Odds and Ends

I tried on wedding gowns today!! I'd love to post a pic or two (because I need help narrowing it down by Wednesday), but I don't want Shawn to see ;-) As everyone told me, the dresses you don't expect to fit actually look the best. Now I'm trying to decide between having a train or no train on the back. I'm kind of a "no train" chick, but check out the basilica I get to stand in!! Princess Di had nothing on this! I absolutely love this church in good 'ol Carey, Ohio. It's been my dream church since I was a kiddo. Very ornate and the aisle is a nice long one.

I guess I shouldn't worry about a train or no train until I see which dress fits best overall. Speaking of dresses fitting, some of my Gazelle running partners and I have kicked off the "GBHWLC." Huh??? It's the "Gazelle and their Better Halves Weight Loss Competition." That's right. From now until the end of April, we have to weigh in every week for all of us to see. It has the potential of being very humiliating, but also very rewarding. After all, it definitely keeps me accountable and I'm already so much more aware of my portion sizes, etc. Ironically, I started off with a two pound weight gain! I guess that's what happens when you eat like a pig over the holidays and have an injured leg. If I'm not careful, this will be my wedding portrait! (albeit Shawn is still very handsome)

I atempted to go for a 30 minute run this evening over at the track across from our house. I completed about 3 miles, with some pickups on the straight-a-ways, and my right shin was numb by the end. Not good news, especially in brand new shoes that I'm used to wearing. It means two very obvious things: 1) I'm not ready to run 2.) It's time to focus almost exclusively on swimming and body toning....maybe some elyptical machine thrown in for good measure. I'm coming to terms with the fact that there may be no races for me before the May Wedding. I've still got my sights potentially set on the Houston Area Tri One-O-One race in November and possibly the Sunmart 50k Trail Race in December. I've always heard such amazing things abou this race. Maybe there will be a couple of shorter tris in the summer, but we'll see.

In the meantime, Shawn and I continue to shop for furniture and other fun stuff for the house. We're very blessed to be able to "start from scratch." We actually spent our Friday night at the grocery store stocking up on the fridge. I'm happy to say that I actually did some cooking tonight....finally enjoying the benefits. This is actually the first weekend we've been in Austin since Thanksgiving!

We had the Turkey Trot...San Antonio the following weekend...Dallas Marathon after that...Bahamas the weekend after that...Followed by Ohio and Christmas the next week...New Year's Weekend was spent in San Antonio before coming back to Austin late that night...We spent last weekend in Phoenix. Needless to say, it's good to just be able to sit and drink my wine, read a book and relax! This is what it's supposed to be all about.

We're expecting some frightening weather over the next couple of days in Austin complete with freezing rain and an ice warning. Darn....it may force me to relax a little more (or continue to organize our garage and compile addresses for the invite list). I'm also hoping to hit my new gym tomorrow for orientation. I'm meeting with a personal trainer next week and I can't wait! I'm anxious for the change of pace.