Warning!! extremely long post....

Don't you just love weekends? That feeling of freedom and relief when Friday afternoon comes to a close is just exhilarating. This weekend was full of events and fun, but also so refreshing!
Friday night I made our favorite dinner - Mexican Casserole. We missed this meal so much while we were in Thailand because I couldn't find the necessary ingredients. So, we just can't get enough of it now. After dinner Jon had to go back to work to take pictures at an OSU event. I was really sad that he had to leave, but I used the time to relax with Olive and read my current favorite book, Eclipse (the third book in the Twilight series.) I was very skeptical about these so called Vampire Romance novels at first, but one of my good friends, Elyse, got me hooked. I just finished book three last night, and I'm hoping to get number four in the next couple of days. I'm going to go broke trying to find out what happens next in the Vampire world! So, in the end, the only thing that could have made Friday night better was if my sweet husby would have been home to enjoy it with me.

Saturday was much more busy and eventful than Friday. We got up bright and early and headed to OKC to do some shopping and visit some friends. When you live in Stillwater, a trip to the city is sure to be a day of fun. We actually hadn't been to the mall since we got back from Tland, and hadn't been to Target in several weeks. So we headed off without a care in the world, other than Olive. We hated leaving her alone in her kennel all day. We never leave her for more than a few hours at a time. So, we planned to be back mid afternoon at the latest. Unfortunately, we're driving along and suddenly we hear an alarming noise - a flat tire. So, long story short, we got a late start by a couple of hours.

Once our day in OKC finally got going we got some great shopping done. We started out at Penn Square where we planned to get Jonathan some much needed work clothes, and me some much needed winter clothes. I absolutely LOVE shopping. I hate to spend money, but I love to shop. This oftentimes creates quite the conflict. So, I started off in Express - where I just ended up incredibly frustrated! I don't know what's happened to me. I think living in Thailand for the past year really affected me stylewise and moneywise. There are about 3 categories of Express clothes for me. 1 - would never wear and can't fathom who would wear. 2 - would wear but would NEVER spend the money to buy. 3 - would wear and can afford, but is out of the sale bin and doesn't fit the ticket for the kind of clothes I'm currently needing (ie. sale bin only contains tank tops.) Not only do I encounter these problems, but I have developed this overall problem of having NO CLUE what's in style and having no clue what I like. During our year overseas, I had no exposure to style or trends of any kind. And, I rarely shopped, other than my occasional purchase at the market. So, I find myself lost and frustrated now...and overwhelmed by the cost of things in America! I heard about this book on Good Morning America called The Lucky Shopping Manual. I might give it a try. Let me know if you've heard of it. I just need some help!

Anyway, we had to leave the mall after only a couple of hours because we had plans to visit my friend, Molly, who just had a baby. It was so good to spend some time hanging out with her and holding her sweet little Lydia. And, it was a nice break from the stresses of trying to improve my wardrobe.



This is Molly and I on her wedding day. She got married two weeks before Jon and I.







After Molly's, we decided to check out Target before we headed back to the mall. What a great idea!! I always knew Target was the place to be...and it did not disappoint. Jonathan found a couple pairs of pants, shirts and a new suit and I found some super cute sweaters and turtlenecks and a hat. Not only were they already great prices, but we had a couple of Target giftcards leftover from our wedding that we thought were empty. Lo and behold, we got to the register and they had about $100 on them!! We were stoked! So, we left feeling really great about our purchases...it's so much more fun to shop when you can actually afford something and feel good about it!

One of the sweaters from Target. Actually, I don't love it in this picture, but I love it on....and it's super comfy!







Anyway....by the time we finished at Target it was already getting late and we were so worried about out little baby at home! So, we quickly ran by Academy to get a hydration belt. We are training for the Tulsa 15K run, and we really needed a way to hydrate during our long runs. We bought the only one that academy had and it was only $20! Then we headed home to Olive. The closer we got to home, the worse we felt about leaving her all day, but she was all wags and smiles when we got home. She licked us from head to toe, which only intensified our guilt! Isn't it so great the way dogs love you no matter what you do? So sweet.


Our sweet little Olive. Jon won't allow her to wear bows - he thinks they make her look stupid. The groomer put this one in right after her first haircut, though. I thought it was really cute...and patriotic!





So, onto Sunday...another relaxing and fun day. We got up extra early so we could get our run in before church. Now, I have definitely not always been a runner. It all started last January. Jon and I were eating breakfast at our hotel in Bangkok. I'll never forget talking about our new years resolutions and I told him that I wanted to try to run a half marathon. The most I had ever run since high school was ten minutes at a time. So, I was a little bit afraid that he would think I was silly or crazy, but he was super supportive! So, once we got back to Chiang Mai we started reading online about running and such and we both decided to give it a whirl! We doubled the training schedule and trained from January until July. We found a marathon called "Run Paradise" that would be held in Phuket (south Thailand) in July, which would be right before we left to come back to the States. While the training was hard and at times not fun (like at 5am on long run mornings), it was so great. After every run there is this feeling of euphoria that I just can't describe. It makes it all worth it. We started out running 3 miles at a time and eventually ran the 13.2 at the half marathon. We ran the entire thing together, and while we didn't get a great time (2:09:20) we finished in one piece without walking, so we were pretty proud of ourselves.


Anyway, we enjoyed it so much that we've continued running. We trying to decide whether or not we want to run a full or just keep doing halves. I'm just not sure if my body is capable of a full. We'll see. Anyway...so the long run Sunday morning was exhilarating as usual, all except when a truck hit an armadillo right in front of us and it went bouncing, hard shell and all, and landed about ten feet away. Sick!! It was very disturbing...I went from thinking that I was going to be attacked by the thing at any moment, to it flying through the air. The weather was perfect, though, and we finished without a hitch. One step closer to the 15k and a great start to our Sunday!

At church we got to listen to a great message about Christ's dying for us on the cross. We're studying the account of His death and resurrection that is found in Luke. It is so interesting and I'm realizing that there are a lot of details I never really knew about. Our pastor is so great about explaining each detail concisely and in a way we can understand.

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon playing with Olive, trying to make up Saturday to her, taking a much needed nap, reorganizing our budget, giving Jon a haircut (the Candice special:), and ending the night with some relaxing reading. It really was so great to spend the weekend being productive, but also just enjoying the love of my life, the great weather and great friends! I can't believe how long this post is. I'd be surprised if anyone would actually take the time to read this entire thing, but now having written my second blog post, I can say that I love getting to hash out all the happy and exciting things that are going on, if for no one else other than your truly!