Run Forest Run!

Or not... Well, let's be honest here. The 1/2 marathon wasn't going to happen. I chose to go to the Caribbean rather than run the Lincoln half and there haven't been any others that I was looking to sign up for. I did however, do a 10k in January and a 5 mile Memorial Day run AND I was signed up for another 10k this coming Saturday. I figured those collectively could suffice for a half marathon... right?

But, alas, my plans were squashed. I had be training for the race, hoping to beat my January 10k time. I was running 5 days a week but last week, I started having a pain in my ankle on the interior side. Nothing major, just a small irritation. I thought it was due to my running shoes that were overdue for replacement. I got a new pair last Wednesday and did a run around the lake by my house on Thursday, then decided to take Friday off. Saturday I decided to go for a run around a different lake that was less hilly than the one by my house. I set out and was making great time until.... my ankle decided to scream at me in pain. I stopped and walked for a few yards before deciding to suck it up and finish the run. More immediate screams of pain from my ankle forced me to stop. At this point my walk was more of a hobble and I started calling friends to see if someone could pick me up. No luck. No one was answering their phones. (I luckily run with my iPhone which has not only music but a handy app called RunKeeper that tracks your run via GPS and chirps your pace and distance in your ear... but I digress) Finally I get a call back from my friend Jay. Once again, using my glorious iPhone, I was able to direct him to my location using Maps and he came and picked me up.

Skip to Monday. Still in pain. Still wanting to run on Saturday, I go to the doctor for a solution. Unfortunately said doctor didn't have a clue what was wrong and sent me on my way with an ACE wrap. I guess sprains are typically on the exterior of the ankle and mine was on the interior. X-rays didn't show anything and he was visible confused...

Skip to Wednesday. Still lots of pain so I call an Orthopedist. They get me in today and the doctor looks at my ankle for about 30 seconds before saying it's fractured but he wants to take x-rays to confirm. X-rays are taken (again) and he saids their is nothing visible but the hazy area on the x-ray plus the symptoms indicate a fracture. It is then that I am placed in this gorgeous piece of footwear:

Long story short, I have to wear ole club foot here for a while and was told I can't run for 8-10 weeks. Well, there's always next year half marathon.

Well, Hello, look who's back!

I looked at my blog today and realized I hadn't made an entry since March. It's July. That's sad. Or it just means I am really busy. Life has indeed been a whirlwind this year. Travel, work, and a zillion other things seem to have consumed my time. Lucky for all of you (well, any one left who has interest in reading my abandoned blog), I have injured my ankle and am stuck on my sofa. So, where to begin. I've checked quite a few things off the list that I have neglected to blog about/mark off the list. Let's start back March with the Lobster party. More specifically, the BYO Lobster party. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and have a dinner party with friends and cook a live lobster at the same time. I call that 30 before 30 efficiency. This video pretty much says it all:

Ok, so all the video says is that I am scared of live lobsters. They look like gigantic bugs and I hate bugs...

I'm never going to finish this post so posting as is! AKA Checking off #19!

Christmas this year was great! It's not like it was that incredibly different than any other year, it was just that for the first time in a long time, I was truly in the Christmas spirit. That being said, this post really should be about crossing #19 off the list but I am going to share my entire Christmas experience with you as well! Lucky you! A post just about decorating would be boring anyway.

My mom was a key player in my Christmas décor. I didn't want to do the same old thing and so we went to Michael's and got poinsettia stems and magnolia stems for the tree and the garland going up the stairs.

The wreath above my fireplace was actually a Costco purchase. (As you know, I have an addiction.)

To be honest with you, I wasn't very good about taking pictures of the decorations so this is really all I have and now most of them are put away. So on to the Christmas festivities!
I kicked off the Christmas season by throwing a party! Not just any party though. One where I could wear a fun party dress (with pockets) and some shiny red shoes! The party was a huge success and throughout the night, I had about 40-50 people. Here are some pictoral highlights of the evening!

My incredibly short mom and I in front of the tree. By the way, I really need to get a taller tree next year. Maybe I will switch to a real one since I have never had one...

My friend Carmen and I.
This is just a funny picture and it shows off my red shoes!

The weekend after the party, I went with some friends to the symphony for their Christmas performance. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't just instrumental (not that that would have been bad) but there were 4 main singers and then a bunch of dancers! It was truly entertaining and a lot of fun. I will definitely go back next year. After the symphony, we went ice skating! You can check out that experience in this post.

Then of course, there were family festivities. My mom and Glen had a Christmas party (the same night as ice skating) and Steve and I stopped by for a while.

On Christmas Eve we went to my church this year. I am so glad that they still had services because tons of churches in town canceled because of the massive snow storm that hit the midwest! My mom and Glen ended up driving to my house and then my brother came over and drove everyone in his SUV. The service was great. It was all about light and darkness and I would LOVE for you to hear it, but it isn't online!

After church, we came back to my house and started a new Christmas Eve tradition. Pigs in a blanket. They were delicious.

On Christmas day, the roads were horrible. There was so much snow and the worst part was that it was blowing and drifting everywhere. There was no way my little Civic was going to make it across town to my mom and Glen's house so my brother came and picked me up. We were ok on the main roads and interstate but my mom and Glen's neighborhood was horrible! My brother and I got stuck multiple times and I wanted to give up and go home, but he was determined. On our third new route through the neighborhood, we finally made it. It was stressful and I was pretty burnt out by the time we got there. It didn't help that we had both of our dogs with us and mine decided to act like a maniac the entire car ride which seriously stressed out and annoyed my brother.

I was pretty anxious to get home because of the weather so we only staying for a couple of hours before making the trek back across town. Basically enough time to eat, open gifts, and give the dogs a little treat!

My Christmas day ended with a quiet evening at home... and then being snowed in for the next few days.

Ice + Butt = Big Bruises!

December 19, 2009 marks the day I FINALLY made it to the ConAgra Ice Skating rink. Luckily I was able to bring a good group of friends with me to witness my awesome skating skills, and let me tell you, they were amazed. Ok, that's a lie. They were astounded... at the grace I have when I fall.

We got to the skating rink around 5:30 and rented our skates. As you can see here, my lovely assistant Steve is a pro at lacing skates.

The ConAgra rink is pretty small, and a little bumpy, and there are a TON of little kids, but it was really a lot of fun. Although I almost took out a few kids, they were fun to watch, especially the little ones skating around with cones. Proof however that the cones don't always prevent falls, my friend Charles captured this picture of a little girl starting to fall backwards. Sad!... but funny!

The highlight of the evening was racing (and beating) Steve around the rink. As you can see from the video, I am so fast that even though I fell twice, I still beat him. (Make sure you have your audio turned on when you watch it.)

Pretty awesome huh. I believe the crash at the end to be the source of the gigantic bruise I sported on my butt for about 2 weeks!

In the end, bruises and all, a great time was had by all and I officially checked #18 off the list!

Where to start?!?

Once again I have been a blogging slacker. Not for lack of material, but sheer laziness. Well, it's a new year and time to stop being lazy! Now get ready for some blogging madness!

Pay it Foward

Ah, Thanksgiving. What a perfect time to give thanks, tell someone you care, and... buy someone's food at McDonald's! Yep, I checked off #22 on Tuesday and bought the meal for the car behind me at McDonald's. You see, I have been quite lazy when it comes to buying groceries and bringing my lunch to work lately and have been forced to eat fast food on multiple occasions. On Tuesday I decided to run through McDonald's and grab a quick bite. Going at 11:30, I did not expect the place to be that busy. Um yeah, I was wrong. It was packed and it was even one of the double lane drive thrus. I ordered my food and started to pull forward towards the window when I remembered my goal. Suddenly I felt nervous! I don't know why, but feels a little odd to buy a strangers food at McDonald's. I approached the window and asked the cashier if I could pay for the car behind me. He gave me a bit of a dumbfounded look but then said sure. I told him just to tell the person behind me "Happy Thanksgiving".
I have no idea who's meal I purchased or if it was for more than one person (the total was $11.11 so I hope it was 2 people!). All I know is that the car was a tan color and they had a handicap tag hanging from the rear view mirror.
Now comes the irony of the story. I got back to the office and hadn't checked my order to see if it was correct. I sit down to eat and find that McDonald's had screwed up my order. First they didn't give my Honey Mustard for my fries and then I opened my sandwich to find that it was fried instead of grilled like I had ordered. Booo! My co-workers thought I should call McDonald's and complain or drive back over there but I didn't want to bother. I just hope that the person's meal I paid for was correct!

I need help!

First of all my long awaited livingroom furniture is here! Yay!!!

Funny thing is, now that there is furniture in the room, the walls look even more blank! Knowing that my furniture was coming though, I planned ahead! A few weeks ago I used my Pottery Barn rewards to purchase the frames for my little art project. Remember my inspiration? (Courtesy of Pottery Barn of course!)


Instead of doing the metal frames though, I got the wood gallery frames. Also instead of 6 squares, I did 6 rectangles in black... I'll just show you!



The openings in the large frames are 8x10 and the small ones are 5x5. The small ones will be set out from the wall with these nifty frame risers.


Now is where I am at a loss. I don't know what to put in the frames! My original intent was to do pictures of my flowers from my mom's old back yard. She had taken a bunch prior to selling the house. Turns out there aren't as many as I thought and I don't know how well the colors would go with the room. The are more bright and the room is warm colors. Should I do them in black and white? Then I was thinking that they would just be bland. The rug in the room actually has tan, gold, burn orange, light and dark green, and even dark purple (purple is hard to see in the picture).



So I need help as to what to put in the frames! Any (reasonable) suggestions are welcome! Here are some of the pictures I have. I tried to crop some in interesting ways with Picassa but I still have the original versions too.