Two pink lines…

Brandy is pregnant!!!

It was a Friday morning several weeks ago when I got the call. It is not uncommon for Brand to call on a early weekday morning, but right before I hit answer I knew that she had news. I immediately broke out in happy tears. (I was sharing a hotel room with Mike and Missa and they had no idea what was going on.) Brandy is expecting! Woo hoo! The little sh%#! She knew that she was pregnant when I was out there in March. Of course, she couldn’t tell me though. She needed to wait for the first trimester; she has a lot of friends, family and sponsors to consider (New Balance, Power Bar, Injinji and Atlas).

We always enjoy good microbrews together, but since I was there for Easter weekend I totally believed her excuse, “I gave up wine and beer for lent.”

Ha ha. Love you girl.

She came out with her amazing news after WINNING the 25k Cheyenne Mountain Trail Race. Oh Brand, you are incredible. She earned second place in her race this past weekend. The fact that she is still racing at this competitive level is incredible. And so inspiring. It looks like one of her New Balance teammates, Liza Howard, is expecting as well and recently published this great blog post. Congratulations Liza. It is going to be fun following your journey as well.

So I’ll be skittering out to the mountains again before November 7. I can’t wait to hug that cute little belly. And maybe if I plan my trip close enough to delivery I will actually keep up with Brandy on a little run. Just maybe. Ha.

Congratulations again Brandy. You’ve excelled at everything you’ve pursued in life and this is going to be no different. You will be an amazing mum. And Matt is going to rock fatherhood. I am so thrilled for you both. I love you to pieces.

xo dina

P.S. Brandy’s journey to pregnancy…in her own words.

All the cool mums are doing it…

Popsicles seem to be the thing these days. My favorite blogs, Pinterest peeps and Instragram friends are posting them like mad. And I think the hip thing is to call them “pops.”

A cool new indie mag

Issue No. 1 hit newsstands last week. I’ve been following Cherry Bombe on Instagram ever since I learned of it. So hip. Women, style and food. I can’t wait to get my copy. Order yours here.

If you could only do one form of exercise for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I’m in St. Cloud again, but this time it is all fun business at St. Cloud State.

That said, I did sneak in a little private pilates session at 4:30 a.m. this morning. My good friend Babs is a clinical psychologist in town and recently earned her certification in pilates instruction (on the reformer). A great workout + catch-up-conversation + wee hours with an old friend was the perfect start to this day. Gads I love early early mornings. Always feels like I’m stealing time. Ha.

“I should have been nervous, but I wasn’t.”

It was a year ago today that I asked Dina to marry me.

I should have been nervous. I had my grandmother’s wedding ring in my pocket as we waited in line at the Duomo, in Florence. I went to Italy with the intention of proposing to Dina atop the Duomo, overlooking Florence. There we were in line, a bit chilled, for over an hour as they moved small groups in at a time. I should have been nervous, but I wasn’t.

Then we were next in line to be let in when they told us they were shutting down for 20 minutes while the workers took a break. Knowing that Dina sometimes looks for “signs” I should have been nervous, but I wasn’t.