Chile Pepper 10k

This morning Michele, her sister Mandy, and I ran the Chile Pepper 10k. The race was held at University Farms in Fayetteville at 7:45 in the morning. As I'm training for my half marathon in December, Michele and Mandy are training for theirs in November. It was Michele and my's first competitive race. And it was so much fun! I want to do one every weekend. We all finished, running the entire time. Michele ran it in 56 minutes and 11 seconds, averaging 9:03 minutes/mile and I finished (a little behind her) at 59 minutes and 37 seconds, averaging 9:36 minutes/mile.

For more information on the event visit the Chile Pepper Festival's Website.

26.

Last weekend was my birthday and I turned 26. Yay. And thanks to my great family and friends, I celebrated for an entire week. The weekend before, Cole and I went to LR (and Hot Springs) and I was able to celebrate with my entire family - and eat my weight in good food and birthday cake. The weekend of my birthday, I celebrated with my friends in Fayetteville.

Below is Kim, Katie and me at z330 in Fayetteville.


Then, on my actual birthday Cole and I took a day trip to Branson to shop and eat. But, not before Cole surprised me with a red leather bag for my laptop, a rain guard/sunroof visor for my car - which he installed himself, and brand new floor mats. This is very exciting to me because when I got my car, the floor mats were the only thing I didn't like - they were pretty stained. And in Branson we found a Macaroni Grill on The Landing, which was a good end to my birthday.

The Young and the Breathless

Thanks to my wonderful best friend Sarah P, I will be joining her and a couple other girls to compete in (rather, participate in) the Memphis Half Marathon on December 6th. Our team name is "The Young and the Breathless." I voted for "Are We There Yet?" since I'm pretty sure that's what I'll be screaming the entire way. I've really gotten into running these past couple of years, but as of recently, I'm officially "training." And it's hard work.

A half marathon is 13.1 miles total - my goal is to run the entire time. I want to set a time goal for myself as well, but I'm still thinking about what that might be (I hate to set myself up for failure). So far, I've run up to six miles at once - I've only done it twice but it's a start. I'm very proud of myself for my six miles, but at the same time I realize I have seven more to add to that.

I'll keep you updated on our progress and I cannot wait to post pictures of the race and let you know how we all did. And if anyone would like to come and cheer us on and then play in Memphis that Saturday night, please do - we want support, and I want a driving partner to Memphis!

U of A Tradition: The Senior Walk

As many in Arkansas know, when you graduate from the U of A your name gets added to the Senior Walk. Mine has probably been up for about a year now? But I had yet to go and find it. This weekend Sarah P and I made our way to campus to find each of our names for one last pat on the back on our completed college education. Thank you Kalen and Matt for being such lovely photographers.

Below are Sarah and I hovered over my name: Jennifer B G James. I'm not sure if my four names would have all made it.


Below is Sarah happily posing in front of her name.

Bikes, Blues and BBQ Weekend

Bikes, Blues and BBQ Fest was in Fayetteville this weekend, and true to form it was a weekend of fun. Every time I walked out my front door - day or night - I could hear the constant hum of motorcycles everywhere! Also a bonus this weekend was Sarah's visit from (West) Memphis.

Kim, Sarah, Katie and I hanging out at Jose's Friday night.


Sarah and I having fun at Busters.


Maybe this isn't our best picture ever, but I had to post a picture of our oh-so-fun brunch at our favorite - Common Grounds.

Oklahoma's Test Scores Better Go Up

In hopes of finding something fun and different to do on a Saturday afternoon, we ventured on over to West Siloam Springs, OK to the casino. Kim, Joe, Liz, Chad, Cole and I arrived around 5 that afternoon and stayed for an eventful four hours.

In little ole Oklahoma you must "ante up" each time you bet - each time you must pay $.50 - and it goes to the Oklahoma schools. Well, I did my part and contributed quite enough, as did everyone else. I won't call anyone out on what losers half the group was, but I will say Chad and Kim were definitely the big winners of the weekend!

It was a fun day - now the next couple of days will be realizing that my money is gone, gone, gone.

Razorbacks! All kinds of Razorbacks!

The very first game day weekend brought a lot of fun tailgating, good friends, a disappointing game (sorry if you disagree) and a sighting of JERMAIN TAYLOR!

Friday night consisted of pre-partying with Katie, Elise, Liz and crew that lasted until the wee hours - I haven't had that much fun on a Friday in a while! Then came game day - and tailgating started at about 2 in the afternoon. Even though Katie thought we were getting out way too late! :-) Tailgating was fun and all over the place - and by the time the game started at 6, I'm pretty sure we all had our hair stuck to our skin and our make-up sweating down our faces. Wow it was hot. Seats for the game were good - thanks Michele - but the Hogs, not so much. We won yes, but we should have obliterated the Western Illinois Leathernecks and that was not so much the case.

Sunday consisted of hanging with the pups and seeing Mama Mia with Kim and Liz. It was good - DON'T take your male significant other. And we were the youngest people in the theater.

Going back to Jermain. Saturday night his pimped out, black Rolls-Royce just pulled up right behind Stir and Busters and parked on the curb. When I realized Jermaine was getting out of it, I flipped. I'm not a boxing fan - but I am a Jermain Taylor fan, and I have never missed him fight. I think he's fantastic and gorgeous and fantastic again! And he was so sweet. I asked if I could take a picture with him, he just smiled and yes "sure." I also of course decided to profess my love. Then he went into Stir, but not before I got a picture.


Kim and I post game and post tailgate at Busters Saturday night.


Kim, Elise and her two sisters, Erica and Jessica, and me.

Fantasy Football!

As many of you probably know Cole is oh-so-into football. Subsequently, I've had football introduced into my life and I never thought I'd ever be this knowledgeable about it. Ever. And this year I've entered my first fantasy football league - and today was the day to draft. Today was also draft day for Cole and Kyle's league - so it was a big football day for us. Below is my team. Pretty nice, huh?

Quarterbacks
Donovan McNabb
Eli Manning

Running Backs
Marion Barber
Clinton Portis
Selvin Young
Ricky Williams

Wide Receivers
T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Plaxico Burruss
Laveranues Coles
Kevin Curtis

Update: I've traded Kevin Curtis for Jabar Gaffney due to injury and that he might not play until October.

Tight Ends
Dallas Clark
Alge Crumpler

Defensive Teams
Jacksonville Jaguars
New York Giants

Kicker
Mike Nugent

I am exhausted!

This weekend was jam-packed, and I mean jam-packed! But it was jam-packed with lots of fun! Kate, Kyle and their dog Abby came in town from St. Louis to visit and stayed with me. And the fun began Friday night around 10 and didn't stop until Sunday afternoon - and then I crashed and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Much needed.

So, what all did we do? Well, if you're friends with Cole and me, you've heard us talk about Fast Lane. The Lokomotion/Chuck E Cheese for adults/Dave & Busters all rolled into one in Northwest Arkansas. That was Friday night. We played games, played laser tag, ate fried pickles and bowled all night long. And I have to throw in - I bowled a 181! I wish I had taken a picture! Then we all went back to my house and had a big sleep over. So much fun!

Kate and I discovering Dance Dance Revolution - who knew it was so fun?


Kate enjoying her 150 tickets from the Deal or No Deal game. This proved to be a very popular game among us.


Bo and Bailey hamming it up in the bowling alley - AKA Cosmo's Corner.


Cole working his magic. This is also a good picture of the bowling alley - there are big screens behind the lanes constantly playing music videos.


Saturday night was wedding time. Marlena Sweeney, a friend from college and a great fellow debater, married Michael Bond - coincidentally enough he's my boss Michele's brother. The wedding was at St. Raphael's Catholic Church in Springdale. Cole and I made it through the hour-long full Catholic mass complete with communion. The reception was at the Towne Center on the square. I saw a lot of old debate friends and my former debate coaches Leah and Keith Peterson.
Leah, Emily Story and I at the reception.


And Sunday was all about Fantasy Football drafting - next post.

NEW CAR!

Finally! After our scary wreck, the Vibe had to go! About three weeks ago Cole and I drove to Kansas City and picked up my new Nissan Altima! I did A LOT of research to find the car I wanted. It had to have everything on my list - and this one does plus more! It's an 06 with 23k miles, fully loaded, leather, sunroof, spoiler, ground effects, they tinted my windows, the coolest navigation system with screen that is not any extra a month, satellite connection and 6 disc Bose stereo system!

It's so wonderful and nice - I cannot wait to show it to my family next weekend!

More of St. Croix

Like I said there are so many pictures of St. Croix I've added more below.

Spencer and I on the ferry in the bay in Christianstead going to K Island. A very small island (more of a big sandbar that fits a hotel and restaurant) in the bay. This is right after the boys got done with their deep sea fishing trip.


Will and I at the restaurant on the K.


The entire family minus Spencer (sad!) at the Cruzan Rum factory. We had a fun time learning how the rum is made. And a lot of fun sampling all the rum after the tour.


Below is the view of Cane Bay from the deck of our house. The little yellow boat you see is Dad and the boys diving "The Wall at Cane Bay." They call it The Wall because not far off the shore the ocean floor drops 13,000 feet - probably right where their boat is now where the water gets darker.


Here are Spencer and Will in first class on the way back home. Dad and Paige somehow got upgraded and gave their seats to the boys. They were cute when I walked by and took their picture. They were amazed they could have whatever they wanted for free - Will had two cups of coffee and three Cokes!

STX U.S.V.I.

There are so many pictures from St. Croix - 413 to be exact - so I will try to post the "most interesting ones." The entire (immediate) James family went at the beginning of July - me, Cole, Dad, Paige, Spencer, Will, Nanny and Sherry. We rented a house pretty much on the beach - it was actually up the hill (a 2 minute walk to the beach) which let us have a wonderful view of Cane Bay, which is located on the north shore of St. Croix. I never slept in past 9 and there was so much to do every day all day. Dad, of course, stayed the busiest of all of us while the rest of us enjoyed having full days and relaxing days. It was certainly a great time - thanks so much Dad and Paige!!

This is a picture of Dad and Nanny at the Off the Wall restaurant and bar that is on the beach down the hill from our house.


Dad and all the boys went deap sea fishing the second day we were there. This is them coming back from their eight hour trip into the bay at Christianstead. It's so beautiful there!


This is our family picture at the Rainbow Cafe - this restaurant/bar was located on the beach in Frederickstead. If we look like we're glistening a little - it's because it was hot. But hey, it's not so bad when you're on the beach in the Caribbean right? Right.


Spencer, Will and me at a stop during our jet ski tour around the island.


Cole and me during our jet ski tour. I love this picture - not because it's the most glamorous - but LOOK AT THAT WATER! The color of the water has nothing to do with the camera. That is how it looked. It was beyond amazing and I'd love to go back. Cole started calling it "his island" and still talks about moving there!

Keith and Carrie at Razorback Stadium!

Thursday night Amanda and I went to Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood's concert at Razorback Stadium. It was a free show for the Wal-mart Shareholders Event. It was so much fun! I love Carrie so much, but I have to say Keith was a huge surprise hit. And so cute! He came out into the audience a lot and even traded his guitar for one fan's hat! Lots o' fun!

Sex and the City! Opening weekend!

The Sex and the City movie opened this weekend to an impressive $56 million! I believe this is the most ever for an R rated movie!

I won't say anything about the movie because I know some have not seen it yet but it's wonderful. Please see it. I saw it both Friday and Saturday night and cannot wait to see it gain!

Cheers!