Update

Hmm, what have I been up to? Not much really. Just boring, being in town stuff...

I did the Air Force Half Marathon last weekend and I got my best time ever for a half marathon so I was pretty pumped about that. It felt really good to make a goal and then accomplish it. The funny thing is that I didn't really do that much running between my last half a month ago and this one. I did exercise a lot but not necessarily running. Good to know that I don't lose the running ability even without running all the time. I enjoy mixing it up a bit and I enjoy racing so I am glad to see that I can do both.

Other than that I have just really enjoyed my time at home. I get to see and talk to Craig on a regular basis, I get to go to the gym and try new classes (like Zumba and real Pilates), I get to go to trivia on Wednesday nights and actually do stuff with my Dayton friends. I almost can't believe it. I really needed the break. I worked entirely too much this summer. I can barely name anything I did and now it is going to be cold here in a couple months. That makes me so sad. I have been trying to work on my work-life balance lately. I think that when I am out of town it is so easy to work until all hours of the night to try to get things done but I just can't do that on a regular basis. It sucks. Since I am home now I usually start work at 8am (not a far commute from the bed, across the hall and to the desk) and I normally don't take a lunch (cause what am I going to do) unless I exercise during the day so I am trying to make myself stop working after 8 hours. Sometimes it is hard because my job is all about problem solving and if you have ever done a crossword puzzle where you only have one or two clues left, you know how hard it is to just put it down and walk away. I have come up with creative ways to make myself stop and most of them involve crafting or exercising :-) HA!

I finally started allergy shots a couple weeks ago. I have in my head that these will be the miracle that will allow my to not have to take Claritin every day of my life but we will see. I am only a couple weeks in. It sucks cause it is an hour and 20mins roundtrip, twice a week right now. Bleh. Oh well, it is only for 6 months or so and at least it gets me out of the house in daylight! They are quite the cocktail and I have to get 2 each time I go. I had them put it all in there...all plants, dogs, cats, dust mites...you name it. I did hear one lady on the elevator today tell a kid she had to get 3 shots so at least there is someone who has worse allergies than I do. These suckers are pricey so I hope they work...looks like I will be doing a little figuring of how much I need in my FSA account next year. Yikes.

Wedding planning is still going well...I had a minor freakout today because the hotel that I had blocked rooms at has changed names and I wanted to make sure our contract was still valid because that is the weekend that the convention is here but I called the other day and they said it was. Then I started to panic because I realized that I didn't block enough rooms (and the hotels are sold out) but I looked on the actual hotel's website and you were able to book rooms directly, guess they aren't switched over in our work travel database that still had them as a Doubletree. I booked a room for Craig and I and noticed that the rates were a lot lower than the blocked rooms so I sent an email to the sales lady asking to drop the price and if we can add more rooms (since apparently it is not sold out).

We are trying to narrow down our honeymoon choices. If you know me, you know I love a good deal and if we book by Oct 14th then we can save a bit of money so I want us to decide by then. Here are the finalist:
Ireland
Italy
Holland

I have been to Italy but not Tuscany and I have been to Holland (which I really liked). I would be happy with any of them so we just need to pick one. I think that Craig is leaning toward Ireland or Holland (cause you get to ride a barge down the river and it is a little more "city" like than the other places). He knows that I would probably rank them as Holland third but I would not be disappointed with any of them. I loved Amsterdam when I went with Erin 10 years ago and the Ann Frank House is by far the most moving museum I have even been in, EVER. Plus, Holland would be less flight connections :-)

Other than that, I haven't done much of anything...I feel like I don't talk to anyone anymore...guess everyone is busy with fun fall activities!

Favorite Weekend

What did I do you ask? NOTHING...or at least nothing with a set agenda. I have not had a weekend like this since APRIL! APRIL people...not a single weekend since then that I was home and didn't have to pack to go out of town or really that I was home without a million things to do. It.feels.awesome. I spent Saturday watching college football and sewing some headbands. I fit in a little workout. Sunday was more of the same...crafting, organizing crafts, etc. Today, yep, right back at it :-)

I did manage to get my coupons all organized on Friday or Saturday, I can't remember which.

I have only been home for 10 straight days but it feels like a lifetime (in a good way). I was traveling so much and having such a stressful time at work that I couldn't relax even when I was home. Now that I have been home for 10 days I feel so much better!!! I have been eating well, I got exercise in almost every day and I just can relax without having to worry about flights and reservations and auditors!

Wedding planning is also going awesome. I have to admit that doing it pretty much on your own is hard. I don't think that I realized how hard it would be but it is starting to all come together. We booked our caterer after a lot of back and forth. We really liked the food at a local restaurant in town but the display is probably not as "pretty" as the other place that only does catering...the problem with the second place was that I didn't love the food. The stuff we were going to have was ok but overall I was not impressed. I don't get it because it is one of those places where every raves about it...eh. I tend to be turned off by those kind of places in general.

My mom and Alyson came up last weekend to go dress shopping. I had 2 appointments with different bridal stores in the bridal district in Reading and then one other place that doesn't take appointments. We went to the first place and I was a bit overwhelmed. Everyone that lives in Dayton seems to get their dress there so I thought it would be a little different. Everyone warned me of the big dressing room where everyone changes together but that didn't bug me in the least...those of you who lived with me in the sorority house remember I would walk around in a bra to go iron my shirts....don't care. When we got there there was some consultants that I didn't feel like I wanted (they were older and didn't appear to have any fashion sense judging by what they wore), luckily we got a cute, younger girl :-) After you get assigned a person you are taken to look at the dresses and pick out what you want to try on. I sort of thought it would be like "Say Yes to the Dress" where they would look at pictures you bring in and then pick stuff out for you...not so much. I didn't know how to spot what the dresses looked like while they were in a bad...how could I tell what the cut was?? UGH. Luckily I had several pictures so my sister, mom and I just looked for the sweetheart neckline that I thought I wanted. I also gave my list of pictures to the consultant. She pulled a few on my list and when we had about 6 or 7 I was ready to try on. She had pulled one that I had on my list but when I looked at it I thought it had too much beading. The first few dresses were good and I liked them but when I tried on the dress that I had claimed had too much beading, I LOVED it. It really looked good for my curvy body shape :-) It was sort of funny since I hadn't even wanted to try it on. My mom and sister loved it too. I tried on a second one by the same designer (which is the same designer that Morgan's dress is so had it not been for her, I wouldn't have looked at this designer and found my dress) but with less beading and I still liked the shape but the combo of the beading and the shape is what made it look so good on me. I tried on a few more dresses of different styles and some that I had on my list but I didn't like this or that about them. The consultant offered to pull more but I told her I wanted to put the beaded one back on...and then I didn't take it off for the next half hour as we did the veil and all that...I am really happy with my choice. So happy that I cancelled the other two appointments and an hour and a half after we walked in the first store, we were done! HA! The rest of the weekend we did other wedding stuff (saw the venue, made paper flowers, etc). The weather was gorgeous in Ohio (as it has been since minus Friday and Saturday this week) it was sunny and 75 with no humidity...ahhhh. If anyone is interested my dress is Casablanca 1957. I am not going to post any pictures of me in it. The arm workouts have begun :-)

We also made our appointment for our engagement photos. I can't wait. I need to find an outfit. We are doing them Oct 25th. It will be chilly here by then so if you guys (Meghan) have any good ideas as to cute outfits I could wear, let's see them. Remember, I am not skinny so it needs to be something that would look good on someone with some curves. Craig will probably just wear jeans and a plain t-shirt (he wears the more fitted ones and it will likely be black or blue). I haven't decided if we will do anything other than casual outfits yet.

Sorry it was so long! Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend.