life things

Winter Running Gear

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hey y’all. We’re here today to talk about WINTER RUNNING! Running outside in the winter months can be bruuutal, but all the cool kids are doing it. Not gonna lie, a morning run in a fresh covering of snow is one of my favorite past times… But YEAH, it’s cold! So I wanted to share my typical winter running get-up in case you are new at this winter running thing and need some guidance! (I should note: I don’t run outside below like 18 degrees. So the following is my running gear for 18-35 degrees.)

Remember that you will be your coldest during the first 5 minutes of your run. After that, your body is warmed up and you’ll start feeling that warmth. The only things that will probably still be cold are your hands and your butt. Hashtag just being honest.

Bottom half! I wear taller-than-ankle socks, to keep my ankles warm. I don’t think there is anything worse than cold (or snowy) ankles. For pants, I always wear my fleece-lined running leggings. I’m partial to Champion brand, but I’m sure most brands have a fleece-lined version! I add leg-warmers over my leggings for extra warmth. When I say leg warmers, I’m talking like, a cheap “fashion” pair from Target. As silly as that sounds, leg warmers are my winter running secret! And then to top the bottom off, sneakers! Duh.

On top! I wear a long tank top as my first layer so that I can easily tuck it into my pants. I haaaate when cold wind gets up my shirt, ha! So this helps prevent that! A long sleeved, wicking shirt goes on as my second layer. For me, these are usually race shirts, but you can find the same type at any sports store. As my last layer, I have a BRIGHT orange Avalanche Fleece pullover that I love because A) it’s warm, but B) it’s also moveable. Way better than running in a stiff winter coat, ya feel?

On my head I wear a fleece-lined headband. I have a Nike one, but they all make them! And… you’re going to think I’m INSANE, but I don’t wear gloves. I can’t. As soon as I start running with a pair of gloves on, my arms get super tingly and that to me feels worse than my hands being a little cold. I just tuck my hands up into my sleeves to keep them warm!

OVERVIEW
Tall socks
Fleece-lined leggings
Leg warmers (or tall socks)
Long tank top
Wicking shirt
Thick/warm fleece or running jacket
Fleece-lined headband
Gloves for the normal ones

What are you guys all wearing!! I’d actually love to find some other brands of great fleece-lined pants… do you have suggestions?

P.S. After you super snowy runs, stuff your sneakers with newspaper so that the moisture will disappear! Otherwise your shoes will stank.

2015 Month by Month

- Stephanie Leave a comment

The majority of 2015 was a pretty great year. I had lots of personal breakthroughs with my business, my fitness and even blogging. Nate and I made some awesome memories together and overall had a really good year. Three pivotal moments I would say were these: leaving our church of 4 years, my Grandma passing away and seeing my little sister embark for the Peace Corps. All three things were hard, but God taught me a lot through each. (I linked up to past blog posts if you want to read more about the events of 2015!)

JANUARY
January was pretty low-key until we got snowed in from traveling out to Syracuse for our annual basketball game. Then it just never stopped snowing. Ever. I participated in Fun-a-Day for the second year! Towards the end of the month I joined a local co-working group and met some great people.

FEBRUARY
It snowmageddoned all. month. long. Luckily I discovered Being Boss and School of Greatness podcasts around the same time, so I binged on those while I hid from the snow. I attended Inspire Photo Retreat, which was a huge learning experience and I met some awesome friends!

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MARCH
It kept snowing. The Fun-a-Day show was hung in Aviary Gallery and so many of my friends showed up to the opening! My little swim team gave it their all at their two-day Championship meet. My friend Kay and I saw Pentatonix in concert!

APRIL
The snow slowly melted. I hosted a day-long headshot marathon to help raise money for the School Sessions. I started taking weekly watercolor classes that I loved! I got into a minor car accident (my first ever) on the same day I was diagnosed with bronchitis. Good times.

MAY
My friend Sarah and I saw Steve Moakler in concert! Nate and I trekked up to Acadia National Park for 5 days to explore which was my favorite memory from 2015! This was the trip when we decided we were going to be more outdoorsy people for the rest of our lives. We also made the tough-but-necessary decision to leave our church of 4 years and find a new one.

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JUNE
I turned 26 and made a commitment to Crossfit regularly (and haven’t stopped yet). We bought kayaks as part of our ‘be more outdoorsy’ pact, which led to many an adventure all throughout summertime. And! I got a new tattoo!

JULY
Nate had a lot of free time and I had zero upon zero weddings, so we used July as our ultimate vacation month. We visited Camp Spofford for a few days, we camped on the Cape with our college friends and we put those new kayaks to work every weekend! I also started blogging for FUN right HERE! (p.s. Nate turned 26!)

Letters from Rita kayaking

AUGUST
Nate + I celebrated 3 years of marriage on the 12th and had gorgeous photos taken of us! I pulled out my back in Crossfit (I got better.) I biked and ran a lot in preparation for my Tri. I also took a solo weekend trip to NYC for a photo shoot and to see friends!

SEPTEMBER
September was PACKED. We visited the family lake house in NH for a weekend. We saw my sister off on her 2 year Peace Corps journey in Cameroon (cried a lot) (it’s fine) (she’s making waves) (so proud of her). I joined and ran with a local running group a few times. My besties and I celebrated 10 years of friendship! I hung two of my art pieces in the local library! I competed in (and completed!) my first Triathlon and loved it. The last conversation I had with my Grandma was the night before my Tri and she wished me good luck. Her condition worsened over the next two weeks until she met her Maker on the last day of the month.

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OCTOBER
I mostly just remember October as the month I drove a lot: up to NH for a wedding, lots of driving around MA for photo shoots and down to CT to celebrate Gram’s life. We had a lot of family time in October. It was nice, but not for a nice reason. I miss her. Also — I don’t know how to transition to this, but it must be noted — Nate and I saw Ben Rector in concert!

NOVEMBER
Nate and I took a last-minute weekend trip to DC to explore! We attended our first Friendsgiving at Amy‘s! I ran a turkey trot and then we went to Nate’s parent’s house for Thanksgiving. A few days later we went up to NH to have Thanksgiving with my family.

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DECEMBER
Christmas happened, and everything surrounding Christmas happened, and now it’s over. No, but seriously, we had a great Christmas afternoon with my family and even got to Facetime with Megan in Cameroon! (oh yes, and I saw Johnnyswim in concert!)

I feel like I’m forgetting stuff.

Theme of this year: Go for it. Do stuff. Don’t be scared. I completed a triathlon, took a watercolor class, went to a huge conference by myself, met locals who also love to run and networked with a ton of local business owners. Nate and I explored so many rivers and lakes, and were spontaneous and curious. We listened to God when he spoke a big thing into our lives and try our best to keep doing so.

I feel like this was the year of becoming an adult. Like. Just do stuff that you want to do and the stuff you know is RIGHT and don’t let anyone (or fear, mostly) stop you. Basically. #wisdom

In 2016 I’m gonna keep doin’ what I’m doin’. Plus eat more veggies.

-S

My Ideal Weekend

- Stephanie 1 Comment

This weekend will be much different that usual, as I am headed down to NYC for a couple photo shoots and to visit a bunch of friends!! But I wanted to share my idea of a perfect weekend during this time of life. Obviously my husband is invited to come along 😉

Pretty much my ideal weekend doesn’t include any plans. So much of our life is planned down to the minute, so for me, weekends are *ideally* a time to forget plans and just enjoy life together. We would start our Saturday with a stroll around the Farmer’s Market, munching on freshly made bagels and sipping iced coffee. Sitting in the grass people-watching is also a must. Then we’d load up the kayaks and go for a spin around the local pond (or maybe go on an adventure and find a new place to explore.) At night we would spontaneously invite a few friends over for a long heart-to-heart over wine (or burgers, or both) and then we’d watch our favorite 90s TV shows until bedtime.

Sunday we would get up for the early church service and worship Jesus. Then we’d make a stop at my favorite coffee shop on the way home. We’d get a couple chores done and out of the way, and then spend the rest of the day outside! Maybe take a walk around the neighborhood or throw a frisbee in the park near our house. Then we’d hunker down, each with our own good book to read, and wake up ready for the week!

Of course, this is an ideal weekend. Most of the time there is a wedding or family photo shoot mixed in there for me, and Nate just plays a lot of video games ha! Not to say this exact weekend plan hasn’t happened before though! What does your ideal weekend look like?

Top 3s of our 3rd Year of Marriage

- Stephanie Leave a comment

StephNate156

It’s been 3 years (!) since Nate and I got married on a hot August day on the beach of the Woodbound Inn in Jaffery, NH. 3 years seems like a long time, but if you really think about it, it’s NOT a long time. It’s actually way less than the amount of time Nate and I knew each other before getting married (we were friends for 2.5 years and dating/engaged for 2.5 years!) These 3 years have flown. And I think, for us, the reason is because we haven’t had any of those usual-married-life-moments that MARK time. We haven’t bought a house, we haven’t moved far away, we haven’t been job-less (praise Jesus), and we haven’t had a kid. So 3 years kind of just feels like a lot of happy/interesting months smushed together, only being marked by the occasional trip or big purchase. Maybe I’m not making sense to you, but I totally understand what I mean.

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ANYWAYS! Onto our Top 3s of our 3rd year of marriage. We brainstormed at the dinner table last night and thought about all the cool things we did (or interesting things we learned) during our third year of marriage. Here they are!

TOP 3 EVENTS:
– Napa Valley – We visited Napa and San Fran in October of last year and basically what we learned is that we love wine country. 😉
– Acadia National Park – This was a duel-purpose trip: the first part was for our friends’ wedding, and the second was to explore Acadia. Acadia was gorgeous and I felt so in my element. It was probably the highlight of the last 4 months of my life!
– Buying Kayaks – We had mentioned in the spring that it would be fun to own kayaks. One day Nate started crunching the numbers and realized it was doable(!), so we’ve been exploring nearby ponds and lakes since mid-June! We finally have “our thing” (I mean, one that doesn’t include eating bahaha).

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TOP 3 EATS:
– Gott’s Roadside Diner – While we were in Napa, we ate at Gott’s twice. TWICE! In 2 days! That’s how good/cool it was. My fish tacos were unreal. Nate forgets what he ate, but he promises it was amazing.
– Bagel Alley (but we call him the Bagel Guy) – It has become our Saturday morning ritual to go to the Natick Farmer’s Market, stop by Bagel Alley’s booth and get big, yummy bagels from the Bagel Guy. They we sit on a park bench and contemplate life together. We love Saturdays.
– Sparta – I am biased because my sister used to work here, but I’m telling you, this little diner in Newark, Ohio has the best eggs and homefries we’ve ever tasted. Classic American comfort food. I’m writing this at 8 am and man I could go for some of this food right now!!

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TOP 3 LEARNING MOMENTS:
– Don’t plan every minute – This is something we have learned only in the last couple months. Guys, don’t plan every single minute of your weekend. Be spontaneous, it’s good for your heart. Just this last Sunday, we went to get coffee and then decided right then and there to go on a two mile walk around a lake just because we could. Because we didn’t have anything else planned. And guess what, it was my favorite day of the month so far.
– Family is family – Love ’em as they are. Even if it’s hard.
– You can’t rush time – Remember my post about feeling in limbo? Well, that post was inspired because of many conversations / fights Nate and I had over the last few months about what we want life to be and when we want all those life things to happen. We had to stop fighting about it, because every single time we came to the same conclusion: you can’t rush things that take time. And I hate that conclusion because I’m the most impatient person ever, so it’s definitely a lesson I’ve been learning.

TOP 3 PHOTO SPOTS:
– Muir Woods, Mill Valley California
– Sunrise kayak on Spofford Lake
– Galavanting in 60+ inches of snow
(See below)

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TOP 3 DATE NIGHTS:
– Free date night! We gathered up all our half-used gift cards (you know, the ones with $5.73 left on ’em?) and used them all up. We went to Starbucks, Barnes&Noble and Target and only spent $1.50 of real money. Best date night ever.
– Skating at Frog Pond! This was a double date and it had been on our Boston to-do list for ages. Besides waiting for 50 minutes in the freezing cold just to get into the ice rink, it was so fun! We skated soooo slow because we both are terrible, but I loved it anyways.
– Seeing the Nutcracker! (apparently we only go on dates in the winter?) We have a bi-yearly tradition of seeing the Nutcracker in Boston because that’s what we did on the night Nate proposed. But this year, to add to the fun, we got a room at the Hyatt and stayed downtown for the night. It was pretty special.

So there you have it! Now you know everything there is to know about #thekristlife. 😉 Happy Anniversary to us! <3

~Stephanie

(wedding photos by Alyse French Photography)

My Newest Tattoo

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I’ve had a few people in real life ask about my new tattoo that I got in June, so I wanted to share more about it! This is my 3rd and most involved / ‘biggest’ tattoo so far, even though it isn’t even that big (not even an inch and a half long). This is also the first tattoo that isn’t on the inside of my wrist. It’s on the outside of my wrist, so BIG DIFFERENCE duh. 😉

I grew up in New Hampshire and while I was living there it wasn’t a big deal. You know, you live where your parents live and it’s all good and regular. But ever since I left New Hampshire (8 years ago!), I’ve felt more pride for being FROM New Hampshire. Like New Hampshirites are our own little tribe or something.

I also really miss it. I miss the fresh air and the lakes and vibe. It’s homey and local and full of trees. Not that MA isn’t all of that, but New Hampshire just has a different feeling. It’s more laid back. Also, the areas I’ve lived in this part of MA are way more packed with people (obviously) and I just miss feeling like I have my own space.

So that’s what the New Hampshire outline tattoo is for. 603 PRIDE YO.

Anyways, if you look at my tattoo the other way, you’ll see a sunset scene. I knew I wanted something nature-y inside the outline of NH, but I wasn’t sure what. Another idea I’d had was to do a simple line of the view looking out from the beach at Camp Spofford (my favorite place on earth) (see pic below) But I wasn’t sure how to combine the two ideas without making the tattoo super huge and out of my budget. My tattoo artist Coralynn at Empire Tattoo Boston made the point that it didn’t have to be a perfect replica of the horizon, it could be more representational. So we went with that idea and she drew up a couple options for me and I love how it turned out!

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Guys, I am so in love with it. I have so many more ideas, but I am making myself wait a year before I get a new one! (Also isn’t that view just gorgeous?!)

~Stephanie