hello goodbye

this post was inspired by the lovely v & co.

*hello to our hometown.
goodbye to our last duty station Newport, RI.

*hello to a super target just minutes away.
goodbye to taking day trips just to get to our favorite places.

*hello to Goodwill. Oh how I have missed u!
goodbye to Savers. I’m forever grateful for all the Jcrew you added to my wardrobe.

*hello to running around the campus of my alma mater. Boomer Sooner!!
goodbye to running buddies and getting to run on the scenic cliff walk.

*hello friendly people where ever you go and southern hospitality
goodbye to people cutting you off in traffic and flipping you off while they do it.

*hello to living close to our family
goodbye to probably never getting to live in the same place as all of our dear military friends again. 😦

*hello to camping and hikes at the wichitas
goodbye to going to the beach whenever we want and taking drives along the waterfront.

*hello to bunking with the in-laws
goodbye to base housing

*hello chick-fil-a, braums ice cream and good mexican food.
goodbye to fresh seafood, frosty freeze, and mike’s pastries.

By the time you read this we’ll have already crossed the Pell Bridge for the very last time. Our first stop on our four day drive will be PA. We’re staying with some of our good  friends from GA. We’ve never had the chance to stay with somebody on our cross country drives before. I am grateful that we get to stay with friends and family this time as we make the journey home.  Makes it a little more fun to know at the end of your eight hour drive you aren’t just checking into a hotel.

Please pray for safe travels for our family. If all goes accordingly we’ll arrive HOME on Sunday. Catch ya’ll on the flip side!!

Running:: fall 2011

My {running} goal before we left New England was to run six miles. I wanted to know I could run about half of a half marathon before I started training for it next year. That might be kind of silly but it’s just something I wanted to do. Running is really mostly mental and I just needed to know I could psych myself up enough for half of the real deal. A week ago Saturday I completed my goal! Running one mile outside used to be hard for me so it kind of blows my mind I was be able to run six straight miles-consecutively-on the same day!! If you are an experienced runner {as many of my real life friends are} you might be laughing that I think six miles is far. Remember I am a newbie! Makes me feel like the whole 13.1 miles is a little more doable now.

Running goals: Keep running over Christmas {the month of December} This will be a little tricky since we are moving and will be in transit starting next week. I might have to settle for two runs a week at the most. I guess any running is better than no running right?

Favorite running gear: Merrell Glove running shoes. I have been wanting to try a minimialist/barefoot running shoe for a while now. I snatched these up at the Navy Exchange on black friday. Can’t beat $40 off and no tax! So far I really like my new shoes.

This is my friend Laura. She and I have run together four times a week for the past five months. This morning we went on our very last run together. So sad! Her and her family left today to move back to Virginia. I am so grateful that we are leaving within a week of each other and that neither of us are left to run in cold/windy Rhody on our own. What the heck am I going to do when I have to run by myself in Oklahoma?!? I’ve been pretty darn spoiled to have a friend who lives one block away to run with. I know I might never have that again. I am so thankful that God crossed our paths this summer when we were both in need of a friend. We were both praying for a new friend around the time that we met. I not only gained a friend and a running buddy but our kiddos also gained little buddies too. We met up at the playground usually three times a week in the afternoon to let the kids play.

Laura gave me a little farewell gift yesterday. She {knows how much I love coffee and} really wants me to run the half. 🙂 Wish we could do it together friend!

the year of rhody

This week we hit the one year mark of living in Rhode Island. In a lot of ways I feel like this has been the longest year of my life. But then again maybe it was just December through May that crawled by annoyingly sloooooooooow? Thank you old man winter! This has not been my most favorite place to live {just being honest} but I have enjoyed our time here. It was fun to get to live in a place where people come to vacation. I’m grateful we could experience New England even if it wasn’t exactly how I imagined it would be. I do hope we’ll be back up here one day to show the boys Newport when they are older. Ben would love to qualify for the Boston marathon in a few years and I would love to vacation at the Cape again so I think we’ll have a few excuses to return to this area.

Since my old blog is no longer I pretty much lost all of my posts about Rhody this year. So I’ve pulled a few pictures that capture my favorite Rhody memories to post here. Enjoy!

lately

A few days before Thanksgiving we went to a Lantern Walk at Noah’s pre-school. His teachers had placed tons of bags with lights all around the church property to form a path. Each child had a lantern {a jar decorated with tissue paper with a tea light inside} that they carried. All of the families walked through the lit path to the playground where the kids sang a few songs. It was supposed to be a quiet time for each family to reflect on what they were thankful for. I spent the whole time trying to make sure Graham didn’t drop his lantern and catch the grass on fire. The whole time he kept hollering, “Micah! Micah! Where are you?!” Awesome. Graham really likes one of Noah’s friends and he kept trying to find him in the dark as we walked.  I am sure the people walking in front and behind us found that to be enjoyable! ha.

I know it must have taken the teachers a lot of time to set up and take down the lights but I am grateful for all the effort they went to. The kids loved it and thought it was so special! Graham was so happy Noah’s teacher let him have a lantern too. He really just wants to be one of the big guys.

Did you all have a good thanksgiving? Ours was really low key and to be honest it didn’t really feel like thanksgiving. We’ve spent many a holiday without our family around and somehow I am still not used to it. It always feels a little lonely and sad no matter how fun we try to make it. This past week my great Aunt passed away and I really just wished I could be at home with my grandma. {It was her sister and best friend that pass away.} We’re two weeks shy of being at home. We’re so close! I wished we were already home so I could have gone to the funeral.

Back to Thanksgiving.. Thankfully we had sunshine {that makes everything better in my opinion} and we just relaxed and spent the day as a family. I was felling extra grateful that Ben was home and that the four of us could be together.

 We had filet mignon {by choice!} and the only “thanksgiving-y}” food we ate was pumpkin cheesecake that my Laura made and shared with us. Thanks Laura!! We’re not big fans of Turkey so we made a dinner that we liked.

I’m grateful for the downtime we had this week and for the time we got to spend together. We went on lots of walks around the neighborhood and went to the park so we could soak up a little sun. We’ve been spoiled by the fact that we can walk out our door and pick which one of the six parks in our neighborhood we want to go to. One park is literally our backyard.  I think mommy might miss that more than the boys once we move!

We’ve walked this path to the park more times than I can count in the last year. And I’ve run on it many a time too.

We had originally wanted to have surf and turf for Thanksgiving being as we are about to leave New England and all the yummy seafood. Unfortunately we couldn’t get steamed lobsters anywhere on Thanksgiving so we had our Lobster on Saturday at our favorite local seafood restaurant. We love Anthony’s! We’ve had lobsters several times from there and they’re great every time. ha! I totally just noticed Noah was holding up his ear of corn for the photo. Wish I had thought to stick my real camera in my bag!

I hope you all have a great week. My week involves starting to say goodbye to friends and moving prep. You should see the number of lists I have going right now to stay organized. Might need a list for all my lists. 🙂

final farewell

image via

Last week Ben and I went to our last “Hail and Farewell” of our Navy career. Do you like how I said “our?” Whenever someone new checks in or leaves the command a “Hail and Farewell” is held. Last night was special because it was Ben’s final farewell and it was held at a castle!! The Bellcourt Castle is one the many historic mansions in Newport on Bellevue Avenue.

It was neat to get to go to the Mansion when no one else was there and walk around. Not many people could say they were “farewelled” in a castle! I wish I had thought about what I wore that night a little more because it was freezing inside the mansion. I should have known it would have been cool and drafty. The part of the house we were in was originally the carriage house. They had a really neat old carriage in one of the rooms. So ornate and pretty! Think Cinderalla! Flash photography wasn’t  allowed so unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it. I probably should have snapped a few pics but I was so cold I could barely think about anything else.

I have to say that my  favorite thing about the evening was that Ben was wearing a completely thrifted outfit! He has picked up so much business attire at Savers this past year for practically nothing. That will come in handy hopefully pretty soon as he transitions to the corporate world. I might be a little biased of my handsome hubby but I have to say that besides the CO  he was one of the best dressed guys there. I wish I had a full photo of his outfit but there no way he would have posed for me. Ben has lost some weight in the past few months and has slimmed down quite a bit. I’m so proud of how hard he has been working to stay healthy and exercise. It’s definitely a good motivator for me!

Corduroy Blazer: *Cacharel, Dress shirt: Brooks Brothers.Trousers: Kenneth Cole, Shoes: Banana Republic

It’s starting to set in that the end is near. Ben has just over a month left at his command and then he will be going on leave for about 80 days! We just got our pack out dates which I am grateful for. All the little things are going smoothly and as planned.  Looks like we’ll be leaving Rhody on December 15th. WHEW! This has been such a whirlwind of a year!

The other day I was running by myself and started thinking about how this was a stressful move. Then I remembered that last year’s move was actually a lot more stressful.  Trying to sale/rent our house near the time when we were moving was super stressful. Nothing went as planned with our move, we got pack-out dates at the last second and then had car trouble during our actual move. Here’s hoping that this is our last move EVER!! At least cross country moves anyways. I can deal with across town moves. 🙂

*I had never heard of the brand Cacharel so I googled it. Apparently it’s a designer fashion label. Hubby definitely didn’t know what he was buying when he got it. Such a steal for only $8!

wiww:: runners edition

I know I have introduced you to “Rhody Abby” and “Tan Abby” but it’s about time that you meet “Runner Abby.” It’s been a while since I have done a “What I wore Wednesday” so I am linking up over at the Pleated Poppy today. 

You’re getting a first thing in the morning, no make-up {except for yesterday’s mascara}, post run at 33 degrees, Abby. How’s that for transparency!

• short sleeve tee: Eastern Mountain Sports {clearance rack!}
• tights: New Balance via Marshall’s
• jacket: North Face outlet
• shoes: New Balance via RoadRunner {on sale!}
• earband: Nike outlet
• gloves: Nike outlet
• armbands: North Face oultet
• watch: Garmin via REI {labor day sale!}

I never thought running would be such an expensive sport. I thought you just needed shoes, a t-shirt and some shorts. HA!! Granted you could run in that but it’s so nice to have wicking material instead of plain ol’ cotton if you are dong very much running at all.The only thing on that list above that I paid full price for was my running tights. I paid $19.99 for them at Marshall’s which I know is discounted from the original N. Balance price so technically I guess I got those on sale too. Places like TJ Maxx and Marshall’s are great places to find discounted workout gear!

My most favorite running accessory right now are my arm bands. Hubby was going to buy some at the NF outlet and said I should look to see if there were some in my size. I had seen them in an advertisement in Runner’s world on a Olympian but I have never seen any normal person wearing them. I reluctantly bought them and then when I got home I regretted getting them. Well I finally wore them last week for the first time and I LOVE THEM!! Totally worth the $8 I paid for them. As you can see in the above picture I wear them with my short sleeve tees. Sort of forms a long sleeve shirt but there is a little bit of room for some air flow. I even folded them down slightly one day when I was a little hot. Go getcha a pair if you are doing any running outdoors this fall/winter.

consignment sale finds

Last Friday afternoon I went to the kids consignment sale that I had mentioned in this post. It’s a much smaller sale than I am used to going to. {A quarter of the size of kindermarket for all my Georgia friends}. Above was the list of things I was hoping to find. I knew it wasn’t super likely that I would find everything since the sale was small. {I went to the same sale last spring so I knew what to expect}. I was consigning at the sale so I got to go to the preview sale and bring a friend a with me.

The number one thing I was hoping to find was a pair of good rain boots for Noah. And as you can see I found some! They were literally the only pair left in his size. I paid $6 for them which isn’t too bad because they are in good condition. I love that they are classic L.L. Bean! 

I also picked up a pair of Sperry top-siders for Noah to wear next year. I usually don’t buy shoes too far in advance but these were in such great condition and only $6! Ben is a big fan of boat shoes in the summer so I knew he would be excited about this find.  If both the boys end up wearing these than I definitely got these for a steal.

On Sunday I went back to the sale for the 1/2 price day. My main goal this day was to get some long sleeve t’s {casual play clothes} for the boys. I ended up getting four shirts all of which were Gap except for one Target shirt. I paid $2 for one of them and a $1.50 or less for the rest of them. Pretty good for mostly GAP! Grammy is sporting one of them above. { Why do kids have to move around so much when you are trying to take their picture!!}

I really was hoping to find some Lego’s to give to Noah for Christmas but there weren’t any at the sale. There seemed to be more baby toys this year and we are definitely past that stage! As I mentioned above I sold some things in this sale. I only took 36 items to consign and ended up selling 30 of them. YAY!! I actually cleared out the very last of our baby gear {pack-n-play, baby gate, board books, etc} and am so glad to have them out of the house. Plus it was fun to make a little bit of money too! Momma needs some more winter running gear.

apple picking

As I mentioned in my October ten on ten the littles and I went apple picking at a local orchard. Ben needed to re-vamp his resume so we scooted out of the house for an hour to give him some peace and quiet.I have never been apple picking before but have always wanted to! This was one of the last little things on our New England bucket list and I am glad we were able to squeeze it in. Unfortunately it was on the hot side the day we went. Never in my mind did I picture wearing shorts while picking apples. ha!  The boys and I may have each eaten an apple while we were walking around finding the fullest trees. Graham most definitely ate two!

The boys love pears so I went to the orchard when I knew their pears were ripe. I don’t really care for pears {I think they have no flavor}. BUT these pears were great and very delicious. Maybe I am just a pear snob?On our way out we had to walk by the owners house/garage. I loved the doors and lights on the garage! I took a quick pic when I thought no one was looking. LOVE the barn-like doors!

If you are in the area I would highly recommend Rocky Brook Orchard!

image source zoomyummy

Most of our apples we ate straight out of the bag but I did pick out five golden delicious apples so we could make this apple crisp. I had to leave out the nuts for Noah so I ended up doubling the topping part. Very yummy especially served with vanilla ice cream!