Color me bananas

The Color Run!! I'm sure you have heard of it by now, but if not, here is a brief explanation, although, I'm sure once you see the pictures, the explanation will be irrelevant. It's a non-timed 5K, all about the fun, not about the run. At each kilometer, you get sprayed in a different color of an all-natural vivid color. That's pretty much the best explanation. It was such a blast. The race goes by so fast because you can see where the next color station is, and you are just so excited to get there, you sort of forget you are running! I don't know how I will ever run again, unless I hire people to throw color powder at me along the way. Maybe a new trick for Starbuck?

I will give you one guess if this is the before or after shot

Laura, my fearless coworker

Our name was the Glowing Joggers. Whoever came up with that was the victim of a great amount of mocking that day. It may/may not have been me.

I'm obviously not a cheerleader, but everything looks better in color!

We met in Virginia, and now she can't seem to get rid of me, haha!

Yes, I did eat that banana later

It was so much fun. You can be confident I plan on doing another Color Run, and you should too!

Dancing with Ellen

Whilst my awesome company, Mom and Taryn were with me, we had some big plans. The main event was going to the Ellen show in LA!! Through a series of different events, we had secured ourselves tickets for the April 10th recording of the Ellen show. What fun it was! Free parking, a nice lunch, and great seats! We were actually seated in the front and center row that Ellen dances down! When she danced past us, I'm pretty sure we all just froze. We walked away from the show with $200 gift cards from Khloe Kardashian to Sears, which was such an awesome gift! At first, we were kind of like "eh, Khloe Kardashian?" But, because she gave us each 200 bucks just grew on our hearts so quickly, by the end we were the biggest Khloe Kardashian fans you had ever seen. Here is how cute we looked that day, in case you missed the episode.

enjoying a great lunch just a short walk from the studio

Ellen water. "It tastes funny"

after our dancing, screaming, clapping party with Ellen. Ready to take on the LA traffic.. well, as ready as you can be.

Speaking of LA traffic, I hope the rest of you are as proud of me as I was for surviving the drive to and from LA without getting lost! I thought that was rather impressive (thank goodness for GPS capable phones).

laugh. dance. California.

I sort of completely stole this title idea from my friend Taryn. But, its totally OK, because a) I just cited her and b) she is a big part of this post!

For the rest of my spring break, I was lucky enough to have visitors! First was Taryn. She is one of those people who knows how to squeeze every bit of fun, laughter, and life out of every experience. It is a breath of fresh air to have her around. And, we did breathe a LOT of fresh air on her visit! We were so excited to get to run together once again, and we also went on a very awesome 6 mile hike together to conquer a mountain! Once we got to the top, Taryn and I did some yoga poses, and Starbuck collected some ticks. Here's some snapshots...

Going up, up, UP!

shadows on the top of the mountain

striking a pose

Cause we're the best of friends, having so much fun together!

Taryn is awesome! Striking a real pose, dancer

Starbuck, being traumatized by us asking him where his BFF West is. It's been over a year since they have seen each other, and he still remembers his name.

This was such a fun, exhausting hike! Days later, we discovered some unwelcome friends we made along the way (Starbuck had some ticks, and then passed one onto me... YUCK). There is really nothing better than exploring the beautiful earth God created for us while laughing with a friend.

Later that day, my mom flew in to visit! We had to hurry home to rest so we could all do our 5K the next morning.

We are champs

later that day, we packed a picnic to have at Del Mar beach. The PERFECT picnic spot!

Easter Sunday

I am very thankful for my mom and Taryn, and that they were willing to sacrifice time and money to come visit me! I am one lucky girl.

spring break, the early days

Today was one of the most fun days I have ever had! Before I tell you what I did, I am going to give you a moment to imagine the amazing, fun, wild, crazy day I had... so go on, dream it up...

OK? Is this what you thought of?

Del Mar dog beach, courtesy city-data.com

That's right. Forget all those wild and crazy things you though I did. I was thoroughly entertained by a trip to the dog beach. But trust me, you would be too. In fact, I was far too busy to even take any pictures. It was one of those days where you knew the memories would outrun the pictures by a mile. Starbuck was all over the place: running, jumping, swimming, wrestling, fetching, and climbing. Any activity available to him, he was doing to its fullest.

It's basically the perfect mash-up of two of my favorite things: Starbuck and the beautiful beaches of Southern California.

you can imagine his joy in climbing all over this. (courtesy sandiegoasap.com)

Even better, I was able to spend the day with my friend Christina, and her dog. We were even lucky enough to bring a dear friend's daughter, Piper, along for the day. She got lots of giggles out of Starbuck's crazy hyper state.

I truly felt like a little kid on spring break today. I could have run back and forth across the beach through the waves all. day. long. with my wet'n'wild pooch.

the aftermath of the day. Two salty, sandy, and soon to be well-rested pups

freetime: the attack of the crafter

In the coming weeks, I am going to have way too much free time for my own good. Thanks, Marine Corps, for taking my husband away for 6 weeks to do what I know to be napping and basketball a crap load of hard work. Here's what I did in only 48 hours of him being gone. I can only imagine when he comes home, I will have decoupaged the oven probably.

my new herb garden.

my new centerpiece

my new outfit with clothes i already had

that's it for now, folks!

Reverse Psychology

In case you were wondering, I am finishing my Bachelor's in Psychology at Penn State University... all online. Right now I am taking 13 credits. I have really enjoyed my positive psychology class this semester. Here is a little taste of what it's like.

For my last writing assignment, I had to take the VIA signature strengths test, to learn what my signature strengths were. It consisted of 240 questions. My top 5 signature strengths were:

1. spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith
2. capacity to love and be loved
3. fairness, equity, and justice
4. appreciation of beauty and excellence
5. creativity, ingenuity, and originality

I had to write a paragraph about why I regard these as my top signature strengths.  These assignments are very interesting, as you can tell. They revoke personal responses, so I have no problem writing what I really think.

I regard my top signature strength as my spirituality. It lays the foundation for all my other strengths. My ability to love is only possible with my understanding of my God and Savior’s love for me. His love has communicated to me how my love should look to everyone else I encounter. My understanding of fairness and justice is only due to the fairness and justice that God has set up in the Bible. The Bible is where I learned every person is on this earth because God put them here, and they all should know about God’s love for them. My appreciation of beauty and excellence is only due to my understanding that God created the world, and man was created in His image. I know that my creativity is merely an attribute that God was kind enough to give me, and I feel the need to use it to bring Him glory. I say all that to say all of these strengths of mine are merely a product of the first, my spirituality. 

I am so thankful for this faith-strengthening assignment. It definitely challenges me to make sure I am living my life in a manner that reflects the things I have expressed in this paper.

 

True Dat

Jason's mom came to visit me us. But, I feel like it was all for me. She is super fun, talented, creative, funny, entertaining, energetic, and we have the same interests. There was no stopping us and our fun. She decided she was going to "bring back" the phrase "True Dat". So all week we were saying it. I find myself accidentily saying it now, and being looked at like I am so 1998. That's ok, each time I slip up, I smile at the thought of mom's reaction. If only she knew what she started.

Coronado Island

for Floyd