Life

The world is going nuts.

| cheriarmour

First and foremost, how are you feeling today?  Better than I am I hope.  With the move to the new house last weekend, trying to set the house up, and a possible trip to Brooklyn this weekend to visit a family member who is ill, my energy is zapped, and it completely freaks me out.

I know in theory, I should be allowed to have a break, and it’s okay, but it worries me and makes me feel like I will get out of practice if I take too much time off of working out.  But I truly don’t feel like I can work out and have a safe and effective workout today, and I need to completely learn to be okay with that.  Right now, I’m focusing on eating well and getting some rest – the excitement from moving, getting a new job, and getting married in a 3-month span has definitely taken it’s toll on my circadian rhythms.

Moving right along however…

Does anyone else feel like the world is going crazy right now?

And I try to keep the blog fairly light, but the world is INSANE right now.  And a few days ago was no different, when I opened up my Facebook, and Urban Outfitters was the number one trending topic.  Now in my mind, there’s only one reason that Urban could be a trending topic, and that’s simply because Urban has made a regular practice out of manufacturing extremely offensive clothing.  So that’s pretty much what I expected – but I wasn’t expecting the depths that they took the word tasteless to.

So reportedly, over the weekend, Urban Outfitters found themselves to be caught up by the screenshot when this photo made its rounds on Twitter.

Urban OutfittersWhen you take a peek, you’ll realize that Urban Outfitters is selling a Kent State Uni sweatshirt decorated fully with blood stains.

Who on Earth thought that this was a good idea?!

They’re all sitting around a marketing meeting, and not a single person thought, “Hey, making light of the senseless killings at Kent State is probably a disgusting thing to do, so I’m going to say something so this doesn’t end up on the website to embarrass me, my department, and my family.

Between this, those idiots (and there are too many to count) in the NFL, and the vast universe of idiocy that is a lot of Washington, I’m really at my wits end.

How about you guys?  What’s the most idiotic thing you’ve heard all week?

What would you do if your income doubled?

| cheriarmour

I read this a few days back on Roo’s blog, Semiproper, and I found it really really interesting.

What would you do if your income suddenly doubled?

This really stuck out to me because money has been a hot topic in our house – having just gotten marred we spent a pretty decent chunk of it, and now, having purchased a house, we’re always talking about money.

Spending it wisely, spending less on coffee, saving more, eliminating our debt – all things that have become the stuff of our weekly conversations.

So when Roo blogged about this the other day, I thought about it.  What would we do if our income simply and magically doubled?

If our income doubled:

  • I’d pay more down on student loans, and get them paid down faster.  As of right now, I’m on the track to have them down in a few years, but shortening that time would be amazing, and help me to sleep better at night.
  • We’d save more.  Thankfully, my husband is awesome at saving, but having a nest – for a bad day, for our parents as they get older, for kids and a college fund?  I want more savings for that.  The thought of getting caught with my pants down like so many folks did a few years ago really scares me.
  • We would travel more.  I would just love love love to go places, anywhere, with my husband.  I’d love to go to Alaska, go to Hawaii, go to Greece, go to Bora Bora – just beautiful places where we can go hiking and swimming together without checking our email.  The thought just makes me so happy!
  • I would race more.  Right now, I race as much as the budget will allow – but I would definitely race more if I could afford a few more registration fees and to travel to where all these races were.

And that’s really all I’d like.  Not too much to ask is it?

What would you do if your income suddenly doubled?

Summer’s Best

| cheriarmour

I kinda stole this idea from Gracie at Girl Meets Life, but it was such a good one, I had to immediately put it to good use before I forgot.  So without any further ado – here are my Top 5 for Summer. 

My brother graduated high school.  

Not only was the fact that he graduated cool, but it was cool because it was one of the first times in a long long time that all of the siblings had been together.  We finished off the night by going to Ihop with my brother, who happens to share his sister’s love of breakfast foods.

Derek Graduation
Derek ended up on the nightly news!

My sister got married.

Deb had a pretty fast courtship and engagement – she was maybe engaged for a month or two before her and her husband decided that they just wanted to get it done, and we headed to York, SC one weekend in June to watch their nuptials.  It was really cool, plus I got to see my parent’s new party pad that they moved to promptly upon becoming empty nesters.

York Wedding Chapel

I got a new job.

Three years ago, I interviewed for this job, and was rejected, and heartbroken.  I spent a few days in bed, cried at the drop of a hat, and made my husband listen to me whine about it for weeks.  Fast-forward to a few years later, and the job almost fell into my lap, and I took it.  Best thing I’ve ever done, and I can honestly say that I love my job, and I feel so fortunate to be a part of that organization.

Pool at the job where I do a little bit of water running :)
Pool at the job where I do a little bit of water running 🙂

Les Mills Body Pump™ Certification

In July, I went to Wilmington to do the first part of my certification for Les Mills Body Pump™, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of life.  I have never come out of a weekend more sore in my life, but it was the best kind of sore, and I got to walk on the beach in the 5 seconds I had between the two days of certification.  I would gladly do it again.

This was pre-training, and pre-shoulder shredding workout!
This was pre-training, and pre-shoulder shredding workout!

….and last but not least…

We got married!

Which I’m fairly certain you may be tired of hearing about, but what’s a girl to do?

photo 5
image via Blest Studios

Now with all of that – Gracie also included what she’s looking forward to for the fall – and I feel like I’m still in such a whirlwind, that I can barely tell you what I’m excited about.  But with the new house and stuff, I’m pumped for:

  • Crunchy fall leaves.
  • Running when it’s not 90 degrees and 77% humidity out.  It will be nice to to not be nauseous immediately following a run.
  • DIYing around the new house – painting, setting up a workspace for me to work at, and kind of exploring my creativity a little bit.

And that’s about all I can think of right now.

What are you excited for this fall?  

We bought a zoo.

| cheriarmour

But before I get to that, let me tell you about this thing I discovered!  So, the humidity in North Carolina is absolutely killing me as far as running goes, and I’m trying really hard not to let it discourage me.  On Wednesday morning, the humidity had its way with me for about 6 miles, and then again on Friday, for almost 4 miles.  Both times, I had that horrible feeling like I was going to faint, and both times, I had to reach for something that would quickly give me a little sugar boost.  So on Friday morning, after a run from work, I ran to the Harris Teeter, and would you looky what I found!

Starbursts

I found a packet of Starbursts that only contained the good flavors. Which is obviously pretty important because the most offensive thing about fruity candies, the main reason that I steer completely clear of them, is the errant yellow ones you get. Like what am I supposed to do with something that tastes exactly like lemon Pledge? Well, this here packets of Starburst complete eliminates that problem, and I praise the good lord above that I live in a world where this pervasive problem has been addressed head-on.

We bought a zoo.  

Okay, not really a zoo – more like a house.

We put in an offer here a few weeks before our wedding, which I told you about, but I didn’t mention much more about it because I was super busy with wedding stuff, and because I didn’t want to talk it up too much in case it felt through, which is apparently something that isn’t super uncommon in the house-hunting process.  But after our offer was accepted, and we went through all of this house insanity, we finally closed on the house last Friday!

Home Signing

It’s weird. Even though we signed a stack of papers that was the size of a small novel, I’m not really nervous, more just excited to get into a space where a squirrel doesn’t live in the wall, where our pets can fit, and where I’m not taking my life into my hands to get to a greenway to run – a biggie for an active couple like us.

What’s one cool thing you purchased this week? 

Coke

| cheriarmour

Wednesday morning, I went for a sweaty, hot, sticky run with some folks through downtown Raleigh.  I’m friendly with the Raleigh Ambassadors of Rock, the name bestowed on the Ambassadors of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Raleigh.  So when one of the Ambassadors stopped by my office and mentioned they’d be running the course for the half for next year as a recon-type thing, I was in!  Any excuse to actually RUN with living, breathing people is one I try to make – sometimes I welcome a run by myself, but for the most part, especially in the summer when I’m not particularly motivated, I love being with other folks.

We started out a little fast for me – consistently hitting just over 8-minute miles, which I was able to maintain for about three miles before I started to fall behind.  At one point, my vision short of shifted, and I realized that my blood sugar was dropping, and that immediately following the run, I would need to grab something to bump the sugar up.

I didn’t really tell any of the folks I was running with because the minute you mention the words blood and sugar together, people start freaking out and running around with their arms flailing like muppets, which I experienced once when I actually fainted in front of a class and came to with folks just standing over me, staring in horror, and not really doing a whole lot of anything else.

But I digress…

So following the run, I immediately hit the gas station, grabbed some change from the bottom dusty part of my purse, and hobbled into the gas station to find the source of all things life when your sugar is low, and popped a can of Coke as soon as I got myself back to the car.

It was really sweet.  Like…really sweet.  And within minutes, I started to feel myself perk up enough to make my way to my couch.  I flipped the can over, and was shocked at what I read.

The can was one of those 16-oz cans, the tall ones, and I’d managed to get a few swallows in, when I discovered what the “nutrition” in one of those bad boys was like.

Coke

The can listed the calories as being over 200 – but that part in itself wasn’t what kinda tweaked me out a little bit – it was the sugar and carbs. In each 16-oz can, there were 53ish grams of sugar, and like 57 ish grams of carbs, which is a pretty decent chunk of carb consumption that you really need to be doing each day.

Mind = blown.

Not that I’m inherently against fun things to eat.  I actually really enjoy sweets and have to reel myself in from going ham on the York Peppermint Patties, but 53g of sugar in anything is really overkill.  And the thought that folks are consuming this along with their meal is really sort of scary.  I mean, I just want everyone to be able to flip over the can, and realize that Coke is being a little unreasonable with their ingredients.

It also made me a little sad.  Back in the day, prior to me conscious of what I put into my mouth, I was a Coke-drinker, and and I no idea what it was that I was consuming.  And it makes me really sad that there might still be old Cheris running around and doing what I did.

What is (or was) your guilty pleasure?

Wedding Wednesday: The Engagement Sessions

| cheriarmour

It’s really fun to do these Wedding Wednesday posts now that I’m married, and I’m not taking any time away from doing any wedding things. Yes, I could be writing some more thank-you notes at this precise second, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

So I have a confession to make.  A big, huge, horrible confession.  A confession that I’m ashamed to make.  But…years and years ago, I asked myself as I looked at a friend’s engagement photos, I thought to myself – “What is the point of engagement photos?”

Even after we were engaged, I wasn’t necessarily sure what the point was of getting these photos done.

Couldn’t we just save the money, skip the photos, create a really cute save-the-date without our faces being plastered all over them?  And I suppose we could have…until we saw the engagement photos of this gorgeous couple I went to school with.  The engagement photos literally took your breath away, and suddenly, as we were gathering a down payment on the house that would be our first home together as a married couple, I envisioned a home with zero pictures of us when we were young and freshly-engaged.  And I couldn’t do it.

So a year after we were engaged, I contacted the gentleman that I knew wanted to do our photos, and explained our weird situation to him.  He seemed open to the idea of it, even a year after our engagement, and he agreed, with all the grace that a human being could have with a silly couple like us.

image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios
image via Blest Studios

And once we spent the afternoon with Cole of Blest, it became extremely clear why engagement photos were important, perhaps even necessary, when you’re getting married.  

  1. Luckily, I knew Cole, and Blest Studios long before I was engaged, and I knew that the quality of his work was head and shoulders above what I’d seen from other photographers.  However, taking this photos really got me comfortable in doing photos with my husband.  You might think you’re really comfortable with someone – until you have to take photos of you making out and groping your husband on camera.  It really, really gets you comfy with each other. 
  2. Taking these photos gets you comfy with your photog.  Especially in cases when you don’t know your photog or his or her work, this can be really important.  I mean, you don’t want someone to eff up your memories, right?  If it takes some money for you to find out that you don’t jive at all with your photographer, why not, right?
  3. They serve as memories of an incredible times with your spouse.  We didn’t take the photos right after we got engaged, however, even after waiting a year, the pics, even taken a month-and-a-half ago, remind me of a beautiful time, where we met up in a park and met up with a friend to take some photos.  I remember being nervous, I remember showing Cole the spot we got engaged at, and I remember feeling so close to Austin as our story seemed to unfold for Cole. I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon. 
  4. You know what you’re gonna be getting for your wedding.  Direction, organization, light, editing.  We got the good stuff – and we knew that. And you will know that with engagement photos. 

I can admit when I’m being kinda rude, and kind of judgey.  Engagement photos?  Worth it.  

Check out Blest Studios, whether you’re engaged, pregs, celebrating an anniversary, or if you just want some gorge photos of yourself.

Annnnd they’re not paying me to say this.  I mean, it would be cool if they were.  And I’m opening the floor now for some payment 🙂 but Blest is just that good. 

Did you do engagement/pregnancy/anniversary photos?

Running at Night.

| cheriarmour

So first things first (I’m the realest). I’m sorry, I had to.  Couldn’t help myself.  But I hope you all had a really great Labor Day.  I woke up at some point really early in the morning to my husband yelping that one of that cats was ricocheting his feline body off of our end tables.  It sounded sort of like a demon had been released in our room.  So we remedied that by putting the offender in question in the guest bedroom, where he proceeded to rocket around the room like a big cat, but we managed to get some sleep, at least for a little while, which I’m not sure we’ve enjoyed since we got married last week.

I was able to convince Austin to take me to the WaHo (the Waffle House, for those of you not well-versed in all things breakfast).  And for those of you who’ve known me ever, you know I love southern breakfast food, so it’s really nice to treat myself to that once in a while.  So I was able to convince the hubs to take me there with the promise that we would hit up the run club to run a few hours later.

Now if there’s something disgusting on the menu somewhere, there’s a good chance that my husband will order it.  With that in mind, look at this monstrosity that my husband ordered.

BreakfastI believe that is an ENTIRE plate dedicated to hash browns adorned with jalepeños, ham, cheese, tomatoes, hot sauce, and I believe onions.  And he ate ALL of them.  (He ran twice yesterday to make up for it.)

We topped off breakfast by going into my job for a little while for me to catch up on some emails and for me to move the cycling bikes back into the studio for the week after we got the floors refinished, and ended the day with a long, hot run through downtown Raleigh.

Running at Night

I was at the coffee shop writing, right by the windows, when I saw her.

She was tiny, gorgeous, and fast, and she was running.  Nothing wrong with that quite obviously – I run like I brush my teeth, I sort of feel like it’s necessary for me to function like a normal human being, but I was struck by the fact that this tiny girl was running at night.

My first instinct was to think, “She shouldn’t be doing that!? Is she dumb or something?!”

And then I had to pull it back.  I should be able to run out night – she should be able to run at night without me thinking about how stupid of a girl she must be.  And unfortunately, a few stupid, horrible, sick guys have made it so that we can’t even do what we do at night without fearing for our safety.

So me?  I don’t really run at night.  Sometimes, during the winter especially, it’s unavoidable, but running at night, while exhilarating, makes me nervous, and takes away from my run.

Ladies, what do you think?  Do you run at night?

Doomsday Preppers

| cheriarmour

Have you guys ever seen this show on Nat Geo?

image via http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/
image via http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/

It’s kind of like Hoarders, in that it’s sort of freaky to look out, but you really can’t look away.

So the premise of the show is that these folks, usually the male heads of households, are prepping for whatever disaster they think is going to befall our society.  Now, I think preparedness is awesome – there is nothing worse than being that idiot who doesn’t have any candles or a flashlight that works when the electricity goes out.  But these folks are the extreme cases – they’ve stockpiled ammunition, dehydrated food, coffee, alcohol, weapons, and usually built some sort of underground bunker as well.  Usually, their teenaged children are extremely embarrassed, and their wives pretend to go along with it, but wish their husbands were into normal things, like paying $50 to be a part of an imaginary football league.  

By the way, I’m going somewhere with all of this…

So, in the course of planning this wedding, I managed to get nearly 200 mason jars together, most of them purchased from folks off of good ‘ol Craigslist.  Since we’re moving to the new house soon, I needed to move some of this stuff quickly, so I threw up an advert on Craigslist, and got a response from a man who seemed normal.  In fact, we’ll just call him Mason to be safe. 

So I played it really safe, I had everything packed up for him, had one of the neighbors watching out for me, and let my husband know what time, and where me and Mason were meeting up with the jars. 

Here’s where stuff gets weird. 

Mason and I met up to do the exchange of goods, when I made the fatal mistake of asking him what it was that we was doing with all the jars.  Now, you have to imagine this in a southern accent to make it legit.

Mason: Ya ever heard of preppers?

Me: ::incredulously:: Yeah…so…but what is it that you’re canning?

Mason:  Oh EVERYTHANG.  I already have dehydrated food, enough for 4-6 years….

Mason went on to share the following.  

  • He has 60-70 guns STOCKPILED on his property somewhere.  He also gives stuff to his son to hold onto when he runs out of space.
  • He does not drink, but that he is thinking about starting to stockpile alcohol.  It is very multipurposeful and could be a good bartering tool.  However, should disaster befall our society, he “might not be in a sharing kind of mood” <-direct quote
  • He recently built himself an assault rifle that fits nicely into a tennis racket.  However, he does not carry it in his car because it makes police officers really nervous, and he doesn’t want the hassle of trying to get it back if it gets confiscated.
  • He has a lot of ammunition in his car just rolling around in the backseat.
  • That he needs to stock up on fishing line in case he needs to do some emergency surgery on anyone when doomsday comes.

And THAT is my one and only interaction with a real-life doomsday prepper.

Now legit question – all weirdness with Mason the prepper aside, how prepped are you and your family for normal emergency situations?

I witnessed a fantasy draft.

| cheriarmour

So wayyyy back when we were looking at wedding venues (it feels forever ago now,) we almost got married on the 6th of September.

I say almost because Austin took one look at that date, and said something along the lines of “Babe, we can’t get married then because I might miss my fantasy draft!”

I was dumbfounded – NFL is not really my thing, and I had so much fun with this wedding, I literally thought he was kidding when he said he couldn’t have it then.  Then I realized how serious it was when a friend of ours got married on a Sunday mid-September.  Austin begged for me to see if I could get the televisions at the venue turned on (absolutely not), and then left the wedding with like a millions guys in tow to find a television to watch the game.

Well, I witnessed a fantasy draft on Friday night, and it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.  12 men sat around at a table.  They hung up this…paper poster thingie on the wall and they had printed stickers of all the players.  They each brought in $50 for the pot.  And then, for three hours, three hours, they went around the table, drafting players, while I looked on in astonishment.  I have never seen 12 men so attentive and focused on anything in my entire life – and it was incredible.

Apparently, this fantasy thing is kind of a big deal?

Engagement Photos

So, this a little bit of a right turn, but instead of being a normal couple, we waited over a year after our engagement, just weeks before the wedding, to do our engagement photos.  I’ll talk more about that on Wedding Wednesday, because the entire process of doing the engagement shoot was really interesting and fun.  But originally, we weren’t going to do the whole engagement shoot thing, but I got a little sad when I saw how beautiful a friend’s turned out and blah blah blah you get it.

So anyhoo, one of the best gifts I received on our wedding day that I forgot that I was going to get was a beautiful jump drive with ALL of our engagement photos on it – and lucky day – I’ll share a couple of them with you!

Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios
Photo via Blest Studios

Obviously, I have well over 100 photos, and I will gladly share them with you via email if you’re curious, but these were my faves!

Happy Labor day, beautiful people, and stay safe!