Day #1 of 245 - Into the Wind

Over the Christmas break, my sister invited us to join her on a trip to Kauai in early September. It sounds relaxing until you hear that she will be running her first marathon while we are there and it looks like several members of my family will be joining in on the fun. My brother-in-law and my dad plan to run the half-marathon and D. and I plan to run something, but are still debating whether we could really be marathon ready in eight months. I have always wanted to run a marathon, but this may not be my time. The marathon falls on my sister's birthday which is a cool coincidence! At least there is plenty of beach and several tropical drinks if you reach the finish line.

Today we started the "conditioning plan" which takes a body that has run before and gets it into shape for steady training. We did a run:walk combo for thirty minutes and covered about 2.8 miles. D. does the run faster, but I am quite a power walker so we stayed fairly even. I think we would have hit 3 miles had it not been for the wind that blew in our faces for 50% of the run. All that said, it felt good to get out there and do something active. We have 244 days remaining, so we'll see how long the honeymoon period lasts. To get me in mental shape, I have been reading a hilarious book about a woman who probably had no business training for a marathon, but did. It's laugh out loud funny and is giving me a tip or two while making me laugh about what's to come. Here's the link for anyone woman who wants to laugh about running!

http://www.dawndais.com/The_Book.html

What Not to Wear - Christmas Edition

Let me set the stage... We were going to drive to visit my parents in Colorado today. Since I like to be comfy in the car, I put on my comfy clothes in anticipation of a long-ish car ride. This outfit included workout pants, an incredibly old grey sweatshirt that is several sizes too big and black fuzzy slippers. Well, the weather and roads were total madness today and we ended up having to postpone the drive until tomorrow. Since I didn't have any food in the house (in anticipation of being gone for a week), we headed out to our local Panda Express for dinner. Since D. was wearing Simpson's pajamas, it was determined that I was the most presentable and should go in. Now I am not overly obsessed with outward appearance, but I have NEVER worn fuzzy slippers in public. That got me to thinking about whether this is how it happens to people on TLC's "What Not to Wear." One temporary lapse of situational judgement is caught on camera and folks accross the county eye you with horror and say, "How could anyone wear that?" Essentially, I am guilty and in that moment I am probably deserving of your harsh judgement, but I promise I hardly ever dress that badly! Only around the house really... I'm hoping that anyone who sees this gets to spend a couple days in cute pajamas as Christmas is upon us and cute pajamas = Christmas (and Christ, he's a pretty important part also :). Merry Christmas!

Our Weekend

This weekend, I wrapped Christmas gifts and got most of them mailed off to their various destinations. It was a relaxed weekend for D. and I. Oddly enough, last night involved us playing "Scene It - ESPN Edition." I would rate myself above average on my knowledge of sports trivia when compared to the average woman. That said, 95% of my knowledge is centered around college basketball. Of that knowledge, 95% is centered around one team. This game is really not for women, (sorry to stereotype) since one of my first bonus cards referred to the glee I should feel at the SI Swimsuit Edition arriving in the mailbox. One of the first video questions was related to the movie Caddyshack and I felt like I had a pretty good chance. Sadly after that, the questions started relating to NFL from the '80s and I was lost. Thankfully, you get to move your gamepiece even when you get questions wrong and I actually managed to win one of three games. We moved on to Yahtzee after that, more my speed.

I did a little holiday "baking" today and finished my Christmas decorating. Here's the tree (and the dog.)Today involved some "winterizing." I work for the power company here in NM and picked up a few tips to increase the efficiency of our 30 year old home. The space heater, flannel sheets and water heater insulation seem to be staving off our need for the whole house heater for now!

That's really it for us, it was a nice weekend and I got new flannel pj pants on Friday, so I'm pretty well set for now!

Silver Lining

Yesterday our realtor called and effectively said that if she was in our situation, she would probably just pull the houses off the market and rent them since a sale is looking pretty unlikely. When your realtor, who only makes money on a sold house, tells you to give up, it's easy to be a little discouraged.

Lucky for me, I know that things are going to work out and that regardless, D. and I are in this together. On top of that, a few really great things happened:

* A local station has already started playing Christmas music all the time

* I am down ten pounds according to the Wii Fit

* Basketball season has officially started

Tonight my Tarheels beat up on Kentucky pretty well and that helps my mood. Officially their first game was Saturday against the Penn Quakers, but since that game wasn't televised and the Quakers aren't exactly "world-renown" for their recent basketball success, tonight's my kick off. The team looked really good and the buzz of college basketball really keeps me going until March/April!

Here's to a long and successful season for the Heels and maybe a little luck in the housing market!

Happy Halloween

Well, we did our Halloween celebration tonight. We will be in Ohio at this time tomorrow for a wedding and won't be celebrating October 31 in the traditional way. Tonight we carved pumpkins with our small group from church. The carvings were religiously related. Ours was meant to look like Mary and Baby Jesus. Mind you, I said "meant to look like..." I kept having to explain it to people.

In addition, we dressed our poor little puppy up in her costume tonight. She has been a cowgirl, a dinosaur, Yoda and this year a hot dog. Here's a picture for your viewing enjoyment.

Actually, she was much happier than she looks. This year there wasn't a head piece and that seemed to minimize her horror. Don't worry, we took her on a walk after the costume session.

We are headed to Columbus tomorrow for a weekend wedding. (D. is a groomsman) On Sunday, we head to East Lansing, Michigan to see how we feel about it given it's possibly our future home. It should be a good trip since D. and I will be seeing some parts of the country for the first time!

Shameless Product Plugs

I have found a few items recently that are “changing my life” in small, but noticeable ways and felt the need to share these items (both large and small) with you: Furry Slippers - $5.99 per pair – Fall and winter weather is upon us in New Mexico and I realized that my flip flops just wouldn’t cut it for around the house use any longer. I found these cheap, comfortable and cute (leopard print) slippers in the Target shoe department this past week and already love them. My greatest fear is that I will “accidentally” arrive at work with the slippers on one day, since at this point they are just an extension of my body. Little Boomey Wine - $3.97 per bottle – Cost Plus / World Market sends me weekly updates and I found out they are having a big red wine sale this month. So far, I have tried the Little Boomey Shiraz/Cab blend and it’s really good. Despite an 18-month membership to a ridiculously expensive wine club, I wouldn’t say I am a wine connoisseur. That said, I normally try to stay in the “tasty, yet $8-11 priced wine category.” (Alright, I admit to a “Two Buck Chuck” phase, but that’s long behind me now.) This wine meets the “tasty” requirement and I can get two or three bottles for my normal price of one! That’s a fantastic buy, if you ask me! Stikk.com – “free” – Oprah Magazine recommended this gem of a website to me and while I am still a visitor, not a member, it’s a really cool idea. Essentially it’s a place where you can track your success in specific personal goals. You enter the goal, set up a team of supporters that will email you when you have down days and have a referee track and vouch for your success. You can “put your money where your mouth is” and if you don’t succeed, you money can go to a charity. They also provide the option to have your money donated to an “anti-charity,” which I find really interesting and a great potential motivator. After all, I could certainly give $25 to a charity I loved if I missed a goal, but it would really burn to give $25 to an organization I hated because I couldn’t stick to something. I am always looking for great motivators and think I will be signing up soon to track my progress on this site. Check it out when you have some spare time! So there are a few things that have made my world a better place in the last week in addition to a great visit from my mom and a few days off work!

Out of the Groove

Somehow my illness a couple weeks ago robbed me of my blogging super power. It used to be I would go about my day and think of about ten things I could write about. Now, I am out of the groove and arrive at blogger.com with little on my mind... While mental clarity is nice, it makes for crappy blogging, part of a fun blog comes from a slightly neurotic mind.

D. is out of town for the week. The house is way too quiet when he's gone and I miss him quite a bit. I am really lucky that my mom is only a four-hour car ride away. She came down yesterday and will spend a few nights here while we shop, watch girl movies and the like. When I consider the move to Michigan, the fact that my mom can't be there in four hours is certainly a point in Albuquerque's favor. She mentioned a trip to the nearby outlet malls and my ears perked up... The last time I went there I did some significant damage to the credit card balances, but who doesn't need a new pair of fall shoes? Or perhaps a new Coach purse?

Speaking of Albuquerque, this week marks the annual Balloon Fiesta. It causes slight madness in the area as our population swells and restaurants get packed. That said, it's fun to look out your window each morning and see countless hot air balloons sailing past. I think my mom and I may head to the "Glowdeo" one night this week when they light up tons of balloons at the same time and illuminate the night sky. It's pretty spectacular. Here's some pictures of the fun from past years: