Mom in the Mtns

Hi everyone!  I’m mixing things up a bit this Friday because I really wanted to join the Friday Five Linkup with Mar, Courtney, and Cynthia!  I’m still going to recap my goal progress at the end.  This week’s Friday Five topic is Halloween!  So what are my five favorite things about halloween?

1.  PUMPKIN EVERYTHING.  All day long.  And every day for the month before and after Halloween too.  But today is the big pumpkin celebration day so you best believe I’m getting a PSL after I eat some pumpkin bread that I made last night!

2.  Candy!  I’m lucky because I have bags of candy all over my office to use as prizes for my students (hey, everything in moderation right?) but I’ll be stealing a few extra pieces since it’s Halloween!  We don’t think we’ll get any trick or treaters in our apartment so we didn’t buy any candy.  It’s really for the best because we’d eat it all anyways!

3.  Dressing up.  I’m not teaching any classes tomorrow so I’m totally dressing up for my day at the office!  I have like 4 coworkers and only my manager knows what I’m going as.  Hint:  it is something TERRIFYING that scares the living daylights out of me.  Any guesses?  And while you’re thinking about that, let’s throwback to my favorite costume.  I wore this 4 years ago and I made the whole thing myself!

Bella was the cutest pumpkin ever!

4.  Pumpkin beer.  Does that fall under the pumpkin category?  Whatever, it’s the best way to celebrate Halloween!

5.  The beginning of pre-Christmas season.  While everyone was watching scary movies last night, I was watching Elf.  Sure, I won’t be decorating, listening to Christmas music, or even talking about Christmas until the week of Thanksgiving, but it’s definitely in the back of my mind  🙂

As for my Fall Fitness Friday goals this week, well…working out every day didn’t happen.  Nope.  But I think it’s okay.  I’m still trying to get settled in my apartment, in my job, and in Alaska!  So we’ll just take a look at the rest of my goals:

Get completely moved in:  We have 5 more boxes and need to hang our curtains.  That’s it!!!  I’m so excited to finally be done, especially since my friend is coming to visit from Bethel, AK (they don’t even have any shopping – not even a Walmart there – so I predict a lot of shopping that weekend!) and I want it to be all set up by then!

Step up my running game:  Done!  I ran in the coldest conditions yet.  On Sunday I ran 4 miles on the coastal trail and was having trouble breathing from the cold.  My chest and upper back hurt so bad.  This is why I hate the beginning of winter – it always takes a bit of time for my body to adjust to the cold.  It was in the 20s and the trail was icy on the hilly parts, so I had to walk quite a few times.  Not fun, but the views were killer!

Oh hey downtown Anchorage!

When I ran on Wednesday, I wore a running scarf (this one from Run Pretty Far).  It made such a huge difference!  I wore it only on my neck unless I had to stop and walk through the icy parts of the trail – that’s when I used it to cover my face to keep warm.  It was 18 degrees but I felt great!

Join a gym:  I’m pretty sure The Alaska Club is the winner.  The problem now is that they are ruthless with recruitment so I don’t want to contact them until I’m totally ready to join.  Once I do, they will stalk me until they get my money!  I’ll definitely join before Thanksgiving but I’m in no hurry to spend a ton on a gym.  Although I really want to take some group classes ASAP!

Start cooking more:  We are doing more and more each week!  Best thing I made?  Pumpkin bread last night that I’ll be sharing with my coworkers tomorrow!

Go pumpkin crazy!  DONE.  Pumpkin yogurt, PSLs, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, and this incredible invention.  Thanks Target!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic week and a super spooky, pumpkin-filled Halloween!

What are your favorite things about Halloween?  What is your best costume ever?