Hott Mess....

Who is this hot mess you ask?  None other than my loveable husband.  The picture is so awesome, that I couldn't help but start my blog post with it.  Therefore, we are going to take a journey through our weekend in reverse:).

At about 11:00 AM today, I was staring at this hilarious face.  Please note the twig stuck behind the ear...  Eric ran in a 10K Down and Dirty mud run this morning.  For those of you who know him, you know that he, of course, would not take the mission to get muddy lightly. 

At about 10:30 AM, I started watching racers climb through this mud pit and sprint to the finish line.  This was a solid 30 minutes of cracking up.  First of all, people look hilarious when they are covered with mud.  To make it even better, they would come out of the mud pit sprinting to finish the race, but they didn't account for the slippery muddy turn at the end.  At least 1 out of 3 people completely wiped out on the turn.  Needless to say, there was a crowd encouraging them to "push through!!!" and "take the turn as fast as you can, you are almost done!!"  These verbal encouragements pushed the racers, which made better wipe-outs.  

 

At about 10:00 AM today, I was watching Eric make his way to the start line.  I was so excited to use my new camera for these pictures.  I stood on the sidelines trying to look like a professional photographer.  

 

 

 At about 9:00 AM today, I was helping Eric get prepped for the race.  We later realized that the bib was useless, as no one would be able to see it at the end of the race!

And, at 6:00 AM today, I was waiting (not so pleasantly) for the subway to take us on our 1.5 hour journey to the race.  Eric likes to be insanely early for everything.

Now on to Saturday....my birthday celebration!!  Let me preface this with the fact that I put a lot of pressure on Eric to think of something fun for us to do for my birthday (since I am celebrating away from the rest of my friends/family).  Eric put a lot of thought into thinking of something that I would enjoy.  He came up with two options: a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater or Medieval Times.  I chose Medieval Times:).  So, Saturday night we took a bus to Jersey City to eat chicken legs and ribs with no silverware, drink hardy portions of ale (well....maybe a margarita for me - I am sure they had that back then!), and watch knights battle it out.  The place turned out to be a hilarious combination of bachelor/bachelorette parties, work parties, and family entertainment.  We decided they definitely hit the jackpot with hitting all target audiences!

 

 

 

 And finally, Friday...my actual birthday.  Though I was far away from Indiana, I had a fabulous 30th birthday.  I was overwhelmed with love from my friends, family, and coworkers.  All of the students in each of my four classes made my birthday cards (which hilariously included one liners such as these: "You are my Birthday Queen", "For your birthday, I give you math (followed by a series of multiplication problems)", and "Until you taught me, I did not understand.  I love you.")  Who wouldn't have a great day when you have 100 kids pumping up your ego???  In addition to that, my boss brought in birthday treats, my husband sent me flowers, and 3 amazing friends sent me chocolate covered strawberries to work!  When I got home, I was overwhelmed with facebook messages, thoughtful cards/gifts (topping the charts for creativity was the 30 fortune cookies Jess and Stephanie sent me with 30 tokens of our friendship in them).  So, a huge thank you to everyone who so generously/thoughtfully helped make that day special for me.  Eric and I went to dinner that evening, and topped it off with my favorite guilty pleasure in NYC.  Crumbs cupcakes:).  Mine is Red Velvet and Eric's is the Baba Booey. 

It was definitely a fabulous, fun-filled weekend.  I am so blessed in my life.  Next on the calendar of things to look forward too....Chad and Kim's visit next weekend!