Things I love Thursday...er...Friday

A day late but who cares. I love my Garmin Forerunner 50 every day of the week!! I have been lusting over a Garmin for some time now. I love running but have no way to keep track of my stats! Outdoor runs meant either retracing a route with my car or trying to remember where it was I ran and using mapmyrun.com to figure the distance. But I still had no way to know how far I was running as I ran, my time, pace, heart rate or mile splits. ARGH! To a runner these are the world.

So I started checking out more running blogs and discovered something called Garmin. Isn't Garmin a GPS system. Oh it is and more! The Garmin Forerunner 205, 305 and 405 are GPS enabled, my Garmy 50 is not. Why you may ask? Well because during frigid, slick winter I run on a treadmill in our basement that doesn't keep track of stats. The Forerunner 50 comes with a foot pod to track your distance (like a much better pedometer).

Since this was out of our price range for Christmas gifts, Hubby got his parents and brother to chip in and make my wish come true. I seriously almost wet myself when I opened the box and saw Garmy in all her glory. He even got me the optional heart rate monitor *squeal* I then proceeded to spend the rest of Christmas Day with Garmy and the booklet getting everything set up.

Its an awesome gift and it makes my running so much more fun and motivating since I can always try and beat myself. The worst part? Instantly knowing that I'm not as fast or haven't ran as far as I hoped. Ugh, what do you mean I've only ran 3 miles? I THINK I'M DYING!!!

Hubby and I after I finished a race. I finished 3rd overall and 2nd in my age group. It was a small race.

Hubby and I a few hours later at his buddy's wedding. Hubby was an usher. Look how well we clean up!

Head over to the Diaper Diaries to check out what other bloggers love!

Two on the Town

Hubby and I used some of our Christmas Money to purchase a Two on the Town card! The card was $20 and contains TONS of offers and savings! We literally only have to use it twice and we'd save more than the cost of the card.

We are looking forward to date nights using the Buy One Get One Free offers from various resturants, reduced hotel stays, BOGOF movie tickets and Hubby is SO excited about the BOGOF golf offers. He already had the calender out and was trying to schedule golf outings.

When I was younger my sisters and I would frequently chip in (when you are 13, 10 and 7, $20 is a HUGE amount) and get this card for our parents as a Christmas gift.

Not sure if other areas have these cards, but they would be a great thing to look into for super savings and fun in 2009!!

See Ya Later 2008!

We're having a New Year's Party over at the Roost. Head on over to check out other people's walk through the past year.

We started off 2008 by impulsively painting our living room green. Not the green I had planned on it, but hey, it works!

Next up was my birthday. Hubby planned a day of surprised that included my sister and our friend from Texas. My gift was a heart shaped locket with my married monogram on it.

The highlight of the year was our wedding! Here are Hubby and I both grinning like maniacs because we just couldn't keep the joy inside.

We got tickets to a Detroit Tiger's game as a wedding present, so Hubby had to make an orange and blue sombraro to wear the game. We had a blast!

In July I got first place and set a course record in the Athena division of a local 5k run. I was so excited!

Here we are at Hubby's State Championship Bump n Race. He literally raced the wheels right off the car!

Top Row: Sister Emily, Me, Sister Hannah. Bottom Row: Great Grandma and Grandma. This picture sums up the amount of time and energy I put into creating better bonds in our family.

Wine tasting with friends. This was a big deal for me because I'm not super social around people I don't know well and these are Hubby's friends. But I got along with them very well (maybe it was the wine) and now we consider ourselves close friends.

We adopted a new cat into our family. Here is Red peeking in the window, watching me cook.

Jon, Me and Hubby around the Christmas Tree. Jon is Hubby's BFF and lived with us for 2 months until he moved to Canada.

Thankful

Here are just 101 things that I'm thankful for. Trust me, this list could be so much longer if my memory was better and I had more time. I don't expect you to read the whole thing but just wanted to share how God has blessed me so richly!

1. Hubby
2. Mom & Dad
3. The Sisters
4. A house guest that helps!
5. Being loved
6. The ability to give love
7. Laughter
8. Salvation
9. Having a God care about me so intimately He fulfills the quirky desires of my heart
10. Res Life Northern Michigan
11. Having a job
12. Brent having a job
13. Having a hubby that likes to hold hands
14. Toasters (I love toasted breads!)
15. Instant Oatmeal (a great work snack)
16. High Fiber Bread
17. Honey from local bees
18. Cinnamon Sugar Toast
19. The Farmer’s Market
20. The ability to walk to the store, post office and bank
21. A snow blowing maniac
22. Potlucks
23. Baby the Cat
24. Warm Blankets
25. Hand addressed envelopes
26. The internet
27. FRIENDS!!
28. Green Tea
29. Decaf coffee
30. Flavored creamer
31. Peppermint Hot Chcolate
32. Running
33. New Balance running shoes with N-Lock arch support
34. Scrabble
35. My Columbia Softshell
36. My Softshell + Outer Shell (Super warm jacket!)
37. Dry Max running shirts
38. My polka dot umbrella
39. Snow hats that don’t cover my eyes
40. Yellow package slips in my PO Box
41. Singing in the car with Brent
42. Emily’s crafty cards
43. Hannah’s ability to make me laugh
44. My treadmill
45. road trips
46. Lake Michigan
47. www.allrecipes.com
48. Crockpots
49. Cute Aprongs
50. Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers
51. Health Insurance
52. Clean, delicious drinking water
53. Coupons & Rebates
54. Pedicures
55. Nail Polish
56. Blogs
57. Days off of work
58. Fleece Sheets
59. Heat!
60. Big fluffy snow flakes
61. Pretty leaves
62. Daffodils
63. Sunshine
64. Jimmy Evans
65. Facebook
66. Xanga
67. Butt Hug underwear
68. Kisses
69. Sweaters
70. Baggy hoodies
71. Sweatpants
72. Fuzzy Slippers
73. In-Laws that I love and love me
74. Books I can’t put down
75. Magazines
76. Praise and Worship at Res Life
77. Shutterfly
78. Chocolate Chip Cookies
79. Tasty Treat
80. Pumpkin anything
81. The Office
82. The Amazing Race
83. The Wedding Singer
84. Slow Dancing
85. White Wine
86. Pictures
87. Digital Cameras
88. Clean House
89. No Laundry
90. An empty sink
91. Peanut Butter cups
92. Chocolate Chip Pancakes
93. Boots wif da fur
94. My Nalgene bottle
95. Patricia Wexler, M.D. skincare
96. Bakerella
97. Cupcakes
98. Birthdays
99. Flowers
100. Owning our home
101. Exchanging emails with my grandma

Things I love!

Sarah is again hosting My Favorite Things which is doubly appropriate as this is Thanksgiving week and what better time to think about the "stuff" God has blessed us with to simplify and beautify our lives?

One of my favorite things is the book Marriage on the Rock by Jimmy Evans. I can't even begin to tell you how AWESOME this book is! Hubby and I took this class at church as part of our pre-marital counseling. We watched the DVD as a group, answered a few questions from the workbook in class and then would read the chapter and finish the workbook at home. I was skeptical of this class. I thought it would be cheesey, lame and unpractical. I figured the advice would be like "Love God and nothing bad will ever happen in your marriage". But it is WAY different than that! It is practical, funny and so applicable! It addresses everything from in-laws, money, kids, sex, chores and the list goes on and on! I highly recommend this book to anybody who is married, it can only help improve your relationship. And he never condemns, he admits to being a horrible husband and having a terrible marriage until he sought God's wisdom for his marriage.

Jimmy Evans and his wife, Karen, have other books. Hubby and I recieved Moutain Top of Marriage for a wedding gift but haven't cracked into it. We are asking for the One devotional for Christmas.

I can't encourage you enough about these books, especially Marriage on the Rock. Because who doesn't want a strong, solid marriage built on the Rock of God?

Razor Love!

Jenny at Mommin'itup inspired this post.

Last night Hubby and I were at our Pastor's home for dinner. I was chatting with PK's wife (the guys were ohhing and ahhing at G.I. Joes on ebay) about shaving our legs. She mentioned that she LOVES the Venus Embrace razor. Well my mind flitted to the Venus Razor RR deal at Walgreen's next week and the 5 $4 off coupons from Vocalpoint I have and a light bulb went off...PK's wife will get some freebie razors from me! Yay! I love helping people out with the freebies and cheapies I'm able to score!!