Saturday, June 30, 2012

Long Time No See

I apologize for my absence lately! In my last post I told you that I was signed up to run my first 5k!
Well the Saturday before Father’s Day I got to Shelby Farms an hour before race-time and was so nervous I wasn’t sure if I would keep my breakfast down. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden my nerves just kicked into overdrive about not finishing the race.
I was pretty well-prepared for my first 5k. I used the 5k Runner (free) app on my iphone along the “mapmyrun” app to keep track of my workouts. I started using the app toward the end of March and finished the training about 2 weeks before the Civitan 5k. I think I felt a little extra pressure to finish and do well having announced it to my whole family that I was doing this and of course mentioning it here on the blog.
There are several reasons why I set out to run a 5k. First of all, after going to a few dr. apts. About my high cholesterol my doc recommended that I lose some weight. The newlywed fifteen nine had officially kicked in post honeymoon. Instead of taking medicine for my high-cholesterol my doctor recommended that I change up my diet, drop coke, and start exercising. I insisted that there was no way I could go without coke until after graduate school exams were over. I also had zero time left in the day to exercise working 40hours/week and taking 12 hours of graduate level course-work.
So, the first week after finals while grocery shopping, what did I do? Ha, I put coke in the shopping cart! Of course Brian silently removed it and replaced it with a pack of Coke Zero and so the change began. Coke Zero is seriously the only diet drink product that has been able to get me off my traditional coke! I used to drink seriously at least 3-4 of those per day in graduate school and I was much worse during high school, drinking about a 2 liter a day (no exaggeration there). I NEVER drank water! Now I try and drink 2-3 of my camelback water bottles/day. I’m down to one coke zero and one cup of coffee/day. My challenge now is to only have one or the other per day and eventually eliminate the coke zero.
So after making that grand change, my sister-in-law was hosting a 5k for her church (Miles for Mercy 5k). The week of this race is the week I started my 5k training. I figured if I could walk that whole thing then I could run it! 3.1 miles isn’t that long… right?
The first few weeks of training were pretty rough… and I was wondering why I was making myself do this…After about 3 weeks, I began to look forward to jogging in the afternoon. I probably did not start losing actual pounds until about 5-6 weeks into training. This was the most frustrating part for me. I was working so hard and not losing a single pound! I could tell things were fitting me differently… but my doctor recommended that I lose about 17 pounds! Something wasn’t working! Then miraculously the weight started coming off! As of today I think I have lost 15 pounds! It’s not so obvious that I have lost that much weight since I’m so tall but that’s ok.  Only a few people have even noticed I lost weight (a few co-workers and of course my husband). But that’s ok, I just can’t wait to go back to the doctor in October and have them weigh me and re-check my cholesterol!
So, back to the Civitan 5k. My cousin’s wife, Carrie was also training for a 5k (she used the couch to 5k app). We finished the training about a week apart and decided to run our first race together. We were both so proud to have finished our first race. I think a few of our family members didn’t think we would really finish, but we did it! I set a goal for myself to complete the 5k in 38 minutes or less. I finished it in 35 minutes! I was so proud of myself! My GPS did say I actually went 3.33 miles… but I think that was from weaving around the crowd once we hit the narrow trail at Shelby Farms.
The average time for female participants was just over 42 minutes. For my age group I placed 8 out of 13 runners. There were 161 female runners and I came in at #79. So I would say I’m pretty average and I’m pretty happy about that!

Another goal I set for myself was to weigh exactly what I weighed on my wedding day! I am only 3 pounds away from that weight and I’m super pumped! I have slacked a little bit on my training since I ran my 5k… I had a summer cold last week that seriously left me completely out of commission to do any exercise! But I ran this morning for the first time in 13 days and I’m sore but so happy to get back into it! Hopefully an upcoming vacation won’t completely derail my progress so far!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Busy Weekend

Unfortunately, I do not have a bathroom reveal for you this week. With any DIY project there are bound to be snags along the way and we hit one last Sunday… Since this weekend is Father’s Day, I do not anticipate finishing this weekend either. But that’s ok… we will finish eventually and I will be so happy with the results!!!
I will give you an update of our progress… Brian spent a good 7 hours of non-stop work in our master bathroom on Sunday. Since we decided to lay the tile on an angle with a staggered brick pattern we are getting some interesting angles and final cuts in the doorways and corners on one end of the room. So we have come up with a game plan as to how to finish off the doorways so they will all look the same.
I am going to try to make templates for the other odd cuts with newspaper and lay them out so we make sure we like it before we lay the tile and it’s there forever.
We are hoping to work on that early Sunday morning before we celebrate Father’s Day with the dads in our lives! We are hoping to just cook out and spend quality time with our dads.
On Saturday, I am going to run a 5K! It will be the first time I have actually ran an entire 5K (assuming I make it... hehe). I made a New Year’s Resolution to get down to a certain weight and to run a 5K. I started a 5K training app in late March and finished the training a few weeks ago. My cousin’s wife, Carrie is going to run with me! I’m pretty excited that I will have actually achieved one New Year’s Resolution tomorrow if I make it all the way through!
My other New Year’s resolution was to weigh the exact same amount that I did on our wedding day. I am happy to report that I weigh exactly what I weighed after we got back from our honeymoon J… So only a couple pounds to go… (Obviously we ate a lot on our honeymoon… we did the all-inclusive thing so there was always plenty of food around)…
So there is a lot going on this weekend. I am trying not to set unrealistic goals for our renovation since we have so much going on, but I am hopeful that we will get something done in there this weekend!
This is the only picture that I have and this picture was taken before Brian began work on it last Sunday... so we already the tile laid and cut underneath the vanity and the tub and in the toilet area... All we have left is around the half wall by the toilet and the doorways to the closets and entry way left to tile:

Here’s what we have left to do:
Cut tiles for corners of room and doorways
Lay those tiles
Grout tile
Add new floor trim around toilet area
Paint trim and doors
Hang the cabinet doors back up with new hardware
Replace shower hardware
Seal tile in shower
Put marble face back on the tub (with silicone)
Install new toilet

Thursday, June 7, 2012

LIFE

I heard on the radio this week about a new medical condition (I forget the name) that is arising from social media. Basically it’s about how we are addicted to reading the status updates of others and unfortunately we are comparing ourselves and our lives to our friends. Most of the time, people only post the positive and cheery aspects of their lives on social media feeds which tends to make us think of our own lives in a negative light especially when we have a bad week or day.
Well readers, I am going to do my best NOT to only show you the cheery aspects of my life. So let me tell you about my no good very bad day/week…
Well, as I have mentioned previously… we are putting down new tile in our master bathroom. Well we got all of the whole piece tiles put down on Sunday (hip, hip, hooray)! But it takes 24 hours for the thinset underneath to dry which mean you can’t walk on the tile for at least 24 hours… Well you know we started tiling in the far corner of the bathroom and made our way to the doorway by the time I realized that the entrance to my closet had brand new freshly laid tile surrounding it…So my wardrobe to work Monday was seriously hap hazardous and that does not good for my mood or self-esteem on a Monday morning.
Besides that, I have been completely restless for the past 3 nights (mostly due to storms and having lots on my mind) and when I do sleep I constantly dream about stressful things like we started laying the tile in the wrong direction and now have to rip it all up and start over again…etc, etc, etc.  So I wake up in a fury thinking something needs to be fixed or I am behind on something else!
So with our bathroom being torn up, it takes me forever to find anything when getting ready because we are now sharing our guest bathroom.  I’m spoiled used to having our nice double vanity in the master bath where everything has its own place. So let’s just say I left the house about 20 minutes later than usual Monday trying to scrounge up something decent to wear out of what was in the laundry room that I hadn’t ironed and put back in my closet yet and searching all over the house for my get ready in the a.m. routine supplies since they are scattered between the guest bath and our 2 guest bedrooms.
 Also, I have left the house twice this week without my phone only to realize it after I get more than halfway to work!!!! This results in me being about 30 minutes later than usual getting into the office. Nothing ruins my morning more than having to trek back home after I am already enroot to work…
I got a speeding ticket last month in none other than the speed trap we call Oakland. I got a ticket for going 55 right in front of the 55 mph sign… I’m sure that’s everyone’s plea in the courtroom though so I just kept my mouth shut accepted the ticket from the officer (who was VERY polite) and went on my merry way. Mind you, the only reason I was traveling through the great town of Oakland was to make a donation at the nursing home for Mother’s Day… Come on, no good deed goes un- punished un-noticed… right???
So I prep myself for going to court. I have to take off a few hours early to get from work to Oakland for this ticket court business. Only to find that I had written the wrong time down in my planner ( I was off by a whole hour) and had to take an additional hour off work at the last minute (oops..)
Good news was, I was in and out within an hour and the ticket is no longer on my record (thank you very much Mr. Judge)
I’m hoping for better days to come and am constantly reminded that God is in control. This day is already looking up since I am hosting a fabulous dinner meeting for my sorority alumnae group!
I hope you all enjoy your Thursday and continue to countdown the hours until the weekend is here! Hopefully by the middle of next week I can share with you the big bathroom remodel reveal!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Bathroom sneak peek

Happy Monday!!!

I haven't posted in a while about our bathroom progress.... But we have made awesome progress!

We have finished up the guest bath it just needs some accessorizing. But it looks great!

We began prep work on the master bath all last week and started laying tile yesterday! It took forever to figure out the angles in our master bath and to get a good pattern and starting point but once we got started we were on a roll! Hopefully we will finish it by the middle of next week!

We finished up the guest bath on memorial day and here is a sneak peek of it: