Back in the USA and Giveaway Winners!

Greetings from Dulles Airport! Our day started quite early this morning since we had to be on our plane at Heathrow Airport by 6:30! Luckily last night was a very relaxing and early evening in London so the 4:30 wake up wasn’t too painful.

I landed at Heathrow at 6:30 and was home by 7:15! The Heathrow Express isn’t cheap but on nights like this it makes a world of difference. Bo and I cooked an easy dinner together before toasting the holiday vacation with some champagne.

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Dinner was baked chicken thighs, homemade Greek inspired brussels sprout salad, couscous and a small green salad. It was so nice to enjoy dinner together on a Thursday night! 136So far our travel day has been almost too good to be true. We flew United from London Heathrow to Dulles Airport and though the flight was 1.5 hours longer than normal due to weather in the North Atlantic, Homeland Season 3 kept us occupied the entire flight. Season 3 is definitely my favorite season thus far!247 As we flew over northern Newfoundland we were able to see the glaciers and icebergs even though we were over 30,000 feet high! Check out the formations!252

We have three hours until our flight takes off for Savannah, plenty of time to grab lunch and relax. I’m so relieved our flight from London to Washington, DC didn’t have any issues. It’s one thing to rent a car and drive from DC if there are issues but that isn’t exactly possible from Europe.

Now, for what you guys really want, the winners of this year’s Favorite Things Giveaway!

2013 Favorite things

Inspire Yurbuds: Leah

Bauble Bar Pave Links Bracelet: Abby

Kindle: Brandi

Diptyque Candle: Maureen

Fresh Sugar Baby Gift Set: Tammy M

Congratulations to all the winners! I will email you all for shipping information!

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Workshops, Yoga, and Giveaways!

Wow. It’s 9:55pm and I’ve been staring at the computer screen for way too long today! We have a huge customer meeting tomorrow and therefore I didn’t get home until 8:45 tonight. As soon as I walked through the door I headed to the kitchen since I was starving. I’m proud to say that I took the time to whip up a healthy but satisfying salad while catching up with Bo.  I am so thankful Meg and I headed up to Costco yesterday because now our pantry and refrigerator are both bursting with healthy food!

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This post is a mish mash of things that have been on my mind over the past couple of days. Hopefully you’ll find the information helpful! I’ve organized it so that if you’re not a local New Yorker, you only have to read 1-3 since 4 is New York centric.

I’ve started using the Notepad ap on my iPhone to keep track of blog ideas and thoughts and in just two days it’s already making a huge difference. Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything between work life, personal life and blog life. Having 3 different notes going of to do lists in there makes me feel far more organized!

Thanks to this organizational method, I am finally remembering to share some tidbits of interest to share with you all!

1) WordPress Blog Workshops: Cory, the awesome guy behind Zesty Blog Consulting and my blog’s redesign, has finally put together a WordPress Workshop series! If you’re a blogger using WordPress or interested in getting started, this is a no brainer! A blogger himself, Cory is great at making the most complicated updates super easy! During October he is going to host both a beginner and advanced WordPress series which both sound amazing! See below for more details:

Starting mid-October, I’m offering a four-week class at
two levels of training (basics and advanced)in an easy
web-based format. We’ll use live interactive audio and
video and include live question and answer time so you’re
sure to get the technical support you need.
You’ll learn all the basics from managing pages, using
plugins, and working with media to adding links and
customizing widgets. In the advanced class we dive
deeper into integrating social media, ads management
and customizing your theme.

If you use the discount code  WORKSHOP you can get all 4 of the classes for just $97, less than $25 per class! Email me or leave a comment if you decide to join as I too will be participating in the workshops!

2) Almond Breeze Giveaway Winner Round #2: Congratulations to Taylor of The Lifting Revolution who is the winner of the Almond Breeze giveaway I hosted last month. The previous winner never responded to emails or tweets and therefore I chose another winner today.

3) Marathons+Moderation Guest posts for November-January: I’m thrilled to say that I’ve lined up an awesome array of runners for the series through late October. Now I’m looking for people interested in sharing their marathon stories on the blog during the November to January time period. Since the holidays get busy, I’m more than happy to accept them early and file them until your assigned spot as well. If you’re interested, please leave a comment and I’ll send you an email with details!

4) Yoga Around NYC: In preparation for the New York City Marathon and peak training season, I thought I’d share some of the complimentary and/or low cost yoga options taking place around this city this month. While these aren’t necessarily all focused on runners, any relaxing yoga is a great way to keep the body limber.

Treadmill Bunny

JackRabbit Union Square offers free yoga at 8:30am on September 22nd, led by instructors from YogaWorks.

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Lululemon West Broadway &75th: Every Saturday at 9am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from Pure Yoga!

Lululemon Lincoln Center: Every Sunday at 9:30am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from SLT Yoga!

Lululemon East 66th: The store offers FREE yoga practice called Sun(day) Salutations at 10am each Sunday!

Lululemon Union Square: Every Sunday at 10am the store offers a free hour of yoga! This month the series is led by instructors from Ishta Yoga.

Lululemon Madison Avenue Store: On September 19th 4 of the store’s yoga ambassadors will lead an inspiring Candlelight Yoga class to benefit Butterflies Child Rights. The class is complimentary but Lululemon will donate $10 for each person who attends!

Lululemon SoHo: This store offers a TON of yoga options each week, including Sunday evening yoga at 7:30pm.

Yoga Works NYC: Going the distance: Yoga for Marathon Training
Wednesdays 7:30-8:45am, October 3 – November 7, 2012  $25 Single Class, $100 Series

This series will focus on the runner’s body and will explore how yoga can be used as a cross-training tool for any long distance running program. To register call 212.769.9642

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A Priceless Kiss

I can’t believe it’s been almost two days since my last post! I could sit here and apologize profusely but instead I’ll just say that life got in the way.

In case you missed it, Bo and a very sharp knife had an ugly meeting on Saturday while making guacamole at a friends house. The moral of that story was to always use a cutting board and the proper knife.

Yesterday, I was able to be the wife that I strive to be on a daily basis. I was at Bo’s side when he came out of surgery even though I was missing the biggest meeting of the year at work. Yesterday I chose to put family first and nothing has ever felt better.

Even though the surgery was minor, the first kiss after he came out of surgery and awoke from the anesthesia was priceless.

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But, the doctor couldn’t finish the repair on Saturday and therefore decided to book a full reconstructive surgery for Thursday morning. Bo spent an hour under general anesthesia while his doctor repaired the severed nerve and thumb damage. Hopefully, within six months, his thumb will be just like new.

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Bless his heart, yesterday due to surgery delays he ended up going without almost 22 hours without food. Needless to say, a Delfonte’s hot Italian sandwich was the key to his heart after surgery!

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Unfortunately, in the mean time it means he has to wear a brace and can’t bend or get his thumb wet for three weeks. This means he can’t rock the NYRR Sprint Triathlon next weekend which is a shame since he has trained for two months and was super excited. Anyone want his bib?

In between nurse duty, worrying, and work I’ve spent the rest of the time sweating it out at the gym or enjoying the gorgeous New York City weather with morning and afternoon fruit stand walks.

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The summer months bring fruit stands that are alive and thriving on every corner in New York City.

Before I head out to catch Harry Potter with our friends, I want to share the winner of this week’s giveaway: Denise!

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Have a great weekend and I’ll see you tomorrow morning after the Central Park 4 miler!

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