Pages

Friday, October 28, 2011

Happy Birthday to You!

To my niece, Rose...

Happy 1st Birthday!

Maybe you'll let me hold you once without crying sometime before you turn 2 :)

Have a very special day!  We love you!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Woot! Woot!

Frankly, I normally find that phrase very annoying when I see it used, but it was the only thing that kept popping into my head this morning when I stepped on the scale.

It was only a matter of 2-4 pounds that I had been "waiting" on, but now that they seem to have finally vacated my body...I am proud to say that I am finally back down to the weight I was for most of high school and early college!  Don't get me wrong-I am still absolutely nowhere near my "ideal/dream" weight and I am still a "big lady" (oh how I hate those words!), but it is a step in the right direction. 

This last pound or two also means that I am officially the "smallest" that I have ever been since I've been married!  I was at the heaviest I had ever been when I got married (hmmm...guessing stress might have been a factor...) and then I became even heavier during the first year or two of our infertility journey [wedding stress + (wishing you could be pregnant right from the start x watching many of those around you get pregnant/have babies) stress=10 extra lbs that I definitely DID NOT need at the time or ever!]

And now they are gone and here I stand almost 45 lbs lighter than that point I reached several years back!

WOOT! WOOT! (Yes, I still think this phrase is annoying! :)

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Signs of October :)

October Activities (This one was a first for me!):


Luke's


                               Mine                           


     October Sights:

Spooooky!


October Flowers:

Lilacs???
Yep, that's right! For some reason, our lilac bush decided to start blooming.  I don't even think the weather has been that crazy to confuse the plants, but the lilac decided to bring us a nice surprise for fall.  I wonder if it'll still bloom next spring?

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Running: Then vs Now

THEN (meaning last winter/spring's 1/2 marathon training):

*I was pretty sure that I just might actually die trying to complete a 1/2 marathon...

*I had only ran a full 3 miles a couple of  times when I signed up for my first race...

*I could not even imagine running the 5 miles that I would need to do several times throughout my training, let alone 12-13 miles...

*I felt WAY in over my head, but was determined to do it...

*I could normally run the entire time, as long as it was a distance I had ran before, but if it was not...

*I had to take walk breaks quite often, especially when running the "new" part of the distance...

*I was constantly checking weather reports and wind speeds to find the "best" days to run...

*I always took my MP3 player with me...

*I was SLOW...

*Running felt like work, but I sure did enjoy it!

NOW:

*I am pretty sure that I will not die while competing in my next 1/2 :) and am a much more confident runner...

*I have completed a 1/2 marathon, as well as a sprint triathlon, since I first started training last winter...

*I now know that I can do it...

*I know and can feel that my body is much stronger and in much better shape these days...

*I have ran the entire time for every.single.run  this time around, including last Saturday's 12 miler...

*If I've planned on running a certain day, the only thing that will keep me from doing it is lightning-bring on the weather, it's great strength/stamina building...

*I never take my music with me, instead I tend to get in my "zone" and meditate while I run...

*I am still SLOW, but a slightly faster slow...

*On occasion, running does still feel like work, but it just keeps getting better! :)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ugly Driver

Earlier this week, there was an incident in the Walmart parking lot.  I was pulling into the parking lot as I normally do and there was (as usual) a long line of cars waiting at the stop sign.  I watched as one car pulled out as I was approaching and I saw the little red car behind it stop at the stop sign too.  Now to throw out a few of my fake statistics, usually 95% of the cars pull into the parking lot and turn right immediately, but there is the option to keep driving straight as one pull's into the parking lot and I am one of those 5% who ALWAYS keeps on driving straight ahead.

As you may have guessed, the little red car stopped at the stop sign and just continued to pull on out right.in.front.of.me!  Luckily, I slammed on the brakes and somehow was able to not completely T-bone the little red car.

I looked over at the driver (a really old little man with an old woman sitting next to him) and he was yelling at ME!  I motioned to him that he was supposed to stop.  Of course, our windows were up so I could not hear the guy, but it was clear to me that he was yelling at me that I was the one who was wrong and that I was supposed to turn.  I shook my head no and dropped my jaw in disbelief as he mouthed the word

A#%HOLE!

At me!  He then appeared to try to flip me off with his ring finger and drove away!

I admit that I was quite shaken up by the whole ordeal!  I am definitely NOT a "road rage" type of person and rarely even get upset with other drivers...I prefer to just tsk, tsk them as unsafe drivers.  Plus, he had been so nasty towards me and he was COMPLETELY the one in the wrong in every.single.way!  I was trying to hold back my tears as I walked into the store when I saw one of my super little students.  She had the biggest smile on her face when she saw me walk in and I went right up to her and told her...

"THANK YOU!"  because she had just made my world a little bit brighter after such an ugly incident!

I do have to admit that I was all ready to come on here later that day and type some nasty statement "to the man in the parking lot", but as I was walking around the store I thought "no" because then I would be putting that same kind of ugliness out into the world.  Plus, one never really knows the other side of the story.  Maybe that guy had just been told that he only had a few months to live, maybe he had just been treated rudely by someone else, maybe the store was out of his favorite kind of ice cream, maybe he was just having a really bad day, or maybe he is just an a#%, but whatever the case may be it felt good to know that I "broke his cycle" of ugliness that day and did not pass it on to someone else.  I just hope he was nice to everyone else he met that day!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Things I Don't Understand...

and am probably too cynical to ever understand ;)

"Car People" or in rural areas "Tractor People"- I just don't understand salivating over a certain car, certain brand of car/tractor, or the people who claim that their brand is the ONLY brand that is acceptable.  Here comes the cynical :)...I believe that every brand has it's "dud" and that every brand probably has at least one product that is pretty good.  I've also always disliked the whole "dream car" question because for me a car is a car-as long as it gets me where I need to go (& has ample leg room/space, which most "dream cars" do not) then I'm okay with it.

Politicians-I believe that 99% of them are just telling you whatever they think you need to hear at that moment (or whatever the "party brand" is at the time) to get your vote...maybe 1% of them are in it for the right reasons ;)

Making Excuses-I am VERY guilty of doing this one too, but I am also always catching myself doing this and then turning around and apologizing for it :(  I've learned that excuses just lead to more excuses and basically they're pretty much all BS anyway!  I am really trying to work on this one all of the time, but it's just so hard! (Did you catch that one there? Just trying to make sure you're still paying attention! hehe ;)

And finally...

How when my "plate" in life is fairly full, I can still manage to squeeze a few more big things into it! 
Here's to a "plate" that may just runneth over soon, but hopefully it won't take my mind with it! :)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

An Anniversary!

Of what?  I know that some of you are thinking this :)

One year ago this weekend, Scott & I took a little trip with some friends to Southern Illinois.  We enjoyed traveling the wine trails...really enjoyed the wine...and all in all had a really fun time together!  It was a blast (except for maybe some of the effects of all of that wine that I experienced the next day, but we won't get into that here! ;) 

On this trip, one of my friends started talking about how she had started the "Couch to 5K" online training program for running and was really enjoying it.  I had previously tried this same program a couple of times already...only to have given up about halfway through it.

The discussion, my previous failures, plus the prospect of having someone to track our progress together...all equaled MAJOR MOTIVATION for me to want to give it another try.  I thought about it the rest of the weekend and decided that I was going to do it and this time...there would be NO giving up!

Not too long after getting home that Sunday afternoon, I printed off the schedule once again and I finished Day 1 of it.

So, this weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of me being a runner! :)

One year ago, I could barely imagine being able to run 1 mile at a time, let alone 3!  People who even attemped marathons and 1/2 marathons were crazy!  Well, look who's crazy now...ME!  As I am entering my last few weeks of training for my 2nd half marathon this year...I ran 9 miles yesterday...CRAZY! :)

Never in my life would I ever have imagined that this would be me, but boy does it feel good!

From the past year, here are some of the moments that stand out the most in my head...

1)  The first time I ran 20 minutes without stopping (on the Couch to 5K schedule) and called my friend to celebrate!  Then a few days later when she called and we celebrated her accomplishing the same thing!

2)  Making the decision to attempt a 1/2 marathon and being (almost) completely convinced that I might actually die trying to do one!

3)  The first time I ran/walked 10 and then 12 miles with my sister...these were some of the hardest runs I have ever done, but we both made it through!  (Wind was a BIG factor on both of these.)

4)  Crossing the finish line of my first ever race (the 1/2 marathon) and the sheer joy I felt doing so!

5)  Having my first ever experience with running in high heat/humidity at that very same race...not pleasant and neither were the effects of dehydration after the race.

6)  One of my goals when I first started running was to possibly compete in a sprint triathalon and I am proud to say that I can check this off my list too, but that doesn't mean that I won't do it again :)

What a difference a year can make!