Thirteen Point One

That's how many miles I ran Sunday, folks! It was such an accomplishment for myself. Ever since last February when I ran the 10K portion of the Mercedes Relay Marathon I knew I wanted to try for a half marathon. I had planned on running in the Talladega Half Marathon back in September, but I never registered for it. So I registered for the Magic City Half Marathon in mid-September. It may sound crazy, but I knew if I did not register for it way ahead of time I would never start training for it. The weekend after I registered I began my training. The first time I went for a "long run" I set out to do 6 miles....I surprised myself and was able to go 7! After that I tried to go a mile further each weekend. There were some weekends when we were out of town and I did not get to go on a long run, but I picked up where I had left off the next weekend. Each long run I went on I shocked myself; the runs felt good--not too hard! The last weekend before the race I went on my last long run {12 miles}. I felt nice and prepared when I finished that run; I knew adrenaline would get me through the last mile to 13! I set a goal for myself--2:05:00...

The Saturday night before the race Britt helped me make a new playlist to run to, and I made a pasta dish for dinner so I would have plenty of energy for my long run. I went to bed at a decent time to make sure I was well rested. Sunday morning I had Gatorade with my breakfast to get me nice and hydrated. Britt drove me to Linn Park and waited with me for the race to start. It was supposed to start at 8:00, but about 5 minutes before 8:00 they announced that there was going to be a delay because the Coke and Powerade truck were running late to get water and Powerade out on the course. Britt waited with me the extra 25 minutes it took for the race to start.

Waiting on the race to start! 

 

At 8:25 they called all participants to the starting line! I was excited and nervous all at the same time!

When the race began I got in my groove and felt like I could go on forever....and I did until mile 8. That's when it got hard. But I saw Britt, my dad, and Brooks cheering me on at mile 10 and it gave me the encouragement I needed to get through the last 3 miles. The last three miles was also when the hills started...who thought it would be nice to put hills at the end of the course?? I pushed through and made the final turn onto Reverend AbrahamWoods Jr. Blvd. and knew I was on the last stretch...when I finally spotted the finish line I ran as fast as I could to get there! I saw my sweet teacher friends and Britt, my dad, and Brooks cheering me on! When I saw the timer at the finish line I knew I was going to beat my goal!! It said 2:02:35!!! It was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishments that I have ever felt :) {Photos courtesy of Britt}

This was when Britt, Dad, and Brooks were cheering me on!! 

Coming to the finish line...my face looks horrid, but that's most likely how I felt after 13 miles! 

Whoo hoo!! Look at that time! Not bragging{it's probably not even that great}, but I am proud of myself:)

I was a wee bit excited that I finished my first half marathon!

After the race we went to Rojo for a bloody mary and brunch...it was good as always!

I intend to run my next half in February--the Mercedes Half Marathon. I'm already excited! Check back soon to see how the Smiths celebrated Thanksgiving. -Jessica

Busy, busy!

Seriously, every time I sit down to blog I realize it has been a month since the last time I posted. Can time just slow down a little??

Christmas Village comes to Birmingham each year at the beginning of November. I used to go with my momma when I was a little girl. I had not been in about 15 years, though. Britt was kind enough to take me this year! We walked the whole 2 levels of the "village" and came out with a whopping 3 items! I have been eyeing a sideways cross bracelet and I got one!

Britt found the author of God and Football, a book he read and enjoyed. He has a new book called Love Thy Rival. The author is an Auburn grad so that makes the book even better. Britt bought himself a copy and we purchased another for a Christmas gift.

I also got a really cute Santa pin that I can wear to school during the holidays.  It is hand made and painted and it only cost a dollar!

Last week Britt and I went to see Gregg Allman at the Alabama Theater. We had just seen the Allman Brothers back in August, but if you know us you know we love concerts! We can never get enough of good music. The tickets were cheap. The venue was beautiful. And we got to pick our seats {about 10 rows back}. Britt had class until 7, so we grabbed a burger from Five Guys and headed downtown. The concert was great--I am just so impressed that Gregg can still rock out on stage at such an "old" age.

Last weekend Debbie, Al, and Kelsey came to Birmingham to visit. The last time they came to visit was about a month after we got married. We see them in Atlanta quite a bit, but we thought it would be nice to have them over for the weekend. They drove over on Friday afternoon. {Debbie was getting over a bug and poor Kels was still not feeling well.} We have been wanting to try out Five so we thought it would be the perfect place to take them for dinner. We got there and they told us it would be about a 45 minute wait--no problem...we ordered a drink from the bar...then another...and we realized it had been over 45 minutes so we checked with the hostess...long story short, no tables were moving so the hostess had no idea how long it would be before we could sit down to eat. We ended up at Slice, which we love. It wasn't the "fun" atmosphere we had hoped to take them to, but the pizza was great.

Saturday morning we had pastries from MIX before we went out and about on the town.

The boys went to Home Depot to figure out how to fix our grill and how to get us more light out back. We girls just went shopping in Homewood. I bought a really pretty/fun nativity scene from Harmony Landing and a "retro"Christmas ornament from Seibels.

I also got two REALLY cute tops for our trip to NYC over Christmas break. I am pretty obsessed with them!

We took Debbie and Al to lunch at Garage Cafe. We love their sandwiches and the old bar feeling.

After lunch Debbie and I went back to Homewood to finish shopping! We came back home just in time to watch the end of the Texas A&M {vs. Alabama} game...boy, was that a game!! I got a chance to make two new recipes, too! I made a yummy dip and a blue cheese potato salad recipe from the Southern Living SEC Tailgaiting cookbook. We watched about 2 minutes of the Auburn v. Georgia game. We are BAD this year, and it's just not even worth watching anymore!

Sunday morning we had Big Blue Bagel for breakfast {one of our go-to breakfast spots}, then the other Smiths hit the road back to Atlanta. We had so much fun visiting with them!

I was thankful to have a day off on Monday for Veterans Day. Britt and I got to eat lunch together--that's a rarity.  We tried out Lime and it did not disappoint. After lunch we ran a few errands. I got some cute new Christmas pajama bottoms from Old Navy!

I also got all of our Christmas stuff out of Dad's basement!!! Last year Britt was adamant that we would NOT decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. This year he just surrendered without a fight. I will share the pretty decorations after we get our tree put up {I will wait until after Thanksgiving for that since we get a real tree}.

Work was crazy busy since we only had a four day week. We had our Kindergarten Thanksgiving play and Grandpals Day all in a four days time. We had to make sure we were prepared for our play and that all of the Grandpal gifts were made. I tell you, it was a hectic but fun week! The kids performed the play perfectly on Thursday, and they loved showing their Grandpals around the school on Friday. Britt and my momma were sweet enough to come and be a Grandpal for 3 of my students who did not have relatives who were able to attend. The kids get to enjoy a nice, long week of vacation next week for Thanksgiving. I have professional development two days before I get a break:( Three days off is better than none, though! And next time you check back I will be able to tell you all about my half marathon!! 

-Jessica

Life is Grand

I just realized it's been a while since I blogged last. I guess we have been busy, but not with anything of much importance. We really haven't had anything that exciting to share with the blogging world! I did pull out all of our Fall and Halloween decorations. I also planted some pretty pansies and mums and bought some fun pumpkins recently. 

As I mentioned in the last blog, I signed up for my first half marathon!  Since then, I have been training away. I have been doing short runs during the week and a long run on the weekend. So far I have worked my way up to a little over 9 miles! Race day is 4 weeks away...I am excited and nervous all at the same time!

Knowing that I purposely signed myself up to run 13.1 miles, you probably already know I REALLY enjoy running. Through all of my running I wore out my running shoes and got a cute new pair to replace them. They are the Noosa Tri-7s. I am pretty obsessed with them!

Last weekend we made the trek to Oxford, Mississippi for the Auburn v. Ole Miss game. I took a personal day on Friday, so we were able to head over there Thursday after I got off work. Britt and I love Oxford very much. I've said it before, but we are suckers for old town squares that are still alive and thriving. Upon arriving, we went to the Square and grabbed dinner at Rooster's. The food isn't great there, but we were hungry! Friday we enjoyed lunch at our favorite spot, Ajax. While we waited on our food to arrive I enjoyed an Ajax Bloody Mary. And as always, the food lived up to its standard. I had my usual cheese grits, fried okra, and {the vegetable of the day} collards, with a side of jalapeno corn bread! After lunch Debbie, Kelsey, and I went shopping on the Square! I got a cute new watch and some really cute new shoes I have had my eye on for the last several weeks. While we girls were shopping Al and Britt went to the Library {a bar, ha!} to have a beer. That night we enjoyed dinner at Boure' on the square with Debbie and Al and it was quite delicious.

Right when we got to the house and before we went to eat at Rooster's.

 Kicking the weekend off right!

 Bloody Mary at Ajax!

 This food is delicious.

 Precious Lilly dress...I almost bought it for our future {and I mean far away future} little girl just because of how sweet it is {and because an elephant is the mascot of our political party, not our football team, ha!}

 I am literally obsessed with my new shoes...I have worn them to teach Kindergarten in twice and they are very comfortable...not often that you get cute and comfort all-in-one!

 I just love him.

I got pretty lucky in the sister-in-law department:)

Fast forward to Saturday morning. We got up bright and early to head to the Grove since kickoff was at 11:00. We had a few cocktails and then we headed to the game. We cheered our little hearts out, but obviously not enough to pull Auburn through to a victory! We encountered rude Ole Miss fans for the very first time. We were in shock....Ole Miss fans are always SO nice! We didn't let them bother us, though. We went back to our tent in the Grove and drowned our sorrows with good company, cold drinks, and great music by a guy named Daniel. We danced until dusk and then it was time to go back to the house. All in all, the day was a blast!

 We ran into Colonel Reb before the game! 

This is the guy, Daniel, who played some great music! 

Gotta love the South!

Lookin' a little rough....

Trying to capture the Grove, but I can't do it justice! 

Love me some Ashton!

I can'y believe it, but school has been in for 9 weeks (really 10, now) already! It seems like just yesterday I was frantically making sure everything was ready for my new babies to come to Kindergarten. We had conference week at school this week to show the parents the report cards and checklists and I loved hearing what my kids' parents had to say about the school year thus far. It is so reassuring to hear how much my students LOVE coming to school. One parent told me that their little boy gets upset on Saturdays when he can't come to school! I mean, really, that just melted my heart! I know, without a doubt in this world, that I am right where God intended for me to be! My 16 kiddos make waking up at 6:00 every day so much easier:)

Along with Fall comes fun themed teaching at school. October is fun because we get to learn all about pumpkins! This past week we studied pumpkins and the life cycle of pumpkins. To wrap up the unit we did a pumpkin investigation with a real pumpkin. Before we dug into the pumpkin {literally} we did some predicting and describing about the pumpkin. When we cut the pumpkin open the kids were in awe. They were SO excited! They loved feeling the pulp of the pumpkin and getting all of the seeds out. They wanted to know if they could each take a seed home and plant it in their yard...I'm sure their parents would have loved planting pumpkins in the front yard! After we got all of the seeds out I took them home and roasted them. The next day we continued our investigation by counting the seeds and making a counting book with our seeds. I let the kids eat some of the seeds and they loved them; actually, they ate all of them that we did not use for the counting book! 

Now, on this gorgeous Saturday morning I am sitting here looking out the window at the pretty weather. The sky is an indescribable blue, the tress are changing colors, and a gentle breeze is in the air. It just makes me happy! We just had pumpkin muffins for breakfast and we are waiting (with a screwdriver in hand) on Auburn to kickoff at Vandy. We are hoping for a win, but know that may not happen! We are coming to accept that this is just not Auburn's year! 

The rest of this weekend is going to be devoted to watching football, CLEANING, running a few errands, grocery shopping, and going on a long run. This weekend I am attempting 10 (TEN) miles....that's double digits, people. It sounds like a lot, but I know I will be able to accomplish those 10 miles once I get going and have KISS and AC/DC in my ears! Maybe next time I will have something more exciting to blog about! Until then, I hope y'all are enjoying this beautiful Fall day! 

--j&b