One Week ‘til My First Half!

Hey! Sooo many things to talk about. So many things. I have been busy with life and not so busy with blogging… leaving me with too many topics I wish I could squeeze into one post.

It’s pretty obvious what is on my mind… 6 days til the Minnetonka Half Marathon! I did my last long training run this morning (10 miles) and it went awesome. Claritin plus Clif Mocha gels are apparently the ticket. I skipped out on my long run last week after being in Wisconsin all weekend and preparing to start my new job, so I was really nervous that I was going to feel weak during my run today. I felt really good the whole time and can’t wait for next weekend! WHOO!

My new job is great. I think I’m really going to like my role and everyone I work with, and my commute isn’t bad at all. I am so excited to be really living in Minneapolis 100% of the time and can’t wait to explore the cities with Brandon during our first full summer here together!

Other things to share…

We went to a Brewer game with friends from back home last weekend. It was super fun and a lot of food was eaten

and many beverages were consumed.

Brandon’s mom gave me some more of her homemade granola. It’s almost half gone already. Soooo delish.

We did so many apartment projects this week/weekend! Behold:

New (much needed) pots & pans, installed by Brandon in the kitchen on a pot rack:

The pans are now in a really convenient position relative to the stove, and getting the pans and the cookbooks out of our (limited) cupboard space has opened up room in the kitchen for other things we store in weird storage closets right now (like our blender). We also replaced our knife set, and it has been really fun using all of the higher-quality tools in the kitchen.

We put our first-ever patio furniture out on the balcony:

We are so excited for a morning warm enough to drink coffee outside in the sun.

AND we finally bought and replanted (well, Brandon the green thumb replanted) plants and herbs for our West Elm wall planters that we’ve had for about a month.

We went to the COOLEST gardening/landscaping store I’ve ever been to (Bachman’s in Minneapolis) and picked up all the necessary supplies. This store had everything – a huge room of indoor plants, a café out near all the plant displays (so cute), tons of outdoor plants, vegetable garden supplies, flowers, and every supply in between.

I am in love with them and have been laying on the couch staring at them since Brandon hung them up:

Beerfest. We watch awesome movies.

We grew our little basil plant there on the left from seeds and didn’t realize it needed to be pruned to encourage it to grow sideways so we had to decapitate him today. Hopefully the herbs grown into the planter a little bit more and stop looking so.. stunted? Brandon does all the watering, I have faith in him

Whew! That was a lot of pictures. Off to prepare for week #2 at the new office. What’s the biggest thing on your calendar this week?