Apr 3, 2013

My 27th Birthday

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It’s hard to believe that I just celebrated my 27th birthday. People keep saying that I am “rounding the corner to 30” and while I think that is meant to scare me just a little it really doesn’t. Probably for a few reasons…

  1. I love my birthday. Like I L.O.V.E. my birthday
  2. Life is just getting good. I got married 7 months ago, Tim and I are getting settled in our careers and figuring out what we want to do the rest of our lives, and we are starting to make plans for the future. Like I said… just getting good.
  3. 27 could be sweet. People typically generalize their 20’s so they group them all together. Like “my 20’s were the best years of my life” so why should 27 feel different than 25? Other than the fact that I now have been able to rent a car by myself for a full 2 years.
  4. I think 30’s are going to be awesome. I have no clue what brings me to this evaluation of my life but I just have a good feeling about my 30’s. Like they are going to be awesome. 30 and awesome. That’s my motto.

So how was my 27th birthday?

Simply Amazing. I am truly blessed to have the amount of love I have in my life.

The birthday celebrations were kicked starting with a trip to West Point Market in Akron (where I found one of my favorite beers for sale)

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 and lunch with my friend Angie at Pub Bricco (AHHH I just love all Bricco restaurants). One of my favorites. Lunch was followed by some shipping at The Limited, where I purchased these adorable pants and this fabulous blazer.

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And now need to find something in my closet that matches.

After our fun Angie headed home to hopefully take a nap and I prepared for our friends Rose and Adam to arrive for a joint birthday celebration. Rose’s birthday is only 2 days after mine and that little detail right there is what brought us together the day we met. There was something that girl and for some odd reason I had NO problem sharing my birthday with her. That was how I knew we would be best friends!

We grabbed a coffee at Caribou where I was greeted with this.

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Birthday Inspiration at its finest.

We went to Flip Side for dinner in Hudson. My review? AMAZING. Seriously, such a good burger place. If it was closer I don’t know how I would choose between it and The Rail- my favorite restaurant in Fairlawn. They have great burgers. Great onion rings. Great fries. Great mac and cheese. And a great atmosphere. Cozy and quaint. Perfect for a birthday celebration.

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Sunday was filled with some hubby and puppy time before we headed over to Tim’s mom’s house for my favorite birthday meal.

Stuffed Shells. I don’t allow myself a lot of pasta and try to stay away from massive amounts of cheese but on your birthday you don’t have to do those things because it’s a special day. So I always ask for a meal that gives me two delicious things I don’t typically eat. Cheese. Pasta. And more cheese. Put the spinach puff on the side and ahhhhhh heaven on my “You’re Special Today” plate!

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I received a great bottle of wine from Gary

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And a new nice camera from Robin =) Get ready for some better photography coming your way!

Fast forward 3 days and that puts me at work the day before my birthday which was my last day at work for the week… yay for vacation days! My day was filled with treats from my fabulous friends and co-workers and my card was filled with inspirational messages.

One by friend that is clearly familiar with one of my worst habits.

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And one by a friend that is familiar with my quest to be healthy but reminding me that it’s okay every now and then to put that on the back burner.

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If you follow me on Instagram you probably say that I did indeed indulge that day.

One day later I woke up and the hubby made me a nice egg sandwich to get my birthday started and I headed to pre-school. What 27 year old doesn’t want to go to pre-school on her birthday? Well probably none unless it’s for a good reason and mine was! Pey’s preschool was having their Easter party so after dropping off Miss. Molly at her Grandma’s house I headed there to search for eggs, make crafts, and just see what Pey does every day! We stopped at home for a quick snack and a change of clothes and then headed to All Fired Up to paint some pottery!! Pey opted to paint a vase

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And I painted a matching water pitcher.

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She even made me (with my sister and brother-in-law) this HUGE sign!

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And I am PUMPED to get them back this week after they are all fired up and done. It was such a fun activity to do with my sister and niece and gave us the chance just to talk and laugh at all of the funny things that beautiful 4-year old comes up with! After pottery we had some sushi for lunch (well Pey had a hot dog that she insisted on), took a nap (AHHH birthday naps), and played some games before I headed to Crossfit class.

Crossfit was.. well Crossfit! I attempted 13.4 (stay tuned for post) with my partner Gail (love her) who inspired me and encouraged me all along the way and after class we all had some veggies, a fruit pizza, and wine which was just awesome. So nice to celebrate my birthday with my Crossfit family!

At home Molly greeted me with a tail a waggin and I ended up getting THIS from the hubby.

A Criqut machine!

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Hells to the yes. Who wants me to make them some serious crafts?!

Friday my mom and I spent some time bargain shopping, having lunch together, and just hanging out.

It was such an awesome birthday filled with my favorite people and lots of love. Nothing like this type of birthday to remind you just how lucky you are to have the life you do.

So

4965-full-of-beauty-happy-birthday-to-me

 

Filed Under: Friends Make The World Go Round, My family is the best · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 28, 2013

New Running Team Names

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Hey all! How was your weekend?! Mine was filled with a lot of laughter and as I always try to do I made the best out of a bad situation (snow=bad situation).

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So instead of complaining about the snow, the Laney clan jumped right in and had a great afternoon! The girls looked cute in their winter snow gear

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The boys just wanted to play on the toys but still managed to smile for us!

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And Tim and I got to throw Peyton around and love her up!

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Extra bonus, Molly loves the snow!

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We ended our play time with a pretty intense game of musical chairs.. I would have beat my mom but her pushed me off the last the chair haha =) We may just be a little competitive.

But now I need your help… we are putting together another team for The Color Run this year (remember last year?!) and hopefully some other runs and we need to chose a team name! Take a second to vote in the poll below…

Thanks for voting! I’ll let you know what team name is declared the WINNER!

Filed Under: Molly our Shih-Poo, My family is the best · Tagged: , , , , , ,
Jan 3, 2013

He is Strong, He Inspires Me, He Loves Me, He is Me…

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Welp (I like saying welp instead of well) I am sitting at Southwest General Hospital in Cleveland waiting for my wonderful and inspirational dad to get out of surgery. Today he becomes what we are referring to the bionic man… he is getting a pacemaker put in. 7 years ago my mom had a client walk in the house for the first time and in addition to introducing herself she explained that my dad needed to get to a cardiologist immediately. To her he was not well. He looked yellow, he looked frail, to be frank… he looked like he could die.

That women saved my dad’s life.

After an immediate visit to the doctor my dad ended up in the operating room to have a valve replacement done. A few hours later, some tears of worry, and a lots of prayers from family and friends we couldn’t have been happier to see the surgeon come out to the waiting room to announce that my dad was in recovery and was a champion.

As if a Laney would have reacted any other way right? O maybe I should say Laney and Stiller now.

So now we sit in the SAME waiting room (although chairs and couches seem a little more comfy) and we wait. We wait for another surgeon (one that calls himself the Master Electrician) and while we aren’t crying tears of worry because we know dad is a champ, you can’t help but to reflect back a little on the hand that you often get dealt.

My dad’s mom had health problems. That is probably an understatement. My dad’s mom died of a tremendous amount of health problems that she struggled with for YEARS. As children, my sister and I remember seeing my Grandma get shot in just about every part of her body with her insulin shots. We remember the weak days, the not great at all days, but mostly we do remember the good days. She was full of life. She didn’t mind us eating ice cream every night and she loved us. My Grandpa had funny things to say. The “bump” on his forehead was due to the “amount of beatings he took from my Grandma” (which was clearly not true), he snuck candy in his pockets before we left for Church service on Sunday, and he was the one filling the bowl with that extra scoop of ice cream. And my dad, although just as AMAZING as both of his parents, has started on that tough path where he has to deal with FAR more than any man that good should. But he is strong. He inspires me. He loves me. He is me… just a little older.

We look alike. We act alike. We are almost the same person. Something I have never been more proud of than I am in this very minute sitting here typing this.

No specific reason for this post but just meant to make you think a little like I am thinking right now. It makes me WANT to be as healthy as possible because if there is even the slightest chance that something I eat, or a push-up I do, or a burpee I dread could save me from just one procedure, one shot, or even one potentially dead disease I am going to do it.

If there is one race, one mile, one step that can point me in the right direction I am going to take it. 

And I’ll take any amount of steps and run any amount of miles to take this away from my dad. But I can’t. So today I sit here PROUD and I sit here and just admire the man laying on the operating table. Probably scared out of his mind but staying strong as he looks into his daughters, wife’s, and granddaughter’s eyes.

Genetics and just general health history of our family impacts our lives. It impacts our lives when we are sitting in waiting rooms waiting for your hero to step out of that hospital gown and into his slightly dated Levi jeans. It impacts your life when you lose a Grandparent that you used to cling to when you were scared of the “Candy Man” in the middle of the night. It impacts your life as you get older- as you grow- as you become your parents, your grandparents, your siblings.

So my message to you… eat right. Exercise. Do whatever you can in an attempt to PREVENT these types of things from happening. Tell your cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends to do the same.

And if it happens anyway, remember you did your part to take care of your body. That makes you strong. Inspirational. Amazing.

Just like my dad.

My dad is a champion. He has been the champion in my mom’s eyes for 30 years, he has been a champion in my heart for almost 27 years and today he gets to be a champion at Southwest Hospital.

DAD PICTURE

 

Filed Under: My family is the best · Tagged: , , ,
Dec 31, 2012

2012 Recap

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It probably goes without saying, but it has been an AMAZING year filled with so much love and laughter that at times I was so overwhelmed I thought I was going a little crazy. But before we jump into 2013, I think it’s always nice to look back on the successful and even the failures that occurred in 2012.

2012 Title

The biggest thing that happened in 2012 was that Tim and I got married! So I may have entered 2012 as Jaci Laney but I am exiting (rather gracefully if I say so myself) 2012 as Jaci Stiller. I have officially taken on an entirely new identify over the course of this year and it has been quite a wild ride. Marriage has come with so much fun and I am constantly learning new things about myself and my husband every day but I would be crazy to even attempt to sell the fact that marriage is perfect. It has challenged Tim and I in new ways and while we may get frustrated at times we are both looking forward to seeing what 2013 has to bring for our newly formed and redefined relationship.

Oh and in the midst of all of that wedding planning, I finally made my confirmation!

Another life-changing event that happened this year was that we got our first puppy- Molly! Molly has been been a joy… but not a pure joy! Molly has come with her own set of wants and needs that has brought a new aspect and sometimes even obstacle to our relationship. But she is truly a bright and wonderful ball of fur that you love to wake up to each and every day. Having Molly is out lives has added an enormous amount of love and support and it’s hard to imagine life without our little Molly!

In addition to our own family growing and changing, I got to watch my sort-of little brother Josh marry his beautiful wife Danielle and on that very same day we watched our friends Tiffany and Brett tie the knot as well! Then we watched two of our friends that we love and admire tie the knot in New Jersey- Congrats to Katie and Pat. We connected with old family and friends that we may have lost touch with and formed new and sometimes stronger relationships.

Additionally, Tim left the country for the first time when we went to Punta Cana on our Honeymoon.

Then, when it comes to fitness and health I have just run all over the place trying to figure out what works for me! I was totally inspired by the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and started juicing and quickly found out I wasn’t a blender girl but rather an actual juicer girl. During that same time, I was inspired by Operational Beautiful and stopped the negative self-talk about concentrated on all of the things that make me beautiful rather than worrying about the things I want to change. I started running because I WANT to and not because I HAVE to. We talked about the benefits of GETTING OFF THE SCALE and worrying about how you feel about yourself and not what the number on that piece of metal says. I won some FREE SHOES and found a love for expensive running shoes Oh Really? I finished the Advocare 24-day challenge and lost over 6 total inches and knocked off a few percentages of body fat!

Other than getting married, of course, the biggest accomplishment I had in 2012 was finally running that Akron Half Marathon I had been training for and working by butt off to do. During that time I met some great new friends and learned that I am STRONGER than I think and that when I SET MY MIND TO SOMETHING I can achieve it.

Oh and I turned 26 years old Ha Ha

It was a great year so look out 2013… I am just getting started!!

2012 in review

2012 in review

Filed Under: CrossFit-ing, Friends Make The World Go Round, Good Eats and Treats, Molly our Shih-Poo, My family is the best, Operation Beautiful, Wedding · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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