Ants In My Pants

Before I post about my amazingly awesome adventures in Dallas this weekend, I have to share a quick story about what I found upon my return to Charlotte.

My flight arrived at the Charlotte airport about 20 minutes early so I was in a great mood. My bag arrived right as I walked up to the carousel and then the shuttle to the parking garage was waiting out front as I walked out. Perfect timing! I was in a great mood and called JJ to meet up for dinner. What a great way to wrap up a wonderful weekend trip.

I hopped in my car and headed towards the restaurant. As I am trying to navigate on to the freeway I notice what appears to be an ant crawling on the steering wheel. Weird. Then, I see one on the dashboard. Oh wait, there are 3 more on the center console. They are all over the inside of my car. Next an extremely large one crawls across the dashboard. Oh. My. God. Was that a spider?!? My car is full of tiny spiders. This is my worst nightmare. This is how I am going to die.

Meanwhile, I am merging on the the freeway, trying to fix my GPS that has of mysteriously failed, repeatedly trying to call JJ (who apparently did not have his phone with him) and at the same time smashing the creepy crawlers that dare to come towards me. After lots of yelling and screaming when I finally get a hold of J, I pull into a gas station and jump out of the car. By this time I realize the spiders are, in fact, ants and will probably not try to kill me. But still, there are hundreds of them crawling all over the inside of my car.

Luckily, JJ came to my rescue within minutes and used the gas station vacuum to suck them all out. Then he drove my car to the car wash to get it detailed. The car wash guys had never seen anything like it. We think we got most of them, but I have to go to buy ant traps for my car tomorrow just to be sure.

I can still feel them crawling all over me. Welcome home.

Southern Exposure

Even though I have technically lived in the southern half of the U.S. for my entire life (minus 6 months in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin), I have never experienced true southern living. Arizona has more Southern California influences than I care to admit, and well, Texas is it's own country.

On my trip to Atlanta last weekend I was introduced to 2 uniquely southern culinary delights: grits and boiled peanuts. Grits I had heard of before and kind of new what to expect, but Boiled peanuts?? Really? What's wrong with roasted peanuts?

We went to visit JJ's cousin, Courtney, at her new townhouse and as we were walking up to her front door we were greeted by her neighbor. Well to be more specific, it was her neighbor's kind-of boyfriend. Kind-of boyfriend? I had to ask. Apparently he is her boyfriend depending on how much he has had to drink...too much information, sir. Other than this little bit of over-sharing, he was your typical 30 year old former frat boy, sweet Georgia drawl and all. He was hanging out in the garage boiling peanuts for his college game day party going on upstairs. He invited us over and started explaining the intricacies of peanut boiling. He also explained that he did this for a living...I'm still not sure if he meant he boiled peanuts or educated people about boiling peanuts. He was 2 beers past the point of having that intelligent conversation. He was, however, thrilled to be able to introduce me, a non-native Southerner, to this great tradition. Now for the peanuts...they tasted more like bland potatoes than anything else. A bit of a let down after the build up from Mr. Fratty Peanut. Regardless, I enjoyed the snippet of Southern education.

I'm sure there will be plenty more distinctly Southern things to discover, but for now, that is all.

Just Keep Running

2 weeks down, 6 to go. I am training for my first ever half marathon. I have always wanted to try a half marathon, but never got around to it. I recently reconnected with a friend from high school who had already signed up for one in Charlotte on November 7. She is going to law school in NC and has been running on and off for the past few years. We both agreed that our only goal was to finish. No pressure there, haha!

While I have always tried to keep myself in decent shape, I have never attempted anything like this. It is 13.1 miles and prior to starting training, the longest run I had done recently was 3 miles. That is a difference of 10.1 miles...ouch. So far the running is going well. I have one long run per week, three moderate runs of 3-5 miles, and one easy recovery run. Each week the long run increases by 1 mile. I had a 7 mile run on Friday and felt surprisingly good.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not built like a distance runner which makes this even more of a challenge. I was reminded of this on my Saturday run as I was passed by a pack of high school cross country runners. These girls breezed by in their tank tops and 0 percent body fat. Nothing like a bunch of stick-thin 16 year olds to keep you motivated!

My race is 6 weeks from Saturday and I have lots of miles to cover before then. With all the traveling I have coming up in the next few weeks, it should be an interesting time. Keep your fingers crossed that I can stay on track! Yes, pun intended.

Welcome to Atlanta...

...where the players play.

I am back in Charlotte after a whirlwind trip down south. JJ played the Falcons in what I now understand is a huge rivalry game. Who knew? I am brand new to the NFC South and still learning who the big games are against.

JJ's mom, Carla drove down with me and we stayed with his aunt and uncle. I also got to meet more of the extended family. JJ's extended family (the Jansen side) is unlike any that I have ever been around, mainly because of the sheer numbers. Just when I think I've met them all, I travel to a new city and more appear. The fabulous thing about that is, no matter where JJ and I travel in the U.S. we are bound to have a place to stay and built in tour guides.

We started the almost 4 hour drive on Saturday afternoon and dealt with on and off heavy rain the entire way down (it is hurricane season after all). Once we arrived at Kathy and Bill's house we headed out to pick up JJ at the Ritz, where the team was staying. After 10 minutes of waiting in the lobby and a few phone calls, we realized there were 2 Ritz Carltons in Atlanta and we were not at the right one to meet JJ. We headed to downtown and found the right one, crisis averted! We had a quick dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe near the hotel, as JJ didn't have much time before he needed to be back for meetings. After he left we enjoyed a few martinis in the lounge at the Ritz. I won't lie, I felt pretty high class.

The next morning, we had brunch at the Country Club (I could get used to this life) and met JJ's dad's cousin, Bobby, and his family, then headed off to the Georgia Dome for the game. There were 8 of us, and through Bobby's connections we had 6 field passes for the game. We decided to try to sneak the remaining 2 people (Carla and me) through security to get on the field. After a little sweet talking the security guard and the ladies in charge of the media passes, we got the extra 2! I have never been on the field at a pro football game, let alone a game my husband is playing in! Very exciting!

We were able to walk right over to the Carolina bench, behind the security rope of course. It was kind of like being at a zoo, "Please do not pet the players." JJ had no idea we were there so he didn't even notice us creepliy taking pictures of only him. After about 45 minutes of stalkerazzi, he finally saw us. He did a double take and then just stared for a few more seconds before smiling and walking over to greet us. He was in super focused game mode, and we broke his concentration for a bit! We were able to get some pictures with him in his uniform and me in my one-of-a-kind custom Jansen jersey (Christmas card material!!!). It is very rare to get pictures with him in uniform so I was pumped.

They played a great game, but lost. In all honestly, as long as JJ plays well, I don't care what the final score is. We were able to go down and meet them before they loaded the bus back to the airport and chat with him.

On the drive back to Charlotte I got a call from JJ. We were still 2.5 hours away, but he was already at home...sitting on the front porch. We had a little mix up and he ended up locked out of the house. His phone keep cutting out and we couldn't hear enough to make a plan. We kept trying to call him back but apparently he set his phone down in a puddle and broke it. I did get a call about 45 minutes later from a private number...JJ had gone to a grocery store to use their phone and buy himself a 12 pack of Miller Lite. He was planning on sittin' on our back porch readin' a book and drinkin' his beer until we got home. Can ya'll say white trash? I was able to get in touch with our landlord to let him in, but I just love the visual.

We are happily and safely back home after a fun trip. Can't wait for Dallas next weekend!

A New Chapter

Life is full of new beginnings, this year is no exception. With a new job, new puppy, new marriage, new team, and a cross-country move things have been pretty hectic. I am finally settling in to a routine and a new life here in Charlotte, NC and loving every minute of it. Because of the distance between us and all of our wonderful family and friends, I decided this might be the easiest way to keep everyone posted on what is going on with our lives. It started to get too confusing with phone calls to two sets of parents, a sister, and friends scattered from coast to coast (and everywhere in between). I couldn't keep track of who had heard which story! So, now all of our stories will be in one convenient place.

I will start out with the most recent accomplishment, finding a place to live in a city you know nothing about! It was quite an adventure and thank God we had the help of our wonderful realtor Kerry! She was very patient and helpful throughout the entire process and really helped us narrow in on what was important to us. After much thought and deliberation, we settled on a furnished house in the South part of town. It is a beautiful area, right next to a trail system that is perfect for running and soon, walking Barney. (Barney is patiently waiting for his road trip out here in a few weeks.) We have already had our first visitor, JJ's Dad, Rick! Our move coincided with the first home game of the season so Rick was already out here after driving my Jeep all the way down from Green Bay.

Speaking of visitors, JJ's mom, Carla, gets here today! The two of us will be driving down to Atlanta for the game this weekend and are looking forward to seeing JJ's Aunt, Uncle and cousin. When on the phone with Carla planning the trip, she joked about all the visits she and Rick would be making, "That's what you get when you marry an only child!" Well said. But seriously, we appreciate everyone making the effort to come visit us and are excited to share the NFL experience with everyone.

Can't wait to keep everyone posted about everything going on in our lives, and can't wait for more visitors.