Good morning! First off, thanks for the many congrats yesterday. Love you all bunches for the tons of support you have given me in so many things this year. I hope I can return a little bit of that love through this here blog as well.

So yesterday I had my first parent-teacher “conference” for Makenzie. She seems so sweet and innocent…until I get called in for a conference.

Kidding! It wasn’t like that. Just a standard meeting with the teacher to go over her development in certain skills. No surprises at all. She’s bright, talkative, and “spunky”. I love that new term the teacher used to describe my sweet girl’s touchy attitude.

That’s how my day started. Now, let’s get to how it ended.

After a full day with the kids and getting things done around the house, I got myself out the door for a run in the afternoon. By the time I hit the road it was shortly after 5 pm and looked like the sky could drop open at any moment.

I didn’t care, though. I wanted the time outdoors. I did one warm-up mile, then proceeded to up the pace for the remaining five. I really want to continue with regular speed work. I find it a fun challenge. Plus, it helped me end my run quicker. A very good thing considering how dark it got so quickly.

I didn’t realize it would be almost pitch black by 6 pm. I finished just in time as it started raining shortly after I got in the car.

After my run, I stopped by the library to pick up a few new reads. Thanks for all of your recommendations! I put a few of them on hold, then found a new James Patterson to grab while there. I also got sucked into the running section. I foresee lots of reading in my future. And I love it.

By the time I got home, I didn’t really feel like cooking up a full dinner. That meant turning to a quick fix meal option.

Campbells canned soup. Plus a pepperjack grilled cheese.

I love making my own soups, either in the crockpot or a quick 20 minute recipe on the stove, but last night just called for the emergency pantry stash. I know most of you can relate. Your secret is safe with me.

Have a great day! See you in the afternoon!

• Do you ever use canned soups or similar products? I hate how “bad” the blogging community makes them seem sometimes. Who gives?!
• Does the earlier dark bother you or do you enjoy it? I actually enjoy it.

Hey, friends! Ready to kick off a great week? I know I’m feeling determined to make it a good one. Just like I had to make this weekend a good one.

I was supposed to be touring beautiful scenery and sipping wine this weekend…

Last year my sister and I purchased a Groupon deal for a day tour to 5 North Georgia wineries and planned to go this weekend. Too bad the tour company closed down. No wine. Bummer!

I didn’t let myself whine, though. Instead, I did other fabulous things.

Like get in a 12 mile frosty run on Saturday morning. At least being greeted by a cheerful note left out as a random act of kindness cheered me up at the end.

Isn’t that nice?!

Despite the run being so cold, it actually felt pretty good. Almost refreshing. At the very least, it made the ice bath following the run not feel like such a drastic temperature change. Oh, who am I kidding? It still stunk.

It was only a brief low of the weekend because after that I had a rather important appointment with a testing center.

I PASSED!!!! I am now a NASM certified personal trainer!!! I don't know my final score since it just shows pass or fail, but I think I did really well. I 100% knew 100 of the 120 questions. There were only 3 I marked that I was really unsure of. The rest I felt mostly certain, but not 100%. A lot of the questions required applying small details of things I had studied, so it was harder than I anticipated, but overall still good. Although the only detail that matters is - I passed!!! It feels so good to say that after the months of preparation and work to make it final.

I finished up the test around 2:30 and hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so the first thing I did was find some food. First place I saw that wasn’t a McDonalds or Arbys? McAlister’s Deli. That’ll do. I did a half and half combo.

A Savannah Salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, blue cheese, cranberries, and almonds.

As well as a Cobb Club with turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a peppercorn sauce of some sort.

I originally planned to grab the food to go, but couldn’t wait to eat, so I chose to sit and have a little lunch by myself. I don’t ever typically do that (I’m like Rachel), but it was actually quite nice to have a peaceful solo lunch. I finished just in time to hang out with Peter’s family and watch the UGA vs Auburn game.

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That certainly topped off the day on a high note! Although not as great as passing my exam!!!!! <--- had to throw that in there

The rest of the weekend didn’t hold anything too exciting, which was just fine by me. I had the chance to finish my Nicholas Sparks book.

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If you like his books at all, then you will love this one. It was one of my favorites of his that I have read. Even though his stories aren’t all that original, I find his writing very easy to read and never fail to find myself captivated by the characters. I recommend it. And now, I need some new book recommendations from you all! I’m kind of in the mood for a suspenseful read this time – like my favorite thriller novel Velocity by Dean Koontz.

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You MUST read that one if you like edge-of-your-seat suspense! It’s good!

Alright, enough chit chat. Time for me to hit the gym, then have my very first partent teacher conference for Makenzie. Oh, the excitement!

• Do you ever like to dine out alone?
• Any good suspense novels to recommend?