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.