5 posts tagged “alyse”
I'll start with an update on the marathon training. I'm proud to say this week I logged 14 miles... not bad for my first official week of training! I did a five mile "long" run on Saturday. Now, that's only a couple miles more than my daily short runs, but for some reason, it really pooped me out. I definitely need to work on building up my endurance! The good news is that I survived it and will be adding mileage this week. My feet are sore today (those darn second toes hurt!) but nothing else hurts too badly. I am a little nervous - my friends who have already done marathons are talking to me about rolling sticks and ice baths. I had no idea that there was this much to it - I just thought I had to get out there and run! We'll see how sore I get and if I end up resorting to any of that!
Friday night Kati and I met up with Brigitte and Alyse for a little catch up dinner at Red Robin. It's been a crazy few months for all of us, so it was nice to sit down, have some drinks and chat! Saturday I went to a CERT outreach meeting (we're doing some really cool stuff this year) and then over to Mike's to watch "The Godfather". Yeah, I know, I should have watched it a long time ago (ironically, Kati claims we did... I don't remember it though and I'm pretty sure you don't forget the horse head scene). I do have it say, it's a great movie! I really want to watch the next two and Mike says the book is great, so that's on my list of books to read!
Today Kati and I went into full house cleaning mode and got everything clean in the morning. It's so nice to have a helper now... it's amazing how much faster it goes! Then we met up with Mom for brunch and ran some errands. I did a little yard work and now I'm getting ready to try out a Coq au Vin recipe for dinner. "24" starts tonight, so I wanted to make something yummy and have a nice night in!
What an amazing concert! There were six of us girls who went and we
started the night with dinner at BJ's (yum!). Here's some of the girls
at dinner:
First of all, we had a very nice motorcycle man give us directions down some back road to get to the amphitheater faster. I know, sounds scary, but they were legit directions and so I say "thank you motorcycle man"! Kellie Pickler (yes, from American Idol) opened the show and was WAY better than I had expected her to be. I love her current single, "I Wonder" and she definitely rocked it.
Next up was Taylor Swift. I was blown away by her! First of all, the girl is like 17 and has an amazing voice. She writes all her own songs and plays guitar. I know, it's an anomaly... a young musician in the year 2007 who has real talent... She was hilarious on stage too... talking about what inspires her and how she writes songs about her friends in high school.
After Taylor came Jack Ingram. I have never really been a huge fan of his, but he did ok. I love the Hinder song that he covers and a couple of his other more well known hits.
Then came Brad Paisley. What a
performer! The man can wail on the guitar and I've always loved his
tongue and cheek songs. He played for a solid two hours and did pretty
much every hit off his albums along with some new ones (I'm definitely
getting the new album, just for the song about girly men!). He also did
some sweet covers - my favorite was Alabama's "Dixie Delight". Here's
Brad and his awesome stage set up:
All in all, it was a wonderful night - the weather was perfect for an outdoor show and we definitely got our money worth with the almost 4 hour show!
In other news, I got my dress for Vegas today - I'm
not going to spoil it, but let's just say I dubbed it my mermaid dress
and I think I look dang good in it! Viva Las Vegas!
What an amazing weekend I had! First of all, let me start by saying that I'm still pretty sick. In fact, I haven't been able to sing until just yesterday, and even that was not very pretty. I have been feeling progressively better, but this dang cough and a little tiredness just won't go away!
That said, I went to bed early on Friday and slept in until 9am on Saturday. Then Brig and Alyse came to pick me up. Ah, my favorite little driver:
We swooped in, picked up Amber and were off to the Bay Area. We pulled up to Adam and Eva's house, walked in and promptly fell asleep (yes, it was 2pm). Apparently we were a little sleepy. I was just happy to have a nap! Once we all woke up, we decided it was time to get ready. Here are the girls doing their hair thing
We had a ton of fun getting ready together (2 hours for Brigitte's amazing crimpy hair!) and rocking out to Christina. Eva came home and joined in on the fun and then we were off to the concert!
Danity Kane opened the show, and to be honest, I'm not a huge fan. I do like the song "Showstopper" but I don't think I'd buy the album. In fact, they seem like a less talented version of the Pussycat Dolls to me. Now, when the Pussycat Dolls came out, the show started. First of all, Nicole can sing. We can't really figure out what the other girls do, besides some backup dancing and some pretty neat flexible moves. Here are the girls performing:
One of the things that I liked most was how she sang some of her older stuff. For example, she sang "What a Girl Wants" but to a Latin beat. It was neat to hear the old stuff mixed up (and I bet way more fun for her to sing!).
And of course, here are the five most awesome girls in the world:
We had a total blast. It was so much fun hanging out with Adam and Eva for the weekend! Sunday morning we slept in and then met them for brunch (they went to Jazzercise - crazy!) at one of my favorite places to eat in the Bay, the Iron Skillet. They have this amazing, gigantic cinnamon roll that I have yet to find a rival to. Think Cinnabon taste (except fully cooked and twice as big) with LOTS of cinnamon butter drizzle. YUM!
What an awesome weekend! Friday afternoon I left work at about 12:15 and headed home. Brig picked me up and we headed for the hills - Tahoe! The drive was surprisingly short (only about two hours). Here are some pictures of the mountains on the way up:
The "cabin" we were staying in was beautiful. It turns out it was a two-story five-bedroom house - HUGE. We could have comfortably slept 20 people! The night we got there we ended up renting my snowboard and getting some gloves (go figure - mine were still packed because I thought I would have moved before I actually needed them). We had a yummy dinner (much like our family, the Mitchells firmly believe in having WAY too much food). Then we played a rousing game of Pictionary. Here's Brig and I:
Saturday morning Brigitte, Alyse, Chris and I woke up early to head over to Sierra at Tahoe to snowboard. Here's Brig and I in the parking lot and Chris and Alyse in the parking lot:We had such an amazing time! We snowboarded from about 9-noonish, then hung out in the lodge and ate lunch, then went back out and snowboarded until around 2. By then we were pooped and decided to head home before anyone got hurt. It was a beautiful day - sunny and warm. So warm that we were sweaty and I actually got a little sunburned. Here are the snowbunnies:
On Sunday we relaxed and hung out around the house. It backed up to a golf course that made for perfect sledding, so we spent some time going up and down the hill and building an anatomically correct snow woman.
We had all sorts of weather while we were there - sunshine, rain, hail and snow! I was like a little kid with the snow... I love it!
I also have some beautiful shots of the lake, which Brig and I stopped to see on our way back from shopping:
We had the best weekend, and sadly, it all had to come to an end today - we headed home around 11ish, made a much needed stop for brunch at Dennys (Brig and I both get cranky when we're hungry) and I was even able to squish in a nap. What an awesome weekend!
What I'm Listening To:
Tonight Brig, Chasie and I went to see "Catch and Release", starring Jennifer Garner. It was a really cute romantic comedy. Not sure if I would rank it among the go see it in the theatre movies, probably more like a rent it on DVD. But cute none the less. We munched on Swedish fish and Brigitte had the odd habit of "catching and releasing" the green fish. You see, she only likes the red ones, so every time she picked up a green one she'd toss it back.
Before heading out to the movies we hit up In-N-Out. This was the highlight of my night. First of all, anyone who knows me knows that In-N-Out in itself makes me happy. But tonight, Brigitte officially made it the best trip ever. We walk in and she comments that she's really hungry. I don't think much of it, because most of the time one or more of our group of friends is hungry (high metabolisms all around). The part that made my jaw drop was when she ordered two hamburgers and an order of fries. And eats it. All. I'm so proud!
This morning I went back to the Saturday kickboxing class that I loved so much. It was a different teacher, and she was even better than the other guy! Apparently they switch off every other week. She's been teaching the class for 9 years and had so much energy! I really love this class... it seriously kicks my butt, but makes me feel good about it!
Finally, I offically made an offer on the house today. Alyse came by so I could sign all the paperwork and then sent it over. Now it's back to the waiting game. And since we all know what a patient person I am (hahaha!), we know how easy the next week or so will be for me. Thank goodness I'll have a business trip to distract me!
Tomorrow we're heading out to the dog show. I'm taking my camera and Eva and I are going to giggle at the funny looking dogs. Apparently, this dog show thing is huge - like beauty pagents. I'm sure they do all sorts of weird things to make their pets look perfect. I can't wait to see what kind of people are there (as well as the beautiful dogs, of course)!
