My 7 Links!

Special thanks to Lindsey over at A Running Tale for tagging me in the 7 links post! As a fairly new blogger, I'm excited to play along :-)

Most Beautiful

So far my most "beautiful" post to date, has been a birthday tribute to my then fiance, 27.  I think it's the most beautiful because I put it all out there, he read it & got teary eyed.

Most Popular-My recent bar method review has hands down been my most popular post.  Thanks to a tweet by Bar Method and a facebook post, that one post got almost 500 views.  I love the Bar Method because it works!!

 Most controversial-My post about strippers @ bachelor parties. I knew LC would be having one, I didn't haven't a problem with it, but I knew some of the GF's of the guys did and I just wanted to see what everyone's opinions were.

Most Helpful-I'm going to go with my honeymoon recaps. Part 1-Arriving to San Fran.  Part 2-Big Wineries & Lodging.  Part 3-Small Wineries & Restaurants. I want to go back to Napa!

Surprise Success-My wedding shower post! haha! I didn't think that many people cared :-) It was a bit long a huge picture overload, but I had so much to say & I didn't want to forget anything.

Not Enough Attention-When I decided to withdraw from the Chicago Marathon I thought more people would comment.  It was a big decision (and HUGE disapointment) for me and a lot of different factors went into it.  Spraining my ankle has almost been a blessing in disguise.  It has taught me A)listen to my body, it knows its limits B)Not take exercise or simple things such as walking for granted C)forced me to try different things besides running (I got turbofire in the mail yesterday! Trying it out tomorrow!!)

Most Proud Of- My first 1/2 marathon with my sister :-) Something I never thought I'd be able to do.  I miss you MissE Childs :-)

And now I pass the 7 links torch onto:

Elvi@ Life.Wedding.Nonsense

Legally Fabulous

Jill @ Life After College

Meesh@ Postively Meesh

Okay, I'm off to bed...being a spectator at Tough Mudder is exhausting in itself!  I will be back tomorrow with an update of LC's race.  It will be a dirty one ;-)

Good News & Disappointments

Good news or bad news first?  I'll start with the good news because it's short & sweet.  About a year ago, I started a blog to track my wedding planning progress.  When I realized that I was writing more about working out and nutrition, I decided to start a blog geared more towards that.  I had invested a lot of time in that other blog and had also written through LC's 2nd deployment.  I had a link sending people to the new blog and never deleted the old one.  It wasn't until today that I realized that I could import all of my old blog postings!!  Thanks to the traffic tracker and whoever got to this new blog via the old one.  So so happy! It's the little things people :-)

So now, you can find a tab with all my wedding-related posts and I can reference back to older postings.  This has seriously made my day.  That and volleyball getting canceled due to weather...I've got a big "to-do" list to tackle tonight!

On the downside, and this is a hard one for me to write about, I've decided that this year I will not be running the Chicago marathon.  Major. Fail. A lot went into making this decision.  Could I physically do the training program? Defitely.  Would I have the time to do. Sure, if I set everything else that I have going on this summer aside.  Ditch out my BFF's bachelorette party because I have to run 13 miles the next day? Not this summer.  When I signed up for the marathon, I guess I never thought about how much it would have to coinside with.  And just getting through this first week of training was tough with everything else I had going on.  Run on my honeymoon?  No thank you.  There's a time and a place and celebrating marital bliss is not it.  

Another reason, I decided to pass on the marathon?  My sister will be gone for training with the Air Force.  When I first realized this, I knew this wouldn't be my year.  My sister is one of my biggest supporters.  We ran our first 1/2 marathon together and I know that if she lived in Chicago, she would be my designated running buddy.  We're really good at pushing each other.  It must be a sister thang :-) When I ran my 2nd 1/2 marathon she was there with my mom, holding up signs chasing me around the course.  Her excitement and motivation for me made that run worthwhile.  So for me to run my first ever FULL marathon without her being there just doesn't feel right to me.  

I'm dissapointed in myself, but there's always next year.  This summer, I'm going to run for fun and maybe sign up for a fall 1/2 marathon after the wedding craze has died down a bit.       

Weekend In Review

Friday, I ended the work week with a nice 5 miler down by the lake. I spent the rest of the night drinking wine and watching The Vampire Diaries. It was heavenly.

Saturday, I ventured down to Hyde Park and went to the University of Chicago Celiac disease center. They were having a free blood screening and the director wanted to meet me and talk to me about the charity fundraiser I'm doing. It's a nice campus, I was only there for about 20 minutes so it was kind of a waste of my morning, but I enjoy venturing out to different parts of the city. After I arrived back home, my friend, B, wanted to go out to lunch and day drink. It was the perfect day for it, but I have an A&P test to study for so I wanted to remain coherent for the rest of the afternoon. Which I did, and I must say that I'm very proud of myself for doing so. After lunch at Nookie's, we walked around Lincoln Park for a little bit and enjoyed a cupcake at Sweet Mandy B's. I have an obsession with cupcakes. I had a red velvet cupcake. It was very good, but I have to say that it was not the best I've had in the city. So far, SugarBliss takes the cake on red velvet ;-) Lincoln Park is my favorite part of Chicago. I love the whole neighborhood aspect of it. When I'm there, I don't feel like I'm in the city anymore, which can be a relief at times.

Sunday. Well I was supposed to volunteer at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, but my snooze button had other plans for me. Sadly, I slept through my alarm and did not get to volunteer. I will say that I needed the sleep, but bummed that I missed out on a really cool jacket. I did get up in time though to walk over to the finish line and watch the race. This was my first time doing so and it was an amazing experience. It was very emotional and inspirational. To see the smiles of these people's faces as the ran to finish 26.2 miles gave me goosebumps. There was even a man who ran with prosthetic legs who finished around 2:30. Amazing. I'd really like to add a marathon to my list of events. And I'm hoping to perhaps do it next year depending on how this half goes at the end of the month as well as making the time commitment next year.