End of The World Volcano

I seriously want to make one... I would have to start tomorrow to get the actual volcano formed and stuff... It would be fun. I am talking about the age old elementary science project. I think it would be fun to set on off on the 21st.

I am trying to kill time while awaiting the rice cooker. It should be done soon, which is good because I am freaking starving.

I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is in a week. Then, Hello 2013! I hope that it is an amazing year full of growth, change, and happiness for everyone (whether I know you or not!). This past year has had many ups and downs all the way around.

Ah, my back itched! The great thing is that now I can reach almost every spot on my back. I have always been fairly flexible, but it's even easier with less "me" in the way. Ha!

Pandora seems to be gracing me with a stream of songs I love. Kind of nice.

Oh, something I failed to mention last night... Um. So, after years of peer pressure I finally caved and began playing World of Warcraft. I must say that I am finding myself enjoying it. It is one of the many things I am finding I can balance with in my life.

Seriously, I am hungry... What the heck is taking the rice cooker so long....

Phew! Only seven minutes left. So I am going to leave you here while I go nom some dinner with the husband before we play some WoW.

Peace out, home skillets.

At Least One More Than 2011

This post; it makes my total for the year more than 2011. That's sort of an accomplishment right?

I'm getting better at finding my balance with all the things I love. And continuing to do so will be a big part of 2013 for me. This is assuming that the world doesn't end in three days. HAHAHA!

Quite a few things have transpired during my most recent radio silence.

I completed my first 10k race on Thanksgiving morning. It was a great way to cancel out the calories from the excellent dinner I had.

I have my oral surgery scheduled for the 9th of January. The closeness of the completion/realization of this dream to have my teeth fixed is amazing and slightly terrifying.

Two of my very dear friends are engaged, and I am so happy for them. They balance each other and complement one another so well. I wish for them a happy and joyous future!

Right now (literally, as I type this) I am fighting off this damn cold that ripped its way through my work. I would like to believe I am coming out of it, but you know how colds can be.

This year we are abstaining from Christmas mostly. We plan to do a quiet little thing for us and maybe a friend or two at home, but other than that we are just enjoying the extra day(s) off. Haven't really been feeling the family thing lately, which sucks because I know our time on this planet can be so finite. In the same breath, I shouldn't need a holiday to dictate when I can have a family gathering. Okay, I am not wanting to go off on this rant right now.

Here's some uplifting and inspirational information that I have yet to disclose. I promised myself once I hit a certain goal I would be ready to share this, and as of a week ago this past Saturday I had surpassed my goal. To date, I have lost more than 125 pounds (that's more than a good friend of mine weighs and she is three months preggers!!). At my heaviest in 2008 (there are pictures from this time on my facebook page if you have access) I was over 420 pounds. It has been an immense struggle and an entire lifestyle change to get to where I am now. There have been so many ups and downs and stalls/plateaus that seemed insurmountable. As of December 8th I weigh 297 pounds. The last time I weighed this little was when I met my husband over eight years ago. Before that? When I was fourteen/fifteen I weighed about the same. I still have about 100 pounds to lose to be at MY goal weight, and I know I can do it. I hope this information can help someone, anyone realize that they can achieve their own health goals. I have lost this weight without surgery, pills, or crazy dieting. I have monitored what I put into my body and how much. I have cut out some unhealthy habits such as soda all the time, sweets/junky snacks, smoking, and being a lazy bastard. I still enjoy soda and other sugary things, but very rarely and in extreme moderation. Oh, and I do not eat any fast food except in "emergency" situations (so once every six months!), and when I do I go for the healthiest option I can.

That is the biggest news of the last couple months really. At least it is for me. Now I am going to drug myself up with some Nyquil so I can have some more disturbingly odd dreams. Here's a quick recap from the past couple nights:

Woke up (in the dream) to find I was bald in a strip straight down the middle of my scalp... Not shaved, but truly bald.

At the doctor's for routine exam and the doctor then tells me in four to six months they intend to remove my appendix. I argue that there is nothing wrong with my appendix. They say it is an unnecessary organ. I argue that I have other superfluous anatomy like my tonsils. They respond that they will just remove those when they take my appendix. (Freaky, right? My fear of doctors my have played a role in that one.)

Every room I entered, the lights didn't work. Like they would flicker out immediately after I turned them on...

Yay, for sickness and drug induced dreams! Good night, yo.

Vacation Statistics

Miles driven: roughly 3,500

Number of States Driven Through: 9

States traveled through (in order): Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming (again), Montana, Idaho (again), Washington, and of course Oregon (to get home).

Total monies spent on fuel: $390.70 (I love my car!)

Pictures taken: roughly 1,000 (822 after deleting and editing)

Furthest driven in one day: 740 miles (It was brutal as it was through Iowa and South Dakota mostly. Pretty, but extremely flat....)

State with best rest areas: South Dakota; they had some super nice ladies there that handed out info guides and told you about interesting places to visit. Plus, the bathrooms were clean and nice.

State with worst/scariest rest areas: Montana; beautiful state, but I seriously thought one of the rest areas we stopped at was going to be the start of some horror movie... Plus the bathrooms were CAH-reepy!

There will be more... For now I need to go make dinner. Tomorrow it will be back to the grindstone... 

Numb The Bejeezus Out of Me and Let's Do This

Not exactly what I said to my dentist this afternoon, but a close approximation. Crap. I am numb up into my right nasal passage. Just got what I hope will be my last round of fillings done. Yay! Now on to the super fun stuff. Root canal, extractions, and implants, oh my! Hahaha. But seriously, that's what is next at this point. I will be going in for the root canal after our much needed vacation and shortly there after get the permanent crown in place. Then it's all down hill until January, when (barring any unforeseen circumstances) I will begin the implant process for my two missing teeth.

Have I mentioned how much I love my new dentist? Yea, he rocks.

Having part of my nasal passage numb feels weird.

I am so freaking hungry... I still have about an hour until the numbness will be worn off enough for me to eat. That's part of the reason I am on here; trying to kill time while not drooling on the keyboard.

Now would be a good time to get any sort of lip piercing on the right side of my mouth...

The past two days have been so draining... The rest of the week should be better. Key word being should.

Saturday we are going to the Tacoma Zombie Festerval and Preparedness Expo. I am super stoked about it. It should be fun. And then we are immediately turning around and heading to the coast for the normal bi-weekly trip...

I really want my soup. It's hard to focus on this.

We went to the weekly group run this past weekend only to find that almost all of the group was at various races in the Pacific Northwest this past weekend... Our fearless leader did show, so we went running with him. And this is where we made the fatal error...

We recently changed our 15 seconds running / 60 seconds walking intervals to 15/45. Well whilst running at that pace we were able to keep up a full conversation... Fearless leader decided that we can probably switch the ratio up even more. He suggested 20/40 until after we complete a 10k (we are looking forward to a potential Thanksgiving 10k) and then we may make adjustments from there as we ramp up towards the half marathon.

Yep, that's right. We are aiming to do our first half again. This one will be in April (in about seven months). We are looking to run in the Eugene Half Marathon. I know we can do it. We have done the distance so I know it won't kill me. We just have to work ourselves back up to that kind of distance. Since we were so sick in May we haven't done much more than four to five miles on a run.

But back to the more immediate future. The 10k. What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than burning a thousand calories running a 10k before scarfing down all the nommy foods associated with said holiday? I am truly stoked about it. Heck, even if we don't actually settle on a race for that day I will probably want to run that distance in the morning just to do it! Yes, I know, I have a sickness. I can't help it. I really truly enjoy running.

Speaking of, as I mentioned above regarding the fearless leader's suggested new intervals for us, we tried out the 20/40 pace last night for our run. At first my legs were like, "Woah! This is not how we do this! We should have stopped back there... What gives?!" But after the initial half mile to a mile it became fairly comfortable. Well, at least it wasn't painful. It was more physically demanding but in a good way. And conversation was limited to us focusing on how we breathe out. More sage words of wisdom from leader dude on Saturday. He told us to focus more on breathing out since our body will make sure we breathe in, but we can control how quickly we breathe out. It helped quite a bit.

My nose is no longer numb! Woo hoo!

I am seriously jonesing for my chicken tortilla soup from Costco that is sitting in my fridge... I have been waiting for this stuff to come back out! Now it's Fall (my favorite season) and all the awesome things associated with it are resurfacing, like pumpkin and maple and apple and spice scented stuff, fall coffee flavors (I know they can be had year round but they taste better in the Fall for some reason), still warmish days and cool crisp nights, and Grey's Anatomy comes back on!!! I really love the Autumn months.

I am hoping they love me too, and that the weather is mostly agreeable for our trip. I would love to catch a thunderstorm or two while we are out on the Great Plains. It would be amazing. I can't wait to see what kind of pictures we manage to capture on this adventure. I will be sure to post my favorites on here.

That reminded me. Earlier this month we went on an awesome train ride on the coast thanks to my new addiction: Groupon. It was such a fun and awesome day. By the time we got home we were exhausted and wired like kids! As we were getting ready for bed that night I checked on a deal we had been seesawing about and realized it only had two hours left. Being drunk on fun, we did it. We bought two hours each for custom tattoo work at 50% off. We are stoked. We have until March to use it. We will probably use it in the next couple months. I told Collin that we can use the vouchers after he does his CCNA certification test. Motivation never hurt anyone.

Well, I am going to go wash my face and then start heating up my soup, and find something stupid to watch on Netflix...

Ramble again soon.

Busy... Me?

Nah... What would ever give that impression? Oh, has it really been a month (almost) since my last post? Well, crap.

We completed our first 5k with flying colors! LOL. See my profile picture and it might make more sense. It was a blast! Definitely chose the right sort of event for our first 5k.

In the last couple weeks we have begun to switch up our workout regime. We added Zumba on the Wii, and let me tell you, I have never had that much fun flailing around like an uncoordinated buffoon. We are starting to get the moves down and are really enjoying it in addition to our running.

Ah, yes. The running. We have made some changes to that too. The 15 seconds of running to 60 seconds (one minute for those of you on drugs) of walking ratio was getting EXTREMELY stagnant and beyond being easy. We cut down the walking/"resting" period to forty five seconds and have been loving it. It's just right; not too little rest but not too much at the same time.

As for the busy part of life...

The weekend of our first 5k was insanity at it's finest. The race/fun run action was Sunday morning. The day before (aka Saturday) was non-stop! We had to go downtown to get our packets for the race. As soon as we got back out here we zipped over to the coast to take my dad groceries and run him into town. I felt kind of bad because we were prodding him along in town. After safely returning him home we flew back here (all I can say is I didn't get caught and that is what matters...), hopped back on the MAX, and went back downtown. We met K and G at Kells Irish Pub for an awesome dinner for G's birthday. I had the curry chicken and chips (fries). It was CRA-mazing! For dessert Collin and I split the Bailey's Cheesecake. Freaking orgasmic! Afterwards we MAXed our happy asses home and crashed before getting up to go to the race.

The weekend after that we did our normal Saturday morning run action before heading to IKEA.We found an awesome new clock for the living room! We snagged a quick lunch at Panda Express and then made a bee line for West Linn and the 2012 Street of Dreams. We ran into our neighbors/one of my co-workers there and saw five of the seven houses with them. All of the houses were truly amazing, but some of the things just seemed ridiculous to me. I loved the outdoor kitchens! Some day... Some day. After drooling over the insanely expensive homes we headed back to our abode and chilled. The following day we booked all of our hotel rooms for our upcoming and much anticipated vacation! It's a relief to know that they are all reserved and ready (and paid for!). Since we didn't feel like we had spent enough money ( < dripping with sarcasm) we decided we might as well go get a new camera so we have time to familiarize ourselves with it before our trip. We did find an amazing camera that is loaded for the price point and I am sure will last us quite some time.

Now we are to this past weekend. It was another coastal Saturday! I got to spend some much needed time with K before she had to head to work. I truly do not know what I would do without her! As always we got some fantastic noms from Deli 101. This time we tried the Roasted Chicken Panini; it was marvelous! We are working our way through the deli's menu and have loved it all! I'm not big on spicy but one of my favorites was the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, and don't get me started on the grown up grilled cheese! Oh, yum! And the sides and other goodies... Sheesh, I could right an entire blog just about the awesomeness of this place. Anyways, back to the weekend. We went to the lake to eat our sammies, and managed to see an amazingly awesome sight: two gorgeous bald eagles! I even got some great photos of them with the new camera:

It was just plain wicked. Then we went out to my dad's before heading home for the evening. Sunday was spent running errands and doing chores.

The weekends are when most of the real living happens, and are punctuated by the weekdays of working, working out, and going to appointments. This is part of why the posts have been so infrequent.

Plus, lately, with the whole wanting to have a tiny human in the next few (sweet jeebus I first wrote couple!) years, I have been finding myself trying to focus on what I want to do for my grown-up career. In the perfect world I would be doing something I love, and doing it from home with the freedom to be a mommy. This is my goal and I am going to try for it. With Collin's career path I am sure I could just as easily do just the mommy thing in the future (like, when we decide it is time to pop out a little parasite) without it being a financial burden on us, but I think I would like to have something that is mine that I contribute. I guess we will see when we get there, but I still need to figure out what I want out of my career. I know additional schooling is a definite, but for what?! I have played around with so many options I can't keep them straight! But this will be another post.

One step at a time. The big goal of the moment? Find a dentist that I like out of the three that I deemed potentially acceptable... I really need to get on this so that I can hit my birthday goal of getting my front teeth fixed FINALLY...

Now I am going to watch an episode of Drop Dead Diva on Netflix, because that's just how I roll!

Changes

You swear up and down that this is it. This is how it is going to be.

Then one day, something in you changes.

It's funny how broad the above can be interpreted.

My perception of my future has changed so drastically in the last few days, but it seems more like waking up and acknowledging what was already known to some part of me.

Peace and happiness. That's what these realizations have done for me. And Collin. Hell, he is the one who started it all.

Dammit.

Someday, we are going to make a go of this whole tiny human thing called parenthood... Someday. There are a couple things to deal with first. But more on all of this later.

:-)

And She Was Never Heard From Again...

Okay, if that were true then I wouldn't be posting this.

We are going to try something fun with the help of Google Images. A picture is worth a thousand words and we have a lot of catching up since it has been two some odd months...

So we left off with me getting a new computer and training for the half marathon...




Collin brought home the plague...



For almost a month, which meant no race... There will be others.

We traded the truck in for a new 2012 Ford Fiesta (ours is this color).
 
 We saw them at the Roseland! Great show! Dead Sara and Stars in Stereo opened for them.

My brother graduated from OSU!

And moved to New Meadows, ID for six months... AKA Purgatory (according to him).

We are getting back into the swing of running again. With all the weekend obligations it has been difficult to make it to our group runs... :-(

Horribly addicted to this game, but still finding time for other activities!

Like this piece I did.

And when we aren't other wise engaged going on adventures!

Like our trip around (literally) Mount Hood this weekend. Saw some amazing scenery!

I think that's about all the high points I can recall right now. So, ten pictures... That's like ten thousand words. Not bad! ;-)

Meatloaf!