I'm thankful for...

Hellooooo and happy Wednesday! I only had one class this week and today is the last day of work before Thanksgiving and I am soo excited for this mini-break and some family time :)

So, since it's Thanksgiving and all, how about some things that I've been thankful lately?

I'm thankful for... that AMAZING win by my NC State Wolfpack this weekend!!

I'll be honest, I was expecting us to get completely destroyed by Clemson. After all, they're ranked #7 and had only lost one game...not quite the same for my pack. And after Clemson scored the first 3 points in the very beginning I thought we were doomed. But not at all! By half time we were up 27 to 3. Hellooooo who is this team? We had around 4 or 5 turnovers (I don't know for sure) and ended up beating DESTROYING Clemson 37-13! It was by far one of the best games I've been to :)

Roomie and I love the Wolfpack forever.

I'm thankful for... my amazing friends + Bull City

They know how to represent the Dirty D.

I'm thankful for... CHICKEN AND WAFFLES!!!!!!

Yes, that is a big piece of chicken resting on the most glorious waffle ever. And YES it was the most delicious thing I have ever had in my entire life.

I want to eat it forever. Everyday. All day.

If you live anywhere near Dames Chicken & Waffles then you MUST go right now. I'm serious, get up out of your chair and go. Now. You won't regret it I promise. Oh and get their mac & cheese as a side..it's delicious.

Moving along....

I'm thankful for... Opportunities to be official.

This past Saturday was the Raleigh Christmas Parade and before the parade started Artreach 4 Kids provided some awesome pre-parade entertainment! We all walked around with signs, interacted with kids, drummed, and played with some beach balls and had a blast :)

Once the parade started I had the opportunity to get right up in the action and take some pictures! It was soo much fun but also suuuuper long. Two hours of not being able to use the bathroom when you really have to is kind of hard.

Scotty McCreery made an appearance...

And so did SANTA!

I'm thankful for... precious little kittys that help me procrastinate

Even though recently she's decided that my legs are now something that she can jump on and attempt to play with. Um...no kitty, let's not.

I'm thankful for... GRADUATION! I cannot believe that graduation is only weeks away. The other week I picked up my cap and gown and it all hit me...I'm growing up! I'm so thankful that I was able to go to NC State and get a great education, and now to be graduating with honors is such a blessing!

I'm thankful for... this gorgeous, warm weather that we've been having!

I realize that yes, it's the end of November and that it should probably be cold right now but I do not care one bit! It's warm and sunny and windy and I looooveee it.

I'm thankful for... running and chatting with an amazing friend! God goes some great things :)

and lastly...

I'm thankful for... my wonderful family!

Have a great thanksgiving!

B.Hines

Two posts in one day, whaaaa?

Something really exciting happened tonight that was too great not to share.

I was driving home from taking pictures of the homecoming parade (woohoo go wolfpack!), looking up into the sky when all of a sudden...I see a SHOOTING STAR!!

It looked just like this. 

Okay you got me, not really. It was actually more like this... 

Source

It literally just looked like this ball of fire (which I guess makes sense cause that's what stars technically are, right?) that just came out of no where and shot across the sky for like a second and then disappeared! I guess I understand why they're called "shooting stars" now...

But I really don't remember ever seeing one before and it was so gorgeous! It made my night :)

And now, it's off to bed (yes, at 10:30pm on a Friday) like a loser so that I can get up at the crack of dawn for some fun Artreach 4 Kids festivities and to take pictures of yet another parade!

Ciao :)

B.Hines

My First Running Injury?

I'm sorry I'm not sorry that the only interesting? thing I can find to blog about is running. But here goes...

On Wednesday I went for a quick little 2 mile run and my left ankle was kind of tight and a little sore. It wasn't enough to make me stop running, I didn't really think it was anything...just that maybe I need to stretch some more and soon it would go away.

Well, it's Friday and IT STILL HURTS.

But it's weird, because it's not like my whole ankle, but instead just the outside of it.

I have awesome Paint skills, I know.

Side note: I just googled "ankle bown" instead of bone. What's wrong with me?!

So I guess it's my Fibula that hurts? Yesterday it was swollen too which was no fun. It's not really that obvious or swollen that much, but you can still kind of tell if you're looking for it. I did ice it when I got home though...so let's hope that helped! I can't really tell if it's swollen today or not. It looks like it is to me, but I'm not sure if that's just my eyes playing tricks on me or not. Plus, have you ever tried to compare your ankle bones? It's hard!

I took a break yesterday from running and today is technically a rest day, so we'll see how tomorrow and Sunday go!

Anyone else have this problem? Or know what could have happened?

In other news... I graduate in just 29 days!! Weird.

Happy FRIDAY!

B.Hines

Training: Week Seven

Another week of training down....woohooo!

Monday: nada

Tuesday: Apparently Tuesday's are just not a good running day for me. Once again, no run.

Wednesday: 3.01 miles - 27 minutes, outside after class. It was a good run, I felt like a beast.

See? Beast mode.

Thursday: 2.02 miles - 18:29 minutes, outside. I think I was actually supposed to do 2 1/2 miles today, but I was kind of pressed for time and just feeling overall blaaah. Plus, it was sprinkling and cold and my right calf muscle was hurting me pretty bad for some reason. I'm thinking I haven't been stretching enough? It continued to hurt after my run too...

Friday: rest day

Saturday: 32 mins of cross training (1.24 miles on the elliptical thing). I went to my apartment gym and was the only one there (score!) so I turned on the TV to find HP on. I was entertained and because of it I even decided to do some weights. Did some arm stuff, leg stuff, and ab stuff. My arms hate me now.

Sunday: 4.04 miles - 40:15 mins. Eeeeehhh run was okay. It was GORGEOUS outside (I'm loving this weather in the 60's and 70's, eeeek!) which made the run nice, but I think I'm still not stretching as much as I should after running slash in general. My right calf was still pretty tight and sore, and about 2 1/2 miles in my right foot started to go numb, waaaah. I stopped to stretch a few times before that, but still numbness. I toughed it out though and just ran through it, and eventually it went away a bit and it wasn't so bad, but my calf was still hurting. It still hurt after the run too so I tried to ice it some. Unfortunately it's still kind of tight now... maybe I just need to do more stretching?

Overall, not a bad week. This week my goal is to actually run on Tuesday! No more of this work out 4 times a week when I should be doing 5!!

In other news, today is National Guac Day, according to the NCSU Dining facebook page, so go make (or buy if you're lazy like me) yourself some yummy guacamole and chips and PIG OUT!!

Source

Happy rest day! :)

B.Hines

Training: Week Six

I can't believe I've been through six (and almost seven!) weeks of training already! Before I know it it'll be the end of February and I'll be kicking this half marathons tail!

I realize that I'm a little late with this training update, seeing as how it's almost the end of yet another week, but better late than never, right?

Technically this training week should have started with Monday, but  since I did my 4 miles for the previous week of training on Monday, I started with Tuesday instead and was a little off.

Tuesday: rest day :)

Wednesday: 2.87 miles ~27 minutes outside. Run went okay. I'm not really sure how far or for how long I really did run though. I hit pause twice on my Garmin when I stopped to stretch and forgot to hit restart until I'd already been running for a while, so who knows!

Thursday: I'm a big fat slacker

Friday: Once again, I'm a slacker. Dunno what got into me this week and why I was so lazy! Or maybe I was just too busy with school and work... ?

Saturday: 3 miles ~30 mins outside. The backs of my feet were more sore than normal, but ended up not really bothering me. I thought my feet were going to go numb but I stopped to stretch a few times and they never did :)

Sunday: 4.51 miles ~47 minutes outside, in the morning! I had an amaaaaazing run! At first I wasn't sure how it was going to go (I was sooooo sleepy and my ankles started to get tight fast) but in the end it turned out wonderfully and I could have kept running! And....no numb feet!! :)

It was a wonderful last week of training (well minus the whole not running on Thursday thing) and I'm feeling like I'm making progress!

Happy Friday!

B.Hines

Mixed Emotions

On this glorious Monday morning I have quite a bit of mixed emotions regarding this weekend. Half of me is so happy and proud and the other half of me feels like my heart was ripped out, stomped on, and then broken into little tiny pieces. And the cause of these mixed emotions? Football. Whatswrongwithmeeeee?!

Rewind back to the beginning of this weekend. I had been waiting for it for sooo long and I knew it was going to be such an exciting weekend in terms of football. NC State was playing UNC on Saturday (we're kind of rivals and we strongly dislike UNC, and all of that dislike grew even more based on comments that were made throughout the week, but more on that in a bit...) and on Sunday night the Steelers and Ravens were playing each other (yet another BIG rivalry, and another team that I HATE, those dirty dirty birds). So clearly, some shhh was about to go down this weekend.

Saturday consisted of waking up early for a run and then heading straight to the parking lots to go tailgate and drink some yummy mimosas (game time was at 12:30 and I was not about to have beer before having a proper lunch...heellooo no).

Cheers to the sun in our faces and mimosas in our bellies!

After classily drinking chugging our mimosas, we headed in to the stadium for GAME TIME! So pumped you don't even know!

This is what a winning team's stadium looks like. (haha)

So, let me mention some history. First off, this past week, UNC's head coach was talking straight smack about NC State, not cool at all. For instance...

 “When you have as many schools in this state as we have, and recruiting base gets watered down a bit, I think the kids in this state need to know the flagship school in this state,” Withers said. “They need to know it academically. If you look at our graduation rates, as opposed to our opponent’s this week, graduation rates for athletics, for football, you’ll see a difference. ... If you look at the educational environment here, I think you’ll see a difference.”

Excuse me?! Talk smack about the upcoming game all you want, but don't start hating on our school in general. That does not sit well with us NC State students, no siry.

Stole this from someone off facebook, don't really know who's pic it is originally.

And shall we remind you, Withers, about Philip Rivers?

Anyway, along with all that mess this week, for the past 4 years (aka the 4 years of my college career) NC State has beat UNC in football and the games have been filled with so much energy and excitement, I just love it! Well, this year was no different. We beat them for a FIFTH year in a row (and also my last "year" at NC State...what a perfect ending!) and it was wonderful. Not only did we win, but we shut those suckas out, 13-0. Weeeeee :)

Happy Roomies!

The rest of the afternoon we tiredly wandered around the mall for two hours waiting for some Cheesecake Factory. Let me just say, by the time we finally did sit down and eat it was the best.meal.ever.

And now on to Sunday. Honestly, all I did was study all day like a big fat loser until the game at 8:30. My stomach was all kinds of messed up once game time arrived, I was so so so nervous. I'm not sure that y'all understand the greatness and importance of this game. IT'S A BIG DEAL.

Overall, this game was played much better than our last game vs the Ravens, aka the worst game ever played. Let's not go into the details of that game though. Basically, the game was close the whole entire time and in the end it all came down to the last few seconds. The Steelers were up by 3 after an amazing turnover and a touchdown. The Ravens got the ball, and we stopped them. We were on FIRE! We got the ball, and did sadly nothing with it. I could go on here about some bogus ref calls, slash I could mention quite a few calls that were messed up in this game...but I'll refrain. So the Ravens got the ball back and started making some progress down the field. NOOOOO. Pretty sure at this point I looked like this...

I found this pic on google, but now that I'm trying to find it again to get the source I can't...

I feel your pain, Ben.

There was less than a minute left and the Ravens needed a touchdown to win or a field goal to tie it up. They were quickly approaching FG range, causing me to have a mini heart attack, but my D was still stopping them and the momentum in that stadium was CRAZY (from what I could tell anyway). Well, with around 16(?) seconds left, the stupid stupid stupid stupid Ravens threw a long pass for a touchdown. SERIOUSLY?! Disbelief. Shock. Heartbroken. Tears.

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Pretty sure I looked something like that. It was attractive.

Some friends came over the watch the game (non-steelers friends, might I add...) and when the Ravens got that touchdown it got so quiet in that apartment I'm pretty sure you could have heard a pin drop. I think everyone was too scared to say something (let alone joke about the Steelers) because if they said one wrong thing I might have injured them. This is probably true though.

So, needless to say... I cried myself to sleep last night. Juuuuuust kidding! Although had friends not come over and caused a happy distraction once the game was over I'm pretty sure I might have.

And that concludes my fun (sad) filled football weekend. Training update coming soon :)

See ya, 

B.Hines

Weekend Recap

...from two weekends ago. Oops.

I'll go ahead and warn you: this will be a very picture heavy post :)

So finally, I'm here to tell you about my wonderful fair/beach/pumpkin carving adventures with my cousin two weekends ago! Here's the highlights..

We went to the every so classy NC State fair!

Got some of my favorite fair food...

Fried Oreos, duh.

And yes, chocolate covered strawberries... LOVE THEM.

We played with the sweetest little chicky ever, Clark

And of course, rode the Scrambler umpteen times (and took pictures on it?)

Next stop on our weekend itinerary: La playa! That means beach in Spanish for all of you un-spanish-speakers.

Of course a trip to Myrtle isn't complete with a stop at this classy joint

After climbing on animals and taking pictures we finally arrived at the BEACH!

The sun was setting and the light was so dreamy, gah I love it!

That night we froze our tails off on the Pier while eating ice cream and it was wonderful :)

The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast and to stare at this beautiful view out of our balcony. The sky will never cease to amaze me.

Next we came face to face with this bad boy.

What up, Sky Wheel? You're terrifying but we bought tickets for you anyway. (more on that later)

Despite the big breakfast we had we were so ready for a big lunch and headed over to Broadway at the Beach for some yummy burgers from Margaritaville.

and can't forget the drinks

Strawberry Daiquiri, yuuuummmm.

For the rest of the afternoon we relaxed on the beach and I "watched" the NC State game

And we won! (although it didn't look like that starting out)

So now, back to that Sky Wheel thing.

It's kind of creepy but kind of incredibly awesome. It's 200 feet in the air and maybe that doesn't seem like a lot but trust me, it is! Especially when you're up there.

Sorry for that crappy glare. Flash wasn't even on! :(

But it was so much fun and once we got adjusted to it we didn't want to get out! It went way too fast.

After our Sky Wheel adventure we hung out a bit in the 'downtown' ? area and then went back to the hotel to walk on the Pier and take some pictures

It was such a beautiful (but cold) night and the perfect way to end our beach trip!

Next up, Pumpkin Carving and cookie making!

And our final products...

Can you guess who's is the Steelers one? Yeah, that would be yours truly! Wish I could say that it was my creative juices that came up with that idea, but it wasn't... I stole it off the Internet. Allison's is the happy pumpkin, and Michael's is the ECU pumpkin! I think they all turned out pretty good :)

Overall it was a wonderful October weekend!

Happy Friday :)

B.Hines

All photos are by taken and owned by Brittany Hines, steal them and I'll hunt you down. For real.