Running: Let's Get Real

So in the past few months, I've defended, graduated, moved, started a job, turned 25...lots going on! Except one thing that used to be very prominent on my blog-running. 

After my defense and running two half marathons within 8 weeks of each other, I was just burnt out. 

But instead of remaining active (I did do yoga while I was still a student, but once I couldn't use the gym anymore I stopped), I legit sat on my butt and ate whatever I wanted for the past 4 months. 

Before we left MS, I did really well for about 2 weeks with eating and being active. Then it was our last week there and I wanted to eat at all our favorite restaurants. Then we moved and had no kitchen for 3 days while we lived in a hotel. Then we went to Charleston for 5 days and it was our birthdays. Excuses, excuses. 

The other morning I stepped on the scale and was surprised/not at all surprised to see I had gained weight since my defense. Not a ton, but a decent number. I'm not going to beat myself up about it because honestly, there's no point. The weight is there now and it needs to go.

Time to get my ass in gear, to put it plainly. I have a wedding gown to rock in less than 8 months!

Races are very motivating for me. I like having a goal in place and a date on the calendar with a commitment. I signed up for my third half marathon, the Run Town USA Half Marathon, which is part of the Spinx Run Fest here in Greenville! The race is at the end of October. 

Greenville is such a beautiful city! There are endless trails and the community is very active. Zach, Zoe and I live just north of Greenville, so we have wonderful suburb neighborhoods to run in plus we can hit up the Greenville trails within 10 minutes. Perfect!

Now comes the hard part: actually going out and running.

After work today, Zoe and I hit the pavement for 2.15 brutal humid, hot, hilly miles. We were dying. Her probably because of the heat and me because I haven't ran in months combined with the hills...we are used to Mississippi flatland!

The run was short, tough, and slow, but I got out there and did it. I know I can only improve from here. It's really really tough "starting over". 

But at least views like this make it a little easier.

Wedding Wednesday: The Wedding Party Outfits

Happy Wedding Wednesday! 

I recently sent our wedding party the first volume of "Zashapalooza: The Wedding Party Newsletter". I included information about who everyone is and how we know all the members of our wedding party, our venues, the wedding weekend tentative timeline, and just an overall information overload of what we have planned so far. We also included what the wedding party will be wearing!

I picked one bridesmaid dress, a Bill Levkoff dress style 183, in watermelon satin. The girls will wear champagne gold shoes with it. I absolutely love the dress and how flattering the style is to each of them!

 The groomsmen will be wearing tradition black tuxedos with a watermelon vest and tie! They will all look so dashing. 

I love how our wedding planning is coming along and I look forward to sharing more details with y'all!

What did your bridal party wear in your wedding? If you aren't married, what do you envision them wearing? What has been your favorite outfit to wear as a member of a bridal party?

Palmetto State of Mind

Hello everyone!

Per usual (lately), sorry for the absence! 

This will be a picture-intense recap of the last couple of weeks!

First, we moved the hottest weekend of the summer from Starkville to Greenville.

 Saying goodbye to our first apartment together. 

 We packed up the Budget truck and headed to South Carolina!

Zach's dad came with us to help us unpack and also to spend a few days with us during the holiday week. 

We arrived late Saturday night (June 30) in Greenville and stayed at a hotel. Sunday we checked out the potential houses we had found as well as the route from the area to my job and then we went to downtown Greenville for dinner. 

 I just love downtown Greenville and especially Falls Park!

 Monday we moved all of our things out of the Budget truck and into the garage of the house we chose. The painters and carpet cleaners were still in there cleaning the house but we wanted to get rid of the Budget truck as soon as possible. 

 Tuesday we ran some errands for utilities we had to get set up in our names and then we went to the house and moved tons of stuff in! Mostly the large furniture, unloaded all the kitchen stuff, and began unpacking boxes and decor. 

We got almost everything unloaded Tuesday afternoon/evening! About 90%! We were a great team. 

 Our house is so cute:) Excuse the messy yard and garden! The previous tenants didn't care for the yard but there are some landscaping people coming this week to fix the yard. The garden has already been worked on. I'll be sure to give y'all an updated picture as well as a house tour soon!

Wednesday morning we slept in a little, then woke up and drove the short ride to Charleston!

 Caitlin and Dan hosted a 4th of July cookout at their house for the holiday. 

 Yummy burgers and a festive cake made the cookout fantastic!

 Patriotic pup!

 After lunch/dinner we headed downtown to set up to wait on the fireworks. We got an fantastic spot right on the water with lucky parking spots and only waited about 2 hours. 

 The time passed by really fast catching up with friends!

 The fireworks were so pretty over the water!

Thursday was my 25th birthday!

 We headed to Sullivan's Island in the morning. It was so relaxing! We just floated in the water for hours and then we went to Red's Ice House for lunch. After lunch we stopped by the outlets and went into a few shops before relaxing at Dan and Caitlin's before dinner. 

 Dinner downtown at the Smokehouse Brewery was fantastic! Then we came back and had funfetti cake! Caitlin made a birthday cake for me with sparkly writing icing and animal print candles. I loved it! What a great birthday :)

Friday, which was the day in between my and Zach's birthdays, is dubbed Zashapalooza. We dropped Zach's dad off to get his rental car to get back to MS and then celebrated our invented holiday by using a Living Social voucher I had for a Charleston Harbor Tour. 

 The weather was sweltering but the views and history were fantastic! 

We followed that activity by doing our food tasting for our wedding! We had a great time. That deserves a post of it's own, however, so more to come on that! 

We stopped by the Boone Farm store and enjoyed homemade ice cream milkshakes and later that night went to dinner with Caitlin and Dan and some of their friends. Another great day!

Saturday was Zach's 25th birthday! He wanted to sleep in on his birthday, so we had a relaxing morning then hit up Firefly distillery for the afternoon!

 The grounds were very rustic and cute I loved it! Tons of rocking chairs and tables and chairs to sit at and enjoy the grounds. They also had local vendors selling BBQ and a local singer entertaining outside. 

 We enjoyed the tasting and Zach picked out two types of Firefly he wanted to take home. 

 They even had cornhole! 

(Is it football season yet?)

 Saturday night we went to Sullivan's Island for dinner at Poe's Tavern. 

 We sat outside on the deck and enjoyed our food with a fantastic beach breeze and then followed dinner with a walk on the beach!

Sunday we woke up early and headed back to the Upstate to get the usual Sunday activities of laundry and grocery shopping done, plus I started work today so I wanted to get all my things together and chill out a little before beginning the work week. 

What a whirlwind couple of weeks but a great couple of weeks! Friends, birthdays, a new city-what could be better?