Mmm. I just love this chocolate. It’s so, so good! I think the blueberry is my absolute favorite, but I would eat any of these chocolate bars if I HAD to. ; )

The precious girl will always lay down on any articles of clothing that we leave on the bed. I think it’s because she loves us sooo much.

My external hard drive is my best friend. I got this baby 5 years ago to back up my old computer before I got my Mac. I just recently cleared everything off of it and started fresh with my PhD program. I’m always so nervous about having my computer crash and losing everything…

Is this not how you do it??? HA! This made me laugh REALLY hard. I can totally relate right now.

Quinoa bowl again for the win!

Sometimes you just need to break out your sorority senior pub crawl shirt. I didn’t go to the pub crawl because I had transferred to Drury, but I still love this shirt!

WELP, this happened. Guys, it’s real. I’m already nervous. I don’t know why marathons scare me so much, but they really do! I have done probably 16 or 17 halves, but a marathon is just A LOT. I’m excited, though!

Jake got home from work and we ran a couple of errands, then went to dinner!

I got him this shirt last week – it just describes him PERFECTLY.

I have been craving bruschetta from Arris. That’s all I wanted for dinner! I had a half in the morning, so I figured it was okay. We ate this entire thing…

Jake also wanted pizza, so we got this – I was full after the bruschetta, so I had a corner piece of the pizza and called it quits.

Cheers! We both had early mornings, so we ate early and then headed home to get ready for our Saturday morning activities.

After dinner, Jake worked on his bike a little and I foam rolled. Wine is a necessity when foam rolling. Not really – don’t do that. Water is a much better choice!

I had a half marathon training run Saturday morning and Jake had an 80-some mile bike ride in Arkansas. I love any excuse to get to use my pack! I also took some Skratch and a Gu packet.

Pictures at 4:30 am! Always a good idea.

Ezekiel bread with almond butter and honey in the car.

All ready to go! Favorite pack and favorite hat. <3

This is the loop we did – I loved it! I didn’t have the best feeling run, but the loop was pretty flat and we got to run by some really pretty areas.

Like I said, this run did not feel good. At all. I felt okay until mile 6, but then after that, it got harder and harder to finish. The last 7 miles sucked. BAD. The last mile I started cramping, but it was the worst cramping I’ve ever had. I finished the run clutching my side, which was rock hard from cramping so bad. Ugh. It really, really sucked. But, they had chocolate milk at the finish, soooo that helped.

This was fun to rip out of my braid. I’m not sure how my headphones got tangled, but they did. Eye-roll.

I was meeting my parents for breakfast after the run, so I drove straight to their house. My Mom was rocking her new shirt for Jake’s races. When I asked to take a picture of her she asked, “Is this how the young girls are posing now?” Hahahah! She cracks me up. Isn’t she cute??

My Dad made this putter from SCRATCH. He’s seriously so talented. He’s always impressing me with the new things he’s doing.

Breakfast! And they had Sriracha. <3 We ate at Market House Cafe and Bake Shop in Ozark. If you haven’t been there, seriously go try it out. It’s INCREDIBLE. The owner is the sweetest lady and she hires some of the best, most helpful staff. And the food is outstanding!

These two were jamming out to a song about a skunk – it was hilarious.

Then it was home to relax for a little bit before my reunion. I iced and watched a little Shameless. I tried to take a nap, but I couldn’t, so I settled for Netflix and puppy cuddles.

My high school, Springfield Catholic, had done a ton of remodeling since we graduated, so a small group of us went through the school and toured it before our reunion started. HOLY COW. It looks amazing. I felt like I was in a totally new school.

Cassie and I planned our reunion, which we had a blast doing! We thought a picture with our deposit was a good idea. We are both in the top left, second row down.

Then it was reunion time! We rented out Missouri Spirits for a couple of hours, so everyone got time to drink, get caught up, and eat. It was SO fun!

Our classmate, Ryne, died in 2013, so we set out some pictures in memory of him. Our friend Tyler also said a couple of words about Ryne, too. It was perfect.

I tried to take pictures, but I kept getting caught up talking to everyone. I loved hearing what everyone is up to now!


This is a picture of everyone – my class, spouses, and significant others. Thank you SO much to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

Here’s my class – some of the best people! Our class was really something special, a couple of the significant others/spouses made comments about how well we all meshed and got along. It was always like that! I know not everyone has such an amazing high school experience, so I’m very thankful. My 4 years at Catholic were some of the best times. It was so fun reliving some of those memories. You guys are the best!

We couldn’t resist taking a Spice Girls picture – old habits die hard! And to be honest, I hope we never stop. Love you girls!



The lighting wasn’t the best for pictures, but Jake got to hang out for a little bit with everyone before going home and crawling into bed. He had to be up at 2:15 to meet a group to run at 3:30.

Jake was gone by the time I got up on Sunday, which was about 7. I got home around 12:30 from the reunion, so I needed ALL the coffee before my run Sunday morning. Thank goodness I only needed 4 miles. I was pretty sleepy. I drank vodka waters (my favorite) while we were at Missouri Spirits and then switched to just water around 9:30 pm, so I didn’t feel too bad considering we all had gone to Scotch and Soda after Missouri Spirits. I was just having such a good time with everyone!


After my run, Jake called to say he was headed home from his 23 mile run. I made us smoothies – we had a brunch at Brew Co. with everyone later in the morning, so we didn’t want to eat a ton, but we were both hungry. I love zucchini in my smoothies!

I drank my smoothie while soaking in Epsom Salt – this kind smells SO good. Like, amazingly good. It’s my favorite.

Then we headed to brunch at Brew Co! Oh my gosh – they have the BEST gravy. I’m not a huge gravy fan, but I swear they add cream cheese to theirs. It’s incredible.

After brunch, we were both pretty worn out, so Jake and I headed home and napped for almost 2 hours. It was just what we needed! After that, we got up and were hungry – story of our lives, so we went to Galloway for dinner. I had the BLT and sweet potato fries. One of my favorites! Mmm.

After dinner, we decided we needed to watch a movie and relax for a little bit, so we hit up Redbox. We got Keeping Up With the Joneses – it was really funny!

While we were watching the movie, I knocked out some meal prep – I baked Jake’s lunches for the week. Since it was last minute and I was hurrying, it’s just chicken tenders and veggies. This will get him through Wednesday or Thursday.

I’m really excited to try these! My hair is crazy, and I’m always stretching out my ponytail holders after just a couple of times of using them. I’ve heard good things about these, so we will see! I get headaches if my hair is too tight, so I thought these would help with that, too.

I’m spending the day working on my dissertation again. It’s crunch time right now because I want to have 3 chapters finished before we leave for Colorado next Friday. I’m halfway there, since I’m halfway finished with chapter 2. I need to just really focus and knock it out. Luckily, we have a pretty free week and weekend (finally!), so I’m hoping I can get a lot done.
Happy Monday, everyone!!!