a little help from friends

"What would you think if I sang out of tune,

Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,

And I'll try not to sing out of key.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends."

I'm not going to lie, I almost did not blog today because I am exhausted, irritated, and just plain stressed. However, I knew you would all give me a little bloggie love if I told you about my day.

First of all, I'm so glad you all liked my stuffed tomatoes from last night! I have one hanging out in my fridge to make an appearnace sometime tomorrow!

I think my problem with today started when I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. I got out of bed around 6 and decided to take my time with breakfast this morning.

whipped banana oats with oodles of toppings, monkey cup coffee, h20

i realized this breakfast would be perfect for the 4th of july!

cherries (red), coconut (white), and blueberries (blue) - of course topped with cinnamon and peanut butter

I left my house pretty early to go over to my parents where the dining room table is wedding central! Before I went, I got in a strength training session over at the gym. It was only 9:30 when my stomach started rumbling - I guess that's good and it must mean my muscles needed to be repaired! It also may have had something to do with the fact I ate breakfast at 6. I snacked on this bad boy:

delicious, but i'll take my cashew cookie bar over this one any day

I had no idea how intense the place card making would be. It took me probably three hours to do all of the following:

• print out
• tear apart
• put into table groups to make sure no one accidently got left out
• put into A-Z groups
• Alphabetize

My printer really didn't like these - I swear at a couple of points my printer literally SPIT them out at me. They FLEW out of the printer. It was kind of weird, but had me laughing nonetheless.

I also cut our favor cards as well. We are doing a donation instead of a traditional favor, so those will go in place of a menu card. At about noon, I picked up my mom and we went on some errands and to my favorite lunch place: Chipotle!

Chipotle is almost the only "fast food" place I can go to eat. I love the quality of the food, and I also love the morals of the company. Chipotle strives to use the best ingredients - I absolutely love it. You really can't see my burrito bol underneath that pile of lettuce - I always get extra!

Just so you're aware, however, I had black beans, fajita veggies, a plethara of salsas, guac, and lettuce

From here on out, I apologize for the fact that my picture taking was really lacking today. I had a really stressful afternoon. First, mommasita and I went to Costco to get sooo many lemons and clementines for my centerpieces. When I got home, I started to continue on my wedding duties when I got a call from the country club where we're getting married at and having our reception. I went in there yesterday to make our final payment and was sooo happy to finally have that past us. I got a call today from the accountant saying they made a mistake and forgot to charge us sales tax! I looked at the recepts, and sure enough.. they did.

Now, here's the thing: it was their mistake. Their mistake is costing us another $700. Something seems a little wrong with that. It would have been one thing if they were nice about it and didn't sound accusing (yes, she made it seem like I was TRYING to get away with not paying.. seriously?), but the woman was rude, very aggressive, and just not nice. She was not very sympathetic to the fact that that amount of money is a really big deal to a young couple who are paying for a wedding and just renovated a house. I was hysterical, FH was livid, but in the end... we have to pay if we want to get married. It is so frustrating.

After that whole debacle, I went to go pick up my wedding dress from the woman who steamed it. She is a friend of someone I know, and she did a great job putting my bustles on. However, when you walk into her house, you can definitely tell it is a house with smokers. The room she uses as her sewing room is totally smoke free, and the last time I dropped my dress off and picked it up, it was totally fine. Today, however, when I picked it up, it was hanging out in the living room. I took it home, unwrapped it as she instructed me, and my entire bedroom reeked of smoke. MY WEDDING DRESS SMELLS LIKE A BOWLING ALLEY. I am so unbelievably mad it is not even funny. Needless to say, hysterical again, I called mommasita. She assured me it would get better before Friday, but I am so angry about it. I even called the seamstress to tell her about it and she "just can't believe" it happened. Well, DUH lady! If you smoke in the house and leave my dress hanging in a smoke infested room, my dress is definitely going to smell like smoke.

At this point, I had given myself a stomachache from all the stress and was just done with the day. I had to meet FH, his brother, and sister in law for dinner though. His brother is marrying us and wanted to go over the final details of the ceremony. I am glad I went because I had a great time catching up with them. I didn't get a pic of my food, but I want you to picture a chopped salad with tomatoes, cukes, onions, olives, and mushrooms. There was also a homemade vinagrette on the salad. I wish I could have had something else, but we were at a pizza joint so there weren't very many options.

When I got home, FH put together the bed for our guest room and I put in a load of laundry. Guess what we found out!! Our washer is leaking. You've got to be kidding me. Looks like I will be doing laundry at Mommasita and Big Daddy Wayne's before the honeymoon.

I wnated to calm down so at about 9:30, I pulled oat (I meant to write OUT, but hey... Fruedian slip, right?) some blueberry muffin crunch cereal to make me feel better about my life.

Nice job muffin man, nice job. You did your job.

I know a lot of you are commenting about how calm I seem 3 days before my wedding, but I'm really not! I'm a crazy wreck.

In retrospect though, if the only bad thing that happens is my dress is a little smelly and I have to dish out more cash than I expected, so be it.

My bestie comes tomorrow (not the one who was featured on here before... I can have two okay?)!! I'm so pumped!

Question: Can you give me some words of encouragement for the days ahead? I would really appreciate it! I love reading everyone's comments. They keep me going for sure!

nice to beet you!

There's a secret I've been meaning to share with you all for some time now. For the past 8 months, I have been dreading and also counting down the days until I could check out the 10 day forecast for the day of my wedding. The verdict is in:

84 degrees, sunny, 0% chance of precipitation, 61% humidity

I must tell you right now, I am not ashamed of the happy dance I did this morning!!!!! Now, I know this is subject to change over the course of the next ten days. Everyone start praying it doesn't change! I AM SO HAPPY!!!!

I ended last night by reading a little bit of this...

I got this book from the library on Monday, and I will finish it tonight. It is so good. I'm not sure what drew me into it, and what is keeping me entertained, but it is so well written. It is a story about 2 awkward teenagers that don't fit in and the in's and out's of their friendship/relationship. The main character (Alice) has anorexia and that is the cause of much turmoil in her life.

I told you this morning I would eat something different for breakfast. Blueberry Oatmeal Flax Pancakes, anyone?

The last time I ate these, I was sad to inform you they defeated me - meaning, I couldn't eat them all.

Today however, the hunger beast kicked in and I was able to finish these babies off.

you are so beautiful.

After I piddled around for a while (aka: danced like a crazy fool when I found out the weather and called everyone and anyone who would actually care about it) I decided to go out for my 35 minute tempo run. This "tempo run" turned into a "run until your lungs can't make it anymore then walk until you can breathe" kind of a run. Whatever, all in all, it was ridiculously hot outside, and I just can't take this humidity!!

When I got home, I ate another one of these.

individually wrapped and ready for snackage!

i see you specks of zucchini - you can't hide behind the chocolate. i know you're there!

For lunch, I stumbled upon some beets which needed to be used ASAP! I really like pickled beets, so why wouldn't I enjoy the fresh ones? I had these atop a ginormous salad.

no seriously - it's huge... romaine, tomato, cucumber, onion, chickpeas, avocado, beets

Conversation with my niece about my salad...

Me: Look, isn't my salad beautiful?

Niece: It is beautiful Auntie Chelsey! You should take a picture of it!

Me: Oh, don't you worry... I already did.

Niece: You're not weird, you're just... different.

Thi was followed up by an unpictured amount of cashews, almonds, and a fig (I originally was going to use the picture from yesterday, but then got lazy and forgot).

We had some fun in the sun today (which is probably why my eyes keep trying to close) - including sprinkler time and some play time over at the neighbor's inflatable water slide.

I had to dash to my house today to meet the Comcast Cable guy (who was an hour early - when has the cable guy EVER been early?), and was frustrated immediately upon arrival because our paint was not touched up yet. Now, I understand it will not be the end of the world if my house is not finished by the time the wedding arrives. It's liveable, and that's fine. However, I REEEEAAALLLLY just want to come home from our honeymoon to an unpacked, clean, stress free zone. Come on, just tell me it will happen - humor me, will you?

On the way over, I ate an apple - and forgot to take a picture until I was done eating.

it was a gala - and yes, that cup has been in my car for a few days. don't judge me.

When it's all said and done, at least I have cable and internet. I also got a beautiful present from my nephew - BIL and kids came over to see the current progress.

a rose, pour moi? merci monsieur!

Yes, the rose is set upon my new kitchen table - which is AWESOME and you will not see for a couple of days :)

I wanted a FEAST when I got home, so I called in the sweet potato and tofu troops. It was more than delicious - it was DEEELLLIIIICCCIOOOUUUSSS!! The cauliflower was also amazing. Mad props to mommasita for chopping it up for me! :)

Sometimes I wish my house wasn't already 90 degrees so I could withstand the heat of the oven every night.

i know you feel nice in my belly.

Emily sure knows how to make a mean slab of tofu

i'm sorry you couldn't be the star of the show today, cauliflower. there's always next time...

I'm off to go do some wedding escort cards, eat a snack (btw, i only have one blueberry muffin left!!! ::gasp:: what's a girl to do when they're gone?) , read and rest my eyes. I'm mucho sleepy today.

Question: How do you handle stress? Do you tend to freak out, stay cool, or melt under pressure? For me, I think I handle it well until I cry at the drop of a hat about silly things...

moving, wedding, half marathon training?

Before we get to the title, let me tell you about my day! I left the house around 7:30, eager to fight the Chicago rush hour (insert sarcasm here). The traffic actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! I live about 40 minutes outside of the city, and it only took me an hour even with all the traffic. When I got to the city, my wonderful friend and I were reunited after a long time apart since school let out (we teach together)! She is one of my running buddies - we ran after school to "take a break" most days after school along with some other teachers. We did about 4 miles, which seemed to fly by because we were so busy catching up. It was HOT outside! I would say at about 9 AM, it felt about 90. We were both ready for the beach by the time we got back to her apartment!

I hardly ever go into the city - but when I do, I always think about how much fun it would be to live there (well, for about a week. I can't take the traffic, the noise, etc...).

Chicago's infamous North Avenue Beach!

buddies

I'm not going to lie, I got burnt! I usually get rid of burn in about 2 days, so I'm not too concerned, but I had sunscreen on and everything. The sun must hve just been super hot. That lucky girl gets to go to Europe for a month and will get back just in time for my wedding! I got back on the expressway just in time for more traffic. Lucky me. I took a way that took a little longer (the road I took is always busy), but it was more direct to my future home. I wanted to see the progress the boys made! I HAVE DOORS! Yipee!

After I showered, I was starving! We brought tons of fruits and veggies to the beach, but I needed something substantial. I cooked myself a great dinner!

Salad with grilled onions and peppers, leftover black bean burger, and broccoli

Okay, nowTake a look at the title. Do you think I'm crazy? I think I can do it. I had a crazy year teaching and managed to train for my first half marathon on May 16. I really want to do another one, but I would like to improve upon my time from the last one (2:00 exactly).


Coming up this summer is moving (whenever FH finishes the house), getting married (July 30), honeymoon, and getting settled into our new life. I really want to do the:

It is on September 12, and I am certain I will be able to manage it. With my first race under my belt, I know I can definitely make it happen! I am following Hal Higdon's training schedule. I am going to do the intermediate plan since my main goal is to improve upon my time. I completed my first half marathon with some great friends that I taught with last year. One of these ladies is planning on running it again with me! Yay!

I made a running schedule, and even with Emily's help, I still couldn't figure out how to make it work with google documents. Oh well, Just know - training starts next week!

Question: Are you good at handling a lot of things going on at once, or do you get stressed out? As for me, I can usually handle it. I tend to hide my stress, so even when I'm actually freaking out, others can't tell (unless you're FH - then you know.)