Thursday, December 2, 2010

What day is it again?

Last year's snow.



Ah, December. You're here already?! This is quite a surprise. I didn't expect you for a few more weeks at least....

Here are a few things I've been loving this week:

This album. The only Christmas album I can honestly say I love.

These coasters. My mind is going crazy with ideas for other things to paint those designs on.

The most ridiculous shoes I've ever seen.

Amazing storm photos.

And beautiful houses.

Friday, November 19, 2010


{this moment}




A Friday ritual started by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Monday Supper?

I've got to be kidding, right? Two food posts in a row? I couldn't help it, though. I just had to show you what we did with all that beautiful leftover ciabatta from Sunday. Presenting, 

Garlic Bread Sandwhiches!

This is a pretty regular around here. It started with leftover garlic bread and took on a life of it's own. Once again, super simple. Usually we make it with french bread from the store. But we had some leftover ciabatta so we used that this week. You take at least one stick of soft butter and add a whole bunch of garlic. I have no idea how much. Neither of us has ever measured it. Spread the bread with the yummy garlic butter, layer with turkey, tomatoes slices and lettuce. Wrap it in foil and throw it in a 350 degree oven. Leave it in there for fifteen or twenty minutes. You just want to get them nice and warm. And that's it. Pull them out, unwrap them and enjoy. 

And then if that wasn't enough butter for you, you can do what we did. Make chocolate chip cookies!

We're pretty boring. We just use the recipe on the Toll House Package. Except...


We only add half the amount of semi-sweet chips and the rest of the chips are made up of 1/4 white chocolate and 1/4 butterscotch. You can not possibly imagine how amazing it is until you try it. And once you do there's no going back!


The other trick to amazing cookies is to pull them out when they're a little undercooked. That keeps the soft and chewy later. 

But really, our kitchen is pretty tiny. And there's not really enough room for us both to work on the cookies. So alot of times I end up playing paparazzi/art photographer. And you end up with shots like this...






I love them all but technically I probably should have been helping make the cookies. I'm glad my baby is a better cook than I am.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Sunday Supper

Supper on Sunday was super easy. Saturday we cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot. After taking the meat off we were left with chicken carcass. What better way to use it than to make chicken noodle soup?

It was super simple. We threw the bones, broth, an onion, three carrots and several celery sticks into a pot with about eight cups of water and stewed it for about two hours. You have to keep adding more water as it boils away. Next, we poured it through our strainer and into a large bowl to get out all the crunchy bits. From there it was a simple as dumping it back into the pan, adding some more carrots and onion and water, and putting in a bunch of the cooked chicken. Add the noodles about ten minutes before you want to eat and tada! Chicken Noodle Soup!


Heart shaped ciabatta. I use this recipe and it couldn't be more simple. I love it.


The bread comes out moist and dense. It's just a little bit hearty and it's amazing dunked into homemade soup. And best yet, Justin loves it. And he has very decided opinions about bread.

So there you have it. Homemade chicken noodle soup and bread. Pretty fancy if you ask me.

Yes, this is all I do lately. Why do you ask?

I have more bracelets to show you! I've been spending almost all of my free time making these. Well, that and cooking. I have some recipes to post later. But for now. Enjoy!

A bracelet for me. I used those same beautiful bronze variegated beads.


I also finished up my anklet. But it looks exactly like the last one so I figured I'd skip the picture. Here's hoping this one holds up better than the first.


I love this one. That shade of blue is to die for! The pattern actually came from a seller on etsy. I made a few changes but it's mostly the same. 


Unfortunately, I was constrained by the length of the pattern, so the bracelet is a bit smaller than I prefer. I can wear it but it is almost impossible to put on myself. That is something I'll have to correct. Or if I make it for someone with a larger wrist, it would be a simple enough fix. I just have such crazy small wrists.

That's all for now. I have more patterns in mind. I should be starting a new bracelet this weekend. I also have two more finished bracelets to photograph along with some pictures to post of what we've been eating. Expect to hear from me soon!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Beading

I'm still here. Studying away and getting in my reading and beading whenever possible. Here's what I've been up to the past few weeks. I'll have more to share later. I have a few bracelets that I have yet to take pictures of. I'll try to post them later this week. Until then, enjoy!


A bracelet for Justin. He said he would only wear a beaded bracelet if it had dragons shooting fire on it.


Who could have passed up a challenge like that? Certainly not I!


A bracelet for Margo. Her favorite colors are hot pink and lime green with black. 


I couldn't find a good hot pink. But I think this one worked out well.


An anklet for me. A beautiful bronze variegated. Unfortunately it broke already. But I think I figured out what the problem was and there's a new one on my loom already :-)


Another one for me. Blue variegated. I love, love this one. I've worn it many days.


My very first commission. Cody is a huge Ohio State fan. 


He wanted a unique bracelet and ask me to make him one. I was happy to oblige. 


Purple variegated for Jennifer. These are some of the first beads I ever bought. They're one of my favorites. 

Monday, September 13, 2010

Among the many other things that occupy my time I've been making lots of time for beading. I've always loved it but I've been getting much more interested in it lately. I'm excited for the cooler weather. I love to craft while we watch movies at night. 



One of my barefoot sandals. I love this things. The beads are silver and just a bit iridescent. Definitely the most complicated thing I've ever made. All the pieces were made at the same time because I knew I would be unable to join them later. If I ever make more barefoot sandals I'll need a bigger loom. The one I have is barely, barely big enough for my foot. 



You can see the beads better from this view. Gorgeousness. I bought them up in the most amazing bead shop in Frankenmuth, MI. The store was a little bit of heaven on earth. 



I loved the beads so much that I made this one for Jillian. I'll give it to her for her birthday next month. I also made a bracelet for Jana's birthday. But I forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to her. I'll be making Jennifer one as well in the next few months. I have a beautiful variegated purple picked out for her. Something as simple as this I can easily do in an hour. 



This is Patrick's bracelet. I had to remake it for him. I'm also working on rebeading Michael's bracelet. Those boys have the worst luck. I've never had a bracelet break like they do. This one takes closer to two hours so it's a substantial chunk of time. 


And this one. This is my baby. I made this one more than four years ago and I wear it almost everyday. Sadly it's beginning to fray as you can see so I'm having to be more selective about when I wear it. This one though. It took a very long time. Almost as much time as the bracelet I made for Joel. Mini Jamaican flags all in a row, separated by bands of white. Once again I forgot to photograph it before I gave it to him. That one I will get a photograph of though. It's too impressive not to.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Frankenmuth, MI

Here it is Tuesday already. I had a post all planned out for last Thursday. But then we lost power late Wednesday night. And got it back on Thursday night, a full twenty-three hours later. Needless to say that trumped any plans I might have had for posting here. So instead of my intended Thursday post you'll get pictures from this weekend.


On Friday we went to Frankenmuth, MI. Justin's family goes there on a regular basis. It's a darling little town. Located in the heart of Michigan about an hour north of Lansing, Frankenmuth is nicknamed 'Little Bavaria'. It's settlers were German and were dedicated to preserving the German way of life.

The visitor's center.

The town has a strict building code. Even the Drury Inn was built in the German style.


The inn downtown had a bell tower that chimed on the hour.



It also told the story of the Pied Piper every three hours.



It's quite adorable.


And very German apparently.


The candy shop

There were more little shops and goodies to see than I could possibly have documented. The Candy shop that I've forgotten the name of was my favorite by far. The salt water taffy was to die for. None of that nasty store bought stuff. This was homemade. Fresh and soft and everything taffy should be. 


And then there's this other place in Frankenmuth:




The world's largest Christmas Store.


It was chock full of things.


Ornaments and decorations everywhere you look.


I particularly loved this carrot playing the trumpet.


On their grounds, they had the most adorable prayer chapel, called the Silent Night Chapel.


One of the many things we bought at the store. Justin picked it out actually. I was impressed.


We had a really good supper at the Bavarian Inn. I had weiner schnitzel and there was so much food! Multiple courses and several items in each course. I definitely enjoyed trying new foods.

All in all, it was a very nice day trip. Three hours each direction is not bad drive. Particularly when you have someone as fun as Justin in the car with you!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ahhh!!!

I can't believe it! Monday was the first day of summer but my summer break is almost half over already. Seven weeks in, I feel like it's just starting. The first summer session is wrapping up. We take our final tomorrow morning and have a blissful three days break before the next session starts. My summer session is finishing quietly. I'm doing as well as I hoped. Taking Spanish as a summer intensive was probably one of my better ideas. It's much easier to focus when I only have one other class and in a little over six weeks I'll be done with Spanish forever!

I'm not sure how I'll be spending my break/weekend. There have been talks about a day trip north and the nephew's dedication is on Sunday. I'll keep you posted on how things shake out. This past weekend was absorbed by a friends wedding. It was quite the event. The bride was beautiful. The groom was handsome. The party was fantastic. Twenty of our close friends dancing attendance, wearing their finest. What more could you want? And then there was the sunset on the drive home. Yellows and golds filled the evening sky. Little wispy clouds and airplane streaks filled the horizon. A stunning sight if ever I saw one.

Sadly my only pictures of the day aren't worthy of anything but facebook. My own camera was sadly down at my parents' house haven been forgotten there the weekend before. All the beauty around me and all I had to capture it was a sad, awkward, borrowed camera whose battery died on me before the reception even started. I did take a few photos of the sunset with my phone. But everyone knows how camera photos turn out...bad.

The moral of this story is clear. Don't ever forget your camera and if you do forget it, it is worth the sacrifice to drive back and get it instead of waiting on someone else to bring it to you. Because there may never be another sunset as beautiful as the one you're seeing right now. And if there is? You might not be around to see it.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A momentous day

I met Justin on August 23rd, 2007. Justin disagrees with me. He says that we actually met in July a few weeks earlier at the Allen County Fair. The sad truth, however, is that I don't remember meeting him at all. I remember being at the fair that day. I was with a group of friends. He says that he was there with his family. He tells me our friend Cody introduced us. He says that he thought that I was dating one of the boys in the group. (This isn't terribly surprising to hear. I knew that one of the boys liked me. And that he had a girlfriend. And that he would be perfectly willing to cheat on her. With me. Believe me once I found out that last part I told him to get lost. But I didn't know that yet. All I knew was that Cody was standing around talking to some person for forever and that I was getting antsy.)

That, Justin says, is the first time we met. I believe him. Because, to be honest, I have a terrible memory. And he's always right about these types of things. Except for the rare once a year occasion where I'm actually right about something. But seriously, saying that he's wrong once a year? That's an exaggeration. It's probably more like once a decade. Except I haven't known him for a decade. I haven't even known him for three years yet. I've known him just long enough to be sure of the fact that he's hardly ever wrong. And that's a fact. Sadly though, this story of mine must start in August of 2007 because that's where I remember things from.

Anyway, August 23rd, 2007. It was the start of a new semester of school. I was only taking on class this semester and it was choir. I had had an internship over the summer in my field of interest and had left it badly disillusioned. I promptly dropped out of all my classes and swore off school until I could decide on a new degree. Except that I couldn't bear the idea of quitting choir. Choir that I loved passionately. Never mind that I don't have a good enough voice to ever be a professional musician. Choir was my passion. Standing in a crowd, surrounded my sopranos, singing four, five or at times up to eight part harmony. Realizing I couldn't stand the idea of not attempting to hit high notes multiple times a week I quickly reenrolled.

As for August 23rd, however, I was doing nothing. I wasn't working that day nor did I have any classes. So I did what any normal 20 year old girl would do. I got dressed and hung out at school all afternoon with my friends. One of the christian groups, InterVarsity on campus was having a party in the science mall and some of my friends were helping. Little did I know that this christian group would soon sucker me in and absorb my life. They had gotten some of those blow up games and set them up. One of them was a game where two people stood on platforms, hit each other with padded sticks, and tried to knock each other off. It was on this game that I first saw Justin.

He was fighting the staff worker for IV, Nick Johnson. I don't remember who won. I think it was probably Justin because, well, it's Justin. The festivities continued throughout the afternoon and there was a meeting in the evening that I attended as a matter of course. We had an icecream eating contest among other things. When the meeting was over everyone went out to eat. Except me. There was leftover icecream and I was bound and determined to get that stuff into my freezer. Luckily, I succeeded.

That my friends, was when I met Justin. I don't think I spoke a single word to him the entire day. But you better believe that I remembered him. That time.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Gratitude. Or the lack thereof.

So Monday morning, I cleaned the fish bowl. Shouldn't have been a big deal. Shouldn't being the keyword here. It was a big deal. To start off with there is the fish. Now I know not all fish are the same but mine takes the cake. He is the most hormonal, moody fish I've ever met. If anything I'd swear he's going through puberty. Except I think he already did that. Sometime about ten minutes after he hatched. But I might be mistaken. 

First, I couldn't get him out of the bowl. He was bound and determined to stay right there. He was happy where he was, nasty disgusting water and all, thank you very much! I eventually got him out of the bowl and into his VERY temporary home. He hated it. He moped. He wined. He floated in my bright orange mixing bowl and refused to move. I talked to him. I tried to feed him. All the while scrubbing the five months of accumulated fish poo out of his bowl. And off his rocks. And off his plants. 

Finally I had his bowl all sparkling and clean. I picked up my little green net and prepared to scoop the poor wretched little fish out of the orange monstrosity and put him back in his own happy little home. But what does the little bugger do? The instant my net hits the water he jumps. I don't mean jumps a little. Or jumps to the side. Or to avoid the net. Well, he successfully managed that. But he jumped out of the bowl. And onto the counter. 

When I try to scoop him off the counter? He flops away again. As if he was content to stay on the counter. My second try, I get him up and into his fresh clean bowl. And then the ungrateful wretch just slowly sank to the bottom and sat there. Like the lump that he is. No happy swimming. To appreciation for all my hard work. He just sat there hiding behind his plants. Twenty minutes later and after much bribing coaxing on my part he finally came out. 

He's been swimming peacefully enough this afternoon, although he hasn't quite forgiven me for the trauma I inflicted on him. No worries though! He'll come crying to his mama soon enough. I just better make sure I keep my little green net well out of sight!

Ah... Relaxation

This past Wednesday at 10am, I set down my pen and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had done it! I had successfully completed all of my finals. I went home. I sat down on the couch with my book. I sat around in my pajamas all day. I went to the mall. I slept the morning away. It was wonderful. It was glorious. It was boring.

It's true. I got bored. What does this say about me if I can't enjoy three days of laziness? The fact of the matter though is I hate to sit around and do nothing. So what do I do on a bright, sunny, crisp morning? I clean my house. Frankly by last week I had begun cleaning things. Last week was just the beginning though. This week, this week is the real deal. I stuck my toes in to test the water and it was fine.

So far today I have;
1. Scrubbed out the fish bowl (more on that in a later post).

2. Scrubbed out the oven (okay it's not totally clean yet. I don't have any oven cleaner on hand and boy, do I need it! I honestly have no idea the last time the oven was cleaned. I've lived here for two years. And I've never cleaned it. And yes it was dirty when I moved in.).

3. Scrubbed the paint off my toenails and applied new (man, have I been doing a lot of scrubbing today!).

4. Read one chapter in a fascinating but incredibly heavy book entitled Red Families v. Blue Families by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone (I'm quite enthralled so far. I'm interested to see what conclusions they reach).

5. The dishes three times (breakfast dishes, my lunch dishes, and all the the bowls I used while clean up after the fish).

6. Four loads of laundry (a never ending chore to be sure but I made a dent).

7. Connected my computer to my printer... again (I have so many fun recipes to print!)

8. Sat down and began this post.

It's been a productive day so far and the best thing about it? I've loved every minute of it. I love cleaning and organizing. I love turning up my music and seeing how much I can get down and how quickly. I love being busy and having my hands and mind occupied.

On the bright side, summer classes start on Monday and then I'll have more than enough to keep myself occupied!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Ahh... life! Amazing beautiful thing that it is. Things continue to flow. This week marks the start of the mad six week rush to finals. I'm anticipating this semester to be the easiest in a long time. That and our beautiful weather have conspired to make me a very happy girl! Their predicting that it'll be 70 degrees tomorrow. Oh happy day!

I've begun my research into container gardening. The library books have taken over my desk and appear to be breeding. I swear everytime I go into the office there are more books than the last time. What a wonderful problem to have. Unfortunately I'm returning some of these books to the library today. Hopefully the ones I keep won't be too traumatized. I need them still. They'll be reunited with their lost loved ones soon. I promise!

Our weekend consisted of Easter with Justin's family, the Grand Re-Opening of the Museum of Art, and supper and a movie with Joel. A wonderful start to the week. It's Joel's spring break so we made him come along to the Museum with us. He didn't resist too much though. Metavari was playing and Joel loves them as much as we do. Okay, probably more.

Registration for summer classes/fall semester began yesterday. I picked out all my classes a few weeks ago, reconsidered and picked out different ones this week. I am officially registered however. I'm taking fifteen credits in the fall semester with probably another nine over the summer. It'll mean no summer break for me. But it'll also bump my graduation up from December of 2011 to May of 2011!! That's a huge jump. I can't wait to be done!

I can't begin to express how glad I am that it's spring. Sunshine and warm air and getting to have my windows open and t-shirts! So many wonderful things are beginning. It makes my heart happy.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

It's finally spring!! While the official day was Saturday, the last week of winter was decidedly spring like. It was sunny and warm! In the 60s most days! I spent much my week outdoors trying to begin a tan. While the prospect on a whole is laughable I managed to succeed in remaining pink for most of the week ;-)


(Our feet on March 6th, 2010)

But the most wonderful part of it all? Sandals!! Lovely, summery sandals! Those who spend all year round wearing sandals cannot possibly appreciate the wonder that they are. It is amazing to be able to take off my boots and (double) socks and not feel like my toes are about to fall off.


(Our feet again on March 16th, 2010)

On the downside this means that I must start doing a better job of painting my toenails on a regular basis. And shaving. And wearing sunscreen. But it's worth it. Because it's finally spring!

Friday, March 19, 2010

I apologize for my long absence. There are many excuses I could make. It could have had something to do with studying for my midterms. But I'm done with that. It could have had something to do with taking those same midterms. But they're done too. It is also possible that it could be related to the fact that it was so beautiful during my spring break that I couldn't bear to stay inside and write anything. But that wouldn't be true either. Or at least not the whole truth.

The truth of the matter is that I haven't quite known what to write here. There you go. The actual truth. I don't have an excuse. It's not that there haven't been things going on. Discussions have been had. Trips have been made. Pictures have been taken. But somehow none of them really seem to matter at the moment. There are things weighing on my mind that feel to be more important than the mundane. The only problem is that I don't have a good enough grasp on them to be able to explore them fully.

There are a variety of topics all jumbled together and entwined. They are all important individually but collectively they are more so. These past few weeks have brought discussions about work, school, children, finances and so on. No decisions have been made. Yet. But the fact of the matter is that decisions do need to be made. And decently soon. In the coming weeks and months.

I'm going to begin to cover these topics one at a time. I may never cover all of them. And the ones that I do cover are sure to overlap in many ways. I don't have decided opinions on any of them as of yet. But I am working at developing my thoughts and ideas on a variety of topics. Many of them I only have a vague idea of. But I'm getting there. All this to say that I have not left and I am looking forward to this chance to delve into the world of the unknown.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Last post I mentioned my bucket list that I've been working on. I'm still continuing to work on that. This list is not the kind of list you finish at once. There will always be something else to add and as I cross things off, I'll add more. Or things can be taken off the list. There were a few things that I wrote down in my first flurry of writing that I later took off. I'm not terribly surprised by that. I tend to get caught up in the moment and then regret things later. But then again who doesn't? ;-P

I am having difficulties with my list though. Of the more than thirty things on my list there are only seven that I could even possibly do while in college. And of those seven, four of them would take more time than I have to commit. To be honest this is almost more frustrating to me than not having had a list. To know what I want to do and then not be able to do it is enough to drive anyone crazy.

I'm struggling with an intense desire to drop out of school. I enjoy it. I like my classes. I like learning. I like studying even. But I want to go and do and be. And I can't do that while in college. So I find myself once again chaffing to escape. I'm afraid this is a constant theme with me. My mind is always running at least one step ahead of where I am right now.

I'm determined not to let this get to me though. I'm trying to stay positive and do what I can when I can, even if it's not on my 'list'. One of the things I've always been ashamed of is that I can't do pushups. Not even one. I can do the baby pushups where you're on your knees. But the real pushups where you're on your toes? I've never done a single one in my entire life. Therefore I have decided that it is high time for me to develop the strength to accomplish this. I did baby pushups all last week. That one week was enough to make me realize that this goal may take longer than I anticipated.

At the moment I'm not sharing this goal with Justin. It's easier to keep it to myself for now. That way if I don't ever finish I'm not disappointing anyone but myself. Besides I'm hoping to impress him sometime soon with my mad skills. Maybe I'll be able to do more than him! Lol. Probably not but a girl can hope, right?

I really am trying to take things slowly. But I'm so impatient! My mind is full of a million little things that I've been wanting to do. And it seems like it would be easy enough to do at the same time. Except it wouldn't and I know myself well enough to know that I can't start ten new projects at once. I'll never finish them. I have to take things one at a time. So while I'm trying to take things one at a time, my mind is busily trying to decide what to do next. Some thing's never change.

Friday, February 19, 2010

This past week has been very mentally busy for me. Justin and I decided a few weeks ago to delay going to New Zealand for a while. This was a hard decision but we both felt like it was the right one to make so we forged ahead. We have been taking a financial class and working on getting our finances in order. We've done a good job of staying out of debt throughout our short marriage but have not been saving like we prefer/know we should be.

While we had decided that we weren't going to go to New Zealand anytime soon we had not made any further plans. After talking some on Monday we decided to get serious about paying off my school loans and not amassing any more. We have not had a chance to sit down and evaluate our budget but are planning on doing that as soon as possible.

These conversations have intrigued me and I find myself busily thinking and thinking and thinking about where we are in life and what we're doing. What I came to realize is that on the issue of money, and admittedly in other matters of life as well, we are acting inconsistently with our personalities.

Justin and I are planners. We like to know what is going on, when it is, where it is, who is going to be there and how their background checks out! Okay, maybe not that last one, but we like to be organized. We sit down once a week, look at our schedule for that week and plan out every breakfast, lunch, supper and snack. That same day we write a shopping list, go to the grocery store and we're done. That's it. No more thought, no more worrying.

That's not to say that things don't get rearranged sometimes. Or that if a better option is presented we don't sometimes throw our plan to the wind. We do. We change things and adapt. But the important thing is that we sit down together, make a plan, and then stick to it until something causes us to reevaluate it.

With money however, we are not doing this. We decided in fall of 2009 that we wanted to go to New Zealand in December of 2010. By February 2010 the only step we had taken toward that goal was to get my passport. We had not done much planning. We had not saved any money. We had not bought plane tickets. We were not prepared. But more importantly than that, we had no plan.

When we decided not to go to New Zealand yet, I was so relieved. Until then I hadn't realized that being able to get ourselves planned, and funded, and there, had been a concern of mine. So I wasn't at all upset that we decided to wait. But then came a period of several weeks where we didn't know what we were going to do. When we decided that we were going to seriously start to pay off our debt that was another big wave of relief for me.

These two decisions have brought me back again to where we are and what we're doing. This week I began to really think about what it was that I feel is important. What do I really want to do in life? What are my goals? My dreams? The biggest question in my mind was, Do I even have any dreams? In light of this I concern, I began a bucket list.

Definition: 1. Bucket List: A list of things to do before you die. Comes from the term "kicked the bucket".

As strange as it might sound, for all my love of lists for anything and everything, I had never started a list of this nature. I had never seriously sat down and thought about what I wanted out of life. When I initially began the list I thought that it would be short. Only a few things. My list now contains more than thirty things!

But all this thinking and writing has brought me around to the same question. Why have Justin and I never sat down, set a goal, make a plan and followed that plan until it either reaches its goal or is changed? Why have we acted so contrary to our natures and just gone with things willy-nilly?

What I've come to see is that the answer to this question isn't really what's important. It doesn't matter why we did what we did. What matters is whether we're going to continue down our same path or if we're going to stop now and make a change. I am excited to get to have this conversation with Justin. I'm excited to have this opportunity to plan and pursue a course of action that will allow me to cross some things off my bucket list. I am excited for life!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

My running career is currently on hold. I found a plan that I like pretty well. I think it'll start off at a good level for me and it seems to have pretty steady increases. I'm looking forward to starting it. My delay however is caused by a nasty collection of things. For one, it's disgusting weather in Ft. Wayne right now. It's cold and dry and it hurts to breathe. We also currently have about nine inches of snow. I know this may not seem like alot so some of you but to me, it's alot. I grew up further south where the most we ever got was three inches and it was melted in two days. Having eight inches of snow fall and then stay for more than a week is a novel event in my life.

The second issue is that we're just so darn busy at the moment. We're in a monday night class at church and have IV on Thursday nights. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are filled with things around the house and trips to the grocery store. While I know on one level I still have plenty of time to start running it's just so inconvenient. To get myself loaded up, to the gym, work out and get back home takes twice as long as I would like to spend running. So pretty much until it gets warmer and this class at church ends (eight weeks!!), it ain't happening. I guess I'll just have to wait for spring until I can lose my shoes and start running :-)

Saturday, February 6, 2010

My research continues. I'm trying to find myself a good beginning running plan. I'm trying to find one that will help me ease my way into running. While I'm in pretty good shape, I have next to no stamina. So the chances of me getting up right this minute and running a 5K are not good. I'm really wanting to work on that though.

I've also been researching our gym's policy on shoes. Justin says that he thinks you're required to wear them and he's probably right. That doesn't keep me from hoping he's wrong though. I haven't found anything yet that says. I've looked online on our website and there's not a list of regulations posted. I'll keep my eyes open the next time we're in the gym for our normal workout. I'm hoping that I don't seem any signs about wearing shoes posted up. I don't remember seeing any. But I don't usually notice things like that. So that might not mean anything at all.

Justin seems reluctant to begin running with me. He says that he will but I think he'd prefer to just stick to his elliptical machine. I suppose I can see that. But it's pretty boring for me. All you do is go and go and go all in one place. There's no variety. I'd like to be able to get out and go places. We'll see how he does with it. Maybe he'll love it. But I have a feeling I'd better get used to running on my own.

Friday, February 5, 2010

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I hate mornings like this.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I've decided that I want to learn how to run. Yes, technically I know how to run. I mean I'm not completely incompetent. But I mean really run. Like one of those crazy people that you see out in freezing weather running as if their life depended on it. And even better I want to do it barefoot. I know that sounds like a terrible idea. Like it would hurt and destroy your feet but I want to try it. I've just begun to do research so I've got a bit more to do. I'm hoping to start running in the next few weeks. We'll see how it goes. Until then I'll just look around online some more and see what I can find.