Monday, February 28, 2011

sleepy, sneezy, and grumpy

I had a headache all weekend. Literally - all weekend. It hasn't bothered me much at all today, which I am highly thankful for - however, now I'm sneezing like crazy, I didn't sleep well last night (I've acquired a habit of waking up at 3:30AM each morning - really, Ellen?!), and I felt semi-grumpy today at work today.

I was planning on a 2.5mile run today. I didn't do it in hopes of finding some relief through my rest. Tomorrow is Zumba (in my pink tutu, of course), and then hopefully I'll pick my 2.5mile run back up either Wednesday or Thursday.

Happy March tomorrow, everyone! Only 61 days of school left. :]



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Sunday, February 27, 2011

didn't do the 4.5mile run

I did a 5mile run!! Yay! :D

My day was a little crazy yesterday. I got up around 7:30-ish, but it was definitely too cold to run at that time. My poor body was screaming for me to get back in the bed after I walked Izzy, but I stayed up...sitting around the house in my running clothes (hmm, motivation maybe?).

Well, I gave myself until 10:00 - I was going to just sit around and relax until then. Around 10:00, my mom called me about a serger sale at a fabric store in town. So, what'd I do? I told her that I couldn't come check it out because, of course, I was planning my run for 10:00 and I must get it done.

Yeah, no. That's not what happened. I hopped in the car, went to the fabric store, and bought a new serger and a bias tape maker (yay!!! I hate making bias tape!!!). By the time I left and was heading home, it was about 12:00, and my precious nephew's 2 y/o birthday party was scheduled for 1:00. So, of course I wouldn't have time to run - it'd have to wait.

Nope! I decided that I could go to the party stinky and sweaty. So, I went for my run. As I was approaching the 4.5mile point, I realized that I was still a ways from my car, but Eli's party was quickly approaching. Soooo...I kept running and covered another 1/2 mile so that I could get to my car faster. Yay! I must say that this is the first time I've ever ran extra during a pre-determined distance run. It felt great!!

I also think I had a great run because I didn't listen to music (an absolute must for me). Instead, I listened to the Daily Audio Bible podcast. Can I just say that I love this podcast? It reads through the Bible with you over the year...but it's all audio. It was great to run as I listened to Leviticus (it was about clean and unclean food regulations in the OT), Mark (great reminders through the stories of the woman who was healed by touching Jesus' robe, and also Jairus' daughter's healing), Psalms and Proverbs (the scripture from Mark was so thought provoking for me that I didn't completely catch what Psalms and Proverbs said for the day).

Anyhoo - I noticed that I was running faster during this run, and I think it's because my cadence wasn't competing with the rhythms of the songs. So, that may be my new thing. I'll listen to the DAB podcast while I run.

P.S. more about the serger and bias tape maker will come later!! hehe



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Friday, February 25, 2011

vision

I went to the eye doctor this afternoon. Well, first I had to run home to get my glasses, and then I went to see the eye doctor. Sad times since the school is like 2 minutes from the office, but I live like 15 minutes away. It's alright though....I made it!

I somehow talked the doctor out of dilating my eyes - yay!! I got sick once after having my eyes dilated. I wasn't even sure I would be able to drive home because I was dizzy, and when I got home, all I could do was crawl into the bed and sleep. Once I woke up, I was fine. It was crazy though! So, needless to say, I avoid it at all costs!

As I was sitting there with the big contraption thing covering half of my face - trying to figure out the letters on the wall in front of me - I realized that I was holding my mouth funny because I was trying to figure out the letters without him making them bigger. Then I giggled under my breath because I'm sure I looked like a complete goofball - sitting there with a big "mask" on, making random guesses as to which letters were on the wall (okay, so maybe they weren't that random, but some certainly were!)...with my face all twisted up in concentration. If I were the optometrist, I would have laughed at me!



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Thursday, February 24, 2011

3.5miles + captive pictures

I did my 3.5mile run today! It went really well. It went a lot faster than I excepted. I mean - I've run 3.5miles tons of times before, but it went by really fast today.

So, Saturday...I'll run 4.5miles. :) Trying to take small steps towards a 10k again so that I can run on April 1 with no problem!

In other news....
I was hoping to post some pictures of the skirt I made (the first one...the one that makes my hips look wide lol), but for some reason, I can't get my laptop to read my camera card. I usually just pop it in my laptop, and it'll read just fine, but it isn't doing anything tonight. Very odd!! So, I'll see what I can do about that (maybe open it on my tiny laptop to see if it'll work there) and get the pictures up soon!! I was also hoping to list some of my items on etsy to sale, but the pictures are being help captive on my card. bah!

Have a happy Friday tomorrow!! :) We always do "Fun Friday" activities in my classroom (basically, we extend our learning from the week with complete hands on activities each Friday). Tomorrow, we'll be making a teeth model thing using tooth picks and mini-marshmallows (among other things...). It should be fun, and I'm sure I'll have a few pictures to share.....that's if my laptop starts to cooperate with my card.

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Update only about 10 minutes later:

So, I restarted my laptop, and now my card is responding fine - weird!

Here's the skirt I made!! I call it my "hippy skirt" since it makes my hips a tad wider. You can't really tell in this picture thought since my hands are on my hips. Oh well.

I haven't decided if I'll actually wear it or if I'll cut it up to use the fabric to make something else. I think the skirt would be better if I had used a cotton fabric instead of a heavier weight fabric - I just thought this fabric would make a pretty skirt, so I used it. :)

Hopefully I'll have pictures of my other skirt soon!!


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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

rain check

Today's run will require a rain check - though not because it's raining.

Being a 1st grade teacher requires me to be pretty active, right? Well, not today. Our principal got all of us 1st grade teachers subs so that we could have a day of planning for the rest of this year and for next year. So, we sat in a room all day. All. Day. Long. One of my students' parents went out to get us lunch...and we ate in the room. We had a couple potty breaks. But, we got LOTS done. Finished just about all of our long range plans for next year (basically, when we will teach what) and some other housekeeping type things. Mr. H also got us subs for a day in April, so we will finish up our LRP then and do other "fun" things on that day.

So, you'd think I'd be bursting with all of this energy, making my run much easier, right? Eh, maybe if the day had landed at another time of the month. After work, I went by the church where I do children's ministry to meet with the pastor, which got me home around 5:30. I'm beat! Right now, all I want to do is curl up with a heating pad and eat lots of chocolate.

3.5 miles didn't happen today, but it will tomorrow!! :D

happy chocolate eating, everyone!



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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

cupid's cup

The Cupid's Cup 2010 was my first race ever. My cousin Cindy and I ran it together in honor of my grandma - she died December of 2009 from heart problems. The Cupid's Cup benefits cardiovascular health. Cindy wasn't able to run this year because she broke her tail bone snowboarding. Sad times.

I'm proud to say I shaved a little off my time this year (even if only by maaaybe a minute and a few seconds...haha).

It was a fun race - including a "cupid" at the start and finish of the race. He had lots of muscles!! ....they were fake though (sad). It also included a pink tutu - yay! This may be my new race outfit from here on out - but I haven't quite decided about that yet.

So, here you have it...me, my pink tutu, and cupid.

He kept kissing my hand while we waited for my dad to take the picture. Can't tell it by this picture because he finally came up for air, but good gravy! It was a bit awkward.

Cupid also saw me approaching the finish line and had a fit. He hollered at me (he remembered my name...??) and said he'd been waaaaaaiiiiiiiiting for me...and then he proceeded to run to the finish with me. No fun pictures of that though.

Some of the other teachers from work ran as well. Sad to say I didn't catch a picture with them. Next time, ladies!! (not that they read this....)


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Monday, February 21, 2011

routine

I ran 4miles today. It was a good run. I did 4.03miles in 40:07minutes. I'm hoping this will help me get to my 10k run under and hour. I'll be doing the Cooper River Bridge Run on April 1st. I ran my first (and last) 10k in about an hour and two minutes, so hopefully I can knock it under an hour!!

So, I'm trying to keep setting a goal for my next run so that I'll be more motivated. So, I hope to run 3.5miles on Wednesday. It'll be just a bit trickier since I'm also planning on heading to the church for a meeting with the pastor (I'm the new part-time children's director there). So, I'll just have to gauge my time and decide if I have time to run before or if I should wait until after meeting.

Just trying to establish a running routine again!

I don't think I mentioned that I also ran on Saturday - I did 5k then.

Tomorrow is Zumba day! I'll be wearing my tutu again. :)

Sunday, February 20, 2011

workout with wheels

I felt like I needed to relieve some stress/tension tonight, but it was too dark for a run. So, I hopped on the exercise bike we have tucked away in the "storage" portion of our basement - aka the part I don't call my "area." That's always fun as I'm crowded in by "stuff" that we've stashed back there. Kind of relaxing though because it takes me away from everything for awhile. I usually take my laptop and look up a movie or show I want to watch while I ride. Or I take my Nook and read for awhile.

Tonight, I biked for an hour and a half and went 20miles. Ridiculous!! (and not intentional) It started with my show not loading up - grr - and then I got a phone call...so I talked. And then I started my show because it finally loaded - and then I got another phone call (pretty popular tonight! It doesn't happen often - maybe once in a blue moon lol), so I talked again...and then finally got back to watching my show. By then, I was pulled in to the episode and wanted to "ride it out" (haha....pun intended!) until it was over. So, that landed me at 20miles. Too bad running 20miles is much more difficult than biking it!!!

I must say that I do feel less stressed/tense. Exercise is great like that! Since I started running, I've always said that my students could probably tell when I've been running and when I haven't. I seem to be more easy going. Good or bad - it is what it is!

Happy new week, everyone! Enjoy it.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

made #1

I've been admiring a skirt tutorial on a blog for a couple weeks now. I decided to give it a shot last night.

I made my first skirt!

Well. I made a bubble skirt once, but it was entirely too short. Like - can't bend over/when you sit down, you're not sitting on your skirt - type of short. So, I cut it up and made fabruckets for a friend's Christmas gift with the fabric. The fabric was much better suited to fabruckets.

Anyhoo - so I made a skirt last night. I used some old fabric my mom gave me - white curtain fabric with a floral print in pinks, reds, greens, and blues.

I finished it in about 2 1/2 hours - not too shabby for me and a new pattern!

No pictures yet. I'm still in my pj's - trying to motivate myself to go running (did I mention that I made cupcakes last night....and ate one for breakfast this morning? oof! I need to run...). I'll get picture soon and share them with you. :)

Happy Saturday, everyone!

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Update on Sunday night: So, I have a picture of me in the skirt, but it's not that lovely. lol I'll add it tomorrow. In the meantime, I've made another skirt, and I LOVE LOVE it!! I just need to get an invisible zipper to put in it, and then I'll get a picture of it as well. It turned out much better. Yay for a sewing machine, fabric, and creative moods!

Friday, February 18, 2011

friday night

Mom's away for the weekend at a quilt retreat. Oh how marvelous it is for her to just sit and sew with friends all around her.

Dad and I went to Chili's for supper tonight. I love Chili's....a lot. I always get the honey chipotle chicken crispers with corn on the cob and veggies. With a honey mustard to dip my chicken in. And water to drink. Delicious!

I've been eating entirely TOO MUCH this week. I don't know what it is. I think I ate half a box of cheez-its throughout the school day today. oof! That's a lot. :o

I must run tomorrow. I must!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

not about running...but tutus and praises

When we've been there ten thousand years...bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing Your praise than when we first begun.

This has always been my favorite verse of Amazing Grace. Think about it...ten thousand years of singing God's praise, and we won't even be close to scratching the surface of our praise to Him! It makes me wonder what I'm doing right now to add to the praise of eternity. I don't want to waste the time I have here when I could be singing His praises in my everyday life - showing people His love and grace. I want to be intentional about this. Real about my walk with Christ.

I wore a tutu today to the Zumba class I'm in at work. I wasn't going to, but I decided that I would at the last minute. Let me tell you, this little pink tutu gave me so much confidence for some reason. I was able to shake my hips and dance right along with everyone else without worrying about what I looked like. Okay, so maybe I still worried some, but it was so silly to me. Why would a tutu make me feel any better? I looked like a complete nutcase, but I had so much fun. (I'll be wearing it next week as well. ;)

Why did I randomly start talking about my tutu? I want that same confidence in my praise to God. I want to be able to speak His name to people at work and around me. Not that I don't do this when the opportunity comes - but I want to be more intentional and not accidental in singing His praise to others.

My tutu gave me great confidence in Zumba. Christ is my strength and His love and desire for me are my confidence. But just like having to decide to wear my tutu...I have to decide to do something with this confidence.

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