Oh what a weekend! Whew, it was quite the whirlwind and this Monday was jam packed. I was wide awake at 5:20 this morning in anticipation of all that is on my plate right now. I feel that I have to continue to qualify that it’s GOOD stress! Just a lot to juggle. 🙂

FRIDAY 

This was the first weekend that I didn’t have Finn both Friday and Saturday night, and wasn’t traveling for work. Ugh, it was so hard to see him go, especially when he still wasn’t 100%. To ease the transition, I volunteered to sub a yoga class for a teacher who needed a very last minute sub on Friday afternoon. I also took a yoga class on Friday night.

When I got home I came up with this delicious creation. My house sitter had left a PictSweet frozen Mediterranean protein blend. It had brown rice, edamame, lentils, garbanzo beans, kale, carrots and more and sounded yum. I steamed it in the bag in the microwave and then topped it with a Love The Wild Cajun Shrimp seafood kit. I finished it all off with fresh basil. It was so good! I would 100% buy the frozen blend again.

TUNNEL TO TOWERS STAIR CLIMB: CHARLOTTE

Saturday morning brought the Tunnel to Towers Stair Climbing event! My friend Suzanne is one of the event organizers so I was excited to participate this year. Tunnel to Towers was started by the family of a fallen 9/11 firefighter. They host events all over the country to raise funds to build houses and pay off mortgages for the families of fallen police, fire and military. They also build “smart homes” for those who are catastrophically injured that are equipped with everything they need. A very worthy cause.

The event is so moving. You are instructed to get a badge to clip on and wear up on the climb. It has the name and a picture of a fallen 9/11 responder.

Our climb was 50 floors up the Duke Energy Center here in Charlotte. I later learned that the twin towers were 104 floors so DOUBLE what we did. I was pretty nervous about the climb as we lined up and waited our turn to hit the stairs.

Surprisingly, the actual climb wasn’t bad. I started out running the stairs and after three floors realized that wasn’t going to work. So I slowed down and took them two at a time while grabbing the rails and pulling myself up. It was very disorienting to be in the stairwell with all of the white walls and winding stairs and the air quality was eh. I was glad that I decided to listen to music because it helped me to feel okay.

I swear to you that the worst part of the race was the finish! My lungs burned SO BAD for 20 minutes after the climb. I finished in a little over 11 minutes and 43rd overall and 15th female.

A really fun morning with our Charlotte Yoga and VIBE5 teams.

I cannot recommend to you enough that you participate in a Tunnel to Towers event in your area. There are over 50 happening around the country this year.

#neverforget

SUNFLOUR CINNAMON ROLL

I swung into Trader Joe’s after the race and then stopped into Sunflour to get that cinnamon roll that I’ve been craving. Y’all, I hope my dad doesn’t read this post but this was the best cinnamon roll that I’ve ever had in my life. I ate the whole thing!

On Saturday afternoon Virginia came over for a walk. We walked to the Humane Society’s Petpalooza event Later that afternoon I subbed a yoga class and then met a friend for happy hour.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My final stop of the day was my friend Rodney’s birthday party. This was officially the biggest bottle of wine that I have ever seen in my life.

I go out…never…these days but I really enjoyed Saturday night. I’m feeling ready to finally “get back out there.” It was wonderful to connect with many people who I haven’t seen in a long time.

My evening ended with pizza on the couch. This post has gotten long so I’ll recap my Sunday in a separate post. It was a wonderful day! 🙂

What’s the most unique “race” that you’ve ever done? 

Stairs…love them or leave them?