Another week down. This year seems to be flying by.

Saturday my new beau and I headed to San Francisco. I made friends with an iguana. I wanted to take him home with me!

My furry monster. In my spot on the couch. Just being her silly self.

Happy Valentines day! I made an origami heart w/ wings. I’ve been getting back into origami lately. Also, see those beautiful roses? My beau brought me those! <3

A little chicken teriyaki takeout for a lazy Thursday evening.

Getting my boy ready for the upcoming baseball season! He was smacking those balls all over the place! He was even hitting the 55mph fast balls!

Hope you had a good week!

First of all I want to thank everyone who entered this giveaway! What an amazing response! Honestly, I’m not really surprised because, after all, these headbands are pretty amazing!

I love wearing my thick ice pink sparkly band when I go out for a run! And the thin black headband I have is great for when I just want to wear my hair down, but make sure it stays out of my face! I will be ordering more of these, because I simply love them!

There were 51 entries into the giveaway. I used random.org to select a winner.

I went down the list of entries and the winner is:

Mandy at This is How I Mom!

Congratulations Mandy! You get your choice of one thin and one thick sparkly headband from Sparkly Soul! Please email me at wildchildgonegood at gmail dot com by Thursday evening or I will select another name on Friday 2/17.

You can still score big from Sparkly Soul!

Sparkly Soul is hooking you up! If you go to their website and place an order between now and the end of February 2012, you can get 15% off your order if you use the coupon code at check out: FITFLUENTIAL

Don’t forget to
go check out Sparkly Soul on Facebook and on Twitter.

Disclosure: As previously stated, I was provided with two headbands by Sparkly Soul. They are also providing the giveaway items. Other than receiving the headbands, I was not compensated for this review. As always, all opinions on Wild Child Gone Good are my own.

I can’t believe 6 weeks of this year has already passed… Where *does* the time go?

If you have been a reader of my blog, you know how much enjoyment my kitties provide. If there is a box, they will sit in it. Here, Phineas decided to attempt to get his 17lb self into the top of a race car gift box that I’d given H for his birthday. Silly kitty. Then there are the times where they just snuggle up next to each other and are just way too cute for words.

I love snuggles with my H. I cherish them.

My new beau playing guitar for me. *swoon*

Mmmm Skittles… J

I got my very first fitted A’s hat from my beau. The funny thing about this hat? It’s a 6 ¾ – which happens to be the exact same size that H wears and he’s only 8! Yep, my head is small and I’m wearing a kids hat. But I love it and it looks good! Go A’s!

Well that was my week. I hope yours was great!

Smiling and wearing a tutu at 4am. But it was the day of the Tinkerbell half!

My commemorative Tinkerbell half marathon necklace. I haven’t taken it off since!

Having a beer with my Tinkerbell half marathon finisher’s medal.

Look at those purty flowers I got from my new beau! J

H turned 8 years old this week! Look at all that Giants gear. Where did I go wrong with this kid? (GO A’s!)

Another cute pic of my kitties. They make me smile daily.

I hope you had a great week! If you have a picture post, leave your link in the comments!

Being a Fitfluential ambassador certainly has its perks! I got an opportunity to work with Sparkly Soul and try a couple of their non-slip headbands. After going to their website at www.sparklysoul.com I selected 2 colors that they were going to send me. I selected black and ice pink.

Look how cute these are!

I selected the thin black one, so that I could wear it more often. I selected the wide headband in ice pink because I wanted it to match my outfit for the Tinkerbell half marathon. J 

I didn’t want to wait until the Tinkerbell half marathon to wear one of these cute headbands, so I tried the thin black headband the day I received them in the mail! But non-slip? Really? I’m not going to lie – I’ve been fooled by this claim by other headbands before. And how annoying is it to have a headband on that just keeps slipping? You can’t really take it off because your hair would have that headband dent. So you spend the whole time fixing it and fixing it. Annoying.

Me sporting the black sparkly headband. I wore a low ponytail that day. (I have no idea why I didn’t take a picture from the front. Bad blogger.) True to their word, this headband did not slip. It wasn’t too tight either. I really like it!

Now for the big test. Wearing the ice pink sparkly band while running! And this wasn’t going to be a short run, I was running the Tinkerbell half marathon. (I sorta threw that whole “nothing new on race day” rule out the window.)

Me showing off the wide band.  Look at all that sparkle!  I love it!

I wore my hair in pig tails (which is my standard race day hair-do), and the wide sparkly band. It looked super cute! But would it stay for 13.1 miles of running?

It did!

There was a point during the race, where I thought the head band slipped, but when I checked it, the headband in fact was in the exact same place.

Me showing off my Tinkerbell half marathon finisher’s medal! Note: My hair is still looking pretty darn good under that awesome sparkly band!

A couple days after the Tinkerbell race, I took a short 3 mile run and decided to wear the ice pink sparkly band again. You know, to make sure I really liked it.

This is me after a 3 mile run wearing my sparkly band. No hair in my face! That makes a happy Wild Child! J

I really do like these headbands and will be adding more colors to my collection. Without a doubt.

Want to know something exciting?

Sparkly Soul is letting me give YOU 1 thin and 1 wide sparkly band! How awesome is that?

Here’s how you can enter for your chance to win:

Go to www.sparklysoul.com – look at their color selection. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which 2 colors you would want if you win. (Mandatory entry)

Tweet: I want some sparkle, how about you? Check out the @sparklysoulinc giveaway from @bekkib73! http://wp.me/pWYWq-13A (Optional entry – no more than once a day please.)

This giveaway will end at 6:00pm (Pacific time) on Tuesday, February 14, 2012. I will post the winner shortly after! Your chances of getting selected to win the Sparkly Soul headbands will be determined by the total number of entries into this giveaway. I will use random.org to select a winner.

If you can’t wait for the giveaway to end, or you don’t win the giveaway:

Sparkly Soul is hooking you up! If you go to their website and place an order between now and the end of February 2012, you can get 15% off your order if you use the coupon code at check out: FITFLUENTIAL

Not a condition for the giveaway:

However, if you feel so inclined, go check out Sparkly Soul on Facebook and on Twitter.

Disclosure: As previously stated, I was provided with two headbands by Sparkly Soul. They are also providing the giveaway items. Other than receiving the headbands, I was not compensated for this review. As always, all opinions on Wild Child Gone Good are my own.

Race Day!

3:19am – ouch, that is soooo early to be awake on purpose. But it’s finally here! The Tinkerbell half is finally here!

I had set out my clothes the night before. I drug my tired booty out of bed and changed into my running clothes. Bari already had the hot water ready for our oatmeal. I don’t know what happened to my oatmeal, but it ended up being soooo disgusting that I couldn’t even eat it. No pre-race breakfast for this girl. Crap.

This was the first time I was going to dress up for a race. I made the tutu last year (in May 2011 I think) and had been waiting for this very race to wear it!

I pinned on my bib and by just after 4am, Bari and I were headed out the door! We met Andrea in the hotel lobby.

We found a shuttle to take us to Downtown Disney. After that we had a little bit of a walk to get to the parking lot near the start line. Based on the expected finish time that I reported to Disney, they assigned me to corral A. However, I wanted to run with Bari, so I started back a corral with her. This race was never about getting a good finishing time for me. It has always been about the experience of an inaugural race, running through Disneyland and running with my friend. Fun.

It was sooo dark. I mean it wasn’t even 5am yet. But the energy was awesome! As soon as we got into the parking lot we spotted some pirates. I do love me some pirates! (arghhh matey!)

We headed down to the start line. This was by far the biggest race I’ve ever been a part of. You could feel the excitement in the air.

After a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, the fireworks went off and then it was time to run! The first mile was outside the park on city streets. There were sooo many people running. After we hit mile 2, we were back in the park. The line to take pictures with Beauty & the Beast was super long, so Bari and decided not to wait in that line. However we did  stop to take pictures, just not of ourselves with the characters. Then Bari was gone. I looked around, but I didn’t see her anywhere. I thought for sure I would be running this race without her now. There were so many runners, I was sure I wouldn’t see her again until the finish line.

I decided to stop in line to take a picture with Donald Duck, and there she was! Yay, I had my friend back!

We stopped and took a picture in front of the castle and then as we got closer, we saw Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming.

After a couple miles inside Disneyland, we were back out on the city streets of Anaheim. One of the things that was super awesome about this race, is that there was almost always a crowd along the sidewalks cheering for us. There were people with signs. There were dance troops, hula dancers, marching bands and many cheerleading squads from various high schools. It was super motivating! Some people even yelled out, “Go Beki you got this!” I loved that!

We walked through every water stop. There were nine of them throughout the course. I wanted to stop at the mile 7 marker, since 7 is my favorite number!

As we made a turn after mile 8, we came across this band made up of our military service men and women. They were doing a cover of a No Doubt song. They were amazing! I made sure to stop and say thank you.

Around mile 10 or so, I started really getting tired. I told Bari that I needed to walk for a little bit. I had not properly trained for this race (I think I ran twice in January prior to this race) and my lack of training, not to mention having walked all over Disneyland the prior day, was catching up with me. We walked a little bit again at the top of mile 11. After that, we made it into California Adventures. I was sooo excited to get to take a picture with Sully and Boo from Monsters, Inc.!

Bari and I had originally talked about stopping at the mile 13 marker to get a picture. However, by the time we reached it, we both decided we just wanted to finish.

We only had .1 to go. I decided I wanted to finish strong, so I kicked in the after burners and ran. Bari picked it up too and we finished strong together! Look at those gorgeous finisher’s medals! (Not to mention the gorgeous finishers!)

My finish time was the worst half marathon finishing time I’ve ever gotten. But, like I said before, I never had a time goal for this race.

Finish time: 2:56:35

I finished 5331 / 9386 overall and 1100 / 1799 in my age group.

Our time splits (you can clearly see where we were inside the park and taking pictures with the characters!)

The Tinkerbell half marathon route.

I would like to speak for a minute about the tutu. I will *never* run in that tutu again. Ever. I know it looked super cute, however, the strips of tule kept sticking to my compression shorts and (warning TMI) I had to keep pulling the strips of tule from between my legs. Let me tell you, tule in the crotch region while running is NOT COMFORTABLE! LOL

Aside from my tutu getting too fresh with me, this race was such an amazing experience! I had so much fun! I got to meet wonderful people and spend time with my great friend Bari! I miss her already!

Disney sure knows how to put on a race! It was truly magical! I will cherish the memories from this weekend for a very, very long time!

Wow. This was probably the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. To say that I needed this weekend away is putting it mildly. I have so much to share about how awesome this weekend was, that I’m going to split it up into 2 posts.

Friday

I left around 9:30am. I had an 8 hour drive ahead to me. I have never made the drive down to Southern California by myself. I put the hotel address in my GPS and off I went! The drive was pretty uneventful. I-5 is soooo ugly and boring. Unfortunately I got into the L.A. area around 5:30pm. Commute time. Major traffic. So many freeways. I felt mentally unequipped to deal. But somehow I made it through with my sanity intact!

I checked into the hotel, and had a few hours to kill before picking up Bari from the airport. I decided to walk to Downtown Disney and have dinner at ESPN Sports Zone. I love sports bars, and this is the grand daddy of sports bars!

As I entered the Downtown Disney area, I just started smiling. I mean, I was in the happiest place on earth, and let me tell you, I was sooo happy to be there! I walked into ESPN Sports Zone and figured that they would just sit me at the bar, which would have been awesome, but the hostess asked, “Can I put you in a recliner?” My response was “Hell ya you can!” So I got to have a beer and a meatball sandwich in a recliner in front of the biggest TV I’ve ever seen in my entire life! SCORE!

After I enjoyed my beer and dinner, I walked back to the hotel. Then it was time to pick up Bari from the airport! Her flight got in around 10:30, and we were both exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel. We chatted for a little bit and then went to bed, super excited for our weekend!

Saturday

Bari and I both ended up waking up pretty early (totally not on purpose). We got showered and ready for a day of the Tinkerbell Race Expo and to play in Disneyland and California Adventures.

Me and Bari. I love this girl!

We had a “carb loaded” breakfast at IHOP and then headed for the Tinkerbell expo! After we figured out which line we needed to be in, it was relatively easy to find our race bibs & commemorative pin and necklace!

What a pretty race bib!

We headed upstairs to the expo and it was the biggest race expo I’ve ever been to! I had *really* been looking forward to purchasing the special edition Dooney & Burke purse, and was very disappointed to find out they sold out on Friday.

We got our race t-shirts, and walked around the expo a bit. It was awesome. We met up with a few friends and there was lots of hugging and laughing. What an amazing experience.

Next Bari and I headed to Disneyland. By the time we got there it was already after 1pm. It was a gorgeous day and the park was pretty packed. We rode Space Mountain, Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean. With all the waiting in lines, we didn’t have much time to go on more rides, since we still needed to eat dinner, and we wanted to head over to California Adventures.

We wanted to eat at this Italian restaurant in Downtown Disney, (you know, for a good carb loaded pasta dinner), but when we got there, there was an hour and a half wait. Ooops. Guess we should have been more forward thinking and made reservations. We ended up eating burgers at a different restaurant. Not the best pre-race meal, but most certainly not the worst pre-race meal I’ve indulged in. LOL

After dinner, it was off to California Adventures.  Bari rode the enormous roller coaster, California Screamin’ (I did not.  I am sooo not a roller coaster girl.), then we went on Soarin over California (AWESOME!).  

About 8:30, we headed back to our hotel. We knew we needed to get to bed early as we had a 3am wake up time for Sunday, race day…

Stay tuned… part 2 coming later this week!

This has been an amazing week! I’m feeling so blessed in my life right now!

My son and I have been learning origami together. These are the parrots we made! I took my boy out to breakfast and he got the whipped cream on his hot chocolate to make a heart! It was so cute! “Look what I made momma!”

I decorated a dollar bill and put it up at the sports bar that where I like to hang out!

I bought myself a super cute hat!

Friday night I made the drive down to Anaheim and had dinner at ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney! Later that night I picked up my good friend Bari! Saturday morning we headed over to the Tinkerbell Half Marathon expo! (For more pictures of our awesome Tinkerbell race weekend, come back for my race weekend recap!)

I hope you had a great week! If you have a picture post, leave your link in the comments!

Oh I can’t *wait* to have this beautiful medal around my neck! I’ve been waiting for almost a year for this. The inaugural Tinkerbell Half Marathon.

And now it’s almost here. Excuse me for a minute… SQUEEEEEE!!!!! (thank you)

My tutu is ready. My bags are almost packed. I am so ready for a weekend away.

However, my training (or more correctly the lackthereof) hasn’t been the best. This won’t be my best race. But what I know is that I will have fun. That’s all I ever really wanted from this race. It’s in the happiest place on earth, so how can I *not* go there and have fun?!

I’m so excited about all the people I’m going to get to meet. I’m super excited that I get to spend time with my friend Bari! We are going to enjoy a day in Disneyland, and then on Sunday we are going to put on our tutus and sparkly skirts and we are going to have a blast running those 13.1 miles for that gorgeous Tinkerbell finisher’s medal! There isn’t anything about this weekend that I’m not looking forward to!

There will be pictures. There will be laughter. There will be fun.

I can not wait!

If you will be at the Tinkerbell race, I want to meet you!

Enjoyed some mini golf with a friend. The weather was beautiful! Was difficult to remember that it was mid-January.

Close up of my pretty Phineas boy.

I broke down and bought some double stuffed Oreos. While I share some with my son, the entire package was gone in 3 days. This is why I don’t buy Oreos. J

I got my hair cut on Friday. It isn’t that much of a change, but I really like it.

I heart cuddles from my son.

I made a fabulous dinner last week. It was my own version of a teriyaki chicken bowl. It was YUM!

I hope you had a great week! If you have a picture post, leave your link in the comments!