Life is Good

Happy New Years Everyone!  Every New Years Day, Brandon and I try to do something fun, that we haven't done before.  (Or go somewhere we haven't gone).  This year, it was really difficult to figure out what we should do.  We decided to go for a bike ride (with Melanie) and have a picnic at the park.  I've never been on a picnic with Brandon before, we that was new!  And... another new thing happened...  Brandon told me I was in better shape then him.  I want it in writing, so here we go! :o)

I hope everyone is having a great day!

3.25 miles with the pain level of 1.5/10.  It didn't really hurt, but I could feel it, and it was a slight discomfort.

So... you ever wonder what an amateur runner/mom/engineer/cake decorator does on the holidays?  This is what I've been working on (off and on) for the last few days.  It's a birthday present for my neice (who is turning 12).  I have to wait a WHOLE month to give it to her, and it's goign to drive me crazy.  So, I thought I'd show it off to you all.

Here's a picture of my cute husband modeling it for me :o)

And a close up.

Okay... it's true, I'm pretty lame.  But just humor me. 

I hope everyone is having a great day!

3.42 miles pushing Melanie.  It was really nice out.

55 minutes of kickboxing and then 20 minutes of yoga focusing on abs.  The yoga felt really good after the kickboxing.  I have scout board of reviews tonight and I may run home from them, depending on what Brandon and Melanie's plans are.  

I'm trying a new recipe tonight and it smells yummy.  One of my New Year Resolutions is to try new recipes every week, and more particularlly recipes that use a variety of veggies.  If you have any good ones you want to share, let me know. 

30 min kickboxing, 40 min yoga (20 focusing on the core muscles and 20 doing stress relieve poses), then 2.47 miles at an average pace of 7'58". 

I'm a little stiff and sore from kickboxing yesterday.  I was definitely working some muscles that hadn't had attention for a while.  Stretching felt REALLY good today because of it though. :o) 

So, no running today, but it wasn't a total loss of a day.

After work I went to help Shelley (my friend who watches Melanie during the day).  She had asked me to watch her kids while she went to her daughter's parent/teacher conference.  I was there for about 1.5 hours.  Out of the 90 minutes, I spent 30 +/- minutes playing hop-scotch, jumping with different children in my arms, and then another 45 +/- minutes dancing with various children in my arms to Shrek's party music (by the way, there are only about 5 songs, and I have them all memorized now). 

If that wasn't workout enough, I came home and put on my running clothes (planning to take Melanie for a run).  By time I was already to go, she was dead asleep.  Instead, I put her in her crib and did 30 min of kick boxing and another 20 min of yoga. 

So, I didn't run... but as you can tell, I have been running around with my head chopped off.  Speaking of which, it's time to make dinner!

I ran for exactly 60 mins (thank you NikePlus for telling me all that fun information), and it turned out to be 7.21 miles.  Not too shabby.

I went to Grandma Great's today and she taught me knitting 101.  I have some things to learn and then I can go back to learn the next thing.  I'm making dish clothes.  Knitted dish clothes are 10x's better than crochets dish clothes, and crocheted dish clothes are 100x's better than the crummy ones you get at the store...  so, my math friends, who can tell me how many times better the KNIT dish clothes are than the CRUMMY ones you get at the store?  :o)  Don't you love little brain teasers?!? 

Went for a fun run before Brandon had to go to scouts.  Came home to yummy tacos (thanks hunny!)

I had some fun with Melanie today.  She used to move around the magnets on the fridge, so I found some fun magnets at Target (in the Dollar Spot) and put them on the front door.  She likes to move them around and will sit at the front door playing with the magnets for almost an hour.  We played with them together today. 

Here she is as Princess Melanie, playing with her magnets. :o)

okay, I was feeling a little frisky today during my run and decided to just go for it.  I did 3.16 miles in 24'41".  :o)

I did some other fun things today.  Melanie and I went to the park this morning...

We had fun playing on the swings.  Melanie made sure we tried EVERY swing at the park.  Mommy was a little dizzy on the walk home. LOL  Melanie also enjoyed the sand.  We tried the slide, but I'm pretty sure it was hot enough to melt her flesh off...

Then we went to Grandma Great's house, and she taught me some more knitting basics.  I made this hat and also a dish cloth.  I don't have a picture of the dish cloth...  o-well.

6.52 miles behind Burt and James W (who left Jared and I in the dust)  It was fun running with Jared though.  (Jared isn't on the running blog.  He is actually my boss, and also a team member on the Ragnar team).  We did it in 58'36". :o)

1 additional mile to calibrate my NikePlus... which was pretty accurate, so I'm happy about that.!

3.22 miles... in the dark... around my neighborhood.  I past a group of teens 5 times, never in the same place twice.  It was kind of funny.  I'm just glad they were friendly teens. :o)

Road my bike to work today.  It was really quite relaxing.  Now that I don't have to pick up Melanie on Tuesday's and Thursdays (Brandon gets out of school before I get off work), I will be riding to work (weather permitting).

7.5 miles home, making it a total of 15 miles.  I don't think I'll be riding to and from work anymore.  I have to find work first.  Burt, brown nose like crazy and get some new work so I can get my job back!  In the meanwhile... if anyone has an extra job sitting around...

3.24 miles...  little pain... 

So, I spent the day with Melanie today.  She is walking all over the place.  It's so cute, all wobbly.  I know soon I'll be happy that I'v been running... because I'll be running after her. :o) 

6.27 miles on hilly terrain.  I was good until the last .5 mile, and then I was in a lot of pain so I ended up walking the last mile to my house.  I feel better now.  I'll have to watch that pelvis pain.  I don't want to re-fracture it.

I got home today to my first rejection email.  I was laid off on Tuesday (there I said it), and yesterday spent the whole day calling a bunch of people I know and applying to every engineering position I could find.  And today...  today I got my first "We got your application; however, you aren't a finalist".  Hmmm...  better keep trying. 

3.35 miles this morning in some of the most beautiful weather ever.  Apparently the "rich" neighborhood next to mine is having a yard/garage sale event.  Every other house had something out. 

Okay... if the running blog had titles for each post like my personal blog does, I would entitle this post: I will be Alright!

I've had some time to think about things over the last few days and I have decided that this lay off is a blessing of sorts.  Is it a blessing not to have an income, no?  But, it has definitely been a blessing to spend some quality time with my daughter.  I got to be home the day she decided she wanted to just walk all over, no more crawling for her.  I would have missed that if I were on work on Wednesday.  I have been able to spend a little time with some long lost friends and take Melanie to the park.  And my house... well the front two rooms are the cleanest they have been in YEARS!  I have more organizing and work to do, but I feel at peace when I sit in my living room.  (Here's two pictures for you)

But even better than that...  I feel excited about the change that this may bring.  I'm excited that I may be able to learn something new, and even start over somewhere else.  Yes, I may get my job back at Atwell... but there are no guarantees.  I have been there for 7 years, and for the last year I have been worried about my job and stressed out.  That stress is now gone.  I'm not living each day wondering about the next and if I will GET laid off.  That horrible burden has been lifted.  Sure, I don't exactly HAVE a job yet... but I have faith that it will work out.  I know that this new obstical will bring about hard things, but it will also bring about good things and eventually make us a little wiser, a little stronger, and a little closer together. 

Okay... I'm done. :o)

4.17 miles in the cold cold morning.  I think I needed a hat and some mittens.  Next time!

It was beautiful out this morning.  I ran along the dirt trail at MCC Red Mountain.  The sun rise was just beautiful. :o)

No miles yet.  I think I'll be going after Brandon gets home from Scouts.  But... Today wasn't completely waisted...

First... I got up and played with this little girl:

Then I caught her doing this...

While she napped, I scrubbed my frigde... and then I made these (from scratch):

and...

(that's home made french bread... and boy was it yummy...  so good it was almost gone before I remembered to take a picture)

*** Added: 3.21 miles...  at a 8'31"/mile pace.  It was really nice out!***

I wanted to do a test run for the 10K race I'm participating in on Saturday (London's Run).  I have never done a 10 K race before, so if anyone has some pointers for me, I'd really appreciate them.  Today I ran to MCC Red Mountain, then around the dirt trail twice and then home.  It was exactly 10K.  (What great luck)... and I think with the dirt trail, it was a reasonable practice for Saturday.  I did it in 56'28". 

Okay guys/gals...  give me some pointers for Saturday.  :o)  How do you approach a 10K?

Well, I'm really excited that I took part in this year's London's Run. This was the fourth annual London's Run.

"The first London’s Run was a benefit event for London’s family in 2006 made possible by the caring support of the Queen Creek residents. London Solomon was a courageous six year old girl who fought a brave and cheerful fight against an aggressive type of leukemia (AML). Her grace still inspires all of us to take advantage of each new day without fear of doing hard things and cherishing our relationships with each other." (directly from the website).  This year's London's Run entry and donations went to another family who has been impacted by cancer.  "Lorin Merkley, 18 was diagnosed with an unidentified form of Sarcoma in August. His treatment at Phoenix Children's Hospital was intense and aggressive. The cancer was not friendly to Lorin, but he kept a hopeful heart throughout his sufferings. The cancer continued to grow inspite of treatment and took Lorin's life in November."  They had a little table set up for each of them in honor of their memories.  I have never met either of them, but for some reason, seeing their tables made me tear up. 

Okay... Here is the unofficial report (because I don't know my official time or rank). 

The 10K race started at 8:10am (10 mins after the half marathon).  I got up toward the front and when the count down hit zero, I started real strong.  I passed a bunch of people and followed a bunch of young boys (really young boys).  I felt really good.

After about 2K or so, I felt someone touch my back.  It was Burt.  We ran next to eachother for a while.  I was listening to my music while running next to him, and all the sudden I hear Burt say "Are you doing okay?"  I wonder if I sounded like I was dying.  Burt then went ahead (He was on a mission to finish in under 50 minute, and I was on a mission to finish....)  You should read he blog too.  He was a total rockstar! 

Okay, so at this point, I decide to push the button on my ipod/nike plus to have it tell me how far I've gone and my pace...  and apparently the sensor was not having a good day because it said I had only gone .67K and I knew I was further than that because I had long passed the 1 mile sign.  Such a bummer.  So, from then on, I just paid attention to the time, not the pace or distance.

All along the race they had pictures and signs encouraging you to go on.  I swear, I must be super emotional today, because each one made me tear up.  Perhaps if I wasn't so emotional, I would have been able to shave some time off my finish. LOL.  (Okay, so i've been teary eyed and emotional all morning...  the cartoon Phineas and Ferb had me crying this morning... pathetic).  Okay, back on topic.

At the half way-ish point, I started getting passed by a bunch of people (mostly men).  I guess everyone had turned on their mo-jo.  Too bad I don't keep too much mo-jo handy.  I need to get some of that stuff. 

Right before mile 4, they make you do a u-turn and we run passed where we had just run.  Well, Burt was ahead of me, so we crossed paths.  We gave eachother a big high-five.  He was doing awesome!  When I got to mile 4, I had run for 32 minutes.  No too shabby.

At the 5 mile marker, some 80+ man passed me.  So depressing.  I tell ya though, when I'm his age, I hope I'm in that good of shape. 

I then started passing people again (thank goodness).  At 5.5-ish miles, and bunch of woman that looked like they were my age passed me.  Very Very depressing...

I turned the last corner and kicked it into gear.  I heard someone scream "Way to finish strong"  That felt good.  The last time I looked at the clock, it was under 52 minutes.  My husband didn't expect me so soon, so I only got 2 pictures.  The second picture shows the clock at 52:05 so until I see the official results, I'm going with that.

It took FOREVER for them to get results, which weren't actually posted... but there was an award ceremony.  I'm pretty sure they weren't 100% correct with the results... Actually, I'm not ever sure they were 80% correct, but they were fun to listen to.  When they got to my age group, they said "Third place... Camille.....  (long space, I'm all excited), Pickasomthing rather".  Dang!  The girl they called for second place was super fast.  I remember her passing me, and considering how tall she was, I'm pretty sure I had to take twice as many steps as she did.  I then decided to wait and see if Burt metaled.  Nope...  not for this age division.  Brandon and I decide to get going because Melanie was crazy tired.  As we walk away, we hear them calling off the female for the same age division as Burt.  They call the 2nd and 3rd place and then I hear "This can't be right. For 1st it's Burton McCumber. Please tell me that I prenounced your name currectly".  How funny is that.  I know there were some mistakes with the awards, so I'm waiting for the official times.  When they post them, I'll add to my report.

Here's Burt and I after the race:

**********Updated now with "offical" results***********

They finally posted them.  I'm pretty bad and have been checking every 5 or 10 minutes.  I even emailed the Arizona running events company and asked them when they were going to post the results after seeing that results from a race today had been posted.  Okay...  according to their clock, I completed the race in 51:59 :o).  I was 71/483 and 6/81 in my age group.  I'm so excited! :o)

Burt was 46/483, 6/35 in his age and completed the race in 50:03.  Way to go Burt!  You totally rock!