My Marvelous March {Giveaway winner}

The month of March was pretty good to me. Though it was filled with periods of anxiety, mostly it was filled with exciting things and people I love.

We started the month with a visit from Mike’s parents.

I coached my first Girls on the Run practice.

I paid off my credit card.

Daylight savings came.

I spent a week in St. Lucia with my sisters.

I came back and had some time to myself while Mike was in Disney.

I found out that Jess is bringing the Business with Intention Workshop to DC in May and I signed up.

Because I get paid bi-weekly and there were five Fridays in March, I got an extra paycheck this month.

I paid off my first student loan, accelerating my debt snowball.

I spent the last day of the month exploring DC with my sister Chrissy, some of her friends from school, my dad and his girlfriend Debbie.

I hosted my first giveaway!

Giveaway Winner

The winner of How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is Sarah! Please send your mailing address to thingsafterrings@gmail.com.

I’d love to know:

What was good about your March?

St. Lucia Recap

I spent a fun-filled, sun-filled, week with my sisters and Sarah, Melissa’s girlfriend, in St. Lucia last month.

Now that we’re older and live kind of far from one another (me in DC, Melissa in Florida and Chrissy and Becca 3 hours apart in PA), it’s rare that we get to spend much time together.  Of course, now that we’re actually friends, we rarely see one another. So when Chrissy and Becca’s spring breaks fell on the same week this year, we took the opportunity to go on vacation together.

We had a really really good time.  We talked. We laughed. We laid on the beach and then by the pool.  We ate a lot.  Napped a lot.  Read a lot.  I emailed back and forth with Mike. I didn’t blow dry my hair or wear makeup the entire week. It was glorious.

Chrissy, Becca, and I shared a room for the week and it was kind of like a slumber party.  One night Chrissy plucked my eyebrows, making me bleed only once, and yanking a thick piece of skin one other time. I straightened Becca’s hair before dinner out one night. We talked about our relationships, watched the Bachelor finale. You know, girl stuff.

We went on two cool excursions off the resort. Mid-week we went SNUBA diving: a combination of scuba and snorkeling. It was amazing to see the schools of fish rushing by me…they swam so fast and so close to me.  Incredible.

On our last day we did a triple adventure: jeep ride, zip-lining, and hiking to a waterfall.

The triple adventure was awesome.  We rode in a jeep on the way there and the tour guide gave us some information about the island. He asked two questions and I answered them both right: 1) What is the best part about St. Lucia? The people! 2) Why are there so many bananas in St. Lucia? No monkeys!

The zipline was super fun.  There were 12 lines total, some higher, longer, faster than others.  It was so cool to be flying over the jungle. And it really wasn’t that scary.  Luckily we moved through the course pretty quickly.  I think if I had too much time to think about how high we were it would’ve been a lot scarier. But we were the first group on the course in the morning so we went right on each one.  After the zipline, we drove a short way and hiked down into the jungle to see a waterfall.  We brought our suits and climbed up onto the rocks in front of it for a photo shoot.  It felt very Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue like. Then we drove about an hour in the jeep back to the resort, caribbean music playing and the wind in our hair.  Good good times.

 

It was a good week.  A really good week. Did we get on each other’s nerves?  Of course we did.  We’re sisters. Would I vacation with all 3 of my sisters again? Definitely.

 

 

Struggling to find balance

And my quarter-life crisis continues.  Lately I find myself struggling to balance all of my life roles and all of the things I want to do.

I want to…

be a good wife and have a fun, engaging marriage,

spend time with my friends,

feel connected to my family,

develop a successful blog,

be really good at my job,

start my own business,

volunteer with Girls on the Run,

have a clean apartment,

maintain a healthy lifestyle (eating well, exercise, sleep),

build the perfect wardrobe,

read a lot,

write a lot.

And I want to do all of these things at 110% RIGHT NOW. But I feel like I’m cruising along at 60-70% with all of them.

There is just never enough time to do everything I want to do.  Every week, every day, every weekend, I have a laundry list of things I want to accomplish. The list keeps growing and I’m not crossing things off of it. And a lot of time when I have some down time I’m so drained I just want to vege out in front of my DVR.

I’m spending a lot of time each week with my mind racing thinking about all of the things I feel like I should be doing more or better. And then having feelings of inadequacy. Which are terrible. And it’s a vicious cycle.

When I have feelings like this I try to remind myself that I am enough. That I’m doing just fine. That where I’m at and what I’m doing right now is enough. And that it’s all at my own pace.  No one is looking at me and telling me that I need to do more or be more. That I can do this, all of this, at whatever speed I want.  And that the world will not end if don’t make huge strides and do every single thing every day.

I’d love to know:

Does anyone else feel like this?  

How do you create balance in your life?

 

Back in Action (almost)

I had a wonderful time in St. Lucia.  Lots of pool/beach time, quality time with my sisters, an afternoon nap daily, it was awesome.

Now I’m back in DC and happy to be home.  But I thought I’d come back refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. Yeah, not so much.  I’m. so. tired. And all I want to do is get through the day and get back in bed. So this is all I’ve got for now. I hope to be back tomorrow or later this week with a more interesting post.

I’d love to know:

How was your week?  Are you having gorgeous spring weather like we are in DC?

See you in a week!

I’m off to St. Lucia!  I’m looking forward to lots of sun, relaxation, strawberry margaritas, and quality time with my sisters.  I landed in Florida last night and I’m already completely relaxed.  After just one night with my sisters, I’m so glad we’re doing this.

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to get lost in a good book so I never travel without a boatload of reading material. I got a couple books from the library, picked up a new one from Barnes and Noble, and added one from my shelf.  I used a gift card from Christmas to buy the whole first season of Downton Abbey for my iPad (LOVE traveling with this!) which will be perfect if I get antsy on the plane. Mike got me a little travel kit too: a copy of Women’s Health and some peanut M&Ms. So I’m all set!

I hope I’ll be able to blog from the resort but I’m not sure if that’s in the cards.  If not, I’ll be sure to share pictures when I get back!

In the meantime, I hope you have  a great weekend!  Oh, and Happy Daylight Savings!

Plugged in

 

Girls on the Run is so much fun!

 

Just got home from my second Girls on the Run practice and I’m in such a great mood.  It’s funny, they say the coaches get just as much out of GOTR as the girls do.  I’m surprised that so early in the season, I’m already feeling the truth of that.

Today’s lesson was all about plugging into the Girls on the Run cord and choosing to be happy, positive, upbeat instead of some other negative cords we often find attached to us.  We talked about what it feels like to be plugged into the Girls on the Run cord and what that type of girl looks like.  We also discussed things we can do to get us recharged when we’re feeling negative.  It was cool to see what the girls listed.

It’s funny because before practice I was NOT plugged into the Girls on the Run cord. Before today’s practice, I was brainstorming posts titled “Ready to Reset” or “Too much juggling.” I called my mom crying while walking to a meeting on campus. Awesome. And when I got on the bus to go to practice I texted Mike “I’m completely drained.”

But when practice started and we started running around, I completely forgot about my crappy day.

God, it feels so good to run and play.  And run for fun.  This wasn’t an “oh, I wish I was skinny” run or an “if only I was a runner and enjoyed this workout” run. This was just pure, kid fun.

We ran around silly and I did leaps across the grass.  We were doing wheelbarrows and a girl was holding my legs as I walked on my hands yelling “keep moving, keep moving, farther, farther, farther” and I could. not. stop. laughing.  We did boats (I think) where you lean back and balance on our butt while extending your legs which is usually really hard for me and I could do them. We played Sharks and Minnows which I never played before.  And I was laughing. I couldn’t believe how much I was laughing and how much fun I was having.

Now I’m totally plugged back in and excited for a productive, fun end of the week.

I’d love to know:

What do you do to recharge? How do you separate yourself from the negative, yucky plugs you find yourself attached to? I cook.  I nap.  I go for a walk. I call a friend. I write. I workout. I find someone to laugh with.  And after today, I’m reminded that playing and being around kids makes me happy.  

What Kristen Bell and I have in common

This video of Kristen Bell discussing a sloth on Ellen kept appearing in my news feed on Facebook so I finally decided to take a look.

In this interview, Kristen said something and I thought “OMG that’s me!” 

That is me.  That statement describes my emotional being to. a. T.

Mike comments “3 to 7 might be a big window for you.” Ha, ha, ha. 

This is something you should know about me, and if you’ve been reading Things After the Rings for more than a week you may probably already know this: I’m a very emotional person.

Remember the little girl in the elevator?

Or when I missed my mom?

How about when I cried tears of joy on Valentine’s Day?

When my girlfriends left after a weekend visit?

When I found Mike’s wedding suit in the laundry basket?

Oh, and then there was the time that I cried the entire day after my wedding.

Tears are nothing new to me. My friends/family/co-workers know I’m a crier. And I’m OK with that.  I own it.  And I love that I now have this gem of a statement to describe my emotional self.  (It also doesn’t hurt to know that there are other people out there like me.) Thank you, Kristen Bell.

I’d love to know:

If you could describe your emotional state in one sentence, what would it be?

Blog News

There are some great things happening at Things After the Rings!

Things After the Rings has a new look!

I’ve been working with Julie of Savvy Blog Services and my new blog design went live yesterday! I couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out. If you’re reading this in a reader, I suggest popping on over the site to check it out.

I won a blog award!

Two weeks ago, I was awarded the Liebster Award by Caitlin from Chasing a Mile. I was so honored! Thank you Caitlin!

The Liebster Award takes its name from the German word, meaning beloved, dearest or favourite.  It is given to bloggers who have a small following — approximately 200 followers. As with most blog awards, the Liebster Award also has a few rules should one choose to accept the award (which I have).

The rules are:

1. Thank the Blog Presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the Blogger who presented the award to you.
3. Copy and Paste the Award onto your blog (you deserve it!).
4. Present the award to up to 5 blogs with less than 200 followers who you feel deserve to be noticed.
5. Let the blog owners know via a comment on their blog (and an email if possible!).

My awards for my new favorite blogs go to:

Thanks again, Caitlin!

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Weekend in the city

Hey there!  Happy Monday! Have a good weekend?  I certainly did! Take a look:

1. Flags blowing outside the Old Post Office Sunday afternoon
2. Scattergories with friends Saturday night
3. Sunday dinner: homemade chili
4. Browsing in Barnes and Noble (so many books I wanted to buy!)
5. Girls on the Run training on Saturday afternoon
6. Grilled veggie and goat cheese sandwich from U Street Cafe
7. Homemade bacon and spinach omelets
8. Window seat and writing at U Street Cafe

not pictured: bagel and cafe au lait at Modern Times Coffeehouse with Mike (finally caught up) and guacamole lunch with Jordan at Oyamel

I’d love to know:

What’d you do this weekend?

Happy Birthday, Chrissy!


Monday lunch at Bobby's Burger Palace

Walking back to my office after our last Monday lunch, I had tears in my eyes.  I was so looking forward to Chrissy’s semester in DC and it was amazing to have her here and to see her so regularly. It came and went so quickly and I was so sad to see her go.

I wasn’t the only one sad to see Chrissy leave DC.  Colleagues from her internship sang her praises, filled cards with accolades and shed a few tears over goodbye drinks.

That’s how awesome Chrissy is and the effect she has on people around her.

Chrissy is caring, smart, determined, and passionate. She’ll tell it like it is because she wants the best for the people around her.  She is a loyal friend, and a great listener and confidante. She is an all-around beautiful person and I am lucky to have her as a sister and proud to call her my friend.

               Even pretty while riding a Segway

Happy Birthday, Chrissy! I love you!