Yes I realize that is not actually how you spell the word but for my case it works.  Because I am not talking about lying before a judge.  I’m talking about the massive purgery that took place in my closet last night. AKA bags of stuff were removed and given away.  Yesterday T wrote an awesome post about getting rid of what you don’t really need and simplifying life (HERE).  I have been meaning to do a major closet clean out for a while but T’s post was  perfectly timed kick in the butt.  My dad is on the board for a charity foundation, the Carson Scholars (a scholarship program set up by Dr. Ben Carson) and next week they are having a big Women’s clothing and accessory sale to benefit the foundation.  They were looking for gently used clothes, shoes, and accessories.  So the stars were all aligned telling me to just go for it and challenge the closet.

Last night I went for it.  I didn’t really set myself a limit to how much I would save or giveaway.  I basically went into it with a mindset of “have I worn it in the last year”, “do I have multiple items just like this”, and of course “does it fit?”.  While my mom is a total purger when it comes to excess stuff, I tend to be a bit of sentimental keeper.  I attach memories to things (not always positive but I’ll get to that later) and find it hard to get rid of things.  I’m not a hoarder really, more just find it hard to throw some things away.  So I had to keep these rules in mind.

So I ventured into the closet.  Oh goodness.  In the end I got rid of a large garbage bag and large box of clothing and an entire garbage bag of shoes.  Once something went in the bag I didn’t think twice about it.  But honestly there was stuff that I haven’t worn in years and going through it brought back a lot of not so great memories but also a sense of empowerment.  I still had a lot of clothes in size 0′s and 2′s that I used to fit in when I had alot of unhealthy behavior and a terrible body image.  They were those goal clothes that I used to torture myself to fit into and when I couldn’t I hated life basically.  Well let’s just say I’m not a size 0 or 2 anymore.  And happy about that.  I am far healthier and HAPPIER than I was back than.  And although I weigh a decent amount more, I am in far better shape.

Getting rid of those clothes felt so good!  And I saved a decent amount of abandoned sweatshirts and pants and now have a nice supply of race throwaways!  I have yet to venture into the purgery of the drawers (I keep most my clothes on hangers just because I find it easier to find stuff) but I’ll save that for this weekend.  But my closet now consists of clothes that fit, that I wear regularly, and that make me overall feel good about myself.  Thanks T for the kick in the butt!

And the best part?  I now have these totally kick ass pair of boots (thanks Mama!) that I have barely taken off (except when running of course).

Oh and by the way I am in no way saying people who wear those smaller sizes are unhealthy!  But at 5’11 and a build like mine…it was.  Very much so.  Even size 4 is way too tiny for my body type.  I was basing the sizing strictly on myself and truly believe every body is beautiful and unique in its own way and what is healthy and right for me might be way bigger or smaller than what is healthy and right for you.  Love who you are!  Love your health! Love your body for what is can do, not what size it is!

So as you all know, Zoe had a Beautiful baby girl not too long ago.  Of course I had to send baby Goober her first piece of mail so I sent her a Disney Gram (a baby Pooh stuffed toy with a blanket).  Zoe sent me this picture the other day and I just had to share.

Yep, it says “Mommy’s best PR!”.  How gorgeous is she?

Speaking of beautiful little girls…the second youngest sister of the Kardashians, Kendall has been making her debut in the modeling world.  Honestly I think she is far pretty than the older three but as a 14 year old…does anyone else find these pictures just a bit too grown up?

Definitely gorgeous…but too much for a 14 year old?  What to yall think?

Okay I’m am doing my best to put together a Sunday FunDay for next week so if you have a race, recap, exciting event, giveaway, contest, etc PLEASE leave me a comment with your link and I’ll be sure to link you in next week!

On another note, this weekend was the annual Festival of Trees at the fair grounds.  It is a yearly fundraiser for a local children’s institute and a lot of fun.  There are vendors, food, performances, tons of fun themed trees and a bunch of kids activities.  J and I went over Friday night and then Saturday my parents, brother, god kids, their mom, and a few of Peanut’s friends went.  It was a long day but the kids had a blast and we had so much fun watching them.  So to save you the boring talk…here are tons of super cute pictures =)

eating ice cream waiting for a pony ride

uber cute little rodeo princess

so cute

Bug took a ride too and loved it

an attempt at a family portrait. Bug was in a very cranky mode hence the death stare.

the girls being super cute on the train

ice cream seemed to improve his mood

poor boy spent the day with the three girls. and this is what happened

friday night

So we had a lot of fun getting into the Christmas Spirit.  This is one of my fave times of year!  Love it! I even loved my 16 miles in the 30 degree weather Saturday morning!  Something so exhilarating about running in the crisp air =)

This week’s raffle winner is…

Sandy!

Another huge thanks to all the donors thus far!  Be sure to check back for next week’s winner!

Okay its Black Friday.  Why not spend some money for a good cause?  You can currently enter my Raffle HERE or buy some awesome BIC Bands (check out the details HERE).

No new donations this week =( will you be the one to change that???

Of course I have a wonderful amazing lists of things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving but I try to focus on those during the whole year not just one day…but a few things I am particularly thankful for this morning are a strong mom who managed to get the 40lb turkey in a pan, buttered, seasoned, and in the oven by 7am this morning.

had to remove every single rack in the oven and it still almost didn't fit

and for an indoor waiting area for this mornings 5K.  Let me explain…

This morning me, my dad, and brother woke up early and headed out to our local 5K.  What’s really cool is this is my first repeat race ever!  Cool huh?  Crazy how fast a year can fly.  However, last year the weather was beautiful…this year the forecast was for serious rain showers and oh…sleet and hail.  Grrrreeeaaaatttt.  But we headed out.  When we got there it was very wet but not actually raining so I was holding out hope.  Luckily this race is held at our local Y so the basketball courses were set up as a waiting area.  This means yes…indoor bathrooms!  I got to see alot of local running buddies and friends from the store and at the very last minute Liz found me! Erin…we missed you!

We made it to the start and my dad and brother made the smart choice of hitting the side walks and Liz and I started together.  Our plan was to stick together for as long as we could (and in this sea of people I think we did fairly well…stayed pretty close for a little more than a mile).  I started my Garmin but opted out of checking it (mostly because it was under my sleeve that was beyond soaked and incredibly hard to role up) but I was holding a comfortable pace but knew I wasted alot of time weaving around walkers and big groups taking up the whole street.  Eventually Liz and I hit the side walk and we settled into a pace.

Mile 1 came pretty comfortably.  And then the skies opened up and it literally just poured buckets.  Oh…and then the hail.  Nice little balls of ice bouncing off my cheeks.  Great.  I have little red dots on my cheeks now.  But I kept trying to hold a nice pace because I knew the hill of death was coming up (remembered it from last year).  Basically the great part of mile 2 is up hill getting pretty intense at times.  But actually going up hill feels much better on my knee than going down (it was rather annoying forcing myself to slow on downhills but save the knee right?).

But anyway all in all the race was alot of fun.  I’m also thankful I never face planted because between dodging people, uneven side walks, and wet leaves, I was just waiting to bite it.  My Garmin time was 26 58.  Nothing amazing but faster than last years time!  And the race happened to be 3.32 NOT 3.1.  Oy.  So taking all the conditions into consideration I’m really happy with how I did.  As I’ve said before, and will say again…I CANNOT run fast over short distances.  Takes me a good 3 miles to find a pace.  My fastest 5K remains the last 3.1 of the Philly Half.

And what am I most thankful for after the run?  Conditioner.  Remember a little thing we call the Long Legs Crazy Ponytail?  Shall I remind you?

San Diego Marathon

Maryland Half

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

MAC Half

Okay you get the point…well what do you get when you mix that crazy ponytail with pouring rain?

This.

Try taking a brush to that one?  Okay well I’m off to finish preparing our house for the hoards of people who will be gracing it today.  I love having a big family =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I must start off by saying I am currently watching Beauty and the Beast on ABC Family and loving every second.  My all time favorite movie.  On another note, I have had quite the busy past two days.  Yesterday I went to my first PT session and I do in fact and super tight hips and the stabilizers in my hips are just all out of wake.  So after of series of incredibly painful (in a wonderful way) massages, lots of foam rolling, thera strap exercises, and dynamic stretching, I cannot believe how sore I have been today!  She definitely taught me exercises to really strengthen my stabilizers rather than letting my stronger muscles compensate and wow am I feeling it.  Working muscles that I don’t typically use.  But its sore in a good way (not in pain) and I’m actually really excited about it because that just means the exercises we did are working.  I’m not looking for any over night fix but I have a pretty optimistic look on the ITBS right now.

Yesterday I also ended up stopping by the store even though I wasn’t scheduled to work because we were hosting a Mizuno “Run with Us“ (definitely check it out if you ever get the chance) and I wanted to stop by and hear what the reps had to say about the new updates and technology and what not.  Well I ended up staying and helping out for the next 4 hours.  But hey it paid off.  The Mizuno guys were great and alot of fun and actually treated a few of us to dinner after closing.  Oh, and I got a pair of free Breathe Thermo Arm Warmers =).  The Breathe Thermo line is super cool and really innovative so I was pysched to score a pair of the arm sleeves.  I’m thinking I might need to invest in a pair of the Breath Thermo socks and see if they work for my numb feet.

Today was all about getting ready for tomorrow.  Got a much needed haircut and got to spend some quality time with my favorite 4 year old Christmas shopping at the mall.  And seriously, she shopped me under the table.  We picked out presents for her to give her mom, brother, my parents, and my brother and I was introduced to the hysteria that is Pillow Pets (I may have just been able to sneak by her and get her one for Santa to Bring).  She also wanted to pick out a “Thanksgiving Dress”.  She ended up trying on 5 different dresses and then spent another good 20 minutes comparing them all.  And of course she had to model them all and made me take pictures of each one.

I know, she's beautiful

But she finally picked one (you’ll have to wait for those pics).  It was a long night but I loved spending the time with my little Peanut.  She’s such a little person now and says some things that just absolutely crack me up.  She’s my little baby sister and I love her to pieces.  And at the end of the night she said “Katye, I really love my baby brother but sometimes I really like to have special big girl time”.  Me to Peanut!

So it’s crashing time.  Looks like tomorrow’s Turkey Trot is going to be a rainy one.  But I’ll report on that in the AM!  Who else is running or racing tomorrow?

Today and outstanding human being is now a legal adult.  Happy Birthday Miley Cyrus.  Now that she is, as stated, a legal adult I know feel completely comfortable saying what I have felt about her for a long time.  She is a skanky, untalented, white trash brat with the most annoying voice ever!  Okay now that I got that off my chest.  But seriously…it makes me sad that any little girl looks up to her.  She’s and under aged drinker, dates guys way too old for her, and well…dresses like trash.  Check out her totally appropriate 18th birthday outfit.

oh and at the time she was still technically 17.

Hmm this is what I looked like on my 18th Birthday.

My leather halter top and leather pants were at the dry cleaners.

I love this picture...and it also happens to be from my 18th Birthday so I thought I'd throw it in here.

she's just being Miley I guess

And that’s not even mentioning the numerous “self portraits” she has been posting over the past few year pulling her shirt up to reveal all of her stomach or down to reveal her bra.  But I won’t post those because well I think its just completely inappropriate.

And I still find the Vanity Fair, “Frather Daughter” pics a bit sketchy.

Okay so there ya go.  Been wanting to say that for a while now but I felt like it was just mean and picking on a child.  But she’s an adult now.  I think its time to start getting some talent or moving on.  So Miley, please don’t turn into the next Lohan.  I hate to see so many young women taking this turn for the worse.

On another note…I thought I’d post some of my favorite outfit from the AMA’s.  I’m not a huge fashion person, and honestly I find must high fashion stuff confusing and ugly but I thought some just looked plain awful with the exception a few fabulous looking ones.

um no. looks like she's covered in blood.

I love Taylor and really hopes she stays true to herself! I love her amazing curly hair but I thought this new look worked great on her as well.

I'm really not a fan of Nicki to begin with (like at all) but this just looks like she's trying to pull a Lady Gaga but it is way too forced. There is only one Lady GaGa.

ummmmmmm no.

A little more subdued than her usual but I think Katy looked so pretty!

oh Ke$ha. I do love her but I feel very sad for whoever had to sit behind her.

hmm...like I said. I'm not one to pick on children. And I think she's a beautiful little girl...but um. I'll leave it at that.

I actually think Miley looked very pretty from the front...

the back- not so much.

Okay I’m done.  I can only handle so much negativity in one day.  Hope you are having a fabulous day!

Hmm…you would think the above statement (aka the title of this post) would be some kind of cheesy pick up line.  Something you might hear at the bar, club, or some similar place.  Something a girl might here from a guy desperate for a number?  Not quite.  Today I did in fact hear this.  From a guy.  At the gym.  And it was in no way a pick up line.

One of my newer coworkers at the store, Justin is also a personal trainer at the gym I go to.  I’ve been meaning to go to his abs/lower body cardio class for a while so today I decided to go.  It was an awesome class.  Lots of plyometrics.  I love mixing strength with cardio.  So anyway the class was great but we were doing jump squats and okay, I can squat a decent amount and I can squat to a bit below 90 degrees but then my outer hips just lock and refuse to go any lower.  So while doing the squats Justin walks by and says “geez, you have some seriously tight hips”.  Yes I know.  Tell that to my IT Band.

It’s really interesting considering I can sit in the butterfly position with my legs completely flat on the ground quite comfortably like so.

i make that face too.

I have pretty good turn out yet the outsides of my hips are a different story.  They lock up very easily and cramp up too.  For example, if I try to do those crunches with the ball between your feet, its not my abs that feel it, its my hips (holding it between your legs makes you tense your abductors and adductors).  They cramp real bad sending a shooting pain through my hip and thigh.

this is a no go.

So it seems my next goal for running is to loosen my hips.  They have been this way forever so I know they won’t get better overnight but I’m hoping a lot of extra stretching, strengthening, and foam rolling will help me avoid any more ITBS (death).

Oh and by the way, I was just flipping through channels and came upon MADE on MTV and noticed my old cheerleading coach is the coach on this episode.  Funny, considering I’m pretty sure she in the reason for most of my in thigh flexibility (ie. she forced me into a full butterfly stretch in 7th grade).  Fun to watch her torturing another group =)

This is the episode HERE in case you were interested.

Conclusions reached this week:

• I just don’t like Rihanna.  Sorry if you’re a fan.  I just find her music annoying and basically the same thing over and over.  And I think she’s a sucky friend with her actions towards supposed best friend Katy Perry.  And I think the red hair is just ugly.  Just needed to get that off my chest 
• I really love my job (especially the people I work with)
• Fundraising is incredibly hard work but I love doing it.
• I NEED to get back on a regular P90X schedule.  Ugh.  How do I force myself to put that time aside?
• I am seriously clumsy.  During yesterday’s run I managed to get hit in the face with a branch (now that was funny) and slam my knee into a fence post.  Plus I have pale skin meaning I bruise easily.  So now I have a small bruise under my eye and a large one on my knee.
• I like the Saints.  They aren’t the Raven’s but I’m really starting to like the team more and more.
• I absolutely hate it when I have buddies racing and the race website decides to go down during the entire race!
• I don’t like folding laundry.  But the basket has been staring at me.  So I guess I should go do that…