stumbling through the good parts

This past weekend was close to perfection.  Jon and I were able to go visit the Mountain Top Inn and Resort in Chittenden, VT.  It's an old, historic inn located in the Green Mountains in Vermont.  We were so lucky with the weather while we were there because it snowed on both Saturday and Sunday, making our snowshoe adventure on Saturday and our first time to Killington Ski resort a great success.  Not to mention, we ate our way through Vermont with homemade cheeses, syrup and delicious microbrews! There were so many great things about the weekend, I was so sad to see it end.  Most importantly though, I hope the wintry gods take this as our ode to winter and call it a wrap.  I'm ready for spring! I may have gotten hit right in the chest with a snowball after this was taken. There were these adorable older couple learning how to to cross-country ski as we were hiking up the mountain.

One of my favorite days each week is Sunday afternoon. It's funny because I hated Sundays in college. It was like someone threw a heavy weight on my chest and the looming week of classes and papers and group work just sat there while I quietly struggled to maintain composure. Or most likely, not so quietly. Most times I wasted away in bed or our living room adding re-runs of Law & Order SVU marathons to my excessive repertoire of episodes I had already seen and acting like I wasn't trying to graduate any time before the Mayans did their damage in 2012. Dramatics aside, I always survived, although I'm convinced I spent more time on Facebook on Sundays than I ever did with my nose in my comparative politics book. However, its been the most pleasant change as I've gotten older (and stopped working seasonal jobs) I now love Sundays. I really do. It's typically filled with brunches and grocery shopping (more on this later) and laundry and dinner with Jon's fam...

This weekend was a long welcomed break and we made sure to try and take advantage of our extended amount of free time, with celebration of Presidents Day (by sleeping in and making homemade brunch, of course!) to rock climbing on both Saturday and Sunday.    However, the real fun started Thursday night where Jon spoiled me rotten with an awesome home-cooked meal and my very own brand new camera bag and flowers for Valentine's Day. He's quite the catch, let me tell you :) Friday night I hit the park for a leisurely 4 miles with Bear dog.  It was SO so nice to actually run outside after work in the balmy 40º weather! Afterwards, their was reparations to be made.  The last weekend, Jon and Will had valiantly (read: won by 2) beat Leah and I in an awesome game of snowshoe discgolf.  As a result, we wagered a delicious dinner graciously made by the losers. (Us.) So Animal Style Burgers were made, and devoured.  Unfortunately, I was so engrossed with eating th...

This past week, I found out some amazing news.  Whilst drinking my coffee and having my "morning-me" time this week, I stumbled upon a very exciting announcement.  The Making Things Happen Conference announced they were having their conference this coming March for not just 1, but TWO DAYS!  What is The Making Things Happen (MTH) conference?  I'm so glad you asked! MTH is an intensive conference that is designed to get down to the heart of a business.  Your heart.  The conference is ran by 3 very talented women that have actually gone through and started their own personal businesses and seem them grow, thrive and flourish over the last few years.  These women have amazing stories to tell and they have brought in some amazing talent as keynote speakers over the two days.  Many have planted their roots in the wedding industry and have gone in the direction that they were led and have seen all the benefits of their hard word, passion, creativit...

This past weekend my dear friend, Jessie had her bachelorette festivities.  It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was a lot of fun.  The Roosevelts Baths in Saratoga Springs is one of the most historic day spa's in the country.  We all were joking because the informational email sent after we confirmed our reservation was that it was a "historical spa" (said in a haughty-taughty voice), which is funny, because it was way cooler than what I imagine a real spa experience would be like.  We got to the baths, changed into our gigantic robes and went to the "relaxation room" where we luxuriously sipped green tea and read really dramatic avant-garde magazines. After taking the bride-to-be to her mineral bath and massage, they brought us to our individual bathing rooms.  Turns out the individual baths, while quite luxurious, the mineral water is combined with hot fresh water to bring the water temperature to 97º Fahrenheit which appearently keeps the carbonation a...

Normally, this feels like a rhythmic post. Something I do every month, whether I blog about it or not. However, this year around New Years I felt as if I heard more negativity surrounded around goal-setting and following through with things. The reasoning behind setting goals (and then for some, making them public) is different for each person. Some need outside motivation. Some like to keep theirs private in case they aren't achieved and others just think the whole idea is quite silly. I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I wanted this next year of my life to look like, whether I was being realistic in making achievable goals and what the real direction I wanted to go with things in my life. I want to encourage those that have a difficult time sharing their aspirations with others to find a way to do so. Write a time honored favorite, a letter, to your best friend asking them to just listen and acknowledge. Share them on a blog, twitter or Facebook, whichever platform you fe...

This weekend was full of a wide range of activities that I was able to accomplish after the ridiculously long work week this past week. A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would try a second attempt to run a half-marathon.  (I missed my first one after my little brother made it to College Nationals for Ultimate Frisbee his senior year in Boulder, Colorado.  I decided it would be better and much more fun to go support him instead.) I decided to sign-up for Rivertown Half-Marathon  in Danville, PA.  It looks to be a middle of the road marathon, with not extreme elevation discrepancies and continues next to a river in western PA.  Jon and I decided we were going to make a weekend of it and stay in the area to do some camping and climbing on the Sunday after the race.  However, I decided I should probably start logging some miles again.  I was reading in Runners Magazine last week that it's good to create variations in your running routines and I dec...