A Year in Pictures: 2009

2009 Has been an amazing year. Full of ups and downs, good times and hard. I'm really excited for 2010 and all of the possibilities it holds, but I want to look back at 2009 and be thankful for the amazing year it was. I think JJ and I both worked really hard to set ourselves up to be really sucessful in 2010.

Some highlights from 2009 in photos...

JANUARY

We had a huge snowstorm dumping more than a foot in Bloomington. It was JJ and Pumpkin's first big snow storm. We didn't have shovels, so we resorted to digging our cars out with cookie sheets...

FEBRUARY

My co-workers and I decided to do a group Valentine's Dinner at a Japanese Steak House, then dessert and games and Michele's house. I absolutely love my former co-workers, job, and the YMCA. I am so lucky to have worked there!

MARCH

During the month of March, I wrote my cookbook. I am so proud of the way it turned out! I had so much fun making all of the baked goods to model with, and I'm so thankful to The Smiths for letting me use their kitchen for the photos!

APRIL

Easter was so much fun this year! With Becky in Switzerland and JJ in Iowa with the baseball team, I was pretty bummed. However, it meant that I was able to do the egg hunt by myself and look for all 4 dozen eggs. Kris and Dan tried to sabatoge me and cheat, but I was victorious!

MAY

May was an amazing month for both JJ and I. We spent Mother's Day in Cincinnati with my mom. The next weekend was my birthday, which was great. I had a fun party at work and then went out with some of our friends. The next weekend was the Big 10 tourney in Columbus, OH, where the IU baseball team went on to win the Championship. It was probably the highlight of JJ's career thus far, and I'm so glad I was able to go and cheer for the Hoosiers!

JUNE

In June I got the first copy of my cookbook, and continued to edit and re-write recipes.

During this time, we also found out we were moving to Jacksonville, so I began packing up. I had my going away dinner with my co-workers, and a wonderful going away party at work. It was so hard to say goodbye, I can't say enough about how much I love Bloomington!

JULY

In July, my family chose a weekend to all go home and have one last family party before JJ and I moved. My mom wanted us to go to the park and take some family photos, so here are some of the photos she took.

It was really fun spending time together, I miss my family!

AUGUST

As sad as it was to leave Bloomington, it was exciting to move to Jacksonville. JJ grew up in St. Augustine, and had been living far from home for 6 years. He rarely saw his friends during this time, so with his birthday being August 21, I planned a birthday party for him. I surprised him with organizing our Fantasy Football Draft to be that night.

SEPTEMBER

During September, JJ started working his new job, which he really enjoys. We also had the opportunity to spend a lot more time with his family. And enjoy the beach, pool, and lovely Florida weather!

OCTOBER

Wow, what can I say about October.... We got Charlotte and Belle, house-hunted and bought a house, I got my job with Folio Weekly, we moved.... it was an exhausting but AMAZING month!

NOVEMBER

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary 2 weeks early by going to a Florida State game, which they won in the last minute of the game!

We also drove to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. We had a successful 10k on Thanksgiving Day, and a great visit with the family!

DECEMBER

December was quite busy! We had our second anniversary on the 1st.

We had our housewarming party on December 12.

We had a surprise 25th Anniversary Party for JJ's parents on the 19.

We hosted a Christmas Eve Brunch and Christmas Day dinner at our new house. My grandparents came for Christmas, and were our first official house-guests!

It was a great month!

What a wonderful year!

Here's to a happy, healthy, and wonderful 2010!

I'll see you EVERY DAY 

12.27.09 Nike+ Results

Here's the results from my first run with the Nike+

You can see where I have to cross the street and wait on some traffic! I cross many neighborhood entrances, so there are a few dips there.

I love the Nike+, it gives me the exact information I'm looking for, distance and pace!

As I start blogging daily, I'm going to include my run results and keep track of my pace and PR's. I'm also going to start posting my playlists, which I try to change monthly.

I'm going to blog a few recipes here and there, and then just daily life things.

Is there anything you especially like to see?

Tomorrow I'm going to post some exciting news/plans for the first half of 2010...

Santa thinks I'm a runner!

I must have been a VERY good girl this year, because Santa sure did hook me up with workout gear!


I was elated to open my presents on Christmas and find one gift after the next that I could use for fitness!
JJ got me a running jacket from Old Navy, a pack of 4 Under Armour running socks, 2 Nike Dry Fit Running Shirts, a Nike Dry Fit Running Tank, Nike Athletic Shorts, and a car charger for my ipod since it always seems to be dead!
My in-laws got me a pair of Asics running socks (identical to the pair I have that I love).
My brother in law got me a Nike+iPod running chip and shoe chip holder.
My parents gave me a gift card, which I used to buy a new pair of Nike Pegasus running shoes and a pair of Under Armour running pants.


I'm so glad I was able to get a new pair of my running shoes because it's been a year since I got my current pair, and they're pretty worn. I love the Nike Air Pegasus shoes, they were the best fit for me when I had a custom fitting last year. I highly recommend getting fitted by a professional for your first pair. It might cost a bit more, but if you find a brand/style you're comfortable with, you can buy them elsewhere in the future and pay less.


I already have logged a few runs with the nike+, and plan to post the results as I will be blogging EVERY DAY in 2010. Whew! I'll get today's 6.21 mile run results up tomorrow.


Not only do I appreciate the gifts my family gave me, but it means so much that family believes that I'll contine to run and workout, and they see how important it is to me.

My New Year's Resolution...

I've decided to make one single New Year's Resolution... but it will end up in a million little ones, I'm sure!


In 2010, I am going to blog every single day on Ash is Fit.
There are a few reasons I'm going to do this, and I'll elaborate over the next few days....
For now, have a wonderful Christmas weekend :)

Fernandina Beach Reindeer Run 10k

Last Saturday, my coworker/friend Lou and I ran the Fernandina Beach Reindeer Run 10k. He had never run a 10k, so back in October we decided to sign up. We've been running a little during the week after work, but he was a little apprehensive.
It was a little chilly when we got to the race, about 55 degrees. I just tried to stay warm, he stretched a lot. (JJ took the photos, he's such a great cheerleader!)


Here's me, wondering why JJ was taking photos of me standing around... when I should have been stretching...
Here's Lou stretching...

Waiting at the start line

Santa at the start

Super excited!

The race went through Fort Clinch State Park. It was an asphalt paved road that was in a tree lined grove. It was misty and about 65 degrees. I actually got pretty hot as it became really humid and the air didn't move much. We were about 100 yards from the beach, at some times I could see sand dunes.

Lou finished at 1:06:50

It looks like :54 for me, but my official time on the website was 1:08:51, so I PR'd by about 40 seconds! Had I not been so hot, I think I could have done better. I might have been the only person sweating at the end. People in Florida seemed to think 65 was FREEZING. It's weird...

Overall it was a nice race. I'd do it again next year! However, my housewarming party was that afternoon, so I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

Follow me on Twitter!

I broke down and got myself a twitter! If you want to follow me and keep tabs since I'm not posting here as frequently, you can check me out there @ashleezorn


I'll be doing a mixture of general tweets, cooking tweets, and fitness tweets, so it's not just about my health/fitness.


Tomorrow I'm going to get a post up from the 10k I ran Saturday!


Also, if you have any questions or comments, my email is ashisfit@gmail.com

Thanskgiving 10k and Recap (yeah, i know it's almost Christmas)

I hope everyone had a great Thasnkgiving! I know, it's been 3 weeks, I'm a little late and behind. To be honest, I've tried posting this 5 times, but when I save my photos in here and keep it in draft, it disappears! I don't know what's going on with blogger!


Thanksgiving was great. We drove from Jacksonville to Cincinnati with the 3 dogs. It was about 13 hours there and 15 back (thanks, Atlanta traffic...)
Here I am driving through Georgia...



Here's JJ driving through Kentucky...



Pumpkin hung out on the cooler for a few hours... she's quite obnoxious in the car!



Char and Belle made up for Pumpkin's craziness, they slept the entire time!

We got in on Wednesday, and ran the 100th Thanksgiving Day Race in downtown Cincinnati! It was really fun, as it is every year, but there were SO MANY PEOPLE! There is usually 10-12k people there, but this year, there was about 18,000 people! It was really hectic, crowded, and hard to run. Usually by mile 2-3, I have room to run my pace, but I had to weave and pass and run zig zags the entire race. I didn't even cross the start line for 17 minutes after the race began!

Happy 100th, Cincinnati T-day 10k!

Though the race was rough because of the massive amounts of people, I still PR'd and beat last year. I finished at 1:09:29

Aren't race photos always so hideous?? I do NOT look good running!

I celebrated my awesome PR by making and eating a bit of each of the 6 pies! Want the recipes? www.ashleescooking.blogspot.com

Since Thanksgiving, I ran another 10k and hosted my housewarming party....which I'll post in the next few days!