Running in the Delta

Withers Gone Wild: Christmas Edition

2011-12-29T19:30:00.001-06:00

Sorry that poorly timed post prior to this one. It wasn’t the internet that I was having trouble with, it was Windows Live…have yall ever seen an ‘Error 502 Bad Gateway’ pop up in WLW? I Googled it and computer talk is basically like Chinese to me, so that was not helpful.

So like any computer-illiterate person would do, I just waited a couple of days and tried again and it worked! So we’re back in blogging business.

How was your Christmas? Ours was lovely, and like most holidays it was a reminder of of the copious amounts of blessings in my life.

One of our Withers traditions is going to Christmas Eve communion at the Presbyterian Church, then come back over to my in-laws to take a family picture.

This year we were doing our New Years Eve card picture and decided to do a champagne-toast theme, but that didn’t exactly go as planned. SOMEBODY was a little cranky pants throughout our photo shoot. I mean seriously, look at this face:

Princess Lilly was not havin’ it. She didn’t cry, but she certainly didn’t smile either. I think she was just mad because she couldn’t have any champagne. Can’t say I blame her.

We finally ended up with a couple of good ones: And I thought this one was cute, with Lilly and her grandmama giving each other love. Sweet, right: So I’ll let my mother-in-law decide since she is one sending them out. After picture time, we all headed over to our cousin’s home, who have a big family Christmas Eve cocktail party that is always fun to see the extended family.

Christmas morning this year was special since Christmas fell on a Sunday. The WHOLE fam joined Tom and I at our church, and enjoyed a WONDERFUL Christmas service. I cried of course….sometimes I cry in church usually because I just love the music so much and feel overwhelmed with thankfullness! The Spirit just moves me, I tell you what! :)

After church we headed over to my in-law for Present City, USA. Per tradition, we all sit around in a circle and open presents one by one. I love making it last, and seeing what everyone else gets everyone. Tom got some snow camo, which I’m sure he’ll get to use for approximately 4 hours per hunting season.

In preparation for the arrival of Baby Atwood in April, Lilly got lots of baby doll accessories so she can get in some good practice as a big sister. It should also be said until these pictures were taken Lilly was dressed in her Christmas best, but demanded she put on her ‘twirl dress’ from her Grammy. Sara Whit says she wears this dress and head band every. single. day. This year us five kids (me, Tom, Sara Whit, Brian, and Myra) decided to draw names and I drew Myra’s name! She asked for new tennies!!! I love these crazy hot pink shoes! Myra and her daddy both got new shoes. New jammies and The Help for my mother-in-law….When we were done opening all the gifts there were a couple more big ones for Lilly…. A baby doll high-chair from Mamie and Boo: And a baby doll bed from LaLa and Tom Of course she loved it and high-fived Uncle Tom for her gift! She immediately proceeded to put her babies in their respective spots…high chair, stroller, bed…her babies have got it made! Although I did find out that none of them have names. She’s very particular about where they all ‘sleep,’ but not big on giving them names. After present-opening we ate and ate and ate….

and then laid around for a while in a food coma. After dinner was some fun family time and lots of silliness ensued… Myra and Lilly were the only ones with enough energy to do anything other than sit around and complain about how tight their pants were. So they wrestled and giggled on the floor for a good hour. All in all it was a lovely Christmas in the Delta!

As usual, I feel like I didn’t take enough pictures but I just get so caught up in having fun with family that usually the camera is the last thing on my mind.

I hope each of you had an amazing Christmas full of blessings and laughter with those close to you.

Here’s to a wonderful New Year! Catch ya in 2012….

Touches of Christmas

2011-12-28T18:36:00.001-06:00

Updated to say: I wrote this on Christmas Eve and couldn’t get it to post because the internet ‘round these parts was acting wonky. Shocking, I know.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!!! All the way from the Mississippi Delta. Oh, Reba…always so enthusiastic in pictures.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I had planned to get a Christmas decoration post up much earlier than this but life got in the way, as always. So today I decided to throw this post up in an effort to share my Christmas-y house with you!

First up: the tree. I kind of hate it. I think it looks too sparse. And that Santa hat on top was a total afterthought, and I apologize for it. It’s not really ‘me,’ you know, but it will do for this year. Next year I’ll plan better and do it up a little more fancy, but simply didn’t have the time this year. But just get ready for Christmas Tree 2012. I know you’ll be waiting with bated breath.

What do NOT hate, however…is our little mantle! Aw, cute right? It looks a little junky and hodge-podge right now, but that is our life during the holidays let’s just be honest. But I like it like that…lived in, not museum-like.I made our stockings this year. It was surprisingly easy! Here’s what I used, my goal was to spend very little moo-lah. Everything came from Joann’s:

Dog fabric for Reba’s stocking: already had
Linen fabric & plaid fabric for people stockings: $5
Black felt for lining of stockings: had leftover from Halloween Pillows
Red ball fringe: $4
Red Ric Rack: $2
Sweater trim: already had
Letters to personalize: $8
Stain and red spray paint for letters: already had
Total: $19 for four stockings….under $5 per stocking!

And how precious is Reba’s stocking! I had this dog fabric and loved how it turned out. I decided to hang the letters instead of having our names monogrammed on them. I thought it was cute and a little different. The tops of mine and Tom’s stockings are made out of an old white sweater I had, that could not be worn anymore due to a stain in the front. So I cut up the back and used it on the stockings. And the top trim of my mom’s stocking (the H) I got for like $1.50 in the remnant pile at Joann’s. So I guess that’s why the tree is a little lacking this year…I spent all my time on the stockings and I think it was worth it!

Also in our Christmas room I moved the black frames from the TV room (to make room for the red ones…more on that later in the post). I love the shadow box on the middle shelf. Sorry this picture is blurry, but it says, “Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we….”

I just printed them off in Microsoft word on lined the area with red and white wrapping paper. Another blurry picture…I told you this post was a fast one!…of my little Christmas village! The little ice cream parlor is my favorite. This is a shot of our dining room, if you’re standing in front of the Christmas tree. In the past, I’ve done a little more ‘glamorous’ table (if you can even call it that). But this year I decided to go a little more rustic.

And I only spent $2 on this table because all I had to buy was a bag of fresh cranberries from the grocery store. I already had the vases and candle sticks. I also already had the white table cloth and burlap runner. I just added some ornaments, pine cones, magnolia leaves, votives in mason jars and voila…Christmas table. I also love my little pottery animals hiding amongst the pine cones and ornaments! Hey little ducky…. And little froggy…. The centerpiece is my favorite part.It’s kind of inspired by this arrangement my mom sent me for my birthday! You just put a smallish vase is a larger vase and pour in the filler of your choice…in my case this time it was cranberries. Fill the inner vase with water and then put your foliage in. Pretty, right? And so easy. One more fun new thing in this room is this pencil sketch of the family home where Tom’s mom and dad currently live. Myra had these done for all of us for Christmas last year and I JUST got ours framed. Here’s a shot of it in the room…I just love it! And of course I had to throw in a picture of the shelves…they’re just like last year with the red frames I DIY’d. Bought at Goodwill and spray painted red. Remember the shelved looked like this for October…and basically the same for November, just switched out the jack-o-lanterns for gords and stuff that went unpictured.

Anyway, all the frames have pictures of Christmas pasts in them. Below, our family Christmas picture from 2008, and a pic of Tom and I at the 2010 Tacky Christmas party. I love this picture of Lilly and my father-in-law from last year’s Christmas morning. Lilly riding her first tricycle in her Christmas pj’s with a little help from ‘Boo!’ Also in this room, I have six large matted photographs. The frames and mats are white, with black and white pictures. I love the crisp, white look for the rest of the year but for Christmas it needed to be….whats the word….Christmasfied! I just lined the mats with red ric rack and green grosgrain ribbon and secured it on the back with scotch tape. This way, the mats are not compromised and when Christmas is over the embellishments can easily be removed and go back to plain white. I thought this project could be changed up if you had some frames in a nursery or something…you could get ribbon or fabric to match the bedding…that would be cute and personalized…right? And cheap-o too! Gotta love that. And lastly, I had to share our leg lamp over in the bar! Too funny….we always get lots of laughs and compliments on this lamp! I hope you enjoyed this very quick Christmas home tour! And Reba and I wish you a very VERY Merry Christmas Eve!

We’ll be back next week with all the lovely details of our Christmas in the Delta!

Love y’all!

St. Jude Marathon Weekend

2011-12-05T21:27:00.001-06:00

Holla!!!!

Raise your hand if you ran a half marathon over the weekend. THESE GIRLS DID!!!!! And they rocked it.

Okay now that you know how the story ends, let me tell you how it began!

On Thursday during lunch, I met Kristi and Bex up at Cook Convention Center in Memphis to pick up our packets and visit the Expo. One reason I wanted to go on Thursday as soon as it opened was to get to the $10 man early. $10 man sells tons of running clothes and everything is only $10. Unfortunately, much to my own shock and terror, the $10 man was a vast disappointment this year (unlike last year’s $10 man, where I totally racked up). All the women’s stuff was NOT cute, and I didn’t feel like standing in line for a boring necessity like socks or a sports bra.

So we just browsed around the expo, and I did buy a pack of GU Chomps for race day, but that was it. I also went by the Pace Team booth to get some information. My experience last year (starting out way too fast and feeling horrible the majority of the way) made me consider sticking with a pace group this year. You don’t have to do anything to join a pace group…just start out in the same corral as the pacer you choose, and try to stay with them the entire time. They run the entire race at a steady pace, not stopping for bathroom breaks or water. If you need to do either of those things, you certainly can, but you just have to catch up with your pace group afterwards.

After meeting some Official Pacers at the expo, I decided to give it a shot on race day. Couldn’t hurt. We left with the most important thing…the main thing we came for…our race number! Bex and Kristi VERY excited to be running our beloved race in less than 2 days! Friday after work, we all met in Memphis to spend the weekend. One great thing about this particular race is that my mom was able to come! I was so excited to have her there as my cheerleader and photographer.

A good friend of ours in Tunica owns a gorgeous condo on downtown Memphis, that is just blocks from the start and finish lines. She was generous enough to let us stay there for the weekend it was SO PERFECT.Not only was it absolutely breathtaking, it was convenient and comfortable.Seriously, these views are like nothing I’ve seen before! We pretended like we were City Princesses all weekend long! Friday night we ate at Capriccio Grill at the Peabody and I am not even going to go into detail about it because it was nothing to write about. The food was just okay, and it was overpriced and the service was not great. It was like they didn’t get the memo that an extra 15,000 people were going to be in town that weekend. No biggie…I just wouldn’t recommend it.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and READY TO RUN! I don’t have any pictures of the start line or the race course because I don’t run with a camera. Sorry but you guys don’t pay me enough to take pictures while I run.

We headed out the door at 7:30 and walked to the start line. We were there by 7:36. I told you we were close! I found the 2:20 pace group in corral 11 and waited patiently for our turn to cross the start line. I chose the 2:20 group because I ran this race in 2:24 last year and was itching to PR.

By 8:15 we were crossing the Start line and already having a great time! I could tell within the first few minutes that I was going to feel good and finish well, and was just looking forward to a fun day.

The weather could not have been more perfect, and the 2:20 pace group felt like they were keeping a very comfortable pace for me (around 10:40/mile). For the first few miles I chatted with some girls in the same group, running the full marathon (shooting to finish in 4:40). They were three college friends who graduated from Southern Miss together. I didn’t get their names, but the main girl I talked to was very sweet and talking with her made the first 30 minutes or so go by really quickly!

Around mile 5, the course passes the St. Jude Hospital. The patients come out in their wheelchairs with signs and music blaring. I almost busted out crying at this point, seeing all the kids come out and cheer us on. It makes you realize that if these children are strong enough to go through what they do, I am certainly strong enough to run for a couple of hours in their honor.

I was still feeling really good at this point, and sticking with my pace group. After the hospital, there is a loooooong straight-away that really got to me last year. This year, I felt great! I could tell my training this year was much more effective, and just cruised along. Reading signs, waving at toddlers, seeing lots of doggie spectators…it went by much more quickly than last year when I was in a lot of pain.

I stopped and ate some GU Chomps and some water at mile 7. Only walked enough to get down the water and loosen my legs a little. It took about .15 of a mile. At mile 8, I noticed that the course was running pretty long. When I crossed the 8 mile mark, my watch said 8.2. This was the case last year so I wasn’t surprised.

At mile 9, they were handing out GU so I grabbed one and downed it. walking for about .2 of a mile. At this point I was starting to feel the effects of running faster than what I was used to. Most of my training runs were at an 11:00+ pace, and I was sticking with my pace group and hitting a little under a 10:40 pace. But by the time I reached 10, I kept telling myself I only had a 5K left, and the miles seemed to click by. Around 10.75, Bex passed me! She was going pretty fast, and I could see her family not too far up ahead. Right before mile 11, I waved at Bex’s husband, Baby Bex, and her dad as they cheered me on. It was fun seeing someone I knew on the race course. At the mile 11 water station, I ate the rest of my GU Chomps.

By 11.5 I will honestly say I was hurting. I was counting down the minutes at this point, and was kind of worrying if I would make my goal. My breathing felt fine, but my legs were like lead, and my back was bothering me a little. I slowed waaaaaaay down…like to a 14:00 minute mile for a little bit. I was practically walking, but I didn’t stop!By 12.75 I really didn’t think I had much left, and at one point I felt like I was going to throw up and cry at the same time. My stomach felt weird…not a feeling I have felt before during a run. I think I might have had too much fuel, and maybe the GU/Powerade combo just wasn’t agreeing with me.

Although my stomach was bothering me, I knew at this point I could make my goal so I just powered through, and I’m sure I made some weird crying/groaning/huffing-and-puffing noises as I did. But I didn’t care. I just gave it all I had and my watch hit 13.1 at 2:17:04!!!!!

WOOOO-HOOOOO! No time to celebrate now, though…I still had about a quarter of a mile to go to the finish line, and every joint from my waist down was throbbing with pain. Remember I mentioned the course was long. When my watch was at 13.1, and I felt I had made my goal, I walked. I was so tired. I was dead. My legs had a mind of their own, like I could barely control them. I wasn’t feeling good.

I was on the verge of tears when I heard a voice behind me say, “Come on, pick it up, we can do it!” I turned to my left and another runner…a stranger…was encouraging me to keep running. When I looked over at her she said, “I know you can, come on!”

Then I heard a voice to my right… “Don’t give up! Come on, I’ll run you in!” Another stranger…a spectator this time, with two children in a double stroller was encouraging me to keep running.

So I did.

I ran down the ramp and into center field of AutoZone park, and before I knew it, I was crossing the finish line with my (brand new) friend beside me. I 100% believe that God sent me those girls to get me across the finish line in one piece AND with a smile on my face. I have no idea who the girls were who encouraged me to the finish line because I lost them in the crowd, but if you’re out there…and reading this….you made me day!! I did get a chance to say, “thank you for helping me!” quickly to one of the girls but didn’t get to tell her how much I appreciated her kind words. It was so awesome to have that encouragement from two people I didn’t know…and as far as I could tell didn’t know each other.

Overall, I am really happy with how this race went. I trained well, and accomplished my goal. However, I think I was hurting towards the end because I didn’t train as fast as I raced. If you want to race fast, you have to train fast. Moving forward I will work on my speed in hopes that for my next race I’ll not only finish within my goal, but finish feeling like I could run another mile or so. I should also mention that my official finish time was 2:19:something, and my watch read 13.33 when I crossed the finish line. So even though the course was long, I accomplished my goal of finishing in under 2:20!!!

Bex was right there at the finish line, having finished just 3 minutes before me. We got our medals together and went into the stands to find my mom and wait on Kristi. We guzzled water and chocolate milk while we waited on Kristi to finish. And look who else we ran into! Our friend Abby! This was her first half-marathon and she finished with flying colors!!! So glad she found us in the crowd. Shortly after that, Kristi crossed the finish line crying like a baby! Ahahahahha….love it. Her first half-marathon also and she rocked it. As soon as she saw us she said, “Where’s my mom!?!” Ahahahah…too funny. Luckily, we were able to quickly find Kristi’s parents, sisters, and kids in the crowd. Kristi’s son Sutton started laughing and shrieking when he saw his mommy! And I love this picture of Kristi and her mini-me, Lydia. So cute! We visited with Kristi’s family for a bit before heading out into the sunshine to warm up and stretch a little. After drinking about a gallon of water (literally, I drank 4 20-ounce bottles of water in about 40 minutes), we hobbled back to the condo to freshen up for lunch. Before we left for lunch, I forced everyone up on the roof garden of the building so we could see this gorgeous view! I thought it was a pretty good reward for our efforts of the morning. And yes, we wore our medals to lunch. Love this picture….TUNICA REPRESENT! And we can’t forget our lovely equipment manager/cheerleader/photographer of the weekend! So glad she was there to share such a special and fun accomplishment with us. Per Kristi’s recommendation, we ate at the Kooky Canuck for lunch and oh. my. word. Best post-race food ever.

Yes, those are fried pickles.

And yes, those are french fries covered in cheese and gravy. That’s just how we roll in the south….we deep fry our vegetables and then cover them in gravy.

Don’t judge.

Staying downtown, and being able to walk everywhere this weekend gave me a new appreciation for Memphis. I know it gets a bad rap sometimes, but we loved it and never felt unsafe or worried about our whereabouts. If you’re in the right area of town, you can really enjoy the city and have fun.

If you’re familiar with downtown Memphis, you know they have horse drawn carriages all over the place, and most of them have dogs as co-pilots. I especially loved this old Golden! Look at that sweet face…he’s been around the block a few times….literally. And the city looked so cute all decorated for Christmas! After lunch Kristi and Bex had to head back to Tunica, but my mom and I stayed Saturday night as well. I napped all afternoon and around 6pm we headed out for a delicious dinner at Flight Restaurant. If you are ever in Memphis, you must try it. It will change your life.

After dinner, we decided to be fancy and have an after-dinner drink on the roof top. But we got up there and it was so windy we could hardly stand up. We could barely breath we were laughing so hard.

Ridiculousness. Siiiigggghhhh…good times.

These faces pretty much sum up our weekend:

Running…family…friends…food….what else is there?

Hope yall have a great week!

Will Run For Pie

2011-11-30T22:07:00.001-06:00

Hey Gobblers!!!

How is everyone? Sorry I’ve been gone for so long. We traveled for Thanksgiving and you know how that goes….

So Happy (late) Thanksgiving from your favorite Runner in the Delta. :)

Tom and I trekked it East for Thanksgiving to my hometown of Knoxville, TN. If our summer vacation is Withers Gone Wild, then Thanksgiving is FrazierPalooza. It is a lot of family time, let me tell ya. But we love it!

We got in late Wednesday night and slept like rocks after traveling 8 hours with the rest of America down I-40 with a truck full of luggage, Thanksgiving delicacies, and two dogs (yes I said two dogs…more later in this post).

I was up before the sun to go run the Fleet Feet Knoxville Hot to Trot 10K! I do this race every year and my dad has a tradition of coming along as my photographer and cheerleader.

First picture of the morning: I can’t believe I’ve put this on the internet to live on forever.

Just keepin’ it real, you know. This one’s a little better. Ehhhh…who are we kidding, not really. The first time I did this race in 2009 I did the 5K instead of the 10K and completed it in around 32 minutes or so. Last year I did the 10K in 1:06, which I was happy with at the time. Earlier this fall, Bex and I did a 10K and my time was again around 1:02:58, but the course was VERY hilly. Knowing that the Knoxville Hot to Trot course was fairly flat, I was DETERMINED to beat my time of 1:03. I had a goal to come in under an hour if it meant making it in 59:59. This meant keeping under a 10 minute pace which I am not accustomed too but I had to at least start the race giving it a shot. I hit the 5K mark around 29:30 which was a 9:30 mile…right on track to meet my goal! Much to my surprise, the second half of the course felt just as good. I checked my watch every half mile or so and was shocked to see my pace stay around 9:30 the whole time! I was feeling great so I just kept it up. For the last mile, I sprinted during the chorus of each song on my iPod, and slowed to the 9:30 pace for the verses. This made the last mile go by so fast and helped my overall pace.

I crossed the finish line at 57:58 and was THRILLED with this time!! Average of a 9:21 mile.

WOOOOOT! Holla for a Thanksgiving PR! This has really boosted my confidence about the upcoming half marathon on Saturday. I am really excited to see how I do. Fingers crossed it goes half as well as that 10K.

After the run and quick grocery stop, my dad dropped me off at my mom's where we showered, ate breakfast (during which I REALLY tried to pace myself because I knew I had a day-o-eating ahead of me!) and watched the parade on TV with our four-legged children.

My mom’s dog, Pepper: He has a very hard life as you can tell. All this traveling has worn Reba out, but she sleeps with one eye open as to keep a watch on her most prized possession: After relaxing a bit we gussied up a little and headed over to my dad’s. Another Thanksgiving tradition of ours is to take our Christmas card picture on Thanksgiving day.

We started out by the pool in my dad’s back yard. It is a very beautiful pool but these pictures just didn’t do it for me for a number of reasons.

This isn’t our pool, and I’m afraid it would look like we have this big fancy pool at OUR house, when in fact all we have is a yard full of chewed up tennis balls in our back yard.
The sun is in our eyes, and Tom looks kinda mad. Even though I know he was having a BLAST taking these pictures.
Reba looks like a feral dog we picked up on the side of the interstate. Either that or the goofy inbred hymenia from the Lion King.

So we tried one full-body pic….mmmmm notsomuch. See #2 and #3 above.

After taking about 7,203,320 pictures, we finally just flipped a coin landed on this one. What do you think?!Hahahaah…just kidding! I think we’ll go with something along these lines….we got out of the sun and this is cuter to me and a little more casual or something. More ‘us.’I ordered my cards at www.CardsDirect.com again this year but more about that in a later post. By the time our photo shoot was over, the rest of the family had arrived. My dad’s brother and his family came in from Greenville, SC. I had not seen my cousins since I got married so it was great to spend time with them again!

Here are Molly and Andrew! My fun sweet cousins, how I have loved watching them grow up into polite, well-rounded, cooler-than-I-ever-was-or-will-be young adults! Early in the afternoon the cooking began! I contributed an awesome apple blackberry pie. Well, it turned out awesome. There was a little berry-juice-overflow-age (yes that is a technical cooking hazard) into the bottom of the oven and it may or may not have smoked up the whole downstairs of the house.

And we may or may not have had to open every single window and door.

And the fire alarm may or may not have gone off for 20 minutes.

No big deal. It tasted so great, everyone forgot about how smoky their clothes smelled all night. Obviously, it was a good thing I had brought the pie since we were in serious danger of not having enough food.

Getting dinner prepared was a group effort. With lots of supervising, taste-testing, and fire-department calling (just kidding on that last one…kind of.) This is a picture of me and all my step siblings! From left to right: Tyler, and Ryan (Louise’s sons), Ryan’s wife Cami, their daughters Amaya and Phoenix, and of course me and Tom.Louise and Amaya did a beautiful job of decorating the table!And it looks even better with many of the people I love gathered around it… After dinner we did this for about two hours, wishing we had worn yoga pants instead. It was a LOVELY day and just made me realize how many things I have to be thankful for.

On Friday we ate with my mom’s family. Mom said she wasn’t going to force turkey on us two days in a row so we had an AMAZING beef tenderloin. It was a smaller crowd than my dad’s and we just lounged around all evening and enjoyed each other’s company.

My Aunt Lynda and our Great Aunt Betty My Aunt Lynda, her dog Misty, and my mom: Speaking of Lynda’s dog Misty…Misty was the second dog that rode with us from Tunica! Long story short….

Lynda is a big time poodle-lover, and her beloved poodle Simba died a few months ago after a long and lovely life as Lynda’s four-legged son (Simba was preceded in death by his brother Onyx about a year before that).

A couple of weeks ago Tom ran into our good friend Nancy, who mentioned that she was looking for a home for her female poodle. So, being the incredibly quick-witted, considerate, smart, and handsome guy he is, Tom immediately thought, “Eureka! Aunt Lynda!” After both Nancy and Lynda thought/prayed/talked about it, Nancy decided to give her poodle to Lynda! So we were the transport for this sweet affectionate girl.

She and Reba curled up in the back seat and slept the whole way to Knoxville. And when Misty met Lynda, it was love at first site. I am so happy that all worked out so well! After a few nights with Misty, Lynda said, “This is the dog I’ve been praying for!” Who doesn’t love a happy ending during the holidays?!

Tom and my Gigi….Gigi is my mom’s mom. Isn’t she gorgeous and young-looking for 85? So pumped I’ve go those genes. My cousins Jack and Zoe…okay so help me out with some Celebrity Doppledangers, will you? I feel like Jack looks like some teenager celebrity but I can’t put my finger on who it is!! Jack is a very talented guitarist, so maybe it’s a musician I’m thinking of? Help me out here. Sidenote…last I checked he was 8 years old and now he’s 6 inches taller than me. How’d that happen?

And as for Zoe…well, I think it’s painfully obvious who she looks like!!!

Do you see it? I totally think she looks like Dakota Fanning. They are both so beautiful, and although I cannot speak for Dakota because I don’t know her personally, Zoe is just as beautiful on the inside!

Siiiiggggghhhhh…what a lovely family I have. Nothing like the long weekend at home to remind you how blessed you really are!

We were able to hang out with some of my high school friends on Saturday but alas there are no pictures because I was too busy talking and laughing so I apologize. I’ll do better next time I promise!

Until then….

Count your blessing every day and take time to notice where God show’s up for you in your life!

I am thankful for YOU this holiday, and will fill you in on all the awesome half-marathon weekend festivities next week!

Football, Socks, and Push-Ups

2011-11-13T15:59:00.001-06:00

Hey Gals! Hope you’re having a great start to your week. We had a FUN weekend with family in Starkville at the Mississippi State/Alabama game.

Tom and I are a house divided since he went to State and I went to Alabama.

Sara Whit and Brian have a tailgate with a group of families, so we hung out there pretty much all day before the game. Lilly was in her element with all her friends…young and old…there!

Giving Baby Hunter some love!

There was lots of corn hole, food, and smack-talkin’!

Myra even came in town for the occasion. It was her birthday on Saturday so she brought some friends from Nashville! It was so fun to see her and her friends, and have the whole family together!

Myra with Lilly, and her good friend Emily with Hunter (her nephew).

I LOVE this family pic! Usually the only time we get a family picture is on Christmas Eve, so it was nice to get one in all our football wear! Of course I’m the black sheep that went to Alabama and didn’t wear maroon…can’t help it. SISTERS!!!! Love these two more than I can handle!!

It was a super fun weekend, and Alabama won! Woop-woop!

While at the tailgate, I ran into a friend who reads the blog…Hi Mandy! You can’t lurk on the blog anymore now that I’ve called you out. :)

She loved the sock bun post, so I wanted to do a follow-up. I wanted to tell yall that there are two ways to do a sock bun.

First, put your hair in a pony tail, then roll your pony tail into the sock bun. This is what I did in the picture below. This is a more secure sock bun, if you’re going to be wearing it all day at work and running errands and whatnot. 2. The second way is to just pull your hair on top of your head and roll it into the sock bun without putting it into a ponytail first. You have to have pretty long hair to make this work, but I have done it a couple times with no problems. I just use some bobby pins to pin up the loose part underneath, if that makes sense. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures.

So.

I tried way #2 one night after a shower. I dried my hair about 80% of the way, so it was still a little damp when I put it up. I slept on it like this and much to my surprise it didn’t fall out too much.

In the morning, I took the sock out and was left with THIS:

Gorgeous, no-heat curls!!!

I need to give credit where it’s due, though, with this blog which inspired me to try it. I stumbled upon her picture on Pinterest and was so impressed! And even more impressed when it actually worked on my hair.

It was trial and error, though. First, I tried the overnight sock bun using method #1, and when I took it out in the morning, there was huge crease where the rubber band had been. I always have that problem with my hair, so I really wasn’t surprised. Then when I tried it WITHOUT the rubber band, it was perfect.

I need to be honest and tell you that my hair really only looked like this until about 2pm that day (this picture was taken at about 7am) before pretty much all the curl fell out. But, with the right product and hair type, you could probably get this look to last all day! Again, just trial and error with your hair type and lifestyle. :)

So there you have it…..the Sock Bun Curls….who knew?!?!

On the running front, we are down to the final weeks before St. Jude Half Marathon! I feel great about it, and am really getting excited. Bex and I ran our 11 mile long run the other day and did it at about an 11:00 pace. Just right!

St. Jude 2010

I figure that if we can do our long practice runs in the 11:00-minute-mile range, we will be right on track for race day because our race pace will be slightly faster…hopefully.

Also, Bex and I have decided to do the 100 Push Up Challenge. Have you heard about this?

I have the upper body strength of a T-Rex, so I am in some serious need of upper body workouts. When training for a running event, I am SO BAD about making time for strength training. I know it’s important, but I just have run, run, run on the brain and never manage to work it in.

So Bex and I thought this would be a fun way to work in some upper body stuff. You are supposed to do an ‘Initial Strength Test’ to determine what level you fall into for the challenge. The test is basically just doing as many push ups as you can before falling into a sweaty, quivering heap on the floor.

I was able to do 12.

I told you. Captain T-Rex, right here.

But I will keep you posted as we go week-by-week and increase my strength! I was able to talk Tom into doing it also, so that should be fun. He is in a totally different level then be, being able to do 30 push ups for the initial test.

Go check it out and try it for yourselves!

I am not sure if I can get to 100, but I am wondering if getting to 50 consecutive push ups by December 31 is an attainable goal??? I’ll let you know!

Have a great week, everyone!

Halloween and other Phenomena

2011-11-06T13:57:00.001-06:00

Hey Guys!

Can you believe it’s November already? I need to start my Christmas shopping, but I’m in deep denial and putting it off instead. :)

How was your Halloween? We had fun, as usual. Like any other special occasion Tunica puts on a pretty good party for Halloween! We went over to our old friend’s house, just like last year. So that Tom could participate in some Halloween ‘tricks.’

Look closely at the picture below…do you see anything usual lurking in the bushes? How about now? Anything to beware of in the these innocent looking bushes?If you answered no to those questions you would have been severely TRICKED on Halloween night over on the corner of School Street and Magnolia Avenue. Per tradition, Tom dressed up in his turkey-hunting guilly suit and hid out in the bushes while unsuspecting goblins and goblettes came skipping up the front porch.But don’t worry…he didn’t jump out and grab the little ones, Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Style. He just sat quietly and made a little ‘squeaking’ noise with a Cow Elk Call (another gadget used for hunting elk) while they ran up to get their candy.

Kind of like a little ‘warning’ call. Then, on their way back out to the sidewalk, he would pop his head out and startle them a little. The majority of the kids love it! We did have a couple of criers, but I followed up with parents and was assured that they aren’t scarred for life. It was a fun night in our little town complete with lots of candy and hay rides! After the crowds thinned out, the Guilly Monster came out of hiding. Andi Kate got a big kick at ‘Uncle Tom’ in this silly costume.Her little sister kept pointing at Tom and saying, “Scay-wee. Scay-wee.” And Andi Kate would just say, “Oh Leland, it’s only Uncle Tom!!!'” It was all in good fun. :) In other news…

I wanted to share something with y’all that has deeply effected my life and changed it for the better.

Enter: The Sock Bun. Have you all discovered the Sock Bun? I cannot believe I lived 29 full years before discovering it. There are many mornings when I hit the ‘ole snooze button one too many times, only to wake up with no time for hair-fixing, or hair-washing for that matter.

I found a video via Pinterest that changed my dirty-hair-mornings forever! Kinda cute, right? It’s so easy and looks great if you get it right. Which you can, it’s totally easy. This morning I rolled out of bed, put up the untamable, unwashed hair in the ‘ole Sock Bun, threw on a sparkly SweatyBand, and I was good to go!

The result is a full, round, perfect bun. On your head. Let’s make no mistakes there. heh heh. Every single time I wear my hair like this, I get compliments and people ask ‘how’d you get your bun so perfect?’Plus, it kinds makes me feel like a ballerina. Just a little. :)Here is the video of a great sock bun tutorial. Hope you long-haired gals give it a try and love it as much as I do!

Have a great week everyone!!

God’s Gift…

2011-10-27T21:14:00.001-05:00

…to the calendar.

October 25, 1982, my friends.

That’s right.

THE DAY OF MY BIRTH.

Good times.

So on Tuesday I turned the big 2-9. It was a good day, nothing too wild and crazy. I got up early and went on a 6 miler with Abby and Bex. I don’t know if was because it was my birthday but it felt absolutely wonderful! The first half was super slow, but I sped up a little for the second half and finished around a 11 minute mile. Great way to start your birthday if you ask me!

Also, this weekend Tom and I went to Nashville (more about that later in this post) and made a pit stop at Trader Joe’s on our way out of town. I was on the hunt for some awesome coffee that Katie had mentioned, but found out they were out UNTIL NEXT YEAR. Wop-wop.

So I bought some Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle mix instead. This stuff will seriously make you get out of bed in the morning. It is sooooo good and easy to make. Of course, I’ve always been a really bad pancake-maker (as evident by the well-done ‘cakes in the picture below) but even I had an easy time with these.

So after my run I had the Withers Pancake House Blue Plate Special and headed off to work! In our office, we get everyone a little $10 gift for their birthday. My co-worker Adrienne knows and shares my affinity for lip gloss and bought me this awesome sampler set from Sephora. In addition to 2 Diet Cokes and a Golden Retriever puppy card, this was the perfect birthday gift for me!

When I got home, my mom had sent me this adorable bouquet of flowers! I love the candy corn vase filler…very ‘me,’ don’t you think? As you might remember from last year, it’s a Withers Gone Wild birthday tradition for the birthday boy or girl to get a steak dinner, birthday cake and ice cream, and a $100 bill on their birthday. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I bought myself a new pair of running shoes with my hundy.

Tom also gave me this gorgeous McCarty plate that I have been eyeing for some time!!! The swirl down the middle is supposed to represent the Mississippi River, since the artist is from Mississippi. I love it, and can’t wait to put it up on the shelves after the holiday decorations come down. So after work we headed over to my in-laws for some birthday fun with the fam. Lilly wanted to help me blow out the candles. When Mamie (my MIL…her grandmother name is Mamie, her real name is Lilibeth) set the cake down in front of us Lilly shrieked, “IT’S PIIIIIINK!!!!” she was shaking, she was so excited. So cute.

And of course she helped me blow out the candles too.

After dinner she wanted to ‘do hair.’ This is her new thing…doing hair. Doing hair is basically her tugging and brushing and petting your hair like a dog and occasionally tapping you on the shoulder to point her finger at you and say, “I not done yet!” After I got my hair done, my father in law said, “Lilly what about me, will do my hair next?”

Lilly gave a sheepish grin and giggled to herself and said, “No, Boo. Your hair all gone.”

We all had a good laugh about that. Boo just shook his head and said, “I guess I walked right in to that one!” It was a fun night, and I am just so thankful that Tom’s family is so sweet and wonderful. We have a fun time together, and his parents always treat me like one of their own. Such great in-laws!

Over the weekend prior to my birthday, Tom and I went to Nashville to meet my dad and Louise for some birthday and football fun. We spent the night in a downtown hotel and walked across the pedestrian bridge to the Titans game on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day and great football weather! I loved walking across the bridge because when I was living in Nashville I used to go for runs across that bridge when I was training for my first half…the Music City. Ahhhh, memories! It was a really fun day and my dad swung us some awesome seats at Club Level. Sadly, the Titans missed the memo that they needed to play some football that day so we left at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It think the final score ended up being like 47-7 or something terrible like that! Win or lose, we still had a fun quick little trip!

So that was my birthday celebration this year. Good thing I was born exactly 29 years ago, otherwise yall wouldn’t have this blog to make your life complete! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Laura’s Life Lately

2011-10-21T08:03:00.001-05:00

Hey Everyone! Happy Friday to you.

Sorry I’ve been MIA lately…I stare at a computer all day at work, then the last thing I want to do when I get home at night is stare at one some more. So I’ve been neglecting the blog lately and I apologize!

First thing’s first…I need to tell yall something.

I got home from a late evening at work the other night….

and walked into my bedroom….

only to find Tom in bed with another woman.

Yes, it’s true. He was in bed with a gorgeous redhead!!!

Look at her, giving me the stink eye. I told her to get out of my bed and she just stared at Tom lovingly as if to say, “You must choose between us, My Love.”

And much to my dismay, he picked her. She gave me the stink eye again for trying to move in on her man. So I just left and went to do some laundry and watch Law & Order in the den. By myself.

The other day Sara Whit and Brian brought Lilly over for kid’s day at the Tunica Fire Department!

Look at how gorgeous she is. GORGE I tell you!

Our fire department is made up 100% of volunteers, and I think I’ve mentioned before that Tom is a member. Each year they bring out the antique fire truck, give rides to the kids, and have hot dogs and hamburgers. It is a lovely little small-town event. :)

Lilly with her dad! I love this picture. When she was born, she totally looked like a Withers. As she has gotten a little older she is looking more and more like her dad. Here’s our fearless driver with another truck load of kiddos to tour the neighborhood!

Lilly’s all strapped in and ready to go fight those fires in the ‘fi-yah twuck.’

I think this might be a new favorite of mine! Such a sweet uncle/niece picture!

We ended the day with hot dogs and Capri Sun. Fire trucks…friends…hot dogs…what more could a kid want on a Sunday afternoon?!?!

A little update on St. Jude training…

Our longest run to date has been 9 miles. I was REALLY happy with this time, still hovering around the 11:00+ mile.

When I read other running blogs, sometimes I feel a little inferior and really slow. I feel like everyone runs half marathons and marathons in sub-10-minute miles and I’m just this super slow tortoise. But at the end of the day, an 11 minute mile is better than no mile at all.

And I just have to remember that I am competing against no one but myself, and other people’s times and speeds do not matter to me. Still. I feel a little slow, but not enough to get discouraged.

So I am happy with where I am in my training. Last year I wasn’t dedicated to training and while I PR’d in the race, I felt HORRIBLE the whole time.

I can tell this year will be different because I have been much more dedicated to my training.

This year I wrote out all my planned runs, and highlight them as they are completed. September’s Calendar above

Yes I am shopping on the internet at work, as evident by the picture above. Don’t act like I’m the only one.

Anyway, this was the plan for this week:

Sunday: rest
Monday: 5 mile run
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 1 hour Cross Training
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10 miles

We completed everything except for the Cross Training, so we are gearing up for a long run of 10 miles tomorrow. I am nervous, but excited. I always feel a little nervous before a long run.

But it always feels like such an accomplishment when it’s completed.

So anyway, I have the whole time leading up to the half-marathon planned out week by week, so that we know where we need to be in terms of mileage. I also have a place on the plan where I write down my average pace for each run, so I can track my speed as well.

Just a few more weeks until the big day! Last year I was really dreading this day because I was severely undertrained and knew it. But this year I am excited to see what I can do because I’ve worked hard and am ready for a good race!

Some other random pictures of life lately….

Fall is here in full force in our part of the country and I enjoyed my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season the other day!! It was a lovely treat.

Bex and I came home from a run the other morning and were greeted by this in our back yard:

One perk to getting up and running in the morning, God rewards your efforts with a beautiful view like this!

And I’ll leave you on this lovely Friday with a picture of my daughter having a bad hair day:

Love her sweet face.

Have a great day everyone, weekend’s almost here!! HOLLA!!!

Signs of the Season

2011-10-06T08:25:00.001-05:00

I know the blogosphere lately has been all abuzz with pumpkin concoctions, warm oats, and hot flavored coffee…fall is FINALLY here praise the Lord!

I was chatting with my sister today and mentioned that October was my favorite month because of the weather and because of my birthday. And she said, “Well, my birthday is in November and it’s not my favorite month. My favorite month is SUMMER!” ha ha….

I explained that living in Mississippi in the summer with our 115* days and 95* nights pretty miserable, as she might remember. She said she did. And she didn’t blame me for liking October.

Around here, October also welcomes hunting season.

Which means I can welcome plenty of alone time since I am what we call a deer woods widow. The wife who loses her husband to the deer woods every weekend.

Sidenote: This is Katie. Short for Katherine Anne. I named her when my friend Tim got her as a tiny baby puppy. She is precious. Not the best hunting dog ever, but she sure is cute.

Anyway, after Tom’s obsession with the garden subsides, he trades in his gardening hoe or bow and arrow and spends all his spare time in the deer woods.

But I don’t mind too much….it’s healthy to have hobbies, and it just gives me more time to do the really important things in life…like watch Criminal Minds while eating M&Ms and popcorn.

For the sake of responsible journalism, I should tell you that these particular pictures were taken back on Labor Day weekend at the dove field. Dove season begins the Saturday before Labor Day, and deer season begins October 1.

Duck season begins the day after Thanksgiving, for those of you who care. And my husband hunts all three as often as possible.

Opening weekend of Dove Season is kind of a kick-off to the fall…everyone gets together in the field and hangs out and watches the dogs retrieve and has a beer or two.

It’s always a fun day!

Another sign of the season is I’ve got all my Halloween decorations out!

I was a little overzealous this year and put them out on like September 25. I just couldn’t help it!

Here are the good ‘ole shelves! They’re really starting to grow on me now that I’ve figured out that the black frames with black and white pictures is the way to go.

I always get a lot of compliments on these little guys…vases filled with candy corn. And it never fails…every year someone reaches down in there and grabs a handful before I can stop them. These candy corn are three years old and are for decorative use only! Maybe I need a sign… “Please do not eat the decorations.” Ha ha…

I got these little ghosty guys at Hobby Lobby this year. LOVE Hobby Lobby, I could live there.

And I got this candy-pumpkin-filled-candy-corn dish (say that three times fast) at the Dollar General for $1. Another reason I love Halloween…an excuse to keep candy out in the open.

Another sidenote about my living room: My new chair came in! Replaced Old Brownie with this beauty!!!!

I love it. I stare at it with a goofy grin every time I walk into the room.

Old Brownie has gone to live at my in-law’s Guest House…also known as The Place Where All Tom’s Old Furniture Goes To Die. :-/

I spruced up the outside of our house too!

3 fake pumpkins + $1 harvest garland + tons of hot glue = Pumpkin Topiary!

Orange fabric + black felt + Clip Art templates = Halloween pillows!

These pillows were SO easy and cost less than $7 to make for both of them. And I still have fabric leftover. I just got some super cheap orange knit fabric at Hobby Lobby. Along with some black felt.

I made the pillow covers, and simply cut out the cat and bats using a template I printed off of Microsoft Word Clip Art. Then glued them to the pillow cover with fabric glue! So easy and cute, if I do say so myself.

(try not to be too jealous of my Dirty-McDirtyton rocking chairs) Happy Fall Y’all!!!

Ode to Lilly

2011-09-26T21:46:00.001-05:00

We all know that Lilly is pretty much the star of the show ‘round these parts. I mean, understandably so. She is a pretty big deal, after all.

A few weeks ago, Sara Whit and I trekked it up to Nashville to visit sister Myra and see some Nashville friends. I got to go to dinner with my childhood friend Caitlin, and Sara Whit met up with her old buddy, Andrea.Andrea also happens to be a very talented photographer, who graciously takes pictures of Lilly every six months or so. The pictures you see in this post were not taken by Andrea (hers are about a thousand times better), but rather by yours truly. I asked Andrea if she would mind if I took a few with my camera if I promised not to get in the way. She was nice enough to accommodate me, so I lurked behind her while she took the real pics! I just wanted to snap a few of our sweet little nugget!

Speaking of The Princess (this post is titled ‘Ode to Lilly’ after all!), I have been working on a little project for her for a couple of weeks.

It all started with this window treatment:

And this antique bed (love):

With Lilly nearing the 2 1/2 year mark, Sara Whit decided it was high time that she move into her ‘Big Girl Bed.’ She already had those cute window treatments, made for her nursery. And she talked Brian into painting this family heirloom one afternoon (don’t worry, it was a weird yellow-beige-glazed color before, and she got the okay from her mom to paint it…much better this way, trust me).

She picked out some more fabric to match the windows and let me go to town! I was excited to tackle this project and had a lot of fun doing it, getting some great practice in on my sewing machine. Sara Whit told me basically what she wanted, and I just sort of winged it from there.

I started with these shams:

I really wanted to point these out because I’m very proud of them because they took me approximately 1,382 days to complete. Each.

Then I just used her other fabrics to do some fun throw pillows, too!Sara Whit got this pretty purple quilt for a great deal at Marshall’s. Here’s how the whole bed looks in the room: Cute, right?!

I love the way it turned out! The throw at the end of the bed is a weird size…we had a weird amount of that pink dandelion fabric so I just winged it. The opposite side is backed with a soft, flannel fabric in light pink.

Sidenote: Looking at this picture, I’m realizing a pattern with myself. I cannot ‘design’ (if you could even call it that) a bed without a throw at the foot of the bed:

Our guest room

Our master bedroom.

Huh.

What do you think about that? For some reason I don’t feel like it’s finished if there isn’t SOMETHING down there tying everything together…anchoring it, in a way.

Huh.

*Anyway*

Here’s the room from another angle so you can soak up all the pink cuteness you can stand for a Tuesday.

Lilly loved it. I know this because she told me so. See? Doesn’t she look like she loves her Big Girl Room?! Here’s a good pic of the other side of the dandelion throw. Soft and pink! I was taking pics and all of a sudden I said, “Okay, night-night!” And this is what she did: Funny girl. She said more than once… “My blankie!! My pink blankie!” This is two-year-old talk for, “I love it!” After our little bedroom photo shoot, I was walking out the door and she said, “Okay take one right here too:” Goofer.

Sara Whitten and Brian thanked me by cooking a wonderful steak dinner for us! It was lovely to spend time with this sweet family. We ended the evening like this: And this: I love this picture! Right before I took it I heard him say to her, “Hey girl, how’d you get so pretty?”

Sweetness.

I know I said that Lilly is totally the star of the show in our family. There are many gatherings where we’ve looked at each other and said, “What did we do before Lilly? Sit around and stare at each other?”

Well, all that is about to change for this little princess……Do you see what I see?!?!?!That’s right! Lilly is going to be a big sister!She’s excited, can you tell?!?Coming April 2012….Baby Atwood #2!We are praying BOY for Brian’s sake.

In all seriousness, Lilly is such a joy and a LIGHT in our lives, and a second baby on the way is an answer to prayer!

Thankful for Friends!

2011-09-26T07:50:00.001-05:00

Hey guys! How are you?

Hope your weekend was great and you woke up *not* dreading Mondays like I usually do! I got lots of good beauty sleep last night so I’m feeling a little less-grumpy than usual on this Monday morning.

We had a great weekend. I shopped for Halloween decorations (more on that later this week) all day on Saturday, then came home in the afternoon to tidy the house and get ready for friends to come over.

Whenever our friends come over for a casual night like this, I don’t feel the need to dust and vacuum and go all-out with cleaning the house.

Everyone but us has kids, so they’re used to dust bunnies and dog hair tumbleweeds! Making sure the TP is in the holder, and the beds are made is the extent of cleaning I do! Our friends are super laid-back and could care less! Below is Tom with Andi Kate and Leland. Their dad, Nick, and Tom have been lifelong friends and just got back from Wyoming together.

Here’s Ann Parker, our next door neighbor! Funny girl.

Tom and Andi Kate bonded on Saturday night. This picture makes me smile.

I love seeing our back yard like this! Patio full of friends and yard full of kids!

In all we had 8 adults, 7 kids, and one dog…try to keep up:

Nick and Jessica have Andi Kate (3) and Leland (2)

Anna Mary and Chad have Ann Parker (2) and Ben (4 months)

Erin and John Allen have Webb (7), Harper & Turner (both 4 months)

Tom and Laura: Reba (3)

Once the sun went down and the bugs came out we headed inside and it was total chaos with all the kids in our non-kid proof house!

It was totally fun, though. Webb, such a good big brother!

I love this picture…Andi Kate just so happy and content with her friend ‘Mista Tom,’ and Leland…not so much. ha ha.

Andi Kate and Ben with Nick.

Leland chillin’ in Ben’s bouncy seat. This girl is CRAZY and I love her. One second she’s in a bouncy seat, you turn around and the next she’s on top of the refrigerator or something.

Me with Harper! Or was it Turner? I seriously can’t tell them apart. I was holding one all night, feeding him and talking to him, calling him one name….then Erin tells me it’s the other one I’ve got!

I don’t know how she tells them apart.

No party is complete without some couch-wrestlin’…..

And some football watchin’….

Love this picture…Tom is kinda awkward with a baby but overall he’s great with kids!

Sidenote: how much do you love my boots?!?! I got them on sale at Victoria’s Secret (sidenote to the sidenote…Tom was disappointed to see VS come in the mail only to find it was footwear ha ha….)! I love them and they are SO comfortable.

I will live in them this fall and winter, I’m pretty sure.

Saturday night after everyone was gone and the kitchen was clean, I ended my night with this:

All my fave design shows on the ole DVR! It’s the little things….

So all in all it was a fun Saturday night and I just wanted to document the fun silly nights like these, that make our life so rich right now! We are so blessed to have these fun wonderful friends.

Sunday morning I was up about 45 minutes before the sun to set out for a long run with Kristi and Bex. We had 8 miles planned. We were going to do a 4-mile loop, stop at the house for fuel and water, and repeat the same loop.

And we did it! Not without complaining and sweating, but we got it done!

I’m pretty sure I had negative splits, too, which made me happy. Rounding the minute here, but it was something like:

First Half: 11:45 mile

Second Half: 10:30 mile

I completed the entire thing in 1:29:19, which is about a 11:10 mile. Right on target!

Training is trucking right along and going much better than last year, when Bex was pregnant and Kristi hadn’t picked up running yet. Training with friends DEFINITELY makes it easier to get up in the morning!

Oh Hey….

2011-09-19T11:30:00.001-05:00

I forgot I had a blog there for a second. Imagine that.

I have been running and playing and working and having a great time over the past few weeks! My mom came to town a few weeks ago and I surprised her with a fun girls night out.

First we had dinner at a great Memphis restaurant, Spindini.

Lobster Pizza and wine? Yes and yes.

Then we walked down the street to the Orpheum where we went to see Allison Krause and Union Station! I bought us some cheap seats tickets and we were literally up high enough to touch the ceiling. It was fun and funny. We loved it, even though we could really only see the top of good ‘ole Allison’s head.

This past weekend on Friday, I ran the Cooper Young 4-Miler with two new friends from church, Abby and Hilary. I was *fired up* because I ran this race in 38:42 which is a 9:41 pace. And I had a great time with these two sweet girls!

Although it’s not fast for some, this is VERY fast for me! I felt great the whole time, and really felt like I was pushing it for the entire four miles. The race was a great course with very shallow rolling hills, and I think that helped. It was a great run!

On Sunday I did my long run for the week of 7 miles. Again, pretty happy with my time of 1:17:28, about a 11:04 pace. Not quite as fast as I’d like but I’ll take it.

On Sunday night, Tom came home from a 10-day trip to Wyoming!!!

He and three friends drove allllllll the way out to Cody, WY (about 24 hours in the car, over 1500 miles one way) for a week-long camping and hunting trip.

They started their journey at Livingston Outfitters and traveled on horseback into the Shoshone National Forest.

Where they spent a week in tents, hunting Elk every day with a bow and arrow. Hardcore.

They had an amazing time, and said it was the trip of a lifetime!

I am so happy to have him home, although I’m not really looking forward to the laundry situation that’s staring me down from the mudroom. I’ll let you use your imagination as to what it smells like in there.

So, in a nutshell, that’s the short version of what we’ve been up to lately.

I have been *really* proud of myself and my St. Jude training so far. I have been very dedicated and sticking with my plan, even when the other girls are unable to run in the morning. I have done many a long run solo and I am actually enjoying it!

While it’s always nice to run with friends, I have done both of my 7-miles alone, and did just fine!

The crew that did our Cooper Young Run together is gearing up for a 10K on October 15, so I’ll keep you posted on how we do!

Have a great week everyone!

Hello, Mo Jo

2011-09-01T21:57:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday girls…hope you are winding down (or winding up?) for a fun weekend! We don’t have much planned around here…a little dove hunt…a visit with family…pretty low key ‘round these parts.

I have been in a great mood lately because I can tell that my running mo jo is BACK in full force.

I’m not sure what it is that has gotten me back in the groove…but I’m glad it’s back. I feel so much better when I’m in a regular running and exercising routine and can work up a good sweat about four times a week.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been in this routine:

Sunday: Rest
Monday: Short run
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Cross Train (45 minutes to an hour)
Thursday: Medium Run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Long Run

See…nothin’ fancy…not rocket science…just a good ole fashion one-hour-a-day-four-days-a-week type of thing. I also have a few races lined up this fall, leading up to the St. Jude Half Marathon on December 3.

To be honest, I don’t know where my mo jo was this summer, or why it was gone for so long. But I’m glad to have it back, that’s for sure!

I know Tom is glad too….I’m much easier to live with when I’m not having a pity party over my too-tight jeans all the time. And typically, when I’m mo-jo-less, I will set my alarm before going to bed, with the good intentions of working out in the morning. Then, overnight, my mo jo does not return and I hit the snooze button. ~~Three times~~ Twice. At 5:45 am. And eventually turn off the alarm altogether and go back to sleep.

Tom does not appreciate this.

It leads to him waking up, only to hear me slam the alarm, roll over, and continue snoring. This annoys him, understandably so, because while he does not being woken up in order for me to actually get up to run, he DOES mind being woken up alarm in order for me to go straight back to sleep.

Can’t say I blame him.

So welcome back, mo jo. Nice to see you again.

I wanted to send a shout-out to all my girls in Nashville on this lovely Friday. A few weeks ago, all my sweet friends made the trek from Music City to our Delta City, just to visit little ‘ole me. In usual bad-blogger-Laura fashion, I didn’t take nearly enough pictures.

I just get to gabbing and carrying on and quite honestly forget! Terrible, I know. All of these pictures are from our gossip dinner fest on Friday night.

I made dinner at the house and we sat around the table for hours catching up and laughing at each other!

Please: A moment of silence to pay respect to the ridiculousness that is this picture, above. Kathleen. I love you.

On Saturday, we recuperated pool-side, and ended the day with dinner at Cafe Marie in Tunica!

The girls were all sweet enough to accompany Tom and I to church on Sunday before it was time for them to head back to The Big City.

I think they loved their time in the country, and I know I certainly enjoyed having them!

I wish I had taken detailed notes about the stories that were told around this table….

Tom loved seeing all the girls, too…even though I kicked him out of the house for the weekend to his parents’, so us girls could maximize the feeling of being in the sorority house together again!

Thank you, my sweet friends, for traveling the distance to see me! It warmed my heart and renewed my spirit like you’ll never know. I love you dearly.

New Stuff and A Knoxville Weekend

2011-08-30T08:16:00.001-05:00

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Hope you’re having a great morning so far.

I just got back from a lovely sunrise run with Bex and Kristi. We did 4 miles fairly easy.

Nice way to start the day. :)

Now I am having a smoothie, and watching Today Show while writing this post. My smoothie today is MUCH better than the last one I made! I have figured out, I think, that the key to a good smoothie is cold ingredients. You have to have frozen or really cold stuff to have a good smoothie, in my opinion.

This time I used:

Frozen Banana-lama-ding-dong
Frozen blueberries
Handful of fresh spinach
Milk
1 packet sugar-free hot chocolate mix (<---need to buy some choc. protein powder instead!)

This was kind of an exciting run because I had a bunch of new stuff to try out. Don’t you love running or exercising when you have new stuff? New stuff gets me all kinds of excited.

New #1: First new thing I wanted to share…..is….well, not really very ‘new’ anymore. I got these shoes at the Nike outlet when Mom and I stopped at the Foley outlets on the way to the beach.

These are the Nike Vomero 5. I have no idea what that means. I just tried on a bunch of different pairs at the outlet, and thought these looked and felt the best. Now that I wear them regularly, they are a little more *white* than I normally like, but they feel great so I’ll keep ‘em!

Before I ran my first half-marathon in 2007, I got fitted for shoes at a nice running store in Nashville. I have run in those same shoes ever since (not that exact pair, obviously, but I would just buy the same make and model over and over). So now, about 5 years later, I decided to switch it up.

While I like these shoes, I think I’d like to go get fitted again. It is high time, after all, and I’m sure over the past 5 years my running style has changed a little. I know for a fact I am a little fast, and about 2o pounds lighter than when I was fitted last.

New #2: I also got new shorts! I LOVE new shorts.

Nike Tempos, what else. I got these at Hibbett Sports, on sale. They were 20% off, plus I had a $10 off coupon. Love it when that happens! I love the crazy colors.

New #3: An Audiobook for my iPod (<--super nerd alert)!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just finished reading The Hunger Games (<--another nerd alert) and wanted to read the second book in the series. Have yall read The Hunger Games Trilogy? I have to say that Suzanne Collins is the biggest weirdo in the world. Who thinks of stuff like this???? Weird as it is, I couldn’t put it down, so needed to read the second book, Catching Fire.

I listened to the first couple of chapters on my run this morning and really liked running while listening to a book! It was a change, that’s for sure, from the music I usually listen to. Kind of gives you a totally different vibe as you run.

I wasn’t running for time, so I don’t necessarily need something super-inspiring to listen to. This was a great way to pass the time, and made my run go by quickly.

New #4: I have been in DYER need for new headphones. I always buy cheap (like $10-$15) headphones and always wind up hating them. They get sweaty and fall out, making me constantly fiddle with them for the entire second half of my run. Annoying.

I had read great things about Yurbuds. Do yall know the Yurbuds?

They were invented by an Ironman athlete, and claim to fit perfectly into your ear, not fall out, and give great comfort and sound quality.

Although I only used them for about 40 minutes this morning, I can say they held up to those claims. They were comfortable and didn’t move or slip out at all during my run this morning.

They aren’t cheap, though. I got them at Best Buy for $49.99. My mom actually bought them for me while she was here visiting over the weekend….we’re calling it an early birthday present!

Fifty bucks is definitely more than I’d like to spend on headphones, but like I said, I have probably bought 7 or 8 pairs of cheap ones over the years, all of which I have thrown away eventually. So, better to just buy one high-quality pair rather than a million cheap-o pairs!

Here’s the box in case you want to check them out at your local Best Buy!

So, all my new fun stuff this morning, made for a very exciting run. :)

Still playing some catch up, I wanted to document a recent trip to my home town, Knoxville!

A week after I got back from the beach, Tom and I headed to Nashville to spend the night with my good friend Kathleen. Early Friday morning, we finished the trip to Knoxville, to spend the afternoon at my dad’s lake house in Lenoir City.

It is such a beautiful place, I LOVE visiting here!

When I was a teenager, my dad bought this lot on the lake with about 200 feet on the water, and an old falling-down house! Over the years he has worked hard and fixed it up, little by little.

The dock and boathouse are the spot to hang out and enjoy the view and good company!

I wanted to bring my dad and Louise something cute for the dock, so I made these fun pillows!

I stenciled the ‘Lake’ and the anchor on them using the method I talked about in this post. I had some cute blue & white, as well as red & white fabric I used. I thought the red, white, and blue was kind of lake-house-ish and nautical.

The solid canvas fabric that the designs are painted on, is painter’s drop cloth fabric. Can’t beat the price, and it looks great!

I think this red and white design is cute and whimsical. I think I got it at Hancock’s.

We relaxed on the dock that afternoon, and Dad and Louise came down from their house in town (about 30 minutes away) to go to dinner on the boat.

We went to our favorite place…Calhoun’s. All East Tennessee natives (or anywhere in Tennessee, really!) will know where I’m talking about!

It was fun…good food, and fun catching up with Dad and Weez.

Tom and I spent the night at the lake house, and came back into Knoxville on Saturday. We were co-hosting a party in honor of my lifelong friend, Sarah, who got married and had a baby this year! They had a small, family-only wedding, so we threw her a party in Knoxville so we could celebrate with old friends!

Me and Tom….Tom very politely let me know he though I was ‘too tan.’ Pshhhh….as if that’s possible.

Me and Julia…another friend I’ve had since childhood (<---and I need to give Julia credit for these photos, as I stole them off of her facebook page)!

Some of the girls! That’s Sarah in the middle, and Liz to her right is holding baby Cannon.

More cute girls!

Beth and Sarah…oh, the stories I have from high school with these two girls!

I promise there were more boys there…I just realized I didn’t post any pics of the guys!

On Sunday after church, I went over to Julia’s house for a baby shower in honor of our good friend Libby. Libby is in the picture below, on my left in the beige dress.

Taylor is due to arrive around September 30!

Libby looks so cute and pregs. I gave her that sweet JJ gown in the picture below.

On Sunday night, Tom and I went over to my mom’s to have dinner with her family. Unfortunately I didn’t snap any pictures because I was too busy talking. :( Typical.

It was a really fun weekend with friends and family! I’m so glad I could go home to Knoxville and see so many old friends.

Have a great week everyone!

Playing Catch Up

2011-08-25T12:00:00.001-05:00

Good Morning everyone!

I hope you’re having a great Thursday. I am actually off of work today…HOLLA!…because my mom is coming into town later this afternoon. I just decided to take the entire day off…Mental Health Day, shall we call it.

This morning I went to the gym and did a little cardio schmorgesbord (<—sp?). 20 minute run and 20 minutes on the elliptical. St. Jude training is officially underway! I am going to do a full post on it soon. I was going to do 20 more minutes on the bike but was tired and wanted to get started on my ‘mental health day’ aka…doing nothing at home. :)

Actually now I’m not doing nothing, I just made a way-too-peanut-buttery smoothie and now I’m canning some salsa.

Into the smoothie went:

Handful of spinach
Bananer
1 packet sugar-free hot choc. mix
milk
1 1/2 T. peanut butter (too much)

Reba supervised.

She was not impressed.

Speaking of Reba…

She has heartworms.

Yes, true story. Very upsetting, but true. We are very diligent with her heartworm preventative, but the mosquitoes ‘round these parts are really bad…they will carry you away. So it is not uncommon for dogs to contract heartworms in the Delta, even if they are on preventative. So you can imagine my shock and horror when my perfect angel baby angel child gets a life-threatening disease!!! Our vet assured us that her numbers were VERY low, and she is young enough to do fine through the treatment, so we decided to move forward with the treatment.

If you know anything about heartworm treatment, you know that you have to keep your dog calm and inside and contained so as not get their heart rate up while they are undergoing the treatment. ALSO she had to take prednisone which makes her really thirsty, which of course makes her have to pee. So every day, instead of frolicking in her yard, sweet Reba has to stay in the house (which actually is better right now, because it’s been like 105 degrees here lately) all day and Tom has to go home at least once a day to let her out to pee.

Well. (now is when you stop reading if you are squeamish or happen to be eating lunch right now)

One afternoon, Tom let her out at her regular time, and I got home at my regular time of about 5:15.

And walked into our bedroom.

To this: River-O-Pee. So I spent about 30 minutes, one full roll of paper towels, and half a can of ‘Tuff Stuff’ cleaning this up. Bless her heart, right!?!? She must have been crossing her little legs! Of course I couldn’t fuss at her because she couldn’t help it. And after all those paper towels and Tuff Stuff, it came right up and the carpet is good as new now!

Don’t worry, she hasn’t done it since, but we are on the lookout. Sigh. I felt so bad for her as she watched me with this mortified look as I cleaned it up.

*Anyway* moving on…

I also mentioned I was canning some salsa this morning. I made a big batch and wanted to can some, because you can’t get fresh cilantro year-round. I use this recipe and I LOVE IT. It is always a HUGE hit whenever I take it to parties and stuff.

You guys wouldn’t know this because I haven’t blogged in forever, but Tom and I have a MASSIVE garden out at his parent’s house. I talked about it briefly in this post but hadn’t really mentioned it since. Tom planted this huge garden and let me just tell you that produce has basically taken over my life.

I told Tom that if he loves our children half as much as he loves that daggum garden, then win Father of the Year.

I have made about 10 squash casseroles, 6 eggplant parmesans, 12 loaves of zucchini bread, 12 8-oz cans of salsa, about 2 gallons each of edamame and okra, and two dozen jars of pickles and pickled okra as a result. It is a lot of work!

It needs to be said that I love my husband very much, and am SO THANKFUL that he is a hard worker and provides for our family. He will work a 10 hour day at his real job, and then go work in the garden until sundown. He loves it! It is like therapy to him.

But, how easily he forgets that his wife (that would be me) does not like to work. I like to do nothing. I like to enjoy popcorn and M&Ms on the couch with an old episode of Dateline. Sweating it out amongst the okra and eggplant ain’t really my thing. So, each evening when Tom comes home with yet ANOTHER 5-gallon bucket of fresh veggies, I am half-thankful, half-dreading the work I know is ahead of me in the kitchen.

Now I jokingly complain about all the work it takes to sustain a garden, but I know I’ll be thankful this winter when I don’t feel like cooking, and can just turn to the freezer for a delicious dinner! And I will say it is soooooo nice to be able to just grab a watermelon or a bag of edemame when I need a quick snack or appetizer. And people are always impressed when I tell them it came from our garden.

Reba’s favorites are raw okra…

…and watermelon. She eats the rind, too!

Weirdo.

So, other than gardening, we have been doing fun summer things like going to an outdoor Jason Aldean concert! Tom and I have always like him, so when tickets went on sale at a nearby amphitheatre, we snagged some.

It would totally inappropriate for Tom NOT to wear the ‘ole Stetson (yes I realize it’s August and he has already started The Beard, but more on that later)!

Jason Aldean sings a duet with Kelly Clarkson…one of my faves!

They had her purdy face up on the big screen for that song. Love that Kelly!

Sweaty grease face self-pic, post concert. Love it.

Other than that, we have enjoyed spending time with our friends and family of course.

Remember our next door neighbors who were expecting twin boys? Well they are now about 8 weeks old and so much fun!

Of course I can say they’re fun because I get to play with them and feed them and hand them back over for Erin to deal with at 3am.

I don’t know who’s Harper and who’s Turner, but aren’t they adorable?

“Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout Willis?”

The neighbor on the other side of us had a baby about week after the twins were born! They are closing in on me, I tell you!

Sweet Baby Benjamin Norwood Meyers! All three of these babies are sweet snuggly gifts from God! Love having them around.

That’s all for now! I’ll be back soon with a recap of another fun (and baby-filled) weekend in Knoxville.

Withers Gone Wild 2011: Part 4…

2011-08-22T18:04:00.001-05:00

Also known as the FINAL part, thank goodness! I know you are probably all Withers’d-out by now!

Here is one of the few pictures I took of our house. You can see more pictures here. It is an awesome house and was perfect for our family!

And just a few more of the ‘ole fam damily on the beach…well, mostly Lilly on the beach.

I mean come on, life is good when you’ve got a Capri Sun and an umbrella chair with your name on it, am I right? Does it really get any better? Must be nice to be Lilly Whit.

I love our bunk little set up compared to the fancy-schmancy resort chairs and umbrellas behind us! That’s how we roll.

This was my view for 99% of the week. There were many days when we were on the beach from 10am until 7pm. It was wonderful!

Oh, how I wish I was back there right now! Tom says if we win the lottery he’ll buy me a house in Seaside. I’m really looking forward to it.

It is worth mentioning that I worked out TWO times whilst on vacation, and that’s NOT counting all the biking I did to and fro Seaside. I mean, that counts for something right?

There are lots of awesome nature trails in Watercolor, great for runners! Both Watercolor and Seaside are really pedestrian and biker friendly.

One morning I ran about 3 miles from our house allllll the way to the Publix, around the far west side of Seaside and back to our house in a big loop.

Another morning I went for a quick 2 mile trail run, and then biked over to Seaside for some fresh raw juice and walked around a little. It was nice to be there early in the morning when the population is low, and the town is just waking up.

Thanks for sticking around long enough for this year’s WGW. It just gets better every year!

Withers Gone Wild 2011: Part 3

2011-08-19T17:30:00.001-05:00

Hey yall…sorry I went missing there for a minute. I was all talk with the ‘this blog is gonna be AWESOME!’ and then went kaput. I had such good intentions to post this on Wednesday but somebody who shall remain nameless but his name rhymes with Tom Withers forgot to pay the internet bill.

In his defense, there was a mix up with the billing…automatic draft vs. paper bill, so what are you gonna do, right!? All is well now so no worries.

Today I’m back with some pictures of Lilly we took at the beach during WGW2K11!! Sara Whitten likes to get Lilly in a sweet white outfit for pictures on the beach each year.

Flashback to 2010! She is, like, 99% different this year! Growing up so fast!!!

After a day of fun in the sun, we decided to head to the beach for the obligatory Lilly Photo Shoot. We had our fingers crossed…Lilly’s mood was touch and go there for a while, with the occasional meltdown. But, with the promise of a popsicle and Mamie joining us, we convinced her to get dressed and head out the door! These pictures are pretty self-explanatory so I won’t bore you with a bunch of text, and just include a few of my favorites.

I took all of these pictures with my fancy camera. Lilly was really pretty good and did everything we said while taking pictures! It was like she knew she needed to be ‘on’ for the occasion!

I had to keep it on the ‘Sports’ setting because this little lady is ON THE GO! Two-year-olds are fast little nuggets, I tell you what!

I had kind of a hard time getting a good shot of Lilly looking straight at the camera and smiling, but I thought a few of these turned out really cute!

I mean, she is gorgeous so no matter what, a picture of Lilly is going to be a good one!

Here’s a sweet one of that smile….barely peeking out but it’s there!

We were thrilled to see that Lilly was not scared or hesitant of the sand. She dove right in every day and didn’t mind to get a little ‘dirty.’

After our beach shoot, we ran over to the Seaside square. At the West end of the square, there is a large patch of grass where you can park your bikes. The end of this building is painted a gorgeous, saturated purple color.

The first day I saw it, I thought it’d be a cute place to take a few of Lilly…complete with white outfit and her sunglasses!

This is what she said when we told her to ‘do the chicken dance!’ Goofer.

I think this looks like a greeting card or something!

And now, for being such a good and cooperative model, she got rewarded with a popsicle! Well worth all the yelling from a demanding photographer. :)

Then my camera battery died. Rookie mistake.

Oh well, I think I got a framer or two out of the bunch! You get what you pay for and my services are F-R-E-E.

Have a great HUMP day everyone! Sit down and have a pink popsicle moment if you need an extra boost to get you through the week. :)

Withers Gone Wild 2011: Part 2

2011-08-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Let me just preface this WGW2K11 post by telling that I promise eventually I’ll get back into the swing of blogging about Weight Watchin’ (5 lbs down so far!) and, well, actually running in the Delta (St. Jude training is officially ON!).

But right now I just want to document these fun days with my family in this little cyber-scrapbook so I’ll never forget what a fun and funny week we had together! I wasn’t in a big picture-taking mood for this trip, so these pics might be kinda lame to some, but I love them because they are of my heart and soul…my family!!

So if you’re not okay with seeing pics of my family and hearing about our thrilling, action-packed vacation on the Gulf Coast, just check back in a couple of days. I promise I’ll be all business by then. ;)

Oh, and I know I had originally said I’d do two parts of WGW2K11, but it looks like it’s gonna be more like four. heh heh.

So we left off yesterday with our visit with Christina and sweet Linnie Grace. Mom and I were up and at ‘em and on the road on Saturday, and made a pit-stop in Foley, AL at the awesome outlet malls.

Well, if you can call it a pit stop. Four hours, 36 stores, 7 dressing rooms, and 12 shopping bags full later we were on the road to Seaside! All of our shopping extravaganza went un-photographed because 1.) it was raining cats and dogs and 2.) we looked like drowned rats because of said rain.

So we rolled into our sweet little house on Lyonia Lane in Watercolor around 6pm…after a day of shopping, rain, and TRAFFIC we were a little worse for wear!!

I don’t know about your family, but with us Withers, we have a strict tradition we stick to while on vacation. It goes a little something like this:

Night #1: Laura, Sara Whit, and Myra go to the grocery store to stock up for the week and spend approximately $3,201,482.00 (although this year we spend a little less because the boys were not with us so we didn’t need copious amounts of red meat and beer). Pick up pizza for the group.

Night #2: Laura makes Frogmore Stew (an East Coast favorite!) for dinner!

This trip was no different. Our first two nights were spent at home, catching up over pizza, then nursing a few sunburns over a fresh shrimp boil!

Myra and Lilly supervised and shucked corn over some hummus and pita chips while I boiled the sausage and potatoes.

Lilly asked Aunt My to crank up the ‘ole iPod so we could have a little happy-hour dancing. In the picture above, doesn’t it look like Lilly’s saying “Yo. Word to ‘yo motha.” Helen and Lilly rocked it out while we finished up dinner in the kitchen.

I love this picture below of Lilly…she looks so OLD!!! Stress me out….

And I do think she looks like an ATWOOD in this picture!

As you might remember from WGW2K10, Frogmore Stew is best served thrown out on brown paper grocery bags or newspaper and gobbled up right away! Easy, casual, and beachy…

Dinner was followed by a little more dancing for good measure.

I am embarrassed…this is the only picture I took of my mom and I while she was with us! We definitely should have gotten a better one but like I said…I just wasn’t in the picture takin’ mood. I have a feeling that now that I know how easy it is to blog with lots of pictures, I’ll start taking more! Last year at the beach, Myra made up a ‘signature drink’ for the week. Last year’s drink was called a Pelican Spritzer (our house was called ‘Pelican’s Perch’) and included Sprite, pineapple juice, maybe some rum….I can’t remember but it was GOOD (<---maybe that’s why I don’t remember all the ingredients?!?!)!!!

This year I requested she come up with another signature drink for our nightly cocktail time and she created a delicious Berry Mint Champagne Punch!

This is how Withers Gone Wild got it’s name….this is about as “wild” as we get…

Painting a two-year-old’s fingernails. Wild and Crazy bunch around here I tell ya.

Our house came with four bikes, which we took full advantage of! We loved being able to just wheel around town, go into Seaside for lunch and shopping…it was sooooooo great to get a little exercise while on vacay!

Myra and I pedaled over to Seaside’s Sqaure one afternoon. Here’s the view from the book store of the precious town:

Myra and I mozied around downtown Seaside for lunch and shopping.

We need a sign at this at our local grocery store!! :)

In case you’re wondering, I had Pina Colada Ice Cream in a waffle cone for lunch that day. And I don’t care who knows it!

Love this picturesque post office!

Myra and I also made daily pit stops at this sno-cone bus! A perfect afternoon snack! It was a nice break from my usual three o’clock snack of Diet Coke and Starburst. :)

I found a cute necklace and belt at the shops in Seaside and Watercolor that day…what a fun time with my sister! Love her.

Other than eating, dancing, toe-nail-painting, bike-riding, and relaxing, we did a bunch of NOTHING! It was….like the ice cream sign says…HEAVENLY.

Check back in tomorrow for a seriously Lilly-filled post!

Withers Gone Wild 2011: Part 1

2011-08-11T20:38:00.001-05:00

Hey Everybody!

Miss me?

I have to be honest…the main reason I had quit blogging for the past almost-a-month is because it got too hard and time-consuming to do so. Anyone else have this problem with Blogger? I had read from other bloggers that Windows Live was where it’s AT for blogging, but I kept putting off downloading it.

When I finally did decide to download it, I ran into some issues and being the far-from-tech-savvy gal that I am, I just threw up my hands and decided to call the whole thing off!

But yesterday, I hunkered down and got it downloaded! And let me tell you that it is going to change my life. And yours, too, because my blog is going to be way better from here on out.

So get fired up.

Please bare with me as I learn to use it. :)

Anyway, I obviously have lots to catch everybody up on. Beginning with a trip to Watercolor, FL, then on to Knoxville to be with more friends and family, and ending with a girls weekend here in Tunica.

So let’s get started, shall we? I’m going to split our Withers Gone Wild 2011 trip up into two parts (BTW, you can see the 2010 WGW posts here and here).

A little background story on this year’s beach trip….my mother and father-in-law so graciously rent us a beach house each year in late July. Last year was Destin, this year we decided to go to Watercolor (which is about 10 steps west of Seaside). Us kids pitch in for groceries, and treat the whole group to a few nights of eating out. It’s a great deal for everyone!

This year, Tom was unable to join us, as he is planning to use all his vacation days for a once-in-a-lifetime hunting trip this fall. But don’t worry, I didn’t let that dampen my vacation spirit. As yall know, I LOVE my two sisters and my in-laws treat me like one of their own. While I realize it wouldn’t work in ALL family dynamics, going to the beach for a week with my husband’s family is something I was really looking forward to.

The way the travel arrangements worked out, I wound up planning to drive by myself. I was going to drive about 5 hours to Mobile to visit my friend Christina and spend the night. Then travel the 2 1/2 hours on to the beach. No big deal, right? I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to driving such a distance by myself but I figured I would just take it easy, shop along the way, and just have a good time.

This was the plan until Friday night, that is.

I was getting ready in my bedroom, planning outfits, packing my suitcase and beach bag when Tom called and said he was right around the corner, and could I come into the driveway to help him unload some stuff from the car. I assumed it was more produce from the garden.

So I go outside…

and much to my surprise…

he pulled in the driveway….

WITH HELEN FRAZIER IN THE PASSNEGER SEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?!

I was so confused….I’m getting ready to go out of town for a week and my mom shows up on my doorstep???? Well, turns out my sweet, sweet, generous, sweet mother in law was a sneaky-sneakster and invited my mom to come on our vacation in Tom’s place. Helen had flown from Knoxville to Memphis, and Tom had just picked her up at the airport!!!!

What a wonderful surprise! Now, not only would I NOT have to drive all by myself, but I would get some QT in the car AND at the beach with one of my best friends!

Those sneaky ladies…..gotta love it.

So after all the excitement, we cooked a delicious dinner (pictures in the previous post) full of veggies from the garden. We turned in early and hit the road the next morning for Mobile to spend the night with my good friend Christina, whom you might remember from this post.

After a long day of driving, eating, sitting in traffic, and catching up, we were greeted by THIS CUTIE at Christina’s house!!!!

Little Linnie Grace is about 5 months old and thriving!

We had so much fun catching up with Christina and her sweet husband Marcus, and playing with Linnie Grace (I was not in the picture-taking mood, so sorry for the lack of pics! These are all of LG and their dog!).

But let’s not forget about Christina and Marcus’s first born child, CoCo. Such a good big sister…

Linnie Grace is such a little button! She has so much personality, and is so strong and you can tell she wants to badly to crawl, walk, talk…she is on the go!

Don’t worry. It’s not like she’s spoiled or anything.

After an evening of dinner, baby bathing, and baby snuggling, we turned in for the night. Mom and I had big plans to stop at the outlets in Foley, AL, then press onward to Seaside!

I’ll pick up tomorrow with the second part of our WGW2K11.

For now, I’ll leave you with some pictures of our fashion show with Miss CoCo Channel.

Test Post on Windows Live!

2011-08-10T20:45:00.001-05:00

Testing….testing…this thing on? This post shall go down in the history as Laura’s First Post on Windows Live Writer.

Test pictures….

They’re all food pictures for your viewing pleasure…

I’m so fired up…this is sooooo much better than Blogger!

Okay guys, if this test post is successful, I am back in blog business! I was just getting so tired to Blogger. SO not-user-friendly, and it took my pictures approximately 1,937 hours to load. But this is wonderful!

For now, it’s time for me to hit the hay but rest assured (ERICA) that I’ll be back with some fun summer updates for ya!!!

~Laura

Weight Watchin' Wednesday

2011-07-13T11:01:00.006-05:00

Hey All...

You may have noticed last week that I didn't even bother to post about WW updates because there were none. I stayed the same, and also did not have any workouts to speak of. Sorry bout that. The Fourth of July celebrations got me all distracted.

But I was back in full force this week. Before I get into all the WW bidness, I wanted to update yall on my wonderful good fun funny running buddy BEX!

As you might remember, Bex's second baby was born with a tiny cleft in her lip. We all prayed for little Evie for three long months before the surgery took place yesterday morning. On Monday I went for a farm run at Bex's house and when we finished Evie was awake and playing on the living room floor (on one of those mat things with all the bells and whistles).

She was so adorable, just smiling and squealing and staring up at her toys. Bex and I prayed over her, and for her doctors, and for everything to go 'textbook.' I can't imagine how Bex and Martin must have felt...having to send their baby girl into surgery and putting 100% of their trust into the doctors' hands.

Well, I am happy to report that all went as planned and Evie came safely out of surgery. Bex sent me this picture yesterday and I teared up at the sight of it!God is so good!

She is just so beautiful I can't even stand it. She is going to be Miss Mississippi before we know it! Love it.

Then just a minute ago she sent me this one with a caption that said, "Headed Home!" You'll notice in the picture she has on these little arm restraints. This is so she doesn't disrupt the stitches on her face. I think Bex said she has to wear them for two weeks.Okay so now for some updates:

Weight Watchers Update:

I lost 2.5 pounds this week! That give me a total of 4.5 pounds lost so far. Which, for me, at the weight I am at, is a great stride in the right direction. For my body, 10 pounds is a dress size so I am half way there! Woot!

So I have a little confession to make. You all probably know that Weight Watchers has switched over to a new system. Under the new Points Plus system, many food items have changed point value, and your daily allowance of points has changed as well.

For the first few weeks of our session I followed the new program. Under this program, all fruits and vegetables have ZERO points. So I was basically gorging myself on fruit, because I love it. AND you get more daily points AND more flex points.

With all of these new found points, I was not nearly as diligent as I'd been in the past with my points. I felt like each week would come and go and I'd never use up all my flex points, and I never felt hungry or unsatisfied.

And I also never lost any weight to speak of. 2 pounds lost in five weeks was not okay with me.

So, beginning last Wednesday I switched back to the tried and true old Weight Watchers program. I knew that this program had worked for me in the past, so I decided to go with what I know.

And it worked! I honestly think that for me, and my body, and my lifestyle, the old WW system works better. I want to be clear that love Weight Watchers any way you slice it. It has worked for me and I am confident that it would work for anyone wanting to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

But I just had to stick with what I know and what has worked for me in the past. So fingers crossed this week wasn't just a fluke and I will continue to lose pounds until I get to my feel-great-weight range of 150-155!!

My goals for last week were to:

Count points every day using the old system (CHECK!)

Lose 2 pounds (CHECK AND A HALF!)

Workout 4 days (CHECK!)

Workouts were:

Friday: gym workout of 20 minute elliptical, 20 minute treadmill, 30 minute bike, then home for a 15 minute doggie walk

Saturday: 4 mile run with Kristi and Bex in 600% humidity

Monday: 4 mile farm run with Kristi and Bex under a beautiful farm sunrise!

Wednesday: 3 mile solo outdoor run

Goals for THIS WEEK are:

Count points using the old system everyday

1 workout in Tunica

3 workouts in WATERCOLOR, FL! I leave on Saturday!

Have fun and don't worry about pounds, just get active by biking, walking, running, shopping, playing with Lilly!

This Ole Couch

2011-07-07T19:33:00.017-05:00

Goooooood Morning Blogland!

I'm so happy it's Friday. Even though this has been a short week, I still feel READY for a Friday when it rolls around!

Plans this weekend? I ain't got none. And couldn't be happier about it.

I have been a *super-dee-duper* slacker on the workout front. I'm sorry. I'm a disappointment to myself, and to you. I promise to do better next week.

TODAY because it's Friday and because I've been such a slacker, I wanted to talk about my old couch.

Yes that's right. An old couch.

When I met Tom he had this old, worn-out, doggie-chewed, hand-me-down couch. It was rough. Really rough. But that thing was a magnet for naps! Because it was so old, it was soooooo comfortable. But there comes a time in every man's life when he needs to say good bye to his bachelor furniture and give in to his wife and get a new couch.

So that's what we decided to do. And I updated the living room just a smidge. I was beginning to feel like it was so masculine in there.

Here is a picture taken last October. This is what you see, standing in our kitchen:
Notice the old bathroom in the background? I love our house because of this open floorplan, but after living here for almost three years I was itching for a teensy tiny inexpensive change.

Here is the view as you're standing with your back to the bathroom, facing into the kitchen. See the old couch? Reba loves it, Mama does not.

That pair of pictures on the wall to the right of the TV, and the little trinkets on the table below the TV...I dunno, I was just getting tired of those things too. Most of this stuff was bought by Tom's mom when she was helping him decorate after he first bought the house.

When I met Tom, I was impressed with how well this bachelor pad was decorated (<----I found out later that Lilibeth and one of her friends went to on a shopping spree armed with about $1,000 and a long list of things to buy!). But now a woman (that would be me) lives here and it was high time we spruced it up a little.

So I just made a couple of easy changes. New frames and pictures on the wall, some lamps, etc. It brightens it up a little, don't you think?

THEN I was actually able to talk Tom into getting rid of Ye Old Couch and enter....a new one!!!

When I was picking out a couch I had four main categories I was looking for:

Size: We needed something LONG that my 6'1" husband could stretch out on

Price: I won't go into details, but if you know Tom, you know I was working with a pretty small budget. :) Gotta love a thrifty man. I am thankful Tom is cheap, I am thankful Tom is cheap, I am thankful Tom is cheap....this is my life's mantra.

Style: I wanted something comfortable, but not too terribly overstuffed. And definitely not leather.

Color: We were trying to lighten up the room a little, so something in the linen/oyster/khaki family was in order

And here she is!! So after searching high and low, I found one that both Tom and I agreed on. And I got three out of four of my categories I wanted. Can you guess which one I sacrificed?

That would be style. This couch is slightly more overstuffed-mushy-cooshy-we-spend-85%-of-our-time-on-this-very-piece-of-furniture than I had hoped. I was aiming more towards we-are-super-sophisticated-and-need-something-snobby-and-tailored. But everything in the latter category ran well over my price range.

So compromise I did, and I must say I am still very happy with the final choice. What I wasn't happy with are those throw pillows that came with the couch. I loved the size and the structure of them (they are 100% DOWN and lovely), but hated that fabric. It's just so....so...what's the word I'm looking for? It just looks like it came with the couch. Because it did. Too matchy-matchy. So for a few weeks we lived with them like this: turned around with only the back side showing. No big deal, but very...vanilla. So I pulled out my trusty thinking cap and sewing machine, and decided to recover these bad boys. Much to my delight, I found true pillow FORMS when I cut a tiny hole at the seam in one. Instead of feathers. If there had just been feathers, I would have had to buy my own forms. At my favorite fabric store (Premiere Fabrics on the corner of Poplar Pike and Forest Hill Irene for any of you Memphis readers) I found two main fabrics I decided to use.

A damask: And a...parrot. Ha! I know it looks funny up close like this but bear with me because the end result is cute, I promise. I loved the blue/teal/understated turquoisey (<---I just made that word up...turquoisey) color combined with the linen in the background of both fabrics. And I felt like the brown in the parrot drew in the darker tones in the room.

So after countless hours, two trips to Joann's, about 10 YouTube tutorials, one emotional hormonal baby fit temper tamtrum, and about $80 later, this is what I've got: What do you think? I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! I did the bodies of the big pillows in the damask and parrot fabric. The piping in a plain, unprinted linen, and used one bamboo accent fabric to do the little pillow in the middle. The 'W' on the accent pillow I had done by a professional because I don't have a monogram machine. And a painted monogram wouldn't do of this particular project.

Ta-Da! I loved how they turned out, and I think I love them *even more* because I made them with my own two hands. :)

Here are a couple of the fabrics together, close-up. One of the things I'm super proud of was this zipper closure I put on each of the four big pillows. I had originally wanted to hand-stitch them to finish them but that's where the emotional hormonal temper tamtrum came in. I haven't the slightest clue of how the hand-stitch. I don't know what I was thinking. I consulted the interwebs and found an easy tutorial on how to do hidden zippers. And, I had some other custom-made shams that were done by a professional. I turned those inside-out and examined them to figure out the best way to do it. Here are a couple of close-ups of the other changes in the room... Sara Whit's babysitter custom-made this frame for me and I am in love with it! I love the colors, and the shabby-chic distressed look. I got all these frames at Target and filled them with black and white pictures. I am not 100% crazy about this arrangement but am living with it for now. Still pondering on what I'll change about it...if anything. I got a new lamp and some crisp white frames for the end table beside the couch. Again, trying to brighten it up in here a little! My next project is...this chair. THIS CHAIR is terrible. I goes with a set in our formal living room and is totally too big for this space. And (sorry if this offends some of you) I dispise this overstuffed leather look. I realize it's for some people, but I am just not one of those people. Premiere Fabrics does custom upholstry for really reasonable prices, so I may look into have a piece done for this spot. Ole Brownie has got to go.

So I hope you like my new couch and pillows! I'm pretty fond of them if I do say so myself! Now if I can just get these two to stop lamenting the death of that 'ole squishy couch....

What If...

2011-07-06T10:28:00.007-05:00

Today Caitlin, over at Healthy Tipping Point posted a really cool post on her blog....and it got me thinking about the cycle of life and how God works in our lives and how everything is totally, 100%, perfectly planned out before our little feet ever hit this earth.

I had a high school boyfriend who came from a great Knoxville family and was super hot and funny and drove a cool truck and had tons of friends. We fell in love my senior year, and he made the decision to go to Old Miss in the fall. My parents wouldn't let me go to Old Miss, so I was trying to decide between Auburn and Alabama. On April 1, 2001 I made the announcement that Alabama was the place for me.

If he had not already decided to go to Ole Miss, I may have not gone to Alabama. But I did, because it sounded fun, had a good football team, and was closer to him than Auburn was.

The summer after our Senior year of high school he broke my heart and I cried and cried and cried over him but eventually dusted myself off and decided I'd had enough of these games and decided to move on....

That fall there was a girl at the Chi-O house who was snobby to me during rush, so I decided to join Pi Phi instead. The Pi Phi house at the University of Alabama was where I would meet some of my most treasured girlfriends. And if I hadn't gone Pi Phi and spent that hot August afternoon in the house basement meeting the rest of my pledge class, then little Kathleen wouldn't have piped up and said, "I'M FROM KNOXVILLE, TOO!" when I introduced myself sitting Indian-style on the cold basement floor.

And if she hadn't said that, we wouldn't have grown to be best friends and roommates our Junior and Senior year. And if we hadn't been roommates our Junior and Senior year she wouldn't have said to me, "You wanna move to Nashville after graduation?"

And if we hadn't moved to Nashville after graduation I wouldn't have taken my job at the Opryland Resort Sales Office. And if I hadn't taken that job I would never have met someone who turned out to be one of the most important people in my life. Myra Withers.

And if I hadn't met Myra then I would never have met Tom. My life would be changed forever when the high school boyfriend re-entered my life right around the time I met Tom. High school boyfriend made me realize why, in the first place, he wasn't good for me and then...there was Tom. Perfect-handsome-successful-polite-adorable-250-miles-away-Tom.And if I hadn't met Tom I would have stayed in Nashville and probably continued in the destructive lifestyle and relationship I had grown to think was okay. But I didn't. We got married and I moved to Tunica and got a dog and a house and a niece and community and a church and a lot of other things, intangible things, that I would never have had if I hadn't decided to go to Tuscaloosa all to be closer to a boy that wouldn't even really matter in the end. And it's just so crazy to think that all of this was set to happen in a long, wonderful, crazy, Divine plan. Isn't it? I find a little bit of comfort knowing that when something seems so bad/crazy/sad/life-altering at the time, turns out to be the best thing that could ever happen to you.

*****

Yall are probably thinking...whoa, deep stuff Laura!

But I just love looking back and thinking about all the little ways that my life could have changed and wondering "Where would I be if fill-in-the-blank...hadn't happened." But at the same time feeling so thankful that things have turned out the way they have...so far. Still so much more to look forward to!

Anyway, moving on to what Wednesdays are all about these days...

Weight Watchers Update:

I stayed the same this week. Just chillin' at 163 pounds. I am kind of okay with that after all the fun I had eating delicious American celebratory delicacies all weekend (i.e., American Flag cake, ribs, beans, corn on the cob, watermelon, beer, etc.).

I am obviously not going to make my goal of getting down to 155 by beach time (which is a mere 10 days away!!!!) but no biggie there either. I am feelin' good and have a tan, and you know what I always say....TAN FAT LOOKS BETTER THAN WHITE FAT!! :)

Have a great week everyone....

This Land is Your Land...

2011-07-03T20:35:00.022-05:00

"...this land is my land,
From California
To the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest
To the Gulfstream Waters,
This land was made for you and me!"

Oh I love that song. I don't know why. Just do. It reminds me of elementary school, and my old music teacher Mrs. Rainwater. Mrs. Rainwater was SO MEAN but I always loved music class. Hm.

So how was your 4th of July? We had a nice long weekend and stayed close to home for most of it. In our garden, Tom is growing pickling cucumbers and squash, among other things. He goes out to the garden almost every day and 'harvests' the cukes and squash. This is a small fraction of what we've gotten so far. It is seriously amazing how much produce we've gotten recently.

Tom researched on the internet and taught himself how to pickle. So in a few short weeks we will have pickles galore! Which is fine with me because I love me a dill pickle.

First he chops up the cucumbers...

Spears, chips, and half-chips for the really big ones...

Then stuffs 'em in the Mason jars....

And fills the jars with vinegar and special potion of spices.

Boil's them up in a big pot, and they're ready for storage!

A friend of our told us that it's a good idea to store your pickles under your bed. Because they should be stored in a dark place at room temperature.

So if anyone decides to rob us, they're going to be vastly disappointed when all they find under the beds are jars and jars of homemade pickles, instead of valuables like jewelry and fine silver.

I also made....

One of my favorite things about the 4th of July...

American Flag cake!

It's just white cake with white icing and decorated with berries like a flag. Always a crowd pleaser.

We spent the entire weekend by the pool or on the lake, eating, drinking, and being merry.

I wanted to share these super special pictures of my husband with you guys...

Tom worked hard all weekend perfecting his rib recipe... But more importantly perfected his cannon ball form as well.

And as you can see, the form is really impressive. But he's no one-trick pony....

His can opener form is quite impressive as well...

I mean, seriously, look at that extended leg!!! He could have been an Olympic Can-Opener-Diver-Man.

If the whole farming and pickling thing doesn't work out, we'll know where to turn.

Also, because I love you, and because I couldn't resist it, I had to share these EXTRA-super-special pictures with you guys.

Sorry 'bout your luck, ladies.

But he's taken. Mine all mine. Try to control your jealousy.

A couple of noteworthy questions in regards to the above award-winning photography:

1.) How is it humanly possibly for one's legs to be so extremely pale? I hope our kids get my ability to have pigment in their skin.

2.) Why the Crocs in picture #2? I guess they are helpful in splash maximization when it comes to this sport.

This face is much better:

And so is this gorgeous face! Little Hayley joined us for the day on Saturday.

She had a few tricks for the diving board as well....

Which included but were not limted to jumping off into her daddy's arms.

AND..I wish you guys could have seen this in person...a perfect I MEAN PERFECT rendition of "Tomorrow" from the famous play Little Orphan Annie.

Hayley was Annie last year for Halloween and you better believe she can hit that last "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya! Tomorrow!" like no four-year-old can.

She's got a little diva in her, I tell you what!

Here she is with her gorgeous mama, Rebecca! They don't look alike or anything....

Our fun friends Lanie and Kirtley were there too (well, Kirtley was there because it was his house). Come to think of it, they kind of look alike too. Ha!

After a day-o-sun-n-swimming, it was time to break out the watermelon.

Hayley was a fan.

All in all it was a great weekend with great friends, celebrating our GREAT country we live in!

Sidenote: I tried to make my pictures bigger but they are looking all crazy and pixelated. Do yall know how to make big, nice, clear pictures on the blog? I used my good camera for these but the blog doesn't do them justice. Any help is appreciated! :)

Weight Watchers and Workouts

2011-06-29T09:17:00.005-05:00

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Today is a very special day because y'all remember my good neighbor friends Erin and John Allen? The good neighbor friends who were expecting TWIN BOYS!?! Well, I got a text message this morning bright and early, saying that Erin's water had broken and she was delivering the twins this morning!!!

Her original C-section was not scheduled until July 18th, but all is well even though the babies are 3 1/2 weeks early. John Allen called Tom at about 8:00 this morning to tell him that one of the babies is 5 lbs 6 oz, and the other is 4 lbs 11 oz, and both are healthy and great and wonderful and perfect! Ahhhhhhhh! So exciting! By the way can you believe that little Erin was carrying around 10 pounds of baby inside of her??!?! Pregnancy and childbirth still totally baffles me.

So anyway, that is the exciting news of the morning that I had to share first and foremost. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow we will go visit them and I can report back with pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I had a whole bunch edited and ready to go, but alas our home internet is not working because we are between cable companies right now. So no pictures today, hopefully by Friday I will be able to get them uploaded.

Okay now, down to business. Let's recap this week's workouts, shall we?

Weekly Workouts:
Friday: Gym workout with TOM! Loved having him there! Tom is going on a huge-once-in-a-lifetime-10-day-wilderness-hunting-camping-trip later in the fall. It will involve lots of hiking and walking and climbing and all kinds of things that are more physically demanding than what he is used to. So he is trying to get his cardio endurance turned up a notch.

So after work on Friday I went to the gym and started out with 20 minutes on the elliptical, and moved to a sprint workout on the treadmill. When I was about 5 minutes into it, Tom joined me and I did a total of 40 minutes on the treadmill, followed by Cocktail Dress Arms.

It was so fun having him there! I loved our little gym-date and hope we can do it again sometime. I was really proud and impressed with his ability and attitude, especially since he has not really worked out since...well, since I've known him.

Tom's job is often physically demanding, and he does a lot of yard work and heavy lifting around the house, so he is in fairly good shape. But there's room for improvement in all of us, no? :)

Monday: 25 minutes on treadmill (walking for warm up and cool down, with 2 fast miles in the middle), followed by 20 minutes on the bike.

Tuesday: 4 mile run with Bex and Kristi. This run was so. freakin. hot. I cannot even begin to explain how sweaty I was when we finished. It took me like half an hour just to cool down.

Wednesday (today): Today is where I get disappointed in myself. I had plans to go to the gym, and get in my fourth and final workout of the week, and totally bailed. It did not help that Tom woke up sick in the middle of the night, kept me up for almost two hours moaning about a stomach ache and asking me did I poison his dinner. But that's no excuse.

On my way in to work this morning I was getting really down on myself, telling myself how lazy I am, how I'm never going to lose that 10 pounds by Beach Week, how I probably haven't lost an ounce since last WW Weigh-in, how I probably gained 2.5 pounds and am back where I started...the negative self-talk was through the roof this morning.

And I thought..."You know what? NO." No more of this negative self-talk. No more of this beating myself up because I don't count every single tiny little calorie or get in as many workouts as I'd like. Just stop it. I may not be training for an exciting event, and I may not the size I'd like to be, and I may not be able to get out of bed for every workout I plan, but I'm trying and that's all that matters. I need to just focus on what I am doing, not on what I'm NOT doing.

So there you have it. A very honest view of my weekly workouts. :)

Weight Watchers Update: I'm up 1/2 pound from last week. Grrrrrrr....I don't want to talk about it.

Porch Pillows Post

2011-06-26T20:13:00.017-05:00

Happy Monday Gals and Pals!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and woke up this morning bright-eyed and busy-tailed (who are we kidding...I totally did NOT).

I did have a good weekend, though. On Friday night Tom and I met at the gym after work and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED working out with my husband! We have not worked out together since....um, never! I will write more about that on Wednesday when I recap the week's workouts.

We ran errands and did stuff around the house for the rest of the weekend and it was so nice to get some things done! I have had a little crafty-project brewing in my mind for some time now, and Sunday was the day I finally had time to execute it.

Although this blog was originally intended to be solely about running, and leading a healthy lifestyle, I do stray from time to time. And by 'from time to time' I mean...a lot. :) But no big deal because my life is about so much more than sweating, drinking smoothies, and keeping one eye on the scale all the time.

Aside from Healthy Living blogs, my second favorite blog genre is DESIGN BLOGS. I love reading how other people decorate, and DIY, and I especially love getting a peak inside their homes. I'm creepy like that.

Some of my favorites are:

Young House Love

harbour breeze

The Lettered Cottage

Scissors & Spatulas

Bower Power

Tator Tots and Jell-o

and many many more.

So today I wanted to share a little DIY that I whipped up on Sunday. It is a super-easy project and I hope you'll try it and report back, if you're feelin' crafty in the near future.

This project is a monogrammed pillow cover. I do not have a monogram machine, but I have a standard sewing machine which I have learned to use pretty well since I got it as a gift from my mom at Christmas. I knew I wanted to use this pillow for the rocking chairs on my front porch. I loved the idea of doing a single letter monogram on one, and our street address on the other. I had seen this in a magazine somewhere...I think it might have been Ballard Designs...and they were like $40 for a personalized pillow cover!

I have about $10 invested in this project by only having to buy a couple things, and using the rest of the supplies with things I already had.

So here it is:

What you'll need:

Freezer Paper ($6 at Wal-Mart for 150 feet!)

Scotch tape (already had it)

Exacto Knife ($2)

Craft Paint ($.50)

Craft Paintbrush ($1.49 for a 5-pack)

Fabric of your choice (leftover from another project)

Iron (already had it)

Cardboard or cutting mat (free-used cardboard)

Monogram template: (free) I made my template by printing out a 'W' in Microsoft Word. This particular monogram is in Times New Roman font, size 350.

Pillow inserts (already had these)

Total price: $9.99!

Freezer paper is great for creating sencils to be used on fabric...look, it even says so right on the box! You can get it at the grocery store in the same section with aluminum foil and plastic wrap. First, print out your template and lay it on a flat, hard surface. Play around with fonts and sizes. I wanted a print, not a script. Partly because I like the way it looks, and partly because I figured the straight lines would be easier than a bunch of swirly-girly lines for my first time trying this.

Anyway, place the freezer paper on top of it, SHINY SIDE DOWN. Tape down paper to hold it securly...only one or two peices of scotch tape will do. With a pencil (or pen if you're feeling confident!), trace the letter onto your freezer paper.

Remove the template underneath, so you're left with your letter drawn on the freezer paper.

Next, tape your freezer paper (again, only a couple of peices will do) onto a peice of cardboard or cutting mat, and use your Exacto knife to cut out your stencil. This was easier than I thought it would be because the Exacto knife is very easy to you. And it's very...well, exact.

Once you are done cutting, very carefully peel the letter off, revealing your ready-to-use stencil!

Now get your fabric. My fabric is a 20" square, so I used a measuring tape to center the 'W' at the 10 inch mark. Remember to place your stencil on the fabric SHINY SIDE DOWN. Secure with tape.

Place your fabric on an ironing board and use a DRY iron (no steam) to iron the stencil into place. It will adhear to the fabric like a not-so-sticky-sticker, without even damaging your fabric!

Next, get your paint and paint brush handy and paint over your stencil!

I would recommend putting down an old peice of fabric or something, becasue my paint bled through the fabric a little, leaving some paint on my ironing board cover. :(

Gently paint in your stencil, careful not to get it too terribly gloppy (<--gloppy is a technical decorating term, didn't you know?).

Set aside and let it dry. It only takes about 5-7 minutes for the paint to dry, and the ironed-on stencil to cool. Carefully pull back the stencil, revealing your beautiful, hand-painted monogram!

Now, mine had a couple of little imperfections on one side of the 'W.'

So I just used a teeny tiny brush, and a teeny tiny bit of paint to fix it. Voila! Good as new!

Now, this is the front of your pillow cover, obviously. I picked a coordinating black-and-linen fabric to go on the back.

I am not going to do a whole tutorial on how to make a pillow cover because I am not a seasoned seamstress, and I do a lot of things wrong. Like, I don't pin, I don't measure, I just eye ball it and go!

But basically you place your front peice and your back peice together, with the pretty sides facing each other.

Sew the edges together...

And turn inside-out. And there you have it! An adorable pillow cover that is personalized and hand-made with L-O-V-E! :)

I plan to use mine on my fornt porch because we have two black rocking chairs that have pillows in them that I bought when we had been married for about five minutes. A long time ago. Right now, I have the red paisly pillows out there (still cute...three years later), and this adorable 'W' that Sara Whit gave me for Christmas. We love a monogram around these parts..can you tell?

Here is the street veiw....

But with my new personalized pillows (remember I made an additional one with our street address on it, but had to crop it out for the sake of the internet)...It'll look like this! Paired with this cute wreath I got on clearance at Pottery Barn about 100 years ago:

Reba likes it too...she says, "Welcome! Come on in!"

Here I am...proud of my Sunday afternoon project! Goofer.

I also made two navy-blue striped pillows to go with my American Flag on the front door for Fourth of July. For now, this is what the porch looks like:

But after the 4th I think I'll put out my new stenciled pillows. Cute, huh?!

I have one more decorating/DIY/boring/my-house post later this week and then I'm done I promise.

Have a great week, everyone!

SUYL: SINGLES!

2011-06-24T09:08:00.003-05:00

Good Morning Everyone! Happy Friday to you! The weekend's a mere 8 hours away, and what a relief that is!

Today I was going to post about summer fashion and colors, but that will have to wait until next week. Because this morning I have much more pressing matters to talk about: Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life: SINGLES is today!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, Kelly does a linky party where you can link up and talk about different life topics. This is the third time she has done SINGLES (everyone posts about a single friend in their life), and there is already one marriage, one engagement, and five serious relationships that have formed as a result. So cool, right? It's like Blogger Internet Dating only without the creepers.

Last time I showcased my mom, Helen Frazier, and this time I wanted to talk up my sister MYRA! Her stats and pictures are below....

Age: 30
Location: Nashville, TN
Occupation: Association Event Planner, Friend, Aunt, Daughter, all of which she is very good at. :)
What she's like (in her words):
"I love music. I like to dance. I love to travel and experience new things. I love to be on the water, be it lake, river, ocean, or creek. I find it to be healing. I like to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie as much as I like to get dressed up and go out on the town. I like good conversations, playing tennis, working out, and spending time with my friends. I have lots of friends. They are like family to me. I have a good job and am in a good place. I'd like to find someone who is in a good place."

I have lived in Nashville for 9 years so it feels like home. However, you should know that I am originally from the Mississippi Delta and those roots run deep, too. My whole family still lives there and we are very close...but not creepy close. ha!

What she's looking for:

I'm looking for someone who makes me laugh, someone who is social, cultured, likes the country but can make the most of the city. Someone who loves children. Someone who loves Jesus. Someone who is open to something real.

For Fun: Sitting on my patio with wine, and music, and friends, going out to pubs (<---NOT clubs) working out, being on the water, going to the movies, among other things.

Favorite things: Pineapple. Corn on the cob. Boating. Magic Hour.* Music---all kinds---specifically bands with horns, a harmonica, a mandolin, a banjo, washboard, fiddle, or anything in the folk/bluegrass genre.

*Magic hour is that hour in the day, on the beach, right before the sun goes down when all the families go in for dinner and it is still, quiet, and hazy on the beach. Magic hour is the perfect time to have a drink in your beach chair and finish that book you can't put down.

So that's the lowdown on MYRA! I have to tell yall that I love Myra so very much. She is my sister-in-law, but I feel like she is my sister-for-real. I was so blessed to meet and marry a great man like Tom, but what an icing on the cake to have TWO sisters who treat me like I have been in their family since day one. When Myra and I are together (and Sara Whit, too, for that matter) we can have fun going out to a fancy fun dinner, or laying on the couch watching Lifetime movies. Wherever we are, we always end up laughing until our stomachs ache!

In MY words, Myra is hilarious, outgoing, beautiful inside and out, headstrong, independent, family-oriented, dependable, not-so-great-driver, great hostess, creative, classy, and just plain FUN!!

If anyone is interested in Myra please leave a comment or email me at laurawithers2011 at gmail dot com.

Happy Friday Everyone, looking forward to seeing the singles in your life!

Weight Watchers and Weekly Workouts

2011-06-22T09:10:00.008-05:00

Good Wednesday Morning Everyone!

I have decided to dub Wednesdays "Weight Watchers and Weekly Workout Wednesdays" from now on. Or from now until...I don't feel like doing it anymore.

So here's our Workouts for the Week (since WW Weigh-in is on Wednesdays, a 'week' will be considered Thursday - Wednesday):

Saturday: Memphis Civitan 5K. 3.1 Miles in 31:48

Monday: Sprint Workout at the Gym, followed by Cocktail Dress Arms (<--arm portion only, with 75 sit ups)

Wednesday: 4.5 mile run with Bex and Kristi

And that's it. Three measly little work-outs this week. I need to be more focused and get to a point where working out 5-6 days a week is the norm. All with time, though, all with time.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the HIIT (<---High Intensity Interval Training) that I did on Monday. Back in my half-marathon-and-triathlon-training days, I would do at least one HIIT treadmill workout per week, usually lasting about an hour.

I read a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Gina, the other day and decided that I needed some HIIT back in my life. After a weekend of stuffing myself with wedding cake, pizza, and vodka tonics, I needed a serious sweat asap.

Gina is a certified personal trainer so I look up to her as a fitness role model. In her post, she mentioned that it is not necessary to do long HIIT workouts...20-30 minutes is all you really need.

So here is what I did (sorry for this weird format, blogger is giving me issues):

Speed/ Time

4 mph / 0:00 - 1:30
6 / 1:30 - 2:30
4 / 2:30 - 4:00
6.5 /4:00 - 5:00
4 / 5:00 - 6:30
7 / 6:30 - 7:30
4 / 7:30 - 9:00
7.5 / 9:00 - 10:00
4 / 10:00 - 11:30
8 / 11:30 - 12:30
4 / 12:30 - 14:00
8.5 / 14.00 - 15:00
4 / 15:00 - 16:30
8 / 16:30 - 17:30
4 / 17:30 - 19:00
7.5 / 19:00 - 20:00
4 / 20:00 - 21:30
7 / 21:30 - 22:30
4 / 22:30 - 24:00
6.5 / 24:00 - 25:00
4 / 25:00 - 26:30
6 / 26:30 - 27:30
4 / 27:30 - 29:00
8.5 / 29:00 - 30:00
cool down 30:00 - 35:00
*total distance: 3.5 miles*

You'll notice this is a walk for 1:30 minutes, run for 1 minute. Obviously these times and speeds can be varied to fit your fitness level and time constraints. For me, 8.5 miles per hour is very fast, and it's all I can do to get to 1 minute. For someone like Skinny Runner, she would probably do her 'sprints' at like 12 miles per hour!

The possibilities with HIIT are endless...you can do it with other cardio besides running of course. You could do bike or even elliptical...going as fast and as hard as possible for 30 seconds, followed by an easy pace for 1 minutes. Or, doing mountain climbers for 1 minute, then walking in place for 1:30 minutes. Again, you can alter this to whatever tickles your HIIT fancy.

I personally love the interval training because you work up an amazing sweat in a very short amount of time. So bring an extra face when you do these. Cause you'll sweat your face off.

Here are some other resources for HIIT training:

The Fitnessista
Peanut Butter Fingers
TurboFire

This morning Bex and Kristi met at my house and we started together. They were planning to do 3.5 miles and I had an ambitious 4.5 in mind. I finished my 4.5 miles with no walks breaks in 49:30. This is a 10:57 mile...just shy of 11 minutes (<---my goal in life to stay under an 11 minute mile forever and ever amen), so I was *sort-of* happy with it.

What I was really happy with was the distance because I seriously cannot tell you the last time I ran over 3.5 miles. So today was a milestone for me.

After our run I chugged no less than 2, 493 gallons of water while Reba licked by shins until I yelled at her to stop. Then I made an amazing smoothie for breakfast!! Warning: crappy iPhone pics ahead

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 frozen banana-lama-ding-dong

1 heaping handful of fresh spinach

1 1/2 cups of vanilla soy milk
Smoothie Success!!! It was really delicious and ugly in color...the making of a wonderful smoothie! In case you're wondering, this smoothie has 6 WW points+ in it. I know that sounds kind of high for a smoothie, but you are getting two servings of fruit, a serving of vegetables, and a serving of dairy (by WW standards, soy milk does count towards a dairy product) all in this one smoothie.

We are on a blueberry kick at our house...I just had to share this cutsie-patootsie video of Lilly sharing her blueberries with Uncle Tom:

I love Lilly's face in this when I say, "Reba's crying." So concerned.

Weight Watchers Update:

Just got back from weigh-in and I'm down 2.5 pounds! Current weight is 162.5. This is SO encouraging to me, after not losing anything last week. Seeing a change on the scale, and feeling a change in my body (I'm a little sore after that arm workout on Monday!) makes me feel like my old self again! Love it. I know once I can see my weight in the 150's I'll feel even more motivated.

Weekly Goals:

Get in at least 4 workouts including 1 HIIT workout, and 2 strength workouts

Lost 2 pounds

Count points every day

Limit alcohol intake to two days: Wine Club on Wednesday night, and one weekend night.

BIKINI WEEK HERE I COME! :)

Fast Friends & Family Weekend

2011-06-20T19:39:00.013-05:00

Hi Friends!

Hope you are having a wonderful start to your week.

My weekend went by so fast that it didn't even feel like a weekend! We had a fun-filled weekend with lots of family and lots and lots and lots of friends!

Friday night I picked Lilly up from her flower girl rehearsal at the church. A very special family in Tunica, the Gannaway's, were having a big 'ole Delta wedding shin-dig for their oldest daughter, Rebekah. The Gannaways are special to our family because while their girls were growing up, Sara Whit and Myra baby sat for them and were basically a part of their family!

Rebekah's parents, Jeff and Sandy, threw a party for Tom and I when we got married, and they are just a very special and generous family. We just love 'em!

So anyway, Lilly was the flower girl in this wedding also (as you might remember her first flower girl experience) so I got to be there to help prepare for the big day. The rehearsal went as well as can be expected...two two-year-olds running up and down the aisle of the church screaming and pulling each other's hair. But we just threw our hands up and said, "Well, I hope it goes well tomorrow!"

Lilly and Lala at the church:

Here are the bride and groom leaving the rehearsal! Such a gorgeous couple!

After the rehearsal Lilly and I went home for some pizza a rest before the big day on Saturday!

Saturday morning, Bex and I had planned a Girls' Morning Out in Memphis. First we went to Shelby Farms to run in the Memphis Civitan 5K. This was Bex's first post-baby-Evie 5K and she did AWESOME! I was really proud of her.
I have never run a race at Shelby Farms and I loved it!

The course scenery was so beautiful and shady.

We weaved through threes and trails and playgrounds and ponds.

There were a few hills, but nothing I couldn't handle.

I finished in 31:48. Not the best I've ever done, but I was hoping for under 32:00 and that's what I got! You might remember my original goal for this run was to be under 30:00 but after the Gibson Guitar 5K last weekend, I could tell that wasn't gonna happen.

So 31:48 it was. I'll take it.

I also wore this super cute new running outfit! How do you like this awesome/awkward picture of me in it?

Hahahahah..goofer.

I got it at Sports Authority. And, although I feel a little like I'm participating in a high school track meet, I always get excited to wear new clothes.

After the race we hung out and cooled down before going shopping and lunching all morning. I'll be back later this week with a post about some fun Summer fashion.

Saturday afternoon I went back to Tunica to nap, shower, and get ready for the big event Saturday night! I arrived at the church early to help Sara Whit with Lilly.

Here is our gorgeous bride! Seriously, she looked like she stepped off the cover of a magazine.

Lilly had some primping to do herself before getting into her fancy flower girl dress.

Here she is all gussied up...that dress is just as beautiful as it was the last time she wore it!

Things were touch-and-go with the flower girls before the ceremony. It was Meltdown-Temper-Tantrum-City there for a while. But then, by the Grace of God, they performed miraculously for the wedding! Nothing a little bit of God's Grace and the promise of a Pink Mini Mouse Car won't do! Ha!

So I'm here to report that Lilly is 1 for 2 in her flower girl duties. I'm sure there will be many more flower girl experiences in her future!

After the ceremony went off without a hitch, it was time to party! Me and my handsome date:

Me and my silly sister:

We had a blast dancin' the night away!

Goofers.

The band was so wonderful and fun...we stayed until the very last possible minute!

The dance floor looked like this the entire night:

Look at this cute pic of my fun family!

Let me talk about something for a minute here...do any of you struggle with red eye in your photos?

Here is the original copy of the photo above:

Notice anything? Tom, Sara Whit, and Myra all have the devil eyes. Every single picture we take as a family, the Withers have RED EYES. Even Lilly in a lot of them. Brian and I are the only ones who look perfect in every picture. Ha!

After a long day and night of fun, Lilly was about to pass out! Time to go home for this little girl. Even though she wanted to stay even longer...here she is when Sara Whit told her it was time to go home:

Sara Whit said they got to the car, stripped off that dress and headed home. But Lilly piped up and said, "I want chicken nuggets from Wendy's!" ahahahah...late night post-party-eater...that's my girl! Here she is waiting on her Wendy's. Too funny.

All in all, it was such a beautiful and lovely wedding, and we are so thankful to the Gannaways for letting us be a part of such a special day in their lives!

Sunday we recuperated by hanging out at home and by the pool.

Yesterday after work I felt like a needed to get a good SWEAT in after partying, eating, and being all-around lazy all weekend. After my workout (more on that in Wednesday's post) I was CRAVING a smoothie.

Julie is always making these yummy-looking smoothies and I just had to have one. This one had such pretty summer colors in it I just had to snap a picture:

In this mix was:

Fresh spinach (two huge handfuls...I needed those nutrients!)

1 fresh peach

almost 2 cups fresh blueberries

2 cups vanilla soy milk

6-8 frozen strawberries (unpictured)

Hit. The. Spot. I hope you all had a great weekend, and have a fun week this week! I'll be back on Wednesday with a Weight Watchers and Weekly Workout update!