Shrimpy

Today I went to the gym to knock out the next step of my training for the 10k in March. I think I did well today- 4.75 miles, which is the farthest I have ever gone! Woo!

A guy got on the treadmill towards the end of my workout, and I couldn't help but feel like a shrimp next to him! He was at least a foot taller than me ( I am 5'9" so that does not happen a lot) and I swear his arms were as big around as my thigh. I was kind of intimidated!

I had a treat of frozen banana "ice cream" with nutella after my run. It was tasty. I like the taste and it is a good way to get some potassium. I am trying to cheer on my hogs in basketball tonight but they sure are struggling on the road! Maybe we will have a good game tonight...

Also, it is Show Us Your Singles Day today (well really tomorrow, but it looks like Kelly is on top of things today!)!!  My friend Lyndsey wrote about me here back in September.  Everything is the same, except that I had a birthday in October, so I'm 27 now.  :)

This is me before a friend's wedding a couple of months ago:

Thanks for stopping by!

Never again...

Never again will I say that I am not expecting much to happen before I blog again!  This week has been a crazy one-that's for sure!

The second weigh in for the weight loss competition at my office was today. I gained 2.2 pounds from last week. Dang!  So I had to pay the penalty $1.  At least I was in good company. Eleven of the 27 people gained this week. I am going to have to try super hard this week and do better!

Today.

Today has been a weird day.  It seems like everything that can go wrong has.  Everything at work was wonky- drives where switched up and things were mixed up- just an overall weird day.  I heard some rumors from a pretty reliable source about some office politics, and it kind of freaks me out a little.  Nothing to do with me, but still.   Drama is never good.  I made a protein shake that actually wouldn't have been that bad, except that I overdid it on the SweetN Low.  It was disgusting, and I poured it down the drain.  I ate my lunch for breakfast and so I had to go buy something for lunch.  And as a result- I am probably over my calories for the day.  I decided not to count because I really can't do a lot about it today.{As I am sitting here eating Gobstoppers!  Ha!- I am obviously really concerned.}

I met with my young adult group today at church (and ate a lot of pizza- seems like when you are on a diet, all you can think about is food haha!).  We talked about being spiritually dehydrated and what that may mean in our lives. One guy brought up the fact that even in our conversation tonight, we were talking about how we do different church related things, and they can be for our own benefit, and not to glorify God, even when we mean well.  This hit home with me- not doing things seeking anything for myself, but to give of myself to God.  I mainly listen to Christian music.  Not always, but often.  It puts me in a better mood, and I have an overall positive start to my day when I listen.  There are no cuss words, no questionable lyrics.  Usually that means my language and thoughts are a little better just by concentrating on those things.  But am I doing it for a lift to my day, or to praise the creator?  Not that there is anything wrong with listening to music that I like, I just want to be intentional with my actions.

Speaking of Christian music- this is my favorite right now:


Source

Anyway, I wasn't planning to post today.  Like I said, it has just been a different kind of day.  I found this on pinterest and I really like it:

Source

 

My day hasn't even been bad.  But I still think I need to remember this.  I am trying to make a concious effort to count my blessings instead of focusing on the things I don't have.  There are some things that I pray about every. single. night.  So much that I feel like a broken record sometimes.  Things I think I have to have.  But in reality, I'm pretty lucky.  I have a job, a house, family and friends.  I'm on the road to being mostly healthy.  I have the ability to run, even if most of the time I hate it. I don't have any special dietary restrictions like so many others.  I have disposable income.  So many things that so many people wish they had.  And I am trying my best to be grateful.

January 2013

I'm going to go ahead and post on January even though the month is not quite over.  Nothing too exciting should be going on in the next 4 days.  I am working at a breakfast fundraiser at my office, but that should go smoothly...

We had another freak snow/ice storm.  Really it was mostly ice.  Everyone freaked, and schools were cancelled and businesses closed.  Except mine- for some reason we had to stay until the traffic was especially crazy before we could leave.  My neighborhood is pretty hilly, so I think my blood pressure was through the roof, but I made it home just fine.  No major drama- but I am so grateful that I bought the 4-wheel drive version of my car.  Snow days are not good since I have to cross over the river to get home and also have so many hills to deal with. 

I started back with my running and Zumba since I had a month long break due to holiday craziness and a broken tailbone.  The doctor told me I had to take it easy for 2 weeks, but in reality I waited about 2.5 weeks.  I made it through my first couple of runs, even though it was a little sore.  I have been running on the treadmill due to the weather, but Friday I was able to get to the Big Dam Bridge for a run.  My favorite running spot, Two Rivers Park, is still closed because of a sink hole I think, so I had to drive a little farther.  (You can see the Big Dam Bridge from Two Rivers, so in reality it is not that far... just a minor inconvenience.  Although, the trail is longer over at the BDB, so that is good since I am running longer now.)

I tried to make some pancakes out of 2 eggs and a banana.  Thanks Pinterest... NOT!  That was the nastiest thing ever- definitely couldn't even choke it down.  That went straight to the trash.  Fortunately Pinterest redeemed itself and I found out about making "ice cream" from frozen bananas.  I added some Nutella to mine and it was delicious!  I will definitely be making that again!

We started a weight loss competition at my office.  I am super excited.  I am not really in it to win the money, although it would be nice- there are alot of people in the competition.  Everyone is really supportive of each other and it is certainly more fun.  We do have to pay a penalty if we gain any weight in between weigh-ins, and I certainly don't want to pay any more money, so that is more motivation to stick with it.  I have decided that Sundays are my cheat day, but I am pretty strict with my calories the other days.  I have also been doing better with bringing my lunch, which helps with calories and money!

My sorority alumni association here in Central Arkansas got together at Santo Coyote the other day.  Um, hello- New favorite Mexican restaurant!!!

My sister and I were invited to the zoo today with my friend Ashley and her family.  They have some fun cut-out things in the children's area.  Ashley is the squirrel and I am the boy...

 

It was everything I remembered about the zoo...stinky!  I have never really been a fan of the zoo.  I mean, some animals are cute, but they stink.  There was a 5 month old monkey that was pretty cute.  The penguins were neat too.  

The medal designs were released for the Little Rock Marathon.  This is the 10K medal.

 

I am excited.  I am doing pretty good in my training- I am up to 4.5 miles.  Now I just need to get to 6.2 by March 3!!!  There are quite a few races going on by my friend Lyndsey, so hopefully we will get to do at least one together!  And my friend Sarah and I are trying to get a relay group together to run the relays in the Hogeye Marathon in Fayetteville in April.  So I can get two medals in two months!  Woo!  My first running medals!  It doesn't matter to me that all finishers get them- I will be proud of myself for finishing!  Who knows- maybe next year I will be able to run the half marathon in the Little Rock Marathon.  I never would have thought of myself as a runner- now I am well on my way!

The end of 2012

Let's do a little more catch up!

I think I left off at Christmas. I had a good one. I got an iPad and the metal razorback I wanted.   Unfortunately I couldn't use my iPad too much at first because the power was out. We had a very white Christmas in Arkansas.   I was actually not excited at all for the snow/ice. I had a project at work that needed to get done and I live in a very hilly neighborhood. The power went out in most of central Arkansas on Christmas afternoon. Mine stayed on a little longer- into the evening- but then it eventually gave out too. While the power was out, I was bored to death. I was planning to take off work over Christmas to deep clean my house since one of my roommates moved out. The snow actually gave me the days off work for free -although that is not how I wish it would have worked out.  I did everything that I could while the power was out- dusted, cleaned the grout in the shower, washed the blinds and baseboards, etc. My house was almost clean enough for the queen. Ha!

The power came back on a couple of days later. After charging my phone and taking a shower, I vacuumed and all that. Then on Friday morning, my office reopened. It was my scheduled day off but I had this project that had to get done. We were on a two hour delay so I thought that I would sleep in a little and then get up and steam mop the hard floors and then text my boss to see if I needed to come in to get this project taken care of. So when I got up and around, I put water in the steam mop and decided to start downstairs in the laundry room. I made it all the way down to the last step when I slipped on the step and landed straight on my tailbone. I was pretty sure that I broke the tailbone right  when I fell. It was terrible pain and I am pretty sure that I sounded like a woman in labor with all of my huffing and puffing. Luckily the night before, I was bored and looking through my pinterest for projects that I had pinned but not done yet. I decided to make some ice packs. Ironic, since I certainly needed an ice pack that Friday morning!!

As the day went on, I had just about convinced myself that it was just a bruised tailbone.  Also I texted my boss that I could come in even though I was off but that I thought my tailbone was broken. I don't think he believed me!  Luckily he was very nice and took care of a lot of the work for me.   Then Friday night I had some weird concussion like symptoms. I was very nauseous when standing, started seeing spots kind of like when you get a migraine, and then when I laid down I had ringing in my ears. I did not hit my head but my massage therapist later told me that you can have concussion like symptoms from hitting your head since your tailbone is at the bottom of your spine. The doctor did not tell me that but she did notice that my sinuses were very swollen. I wasn't aware that I have allergy problems so I guess I will just have to watch that.   Anyway after all those weird symptoms, I decided that I should probably go to the hospital just in case. It was still below freezing and kind of icy so I decided to wait until Saturday morning. My dad came to pick me up and after a few hours in the ER, it was determined that I did in fact break my tailbone. I will say that is an experience that I never hope to repeat!!!!  They told me that it would be 4-6 weeks until it heals. I am at about the 3.5 week mark so hopefully I am almost healed!  I have been running and doing Zumba for the past week so I am feeling pretty good about it. I do have a race in about 5.5 weeks so there is not a lot of time for sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself!

The picture in this post is up my steep street the first day after the snow! About 8 inches, which is a lot for central Arkansas!

One month later... (picture overload)

I am stinking it up with this blogging thing lately.  One month later, I am back....

I think I have to go back to November to start the catch up.

I voted for the first time in a while and went running on the same day.  Two gold stars for me.

 

Not the best picture, but this is my favorite part of the trail.

 

I decorated for Christmas.  I went out on a limb (ha!) and tried a new color scheme.  I don't think I like it- I think I am going back to red and silver next year.  I am a creature of habit.

 

 

I went to Fayetteville and had a cute dinner date.  He didn't cry this time, so that is progress.  :)

 

Lyndsey and I went to see the Hogs play Syracuse.  They lost, but it was closer than I thought.  We obviously had great seats.  Second to last row in the upper deck..

 

See how close we were?  Ha!

 

I went to a million Christmas parties.  I made some cake balls for a couple of them.  They are supposed to look like ornaments.

 

 

My mom and I made a gingerbread house.

 

We had a couple of secret santa groups at my office.  I got these things from one of my secret santas:

 

 

 

 

I made some stuff for my secret santa and here are a couple of the things that I remembered to take a picture of:

 

 

 

I made these super cute snowman cupcakes for my work Christmas potluck.

 

 

I also made some reindeer cupcakes for my kids at church.

 

 

My brother graduated from college.  It was a crazy time.  We had three bottles that needed to be chilled, and only three buckets.  We improvised with a kleenex box holder.  Ha.

 

 

I got to eat at Flying Burrito so it was a success in my book.  :) 

 

The graduation was in the same building as mine way back in the day. 

 

 

Not the best picture of us, but me with the graduate.

 

 

Meet my dog-nephew, Ruger.

 

 

He likes it when I bring him treats!

 

 

I made Santa hat brownies for Christmas with my family.  See that Christmas tree in the back of the plate?  They were originally going to be like that, but it was too much work, so I switched to Santa hats.  :)

 

 

I would also like to add that strawberries are freaking expensive in December.  (to the tune of $7 per pound.  I only bought 1 pound- that is crazy!!)

 

I actually have a lot of laundry that I should be folding, so I guess that is caught up enough.  I will try to write a post again soon and finish the catching up!!