Maine!

So, this weekend I got to do something that I've wanted to do my whole life: go to Maine in the winter! 

My grandpa is from Maine and he took my dad's family vacationing there often when my dad was young.  My dad carried on the tradition with us, and every other summer, we went to Maine. Moose and Chelsea have joined the tradition. I love it. Because I am, first, nostalgic, and second, a traditionalist, it's my favorite place to go. Moose and I got engaged there, even; our wedding favors were balsam sachets from there, wtc. 

This weekend-several trainers and I ventured to Maine! (By way of NH)

I saw snow deeper than I had ever before experienced:

We saw Portland Head Light in the snow. (One of my absolute favorite places). 

While at Portland Head, we saw people sledding down a major major hill. So, we did what every respectable southern group of girls would do: ask a family to borrow their sleds for "one quick turn!"

Major air on a sled jump:

And my favorite part of Maine:

We ate lobster!!!

It was a fantastic mini trip and I'm so glad we got to go!

Stay tuned. Tomorrow, I'm writing about how God will give you the desires of your heart...and change your passions along the way. 

#SavilleLifeInPictures2014 Week 8

Day 47: took off on a plane for Massachusetts. Spending two weeks working for Chick-fil-A corporate. 

Day 48: the coolest dedication dinner venue ever! (where the "baton" is passed from corporate to the owner and to his team members. Super cool ceremony and dinner)

Day 49: real live snow. So much of it--making our #snowpocalypse pale in comparison

Day 50: this restaurant served popcorn instead of bread. So yummy

Day 51: opening day at the Cfa and what do I post a picture of? Our pizza we ate at 10 pm! 

Day 52: a large metal pan fell on my face. Apparently I had my mouth open-ha! (Side note, it is healing well)

Day 53: put on real clothes for the first time in three days. (Sad note-then, I fell asleep in them until morning and did t actually go anywhere!!!)

Hebrews Recap: Week 2

This week's Hebrews Bible Study recap is brought to you by Chelsea!

I'll be back tomorrow with a recap of our tour of New England, and I'll be back next week to writing Bible Study recaps. 

Chelsea writes:

We began our small group with a weekly recap. This week  was all about considering jesus in our relationships and in every aspect of our lives. We discussed being corrected and in what ways we felt we were able to correct others effectively and what words or attitudes are we able to accept correction from. Most of our conversation revolved around confronting other believers genuinely and out of love in order to allow them to "scoot closer to Jesus." This particularly convicted me as confrontation is so difficult, however; God calls us to speak truth in love. Our discussed moved to when do we tend to draw nearer to the Lord. Our obvious answer was "in the difficult times," but we also considered the extreme importance of drawing near to Jesus at all times.

Part two of our discussion was the weeks video discussion. This weeks focus was on resting in Jesus. God himself modeled resting for us, therefore; we should feel no guilt in resting ourselves. 

This week we had such a sweet time of fellowship. Im so thankful to get to grow and learn with such an awesome group of ladies. We were each given a name of another lady kn iur group this week and were challenged to pray that they find rest in Jesus this week. 

Confession

Truth is: I like the flexibility of not working. I've been in Ma for 4 days now and I'm remembering every little detail I profoundly love about Chick-fil-A. It is something I'm passionate about and I could go on for a solid hour about why I love Chick-fil-A and working for them. 

However, this week I keep getting asked if/when I'm going to try and go back to a Chick-fil-A or try and get on at corporate or try and get another job somewhere, and because these people are and have been my peers for so long...And because they, like I was, were desperately over ambitious, many can't understand when I say, "I don't know. I'm praying and waiting, but I'm really enjoying taking time away."  

So, confession: the workaholic who loves to have everything planned is realizing that she is content where she's been placed. (Now, I wouldn't trade this two weeks of complete and total Chick-fil-A madness for anything in the world...) I'm writing, I'm enjoying, I'm cooking (lol). I have time to clean, to have relationships, and to do things that I would otherwise have to turn down. I'm grateful for this season, and it has taken only four days of madness for me to say that outloud and not freak out about what my peers will believe about me. 

That's my Thursday morning confession for you all. Now, today will consist of 15 hours of madness at the first Chick-fil-A in New England and in the moments, I will also love every second of this day! I'll do my best to be back tomorrow with Fitness Friday!

Wordless Wednesday: is that a thing?

So I'm feeling sleepy...and a little lazy. And with that I'll tell you that I am in Massachusetts working for Chik-fil-A corporate for two weeks. My husband would love entertainment and company, by the way. 

Monday night, we had a special dinner....on center court at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Good news-I took lots of pictures. Bad news-my siblings and mom were jealous of my experience. I will tell you that it was super cool. 

Now to get on to the wordless part---the pictures. :) I will quickly note two things:

1-there are a lot of pictures. 

2-yes, I focused on Duke/UNC stuff. Mom and I are huge Duke people and Micah and Mackenzie are UNC people, so I was letting them live vicariously through me. 

Marathon Weekend

I have been anticipating this weekend for a really long time. Anxiously (in a positive way), I had gone over every possibility, going so far as to say, "If it is less than 22 degrees, I am considering my registration a donation."

So, our adventure started on Friday as my parents, two sisters, brother, and sister-in-law all piled in my parents car (Moose was coming later that night, after work) and headed to the beach. We made a not-so-quick stop in Columbia to hit up Academy and Moe's. Afterward, we got into a heated discussion about politics and school boards (not even kidding), which was so invigorating that we missed our turn. However, because of this slight missed direction, we ended up here:

South of the Border

I had seen the signs my entire life, but never actually been to the place. It was crazy--sort of like a fake Mexican version of a fair. If you have no idea what I'm talking about google South of the Border, Myrtle Beach and you'll get a pretty good idea.

We headed directly to the runner's expo where we picked up our numbers and saw some cool animals! Also, the registration lady refused to give Morgan (my 11 year old sister) her ticket to the 21+ after party, but gave me 3. LOL She must've thought we were party animals! ha

We ate a quick pasta dinner, met Moose at the house and went to bed.

The next morning when we woke up, it was COLD and WET. Rain is literally my least favorite and when coupled with cold, makes for a cruddy run. This is how Morgan and I felt about it:

However, we felt really good about these super fun sweatshirts that mom made for our adoring fans! (ok, so spouses and family...)

We got out of the car and headed to the start line...and then decided we were super early and cold and wet, so we went back to the car. I admit to asking Moose on the way back to the car if he would think less of me if I climbed into the car and chose not to run. It was that yucky outside. However, the quick 15 minutes in the car boosted my confidence and I headed to the start line to find my people. The plan was for me to run with Micah and Ashley for the first 10 miles. Y'all, when I say there were 4,000 people running I'm not exaggerating. And when I say that 2,000 of them were trying to run the thing with the 2 hr split, I may only be exaggerating a little. I ended up finding a random girl named Melani to run with instead. She talked to me the whole way and pushed me to keep our 9:30 pace fairly consistently. Luckily, Micah and Ashley found each other and were able to run together!

We finished our race (Morgan and I) and settled in to take pictures with the elephant, check the awards board (Morgan won her age group......I did not!) and wait on Micah.

Finally, we found Micah at mile 25 and ran with him the last mile.

 This was a special moment and I was glad we were there. My last mile was incredibly difficult emotionally and I was grateful we were there for him so he didn't have to endure that yuckiness. However, he did say that his legs cramped every 15 steps from mile 20 on, so I guess it was fairly yucky in its own right.

We posed for some pictures with the creative signs Mackenzie had made each of us for our run. She was standing on Mile 4 holding them for us! Precious. 

Side note-she had one that said "This is YOUR moment" and felt the need to encourage literally every runner who passed by that it was THEIR moment...loudly....and with the poster. She swears people were encouraged!

Basically the rest of the day consisted of debating whether icy hot or just straight ice or a dip in the frigid ocean would help our sore muscles most. Then, we decided we were famished and had to have food. And of course, naps....

Our final times were: Morgan 1:47, Me 2:07, Micah (full) 4:23. I was so proud of our accomplishments through the whole experience. While we weren't quite as dedicated in our training as we probably should have been, we did it together and I'm so proud of that!