HALF MARATHON

... here I come!

Despite my recent injury, I have decided to run the Helvetia Half Marathon. I know that some folks have been talking about maybe doing it, and I really want to do it. I feel like I just need to prove to myself that I can. Plus, I really don't want to suck at the Hood to Coast later this year.

I have to let people know I'm doing this so that I don't quit. Seriously... I figure if I tell people, I won't let myself NOT run this race. I've put myself on a pretty rigorous rehab schedule for my ankle- which is healing quite nicely now (pics to come?) so I will start actually running in two weeks.... TAKE THAT 2 month healing time. Hydrotherapy... and some great homeopathic rememdies are my saving grace. Of course, I'm going to take it slow until I know I'm not in danger of reinjuring myself, but I'm so excited.

Also, I've kind of debated with my resolutions for this year, but basically I want to run as much as I can. I feel as if my health in general will improve naturally if I just go with one thing.

I love company, so if you are wanting to join the race, or just run... feel free. I'm not the best or the fastest, but I want to do it.

Many Things on My Mind Today

1. Why I shouldn't Be Out in Public:

Because I am probably the clumsiest person EVER. No really. And right now it's even worse because I'm already limping around because of aforementioned ankle. I was at Fred Meyer buying cereal- I had coupons and they were on sale so how could I say no?- and walked (hobbled) over to the natural foods section. They have these black non-slip mats where the computer stations are and there is a station in one of the natural food aisles, so as I was slowly shuffling my way down the aisle and COMPLETELY paying attention (I really was trying to be super aware as to not reinjure myself and even saw the freakin' obstacle-mat but just couldn't avoid it) my bad foot caught the edge of the mat. I tried to steady myself with my cart, but then realized that carts have wheels as it started to roll away from my body... so I was slowly being stretched out in the aisle... foot still by the mat, hands on cart. Luckily no one was in the aisle to see this ridiculous scene and my only consolation is that I don't think anyone really ever looks at those security tapes unless they have a good reason too. Maybe I gave them a good reason to. Oh well.

2. Movies- where are the good ones?

I'm just biding my time until the next Underworld: Rise of the Lycans movie comes out, but really, I haven't seen an awesome, blow your hair back exciting movie in such a long time. It's got me a little depressed. I love movies. I despise getting all excited for one and then being disappointed. Got any rental suggestions?

3. I Need a Hair TRIM- not a CUT.

I have a lady that I love to go to for all my hair needs, but she is usually booked up unless you make an appointment WAY ahead of time, so random decisions to have one's hair done is never really possible with her. I've gone places to get those in-between trims until I can get in to see my lady, but inevitably the person with the scissors goes overboard even if I say "only cut off 1/2 inch of hair please" and halfway through I look at the ground to see 4 inch locks of my hair on the floor. So I may resort to cutting my own hair again, but I hate doing that because I can't do what I want to do with it so I just end up trimming the ends and not getting the shape I want. I'm not sure if I can make it another day with my current cut, I just may have a breakdown. I'm going to guilt my sister into cutting it before she goes back to school.... or bribe.

4. All I Want to Do is Listen to Music...

Good music. I'm getting tired of what I have so if you have suggestions please let me know.

5. French Braids-

Can someone show me how to french braid MY OWN hair? I like it braided, but I just can't do it on myself. Actually, I'm crap at doing other people's hair in french braids as well.

Ok... now I feel a little better.

The Gory Details

As you can see, it's no longer baseball sized or even golf ball sized. The swelling is less on my ankle and now more all over my foot/ankle/calf.

Here you can see the difference between my "good" ankle and the sprained one. So just imagine a golf ball protruding from the outside of my left ankle and that's what it would have looked like right after I did it. Don't worry... I'll take more pics as the bruise changes and the swelling moves so you can see my sad body try to deal with this.

Yeehaw 2009!

If the past couple of days is any indication of how 2009 will go, can we just fast forward to 2010? Please?



1. Ok, so I knew it would happen eventually, but I was just counting on the declining economy to save me; my townhouse sold so I had to move. Yuck. And, might I add, that it sold for far too much- more than I would have paid for it, but I absolutely LOVED that house. I also hate packing things up and lugging them back down the three flights of stairs. I have heavy furniture and boxes of clothing and shoes that outweigh me. I had to do this all with a sprained ankle.



2. I sprained my ankle VERY badly. I thought I broke it and so did the ER doctor until they took about a million x-rays. I was walking down my upper flight of stairs carrying a very light box and was almost to my living room landing when I hit the last stair wrong, heard a gigantic gut-wrenching POP-CRACK and went sprawling into my living room still holding on to my box of stuff. My first instinct was to get up off the floor, but as soon as I moved my leg I realized that I was going to need to stay down. Then I realized that the loud sound I heard wasn't my box of stuff hitting the floor, it was me. I rolled over and slid my boot off (my first thought was if I broke my ankle they would have to cut my boot off of my hugely swollen foot- and I had just gotten them for Christmas so I would be damned if my boot was to lay in pieces on the ER floor). Before I took my sock off I could see the golf-ball sized lump on my ankle- and it was growing ever larger. Luckily I had my cell phone in my pocket so I got it out. For about two seconds I thought about calling 911, but then I began to think logically so I called my mother who said she would be right over and not to move. So I did the only thing I could think of doing and rolled a couple feet to my couch and put my leg up on it to keep it elevated and from getting any bigger. And then I felt it. It was so strange how delayed the pain was, but it was so bad I thought I was going to throw up or pass out, or both.

My mom got to my house about 10 minutes later (but it felt like two years later), put ice on my now baseball sized lump and made a splint from cardboard and bubble wrap. We drove to the ER and waited forever for a doctor to see me- but it was a little busy. They liked my mom's homemade splint and especially liked the bubble wrap, but they had to cut it off of me to look at my ankle. As soon as the doctor looked he said,"I want to say that it is definitely broken, but we have to get some x-rays first". So they wheeled me into the x-ray room and took pictures from every possible angle of my foot and ankle. Seriously, they just kept moving me around and taking more and more x-rays. Then they came back and said it wasn't broken but that it was severely sprained and that I was going to have to keep it wrapped, on ice and in a stabilizer for a while. The estimated healing time is 2-3 months...

I almost choked. I just bought a gym membership. I'm training to run the Hood to Coast race this summer. I'm just getting to where I like running again because it's getting easier for me. AUGH! I was told to pretty much stay off of it for the first couple of weeks and then use it minimally until it has healed. I'm going to do all I can to speed the healing process up. If you have any good tips let me know! For now I'm just going to have to settle with mat Pilates (only the moves where I don't have to stand or put much weight on my feet) and swimming only with my arms (we call these 'pulls', and they are a great upper body workout and anaerobic exercise.


3. I feel like I'm on hold in life. I've totally said this before however I feel like I'm ready to move forward with certain things and when I start to, I only get so far before someone puts the brakes on it and I'm stuck again. It's like waiting on the starting blocks for the race to begin- every muscle twitching and ready to fire and propel you forward but when you finally have the go ahead, you hear the false start whistle and you have to start over and wait again. GAH! I need the advanced copy of my life so I can read ahead and see that it turns out ok.

Also, I should have taken pictures of my ankle when it first happened, but I didn't. I will take some later tonight and post them for your grotesque enjoyment. The bruising has started to subside a little and the swelling has gone WAY down, but it also seems as if the swelling has started to spread out and make my whole foot puffy instead of just my ankle.

I wonder if they will give me my x-rays if I ask...

A Little Christmas Cheer...?

I keep hearing people everywhere relive comical and/ or disastrous holiday stories and that got me thinking... so here is one of my holiday stories for you.

In 1st grade my family lived in Monument, Colorado. It is gorgeous there, especially in the winter. We lived in some townhomes in a cute neighborhood and my parents threw a holiday party for all of our friends and neighbors a couple of days before Christmas. Of course, they invited out next door neighbors, who had three children of their own who I occasionally played with. The oldest daughter of theirs was one year older than me, and the middle child was a year younger so we got along alright... not best friends or anything, but we still had someone to play with on snow days on when our other friends were out of town.

Anyhow, so everyone came over for the Christmas party. My mom goes all out for the holidays and the house was decorated so perfectly it looked like a spread in Southern Living magazine. She had baked all day and the dining room table was overflowing with delicous holiday cookies, cakes, pies, candies and all of the normal party food. Us kids were downstairs playing in between my room and my sisters room (what kids can resist a water bed and bin after bin of Barbies?). We had all the dress up clothes out and every toy my sister and I owned on the floor and in the hallway between our rooms. We would play and then run upstairs to grab snacks and steal away to our toy bungalow again.

Our neighbor's oldest daughter- let's just call her Jessie-kept running upstairs to grab massive handfuls of Christmas hard candies. She would take a couple giant scoops and come running downstairs just to plop herself in the corner and eat ALL the candy she brought. Eventually there were no more candies left and she took to playing with Duplo blocks in the hallway. I had run to the bathroom at the other end of hallway to fill my teapot with water so we could have tea party (duh) when I heard horrific sounds coming from doorway of my sister's room. I turned to look down the hallway and all I saw was a stream of candy colored vomit hitting the hallway floor.

If you are like me, then puke is one of the worst bodily fluids to have to deal with and I don't do very well hearing it, smelling it, seeing it or thinking about it. Actually, I will do anything to avoid it. ANYTHING. I think this comes from the many traumatizing experiences I have had with it... or have had happen to me. I have an arsenal of puke stories that I should compile into a puke story novel, but it would make me far too ill to relive each story.

Back to the story. I panicked and screamed bloody murder - but to no avail. I ran the opposite direction in a blind fury up the stairs to alert my mother of the atrocity happening downstairs. She had heard my screams and met me on the landing half way, a bewildered look on her face. Other parents followed. Hot salty tears streaked down my face as I tried to explain what was happening, but loud sobs were the only sounds that escaped. My mom ran down the stairs with me in her arms until she reached the rainbow colored puddle on the floor. And what ensued was even more frightening... Jessie was still going. I've never seen more fluid come out of one body before. The hall floor, the hall walls and the first 4 feet of my sister's room were covered in that putrid multi-colored liquid. At this point, half the party was downstairs staring wide-eyed at one little girl in hysterics and another expelling 2 pounds of Christmas candy onto off-white carpet and walls.

So... Merry Christmas... and don't let anyone eat a whole bowl of Christmas candy alone.

P.S.- I didn't really hang out with the neighbors anymore. I know it wasn't their intention to scar me further, but I just couldn't chance being around people that would go around puking up a storm.

Happy Holiday Extravaganza!

I love the holidays because I have an excuse to make goodies and have people over to eat them... so yesterday that's what I did! It was great to see friends that I don't often get to talk to or spend time with.

... some of the spread before everyone came. Let me just tell you that I don't enjoy anything more than I enjoy cooking for other people. And I love it when everyone can sit around and eat good food and have good conversations, or good "discussions" as it were.

Also, I don't care for Oprah, but that is a different story.

We kind of had a "pass the camera" sort of evening, since I usually bring out my camera and then forget to take pictures. Here ae some of my favorites...

As you can see, some folks like to get a little artsy...

but there were some great candid shots. I can't post them all, but I will try to get them out here and there for everyone to see.

Happy Holidays everyone! Enjoy your friends and family and make great food!

Also, I've found a set of classic holiday movies at Costco, so if you are in the mood to watch some Frosty the Snowman, or Rudolf, come on over!

HOUSE!

Ok, I finally got around to taking some pics of my house... granted it doesn't look as awesome in pictures... and I didn't take pics of the whole house because who really wants to see me closets, laundry room, and bathrooms? The pic above is from my living room...

... and this one is the other side of my living room...

And then my dining room table, all set for the holidays...

and another corner of my living room...

and a view from my living room into the kitchen and dining room.

So in case you haven't heard, I'm having a little dessert night tomorrow and anyone is welcome to stop by and say hi! You can also take a tour of my house and see what it really looks like, plus all the places I didn't take pictures of... like my REALLY awesome closet.