AMAZING Run

Across THIS:

It is the Charleston Cooper Bridge. I have been wanting to try running it since we got here, and today being our last day I decided it was time to go for it! The bridge has a pedestrian walk way and a bike trial going across it. One way is 2.5 miles.

I ran across it and back, making a total of 5 miles. Oh yeah, did I mention that it also has EIGHT lanes of traffic and it 200 feet above the ocean?!

Yeah, I felt pretty darn hardcore. Talk about adrenaline rush. It was AMAZING! And such a good view!

I wanted to take my camera while I was running, but I really didnt want to drop it into the ocean or anything. So i figured that it was probably best to just leave it in my car where it would be safe and sound.

I did take a video of me driving back across after the run, just so you guys could see how crrrazzyy it was! Im not sure if it is working or not, but I'll try:

This morning before the run I had my usual breakfast while I am here:

When I got home I got ready and we went to Fort Sumter. It is an old fort off of Charleston Harbor that was used during the Civil War. We took a boat to get to the harbor and spent a few hours there.

Here is me being VERY annoyed with my mom for not listening to me, but playing it off as a joke :)

paparazzi pic, captured by my sister:

Back on the boat on the way back:

Hiding from the rain:

We didn't end up getting back home until almost 230! So we were all STARVED. And I don't know about you guys, but every single person in my family inherited that gene that makes you really really cranky when your hungry.

I finally got some sandwich stuff, so I was able to fix up a pretty legit sammie for lunch.

Turkey on Wheat with Lettuce, Tomato, Cheese, and Mustard. All toasted up!

My sister and I had planned on going out for sushi last night, but the weather got pretty bad and I didn't really feel like driving all the way back into Charleston. So we went to eat with the parents instead. We plan on going for sushi tonight.

Here is me and Sister #1 all dressed up for dinner:

And sister's #2 and #3:

Now its off to soak up as much sun as possible on the last day! Tomorrow we go home!

Hope everyone is having a great FRIDAY!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

FULL Day!

I am EXHAUSTED girls and guys! Today has been quite the active day. Fun, but major tiring.

It started out at 7 this morning with another 4 mile run on the trail from the condo. I am really gonna miss this trial when we leave! When I got back to the condo everyone was up and eating breakfast.

My breakfast was a repeat of yesterday. All Bran Flakes, Banana, blueberries, and Skim milk.

Repeat Pic!

After Breakfast we all got ready and headed across the bridge into downtown Charleston:

We hit up all the shopping for a little while. I went to American Apparel and Urban Outfitters. I got the BEST dress EVER at UO. I'll get a pic a little later to show.

After doing a little shopping my sister and I decided to break from the fam and go have lunch on our own. Like I said, my family does not like anything "different", they like your typical chain restaurants. My sister and I just weren't feelin it, so we decided to go to Five Loaves Cafe, recommended by the wonderful Erica.

I got a Grilled Tofu sandwich with zuchinni, tomato, onion, and sprouts. And a salad with roasted red peppers, spinach, tomatos, and goat cheese.

YUM!

Here is a closer look at the sandwich:

My sister and I really enjoyed our lunch. We were both really glad that we decided to go off on our own and eat here.

Here we are, happy with our decision:

After lunch we met back up with the family and went to the market place in Charleston.

This is one of my favorite things to do when we come down here. It is an old market place that goes on for what seems like miles and it is just set up with vendors and hand made goods like jewelry, decorative things, etc.

Here is a pic of the entrance:

Here is my sister and I after going through. Hot and tired. I swear we probably walked about 10 miles in the 90 degree weather!

After that we walked into Charleston place were all the upscale shops are.

Made a stop at me usual shopping place:

YEAH RIGHT! I'm a recent college grad with no full time job yet...remember?!

We also saw a pretty fountain and I HAD to have a picture of all the sissies in front of it.

Notice how different we all look from each other. Or maybe just how different I look from all of them. I swear I must be the milk man's child!

After hours of shopping, miles of walking, and TONS of sweating we came back to the condo and chilled out by the pool. Now I am in the room waiting for everyone to get in from the beach so we can get some dinner!

I just don't think I EVER wanna come home. I think I may convince my parents to just leave me here ;)

Hope you guys had a good start to your week. Again, Im sorry if I am not on top of commenting. I am trying to read blogs and comment when I get the chance. DONT think I am forgetting about you guys at all!

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

"Me Day"

Good Morning Loves! I am so sorry that I have neglected my blogging duties. Juggling two jobs is TOUGH! With substitute teaching and Rave combined I will work 45 hours this week! Yesterday was the busiest day so far. I subbed in the morning until 330, went to tan, went into Rave at 5 and didn't get to leave there until MIDNIGHT! Whew!! I decided that today was going to be a "Me Day". I need the break for sure!

Fun activities that I have included for today you ask?

• Farmers Market with the Moms...first time of the season :)
• Target Trip
• Fun run with the sissy
• Breaking out the new sundress that I have not had a chance to wear yet...Its gonna be sunny and 80 today!

Oh yeah...and did I mention the best thing of all?!

OATS AND BLOGS!

I took a picture of my "desk lunch" yesterday too. I just think its too funny to pass up. I really do not feel like I'm old enough to be a "teacher", I honestly still feel like I'm 18...is that a bad thing?! I just don't think that I will ever really grow up. But I think thats OK, I think everyone should be that way. People that take themselves too seriously are a bore! And I think teaching is the perfect profession to get in touch with your inner kid!

• Hummus Sandwich on Honey Wheat with hummus, spinach, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
• A few pretzels...that I end up putting inside the sandwich
• Cheddar rice cakes
• Glamour Magazine :)

And a HUGE thanks to my girl Jenn for entertaining me via text while I had the dreaded 5TH GRADERS yesterday. I love ya for it dear and I hope your knee gets better!! You better be icing that thing like crrrazzzy!

I have some infomercials on in the background and for some reason now I REALLY need one of these:

I seriously may look for this during my outings today. We have "as seen on TV" store here, so there may be a chance! With all my crazy back shirts, I could put it to good use.

Ok kiddos, I'm off to start my "Me Day". I leave you with this little blast from the past that I found on my computer while cleaning up my pictures. It is me at Disney World in 2006. Check out the Punk Rock Hair cut...that me on the left. It was SUPER short in the back and BRIGHT RED! Ohhh I was quite the rebel!

And here is me and the sissy from Disney the same year. I love this picture. Kelly's face just says it all. It was about 105 degrees and we were crammed in a hot bus rubbed up against sweaty strangers.

Hope everyone is having a HAPPY HUMP DAY!

Lots of Love <3 Ems.

Livin' the Life...

Of an Elementary School Art Teacher, that is. In bed by 10, up by 530, packed lunches, rowdy kids, hands blue from markers...and funny thing is...I'm kinda liking it. Alot.

Not to say it hasn't been rough, but a good kind of rough...ya know? The kind of days where you come home feeling like you have been hit by a train, but somehow in a good way. A way that you know you put your time in today and you DID something worth doing. Because easy things aren't even worth it, its the hard things that make you stronger and make you who you are.

I have to admit, I was getting discouraged with the job search and losing touch with the part of me that really wanted to be a teacher in the first place. I was starting to question if it was even something that I wanted to do with my life. But now I see that I was only questioning it because it was hard, not because it wasn't what I wanted. Now I want it more than ever. I LOVE being a teacher, I LOVE the kids, I LOVE the school. It fits. Its me. I can't wait to have my own classroom.

So I know that I have missed a couple of days of blogging, but that is because I have been dead tired for the past three days. With being sick and still working every morning, I pretty much come home and crash! BUT I did take pictures of what its like to eat breakfast and lunch as a "teach".

Breakfast #1:

Banana Pancake Oats...eaten atop my flannel pj's while sitting on my bed reading blogs on the laptop.

Close-Up/Break-Down:

• 1/2 Cup Oats
• 1/2 Cup of Skim Milk
• LOADS of Cinnamon
• 1/2 Banana
• Tbsp. Maple Syrup
• Kashi Flax Cereal

Lunch Day #1

Turkey Sandwich on Wheat eaten atop my desk, with my caffeine fix (gotta have it), a note that says "your the best", and a grade book to the right.

Breakfast Day #2:

Apple Cinnamon Oats eaten atop my leopard print throw. Includes:

• Chopped Apple
• 1/2 Cup Oats
• 1/2 Cup Skim Milk
• LOADS of Cinnamon
• Kashi Flax Cereal

Lunch Day #2:

Hummus and Spinach Sandwich, Pretzels, and an Apple (oh the irony)...eaten atop my desk with all kinds of good teacher-y stuff up there!!

So there you have two breakfasts and lunches in the life of a teacher. Pretty exciting right?...ummm...

Also, like I said before, me being sick gave me an excuse to relax and rest a little. And also to catch up on my cinema. I watched Twilight...which was good, but nothing GREAT. Sorry guys, I know a lot of you are big fans. Then I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Let me just tell you, if you have not seen this movie...GO NOW! It was AMAZING. I seriously loved every minute of it. I laughed, I cried...it was great. There was one quote that I loved in the movie and when I was at school I looked up the exact wording because I could not get it out of my head.

I jotted it down, and when I was bored during my "planning" period I made it all pretty.

"You can be mad as hell at the way things went. You could swear, curse the fates...but when it comes to an end, you have to let it go."

This just hit so close to home for me, because I have a really hard time letting things go. Especially things that did not turn out the way that I had wanted them to. Sure I could be angry at how things turned out. But when its over its over, and keeping those angry feelings inside only make it worse and won't turn back time. When things end you just have to let them end and learn for next time. I think the practically reminds me of relationships that I have had in the past.

Now, I am off the enjoy the weekend!!!....uhhh...tomorrow, right now I'm ready for SLEEP!

Hope everyone has a fun and exciting weekend.

Lots of Love, <3 Ems

Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture

Oh man! This weekend has just been crrazzzyy! I feel like I have pretty much gone non-stop. But I kept getting invites to do things, and if you know me you know I am always up for a fun time and when one of my friends wants to go out, I rarely say no.

Last night my friend Tina wanted to go out on the town, so of course she didn't have to twist my arm. Do I feel some pics about to go down?! I do think so.

We met up with some friends at a local bar downtown.

We laughed sooo hard at this picture because Josh failed at every attempt to take a decent picture. This was his worst shot. haha he is actually pretty cute, but he looks like a creep-o in this picture. Here are several more attempts.

Then I had to show him just how a great picture is taken:

As the night went on several more people showed up to hang out and I saw a lot of old friends. I tend to put the camera away after a few drinks though, because things tend to get a little difficult to keep up with after that. haha.

P.S. Aren't the little Polaroid cool? My friends told me about this program that you can find and download here. I just love it! Its so cool, this little camera pops up and all you do is drag and drop your pictures into the camera and out pops your Polaroid from your camera. Of course, you have to wait for the picture to develop. No shaking!

Today is a catch up day for sure, after that wild weekend. I woke up and fixed up some blueberry waffles with sliced banana and strawberries and maple syrup.

Then for lunch I was craving something just warm and good and comforting. What did I come up with?!

Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana DUH!

And just to show the ooey gooey goodness of the sandwich I present to you evidence #1

mmmmm

Also, this morning I was surfing the web for some owl tattoo ideas and check out what I found!

Its the tattoo that I described! An owl with the text "carpe diem", except I want "carpe noctem" and I want it a little smaller...and def somewhere less noticeable than smack dab on my arm. But other than that, thats it! I kinda thought it was an original idea, but guess not. haha. I still like it though...what do you guys think?

Ok Now its time for cleaning, running, tanning, and shopping with the sis. Then I gotta get up early to substitute teach for a Kindergarten class. AHH!!!

Hope everyone is having an awesome, relaxing Sunday.

Lots of Love, <3 Ems.

Overbooked

I totally think that I have a problem with thinking that I can do more than I really can. In this case it I would be talking about being two places at once. Why do I think this is even possible?!

Im sure you are wondering what I am talking about. Well, I just got off the phone with my manager from Stir-fry about my schedule for this week. Of course every shift she asked me to work I responded back with an enthusiastic "SURE!", then when I get off the phone and look at my planner I realize that I have prior commitments to my other job! I have no idea what I am going to do, I am kind of freaking out right now. Hopefully I can get something worked out.

It is such a crummy day today, so I will probably just head over to the gym and cross train instead of going for a run today. Like I said before I ran 9 miles on Saturday, and then on Sunday I did an easy run of 3 miles. I decided to time myself on the first mile, just to see how I could do. I ended up doing the first mile in 8:54!! I was pretty happy with this, even though I wasnt really pacing myself, it was just an experiment. I read in Runners magazine that you should time one mile and then add 1:30 to get your ideal 10-k pace. So my 10-k pace would be around 10:30, but I really wanna do it in less so we will just see how my improvement goes throughout the training.

I woke up this morning and had a great breakfast of some VERY fruity oats. I basically just threw every kind of fruit I had in the fridge in there.

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 Banana
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• 1 tbsp. Maple Syrup
• Cinnamon

For lunch I had a nice melty, grilled sandwich

• Whole Wheat Bread
• Turkey
• Mustard
• Tomato Slices
• Cucumbers
• 2% Milk Cheese
• Spinach

So, I guess I just can't be mysterious with you girls because everyone is asking for details on my cute little baseball player. Well, I saw him every day over the weekend. Including being his last stop before leaving to go back to school last night :). Like I said before I dont really want to rush anything and get my hopes up. But I really like him and what girl can resist a guy that tells you how happy he is everytime he sees you and makes sure to open doors, tell you how pretty you are, and send sweet texts randomly throughout the day?! I'm pretty sure I have had a big goofy smile on my face all weekend. BUT! I dont want to jinx it, we will just play it coooolll! haha. I wont get to see him a lot until he comes home for the summer because of his baseball schedule, but its only a month away :)

Alright girls, time to get going on this day...I feel like I have gotten nothing accomplished but conflicts! haha.

Lots of Love, <3Ems.

Extra! Extra!

Ok a couple of topics to be addressed in this post! I feel like I have gotten so behind and been such a tease with all of my posts! So this is like a full newspaper-esque report on what has been up!

First things first: Mommy tries POM Wonderful:

As you know, I have been sharing some of my healthy food with my mother to get her back into healthier eating. I have recently got into oats for breakfast, flat out wraps, and now POM Wonderful. She refused to let me take her picture, BOO! But here is her review anyway. Like I had said before I am a pretty big fan of cranberry juice, and my mom is too. She also compared it that but said that it had a more "tart" flavor. She said that she liked it a lot and wanted to try some of the recipes that I showed her on the website. She was most interested in trying the POM Jelly because she has been talking about wanting to make her own jelly. I gave her about half of my supply, and she loves trying new recipes...so i cant wait to see what she come up with. And I'll def. keep you guys posted!

Second: LUNCH!

Im calling this my Gourmet PB and J. Just because, its awesome. It includes:

• 2 Slices of Wheat Bread
• 2 Tbsp. Naturally More Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Banana
• Raisins
• Strawberry Jelly
• Real Strawberries chopped up.

OH YUM! This hit the spot! And I swear that peanut butter and banana are the perfect combo to fuel up for a run, because I KILLED it today...which brings me to my next topic...

Today's Run: 7.5 miles!! woo hoo! I was super bummed today because when I woke up it was rainy and crappy outside. I had pretty much settled on the fact that I was just gonna have to go to the gym. But after i had my lunch the sun had decided to show its beautiful face...and I knew I just HAD to go run on my trial. One thing that I love about running is how everyone seems to be best friends that runs on the same trial. Whether you know the person or not, its almost like there is some sort of connection with them and people always smile or wave or say something as you run by. Today I had the hugest smile on my face because everyone I ran by was so friendly! I decided to just run until I got tired and I ended up going 7 and half miles. I was happy with this...my legs are not. I guess I can look forward to being sore tomorrow!

Next Topic: The Boy: I had mentioned something about this in an earlier post and a couple of you had asked me about it. One of the reasons that I didn't really go into details is because its a SUPER long story. But I'll sum it up. Things did not work out with Mike. I didn't say anything about it on here, because I just didn't wanna really get into it, but its been over for a couple of months. Anyway, two weekends ago an old friend that I have known for a couple of years just popped back into my life (funny how things like that happen huh?) His name is Lucas and he pretty much told me that he had liked me years, but didn't say anything because of Mike. We are taking things slow, so I'm not going to get too worked up about until I see how things go. He plays baseball for a college that is about 2 hours away, so I have not seen him since that weekend. He is coming home tomorrow and I have a date with him tomorrow night AND Friday night. We'll see how it goes. :)

I feel like there was more I needed to share...was there?!

Well, tonight is Wednesday and you know what that means...POOL NIGHT! So I'm off to get ready, eat dinner, and then go KILL some boys in pool...cause thats how I do.

Hope everyone is having a great night! Lots of Love <3 Ems.