Welcome Lady Baby!

Haley and Matt's little girl, Anne Hughes Gardiner, was born last night!

I have to say, I love when my friends have babies. I get my baby fix but still get to go back to my child-free life.

Kelsey and I went to visit Haley in the hospital after work today. Anne was less than one day old but already so connected with her mom and dad. It's so exciting to see Haley as a mom, especially after months of anticipation.

I can't wait to see what a lady Anne becomes!

RIP Sugar

I've been meeting with Carly Pollack, from Nutritional Wisdom, for a few months now. I started working with her to adjust my diet to see if it impacted my sleep. Turns out, if you eat well, you sleep well.....go figure?

I've been having some other minor medical issues (upset stomach, acne, dry skin) for the past month and talked to her about it. She suggested I get tested for a yeast allergy. I'll save the testing process from this blog as it's a bit graphic and not very lady-like.

My test came back positive for two different yeasts. Gross. A lot of yeast overgrowth is due to many things....some is just a lifetime of eating too much sugar and some due to being on antibiotics for a lot of my life. We all have yeast in our body and it's a balancing act. When you're on antibiotics, though, yeast is suppressed to treat your infection. Once you go off the antibiotics, yeast overgrowth can occur. Therein lies my problem.

So the only way to beat it (unless I want to go on yet more medicine) is to do a full detox and get the yeast overgrowth out of my system. So for the next month I am not allowed sugar, dairy, soy, alcohol or yeast (obviously). It's not that drastically different than how I eat (mostly meat and veggies) but I do enjoy my wine and periodic cheese so it will be a long month. All that being said, I'm really looking forward to tackling this. I knew there was something else going on and am very optimistic this will address some of my current annoying issues.

I'll keep you posted.

Full Half Marathon

I completed my fifth half marathon today. The 'Full Half' name above came from a conversation Kelsey and I had with some colleagues. Feeling as if when asked if we're doing the full or half marathon, our answer is always, 'just the half'. It's not 'just the' anything! I've trained for 13.1 miles and I'm running the FULL amount I've trained for. So, there you have it....I ran my fifth Full-Half marathon today.

Rumor has it there's a bit of a movement in the running world to change the name to the Pakermi, which is the name of the town halfway between Athens and Marathon (hence, the half marathon) but I'm guessing that movement is comprised of Kelsey, me and a few other runners out there.

Either way, it was a great day for a run! After two straight days of non-stop rain, the skies parted and it was chilly (in the 40s) and mostly cloudy. A great day to run in Austin in my opinion. The course is the same as last year's - so still hilly! But I felt so much better during the run than I did last year. This was mostly due to the weather I'm certain. Last year was 70 and muggy and sunny.

To start off the race weekend, while I was volunteering and attending a brunch for all of the runners who raised money for Team LIVESTRONG, Kelsey picked up our race packets. There was clearly some computer or printing error. While my name was right on my race bib. My age and home town weren't. And I wasn't the only one:

Melissa, Age 24 from Chicago, Texas

Kelsey, Age 36 from random town I can't remember, Texas

Jess, age 55, from Elgin, New Jersey

Ken, age 23, from Austin (which is the accurate part)

And many others we heard about from work. They got our genders right and Jim's was accurate as well. So who knows? Someone who was in charge of sorting some columns in Excel screwed up. But it makes for a good laugh.

Bright and early this morning (5am), I got up. Carl agreed to drive myself, Jim, Kelsey, Jess and Ken to the start line. He then parked and hopped on his bike. While we ran, Carl biked around, cheering us on, making us laugh, grabbing extra gear from us and all in all being a great sport. He did also treat himself to some delicious food at Curra's while waiting for us so I'd say it wasn't all a sacrifice for him. But I am so appreciate of the time and support he gave to me. For the second year in a row, he's been a trooper. I'm not sure how many more of these he'll support but I felt pretty lucky to have him by my side a number of times today, especially as we climbed big hills and he played music on his phone loud enough for us to hear.

But back to the run. I am, once again, so happy to have done this with Kelsey. Despite the times we often go mute and don't speak for miles, we always support each other. It was great to see so many familiar faces on the course - colleagues from work including Devon and Anthony, Chris, Missy, Lucie and Audrey and tons of LIVESTRONG gear. We ran the entire time, which was a personal goal of mine and while we slowed a bit toward the end, we even ran up all the hills.

It was great to share this day with Jess and Ken as well who decided to train and run it together. It was Ken's first half marathon and the last time Jess did one was with me in 2005! We all got to have breakfast together after in revel in our success of the day - all before 10 am.

So now I rest for the week. I don't plan to run this week and will enjoy not having a routine. But Kelsey and I already signed up for a 10 miles race on April 15. I figure we can do that and then it'll be time to start swimming!

Engagement Party!

Last night, my dear friends, Jess and Ken threw Carl and me an engagement party!

I had such a blast (maybe a little too much fun) and woke up so grateful to have such great friends in Austin (and with a headache too).

Jess was my first friend in Austin and we've seen each other through a lot over the past 8 years. She's such a good friend I wouldn't know where to start to describe how much her friendship means to me. Last night was one example of how much energy and effort she puts into those she loves.

To start, we pulled up to their house and saw the illuminating heart! Not only was it lovely (and hopefully something we'll use at the wedding) but it was helpful in locating their house in the dark (as many others noted throughout the night - and I'm a big fan of practical gifts). There were fun activities, which included a box to leave words of wisdom or advice in for Carl and me and there was a Scrabble type board, where you had to come up with words that used letters from mine and Carl's first names (things like 'rascal', 'slime' and 'massacre' were big hits).

Additionally, one of their friends, made little paper hearts that were then hung from the ceiling via rope and paperclips and each had an individual fortune inside them. There were so many special touches and some of our favorite foods (chocolate chip cookies, cheese) and a specialty cocktail punch.

About 30 of our closest friends came and I think it was a huge success! It was a great opportunity for our friends to intermingle and to get to spend more time with each others groups of friends.

While in many ways I feel like we've been engaged for a long time already (it hasn't even been 2 months), I'm so glad we had an official way to celebrate and so lucky to have Jess and Ken in our lives. I know it's one of many celebrations to occur this year but the next ones have a lot to live up to.....

Playing House

This week Carl and I stayed with and took care of Lucie and Audrey for two nights while Chris and Missy were out of town. I had a blast with them and they are such great kids to be around. I learned a few things while staying with them:

1. Don't get dressed in your work clothes until after you feed Audrey (especially when she eats yogurt).
2. Elmo and milk make everything better.
3. Buster and Carl are clearly Lucie's favorite visitors (in that order).
4. Audrey will agree to just about anything.
5. Lucie and Audrey love bacon just as much as their Tia Mellie.

Lucie's also so funny and talkative now. One night, while putting her to bed, the following conversation happened:

L: (pointing to my engagement ring) 'What's that for?'
M: 'Well, Carl gave it to me because we're going to get married'
L: 'I'm married'
M: 'You are?'
L: 'Yes and so are Mommy and Daddy and Audrey'

Yep, that sounds about right......

Until next time and more adorable niece snuggle time, I'll miss them.

Run Sue Run

This morning, my friend, Sue, ran her first half marathon in a number of years. This was an important goal for her because not only did she recently turn 40 but she's been losing weight (and looks amazing!) and has suffered from exercise induced migraines.

She decided to run the 3M half marathon and did a great job training (despite some inconsistent running buddies).

She did a kick ass job today and not only am I so proud of her but it's good inspiration for me as I'm winding down my training for the next 3 weeks until my half marathon.

We went out to cheer for her today but despite our best intentions and planning, we missed her! I'm guessing by just seconds b/c we got to a great viewing point just as her husband told us she ran by. I know how much it would have meant for her to have seen us and I'm just bummed we didn't. Turns out, she was going much faster than we (or she) expected.

So we took this picture to send to her so we knew we were cheering her on!

Congrats to Sue on a very impressive run! I only hope I do as great at age 35 as you did at 40.

Two Years, Two Months and Twenty-Eight Days

That's how long my dear friend, Devon, worked on accomplishing a goal - an unassisted pull up!

For those of you who had to do the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, you know that women and pull ups don't go hand in hand (flexed arm hang, please!).

Devon starting doing Crossfit over two years ago. Her commitment level is an inspiration. She gets up, two mornings per week, for a 5:15am work out. And these work outs are intense. I've done them a few times and am impressed by those who do them regularly.

Since she started doing Crossfit regularly, Devon's had some pretty amazing physical changes. She's lost weight, gained muscle and overall looks amazing. She's also put her mind to some goals - completing an unassisted pull up being one of them.

She and Kelsey (who do Crossfit together), go to our office gym every afternoon and practice. All working towards this impressive goal.

So the other day, she did it! She did her first unassisted pull up and her Crossfit coach caught it on film.

I'm always proud of Devon. She's a great friend, colleague and always so supportive of when I reach my goals. I can't wait to see what she does next.