Christmas, travels, etc.

After all of the craziness that we had with rushing off to Cleveland, it was really nice to have a pretty low-key, relaxing Christmas. We spent Christmas in Knightdale and then the week after Christmas at my parents' house in Ocean.

Brian had to work for most of Christmas Eve, so after he got off work, we headed over to his parents' house, ate some dinner, and hung out over there until Midnight Mass, which, contrary to Midnight Mass at the Vatican, actually started at midnight. Brian's mom played handbells and sang in the choir, so it was fun to see all of her performances. We got home around 2:30 a.m. and immediately crashed in bed.

We were planning to head over to the LeBlancs around 10 a.m., so when my alarm went off at 9 a.m., my first thought was total panic when I realized that we had forgotten to start the bread machine (we were making bread to have with our Christmas feast). FORTUNATELY, my loving husband had realized that we had forgotten the bread around 7 a.m. when he got up with Gatsby and had started the bread machine then. Whew...Christmas crisis averted! :-)

Christmas day was lots of fun and pretty relaxing. After we ate dinner, we went back to the house and picked Gatsby up and took him back over with us. This was the second time that we have taken him over there and he did really well this time. He made friends with Mike (who he was very scared of before) and spent the night sniffing out everything in their house while we played Trivial Pursuit. The highlight of the LeBlanc Christmas was that we got a very sweet HDTV to put in our loft. It's so nice (for me) for Brian to be able to go upstairs and watch his hockey games upstairs in HD! ;-)

The Sunday after Christmas we packed up the Civic with like 11 thousand tons worth of stuff and headed to mom and dad's for the week. We had a fantastic week! I spent a lot of time transferring our old home videos to DVD, which takes a long time because (1) we have a ton of home videos and (2) you have to play each one in its entirety. I think I did like 25 of them over the week and I'm still not done. I LOVE watching our old videos because Callie and I were the cutest kids ever and we have so many funny things captured on video.

The highlight of my Christmas was getting my Garmin Forerunner 305, which is a very pimp, wrist-top GPS device that tracks your runs. It keeps track of your distance, heart rate, calories, and a million other things and then let's you upload it to your computer and track your progress on Google Maps. The online component creates RSS feeds of your data, which I've added to the right column of the blog, in case anyone cares. If anyone REALLY cares, you can also just subscribe to the RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GarminConnect-LSLeBlanc82. (PS: I know that no one else cares but me and my dad, but I like to pretend that others do.) :-)

Our Christmas pics are up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Christmas2009 (the first few are Christmas with my dad's mom and sister in Raleigh and then the rest are at my parents' house in Ocean).

While we were there, my dad got a new handgun (a Springfield Armory 1911 .45 caliber), so we went to the gun range twice. Shooting that gun is SO much fun. It's heavier than his other ones, so you can be really accurate. We were all fantastic shots with that gun--even Clay, which is like a miracle! ;-)

We took a few pictures at the gun range in Jacksonville that are up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/ShootingInJacksonville. (Brian didn't go shooting with us because he was at Harris Teeter with mom. I'm not kidding.)

I'm off work for MLK Jr. Day, so I came back down to my parents' house for the long weekend. Because I work remotely on Fridays, I was able to leave Thursday right after work and work down here on Friday. (A very nice perk!) We've had a nice weekend with lots of yummy food and exercise. Sushi is for dinner tonight!!

Our other exciting news is that Brian and I are going to New York City the first weekend in February. Brian is going to cover a Canes/Islanders game, so I'm going to tag along and we're going to do the touristy NYC things. I've only been to NYC a few times and only as drive (or fly) throughs. Never an actual visit. I AM SO EXCITED! We're going to drive to Baltimore after work on Thursday night and then we'll only have about 3 hours to NYC on Friday morning. Our anticipated itinerary is as follows:

• Friday night: dinner and Broadway
• Saturday: touristy shopping, like visiting Macy's, FAO Schwartz, etc.
• Saturday night: Brian to the hockey game and Laura shopping at a mall on Long Island
• Sunday: NYC touristy stuff (Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, bus tour, and maybe a tour of Radio City Music Hall)

I'm planning to take lots of pictures and do a full blog report when we get back. (I'm trying to remember to blog more!)

Gatsby's Christmas Letter

Because of our impromptu trip to Cleveland, we're late at getting our Christmas cards out. We're aiming to get them done this weekend to get them in the mail on Monday. In our house, Brian is responsible for writing the letter and then I edit [READ: rewrite] it. ;-) We were laughing the other day about how funny it would be if Gatsby narrated our letter, but we thought it would probably be too over the top to do it and that everyone would think that that we are strange.

Well, we are.

So we decided that Gatsby would create an e-missive for the blog because, well, our life needs some comic relief right now.

***

HEY GUYS!!! IT'S ME, GATSBY SAMUELS LeBLANC!!! THIS WAS THE BEST YEAR EVER!!

[EDS. NOTE: Master LeBlanc would prefer for his letter to continue in ALL CAPS; however, we realize that's a pain to read.]

In January, we went to visit Miss Ellie and Mr. Jay at the beach. But I didn't know what mom and dad meant by "the beach." It just looked like another house to me except it was cold and windy there. The best part of the trip was when someone dropped a bowl of popcorn and I ate it all off the floor. It was the best trip ever.

We also went back to their house later in January and that was when mom started talking about NutriSystem and ordering food. She kept talking about portion control and that seemed like a bad thing for a doggie because if she had "perfect" portions then there wasn't gonna be no extras for me. Man, I was right. It was the worst trip ever. In fact, I got so mad that I snuck off into Miss Ellie's room and peed on her comforter when nobody was looking. HAHA! I SHOWED THEM!!

February, March, and April were pretty typical cold doggie days. I woke up, ate breakfast, slept by the fireplace, ate dinner, and then played with my dad when he came home from work. I also watched all these houses get built behind us and we got a next door neighbor. His name is Ranger and he's an old dog. I like to bark at him and try to pee in his yard, but mom and dad won't let me. He doesn't really play with me. I also figured out that I like to sit up on the upstairs bed and watch the little kids play in our cul-de-sac. I wish I could go out and play with them, but mom and dad won't let me. :-(

In early May, we went back to Miss Ellie's house and I got to find out what everyone meant by the "beach." It was sandy there and there were lots of other doggies to bark at. That ocean thing is weird though, I wasn't really all about that. It kept chasing me. Jerk. In late May, my Aunt Callie and Uncle Clay got married and mom and dad ABANDONED ME. They took me to this place called Suite Paws that's a 5-Doggie-Star Hotel for an ENTIRE WEEKEND. I thought it was really going to suck until I realized that there were other doggies there and I got to play with them at daycare and mom and dad got me a cool suite with a TV. I got to watch Animal Planet all weekend and mom and dad watched me with something called a webcam.

June was hot.

In July we went to another beach (how many are there?!?!?!) and it was a FULL house. Lots of people and Aunt Callie and Uncle Clay brought my kitty cousins too. The kitty cousins stayed in another bedroom, but I saw them through the window. I just wanted to play with them, but the boy cousin Brewer hated me for no good reason! He kept hissing at me. Little jerk. The girl cousin Bama seemed interested in me, but Aunt Callie wouldn't let me play with them. She's a meanie head.

Before everyone came, I was just there with mom, Miss Ellie, and Mr. Jay and the best thing ever happened. Mr. Jay wasn't fast enough with the sliding glass door and I ESCAPED. I went for a run and everyone kept chasing me to play. Boy, those dumb old humans are SLOW. I had to keep stopping and waiting for them to catch up and then I'd take off again. They kept talking to me all nice-like and Miss Ellie even got in her car to come get me. Eventually I decided to get in and go for a ride with her. My mom was MAD and she stopped talking to me in that nice tone of voice. It sure was fun though.

I can't remember anything else that happened for the rest of the months except for the best thing ever that happened today. I was voted "ALL-STAR BOARDER OF THE WEEK" at Suite Paws. I mean let's be honest: there really was no other choice. I wasn't surprised at all. I AM the best doggie in the world. I don't know if there is an award for ALL-STAR DOGGIE OF THE YEAR, but if there is, I'll probably win it. If you want to send me a present, you can.

I hope you guys have a good Christmas and a good New Year. I'm tired and I'm going to take a nap.

Love,

Gatsby

PS: Please send me a pepperoni pizza (hold the pizza). Here is my address:

Gatsby S. LeBlanc

Gatsby's House

THANKS!

The Cleveland Report

Cold. Gray. Windy.

That is all.

:-)

Although we went up there under very sad circumstances, we did have a good trip. Brian and I left super, super, super early (left the house at 5 a.m.) Monday morning in a cloud of fog (evidently right after we left there was a ground-stop in Raleigh). We were at our hotel in Cleveland by 10 a.m. and then we pretty much took the day by storm. We went with Mike and Barb to run some errands and take a tour of all the Henry and LeBlanc hot spots. It was most excellent for me to get the real tour with super narration.

That evening, Brian and I went out to a swanky dinner downtown at the Cleveland Chophouse. Holy moly, it was good! I had the salmon with a sesame-apricot glaze served over a bed of fresh sautéed spinach and rice pilaf and Brian had a bone-in ribeye. For dessert, we split a crazy-yummy chocolate ganache thing with raspberry syrup. After dinner, we went to check out some Christmas lights at Nela Park on the East Side. It was was kinda scary getting out there (it's not in a very nice area!) and the lights were underwhelming, but we had a fun drive and Brian got to see a very cool redesigned road. After that, we drove about 300 blocks west to meet up with Brian's parents and their friends in Westlake. We hung out there until it was time to go pick up Kevin at the airport (his airplane was super late)!

On Tuesday, we had to meet up with the minister and make arrangements for the funeral. We also did a little bit of shopping [Brian and Kevin both forgot their belts--are they brothers or what?!] and then visited with Brian's aunt. Tuesday night, Brian and Kevin went to the Cavs game while I "helped" Mike and Barb create photo collages for the funeral. (If you know me, you know that I am the least artistic human on the planet, so I basically helped distribute double-sided tape and provided words of encouragement!) The collages looked really fantastic and it was awesome to see all the different pictures. We were all laughing about what a fashionista G was. In one of the pictures, she was decked out in a gorgeous dress and pearls while holding a two week old Barb!!!

The funeral was Wednesday and everything went very nicely. Brian and Mike both did readings and the service was held in a small chapel at the Lakewood Presbyterian Church. There was a fantastic pipe organ in the small chapel and the flowers that Barb picked were so gorgeous. (I wish I would have taken a picture of them!) After we went to the cemetery, we had a phenomenal late lunch at Pier W. They had the most incredible bruschetta on the appetizer sampler and I had the "Vegetarian Tasting" for my entree: Breaded Eggplant Parmesan, Braised Escarole, Sundried Tomato Gnocchi, Marinara Sauce, Reggiano. Brian had a burger. Oh my goodness; it was sooooo good. For dessert, I had miniature chocolate truffles. After lunch, we went back to Brian's aunt's house for a while. Later that night, we hit up Malley's, which is a local chocolate candy store and ice cream shop. (Yes, I had dessert twice in one day and it was SOOO good!) All-in-all, it was a fantastic celebration of G's life. If you're interested, the obituary that ran in the Plain Dealer is online.

Thursday, we hit up Skyline Chili (one of Brian's favorites) before heading to the airport. I had never been before, but it was pretty good. I was impressed that they actually had nonmeat offerings.

I think we are all completely exhausted. Other than hitting up the grocery store today and picking up Gatsby, I've been so lazy today and it's been very, very nice to have some downtime.

Speaking of Gatsby, our little doggie did so good at Suite Paws! He was the "All-Star Boarder of the Week" and we had the best time watching him on the webcam (at daycare and in his little room). He's also been completely exhausted all day! This was the little bulletin board that they put up for him:

We took a few pictures while we were up there that are up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/ClevelandInDecember. The ones that Brian and Kevin took at the Cav's game are really cool. They had phenomenal seats; like 10 rows off the court for super cheap!

Running and Weight Loss Update

Things continue to go well on my weight loss journey. It's hard to believe, but on January 26 I will have been at this for one year. The pounds lost rate has definitely slowed down, but I know that's because I'm moving closer to my goal weight. Eating on Saturdays during football season and during the holidays has been (and will be) challenging, but I feel really confident in my ability to do this. Basically, I know that even if I overindulge one day, I just jump right back on the ship the next morning and keep going.

It also helps that I'm staying really active. I'm exercising five to six days a week. I'm usually running three of those days and cross training the other two or three (elliptical trainer or a cardio/strength training DVD). I feel confident that this is something that I can maintain for the long haul. I've actually discovered that I tend to "crave" exercise. (I know you're thinking, "yeah, right, lady!", but it's true!)

Running is my absolute favorite exercise. When I run, I can't think about anything except for my breathing or like a four to five word mantra that I just repeat over and over in my head. Plus, when you're out running, people don't bother you or ask you questions or talk to you. It's just completely "me" time. I really, really enjoy it (that's probably the introvert side of me). I also like how I can challenge myself to improve.

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the Gobbler's Run 5K in Wake Forest. It was a lot of fun. It was chilly, but a good race. I ran it in 29:26 (9:28/mile), which is the fastest multiple-mile run that I've ever done. I have also done a single mile time run at 8:46, but I also thought I was going to die when that was over. :-)

I really like doing races because it helps keep me motivated. In fact, I like it so much that I'm going to run a half marathon in Raleigh at the end of March. I started training for it right after Thanksgiving. The training schedule is surprisingly not too demanding. I do two 30-minute runs during the week and one longer run on the weekend (today was 4 miles). I try to push myself hard during my 30 minute runs and then keep a steady, slower pace on the longer runs. If you're interested, I'm using this schedule (www.jeffgalloway.com/training/half_marathon.html). I'm really excited about it.

I wish I travelled more because it would be really fun to get to run in lots of different places (I'm jealous my dad gets to do this)! Last weekend, my family was in Richmond for an App. game and my dad and I went running together Sunday morning. My poor dad had to slow down so that I didn't puke, but we had a really good time. We ran on an island in the middle of the James River that used to be a Civil War POW camp and was also a horse racing track during Colonial times. Pretty amazing history! Here's a picture:

http://tinyurl.com/ykn82tf (you can see the running trail in between the quarry lake and the river up at the top). It was a cold run, but it was really cool to experience it with my dad.

*****

Weight Loss Numbers

I'm 2.2 lbs. away from being in a "normal" weight range for my height and it's taking me FOREVER to get there! Even though, the weight loss is slowing, I can tell a difference in clothing sizes. Yesterday, I was at Kohl's looking for an outfit and I'm now wearing size 6 pants and small or medium shirts. In one brand, I fit into size 4 pants, but those people must be smoking crack because their sizing is obviously crazy wrong!

Here's a cute pic of me and mom (who is a total hottie!) in Richmond:

And a picture of me after my Thanksgiving 5K (I was pretty proud, I'm not gonna lie!):

Brian's Grandma

I can't believe it's has been almost two months since my last post. We've been incredibly busy!

Unfortunately, I have some sad news. Last Wednesday, Brian's grandma passed away. She had been in ailing health for quite some time, but it was still quite a shock to everyone. We are flying to Cleveland early Monday morning and staying there until Thursday afternoon. This is one of my favorite pictures of Brian and his grandma that was taken before our rehearsal dinner in May 2006:

We were all really lucky to get to spend a lot of time with G (the nickname that Kevin came up with) in the past few years after she moved down from Cleveland. We saw her about once a week and I know Brian was really excited when he found out that she was moving down here. When we were in college and would plan spring and fall break trips, Brian always made sure to incorporate a stop or an entire visit to Cleveland to see his grandmothers.

I think my favorite memory of G was the first time I met her. Brian and I had been dating for a few months and he invited me to his mom's master's degree graduation party. I was INCREDIBLY nervous because it was the first time I was meeting most of his family and I was driving straight in from Hickory. As I was on the way, Brian called me to tell me to take a different route because the traffic in Chapel Hill was bad. He told me to take [and I quote] "85 to 147 to 40." What he failed to mention was that "147" was a highway (i.e., the Durham Freeway) and not exit 147. So anyway, I got lost (remember I had only lived in Raleigh for like a year and a half and most of that year I was without a car) and was running late and I was incredibly mortified. Because I was coming from Hickory, I was wearing casual clothes and planned to stop to change into something nicer, but I was running so late that I didn't have time to stop, so I ended up changing while I was driving (yes, I realize this was probably not a wise move)!

So, anyway, I finally made it to the party (completely harried) and met Brian's family. (And 11ty thousand of their closest friends--I still meet people who say "oh yeah, I met you at Barb's graduation party." Yeah, I have no memory of any of these people. Sorry.)

Brian plopped me down on the couch next to his grandma and introduced us and then proceeded to abandon me (for the rest of the party). I am not kidding. He and his brother were glued to a radio because the Canes were playing in some playoff game.

G was my savior. She sat on the couch and talked to me the whole time and kept me company. She told me stories about Brian and asked me lots of questions. People would come up and talk to both of us, but fortunately I didn't have to do the whole mingle or stand against the wall alone thing. She was just so incredibly nice.

Interestingly, a few year's later, Brian and I got engaged in her living room in Cleveland after she thwarted Brian's grand-engagement-plan by tagging along with us on a ride to this part of Cleveland where you can see all these cool bridges downtown. :-)

Camping Addendum

We also saw some critters on our trip:

A family of deer Friday night

A snake on Saturday (maybe a copperhead?)

A baby raccoon Saturday night (it came right up to our campsite and then climbed a tree to stare us down!)

*****

I completely understand what people mean by "smoke damage" now. I had to shampoo my hair five times (and condition it twice) to get most of the campfire smoke out...I'll probably have to wash my jeans 10 times!!!

Camping!

This weekend I went camping with some friends from work. We went to Hanging Rock State Park--left Friday after work and got home Sunday afternoon.

This was the first time I've ever really been camping and actually slept in a tent. I absolutely loved it!! I'm hoping that we'll go back more now that we all sorta have the stuff that we need.

It was definitely COLD! (Upper 30s in the morning/middle of the night and 40-50 during the day). But not too bad if you dressed in mad layers and stayed close to the fire at night and in the morning! The temperature was actually perfect on Saturday for hiking! Friday night it rained some and Saturday night it was CRAZY windy.

We hiked up to the top of Hanging Rock and stayed up at the top for about an hour looking around and taking pictures (2.6 miles round trip). Then we hiked to Lower Cascades Falls after lunch (0.8 miles round trip). And, finally, we hiked to Window Falls (1.2 miles round trip).

The distances weren't too long, but we definitely had some crazy elevation changes throughout the day! I had the best time crawling all over the rocks and going off the paths to see the different views. Completely gorgeous!! I was soooo glad that I bought hiking shoes!

We also had the best food that was cooked over the open fire:

Dinner Friday - Precooked ground turkey, rice, veggies, and cheese cooked in foil packets.

Breakfast Saturday - Bacon, eggs, and Bisquick mixed with water, coated with cinnamon sugar and panfried in the bacon grease (completely NutriSystem approved!)

Dinner Friday - Precooked ground turkey, taco seasoning, lettuce, tomatoes, and Fritos

Dessert Friday - S'mores! (Except I had a banana, graham crackers, Hershey's bar, and marshmallows cooked inside a foil packet [SO good!])

The tent that I was sleeping in was like the Taj Mahal! It was HUGE and even had a little vestibule in the front to leave your shoes! So nice to keep the tent floor clean. The park had bathrooms and showers, though I didn't dare to attempt a shower--too damn cold for wet hair! :-) Everything was really nice and clean for as cheap as the campsite was!

I'm now definitely a huge fan of hiking and camping (esp. when going with people who know what they're doing)!!

I took a lot of pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/CampingHangingRock. Most of them are just of scenery (and lots of duplicates), but it was really super pretty!