Nourishment

The start to the Fall semester has been a crazy one already and, as I gear up for another week, I'm trying to remember the importance of nourishing yourself (body, mind, and spirit) during busy seasons. That can look a million different ways, but here are some ways Mike and I have been nourishing ourselves lately.

Impromptu dinner at Tazza Kitchen

Dinner out during Restaurant Week with Davia, Christina, Dan, Amy, and Patrick.....The beer I was drinking is called "Victory at Sea"

Adorable rolls.

Mike's scallop ceviche was quite good.

Beautiful dish.

On a long run when I passed Reagan.

A frittata I made in our cast iron!

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pie and Capp from Stomping Ground

Took my lego to the office, broke it, and this is as good as I could fix it

Playing Settlers of Catan at Kelly and Alex's apartment for Alex's birthday

My new favorite audiobook!

Miles 9 and 10

The weekend after the wedding weekend, Mike and I went up to Cumberland to hang out with his grandparents, aunt, mom, sister, and Carson to celebrate his mom's birthday. It was also our weekend to run 9 miles and we impressively woke up at 8am on Saturday to try to fit in these miles before breakfast. It was very dramatic. The temperature was gloriously under 70, but we were in the mountains. We had guess at our route (thanks MapMyRun!), be very careful and aware running on the shoulder in an area where there are not a lot of runners, and all 4.5 miles 'out' were downhill. There was also the added fun fact that breakfast at our hotel ended at 10am. By the time we started running, we had to average 9 minute miles to have 5 minutes left in the continental breakfast....this wouldn't be a big deal, but Mike was very excited about the Belgian waffles. I begged him to 'just leave me behind' a few times, but he refused to leave me out of eyesight. Instead, he did his own version of cheering me on where he lied about how close we were. Our 9 mile run truly took a team. I forced us out of bed and on the road....Mike's motivation got us back to the hotel in time for breakfast:)

Mountain face we ran past

Leading the charge! (This was still the first 4.5)

The rest of Saturday was spent recovering with Mike's family. I went on a shopping trip with Leslie and Aunt Linda where we visited THE BEST TJ Maxx and I found a new favorite black cardigan to keep me warm in a freezing office. Later that evening we ate Rachel's request of Thanksgiving Dinner (minus the sweet potatoes and something else) since she will be in France for the holidays. We ha cheesy olives for appetizer and German chocolate cake for dessert....the best German chocolate cake I've ever had....the icing was homemade. Unfortunately, I have no documentation of this meal because we inhaled it. After dinner, we played a fun game where we all requested songs for Carson to play without considering what was actually in his repertoire.....he was a very good sport and even played a little bit of "Africa" (from our wedding) and "Farther Along" (one of my favorites that my grandfather sang. Rachel was a really great sport and sang with him during some songs. It feels really good and strangely familiar to end the day with music.

The whole bunch of us on the front porch minus Aunt Linda who was the photographer!

Leslie, Rachel, Aunt Linda

On Sunday, we hung out a little bit more and then headed back to Washington D.C. with a haul of saltine cracker toffee and some new recipes:) Because we were trying extra hard at adulting, we decided to stop by the Costco in Gaithersburg on the way home. Words can't describe the feat, but I can tell you our marriage is stronger than ever. It turns out that it was 'tax-free' weekend. Costco's saving grace was that this one had a giant bottle of Suja brand Mighty Greens juice:)

Friday I teleworked and appreciated Mike's giant supercomputer to work on:)
Turns out you're never done learning about statistics. 

We also finally made it to Capitol Sushi! It was very delicious, but we were slightly underwhelmed after the build up. I really appreciated the pre-seasoning, but would have liked a better "ending" to the experience. We fixed that with Pitango Gelato:)

We finished our 10 miles this past Sunday. I survived even though Mike beat me by like 20 minutes. Someone remind me to wake up earlier for long runs.

Beautiful sunset Saturday evening!

This week we have plenty planned! We are saying goodbye to Meimi who is leaving to China for her Fulbright year, going to Restaurant Week with GGSS friends on Friday, set to run 11ish on Saturday, and christening Kelly and Alex's apartment with some Settlers of Catan on Sunday.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Things I Did While Kelsey Was Being a Bridesmaid

A couple of weeks ago Kelsey was in a wedding Luray, Virginia. I was not involved in the wedding and so I had the day to kill. I had not been to Luray caverns, so I went to Luray caverns. 

And they were...

Pretty

much

what

you'd

expect.

I don't want to be flippant about a geological masterpiece- the cavern itself is amazing and the rock formations are varied and impressive. That said, it is a "show cavern" and has a poured concrete walking path that makes the tour feel sort of like playing indoor minigolf without the putter or the ball. I spent most of the time wandering around wondering about the utility of the words "stalactite" and "stalagmite" and the fact that millions of schoolchildren are forced to learn those two words and the difference between them on the off-chance that they chance upon a cavern and need an economical way to describe the mineral deposits on the ceiling and floor. Then I thought about the marginal utility of most of the words in the legal profession and I decided to stop thinking about words.

Since I finished my tour of the caverns by 10:30 AM and had until 6:00 PM to do things by myself, I went to every museum and tourist attraction in Luray.

First stop: the Pioneer Museum!

So many stoves! Old stoves! Kelsey was getting very jealous of me when I sent this picture.

And dressers and chests! Oh boy! I bet Kelsey wished she could leave her champagne and bridal party spa treatments to come see some of these.

And that was basically it for the Pioneer Museum. Then I went to the old railway station that had been turned into the Luray visitor center...

...which consisted of one room with a big train set and an older gentleman who still seemed very upset that the train stopped coming through Luray 57 years ago.

Then I went across the street to an art gallery. This was probably my favorite stop. Some of the artists were very avant-garde and I wish that I had taken more pictures of the bizarre and unsettling sculptures and paintings which occupied me for an hour or so. 

This was not the most unsettling piece of art, but it was my favorite stained glass piece.

I had tapped out every museum and public area of Luray that I could find without GPS (I had no service) around 2PM, and so I went to a McDonalds and read on my kindle for the remainder of the day. Kelsey has previously provided pictures from the actual wedding. 

Kelsey will also provide pictures from Mom's birthday up in Cumberland. I forgot to bring my new camera and was kicking myself for that. 

We also celebrated Absi's birthday the other week. I did get one good picture from that on my iphone.

Posing for pictures is for amateurs.

New Routines: Kels's Job Update

So I'm a week behind in the blog, but hopefully we'll catch up on the blog soon because I definitely want to share about our wonderful weekend in Cumberland. It's been a busy couple of weekends for us. The weekend before this last one, one of my best friends from high school got married, and I got to be in her wedding!

Me standing beside Megan (one of my other best friends from high school). Lauren's sister is on the right. We were all squinting because it was so bright.

Decorations at the farm. Khimaira farm is a goat farm that was converted into a wedding site after the owner's daughter got married there. It was absolutely perfect!

Luray sunset. Mike and I can't wait to live near mountains one day.

I tried not to take pictures of absolutely everything, and failed.

After decorating for the reception.

I made Mike take pictures of the ceremony the whole time. He also deserves a HUGE shout out for getting wine for the entire bridal part while we were taking pictures and then holding all of our glasses on a tray in between pictures:)

Bride and groom's first dance. 

I also wanted to let you all know how my job is going. It's going amazing, and I love it! I'm starting with four new coworkers, so I don't feel like the only new kid. I'm doing a lot of trainings right now to get certified to administer self-assessments (for career exploration) to students in the Fall. The students arrive at the end of August, and I will probably be super busy throughout this month and next preparing for their arrival and then introducing them to career services:) There is already an energy in the air knowing that the semester is right around the corner. It feels great to be back in higher ed:)

I also love my new schedule. I have discovered through my new schedule that allows me a pretty consistent routine that I really operate best through routines. Every day at my last job was different, and while that afforded me flexibility in some cases, it also meant making decisions every day about the day ahead. I already have a pretty consistent schedule down now that allows me to workout each morning before work and my commute takes up a little bit less time than what it used to, but it's so much nicer not having to drive! Can't wait to see how much I learn over the next few months!

The other morning during my "workout time", I was able to run 5 miles down to the Mall!

Hope everyone has a great week!

-KJ