The Peachtree

All the girls: Danielle, me, Kathryn, Amanda, Margaret, and Evelyn

  Since Patrick was in Australia over the summer, I convinced my sister to come over and visit me for about a week over the fourth of July. Pat and I had also gotten our Peachtree race numbers as well, so I had an extra number for Margaret. Last year was my first year running it and I didn't get to put in a time  and was in group X. Ugh, that was terrible to start running so late! But since I entered in last year's time for this year, I moved up to group L. Woohoo! I kind of decided the week of that I actually wanted to race for time, but neglected to tell my sister who thought that it would be just a fun 10K. Whoops! We had a great time anyway and it was nice to show the city off to Margaret (even though I don't think she was listening to any of my comments along the way, especially once we got around 10th Street).

me and Margaret

me and my bestest

me and my seester

  Margaret and I finished the race in 1:15:12 which was an improvement over my race the previous year (1:23) and I felt great during this race! We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging at Danielle's pool and then went over to a neighbor's house for a backyard barbeque. It was a great week and I am so happy that Margaret came and shared it with me! I'm also glad she didn't kill me after the race! :) I am looking forward to next year's race!

Thanksgiving Week

  I am several posts behind, but this week I am really excited to have my family coming into town Tuesday! I cannot wait! I'm making dinner for everyone (I think around 12 people--eek!) on Tuesday night and I hope it turns out tasty!
  I'm making The Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast and Mashed Potatoes and my bread. I'm also making caesar salad and Patrick hopefully is going to make okra on the grill. My aunt is going to bring the drinks and a dessert.
  I should be back later with more updated posts and a recap of Thanksgiving!
I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving!! In the words of my sweet friend, Katie, gobble til you wobble!!

Fourth of July

  Only a little late, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Fourth of July. This year, Patrick entered us in the lottery for the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. We were in the lottery with Kat, Dave, and Stephen and much to my dismay, we won the lottery and were going to have to run in the race. I ended up with posterior tib tendonitis in my left foot and the doctor advised me not to run in the race, but didn't tell me I couldn't run the race. I pretty much stopped training at all for it and decided to just walk it. I ended up walking half of it and ran the other 5k and finished in an hour and twenty-three minutes. I know that's terrible, but I passed a whole bunch of people who had started way before I did (Pat and I started in the very last group because they moved up our start time). I'm hoping that I can actually run a bit before the race next year and can shave my time down to an hour or so and hopefully run the whole race.

Before the Peacthree

me and Pat after the race

BFF who kicked butt!!

  After the race and work (for Erin), we invited everyone over for a Fourth of July early dinner. I made a ton of food (Pat always says too much food), but man, it was all pretty good! Erin and Stephen made a great fresh fruit salad and Kathryn brought over homemade salsa with chips. Be very jealous!! For our main course, I made Pioneer Woman's Pork Sandwiches with Cilantro-Jalepeno Slaw. I cheated a little by using some bagged cole slaw, but it still turned out really yummy. You should go out and buy the ingredients to make this immediately. I also made Kathryn's baked beans and then the peach pie from Southern Living's July issue.

Stephen and Erin

me and Pat

Family portrait

Dave and Kat

  The last two desserts I made were supposed to be Martha Stewart's cookies from the July issue (obviously, Pat and I will never be cookie decorators) and some fantastic chocolate chip cookies. I want to try to make Martha's cookies again sometime because I didn't cut them all the same thickness so some cooked faster than others and the frosting was way too thick. However, they were okay for a first try and for making them the night before the Peachtree at 11pm!! This is the second time I've made these chocolate chip cookies and they are amazing!! If you don't try anything from this post, you must try this recipe!! I omitted the salt on top of the cookies, but they are superb. Super chocolate chip cookies from Picky Palate blog: http://picky-palate.com/2011/04/07/brown-butter-and-fleur-de-sel-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Thanksgiving

  In years past, we have always spent Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family, but this year we were able to spend the holiday with my dad's side. We actually planned surprising my grandparents for a couple of months before Thanksgiving. Mama Mil didn't think twice about us "staying in Atlanta" or "Rob missed his flight to Jackson and had to stay in Atlanta".

Kids' table

Adults' table

  On Wednesday night, Rob flew into Atlanta from Cleveland and we picked him up from the Marta station and took him to my Aunt Emily's house. My Uncle David had most of his family there for Thanksgiving and my Aunt Margaret and Craig were there also. It was wonderful to see them even if it was just for a little while!!

Cousins with our grandparents

The whole McG fam!

  On Thursday morning, P, Rob, and I drove to Guin to surprise everyone. My parents and sister picked up my brother, Josh, and surprised Mama Mil and Granddaddy Robert at their house. Josh was planning on having Thanksgiving with my grandparents and cousins, so Mama Mil told him to be there at 11:30 to help pack up the car with food to go to my aunt's house. However, instead of just Josh, my parents and sister showed up too! We made good time and pulled up to my Aunt Marcia's house a few minutes after everyone else got there. And, we actually pulled off the surprise on Mama Mil! (She hates surprises and always figures them out, so it's very rare that we actually can surprise her!) 

Celebrating "Movember"

Granddaddy Robert and Mama Mil

  Patrick and I spent the night with Mama Mil and Granddaddy Robert and then drove back home on Friday before the Iron Bowl. As much as I love my grandparents, there was no way I could watch the Iron Bowl with them as they are die-hard Alabama fans and I am an avid Auburn fan. We had some friendly banter back and forth as we read through the 22-page spread in the Birmingham paper, but I think we all knew it would not last as soon as the Iron Bowl started. P and I made it back to Atlanta about 45 minutes before the game started and we picked up the Wrigster.

  Then we drove over to my Aunt Emily's house to watch the game. Well, if you saw the first half of the game, you will know that my grandparents were going crazy and I was really angry. At halftime, I positioned myself at the island (where the food was, duh!) and stayed there during the start of the third quarter. Yeah, and being superstitious about Auburn football, I had to stay sitting on the barstool for the rest of the game and watch the game on the small tv in the kitchen versus the large tv in the den. My cousin had to sit in the same position on the couch for the rest of the game. PHEW, we came back from a 24-point deficit and won!!! I was elated!! SEC championship, here we come! Oh, and you'd better believe that I'm keeping the game recorded for a while! I hope your Thanksgiving was as great as mine and that you enjoyed all the time with family as much as I did!

A little post-Thanksgiving nap

What did you do on the Fourth?

  After watching our friends, Kat and Dave, run the Peachtree at the crack of dawn, we ate a delicous

breakfast at J. Christopher's.

Almost to the end

                         

Kat and Dave after finishing!

Then we lounged on the couch and watched about four hours of 24. Next, we headed over to meet some of P's friends at their pool. I greatly enjoyed talking about all of the guys sporting speedos that we saw there! You've got to love Ansley!

After P got tired of the pool scene (I simply don't understand it!), we ended up going back to our

house and these two below fell asleep as I caught up on all my trashy

tv shows.

 

  Once Patrick and Wrigley woke up from their lazy nap, we watched Valentine's Day before watching one last dvd of 24. We had to pause the movie once the fireworks started because Wrigley was terrified and started barking. Oh, how I just love that he has now learned about his inner bark! Thank goodness the show at Lenox didn't last very long at all or we wouldn't have been able to stand it. I was also very glad that Wrigley finally settled back down once the fireworks ended and he was able to go to bed. I was a little sad that we didn't at least drive over to one of the nearby parking lots to watch the fireworks, but I was simply too tired. If our house wasn't down in the valley, we would be able to see the Lenox show, but I was glad we stayed home with the Wrigster so he wasn't by himself during the show. How did you spend your fourth?