One of Mike's uncle's gave him this shirt for Christmas and I'm pretty sure he wore it for 48 hours straight after he got his acceptance email! P.S.  Housing options in St. Louis are AMAZING!!!