L to the A, ZY

Yeah. Feeling lazy. I haven't ran or had a workout in 3-4 days. I can't even remember...which must mean its bad! AH. Got to get back to it tonight when I wake up, before work. A promise to myself. Had a lot to take in the last 24 hours.

Ch-Ch-Cha-Changes!!

I am so incredibly psyched and proud to tell you...........Dan got offered a new job!!! I don't even know where to start thinking, my brain is on overdrive. But I do know that I am beyond ecstatic for him & this new beginning. Xoxo

Happy Surprises

Getting to see my baby niece was a happy surprise & addition to my trip east. I miss her! She's SO big and adorable. :) I might be a little partial tho.

Roadtrip, Weddings, & crazy runs

Impromtu visit to Wenatchee to visit Lacey went great. Much better than I had expected, since I'm not so great with the wedding stuff. It was busy, I slept a couple hours then hopped in the car to make it over there by six. Snuck in a visit with my parents and I got to see my baby niece too! She is absolutely adorable if I do say so myself.. I miss her. But I can't think about that because it just makes me sad. I got lots of pictures. (To be posted later!)

Wedding stuff:
We accomplished a lot. Made a list (checked it a few times), talked a bunch, hot tub city!, worked out a little ( enter horrid run stage left...), came up with DIY decor projects, explored random stores for centerpiece ideas, had an amazing lunch at Mcglinn's-- BBQ chicken thin crust pizza and a strawberry spinach salad to share, figured out the Groomsmen attire, laid out some plans with the grandparents for her photo wall idea, and last but oh-my-goodness- definitely not least.... Registered at Macys & Bed bath & beyond. hallelujah! It feels amazing to be productive. Altho for me its a little depressing because it feels like I will never be able to get married. Its way too expensive. Yuck. Not that I even want an expensive fancy schmancy wedding.. but all the little extras are the fun/cute part...and just the place, feeding people, music, flowers, and photography are already through the roof without even considering the little details. Hello eloping? :-P except I dont want that either.

On Friday, The morning after I arrived to the valley that seems to suck me in and spit me out.. maybe its a little like a vacuum cleaner? Sucks you in with its nice weather and friendly places but somehow always seems to spit you out and leave you feeling crazy anxious and like you stepped backward into a time machine and you are your old annoying self with things you thought you left behind YEARs ago. Whatevs.
it was a nice day, I felt fairly energetic..lacey and Tina headed to the gym and I headed off on my own trek to run eight miles. What can I say, I had high hopes. Well they were shot down. Big time. 1st mile I told myself I just had to get through and I would get into a rhythm, guesss what the Rhythm never showed up. 3rd mile I was like okay this is getting better... who am I kidding??? Okay lets add in a hill.....hAH my calves were burrrrning. 5 more to go, I can do this riight? WRONG. Lets throw some heart burn in there, and oh yeah the air feels sooo thick...just keeeep breathing. I did 6.1 or something, and showed up at the gym juuust as lacey and tina were heading out to the park where I was supposed to meet them... that was really the only good thing about the run. That I caught them before I had to run even FURTHER. Haha. Its laughable now, at the time..not so much.
I jumped in the car beside Kailey and she's all.. Ashy You, run real fast?! You run real fast??

to Do list.

:) laughing. duh.

Write it Down

Not too long ago, I was extremely cynical about the whole idea of writing down everything that you eat. For one, it seemed so tedious...who has time for that? For two, I think I thought I was calculating it correctly in my head anyway. Boy was I wrong. So I guess I have to swallow my words (or thoughts I guess...I'm not sure I actually voiced my opinion.), because I've been made a believer. I've been using a handy-dandy App called My Fitness Pal ever since the end of December when I started this whole thing to be healthier and run a 1/2 marathon. And I have to admit, as nerdy as it may be, its rather addicting. Besides the fact that it kind of feels like a game, putting in my foods, scanning my food, calculating my calories that I am taking in And the calories that I'm burning... I have learned SO much about serving sizes, how much food I'm actually taking in, what foods are good substitutes (and taste just as good or Better!) but have less calories.... I'm eating a lot less than I used to eat, but I feel more full. I'm not sure how that works exactly. Also, I feel way better because I'm actually eating real food instead of packaged food, fast food, etc... That's not to say I'm not treating myself to things that I like, or that I have any foods that are off limits. Actually... I think that is part of why it feels like my goal is actually attainable this time. It doesn't feel like I am dieting, or like I am holding myself back..I'm not making myself feel guilty about what I eat.. I guess overall I'm trying to change my perspective on food. I love food, I always have..and I love eating it. But somehow I got this crazy complex that food is a bad thing and liking it is a bad thing and I should feel guilty for eating. And I guess I always thought writing EVERYTHING down would make me feel more guilty for what I was eating. But really, it has done just the opposite. It makes me accountable for what I eat...and it helps me to see what I have left so I don't have to worry about it or feel guilty for eating the things I want to eat. So the whole tip about writing things down that all the magazines and articles out there always seem to add in there.... it works. And strangely enough, its been fun. :)

Vegas Baby!

 Vegas was amazing. The weather turned out great. In fact it was in the upper 70s, low 80s the whole time..except the day we left it started getting slightly cold. We stayed at the Luxor hotel. Walked a TON, so much so that my calves are still recovering!

 Saw the flowers at the Bellagio, and the glass ceiling. It was just so much to take in.. all the people, all the activity, the lights, the casinos.. Seriously it was like my eyes could not close.

 We won a little... and lost a little... :) But we had fun while doing it.

 Walked through hotel after hotel, passed by malls that seemed to go on forEver. Took pictures of water tornadoes... :) Where do people come up with these things??

 Froze my hands off waiting for Dan to take a picture of me...

 Waited for the tram to take us up a couple hotels.

 Got into a club at the top of one of the hotels at the end of strip and enjoyed the spectacular view of all the lights on the strip.

 Walked up the strip at night, enjoying the lights, the crazy people and the water shows...

I had a good time, I think Dan did too. :) I love our adventures!

The weekend

By Saturday there were 12 people hanging out for Kendall's birthday. The guys went shooting at an archery range, just for fun. The girls hung out for the afternoon, went to REI and a knitting store and talked and ate lunch. Then in the evening we got pizza and cake and took it to My sister's in-laws house to celebrate. Dan came in on the train that night so I went to pick him up then we sat around in the living room at krindee's and chatted before catching some much needed Zzz's.
Easter was sunday, we all piled into our cars to go to meeting, then Dan and I raced to catch our flight after meeting. It was good. I was definitely ready for some relaxing time with my man after all the people time. Hey baby, Let's go to VEGAS!!!

Run Run Run

Saturday I planned to do a long run. I had been psyching myself up all week for it. Planning for over 6 miles, for my longest run so far (since I started training). Candy actually ran a marathon the week before in Yakima so I was talking with her about running and how she trained and all that. It was nice to talk about it with someone. To my surprise, she asked if she could go with my on my run in the morning! Ahhh it was the best run I've had in a long time (since I ran last with Dan..). It's soo nice to run with a buddy. Candy and her husband Steve went with me. We set out at about 0900. I tried to use Map My Run to find a good route to take to complete 6+ miles but the closest circle I could come to was about 5.7 miles...which just wasn't what I wanted. I set out feeling super energetic and excited for this. The awesomest part was,  I kept it up. The energy stayed with me, even through the long gradual hill that was included about 2 miles into our run. We ran an average of 10:30 pace. Which I count as amazing.... at the end we upped it to 9:30 pace and finished strong. We ran a total of 7.1 miles!! It felt amazing but my muscles were definitely feeling by the end. And so were my feet. I definitely recommend the buddy system from time to time. We talked the entire time which makes the run harder but so much more bearable. The morning was so nice, it was cool but the sun was shining. A perfect run!!

Getting things Done

 So the couple days at my sister's were definitely a lot of fun. I was exhausted by the time Dan and I got on the plane on Sunday afternoon. There were soo many people there to help celebrate Kendall's birthday. When I got there on Thursday I hadn't slept much the night before, but I wanted to make it to a 24hr fitness class and get a workout in before the whole weekend started. I anticipated that I would be eating slightly unhealthy and not exercising as much as normal so I was stocking up some extra burned calories. I went to my old Zumba class.. which was really fun! Soo much energy in that room. I miss that since I've moved up to Olympia. The classes just aren't the same here. After class I wanted to make the most of my guest pass so I did 25 minutes on the Elliptical and then ran intervals for 2.5 miles. Finally made it to Krindee's house for a shower before going to lunch with Candy & Krindee. (Candy is from Bremerton area but is training to work with Krindee for a temp job in the next six months.) After lunch they went back to work (aka home..) and I went to run a few errands. Knocked off something on my life list.... Applied for my Concealed weapons permit!!!! That was exciting. (lets see if my background check clears..hmmm 30 day waiting period..) Then I did a little shopping at my favorite shoe store-- DSW. Bought Toooo many shoes and several shirts to enjoy on my Vegas trip. Its probably time for me to go through my closet again and just get rid of things. Because I'm in between sizes so nothing seems to fit anymore. And my closet is way too stuffed. I was completely tired at that point and could have gone home to a very long nap...instead the night was just starting.. and it was almost time for Wicked! Definitely a fun day but wow I needed more sleep. I wish I could just bottle some sleep up. It would be majorly helpful especially with my night working schedule.

A Crazy Week!

Wowza! Its been a crazy month so far... Lets start at the beginning.

April has been a complete blur, and its already halfway over. The blur has been a good ride though. I spent the first part of it working. Then received a random text message from my baby saying “What do you think about taking a trip to vegas…. This weekend”. I didn’t quite know how to respond to that. Was he serious?? YES! I wanted to go so bad! And it was totally exciting to think that it would be in just three days. I already was going to my sister’s and Kendall’s to celebrate the brother-in-law’s 30^th birthday. We had tickets to see WICKED the musical. It was awesome!! Definitely recommend it! We had a really fun night.

Hello today

Do you know what today is? The day before FRIDAY! okay so its wednesday.. and its actually the day before thursday. But for me it is bedtime..and tomorrow will be my "friday".. That makes me a little more energetic at the thought of it. Today has been rather uneventful thus far. For once we had some extra staff around here which was really nice. Being the Stroke nurse tonight, that meant that I was free til 11. So I helped out on the floor with passing meds and admitting patients, Epic navigation,etc. This Epic stuff has been a big change around here. And of course, giant groups of people don't deal that fantastically with big changes...especialllly when it has to do with technology. Go figure. A lot of job changes for people across the board, Drs, HUCs, RNs, CNAs...feels like its been a big change for everyone. But that's life I guess...right? Take what flies in the face or get knocked down.
Dan brought me some food today (they are catering for the epic superuser tech people...) yummmm they have the best lemonade! Makes me feel like I'm on a beach or something...lemony goodness. He mentioned that it would be good with some adult beverage additions...I want to take some home now :).

Aiming for 4 miles today after work. WISH me luck...

Let Down

Today was a bit of a letdown all in all. I kept trying to give it second chances but the hits just kept coming! Woke up a little early for my liking... but I decided to get myself to the gym and make the most of it. There happened to be a Zumba class in session. I haven't been to Zumba in forEver. Since 24 hour fitness actually which was back in october! I have been wanting to give it a try at LA fitness...so this was my chance. Or so I thought............................. WRONG! I went and gave it 30 minutes... but it was Awful. The instructor was soo bad. Maybe it was the song, or maybe it was the atmosphere of the class I dont know. For one she did it out of a boombox, which wouldn't be the a problem, but the sound didn't fill the room, and she didn't make up for the energy that Zumba needs. All in all I was majorly disappointed. So I didn't waste an hour of my time I left the class halfway through and did 30 minutes of cycling and 2 miles on the treadmill with some hill training.
My new thought is that when I do my gym workouts they are going to be more aimed at strength & cross training and short runs that include intervals and hills. My longer runs need to be more outside now that it is getting SO close to the race.
I'm not giving up on Zumba... just that particular instructor. I'm going to try it out again here soon when I can get to another class.

Races

Thinking about signing myself up for a 10k race in between now and my 1/2 marathon. Running has been super hard lately. My workouts have just been taking it out of me, but I feel like I haven't even been doing all that much with them except for forcing myself to stay there for 60-90 minutes at a time. I neeeed to get my mileage up though! Plus, its usually apart of a training plan to run a 5k or a 10k sometime.

Races in Washington State that look interesting....

Race for Nurses 5k Wenatchee, WA May 12
Spring Fling in Elma, WA 10k April 15
Wenatchee Marathon  10k  April 21st
5K/10K 3-series at Alki Seattle, WA
Cinco de Mayo Snoqualmie, WA May 5
Marine Park 10k run Vancouver, WA April 14 
Marine Park 5 mile run Vancouver, WA May 5
MudRun June
Rock N Roll Marathon in Seattle June

Hmm hmm, sounds fun and like some good motivation! I'll sleep on it.

Pick me up and fly me away