I'm cheap and I like it!

I have a love/hate relationship with running, as I suspect most runners do. There are days where I have good runs and I love running. Then, there are days where I have a horrible run or just don't want to run at all. Those are the days I hate running and vow to never run again. Naturally, a nice day comes along and I find myself back out on the road getting in a few miles.

This summer I've been running quite a bit. Actually, I haven't run this much since my old college soccer days. Although, I'm not doing any type of speed work or sprints and I don't miss those workouts one bit!

One of the main reasons I love running is because it's such a cheap activity. Really, all you need is a pair of decent pair of sneakers and a good sports bra (ladies- we know what happens when you don't have a good sports bra. It isn't pretty.). Thrown on any pair of shorts and a t-shirt and you're good to go. That's really all you need.

The hubs has a fantastic phrase that he says for just about everything, "It (whatever we're talking about) is like anything in life- you can spend as much money on it as you want." That phrase definitely works for running. You can take my cheap approach and not spend very much money on running. Or, you can go the way of many other people and spend a ton of money. Top of the line shoes, expensive clothes, specialty socks, heart rate monitor, Camel Pack, Ipod or other musical device, GPS enabled watch, etc. Yeah, those things cost a pretty penny.

I normally don't wear a watch when I run. Yeah, some people think I'm crazy and I'm okay with that. Over the weekend I went for a run with my best friend and I had to laugh at her watch. My friend is a tiny lady and she had on this massive Garmin Forerunner 405 on her little wrist. Honestly, the sight of it made me laugh. Then, my friend told me she spent $350 on her watch and heart rate monitor contraption.



My jaw hit the floor. Seriously, that's more expensive than my dressy watch. Sure, the 405 is GPS enabled and can do a whole host of other activities, but that's still an expensive watch. Granted, it was nice that her watch beeped at us when we finished another mile and that allowed me not to ask every minute, "are we done yet?" I just couldn't imagine spending that much money on a watch. Especially, when there are so many free resources available to track how far you've run (www.mapmyrun.com is my personal favorite).

Peer pressure got the best of me and I felt like I should be running with a watch. At least that way I could roughly figure out how long my runs are taking me and that might be helpful for running with a running partner. Me being me couldn't justify buying some fancy watch, so I went out and bought a $10 digital watch from Target. Yeah, it's water resistant and everything. I basically use it as a stop watch and then plug my times into my favorite running website when I get home. Sure, my watch doesn't compute all of that information for me and I don't get accurate splits, but it's good enough for me. At this point in my novice running career I don't need much to keep me happy.

So go ahead, call me cheap. I won't mind.

What do you do to save money on your hobbies? I'm sure everyone has a few tricks of the trade up their sleeves.

Camp out!

The hubs and I met up with my best friend and her boyfriend out at Deep Creek State Park in western Maryland over the weekend. My best friend and her boyfriend go camping quite often and this past weekend was the first time the hubs and I were able to join them.


Yes, I may hate pink, but I have a purple tent. Go figure.

The day started out cloudy and cool on Saturday, but the sun came out later in the day.


The hubs is secretly wishing he brought his fishing gear.

Once the sun came out everyone jumped into the water. I'm the world's worst swimmer, so I barely went in the water. I only went in due to peer pressure and well, I didn't want to be the only person hanging out on the boat all day.
He's such a ham.

This is the good life.

Now, only if my skin didn't hate the sun, then this would have been a perfect day. I'm kidding, it was a great weekend. Maybe next time we can go hiking and do a few more traditional camping activities.

Perfect timing

I'm normally a slightly crazy person and I have our dinners roughly mapped out for the week. It's pretty easy to switch days around for the most part, but most of the time I stick with my plan.

Last night wasn't one of those nights. I was insanely hungry and chicken ceasar salad wasn't going to cut it for my appetite. I looked at the hubs and he immediately chimes in with, "let's order Chinese food!" The guy loves Chinese food and anytime we order out that's what he wants go get. I ignored the fact that we just had chicken stir-fry over the weekend and my stomach told me I wanted Chinese food.

Thank goodness I listened to the hubs for once. Right after we ordered our food it started pouring outside. Then, twenty-two minutes after we ordered the power went out. Whew, good thing we ordered food because cooking in my dark kitchen didn't look like fun. Three minutes later, our tasty Chinese food arrived. Mmmmm.

Our power was out for over three hours, so it looks like we timed our order perfectly. The Chinese place is just down the street and they lost power as well. We definitely lucked out last night.

Two is better than one

This is where I usually receive confused looks and frowns from other people, but I refuse to believe that my wedding day was the best day of my life. I'll never describe it as such because I don't want to think that the best day of my life has already come and gone. Don't get me wrong, the day I married my best friend is definitely on my top five list, but I like to leave a little wiggle room for future days.

Anyway, the hubs and I were married two years ago. It was a good day. No, it was a truly amazing day that I will treasure for the rest of my life.



Here's to a lifetime of memories and a lifetime of stories.


Of course, maybe I could just carry around a massive neon Love sign and that would let everyone know how much I care about my hubs. Maybe, I need to work on that one.

My best friend's wedding

I have three people that I consider to be my best friends. Two gals and one guy. Of course with the guy I always add on the additional qualifier that he's my best "guy" friend. It's pretty obvious that I met this cool guy through my hubs, as this guy is indeed my hubs' best friend. We usually call him "D," among other things. I could go on and on about how awesome this guy is, but that would be a really, really, really, really long post.

Well, D went ahead and got married this past weekend. He and his bride-to-be picked a gorgeous country club setting just north of the Shenandoah Valley. The rolling mountains in the background provided a wonderful backdrop for their wedding vows. Unfortunately, mother nature wanted it to be ridiculously hot and humid on Saturday evening, but the heat was worth it.


This was the first time I've ever seen the hubs wearing a tux, so I was pretty excited. The hubs... not so excited with the heat!!!



B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!

I finally got to wear my dress from J.Crew! Yeah, it's been in my closet since January.


The hubs and I love that guy!!! We're so happy for you buddy and can't wait to see you when you get back from your honeymoon.

I hope you two are having fun in Maui!!!

And we have a winner!

Random.org generated a winner for my blogiversary giveaway. Congratulations Tiff!!!! Leave me your e-mail address (I'll delete it later) and I'll send you an e-mail so I can get your address. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Next year I promise to do something even cooler.

Last chance to win a Border's gift card

Okay peeps. I'm having a little blog giveaway that ends tomorrow (Monday, August 3rd at noon). All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you are in the running to win a $25 gift card to Border's. All it takes is a second or two and you can possibly win a gift card that you can use to buy a book or whatever else you can buy at a book store. Let's be honest, you can buy a ton of candy bars if that's what you're craving.

As of right now the odds are in your favor to win. You can't win unless you enter, so go leave a comment!!!