No AM group run today.

The group I have been meeting with for a couple of weeks decided we would run Monday and Wednesday this week. We normally run on Tuesday and Thursday, but with Thursday being Thanksgiving - we just adjusted.

There was a discussion on our FB group page about running this morning. It seemed like a few girls were on board. When my alarm went off at 5 this morning I promptly checked the FB page because that last thing I wanted to do was show up and have no one there. One girl posted last night that she wouldn't be there this morning because she thinks her hip flexor is jacked (bummer). Another girl's husband is out of town and she has a daughter who she, obviously, can't leave in the morning to run. I knew that another girl was sick yesterday, but she intended to run today. I ended up texting one of the girls because I had a bad feeling that I would be the only one to show up. I'm glad I did because, sure enough, I would have been there by myself. I snuggled back into bed and went back to sleep for a few hours.

So it sucks about not getting a run in this morning, but I think I am going to do some speed work/intervals on the treadmill at the gym tonight. Tomorrow morning or after work I am going to do some cross training at the gym. Wednesday morning we are hopefully still meeting so I can get some easy miles in before the Turkey Trax 5k on Thanksgiving morning.

I did get in a little less than 4.5 miles on Saturday before we started tailgating for the Mizzou game. My 5am wake up call seems to be getting easier and easier each time. I went to the normal spot that I meet our group, but decided it was too dark and uncomfortable to run there by myself. So I drove across town to campus where I knew it would be better lit and more traffic. I just took off and really didn't have a route or a plan in place. I basically just ran until I was running out of time to meet to shower and meet our tailgating friends. It felt pretty good and I ran about a 9:20 pace.

That 5am start to my day really kicked me in the ass about 6 that evening. I was done. A full day of tailgating and watching the football game.did me in. Justin and I grabbed some Thai take out and vegged out the rest of the night. We were in bed by 9:30.

And I will leave you with some tailgating pics. :)

Justin and I showing off our "black out" outfits for the day.
I told him he looked like a cheerleader so we posed accordingly. :)

Justin with his bestfriend's sister who is, obviously, much taller than him.

MIL, Justin, and Me outside of the stadium

Family friends.

St. Pat's 5k Race Recap

I don't have any pictures to go with this race recap so I'll just get on with it....

The St. Patrick's Day 5k in Columbia, MO was my 3rd race in as many weeks. The weather was predicted to be about 40*. Not horrible, by any means...but I was hoping for about 50. Picky.

I tried to get Justin or my dad to do this race with me. Justin was on call so he couldn't and my dad was busy with my brother's baseball and a school fundraiser.

I had read that this 5k was one of the largest in Columbia. I was pretty excited to be apart of that. I love seeing large races with people out there being healthy and having a good time.

Unfortunately, Justin had a case the morning of my race so he was not able to come with me. So I had to go by myself. This wasn't the first race that I went totally on my own, but I'm still not a fan. I knew a couple of people running as well, but there were so many people that I only saw one of them after the race.

I wore capri length tights, a short sleeved wicking shirt, a 3/4 zip up fleece shirt, and gloves. I was pretty comfortable through out the entire race. I was so glad that I remembered gloves. I bought cute St. Pat's socks to wear at this race, but that didn't happen due to the cooler temperatures.

They didn't roll out the starting line/pad thing until literally just before starting. So I didn't have any idea where to line up or stand so I didn't get stuck in the back. Well, I guessed wrong. I got started in the middle towards the back. This isn't a huge deal because this race was chip timed. However, with this being such a large race (520+ participants) - it took me a while to hit my stride and my pace. There were so many people to pass.

A little note to people new to racing - if at all possible, please don't walk/run/whatever more than like 3 people across the road. It makes it very difficult to get around you. I would have never known this prior to running in a race, but if I can help one or two people then so be it.

It was literally .75 miles before I hit a pace that I was comfortable with. My first mile was at 8:29 pace. Not bad, by any means, but definitely not on track for a PR. I kicked it up a notch after the .75 mile mark in hopes to PR.

Prior to this race - I would look at my garmin and see a pace that I thought was way too fast for me (basically anything less than about 8:15/mile) and slow down a bit. I always say to myself, "there is no way you can keep that pace for an entire 5k so chill the eff out." This race I looked at it a little bit differently. This race I said to myself, "just maintain this sub 8min/mile pace (!!!!) for as long as you can. If the wheels fall off - at least you gave it a shot." Imagine my surprise when the wheels did not fall off. I was doing it!!

When my garmin beeped that we were two miles in I felt myself slowing down a bit. I had to give myself a little pep talk. I thought I should be struggling after just running a 7:55 mile (I think my fastest, ever). I thought wrong. I was feeling good. I just had to convince myself of that and keep on moving at this pace.

At this point I was 16:24 minutes into the race. My previous PR was 26:08. So I knew I had a fantastic shot at getting a PR. And holy shit! I have a good chance of a sub 25 minute 5k.

A lot of this race was on sidewalks. You could run on the road, but the road wasn't actually blocked off. So you ran at your own risk. The sidewalks got a little crowded at times.

The 3rd mile of the race I was running near a mom, dad, kid (like 9 years old), and a couple of kids that were about 14. The 14 year old boys kept speeding up and slowing down. I was getting so frustrated. They would pass me and then slow down and I would have to maneuver by way around them on the tiny sidewalk. The father and son running were sort of similar. The little boy would fall behind with the mom while the dad went ahead. The dad would notice and slow down with the boy. It was a fight for about .5-.75 of the 3rd mile. And then the race opened up. The road was all ours and I was off. '

I looked down at my race and it was about 2.6 miles into the race. I knew I only had half a mile to go and I had to kick. I picked up my pace and went after it. I saw the finish line after I turned the last corner. I looked down at my watch and I had to get to the finish in just under a minute to get a sub 25. I sprinted my ass off.

As soon as I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch. 24:55!!!!! The clock at the finish read 25:03 or something like that. I wasn't too worried about it because I knew they started the clock a few seconds before I was able to start.

I was over the moon. My runner's high was through the roof. But, as I said, I was there by myself so I had no one to share this with. I immediately took my phone off of my arm and called Justin. I went ahead and walked to my car to leave because what else was I going to do? Before driving away I updated my FB status and posted a pic of my watch. SO EXCITED!!

I stalked the Columbia Track Club's website for race results all day. The last time I checked it was about 4pm and still nothing. So I figured I would check Sunday because we had a fundraiser deal to go to for my brother's school.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of checking on my phone while at the fundraiser. 25:08 WAH!WAH! I was crushed. I told Justin and he showed a little sympathy and we went about our business. It bugged so much that I went to the bathroom and cried. Wow. Who cries over 12 seconds??? Ridiculous. 25:08 is a FANTASTIC time (for me). An entire minute PR, even. It was just a huge blow. I had thought all day that I ran a sub 25 5k. I put it all over facebook. I mean, jeeze.

I have since relaxed a little bit about it. I am so close to that sub 25. That was my goal for 2011 so to be less than 3 months in and already be that close - I am a little more at peace about it. I also heard that other people thought the timing chips were a little slow too. So maybe I did run a sub 25, maybe I didn't. I am going with the chip time, I guess.

Just to give some perspective to anyone starting out racing and/or just running in general....
My first 5k was on Thanksgiving (2010) and my time was 28:06. Since my first I have run about 3 more before St. Pat's. I hoovered around the 26:30-27 minute mark. I had a great race on New Years Eve that gave me my PR of 26:08. And here I am like 5 months into racing and I have knocked 3 whole minutes off of my slowest (and first) time.

Running is discouraging and very difficult at times. That's normal. My advice is to just stick with it and keep working. Your hard work will pay off. You will get faster and you will get stronger. And, as you can see in this recap, running is a huge mental game. Your own inner voice is half the battle. Running is so mental.

The deets of my St. Pat's race:
Total time - 25:08
Avg pace - 8:06 (OH.EM.GEE!)
98th place out of 523 participants
4th out of 56 in my age/gender group (3rd place was 21:something...so I wasn't even close ha)

Thankful

Things that I am thankful for today:

1. Having a garage. We are still working on getting a garage door opener remote thing, but we are making it work. Unfortunately, we only have a single car garage. Justin has been kind enough to let me use it.

2. Justin. I am thankful for him being such an awesome person and letting me use the single car garage.

3. My fitness. I am pretty sure if I were out of shape, I would not have been able to shovel our driveway today. It took me a little over an hour. It was tough work. I think I was supposed to run 3 miles today. I really feel like shoveling was more of a work out than that. It will count as a cross training work out for the week.

4. My little car that could. It gets me from point A to point B...even in 8-10 inches of snow.

5. Snow plows. Thank you to the city, the plows, and the folks that drive them.

The uphill battle begins.


About half way finished.

And done!

Half marathon training

In an effort to be a bit more accountable for my training - I thought I would share a little bit about my training plan. I figure this might help someone considering something similar.

If you research half marathon training programs - you might become a bit overwhelmed with the many different options. Everyone and their brother has come up with the "perfect" training program. I discovered this very quickly. Every one of these programs has a disclaimer that is something along the lines of, "may not be suitable for everyone." And this is so very true. A training program that works for me may not work for you. Great, more to ponder and research!

I had heard many good things about Hal Higdon's training programs. They were definitely the most tried and true of the people that I talked to. His programs are about 12 weeks long and assume you have a decent running base (i.e. run 3 miles 3-4 times a week). This wasn't a problem for me, except that I had way more than 12 weeks to train.

I considered starting that program and just repeating weeks as I felt necessary. That, to me, was still not structured enough. I wanted to know what I was going to do on each day. That would keep me engaged and motivated.

I continued my research and finally found a 18 week half marathon training based on Hal Higdon's program. Perfect!! At the time - I had just about 18 weeks until our half* in Nashville. Prior to this discovery (about 2-3 weeks ago), I was randomly training and following a couple of different programs. This lack of structure and discipline was keeping me from really progressing in my training (i.e. beyond a 3 mile run).

I have to admit that I have yet to follow this program exactly. I almost followed week 3** perfectly last week...aside from the cross training on Wednesday and Saturday. I did play the xbox kinect for like 3 hours on Saturday so that has to count for something. I feel great that I was able to get the mileage in, but I know that strength training and cross training are going to be very important for my overall fitness level come race day.

Today was a rest day so I have knocked that out. :) I will pound out 3 miles tomorrow. Unfortunately those 3 miles will most likely be on the treadmill because we have gotten a few inches of snow today. I will be bound to the treadmill unless I get a pair of Yaktrax. In all seriousness, I might have to get those for a race I am signed up for on Sunday.


*Justin laughs when I say "half" instead of "half marathon." I don't think he thinks I am in it enough to use the lingo. :)
**I discovered tonight that last week should have been week 2, but I followed week 3. Oh well, right?

Holy catch up!!

Five months without blogging. How did that happen?? Where does the time go?? I will do a fairly brief catch up post and then probably go into more detail on the individual things. Otherwise, this post might take hours to write and read.

Here we go....

-To start, I will say that we are still living with the inlaws.

-Justin and I are both still very happy to be back in Columbia. And we are both really liking our
new jobs.

-The month of May was fairly uneventful. We went to a lot of my little brother's baseball games. It's great being back and barely missing a game.

-June was a bit more eventful, I guess.
--We went to St. Louis for a weekend anniversary get-a-way. It was very nice (pics to come in a later post.
--I had an impromptu reuniting with some very close friends. Unfortunately, it was not
under good circumstances. One of my very bestfriend's mom lost her battle with cancer.
--We made a trip to Kansas City to watch the Cardinals and Royals play baseball. That was a
good time because it was a reuniting with friends under much better circumstances.
--We watched a ton of little league baseball in the month of June as well.

-July....
--We housesat for my mom for a week (EXCITING STUFF, PEOPLE! :)). As little of a detail
as that seems - it was great to stay a week away from the in-law's house. I am sure they
appreciated having their house to themselves for a week as well.
--I visited my pal Abbey and her family at the Lake of the Ozarks for the 4th of July. It's
always a lot of fun with Abbey and her fam. Good people.
--I began the south beach diet towards the end of July. I am still on it...and this will definitely
have its own dedicated post.

-The only big thing that happened in August was that I started on the evening shift and started
taking call at work. I miss being on days, but I have to work my way up the ladder.

-September was, of course, the beginning of football season. We also house and child sat for my
dad and stepmom a week in September. My little brother is 12 so it was kind of training for the
day we decide to have children...kind of.

That has brought us to now. That's where my time has gone in a nutshell.

I wonder if anyone has noticed my absence from blogging. I also wonder if anyone will notice that I am back to blogging. Leave a comment if you are reading this to let me know that/if someone is actually still interested.

Edit: UGH, I see blogger still sucks at formatting. Sorry for the wacky format here.

Update..

Once again, I have done a horrible job at blogging over the last month or so. I don't feel like I have anything excited to talk about. Plus, my camera only works 1/2 the time so I don't take many pictures to upload here. I know that I enjoy posts from other people with pics so I am sure the few times I do update - they are probably pretty boring to everyone because the content is generally boring plus there are no pics.

So the last month...

-We have watched my little brother play baseball a lot this spring. I am so happy to be back in Columbia so that we can catch most of his games. They are all 10 or 11 years old and they are really fun to watch. They are starting to understand the game much better and they are getting pretty skilled at their specific positions. It's much more fun than a couple of years ago when there were kids who didn't have a clue. Rian pitches quite a bit, which I love to watch. He is doing so well. I hope that he keeps it up because I think he is going to continue to grow into a great player.

-We are still living with the in-laws. It's not ideal for anyone involved, but it's going pretty well. We definitely can't complain.

-My job is going very well. I am learning a ton each day. I have been told multiple times that I am learning very quickly and that they are impressed with how well I have done so far. I feel great about that, obviously. After my first week, I never thought I would get to a point where I feel so comfortable so quickly. I am very happy with this switch. And after a budget meeting earlier this week, it seems that MRI is one of the few sub-departments in radiology that are doing well. So, at the moment, my job is not in jeopardy. That's some great peace of mind to have.

-Justin's job is going well also. He does a lot of gopher work still. He is slowly working his way into doing more cases. He goes to a week long training in May. After that training, I think he will be better equipped to start selling some of the orthopaedic implants. He is doing a great job so far and I am really proud of him.

-Our 2 year wedding anniversary is in just over a month. Some days it seems like there is no way we could be married for that long...and other days it feels like we have been married for 10 years. We are also just a couple of weeks away from our 8 year dating anniversary. We don't have plans for our anniversary yet. I think we will probably just do something fairly low-key again this year. Last year we spent the night in a hotel in KC...we went to dinner, went to a comedy club, and out for a couple of drinks afterwards. Nothing too exciting. We do, however, plan to go to St. Lucia next year for our anniversary. I really hope that we are actually able to swing that. We definitely need a trip away just the two of us...and to a beach, my request. :)

So that's our exciting life in a nut shell.

And speaking of my less than par functioning camera...does you have any recommendations for a good point and shoot camera??

Moving...

Moving sucks.

I doubt there is anyone in the world who actually enjoys moving. If they do, they are nuts. And by moving I mean the actual packing, loading boxes/furniture into a truck, unpacking, and putting away everything.

We attempted to move from Kansas City this last weekend. Unfortunately, since Justin started his job at the first of the year and I didn't start until March (and I left KC about 2 weeks after finding out I got the job) - we did ZERO packing before leaving for Columbia. We packed up the bare minimum that would get us by in Columbia. Other than that, everything was left in KC.

That was mistake #1. And mistake #2 was made by thinking we could get our entire house packed and moved 2 hours away in a weekend.

And, fear not, there was a mistake #3. Mistake #3 came when I got off work on Friday evening. Justin asked if I wanted to wait until Saturday morning to leave for KC. I agreed and continued to make mistakes #4 and #5 (are you still with me??). We met up with the fam to have some drinks Friday evening and then met up with some friends to close the bar down Friday night (collectively mistake #4). I then woke up at the crack of dawn (7:30...that's the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning for me) to watch my little brother play baseball. He had a double header starting at 8. Of course, I could not leave after the first game so I stayed for the 2nd (mistake #5). I didn't leave Columbia until about 12:30 on Saturday.

So if you are following...that's Friday evening and half of Saturday wasted. When I finally made it to KC, Justin was already there and at a friend's house because he didn't take a house key with him. OYE! I needed a nap at that point. So I asked Justin to let me sleep for 45-60 min. That turned into about 90 minutes because he was enjoying the company of his friend. So it's now about 5pm on Saturday.

Instead of getting right to packing/moving then, we decided we should grill burgers. So while the boys prepared and cooked burgers, I packed. I got a few boxes packed on Saturday...but no where near the amount we needed to pack in order to be ready for the in-laws to bring a trailer to load up on Sunday morning.

After dinner (oh and a movie) on Saturday night, we were worthless so we went to bed. We planned to get up around 9 on Sunday. As you can probably imagine, that didn't happened. We started packing about 10:30 on Sunday morning...with the in-laws planning to arrive about 12:30 ready to load things up.

Believe it or not, we got about 60-70% of our house packed and furniture disassembled by the time they got there. I was impressed with us considering how the rest of our weekend had gone.

By the time 6pm rolled around on Sunday we were D-U-N, done. :)

We still have about 25% left to do. Unfortunately, that means another planned trip back to KC to finish.

I hate moving under any circumstances.

I have quickly realized that I hate moving when it's:
A. moving long distance
B. completely put off until the last minute
C. preceded by slacking and procrastination (goes along with b).

I don't plan to move into another house until we can afford to build it how we want and make it our forever home. Other than that, we will move some things into an apartment in the mean time...1 apartment followed by 1 house and then never move again is the plan for right now.

And just based on this post, we can all now tell how good we are at executing plans. :)

Motivation? Where did you go??

I have had next to no motivation over the last 3 weeks or so. When I had a couple of weeks off in between jobs - I was tracking every bit (almost every bit) of food that went in my mouth, going to the gym 4-5 times each week, and getting things done. That makes sense because I had a ton of time.

However, in my previous job I had a routine. I made time to track my food and I made time to hit the gym. I am still trying to find that groove and that routine in my new job. Granted, I this is only the beginning of my fourth week. I just think it's about time I get back into the gym routine.

On top of going to the gym, I need to get back on top of my eating habits. Yesterday Justin and I had Chinese buffet...and I had Chinese Tuesday and Friday last week (because work people were ordering that). And tonight he is bringing us home Chipotle. Oye, not good!!

Needless to say, my new year's resolution of running 500 miles this year has gone to the back burner until I can find my routine.

At this time I am asking everyone to keep an eye out for my motivation..it's seriously missing. Thanks! :)

Oh happy day!!

I am in a bit of a funk today. I have been off work for a week now. It's been a great break, but in the back of my mind I know that I am not getting paid for this week (and the next half week I have off before starting on Monday). It takes some of the enjoyment out of it all. So that's my funk...





My funk has disappeared a bit when I logged in to find this joyful post from MrsTote. If you haven't already, check out her blog. She has some amazing recipes and is quite the domestic diva...I know she loves when I call her that. :)

Onto the joy that is this post...I was tagged by Katie at A tote's life (see link above). It's a fun, day brightening tag so here we go...





The rules:
_List 10 things that make you happy.
_Tag 10 bloggers and link back to the person who tagged you.


Ten things that make me happy:

1. Blog comments...hint! hint! :):)

2. Lazy days with Justin.

3. Snuggling with my puppy...especially on cold, winter mornings.

4. Hanging out with friends.

5. Tailgating.

6. Watching football.

7. Meeting fitness goals..whether it be keeping my calories in check for a day, meeting my goal for minutes of working out in a week, etc.

8. Sunshine...oh how I love sunshine.

9. Mexican dinner dates with Justin.

10. My family...all crazy sides of my family.


And I now tag....
MrsEyeCanSee at The Juice is Worth the Squeeze
Michelle at See Michelle Blog
Renee at A Taste of Life
Tiffany at Baby Fish
Shalay at Writefully Yours
Amanda at Amanda's Life Commentary

Amy at Newlywed News
Casey at You Call It Madness But We Call It Love
Allie at Simply Allie
Amy at Life in the Junction

**Sorry to anyone who has already been tagged. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day to everyone. I hope that you have been surrounded by friends, family, spouses, children, and whoever else you love today.

Unfortunately, I only got to see Justin for 30-45 minutes today. I went to St. Louis with the girl for the Mardi Gras celebration (like I did last year). I will dedicate a post specifically for Mardi Gras later this week.

On our way back home (to KC) this afternoon, we stopped in Columbia so I could say hey Justin and the family. It was tough leaving, but I will be there for good later this week.

I have never been big on Valentine's day. While I enjoy there being a holiday to celebrate the love in your life...I just don't get the overpriced candies, flowers, and waiting hours just to have dinner that you could have in half the time the following day.

Enjoy the ones you love today (and everyday).

Resolution follow up...

It's the second month of 2010 so I figured I should do a little follow up to the resolutions I set mid-way through January.

1. I am on my way to finishing the couch to 5k running program. I did week 6, day 1 tonight. So far so good. I should have no problem finishing by my birthday. And I definitely need some new scrubs so that is great motivation.

2. I haven't started the 30 day shred yet. That will come soon enough. I have until June 1st to finish that so I have some time.

3. This is the BIG one. I got offered a job in Columbia today. And it's a WONDERFUL job. It's MRI which will be some new training in a different modality of radiology. I am so excited about this, but I am also sad to be leaving the job that I have had for the last 4-5 years...and the people I have developed relationships with here in KC for the last 7 years that I have lived here. However, I will be moving back to my family which I cannot begin to explain how happy I am about that.

4. I am surviving the distance between Justin and myself right now. Luckily, I only have a couple of more weeks to survive the distance. And then at that point, my focus will be on surviving living with the 'rents for a bit, renting our house, and everything that goes along with those two things.

5. I have been tracking my mileage on on sparkpeople.com so I can see if I make it to 500 miles in 2010. So far, I am at 17.39 miles for the year. That is not 10 miles a week like I was hoping for, but I know as the year goes on I will up my mileage so some weeks I will have more than 10/week.

6. We are slowly, but surely working on our credit card debt. Not much to update there.

7. I did not blog at all last week so I think that means I have failing at the whole blogging 3x/week thing. I will keep working on this also. :) I am sure I will have a lot to blog about as I start the transition of moving back to my hometown and starting a brand new job. I can hope so anyway, right?? :)

New Year's resolutions...

I know we are a few days into the new year, but I figured I should probably blog about my new year's resolutions so I can reflect back next year to see how well I did at keeping them.

1. Finish the couch to 5k by my birthday (March 3rd). When I do finish, my reward will be to purchase a few new pairs of scrubs (with xmas money :)).

2. Finish the 30 day shred by June 1st. When I do finish this, my reward will be a new pair of jeans.

3. Find a job in Columbia.

4. Survive the distance between Justin and myself until I can find a job where he is.

5. Run (on the treadmill or elliptical) and/or walk at least 500 miles this year. My reward will hopefully be a more toned body and having my clothes fit better. I figured this number by thinking about 10 miles a week for 52 weeks (and I am already 2 weeks into it and figure some weeks I might not make it to 10). This seems very realistic and doable. I will record all of my distance runs/walks on sparkpeople so I can keep track of this number.

6. Pay at least 1/2 of our credit card debt that we have remaining. This, again, is very realistic and doable. Hopefully we can do even more than just 1/2 of what's left.

7. Blog at least 3 times a week. Hopefully the reward to this is more followers, more comments, etc.

Happy holidays!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season. Justin and I had a great Christmas with our families. Hopefully it is our last one that we have to drive from KC to Columbia. *fingers crossed*

We both had to work Christmas eve (2-1030 for me and 830p-7a for him). That's just the joy of being hospital employees. We drove home after Justin got off work on Friday morning. The drive was not fun - it was through a snow storm. We made it though.

The entire weekend was BUSY. We had about 6 different Christmases with different families. Unfortunately, for us, the holidays means lots of running around to different places. We never get to spend as much time with each family as we would like.

I just have a few key points from this holiday....

1. I drove about 80 miles through a snow storm down i-70 on Friday morning. For anyone that knows me or my mom - you know that is a MAJOR accomplishment. I absolutely hate driving in the snow. I freak out.

2. Oreo balls are my new favorite thing. I am trying to figure out how I made it this far in my life without discovering them.

3. Board games with the family might be my absolute favorite thing to do. Board games with anyone, really. I love them. Apples to apples, Taboo, Catch Phrase, Guestures...any of them. We had a big (12 person), 2 hour game of Guestures on Friday night. That was a blast!

Again, I hope that everyone has had a great holiday season. You may (or may not) be pleased to find out that one of my new year's resolutions is to blog at least 3 times a week. I might need anyone who reads this to hold me to it. Feel free to ask questions in the comments on topics that you might want me to talk about.

From the Foster's, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So proud of my hubby!

As I mentioned in my last post - Justin just accepted a job in our hometown (Columbia, MO). Like I said, we are super excited, nervous, scared, happy, and many more emotions all rolled into one.

Justin just wasn't completely satisfied with his position as an x-ray tech for the last couple of years. With each passing day, he seemed to become more and more unhappy with his job. It was pretty clear that he needed a change. On top of that - we wanted to be able to move back to our hometown in the near future.

An opportunity presented itself a few months ago (probably 4 or 5 months ago was when it was first mentioned). It has been a slow moving process, but Justin has made the trip back and forth to Columbia countless times for interviews, meetings, gatherings, etc. for this job. All of that traveling has paid off. He accepted the position last week. He will be in orthopedic sales.

Unfortunately, we purchased our house just 16 months ago. So now is not a good time to put it on the market. We don't have enough equity to make money. We would actually probably lose a large amount of money at this point if we attempted to sell. That is our first dilemma in this major change in our lives. Our hope at this point is that Justin's best friend and his wife will rent the house from us while she finished chiropractic school. That would give us some more time to hopefully allow the market to turn back around in our favor.

On top of that - x-ray jobs are pretty hard to come by in the mid-west in general...let alone in Columbia. As of right now, there are zero x-ray jobs for me to apply to. So I will be keeping my job in KC until I can find something in Columbia.

This is where the anxiety comes in. Justin and I have never lived farther than across town from each other (in high school) or across campus (in college). We will now live about 2 hours apart. This is temporary, but it still freaks me out. It all kind of hit me this weekend. I will be living on my own for a few months. Eeeek!! To any local friends reading this - you are welcome to stay the night at any time. :)

Justin will be staying with his parents at least until we sell the house. We haven't thought too far in advance as we are taking this transition one day at a time.

I am so incredibly proud of Justin. He has taken all the necessary steps to getting us back to our hometown. He has worked very hard to get this position.

Please send your well wishes our way as we begin this journey.

Alive.

We are alive and well. It might be hard to believe since my blogging has been awful lately. It's just "that time of year." We are buuusy. I think we have spent a total of about 4 weekends at our house in KC over the past 6 months or so. Kind of crazy.

Lately we have been busy with football season. Season tickets at Mizzou (which is 2 hours from where we live now) makes for lots of time out of time, traveling, and just being tied up for an entire Saturday (love it!).

Now that (college) football season is coming to a close, the holiday season is upon us which of course means parties, family gatherings, shopping, and never-ending traveling.

I have also started the Couch to 5k running program. I usually go to the gym when I get off work at night (1030 pm) so I don't typically have time to blog after work. I will blog more about that training program later...I have quite the list to blog about actually. Many happenings over the last couple of months (football pics, my father-in-law's surprise 50th bday, etc.).

The great news that I have to share is that Justin got a job in Columbia (our hometown). We are VERY excited about this. In the very near future I will devote an entire post to this....it's very much deserving of its own post, I think. :) Needless to say, I am incredibly proud of Justin and I am so anxious to get the next chapter of our lives started in Columbia.

I hope some of my followers are still reading my blog when I finally do find the time to write. I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. And season's greetings from the Foster's. :)

Wait for it....

We are having major computer issues in the Foster home. I got a laptop for high school graduation 6 years ago...Justin got a desktop for HS grad 6 years ago as well. Needless to say, it's time for us to get a new computer.

We typically only use the laptop these days. It's just easier. However, the laptop is being very finicky about when it will turn on and when it won't. You never know if it will want to turn on today or not. Good times. On top of that, when it does turn on it won't connect to the internet. Perfect! Of course, it chooses to turn on late at night so I can't call our internet provider to fix the internet problem.

So needless to say, my updates might be few and far between until we get a new computer.

And to add to the lack of technology in our house, I can't find the cord for our external hard drive. I have tons of pictures from the last two weeks (wedding and girls weekend) that I can't upload to our computer even if it was working properly. I have to upload pics to the external hard drive because the hard drive on our computer says it is low on space. How?? Yeah, I have no clue. I have cleared out everything I can possibly think of (pics and documents have been moved to the external hard drive, we have removed programs that we don't use, etc.). The lap top is just done for!

As for last weekend, I can give a little update but it would be so much more fun with pictures. We made the 2 1/2 hour trip on Friday mid-day. This got us into Springfield at a decent time so that we could have lunch, do a little shopping (SO not needed for me!), and just hang out. We played a little Catch Phrase and had a couple of drinks before going to the bar. We had fun that night, but we were all looking forward to Saturday night for the real fun.

Saturday came and I had plans to meet up with Justin's at his friend's house to meet their new twin baby girls (ADORABLE!...again, I need pics for this post!!). After I left, my girls and I had a nice relaxing day at the pool. The weather was perfect (when the sun was out, a bit chilly when it wasn't) to just lounge around on rafts and hang out. It was great.

Saturday evening we played some more games (of course Apples to Apples!) and had some drinks before heading to dinner. Dinner was delicious...mac and cheese, amazing! After dinner we went to piano bar. Piano bars just about lead the list of the most fun bars to me. I love them. After the piano bar we went to Moonlight Delight, Midnight Delight, Midnight Rodeo, Midnight Hodeo...take your pick. It's a country bar that you can get into if you are 18...last time there were high school students there in prom attire. It is a blast! Of course we go there a bit later in the night every time so that might have something to do with it.

After Moonlight Delight, we went home and made all kind of (un)healthy foods and went to bed. Sunday was a veg out day all around. We hung out on the couch and watched a couple of movies before heading back to Kansas City. The drive home was loooong, but it was an awesome weekend. I cannot wait to go back!

As if the last few weekends have not been eventful enough, I have another exciting weekend coming up. I am going to the lake with a few friends. One of my friends, Abbey and her family, have a house down there. It should be a good time as well. Not to mention, Mizzou kicks of the season again Illinois on Saturday. Abbey's family love Mizzou as well so we will definitely be catching the game amongst all the other festivities. I am also anxious to see Oklahoma State host Georgia. That should be a good Big 12 v SEC match up. As much as I am not a fan of OSU, I am rooting for the Big 12 all the way.

Hopefully I can have some updates with pictures included in the near future. Until then, this will have to do. I hope everyone has a great week!

Fab weekend.

I am getting ready to wrap up the weekend and head to bed. I figured I would write a little post about our weekend now or else it might not get done. And we had such a great weekend that it would be a shame to not recap. Unfortunately, my camera was dead the entire weekend so I have no proof of this amazing weekend. :)

The weekend started with a surprise birthday party for my stepmom. My dad did an awesome job planning everything and keeping it a secret. Somehow, he got my stepmom on the golf course the evening of her birthday. While they were golfing, we got a room inside the country club set up for the party. My dad sent us a text when they were making their way onto the 9th tee. One of the country club staff members tied some black balloons to the flag in the hole. We watched them walk closer to the green and then everyone that was there for the party walked out to surprise her. Saying she was surprised was an understatement...she definitely cried.

Once we surprised her, we all made our way into the party room and got the party started. My main job for the party was the create a slide show for her. We kicked the party off with playing the slide show. Not to toot my horn or anything, but that slide show rocked (toot! toot!). She cried again...and so did I. I am a sucker for pictures set to music. I will pretty much cry every time.

We hung out at the club until about 11 and then we headed to my dad's to continue the party with her closest friends/family. I am not certain on the time my stepmom went to bed, but a few of us (including me, my dad, Justin, and some other friends/family) stayed up until about 3 or 4 in the morning on my dad's back deck. It was a lot of fun.

Needless to say, Saturday we needed some recovery time. We left my dad's around 11am on Saturday and made our way to my inlaws. They were out of town, but it's easier for us to stay there with Lucky. After eating some lunch, we all (Lucky included) fell asleep. We slept from about 1 until 4. It was a much needed relaxing day.

We might not have woken up, but we had another birthday party to go to that night. It was a birthday party for Justin's cousin, Jenn. She turned 16 today (Sunday). This party was a bit more low key, but definitely also a lot of fun. We had some good food...including cake and ice cream. We were going to go swimming in their pool, but it started to rain. We watched a bit of the Chief's preseason football game. It was pretty boring so we played Monopoly Deal. It's basically Monopoly in card form. It was a lot of fun. We played that game for about 4 hours. I am sad to report that I did not win a single time. I could have continued to play for 4 more hours, but Justin was ready to go home. We left a little before midnight. It was great to just hang out with the family and celebrate a BIG birthday for Jenn. :)

We used Sunday as another day to relax. We slept late, ate some lunch, watched golf, and napped on and off throughout the day. Speaking of watching golf...we witnessed golf history today. Y.E. Yang won the tournament (PGA, maybe??). He is the first Asian person to win a major tournament. I am not a big golf fan, but it was definitely cool to watch history in the making. I never thought I would be blogging about the winner of a golf tournament, but this definitely deserves a shout out.

We got back to KC around 8:30 tonight and have been doing laundry and a bit of cleaning to get ready for the week. Fortunately for us, we have a short work week. Justin only works 2 days and I work 3 days. We are leaving Wednesday evening for Iowa. Justin's cousin, Kyle, is getting married this weekend. I will charge my camera so I can have show some pics of that (hopefully).

I hope everyone had a great week. Happy Monday..ick.

Ugh, gas money.

Justin and I have been traveling back to Columbia A LOT lately. As I balanced our checkbook today, I realized just what that is doing to our bank account. Holy cow, we are spending a shit ton of money on gas money to make these trips.

To put it into terms, we spent about $334 in gas in the month of July. We typically budget about $200 a month for gas. So we spent over $130 more than usual on gas in one month. That is just nuts!!

Granted, one week looked like this: we drove to Columbia on a Friday night, drove back Sunday, Justin went to Columbia Wednesday for an interview, he drove back that night, we drove to Columbia Friday to stay for the weekend, and then we drove back on Sunday. That was an abnormal week, but it definitely was a contributor to our increased gas budget for the month of July.

If nothing else this definitely helps us realize that we REALLY want to move back to Columbia. We will save quite a bit of money on gas alone whenever we are able to move back.

Unfortunately for us, the frequent trips are not going to slow down anytime soon. We have season tickets to the University of Missouri Tigers (in Columbia, of course) so we will be traveling back there quite often in the fall as well.

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is our 1 year wedding anniversary. I can't even believe that it has been an entire year. At this point last year we were having the time of our lives at our reception. Our wedding was amazing..really, it was.

Our anniversary weekend was every bit of amazing. After our piss poor excuse for a garage sale, we dropped Lucky off to be boarded. We made our way to the Legends at Village West...a shopping and entertainment area in Kansas City, KS. We checked into our hotel and went to dinner. We stuffed ourselves full and then had some time to kill before the comedy show. We walked around to a few shops and wasted some time before the show.

The comedy show was OK. We went to one last summer that was MUCH better than the show last night. We still got some good laughs in and a few drinks. After the show went sat on a patio and had a couple of drinks. We heard some good music coming from a bar next door so we went in to take a look. Although it was good music, it was incredibly too loud (maybe that's why we could hear it on the patio next door).

We decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel room. Without going into too many details, the room was awesome. It had a whirlpool and a fake fireplace (which was kind of odd). And let me just say that bubble bath and a whirlpool do not mix very well.

We got to use our toasting flutes again. We had a bottle of pink champagne...even though neither of us even like champagne. The top tier of our wedding cake is at Justin's mom's so we will eat that next weekend when we go home.

We slept late Sunday morning - so late that we missed the continental breakfast (damnit!). After we showered and check out of the room, we went to lunch at a BBQ restaurant. They had some amazing bloody mary's. Yum!

After lunch, we decided we wanted to go see a movie. We went to buy tickets only to find we were 15 minutes late for the show we wanted to see. We had 2 hours to kill so we hit up Dave and Busters for some fun in the arcade. For the record, I beat Justin 4/5 times playing pop a shot. That's usually how it goes. He did beat me 2/4 times at Trivia and 2/2 times at the horse derby. It was a fun way to waste some time.

Finally it was time for the movie. We saw Hangover....which was HILARIOUS!! I highly recommend it and I'm not even a movie person. After the movie we picked up our little girl from being boarded. She was so excited to see us, but very tired after a session in doggy day camp. As I type, she is passed out on the couch (as she has been for the last 4 hours).

Now that we are home, we have just been lounging around, watching movies, etc. It has been a relaxing day after a very awesome weekend of celebrating.

I will make a better wedding picture post tomorrow (when facebook will let me view all of them...because I am too lazy to plug in our external hard drive).

My grown up husband.

I always thought that it would be me to become the grown up first. This weekend made me realize that Justin is beating me to it. :)

While I had a girl's game night on Friday and went the Royals game on Saturday - Justin stained our deck and painted our patio furniture.

And there is my random thought for the day. Happy Monday to everyone. It's a short week for me and our 1 year anniversary is on Sunday. Yay!