Josie, I'm home... Dont I wish!

Hola Friends

2010-07-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

Well this blog is about over... I will likely begin another though but I see no reason to continue with this one since soon and very soon my honey will return from his deployment. I can not begin to tell you how happy I am. This year seems as if it dragged on.

WEll, we all got back from PR unscathed but friendships were damaged. I'll not go into it but just to say that I'm more than sad at the way things turned out. PR is beautiful though and most of the time was wonderful. I loved the beach and walking around the city in Old San Juan was just amazing. The people there are warm and so is the weather! I loved it. Paul and I are going to plan our own trip there in the future which should be fun.

Since PR my sister Melissa and her girl came to visit me for two weeks. We had so much fun. We took the kids to the beach, childrens museum, Monkey Joes, a farm where they had homemade ice cream, Jambbas Ranch and out to eat in lots of places they don't have where they live. They also swam in my pool almost daily. It was fun having them here and when they left I realized just how much I miss my sister. We always have such a good time together. She is an absolute hoot! Having them here also helped to pass some of the time away this month which is good because usually the last month of deployment drags by.

I can't say when Paul will be home due to operational security but it is soon. Trust me, when he is safely back in the country everyone will know it.

My son leaves for his overseas tour soon. I don't want to mention specifics about his dates, unit or departing post due to the same concerns I have about mentioning Pauls redeployment but I can tell you that I would covet any prayers you could pray on his behalf. There are days I deal with his leaving well and then there are days I fall to pieces, imagine the worst and just lose it so if you got any extra positive thoughts and prayers for me, well then... Please remember his wife as well. Being married just a year this is going to be very hard for her and him and their marriage.

Paul and I will be doing part two of our Gatlinburg trip in the fall. I am so excited because we are going to get to do the things we couldn't do when we went last time. Mama and dad are also coming and so that will be nice to share some time with them.

I signed up for the Disney Princess half marathon in February in Orlando. Paul is going to come with me and also Kara and her hubs, Shannon. Kara will run with me. I am super stoked because every review I read about it is positive. We are also going to do the Myrtle Beach half in October or November (cant remember the dates) and that should be fun. So far there are about 8 of us running plus some well wishers we know coming. I still need to register for that one. Should be fun though and Paul and I are going to make a weekend of our time at Myrtle:)

On a sad note, July 1 my sweet gram passed away. She was 84 years old. I was on my way to see her in the hospital after hearing she had a good night when she suddenly took a turn for the worse and had a cardiac arrest. When I got there she was gone. Just 10 minutes earlier... I'll miss her. She was funny and sweet and just loved everyone. Her funeral or going home ceremony as we call it was beautiful. The woman had planned her own funeral so nobody in the family had to do anything really. She had all the music picked, who she wanted to speak, scripture versus picked out as well as what she wanted to be buried in. She left us no details to wonder about so we know it was just as she would have wanted.

I'm hoping to begin running regularly again tomorrow as well as getting in some additional gym time. It has just been so hot (temps over 100) that I feel no motivation for anything. Ah well, I must get back on track. Ive gained a few pounds and I need to nip that in the bud ASAP.

Well that about covers it all. I hope the next time to check in I'll be saying my love is finally home!!

Ta Ta for now- JC

Happy Birthday US Army

2010-06-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

and happy flag day as well. I am so bad about updating this blog and I really need to do better.

First, the half marathon happened and it was a total nightmare! It was so disorganized but on the other hand it was also one of the best runs I have ever done in that I ran all of it. We are still waiting on our t-shirts. I did have so much fun with Kara though. We have tons in common and it was nice going and spending time with her. She did so great on the run as well and she convinced me to run the Army Birthday 10 miler less than a week later. LOL. That run was so nice as far as organization. There were multiple water stops, and the whole thing was just nice. The course was hard though in that the next day I was really sore. Even more sore than after the half.

My birthday was the 12th and I drug my ass up and out to crossfit for the birthday WOD which kicked my hiney. It was all the things I hate. Split jumps, box jumps, rowing and burpees. Apparently my friends picked my workout for me. LOL

After the WOD my friends took me to lunch at Sherefe's. They got me some great gifts, a cake and we had so much fun together. The company and the food was amazing. After lunch I came home and had a nice treat of a webchat with Paul who got me a Garmin forerunner GPS for my birthday. I love it. I had wanted one so badly. I also got a promise of him baking me a birthday cake when he comes home. He also sent me the template of my new back tattoo that I was also getting that day. Its daisies and butterflies. I love it and he did a good job drawing up what I wanted.
After my chat with Paul I met up with Meg, Clare and Melissa to go get my tattoo. I was so nervous and really worried about how badly it would hurt but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Dont get me wrong, it wasn't not painful but it wasnt awful either. In the end the tattoo was exactly what I wanted and I am so glad I got it. It is beautiful and I cant wait for Paul to see it in person. When we left the parlor we went to dinner at Mash House and I had the most amazing Greek salad with chicken and pitas. It was so good. They also gave me a piece of cake for my birthday which I shared with everyone. When Paul comes home I want to take him to eat there because Chuck, Clares hubs got a bone in ribeye that I know Paul would have loved.

So, that was my birthday. I had a good day!

Sunday I stayed home and cleaned the house. I also went to breakfast with Michele and then to the mall to get a new bathing suit top. I was happy with what I did yesterday since my house was filthy and i got it really clean. I also got the laundry all done as well.

Today I took off again from crossfit and running. I decided to give myself two days of rest after all the running I did last week. So anyhow today I changed my bedsheets and mowed the yard. OMG, it was sofriggenhotoutside today. I was dying. After lunch I went to get my nails done so that I have a new pedi for Puerto Rico. I got hot hot hot pink with white tips. I love it. I also got my fingernails painted white which I hate so I will be repainting them. I came home and made a good healthy dinner of marinara with chicken, spaghetti squash, broccoli and 2 oz of pasta. I was craving real pasta so I had it.

We leave for Puerto Rico on thursday. I am so excited to go. I think we are going to have so much fun. Also that when we get back my parents will be here soon after and then my sister and then, MY WONDERFUL HUBBY will be home next month. I cant give details but in about 6 weeks I should be holding the love of my life again. I am so happy.

well I reckon Ive caught up everthing for the most part. I will try to be better about updating.

May 24th update

2010-05-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggies-

Sorry it has been a little while since my last entry. Things here have been crazy. I have been so busy with trying to get ready physically for the marathon that I haven't been doing much of anything else.

I've ran a couple of races since we last caught up. A 5k and a 10k. I was really happy about the last one because it is coming off of my hamstring pull. The hamstring is still giving me grief although I do see/feel significant improvement. I ran the last 10k in its entirety even if it were pretty slow and then this morning I had a good run at a moderate pace with no pain for the first 3.5 miles. After that I did need to slow down but it wasnt too bad. I know for the half I will not finish in the time I want nor will I run the whole thing but I'm ok with that. I think coming off my injury just doing it is something. On the 29th of this month I am going to Wilmington to do a 5k just for fun and then I am going to the beach afterwards. I will likely be alone but thats ok too. I invited a couple of girls but they may or may not be able to come. At any rate I plan on enjoying the day. I will run, go back to the hotel and shower, grab a meal and then hit the beach for a couple of hours before coming home and having dinner here. Maybe I will grill sicne it is Memorial Day weekend and all.

My sister and her girls are coming to visit in July. I am so happy. I just love them and with them coming in July it will just make the time go by quicker for Paul to gethome. missy and the girls get in on the 7th and then its rumored that Paul and them may come home at end of July but then again I heard this from a wife so I am still sticking with the August time frame that Paul gave me. Either way it is getting closer. I can hardly wait. Imiss him so much.

Well thats all for now. I will update after the weekend.

Mother's Day Eve

2010-05-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to my Fellow Mothers!

Quite a bit has happened since I last blogged and I will try to update as best as I can from memory. I jotted some notes so as I wouldn't forget too much. I really do need to get better at logging this stuff down.

First, I was/am/will be/ running very well. I say it like that because I was running on schedule and doing what I was supposed to do with regard to speed drills and increasing distance but then I hurt my hamstring. I babied it a day or two and then went full throttle again and now it is even more jacked up so now I am on the sidelines doing nothing because I cant take any chances with it. The half is in a month and I cant risk not being able to run at least half of it. Today I was registered for a 10k and decided last night to just do the 5k but when I got to the packet pickup they didnt have my packet... I took that as a sign and sat this one out completely. I have stretched and rolled it today and tomorrow I will do the same thing but I dont foresee anything more than IT band stretches until at least Wednesday and then I will see how I feel. I will have to ease back into running and go slow. No speed drills or split jumps at cross fit which is how it got hurt in the first place. It was totally my fault though. I felt it pull/stretch and I should have stopped at round three and told Ali and then did a modification but nope... Lesson learned.

I met with my preachers wife also. We had a chat about my feelings. I still dont think she totally gets why I was so upset but its ok. She thinks I am feeling this way because I miss Paul and I do but that is not it. Anyhow it doesnt matter. I am not mad at her, them or anyone anymore anyhow. (thats a lot of any's) I still dont think I will go back though. I love her, love a lot of people there but somehow it isnt really enough because after nearly a two hour conversation with her I still dont think that we are really any clearer on the issue. When Paul comes home I will see what he wants to do. I am tired of looking for a church so I think I will just go on post Sunday mornings to the protestant service until he is back.

Paul sent me an edible arrangement for Mothers Day. It was to be delivered yesterday but they asked me if I could come and get it. I did not knowing that Paul paid 12.00 for them to deliver it. Then today my mom calls me at 5:00 asking if I got a delivery. I say no and that I have been home all day so I wouldnt have missed anything. She says she ordered me an edible arrangement two weeks ago to be delivered today. It should've been delivered between noon and 5 when they close. Anyhow I left the house at 5:30 and it still wasnt here so I called mom. She is very upset and rightly so. I think I will talk with them also about me coming to pick up Pauls order when he paid for the delivery. The arrangement though is gorgeous. I got tons of melon so tonight I made a melon smoothie for a snack. A combo of honey dew, cantalope and then a bit of mint and some honey and ice. It was really good. I got enough out of what I made for breakfast in the morning too. Yay.

Mike went to JRTC last Tuesday for training. I am sick to my stomach about this. This really means my boy will deploy. Before I could deny it but now, not so much. I am trying to be ok but it is really hard.

WW board interviewed me for the Rockstar interview. It was pretty cool and I was honored to do it. I still get really shocked that people are impressed by my weight loss and want to know about it. I shouldnt because I always want to know about how others did it too.

Meg and me have been going to the beach a lot and we are both getting so excited about hanging with our other girls Kara and Vichi in PR. I still can not believe I am going on a trip to Puerto Rico! Wow!

Well, thats it for now. I will try and update in a few days. Adieu.

I am becoming a runner

2010-04-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggies,

Sorry I have been MIA since I last put pics on from the concert but I have been trying to get back into the swing of things since getting home. I cant tell you how hard it is when you are away from your routine for so long. Finally though, I seem to be settling back into my groove here in the Ville.

I have been running more and more and I am getting so much better and faster. I am finding that I am also really enjoying it. I like putting on my headphones and getting out there. When I first started to even jog and made it one mile I shuffled and it took me 15 minutes for one mile. LOL. Now, I can walk that fast. Anyhow, today I ran two miles in 22 minutes! I am shooting for a 20 minute 2 miles for my short term goal. Long term is to run a 10k. Hopefully that wont be too long term though. I am shooting for being able to do that by end of summer.

I started back to crossfit too. I love Ali's new place. I love the fact that it is an actual box and not a church hallway. So far I have had four workouts there and I have had my hiney handed to me each time. Today was killer. We did 2x each of 400 meter farmers carry with 15lb and 2x each 10 lb waiters carry. In between each of those were 10 situps, 5 push ups and 10 hollow rocks. We had a warm up of 250 meter row sprint and then a cashout of 50 situps and anothe 250 meter sprint on the rower. My traps are killing me from the waiters carry but I never dropped the weight the entire time.

Foodwise I am doing pretty well. I am trying to make good choices and also trying to not beat myself up when I dont. I want to change for the long term so it is unreasonable for me to think that I will always eat perfectly. Life is for living so I am trying to live and live well. I want to incorporate the ideas from Ali and John as well as some of the WW ideals that I love. Some of the paleo ideas I even like. I think there are so many good things about all of them. I just cant be caught up in one way of eating because that is when I get discouraged. I want to fuel my body with nutritious foods and have an occasional treat. I am learning though that there are certain foods that I respond to better than others which is why I have severly limited grains. That isnt to say I dont eat them ever but I dont eat them often. Not for any other reason than I dont like the way they make me feel in my belly.

I stopped going to my church. It made me sad but I wasnt happy. I went to another church last week but I wont go back because it was an all black church and I wasnt comfortable. I will keep looking. I am meeting with Glenda however on Monday to discuss my feeling with the Wesleyan church. I doubt I will go back but I suppose I should at least meet with her. I like Glenda very much so she deserves that.

Pauls deployment is 2/3 over. Yeah! We have three months left. I miss him so very much. I cant begin to describe the sadness I have when he isnt with me. Each day without him is just awful. I will be so happy to have him home for good. He is ready to be over with it too. He really misses me too. I am so lucky to have a man who loves me so much. I see the other wives whose husbands arent so attentive and loving and I appreciate my Paulie all the more. He is so wonderful. What I ever did to deserve such a kind man is beyond me.

June is Puerto Rico month. I got the go ahead from my hunny to go with my cross fit girlfriends to San Juan. I am excited. Meg, Kara and Vicci and me. It will be fun. We are just going to be laying on the beach soaking in the sun. It will be a great way to pass a weeks worth of time. I love having things to look forward to because it just makes it closer to when my baby gets home.

Well thats it for now. I will try to update soon.

concert pics

2010-04-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

These are some pics of George Strait, Reba McEntire and Leanne Womack at the concert on the 9th of April at the Sprint Center in Ks City.

home pictures.

2010-04-19T10:51:00.001-07:00

These are some pics from Kansas.

Waaaaa!

2010-04-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

I already miss my sister and the chicks!

Tonight I had dinner with them. We had so much fun watching Biggest Loser while eating and putting together a gas grill that mama and I went in on the price for as her early birthday present. It did take us over two hours to put the grill together but we did it. The directions arent as simple as they make it out to be. In the end we only had one scew left but the thing was sturdy so we arent stressing. Heehee.
The chicks cried when I left and I was starting to. Once I got on the road to head back to moms I did shed a few tears. I adore my Missy and we always have sooo much fun together. I miss her when I am not here. A lot!

Earlier today I had coffee with Andi Bradshaw. We had such a nice chat and visit at the Starbucks. I had an iced Americano and boy did it hit the spot. I havent had a decent cup of coffee since Fayetteville.

I went to the PX on Riley and got three shirts and a sundress. It was all pretty cheap. I also got the little girls a pair of capris and a shirt. They loved them. They were little black capris with diamond studs on the hem and the shirts are vibrant purple with the same studs on the collar. Cute cute cute. They said they are wearing them to school tomorrow. I hope Missy takes pictures. The shirts I got are cute. I got a yellow empire waist shirt that I really love. I wish now I would have bought a couple more colors. The other two are swing type shirts, one in orange and the other in slate blue. The sundress is a floral hippie type print. Its really flowy and comfy. Perfect for the beach and lounging around. All told I spent less than $60.00 f or everything.

I dont know if we are doing anything tomorrow. It is my last day here though which makes me sad. I am going to miss my mama and my dad. I have really enjoyed beiing here and I really needed to get away. I do eat poorly and God knows I dont get in enough exercise when I come here but I reckon that is ok too. Friday when I get home I will get back on program.

I mapped out my next few (week)days once I get home:

Friday- run in morning (3 miles total), commissary, bills paid, clean floors in house and clean bathroom in my room, gym (Golds) in the afternoon (elliptical for 20 minutes, biking 20 minutes and abs)
Saturday- SOS and possibly a 2 mile sprint walk. I am not going to go to Wilmington for the baby shower after all. I will likely do some yard work. Call Lowes or True Value about a wet//dry vac.
Sunday- beach day with my crossfit gal pals!!!
Monday- Run in morning (3 miles total), start clearing out the garage, load up the truck of stuff for donation, gym (golds) in afternoon (same as Friday)
Tuesday- crossfit in morning, work on garage, buy rubbermaids for stuff in it.
Wednesday- run (3 miles total), if wet//dry vac is found, work on cleaning the pool
Thursday- short run in morning (one mile of intervals), housework, crossfit in afternoon
Friday- gym (elliptical for 30 minutes, and abs), yard work
Saturday-6 miles run/walk, grocery shop if needed

Sounds like a way to get me back in the groove pretty quickly. I am dreading running so much but I have got to get my mileage up for the marathon in June. Working on five miles for now with the goal of eight by the race.

Paul is sick now. Stomach thingy. Poor guy. I hope he can get well quickly. If you are prayerful please keep him in yours. I really miss him and I cant wait to see him on Skype when I get home.

Well thats it for now. I likely wont update again until I am back in the Ville.

TTFN

updates

2010-04-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Bloggies,

Hope all is well with you. As for me, I am doing wonderfully. I have really enjoyed being with my family and I get a little shoulda coulda when I think about the fact that I could have come here for the deployments. I would have had the support system of my family and that would have been so awesome. I know that when I was sad on Saturdays because I was missing Paul or on Sundays after church I would have had somewhere to go. But, since we bought the house it would not have been possible because although my folks would have never had a problem with me staying with them I would never have done that. Also, I would have really missed my friends and especially those crazy friends from crossfit. These ladies have become my family and I love them. When I am sick they bring me soup and 7up, they come visit me when they dont hear from me or I sound off, they have invited me to hang out and they have shared so many meals with me and they have cried with me over my stresses and heartbreak. My gym family is honestly closer to me than my Church 'family'. Speaking of church, I am still in prayer over the situation and do not think I will come to a final decision until after I get back. I think I am hanging out at the beach this weekend and will come to a decision then. I know where I am leaning... the only reason I have so much trepidation is because of my kids. I love those kids in the class and I would miss them but I also have to do what the Spirit leads me to do and so we'll see.

Now, the concert was so awesome!! It began at 7:00 with Leanne Womack and Reba was in the middle followed by the King!!! George Strait was so good and I loved Reba. The concert wasnt over until 12:30. Missy, mom and me had so much fun. We stopped on the way to see Lori in the rehab hospital. She is doing so well. She is beginning to have some MOVEMENT!! The Dr has changed his prognosis to possibly she will walk again! This is so exciting. She showed us some of her physical therapy and she was really in good spirits. After we left Topeka we went to KS City and found the Sprint Center easily. We stopped for dinner at The Flying Saucer. It was so good. I had a turkey burger and once it was cut in half traded Missy half of it for half of her chicken filly. Mom had a grilled chicken avacado wrap. Once we ate it was 6:00 so we went to the arena and got shirts. I chose a simple grey one with George Strait on the side of it in pink. Missy got one like mine and moms was in olive drab. Our seats were in the nosebleed section but with all the screens it wasnt a big deal. We saw everthing really well and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We drove back after the show another route only because I missed the exit. It didnt really take us out of the way so it wasnt a big deal.

On Saturday I was exhausted!!! I got up early on Saturday morning after not getting to bed until 3:00 because I took Missy to the commissary and then we spent the day cooking her some freezer meals. That evening we took the little girls to dinner at Chinese. I couldnt believe that they actually like that stuff but they do. We all ate really well and then we went to go and see the movie, How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. The girls were so cute and they loved it. I loved it! It was a great movie and I saw a bunch of previews for some upcoming 3D movies. I spent the night at Missy's house last night, slept with Kaelyn who is a horrible sharer of the bed. LOL. We went to church at my folks church this morning. I loved it. I loved the preacher. What made me so happy was the genuine concern they showed to me and also their outpouring of support for Paul. The pastor asked me for Pauls email and said he would like to send him word of encouragement if that was ok. I almost cried. He isnt even Pauls pastor and well the fact that he would email him touched me. Its just as nice to me as my friend Helens pastor sending Paul CD's of the messages. It is the little things because the way to keep me happy is to make sure that Pauls well being is taken care of.

After church we came home to a wonderful dinner. Mom made a ham, sweet potatoes and I made some roasted veggies. Also mom made Pauls favorite yeast bread. We had cheesecake for dessert. It was so good. After dinner I got a call from my man. I had been really missing him which is so normal on Sundays. I was really glad to hear his voice. Why are Sundays so much harder than the other days of the week?

Tomorrow I am hanging around the house. I do plan on running for the first time since I got here. *bad Jo* I also am going to do some crossfit. My parents will be gone a couple hours for a doctor appointment so I will do it then. Other than that I dont plan on doing too much tomorrow. I may take a nap. Hahaha

Dreading but also looking forward to going home on Thursday. I miss my dogs too. I also miss being able to once in awhile skype with my hunny bunny. I cant do that here. I need to clean the house too. I didnt do it before I left other than changing the sheets on my bed but I should have all day until I pick up the dogs on Friday to get it done. I may also try to get to crossfit on Friday afternoon if she has classes then because I will be home. I do plan on the SOS Saturday though. I am excited for that.

Well, I suppose that sums up the updates. More to follow.

TTFN

Oz

2010-04-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Peeps,

Well, Tuesday I flew home to KS for almost two weeks. I am happy to be here. I really wanted to get away from Fayetteville for awhile. I needed to clear my head of all the things going on and I also thought being here away from the church situation would help me to have some clarity.

I am not a good flyer to put it mildly but for the most part my flights were ok. The flight from Charlotte to KS City was a bit hairy near the end and I nearly lost my cookies. I really thought that I would vomit. I had never been so happy to land.

On Wednesday I stuck close to home with Mom. We went to the grocery store but other than that didnt do much. I was glad though because I was so exhausted from not sleeping on Monday night. Even though I did sleep on Tuesday night I was still pretty tired yesterday.

Today I went and had lunch with my first grade neice, Kaelyn. We also went to recess together. I had so much fun. I enjoyed my time with her very much. After that I went to the preschool and had snack with my other neice, Carlee. That was also enjoyable. I got to take her home and so we had some alone time. We walked the dog together and then Missy and Kaelyn got home and we all went to dinner. We went to IHOP and it was awful. I ordered something I thought would be less bad than pancakes. I got roast beef but they had everything about my order all wrong. Not only did they mess up my order they got Carlees wrong and Missys too. In the end, we didnt pay for the meal. Not any of it. The management was really great about it. After dinner we took the chicks to Baskin Robbins. I got a scoop of coffee ice cream which was quite tasty. I had planned on running today but didnt. I am going to get up and do it tomorrow before we leave to go to the concert.

Tomorrow is the concert in KS City. We are seeing Leanne Womack, Reba and George Strait. It is going to be a good concert. If George sings, "you're something special to me" I might cry. That is me and Pauls song... We are going to stop in Topeka to see Lori on the way. I'm glad because it will likely be the only time I would get to see her while I am here.

I talked to Paul today. I had been missing him a lot. He called me though when I was in a place where it was hard for me to talk so it was hard to have a decent conversation. I think he thought that something was wrong but that wasnt the case. Its really hard to have conversations with him in public though.

Im really thinking of going to Puerto Rico for my birthday with my crossfit friends. Mom said she would help me out with some of the money as my birthday gift. It isnt that expensive anyhow with all the accomodations and flights included. It sure beats being all by myself again. I know Paul will think its ok so that isnt an issue. He isnt one of those guys who makes me or expects me to sit home all the time while he is deployed. Mostly because he trusts me and also because it isnt fair.

I heard lots of good things about ASI and I am so excited for Ali. Yah. I cant wait to be back in it. I am going to do only twice a week. With the run it just makes sense for one, I also have a gym membership for two, and the rates are higher than they were at DIF for three. I dont know if they will go down to the $80.00 if she has a military discount like John did or not... I think the new rates are sort of high though and even though I love crossfit and would love to come three days a week I dont think I can justify that price when I have a gym membership already.

Well, that is it for now. I am going to get to bed so I can try and get in at least a two mile run in the morning. If I end up not doing any running while I am gone I will have a lot to try and catch up on when I get home. As it is I think I will end up walking most of the half at this point... Bummed for sure but we'll see how it plays out in June.

Updates and photos from the concert later. Likely when I return to NC.

Chow for Now!

updates

2010-04-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a bit but I have taken longer hiatuses than this so I think we should all just count our little blessings. Since it is Easter anyhow. So, Happy Easter or Happy Passover. Whatever applies to you and yours. I hope you are finding your rest in the Lord today.

The last couple of weeks have sort of gone by quickly. Praise the Lord. I have had a lot on my mind with regard to my church and it hasnt been good. I am thinking of leaving... I am still praying about it so if anyone from my church reads this they can know that I have not yet made a final decision. I think there a tons of good intentions in my church but not a lot of follow through. I not only have issue with things on my end but with things on Pauls end. I have strong opinions on my churches role in Pauls spiritual growth, his emotional well being and etc an I feel a total disconnect with regard to him on that aspect... Pray for me if that is something that you do that I will be given the discernment to make the right decision.

Training for the run is going well. I am still not progressing at the point I would like to though. At this rate I doubt I will be running even 8 miles of the half in June. Right now I am struggling with three nonstop miles before my knees are hurting. I joined up at a gym again and am incorporating some elliptical and biking in with my running so hopefully I can get in the cardio while taking a load from my knees. Ive adjusted my goal to running at least 5 nonstop then walking a mile and running again a cycle of 10 minutes on and 2 minutes off till the finish unless it seems like I can go further than 5.

Today I ran out two miles and walked back one then ran in the last mile. I did this because yesterday we did a 5k so I didnt want to push it too much. I ran all of the run yesterday with the exception of the last hill. (Why are there always a long hill at the end of a race?) Anyhow, the run was in honor and in memory of John Velandra. It was a bittersweet day. Yesterday would've been his 44th birthday. I still miss him very much.

Tuesday I leave to go to moms. I am so excited to get out of here for awhile but also scared of what it does to my diet and fitness. I will need to be really diligent while I am gone. I am glad I have the marathon to keep me motivated to run. When I come back Ali will have A Star open and I can start back up with cross fit. I think I am only going to do twice a week until the marathon is over though. I like to run on Saturday and with grueling SOS on Saturday I know I wont run and with a marathon I pretty much need to run ya know. So anyhow, I am thinking either Tuesday and Thursday for CF or Wednesday and Friday.

The weather has gotten quite warm and the grass is growing and the weeds too. Last week I mowed and tomorrow I will do the same as well as weed the flower bed again. I am going to try and keep on top of it. When I get back from moms I am going to get the pool ready to open. I am thinking by May 15th I will open it but I also plan on rewarding myself with the beach if I get my run out of the way early on Saturdays.

Well thats it for now. I will update again later.

Stay safe.

Training updates

2010-03-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 21st was supposed to be a long run but I had to move things around. I ran two miles in 21:30.

Monday I did a home WOD from Ali. My time sucked but I did it.

Tuesday, March 23rd I ran two miles. My first mile I ran in ten minutes flat. The second mile took me 11:15. I did the home WOD as well.

Wednesday will be an off day with exception of a possible home WOD.

update

2010-03-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggies,

Whatdaya know, it hasnt been a month since I checked in. Could this be progress?

Things here have been moving right along. Some days slowly and other days I dont know where the day goes.

Finally I got the taxes done. We are getting a decent refund but just because Paul is deployed. Next year it ought to be ok as well since he will have been gone for most of this year as well. After that, who knows. I tell you though, you can sure see a difference without kiddo deductions.

Training for the half is going well. I am losing weight I can tell. I havent weighed myself but the shorts I bought before I started running again are almost at the verge of being too big. I am wearing a pair today but since the others (2 pair) still have tags I am taking them back to Penneys to exchange for a smaller size. Woohoo! Also, I was wearing smaller jeans last week that I previously couldnt fit in to. Yesterday I did tabata and it killed my quads. I am not a fast runner and my sprints honestly probably are not that fast but Lordy lordy was I hauling butt as fast as my little legs would go for those 30 seconds. It was all I could do to finish the mile of constant running afterward. I know though that this will increase our endurance. Tomorrow is another 4 mile run. We are running another park so hopefully the park is at least suitable for running. I should have checked it out but I figure if it turns out that we can only walk on the trails for whatever reason it is a bonus day of exercise and we will have to do our 4 miles on our own on Monday or Wednesday of the coming week.

The weather here is wonderful. I am going to meet Mallory downtown in a little bit to celebrate 30 weeks down in the deployment. We are closing in on the end. Not soon enough but its coming.

Paul is calling branch on Monday to see where they are going to put him after the deployment. If he can we are going to request a nondeployable assignment and hopefully he can ride out the last of his Army time in it. In a perfect world he gets promoted in August and doesnt deploy anymore.

We also need to put our house on the market. This is the worry I have over moving. Not being able to sell. I am going to call Vicci's daughter and see what she says and also the ladies who sold Brandon and Jens house because I also liked them very much. I am just really worried.

Well thats it for now. I will update after the run tomorrow.

Run today

2010-03-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

4 miles. Ran with Kara C. We did it in 53 minutes alternating running and walking. 10 on and 2 off. Average pace of 13.25. Not too bad.

Me- was really tired with this run today and my knee was hurting (back part of it) after mile 2. Found out this is actually my hamstring. Will need to do more stretches.

Next run is on Tuesday.

update and I am a liar

2010-03-13T16:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I said I would be more faithful in the updates. I lied but I didn't mean to. I could give lots of excuses and all of them would be valid but I will spare you all the gore. LOL

So, as you can see from the date Paul is gone. He has been gone now for two weeks. I miss him more than I ever thought possible. Its funny how much I needed leave and also how hard it was for me to watch him go back. Thankfully, things are getting back to my preleave routine with the exception of crossfit (more on that in a bit)so that helps.

Crossfit is on a bit of a hiatus because DIF folded and Ali is opening her own place. It isnt finished yet because the bldg was new so she has had to start it from scratch. It is coming together and I know she hopes to be open within a couple of weeks. She is sending us workouts to do at home though. Some I have done, some I have not. I have been helping out at the new place with some of the cleaning and its good to get to help out. I dont have too much to do in the day time so I enjoy getting out. Also, I am enjoying getting to know Ali. She is a lot like me I am finding out which is probably one reason we work so well together. At anyrate I can hardly wait to be back in a group doing the workouts. I know its going to be more organized which is good. I also know that unless you can pay you arent going to be there which I also think is good. Too often at DIF there were free rides and they halfway did things, took time from the trainers and it wasnt fair to those of us who did pay.

My weight is good. I lost the few pounds I gained when Paul was home and I set myself some new goals to get to my personal goal. I think that is what was lacking with me. I needed another goal. Ali told me it is all about setting a goal and working to achieve it. I have thought of this often as well as the theory she uses on taste everything, eat nothing. It makes tons of sense. I have been makeing better choices lately. I even turned down Coldstone tomorrow! I will be doing a long run (4 miles so not too long) and even though I would have negated the calories its really counterproductive so I choose not to do it. My reward will be the size smaller pants I hope to buy by my birthday in June.

June is half marathon month! Kara and Ashley are going to do it with me. It is in Wilson and its called the Run One For the Road Half. It benefits domestic violence education so its for a great cause. The informations says its a fairly flat course and so thats good. I want to run more of this one so I am training like it. My training actually is consisting of more running. Go figure. Tomorrow we are doing 10 on 2 off for the four miles. Next week I think I may up the miles but not the interval. The week after that I think I will keep the mileage but up the interval.
Oh, on top of the half I have signed up for 3 5Ks in the next month. Whew!

I am super excited that in April I am going to KS City with my sisters to see King George in concert. He is also got Reba and Leann Womack. I plan on spending about 10 days with my mom and dad too. I have to make the time to train while I am there though which I hope doesnt become hard for me!

Well I think that about does it for now. I will update after my run tomorrow if for nothing else so that I have a place to log progress.

TTFN-the pic is when Paul was home on R&R! Arent we great together? I just adore him!

updating

2010-02-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Bloggies-
Hoping that everything is going well in your parts! I am on half of Cloud 9. I say half because while I am trying to not dwell on the fact that Pauls leave is quickly ending it is very hard...

Paul got in on the 12th at around 7:30 am but he was unable to make it from Atlanta because of the impending winter storm which had all flights from Atlanta grounded. The next opportunity for him to fly in would be on the 13th at nearly 6:00 pm. I was crushed but after looking at the weather forecast decided to go on down to Atlanta and get him! I made it well before the weather but on the way home we had to stop for the night which was also just fine!

I showed up at the airport not looking the way I had wanted to after not seeing him for seven months but he could have cared less if I was in a sack. It was such a nice little reunion there in the lobby of one of the busiest airports in the country. He picked me up and spun me around. I am so glad I am smaller now as there really is nothing quite as nice as being able to be picked up by your guy.

When we left the airport we stopped and got some food since we knew we werent going to make it home then we checked into the Holiday Inn. I am fast forwarding to the next day seeing as how you can guess the hotel stuff...

On Saturday the drive home was not bad. The roads were fine and we made it home pretty fast. We spent the day relaxing, cuddling and more. Paul also used this day to get the dogs used to him again. Riley was very apprehensive at first. Molly was just Molly. She loves anyone who will pet her.

Sunday we packed for our trip to Gatlinburg and we also went to church. I cant tell you how nice it was that I had Paul next to me in the pew. I miss him so much all the time but it seems to be so much harder on Sundays...

Gatlinburg was so amazing. We had such a good time doing all the touristy things and we also shopped in some really unique places. We ate out a lot and I didnt pay close attention to it. I figure that I can relax some on vacation. I also know that he is going back in a couple weeks so I am not going to spend my time with him obsessing about food. We soaked in the hot tub with wine each night. So nice. The temps were in the teens but it was so great in the hot water. I loved it and have decided a hot tub beats pool any time. We were able to be a couple again and while Paul and I are by no means not connected we were able to fit right back into the comfortable couple we are when he isnt deployed. None of the weirdness so many others experience.

When we got home from our week in TN Paul told me he just wanted to do normal stuff like order pizza, rent movies, go bowling, walk the dogs, go to the gym... So, that is what we have been doing the last couple of days. Tomorrow we are going to dinner with our Pastor and his wife and then on Friday I am making us a modified Thanksgiving/ Christmas dinner since he didnt have a good one in Iraq. I couldnt find a small turkey or even a turkey breast so we are doing Cornish hens. We are also going to have buttered noodles, whole wheat of course and some green beans. I bought a can of Grands biscuits since I know he likes them. We arent preparing a dessert though. We are going to go out for a pastry and coffee at Starbucks so that I dont have to have that stuff in the house after he leaves on the 1st. Saturday we are going to go to crossfit, then if the weather is nice up to hike Raven Rock, cook on the grill and bowling in the evening. If we have bad weather the hike is off. We can always rent a movie or play Wii. Sunday is church, preparing his bags and then just spending that last night enjoying each others company. Le sigh:(

Well, thats it for now. Later I will post pics and then update after he goes back. I got some goals I want to put out publically...

Take care and be back soon!

Pics

2010-02-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

people are always asking me for weight loss pictures. I had them on the old blog and updated them monthly. For whatever reason when I began this one I stopped. Today at cross fit someone asked me for a picture of what I looked like before I lost the weight and so I thought I would post the the one that really inspired me to lose the weight. The one that made me see myself the way others saw me. Anyhow, ironically on the WW board there is a post on the challenge I am part of that talks about photos as well so here it is... the photo that started it all along with the most recent picture I have.

updates

2010-02-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hellllooooo Bloggies!

OMG, I am updating again within less than two months:)
This last week has been so cool. Cross fit has been amazing and also Paul is on his way home so I am on cloud nine.

This last week in cross fit we worked on our max weights for the shoulder press and the dead lift. I was so proud of my weights. I maxed at 75 lb on the shoulder press and 150 on the dead lift. My goal for the shoulder press was at least 60 and I wanted to exceed my body weight on the dead lift. I exceeded both of my goals and was just thrilled. I cant get over how strong I am becoming due in part to cross fit. Ali is such a great coach too. John was wonderful but he never pushed me in the way that she does. She really makes me get out of my comfort zone. Love that.

Paul is currently in Kuwait. He left his FOB on Monday. I dont think he will be home until Friday but it could be Thursday depending on if he gets a flight right away out of Germany into Atlanta. He doesnt even leave Kuwait until 2:30 am Thursday morning our time. I am not sure what the flight time is to Germany from there but I know he has at least an 8 hour flight from Germany to Atlanta. I so hope his connecting flight into Fayetteville from Atlanta is fairly soon after he lands. I just cant wait to see him.

I got our romantico cabin all reserved. We are leaving for four days on Monday:) Gonna be so nice. I scored a great deal with my military discount. Only $79.00 per night. These cabins are amazing too. Full kitchens, jacuuzzi tubs for two, outdoor hottubs, and views that are just spectacular. When we get back and its all said and done I will post some photos on Facebook and a few here.

Speaking of facebook, why cant they just leave it alone? OMG, the new format is horrible. It is confusing and so not user friendly. I am a creature of habit. I like things the same day in and day out. From what I have read there arent many who like the new layout.

Monday I had a horrible food day but yesterday was excellent! Today is also going to be a good day. I had a blue monster this morning and am really loving it. I can also have some egg quiche but so far am not hungry so I may be able to wait until lunch. I am trying to keep fairly busy so that the time passes quickly. I need to run to the post office and do some housework but I want to make sure that things are pretty much in order when Paul gets in so I am putting it off until I know he is in the air coming from Germany. Besides, I hate cleaning.

I am thinking I will be able to make cross fit in the morning which is good. I hate to miss it since I know my workout, (real workouts. LOL) will be sparse when Paul is home.

Well that is about it for now. Guess I will go shower. Brave the wind and get to the post office.

Updates later on.

Hey Bloggies, its update time

2010-02-01T07:51:00.000-08:00

Ya ya ya, tis been awhile! I figured that since it is the first of a brand new month I would attempt to start off with a new post. My goal will be to update at least weekly but this month that may be a bit hard to do since Paul COMES HOME FOR R&R IN ONE WEEK! I am so thrilled to say the least. He is scheduled to leave Iraq the 8th so any prayers you want to lift up for him to have a safe journey would so be appreciated. We arent planning a bunch of things to do. He wants and so do I time to just reconnect. Being apart for over six months is hard and so quality time just chatting, and loving on each other is what is really important. We are going to go up to the mountains for four days and stay in a cabin. We planned a day hike in the Smokies while we are there. It is completely guided but we think it will be fun and romantic. It is catered and so we will have snacks and lunch which will consist of some cheeses, hard meats, crusty warm french bread, fruit, nuts and chocolate as well as sparkling cider. I think we will have a wonderful time. After the hike we are going to go back to the cabin, get cleaned up and go to dinner and then come back and soak in the outdoor hot tub. Tres romantic! Aside from that day we are just planning on doing some relaxing, sight seeing and and just chilling in the cabin. When we come back to Fayetteville we will be doing routine things like going to church, the movies, bowling and just hanging out. Sounds boring but its what we want to do and what we like to do. Paul is also going to come to my cross fit workouts with me. Yay!

So far so good with counting calories. My weight is solidly in the mid 140's now. I am so thrilled. I dont feel deprived and in fact there have been a couple of days I have not been able to even meet the calorie requirement. I have even switched back to r/f versions instead of ff versions of foods so that I can meet the calorie requirements and fat requirements per day which tickles me to no end. I hate ff things and so I often did without things like cheese because I hated them ff. Now that I am counting calories and doing SF/Core again I can reintroduce them back into my diet and they dont kill me. In fact they assist me in my weight loss efforts. I am still not eating a lot of grains. This is a personal choice for me. I do believe what John taught me about them. I find when I eat them a lot, even the healthy ones I feel sluggish and bloated. I dont discount some of the health benefits and I dont discount the fact that they create a satiety in people. For me though I have found that my body does so much better with less of them. If I want oatmeal for breakfast I have it but I then try to limit the rest of my grains during the day because I end up feeling really icky if I eat more later on. I often wonder if I have some sort of an intolerance like some people do to dairy? The other day I made pumpkin lasagna. I used whole wheat pasta. That evening I ate it for dinner. Earlier in the day I had a bowl of cereal, (shredded wheat) for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch. My bread was whole wheat. That night, actually before dinner my gut was killing me. After dinner it was even worse. Looking over food journals I see this pattern with grains... If anyone has any feedback I would surely appreciate it.

The weather here has been hot/cold. We had gorgeous weather a week ago. In the 60's. Then, Friday it was 30 and on Saturday we got an ice storm which shut down everything in the town. I havent been out of the house since Friday afternoon. I am going to the movies today though with a friend and her little girl. I have to get out or I will go mad. This next week is busy busy busy for me. I have lots of activity to help with the time passing. Tomorrow I have a sushi lunch date, Wednesday I am painting the walls in the house that need touched up and hopefully getting my DL. Thursday is lunch at Subway with a friend and then hair appts, Friday is the Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan concert with a couple of girlfriends and Saturday is the race and baby shower for Ashley. Of course Sunday is church and then Monday should be Pauls day to fly out:) It takes about four days travel so God willing he will be home Thursday or at the latest Friday the 12th! Woohoo!

Thats all for now!

I gotta feeling

2010-01-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

that this is it for me! I think I may have hit the jackpot on what works for me as far as losing/keeping off weight. What is this magical trick you ask? Well, its counting calories and keeping fat down to a reasonable level. It works well with WW but I found that if I count points I am starving. Lets face it, on 20 points I am not getting enough food. So, I went back to Core which I love love love but I was not really losing since I have what I like to call portion distortion. Actually I think this is a WW term. Anyhow, I started weighing and measuring things like meats and grains again and have seen the scale budge. I upped my veggies quite a bit and I also looked up how many calories I should be taking in to LOSE weight with my activity level and age. Its right around 1500. Now, to compare this to points I got out an old food journal where I was given 21 points and I looked up all the calories for three days. Whoa, I was eating a measly 1000 calories per day or thereabout. Now, of course this is going to cause me to lose initially which it did but what happened later when I hit goal and was able to supposedly raise my calories to maintain my weight was that I gained and then I held on to every single pound. This is not a good thing to severly deprive yourself of calories. So, I now have been trying to get in 1400/1500 calories of clean food a day. I feel lighter and people are noticing. I havent weighed in yet but on Tuesday I will see if the last two weeks have rewarded me with my new behavior. The 130's are within my reach if I can stay true to doing what I know is right.

The last two crossfits have been so hard. I was smoked each time. I loved it. I missed John so much though. Its strange that he isnt there. Ali is so great though. She is a good trainer and she too cares about seeing you succeed so I think it is just going to come down to being used to the Tuesdays and Thursdays NOT being JV's groups. I think about John a lot. I thought about him at the grocery store the other day when I was going to buy Captain Crunch. LOL. He hated the fact that I love cold cereal. IN the end, I didnt buy it.

Paul should begin his journey home for R&R in about 2 weeks. I miss him so much. This deployment has been the worst separation we have ever had for me. He is ready for the break too. He has been discouraged a bit and so hopefully when he comes home and gets recharged he can go back and take on the second half of the deployment with a fresh attitude so that it isnt so grinding for him.

Hopefully in the fall he will finally be promoted. I dont want to go into this right now because the army has totally pissed me off on this delay. Acutally, it isnt the Army's fault, its his units fault. Specifically his S1 but what do they care since it isnt their job. At least his SCO and CSM were really working hard to ensure that he got promoted or I would have been even more pissed off.

well, I suppose thats it in a nutshell for now. I am taking it easy today. Maybe I will stay in jammies all day or maybe I will head to the outlet mall in Smithfield... I dont know yet.

Updates come again on weigh in day! TTFN

Final Farewell to Our Friend

2010-01-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Bloggies~

Hoping that this finds you all well. I am doing better than I was the other day with regard to John. As morbid as this may sound I needed the funeral yesterday because I felt like I was in a state of suspension prior to it...

Let me tell you about the day if you will… Well first,myself and some of the other ladies met for coffee where we reminisced a bit about our John and then we gathered ourselves and went to Manna Church for the viewing/funeral. When we got to Manna there was about 45 minutes left in the viewing. We were fortunate that when we got there the line wasn’t too terribly long so we were able to greet Niv and Tony. Niv was amazing. She had such grace and poise and in the midst of her grief was comforting so many of Johns friends who were grieving. Tony looked really sharp in his sheriffs uniform. John was so proud of him and I was so glad that he was alive to see him graduate from the academy. Johns casket was open and I was so afraid to see him laying there. Up until that moment that I did see him in there I kept thinking this was all not real and that he was going to jump up and do his, “whoooohooooo!” I know that isn’t the case. He is gone. Forever. We will never see him again at cross fit or Designs In Fitness. He didn’t look like our John. We could see the cakey makeup and he just looked hollow. I suppose that is fitting because I know that it was only his shell that was in that casket. Niv told me and everyone else to forget what we saw in the casket because our John is what we have in our memories. She told me that John was really proud of us. She said what I needed to hear and in her grief she blessed me. John was buried in a CFCF t-shirt, his cross fit baseball cap was in the casket with him and although we couldnt see them I'm sure his super short green shorts. Totally fitting. Ali and a few other people gave wonderful eulogies. In Ali's grief she memorialized John in a way that those who barely knew him knew of his passion and his kindness. She did a great job and I know she will continue to build Johns business in the way he would want it. I was particularly touched by Tony’s eulogy because he talked about what a wonderful step-father John was to him among other things. It made me respect and love John even more to know he was a good step-father.
The ministers at Manna gave a great message and the choir sings beautifully. They sang, Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone and it was so incredibly good. John was part of Manna’s choir and from what I heard he was a great singer with a powerful baritone voice. Anyhow, after the service we went to the cemetery with the processional and John had some military honors. They played taps and gave Niv the flag. According to the funeral program John was part of 3rd group here at Bragg. I always figured he would have been high speed. When the graveside service was over all the cross fitters did one last burpee for the big guy. It was so great and Niv and Tony were so tickled and touched by it. I am posting the pictures of us doing it.
After we left the ceremony we went to IHOP for lunch. There was about a dozen or a bit more of us and we had such a good time talking and sharing our memories of John. We talked about how proud he was of us and that he really did celebrate our accomplishments. He was so funny and so genuine. I am going to really miss him. There was nothing inappropriate in this but I loved him. He was a good guy and he did so much for me in that he helped me believe I could do anything I set my mind to. I pushed myself harder physically than I ever have in part because of him. Anyhow, I hope that I can continue to do him proud. He deserves nothing less.

When I got home from IHOP I changed my clothes into sweats and then went to Food Lion and got some produce. At 6:00 I made myself some stir-fry with crabmeat and then had a vita top with cream on it. I made good choices yesterday which is a huge victory for me because when I am down I usually feed my face. That evening though I fought the urge to eat just to eat. I won though and in the end made myself some hot cocoa and told myself that it is counterproductive to the results I desire to feed my face for any reason other than hunger. Yay! John would have been so proud of me. I bet he is smiling down on me now but thinking that instead of cocoa I should have done some thrusters or burpees:)

Goodbye John. I know you are in a wonderful place and I am so blessed to have known you. You touched my life and forever changed me. I will miss you very much. <3 you~

Death of a Wonderful Human Being

2010-01-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Bloggies,
As I type this entry I do so with a heavy heart. My trainer, friend, and all around good guy, John Velandra was killed when his car was struck by a stolen truck during a high speed chase on Wednesday. I cant even begin to tell you how much John affected my life in only the 7 short months I have known him. I can honestly say that I loved the man. His compassion, energy, passion for his calling and his genuine concern for everyone made him stand out to everyone. He had this way of motivating and inspiring you to want to be better and he did this without belittling you or making you feel like your progress was going too slow. John knew my struggles with my weight and he hated that I stressed so much over the number on a scale but he tried to help me in reaching my goals and never once made me feel like I was a loser even though he didnt often agree with my beliefs on that matter.
John was truly a stellar human being and I will miss him. His death has affected me more than I ever thought possible. As I type this I find myself once again tearing up and wonder when the pain from his passing will subside enough that when I hear his name, walk into DIF or do a workout I wont start to fall apart.
This world lost a bright star on Wednesday and I lost a friend who I will always miss.

christmas updates

2009-12-26T16:42:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas Bloggies,

I havent been on here in awhile but I have been traveling. First, last week I was super busy getting ready to travel. I had so much to do. Finally on Sunday the 19th I left for KY to go to Mike and Heathers. I was able to spend two days with my son and DIL. We went to dinner a couple of times and exchanged gifts since this year is the year that they spend the holidays with Heathers parents. I left KY to drive to KS on Tuesday. It was a horrible drive because I was so sleepy. On Monday I barely got any rest and after lunch I was stopping at least every hour to get out and get air so that I wouldnt fall asleep. I was so happy to drive in my parents driveway that evening. When I got here mom had a wonderful dinner of potroast and carrots and potatoes made. I was starved and it was really good. The next day my sister and myself took my neices to town and we had lunch at Taco Bell. We didnt do too much that day because the winter storm was coming and we knew mom would be worried if we had been out in it. We did get some snow, about six inches but that wasnt the big deal. Mostly its the temperature outside. It is frigid. I have not been this cold in a long time. Living down south has me spoiled. I can hardly take the cold anymore. Yesterday was christmas and it was nice but so bittersweet since I didnt have the boys or Paul with me. I missed them all so much. I did get some good things. Lots of cozy pj's, a makeup bag with some really good quality makeup and my mom got me a Wii which I have been wanting for ages. I am so excited to get home and hook it up. Paul didnt send me anything but I reckon he wasnt thinking of gifts this year. No biggie, it didnt bother me and I was so happy that we were able to see him on skype that day. I ate and ate and ate yesterday. I am not worried about it though. If I gained then I gained. I will get it together when I get home. Tomorrow my mom, me and sister are doing a girls day. I am excited for it. Dad is babysitting the little girls for my sister. LOL. The next big thing I got going on is for new years eve and we are going to do a 5k run. We will walk a considerable amount of it because my sister cant run at all. After the run the family is going for a new years eve dinner at eight at a local mexican restaurant which my mom says is fabulous. I plan on leaving to go back to KY and see the kids again and pick up my pup on the 1st. I dont need to leave super early so I will get some rest. I need at least six hours of sleep in order to drive that distance. I will spend the night in BG and then head home on the 2nd. I dont need to hurry so I likely wont get home until late that night. It will be nice to get home and start preparing for Pauls leave in February. I have lots planned to do so that I stay on track with food and also to help pass the time. One thing I am doing is painting my bathroom and the bonus room window wall. I also need to touch up lots of other walls in the house. I am also going to shampoo the carpets and really clean the house up super good. i am also going to have Stanley Steemer come to clean my furniture. Oh yeah, the office really needs to be organized so between all that, crossfit and running I should stay busy. Speaking of crossfit I plan on paying for unlimited during January. I would love to take advantage of all the opportunitys to go in the month before Paul comes home.
well I should go now. I think I am having some pie.

Updates

2009-12-12T05:20:00.000-08:00

Whew, what a busy couple of weeks this has been. I have been swamped with FRG and Christmas shopping and other committments. I think this week is going to be a lot less hectic.
Lets get to the important stuff: my shopping is nearly complete! Woohoo! I have to get gift cards for the son and DIL and then a couple of small things for my hairdresser and my trainers but other than that, I am done!!!
Another thing I am really pleased about is that I have been on track with my eating and exercising this month and the scale is reflecting my hard work. I have a goal of 140 before Paul comes home in February and I am not far from there:) If I dont be a total idiot at my moms I can do it! My main goal though during Christmas is to maintain my weight. No gaining. If I lose great but if I stay the same, also great. This week I have hit CF 5 times. I am going to miss 7 of the groups being gone so I am trying to stockpile exercise. Especially exercise that I pay for:)I also signed up for a 5k to do at my moms and I plan on bringing my workout journal so that I can do some at home crossfits while I am gone.
I have been cooking quite a bit and stocking the freezer with soup and chili and sauces. I made a meatloaf and did the same. Sadly, its all gone now but I enjoyed it so much that when I get back after Christms I am going to do another one. So now, I have one more spaghetti sauce and I think 4 taco soups left which are wonderful since the weather here has forced me to up my heat. Boo, hiss on the electric bill which will be so much higher.
Paul is doing well. He does have a bit of a cold and is trying to get better. He comes home on leave between the 8th and 16th of February. I am hoping that he can be home for Valentines Day and we can be at the cabin. Tres Romantico! I miss him like crazy. I just cant wait to wrap my arms around him.
Well bloggies I need to jet so I can get to SOS today. John and Ali are not here today... Who is running it? Guess I will update later to let you know. Enquiring minds and all.

Have a super day:)

Wreaths

2009-11-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

Wreaths wreaths wreaths! I am so sick of Christmas wreaths. I am still working on the ones from FRG and I am running out of time on them. I am going to have to take my day on Monday and finish up all the FRG Christmas stuff. Even then I may not finish until Tuesday. I must have it done by the 4th though or we miss the mailing deadline. I really need help with FRG. I am overwhelmed and with D not up to helping right now it is all falling on me.

I am going to go buy a small tree to decorate. I would like to have that done by Friday as well as the rest of the decorations I plan on putting up. It wont be many but at least it will be something. Honestly, since I am leaving to go to mamas on the 20th I dont need to do anything at all but I feel so out of the spirit this year. I hate not having anyone here. I miss the boys being around as much as I miss not having Paulie here.

I went to cross fit this morning and boy did I get smoked. I wore my HRM for the first time in months. I burned tons of calories today. The SOS was 3 RFT of 800 meter runs, 25 kettle bell swings, back extensions and hollow rocks. We also had a cash out of 25 sit ups and 20 push ups as well as another 400 meter run. All told with the W/U we ran 2 miles today. It was a great workout and I finished in 26.41.
I am planning on doing some active recovery tomorrow by walking the HM trail or the CFRT with Meg.

Well thats my update and I plan on trying to get more into the blogging again. I have just been so busy and not really had a lot of time.

Its the holidays and I am feeling a bit bah humbug

2009-11-18T16:58:00.001-08:00

I went today and got the things for Pauls Christmas box and thought that perhaps if I do some decorating around here I may get in the spirit. So, I think I will get out those Christmas CD's and some decorations for the house. I just miss Paul so much and I hate that he will be away yet again for another Christmas.

I am hoping that we finish the FRG boxes by this weekend since I really want to hand them over to Rich on Monday to go out.

Saturday me and some of the ladies are going to go out to dinner and a movie. It is me and Pauls wedding anniversary and I am glad to be able to not be at home that night without him. I cant believe that we have been together so long. 18 years is a lifetime for many. I love him and cant imagine my life without him.

I have been doing so well with my diet. I have incorporated some grains back in because I like them and because I think I cant give them up for the rest of my life. I eat the healthy grains and I dont eat them a lot but if I want a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast when it is cold then I am going to have it. I also prefer pasta over spaghetti squash with my marinara. Doing paleo is great but for me doing all of it is just not reasonable. I need to lose a few pounds and so I am going back to what has worked for me in the past and that is to eat a balanced diet with all food groups.

Exercise I have also been doing well. I am trying to get in more cardio and so I have been doing more than cross fit. I am excited to start doing more spin and kickboxing. Fun classes.

Well, gonna go for now. My shows are on.

More as it happens.

I think I am back on track with my diet

2009-11-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

finally and it feels so good. I have been uber good as of late and I am finally beginning to see it. My tummy doesnt look as bloated and that is where I notice that I have had too much of those yummy but nasty carbs. Just laying off of them in the form of grains has helped tremendously. Hopefully with my new mojo I can lose a few more pounds before I discuss the plan of attack for skin removal with the plastic surgeon. Ive already talked with them but nothing defininte on what I am going to do since I still would like to lose some weight. Also, I would need to find someone to come help me out pretty consistantly for at least one solid week and possibly two. I dont want to do this when Paul is home because I want to spend our leave time enjoying each other and not having him play nursemaid.

The deployment is nearly a quarter of the way through. The 9th will be three months. There are days when I think it is going by rather quickly but other times when it seems to drag. Today is a dragging day. Weekends always are. Also, I have been struggling with trying to not be angry with Paul. He tells me he has written me at least 8 letters but I have yet to receive any but one from way back in early September. Part of me doesnt believe him but he doesnt lie to me so I dont know where that comes from. Yes, I do actually, it comes from deployment stress, loneliness and being human. Still it doesnt make me feel any better about it and it just isnt something to be angry over in reality. I just feel a bit resentful at times because I do write him snail mail once a week and email him at least once a day most days. Ugh, its just so frustrating. I should hit my knees because in the past whenever I let go of things and give them to God I feel so much more at peace. I should but will I? Maybe I will later but right now that stubborn girl in me wants to continue to wallow.

Shannon from crossfit sent me a huge pdf of nothing but paleo recipes. I am excited since it will get me out of my cooking rut. Also, they arent all dessert recipes which is super wonderful. I was looking at a coconut chicken recipe that I may try next week.

well, gonna jet for now. Will check in later.

sore is for sissies!

2009-11-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

So, with that said I am a big old sissy. I am back from Wilmington in one piece from the half mary but let me tell you, I aint 20 anymore and that sucker kicked my arse! Seriously, we all did great in that we all finished. I did fine during the marathon with some running and walking until mile 6 when my feet started burning pretty bad. Actually at mile 4 I told Michelle that I was getting a hot spot. Still, until mile 6 we kept up a decent pace. I fought the urge to take off my shoe at mile 8 when I knew I had a decent blister on my foot and my toes. I knew I would not put the shoe back on if I took it off and then I wouldnt have finished. So, instead we walked and were ok until about mile 11 and then we both were practically limping with our feet pain. We would try to run and maybe get 200 feet when we had to walk... It was sad. When we were about 400 meters from the finish we sprinted it in, took off our shoes and waited for Meg to come in. The only thing bothering me after the race initially was my feet. I felt fine otherwise. It wasnt until we got to the room, showered and relaxed some that I felt EVERYTHING ache. OMG, I hurt everywhere. My abs, gluts, hip flexors, back, hammies, quads, etc. You name it and it hurt! The next day I still felt like I had been run over and today I still feel really sore but much better.
I went to CF this morning and I am so glad that I did. Ali modified my WOD for my feet and then she showed me some awesome stretches for my still very sore hip flexors and gluts. Ive been doing them off and on all day and I can tell a difference in my soreness and stiffness. I figure by end of week I should be feeling fine and as long as my blisters are gone then I will start running again on Saturday morning. I have a plan to get in more cardio and I am going to run it by JV to see what he thinks of it. I know I need more cardio but I also need to have days of rest as well and that is what I dont plan very well so I end up getting burnt out.
I am still working on my nutrition. I have been doing well the last couple of weeks and today I cooked a turkey breast and made some puttenesca sauce for meals over the next couple of days. I plan on serving the puttenesca over some egg plant one night this week and then over some eggs another night. I had some turkey for dinner tonight and it was really good. I had some zucchini with it. I paid close attention to only eating as much as I needed to feel satisfied so I was really proud of myself.

Paul has finally made it to his new place. He says it is much better and for me it is. We have much better commo so far and we have even gotten to see each other on the webcam a couple of times. I miss him so much. He is my best friend and I know that sounds really corny but its so true. He is amazing and the one person I know always has my back. Our anniversary is this month. Sometimes I think that we act ore like we have been married 8 months versus 18 years. Its amazing and I wish everyone could know the relationship we have. I can honestly say that I go to bed every night knowing without a shadow of doubt that my husband loves me with all of his being.

Ok, gonna go for now. I want to soak in a tub for a bit and read before watching some TV tonight.

Pics are of myself, Meg and Michelle pre race and then one of me with my medal post race.

TTFN

October end of month

2009-10-31T04:21:00.000-07:00

Well Guys or should I say Ghouls! Happy Halloween to ya! It is a warm Halloween morning here in the Carolinas and feels more like an early summer day. Supposed to get up to 82 degrees today.
things here have been hit or miss in many areas but over the last week I feel like I have come to a new understanding of many things and am back on track. Mainly with my diet. I weighed myself a little over a week ago and was up nearly 10 pounds from the spring. Talk about depressed. I worked really hard to lose the weight and I dont want to see it creep back up so I once again began journaling and eating as clean as possible. This meant also no eating out which was difficult for me in that it forces me to cook if I dont want to put processed junk in my gullet. Anyhow I did it and upon waking this morning and weighing myself I am down 4 pounds from that awful high. I am more determined than ever to lose the rest of it and even a few more as that was my original goal. Once I get there if I find it too unobtainable to maintain I will change it. All this means that I have to do more cardio because while CF is great and I love it it doesnt last long enough for me to enjoy the fat loss benefits of cardio. Dont get me wrong, cardiovascularly I am in great shape from CF but I do think I need more than I am getting from my sessions. I am aiming for at least 2 extra hours of cardio each week on top of CF which should not be a problem since I am going to start going back to spin class at least once a week.
I am also letting go of how much I do. I find myself exhausted at the end of the day and I dont even work but I am always super busy. So, I am relinquishing command of some things and praying that they are still done and done well. If not, I am just going to have to give it to God because I cant take on anymore.
Today is the day we leave for the half mary. Our shirts may not be in but thats ok. It would have been cool to have them but lets face it,shirts dont make one run or walk faster. We just wanted to match since we are such girlie girls. I am hoping to have an injury free day and to complete the thing in under the time limit. I have been going pretty fast in my walking and I can run some so we shall see what happens. When this is over I am looking for a 10 kilometer that I can train for so that I can see if in a few months I could possibly run the entire thing.
Well, its time to get some last minute things done before heading out. I will update when I get home.
TTFN

curvy chicks and handstands

2009-10-20T07:46:00.001-07:00

do not go well together. Ok, maybe I should just say bottom heavy chicks... More on this in a bit.
This last week has been really busy for me. I did a lot of stuff with the FRG and then had some friends who I needed to visit due to operations and such. I also really deep cleaned my house. Can I get an AMEN on that one please!
On Saturday I went to Gillis Farm with some gals and their kids. It was a nice time but cold! I had some homemade ice cream while there (pumpkin flavor) because there isnt any kind of cold that can keep me from some creamy homemade ice cream. I will say that I only had half of the small size because we were going out for pizza afterwards. We went to CiCi's and I had two pieces of pizza (would have had three but a cute little 3 year old snagged my slice of pepperoni off my plate)and I also had some cavatini which is this pasta with marinara and pepperoni in it. NOM! When I got home that night I crashed hard. I think it was that I dont eat that many carbs anymore and then the fall from the sugar really got me. I slept so well though. Sunday after church I met up with Meg, Michelle and Brigitte from CF and we did 6 miles on post. That last mile was not very effective since I was laughing my head off most of it which interfered with how fast I could go. Seriously, these ladies are pee in your pants funny! It was a good time though which goes to show that exercise can be fun:)
Beginning yesterday I started eating in reverse. Large portions for breakfast, medium for lunch and small for supper. Yesterday I had 2 eggs for breakfast, bacon and 2 paleo waffles with maple syrup and I didnt eat again until 3:30 in the afternoon because I wasnt hungry until then. Crazy! At 3:30 I had three large stalks of celery with some peanut butter and jelly on it. When I ate dinner at 6:30 I had a chicken drumstick and some oven roasted veggies. Today I had steak, eggs, protein smoothie and one slice of whole grain toast for breakfast. I dont know what I will have to eat for lunch because I have chicken chili but if I dont get hungry until mid afternoon again I will just eat something smaller so I can eat at dinner which I am planning on tuna and greens but we'll see.
This morning at CF we did handstands. Actually most everybody else did handstands! I think it is harder for me since I am big on the bottom and it takes a lot of energy to propel my self up over my head... At any rate JV says we will work on them more often and I am going to practice with Meg on Sundays... Hopefully within a year I can do them. Well, at least one of them. I hate when I cant do things in CF. Nobody judges you so that isnt the issue. It is all me! So friggen Type A!
Deployment still sucks. Paul and I have sporadic commo which is depressing. Hopefully once they make the move to the new FOB at the end of the month that will change. I really miss him and just want to talk to him face to face.
Ok, gonna jet for now. I will update in a few.

TTFN

5K day

2009-10-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well today was the AHA walk/5k. I did ok. Not stellar but not horribly I suppose. My friend Ashley ran with me and I was glad because I probably would have had a worse time had I did it myself. We ran most of it. When the thing started we walked the first 5 minutes really briskly and then took off. We ended up walking up the hill on I think Hillside and then again on Hay Street as you leave the Sp. Ops Museum. Our finish time was 40:24. Poor Ashley was almost hurling at the end of it. It was really humid and the people who put on the race didnt use cups for the water stops. Rather, they gave you 16oz bottles of water which obviously if you are running the thing you cant tote around with you so we only grabbed water at one stop near the end and only drank a few little sips. At the end of the run they had Subway. When we got to the food table we got a veggie sub which was what was left and the only thing on it was lettuce and tomato. There was not any fruit or juice available. It was really pathetic. I kept thinking that possibly since the AHA put the thing on they secretly wanted someone to have a coronary so they could practice and show how CPR saves lives.... LOL.

I ate miserably today. I overate because I allowed myself to get famished. When I was finished with the run and had that mini sub I went to Megs to help her paint. I was there all afternoon and had no more food or water so by the time I got home needless to say I could have gnawed off my arm. I ate and ate and ate. Now I feel yucky. Lesson learned. Next time I need to do as I do after crossfit and properly fuel my body with some healthy protein within 30 minutes after I work out. That always makes me eat better during the day and I feel better the rest of the day.

Tomorrow is the 10miler for the marathon training. It may just be me and Michelle. Meg wasnt feeling well today.... I am pretty proud of myself with my walking/running because I have really stepped up my walk speed and while my run is still slow, I do have an easier time with it. After this marathon I am really going to focus on what that crossfit website John sent me has to say about endurance training.

On the deployment note, we hit 60 days!!! We also found out that Pauls unit is leaving where they are within 3 weeks and going to another FOB. They were hand selected for this mission which is permanent for the duration of their tour. I dont know what it is or exactly where they are going due to OPSEC and Paul wont tell me anything that is just speculation besides. I try not to worry.

Okie dokie, gonna go. I need to shower, shave and figure out what I will wear to church tomorrow. Will TTYL!

Getting to be a habit

2009-10-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

this whole taking two weeks off from blogging! Sorry bout that! I have been uber busy though and really honestly needed to take a break from some things in my life that dont take high priority. I heard a sermon at church about hanging onto the dead in your life called holding on to your Moses. The preacher kept saying, "people, Moses is dead, D E A D! Hold on to the things that are living." I have been thinking a lot about this and therefore I am going to be weeding out many things in my life over the next few months. Some if these things unfortunatly will be people. I have a tendancy to want to mother everyone, to fix everyone and I just cant do it. There are people who will be resistant to help forever and it will do nothing but tax me physically and emotionally so I have got to put an end to it. I will pray for them but I can do no more without compromising my own personal growth and happiness.

Marathon training is going. We are walking although not as diligently as we should. We are cross fitting like crazy though. I am confident we will complete the thing in the time alloted and I am treating this one as a learing experience for the most part. I am also really just proud of myself for taking on the challenge. We have decided to do another one in late March in Virginia and John is going to take on a more active role in our training for that one. I think with his help we can really see a huge improvement in time and in motivation. He is a great motivator and trainer. Hopefully by that time we will also be able to run a large portion of the marathon as well. At least that is our goal.

Nutritionally I am doing ok. I have my days when I do very well then days when I suck and dont eat enough, eat too much, eat the wrong things, etc. I am consistant in my weight though so I suppose I shouldnt complain too much. I would just love to see a more happy medium. Last night I did eat some cookies without guilt and that was a true victory for me. Usually I will feel so horribly if I have something like that. I just told myself that I would have them, enjoy them and I wouldnt make it a habit or everyday thing but once in awhile it was all good. I guess that is making progress.

No CF for me tomorrow. I strained my groin yesterday and I am still in some pain. Bummer though because I love Saturday CF so much. For real! I cant believe I did that and am still not sure how it happened. All I know is that I was coming up from a burpeee and slid somehow which hyper extended my leg forward. It was really a clumsy thing...

I am hoping to hear from Paul again. I have been super duper lonely for him. Our commo is really sucky lately. They have hardly any phones or computers and its so depressing to go day after day without word from him.

Ok, gonna get going. I need to get moving. Its nearly 10:30 and I still need to get my dogs to the groomer. I am not even dressed:( Uhoh!

TTFN

oy vey

2009-09-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a couple of weeks it has been. Not so much in it terribly exciting but I have been so busy. FRG, errands and church are really taking a lot of time in the day. I am also really working hard at cross fit and the run/walking for the half marathon so I stay tired.

Missing Paul is still there although I am getting used to him not being here. I dont guess that I even still have a nightly routine yet since I am doing something different most nights. This is due to the fact that I have had something going on most evenings and by the time I get in, eat and get cleaned up its almost time for bed. I have decided now though that since the rawness of his leaving is gone I am going to taper back on my committments. I need to focus on my marathon for now and also want to get my applications/resume out there in the near future so other things will need to be put on hold.

I have to say that the best stress relief I have found has been cross fit. There have been many mornings when I dont want to go for whatever reason but in the end I do. This morning I actually had to jump in the shower just to wake up so I could go sweat but I did it. When I get there I am encouraged by the others there and also by myself and what I find I am capable of doing. It makes me feel so much better and it also empowers me to take on the rest of the day. I mean if I can dead lift 135 pounds which is only about 12 pounds lighter than me, I feel like what the hell cant I do!!!

Today was a CF morning. WE did shoulder presses. I maxed out at 55 lbs. John says I got 60 but I hesitate and think too much rather than drive the weight up right away. I need to be more aggressive. He is probably right but I am telling you, that is heavy!!! I will get there though. I am getting stronger and stronger each and every week.

Foodwise I have been doing really well. No grains for the most part. When I say for the most part I mean absolutely no rice, bulgur, or pasta. I have had some bread but not a lot and that in itself is a victory for me. I also threw out a frozen meal yesterday. I cooked it and everything but after I looked at it I thought, what am I doing? This is crap or as John would say, poison. So, I tossed it and instead made me some homemade stir fry veggies with chicken breast and chili sauce. Much better for me and definitly more filling. I was really proud of myself for that. I also cooked a huge dinner for some friends last night. (The hubbs had surgery) I had some fudge for their dessert and I only kept me 4 little pieces of it and have only eaten one of them. I am making progress. There was a time I would have maybe not given them as much so I could have kept more than four little pieces.

well, thats about it for now. I will try to be more diligent about updating.

TTFN

Labor Day

2009-09-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been several days since I last posted. Not too much has been going on anyway other than I have been really hungry lately. I am not sure whats going on with that. I have also had a couple of really poor food choice days but today I made a decision that I can either get with the program or get fat again. I decided to get with the program so today I marinated some chicken breast for the week which I will use along with the food I made a couple of weeks ago. I also made some egg cups for breakfasts this week and I went to the grocery store for some fruits and veggies for the week. I plan on making a menu for tomorrow here in a bit and sticking with it!!!

I spent the long weekend with my uncle, aunt and granny. I had a nice visit but I was somewhat bored. It was nice though to be away from F-ville although I was out of the loop for internet and cell which I hated. I also started to sleep badly the last night I was there. My back was killing me from the bed so I will be happy to get in my own bed tonight.

Speaking of beds, I bought a new quilt set for my bed and I love it. It is really a room brightener.

I bought a few new shirts this weekend as well as a cordoroy skirt. I am trying to get my fall/winter wardrobe going so I need to check out what I have and dont have. I am going to make it my personal goal to get a few pounds off by the end of September. I feel so heavy and I know that I havent been exactly paleo or diligent with my diet lately. Pauls absence has really affected me this time in a bad way. I am looking forward to this week beginning our training for the half marathon since I think I will lose a few pounds.

Ok, gonna jet off here and get my menu going and then read for a bit before bed. Crossfit in the morning!

Grrr

2009-09-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am grouchy and lonely tonight. I ate too much this afternoon also. Maybe tomorrow will be better:( One can only hope!

A few days

2009-09-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Its been a few for sure. Oh well, I am here now and trying to catch up. Actually there hasnt been too much going on. After the Saturday workout I went to a friends purse party where I designed my own purse. It ended up costing $160.00 but its one of a kind and still cheaper than Coach so I am justifying the expense. Later that day I went to dinner with Kendra and her kids. We have so much laughs when we are together. She really cracks me up. Sunday, was church and I did my Sunday school lesson. It went ok and I had more input from the kids than usual but I am still so thankful for the break this weekend!!! I also went to lunch with Marie Buck. She is a really nice lady and we had a great chat. I enjoyed her company very much. That evening we had choir practice and that was fun. I enjoy the folks in the choir very much and had forgotten how fun it is during the practices. I miss Emily though. I need to get her and Kevins address as college and drop them a line. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. Oh yeah, I made homemade applesauce and it was wonderful. I dont think I will ever buy the store stuff again. Its easy to make and the taste is out of this world. I walked with Meggy last night for 5 miles and then came home and ate. I also had some ice cream later. It was delicious and I dont regret it one bit. Today I am paying bills and running a few errands but taking it easy this evening. John thinks we shouldnt walk tonight. My legs hurt ALL THE TIME and he says its because I dont give my body time to rest in between workouts.
So anyhow, thats it in a nutshell for the day. I will check in later.
After while crocodile:)

CVS reward

2009-08-29T18:51:00.001-07:00

So, I go into CVS to get some pictures made off my thumb drive and when I get rung out the lady says to me that my receipt has given me an opportunity to register for a 1,000 dollar gift certificate and that I also get this lovely candy bar. I may register for the gift certificate, who knows I could win... As for the candy bar, it isnt bad taste wise nor nutritionally. A serving is 4 of those squares but as you can see in comparison to my hand that is a rather large serving so I am having half a serving which makes the calories 95, fat 7 grams and 2 grams of fiber! Not bad. I got lots of stuff to add about my day today but I am tired so I will update again tomorrow or Monday! Nighty night!

crossfit Saturday

2009-08-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Just going to post the workout so I dont forget it. I was really sweating cause it was really hard. First, the warmup has changed from a 400 meter run to 200 jump ropes. I hate jumping rope!!! Makes me feel like I am going to pee my pants. There are some other changes but that was the big one. The workout today consisted of an 800 meter run, then 5x5 of back squats followed by another 800 meter run and then 100 more jumpropes and 100 kettlebell swings. Pretty tough! My last two sets of back squats were at 95 pounds which I thought was pretty heavy. I started my first set with just the bar so we kept gradually adding weight. For now, 95 is my max. I dont know how long the workout took because it wasnt for time but it seemed to be close to at least 50 minutes.
More later but got things to do today:)

Food food and more food

2009-08-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a day of cooking here at Casa Crawford and I must say its been productive. I did have one dud however (the zucchini crust), but in the end I used it up and it did taste really good. I would have preferred it to be a crust for pizza but oh well. I suppose that pizza crust made with flour is just one of those things I need to just suck it up and eat it every once in awhile. All in all though today was a banner day of cooking. I made enough to eat several meals and I even have enough to share with some of my crossfit peeps. Like I mentioned in the previous post I made the cookies yesterday but today I made the weirdo pizza crust crepe thing, asian burgers, thai chicken curry egg rolls, and the banana coconut cake. I followed the recipe for that straight off SOG rather than Megs variation because we both wanted to see if making it his way would make the finished result more cakey and less pie like which is how Megs turned out. Mine did turn out cake like but I made it in a pie pan and cut it into squares rather than pie slices just so I oould have more of it. I am finding that a little bit of these types of treats are as satisfying than a large amount of the traditional cakes and cookies we are all used to eating.
Ok, thats it for today. I hope you enjoy the pictures and maybe get inspired to cook something healthy for you and your family this week.

nummy nummy in my tummy

2009-08-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well today I am one cooking lady. I started yesterday with my paleo cookies that I must say turned out totally great. I cant wait to bring them in to my CF peeps tomorrow. Meggy wont be there so I am saving her some of the goodness for Tuesday.

Yesterday I was really tired and didnt spend as much time on the computer as usual. This was likely due to the agonizing CF workout Stacy had for us. 4RFT of walking lunges (10 each leg), 4 point pushups with a renegade row (10 lb dumbells) and 10 thrusters (12 lb dumbbells). I might add that with the lunges we had to use a weight held at the shoulders. I used my 12's. Today my back is a little sore. Not sure what that is all about but I am sure its from the WO. I think today I am resting and not doing anything unless I decide later to do a leisurly walk. I have CF in the morning and its always harder on the weekends so I need to save my energy.

Back to the cooking I am doing today. I made Ali's thai chicken curry and opted for using the filling for egg rolls. I had one for lunch and lets just say that they are really good. Even baking them they tasted really good. I also made what was supposed to be a pizza crust out of zucchini and parmesan but it turned out to be more like a crepe. It tastes good (I will eat it for supper) but it isnt suitable as a pizza crust. I am going to make 2 servings out of it an then have it with some sliced tomatoe and mozarella. I am getting ready to make (this afternoon) the banana cake and some asian inspired chicken burgers. I love having some ready made food in the freezer for nights like last night when I get late getting home I have some healthy food to eat. Last night, I ended up eating a banana, glass of milk and a cup of dry shredded wheat. Ugh.

On my way to Destinys and the commissary so I can pick up the one thing I forgot yesterday (coconut milk) for the banana coconut cake. OH yeah, I am bringing Destiny the other half of the crepe, some egg rolls and a few of the cookies. She hasnt been eating well so hopefully this will help. She is giving me some organic apples and carrots. I think I may cook some natural applesauce with the apples and parboil carrots to use later in soups, stews and side dishes.

Pictures in the next post of all my food:)

My dogs are killing me

2009-08-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

I am not getting enough sleep at night because Molly is waking me up at 5:00 am nearly every morning to go outside. I let her out at 10/11 the night before and would think she could manage until at least 7:00 but, noooooo. I tried going back to bed but she wont come in the house and just as I get back to sleep she starts howling which reawakens me and then I rush to get her back in because I dont want her to wake the neighbors at 5:30 in the morning. Ugh, when Paul was home it was great cause he always let them out before he left for work and then when he was off, I could pretend to be asleep and he would still get up with them. For some reason Molly comes right back in for him.
Inglorious Basterds was so good last night. I am glad I got to go. Since I ate so light last night though I woke up starving for breakfast. Because I had already eaten a sandwich this week I didnt want to have bread last night so I had a couple pieces of sausage and some veggies for dinner. I was totally satisfied with that when I ate at 5:30 but come 10:00 when I got home I was grumbly in the belly so I had handful of cherries. I didnt want to eat heavy and then go to bed. Anyhow the cherries worked fine but OMG, this morning I thought I could have eaten off my right arm. I made a great breakfast though of 2 eggs scrambled with chopped bacon, veggies and some sharp cheddar. I also sliced up some cantaloupe and strawberries to go with it. It was very good but I know I will need a decent snack before lunch. I am always so much hungrier the day AFTER crossfit. I realize this and so I have stopped trying to wait out my hunger. I eat when I am hungry and stop when I am not. It seems to be working out.
Going on a visitation for church today and getting in a walk of some sort. I think I will do the Hope Mills trail because Meg wants to rest today. I dont like to walk the River Trail alone. If I do the Hope Mills path twice that gives me 3.6 miles anyhow. Also, I can make it to church if I do this.
Gonna run so I can finish the yardwork and get this day going.

movie night

2009-08-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to meet Meg and her hubby for a movie night. We are going to go see Inglorius Basterds with Brad Pitt. It will be the first time I meet John, Megs husband. A bunch of his co-workers will also be going so I wont feel like a 3rd wheel. It was really nice for Meggy to ask me. I had wanted to go so I am glad for the opportunity. It does put our walk off tonight but thats ok because I did actually mow the front yard today. I still need to do the back and I may do that tomorrow if I have time. I want to buy a new weedeater and a blower before I do it again so I may get those on payday. Pauls pay for the 1st is much more than usual and it didnt contain even all of his entitlements since he deployed mid month. Him beiing gone sucks but the pay is so much more what it should be all the time.
I am going to make a paleo cake and a paleo pizza crust this weekend. I have been craving pizza and what gives pizza the calories is the crust. A veggie crust may be just the ticket.
Ok, need to run:) Have a good night.

MIA

2009-08-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

Well I didnt post for two days. I was really tired and sort of busy. On Saturday evening my friend Tammy and I went to dinner and then to the mall. I bought a couple pairs of pants and a new skirt and top. I also got something for Paul. I dont want to mention what it is since I dont want him to know and he sometimes reads the blog. Lets just say, its cute and cuddly. Later, I will divulge more on this. After I got home that night it was late, nearly 9:30, but I had to work some more on my Sunday school lesson. I was so tired though that I ended up going to bed and then getting up at 6:00 on Sunday to put the finishing touches on it. The lesson went ok. I got some new kids in the class and I am not sure if I am misreading their personalities or what but they come across as disrespectful... I called them out on it but then second guessed myself on it. When I told Paul about it he said it sounded as though they were rude as well. Anyhow, after church I met some of the ladies from the unit at Ruby Tuesdays for lunch. WE sat and ate and talked for a couple hours and then I came home and relaxed a bit, had a small dinner of a sandwich and some light chips before heading to church. At church was 4th Sunday and the men were in charge of refreshments. I tasted 6 different things with a teaspoon so I was really proud of myself for not getting full servings of all the desserts. When I got home from church I put on my jammies, watched Army Wives and sipped a cup of Morracan Orange Spiced tea. It was really good. I slept so good that night and woke up really refreshed on MOnday morning. ON Monday I met Denise and Mary for lunch at Tripps. Again, I made a good choice. I got a baked potato and ate half of it, a salad without bacon or croutons (kept the almonds), tomato dressing which is heavenly, and some grilled shrimp. The shrimp was an appetizer but I ordered it as an entree with my potato. The order contained 6 large shrimp and I ate 4 of them. Later, I had some blue berries for a snack and then a beef stick before meeting Meggy at the river trail to walk. We walked 5 miles. I was completely exhausted when we were done not to mention starving! I came home and had me some dinner about 8:00, a cup of tea and was in bed before 10:00. I slept so good except that I had to get up twice to pee last night:(
This morning I was really tired when my alarm went off at 5:05 for crossfit. I hit the snooze once and then got up and microwaved a cup of leftover coffee to revive me somewhat. Once I was up and had my face washed I was fine though so I made my way to crossfit and was on time at 6:05. I did the warm up and then we did the work out. The WOD was 50 situps the 4 RFT of 6 single arm db snatches, (I used at 15 lb the first round and then 20 lbs for the remaining 3 rounds) and 400 meter run. Capping that off with 50 hollow rocks. My time was 29:04. We have been doing a bunch of running in CF lately. I dont mind because it really is helping me lose body fat. I can definitly see a difference in my endurance too. So, all in all today I ran 1.25 miles counting the warm up. Tonight Meg and I are walking again. I think we decided on 3 miles but I suppose we could go farther if we arent too tuckered out. We are planning on doing the entire 8 miles on Sunday because we need to build up our endurance for the half marathon we are doing in November in Wilmington. I am excited and nervous at the same time about it. I just want to do it and I dont care if I walk it, run/walk it or whatever. I just want to do it. So far, its Meg and I. Denise says she wants to but she hasnt registered yet. I hope she does though. I think it would be a good thing for her and we would all have a good time for sure.
Ok, gonna go. I am meeting someone for coffee at SB in a bit. They are donating greeting cards to the soldiers to send home to their spouses:) More on this later!
TTFN

Soaking Saturday

2009-08-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well today is turning out to not be such a crappy day since it started pouring rain as I was going to mow and saved from the dreadful task until Monday. Monday will be a better day for it anyhow since after cross fit this morning I am TIRED as all get out. Our WOD was in honor of Sweet T's birthday and Ali made it very painful. The workout really challenged me today for sure. I dont think I have ever posted what our warm up is in cross fit so here goes: a 400 meter run, 25 air squats, 20 pushups and situps, 5 mobility swings, and 10 dislocates. We do the warm up on our own before the group begins. I do my run outside as soon as I park unless it is raining. I hate to run on the track inside. Anyhow the WOD was 800 meter run followed by single arm pushpress, hollow rock, turkish situps, and squat jumps. The reps were 22/18/8. Once you were done with your last reps you finished with another 800 meter run. Our cashout was 50 pushups. I used 15 lb dumbbells for the first set of push presses but on the second and third set I went down to 10 lbs which was in hindsight too light and I should have used 12 lbs. For my turkish situps I did the first set with 10 pound dumbbelss but the remaining two I went down to 8 lbs. They are much harder than they look for sure and because your arm is up in the air you really must use your abs. My time for the workout was 25.28.
Anyhow, now that the weather has prevented me from mowing I have nothing to do for the afternoon. I am meeting Tammy Peters for dinner tonight at Ruby Tuesday and I am having the salad bar. I am working really hard to get down to where it is I want to. I would love to see a loss this coming week. This morning I had a chocolate pumpkin smoothie before crossfit which held me until lunch. I love the smoothies for that reason but I do get tired of drinking my meals so that is why I switch things up. For lunch I had 3 oz of white meat rotisserie chicken, one la tortilla and 1/4 of onion and peppers sauteed with a T of salsa. It was very good and filling. I am trying to not have a snack this afternoon but if I do, I will have some watermelon because I dont want it to go bad.
I have planned a lunch for tomorrow with some of the ladies. So far I have a good response. It looks like of the 7 I have invited I have for sure 4 coming. No one has said no but the other three just havent responded. We are going after church to once again, Ruby Tuesday. LOL. A couple of us are watching our food intake and since RT has a wonderful salad bar it seemed like a good choice. Also they have a wonderful regular menu for kids and the other ladies.
This evening I have to finish up my Sunday School lesson. I hope it goes well. I dread doing it because I think I suck at teaching.
ok, going to rest for a bit. I may hit up Target before meeting Tammy because I really could use another pair of workout pants. I love the shorts Paul got me before he left. They are knee length and super comfy for working out.
TTFN

For snakes alive!

2009-08-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a productive day for me as far as getting some things done in the house that I usually neglect. I cleaned the dogs room up pretty good, vacuumed the carpets and when I was finished doing that I went ahead and emptied the cannister. Paul would be so proud! I also swept the hardwoods and took care of the dishes in the dishwasher before I actually needed things out of it. I went to the postoffice and mailed a few things to Michael and I even went and bought new air filters and changed them. I also got the frames needed for the pics that Paul and I had made before he left. They turned out so well and I will post some pics of them in this post.
I ate pretty well today which was good since I ate a lot last night for whatever reason. I need to get off the few pounds I have gained just because while I look the same sometimes I feel larger. I know that many times it is because of certain foods I eat so I am trying to be more mindful of what I am eating. Breakfast was light for me but I am trying to eat as light as I can and then eat more if I still need it. I had an english muffin with some tomatoes and one slice of ff bologna on it. A little later I had and EAS drink. For lunch I had 2 skinless chicken legs and a tortilla. My afternoon snack was a cup of watermelon and 1 and half cups popcorn. Before dinner I went on my 4 mile walk with Meg and we ran across ANOTHER snake. That makes one on each day we walked this week. I think it a copperhead. Anyhow, we survived the walk and then when I got home I had my dinner of a large spinach salad with Italian and 3 oz of flank steak on it. Totally yummy!
In a bit I am making some whole grain banana muffins to bring to CF in the morning. It is Daniel Parditas birthday (he turns 18) and I told him I would bake him something. Meg may bring her paleo banana cake as well. That sounds so good and I want to run the nutritional information on it to see how fattening it actually is before I make it.
I got the call today from WW to start my training as a receptionist. I am leary of it but I am going to give it a chance and then make a decision. Although I am not really following their plan I think being a receptionist would be ok and it would help me to stay accountable with regard to food and activity if nothing else.
I heard from Paul today on the phone. I am glad to talk with him but disappointed that he hasnt emailed me in a couple days. He did this last time he was deployed as well... He promised this time would be better but only time will tell. I do know he is busy right now so I am going to cut him some slack for now.
Ok, I am going to go so I can get to work on the muffins. No muffins for me though unless it is at breakfast if the smoothie I make before crossfit doesnt hold me through lunch.
TTFN

Burpees...not a problem but seriously, 100 of them!

2009-08-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

Good Morning!
I just got back from crossfit with the devil! Honestly, Stacy had us working hard today. I saw the WOD on the board and my heart sank. For time-40,30,20,10 of burpees and situps. I hate burpees with a passion but I did the workout. It took me 20.28 to complete it and I was dripping by the time I was done. I came home and made myself a chocolate cherry smoothie and heated up 2 pieces of sausage I made yesterday for my breakfast. The sausage has just the right amount of spice and I wanted to eat more than 2 pieces but I controlled myself. OMG, the smoothie is heavenly. I used milk, chocolate protein powder and a cup of thawed out frozen cherries and their juice. I really love it. Before crossfit I had a tablespoon of my walnut/cranberry mix since I woke up starving which surprised me only because when I got home from church yesterday evening I was famished and had to eat a banana with some pb and a bowl of fiber one twigs with skim. I tried to just get by with a cup of tea but I was legitimately hungry so I had to eat. At least I did make some good choices.
Oh yeah, at crossfit this morning Stacy gave me a great compliment by saying that everytime she sees me I look smaller. WOW! I feel so much heavier but I suppose the tone I am developing is making me look smaller even with a few extra pounds. It really made my morning and gave me the motivation I need to keep on keeping on.

Oh yeah, my dinner last night was really good. I didnt mind not having pasta at all but that is because the sauce was so good. I ate all of it on my squash. The only thing I did miss was garlic bread... Oh well.

Today for dinner I plan on having a taco salad without the chips. I have an avocado just begging to be eaten so that will go along nicely with the salad. Lunch time I am not sure of yet but it will include fruit since I still have a bunch of melon left and I dont want it to go bad.

Ok, getting off here now to get some things done around the house. I am aiming to get the floors cleaned and a load of laundry done. I should mow the yard or finish up with the pool but I reckon I can save that for the weekend so I have something to do because I decided not to go to Raleigh. I have enough F/V and so there really isnt a need.

Pics are of the sausage I made yesterday, my fruit plate and my dinner.
TTFN

MMMMM, marinara sauce

2009-08-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Marinara sauce, homemade is bubbling on my stove top right now. I got the basic recipe from Ali at cross fit and made it today. I added some hot Italian sausage (just a small amount), peppers, onions, zucchini, olives and mushrooms. I even took a few of my farmers market cherry tomatoes and added those. I am going to serve it over some spaghetti squash for dinner. I cant wait. I havent had marinara in a long time. I hope I dont miss the real pasta though.
This morning I was feeling very cravy for carbs so I decided to let myself have some oatmeal and a slice of whole wheat toast for breakfast. I added some applesauce with no added sugar, a bit of skim milk and some walnuts to it as well for the fat/protein I should have when I have a carby meal like that. Now, I feel fine. I think that I do well when I dont eat as many carbs but once in a bit when I crave them I should have them, especially if they are the better ones, just so I wont binge on something unhealthy later on. I am really trying to pay attention to what my body NEEDS rather than what my mind wants but sometimes what I WANT may be exactly what I NEED. Does that make sense?

Last night I walked 4 miles on the trail with Meg. We came a bit too close to nature for our liking as we saw a snake on the trail. It looked like a rattlesnake without rattles. I didnt get a picture because I was too afraid to get close enough. I took video but I am not posting it because it isnt that clear anyhow. We also saw 2 deer which I did get a picture of and I will share here. It was a nice walk and then I came home and had dinner. It was really delicious but almost too spicy and I almost thought about just making a salad halfway through it. The bulgogi meat was tender however and next time I make it I will forego the korean barbecue sauce on the veggies as that is what was setting my mouth on fire.

Nothing pressing on the agenda today. I may head to post this evening as the main body is set to depart tonight. I am not sure yet. I want to be there for the other ladies but Pauls departure is still too fresh in my head and heart so I dont know how supportive I would be if I am losing it right along with them. I have bible study tonight anyhow. Other than this I just plan on reading through and putting together a plan for my next Sunday school lesson. I also need to get in some exercise today but I am still on the fence as to what I am going to do... A brisk walk, run or some at home crossfit. I will do something though.

Gonna run. TTFN

Hello

2009-08-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

I got up very reluctantly for cross fit this morning:( I did go and am so glad that I did. It was a short workout and I feel so much better for going. We did 4 RFT of thrusters (6), kettle bell swings (15) and 200 meter run. I finished in 10:28 and I was happy with that. My running is getting so much faster. I always feel so slow but I am able to keep up with the gals in the group. The boys run waaaaaay faster than me though. Meggy and I made a date to walk on the trail this evening which will be good for us. It is the extra activity that I need to really jump start my weight loss again. Oh how I long to be in the 130's. LOL. I am healthy now at 145 and dont look half bad I reckon. Its a numbers thing or a girl thing I suppose. Plus, even after losing all this weight I still feel chubby. Will I feel thin in the 130's? We shall see.
I made a magnifico omelette for breakfast along with my ghetto frappacino. All delicious. I love the veggies I got in Raleigh and I may go out there again this coming weekend if I am bored just to restock. Oh, in case you are interested the frapp is just 10 to 12 oz of cold coffee, a splash of milk or creamer, and one EAS or muscle milk carton. I use the low carb versions of the EAS and the light version of the muscle milk. You can add protein powder if you like or peanut butter, almond butter or even a banana and blend it for a smoothie. I like mine with the coffee, milk and EAS or muscle milk only and then served over ice. On days when I use it as a meal replacement is the times I add the additional protein powder and a nut butter or banana.
Well, gonna get the ball rolling on today. I will check back in this evening.

(note to self- change the date on your camera)

walkin in the park, eggs and Paul

2009-08-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Not a bunch planned for today. I got some housework to do and I have already started with my laundry. I think I have one load due to Paul being gone. I miss him but less laundry is something that I can definitly handle:)
I am going to go and walk/run the park in Hope Mills here in a bit. I need to do more activity than cross fit group. I may stop by my gym at some point today to talk with them about my membership.
The most pressing thing on the agenda as far as housework is getting the side door fixed and getting the pool taken care of. I let it go too far and its beyond fixing this season. I dont even know that I will open it up next year. In hindsight, Paul and I went to the beach more often than WE got in the pool. I was in it alot initially but that gets boring. Anyhow, we'll see how it goes. I asked Larry about fixing my door at church yesterday but he didnt seem too eager to help me out so I reckon I will try and figure out something myself and then if I cant, I suppose I will have to call someone. Do I call a locksmith or a carpenter? Things like this are what makes me want to lose it emotionally. Even now because I am so clueless as to what to do I feel like crying... Get it together Jo!
I had eggs for breakfast this morning. After two days of smoothies I was ready for some solid food for breakfast. I made a scramble with one whole egg and two egg whites, some onion, peppers, mushrooms and my tiny little orange tomatoes. It was really good. I also had a huge cup of coffee and now I am drinking a bottle of water prior to going to the park so that I am somewhat hydrated. I plan on having some bacon wrapped in a low carb tortilla, veggies and fruit for lunch. I cant wait since I love love love bacon. I pulled out some ahi for dinner and I think I will do some bulgur and brussel sprouts with it. I havent had any cooked grains in a long time and since my menu seems fairly lean today I think 1/2 cup sounds like a good thing.
Paul emailed me at some point after i went to bed. I loved waking up to find his email in my inbox. I swear I just miss him already and holy cow its only been a week:( Still, trying to stay positive but it is so hard when all I want is for him to wrap his arms around me and fix the side door. hhehhehehehheeh.
Ok, gonna run-literally.

Sunday makes one week down

2009-08-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well, tonight marks one week that I have been without my honey. I havent cried and dont think I will. I was sad at church today as it was my first Sunday alone without him in the pew next to me. Speaking of church, Sunday school went ok. It wasnt as good as I had hoped. The teens arent responsive to me even when I ask them questions they just sit there. I will give it a little more time but I was really upset because I worked so hard on the lesson this week.
After church I went to the commissary. While driving there I ate a banana and a kashi bar so that I had something in my belly prior to shopping. At the commissary I spent just over $50.00 and my cart was nearly only produce. Now I have so much yummy things to eat for the next week or so. The only things I didnt get there was muscle milk and a small melon. I got those things at Walmart. Actually I decided to try the carb advantage from Body for Life rather than the muscle milk because nutritionally it was comparable but it was also nearly $2.00 less than the muscle milk per 4 pack.
Food wise today I did really well. I ate so corelike from WW. Breakfast was a vanilla smoothie with pure pumpkin and half of an english muffin and tomato. Once I got back from the commy I had cucumber salad and the other half of my english muffin. Before church I had yogurt, strawberries, and fiber one. I also had an apple. When I came home from church I was really hungry and I had half of my leftover chicken breast and some more roasted veggies- okra, zucchini, mushrooms and butternut squash. It was really delicious. I especially loved the squash fries.
I had sliced up some melon for a snack but I didnt have it, I had a cup of my new cherry vanilla tea instead. It is so good. I am really loving tea and think that when it gets colder I will drink it much more often. Paul likes hot tea as well so that is a plus. We can try different flavors in the evenings...
I think I am going to run tomorrow and do a mini crossfit routine for some exercise. I also am going to see exactly when my gym membership expires. I should go there if I still have quite a bit of time left. If I dont, well ok cause either way I am not renewing. At any rate I do need to move my hiney doing something tomorrow so I can continue to burn some fat off my body before Paul comes back. I know I wont look dramatically different when he deployed last time since I dont have much weight on me now but it would be cool to tone up so much that I could go down a size. I just want to knock his sock off-among other things. hehehehe.

I wish that Paul were here. Thats how I will end this for tonight.

Raleigh day

2009-08-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

Oh what a day! It started off with my meeting which was ok and then crossfit which was so hard today. In fact, I nearly had a brush with the pavement. If John hadnt caught me I would have gone down. I dont think it was anything serious (seizure) just that I had too much blood going to my head from the crab walk and that it was really humid outside and I overheated. I hadnt properly hydrated prior to group so that was my own fault. I was incredibly embarrassed but I stayed and finished the workout with a slight modification in that for the 1st round I skipped burpees and did squat jumps. Todays workout was 3 rounds for time of clean and press, crabwalk for the first round then could do walking lunges, burpees, 400 meter run. The sets were 17, 14 and 11 which are weird numbers but it did make you think. The cash out was a farmers carry of your clean and press dumbells. My weights today were 15 pounders. I was pretty proud of that since I usually use 12 pounds. After crossfit I came home and cleaned myself up and had a protein shake with some muscle milk while I waited on Meg to come over. When she got here we headed up to Raleigh to meet up with Marci and Terry at the Farmers Market. OMG, I wish we had one here in F-ville. I loved all the fresh stuff. I got some tomatoes, okra, a sprite melon which while it tastes like a melon it has the texture of a pear, and some fresh bacon. Afterwards we went to lunch and I had the most wonderful salad with grilled chicken and an amazing tomato and bacon dressing. Next stop was TJ's and Whole Foods and I bought some ahi, some grass fed beef, some free range eggs and a few other things. I was really proud of myself since I didnt eat everything in sight at Whole Foods today. I did have a couple spoons of some ice cream made with coconut milk with Meggy but really that was pretty much it as far as non healthy stuff goes.
When I got home I separated the meat I bought and cooked a dinner using some of the beef and veggies. It was very good. Okra is delish broiled with just a bit of garlic powder and some olive oil on it. Up until tonight I had only had it fried. I really liked it and wish now I had bought more of it. I am excited over the next couple weeks so cook some of the other things I bought.
The highlight of my day was that I was able to speak with Paul today. He called on the way to Raleigh and it was as usual so good to hear his voice. When I got home I found out that he also had emailed me a lovely 'letter'. I have a good man for sure.
Well, I am going to shower and then take care of some household chores before bed.
Catch you tomorrow!

Nothing to do

2009-08-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

OMG I really need a job. I have nothing to do. This life of leisure is killing me. Last night I overate. I couldnt stay out of the kitchen to save my life. I ate sooo much out of boredom and loneliness. I am going to get a book today so that I have something to read this evening. Maybe I will even get a needle point or something... I am going to the mall in a bit to get my nails done. I love that. I am thinking of actually getting a color on them this time rather than just doing clear. On the first of the month I may do my toes as well.
I have decided to buckle down in the diet area and really watch my food. I want to eat better and lose a few more pounds. I like that I am maintaining right now but honestly I am not where I want to be. I would love to get down another 15 to 20 pounds depending on my body fat and inches lost. I am going to do crossfit as hard as I can for 3 times a week and then hit the gym 2 times for either spin or the treadmill. I am also going to go and do the WW plan of core eating since I hate to count points and while I am not actively doing WW it does work.
Ok, gonna actually get some makeup on today and do my hair. TTFN

Evening check in

2009-08-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

I ate a good homecooked dinner tonight. I feel so much better for doing so. I had some yummy barbecued chicken, sweet potato and broccoli. The most wonderful thing is that I dont feel like I am still hungry which has been happening to me from eating all the crap I had been eating since Paul left.
I didnt get in a nap. Not for lack of trying though. Why is it that when you plan on doing nothing nobody will call you but the second you decide to lay down it never fails; your phone wont stop. I am also unable to put my phone on silent in the event Paul were to call which he did:) He had a half hour phone card and we used all of it. I could have continued to talk with him and was sad when we had to end the call. He should be leaving Kuwait and heading into Iraq soon so I dont think I will hear from him again until that happens.
I finally finished my Sunday school lesson. I am done with it and all that I plan on doing now is going over it again on Saturday to refamiliarize myself with the key points. Hopefully it goes well.
I also got all my bills together today and balanced the checkbook. Now, tomorrow all I need to do is get online and pay them. I need some groceries but its mostly perishables so I am waiting until Sunday afternoon since I am not sure what I will end up buying at the farmers market and Whole Foods and Trader Joes on Saturday when I head to Raleigh with Meggy.
On Monday I am going to the unemployment office and to one of the temp agencies to look for work. I may even check out AAFES and see what they are offering. I definitly think I will apply for work at the Bragg credit union since I am pretty sure I would get hired. If I can get on and get part time that would be perfect. We shall see what comes of it all.
Well, gonna go soak in a tub, get ready for the evening which may include some popcorn as a snack. I REALLY want to go to bed early tonight. Maybe that will happen. I will try to keep out the amphibians tonight. By the way when I told Paul the frog story he laughed and laughed. I really miss that man. We always have so much fun together.
Ok, later days-

When it rains, it frogs

2009-08-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

At my house anyway:) Last night I had full intentions of hitting the sack at 10:00 but as I was locking up I saw a frog in the house. I tried to get him but was having no luck, he was a speedy little thing. Eventually I chased him upstairs and just shut the door thinking I would go ahead and go to bed and deal with it this morning. No way, knowing he was here got me back up and so I headed upstairs to deal with the stupid thing. I finally found him sitting on Pauls desk. Rather than trying to catch him with my hands I took off my pj shirt and threw it over him. I brought him downstairs and tossed him out the door forgetting that my house alarm was set so... anyhow when it was all said and done it was after midnight before I got to bed.

I got up this morning and went to crossfit. I had a hard time getting up at 5:00 with so little sleep but I managed and know I can take a nap later if I need to. Its rainy here so the weather is perfect for napping. Crossfit was good. My neighbor Jocelyn came with this morning. She is really liking it too. Aside from the usual warmup we did 4 RFT of 20 wall ball (I used a 12 lb ball), walking lunges across the basketball court and squat jumps on the wayback from the other side of the court. I finished in 12.30.

Today, I am cleaning the house. It really needs it and I want to be able to not have chores tomorrrow so that I can workout and get my errands ran before Saturday and heading to Raleigh with Meg. I also need to make time to finish my Sunday school lesson today and tomorrow. Its almost done so it shouldnt be an issue. Hopefully it goes well.

I am cooking for me for the first time since Paul left. I put a chicken in the crockpot with some barbecue sauce. I plan on doing some broccoli and perhaps a baked sweet potato with it. I need to eat healthy because Im afraid if I dont I will get the Epstein Barr virus again. I just hate having dinner alone. I miss Paul the most in the evenings from dinner on. Hopefully I will hear from him at some point today.

Gotta run and get this day going. TTFN.

(pic of the frog. Just one but for some reason got a double exposure.)

why is it

2009-08-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

That Paul has never deployed anywhere in the winter when things are dead? Today I must mow the lawn. Ugh! Its hot outside and I really dont want to do it. I get used to him being here and taking care of it and then he goes and well you know.

I got a lovely phone call from him this morning. It was nice to wake up to and even though it got me up an hour earlier than I wanted, it was so worth it.

I bought two identical kitchen clocks yesterday so that I can have one with my time and one with his time in Iraq on them. I like being able to just look up and know the time over there without counting forward. When I look at his time I imagine what he is doing at that moment and somehow it helps with the pain of the separation.

Well, I suppose I need to get out there and take care of the yardwork. Maybe if my pool is ever able to get right again I can get in it again before summers end. It would be so nice to hop in after the yard work but this entire year I have had issues with the chemicals...

ok, thats if for now.

new blog

2009-08-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, as you may know now, I wont be hearing the words to the title of my blog for quite some time. Paul deployed on Sunday for another year to Iraq. Boo! I miss him already and find so many things each day that remind me of him. Some things make me sad, others bring an audible laugh or wide smile to my face.
Anyhow, today hasnt been too bad. I am trying to stick to a routine so that I can pass the time more constructively. This morning I got up reluctantly for crossfit. I was so sleepy and considered not going but as usual I am glad that I did go ahead and go. The workout was great and I felt so good for going especially when I was so depressed and still so tired from Sunday. The workout was 8 RFT of a 100 meter shuttle run, 5 pushups, 10 situps and 15 squat jumps. It took me 15.30 to complete my rounds.
After CF I came home and had a yummy breakfast of a ww tortilla and an egg with a cup of strawberries. Its late in the season for them here but they were really good. I also had a mega cup of coffee. Later for a snack I had a muscle milk light and then I showered and went to Walmart for some pool chemicals and better hair products. My hair has been really dry the last couple of months. I am hoping that putting lower lights in my hair rather than the blonde will help with the dryness. For lunch I had a delicious homemade mozzarella and tomato panini, a bowl of chicken soup and some brussel sprouts. I was still feeling a little munchy for something really sweet so I had a vita top in the chocolate peanut butter flavor. Later in the afternoon I put together the agenda for the FRG meeting tonight and also researched and worked on my Sunday school lesson. I am hoping it will be good. Its on spiritual urban legends and how we need to guard against believing everything we hear blindly without checking the facts. By the time I finished with that it was time to head to post for the FRG meeting which went well. Not alot of ladies but at least there was more than a couple of them this time. After I got home I had a lean cuisine and a salad for dinner. It was really good and I was really hungry. I also had a half cup of ff frozen yogurt in a waffle cup to cure my sweet TOM munchies. It really hit the spot! Now, I am just watching some DVR'd Army Wives then going to hit the hay. I have a full day of work planned for tomorrow and its outside stuff so I need to get up early and get it done since it will be really hot outside. I want to run or do an at home CF workout as well as mow the yard. I am trying to keep busy this week and I have some physical activity planned for each day so that I can be tired enough to go to bed at a decent time at night. Next week the job hunt is on but thats another story...

(the picture of Paul and I is from the night he left. The date is incorrect because I never change the date on my camera. The actual date was 8/9/09)