Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas!

image from fellowshipofthemind.com



Wishing everyone a very, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And may the year ahead for all you crazy triathletes be filled with swim, bike and run.

For all you non-triathletes, pick a sport and go for it! Just maybe not all three at the same time.
Image from zazzle.com

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

This Is What Christmas Is All About




Merry Christmas Eve!

Just a reminder as you are enjoying all your Christmas festivities tonight and tomorrow, please don't forget what Christmas is really all about.




Thursday, December 12, 2013

It's Just A Little Bitty Statue... Okay, maybe it is 6ft Tall, But I REALLY REALLY Want It



Below is the email exchange between me and The Murph regarding the fine statue above....


-----Original Message-----
From: Kristy  <konabarbie@gmail.com>
          To: The Murph

Sent: Thu, Dec 12, 2013 10:48 am
Subject: Check out what I found on eBay!


Hi! I found this on eBay and thought you might like it! Check it out now!  ST.20MICHAEL20ARCHANGEL20COLLECTORS20620FOOT20COLD20CAST20BRONZE20INDOOR20OUTDOOR20STATUE http://r.ebay.com/dEqUPF

I like this. Can we get it?

xoxo
          Love,
          Your wife


     Sent from my iPhone
     On Dec 12, 2013, at 11:05 AM, The Murph wrote:

Umm no


From: Kristy  <konabarbie@gmail.com>
          To: The Murph


Subject: Check out what I found on eBay!
            Please!  Pretty please.

"Umm no" is the best I could get from The Murph.

 Subject dropped!

I really don't think that he really understands why we need this statue. Archangel Michael is a very powerful angel and I would really feel much safer having him around. It's not like I don't communicate with him everyday and ask for his protection. (Ms. Mary taught me this. She has a direct line to all the Archangels).

A statue of the Archangel would be nice to have around too. We could put him in the Florida room or even in the bedroom to watch over us as we sleep. This would probably keep the cats out of the bedroom too, so we would all sleep better.

Maybe I should just ask for a cool sword like Archangel Michael's sword.

I'm sure The Murph wouldn't mind if I had one of those....

And it doesn't take up as much space as a 6ft tall statue.

I could slay serpent with it out in the backyard cause lord knows we have plenty of those around here in the tropics.

(and I haven't given up on the statue either...)


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Wedding Shadow Box


We ordered this right after the wedding over a year ago and our florist shipped my wedding bouquet and the Murph's boutonniere to a company called Freeze frame/bloombeads.  Freeze Frame preserves flowers from weddings or memorials and makes custom shadow boxes or jewelry with them. It took a long time for us to get the finished product because they were backed up with orders.

As you can see, it was worth the wait.

It is a true work of art. They helped me pick the frame and background color that worked best with the flowers and the invitation. There were hundreds of different options.



Currently, we have the box hanging next to an arrangement of our wedding pictures. That other picture on the ground with the brown frame has been moved to another spot. We have no place to put it for now, at least not in this house. Maybe our next house.


Sunday, December 8, 2013

Green Smoothies with Aloe Juice, Weird Fruit Things and Christmas Trees


We have finally unpacked everything that we were planning on unpacking at our new place and are slowly getting acclimated. One side of the garage is packed to the ceiling with the other stuff that we aren't going to unpack, but there's plenty of space for one of the cars on the other side of the garage. That's "Little Red's" spot when we bring him down after Christmas.

I have found a new hair place, new nail place, two new vets for Phantom (one is a cancer specialist), new places to shop, etc. There's an overabundance of grocery stores and pharmacies in the area in all directions around us. Take your pick. We also found a farmer's market that is very, very close. The produce is AMAZING! My green smoothies have never tasted better.


While at the farmer's market we discovered this Aloe juice drink. It comes in different fruity flavors that are all good, but I really like the pineapple flavor the best. We have been adding this to the green smoothies. The Murph takes his produce and protein powder to work and makes his smoothie for lunch sometimes.


I really love this New Zealand whey protein powder made from grass fed cows. I feel healthier just reading the label!

We decided to try these for the first time. They are like grapefruits, only sweeter and were very good, but I have no idea what they are called. Pommelo or something... maybe.... ??

Yes, Pomelo. (I had to google it) They are the grandparents of the grapefruit. (that's what google said)


I still add cilantro and kale and a few different fruits, usually a banana and pear or strawberries. I add the cilantro because it helps remove toxins, such as mercury, from the body and I had high levels when I tested two or three years ago. I haven't retested yet to see if the mercury levels have gone down, but hopefully they have.

 It doesn't hurt continuing to eat the cilantro and I still have one silver filling left in my tooth so until I get it out, I will assume I am still getting mercury leaching out of it. I can't wait to have NO silver fillings left in my mouth. I had no idea the dangers of them when I had them put in.


Finding a local dentist is another thing on my list!

The cats have settled in somewhat. Phantom is okay wherever we are. Ed is pretty cool and laid back too.



 Cadence - not so much! He disappears up under the box springs during nap time and we don't see him for awhile. He feels safer there.



I put two Christmas trees up over Thanksgiving weekend. These are the only two trees I moved down here. All the others were given to charity. I really miss my big, gynormous tree, but it was too heavy to move and was over 10 years old anyway. Time to buy another big tree when we purchase our own house down here. After this move, I'm all for getting rid of everything rather than moving it. Packing, moving it, then unpacking it....






Next time I think I'll just get rid of everything, move with nothing and start over with all new stuff!

Yeah!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

From Wrecking Balls To Kitty Cats

I am sure by now you have all seen the Miley Cyrus video where she's singing my theme song, "Wrecking Ball".  The Murph made this my theme song the first time he heard it because my official nick name is Wrecking Ball. Now she's singing my theme song with a giant lip syncing kitty performing behind her in the video.

I believe she has my life totally represented...

Wrecking ball... giant cats (probably hungry),,, and don't forget the tight, stretchy not much there clothing (except hers has cat heads all over it)... see what I mean here? Am I right?



Now if next time she includes a bicycle, swim cap, running shoes or anything to do with Barbies, I'm really gonna have to check my house for spy ware.

I'm on to you Miley!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Packing And Moving, Moving And Packing And Then Unpacking And Stuff




 Hello again blog readers. I hope there are some left of you after my little blog hiatus. I temporarily had to abandon my blog because I've been packing, moving, more packing, a little home remodeling, long vet visits with Phantom, the BIG move followed by unpacking, dealing with setting up new Internet, new direct TV, etc. You get the picture?


We were without Internet for almost a week until they got here to install it. Then they were so motivated to set us up that they tried to do a new install not once, but three times on two different days! Now we Really need three Internets set up here! NOT!



Last time I was on this blog we were enjoying October on the beach in Pensacola Beach. That seems like a zillion years ago. I was really dreading leaving Pensacola Beach because we love it there, but I was excited about moving to the St. Petersburg area too. At least we are still in a beach community even if it's not Pensacola Beach.


We packed all our stuff up and loaded up the cats and left Pensacola Beach to head back to Birmingham to get our house there ready to list with a Realtor. Trying to sell it ourselves while we were hanging out on the beach in Pensacola didn't work so good. We spent a week in Birmingham picking out granite for the bathroom counters, hiring a painter, picking out new carpet, packing, etc. We left before we even got to see the final results, but the house is in good hands and will go back on the market this week.

Moving day was long. The movers couldn't get everything on the truck so they had to store it until they could find a truck heading to Tampa.  I don't really know why they even sent a guy out to look at what we had to move and then give us an estimate and not even send a big enough truck out. We are imagining that they are having a huge yard sale with whatever was left in Birmingham. Thank God the Babysitter was over saying good bye to us when the movers told me that they weren't going to be able to fit one of my triathlon bikes in the truck.

The Babysitter looked at me and said you need to get that bike in your car somehow if they can't get it on the truck. My car was packed full and I already had two other bikes on the bike rack, so I told the movers that the bike HAD to go in the truck. No exception. Now I'm thinking that if I didn't get it on the moving van when I did, then I wouldn't ever see it again. When we FINALLY get the rest of our stuff we are going through every box to make sure we aren't missing anything.

Mr. Frosty better be there among my Christmas stuff too! I just KNOW those movers had their eye on him!

And all my Christmas ornaments and my trees because I only kept two of them. The other three or four are history so those two better show up.

And my entire "Little House On the Prairie" series from when I was in elementary school. I am positive he movers are just wanting to get their hands on those books!

The Boy's collection of beanie babies all made it safe and sound. One of the movers did notice them and asked me how old the Boy was. When I told him that he was 21, he laughed and said, "well tell him we really appreciate moving all his beanie babies." Secretly, I'm probably more attached to the beanie babies than the Boy is.

Ok, I admit, the Boy doesn't even know I still have the beanie babies!


We left Birmingham a day sooner than planned because of the movers. They came and took our stuff on Thursday ( well they took 3/4 of our stuff) so we decided to head back to Pensacola Beach for the night since we had furniture there and it would break up the long drive and be easier on the cats.


Easier... HA!!


Soooo after a long day dealing with movers, we drove 4 hours to Pensacola, spent the night and then on Friday afternoon drove 7 more hours to St. Pete arriving at a dark, empty house around midnight that we had only seen one time before. We were very happy to finally arrive, especially the cats who were a little tired of car riding despite the cool jazz I had on the radio.


The air mattress we had to sleep on was awful, but we survived. The next morning I went to find coffee first thing. Then the movers showed up to unload in the rain. This time we had some better unloaders than loaders. The loaders were not so good. Otherwise we'd have all our stuff, not just 3/4 of it.

It took a week to get Internet, but we finally have everything set up. We love it here! The house is perfect. We are renting for at least a year so we can get use to the area better before we purchase anything. Everything is super tropical and it is over 70 degrees F here as I type. I hear Birmingham got down to 20 something degrees F last week while our "cold snap" was in the upper 50's. I think I can handle that!


There is a screened-in, kitteh approved porch/room at the new place so the cats are happy and loving the new place. Especially when the movers left.


There's also lizards running around all over the place. This drives the cats nuts!


Also, we have beaches EVERYWHERE here! All roads west lead to a beach... from St. Pete Beach up to Clearwater Beach and all the cool beaches in between.

Triathlete heaven.

Professional beach bum approved!


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

October On The Beach


October is my favorite month of all, but it is specially nice on the beach here in Pensacola Beach during  October. The kiddos are back in school, the crowds disappear and it cools off a little bit. October is perfect!



October also has a little of everything as far as sports go. There's plenty of football, baseball and even hockey to watch at our favorite sports bar. This makes the Murph happy!


I like it too! This is my Sangria to sip on while I watch.


October is also the perfect time for a beach wedding, unless a tropical storm or hurricane comes through. That didn't happen this past weekend though and we had three different sunset weddings right here on the beach, one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The lucky brides and grooms had absolutely gorgeous weather for their weddings. 

I got pictures of the beach setup for the Sunday wedding. Pretty!







Last Tuesday we drove back down to St. Petersburg, Florida, the Murph, Phantom and I, to look for a place to rent when we move down at the end of the month. Wednesday and Thursday were non-stop, 9am till 6pm, searching and looking at houses and condos in the area from Palm Harbor down to St. Pete Beach and all places in between. 

We narrowed it down to three places, but still haven't decided. Then a new rental came on the market when we got back home that I really like so it will be up to our realtor to take a look at it for us since we aren't there. I'm a little nervous that we didn't lock down anything and decent rentals go fast around there. I've also just discovered the abundance of sinkholes around the area of Pinellas county. I thought sink holes were further inland. I didn't realize there could be some so close to the ocean. 

Another thing we discovered is Treasure Island beach. Treasure Island is the beach just north of St. Pete Beach and south of Clearwater Beach. We found a rental a couple of blocks from the beach and told our realtor about it. She asked us if we had actually seen the beach at Treasure Island. We said we hadn't but assumed it was similar to St. Pete Beach since it was so close. Our realtor told us we needed to walk out on the beach and check it out. It wasn't exactly like the other beaches. She said the water was a LONG, LONG way away from the parking lot. She said she hated that beach because you had to walk forever in the hot sun and the hot sand just to get to the water.

The Murph and I both assumed that she just didn't exercise or like to walk far.  Many people don't. We knew the beaches down there were huge compared to what we were use to in Pensacola Beach. We smugly thought she was just being a complainer who didn't want to have to walk anywhere. We decided to check it out for ourselves after we left her. I mean how far could the water be? How much bigger could a beach be than what we had seen in St. Pete Beach in front of the Tradewinds Resort?

Well let's just say we owe the realtor a huge apology! We walked through the entry to the beach and all we could see was sand. And sand dunes. And way, way, way, WAY down toward the horizon, a little sliver of water. I'm pretty sure that was the ocean, but after we walked what seemed like half a mile, we turned around and headed back to the car. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it. I wish I did because it was amazing. Here's a picture I found online. See the wide sandy area? It looks much bigger in person!

All I could think was, "Honey, we're not in Pensacola Beach anymore!"



This is Pensacola Beach
See the water
See how close

One more thing...

We learned that tourist season in Clearwater Beach/St. Pete Beach is November through April. This is opposite what we are use to in Pensacola Beach. Tourist season here is during the summer months - Memorial Day through Labor Day. It's actually pretty chilly in Pensacola during January, just like Birmingham. But windier!

Monday, October 7, 2013

In Honor Of Our One Year Wedding Anniversary




Yesterday, October 6 was the Murph and my one year wedding anniversary so we obnoxiously posted all our wedding pictures again on our facebook pages. It was so much fun reliving all the memories.

Today I will be obnoxious once again by re-posting our wedding pictures here on my blog. The photobooth pictures were fun. I still enjoy looking through them.  We have crazy, fun friends and family who will do just about anything! My bestest running buddy, Little L, even agreed to wear a bridesmaid dress although she told me in no uncertain terms that she was too old to wear one. I had her beat though because I'm older than her and I had to wear a wedding dress.



Hey, you're only as old as you feel, right?

I feel great by the way! Better than I did in my twenties or thirties.

I can't believe it has already been an entire year since the wedding. We have had such a fun, busy year too. There have been many changes and many more coming with the new job and the big move.

So exciting!

I sent off my wedding bouquet and the Murph's boutonniere to have them preserved and put in a shadowbox last October right after the wedding. Here it is a year later and I just got an email from the company I sent them to saying the flowers were about to go into "paintshop" or something. It has taken so long to get them back that I am expecting an amazing and awe-inspiring work of art.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Bad Timing Tropical Storm Karen! Bad Timing!




I'm sad.

My triathlon training and racing that started out so well in the spring and was suppose to end with a bang this fall with me doing a half ironman and a marathon, has ended with a fizzle. And a drizzle.

I blame it all on Tropical Storm Karen because I can't blame it on the Murph. He reads my blog and I would NEVER hear the end of it!

First of all, remember I was suppose to race in the USAT Nationals in August, but gave up my spot because we had a family situation and a sick cat. That was fine, but because I couldn't race Nationals, the Murph said it was okay for me to sign up for Miami 70.3 which is this October 27.


I signed up.

Then a few weeks ago, the Murph accepted a new job offer in the St Pete/Tampa area (which is great!), so we are moving around the first of November, which means I won't be able to do Miami. We will be busy packing up the house in Birmingham. I also won't be able to run in the Pensacola half marathon November 10 since we will be moved to Tampa.

Little L was coming down from Birmingham to do the marathon and we were going to run some of it together.

Not now. She'll be running it, but not me. This makes me sad!

Even though I am sad, all that was sort of okay because I was still going to be able to do one of my favorite triathlons this weekend, the Santa Rosa Island triathlon, which is a sprint triathlon in Pensacola Beach, Florida. It is a 600 yd swim, 18 mile bike, and 3 mile run. I rock sprints and love racing on the beach so I was excited. It was going to be my last race of the season.



But then came Tropical Storm Karen. She's heading toward the Mobile/Pensacola area so the Santa Rosa triathlon was canceled.  It was the right thing to do because you can't have over 1,000 triathletes hanging out on the beach with a tropical storm/hurricane bearing down. We're just crazy enough to jump in and start swimming if some sane person doesn't step up and cancel the event so we don't hurt ourselves.

Right now it looks like it will be Sunday before we see the worst of TS  Karen, but who knows. The race is canceled. That is final!

It's beautiful out there at the beach right now even though the surf is rough. Red flag.

So my racing season ends.

No favorite sprint race.
No USAT Nationals
No half ironman
No Pensacola half marathon
No fall marathon (Probably)

To cheer myself up (and since I don't have to get up to at 5am to head to the race), I am going out tonight to get some of these ....




And maybe some of these...


That should cheer me up. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may even see on the spot pictures.

After a few of those it won't even matter that when I asked the Murph what our hurricane preparedness plan was his response was, "What hurricane preparedness plan?"

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

All About Me


While I'm sure you're not surprised I am doing an "All About Me" blog post today (I mean, how is that different from any other post), I was actually tagged by another Asperger mom blogger in this little "All About Me" game. 

Of course, I must participate! 
These are the questions that I must answer....
1) First off tell us your name (nice easy one there)…
2) I live at home with…
3) My favourite thing to do is…
4) My favourite thing to eat is…
5) When I get cross I…
6) Sometimes I worry because…
7) My favourite book is…
8) My favourite toy is (easy now)…
9) I dislike…
10) When I grow up I want to be…
And here are my answers…
1) First off tell us your name and what you do (nice easy one there)…
My name is Kristy. I'm a beach bum, blogger, triathlete, mom, wife and real estate agent.
2) I live at home with…
My husband and 3 hungry, demanding cats.
3) My favourite thing to do is…
Run, sleep, eat.
4) My favourite thing to eat is…
Cookies.
5) When I get cross I…
Become very bitchy!
6) Sometimes I worry because…
I over-think things.
7) My favourite book is…
I like so many and  I can't really think of a favorite one.  This summer I read some good ones by Jody Picoult- "House Rules" and My Sister's Keeper". This summer I also read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, "The Lovely Bones"by Alice Sebold and "Wednesday Sisters" by Meg Waite Clayton.  All great books!
8) My favourite toy is (easy now)…
My bike and my computer.
9) I dislike…
Getting up in the morning when it's still dark outside (5 am) to swim laps.
10) When I grow up I want to be…
A movie star.
So there you have it, my ‘All About Me’, so now it’s your turn…
I’m going to tag these people in this meme…
Be sure to go to Cold tea and smelly nappies and link your post up when you are finished.