{should have expected this}

It is Sunday night and I am sick.

I should have expected this. I should have known that my sister and son would share their germs with me.

Thankfully, I think I am on the mend.

It started on Thursday, so thankfully it was after the Christmas celebrations. I woke up Thursday morning and started to get ready for work. I didn't feel 100% as I started to get ready, but I really wanted to get out of the house for a little while so I told myself that I would go to work and then leave early if I started to feel worse.

I made it until 1:00pm and then I headed home. My whole body just started to ache, particularly my back, and so I came home and just relaxed. Thankfully I was child free until Friday afternoon so I didn't have to worry about Ayden.

I spent the majority of the next three days in bed/on the couch feeling like crap. It wavered between fever, chills, sore throat, cough, stomach ache. Now, it is pretty much a sore throat/cough and runny nose. My appetite is pretty much back to the way that it was, although it is hard to eat when your throat hurts so bad. I got some cough drops today that have really helped my throat which has been great.

I finally found our NyQuil last night and I took some before bed and slept pretty good. I'm thinking about taking some again tonight and then hoping tomorrow I can go medicine free. A lot of this sitting around has really put a damper on my mood. It wouldn't be so bad sitting at home for a few days if I didn't feel like such a pile. My house is a disaster and I have no ambition to clean it whatsoever.

I haven't been able to workout/run since last Wednesday and that has also played into my sour mood. Plus, my back just hurts. I need a good massage and I know it hurts from me sitting around/laying around so much lately. It just aches.

And I'm in a sour mood. Ugh.

I wish I felt normal again.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{2012 recap}

I only felt right doing a recap for 2012 since I have done one at least the last year (maybe more, but I’m just too lazy to go back on my blog and check). And so here goes, a little snip-it of what has been going on in my/our lives over the course of the last year. I cannot believe how fast 2012 has flown by! I can only hope that 2013 holds as many great things for my family, and yours, as 2012 did! Bring it on! And without further a-do…

January

Another year had come and gone and we started 2012 out with a bang. In January I had set some goals/resolutions for myself in 2012. These goals were: to stay healthy in 2012, blog more, start and finish Project 365, and try harder in school. I am proud to say that at least I stayed healthy, haha! I may weigh five pounds more this January than I did last January, but I know it is because I have more muscle and I KNOW that I am in better shape than what I was last year at this time. I also blogged more, even if it was only 20 or 30 more times. I did start Project 365 and did pretty good with it until about June when life really became busy. And school, well I managed straight ‘A’s, but cannot say that I tried all that much harder. Also, with some time off last January, I was pretty crafty and made quite a number of DIY items at home.

February

I got a pen pal from New Jeresy in February... we wrote actual letters for a while and then we caved to technology and mostly keep in touch via Facebook now. It was super awesome to gain a new friend though! I also second shot my first wedding this month and had a great time!

March

It warmed up in March! We went rollerskating with my dad's family and had a blast! Ayden and I spent a lot of time outside enjoying the nice weather. And towards the end of March I started my journey as a single mother during the week. It would last this way for the next two months as Jay lived closer to his new job with his parents and Ayden and I stayed in Point to finish out the school year before moving. We also found the house that we were going to rent in March!

Sidenote, this is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Ayden! It is just SO him and I think that is why I like it so much!

April

I took and passed the Praxis this month. (Although I wouldn’t find out that I passed until sometime in early June.) I was SO relieved to not have to worry about that anymore. We also started to pack up our house this month and had boxes around for the next month or so until we moved. We boxed up everything that wasn't essential for the next couple of weeks to make the moving process easier. We stopped by our new place and I got to take a picture of the outside!

May

This was a big month for us as we officially moved from Stevens Point to our new house, Ayden had his last day of being a second grader, and I started my year long externship. Granted, the majority of these things happened at the end of the month, but still... May will forever be the month where we left Stevens Point behind. Before moving I attempted the Couch to 5K program for the first time. I wanted to become a runner. That didn't last too long as I ended up with really bad shin splints about two days in and then quit. Little did I know that I needed proper running shoes. During much of the last two weeks that we lived in Stevens Point I did a lot of this. I would work in the morning and then sit outside and read all afternoon until Ayden got done with school. I succumbed to the Fifty Shades of Grey series and my legs got plenty of sun while I reveled in the world of those books, haha!

 

June

I decided that I wanted to be crazy and signed up for a 5:30am boot camp this month that was held every Monday. Getting up at 5:00am on a Monday! I don't know what I was thinking! But I survived! One of my cousins and one of Jay's also signed up for it, so seeing them each Monday morning definitely helped keep me motivated! As a family, we travelled to the Mall of America for our last outing with Ayden's cub scout troup from Point! We slept with the sharks and had a great time!

July

We ventured out on the lake quite a bit this month! I love being out on the calm water fishing with Jay's family. There is just something special about it! We also went camping in the hottest weather imaginable with Jay's parents. It was a ton of fun, especially since the pond water was so warm and the inflatable toys were awesome!

August

I got my new ring this month. I could not be more in love with it! It is SO me. I loved my other ring, but really I wanted something that was just mine. We also picked out Jay's wedding ring. Cannot wait until we are married! I also went wedding dress shopping and found THE ONE with my mom, sister, and one of my bridesmaids. I cannot wait to wear it on our wedding day. Ayden turned 8 and I turned 26... We went both Hoerth camping (during which I felt like crap) and Schwobe camping (during which I didn't feel like crap and had a ton of fun). We were actually camping with my family on my birthday!

September

Ayden started 3rd grade and Jay turned 27. I decided that I really wanted to be a runner, so I got myself some actual running shoes and started the Couch to 5K program over and really got motivated. I signed up for my first 5K at the end of October and got committed again.

October

Victoria and I signed up for a Zumba class at some point either during September or October. In any case, we both loved it and loved going together. I continued to run and continued to build up my endurance. At the end of the month I ran my very first 5K and finished in under 30 minutes (just under 30 minutes) and was SO proud of myself. All of my commitment to running started to pay off and it just made me want to train harder. After my first 5K I decided that I wanted to train for a half marathon!

Novemeber

Happy Thanksgiving! I ran my first 5 mile run on Thanksgiving Day... a turkey trot and I loved it. After this run I decided that I wanted to run a race every month for the next year! Crazy much?! I ran a total of 75 miles this month, with my longest run being 7.2 miles! SO proud of myself!

December

I wrote the 'obligatory christmas post' this month and then realized after posting it that I had titled one the exact same thing last year. How ironic and how me, haha! Ran another 5 mile race... this time with my bestie. It was her first 2 mile race and she rocked it like no other! We celebrated Christmas with our family! Victoria and I have been hanging out more and more and I cannot express how grateful I am to have my bestie live a two minute drive from me. Our kids get along great and I LOVE IT! Cannot wait to run our 5K Color Run together in a few days!

And that would be 2012…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{obligatory christmas post}

It’s been over a week since I last posted and in true fashion, there is a lot to update on. Well actually, the majority of it is Christmas related, but I will start before Christmas.

Last Wednesday was my last day of work before Christmas, although I had very good intentions of going to work on at least Friday. The weather was forecasting a pretty good snow storm Wednesday night into Thursday and I really didn’t have any good intentions on going to work on Thursday if the weather was bad, and in fact, one of the office managers called me Thursday morning and told me not to come in.

Wednesday night I pounded out a good five miles on the treadmill at the high school weight room. I didn’t want to run outside (or on the treadmill), but I got it done and felt pretty good. Prior to that, Wednesday at work went good. The day was packed with patients and it went pretty fast. I was able to head out a little early to finish up some Christmas shopping and then get home to run. The snow started late Wednesday and because I was staying home (and the kids didn’t have school), I watched Ayden and Alexis at our house. We didn’t do anything Thursday except stay inside. Alexis came over with a pretty good cold after being sick Tuesday night into Wednesday. The kids played outside for a little bit.

By Thursday night though, Ayden had a fever and was catching what Alexis had. I kind of expected it because they spend every morning and night together. I didn’t think Ayden would be going to school on Friday either, and he didn’t. It was kind of nice for me though because I wasn’t quite ready to brave the roads on Friday. Ayden and I spent most of Friday just chilling out at home. I doped him up with some cold medicine.

Friday night was my family Christmas. My mom came over late in the afternoon to help get ready and to hang out and then my sister, John, and my brother joined us later in the night. We had a lot of fun eating good food, opening gifts, taking Christmas pictures in front of our awesome tree, and playing a Wii tournament together. We all (except Jay) even battled in Just Dance 2! It was hilarious!

Saturday I was gone all day helping to photograph a wedding. The day went super fast and I got some awesome pictures of which I have yet to go through and post some on my photography blog. Sunday, I came home from the wedding. The wedding was in Wausau (about 2 1/2 hours away from my house) so the main photographer and I slept over night. I got home in the early afternoon and vegged in bed for a while watching Lifetime before deciding that I needed to get off my lazy patootie and do something and by that time it was dark out and I wasn’t going to run outside anymore. I had a nine mile run that I wanted to  complete and was totally going to put off until Monday, but I asked my dad if I could use his treadmill and I pounded them out. It was the longest nine miles EVER, but I did it! I rocked those nine miles!

Monday and Tuesday were Christmas celebrations. We ventured to a local bar on Monday afternoon and spent some time with my dad’s side of the family (there actual celebration is this coming weekend) and after that we went to Jay’s mom’s side of the family and then my mom’s side of the family. By the time we made it to my mom’s side of the family Ayden was pretty out of it. Each year we don’t start opening gifts there until usually 9:30pm or later (I don’t know why I ever think the next year is going to be different) and Ayden was asleep on my lap by about 8pm. Poor little guy! It was so nice to be able to rock him for a little while, but really, an eight year old on your lap isn’t quite as comfortable for either me or him as when he was two, but I know that he needed some mommy cuddles.

Tuesday we headed to Jay’s dad side of the family and Jay’s parents house. Oh man, says Ayden… this present opening is hard, what am I going to do! How am I going to be able to ever open all of these?!

Wait, I got a bowling ball, how cool is that?! He cannot wait to use it. He needs to go and get the finger holes drilled before he can use it though. By the time supper rolled around I was ready to be home and in bed. It had been a long couple of days!

I cannot believe that Christmas has come and gone already this year! Time flies! (Faster and faster every year.)

The best part of the holidays is definitely getting to spend it with our families. I will forever enjoy getting together with family and remembering the fun that we have together. There is always something memorable at each family event! As busy and tiring as the holidays are, I do enjoy it!

We were also blessed gift wise this year. Ayden got a bowling ball from Jay’s parents which he cannot wait to use for the first time. I got Jay a Kitchen Aid mixer of which he has been wanting for YEARS! It was even to the point where he wanted us to get one for Christmas from our parents, but I didn’t want to use ‘my’ part of the gift for something that only he wanted. I managed to find a super good deal on this one and I surprised him with him (well tried to anyways, he managed to find out before Christmas). He is in love and I know that he is just dying to use it for the first time! He surprised me with a Garmin Forerunner GPS running watch! He even got the kind right without me having to tell him, I was so proud, hehe! Ayden got lots of legos! He loves legos and I put up with them, haha!And today, Wednesday, I went for my very first run with my new watch. I am in love! Real dedication comes when you go for a run in 19 degree weather just to try out your new watch, hehe! And then Victoria and I went shopping! I spent my Target gift cards and got some new clothes and some new boots with some left over Kohls cash!Work tomorrow and Friday and then another four days off! And before I sign off, I will leave you with some family pictures we took on Friday…

Nothing like some awesome Christmas lights bokeh! Love it!Our beautiful Christmas tree! Don’t think we will be getting another long needled tree next year. As pretty as it is, you can’t see any of the ornaments that we decorated it with. Either way, its our tree and I love it!Yes, this is my crazy family and yes I love them!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{redeemed my run}

Guess who totally redeemed herself on Friday?! THIS girl! Yup, you better believe it! Instead of just the typical six miles that I was pushing for on Friday, I decided to go all out and do my long run that night. The weather was great for it and I knew the weather for the weekend was going to be kind of iffy. I pushed out 8.37 miles on Friday night and was so proud of myself. Some days I wonder if I will ever be able to run a full half marathon and the thought of the 13.1 miles is daunting to me. Can I really do it? Will my body let me? Running is probably the most mental sport that I have ever attempted (not that I've been all into trying every sport that there is). In fact, I am not much of a sports person to begin with. I was not actively involved in any sports while I was in school (other than being a manager and please, like that requires any effort, haha!) But compared to just your typical workout video and/or bike riding or rollerblading, running takes a lot more mental effort. There have been runs where I know my body can keep going, but my head just isn't in it and when your head isn't in the game, it is SO much harder to finish.

But, on Friday, I rocked it out. Once I was about halfway through I knew I could keep pushing and would finish. The first 1/3 of the long runs is probably the hardest for me right now mentally because I know just how long I have to go and I am just starting. It takes me a while to really get into the groove. I pounded that pavement and was super proud of myself. This weekend I have my first 9 mile run. Slowly but surely I am going to make my way up to 13.1 miles, even when I feel like I cannot. I am going to just keep going and going and going.

On Saturday and Sunday... I was lazy and didn't work out. Ayden had bowling on Saturday morning and after bowling it was raining out and Ayden and I were running to the car. Please, even attempting to somewhat run to the car the day after a long ass run, not possible! I looked like an injured deer trying to hobble my way across the road at anything faster than a slow walk, haha!

The rest of the weekend was good. We were supposed to go sledding on Saturday with Victoria and Parker; however, the rain melted all of the snow and really, no one likes to sled in the rain on the grass anyways. So, Victoria and Parker just came over to our house instead, we had lunch, and then hung out together enjoying a relaxing afternoon. Sunday... well Sunday wasn't exactly pleasant at my house, so for the sake of respecting my almost husband's wishes about putting our entire life in display for everyone, I'll just skip over Sunday. But in case you were wondering, we are fine again.

And Monday... it was good. Pretty super busy at work, but it made the day fly by. Ayden had his Christmas concert after school and my little boy made this momma SO proud. He had been practicing his songs for the concert at home for the last several weeks and I fully believed he would be belting them out while on the stage. He did not disappoint. He also had a whole gaggle of people there to watch him as well! Me, Jay, my mom, Emily, John, both of Jay's parents, both of Jay's sets of grandparents (although one set was there to watch other great grandchildren as well), my dad and Wendy (Alexis sang before Ayden did), and my aunt's family (there daughter was on after Ayden). I think he was just beaming inside to know that that many people he knew were there.

Run wise, I squeezed in a quick 4.5 mile run last night. I didn't really want to go. Like I said, it takes me a while to get into it and it was cold out last night. But I pushed it out. My knee started to hurt around the 3.5 mile mark, not liking that so much. Speaking of knee pain, almost hubby is having some pretty severe knee pain today. So much so that he stayed home from work. Jay isn't one to complain too much about pain unless it really hurts, like really hurts. When I talked to him last, the plan was to head to the doctor to have it looked at. He is concerned that he might have pulled/torn an MCL ligament or whatever you call it. All I know that is that typically anything MCL related usually ends up in surgery, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is just a knee sprain or something like that and that we are over-reacting right now. But really, he was not looking too hot this morning when he was trying to hobble around.

Speaking of running, has anything that lives in this area seen the weather that we are supposed to get. 6-10" of snow! OMG! I won't even start the rant about how much I hate the snow because I'm sure you are all well aware of that already. But seriously, ugh!

I'll say this again, I like my nice clean sidewalks and roads to run on. Snow hinders that. No thank you, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{botched and unbotched}

(Written last Friday afternoon)

I chickened out on my six mile run the other night and bowed ungracefully out after just three miles. To be honest though, the wind was killing me. I was running against the wind for at least half of the three miles and it was hard my friends, hard. I probably could have kept going, but I wasn't really feeling it. I know that every run isn't going to be good and I just couldn't really get into a good groove the other night. I just kept thinking about how hard the last mile was going to be running against the wind and then just made up my mind to cut it short. It was still a three mile run, I mean I guess I can't say that I did nothing. (Is it sad that I now consider a three mile run short? Shouldn't I be excited that I can now run three miles without killing myself? I don't know.)

Another reason for my run cut short, icy sidewalks. I have to say that the majority of the people in town are pretty good at keeping their sidewalks clean (at least it seems that way so far), but really, three days after a snowfall and you still have icy/snow on your sidewalk, really?! Don't you know that that is interfering with my running capabilities, haha! I could feel myself not really running full out because of the sidewalks. I started my run when there was some light left in the sky so I could see the icy sidewalks, but about halfway through it got dark and then I didn't know what I was stepping on and really didn't want to fall and get hurt. Guess I need to get some grips for my shoes for the winter running.

I'm going to attempt to make up for Wednesday night and tonight get a good six mile run in. The wind is supposed to be pretty nonexistent tonight and the weather is supposed to be pretty nice as well. And since I didn't work out at all on Tuesday or Thursday, I need to make up for it, lol! Okay, I probably don't need to make up for it, as much as I need to watch the unhealthiness that I have been putting in my mouth.

Has anyone heard of Funky Chunky popcorn? OMG! If not, look it up at funkychunky.com! I think I have died and gone to heaven, this stuff is AMAZEBALLS good! And like AMAZEBALLS bad for you, lol! Popcorn and peanuts covered in butter, chocolate and caramel! Talk about a party in my mouth. Anyways, I attended a hearing aid conference yesterday and the manufacturer was giving this stuff out to the participants. I made Ayden promise not to tell Jay that I have some because I want to keep all of that goodness to myself! I swear I could have eaten the entire jar of it last night in one sitting. I mean, it is not THAT big, but still, even what I did end up eating was too much! (And there is even some more at work that I can snack on, sweet sweet goodness!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{down it goes}

Down it goes, as in all of the food that has been going down into my stomach as of late. I keep telling myself that each day is going to be better than the last and then the new day comes and it isn't and I continue to shove my face with anything that it is an arms length and said items really aren't very good for me. Stop it, stop it, stop it, and yet it continues to go down. Stupid holidays, haha! Can't I blame it on something other than me?! Lol!

I've also gone from working out about 5-6 days a week to only doing 3-4 days a week and it sucks because when I don't work out my mood suffers. I need to get back into a better routine; however, it is going to be harder with the snow. The other night I did bust out a good run on the treadmill. I had fully intended on doing a six mile run on the treadmill. When outside I can typically keep my pace at a 10 minute mile, or even just a little bit under, but on the treadmill I was huffing and puffing at a 10 minute mile only five minutes into my run and I really needed to slow it down a little bit. I went from running 6 miles/hour to 5.5 miles/hour with a 1.5 incline. When I first started my run, I was alone in the weight room, but that didn't last for long. I'd have to say that about one mile into the run the weight room slowly started to fill up with guys. Never in a million years did I think I would be brave enough to get my sweat on in a room full of guys trying to workout. But you know what, I was probably one of the most fit people in there, haha! Okay, so I know for a fact that there were some of them in there that were more fit than me and a lot of them were probably stronger than me, but I do know that I could last longer on the treadmill than at least half of them, lol! It was funny to watch them pretend to workout. And they sure did take a lot of water breaks! Wimps! Haha! In any case, I had no problem continuing to run. I can proudly say that I wasn't the least bit self conscious while in there and let me tell you, by the end I was a good sweaty mess! I wimped out at just 5 miles, but really, five miles on a treadmill is a lot harder than five miles outside, at least it was too me. It took forever and I felt like I was getting no where. Haha, yeah, I know I wasn't getting anywhere. But I wanted to be safe and run inside and give the sidewalks a few extra days to get the snow off of them. Tonight's run... outside (hoping for six miles too!)

Another thing... I am SO sick of winter already (I know, who isn't), but really, I am sick of being cold. It is cold outside, ugh and it is cold inside, ugh again. I freeze pretty much all day at work, and people, it's not like I am wearing short sleeves. I NEVER wear short sleeves at work. I habitually have a cami, some sort of short sleeve shirt, and then a sweater or fleece on AND a scarf (because please, what is winter weather without wearing a different cute scarf everyday) and I am STILL cold! I HATE being cold! I feel it in my muscles at the end of the day from being so bunched up all day long trying to keep warm. I don't know why people think that a comfortable temperature for an office is like a zillion degrees below zero! How can I ever have a patient tell me that I have warm hands when I am cold all day long. I mean seriously, if I had a dollar for every patient that told me that I have cold hands, I'd be rich and wouldn't need to graduate. Seriously, what am I supposed to do to get my hands warmer, wear gloves?! It's not like I am keeping them cold on purpose. I am just ALWAYS cold! I much prefer the hot hot summer over the cold dead of winter. And yes, I am going to keep whining about how cold it is here in good old Wisconsin because I hate it. I go home at the end of the day and after my run, I curl up on the same spot on the couch with my heating blanket and just chill there for the rest of the night. Last night I turned the heat up in the house and still hid under the heating blanket. We don't keep our house too warm though either, but at least when I am at home, I can layer on as many clothes as I want to, whereas when I am at work, I need to look at least somewhat professional and cannot have two or three sweatshirts on and thick socks and slippers and a warm robe. Haha!

Other than freezing my patootie off and eating like crap, the rest of my week has been going pretty good. Today has got to be the slowest day on the planet at work though. Not a ton of patients and I don't have a lot of extra stuff to get caught up on so the day is dragging on. Some days I enjoy this because we stay pretty busy here for the most part and other days it just makes the day that much longer. Today is one of the longer days. This afternoon should go a little bit faster though, we have a few more patients. We are going to be crazy busy next week though with it being the week before Christmas. Definitely not looking forward to that. Busy is good, over busy just adds stress. I don't do stress, haha!

With that...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{until we meet again}

This weekend was a mix of happy and sad. This past weekend my family laid a mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother to rest. It's not goodbye, it's until we meet again. The funeral was beautiful and throughout most of it I was choking back tears. It was a beautiful sunny day and great grandma will be greatly missed by many many people. She was the kind of women you just keep thinking is going to live forever. I remember a long long time ago one of my cousin's saying that it will be a sad sad day when she passes away and I think many of us just thought that that day would never come. It was a tough day, but grandma is at home now and we know that we will be with her again one day. Instead of celebrating Christmas with us his year, she is celebrating it with Jesus himself. What a great thought!

I know I tried burying much of my feelings about my grandma's passing in order to not let Ayden see my down and out. He understands that someone passed away. I took him to the funeral, but I don't think he realizes just who it is. I mean, he has seen grandma at many family gatherings over the last eight years, but at his young age, I don't know that he knows who exactly she was to him. And that is partly my fault.

Other than the funeral, the rest of the weekend was fine. Nothing overly exciting. I ran 8.24 miles. My farthest run to date. I haven't been out running since Friday and I need it. We got a pretty significant amount of snow yesterday, so it will be a few days again before I can get back out onto the sidewalks and run outside. In the mean time, I am going to be taking my runs inside to the dreaded treadmill. Ugh! Just the thought of it doesn't appeal to me. I love running outside. My 8 mile run was pretty cathartic. I think I needed it. I just kept going and going and going. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to run a half marathon and then other times I know that I will be able to. I AM going to do this. I know I am!

We decorated our tree on Sunday with my mom. It looks like an Ashley decorated Christmas tree... totally imperfectly perfect. I am not all about decorating big for Christmas. I keep hoping that once we get our own house that maybe I will get into the spirit of it, but I doubt it. I just don't find any joy in making more work for myself haha! But Ayden, my mom, and I all had fun putting the ornaments on it and eating chocolate and just being together.

As I mentioned before, it snowed pretty much all day yesterday. If I had to guess, I would say that we got about 4 inches of snow. Ayden is in love with the snow. He spent a number of hours outside yesterday afternoon making and destroying snowmen and shoveling and just having fun. Me, I stayed inside where it was nice and warm. I do not like the cold and snow too much, but I do know that we will probably be outside quite a bit more this winter because of our large front yard and the huge snow hill right behind our house to use the sleds with. Oh yeah, it is going to be a good winter, that is for sure.

I was mildly nervous about my drive into work today, but thankfully the roads weren't too bad. I drove slower than normal and it seemed like everyone else was being kind of cautious as well which was good. We made it to December with no snow and good roads, that means one less month of bad winter driving. Usually by the middle to end of February we do not have to worry as much about the roads. So... just two and a half months of winter weather driving because believe me, the amount of snow we got yesterday is not going to melt. It is here for the long haul, haha!

Because I couldn't (didn't want to kill myself trying to) get out and run yesterday, I decided that I needed to do some kind of exercise indoors. I pondered calling my dad to see if I could use his dreadmill (yes, I called it a dreadmill, haha), but decided against that. So, workout DVD it was... and that left me to decide which one. I knew because I have been eating like chocolate is going out of style since St. Nick has come (stupid person in my house who bought all of the chocolate and stupid person who writes this blog who cannot keep her hand out of the chocolate bowl), I needed some kind of high impact cardio to kick my butt. Insert... Turbo Fire 55EZ. Believe you mean, EZ does not mean EASY, haha! I figured that since I could now run about five miles without burning out too easily that Turbo Fire wouldn't kick my butt as much. WRONG! 55 minutes after starting I finished with sweat dripping off of me and not so kind words slipping through my teeth. I contemplated stopping the workout not even 30 minutes in because I was bone tired already, but I kept pushing through. I knew that I needed to keep going and so I did (even when I didn't want to). I was proud of myself at the end and I totally felt it in my arms today. It is that good workout pain though. I know that I am at the point in my fitness journey that when I don't workout for a couple of days, my mood suffers because of it. I wasn't in the most joyous of moods at all this entire weekend (other reasons included), but on Sunday when my bestie time and shopping time was cancelled because of the stupid snow, I wasn't too happy and needed to get my workout on because even though they kick my butt, they also elevate my mood. I was feeling much happier after my workout (even though afterwards, I showered and crawled into my bed with my Kindle).

I started a good book on Friday (I think) and got sucked into it and now I am ready to get to the end of it, but there isn't enough time in the day, haha! I think I should be able to finish it tonight sometime. I am looking forward to how it ends. I love getting sucked into a good book and because of my crazy schedule lately I haven't been able to do that as often as I would like to anymore. Ain't that it will a lot of things in life.

CIAO for now. Another post coming soon with pictures of some fun gingerbread house making!

LOVE ME!

{my own worst enemy}

To say that the start of this week has been anything but stellar says a lot, but in reality, it hasn't been all that bad of a week. I am my own worst enemy and I let my attitude get the best of me at times (more than just at times to be honest) and I am making my week go bad just with my actions and reactions to the actions of those around me. Today is turn around day. It is the middle of the week and I still have plenty of time to get my attitude into check and make the rest of this week something a little more stellar like. No promises that it is going to turn out super stellar, but I will make it turn out better than what it has started. Starting today. I am livin' and lettin' go today. I should take my own advice and do this more often, but you know, the best advice giver is often the worst advice taker, haha!

I don't have anything over stupid to complain about this week, other than me being selfish and wanting things to go my way and then having them not go my way, haha! Like I said, my own worst enemy, lol!

I have a set schedule of what I like to do workout wise during the week and the weather and my mood have corrupted that this week and then because I've been such a lazy ass, I've been eating pretty craptastic as well. How come it takes two weeks to get off those last stubborn three pounds, but it can take just one day to put them back on?! Seriously body, really hating you right now. Actually, I am really hating the scale right now, but ulitmately the blame is mine for feeding my body with crap instead of good stuff. Stupid hand to mouth contact, stop putting that yummy tasting chocolate in there, haha!

I'll admit it, I've been lazy. I rocked two pretty long runs last week on Wednesday and Thursday and then rested on Friday. I ran on Saturday and then was a bum on Sunday. I ran a quickie three mile run on Monday and then was a lazy bum yesterday (minus the 20 second plank and the 25 squats I did for both the plank and squat challenges that I am doing this month). I had very good intentions of getting a six mile run in last night. It was windy as you know what outside, so I called up my honey who was at wrestling practice and was going to let him get me into the weight room so I could use the indoor treadmill at the high school. Said honey didn't answer his phone, so I got home, got changed and went over to the high school on the off chance that maybe one of the doors would be open so I could get inside to get said honey's attention. No such luck. I was in no mood to run outside in the cold weather (even though on my way back from the high school I saw two runners busting it out) and I didn't want to bother my dad and use his treadmill, so I bailed on the running last night. Which means... tonight, even if it is cold as you know what and windy just the same, I need to get my butt out there and run. Run a good ole six miles, just to check it off of my list. I am seven weeks into my half marathon training and there is no going back now. I can run just over half of the distance for the half marathon. On deck for this weekend is an eight mile run and at this point, at this exact second, I might be crazy for saying that I am looking forward to running it. I am looking forward to an eight mile run. Please, someone call me crazy, haha!

I know come the actual run I may not be thinking that, but just the thought of being able to say that I have run eight miles is what is driving me at this point. However, with Jay's increased involvement with the high school wrestling team this year, which I know he is thoroughly enjoying, I am having to change up my running schedule a little bit. It's definitely some give and take lately and I'm trying to remember that I need to give just as much as I want to take and that my well being isn't the most important and that as long as Ayden is healthy and happy we are good. Well, you get my drift

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{75.87}

(November 30, 2012)

At the beginning of November I set a goal.

A goal of running 75 miles during the month of November.

75 miles.

That is A LOT of miles. That is going around my typical loop in town 17 times. I can't even imagine that.

But at the beginning of November I set out and got to running and just kept on going and going and going.

Today is the last day in November and I am SO proud to report that I have run 75.87 miles this month. Last night I had my longest run to date... 7.34 miles. I ran the entire thing without having to slow down and walk once. I ran almost that far last weekend and needed to walk twice. Last night I just kept going.

It must have been divine intervention because just as I was getting to my breaking point last night, two songs came on my radio that kept me going. They pumped me back up. One was 'Let's go!'

Here are just a few of the lyrics: Let's go! Make no excuses now, I'm talking here and now, I'm talking here and no, let's go!' And I went.

The other one was 'How far do you want to go?' This one didn't exactly have go with the whole running thing, but every time the line 'How far do you want to go?' was sang, I screamed in my head 'ALL THE WAY' and just kept pushing it out. One foot in front of the other the entire run. And I hit the driveway with a smile on my face because I had made it. I did my seven mile run and I hit my goal.

I am a little nervous to run on Saturday though. My knees started hurting last night. I'm worried I might have pushed too hard. 6.3 miles Wednesday night and then 7.3 last night. Taking tonight off from any activity in hopes that my legs feel better.

I was just very sore last night afterwards and I was dumb. I didn't use my foam roller to roam out my IT band like I should have, I didn't ice and instead jumped into a hot shower. I ached just laying in bed last night. My whole body hurt. Here's hoping that Saturday's run isn't as rough. I now know that I can easily do five miles. It isn't the distance I am worried about. I've also become pretty good at pacing myself.

Way to go me! Here’s to another 75 in December!

(Already 5 miles completed in December, proud finisher of the 5 mile Sleigh Bell run!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{not alone}

Yesterday was the Sleigh Bell run. My third official race in the books. And I kicked butt! I ran 5 miles in 49 minutes 25 seconds (with the last two miles being mostly uphill and against the wind). I hit my groove around 2.5 miles and felt pretty good and then had to turn around and go against the wind and felt like the life was being sucked out of me. Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic, but it was definitely a hard run for me.

What made this run so awesome was that I was running it with Victoria. This was her first run. She did the two mile run and you know what, she rocked it (even if she doesn’t particularly think so)! She doesn’t know this (well she will now, since I know she reads my blog ‘Hey girlfriend!’), but throughout the entire race I was cheering her on in my head. She knows how much I stand behind her, but I don’t think she knows just how awesome I think she is for doing this! We had signed up for the Color Run on January 1st and for her to sign up for a race an entire month before she had originally planned, awesomeness!

Here we are at the finish line! Can’t wait to get more pictures of us together finishing other races!Victoria surprised me later in the day with a photo of me almost at the finish line. Neither of us had anyone there cheering us on. Insert sad face here! I knew Jay and Ayden couldn’t make it because Ayden had bowling at the same time, so I wasn’t too disappointed, but I was bummed for Victoria because it was her first race and seeing someone you know at the finish line cheering you, well there’s nothing like it!

When I got to about the last 3/4 of a mile, the ‘Let’s Go’ song came on again and I knew I could push through it. I rounded the last corner, saw the finish line and saw the timer and realized it was less than my last race and I kicked it into high gear! I ran faster than I have ever ran before and finished strong!I got kind of nostalgic today and dug out some pictures of Victoria and I back in the day! Goodness do we look young! And ‘gloverschnarff forever’… don’t ask! Haha!Toga day!!!! Oh the memories, especially in the AV room, haha! Good times, good times!Love ya chica!!!!After the race, we ventured home, showered and ate lunch and then went cookie decorating at a local coffee shop! And man, those cookies were yummy! Both Ayden and Parker did a great job at decorating (and eating) the cookies!Some of MY beautiful creations! I think of the dozen (plus two) cookies that we decorated yesterday, there is currently only one left. Oops!The ONLY think I like about cold weather… being able to wear a scarf every day and not look weird. And yes, I do wear a scarf almost EVERY day! I love them and have a ton in different colors!After our decorating session, Ayden and I ran to Radio Shack real quick (like literally ran since it was just across the parking lot) because I needed a new phone cover for my phone. My other one partly broke last weekend and then broke the rest of the way this weekend. My new cover doesn’t look quite as cool as my other one, but it will do as a cover for the time being. It’s pink and I love pretty much anything pink.

The rest of the day involved a lot of sitting and watching TV. My legs kind of hurt and I was tired. Little man and my honey went bowling and went to bed. I would have joined, but bowling doesn’t start until 9:30pm and there was no way I was going to be able to stay up until then. I enjoy my sleep too much on the weekend and I was just bushed yesterday.

Today’s adventures included: doing homework, washing clothes, picking up odds and ends in the house, blogging, and going to get a Christmas tree. I was all about going to cut down our own Christmas tree, but honestly, I am just not in the mood too today, so instead, we are going to support the local Boy Scout Troop and buy one at the place down the block. As much as I wanted to continue a tradition of cutting down our own, I am all about supporting Boy Scouts because I know how much fun Ayden had in Cub Scouts when we were still in it.

Until later my friends, as I do have one more post coming today that I started a few days ago and didn’t end up finishing quite yet.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{a+a+v+p=mega fun}

(I KNOW, I KNOW… GET EXCITED, IT’S A PICTURE POST!!!!!)

A few weeks ago, Victoria and I met up with the boys for another play date/mommy date and went to Ledge View (a local nature area) and went for a hike. I’m sure I blogged about it a little bit. Well, here are some of the pictures I took that day. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast together!

As much as I miss some of the areas that we frequented in Stevens Point during our time there, I have been excited to find new areas around here to explore with my little man and adding in my best friend and her son makes the adventures all the more fun. I cannot believe that I went the entire summer not knowing how great this place was! I knew it was there and I’m sure I had been there when I was younger, but it was years and years since I had gone. I love walking through the woods on the trails and finding new things to look at and photograph. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you already know that Ayden and I love to explore and despite the fact that we miss our rock climbing adventures at Jordan Park, I know that we will have lots and lots of new adventures at Ledge View and High Cliff!

Here are the two little hoodlums walking down the path on the start of our nature walk!

We climbed to the top of the tower and enjoyed the beautiful view! It was magnificent that day and the view could not have been better! I was so happy to share it with my buddies!

My little man and me! Look how TALL he is getting! At some point he will be taller than me and unfortunately, it is probably going to be sooner rather than later, haha! Love him to death!Trouble makers (and hopefully best friends one day)!!!

Look at the places we found to explore! Rock climbing is our forte! We LOVE trying to get from one place to another and luckily for us, there isn’t any water underneath these rocks!

One adventure down… a million and one more to go!

CIAO! LOVE ME!