It's hard to believe that we're at the end of the year already. It seems like just yesterday I was at Manager's New Year's Eve party wondering who would attend with me after Vegas moved. This past year has been full of so many changes, yet so many other things have stayed the same. In staying with the general theme (give me credit, I like to believe that this site has a direction. lol) here are the major items that happened to me in my running, riding, reading, and repeating!

Running
This year started slowly in terms of running. I did the bare minimum in mileage and ran races that I was a bit underprepared for. But I quickly turned it around and joined the Disney Springs Fit2Run Galloway Training Group which helped me jump start my running program into something more productive than it had been. While I'm only a casual member the group at the moment, because of the early darkness, I am looking forward to continuing my running journey with them. I was able to PR my 10k and place in my age group for a 5k because of them.

On the topic of my 10k PR at the Celebration Pancake Run 10k, it was a bit disappointing but it is a huge milestone for me. If you check out my races tab you'll see that my PRs haven't really changed in a few years. This is entirely my fault because I am the least consistent runner I know. I had hoped to PR in the 5k at the Jingle Jolly Jog, but my mental game wasn't there. I am so proud of my first age group award. I have lusted after them for, what feels like, ages so it is extremely exciting to finally have one on my wall! Ok, it's actually in a shoebox under my guest bed because I have yet to find a medal holder that I love, but that isn't the point!

Riding
Easily, the biggest thing that happened to my riding career, this year, was purchasing Cupid. I spent weeks last year debating about purchasing her, and I officially made the plunge on January 11th. I never imagined that my horse would be a little Welsh pony cross, who was green broke with a major attitude. But here I am, with my little Welshie who still has a major attitude, and is slightly better than green broke. Honestly, I wouldn't trade in our partnership for anything. Owning a green pony has taught me so much about riding, patience, and myself. For every step forward there are two steps back, but once we make a leap forward the landing is extremely rewarding.

In addition to purchasing Cue, I also uprooted her and moved to a new barn. Shortly after purchasing Cupid I realized that our current situation was not working out. The care wasn't what I wanted for my horse, I felt cheated out of my lesson package, and I was extremely nervous having my partner in a barn with minimal supervision. It took me until May to find a stable that met my standards. The major sign that this was the place for us was when we ran into our new trainer at a show before I had even told our old trainer we were leaving. The new trainer made several observations about Cupid and I, then commented that she would love to take us back to the basics because "she's a baby and there's no need to rush her". Hearing this proved to me that she would have Cupid's best interests at heart which is all I wanted in a boarding situation.

Moving Cupid was the best choice I could make for her. She's happy at our current barn, has put on much-needed weight, and is slowly becoming a solid partner for me. We still have a long way to go, and I miss jumping, but watching her move properly and understand what I'm asking has been worth everything we have been through.

Reading
According to GoodReads, I've read 112 books this year. My goal for the year was 100 so I am officially putting this in the win category for the year! A few of those books were the Saddle Club series because I started walking down memory lane and couldn't put the books down. What was really nice was that I'm able to get them from the Orange County Library Media Mall which means no awkwardly walking into the children section of the library or putting them on hold.

Two other series that I have really gotten into this year are the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the Finishing School series this weekend, so expect that review to come up in the near future!

Repeat
If you've been around for awhile you'll notice that I fashioned this blog after my running, riding, and reading life. So you might be questioning what this whole "repeat" business is. I decided the other day that I needed a header for my twitter account and my facebook page. The plan was to do a running, riding, and reading silhouette on a glitter background. While putting this together it dawned on me to do a repeat sign so the entire blog title was represented. I looked up repeat signs to get an idea and had an "I'm an idiot" moment. In music, there is a sign that informs the musician to repeat a section, this is called a repeat. Because music is such a big part of my life and I've openly discussed it on here it only made sense to take the Repeat part of my title and have it represent the music portion of my life.

I now present to you the newest "official" section of the blog. My Repeat section, or music discussion.

With that little intro out of the way, it's time to discuss my year in music!
In January I located a local orchestra that seemed like it would be at my skill level and was actively recruiting members, the Central Florida Community Orchestra. I signed up and attended my first rehearsal. It was terrifying and I almost walked away before entering the building, but I participated in that first rehearsal and loved it! The CFCArts #FluteNation welcomed me and has pushed me to want to become a better musician.

This year I participated in four different concerts with CFCArts; Jazz, Joel and John in March, American Roadtrip in June, Fiesta in November, and Once Upon a December in December. Once Upon a December was the first time, since college, where I've accompanied a choir. This pushed me to not only be aware of the rest of the orchestra but to also work on matching the choir without becoming the main focus.

Without the Orchestra, I don't think I would have found a group that feels like home or had the drive to pick up the saxophone again!

Overall, this is a quick review of my 2017. It was fun, it was great, but I can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for me!

Today, I celebrated my final day of my vacation by going to Bok Tower Gardens. This is a location that I have been meaning to visit for a long time.

Bok Tower Gardens was donated to the American people in 1929 by Edward Bok, an author and one of the original editors of the Ladies' Home Journal. The gardens are laid out in several different sections including a children's garden, edible garden, endangered plant garden, wetland, and several ponds and reflecting pools.

The highlight of the gardens was the Singing Tower. The Carillon is not an instrument that I am actively familiar with or have had the opportunity to experience. Sitting and listening to the concert performed on the carillon was an amazing experience. I was able to snag a spot by the screen that allowed me to view the carillonneur as he performed his art. It amazed me that carillonneurs have to use both their hands and feet to perform on the carillon. The amount of talent that requires simply blows my mind. I look forward to going back to the Tower and experiencing another performance.

From the Singing Tower, I headed over to the Pinewood Estate. Initially, I believed that the estate belonged to Edward Bok which isn't actually the case. Instead, the estate was the winter home of Charles Austin Buck, a Bethlehem Steel Vice President. In 1970, the estate was obtained by Bok Tower Gardens and added to the areas that visitors could tour. While I did not go into the house, I did walk the grounds and admire the Christmas Tree. My favorite part of the estate was a small pond with a waterfall just off the main entrance. This area begged to have you curl up with a book and a cup of tea.

Overall, I loved the Bok Tower Gardens and fully intend on going back. Because I could apply my admission price from today to an annual pass, I may or may not have purchased one! I promise next time I'll get more, and better, pictures.

Today's color preview made me extremely nervous. It appeared to be a red/brown and I was not cool with that.

After opening it, I was pleased to see that it was from the NYX Liquid Suede collection and was actually a purple/brown which is much more doable for me.

This color is called Vintage which made me smile when I first saw it.

Vintage applied nicely but did settle into the lines on my lips fairly quickly. It didn't look half bad but was not a good color for my skin tone. It's a bit too dark for me but not bad enough to where I couldn't pull it off. Honestly, I would not hesitate to wear this again. Providing it is not in a professional setting. If this color seems like something you would like the I would definitely test it out!

I'm one of those crazy planner people. I live out of my planner and panic just a bit if I can't find it. If something isn't in my planner then it isn't a priority, and if something has to be erased from my planner or moved to a different time/day then I get slightly irritated.

Back in high school, we were provided planners, but my biggest issue with them was the lack of time segments. I love planning out my day minute by minute. It helps me stay organized and on top of things if they have a specific time to be worked on and time to be completed by. It took me a few years but I finally found a planner than meets my hourly requirement while still looking cute! Enter the Passion Planner.

The Passion Planner is not your typical planner, it is more of a yearly roadmap and goal map than just a simple planner. The year starts out with the Passion Roadmap which helps you map out your goals for the next three months, the next year, the next three years, and lifetime goals. I love using this roadmap because it helps me figure out where my priorities should be for the entire year.

Each month in the Passion Planner is laid out in an overall month format and a week format. The month format has spaces for the monthly focus, in both personal and work life, people to see, places to go, a not-to-do list, personal projects, work projects, and a blank space for whatever you feel like entering this month. I like using the monthly format to track when major things, like credit card payments, are due, along with figuring out what my focus should be that month with Cupid.

The week format has space for a weekly focus, good things that happen, work and personal projects, and a blank space for other items. It also includes a new quote each week, and some motivational advice. My favorite part of the weekly format is the 30-minute increments under each day between 6:00am and 10:30pm. This has really helped me stay organized between work, running, Cupid, crochet orders, and orchestral rehearsal and performances.

The final unique section of the Passion Planner is the Monthly Reflection. Throughout the month I'll use this to keep track of everything major that happens. At the end of each month, it allows me to sit down and figure out if there is anything I should change or keep the same with what I have been doing.

It's hard to believe that I'm already on day eight of the NYX Lippie Countdown. Today's preview showed a nice pale pink which is almost the complete opposite of yesterday's purple shade.

When I opened the tab I was a bit disappointed to see another butter collection item. This time the lip color was from the Butter Gloss collection.

This shade is called Creme Brulee, and I after thinking about it for a minute I suppose the name does make sense

Once applied this color is a nice, soft, pale pink. It is more of a tinted gloss than a lipstick, but it is very appropriate for almost any situation. This does retain a bit of a tacky feeling for quite awhile, but once that feeling ends it leaves behind a nice soft hint of color. This is not a long-lasting lip color, but because it is so subtle it is not one that is super obvious that it has worn off.