25 Things To Do Before 25

Yesterday I turned 24. The count down in on for turning the looming quarter century birthday. I officially have 364 days left to figure out how to be an adult and 364 days until I'm in my "mid-twenties". Ewh. So, to make this final year in my "early twenties" phenomenal, I'm composed a list of 25 things to do before I turn 25. Each one has been carefully selected without it being "too closed"or "too specific" of an item.  Whether it has been a life long goal, or something that I've recently decided I need to accomplish, this list, I believe, has a well rounded feel and can ultimately better my life as well as the community's and someone else's.  Some are harder than others, but all are attainable.  I can't wait to see where this takes me! The journey begins today, so let the fun begin!

1. Take a hot air balloon ride
2. Get  married to the love of my life
3. Honey moon in a tropical, foreign country
4. Go to Europe
5. Move into a house
6. Run a Muddy Buddy or Warrior Dash type race
7. Beat my previous half marathon time: PR—2:35:25
8. Build a sand castle
9. Try 75 beers on my Brewniversity card
10. Help build a Habitat for Humanity House
11. Participate in the See Atlanta Tour
12.  Write everyone in my family a letter to tell them how much I love them and appreciate everything they have done for me over the last 25 years.
13. Try 3- 5 new  really adventurous foods
14. Learn how to make homemade pasta from my dad
15. Kiss in the rain
16. Create a photo journal of our trip to Australia
17. Find a “purpose” driven career
18. Go to New York, Washington DC, or Richmond (or all three!!)
19. Sponsor a starving child
20. Read 3 new books
21. Take dance lessons
22. Complete the first 20 items on the Atlanta Trip Advisor site
23. Plant a tree
24. Sleep under the stars
25. Throw a huge party and invite every one of my friends

Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary with me
Live a life less sedentary
Live a life evolutionary with me

Rock N Roll Half Marathon

Lets roll back to 17 weeks ago when we started this little endeavor… Sam and I agreed that “wouldn’t it be fun if we trained and ran a half marathon together?!!!??” Well, the weekend has come and gone.  We signed up for this race over 2 months ago and the it’s already over. It seems like just yesterday we ran our first miles together and now it’s all over.  It’s amazing how months of training and planning can be gone in only a few short hours.  (can’t imagine how a wedding feels!!!)

About a week ago, Sam and I made the collective decision that it would be best if he did not run the race. Why?!!?? About 4 weeks ago, we ran 7 miles together. (half way there!!!) and things were going great for us. Sam felt a “pop” in the bottom of his foot and it sent shooting pains up his leg for the next few days.  As he hobbled around, I forced him to go to the doctor to get it x-rayed. The doctor confirmed that Sam had an overuse injury in his foot where the Achilles meets the arch. The more he ran, the worse it got. Finally he took a week off and it started to heal. Then it was time for our next 5k race and he gave it a shot. No-go. Shouldn’t have done it. He was right back where he started with the pain and hobbling. He took two weeks off and ran again, and the same result happened. Neither of us wanted him to do any more damage to his foot.  So, I found someone at work to buy his number / spot in the race so it wasn’t a total loss for him. (the race was sold out over a month ago so spots were highly sought after!) We decided it was for the best.

Sam wasn’t off the hook so easily. This weekend was my homecoming game at GSU and he already committed to me to come down for the race.  Running or not, he was going to come with me and be my  #1 fan.  Friday afternoon came and we both left work early.  We headed down in all the traffic to Savannah.  Apparently the roads in Savannah aren’t equipped to handle an additional 24,000 runners, plus their coaches and race volunteers.  After fighting traffic we finally got our bib numbers from the Expo and we exchanged Sam’s with the friend of mine from work who was going to be running in Sam’s place and headed to David and Paige’s house to play with Zachary spend time with them.  Lights out at 9:00pm. Don’t mind if I do.

The nerves in my stomach kept coming up and Sam gracefully kept calming me down and telling me that I WAS prepared and I COULD do this. 13 miles? N.B.D.   6:45 rolled around too early.  Sam happily volunteered to drive and drop me off at the start line.   I met up with the peeps from work and we bonded over our five hour energy’s and protein bars on our walk to the start line. 45 degrees with a 30 mph wind shield = frozen daiquiri (I wish!).. or just a frozen KATIE. For those of you who don’t know, the Rock N Roll Marathon series is known for being super fun.  Their theme is to have a band play a live concert at every mile marker.  Pretty cool concept, eh? We started the race and you could see the shedding of sweat shirts, old long sleeve t-shirts and other over coat paraphernalia lining the course as runners got warmer.

I had my usual Pit-bull station on Pandora jamming in my ears and I got into a good stride for the first 3 miles. I was feeling good. Then the wind kept screeching through my sweat soaked shirt and chilling my muscles all the way to my joints and core.  I could feel my body tense up and strain on every step I took. The miles seemed to get longer. Where is the next band? Where is that next mile marker?? Where is the WATER?!!  I’m not sure what happened, but for about 3 straight miles (mile 4,5,6) the water stations ran out of water and Gatorade. I was so thirsty by the time I got to mile 7! Sam and I planned that he would be at mile  8 or 9 so I was getting excited to smooch him and get a pump of energy and keep on running to the finish line. Miles 8,9 and 10 came and went and I still didn’t see him.  He called me around mile 10.5 to give me a little pep talk.  Some cop wouldn’t let them out of the neighborhood (the marathon course went right through David and Paige’s neighborhood!) and they were having difficulty getting to the mile marker before me. So, NBD, I powered through and tried to pick up the pace.  One foot in front of the other. Let’s do this. I kept praying that god would just carry me to the end. [Apparently, He was busy answering other more important prayers, so I had to run them. ]  For almost all of mile 11 and most of mile 12 I really didn’t think I was going to make it.  My hips and ankles were killing me.  I couldn’t stay warm and I wanted to cry.  The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I had the most supportive boyfriend and brother and sister in law waiting to give me a huge hug at the end. And a metal of course. So, I put my head down, turned up the tunes, and pretended I couldn’t feel my legs and finished the damn thing.

I crossed the finish line at 2 hours, 35 minutes, and 23 seconds.  BOOM.

25 minutes faster than the Disney Princess Half Marathon and YEAYAAAAA that’s a baller time!! I must be cocky for a second and admit that I am so proud of myself! GO ME! My hard work and dedication has paid off.  Today, I sit at my desk, with sore muscles and sore joints and just think to myself, “yes. I did it. Again!” I couldn’t have made it without the support of Sam. I know it.  He was my driving force over the last few months. He had faith in me the whole time and knew that I could crush my last time, and I did.

So, after the race, as quickly and my sore body could take us, we got back to David and Paige’s house and I showered and we headed to Kyoto for lunch. GIANT ORDER OF FOOD PLEASE GET IN MY STOMACH. Can you say starves??? Yep. so delish. We packed up the car and headed to Statesboro.  We missed almost the first quarter of the homecoming game, but we got to sit on the grass and watch the rest! GATA EAGLES!  We won! Boo-yea!  Sam and I went to one of my friend’s houses for the rest of the afternoon and hung out and played drinking games to celebrate. C.O.L.L.E.G.E. We all got dressed and headed to the one and only good bar in the boro, retrievers. We had ourselves a grand ol time; got to see lots of good peeps!!!

It was a Marathon of a weekend (Literally and figuratively)that took months of careful planning and tons of training. And I couldn’t be more thankful for the best boyfriend to be there to love and support me every step of the way!! (literally!)  And a special thanks for all those who have supported me and run with me and encouraged me. You make me want to be better!!!!!!!!

Live the Life You Love

“Live the Life You Love”— we seem to be doing just that! Sam and I have been talking for months and months about going to see an ND football game. He (and everyone else) kept telling me that being AT a Notre Dame football game was a truly “religious experience” . Football? Religious experience? C’mon! Alright alright, let’s do it.  So, We had been keeping an eye on flights and hotel costs over the last several months and finally the week before the designated trip weekend, Sam told me there would be almost no way that we could fly. The flights were looming around $300 a pop and I don’t know about you, but I don’t have an extra $300 layin around.. so…we decided to drive. For those of you who don’t know, I absolutely cannot stand traveling in the car for long periods of time. The trips back and forth between ATL and the boro were painful enough, and this trip was 10+hours. Oucheemama! Oh well.. If we wanted to go, this was our only option. So… LETS DO IT. Sam also advised that the tickets (if found for face value) would be about $90 a pop. Eeeeek! LUCKILY Sam is awesome and found tickets fo’ FREE!!!!! OK so we HAD to go now! What started out as almost a $1000 trip quickly turned into a $400 trip (after gas and food and booze, duh).   

The weekend was finally here!!!!!!! We both left work early and headed up to Indiana. “Now sit down shut up and here we go”. We played so many road games and talked and talked and talked and talked and ate snacks and talked and stopped for dinner and talked. FINALLY we got to the hotel around midnight. Literally crashed into bed and woke up at 6AM to get back on the road.  We stayed about an hour outside of South Bend because it was $300 cheaper. Heck yea! So we drove straight to the liquor store, bought of tail gating treasures and headed to breakfast at Nick’s Patio. YUM. Remember this house crescent? Yep I bet you do. I know I remember it from the last trip we made to ND in April. And, yes, I ate the entire thing.  

We needed a good base for drinking, duh. After we stuffed out, we headed over to tailgate and met up with Stretch and his parents. Then over the course of the next 5 hours college friends came and went. It was so fun to get to know some of sam’s friends from his college days! I heard sooo many stories!  

We left tailgate and headed to the exact opposite end of campus to partake in watching the changing of the guard as well as the band warm up. Both were extremely cool traditions! There were SO MANY PEOPLE on campus! A campus built for 8,000 had over 90,000 people on it. And not one person was on the grass.  Just imagine that many people trying to weave in and out of each other on solely the side walk. Yea. Craziness.   We then stumbled to the game, scanned our tickets, and found our seats.

There’s a two hour period in which we don’t really need to go into…. *insert cheesy hold music *

ANDDDDD we’re back! The 2^nd half of the game was incredible. We had pretty decent seats (they were free so they were the best seats in the house!) The Irish scored the most points scored in the ND stadium since 1995 so being a part of that was incredible.  The game was unlike any other college game I’d ever experienced. Not that I have too many to go off of, but still. It was just football. The fans were there to be fans. No one was obnoxious and in your face cursing (ahem…UGA fans) and no one was throwing bottles and chanting F** YOU! (ahem Michigan fans..) everyone was there to have fun and enjoy good ol fashion football. The marching band was gigantic (as it should be!) and played awesome songs. Every student in the student section was wearing the same shirt which was pretty cool and they were all very active in their dances / chants / participation in the game and songs. It was really awesome to be a part of that!  I always wanted to be a part of a game like that and a college like this. After the game was over not one person moved. The marching band played the ND Alma Mater.  Both football teams turned, took their helmets off and listened to the band play as the entire stadium linked arms and sang. It was amazing. It was almost like a closing prayer in church.

After the game we went to one of Sam’s favorite restaurants in South Bend and got one of their famous burgers. MM mm!! Then headed back to the hotel and crashed into the most amazing bed ever.

Sunday morning we slept in (thankfully) and had a delish / famous SB breakfast and got back on the road.

My overall impression of my first Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Game:

So…. When can we do this again?!?!

The ATL Battle of the Burgers 2011

Every year there is an epic battle. “ A battle?” You might ask yourself. We aren’t in medieval times… this isn’t Europe… and what could possibly be so epic about it? WELL, my friends, this is …

THE BATTLE OF THE BURGERZZZzZZZZzzZZZ

 (please note: zz’s were added for dramatic effect)

Sam brought this crazy/great/awesome/glorious idea to the table about 8 months ago.  I told him that yes, 100% I was in and wanted to attend. It looked delicious! So what IS the battle of the burgers you might ask? Every year, 20+ venders get together and bring their best / newest/ most creative burger concoction to  dook it out for “top dog”.  Winner gets bragging rights until next year’s battle.  All the proceeds go to charities in Atlanta, too!  So this year, whoever is incharge decided it would be a really super idea to have a battle of the burgers 5k before the actual battle. Since sam and I are currently training for the half marathon, we needed another race to get used pumped up so heck why not this one!? It seemed to be a good way to earn our burger eating rights. Eric (my BIL: brother in law) and I had a bet going (He hadn’t run since June and I have been up to my neck in running shoes and sports bras…literally!) to see who could win. (please also note that his in seem comes up to my rib cage….not joking… he’s a skinny giant) Welp, if he won I had to pay him $25 and if I won he had to pay me $45 since he was slightly at a physical advantage due to the long ass legs. When we signed up for the race there were advertisements to tell you that you could build your burger throughout the course and you had to try and finish it before you got to the finish line. This seemed pretty cool! I kind of wanted to try to do it. I was a little weary about running with a bun and a meat patty, but hey, why not? It could be cool, right? Well we got to the first burger building station around the .5 mile marker and it was pieces of laminated paper that look like buns. LAME. Forget that! Next…. As we were approaching the 3 mile marker, Eric was about 100 yards ahead of me. I could see him ahead of me the hole race. He kindly turned around, came back to me, and jogged next to me. We crossed the finish line together. 

He paid me $45 and I paid him $25. Hellz yea!  So…NOW it was timeeee… 

LET THE REAL BATTLE BEGIN!

This year there were about 25 venders that took part in the battle. When we walked in we were given  one ticket. This was our golden ticket to vote for our favorite burger after we tasted them all. Ok so I’m thinking we get to literally get a bite size piece on a tooth pic. Noooppeee wrong. Each restaurant was giving out either ¼ of a full size burger OR a very generous slider made to taste like their regular size burger.  Some were REALLY amazing. Some were less than good. Some had mac and cheese stuffed inside them (yep that's right) some had potato chips. Each one so different. Each one so tasty. Each one so filling.

So let you eyes feast on these babies:

Needless to say, after we all tried these bad boys, we literally could. Not. Move. Sam and I went home and proceeded to watch football and not move for the rest of the day: burger induced food coma.

And I’m ok with it

Taking on 13.1 ...again.

With only 8 weeks left to train, I thought I would update you all on the progress of “The Adventures of Sam & Katie: Taking on 13.1”. We have been following Hal Higdon’s schedule for a Novice Half Marathon. For those of you who don’t know, this is Sam’s first half marathon and my 2nd. I ran the Princess Half Marathon in Disney in February with my lovely sister, Rosemary and 2 of our other friends. (We DOMINATED!) I ran it in 2:57:31. That’s right around 13 minute miles. In the running world, that’s on the slower to average pace, but decent considering this was my first race. My goal for that race was to finish and not die. This time around I’d really love, love, love to finish in under 2:45:00.

[That is the abbreviated version. We extended it by 6 weeks to include training up to a 5k, as well as having an 11 and 12 mile run at the end.]


Sam and I have been running 3 -4 days a week and cross training / lifting weights 2 days a week with 1 rest day (hello favorite-day-Friday!) We have been not really “calorie counting” per say, but we have been watching what we eat. We dine out less often, drink less beer than usual, and hardly ever eat fries with our meals. Usually, we’ll do sides like broccoli or steamed veggies. We really enjoy cooking at home together. Sharing that time in the kitchen and at the dinner table together is very important to us and we try to make room for it in our busy lives at least once a week. As a result, we both are getting more physically fit and are feeling much healthier! We have just made a few minor adjustments to our daily lives and eating habits that seem to be going a long way. Sam has also been known to pull the “will that help you run a half marathon???” phrase out on me… (just one cookie won’t hurt…right?? Right?!?!)

The first 8 weeks of our training was just getting into better shape. Sam ran his first 5k race on Thursday night! This was very exciting! (for me at least hehe!) I personally love 5k’s and this one was special to me for multiple reasons. It is an annual race hosted by Kaiser Permente. Every year, they host the 2nd largest race in all of Georgia. They have live bands and tons of tents set up for companies to “rent” for the evening. The venue? Turner field! How cool is that! So our company rented out a tent and we had about 40 participants from my office to go to the race. (sam and other significant others included) we had tons of food, drinks, and post race beers. (perfect recover drink. Duh) Unfortunately, this race is known as one of the hardest courses in GA. It’s a big loop that starts at the Olympic rings by Turner Field and ends at the rings. Somehow its almost all uphill…. Rude! That being said, I didn’t run as fast as I would have liked, but Sam did awesome! Woohoo! Race #1 CHECK!

The next 8 weeks are dedicated to putting out heads down and really focusing on getting in the longer mile runs on the weekends. Now we are really getting into the meat of the training and it’s really important that we focus and don’t give up. Its NOW that makes or breaks you. Now is the time that most people either give up or become champions. We have the dedication and determination to push through the hard workouts and the tough 7,8,9, 10 + mile runs and get the 13.1 medal! We can’t just talk about it; we have to BE about it!

Rock-N-Roll Race

Savannah, GA

November 5, 2011

13.1 miles

Katie Goal: 2:45:00

Sam Goal: finish alive

BRING IT ON!!

Moving on Up! err... out

Most of you know I was the proud 3rd roommate to the wonderful Tom and Kelly. As the youngest, it was my duty to move back home after graduating from college and pester them with my day-to-day meaningless problems and ask dad to buy me blue doritos and turkey from the grocery store so I didn't have to go.  Well ladies and gentleman, "the time is come" for me to become a truer and true real life adult on my own. The 4th Bank of Dad has closed and I packed up my closet and moved out. Luckily, all my boxes from college were still packed and I could just transfer them from my parents to the new place.   I signed a lease with two girlies and on August 1 I was on my own! My parents were practically doing the peepee dance with joy to get me out of the house. The last time I moved out, they sold the house we had been living in for 8 years and moved. This time, I didn't even have my shower stuff out of the bathroom yet and they rearranged all the furnititure in the upstairs and made my room into an official very fancy guest room. The week that I was to move out, my old next door neighbors asked me to house / dog sit for them. They don't exactly live right next door anymore. Part of the deal was that I stay at their house (free foooood!!!!! side note: they have 3 little girls so they have tons of heatlhy snacks gushers!!) So carefully juggling my schedule between work and taking out the dog, on Aug 1, I moved all my stuff into the A.P.T with the help of my loving brother, his truck, his girlfriend, my amazing boyfriend, and my wonderful parental units. After it was all said and done I was literally jumping for joy to have my own place! "woohoo!!! oh wait i can't stay here tonight...or tomorrow..." 7 nights later I could actually sleep in my own apartment in which i was now paying for. NBD. All that matters is that i'm on my own!

What an amazing feeling especially knowing that this time last year I was working as Sweet N Sassy (also known as sam's worst nightmare) and I was completely dependent on my parents. I had plently of student loans I hadn't even pretended to start paying off yet and I was giving my dad all the money i could  afford each month for my car payment. Literally couldn't afford anything because of the minimum wage job I had.  [Thanks economy for crashing and making school budget cuts cut my content area out of high schools. glad i got a 4 year degree in it] THANKFULLY my high school friend Hannah came to the rescue and told me about the opening at her company (my current job now) and I applied and was offered the job. big girl job!!! With the help of God and everyone around me, I am where I am now: On my own, Student loan free, and 3 car payments away from being debt free.

I can't believe it myself. Literally. 

It has been such a joy to come home to my two FEMALE roommates (sorry eric and arden, loved living with you guys in college but this girl's gotta have girl roommates again) and we can just chat and drink wine and cut up on the porch about life and boys and relationships and work. it really is a joy. I finally feel like an adult. I'm self sufficient and I finally feel responsible for myself fully. Its quite an amazing feeling! I'm loving it the new apt and my new roomies!

Come and stop by to drink wine see the place! You might not want to leave. Just saying...

Just doing our part to help the world.. one pair of shoes at a time.

Listen up boys.. It's not what you think.  We are just looking out for the economy.  It's a little known fact that girls like shoes. We have a zillion pairs that we keep in our closets and carefully plan outfits around them.  Like my dad says to me each morning as I carefully clunk...clunk...clunk...down the stairs, "Your outfit is just the accessory to your shoes." That being the case, shoes can run out closets and our wallets.  If we see someone with a great pair of pumps that are better and newer and prettier than the old "go-to" ones we have, you better believe we will be counting down the minutes until we can get to the nearest DSW (with preferred member rewards card in hand, duh). Shoes shopping for women can be exhilarating, fun, enjoyable, relaxing, a social event, a game, etc etc. It's what completes your whole ensemble. It can bring a "ehhh semi-ok" outfit to "damn girl you FINE" outfit. So clearly, we need to keep a revolving door of fabulous shoes in our closet. So ladies, the next time your man asks you that nagging question, "why do you have so many shoes?!?!" you can simply answer with this rationalization....

Today I was not in a great mood. I went to DSW and I hunted and hunted the sale rack and found these great pair of Steve Maden pumps.  Seeing the sticker price after I did my model run-way walk down the aisle, I immediately got giggly with excitement and just had to have them.  Obviously, that improved my mood. Mood can lead to an increase in self-esteem.  If you feel good about yourself and have high self-esteem, that has been known to lead to fewer illnesses. The more terrible you feel from an illness, the more likely it is that you will call into work sick, or leave work early / come in late. That can put extra strain on your team.  Also, this decreases overall client satisfaction as you are not there to assist with their time sensitive needs.  If you are not at work because you are sick, your team has extra work to complete for your clients.  With this extra work comes more responsibilities and more stress. More stress can lead to a decrease in accuracy and some details may be over looked. If these details are over looked then your clients may become dissatisfied with your company.  If your clients are dissatisfied for long enough, they may end up leaving. Fewer clients can lead to the company making cuts in positions which then can lead to more people going home without a job to return to on Monday. This will then in turn make these jobless families spend less money.  If families spend less, then other businesses begin to suffer and thus creating a downward spiral in the over all economy.  So, today, I'm glad I purchased that pair of pumps that helped improve my mood and my self esteem; which lead to my over all good health; which then made me be able to go to work and help my team to give my clients the customer service they need and pay for so they remain clients in our company so that we continue to have jobs to offer our employees so that those employee families will spend money in the economy to keep our economy thriving.


So boys...We are just trying to do out part to help the world.