4.26.2010

Finished 5!

I have now officially finished my 5th half marathon. YAY! Saturday I did the Country Music 1/2 Marathon for the 3rd year (not in a row). It went ok. Since Mr. C has been gone for the last 2 weeks I have definitely been in a funk. I have not done much of any working out. I have not kept up with my long runs since I finished Disney. My saving grace for all of it was that I did do Disney 6 weeks ago and Vegas 4 months before that.

I was sad about my time. Vegas is still the best time yet. I came in at 3:24. Vegas was 3:20. I know if I had properly trained I would have beat my personal record. Also it RAINED. I know I need to account some of my poor progress to the rain and I am but man did I hit the wall! About 9-10 I just started hurting. I know I slowed down tremendously. I thought Little J and her boss would catch up with me.

*Side note little J was also participating in the half marathon. She and her boss were walking. At mile 2 I decided to run ahead thinking she would catch up during my walk breaks, but she didn't. Now she's pissed at me. I know it was not nice but truly thought she would catch up. I have told her that for Chicago (8/1) I NEED to beat my personal record. We are putting our heart into training and weight loss.

Anyway, after hitting the wall and about every part of my body hurting it started raining. Actually, the rain was nice at first but I was scared and didn't run anymore. Although, I'm not sure with how I was feeling if I could have run any more anyways.

So, with all of that I managed to miss my time by 4 min. I am honestly, no sarcasm intended, devastated. I have now gotten it into my mind that I want to complete the Rocket City Marathon. It's the marathon in Huntsville but it's just that. It's only a marathon. I have looked it up and it has to be done in 6 hours. That means I have to complete Chicago in 3 hours or less. I think this can be done if I just add more running than just walking. So, to do this I have signed up for the Cotton Row Race. It's a 10K on Memorial day. I am going to run as much of it as I can.

This is my workout plan:
1. Cotton Row Race 10K- Memorial Day
2. Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon- August 1
3. Rocket City Marathon- December 11

4.10.2010

The best gift ever!

Last weekend was Mr. C and I's first anniversary, YAY! He bought me the BEST GIFT EVER! (yes, I know I'm yelling but it was that good.) Now, let me tell you first, I come from a family that definitely shows love through gifts. I wouldn't say they buy people's love but there is a real excitement about giving someone the perfect gift. Mr. C's family thinks gifts are nice but don't nearly put as much weight on them as we do. Also, Mr. C is a male (shocker, I know) but, to me that says his gift giving skills are not quite equal to mine. So, I had used my cognitive behavioral therapy skills and rehearsed in my head that I would be happy with anything he got me. 

We even joked about it being an ugly sweater. We talked about honestly how I would wear an ugly sweater since there is very little that I won't wear and I sometimes like clothes that are off beat so a ugly sweater would be fitting for me.

Sidebar, actually as I write this post I become sentimental about how much I love my husband and think although the gift was quite nice, maybe that he loves me and puts up with my crazy is ACTUALLY the best gift ever. But, I digress. 

Anyway, to my suprise it was no ugly sweater but very thoughtful and loving and I was shocked and amazed about how great it was! He totally outdid me this time. 

Drum roll, please.... He had the doggy DNA test done on my mutt kids! YAY! He said since it was the paper anniversary that he wanted to give me some paper. He even made a homemade card that looked like Lulubelle and Rupert wrote it. I loved it so much I went on and on about it and still do! 

So, Mr. C did the wisdom panel insight. (I have no connection with the company. This is not an ad for them.) And he said it was super easy and got the results back lightning quick. 







So, this is Lulubelle the unknown. This is the new name I've given her. Her results were not fabulous. She is 25% Kuvasc, 12.5% Doberman, and the rest is a mystery. They clearly stated that if a pet is mixed breed 3 generations or back they can't ID it, so if she comes from a long line of mutts. Its ok, I still love her. She is mutt through and through. Actually, I never thought of it but she does look like a small doberman. She's only 30-ish lbs. (I'm sorry Lulu, I had to tell them your weight. Don't be mad.) But her build is a dead on and her ears try to stand up but I looked it up and doberman pinchers actually at birth have their ears molded to stand up like that.




This is Rupert the terrier! (by the way this is from the first day we got him. He doesn't look anything like this now but it is the cutest pic of him of all time! He was about 2 months old here.) Rupert was 50% Jack Russel Terrier, 12.5% Lab, 12.5% Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the rest unknown. This was a hoot! Rupert looks like a mixed breed lab and golden. He acts like one too! Have you seen Up! We call him Doug because that's what he acts like. Further, when we were looking for dogs I found a terrier that I loved named Checkers and Kyle said no terriers. Little J has a terrier and kyle hates him and calls him annoying, it's no secret, even little J knows. I think it's hilarious that his dog is a terrier. Yes, Rupert is his dog and lulu is mine. I'm not sure why but it just ended up that way. Really, day one we went to Fayetteville to look at Lulu because I thought she was SO cute. Kyle thought she was too old. We compromised by settling on two mutts. 

I love our mutts and my husband and my anniversary present. =)

An experiment

1. Mr. C is going to Florida for 2 whole weeks! He leaves tomorrow and doesn't come back until April 25th. "Booo" that's me crying while secretly doing a little jig because everyone needs time alone sometimes. It's ok to be slightly happy about my alone time. (Although, I believe that this will not last by Sunday afternoon I'll be bored and sad about his departure.)

 2. I have been running. On April 24 I will do my 3rd country music half marathon. I imagine it will be my greatest challenge yet. I imagine this for a couple of reasons. I have really slacked about my long runs lately because we have been traveling SO much. I love traveling but it's bad when even I don't want to go anywhere for a while. Anyway, I have had slacked on my running and now this week my knees are making weird noises and are beginning to hurt. I am having a minor panic attack due to the fact that my dad has horrible knees and constantly struggles with them. I am very weary about them. I am by far the most overweight I have ever been in my life. I am having a couple of panic attacks about this as well. I think its sort of the weird zen that is just meant to be with my 2 loves in life being arch nemesis. I mean really, being a "foodie" (although I despise the term and feel like it is the definition of uncool) who relishes in trying new things and running do not seem to mold well together. sigh. I will now at this venture have to put my "foodie" self in check, sort of...

3. I am inspired by all of these people making pledges to be more earth friendly due to April having earth day in it but, I am having serious difficulties coming up with what I can do. We can't afford everything organic or eco-concision but what we can we do buy. We already buy energystar appliances, I take bags to the grocery store, we recycle, and we are part of a CSA for our summer produce. I would say we are pretty green people. You know the whole thing about the green movement is it's really just cheap. Which would be a better way to define us. We don't want to waste money so we buy things that are durable that we can reuse and don't need to replace cheap stuff constantly. Really, what would make a huge impact would be to buy new cars that aren't SUVs but I don't see that happening any time soon. So, I know the statistics on dairy and methane. Although I don't eat beef, I can stray away from dairy.

So, I have decided to attempt being a Vegan (I think, maybe, we'll see) while Mr. C is in Florida. This is my pledge to be a better steward of our earth for the next couple of weeks. Now, I have to explain that I LOVE cheese. I think it's my whole a large part of my problem here. If I could keep it in check we would be better, maybe. Also, I am what my friend Kathy calls "a starter." You know a person who can think of new ideas not previously explored but isn't so great with follow through. So, As I make this declaration (to myself since no one else reads this) I am honestly thinking about making ice cream today before Mr. C leaves. Anyway, since I am blogging it I figure it will give me commitment to follow through. So, tomorrow I say "good buy my love" to dairy and Mr. C until he returns.

4.03.2010

ATL

Well, I've arrived in Atlanta. YAY! I love this city. I would love nothing more than to convince Mr. C that we need to move here. I think he knows this but it's about as likely to happen as me becoming a millionaire. Actually, if I were to become a millionaire i think my odds would go up...hmm. Unfortunately, I don't really gamble because I believe it's a huge waste of my money so the odds of us being a millionaire are slim. Anyway, today we are going to Six Flags (pretend excitement here). Usually when we travel I feel like we always do what I want to do. I guess because I love to plan stuff like that and Mr. C is so easy going. So, this time I on purpose decided to make sure to insert Mr. C activities. Yesterday we played mini golf, his not so private obsession. Today roller coasters!

4.01.2010

Back to reality

Well, I am back from my fabulous month of jet setting...almost. Mr. C and I are off to Hot-lanta tomorrow to celebrate 1 year of bliss. I totally will post pics and fun info on our adventure but Mr. C is doing a major wiring project in the living room and he dared me to asked about my pics. So, that'll have to wait.

So, on to business...

April's meal planning and Freezer Cooking.
Well, in march I really tried not to go to the grocery store but honestly went almost every week (oops). I know I drastically cut back and got mostly fresh produce and dairy but not a huge success with the pantry challenge. We still have A LOT of food. Also, things didn't really turn out as planned so I will just be transferring lots of the meals down to April. I will make some extra freezer meals. We did eat some of them and they were handy when we did eat them. My plan to come.