Edinburgh... you have my heart!

Seriously, I love Edinburgh more than I can say. The Scots are fantastic. My plan before I leave here is to meet a hot scot in a kilt who will want to marry me and and we'll open a B&B here and have tea with the Queen at Holyrood. Tot'ly brill!

Truth be told I'm so glad to be done with Paris. It was such a difficult leg of the trip. I blame the French.

Edinburgh, however... I'll stay here forever!

yo! yo! YO!

i'm in paris! so far the trip's been amazing. i'm already exhausted but still ready to take on the rest of the itin.
i'll tell ya all about it when i get back because right now i'm paying for the internet time AND i'm typing on a french keyboard which is difficult as we all know how the french are...

the running gods have smiled upon me

Seriously how cool is this?! I just found out that the weekend I'm going to be in Edinburgh is the SAME weekend as the Edinburgh Marathon. So before and after church we're going to watch the runners and festivities. SO COOL!

This explains why it was so hard to find accomodations in Edinburgh. We knew something had to be going on but didn't know what! Looks like the town will be overrun with 14,000 runners. Whoa! This is going to be awesome!

WW - Week... I can't remember how many.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. I've been up and down on the scale. My lazy tendencies have caught up with me. I'll tell ya what! If you don't plan, it is awfully hard to eat healthfully. I've had a hard time being motivated to really follow the WW program but I've noticed there are a lot of little changes that have occurred in my habits. I'm more cognizant of how much water I'm drinking, how many fruits/vegetables I'm eating, how much calcium I'm getting, etc and making a more concerted effort. If I do eat fast food I no longer eat ALL of the french fries. Little things make little differences.

Every Friday morning at 7am for the past 2 months I've been at my WW meeting. I love my meetings. The leader and all the members are hilarious and so fun. I really look forward to going. Well, yesterday morning I slept right through my alarm and I was SO SAD! I mean, I don't particularly look forward to getting weighed but I love the camaraderie and the inspiration I get each week. I know attending meetings and the weekly weigh in are so important so this morning after running I went to a meeting (and good news, it was my Friday morning leader who I love!) and got weighed in.

How'd it go? I'm down 5 lbs this week!

SOLD!

"you might miss out on some BEAUTIFUL roadside scenery that you wouldn't see otherwise"

"Just do it a couple times a week and you should be good"

"how effing rad would it be to run the streets of Paris, etc and photodocument your run to post on the blog?"

OK. You've convinced me. Suddenly, I'm super excited to run in Europe! Seriously, how many people (beside the Europeans) can say they've been running in Europe? Plus, the more I run, the more Gelato I get to eat.

And now can I tell you about how my brain misfires sometimes? Keep in mind that when I run I usually just listen to my Nike+ chip/ Ipod to tell me how far I've gone. I love when it says, "X Mile Completed, Y miles to go." So... Once I decided that I indeed WILL be running in Europe I began worrying about how I'd have to mentally convert my distances from kilometers back into miles so that I will be able to track my distance. I'm not kidding. I really believed that suddenly my Nike+/Ipod would automatically tell me my distance in km's because I was running outside of the US. Sadly, I realized that it's not that smart (and neither am I), and then, THEN, a few hours later I had the same conversation in my head all over again. Seriously people. I need help.

5:30pm yesterday was intense. I kept checking the SGM website over and over again and could not get on because so many people were accessing. Until now I thought I didn't really want to get in because even the thought of running 26 miles is daunting. But, once I started checking to see if I pulled for the lottery I had to keep telling myself not to get my hopes up of seeing my name there. But, I wanted in! I don't know if I could have handled the rejection. It's like in the dating world - even though I don't like you I want you to like me. You know what I'm talking about. When I finally got on the site I just expected* not to see my name. But there it was! At first I wasn't sure if that meant I was in. But when I finally realized that I AM DOING THIS RACE I got on the phone with Chloe to tell her that we got in. Screams! Yay! We're in! And we're going to kick this marathon's ass! Boo-Yah!

Chloe is in Vegas this weekend so this morning I went running with her and her brother. I kind of forgot how much I hate to run. But it was nice to have someone to run with. And I kept reminding myself that after I finished I would get that runner's high and remember why I do this. And inevitably it came. It always does!

To celebrate the beginning of marathon training season I went and bought some new running shoes. Asics Cumulus 9. I'm an Asics running shoe whore. It's the only brand I'll even consider wearing. They are white/lightening/orange. Seriously. Lightening! I'm going to be SO FAST! Anyway, the new shoes are sweet! Can't wait to break them in!
*This is what I call the "Theory of Negativity". Always expect the worst then no matter the outcome you will always be pleased because it was better than you expected.

yay??

*my last name really isn't cropstar. name has been changed to protect me... cuz i know you all wanna steal my identity or whatever.

time waster

Hoooly cow! Why do I love this so much? I'm such a geek!

Check out rimouski, quebec, canada. It's magnificent!

health nut

T minus ONE WEEK! until I'm on that plane. Can't wait. Can't concentrate on anything else.

In order to make this trip even more incredible that it already will be I will need to be in peak physical form! So my goals for the next seven days include:

• no soda. NONE! (I'm saving up for euro sodas woot!)
• no fast food
• drink absurd amounts of H2O
• exercise everyday
• run 15 miles min
• get 7+ hours of sleep per night
• meticulously count points
• take a multivitamin everyday (or at least think about it)

Speaking of multivitamins... Do I really need one? For some (unwarranted) reason I'm skeptical. What do you think? Do you take one? What kind?

Also... exercising on vacation. I should be seriously training for Wasatch Back during these next few weeks but I'LL BE ON VACATION!! Do I really want to wake up early every day to go running? Do I want to pack my exercise clothes? I should but have I mentioned that I'LL BE ON VACATION! Doesn't that imply vacation from exercise as well? This is quite the conundrum for me.

to do

book flights to/fro rome, paris, london, home - check
book hotel in rome - check
check train to/fro venice - check
confirm hotel in venice - check
book hotel in paris - check
book travel to/fro london, edinburgh, dublin - check
book hotel in london - check
book hotel in edinburgh - check
book hotel in dublin -
buy tickets to Wicked in london - check
find cool pubs/bands/concerts in UK -
plan sightseeing - check

guess who's going to europe in 8 days
BOOYAH!

next ward talent show?? i think YES!

*thanks for this one, bex!