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!

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.

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?"

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…

Mac at Home style mama with a side of autism  
Jim at Jim's Autism Blog
Margaret at The Lazy Mazei Files

Be sure to go to Cold tea and smelly nappies and link your post up when you are finished.

Dietary Supplements

I can't remember a time when I didn't take at least a multivitamin every day. Over the years, a variety of different supplements have come in and out depending on my needs at the time. Some I began taking for a specific reason and then continued to take for maintenance such as Glucosamine and Chondroitin to protect my joints from the beating they get from running.

When Phantom was diagnosed with cancer this summer, supplements took on an entirely different meaning. My husband and I started taking CoQ10 again, a higher dose of vitamin d3 and are looking into krill oil supplements as well.

A friend of mine asked me to write down what a take because now she's on the supplement bandwagon after she started taking krill oil for her cholesterol levels and heart and she suddenly feels so much better. So much better that she recently signed up for an Ironman triathlon!

The former model, Carol Alt is really into supplements. I saw her on her health show recently and she says she keeps all her supplements in boxes and has a morning box and an evening box full of supplements. She must take 100's a day! She also eats a raw diet most of the time..

All of this made me wonder exactly how many supplements I take a day. I decided to write it down and here is my list of daily supplements.

1. 2 a day multi-vitamins for hair, skin and nails (from Life Extensions)

2. Calcium with Vitamin D3 and other minerals

3. 2 or 3 per day amino acid supplements (as well as protein powder in my green smoothie.)

    More than that when I'm training hard and long such as for an Ironman triathlon.

3. Chlorella (it helps with heavy metal detox among other things)

4. N Acetyl Cysteine (also helps with detox and lung function)

5. Turmeric (anti cancer properties) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

6. Cinnamon (control blood sugar) I take a pill form at night and add the powder form to my smoothie.

7. Garlic (heart health and anti cancer) I take the pill form but we also add it to some of our food.

8. Glucosamine with Chondroitin and MSM (joint health)

9. CLA (helps body burn fat)

10. L-carnitine (also helps body use fat stores for energy) Want to loose weight? Try this!

11.Green tea fat burner pill (fat burning and antioxidant!) Same as above!

12. Fish Oil (heart health, anti cancer, just good stuff to take!)

13. Flaxseed (same as above) I use to take this as a pill but now I ground the real stuff up and add it to my green smoothie.

14. CoQ10 (heart health and energy) I use to take this for endurance, now I take it for it's anti cancer 

     and heart health benefits)

15. B12

16. Folic acid

17. Singulair - I have to take this for asthma

18. Reservatrol - I use to take this in pill form but now I get it in liquid form aka red wine!

On my list of supplements to purchase is:

1. Krill oil with astaxanthin ( it's a huge part of my cats anti cancer protocol and that's enough reason to 

    purchase for me!)

2. Spirulina (super healthy, anti cancer food)

When I race I also take an electrolyte/salt supplement and another supplement that helps the body get rid of lactic acid called Vo2 Max both from carbopro.com.

We get almost all of our other supplements either at the local drug store or at Lifeextension.com. 

  

So it looks like I take about 18 dietary supplements per day, unless I forgot one. I don't think I have. In the past, I've taken an extra C or E or zinc or evening primrose or selenium, etc. Vit. C and E is in my regular multi- vitamin though. I would take extra if I felt I needed an immune system boost. 

Have I left a really important supplement out that I really, really need to be taking? Please let me know! I'll add it to my "supplements to purchase" list.

Thanks in advance.

Jelly Face

image from Wikopedia.com

When the Murph and I first started living together we discovered the need to compromise when it comes to the food that was allowed in the house. What this means is I have to compromise or be accused of not being a team player. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth and tend to snack. The Murph doesn't like having any temptations around because he says he has a slow metabolism and doesn't need to eat certain things.  His list of things to never have in the house include ice cream, jelly, donuts, potato chips, cream cheese, pies, cakes, most kinds of cookies and candy.

I have compromised for the most part and have actually started eating better myself. I now satisfy my sweet tooth mostly with yogurt, fruit, and certain not so sweet and buttery cookies such as a bag of dried up. cardboard tasting animal crackers. No more almond pillow cookies.

Needless to say, last month when the Murph went to take care of his dad in New Jersey, I went all out crazy at the grocery store. One of the first things (other than donuts) I got was jelly. I had suffered with peanut butter and no jelly sandwiches for far too long.

Unfortunately, I couldn't eat the entire jar before the Murph got back home so the jar has sat in the refrigerator and I've been able to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and jelly on toast and jelly on bagels. Heavenly!

There were a couple of episodes where the Murph threatened to throw it in the garbage, but I managed to salvage the precious jar. I was "making it last" because I knew I wouldn't be able to manage to get another jar into our shopping cart at the grocery store. I've tried sneaking things in by putting them under the napa cabbage and the bag of kale, but the Murph always manages to sneak them back out by the time we get to check out and my search for it in the shopping bags after we return home is futile. My goodies are gone!

I knew how valuable this jar of jelly was so I tucked it away behind my bottle of wine and Mike's Margarita's in the fridge door. It was safe... for a while.

Then it happened! The other day after spinning in the gym, doing weights followed by a very steamy 4 mile run, I was hungry. A green smoothie was not going to hit the spot that day. I was craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I was so happy because I knew I still had half a jar of jelly left. I was "making it last."

The only problem was that when I opened the fridge, the jelly was missing! It wasn't hidden behind the adult beverages anymore! I asked the Murph if he threw my jar of jelly away and he said "nooo". I asked him where my jar of jelly was and he said "I don't know".  After a thorough search of the fridge, I KNEW he had done something to the jelly so I asked him if he ate my entire jar of jelly. That's when he finally admitted to doing something to my jar of jelly and said "there wasn't that much left in the jar. I had a sandwich and used what little was left". 

I don't really know if this is true and he really ate the jelly or if he just threw the jar away because he was tempted to eat it. All I knew was my jelly was gone and he was the culprit!

Over half the jar was left!! He ate or disposed of it and didn't tell me and now I can't get another jar of it because he doesn't like it in the house because when it's in the house he's out of control. He can't "make it last" so I have to suffer. It's not so much the jelly he doesn't like in the house, it's that he likes peanut butter and jelly too much. It's not the cream cheese he doesn't like, it's the bagels and cream cheese he likes too much. The only reason why bagels are "allowed" is because there is no cream cheese and who likes dry, plain bagels, but me.

This was my look when I realized my jelly was gone and there wasn't going to be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me that day. 

I also look that way when I'm hungry and I was very, very hungry that day. Don't mess with me when I'm hungry!

Of course the Murph laughed and said "Whaaattt?" and now whenever I have "that look" on my face he says "Don't give me that jelly face!" or he sometimes just calls me "jelly face". Somehow I have to learn how to outsmart him in the grocery store and learn how to hide things better.

In the meantime the Murph suggested that I just put honey on my peanut butter sandwiches which is totally not the same as jelly. Not the same at all!

I Confess - I Turned The Alarm Off And Went Back To Bed (And Other Important Things)

What a week! I don't even know where to begin. The Murph's job offer in St. Pete? The Boy's eviction notice from his college apartment? Phantom, the cat's, bad, good, trying to get him to eat, drink and take his pills and supplement days? My half ironman training (that's not) days?

The 15 hours of continuing education real estate license classes I have to take so I can activate my Alabama license, so I can then get a reciprocal Florida real estate license without having to take the 60 hour pre-license class again. Searching online for a place to live in the Tampa/St. Pete area before we head back down there in a couple of weeks so we can see them in person.

That doesn't include all that's coming up next week. We are going back to Birmingham to clean out and pack up the house and then turn it over to a Birmingham realtor to sell for us. Hopefully, she will sell it quicker than we were able too. Being there to show it is key. That's hard to do when you're 4 hours away like we are. We weren't all that concerned about it until we discovered we were moving several more hours away. Any way, that's all next week.

This past week the Boy, who has Asperger's, called me from college while we were still in St. Pete saying he got an eviction notice from his apartment. This is after the fact that the Boy had gone down to the office several times to get this vendor form filled out for Alabama Rehab. AL Rehab has to have the form before they can pay the apartment complex. The Boy is eligible for a part of his rent to be paid by Alabama Rehab. Without their help, the Boy can't afford to live there. There have been a series of phone calls, emails from the Boy, me and Alabama Rehab to the apartment complex, but nothing has been done. I even called the corporate office and the Boy has been to the apartment office several times. Despite all of this, since rent is past due because the form hasn't been filled out, the Boy got an eviction notice.

This has FINALLY been straightened out (I think) so the Boy's okay for now. His classes were dropped also, when his financial aid wasn't applied to his account because of me. That was back a few weeks ago when I didn't know the difference between an income tax return and a transcript. This was taken care of as well so he's okay there too. Finally!

The Murph accepted the job offer and we are still waiting for everything to be finalized. We should know something this week. We already have a realtor trying to help us find a place to rent in Tampa/St.  Pete and I've been looking online. What a headache!

Me and Miss Mary

Phantom is doing pretty well. We had dinner with Miss Mary, an energy healer, who has been helping Phantom, last night. She's been sending Phantom healing energy and giving me other suggestions for him. She thinks he might be dehydrated. He was drinking tons of water when we were in St. Pete and not so much now that we are back in Pensacola. If you want to keep up with how he's doing he has his own facebook page here and blog here.

The Murph and Miss Mary

I had to upgrade my computer system so I could take the online CE Real Estate classes. That was a pain since I thought I could do it myself and wasted several hours attempting it. Who knows what all I've downloaded on this thing now. I have a dinosaur of a computer! I've only gotten halfway through the first risk management class and have 5 classes (15 hours) total that I have to take. Boring!

Half Ironman training? Well, uh, yes, I'm sucking at it! I haven't swam in a couple of weeks or been on my tri bike. I've been indoor cycling, weights and lots of running, but shorter runs of between 3 - 9 miles. Okay, mostly just 3 miles.

Sunday was the Trigulfcoast's club members only practice triathlon for the Santa Rosa Island Sprint that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I was signed up to do the practice race which was going to be officially timed with a chip and everything. It would have been a great practice race and good overall brick workout. The night before I pumped up my bike tires, set my tri clothing out and packed all my gear into my transition bag. I set the alarm on my IPhone for 5:30 a.m and was all set to go!

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. just as scheduled. It was still dark outside at 5:30 a.m. That totally sucks because I terribly dislike getting up when it's still dark outside knowing that I have to swim. In the ocean!!

I got up, turned my alarm off, fed a snack to two of our curious, demanding cats, who were probably wondering what the crap I was doing, then I crawled back into my nice warm bed between my sexy husband (he has incredible body heat at 5:30 a.m) and our other four legged furry kitty, Ed, who likes sleeping on my side of the bed.

A few hours later, the Murph woke up, looked over at my sorry sleeping ass, laughed and asked me how I did on the race.

I told him it was an incredibly tough race! I had to stumble 10 feet to turn my alarm off, followed by a couple of hours of some marathon sleeping. It was grueling, just grueling! I even shortened my Sunday long run because of how exhausted It was from getting up at 5:30 a.m.

And did I feel guilty about being a no show?

Heck no!

St. Pete Beach Sunsets, Toasted Monkeys, And Weird Moon Pictures

I thought this maxi dress was going to be perfect to wear as we transition from Summer to Fall (yeah, Fall at the beach. Really!), but I've been wearing it so much all summer that I'm probably going to be sick of it by the time Fall arrives. For sure it will be in threads by next summer. I love it that much!

Our trip to St. Pete Beach was FUN! The sunsets were AMAZING! And living in Pensacola Beach, I am very spoiled when it comes to amazing sunsets. St. Pete Beach faces west so the sunsets are right over the Gulf of Mexico, which is amazing on an entirely different scale than Pensacola Beach where the beach faces South and we get the sunset going down over the bay and the Santa Rosa Sound. Totally different and amazing as well.

There were many cool beach bars within walking distance of our hotel and we frequented as many as we could fit in in the short time we were at St. Pete Beach. I loved the name of this one - Toasted Monkey.

Very fitting since we saw several people who were indeed toasted and acting like monkeys. In a nice way though.

Of course, we took Phantom with us since he has to have his cancer and heart medications and special foods. The first day while I was doing a 3 mile run, I bought this new snappy red harness for him so he can go outside with us without running off. He didn't like it much at first (still doesn't) and did this dead possum pose where he would lay there dead weight and refuse to budge even if I poked at him and tried to bribed him to get up.

When I finally gave up and said, "Okay, lay there! But I'm going outside!" and then I would go outside and stand by the door, he caught on quick and popped right up. Even Phantom can overlook a little indignity if it means getting outside for a while.

The people who worked at the hotel were very impressed at the way we had "trained" Phantom to walk on a leash. Trained! Ha!

In this creepy looking picture we were trying to capture the moon behind us so the camera flash was turned off. Right after sunset, before all the stars came out, there was only the crescent moon with a very bright star next to it that we are pretty sure was a planet. There was several debates on which planet it was. I say Venus because isn't that one called the "evening star'"? Or is Venus the "morning star"? My second guess is Jupiter.

The Murph thinks it was Venus too. Below is a little better. It doesn't look like fairies are about to land on the Murph's head like the above picture does.

We got several pictures like the last one. Our camera's not high tech and neither are we. A couple from Germany had a high powered super camera that was taking some amazing pictures of this. The Murph offered for them to swap cameras with us, but they weren't interested. They got a good laugh at our poor camera's expense though.

Anyway all they got are silly moon and planet pictures and who even knows for sure if it even was a planet for real. We got an entire light show!