Thankful

November is a month to give thanks, and I am blessed to have to so many things to be thankful for. Because there are 30 days in November, I am going to list 30 things that I am thankful for, even though there are plenty more :)
I am thankful for:

1. My health, both physical and mental

2. My loving husband, my soul mate, my best friend. I love you baby

3. Our sweet kitty

4. Our handsome chocolate lab

5. Our beautiful baby great dane, soon to be our gentle giant

6. My incredibly strong, caring, and goofy dad

7. My big brother and his family who live far away but luckily I get to talk to and skype with frequently

8. Technology that allows me to communicate with my big brother in real time so the 2,000 miles between us seemingly doesn’t exist.

9. My little bro who isn’t so little, and can always make me laugh

10. My marvelous extended family

11. Living so close to all my family and that we get to see each other multiple times a week

12. A house to call home

13. A career that I love

14. My car to take me where I need to go

15. My education, thank you Mom and Dad for the gift of knowledge

16. Great friends who are there for me no matter what

17. My fantastic parents-in-law who are two of the kindest people I know

18. The ability to pay my bills on time

19. Sunsets, I’m a sucker for sunsets

20. Seeing the sunrise every morning because it reminds me I’m alive on this day and to make it count

21. Where I live (5 minutes from the beach, 1½ hours from the mountains and desert)

22. Movies

23. Food and my favorite drink, water

24. My love for cooking and being able to do so

25. My community

26. Having traveled around the world to the places I’ve been to (with many more places on our travel list)

27. This blog to share my thoughts

28. My readers on this blog

29. Music

And last but definitely not least,

30. My Mom, who was and will always be my mentor, my idol, and my best friend. I miss you every single day. I love you to heaven and back.

I am thankful.

26 Miles at 26 Years of Age!

The other day a friend asked me if I still want to run a marathon.  I paused for a moment and then replied, “Yes…”  I was hesitant, because I haven’t been running much as of late, but in that moment I realized that I do still want to run a marathon.

I always thought it would be fun to run the 26 miles while I’m 26 years old, which is now, but lately thought that wouldn’t happen because I "don’t have the time/haven’t been running/lacking motivation", whatever it may be.  Then, while driving to work this morning, I realized that I CAN run a marathon while I’m 26 years old.  I will be finished with grad school in December, which will give me ample time to devote to the long runs that come with training for a marathon, and my 27th birthday isn’t until June.  So, that gives me from now until December to get my butt in running gear, and then six months to train for and run a marathon post-graduation.  I CAN DO THIS!  I WANT TO DO THIS!

So now the big question…which marathon to train for???  LA Marathon?  OC Marathon?  San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon?  What's your vote?  What’s your favorite marathon?

Happy Friday all!  I'll leave you with this little video I took Sunday night when Rugby discovered Tantalum's kitty toy.  I was trying so hard not to laugh out loud and distract him!  And notice how tiny he is {for now} especially compared to Tantalum!

Weddings + Travels = Great 2nd Half of 2012!

Happy Friday!  Today is June 1, and I’m ready for a positive change for the second half of 2012.  The first half was very difficult for me and my family with the loss of my Mom, and then the loss of my furbaby, and I’m ready for some positive things to start happening.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  With that said, Sean and I have booked our first anniversary trip to somewhere incredible and we are bursting at the seams with excitement!  One {of many} things that my Mom’s passing opened by eyes to is that life is so unexpected and is so short, so if there is something you want to do then do it, or if there is somewhere you want to go then go!  Don’t make excuses.  So, for our first anniversary, Sean and I are going to Italy!!!  Why not, right?!  We’re going to Rome, Florence, and Venice!  I’ve been to Rome before, but not Florence or Venice and Sean has never been to Italy at all so we’re very excited (and Italy is #3 on my “30 before 30” list)!

And to begin a good second half of the year, there are some amazing things happening in the next couple months:

• My dearest friend in NY is getting married next week!
• My birthday is this month (which is bittersweet because it’s the first birthday I’ve not celebrated with Mom, but I’ve decided to make it a positive thing, and I know she will be with me in spirit)
• I’m going to Vegas for my Sis’s bachelorette!
• My brother-in-law is getting married to my future Sis-in-law!
• I start training for my first triathlon!

What are your summer plans?

Do you have any big trips planned this year?

Happy Friday!!

Happy Friday!!!

1.  Last night I finished my spring semester of grad school!!  I am beyond stoked!!  Only 4 more classes to go and I’ll be an MBA!
2.  Tomorrow I’m throwing my future Sis a bridal shower!  I’ve been planning it for months and I’m so so so excited!  She’s going to love it and we are going to have a blast!!
3.  Four years ago today I graduated from college!  Since then I’ve started my career, begun earning my MBA, run 8 half marathons (something I never thought I’d do), married the love of my life, bought a house, have two adorable kitties, and so much more. I am so blessed. It’s amazing how quickly time flies when you’re having fun :)
4.  I have a few workouts planned this weekend including some running, biking, and maybe I’ll even get a swim in!  Triathlon training begins July 1, but why not start now for fun?!  This week I didn’t get many workouts in with work + finals + studying + research paper + final presentations, so I'm making up for it.

5.  And just because they're so dang adorable, I'm going to leave you with some pictures of our boys, Tantalum (silver baby) and Bagheera (brown baby) lounging around and playing with their feather <3

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Two Months Ago....

Two months ago today I married my best friend.  I’ve never been so happy or felt so lucky in my life!  Everything about our wedding was breathtaking, including my handsome groom :)  The past two months have been the best two months ever!  I love being married!  We have so much fun together even if we’re doing laundry or something around the house!  We have date nights, we cook at home together, we go for walks around our neighborhood, we play with our kittens, we dance around the house and sing…we have FUN!  I love my husband and I love our life together.

To celebrate our 2 month wedding anniversary, tonight we’re going to the Melting Pot with our best friends David and Lisa for some yummy fondue and fun cocktails!  Cheers!!

Our Wedding Video Preview!!!!

Happy Friday!!!

Our wedding video preview is here!!  I’m shaking with excitement!!

Mike McCaleb at MissionVisual was our incredible videographer for our wedding day.  He is so talented and was a blast to work with!!  My hubby and I are blown away by this preview.  Mike did such a beautiful job capturing our wedding day, and reliving it through this short preview gives me butterflies and makes me teary-eyed.  Our wedding day was hands down the best day of my life :)  Thank you Mike for capturing the love and happiness of Sean's and my wedding day.  I can’t wait to see the final full version!

Bella Collina Wedding Preview - Maggie + Sean from Mission Visual on Vimeo.

Photo Friday - Bride Runner!

We are officially less than one month out!!  I can't express in words how excited I am to be marrying my best friend and soul mate!  He is the love of my life :)  We couldn't be more ready and happy to start our married lives together.


So with less than one month until we say "I DO", I thought this photo was very fitting for today's "Photo Friday."

Happy Friday!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

After a week of being sick followed by a few days of struggling to wake up and run in the morning, I finally got my bum out of bed this morning!  It took me a good 20-30 minutes to finally get my feet out the door, but I did it, and man, it was COLD**!  It definitely felt like a winter morning.  And since we haven't changed time yet, it was still pitch black too.

Pitch black + cold weather = not my ideal running condition

Because it was so cold** though, I just darted out the door.  No warm ups, just running.  I knew it would get my blood flowing and I'd warm up sooner or later.  1/2 mile later, I felt warm.  I only ran 2 miles with a short 30 sec walk in between, but it was nice to get out.  I'm still fighting a cough, which signals the tail end of a cold for me, so it wasn't my best run, but it sure as hell wasn't my worst.


Tomorrow I have a 9-miler.  With my lack of running in the past 10 days, I have no doubt I'll throw in some 30 second walk breaks here and there.


How do you stay warm when running in the winter?


**Disclaimer:  When I say cold, I mean Cali-Cold.  For us southern Californians, we adorn ourselves with coats, scarves, gloves, and hats when it drops to the 40s, and this morning it was 45 degrees.  Brrr.  I know, I know.  Anyone in the midwest or on the east coast must think I'm nuts!  Well, I DID live in NY for 4 years so I do know what true cold weather is like (i.e. snow, blizzards, ice, wind that literally chills you to the bone, etc.), but since moving back home 3 years ago this Cali girl has re-adapted.  Cold (for me) now = 50 degrees and below :-P

If I Were A Zombie, I'd Eat You The Most!

I love zombies and I love fun tees.  Put them together and this tee is my new fav!! 

Happy Friday!

PS-It's almost Halloween :)

Support in Love - Seal Beach

My heart goes out to the families of the victims of the Seal Beach Massacre.  This is such a devastating tragedy and it’s so unfathomable that something as horrific as this can happen in our quiet, quaint little beach town of Seal Beach.  Eight lives were taken, and even though I don’t know any of them personally, I have friends who knew someone.  It’s absolutely heart breaking.  My thoughts and prayers are with the families of loved ones lost on 10-12-2011.

For the rest of your life

Love this!

Tomorrow I have a 6-miler on the books.

What are you doing this weekend to work for it?

The kind of run that makes it all worth it :)

This morning I had one of those runs where everything just clicks and feels so right.  I reminded me why I love to run.

I woke up this morning feeling more refreshed than I had in nearly two weeks.  I drank some water, laced up my shoes and walked out into the darkness.  There still was no trace of the sun, and the air was crisp, cool, and dewy…fall is in the air.  I took off nice and easy, and I felt like I was gliding.  My breath was steady, my feet were light, and I just cruised.  Halfway through my planned 2-miles, I decided to run another mile because I didn’t want that feeling to end.  Everything felt so right!  I hadn’t had a run like that in while

Runs like these are the reason I love to run.  We all have tough runs, runs that may beat down our sprit and hurt our motivation, but it’s the runs like this that make all it all worth it.

Tomorrow I have a 5-miler planned, then my fabulous and creative cousins are throwing me a bridal shower!!!!  All I know is that there will be lots of pink (my favorite color!) and I have to wear white!  They are so talented and I can’t wait to see what they have in store!!!

Happy Friday!

BluePrint Cleanse Review!

Was I hungry? Surprisingly not. Was I tired? Nope! Did I still workout and have energy? Hell yea!



On Tuesday and Wednesday I did a juice cleanse. Now I know what you’re thinking…those are bad for you…you don’t get enough nutrients…etc. Well, if you do the Master Cleanse, then yes…that one is bad for you because it’s just lemonade and cayenne pepper of some crap. I did a lot of research and found the BluePrint Cleanse (BPC), which is comprised of 6 delicious juices per day. There are different types of cleanses, and as a first-time cleanser, I went with level 1, the Renovation Cleanse.
“Renovation Cleanse – The beginner’s cleanse. If you are new to juicing, start here and work your way up.” I chose to cleanse for two days (no way I was jumping in to a 5 or 7 day cleanse!).

Each day you have 6 juices:
1. Green Juice – Kale, cucumber, romaine, celery, apple, spinach, and lemon (sounds gross but it’s tasty!)

2. P.A.M. – Pineapple, apple, mint (this is DELISH! I could drink this all day long! Would be good in a cocktail too…)

3. Green Juice again

4. Spicy Lemonade – Water, agave nectar, lemon, cayenne pepper (look familiar? This is all the master cleanse is. It’s a very tasty juice with a nice kick, but no way I can drink JUST this all day for days. No thank you master cleanse, I’ll stick with the BPC!)

5. Carrot Apple Beet Juice – carrot, apple, beet, celery, ginger, lemon juice

6. Cashew Milk – Filtered water, raw cashews, agave nectar, vanilla bean, cinnamon (this juice is SOOOO delicious…it’s like dessert but not too sweet. This was my fav with the P.A.M. juice in a close 2nd.)


The juices were all tasty, but I definitely had my favorites. I spread them out, drinking my first juice around 8am, second around 10:30am, third around 12:30pm, fourth around 3:00pm, fifth around 5:30pm, and the yumminess that is the last one around 7:30pm.


One of my concerns before juicing is if I would get headachy, lethargic, and crave real food. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that the juices were quite filling and I never had a rumble in my tummy. I shockingly never got a headache (I’m prone to migraines), and I had so much energy! The beauty of this cleanse, and I think the reason for my feel-so-good experience, is that each juice is loaded with essential nutrients that your body needs. So even though you’re not eating hard food, you’re still getting what you need.

I really felt great! I worked out Tuesday morning with my trainer and took a spin class Tuesday night, Wednesday morning I went for a short walk before work, and yesterday I worked out with my trainer again and practiced hot yoga after work.  I never felt too fatigued to workout :)

The only thing my body wanted but wasn’t getting was salt. I’m a BIG salt fan (chips, cheese, anything salty), and by Wednesday I was craving some salt. But I did not give in and I am happy I didn’t! I needed a mini salt detox anyways ;)
Would I do this BPC juice cleanse again? Absolutely! I wouldn’t choose to do more than 2 days, but that’s just me. Do it for however long you want! It’s great!
Disclaimer: BPC did not ask me to review this product. These opinions are strictly my own from personal experience with the product.


Happy Friday all!!!!  I hope you have a fabulous and fun weekend!!
<3 Mags

Big Sky Country!

One of my favorite places in the world is Montana, aka Big Sky Country. My aunt has a house on a lake, and for the past many many years, we’ve spent some fraction of summer there (usually revolving around the 4th of July). It had been a couple of years since I went up due to work and schedules, but this year our entire family went up. The entire vacation was spent on the lake jet skiing, boating, water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was sunny and warm, and the neat thing about MT (why it’s called Big Sky Country) is that it can be hot and sunny with clear skies on one side of the lake, and on the other side there can be dark clouds. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures I took this year:

Me and my baby bro

Me and my nephew

Tubing with my baby bro and our sis-in-law (our big bro's wife)

My baby nephew

My big bro, his wife, baby bro, and my two nephews :)

Pure heaven

Me and baby bro

MT has spectacular sunsets

Weeeeeee!!!!

Cousins!!  I love them!!

Sunset :)

My baby nephew was SO close to walking!  He was walking with this chair all over the house!

Me and my cousin drinking sangria through Red Vines

Me and my beautiful cousins

Sunning on the dock

I love it here 

I also got a run in! First run for me in a LONG time! I woke up really early one morning before anyone in the house was awake (with the exception of my dad who is also an early bird…the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree :)), and it was the perfect morning for a run – cool with sporadic drizzling. I hit the pavement and I can’t even describe how great it felt to be surrounded by nature and breathing the cleanest and freshest air, filled with the scent of evergreens and wild flowers. It would drizzle then stop, drizzle then stop, and the sky was painted with spotted clouds and the sun trying to peak through.

Big Sky Country

 Trail run

Running in Montana

I ran 2 miles out, then turned around to head back. On my way back I got wrapped up in remembering my uncle and Grammie, both who loved that place more than anywhere. Side note: my uncle died of lung cancer 12 years ago, and he always said felt so peaceful when he was at his house in MT. And most of you know about my Grammie.  Anyways, I was remembering them and smiling, and I felt so close to them. I even forgot I was running. Then all of a sudden, a huge gust of wind came just as if they were saying hello and smiling back at me. I know it sounds bizarre, but I know that’s what it was. It was a magical feeling. Before I knew it, I was back at the house and the wind subsided. That run was one of the greatest runs I’ve ever had because everything just clicked.


After my run, it was back to water sports on the lake! Then we celebrated the 4th of July with our Annual Croquet Tournament complete with Sangria my cousin and I made, followed by our famous Fireworks show! My family always goes crazy with fireworks…we seriously have the best fireworks show on the lake!

Let the croquet tourney begin!  (And a view of the lake from the house)

Happy 4th of July from me and my cousin! 

4th of July tats with big bro!

That's right.

Glow sticks on the 4th!!

Glow sticks with my 2yo cousin

The arsenal.  We go nuts for fireworks!

The fireworks masters - my cousin, bro, and nephew

As always, it was a spectacular holiday filled with family, activities, nature, great food and drinks, and so much fun and love! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful and close-knit family <3

2011 Races

Happy Friday!
In recent posts I've written about focusing on 5Ks and maybe 10Ks this year, which is still my plan!  I've found some fun races, and there are definitely more I'd like to register for to hekp fill my year.  For now this is my 2011 race schedule:


Disneyland 1/2 Marathon -- January 8 (DONE!)
Seal Beach 5K -- April 2 (DONE!)
Saints on the Run 5K -- April 9
PCRF Cinco de Mayo 5K -- May 1
Palos Verdes 5K -- May 14
Billy Goat Hill Climb 1/2 Marathon -- June 18
City of Cypress 10K -- July 23
Disneyland 1/2 Marathon -- September 4 (I'll complete the Coast to Coast Challenge!)
Chapman 5K -- October 15
LB Turkey Trot 5K -- November 24


I threw in a couple 1/2 Mary's (Disneyworld I ran with my fiance!  It was his first and we had a blast!) but for the most part it's 5Ks.  It should be a fun running year :)


That's all for now!

My Debut on SNL!

Happy Friday!  I am officially on this season of SNL!!!


Okay okay, so I'm not one of the main people, but seriously I will be on every episode this season!  Here's the story...

I was in NYC in September on a business trip, and whenever I travel there for work I extend it a day or two to see my old roommates.  Well we were out at the Standard Hotel one night at the outdoor beer garden-type place (very swanky though) sitting near the ping pong tables chatting away.  We noticed someone with a gorgeous top-of-the-line camera snapping shots of the ping pong tables and thought they were shooting an add or something.


The photographer and the person who turned out to be the director came over to me, Sean and my roomies and asked us if we could stand behind the ping pong tables and "mingle" because guess what...they were about to film the intro for SNL introducing their newest cast member!!  And they wanted us in the scene!!!

Here's a freeze frame of the SNL opening credits:

I tried to point all of us out, but but one of my roomies is behind me and another is behind the new cast member, Taran Killam, who we ended up chatting with for a little while.  He was very humbled to be on SNL and obviously funny!

And here is the video link - Don't blink! (Season 36, episode 1):
http://www.hulu.com/watch/179439/saturday-night-live-amy-poehler?c=430%3A432

Happy Friday!!!