We returned today from a glorious vacation to the Smoky Mountains!  We spent the holiday weekend with our good friends Matt and Jessie at the Sundancer Cabin in rural Sevierville.  You can find Sevierville on the map between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  Sevierville's claim to fame is being the hometown of Dolly Parton!  We spent the weekend hiking through the Smoky Mountain National Park, drinking, playing Euchre, eating ice cream, hot tubbing, and just relaxing!  It was such an awesome way to spend a long weekend and I cannot wait to go back someday!

It's always good to go on vacation, and it's always great to come home!  I am off to go sleep in my own bed...zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Out with the old...

In with the new...

This weekend I will finish my 5 month long journey with Chalene doing TurboFire. TurboFire is a workout program that I started in January.  I have blogged about TurboFire before and you can read that post by clicking here.  For five months I worked out 6 days a week, anywhere from 30 minutes to 70 minutes a day.  I was very committed to this workout and I am happy to report that I didn't miss one day!  After 5 months I feel great...I was already in fairly good shape when I started the program and I haven't changed my eating habits at all.  In the end I didn't lose any weight but I feel fantastic!  

After 5 months though I am getting pretty burned out and I am excited about my newest fitness challenge.  I am going to start running!  I ran all last summer to get in shape for the wedding, but it was completely recreational and just for fun.  Now I am going to be training.  This summer I am planning on running a few 5Ks and maybe even a 10K.  We will see how it goes.  Brady's cousin, Amanda,  and I were going to do a mini marathon this summer but with conflicting schedules we just couldn't nail one down.  I am happy it's not going to work out, because I want to enjoy running and work my way up to those longer distances.  Little plug for Amanda...she is awesome and such an inspiration...you can follow her blog, which is exclusively about running by clicking here.

To get myself pumped up for my newest fitness endeavor, my lovely friend Monica and I went to Blue Mile to get fitted for running shoes.  It was really awesome; they used video gait analysis to determine what would be the best shoe for me.  Basically I ran on a treadmill that had a video camera mounted on the back that recorded my stride from the knee down.  For the analysis they had me wear a brand new pair of Nike running shoes.  We then watched the video on a big screen in slow motion.  It was determined that I overpronate - meaning when my foot hits the ground my ankle is slightly to the outside of my foot, my ankle then rolls in to compensate for me hitting the ground too much on the outside of my foot.  Over time this can cause damage and injury to the shins, knees, and Achilles tendons.  Good news though...they make tons of running shoes to correct this kind of thing.  I was the perfect candidate for a "support" running shoe.  A support shoe adds stability to a runners stride and should correct any overpronation issues.  I chose the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12 as my first pair of support running shoes.  They felt great to run in and my stride was perfect in them.  They are also the most popular support running shoe so I figured they were a good choice.  You can learn more about the Brooks GTS Adrenaline 12s by clicking on the picture above.

I am going to start using this training program, as you can see for three months I am not even tracking distance...just time.  I am still planning on working out 6 days a week so I figured I would do yoga and strength on my days off of running. 

Wish me luck as I hit the open road!

We recently got a new clothes dryer.  It was very inexpensive, Brady installed it himself, it is super eco-friendly and wallet friendly as it costs virtually nothing to run.  The only con is that it leaves our clothes kind of crunchy...it's a CLOTHESLINE!

I just realized that I have done multiple laundry related posts...am I really weird?

I have horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE allergies.  The kind where I can't sleep, can't breathe, and can't see because my eyes get so goopy.  I pretty much eat Zyrtecs like they are candy and they usually don't even help me at all!  I was having an especially bad allergy day on Friday when I wandered into CVS and bought one of these bad boys...

That little teapot thing is called a Neti Pot, and it is basically a granola hippie way to clean out your head of all those mean allergens without taking any drugs.  You fill it with salt water, stick the blue penis part up your nose, then pour in the water...which travels up one nostril and swishes around all the deep recesses of your head and then comes out the other nostril.  It is really gross and really awesome all at the same time!   

Brady was the first one to try it and he didn't love it so much...maybe he felt weird sticking the mini weiner part up his nose?  I tried next and it worked great on me!  Brady even took this video with my handy dandy iPhone...enjoy! 

Please don't make fun of us because this is what we did on a Friday night! 

Brady and I had a very emotional weekend.  For our Saturday date night we went and saw "Bully", I recommend seeing this movie only if you are in the mood to be sad and pissed off...just kidding...kind of.  It's a documentary about the bullying problem in schools across America.  The film mainly follows 3 students who are bullied day in and day out at their schools.  The film also follows two cases of "Bullycide", which is when a child is bullied so much that is causes him or her to commit suicide.  This is a growing problem in America, especially today in our social media driven world.  Yes this movie was sad...but it was SO GOOD!  Everyone needs to see it!  I cried pretty much during the entire movie and most of the way home on our 45 minute drive from the theatre.  Yes...Brady cried also...because only real men cry (especially the really sexy ones).  I can't even watch the trailer without crying...see if you can!

So after our tear filled Saturday night we were having a delightful Sunday that started off with a wonder service at Rock Prairie.  We let the dogs out to play and after about 20 minutes when we called them to come back...Gus didn't come!  He didn't come home for about 2 hours.  During these two hours we walked through fields, drove the country roads, rode our 4-wheeler through the woods and Gus was no where to be found.  Of course Brady and I both sobbed because Gus is our baby and we really thought he was gone.  He wasn't wearing his collar...so we figured he was down the road, not around any houses and someone drove by and snatched him up thinking he was a stray.  After an hour and a half of looking for him I left Brady outside to do the searching and I rode the 4-wheeler back to the house to make some phone calls.  I called the sheriff and the Tipton County Humane Society.  Neither had any reports of anyone finding a dog.  So I sat at the computer and through tear filled eyes I made a "Lost Dog" poster.  Brady was on his way to the Sharpsville post office to post the sign when...Gus came walking out of the woods south of our house!!!!!  Brady said he just slowly meandered through the field up to his truck like nothing was wrong at all!  Now our whole family is back together and I am never letting Gus outside into the dangerous world again!  Just kidding...but I will always make sure he is wearing his collar from now on!  I mean how could you not be in love with this pup?!

We haven't cried for a couple days now which is good...my eyes needed a rest!