Top ten things I learned about running that can also translate into life lessons

Six months ago, I embarked with all seriousness on a new journey.  My body was starting to heal, and I knew my weakened muscles needed to get back to work. So, here's a few important things I learned along the way.

1.  Anything forward moving is progress.  As long as your not sitting in your butt indented cushion of the couch, its good.

2.  You don't have to spend a lot of money to make it a success.  My original investment in running was under $200.  It's a bare bones basic plan to use my legs as the workout tools.  I didn't need a fancy gym or a fancy trainer in order to move and be successful.  There are few things in my life I would consider fancy.

3. Using your voice is imperative.  Telling people about your goals will help hold you accountable.  I had wanted to run for a while now, but didn't tell anyone.  Why?  I wasn't ready to take myself seriously.  Once I started telling people about my goal, I knew it was time to get the good tennis shoes....cause we were going running!  Using my voice helped me create an accountability system.

4.  True friends are blessings.  There are a few friends that I told and offered no support.  Matter of fact, they actually tried to talk me out of doing something good for myself.  I quickly realized that I only wanted to surround myself with positive friends, and not lobsters in buckets.  (If you have 2 lobsters in buckets, one will always try to escape.  The second one will always pull the other one back down into the bucket.)  The great friends I've relied on through this journey are tried and true.  I know that now, and I know they are honest, dependable, and supportive - and most of them are only a text away.  (Melody, Cindy, and Michelle, talking about you guys here!!!  Thank you!)

5.  The treadmill is always there.  You skip one day, it will be there tomorrow.  Bad day yesterday?  Pick yourself back up today and try again.  Never stop trying.

6.  Good nutrition is a good start.  Running is a lot harder when you've only fueled your body with crap.  It's a little less hard with good fuel and protein in your body.

7.  A little wind in your sails keeps the boat moving.  Sometimes we all need to hear, "good job!"  Finding someone who is willing to tell you that is a blessing.  I know this goes back to #4, but the "good job" deserves a line item of its own.

8.  Pain is temporary.  Some more temporary than others.  But, temporary none the less.  I spoke to my bloggy friend, Charlie, the day before the race and she reminded me that not one person listed in the bible had a painless existence.  Not one.  I should not consider myself exempt from pain either- because in pain, I am in good company (God).

9.  Find inspiration.  I read a lot of 'fat to fit' blogs.  Charlie's blog is one of my favorites.  She serves as an inspiration to me.  Talking to her on the phone the day before the race was just what I needed to calm frazzled nerves.  She reminded me that I can make my actions a prayer.  I could actually make my run a prayer!  Her journey started earlier than mine did...and she's a great person to follow!  My sister-in-law, Marianne, also has a miraculous and hard earned journey in her running/weight loss.  I love surrounding myself with people who inspire me!

10.  This is the most important lesson I learned while running.  Foundation is the most important.  Good shoes, good bra, great God.

Happy Fourth of July

"Let the 4th of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights;  that government is only a convenience created & managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. Happy 4th of July. "

~President Ronald Reagan, (1981)

Random Friday List and some 5QF

1.  Getting ready for, and catching up from a vacation is a lot more work than anticipated.

2.  I created an account on MyFitnessPal.com and I love love love it!

3.  I completed the Couch to 5k program yesterday.

4.  Yes, I realize that I participated in a 5k race a tad early in training...

5.  But I still completed the race.

6.  I just need to make sure I stay motivated to keep pushing myself.

7.  I have a LONG way to go!

8.  We're hoping and praying that the AC man shows up today.

9.  D. already warned me that it probably wouldn't be ready to go this evening.

10.  He said something about vacuuming out the system, but all I heard was "blah blah  vacuum out system blah blah, not cool tomorrow night blah blah blah going to be hot."






1. If you had the opportunity to bungee jump, would you?

Well....does this answer the question:

(That's me on the right, my brother is in the middle)

This was a while ago.  I was visiting my brother at the Air Force Base in Utah.  I had two friends with me and my brother and some of his fly-boy buddies.  We went to the Free Fall Tower and all participated in "Power Hour."  For $59, you could jump as many times as you wanted in one hour, and you got a t-shirt at the end.  I did 3 jumps total.  My friends did one.  My brother jumped 4 times.  The only reason I didn't follow him up the 4th time is because you had to walk up the entire NINE flights of steps, and I was feeling lazy.  :)

2. Would you rather go to the movie theater or to the drive-in?

Movie theater.  The little speaker boxes just don't cut it for surround sound.

Wait....do they still have those speaker boxes?  Or is there a fancy schmancy way of doing it now?

Ugh...shows you how long its been since I've been to a drive-in movie theater.

3. Do you have your groceries delivered?

WHAT in the WHAT?!?!?!  Delivered?!?!?  I had no idea this was even available!!!!

So, I guess my answer is: no.

There's a drive in pick-up service at a local Meijer up here, and I haven't even used that yet.  The idea is to go online, make your order, and when you get there it's all ready.  You just drive up, slide your debit card, and they load it up.  Bad points:  It costs 7 or 8 dollars, you can't use coupons, and you have NO control over the produce chosen. 

I'm a bit of a produce snob (for lack of a better term), and I use coupons at every given opportunity.  Plus, I NEED to be able to read labels before purchasing.

So, I guess my answer would  still be no.


4. Eyebrows: Do you wax, thread, pluck, or stay au naturel?

Well, when I pay attention to them, I wax.  I tried to pluck once....but I cannot knowingly inflict pain on myself.  Apparently, that's something I have to pay someone money for.

I tried threading once.  It was at my MOPS spa day.  SO painful!  And my eyes would not stop watering- it looked like I was sobbing...which ruined the make up the spa ladies had just applied.  Never.again.

Thankfully, I have blond eyebrows.  So, if the tightwad in my wins over, letting them go for a while is not a huge situation.


5. Would the people you went to high school with be surprised by your life today?

Probably not.  I'm pretty much the same person I was back then - just with more confidence (in who I am and what I believe in) and a lot more love and humility toward others.

Kentucky Trip in pictures: Part 1

Ok, so I'm uploading my pictures only to realize I took 277 of them.

Apparently, I'm a little shudder happy.

What can I say?  First family vacation.

So, I'm weeding some out, cleaning some up...

...and still catching up on work and housework from being gone.

So, here's the first installment of pictures.

We left our house at 4:45 am on Friday and headed south.

With two little boys in tow, we had to make a few more stops than anticipated...

...but all in all, we were only out of the car for an hour total.

We arrived at our destination around 2:30pm and spent the rest of the day enjoying our accommodations.

Including the three tier deck/patio/fire pit, dock and lake.

The view from the dock looking up to the house (through the trees)

A. got to drive the boat a bit.

C. even got a turn in the driver's seat. 

I'm not sure he ever took the wheel, but he LOVED sitting there.



We saw an amazing amount of turtles and geese.  We actually counted 113 geese swimming in a line!
I have a picture of that somewhere, but can't quite find that.

Then, back to the house for a brat dinner (gluten free brats!!!) with more family, and then we broke out the fire pit and enjoyed some s'mores with cookies instead of crackers.  Oh.my.delicious.

I actually got to see my cousin Erik for the first time in over 20 years.  It was really fun to catch up!

My dad with C.

I thought it was an adorable picture.

This bird feeder was the busiest feeder I've ever seen!  There were trees all around, and each bird would swoop in, take a few seeds and head back to the appropriate tree.  Then, as soon as one bird would leave, another would swoop in from another direction.

Then, in the morning, we caught a less than feathery creature...more furry...aiming for the feeder as well!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have from our busy Saturday!

I went running in a local park - which I was told was nice a flat, but was everything but.  A. came with me to run - since he thinks he's going to do a 5k with me this September.  He petered out at .5 miles...and I spent the next 1.5 miles trying to coax him to run.  The park was beautiful, and they were setting up for a tractor pull later that morning.  Only in Kentucky.  :)


I forgot to take my camera on our travels to see my cousin's houses.  They both recently built or remodeled their homes, and it was so neat to see the building trends down there vs. up here.  The area is just beautiful, and chasing fireflies with the kids made stepping in dog poop totally worth it!

I was REALLY nervous going down there because my cousin has two cats in her house...and two horses in her back yard.  I am allergic to both of them, and C. is REALLY allergic.  But since our awful reactions, we have changed our nutrition and supplement habits, so I was eager to see if we were going to reap the benefits.  I packed up the inhaler, magnesium spray and benedryl (which I realized later that I forgot! - just the benedryl, not the other stuff).  The cats were sequestered to her basement, and my cousin spent the entire day cleaning everything so C. would be able to come over.  She warned us to stay off certain furniture that the cats usually lounge on, and let us know that her bedroom was a no-cat zone (therefore our safe room if C. reacted).  The horses were about 50 feet away, and the cats stayed in the basement.  I'm happy to say that C and I emerged from the evening without so much as a sneeze!!!  My poor mom got a little itchy and sneezy - which is the only reason I realized I forgot my Benedryl.

Sunday we went caving!!!  I have tons more pictures of the beautiful caves...so I need to make a new post.

Things I learned in KY

I'm baaaaack!

We had our first family vacation since C. was born.  And our first road trip with A. that was longer than 4.5 hours.  We travelled down to Kentucky for a little R&R.  I have many, many.....many pictures coming...but until I get caught up at work (which will likely take longer due to my delaying and creating a blog post), they will have to wait.  Hopefully I'll have them ready by tomorrow.

Until then, here's a few things I learned while on vacation:

• It is VERY handy to have grandparents in the car on a long journey.
• It is VERY handy to have a DVD player and Lighting McQueen in the car on a long journey.
• My husband does NOT like it when I sigh or inhale quickly due to his driving.
• He gets annoyed quickly with this.
• Very quickly.
• It is VERY helpful if I just don't look at the road.
• Indiana is a very long, very flat state.
• Kentucky is beautiful....sans the ticks, black widows, and snakes.  (only one of which I saw)
• Zoo memberships save a LOT of money at zoos all over the country.
• I now know the difference between lateral and vertical caves.
• I am VERY grateful to have lost 40 pounds while in the vertical cave caverns.
• I am VERY grateful to have more stamina on long days spent walking...and walking....and walking.
• I can run anywhere, anytime.  It's an exercise I can take with me - very easily.
• I enjoy gin and tonic's with a lime.
• It's easier to control gluten free eating when staying at a relative's house.
• Herbalife shakes saved my arse from a total backslide.
• Monster cookies are gluten free.
• Smore's taste sooooo good when using monster cookies instead of graham crackers.
• Bird feeders are fun to watch.
• C. and I can come within 50ft. of a HORSE and still maintain a stable breathing pattern!!!
• Time spent with favorite family members is refreshing for the soul.

When the list items start crossing themselves off.

A few weekends ago - the week before the 5k,

we had a big family weekend.

It seems that one of my list items popped up all impromptu-like...

...and I thought that was pretty darn cool.

Not having to plan (you know, as much as I CAN plan with my type B personality)

to complete a list point.

So...I'm just going to take you through the events of the weekend.

See if you can identify when it pops up.

Saturday AM:  Baby shower for D's baby sister.

Who is now having a baby of her own.

It's a boy!

I'm very excited - I love little boys.

Sorry the picture is dark - darn back lighting!

We gave her a Michigan onsie.

Cause they live in North Carolina now, and I want to make sure

my nephew knows his roots.

This cute little duchess is the younger daughter of a dear friend of mine.

Also very sweet that she is also the sister-in-law of my sister-in-law.

(HA!  Try to figure that one out!)

Poor little F, she kept pouting while I held her.

She's a bit- wee-little -teeny-bit a mama's girl.

But ADORABLE!

My other sister-in-law made this cake!

And my dear friend Kathy made the cupcakes.

Well done, ladies!

Later, we invited the whole gang over to the Love Shack for some family time.

The entire family has not been together since a wedding a few years ago (C. was 6 weeks old).

I made brownie bites topped w/ strawberries.

C. found the biggest strawberry in the world and proceeded to eat it like an apple.

After dinner, the kids were playing with some balls in the yard.

Then, they started to play a game that looked a little a lot like kickball.

So, I popped out of my chair and joined in on the fun.

Before we knew it, more adults than kids were playing.

My team got their heinies kicked.

C. ran the bases every time - without stopping - regardless of whether he kicked the ball or not.

Uncle Mike told him to "stop on the base."

C kept running and said, "I don't want to."

What's that?

You're checking the list?

You found it?

YES!  #35.  Play a game of kickball.

Thank goodness it didn't say "win" a game of kickball.

And since it was the hottest day of the year, and we were all drenched with sweat,

D. decided to fashion a dew rag out of a kitchen towel.

Yep, that's hot.

And since we don't know when we'll be all together again,

we pulled out the cameras and self-timers.

I had to take mine up and down to fit on my picture wall,

but Matt's turned out awesome - and he took it landscape, so we fill the picture better.

But here's the family picture (all of us, in our sweaty glory)

from my camera:

Top Ten things I do that annoy my husband....and I do them anyway :)

Many blogs I read participate in Top Ten Tuesday.I always find myself looking forward to Tuesdays for their funny or heartfelt lists.  Then, I began thinking of things in top ten lists.  I'm taking it as a cue from my cerebellum that I need to start posting on Top Ten Tuesdays for a bit - at least until the lists stop running through my head.

Ok, top ten things I do that annoy my husband....and I do them anyway

1.  I never fully close the pantry door.  I know it would take very little effort to push that door an extra 3 inches so the door would sit flush in the jam, but...well, there's many other things that I can do with those 15 seconds.  Besides- our wood stainer did a fantastic job on the wood- and no one really gets to appreciate the side of doors nowadays....


2.  I don't plan my time appropriately....especially when it comes to dinner time.  A. has a baseball game at 6?  Oh...ok, well, I'll start cooking at 5, and we'll eat at 5:35....and be out the door (with dirty faces and unfinished homework) by 5:40.  While I understand a little forward thinking would be helpful, well.....I have no excuse for this.

3.  I have a roller coaster of emotions.  I do try to buffer them a bit.  I can tell when I'm horribly annoyed with life-in-general, and really pray about not saying something I'll regret.  D. has gotten pretty good at classifying the weeks into: cuddly, happy, annoyed, and RAWR!  I think that sums it up pretty well.

4.  I'm not a fan of housework.  Never have been, never will be.  I clean when the fancy strikes....which isn't often.  I don't know how he deals with this and his OCD, but I'm just grateful he's not rocking in a corner somewhere.

5.  I'm addicted to reality TV.  I love watching the Duggers, Say Yes to the Dress, Extreme Home Makeover, Swamp People, etc.  He'll watch Swamp People with me, but anything girly, and he's out.

6.  I'm impulsive.  He's very careful with his actions, words, and spending.  I'm the free-spirit of the marriage.  I (at times) lack a verbal filter, and at times spend money without thinking.  Yes, we live on a pretty tight budget, and I stay within the budget - I am sure there's probably some wiser decisions I could make with our monetary out-go.  People magazine comes to mind....

7.  I fart.  Yes.  I just admitted to farting on my blog.  There's no "feminine way" to describe my backside emissions.  If you've ever met anyone with GI issues, you will understand.  If you have GI issues, you can commiserate.  I try to hold it in until I'm away from everyone....but sometimes that's not a possibility.  EVERY time I excuse myself and head to a different location, the stench will either grow legs and follow me back, or D. will find a reason (unconsciously, of course) to head in that direction only to be hit by a wall of stench.  This common courtesy is null and void if we are leaving a social gathering - at which point, I've been holding too much in for far too long.  At this point, his singed nose hairs are considered mere collateral damage.

8.  I over pack.  When we go anywhere- whether overnight or far away, I always have a lot of contingencies packed.  Extra underwear, extra shoes and socks.  Extra entertainment for the boys.  Extra food for munchies.  This leads to a lot of heavy lifting and junk sorting while in transit.  But, you know what?  He's eternally grateful for this when one of the boys gets sick and I had meds, or when he's forgotten his own toothpaste, and I have it in my bag.  Yo....in your face, D!  ;)

9.  I pile.  I have no problem putting something off until "later."  Only, later comes about 6-7 months down the road.  He needs clean and tidy.  I am not clean and tidy.  We have separate locations for organizing papers, etc....but there are times he can't even LOOK at my area without a twitch.  I've realized that both of my parents tend to pile things as well.  Therefore, I'm seeing this as a genetic trait, hence I am no longer responsible to trying to fix something that is genetically in-grained.

10.  I forget names....only I don't realize I forget names.  I used to be in medical sales.  I used to remember names with awesome clarity.  Until I got sick.  Now, my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be.  And I forget that I'm not as sharp as I used to be, so I talk with all the confidence of a salesperson.  So....upon seeing some of our neighbors for the first time this spring, the conversation when like this:

Neighbor guy:  Hi Dave and Sandy!
Me:  Hi John!
Dave: (grumbling under his breath in my direction): Jim.

Me:  Hi Jim!

Crazy neighbor lady:  Hey guys!
Me:  Hi Judy!
Dave:  (grumbling under his breath in my direction) :Julie

Me:  Hi Julie!

Basic conversation among neighbors....

Me:  Yeah, we saw Sandy and Tom the other day too - they're back from Florida.
Dave: (grumbling under his breath in my direction) Sandy and BOB.
Me:   Yeah, we saw Sandy and Bob the other day too - they're back from Florida.

This happens more than I want to admit.  Time for more memory games!!!