We started off our weekend preparing for my parents, my sister Kristen, and her BF Matthew to come visit us in Augusta for my 25th birthday (I know, I’m a quarter-of-a-century-old, scary huh?). I managed to convince Jason to let me buy a fan for the guest bedroom (since I’ve been wanting to buy a fan that matched the ones in the other rooms before Lowe’s ran out of them…). So anyways, we spent out Friday night cleaning, hanging up a ceiling fan, killing lots of tiny spiders (for some reason they run rampant in our house), and decorating for fall.

Here’s some pics of my man hard at work:

 The next morning, Jason and I walked in the Augusta Miracle Mile with other MAU employees as we supported Breast Cancer Awareness! Here’s a pic of Angela McCord, our HR manager and Brooke Hixon, our HR/Benefits Coordinator with me at the walk! – see our lovely pink MAU shirts?

Next, we rushed home to meet up with our guests, who arrived around lunchtime. Once, I saw the awesome white-chocolate cake from A Piece of Cake bakery, I knew I couldn’t wait to dig in, so we had cake and opened presents after lunch.

 Kristen (the real photographer) and Matthew

I had an awesome birthday and got a ton of great presents that I have been wanting for awhile. Among them, a Garmin running watch (still trying to figure out how this thing works!), speakers for our desktop computer, running clothes and socks, Banana Republic clothes, and two that show my age – a Pyrex storage set and a leaf-blower (well that just shows my strange obsession for clean decks and driveways, but that’s okay right?)

Then, we all went to downtown Augusta to do some shopping and riverwalk walking, which was also nice and relaxing. The weather was perfect! In Augusta, they turn all the fountains downtown pink (not orange, although that’s how it looks in some of the photos) to celebrate October – Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so we decided to have a few photo-ops at the fountain.

We also went to Bonefish Grill that night to celebrate and had a great time. The food was great, we’ll definitely be going back there soon! Of course, like usual, I forgot my camera, so here are some photos from my parents’ camera.

Finally, I tested out my new running equipment (heart monitor and running watch) on a run tonight. According to my schedule, I should be running about 10 right now in preparation for my half-marathon in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day. However, I got a bit of a late start and it ended up being just over 6.5 miles. I’ll try to keep you all posted with how my training continues. Stay tuned!