Surprises Are Fun

Good Afternoon. We're about to head out for my cousin Gabe's wedding, but just had to write a quick note. David and I went for a run this morning. He pushed me and I made it around our entire route (2.11 miles) with only a stop long enough for him to say "No Baby, keep going." And there we went. Whoo. Tough on me. Especially when the sun is up and it's not 5am. On another note, my poor body doesn't know what to do when I don't get up at 5am. It was ready to go while my mind had to keep saying, "go to sleep. go to sleep...." After the run we went to for a bike ride. We had hoped to go longer but David's front tire started to go flat. So, we're going to have to get that fixed. But we still met my goal of today which was to run our route and also go biking.

As for our surprise.....We came home from doing some bumming around and had a note from my mom saying, "Happy Anniversary....check the top of your microwave." I was thinking, "what the heck, a box?" And then to my very happy surprise I found out what it was and hollered, "It's an Aunt Tonya cake!!!!!!" Oh, you just don't understand. Tonya cake is better than ice cream. And that's saying a lot coming from me. I had hoped to have a Tonya cake for my birthday but she's TOTALLY booked for the next few months. Which is good for her, not for me =( But I understood and just planned to get one in the off season. Well, she said she had some extra batter yesterday and thought about us, knowing that our anniversary is coming up, and knowing that I'd LOVE to have a cake. So she surprised us. According to her, "It's the the prettiest or best decorated." But it my opinion it's one of the most beautiful cakes ever because it was made and given with love. Thank you bunches Aunt Tonya. It hit the spot! And what a wonderful reward after a decent week of workouts. Now, if I could just keep the dogs away from the cake....they keep getting whiffs, and whining. Ah, they have good taste, and no big surprise considering their momma's a cake lover.

OROC

Hello Everyone! Just wanted to share with you some exciting news. After speaking with David we've decided to register for our first 5k. So I registered us last night and we're good to go. I'm so very excited. It's the OROC (OutRun Ovarian Cancer) 5k that's held in Cleveland on August 25th. So, we're on our way. This is a first for me. Now David on the other hand, has raced in the Crescent City Classic 10k that was an annual race in New Orleans. The cool thing about this 5k is that it starts and ends at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and you run through downtown Cleveland. And according to the website there's music pre-race, post-race, and even along the route. We'll see. This should be fun. I may not be thinking that when I'm running but that's okay.

In looking for a race I saw that the Honolulu Marathon is being held the day after we leave Hawaii. Darn, we'll miss it. Yah, right. Like we would've been able to run that. Someday. But anyway, the week before they're going to have an Expo and stuff, so that's something we'll be able to check out while we're there. At this time I'd like to hope to run while on vacation. What would be better than running while enjoying the ocean at the same time? At least we'll be in good company while there, with all the other runners. Better get going. It's Thursday....surgery day at work for me.

Getting There

It's been a long past few days. But thankfully I'm more ahead than I thought I'd be with my schooling. I now have all my weekly assignments done for all 3 classes. My radiograph project is done, now all I have to do is organized and send it off. As for my videos, thanks to the gracious help of my mom I'm 99.9% done videotaping.

On Monday and Tuesday I met the 'rents for dinner and then came immediately back to work and spent about 1 hour per night here at work documenting all my assignment parts. Mom helped by coming with me performing the videotaping. It made it a lot easier because I wasn't so nervous in front of her (how could you be embarrassed in front of mom?) and I didn't feel rushed to get it done because I know she'd be patient (which she was). Not that my coworkers aren't patient, but I just feel as though I put them out by having to do it on work time and then if I have to do it over and possibly over again, I could see them getting frustrated. So thanks Mom, once again!

Also, I wanted to thank the 'rents for helping out this week with the kids. Having to work 11+ hours, then coming back to do the videos, and not having David home, the kids have been put on the back burner. The 'rents have helped by stopping over to check on them, letting them out to get some energy out of their system so they're not raring to go when I get home, and by feeding them. Thank you, thank you, thank you. By the way, Viking and Lily's issues are fine now. All is well...at least for the time being, knock on wood.

In addition to getting all my school work accomplished I'm still trucking away at my "training schedule" and am making small steps. So as you can see, it's been an exhausting beginning to the week and when my head hits the pillow I'm out! Hopefully the rest of the week won't be so full.

Now, it's off to work....Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go (whistling.....)

2 Miles

Ah, Monday morning. Don't you just love it? I can hear the moans and groans right now. I feel ya. Last night was probably one of the most horrible sleeping nights ever. I just couldn't sleep. It could've been a multitude of things. Viking tossing and turning from having his paw wrapped (I ended up taking it off only to have him continuously lick it...he got kicked out of the room at midnight), having run too late, thinking about David leaving on his business trip today, thinking about school, thinking about whether I was to run or bike today, and the anxiety of knowing I was to wake up at 4:30am and it was going to be Monday. So out of all of those I'm sure my body had a reason why it wanted to stay up. But I still got up at 4:30am with David to see him off and then I immediately went out for a run. I feel good but I know by 7pm this evening I will be done. To add onto that I was planning on staying after work to do some videotaping for school. That may just have to wait until tomorrow. Not only will I be tired but the kids will have been home all day by themselves and I'm sure they'll be hungry.

I have to share some good news with you. I ran 2 miles this morning...my furthest thus far. Woot! Thanks to David pushing me last night, I made some significant steps within the past 24 hours. He didn't let me stop when I wanted to and kept encouraging me when I felt I couldn't go any further. But this morning I did the same thing as last night then some and felt better. Basically my entire route is the same but I'm running more of it with less, if any, breaks. I am thrilled about it.

Hope everyone has a Marvelous Monday!

Monday's Thought For The Day

Dog Fiasco

I guess I should fill you in on Viking. All was going well until this evening. His nail cracked open again while out playing so I had to do a little "surgery". I decided that basically it had to come off. Considering it was 7:30pm on Sunday night I had to do it here. With the help of David I took the toenail clippers and got that nail off. Ouch! I'm a mean mama. I felt so bad. As the blood kept coming I managed to get it stopped and get a bandage back on his leg. Now, once again he's laying on the couch not knowing what to do. Don't worry though, I already got some pain medication in him and hopefully it took the edge off. I'll be sure to get him some antibiotics at work tomorrow.

Then, while this is happening, I look over to Lily to see that she's gimping around. Sounding like my dad, I say, "Now what!" So while I have the pain medication out for Viking, I slipped her a dose too. She must have pulled something while out on our walk a half hour previously. So basically what I'm saying is that we have a house full of injured animals and people.

Other than this stuff it was a good weekend. On Saturday David and I went for a morning bike ride. Then we bummed around and got our grocery shopping done. In addition, we had to do some clothes shopping for David. I love the guy but I think he's the only person I know who's weight fluctuates so much. It's a good thing because we're going down in size, but of course we couldn't still have his clothes from over a year ago that would still fit. Or when he adds a few pounds, we don't seem to have the right size. Where do they all go? I always tell him to put the clothes in storage but the only thing I'm guessing is that they end up in the pile for Salvation Army. Dunno. Anyway, I figured we need to get things now because at this rate he's only going to lose weight and since we're going to Hawaii in the middle of winter it's best for us to get them now instead of searching in November for shorts. We're also looking for some swim trunks for him too. No luck with the swim trunks but he did get 3 pairs of shorts. Good to go.

We spent the afternoon at Cedar Point walking around and taking some picture shots. We decided to finally get David's elephant ear and my funnel cake. Of course these can't be sold at the same places so we get his first and as we're walking to get mine we keep hearing, "what's that?" "Look! he's got an elephant ear." or "Where'd you get that?" It was kind of funny. Then once we got to the line for funnel cakes it kept happening and I think the funnel cake stand lost half their business to the elephant ear stand. David was pretty popular. Too funny. So I get my funnel cake and what a buzzkill! Man, it was thin and hard. Nothing like they used to be. I could've gotten a better one at the county fair. So I sat there and ate it because I didn't want to waste our $5 all at the same time thinking, "this is horrible" and that I was eating empty calories. Bummer.

That night we went to Friday's to meet up with the 'rents, J and Cass, and Cass's sister Rachel. We had a good time and even ran into my cousin Jillian.

Today started out with the guys going golfing and us girls getting soup and salad from the Olive Garden then of course heading to the mall. Nothing all that exciting. I took a short nap this afternoon, then we all met up for dinner at Cedar Villa. We came home, I took the dogs for a walk, the dog fiasco occured, then we took a run, and now I'm here.

Oh yeah, I got a lot of school work done this weekend and am done with 2 of my classes' assignments. Yay! So I'm in Week 6 out of 12 and have a significant chunk done. Now, just got to make my videos and I'm all set.

Injured Bubba

Poor Bubba. We were playing ball outside this morning after getting back from a bike ride. He was doing his usual thing when I looked down to get the ball and saw that his right front dewclaw was red. Upon closer examination I saw that it must have caught on something and broken near the quick.

I took him inside to have David give me a hand so I could take a closer look to see what we needed to do. I guess I was a bad mommy and let his nails get too long. I'm pretty religious about cutting them but of course the one time that I let them go 1 week too long this would happen. Vike was a trooper throughout the whole thing. He let me look at it and trimmed the excess nail off. If I did what I probably really needed to do, which would be cut the nail off where the crack was, then we'd have to sedate him. At this point though the nail is still pretty attached and not loose so I don't think that's the route we need to take. So we got some triple antibiotic cream on it, a little gauze, and some vetwrap and now he's unsure of what to do. Kinda doing the whole pouting thing. But David says, "Ah, let him pout and get all the attention he wants." So he's getting the attention and soaking it all up. I even went into my puppy pharmacy that I have in our medicine cabinet and found him some pain medication. So he's all hooked up and hopefully good to go. I'm not sure if he's glad to have a mommy that's a vet tech or not. If it would've been up to him he would've kept playing but oh well.

Injured List?

I had something bum me out today. For the past few days my right hamstring has been aching. I just figured it was because of normal discomfort from running. Not thinking much of it I went to bed last night thinking that I was going to go biking this morning. In doing a little reading I've found that I need to add some cross training to my workouts. Who would've knew. I thought that with my discomfort and needing to add cross training, today would be the perfect day to do so.

Well, I woke up this morning with a little too much discomfort and decided that even though I took a rest day on Wednesday, maybe I needed one more day of rest. What a bummer. I think I need to change some of my running days out for cross training at this time. Just a guess but I don't think I'm allowing my body to recuperate in between days, which may have lead to this problem. It could also be that it's my "bad leg" meaning the one I broke years ago. I still have aching pain in it from time to time. With the weather changing for the past few days it could be the problem. Dunno. As with everything, there's something to be learned. But at this point I've seen such a positive result from running that it's hard for me to consider changing my schedule. Actually, I don't have a set schedule. And I feel that I have done a very good job at listening to my body.

So this leaves me with, "What am I going to do tomorrow?" I don't know. But I can tell you that I'm just going to go with the flow and see what happens. I'd love to be able to do something tomorrow but I'm also going to have a realistic outlook. We'll just have to see...

Mental MP3

Rise and shine! Only 2 more work days this week. As of yesterday Sue has decided to run in the evenings due to her schedule. That leaves me in the morning with Ironman David. It's all good though because he pushes me harder and doesn't even know it. He always starts with me and keeps a good pace then when I have to stop for a moment he's gone. That just pushes me to catch up...which will never happen. I must say it's harder for me to run alone due to the sound factor. I like to hear a little more than just myself breathing and feet hitting the ground. So I busted out the mental MP3 player today. Yes, you read right. I just sing to myself in my mind. People may think I'm crazy for doing this but no one knows what I'm thinking or doing in my mind. And trust me, it kept me going. A little Scissor Sisters (I don't feel like dancing....), Kanye West (God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down.....The only thing that I pray is that me feet don't fail me now), Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Somewhere over the rainbow...), then back to Scissor Sisters (She's my man...) Hmmm...wonder what my mind will have in store for tomorrow. We'll have to see.

I had a realization the other day. Maybe not a realization but more an observation. When we lived on base I would try to go swim laps in the morning. And for some reason it just didn't go all that well. I just figured it was because I was out of shape. Which was probably true to a certain extent. However, I was taking a shower the other day and put my face under the water and found that I had to move my face immediately out of the water. It's almost as though I was claustrophobic or scared of being under water, like when I was real young. Oh, maybe this is why swimming didn't go so well. I guess this has been going on for awhile, but I never thought about it before. The thing is that this is totally weird to me because I was basically a fish when I was a kid. If there was a pool, I was in it. And then I was even on the swim team. What happened? I didn't have anything traumatic happen. Actually, I did, but that was way long ago, even before I was an avid swimmer. Someone tried to hold me under water and I couldn't get out. Maybe it does just come down to being out of shape with my lungs no longer up to par. But I don't know about attempting to make them back up to par...I don't really like that suffocation feeling, if you know what I mean. I guess I'm not really making a point here but like I said, it's just an observation I had...my how things change as you age.

Make A Pearl

Most of us can afford to take a lesson from an oyster.

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritations get unto his shell. He does not like them; he tries to get rid of them. But when he cannot get rid of them he settles down to make one of the most beautiful things in the world. He uses the irritation to do the loveliest thing that an oyster has a chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription-make a pearl.

It may have to be a pearl of patience, but, anyhow, make a pearl. And it takes faith and love to do it.

~Harry E Fosdick

School Anxiety

Well I'm in week 6 of my summer semester. This a good thing, but a bad thing at the same time. It means I'm closer to the end but that also means that my large practical assignments are due sooner too. Yikes. Just got some anxiety about that. Once again I have to video tape myself doing various things. And it just seems like so much to me. It's stuff that I do on a normal day to day basis but as it's happening I must explain, how, why, etc. In addition all the videos must be by the textbook. Some of our protocols are totally different than the textbook making things harder. In addition, I have to make time at work for these things. It's a surgical preparation and assistance class so everything has to do with surgery. Considering we now only perform procedures on one day a week that day is quite hectic and most times I probably look like I'm running around with my head cut off. And as with most of my criteria I'm learning some of the stuff is things that I do not do...only the doctors do. Such as exams decide what blood work to run, etc. Why am I doing this? I dunno. As with everything I must take it one step at a time....of course that's if I don't lose my sanity first.

That Yucky Feeling

So if you've read any of my posts in the past month you know that I've attempted to run and surprisingly have succeeded in my attempt. And more than likely people are probably sick of hearing about it. But as expected I have found my life changed wanting or mostly even needing to have that run in my day, so my life has become very "involved" with this new hobby. As time goes on I've also been trying to educate myself. I've picked up a magazine and have looked at books here and there. I figure if I'm going to do this, I better do it right.

So I was reading the magazine yesterday and it's talking about how whatever you eat the night before truly affects how your body reacts to the run the next morning. Shoot! Did I feel that this morning. It was kind of a free for all weekend when it came to food mostly because our schedules were out of whack. Yesterday when we went to the shower I waited to eat lunch because I knew salads were to be served. We didn't eat until approximately 3pm and then there was Aunt Tonya cake. I CAN'T pass up Aunt Tonya cake. So by the time I got home I was still full while David was hungry. In the end I didn't have dinner last night.

I also slept horribly last night. I'm not sure if it was because of my weekend diet, the anxiety of knowing I was to get up early, knowing I had to work today, tight muscles, or what. The actual run today was fine but then I got home and I about died. I haven't felt that bad since the first day I ran. The kind where you just want to lay on your back and pass out. Where the sweat keeps coming, you feel dizzy and all. Once again I figure it's because my diet was out of whack this weekend and I was having a bit of dehydration/hypoglycemia. Not sure. I got a small glass of Gatorade and some crackers into me and now I'm doing great and ready to take on the world. Isn't it amazing how the body works?

Monday's Thought For The Day

Father's Day Weekend

Man, do summer weekends fly by. Let's recap.

Friday night we met up with the 'rents for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's walked around the mall and then went out bumming/shopping out on 250. We picked up a walk/run pedometer at MC Sports and figured I'd try it out.

Saturday morning David headed to work for a few hours so I woke up with him. I spent some time calibrating the pedometer and headed out. Needless to say it counted the walk steps very accurately but not so much the run strides. I tried it again tonight and it over counted again. It's not overcounting by much but I think I need to take time to recalibrate my run stride and start graphing what I get each run. So we'll have to see about that. It also does other things such as run time and calories burned so I think once I get it straightened out it will give me a rough estimate of what I'm running. In addition, I'm still using the gmaps site so I figured with those things combined I should be set. As for the run Saturday morning it was kind of rough but I have a few reasons why I think it was. It had already started to get warm, I was running by myself for the first time in a long time, and I was focusing so much on the whole pedometer thing.
Later in the morning we hung our last of our red, white, blue decorations (as of now). And the 'rents stopped by and took a few minutes to powerwash the back side of our garage, so we can continue to paint it here sometime in the near future.
In the afternoon the guys headed up to Cleveland for the Indians game. They had a great time and David was glad to be able to spend some time on Father's Day weekend with both dads. It's too bad the Tribe lost.
Mom and I of course bummed around the area making some returns at stores and searching for a new mirror for our downstairs bathroom. We found one, now it's just got to be put up. We even had some time for pedicures, which was well needed by my sore feet and ankles. Friday's was the restaurant of choice for dinner and by that time the guys had returned. We finished up the night by going to Kalahari for some sweet treats.

Sunday we woke up and I snuck out while David was in and out of sleep. I headed to McDonalds and came home to give David breakfast in bed for Father's Day. Hey, give me a break, I can't cook. It's the thought that counts.
Then the guys headed out to golf while us girls, including Ande' went to our longtime friend, Meghann's baby shower. It was great to spend some time with Ande' and catch up with some old friends including Katie, Aunt Deb, Lindsay, Joy, Aunt Tonya, and of course Meghann.
We went out to dinner with David's 'rents, came home, I went for a well needed run, and here I am writing this as David watches Apocolypto. So not so much home improvement stuff this weekend but more spending time with family and friends, which is always good.

It's about time for bed. Happy Father's Day! Night!

TGIF

So what are everyone's plans for the weekend? I'm not sure what's all going on here. I do know that David's going to the Indians game tomorrow and I have a baby shower on Sunday. So what all will happen between those things I have no idea. I'm sure my mom and I will find something to do. And you never know with me. David might come home and I have the downstairs bedroom finished. Ya, right. That's a weekend task in itself. But you know what I mean.

We ended up taking the morning off for of running. Sue wasn't going to be able to make it. I probably should have still run considering any day I haven't been able to make it, Sue still runs, but I started wearing my new shoes this week. Everything was going great until yesterday when I wore too short of socks and the back heel of the shoe rubbed my heel raw. Ouch! In addition, since I don't go into work until noon today it was a nice feeling to be able to sleep in and boy did I. I haven't slept in that long in a long time. It was only until 8:30-9 but it felt good considering I've been getting up at 5am everyday and for some reason my body wants to get up early on the weekends too. Not 5am mind you, but still early. I haven't decided whether I'll run this weekend. Maybe tomorrow since David just called to let me know he was going to pick up a few hours tomorrow morning. We'll see...just go with the flow.

I guess I better tie this up since I gotta head into work. TGIF

Scan And Copy

I started a new project. Nothing big. Yesterday at work Dr. B and I were talking in general and she was saying how she's just started going around her house and documenting items, numbers, etc. for insurance purposes. It's one of those things that you know you should do but you never get around to it. So that got me thinking. In every place in which we've lived I've taken pictures and video. Considering we're lived in 4 places, that's a lot. But for some reason I haven't documented our newest location. In addition I've never made copies of important documents to keep off location if something were to occur. So this morning I've been scanning and got pretty far. Then I got to David's Marine Corps paperwork. Yikes! Talk about an encyclopedia. And I'm not talking about 1 volume, I'm talking about a whole set! Considering all of his medical issues, disability, etc. there's so much there. Ah, that I'll leave for tonight. Then I'll have to get the video camera out and document some more. Like I said, it's something that you should do and you never do it. You just never know what may happen.

Another "project" I've been working on is a new header for the blog using photoshop. I'm TOTALLY new to the whole photoshop thing so I've been teaching myself with the help of searching online and finding tutorials. Needless to say it's a task that is moving very slowly and I may find that my finished product I may not use, but it's a learning process.

As usual I went for a run this morning. David's joined us this week. I swear that boy can move. Even after 1-2 weeks off from him burnt arm he's kicking our butts. The funny thing is that in looking at him you wouldn't see a runner. But trust me on this, he can. After every turn he gets farther and farther away. But I'm happy for him. As for me, I'm up to 1.5 miles running. I must say I was kind of disheartened the other day. The only way I could figure out distance was to use my car and odometer to take a guess. Considering a specific landmark doesn't mark 0.5 miles or 1 mile, etc. it's not easy to measure. So for awhile there when I thought we were going 1.3 miles I think it was a little less. So I started to research pedometers only to find that there aren't too many out there that work properly. In addition not many measure walking and running at the same time. And since we run some, walk some, run some, that'd be hard for something to read. So they recommend using GPS. And that's not something that's in our budget right now. Then I found a site called Gmaps Pedometer. You can map out a route and it tells you how long it is and then depending on your weight and distance how many calories you burn. So I guess I'll have to stick with that for now. If anyone has any recommendations on types of gadgets that are helpful I'd be glad to hear about them. Even if we can't afford them now, maybe we can in the future.

On another note. I was looking in the mirror the other day and noticed that my collar bone area is more defined. Originally I thought it was because I had a tank top on and since it's now just getting warmer out maybe it's because I haven't seen myself in a tank top in awhile. But as I analyzed it more, and talked to David, the area is definitely more defined. Why is it that your body works from the outside in, meaning you lose weight in your legs and chest first, then your tummy? Kinda crazy. Whatever. I feel good and that's all that matters. Time to go to work. See ya!

Cedar Point and Their Great Ideas

I feel I've been doing quite well with my "Positive Thoughts" thing I've been doing but I got to post about something "negative" today. As you know, David and I ended up getting Cedar Point passes and have been using them on a regular basis...going at least once a week. We walk the park and ride a ride here or there.

Well, today we walked from the front of the park through Frontier Trail and then exited the park near the Gemini, took a stroll on the beach (that they say isn't there...totally different story), and then went to enter the park near Ocean Motion. I didn't think it'd be an issue but when we went to enter the park again the worker (who was a foreigner, no big surprise) took my card, swiped it, and the machine beeped. Then all the sudden he said, "it didn't beep." I looked at him and said, "yes it did." He then goes on to say, "did you already go to the park today?" I said, "yes". Then he says, "Did you get your hand stamped?" I said, "no, we have season passes, why would I have to get a stamp." He then turns my card around and in my opinion rudely states, "read the last 2 lines of the back of the card." I read it. Come to find out even if you have a season pass you still have to get a stamp for re-admission if coming back in the same day. According to him they were finding that people would enter, then get a stamp and leave, then hand their pass off to someone else. So now you can no longer use your pass more than once in one day. I get the point, but come on. You could also get your hand stamped, walk out, and while your stamp is still wet, put it on another person's hand/arm. My other thought is, our picture's on the pass, it's not my issue if the person checking passes doesn't look at the picture and realize it's not the right person.

Considering this situation I was kind of steamed and tried to blow it off, but you know me, I gotta analyze it. It frustrates me as a person of the Sandusky community that stuff like this is constantly happening. Going back to the beach thing. I remember back in high school my mom was taking me and some friends to the beach. When asked where she was going at the toll booth she said, "the beach." And the person said, "there is no beach." Say what? We live on a body of water...and trust me, there's a beach there. It's as though they try to keep the locals away instead of welcoming them. I realize that if it weren't for Cedar Point Sandusky wouldn't be what it is. The bottom line is that we depend on it literally for our survival. On the flip side though, what else does Cedar Point do for us? Knock off $10 at Christmastime for passes, and that's about it. Otherwise the pass prices continue to rise, along with food prices, etc. And we have to deal with the traffic and tourists in the summer.

Wouldn't it be great to have a "locals day". A day that's specifically set aside for locals only. Or what about opening early for locals. I'm not talking everyday. I'm talking even once a year. Something simple. I also understand that Cedar Point probably thinks "well, what does the city do for us? People from here won't even help us by working here, that we have to go to foreign countries to get workers." That's right, people in the area have finally gotten smart enough not to work there. They work you to death, holding the summer bonus over your head, only to have you fired or get you to quit right before the end of the year. The amount of foreign workers is crazy. I just can't believe it. I don't even want to know what they tell these people, because any one of them I've spoken with or heard from has said, "if we knew it was going to be this, we wouldn't have come." I honestly feel bad for the workers. I couldn't imagine going to a foreign country, learning a different language. Not to mention you have to be able to figure out foreign currency. That's just crazy. Amd no wonder they walk away thinking Americans are rude and obnoxious, considering the type of people they have to deal with in that type of situation.

I don't see Cedar Point going anywhere soon, and I don't want it to go anywhere, but I just feel it needs to be run tighter. Appreciate the workers, so you can keep them and get more of them, making the park cleaner and more up to par. And appreciate the locals so they keep coming back.

Don't get me wrong. I love Cedar Point and I'm thrilled that we have season passes, but I just had to voice my opinion. Now I'm done.

Rest In Peace Mr. Wizard

In checking in with the news this morning I saw that Mr. Wizard passed away yesterday. I always wondered what happened to him. I remember waking up every morning and watching him do all of his experiments on Nickelodeon and thought it would have been the coolest thing to be on the show. I wonder how many kids became scientists, engineers, etc. because of him.....

Monday's Thought For The Day

We Break The Rules

As usual, we had a full weekend. With David being on call it was also a weekend full of interruptions. I won't complain though, because those interruptions allow us to pay for what we need/want to do around the house and in our spare time. Of course, I'll fill you in on what all happened this weekend.

Saturday morning I tore down the paneling in the downstairs bedroom (we call it the cat room). It was eventful. Needless to say there was a lot of "Son of a -----!" going on. I swear that paneling was out to get me. I have a few war wounds....ran my head into the crowbar that was on the kennel, paneling fell on my face near me eye, leaving cuts, and my knees are tore up from nails still in the paneling. Ah, whatever, it's down. It will be some work getting the walls into shape. There's glue that was "helping" hold the paneling up, which we'll have to sand and good amount of patching that will need to be done. I took pictures, but I'll post them at a later date when the room is done.

That afternoon I took the dogs and met mom for the Ohio Bike Week Parade. That was fun, but near the end the bike's got backed up and were reving their engines. Not a good situation for the pups. They still had a good time getting out and so did we.

Saturday evening we had both sets of rent's over to celebrate Viking's 5th birthday. Viking could hardly wait to get his licker on that cake. As usual, he LOVED it. And the other's enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning we woke up and David immediately got a call for work. I figured I'd continue to get things done while he did his thing. So, on to the downstairs bathroom. Yep, started and finished today. I headed to Home Depot on my own armed with a list of items, came home, and got started. David helped me get things accomplished between calls. We decided to leave the paneling since it's such a small area and considering my experience on Saturday with taking the paneling down in the other room, it was staying! And we decided also to go with black walls. You may ask "why?" Yeah, I know. The books all say "don't paint a small area a dark color because it makes it look smaller." But whatever. We break the rules. We had extra black paint from the kitchen and it helps us continue our motif onto the other room. We like it and better yet, it's one more room that's finished. Everything is back into place with the exception of the doors for the cabinet. We need to pick up new knobs and then they'll be up. We even used spray paint to change the lightswitch plates, changed the light fixture, and spray painted hooks that are behind the door. Sorry there aren't better pictures. That's what happens when you have limited space.

Before

After

We also finished up David's room today. Once again, between calls David helped by placing the finish around the Willy Wonka door and I went around touching up the walls where needed. We're still searching for appropriate curtains/valences but here's the finished product.....

Time After Time

You always hear people, including myself, saying, "time flies". And we all know this. It just amazes me. Even a day in itself. I woke up this morning around 5am and when I was driving home, going through the thoughts in my head of what's all happened throughout the day, it seems as though this morning was several days ago. Weird. But then on the flip side I often have the feeling as though "well, that was just yesterday" when it was actually a few years back. Have I totally confused you yet? For some reason I've had a few things happen today that have put time in perspective for me once again.

To begin, I was re-packing surgical packs at work. Since they must be sterilized through the autoclave, we have to re-pack any that aren't used for so many months. Everything is labeled as to what the pack consists of, the date, and the initials of the person packing them. It was crazy to see some from just over a year ago. In addition, there were some with the initials of a co-worker that no longer works with us. I kind of had one of those sentimental moments like they have in Survivor at the end of the season where they collect former player's torches and have fond thoughts of the person. Anyway, I know I'm crazy, whatever. And then there were packs that I had labeled from back in December. It was one of those things that I see December as being just yesterday. I can't believe it's June.

Next, tomorrow is Viking's 5th Birthday. My little boy is getting so old. I know he's not human, but he's my baby and it saddens me to see him get older and see him getting white hair on his face. I don't even want to think of him getting older. I know it's a far cry from seeing your own personal child grow up but gosh, it sometimes hurts. I just have to remind myself to cherish every moment that I have with him and I know that I will have MANY more. Tomorrow we'll have a little party and have cake for the pups. I must say it's pretty sad that our dogs know that whenever they hear "happy birthday to you..." they know that a yummy treat follows. Ah, they're not spoiled, just loved.

Finally, as with most holidays David and I like to decorate. So tonight we added a few more red, white, and blue decorations outside. We get done for the night and come inside and David says, "It's hard to believe but in only 2-3 months we'll be getting ready for Halloween." Ahhhhh. Stop. Time, just stop for a moment.

Most of you know that I'm in a hurry at all times always working towards the next thing and not enjoying what's happening in the present. I know it's sad. I miss some fun stuff. So with my Positive Thoughts and Self Awareness this is something that I've been working on too. I'm getting there but I also am not going to set myself up for failure. This will be something that I'm constantly working on as with all other aspects of my life, but once again, you got to have a goal.


Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.

~Francis Gray

Running In The Rain

Today I had my first experience with running in the rain. Boy, was it fun. And I'm not being sarcastic. To begin, it was a misty rain and by the end decent sized big drops that were coming steady. The temperature was in the low 60's. It's been progressively getting warmer and warmer everyday, so it was a nice break in the weather that I've been having every morning. Of course every once in awhile I had a hard time seeing as I was trying to keep from the rain going into my eyes or the drops of water coming down my forehead into my eyes, but whatever. I felt like a kid playing out in the rain. What a release of stress.

Something else I noticed is that I'm not focusing so much on breathing anymore. When I first started running I didn't know how to breath properly and after a week or so I started to get into a rhythm and thought about it as I ran. As time goes on I find myself thinking about it less and less. Then today it was as though I was on the flip side. I hadn't thought about it at all and then finally realized, I don't need to anymore. My body compensates when needed as though it's second nature.

Last week I was very energized on the first day, and then my energy continued to diminish as the week continued. Today I feel just as energized if not more than I was yesterday. Of course I could be real tired tomorrow but the way I look at is I'm one more day energized than I was last week. Moving in the right direct. In addition, the past 2 days I've woken up by myself at 5:00am before my alarm goes off (5:15am). Of course I still set my alarm to be on the safe side but I can tell my internal clock is starting to reset itself.

I've been running for over a month now and I am amazed at the progress I've made. I feel confident in saying that I'm actually running. As with everything there's room for improvement, but I'm actually doing it and I didn't let it defeat me. How sweet is that? Pretty darn awesome. Since I've met my goal of being able to actually run I feel it's time for a new goal. My goal is to do a 5K by the end of summer or early fall. Hey, don't know if it's possible, but you always gotta have a goal, right?

Ankle Pain

Time to update you on what happened this weekend. On Friday the guys, which included David, his dad, my dad, and Joey, went to the Indians vs Tigers game up in Cleveland. I guess it was an awesome game and the best David's ever seen in person. So that was cool for them. My mom, Sita, and I went out to eat and Chili's, went to the mall to bum around, and then went to Kalahari for some caramel apples (yum!). I then went home and crashed. David was to call me when they were heading home. I never received a call because he was worried he'd wake me and I didn't budge when he arrived home. I didn't even hear Viking woof when he heard David walk upstairs. It wasn't until I rolled over at 3am that I saw he was home. Yep, I was exhausted.

Saturday we were planning on sleeping in, but do you think we could? Nah. We awoke to find that David's blister had swollen even more and that he was feeling quite numb/tingly in his arm. So off to the emergency room we went. I hate going to the emergency room for non-emergency stuff but considering it's a workman's comp thing and our urgent care center isn't up fully running as it should we just headed to the hospital. Of course they said the best thing would be to keep the bubble there but they can understand his reasoning due to the numbness. And considering the circumstances said the next best thing would be to release the pressure and debride the skin back. So that's what they did. Hehehe, I had fun watching that thing release the pus. Why do I like to watch stuff like that? Dunno. Anyway, it was kind of painful after they debrided the tissue back and allowed air to get to it. After bandaging him back up and saying the rest of the burn looked better, we headed home for David to get some vicodin into him. Oh boy, he was out for the rest of the day.

That afternoon mom, dad, and I did some painting on the garage and then all the sudden it was a race against time as the wind shifted and the weather started to get threatening. We got another side done of painting but were forced to stop due to downpour. It was perfect timing though. The wind picked up, we got everything in the garage, and then it started pouring. Mom and I headed to Kohl's for awhile to check out running shoes and the 4th of July stuff. Then we came home and had both sets of 'rents over to watch the Indians and Cavs games.

Sunday morning we had to get up early due to me having kennel duty for work. After that we did some bumming around, then I did school work, took a nap, then more school work, and just had a lazy day due to the rain. Hopefully we'll get to Cedar Point sometime this week, but we'll have to see due to the rain forecast.

After 3 days rest I ran this morning. I expected it to be raining so I wore my old running shoes, not my new ones. Even after several days rest my ankles are killing me with every step. And then after I get done they just ache even while sitting. Not sure what's going on. It's the outside of both ankles right behind the bone that protrudes out. I even got up 20 minutes early this morning to make sure I stretched enough. I can only hope that it's the shoes and with the new ones it will get better. I think that's wishful thinking though. Then I worry that it's maybe my crocs. And that I'm not getting enough support the rest of the time due to wearing those. Maybe it's just how I run. Maybe it's the strain I'm putting on my ankles. Dunno. Any help would be appreciated for people that know about this stuff. Is there a stretch that I can do that can loosen the tension or something? As stated in a previous post I feel like such a novice when it comes to this stuff. Even when I was looking at shoes I was thinking, "what exactly do I need?" Okay, that one says they're for running. Let's start there...." But then they have all these different designs or options. I'm figuring that's more of a marketing type tool but I don't know. How do you decide what's best for you? I guess that's why they have those stores where they specifically fit you for your shoes. But where would I find that around here? Whatever, I got some new shoes, let's start there and we'll just have to see.

Hope everyone has a Happy Monday!

Monday's Thought For The Day

Goin' To The Finals

Yay! Go Cavs!!!!

The Toothless Bean

It's 11:32pm and I have no idea why I'm sitting here writing. It's the end of the week and I am fully exhausted. Since Tuesday I've been getting up at 5:15am for morning runs. They're getting harder everyday due to the heat rising and me being more tired whether it be from less sleep or physically tired. Today I ended up taking the day "off" just because I needed to have more sleep. This week we've been short people at work meaning 2 doctors are relying on me for everything. It's not that bad considering I run on adrenaline but when I crash, it comes pretty hard and I am just exhausted. So as with my running plan Saturday and Sunday will be rest days and then I will be back at it. I do wish I was a little more educated it the whole running thing. I'm still watching what I'm eating but at the same time I do know I need certain foods to keep me going. In addition, I'm looking at running shoes considering I'm running in my old ones that are still what I use for work somedays. I don't know what I'm looking for or what I need. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this but I just want to do stuff right and not wrong.

On a different note, I took Lily in to have her teeth cleaned yesterday. Want to guess how many extractions she had? Well, if you guessed 13, then you're right. Poor girl. FYI this isn't normal. And it's not like we have to work hard to extract them. Basically they fall out. I've been watching them and knew she needed to get them out so that's why I did her dental now instead of waiting until August (when we did it last year) to clean them. As with many of her other issues, this is an enigma to us which we are trying to figure out. She's only almost 4 and if you remember last year she had to have teeth extracted too. It so confusing because I try to take such good care of our pet's teeth by brushing and all. For instance Viking is almost 5 and he's never had to have his teeth cleaned. Now mind you each animal is different but still. So we're trying to investigate Lily's issue. We're doing a culture and sensitivity on her tooth root to see what happens and she was also started on a brand new vaccine released by Pfizer that makes a claim to reduce the type of bacteria in their mouth that causes periodontitis. So we'll see. I would do anything for her but at the same time I don't want her to be put through all that testing like she had to be when we first adopted her. It's not worth her pain whether it be emotional or physical. She's otherwise happy and I must say I think she's happier with them out than in.

Not sure what we have going on this weekend. Right now all I'm focused on is sleep....Zzzzzz....