{one year later… and some other junk}

One year ago this weekend we officially moved our family from Stevens Point back to Chilton. We packed up the rest of our stuff on that Friday afternoon night and spent our first official night together as a family in our new dwelling. The day after Memorial Day I started my very first day at my externship… and so it is only fitting that the day after Memorial Day this year, I will be starting my very first day as a paid employee! It’s actually bittersweet in a way! Very exciting as well! I cannot wait!

And since I haven’t posted any pictures from graduation on my blog yet, I thought it only fitting to include some of those as well in this post. But before we visit graduation, I thought we’d take a trip down memory lane back to when I got accepted into grad school! This was in February 2009 and it was one of the most exciting days in my life (you know, because I have a lot of those)! Why yes, yes I was excited to get into grad school! And wouldn’t you know, four years later, I still have that scarf and still wear it! I’m a scarf lover, sue me! Haha!

And now on to graduation pictures! The first one is of me and my classmate, Katie! God that girl made the last four years bearable! Couldn’t have made it through without her!

And then there is my wonderful dad and my mom! They are great and have supported me unconditionally through it ALL!And where would I be without the two loves of my life! My soon to be hubby and our eat him up son! Someone please tell that little man to STOP GROWING UP!

And my peanut of a younger sister, Alexis!

So, graduation pretty much rocked. You already know that. On to the festivities that were this weekend, which honestly included a lot of nothing! It was the first weekend in a long time where we had no set plans going on and it was actually kind of nice. Lots of relaxing and just enjoying some nothingness, well that and reading a good book!

On Friday I had my dad drop the kids off at our house since I only had to work a half day. After school, we headed to the track to get our run on. Ayden and I are currently working our way through Week 3 of the C25K program… tomorrow we start Week 4. We ran and Alexis walked with us during the walking parts. After the workout, we all walked to the movie theater in town and enjoyed the movie Epic. It was cute. Nothing outstanding though. And then while relaxing after the movie, I got a text from my neighbor and friend, Sarah, wanting to know if I was game for a quick bike ride! Well.. OF COURSE! You don’t need to ask me twice! What I thought would be an easy 5-7 mile ride turned into an awesome 10 miler! We just kept going and going! Honestly, I’m kind of OCD about it, so when we hit around 8.3ish miles and were close to home, we kind of decided that we should make it an even 10. Well, okay, so I decided. I was like, well why not, we were so close to it anyways, what was another mile or two?!

Yes, after a ten mile bike ride we were still smiling! I had a great time chatting it up with Sarah! She is freaking hilarious and I LOVE IT! But on the flip side, she is also so down to earth and easy to talk to! I see many a rides with her in the future! AND… now that I know Victoria has gotten her bike out and has been cruising around, I have one other person to recruit as well!Saturday was lazy and Ayden and I went for a decent walk at a local nature center. We are so blessed to have that near us and that it is free! I just needed to get out of the house and drug him with me. He was reluctant at first, but we had a good time. We were only gone for maybe an hour!

Yesterday… I was lazy throughout the day and knew that my mood was headed in the wrong direction because I wasn’t being active, so in the afternoon, I laced up my running shoes and headed out for a run. It was my first longer planned run since my half over a month ago and it was good! I just went to the track and pounded out some miles. I ran for a mile, walked for a quarter, ran a mile, walked a quarter, and then ran another. I finished 3.5 miles in 34 min 52 seconds. That is an average of a 10 min mile that INCLUDES the half mile I walked! I definitely felt myself pushing to get it done and prove to myself that I could still do it. I know that I couldn’t go out right now and run five miles straight. My endurances is WAY down, but I am content in still rehabbing the knee and taking it slow with Ayden. I set out to run a half marathon and I did. I will probably run another one at some point, but my next goals are to run a 5k straight with Ayden and kill the Tough Mudder! And this morning, Victoria and I headed out to a different County Park and got our hike on for about an hour! We found some awesome caves, rocked out some bright colored clothes (gosh, I love that we think SO alike and love wearing anything that includes bright obnoxious colors!) and had a great time! We are definitely going to be going back and taking the boys the next time! A must! It was great! I even got adventurous and was climbing down into some of the caves! It was just what I needed today! And pretty soon Ayden and I will be heading out for our run today!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{the doctor will see you now}

Graduation has come and gone! I'd love to sit hear and write about how completely amazingly awesome it was, but in all honesty it was kind of anti-climatic. There were definitely parts of it that were pretty awesome (getting hooded) and there were definitely parts of it that weren't super awesome (sitting in a hot stuffy gym).

Before I delve into the events of graduation, I need to extend some extra special thank yous to everyone who's supported me these last endless years! My family has stood by my side throughout it all... they have been amazing! Jay's family has become my family and they were all equally as awesome! My friends, my old bosses and co-workers in Point, my professors, my classmates, my supervisors, and my current boss and co-workers have been amazing! I am surrounded by the most amazing people! I love it and them! I could definitely not have made it this far without the support of each and everyone of them!

The morning of graduation, little man had a soccer game and he played his little heart out! He was on defense for most of the game and he brought it! He is turning into quite the little soccer star!

After soccer we loaded up and it was off to Stevens Point for graduation. We got just outside of Appleton and I was already sick of driving and we had an hour drive ahead of us yet. Gosh, I don't miss that drive. On the way there I wondered how we ever did that drive for seven years, haha! Yes, I do have a 45 minute drive to work every morning, but honestly, that is nothing compared an hour and a half! We made it with plenty of time to spare and I went to get my cap, gown, and hood... of which cost me $50 to rent for just two hours. Pooey on that! Afterwards, I met up with my classmate, Katie, we took a few pictures and then sent our families in to get seats while we headed to where we needed to line up. I have to admit, being the very first people to walk in, the only two getting hooded with Doctorate degrees... it all was pretty special to me!

Even though the ceremony itself seemed to take a long time, before we knew it, we were done and out the door and headed back home. I was kind of sad to get back to Point and then have to leave so quickly afterwards. It was home to use for such a long time that I still find myself missing it every now and then. I've been over it and over it how much we love living back closer to our family, but you can't just take the Point out of someone who lived there for so long. It totally grew on me... and apparently Ayden too because even at graduation he asked if we would ever move back there. I would in a heart beat buddy, but I don't think that your daddy would, haha!

My family treated us to supper at this delicious Italian restaurant and then we headed to Jay's aunt's house for a little birthday party for Jay's cousin... of whom I totally adore!

The rest of the weekend was pretty laid back. I started and finished a good book. The kind where you don't want to start another one after you are finished because you are too wrapped up in the characters of the first book. I hadn't read any books all winter, so it was definitely nice to sit outside in the sun for a little while, catch some rays, and lose myself in the world of someone else. Gotten myself back into a reading kick. I usually wax and wane with my reading... reading about five or six books, then stopping for a few months, then getting back into it. I love to read! Just love it!

Ayden and I have made it to Week 3 of our C25K training plan and we are still going strong! Last night we had a segment where we had to run for three minutes straight (which for us and running at Ayden's speed equates to about one time around the track) and we did it... twice! I am beginning to really look forward to that time with Ayden because it is just us, no distractions. It so cute on Monday when we ran... we were on a running segment and all of a sudden Ayden starts chanting something and I couldn't hear what it was a first and then I realized he was chanting to himself over and over that he could do it. He was saying 'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this!' It was the cutest thing ever! Melt this mama's heart, that is for sure! We'll see how next week goes when we are running five minute intervals.

I'm proud to say that I've been keeping up with my squat, plank, sit-up, and push-up challenge of the month. I'm up to 150 squats, 120 sit-ups, 45 push-ups, and 2 min 15 sec plank. Now, don't go thinking I'm superwoman because I don't do them all at once. I typically do about 10 of each and rotate through the three workouts... with some breaks and leave the plank until right before I crawl into bed. I'm not doing much for workouts other than my little bit of running with Ayden right now. I know my endurance has definitely suffered from taking a break, but that's okay. At this point in time I'm happy to just take things slow, as every now and then I still get some knee pain. Since I'll only be working three days a week starting next week, I'm definitely considering upping the ante on the workouts and adding some more cardio in there... possibly some Turbo Fire on the days that aren't conducive to being outside. Something additional, that's for sure! I'm also trying to be more conscious about what I'm putting in my body, albeit not always making the right choices... even so, it could definitely be worse and I know I'm trying. Darn that lovely almost hubby of my who was thinking of me at the grocery store last night when he knew I would enjoy a peanut square that neither of us has had in a long time! Oh... and it was nummy yummy goodness in my mouth!

Graduation pictures to come...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{you talkin' about me}

I'm dedicating this post to someone who constantly is inspiring me in almost all areas of life... she has no idea that I am doing this, at least not until she gets to the part where I actually name her by name, hehe!

I have many friends and family surrounding me on a daily basis that are inspiring me to be a better person in many different areas. There are definitely times in my life, probably in yours too, where you just need to take a look around and draw off of someone else's energy to help pull you through a tough time.

The person that I am dedicating this post to is Sarah Kopf. Yes, Sarah, you! (Because I totally know that you are reading this right now. And, I totally started this post early this morning-and I'm finishing it now this afternoon-and I think we were reading each others minds because you just recently posted this as your status: I never want to go through life keeping silent about what people mean to me. I want them to know. Now. Because how great would the world be if we just knew exactly how everyone felt about us and vice versa? How eerily awesome that we were thinking the same thing?!) If I know you in real life, there is a good chance that you know Sarah too. If not, you should! She is amazeballs! Sarah happens to live in a bright blue house (so jealous of the color of her house), just a few down from my semi bright red house. Yes, our bright personalities deserve bright colored houses, lol!

Before I go off on how amazeballs Sarah actually is, I wanted to let you know that she also blogs and if you haven't happened upon it yet, you should. She is the amazing author of Thinfluenced at http://www.thinfluenced.com/. Quick, go check it out... and then come back! This girl makes me laugh (and then cry) with almost every post!

I haven't known Sarah for a long time. We connected shortly before I moved back to our home town and I couldn't have been more excited to find someone so close who was also so much into fitness as I was. We instantly bonded over that and haven't turned back yet!

Sarah's drive for just about everything in life amazes me! Her son, Cole, has battled cancer twice in his short life (and from Sarah's constant updates, he seems to be getting a little better each and every day), and I can't even begin to imagine what those years were like for Cole and his family. As a mother myself, I know the unconditional love that you have for your child and then to see them suffer with cancer... TWICE! And yet, somehow, someway, as a family, they pulled through it together and keep moving FORWARD day after day! Even just seeing that for the last year amazes me!

Anywhoo, Sarah and I got connected with our love of fitness, but we connect on so many other levels too! She is such a free spirit and I at least try to be, haha! As everyone in life has ups and downs, so does she, but whenever I see her, she is always making the best of a situation. She always has a smile on her face, can always spare a minute for someone, gives the greatest hugs, and damn, she will kick your butt on a 10 mile bike ride, lol!

This woman (and her husband) are accomplished century bike riders. Hell, I thought running a half marathon was a feat, these people freaking biked 100 miles in ONE DAY! How is that for amazing! Well, Sarah and Nate (her husband), invited a bunch of people on a 'leisurely' bike ride last night. Leisure my ass, haha! I, of course, went with them because I am up for any challenge and really, bike rides are awesome!

Unfortunately, unlike Sarah and Nate, I have a mountain bike (they have awesome road bikes) and so it was a little more of a workout for me than them. Heck, I don't even know if it was a workout for them at all going at my pace, lol! It was awesome though and I had a lot of fun! It was the workout that I didn't even know my body was craving until the end and I could feel the soreness setting in. But it was a good soreness, like a... damn, I worked my body good soreness! It was a lot of fun going with both of them and Jay's cousin, Nicole who joined us. She also rocked the bike ride!

There was one point during the ride where we were headed straight into the wind going up a freaking ginormous mountain (puh-leaz, tell me that Wisconsin doesn't have ginormous mountains and I will punch you, because damn I never thought I would make it up that hill) and I felt like quitting. Seriously. I never feel like quitting. Even when the tough gets tough as shit. I keep going. And so I did what I tell Ayden to do anytime he wants to quit. I gave myself a pep talk. I kept pushing my legs forward... at what seemed like a snails pace... and I somehow made it to the top of the hill! I kept seeing Sarah and Nicole up in front of me and knew I could do it. It also helped that Nate was an awesome partner and stayed back with me.

And then when Sarah told me that the rest of the ride was gravy, of course I gave her shit when we had one last hill to go up right by our houses. How come in any direction to our house we need to go up some kind of kill? Kill me now, haha!

Honestly though, I had a great ride and plan to go on many more with Sarah, Nate, Nicole, and anyone else who wants to join us! I may never be as fast or awesome as them, but what makes it worth it is knowing that even though they may be able to kick my booty on the bike is that not one of them ever flaunt it in my face. They willingly slow down for my pokey self and we all have a great time!

Loves ya Sarah! Don't ever become unamazeballs because I just might have to shank you! Tee-hee!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{renewed drive}

I've struggled a lot since my 17k on St. Patty's Day with any drive to run. The majority of it stemmed from knee pain after the 17k. I had my half marathon that was coming up, but even between the 17k and the half marathon, I wasn't overly excited about running. Did I want to run the half marathon, of course... it was something that I had worked so hard for. As you all know well enough by now, I kicked that half marathon's ass.

After the half marathon though, my drive for anything fitness related really went down the shitter. Much of that still stemmed from a knee injury from which I'm STILL recovering from. On the bright side where the injury is related, the pain is minimal and it is not all of the time. So progress is being made. We are on the uphill side of things.

But recently my drive for running has been renewed and that has EVERYTHING to do with my favorite little man. Him deciding and wanting to run with his momma has given me something to work for. We've started the Couch to 5k program together and I know that running in intervals with him is going to help strength me. I know not running much in the last two weeks has done a lot for my endurance and I'd like to slowly build it back up again with a new running partner. At this point if I were to go out and try to run anything further than three miles I'd be pushing it. I'd love to say that I could, but I know my body and how I'm not as strong as I was even a month ago. But that is changing people, it is a changing. I think we all go through periods where we question ourselves and our abilities and our drive... mine is being renewed. And readers, my little man... he is doing great! I can't guarantee that as we continue to follow the program and we are running more than we are walking that he will still love it as much as I do, but I can pray that he wants to continue it with me. I want nothing more than to run an entire 5k with him in a few months and for us to kick booty!

It was as if after my half marathon I had nothing to strive for anymore. My goals were gone. Yes, I'm still doing a race every month to meet my goal of running something every month for a year, but what I have left are just 5ks and those didn't seem like a challenge for me. I don't need a challenge to feel fulfilled, but I wanted something that would help push me. My little man must have known, because doing it with him makes my heart swell! Plus that little bugger can really run so it pushes me too!

There is this huge hill that we have been ending our runs with by racing up. I have yet to beat the little man. He kicks my butt on the hill every time! Someday though I'll get him, haha! Mark my words!

So look forward to continued posts about how well we are doing on our way to our first ever fully runny mommy and son 5k! Can't wait!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday}

Whew, glad that vent sesh is over. Yes, I keep a lot of pent up anger inside sometimes, it happens.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The title of this blog post includes the days this week that I have been active... the days that I have been active with my little man! Saturday, as you know if you read my blog consistently, we ran/walked the Dream in Color 5k. Sunday, we hiked for probably 3-4 miles at a local state park. We traversed down a pretty steep hill on what probably wasn't an actual walking path and then had to go back up that same hill at a different location on what was an actual path, but was probably even more difficult than the one coming down.

Monday and Tuesday involved five mile bike rides on both days. Monday it was just the little man and I. He rocked it! It was awesome! He's gone farther before, but it has always been on paths that are pretty continuous where we haven't had to watch for traffic all that much. This was the first long bike ride around our town with only sidewalks and Ayden's bigger bike. Lots of slowing down and looking for cars, but overall it was a great ride. I was very proud of him! Almost no whining!

Tuesday, I had to pick up both Ayden and Alexis from school as my dad had a doctor's appointment. After I picked them up, we headed out for another bike ride. I knew Ayden could do five miles from the night before, but I wasn't sure about Alexis. I had a goal of at least three miles with the two of them. We headed out, took it slow and steady and by the 2.5 mile mark I decided we'd push for five. I was very proud of Alexis because she does not yet have a bike with gears so she really had to work hard on the hills and there were a few of them. She mentioned a few times that in the past she had to get off and walk her bike up the hills, but this time I kept telling her that we could do it on the bike as long as we kept telling ourselves that we could. And let me tell you, there was one hill at the 3.5 mile mark that was pretty steep even for me and Ayden and she made it up WITHOUT STOPPING OR WALKING THE BIKE UP! We did take a break at the top of the hill, but I was so proud of her. I know that she was ready to give up, but I stayed right with her and continued to tell her that she could do it and SHE DID! It was so great!

We may have had to take a few more breaks with the two of the kids, but we made it the five miles with little to no whining once again. WINNING! I was SO incredibly proud of the both of them! I forsee lots of bike rides with all three of us in the future!

And last night... last night was Week 1 Day 1 of mommy and son 5k training! Ayden and I headed out in the great weather and got our run/walk on to the tune of a zombie instructor! I had the greatest time with the little man! He was telling me stories left and right and I was beaming at how great he was doing! I LOVE that he wants to run with me and it gives me a reason to continue to run and yet slowly work my knee back into commission with him. Week 1 Day 1 of training was a big success and we ran/walked just under 2 miles in 30 minutes. Bring on Week 1 Day 2! I am SO excited to be doing this with my little man! Now only if we could con his father into joining us, hehe! Boo on him having a hardworking job that has him exhausted at the end of the day, haha! Just kidding. He loves his job and if he loves his job, I love it for him!

Goal for tonight is swimming. Will have to talk with Ayden to see if he wants to join me or not. That will kind of depend on when I go. I hope that we stay active together like this for months and years to come!
Oh I'm in just a great mood right now. Even the incoming colder crappier weather cannot put me down!

CIAO! LOVE ME!