3 reasons to celebrate.

Today is definitely a day to celebrate in the Jacobs’ apartment.  

1.  It is Brooke’s 7 MONTH BIRTHDAY!!!!  I really feel like the last 7 months have gone by faster than I could ever imagine.  

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She loves flying around the room like superman.  I love that even after we take out the rubber bands her hair still looks like it is in pigtails.  

To celebrate her 7 month birthday I will give her a kiss for every day that she has been alive, go on a walk with her because that is her favorite and make 7/12ths of a birthday cake to eat.

I think I want to make a cake that looks like this (from our day in Solvang):

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2.  Billy got accepted to an awesome internship for the summer.  Added bonus: it is here so we don’t have to move which would have made me very sad because I kind of love it here.  

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3.  I was at the gym at 6 a.m. this morning.  (Not nearly as cool as the other two reasons to celebrate but I am celebrating the fact that I got up early to workout because that never happens unless I am teaching a class).

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Yep.

A few people asked what workouts I do on the stair climber.  I haven’t made up anything cool because simply pushing start on the thing gives me a killer workout but I usually do the Fat Burner setting because I like the intervals that it has on it….. except for that last portion of death that makes you speed up for way too long.

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It was a weird feeling to be showered and ready for the day 2 hours earlier than I normally start my workouts.  

Something tragic did occur while I was at the gym.  I was so excited to watch Parenthood on my phone while on the stair climber but when I pushed play it started playing the first season….. I realized that I have gone through all three seasons already and I have zero new episodes to watch and have to wait until the next season is on Netflix.  My heart is broken.  

Billy told me that he will make me green pancakes on Sunday for St. Patrick’s Day so I had to have some today for lunch too… I have no reason for this but they were delicious.

A reader emailed me asking what Running Apps are the BEST…. I need your help.  What running apps do you use and love?  

 

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84 comments

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CONGRATS to Billy and YAY to not having to move… unless you moved to NC then I would be happier for that ;)

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I love the Nike plus app. Free and tracks everything

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I like the Nike Plus app because you can keep up with your friends, and it gives you positive encouragement after your runs!! And online it tracks the elevations, shows you where you speed up and slow down, and even recommends places to run.

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Yay Billy!!! So happy you don’t have to move bc that’s a lot of moving! HAPPY 7 MONTHS Brooke! Gosh can someone please stop time… I don’t like this whole babies getting big thing. Enjoy your green pancakes!

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I like RunKeeper. On a different note…her hair! It just kills me!! :)

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Congrats to Billy on the internship! Glad you can stick around here for the summer :) And now I want a slice of that cake. 7 months already?!? has it really been 7 months?? She’s growing up so fast!

I use map my run, or more recently, RunKeeper. Beeps at me every 5 minutes and tells me my distance, average pace etc. I really like it.

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Happy 7 month birthday to Brooke and huge congratulations to Billy on the job! I don’t know what finding internships is like in the States, but it’s tough in Canada so that’s really exciting news!!

Um I saved a pic of that rainbow cake.. Screw funfetti, now I want a rainbow cake for my birthday. Boyfriend says thanks a lot, now he has to figure out how to make one of those :-D

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day weekend! Enjoy your pancakes!

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I was curious if you ever cornidesed changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two images. Maybe you could space it out better?

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Cute little Brooke! and yay for Billy’s internship and NOT having to move!!

I love using the Map My Run app. I don’t have a GPS watch, so it keeps track of where I am, as well as updates me on my pace and total time at each mile mark. I like that I can go back and find routes for different mileages now that I’ve already run.

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Congrats to you guys!! Brooke is always so happy, it makes me happy!

I like my Nike Fuel band and the app that goes with it, its super useful.

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I LOVE Strava! You can make “segments” and it will keep track of every person that runs that segment. It also keeps track of your own personal records on mile, 1k, 5k etc. Plus, you can just upload your Garmin data to it. You don’t need a smartphone to use it. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

P.S. It’s free.
PPS. Hooray for Brooke! She deserves a trip to Yogurtland. And since she isn’t old enough for FroYo, her mom will just have to eat hers ;)

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Running apps for beginners… I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Get Running app by splendid-things…it coaches you through to 30 min. running STRAIGHT and the lady has an awesome aussie voice. ;)

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RunKeeper all the way! I like that it shows maps, records photos mid-run, and can announce intervals.

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Have you watched Hart of Dixie? The first season is on Netflix and it is SO GOOD.

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I like iRun, RunKeeper, and RunCalc. All three are unique for different things you use them for. I use iRun to log in my miles, RunKeeper’s GPS to track my workout (it sucks up the battery though), and RunCalc to calculate paces, etc.

For a healthy diet, you should eat lots of color. Would that cake count? :-)

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Congrats on not having to move. That would kind of suck since you are moving so soon into a bigger place anyway.
I use Endomondo for the past year. I am getting pretty close to giving up on the phone GPS and getting a more accurate Garmin, however. I just know the technology is much, much better for Garmins than phones.

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I love Nike Plus. I ran with it everyday before I got my Garmin and still use it occasionally. I also just discovered Charity Miles. For every mile you run, money is donated to various charities. How awesome is that?!?!

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Brooke is so cute! Happy 7 months baby girl. I too love Parenthood and just finished Season 3 on Netflix, good news is that you can download the NBC app to your IPhone and watch all the current season on there. I am already 3 episodes into Season 4, that show just keeps getting better!

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Awwwr Happy 7 Months to Brooke, and congratulations to Billy! Those are definitely some great reasons to celebrate, so I say toss aside the idea of 7/12ths of a cake and go for the whole one instead ;)

Also, I love how Brooke is always smiling :D

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Congrats to Billy on the internship! I’m glad he found one close to home! :-) And happy 7 months to Brooke baby!

Whenever I’m on the stair-masteringofkillingmythighs I always make up my own intervals to the pace of the song and the chorus. I’m the annoying person constantly clicking buttons but I love the quick short bursts of fast painful thigh burning. lol

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An easier version of A rainbow cake
http://www.parkinglotbaby.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-cake.html

I was going to make the cake you showed, it is all over pinterest. Then I realized that I have 2 kids, one who screamed 24/7 at the time, and I was working full time then, and we were traveling an hour with the cake…. So I opted for easy when I saw those multicolored fake m&ms at the grocery store. They were even lined up in the order I wanted!! Add pudding to any cake mix and it makes it taste awesome. The first cake I made her took me 6 hrs, it was a garbage truck because she loved them. Each year it gets easier and easier. For my youngest’s 2nd birthday I baked cupcakes, iced them and slapped elmo parelles on them and called it a day!

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My favorite running app is Nike+ I have it on my iPod and my phone, love it and the way it keeps my stats.

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Happy 7 months Brooke!! I LOVE that expression about morning exercise.

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I’ve been digging RunKeeper. I’ve tried a ton of different apps and this has become my default. It’s probably not the BEST out there but it may be the best free one.

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Congrats on everything! There’s always a reason to celebrate! I too, was up super early (410 am!!!) for a workout, just so I didn’t have to do it later!

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I like Strava because you can see the elevation chart and is pretty accurate when I compare it to my garmin. That cake looks amazing!

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Congratulations Billy! And Happy 7 month Birthday Brooke! You rock and have the coolest hair ever!

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Happy 7 months Brooke! Cutest little thing around!! Also congrats to Billy! So exciting!
As for apps, I love Runkeeper. It gives you the option of using the gps when you are outside running or to add runs manually. I have been training for my first half marathon and they actually have different training schedules that you can follow depending on what distance of race you aee running, how fast you want to run them, etc. It’s the best free running app I have ever used. It sends you emails and notifications when you make achievements, so it’s super encouraging :)

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Awesome internship where you live = best news ever.

And happy 7 months to Brooke :)

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Congrats to Billy! That is super exciting!!

I love the Nike + app to track my runs. While I’m training for a specific race I use Hal Higdon’s apps! I love them and it takes the guess work out of training!!

Happy Friday Everyone!!

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Happy 7 months to Brooke! Today is my 24th birthday so that’s my reason to celebrate :) today consisted of a 5 mile shakeout run after 16 miles yesterday, a Starbucks trip, lounging by the pool here in FL for spring break, and now dinner at a Thai restaurant, one of my favorites!

Congrats to Billy on his internship!

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I watched the fourth season of parenthood on Hulu!!! I watched mine via a roku box on tv, but Im guessing it might be online too!!

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I’m a HUGE fan of Virtual Run Coach.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/virtual-run-coach/id576651162?ls=1&mt=8

Plus, Adam, who wrote the coaching for it, is pretty cool. http://www.theboringrunner.com/

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Great news for you! You can watch Season 4 of Parenthood for free on Hulu.com.

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Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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I have a love/hate relationship with the stair climber aka machine of misery. And the fat burning program is HARD. I usually do the calorie burner because I hate that last section so much. I will have to check out Parenthood. I just finished the first season of Homeland and it was awesome!

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Hey!
I got addicted to Parenthood too and went through the first 3 seasons on Netflix way too fast. I started going through withdrawal UNTIL I realized you can watch all of the newest season’s episodes on nbc.com (they have an app that you can download too).
Happy viewing!

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Ahhhhhh thank you so so so much!

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Wow! I can’t believe she’s seven months old already! That is crazy! She is so adorable.

You should start watching White Collar or burn notice or Psych. So much fun.

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I love RunKeeper because it does interval training for me. I used to use MapMyRun, but I’m an interval girl. Not sure if the paid version is any better than the free one, but I’ve been very happy using the free one for about a year now.

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Aww happy 7 months, Brooke!! :) :) She gets cuter every day!

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Congratulations to your Billy, and that Brooke just gets cuter every time I see a pic! I use Nike+ and love it – but it’s also the only one I’ve tried, so….

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Happy 7 months to Brooke! And you two for keeping her so happy! And you can watch the 4th season of Parenthood on Hulu+, but then when you finish that you’ll be sad like me…

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Congratulations to Billy AND Brooke!! Great that you get to enjoy a California summer!! Now you can do the SF Marathon in June ;)

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Congrats to Billy!

That cake is now calling my name. Crud.

I use the Map My Run app. It’s the only one I have ever tried because it works great and don’t see the need to shop around.

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Run keeper is awesome! spits out splits and everything.

Brooke is so cute :) I LOVE Cali! I’m so happy you get to stay. If I could, I’d move there.

the “whisk kid” has that rainbow cake recipe on her blog. Her recipe was featured on martha stewart! I have tackled it once and I will warn you, it’s tedious!!!!!! but very worth it when you cut into it :)

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I use Sports Tracker and I love it! I think its pretty accurate and I love how it tells me every mile what my pace is, then I record the run in my diary (part of the app) and describe how I felt during the run, it’s great!

P.S. I just discovered your blog a week ago and already love it, I am training for a Ragnar and love reading this to help motivate me!

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I like PaceCalc for training because you can put in the distance and time you want and it breaks down your speed/tempo/long run paces for you to achieve that time!

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I love MapMyRun! I can program in my regular routes using google maps (you can also use the GPS on your phone so you don’t have to do it manually) and all I have to do is submit my time. It will add it all to my calendar, letting me know how many miles I’ve done for the week/month. Also, it shows the percentage of change in your distance per week.

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Brooke is a super cutie!!

I currently Map My Run. I find its gps to be very accurate. It’s the only app I’ve ever used so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. It would be nice if it beeped every mile at me like my garmin forerunner 10 does though. Ill have to check out some of the apps others have recommended here.

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I love Nike Plus! It really does keep track of everything- total distance ever, distance per run, distance per month, average paces…

By the way, I just wanted to say that the very first time I ever read your blog was the time Brooke was born :)

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My heart broke like that over Parenthood last week when I watched the very last episode on Netflix. So so sad. I’m having green waffles on Sunday…can’t wait :D

I use MapMyRun and I LOVE it! It’s free, talks to you, tells your your avg. pace, distance, and total time. It’s great!

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Yay for seven months!!
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this already, so sorry if its redundant, but do you know that you can download the NBC app and watch all of Season 4 now? Free! They post the show the morning after it has aired, so if you miss it the night before, you can watch it on the TM! I’m working my way through The Biggest Loser right now. Nothing like watching them go through heck for a little extra motivation to keep going!
Hope tht helps!!

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I love all of the running apps being shared! Thanks everyone!

I too adore the show Parenthood. We started watching it on Netflix about a year ago and now we’re caught up and watching it on TV. It really stinks waiting a week for the next show (and of course now that it’s in between seasons).

Happy 58.333% birthday to Brooke! :)

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Congrats to Billy on his internship and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE!!!

I love Mapmyrun, and I’ve used it for a majority of my runs this year. My friend recently recommended Strava, and so far I like it. They both pretty much function the same, showing you stats, pace, and will talk to you at different milestones in your run(1/2 mile or mile), it will tell you your pace as well as what mile you are at. I have to say, and I know this sounds kind of dumb, but I like the voice in Mapmyrun better than in Strava. The voice in Mapmyrun, sounds so much more encouraging to me for some reason.

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Aww so many things to celebrate! Congrats to everyone!!

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What an awesome Friday!! Hopefully Billy will love the internship. My husband did several while in law school and he really enjoyed them. I use Runtastic Pro on my runs. I love it and I got it when it was a free app. Do you know about App Gratis? Get it!!

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Happy 7 month birthday, baby runner girl! :)

Sarah
http://www.thinfluenced.com

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Super cute pants! I love the color (the one with you next to the beach). Where did you get them?

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Thank you! Target:)

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Happy 7 Month Birthday to Brooke! Time is flying!

I bought those reddish (rust?) colored pants from Target tonight! I remember seeing them on your blog before and asking you where you got them, but I was surprised to still see them in the store! I love the way they fit — so comfy!

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I don’t use an app but my friends like the Runtastic App all right. Hooray for not having to move for the summer!

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Oh stop! Her hair stays in pigtails!? I can’t handle that. She’s gonna be hard to discipline when she’s bad with that sweetness!

Also, I use the NIKE Running App and love it. Every mile or so it has a famous athlete say inspirational words to you! If you’re listening to music through your iPhone at least…great for people who need an extra push.

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I love Parenthood too and I was so sad when I got to the end of season 3! But you could watch season 4 on Hulu. I did the 1 month free and watched all the episodes!

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Also, if you do Running Apps, can you do Brilliant Ways To Keep Your Phone Dry While Running?

I live in the tropics. Every run is a sweat-fest (like, it’s 80-90 F + humidity). I’ve already ruined one phone (it was double-bagged in Ziplocs), and can’t afford to lose another. HELP.

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First, your post was a really welcome pick me up today. Life is stressful and was getting me down and a post about celebrating was exactly what I needed!
Second, cutest. baby. ever. (I know you must get this all the time, but she is just so happy in every picture!)
Third, that cake looks incredible. I’m pretty sure if I tried to make that it would be a pretty epic failure.
Finally, I don’t have any additional running apps (the ones I’ve used have all been mentioned), but I am VERY interested in one of your other commenters requests about how to avoid ruining phones with sweat. Such a problem.

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I misplaced (totally can’t find it…) my Garmin charger, so I downloaded “Map my Run” to track my distance and speed. It works pretty well and you can save your workouts and routes run.

Enjoy your pancakes!

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Happy 7 months to your sweet baby girl!! And congratulations to billy! That’s exciting!

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For my daughters 6th birthday in Feb I actually made that same rainbow cake! It was so easy & the cutest cake ever! Everyone loved it.

Run keeper has always been my fav running app!

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Brooke is the cutest baby ever. Happy seven month birthday!

Also if you are looking for an interesting show, “Hart of Dixie” is on Netflix and I loved it. I think only the first season, but it reminds me of the fast talking Gilmore Girls.

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I use Mapmyrun and just had my first run this past week with my new Garmin Forerunner 10. It is an amazing GPS watch at a great price! I didn’t think it would display my course but it does! I would highly recommend it!

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I KNOW. I watched all the seasons of Parenthood on Netflix too and am super bummed I can’t keep going!

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Happy 7-months Brooke!!!

I use RunKeeper and I love it! Even better – it syncs with my Garmin data to help keep all my metrics in one place :)

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That girl has some of the best baby hair I’ve ever seen! Happy 7th month, Brooke! It’s been a blast seeing you grow up and what not. Congrats to Billy, and I’ve got to throw my hat in to the ring for RunKeeper – I’m a new user, and you should probably make that new convert ;)

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I do the same on the stair master– fat burner is a killer! 30 minutes and I’m out of there. Calorie burner is another good one that spaces it out a little better. Enjoy your weekend! Happy 7 Brooke!

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Happy 7 months to Brooke! You guys are definitely having a good day!

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Good news season 4 of Parenthood just came out on HULU. The regular HULU, not the Hulu plus that you have to pay for! I may have just watched the whole season 4 this week. I am also a recent Parenthood convert and season 4 did not disappoint!

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Such awesome reasons to celebrate! Looks like your weekend is off to a great start :) and I’ve found that the Runmeter App PRO to be the best!

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I love the NIKE+ running app!

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Congrats to Billy!! And even though I used to be an evening workout-er, morning workouts are definitely the way to go (once you get used to the whole waking up super early thing).

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That’s awesome for Billy, congrats! Is he doing a firm? If so, he’s probably going to get 1st yr salary basically, which means you guys will be able to do all kinds of fun stuff on the weekends and if you’re doing loans, probably less in loans for 2L year (plus he’ll probably get an offer for the following summer, which is the most important one!!). Woo-hoo! And so glad you guys won’t have to move!

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