Easter with a wreath

Happy Easter Everyone! 

About a month ago, I came up with an idea for an Easter wreath. I bought all the stuff and started individually glitter-ing the cardboard eggs I had- TIMES 18 EGGS! It was a looooong process- paint half the egg with glue, cover in glitter, wait for it to dry, repeat 3 times. Then do the same thing with the other half of the egg. But I finally got it done and hung up and I LOVE the way it turned out. 

Don't mind the dirty door.... and I don't know what's going on with my hair...  

Look at those glitter eggs! ;)

And we also dyed Easter eggs- and by 'we' I really mean me. Haha! I had so much fun and got a new coloring kit that had hair you could put on the eggs and give them mohawks or different styles of hair! I am so easily impressed/entertained it was so cool!! 

And just because she is the cutest dog in the whole world, I introduce you to Paris Hilton.Paris meet the blog, blog, this is Paris. It's taken awhile but I've finally got her to smile for the camera! ;)

What did you guys do for Easter? Anyone get crafty?

Celebrating the 'Love Day'

We finally had a race free weekend (the first in 4 weeks) and we're able to go out and celebrate Valentine's Day (since I worked on the real deal). And honestly, it wasn't to 'celebrate' Valentine's day- but any excuse for a date- count me in!

We started the day off with a 40 mile bike ride with our good friend Mark. It was a good, hard workout.

After that I went to my moms house where I spent way too much money tried way to hard to make an 'edible arrangement' for 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter'. (I "thought" I could make a cuter one way cheaper than just buying one- Always. Buy. One. It took wayyy too much time and turned out looking like a 3-year-old made it.)


When I brought it home dripping fruit juice, 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter laughed and said it was really 'cute' said the fruit was really taste-y. At least it didn't taste bad too right?!

Then 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' gave me the cutest, most thoughtful gift ever! I have been known to ask him for a couple several kisses from him and sometimes back-to-back. I always joked that for Christmas or my birthday I was going to ask for my gift to be 100 kisses in a day. Well folks, let me show you my Valentine's day gift.....

That my friends, is a punch card for 100 kisses for any day, whenever I want it! (He said he was pretty embarrassed when he took it to Kinko's to get it laminated. haha!) It's signed and everything! So cute right?!

That night we went to dinner at one of our FAVORITE restaurants in town: House of Tricks. Unbelievably good food! It's two older houses in downtown Tempe that they turned into a kitchen/restaurant and have tables both inside and outside on their patio. The atmosphere is amazing and their food is to-die-for.

For dessert- the most important part of the meal, I had oreo, red velvet cheesecake- so, so, so good! I want to go back right now just for another piece!! 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' had some sort of bread pudding? I'm not even sure that counts as dessert? He said it was the best bread pudding he's ever had....but he also said it was better than mine, so I don't how well we can trust his judgement on these types on things.... ;)

 

Happy love day 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter'! Looking forward to several more with you! <3

Tough Mudder Race Recap!!

Today was SO much fun! I had an absolute blast with our team, Mudder Militia! That being said, I may not do another Tough Mudder event in the future- the electric shock is no joke and it really hurts! Especially going though it twice! 

Our wave was one of the first to start 10:20am, I thought that was the perfect start time. Not super early so you have to wake up in the dark and then still be cold outside- but not late enough to where the heat is unbearable.

We woke up and started getting ready. My mom was coming over to do my hair give us a ride to meet up with our team. While we were getting ready I tried to make toast and burned it... twice! Like pitch black and toaster smoking burnt... I hurried and opened some windows so the smoke alarm wouldn't go off. 

My mom gets there and walks in and immediately says 'what's burning?!' Awesome. She attempted to french braid my hair but it just wasn't happening. I don't know if it was just too early for her or if my 3-day old, unwashed hair was to blame.  So I ended up WITH hair 3 inches tall and WITHOUT toast. 

We were finally ready, met up with the team, and headed out to the race. Since we had to pay for parking the whole team squeezed into one car. (My mom was planning on coming later but I forgot my ID so she brought it to me and stayed for the whole thing- BEST. MOM. EVER!!) 

We got checked in, got our numbers and took some pictures before the start. Then I found another pink porta-potty! It wasn't hot pink like the ones in Las Vegas- but close. ;)

 When it got closer to our start time we made our way to the start line. (This is when the nerves set in and I realized what I was getting myself into.) In order to get to the start line, you have to climb over a wall. We haven't even started yet and I was already struggling. 

Here's the team- flying right over, looking strong....

Then here's me.... 

Once we made it over the wall, we were off into a cloud of orange dust. There were 21 obstacles over the 12.5 mile course. The first one was crawling through mud- not so bad right? Then came the second obstacle: the 'Arctic Edema'. This is where you climb up a ladder and jump into a dumpster full of ice water (with ice chunks floating everywhere). You have to swim to the other side- but in order to get to the other side you have to go under a wooden board, so you are completed submerged in the freezing water. The second I hit the water I felt like I couldn't breathe and just stood there frozen. Luckily, another girl in there said we would all go under the board on the count of 3. I knew I had to go on 3 or else I never would have gone. I could not get out of that fast enough!

For some strange reason the team wanted to keep going? So on we went. We climbed a mountain of mud (ridiculously hard to climb when you're still soaking wet), went through more mud, made it over the 'Berlin Walls' (shout out to my team mates for doing a majority of the work for me on this one- they lifted, pulled, and caught me over both walls. Please reference my upper body strength at the beginning of this post). I was seriously embarrassed for my team due to my lack of upper body strength. (I'm working on improving it!)

I think my brain must of still been frozen from the 'Arctic Enema' because I can't remember what was next or the order of the remaining obstacles. I do remember we had to carry a log and walk about a mile with it and I remember a guy who resembled Arnold Schwarzenegger walk up to me and ask if I wanted his log. I said sure and took off walking. For a little looking log it weighed a TON! At one point we had to jump over fire pits and into water. This one was actually pretty scary- the fire pits were pretty big and the flames were pretty high! 

Then there were these tubes we had to crawl through. They were really small ( and I get claustrophobic) so I was really nervous to go in. It was really dark and muddy inside. 

There were 2 tubes to crawl through and once you made it out of the first one, the second one added some water. Making it even more scary fun for people who are claustrophobic!

There were also hay bails we climbed, rings we tried (and failed) to cross, monkey bars, more tunnels, and at one point I ended up carrying 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter'. 

2 bar in was as far as I got

Some of the most terrifying were the 'Electric Eel', 'Electroshock Therapy', and 'Walk the Plank'!! Oh.My.Gosh! Just thinking about them again makes my body tense up. The 'Electric eel' was where we had to crawl through another mud-pit... but this time there were hanging electrical wires that electrocuted you every time they touched you. Everything about this one hurt. I tried to go fast but every time I got shocked I went slower and slower. When I finally reached the other side, I just sat there for a minute and heard some really loud high pitch female scream. I turned around and realized it was coming from the biggest guy on our team- Private Pile!! haha!

'Walk the Plank' is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You climb up a steep wood ladder and then have to jump off. I am terrified of heights and I honestly didn't think I would do this one. I think the only reason I did it, is because the three of us were holding hands and I had no choice but to jump.

The photo is blurry and you can't see the pure terror on my face... 

This is what absolutely terrified looks like..... 

After this obstacle, there wasn't much more I was scared of- except the last one, where we would get shocked again. So I was excited to see what was next and to keep going at this point- I mean what else could there possibly be?! 

Meet Everest. Probably the hardest obstacle we had all day. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' ran right up it and got up by himself on the first try. (He was so fast no one even got a picture of him!) One -by-one our teammates went and got up with little to no help. 

        

Then it was down to me and Private Payne. He tried, tried, and tried again and still could not get up there. One one of his attempts he came crashing down and hit his knee pretty hard. He told me to go and I didn't really have much of a choice. I took a running head start and took off sprinting..... I grabbed my teammates hands, they grabbed mine, I slipped out and came sliding down. (Somehow in the shuffle the managed to slip off by LiveStong bracelet and not break it.)

I set up for my second attempt and backed up even further to have more of a head start. I took off sprinting this time and once again grabbed onto my teammates for dear life. This time, they recruited more help from fellow 'mudders' and I was just dangling there. Like we saw earlier in this post, I lack upper body strength and once again was left at the mercy of my stronger teammates. The only thing I could do was try to kick my leg to the side and yelled for someone to grab it. After a few kicks someone was able to grab it and they were able to pull me up. Ya.... it was great.

It took 5 people to pull me up.... Not embarrassing at all! 

Now we just needed to get Private Payne up. The crowd had been watching his continuous efforts and began cheering for him (and shouting out pointers!). It was awesome to see all the support we got from everyone. After a couple more attempts, he got up and we could not have been more proud. The crowd exploded in cheers for him and we celebrated the sweet victory. 

So happy to have the hardest obstacle behind us. We were now onto the final obstacle. 

The final obstacle was the 'Electroshock Therapy'. Finish with  bang right? We all stood there, just looking at it, watching people run into it and get shocked repeatedly (probably didn't help). Next thing I know,  one-by-one all of our teammates have gone through except for me and Dena... we were scared and watching everyone else go was just making it worse. 

 A group of ladies had came up behind us and told us we were all going to go on the count of 3. At this point we had no choice- I knew I either was going to go with them or not at all. When she screamed out "THREE!!" we all took off running. My plan was just to run straight through as fast as possible and just get done with it. Ya..... that didn't happen. I tried to jump over the first hay bail and my foot got caught and I tripped (while getting zapped SEVERAL times!!). I decided it would be best to just stay as low as possible and army-crawl out of there. My thinking was I would be low enough not to get zapped- I wasn't! I got zapped many, many more times! 

See me fall? Way back at the first hay bail? 

"Go around sir." You can also see the ladies planning my rescue on the left.... 

Finally almost out- but still getting shocked

'Go on without me. Save yourselves'  (Seriously, how dramatic was I?!)

For you're viewing pleasure I give you the grand finale and to really hammer home my pathetic-ness.... 

Once I was finally drug out and ran through the finish we got our orange headbands and celebrated finally being done!

My awesome mom- who stayed the whole time and took these amazing photos! 

We are officially TOUGH MUDDERS and have the bruises, blood, scars orange headbands to prove it!  

Meet the Militia

 So I've mentioned before that I've done some running/training with the Mudder Militia. What's the Mudder Militia you ask? It's our team for the TOUGH MUDDER!! (I really pushed for the name to be Sprinkles and Glitter- but no one would go for it and they wanted a more 'tough sounding' name. I don't know about you- but I think Sprinkles and Glitter sounds pretty tough to me! ;))

What's the TOUGH MUDDER you ask? It's a 10-13 mile trail run with over 20 obstacles! These are not your ordinary- jump over a hurdle obstacle, these are crazy/insane/terrifying obstacles!! For example, you have to climb a 30 foot wooden wall, then when you get to the top... you have to jump off into cold water! (I am terrified of heights so this is probably the scariest one for me!) Then there is the lovely electric shock obstacles that you have to go through TWICE! I don't know who wants to go through it at all let alone TWICE! The first time you have to crawl on your hands and knees (in mud and under barb wire) through the hanging electric wires- sounds like a great time right?! And then just in case you didn't get shocked enough, the last obstacle you have to RUN through the mud and the electrical wires to get to the finish line. To say I am absolutely terrified would be an understatement.

Anyways, since it is coming up next weekend, our team: the Mudder Militia, has gotten together a couple times to 'train'. The first time we got together we ran up a mountain in the pouring rain. ('Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' had a picture of us- but lost it when he got a new phone. :( ) Then we got together at a playground, where we would run a 1/2 mile loop and then do some 'obstacles' on the playground like the monkey bars, climbing UP the slide, and then finishing with 12 push ups. We repeated 10 times so we did 5 miles total. It was pretty fun and we got some weird looks for the other kids on the playground.

Sunday was our last time getting together for a run and we did a hard 10 mile trail run. It was a lot of fun! We started after the birthday party so it was late afternoon. By the time we finished it was pitch black and 'Mr, Sprinkles and Glitter' was SO excited to actually use his new head light.

I think we're ready for the TOUGH MUDDER and I can't wait for next weekend- although I'm still terrified for some of the obstacles. We are having shirts made and everything!

Have any of you guys ever done a TOUGH MUDDER or an obstacle course race?

A Mickey Mouse Birthday Party!

Today we celebrated our good friends (and old roommates) kids FIRST birthday. I cannot believe he is already a year old- it feels like yesterday I was just visiting them in the hospital after he was born.

When we first got the invitation and realized it was going to be Mickey Mouse themed, I knew we should wear our Mickey Mouse shirts we got from Disneyland way back in the day. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was beyond excited willing to go along with it. ;)

I absolutely LOVE giving gifts and thought I would do something really creative as his gift. For his baby shower I made 2 small blankets for him and I knew he absolutely loved them and took them everywhere he went. I had some of the same material left over, and was able to make 2 more blankets for him for his birthday- a HUGE hit. I bought a bag of the big size legos and tried to 'build' a basket out of lego's to hold the blankets in. Then I bought a Mickey Mouse plate and silverware and have them sticking out at the top. (It kind of looked more like a bad castle and I'm SO mad I didn't take any pictures but you get the point.) Walmart had wipes on sale so I bought 3 boxes of them and spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to wrap them in paper and making them look like legos.

'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' decided to go a more 'cooler' route and bought him a super-cute Batman shirt and a little Batman car to play with- another HUGE hit with the birthday boy!

How cute is he?!   

When we get all our friends together I usually try to get a picture of everyone. When we all got together to take the group shot I told everyone to hold up a 1 since it was his 'first' birthday. My friends are so used to my craziness they just go along with it now. :)

The most amazing group of friends

The boys

Love these ladies

Before we left, we quickly changed into running clothes because we're headed to meet the Mudder Militia for a 10 miles trial run. Wish us luck! 

Happy Birthday big boy! :)

Tough Mudder is NEXT weekend and I'm starting to get really scared! 

Skirt Chaser 2013 Race Recap!!

Everything about this race was really laid back and super fun! I also PR'd which may-or-may-not of made me like it even more! ;)

What is the Skirt Chaser you ask? Females (AKA the 'skirts') all start at the same time and then 3 minutes later all the boys start, 'chasing the skirts'-- get it?

When we registered we had the option to pay $30 buck for just the race- or pay $60 and get a running skirt for the girls/t-shirt for the guys. We chose to go shirt/skirt less and save some money. When I went and picked up our packets at a local running store and everything went really quickly.  I got our bibs and the girl who gave them to me told me to go across the store to get our glasses and "swag". So I went over there and the girl working with the glasses/swag, asked me what size I was. I told her I was only there to get the glasses for 2 registrations  She said she would get the glasses in a minute but needed to know the shirt/skirt size for us. I was so confused, and I think she could tell so she said we get a shirt for the male registration and a skirt for the female registration and asked me again (not as nicely) 'what size?'. I didn't feel like arguing and she seemed to be getting annoyed with me, so I told her medium. She threw a shirt, skirt, and two glasses in my bag and then started helping the next person. I thought you had to pay extra for them, but maybe every registration got one and you could pay the $30 extra for an additional one? I'm still confused by this.)

Anyways, the race didn't start until 2:00 so we slept in and I did my swim workout (2,100 meters). I got home and didn't have enough time to eat, so I figured I would just wait until after the race. I changed into my new running skirt I got a little nervous because I've never run in a skirt before and when I wear shorts my legs tend to chafe. I grabbed a handful of pretzels on the way out the door. We drove down to Temple Town Lake, quickly found parking and hurried to the start line (there was a lot more traffic than we were expecting).

We made it to the start line and for the first (and probably only) time I dropped 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' off in the back and made my way towards the front. The plan was for 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' to catch up to me (since he is super fast) and then us finish together.

They counted us down and off the skirts went. I started out pretty fast and was surprised at how good I felt. It was an out and back course so when I made the turn around I started looked for 'Mr. Sprinkle and Glitter'. I couldn't really see because of all the runners and the blinding sun but I was really searching for him- I was so sure I would see him. I was so busy looking for him that I didn't even notice he was running right beside me! He catch up to me so fast! 

Girls with the head start below, and the guys just starting on the bridge. Can you find me in this picture? I'll give you a hint- I think I'm already waving my hands in the air like I just don't care for some strange reason.... we were less than .5 miles in....  :)

I told him I felt great and if we pushed the pace I could PR. He held a quicker pace and I just tried to keep up. I told him I wanted to sprint when we got close to finish line. Before I could even see the finish line he told me to pick it up. I was a little hesitant since I didn't know how much further we had to go, but I tried to keep up with him. Once I actually saw the finish line I picked it up even more and knew I had PR'd when I finished. My time was 27:13, so almost 2 and a half minute PR. WOOHOO!! 

We found some water, got out picture taken (still can't find them anywhere on their website or their Facebook page:( ), and ran into some friends. It was hot and we were both hungry so we left and went to Cornish Pasty, Co. Absolutely AH-MAZZ-ING! Their homemade lemonade (lemonade mixed with orange juice) is so good and just what I needed.

It was a great day with a great race!



What did you guys do this weekend? Anyone racing?