Getting Fit

I know I have talked about it before, but Will and I are really making a push to get healthier around our house. Will is keeping up with his CrossFit workouts most mornings and using a phone app to estimate his calorie count every day, which is really helping him. I think he hit a plateau but now that he is tracking his food intake, he is starting to drop weight again.

I have been staying on track with my running and talking to my old cross country coach about what I needed to do to improve my times/endurance. I am going to pick up some speed work for cross training and work on pushing my pace during my 3 runs during the week.

I think the biggest thing that it comes down to is confidence and pushing myself. I don't run with a team, so it is sometimes difficult to keep up the motivation when the only person you have to keep you going is yourself. My best days are usually when there is an older person power walking a hill in front of me. I mean, I have to blow past them right? Even if I have already ran 2 miles, I need to beat them! I am hoping the oppressive heat will calm down in the next month or so and I'll be able to run downtown and stretch my legs on the Swamp Rabbit after work.

As far as eating, we are doing well by sticking to mostly meat and fresh veggies when we cook at home. The trick is eating that well when we are out. Hint: it doesn't happen. We have always had a weakness for going out to eat and need to curtail that for calorie and financial budgets.

Hope to be able to update you in the coming months on our progress as the Blackmon house gets fit!

Olympic Fever!

Y'all. I LOVE the Olympics! And it's that time again!

As I sit here watching the opening ceremonies, I continue to get goosebumps over what the Olympics mean. All these athletes working toward the same goals, years invested in their sport, it is an incredible commitment.

Our friends John & Steph brought baby Clara over to watch the beginning of the ceremonies, at least until it was Clara's bedtime. We had a great time eating pizza, hanging out, and bickering about the importance/awesomeness/grandeur of the Olympics (full disclosure: the bickering was all between Will and I, can you guess which side was which?)

I don't care if you think Bob Costas is a tool, or don't understand why Ryan Seacrest is somehow now involved in the Olympics. For these 2-3 weeks, swimming does matter, gymnastics is the coolest thing around, and I'll rack my brain thinking of ways I could get to the next Olympics. And for the record, yes, I still get excited about the Winter Olympics, although they don't have gymnastics, they do have that cross country skiing/shooting competition thing that is pretty cool.

My first really distinct memories of the Olympics were from the '96 Games in Atlanta. My mom made sure that we went for a day, and I remember traveling down to Atlanta, getting tickets to some random basketball game or something, and taking in a small portion of such a big tradition. That year has to be when my love of Olympic gymnastics began. Who doesn't get goosebumps when they think about Kerri Strug performing that last vault?? From Sydney to Athens to Bejing and now to London, my love of Olympics hasn't waned. And don't even get me started on those Morgan Freeman commercials. Holy moly.

And even though I can't take off the next several weeks to solely watch Olympic coverage, I can monopolize the TV every night until closing ceremonies. Hope Will learns to live with my love of the Olympics....

:)

It's the Little Things

It really is the little things that make me so thankful for the relationship that Will and I have. Tiny, out of the way things that trigger me to thank God for the husband I am blessed with. 

• Will likes chunkier salsa, where as I like less-chunky salsa. So, generally, when we eat any kind of salsa, he eats the chunks, I get the rest, and everyone's happy.
• How he can look at me and know exactly what I am thinking.
• When he (generally) leaves me alone when I am about to finish a really good book.
• The one chore he (almost) never helps with (laundry) is the one chore I have never really minded doing. I don't know what it is about it, but I can do some laundry. Probably should thank that babysitter that taught me how to fold clothes when I was 4 (Thanks Jennifer!).
• When he will build me a fire in the middle of winter, and then sit on the other side of the room in shorts and a t-shirt while I have on pants and a sweatshirt right by the fire. 
• How we can both be perfectly content going to bed by 10:30 (or 9:30) on a Friday night. 
• How he pushes his own brand of headache cures (2 Excedrin, 1 regular Coke, salty food) on me and it works. 
• Summer nights when all we use to cook is the grill, and Will can straight up cook on a grill.
• Lazy weekend mornings when Will makes me pancakes.
• Mornings when Will wakes up early to go workout, and comes back to tell me if it's raining outside so I can hit the snooze on my running alarm.

Thanks for being my other half Will. I love you :)

Cause I'm Spicy!

As my sister so loves to say, she thinks my blog needs more 'spice'. And to my sister 'spice' = more of her. So..... I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and include some awesome pictures of us over the years. I honestly have enough silly pictures of us to make a whole photo album of, and I keep the really embarrassing ones to myself. (You can thank me later Sam)

One of our many many trips to Kohl's. She thought this looked like something someone would wear at a Disco. And yes, I have the corresponding video to go with this. And it is awesome.

Meeting little baby Campbell for the first time!

This picture screams Sam to me on multiple levels

A) She is being silly

B) She has on Duke gear

C) She is showing off some sweet dance moves

4) I'm 99% sure that she has candy in her mouth

Getting ready for Sam's 8th grade dance

At the family reunion in Dillon, SC. In August. In a church with no A.C. 

It. Was. Hot. 

But on the plus side, we got to stop at South of the Border!

Love trying on Easter dresses, especially the same ones!

And, at Campbell's adoption, we had to take a few pictures with the Anderson fish

Everyone got in on the action!

You see...it's kinda in the family!

Life Update

Well....things have been awful boring around the Blackmon house this summer. Other than some trips here and there, we really don't have much going on.

I decided to take the summer off from any more house updating. Several of the things I want to do need to wait until fall anyway, so I'm using the excuse to take a few months off from picking paint colors or worrying about what is on the wall or worrying about how to accessorize another room. Maybe instead of "being lazy" I'll market it as "saving my creative energy for later". That sounds better.

However, I have been killing it in my reading challenge. I wanted to read at least 40 books over the year, but I am already at 31. I think I'll need to pump up the goal a bit next year :)

In other news, both Will and I are hunkered down in new workout routines. Will is doing CrossFit several mornings a week led by our small group leader from Renewal. Those are some tough workouts and I do not envy the 5:20ish wake up call that comes with it. I have signed up to run the Savannah 1/2 marathon with my friend Kristi (who is inevitably going to kick my butt by like an hour). In order to get ready for that, I'm working on an 18 week training program where I am running 3 days a week and I need to do cross training twice a week. I am doing good keeping up with my running, but having trouble dragging myself out of bed for cross training. I am hoping to incorporate some P90X videos, or maybe kayaking or swimming at the lake, but so far, I am just happy to be able to keep up with the running portion for now.

So the good news is we are taking better care of ourselves, eating better, etc. Bad news? Less sleep and WAY more dirty laundry!

That's pretty much what is going on around the Blackmon home. What are you up to for the summer?