Happiness Is...

Truffle Salt

This stuff is amazing. With just a couple dashes of it, normal everyday food becomes incredibly delicious food. We bought the Dalla Terra Truffle Salt at a wine store several months ago and try to use it sparingly because it's much more expensive than regular salt. But sometimes I can't resist adding it into a dish. Just last night we had breakfast for dinner. It wasn't going to be a super special meal, just scrambled eggs and bacon. But with the addition of some truffle salt in the eggs, it became no ordinary breakfast for dinner!
Pregnancy Announcements
In the past week I've had two close friends share some very exciting news with me. One friend just found out that she and her husband will be having a baby boy. Just as I absorbed this exciting news, another friend informed me that she is pregnant! I am so incredibly excited for both of them and cannot wait to meet their sweet babies soon!
Pickup TrucksApparently VABeau's promotion several months ago came with a truck as well. Since he was lucky enough to get a brand new truck, he had to wait a couple of months while it was built. We didn't know when the new truck would arrive so I was completely shocked when I came home Monday night and saw a huge truck parked in front of our house. Of course I was a total nerd and I made him take me for a ride in it around our neighborhood! We're both pretty excited to have a truck with all of the yard work and furniture shopping we've been doing lately for our house. The most exciting part of all, however, is that his company pays for most of the gas. Every little bit helps!
Apple Orchards
It's that time of year again! For the past several years VABeau and I have made a trip to an apple orchard near where we lived at the time. September is prime apple picking time so I'm hoping (if the rain stays away for awhile) that we will get to visit one this weekend. I'm in the mood to make apple crisps, pies, and so much more!
Stick VacuumsWe have been cleaning our hardwood floors with a broom and then following with a Bona hardwood floor cleaner. This process leaves our floors clean and shiny, but takes forever. It takes so long that we barely ever clean our floors anymore! So thank goodness for stick vacuums! VABeau did some research and we ended up buying the Electrolux Cordless Stick Vacuum at Costco Wednesday. It cuts our floor cleaning time in half and is so easy to maneuver around furniture!
Animal Voice Overs
I cannot get enough of these videos! There are a ton like this one on YouTube and whenever I can use a laugh, they always deliver. I hope this one makes you smile too!


What's making you happy this Friday?

Bright Colors into Fall

I have always loved bright colors and that love has naturally transferred to my wardrobe. If you looked in my closet, you would see that the bright shades way outnumber my neutral clothing items. I just love wearing bright colors and they make up most of my Summer outfits. I even added a bright yellow bag to my collection this Summer.

I got this Kate Spade bag for a ridiculously low price in July. I'm thinking this otherwise perfect bag was maybe too bright for most people and that's why I could actually afford it. It is definitely bright but I absolutely love it!

It makes even the gloomiest days brighter in my opinion.
So as Summer transitioned to Fall, I was really dreading having to pack away my Summer bag for the long Winter. I figured it was just too bright to be carried throughout September and into the Winter months.

But from what I've been seeing on most celebrities lately, I'm thinking my sunshine bright bag may still have several weeks left in it. Every time I see another celebrity wearing the bright colors that were popular last Spring into September I become more sure that my favorite bright bag and clothes may get to stay out longer than I previously thought.

Here are just a few of my favorite brightly colored celebs right now

Obviously I love this shade of yellow on her!The color makes this already fun dress even more fantastic!
I absolutely love Kourtney's blouse! I'm thinking the Kardashians should bust out their bright colors more often. They wear a little too much black and gray in my opinion!

This is such a great color on Blake!

Of course Gwyneth makes this list! I love this deep orange color.

I can't leave out my favorite color, the greens!

I love so many things about this dress. The color is amazing and the cut could not be more perfect for her petite frame.

Leave it to SJP to kick off the color blocking trend perfectly!


Which is your favorite look?

What's your opinion on carrying bright colors into Fall? Am I pushing it by still carrying my ridiculously bright bag?

Stretched too thin

Things are going to get a little deep on the blog today. Just bear with me and tune in for some much lighter material later this week. I guess I just have a lot on my mind and am fortunate to have this blog as an outlet to express it. Often I do some of my best thinking and analyzing during my runs. My runs literally keep me sane! Well I ended up doing a lot of thinking and was forced to analyze my life during my 10k race this past Saturday.

The race started out great! I was averaging just under 9 minute miles for the first 3 miles. But then, during mile four I started feeling a sharp pain in my knee with every strike of my left foot. By the time I reached the mile 5 mile marker, the excruciating pain had reached my hip and half of my leg felt as if it were being stabbed with every step. It was all I could do to not stop and walk. Despite the pain, I told myself that I have never walked in a race before and I won't start now. So I basically powered through the last mile and a half without walking but at a painfully slow pace. I finished proud that despite the pain, I never stopped or walked. But I also finished disappointed that since I started running 2 years ago, this has been my slowest race of the 7 I have done. This was incredibly disappointing since with each race I've done since I started running regularly I have seen myself and my times improve.

So what happened? Why with this race did I struggle as much as I did. The truth is, I was unprepared. When I first started running just 2 years ago I set the goal to run at least 3 days a week. It was a reasonable goal and one I stuck to for the most part over these 2 years. Lately, however, I have rarely met this goal. In the three weeks leading up to this race I ran once and it was just a measly 3 mile run. But I convinced myself that since I'm more experienced, I could just wing a 6.2 mile race. I was terribly wrong and now I have aggravated my IT Band by increasing my mileage abruptly. It still hurts and I will have to greatly decrease my running mileage to allow it to heal.
All of this isn't the end of the world, trust me, I realize that. But leave it to this girl to over analyze a situation/her life. You see, I didn't run regularly these past several weeks not because I didn't want to. I didn't run because I just couldn't fit it into my day. In the past month I have served as a bridesmaid in an out of town wedding, maintained my blog with at least 3 posts a week, continued to plan meals and cook for our family throughout each week, squeezed in several body pump classes, planned our anniversary trip, and studied for an inpatient obstetric certification test which I paid $250 to take. I've been able to take on a lot in the past and just wing it before so I figured signing up to take this huge test one day and registering for a 10K the next all after a wedding weekend away, would be manageable for me. But I didn't realize how much studying this test (the hardest test I've taken since probably the SATs in high school) would require of me. So running was immediately replaced by a book and studying. Obviously taking on so much in a short time didn't work out so well for my run and the same could be said of the test. I left the testing room feeling like I failed it but will have to unfortunately wait 6 weeks to find out for sure.

I guess the whole point of this post is my questioning whether it's better to do a lot of thing decently or just do a couple of things really well. You see, I've always chosen option one. I played 3 varsity sports, did ballet, was in and held office in several clubs, had a part time job, was in the school play, and took honors/AP classes in high school. I managed to do all of these things pretty well, but I was never the absolute best at any of them. How could I when I was stretched in so many different directions. But I like to think my well roundness and long list of activities helped me get into the college of my dreams. At the same time, I can't help but wonder in retrospect how much better of a soccer player, for example, would I have been if that was my only passion. I still struggle with that same question today. I have so many interests and things I love: running, my job as a L&D nurse, pilates/yoga, blogging, training new nurses, decorating our house, body pump classes, cooking, time with friends. But I can't help but wonder if I cut out some of the things on that list would my blogging improve, would my posts be better because they were no longer composed while I was rushing out the door at 6:30 am before work? Would I be a faster and injury free runner? If I did less, could I actually be a body pump instructor (a secret fantasy of mine)? Would I be a better wife, daughter, and friend?

Most of all, if I had less interests and took on less things, could I have passed that certification test and walked out knowing that for sure? Could I have run this race and improved my time without limping away from the finish line? I guess I'm just a little freaked out. There are so many things I love doing and just not enough time in the day to fit them all in and I don't even have children yet! I know your priorities change once you have a child and I know mine will too one day. But if I can't do all of the things that are important to me and do them well, how will I ever do them as our family grows one day?

I know I do it all to myself and VABeau likes to remind me of that. No one else expects me to run, maintain a blog, lift weights, plan meals/cook, take tests to further my career, train for races, and decorate a house. I'm the one who chooses to take on all of those things. But honestly, I can't imagine my life without any one of those things. So I guess it's not about giving up things I love to do, but instead finding a better balance? Prioritizing more?

Am I the only one who feels a little stretched too thin every now and then? How do y'all fit in all of the things in your lives without sacrificing the quality of the things you do? And the ultimate questions of today's post....is it better to do just a couple of things really well or to do a lot of different things decently?

Weekend Snapshots

This week I'm linking up with A Little Dash of Ash for her Instagram Link Party.

It was so amazingly nice to have a whole weekend at home. It feels like we have been traveling and overbooking ourselves a lot lately so I was more than happy to have a low key weekend with VABeau.

All day Friday the East Coast monsoon continued so we curled up inside and caught up on our DVR. We did take a break from our TV marathon, I pulled on my rain boots and we ventured out for a Friday evening tasting at our local wine shop, Red White and Bleu. My Saturday morning started with the Clarendon Day 10K. Fortunately the rain held off for one of the most fun races in the area. After the race we took advantage of the 3, yes I said 3, drink tickets attached to my race bib. A bar crawl through Clarendon as a reward for running 6.2 miles....sign me up! Between breakfast beers we explored the Clarendon Day Festival in our old neighborhood.

Saturday afternoon we were so excited to finally be home and on our couch for a UVA football game. Lets just say this weekend was not a good weekend for football in our home, a UVA fail and we were so close to the Colts redeeming our teams for the weekend but just not close enough. At least our game food kept our spirits up. I made this lighter version of a Frito pie from Cooking Light for the UVA game and it was pretty delicious and perfect for football. Saturday night we visited our friends Neil and Elise and shared a fantastic cheese plate, some delicious cider, a pumpkin beer tasting, and enjoyed a fire in their fire pit. It was the perfect Fall evening. I was also so happy to be able to attend church this Sunday after several weeks of traveling. Our church recently got a new children's director and she's doing a fantastic job. As we entered the sanctuary before the service all of the children in the church were "passing the peace" by giving us these cute necklaces they made. It was a great way to start a great church service.

So that's our weekend in a nutshell. It was quiet but perfect!
How was your weekend?

Composting is Cool

We have a pretty big yard that not only requires a lot of fertilizer but also produces a lot of waste. We also happen to live in a city that requires that you to buy bags to put your grass clippings, leaves, etc. in and buy tags to put on each of these bags in order for them to be picked up by the city. With weekly grass mowing and weeding, the money we spend on our yard waste can really add up. Enter a solution to all of our problems......COMPOSTING! After doing some research I discovered that with a compost pile we would have a place to throw all or most of our yard waste and even some food scraps and within several months, it would produce some fantastic natural fertilizer for our plant beds. So a couple of weekends ago, we got to work.

We selected a spot at the back end of our yard. It's important that this area get some sun exposure and this spot gets a decent amount. The whole back edge of our yard at this point is just a breeding ground for monster weeds. So step one involved me, on my knees, armed with my OFF Clip On Mosquito repellent fan (this thing works miracles), pulling weeds for what seemed like hours. Once the area was clear, we measured for our compost pile.

We decided to make our first compost pile on the smaller side (3feetx3feet). We measured these distances and placed our stakes.

Once we cleared our space, we(or VABeau) hammered the 4 stakes into the ground exactly 3 feet from each other.

We then measured our metal netting and cut the approximate distance needed to surround all four stakes. Fortunately the stakes had hooks on them already so there was no hammering or drilling needed. We just hooked the netting onto each hook on each stake.

We left the fourth side of the netting free so that we could stir and easily remove the compost material.

We then filled the base of the pile with twigs and leaves to get things started.

I also scored a compost pail at Marshalls several weeks ago to keep in the kitchen.

We fill it with coffee grounds and uncooked food scraps. Every couple of days we empty it into our compost pile and mix everything up. I was worried the pail would smell but the carbon filters that came with it work wonders. We store it under the sink and don't even know it's there!

Compost Rules we're trying to live by:

• Ideally you want half of the compost material to be brown matter and half to be green. If you use too much green it will become a slimy mess
  
• Brown matter=twigs, cardboard, newspaper, leaves
  
• Green matter=grass clippings, kitchen scraps
  
• Suitable Kitchen scraps=egg shells, uncooked vegetables and fruit, coffee grounds and filters
  
• Mix the contents of the pile regularly to increase airflow
• Keep the pile slightly moist by adding water when needed
  

For more Composting tips check out this Compost Guide!
And if you have any additional composting tips, send them my way! We're still pretty new to the world of composting!

*We bought all of our supplies (the stakes and netting/chicken wire) at Home Depot.
**I'm pretty sure we will pay for it all within months by using less of the yard waste bags and buying much less fertilizer!
***I'll keep you all posted on our little compost pile's progress!

Wedding Season Continues

This past weekend VABeau and I escaped from Northern Virginia for a relaxing weekend on the Eastern Shore. The highlight of the weekend was seeing one of my best friends marry the incredible guy that we now call her husband!

On Friday we took our time driving to Chincoteague and enjoyed stopping in cute towns along the way.

We spent the morning on the dock and exploring local galleries and antique stores in Cambridge, Maryland.

We arrived in Chincoteague just in time for lunch at Woody's Beach BBQ. They had every kind of BBQ you can imagine and I was more than happy to indulge in my personal favorite, the Carolina BBQ sandwich! A vinegar lovers dream!

It was such a fun spot complete with hammocks and lawn games. If it hadn't been so chilly I could have stayed in this spot all day!

A trip to the island would not be complete without a stop at the beach. The waves were some of the biggest I have ever seen!

Not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon!

We ended our day with a drive around the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

The views were beautiful but we had to battle the numerous monster-like mosquito's
We also spotted several of the famous Chincoteague ponies.

We also added another lighthouse to our list, The Assateague Lighthouse!

After our tour of Chincoteague, it was time to see my favorite girls at the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner followed at The Village Restaurant which provided us with the perfect island meal of filet and crab imperial.

After a Bridal brunch at Bill's Seafood Restaurant the next day, we headed to the cottage to get ready with the bride.

Gorgeous bouquets

and an even more gorgeous bride with her sister

Monica with her mom and sister, Meagan

Bridesmaids

The bride and I

The SoBo ladies at our 3rd wedding of the group!

I loved the lemonade and sweet tea dispensers! So Southern and perfect!

It wouldn't be a Chincoteague wedding without delicious seafood-steamed oysters, clams, and shrimp!

I was in heaven!

The cutest wedding cake ever! Adirondack chairs were the perfect addition!

Who knew that a bonfire would be needed, but with the sudden change to Fall this weekend, it was a very welcome addition!

Mr. and Mrs. Mears!

I could not be more happy for Monica and Robby. Unfortunately it rained all day and their perfect beach wedding was moved in doors. But miraculously, that didn't dampen any one's spirits. We were all just so happy to see such a special couple proclaim their love for each other. Congratulations Monica and Robby and thanks for hosting such a great weekend in Chincoteague!