Hello 2016, Goodbye 2015

I would overall say this year was a good one, not one for the record books, but well-rounded with many highs and not too much focus on the lows.

I rang in the New Year celebrating my 1 year surgiversary having lost 200 lbs (which I have mostly managed to maintain so far, give or take weekly gains and loses), I completed my first half marathon, took my first trip to Disneyworld, and my third trip to Disneyland. I scrapbooked hard core, getting into Project Life both Digitally and Physically. We adopted our Linky, and said farewell to Adam's grandmother. I turned 29, Adam turned 31. I tried out a new work-out, Pure Barre and ran, ran, ran. I survived another year of working Summer Camp, and I saw Garth Brooks in concert. Adam and I did some home improvement projects, and our niece got married.

There is so much to look forward to in 2016. For one, I am turning the big 30, and I'm not too stressed by it yet! We are going to Paris and London, and hopefully I can squeeze in a Christmas Disney Trip (just don't tell Adam that's the plan yet). I want more time spent with my nieces and my friends. 

I haven't made many resolutions this year. And the only resolutions that I have that are concrete is that I want to run at least a half-marathon every month of 2016, and I want to take some steps to further my career. That's it! Totally achievable I hope.  

So here's to 2016 everybody! Happy New Year!

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Summer Manifesto 2015

I spent some time putting together a Summer Bucket List (which I'm calling my Summer Manifesto) on Friday. Somethings are simple things I know I'm going to accomplish (I already have my Garth Brook's tickets and the photo shoot is booked).  Many our fitness related (run a sub 12 minute mile, Pure Barre like a fiend, run a 10k, and conquer the plank). The plank is because I struggle so hard with that in Pure Barre, and I want to challenge myself to be able to do that. 

Some are just activities I enjoy during the summer (water parks anyone?). One is to help me out at work (Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork!). Some are to keep me being creative (scrapbooking & painting). One is to get me ready for my fall vacation (Save, Save, Save)!  And one is just because I'm obsessed with trying those darn Popsicles, but I have to get to Huntsville to do so.

I tried not to be overly ambitious, as summer is my busy season at work, and I'm usually worn out, but I want to make sure I'm having some fun though!

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Summer Bucket List Rewind & Fall Bucket List 2014

I'm so happy to report that I managed to mark over half of the items off my Summer Bucket List. So here is a recap:

1.  See The Fault in Our Stars in Theaters

2.  Spend Fridays Floating on The Lazy River at Point Mallard

3. Tubing on the Cahaba River

4. Do The Huntsville Trolly Tour

5. Running with the Goats 10k in Elkmont, Alabama

6. Glow in the Park 5k in Memphis, Tennessee

7. See Mary Poppins Play in Montgomery

8. Para Sailing

9. Deep Sea Fishing

10. Book the Disney Princess Half Marathon (once it is booked, there is no backing out).

11. Buy a Home

12. 10 Year Class Reunion

13. Garden of Wonders at Huntsville Botanical Gardens

14. Huntsville Lucky Duck Scavenger Hunt 

There are some things I didn't get to do because sometimes there is just not enough time. But there is some things on the list that I still plan to get to soon, and they might just make an appearance on my Fall bucket list.

1. Walk the Richard Martin Trail in Elkmont, Alabama

2. Loretta Lynn Concert

3. The Color Run in Little Rock,  Arkansas

4.Viva La Dive 10k in Franklin, TN (to qualify for Disney Half Marathon)

5. Packers vs. Patriots Game

6. Scarecrow Trail at the Botanical Gardens

7. Book of Mormon Play
8. Put Away Plenty of Money for Disney
9. Rock an Awesome Halloween Costume
10. Pottery Painting
11. Start Half Marathon Training (miss no work-outs)
12.  Carve a Pumpkin
13. Visit Lyon's Family Pumpkin Patch (conquer that corn maze!)
14. Huntsville Trolley Tour 
15. Lucky Duck Scavenger Hunt

Happy Fall Y'all!

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Alice and The Garden of Wonders

Going to Alice and The Garden of Wonders at the Botanical Gardens was one of the items listed on my Summer of 2014 bucket list. I really procrastinated on getting to the gardens this summer though. Not only did I wait till basically the last weekend of summer, I waited till the very last weekend they were putting on the event! 

The botanical Gardens really is one of my favorite places to go in Huntsville. Not only is it beautiful, but they always do such fun events like the Scarecrow Trail, the Galaxy of Lights, and Movies in the Park. And because I love All things Disney, I was super excited to see how they would pull off their Alice in Wonderland summer theme. I think they did a great job!

My absolute favorite part was the door maze. They had local artists come and paint a door based off the theme. The doors were covered in all sorts of imagery and quotes from the book/movie. Didn't Lewis Carrol's  write some of the most quotable literature ever? I think so.

I also went crazy for the larger than life queen's crochet set and the hand made sand sculpture. Apparently, the gardens had an event a few months ago, where you could come a watch the sand sculpture being made. I hate that I missed that!

I'm really glad that I didn't skip out on this event, I think I would have been disappointed if I hadn't made it (although I would not really have known what I missed out on, HA).

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Up, Up, & Away (And My 7 Month Surgiversary)

Number one agenda for our family vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama, was to go para-sailing. I had been planning that little adventure for the last few months, and I have been dreaming of actually doing it for years and years.

It all started back in middle school on one of the many church youth groups trips we took to the beach. Our youth pastor organized a trip to go para-sailing. As he was polling the group, seeing who wanted to go, he mentioned we would have to go in doubles, and that there was a combined weight limit. At my weight, I didn't believe I could find someone that I could ride with that wouldn't put us over the weight limit. Nor would I feel comfortable telling anyone my weight. So I just pretended I didn't want to go,  and I was secretly so disappointed & so mad at myself that I had gotten to that weight. Yet again, my weight had kept me from doing something I really wanted to do. I'm pretty sure I drowned my sorrows in candy bars that night.

That is just one of the moments in my long battle with weight that has always really stood out in my memory. So now that I'm 7 months out from surgery, and 150 pounds down, I felt it was time to make this dream happen!

On the morning we were supposed to go para-sailing, I was not nervous at all, I was excited! It is always funny to me that more daring things do not make me nervous, but I have such unnecessary levels of anxiety about everyday events. I'm like Para-sailing? No problem! Yet talking to a waitress at a restaurant can terrify me!

The only time I felt any nerves at all was when we were strapped in on the boat and the motor started running. Then I thought, "Am I sure I want to do this?" But it was too late to change my mind because we had lifted off a nano second later! Before I knew it, we were 800 feet in the air.

It was so quiet up there and surprisingly peaceful. I could have stayed up there for hours!

Before we lifted off, the boat driver asked us how wet we wanted to get, and I told him we were down for anything. So he really splashed us down in the water hard at the end of the ride (Everyone else just got their feet wet). That was one of the best parts.

It was such a wonderful experience and a wonderful day. I think that is the best part of this weight loss journey, it is allowing me to have adventures!

Below is my seven month surgiversary picture. Yes, I accidentally put Day 7, so just ignore that. But I felt really good about myself that day. Heck, I feel pretty good about myself most days lately.

 
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Just Call Me Pretty, Pretty Princess

I have to give a big old shout out to my wonderful husband today. Because I've been planning, dreaming, training, SAVING, and talking non-stop about my plan/dream to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon for months now. Of course, sign up day fell on a work day, when I was herding the children around the community pool with zero internet access. I couldn't even wait a few hours and then sign up, because these events sell out crazy fast!  So I had to relinquish the sign ups to Adam.

I wouldn't say I'm a total control freak, although I can be on occasion. It has more to do with my anxiety than my need to be in charge. I can calm the anxiety better if I know when we are doing something, why we are doing something, and most importantly, exactly how we are going to do something.  

Last night, I painstakingly wrote a note with all the information Adam could possible need to know for registration (or so I hoped). And this morning, I anxiously watched the clock waiting for 11 o'clock. By 11:05 a.m., I had confirmation that both Adam and I were registered for the race.  He totally rocked the sign ups! He even bought me a special commemorative pin as a surprise.

And yes, Adam decided to do the race with me, so he could support me and cheer me along (even if it is a PRINCESS race). Because he rocks like that. I may even be able to convince him to dress as the Beast to my Belle. Stay tuned.

So now that I'm over the "getting signed up for the race" anxiety, I can que my, "Oh My Gosh I have to run a half-marathon" anxiety!

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The "Big" 5k

Last week, I decided I wanted to do a 5k over this weekend. So I hoped on Active.com and found the "Big" 5k, right here in Huntsville. It was a charity run for big brothers/big sisters. I love that organization, so I thought this race would be perfect.

For a while now, I have been feeling very frustrated with myself during 5ks, because I could not perform in races like I do in my work-outs. It was all mental. There was no reason I could barely run a lick in races, when I have been able to run 3 miles working out many, many times!  So my motivation in signing up for this race was to break that mental barrier.  Therefore, I decided to go alone.

In no way, has doing 5ks with my husband or Jana held me back. But I knew to break this mental barrier, I would need to dig deep and be focused only on myself and my running. I have never done a race alone, so I didn't know what it would be like. 

I had a somewhat fitful night's sleep on Friday. I kept waking up to glance at the clock, terrified I was going to miss the alarm. I guess it was a case of pre-race jitters. My alarm went off at 5:45, and I got up, got dressed, and drove over to Huntsville (the race started at 7).

I tried not to put too much pressure on myself, as I walked the parking lot trying to get a decent warm-up in.  I tried not to think about the race at all. But soon it was time to line up, and before I knew it the start horn blew. I just started jogging. I told myself my first goal was to get to the half  mile mark. It is a pretty short distance, and I always feel better after the half mile mark.

When I got to a half mile, I still felt decent, so I just kept going.  The first mile and a half went by pretty fast. But once I got to 2 miles, it started to feel difficult and I had to dig in. The course wasn't entirely flat, and I hate HILLS (even small ones). But I kept going anyway. 

I once told my husband he shouldn't talk to me when I'm hungry, tired, or going up hills.

When I saw the finish line, I wanted to cry. When I crossed the finish line, I almost did cry. I did it in 49 minutes (a 15:40 minute mile average). I had done it, I had finally broke that mental barrier. I felt amazing. And tired. And sweaty.

I immediately called my husband, mom, and texted Jana the news! I could not wait to share it with them (even if they were still asleep). They were so happy to celebrate with me. I wanted to tell everyone! 

I walked over to the food tent to grab a banana, and a lady I did not know came up to me. She said that she had been walking behind me the whole time and she was so inspired by me. Someone was inspired by little old me. Hearing that made me feel amazing. 

Yesterday was the best day, I have truly never been more proud of myself. This week has truly been amazing! We bought a house and I achieved a personal goal!  I just can't wait to see how I will do in the next race. I guess now I have to work toward finishing a 10k, running!

My Summer Bucket List

 (picture via)

I love the changing of the seasons, no matter what the season, and right now I have caught the summer bug. Even though summer is historically somewhat stressful for me work wise, I know I am still going to squeeze in a whole heck of a lot of fun. 

These are just a few things I hope to do this summer (14 for Summer 2014!):

1.  See The Fault in Our Stars in Theaters

2.  Spend Fridays Floating on The Lazy River at Point Mallard

3. Tubing on the Cahaba River

4. Do The Huntsville Trolly Tour

5. Running with the Goats 10k in Elkmont, Alabama

6. Glow in the Park 5k in Memphis, Tennessee

7. See Mary Poppins Play in Montgomery

8. Para Sailing

9. Deep Sea Fishing

10. Book the Disney Princess Half Marathon (once it is booked, there is no backing out).

11. Buy a Home

12. 10 Year Class Reunion

13. Garden of Wonders at Huntsville Botanical Gardens

14. Huntsville Lucky Duck Scavenger Hunt

Three Simple Goals for May

(via)

I really love setting and achieving goals, I don't even mind all that much when I fail at goals, because I still seem to learn something about myself in the process. I really loved the book, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I especially liked how she focused on one aspect of her life every month, instead of trying to do it all at once. 

I thought I would like to try a variation on this idea and try to accomplish a couple, small goals for the month of May. If this works, maybe I will try three more in the month of June.

So here are my goals for May:

1. Do a Daily Devotional Everyday for a Month

Adam and I aren't big church going people, sometimes I wish we did go more often, and maybe that is something we will start doing more in the future. But we really have strong faith, and I really enjoy my time praying and reading the Bible. I want to do more of this. So I plan to get up 15 minutes early in the morning, and I will do a devotional everyday in May. I think I'm going to try 30 words: A Devotional for the Rest of Us by Jarrid Wilson.

2. List Five Things to Be Grateful For Daily

I already stated that I want to start my day with a quiet moment of devotion, and I also want to end my day with the same type of quiet. So I plan to focus on all the things I'm grateful for. I tell my teenage clients they should be doing this all the time, and I really think it is an important part of being generally happy. 

3. Save 100 Dollars for Disney

I think this goal is pretty self explanatory. My trip to Disney for the Princess Half Marathon is going to cost of us a little money, and the more I can get put away before the trip, the better. By the way, I recently came across this article on one lady's experience at the Disney Princess Half Marathon. It really helped calm some of my fears, I so can do this. 

The Weekend Report

(More Shots from Sloss Furnaces Located Here)

Our friend Luther, flew in from California, to visit us this weekend. We were so happy to have him, we have missed him a lot, and it has been fun to show him around the great state of Alabama. Adam picked him up at the Nashville airport Friday night, and we spent the evening hanging out at a local Sports Bar before going to see Captain America 2 (Hello, Chris Evans). I really, really enjoyed that movie. Captain America is my favorite superhero by far. So handsome! So Patriotic! So corruptible!

Saturday, we got up early to take Luther down to the bus station in Birmingham, so he could visit some friends elsewhere (he will be back with us in a few days). Before returning back home, Adam and I stopped off at Sloss Furnaces to walk around a bit.

Sloss Furnaces was a pig-iron blasting factory until 1971, and this basically lead to development of Birmingham as a metropolitan city. Sloss is the only previous blasting factory open to the public in the United States.  So even though I'm not typically into industrial sites, I felt it was worth a stop. I actually really enjoyed walking around taking pictures and checking out all the little nooks and crannies. Plus, it was just a beautiful day, and it felt so good to be walking around outside. We are finally leaving the winter behind.

Sloss has a haunted experience you can participate in during Halloween, I bet that is super creepy.

I spent the rest of the weekend reading, napping, working out, and watching movies-12 Years a Slave, August Osage County, & Frozen for the second time (Hi, I'm Olaf and I love warm hugs).  Now I'm just reciting my daily Sunday prayer: May the work week be swift and the next weekend drag on forever. 

Game Day!

On the first day of Christmas vacation my true love gave to me....tickets to the Packers/Steelers game at Lambeau Field! Ok, well actually we bought the tickets months ago, but I couldn't pass up the chance to make that rhyme.

When we woke up the morning of the game, we prepared as if we were going off to battle in Siberia. In a way I guess we were, I'm usually an under dresser for weather. I would prefer to wear flip flops year round, and sometimes I do. So at first, I thought Adam's mom offers of scarves and hats to be unnecessary. But I decided I should take them just in case. Thank Goodness I did, it was something like 10 degrees and it never stopped snowing!

We visited Lambeau field last year, but did not get to go to the game, so we were super excited. When we first got to the stadium, we donned our snow boots, coats, hats, mittens, and hot hands. We enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate and "Pac N' Cheese."

When it was time to take our seats, the cold didn't seem so bad, even though people were still shoveling snow off the bleachers! I thought, "I can handle this." We were just so excited for the game, and watching the team come out of the tunnel was one of the highlights of my entire Christmas week. 

Soon the game got underway, we loved being part of the crowd. Yelling when we got first downs, trying to throw the Steelers off their game, and going rabid when we needed the coach to challenge a play. 

By half-time, the chill really started to set in, and by the 4th quarter Adam and I had to go inside and count our toes to make sure they were still there. Luckily, I lost no toes. Because all my toes are precious to me. 

Ultimately, we lost the game, which was a big disappointment. But I had so much fun, so it didn't hurt as much. Plus we went on to beat the Bears this past weekend, and so we make it to the play-offs anyway!  

Next year, we are hoping to catch another Packers' Game, maybe one on the road here in Atlanta or Nashville.  But we will just have to see when the schedule comes out, but for right now, I guess we just have to focus on the games in front of us.

Go Pack Go!

Ave Maria Grotto

 

Adam is out of town this weekend, and after spending most of the weekend watching bad TV, eating bad food, and taking numerous naps, I decided I better get out and DO something with my weekend, lest I become permanently affixed to the couch. I had a few ideas floating around my head, but I knew I didn't want to go too far or spend a lot of money, so I decided to check out the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama. 

The Ave Maria Grotto has many miniatures of famous places around the world (mostly religious). They were all completed by a monk who was originally from Bavaria, whose religious leanings led him to Alabama (who knows, how that happen). He was so talented, and he used shells, marbles, costume jewelery, or even cold cream jars to create his sculptures (these were donated by his fans).

I'm kind of crazy for miniature things, which partly explains my love of Legos. And a few years ago when I was in Israel, our tour guides took us to mini Israel, which recreated the whole country in miniature. It even had a little miniature coca cola factory, and the hotel we were staying at in Tel Aviv (I was so in love with that place). And I really want to go to Tobu World Square in Japan. So this was right up my alley.

Some of my favorite miniatures were of the more secular variety like the Alamo and The Coliseum. I had  a really nice time today, although it was hot, hot, hot! But I don't know what I was expected from Alabama in September.