Greenville Marathon

One of the best parts of being married to a marathon runner is getting to travel to all of the different cities for the races. I get to be a tourist and a fan, without any of the pain that comes along with running 26.2 miles. Rob ran his 6th marathon a few weeks ago in Greenville, SC at the Spinx Run Fest. This marathon was similar to the marathon Rob ran in Burlington, Vermont in May 2009, which was one of my favorites. Both Burlington and Greenville are smaller but fun, walkable and unique cities with lots of little restaurants and shops. Very different from the huge Boston and NYC marathons, but to really appreciate those events I think you need to experience the smaller races as well. And when I talk about "smaller" marathons, I am not just focusing on the number of runners, but also how the race is planned/executed as a whole. For example, at this race we were able to drop Rob off less than a block away from the start about 10 minutes before the race started. After we dropped him off we waited by the start to watch him go by, and with less than 10 minutes to go before the start of the race, the 4 high school aged kids had not quite figured out how to raise the official Spinx Run Fest banner. Luckily they figured it out in time, or the runners would have all been ducking when they got to the banner.



Rob and I weren't alone on this marathon trip. My mom met us in Greenville Friday evening so that she could help cheer on Rob at the race Saturday morning. It was her first marathon experience and she loved it! It was great having another cheering buddy with me to keep me company during the race, and she was a big help when it came to directions and driving to mile 9/19 where we went to watch Rob go by because that is where the course made a loop and we could see him run by twice at the same spot. After seeing him at mile 19 we drove back into town and saw him at the finish line. One of the unique things about this race was that the finish was inside Fluor Field, Greenville's minor league baseball stadium that is a mini replica of Fenway Park!



Once again, Rob made me a very proud wife. Not just because I can't even picture myself running a 5k let alone a marathon, but because I see day in and day out all of the training and hard work he puts in in the months before the race. The 8:30pm dinners and 7am long runs on the weekends must have paid off, because he didn't just run the marathon, he dominated it. He beat his already impressive personal record by 3 minutes! He crossed the finish line in 3:05:35, finished 15 out of 436 runners, and got 3rd place in his age group. He is already planning his next marathon, which will probably be somewhere in Georgia this spring.

Happy Halloween

Back when we lived in our little apartment in Brighton that allowed dogs (which was a big plus when we were apartment hunting even though we never got a dog while living there) I would always talk about our hypothetical goldendoodle puppy and how I was going to dress her up in little dog clothes. The shirts, the rain jackets, the doggie boots, everything. Rob would just shake his head and say, "No, my dog will not wear clothes." Half of the reason I talked about it was to get a rise out of him and half was because I really think dog clothes are cute. Well, I'd say Rob (and Roxanne) have been pretty lucky over the past year. I can honestly say the only pieces of clothing I have purchased for Roxanne have been Halloween costumes. Last year she was a cute little pumpkin...



And this year a cute, much bigger (she needed an XL costume) bumble bee...

Surprise DC weekend

I know my posts have been few and far between, and for that I apologize. I think I apologized in my last post for my lack of posting, but things have not slowed down since then. Since the first weekend in August Rob and I have been on the go 8 out of the 11 weekends, and only 1 of those 8 weekends was spent in Atlanta. There was Rae's wedding in NH, which was an absolute blast and just the Delta reunion/party I was hoping it would be. Then Rob's Dad and Kimberly came for the weekend and we had fun spending time with them going out to dinner, watching football, exploring Stone Mountain and the Zoo.

This past weekend we were on a "secret" trip to Washington DC. It was really only a secret from my mom, but in an attempt not to spill the beans I didn't tell a lot of people about the trip ahead of time. Yesterday was my parents 30th wedding anniversary. They had an aluminum association dinner to go to for my dad's work on Friday evening and they decided to spend the rest of their anniversary weekend in DC. It was my dad's idea to secretly fly me, Rob and my sisters into DC on Friday so that we could surprise my mom and have a fun family weekend together. Leading up to the weekend we had many conversations over whether my mom knew or suspected anything, but she didn't and it turned out to be such a great surprise for her.

Friday was spent checking into the Churchill Hotel, eating Mexican, figuring out the metro, walking all over DC, going to the Newseum, seeing the president's helicopter leave the white house after dropping him off and going out to dinner. Then, Lisa, Rob and I met up with Michelle at our hotel and from there we walked to the restaurant my parents had their dinner at. By the time we got there they had just exited the restaurant and were all talking outside. My dad told us to go say hi to my mom, so I went up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and just stared at me for a minute, and then was like, "What, hey, what? How did you get here!?" Her eyes went from each one of us to the next and when she realized all of us were there with her in DC she just couldn't believe it. It truely was a great surprise and my dad did a great job planning it.

All of us at Veritas Wine Bar after the big surprise...




The rest of the weekend was spent being DC tourists, going to the American History Museum, taking pictures in front of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the WW2 Memorial, going to the National Archives, having a delicious and memorable Italian dinner at Filomena's in Georgetown, finding $5 on the ground and losing it in a bet/dare with Lisa, having breakfast at Teaism with my dad's half sister Breese, going to Georgetown Cupcake, catching up with Allie for 10 minutes on the street, and having lunch by the water. We had such a fun weekend! It had been 8 years since I was last in DC, so I forgot what a great city it is. I'm sure I won't wait another 8 years to go back.


Happy 30th Mom and Dad!!

Sammy Watkins is money

It's that time again! Our favorite time of year, football season. Rob and I met my parents in Clemson this weekend for the big game against Florida State. We had such a fun time. It was better than the game we went to last year because we had great seats in the lower bowl (thanks to Michelle for getting us guest tickets through her sorority!), it was a 3:30 game instead of a noon game, we dressed appropriately (shorts instead of jeans) and wore sun screen this time, and best of all Clemson won. My parents have season tickets this year and are tailgating pros from all of the PSU tailgates years ago. The tent was essential, which I didn't realize until it got to be 85 degrees out and it was hot even in the shade.



The game itself was a blast. It has been a while since I stood for a whole sporting event, but it was worth it for seats in the student section. It was a close game til the end and such a big win. Thanks for a great weekend Mom, Dad and Michelle!

The return of peg leg

First I want to apologize for my lack of blog posts lately. With only 2 last month, and none in September (until now) I know it seems I've been slacking. I'll blame it on being busy, working a lot and not a whole lot that seemed worth writing about.

Things are good in the Porter apartment. We recently renewed our lease, so we'll be at the Nevadan for at least another year. There was some talk for about a month of possibly moving to a new apartment complex, but it really would have taken a lot of convincing for me to get on board with that plan. Moving takes so much effort and we're at a good location at a good price, so why not stay a little longer. Of course not long after resigning the lease the bird seed situation picked back up and I'm once again sweeping bird seed off of the balcony every day. My one hope is that the new people who moved in above us will start using their balcony and get annoyed by the bird seed as well and complain about it like I did.

Rob is back in school, taking 2 classes this semester. Luckily one is an online course so he doesn't have to go downtown for that one. When he isn't at work or school or doing school work he is running. The weather here has cooled off a little in the past few weeks, which is good for his training. He's preparing for his next marathon which is in Greenville, SC at the end of October.

Roxanne is back to her old tricks again. Up until yesterday I would have told you that she was doing great and loving life. She even learned to swim over Labor Day weekend when we took her to the beach for the first time. Here she is looking cute in the ocean and realxing on the beach at the Isle of Palms, SC.





Fastforward to yesterday evening. Rob got home from work to find a stinky, messy Roxanne. She never has accidents in her cage unless something is wrong, so we knew she wasn't feeling well. He took her outside and she immediately went to the bathroom, but along with everything else that came out of her was quite a bit of blood. It was pretty gross and scary, but we immediately knew what it was from. Two nights before that she decided to eat part of a rug in our living room. She nibbled on the rug once before when she was only a few months old, so we put it in the closet and waited a few months until we brought it out again. She hadn't even tried to chew the rug or anything else besides her own toys for quite some time now, so we were pretty surprised to find the rug destroyed the other morning. So we took her to the vet, who recommended we take her to the emergency clinic nearby so she could be monitored overnight. She had x-rays taken (which turned out to be fine) and was given fluids and medicine through an IV. I picked her up this morning and she seems to be doing better. Now she is eating a bland diet of canned food, which she loves, and is taking a few medications while she recovers. The worst part, besides the bill of over $700, is that her peg leg is back. They had to shave part of her leg fur off for the IV, like they did when she was spayed. So now she is peg leg again, and will be for a while. Last time it took months to grow back. Oh, Roxanne.

Roxanne turns 1

Happy 1st Birthday, Roxanne! Our little pup turned a year old on August 15th, and yes, I insisted she have cake with a candle. We do not give her people food, but I decided to make an exception on her birthday. Our family dog growing up, Allie, always got pound cake with whipped cream on her birthday (though she also got left-overs from dinner every night). So, Roxanne got the same...with a milk bone on top. She loved it and ended up pulling half of it off of the plate and onto the carpet while she was scarfing it down. Rob and I would both agree that getting her was one of the best things we did this past year. She is such a funny, cute, smart, loving, energetic fluff ball, we couldn't ask for more in a dog.

Hometown wedding weeekends

Rob and I are still trying to recover from all of the traveling and excitement over the past two weekends. We had back to back wedding weekends in each of our hometowns- Grosse Pointe, MI and Lock Haven, PA- which made for fun times with friends and family.

First, we went to Grosse Pointe for Hayes and Caroline's wedding weekend. Rob has been best friends with Hayes since they met in high school. We stayed with Rob's Dad and Kimberly at their home, along with Tom and Linnea. It's always nice to go back to Grosse Pointe, and I realized I hadn't been there since my bridal shower in May of last year. Friday we spent time with the groom and got some yummy bbq for lunch at Slows in Detroit. Since Rob was the best man in the wedding, we attended the rehearsal and the lovely rehearsal dinner that was held outside at Hayes's aunt's house. Following the dinner we all went out downtown Detroit for drinks.

The wedding was beautiful, from the old church full of stained glass windows to the reception venue on the water. Though it started raining just as guests started arriving to the church, it stopped by the time the ceremony was over. Rob gave a really nice best man speech, Hayes was rockin it to Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, and a fun time was had by all.



This past weekend we flew to central PA for Megan and Robbie's wedding. Megan and I have been friends since we met in the 2nd grade at Woolrich Elementary school. It was great being back in Lock Haven since I honestly do not remember the last time I was there. Plus, it was nice to be able to show Rob around the town I grew up in. It was only his second time there, and the first time was back in 2006 for a PSU football weekend, so most of our time was spent in State College. Rob got to have lunch at OIP after hearing me talk about their glorious subs for all these years, I showed him where I went to high school and we went in the new football stadium that I had never even seen before, he experienced the Texas restaurant, drinks at Uncle Al's for the second time, we saw my family's old house in McElhattan and visited with old neighbors, and he even got some running in on the dike along the river.

We had the best time at the wedding with my family and friends. The ceremony was held in my family's old church, Great Island Presbyterian, and the reception at the new alumni center on Lock Haven University's campus. Megan was a stunning bride, everyone had a blast on the dance floor, and the PSU bus that took everyone to the after-party at a local bar was a great idea. Rob and I couldn't be happier for both of the newlywed couples!