Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A Dose of "To Do's"...

Summer is in full swing here and I thought I'd share some of my summer "to do's" for this year.
 My Summer Bucket List:

Get caught in a summer storm

Take a road trip

Attend an outdoor concert

Go on a bike ride

Sit around a bonfire

Enjoy a beach vacation

Dine al fresco

Get lost in a good book (any recommendations?.. that isn't 50 Shades of Grey)

Watch a sunset

Enjoy a swing...or a hammock!

Some others include:
host a party
try a new restaurant
visit an art gallery
finally get up on a wakeboard!
make homemade sangria
volunteer

I'd love to hear what's on your summer "to do" list!



Friday, May 25, 2012

A Dose of Flattery...

After sharing the details of my horrible weekend with you all I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a comment from the lovely ladies at Wardrobes I Met and Liked saying that they had awarded me with the Liebster Award! I'm very flattered they took the time to read this lil' ole blog...and liked it! :) If you haven't heard of the Liebster Award it's given out to blogs with less than 200 followers and it's a great way to show some love to blogs you may have never read before. So to continue the flattery, here are my picks for the Liebster Award...some of them fellow AZ bloggers! Hope you enjoy reading these as much as I do!


Rules:
-Link back to the person who gave you the award
-Put the award on your post
-Choose 5 blogs with under 200 followers to receive the award
-Let them know you awarded them

*Hope you all have a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

I had mentioned in previous posts that I was hosting two baby showers this month. One being for my sister (which turned out awesome) and the other for my best friend Lisa. I had spent months preparing for her shower and worked hard all weekend long to be ready come Sunday. This was the first baby for our group of friends so it was a really big deal! So my Saturday night consisted of crafting and cooking and I finally fell asleep around 12 am. Well at about 1:30 am I woke up in terrible pain and I just knew right away this was gonna be bad. I had experience this kind of pain before and I knew exactly what it was, I had a kidney stone. I'll spare you the details of my horrible night but finally at about 7 am I decided I couldn't take it and I had to go to the ER. I was supposed to be meeting my friend to start setting up for the shower at 9 am and knew it was never gonna happen. I was devastated. :( All that hard work and excitement for nothing. After about 5 hours in the ER with IVs, blood draws, and a CT scan they confirmed what I already knew, I had a 3 mm kidney stone. I finally left the hospital and after getting no sleep in the last 24 hours I crashed hard. I'm so grateful my friend Alisha stepped in for me and helped out. Everyone said it turned out amazing and they took lots of pics. Hopefully I can share some soon. I'm still so bummed I missed such an exciting and special moment for my best friend. It's totally my luck that something like this would happen to me on such an important day! Anyone else have horrible luck like mine?

Thankfully today I'm finally feeling back to normal! I hope you all had a better weekend than I did!

Friday, May 11, 2012

For two of my favorite Moms..

(Me with my mom and sister, photo taken on our birthday dinner last year at LGO.)

This weekend will be filled with lots of celebrating! Tomorrow is my sister's baby shower and I'm so excited for this little girl to make her appearance. We are thinking it may be sooner than later though! I'm just hoping she can make it through the weekend! Although, a baby on Mother's Day wouldn't be so bad! :)  Hopefully I'll have some pics from the party to share next week. Then Sunday of course is Mother's Day and I just want to send some love to two of my favorite mom's. My mom and sister are wonderful examples of everything that it means to be a mother. Thanks for being so wonderful, I love you both!
Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Dose of White on White...on White

White on White...on White

Summer is here and I find myself wanting to wear white 24/7. There's just something so chic and easy, breezy about an all white outfit. And no matter what the occasion, a white on white ensemble makes for a perfect summer look! Here are a few of my favorite inspirational looks:



unknown


unknown



Will you be trying the white on white trend this summer?
 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Ironman Weekend

Where do I even start? This weekend was probably the most inspiring and amazing thing I've ever experienced. I could go on and on but I'll just let the pictures explain.
Nick and I got bored on the drive up and decided to "test" out his new bike helmet..all aerodynamic and what not.

And guess what? It works. :) Thankfully the officer was super nice after he found out Nick was racing in the Ironman. He let us off with a warning...that would've been a bad start to the weekend.
We finally arrived in St. George. The town was literally shut down for this race. There were signs and posters everywhere and the locals and volunteers were amazing!

Sat morning, race day was finally here. I was up at 3:30 in the morning to drop Nick off and then we all headed out to Sand Hallow lake at 5:30 am. The sunrise was beautiful and it was looking like perfect race day conditions.
Nick was all smiles getting ready to enter the water.

Approximately 1800 swimmers lined the water waiting for the cannon to shoot off.

And then they were off. Just as the race started the winds picked up and the perfect weather we were expecting disappeared. The water started producing 4-5 foot waves and immediately we saw swimmers leaving the water by boat. We were worried but I had total confidence that Nick would finish the swim no matter what. We later found out that over 400 swimmers had to be pulled out and couldn't complete the race.
Sure enough at 1 hr 36 mins (right on track with his anticipated time) Nick finished the swim and off on his bike he went. He had a smile on his face and a fist pumped in the air as he rode by and we were all relieved. Now he had to face the 112 mile bike with 20-30 miles wind gusts. Even the pro athletes said they had never experienced conditions so bad. At this point is was a waiting game.
Probably half way into the bike the weather finally died down and the sun came out and it was the start to the gorgeous day we had planned for.



We were able to catch a glimpse of Nick on the bike towards the end and he still manage to have a grin on his face. I was seriously in awe of his intensity and how well he was doing despite the nasty conditions.


After pounding out 7 hours on his bike he started the run, only 26.2 miles to go! We were able to see him several times on the course and he looked great! There were runners passing us by looking as if they were about to collapse and here comes Nick with waves and high fives!

After an exciting, nerve racking, emotional and looong day he finally crossed the finish line (with a smile, of course) and heard the words he had been waiting to hear for the last nine months, "Nick Luedtke you are an Ironman!" Gosh, it still gives me a lump in my throat. He finished the race in 13 hours and 48 mins. This was under the 14 hour goal he set for himself. (Seriously!?) Everyone was in disbelief of what he had just accomplished.
(Please ignore my cry face.)

I know these words don't even begin to rightfully describe what Nick went through. I guess all I can say is that it's just something you have to witness to understand. I'm so proud of him and feel lucky that I was able to share in his amazing accomplishment.
Nick, You are officially an Ironman. :)

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Ironman St. George 2012

Tomorrow I'll be headed on a lil' road trip to St. George, Utah. My good friend Nick will be competing in the Ironman triathlon. (Just writing that gives me butterflies!) When he first told me he had signed up I was shocked. Now don't get me wrong, he is the kinda guy who is pretty much good at anything he does, but the Ironman? That's just insane. If your not familiar, let me break it down for you...it consists of a 2.4 mile swim, then a 112 mile bike and as if that's not enough, a 26.2 mile run to finish. So for the past 9 months his life has been consumed by an intense training schedule and he has made endless sacrifices to make it to this point. I couldn't be more excited to cheer him on from the sidelines and I'm so so proud of him! It's truly inspiring to see someone who is so dedicated to achieving a goal.

Good luck Nick. No matter the outcome of this weekend you've already done something that most would never dream of and that's a victory in itself.



Here's some Ironman inspiration for you all.


*You can follow me on Instagram to see highlights from my weekend @doseoflou