Weekend Welcome

My weekend was ushered in with barfing and other unpleasant things courtesy of Milo.

A sick cat is zero fun. I hate cleaning pet messes from the carpet but that's how I got to spend the first two hours of my weekend.

I then listened to the Wyoming/Nebraska game on the radio while I scrapbooked. I continued to work on my Seattle album.







I will probably easily finish the album this weekend. It's insane how quickly I've been able to work through so many photos. It gives me hope that I can possibly catch up some day.

It's been nice to give my brain a break from wedding stuff. But I will have to spend some time on Monday and Tuesday working on some wedding stuff.

Two weeks from now it will all be over. Yah!

I have 8 more work days left until vacation.  I'm not counting or anything.  I'm still in a workout funk.  I went for a bike ride after work and then had cereal for dinner.  Woo.

Project Life

After knocking out a few errands this morning I spent some time scrapbooking. It did wonders for my stress levels.

I'm doing my Seattle trip from 2011 as my first project life album. There's a bit of learning curve in trying to pick up the pace a little bit and not get bogged down in the design so much. I got about a lot done in just one afternoon!

Sorry the lighting is kind of crappy but here's just a glimpse of what I accomplished...

One hill at a time

I made it up the following large hill without stopping....


This next hill almost killed me...

I made it about half way up before I was screwed.  I had to get off and walk a little ways.  I will conquer that hill someday.  And all the others along Horsetooth Reservoir.

My legs felt like jello when I finally got home!  I'd call that a job well done.

Progress is being made

Little by little, I'm getting a few things put together around here. Last night I finished putting stuff away in the dining room.


Tonight I worked on the family picture wall!


We have room to grow! I think I need a few more 8x10s on the wall but for now, I'm pleased with the outcome. It's not easy getting those darn pictures even partially lined up!


I also added a print downstairs. This is a Casper implant!



As you can see in the pictures, Brinkley is always by my side. Don't know what I'd do without his company!

Playing hooky

It was back to work Wednesday today.  I finished up a lot of outstanding stuff I had hanging over me and decided to take advantage of our shifts overlapping and went home at 3.  I spent a few hours cleaning my up the piles in my office.  And then I went on a much needed bike ride!  And it was a long one - 15 miles or just over an hour.

It was nice to get out of the house.








I'm going to bed early tonight.  And I'm setting three alarms.  I have to break this horrible habit I've started of attacking the sleep button for two hours before I actually get moving.

Back in the saddle

I'm back in the saddle, literally and figuratively.  I've been fighting off laziness ever since my race last week so when I finally got off work on time this week I made it out for a bike ride.  I did my five mile out and back.  It's just enough to make me feel like I did something.

Can I just say something about bike shorts... they are not as bad to wear as I first imagined they would be.  The padded factor is a little hard to get used to at first but they make a huge difference.

I'm glad I've broken my streak of inactivity.  Now maybe I can break my streak of horrible eating.  Here we go ... again.  

Santa's North Pole

We braved the hills of Manitou Springs and the possibility of mud slides to make it to Santa's North Pole on the first day of Moxon's weekend of surprises.  The clouds sure were gloomy while we were on our way but it turned out to be a nice and cool day with no major storm to disrupt our fun.  We did get sprinkled on a little but were prepared with raincoats.

I think it was over 20 years ago when I went to Santa's North Pole for the first time so it kind of was like seeing it for the first time.  The three of us had fun on all the rides with little to no wait.  It was fun to visit some Christmas shops and look at Christmas decor in July!

If you ever get the chance to go to Santa's North Pole - do it! It was fun.  And quaint.  And on a somewhat cloudy and rainy Sunday in July, it wasn't terribly busy.  It may not be a place to visit yearly but hopefully Moxon will remember all of the fun we had!

Coming soon...

Mom, Mox, and I took a trip to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Santa's North Pole last month.  More photos coming soon!

Thursday Tidbits

• I'm starting to move around normally again.  Muscle soreness was pretty high following my half marathon.  I blame it on the lack of ice bath after the race.  It's amazing how much an ice bath helps!  Somebody needs to think of a way to provide the ice bath effect to runners post-marathon.

• I watched a mini-Castle marathon on Tuesday while cleaning my office.  Season Four.  The next season should be coming out on DVD soon.  It made me excited for the next round of fall television to start.  Random fact of the day... the Scandal premiere isn't until October 3rd!  October!!  I sure hope they don't do any long hiatuses like they did last year.

• I have my first two pieces to start trying Project Life as a scrapbooking method.  I used some coupons at Michaels and picked up the page protectors and the Vintage Travel core collection.  I'm going to use it to document my Seattle/Vancouver trip from a couple of years ago.  I also want to try doing a weekly layout starting post-wedding.  We shall see how it goes.

• Fall is creeping in pretty fast.  Fall.  My favorite time of year.  I need to remind myself to slow down and try my best to enjoy this time of year before it disappears.  I had the windows open all day today with a cool breeze coming in the windows.  I know it's supposed to warm up the next few days but it was nice to be reminded that fall is coming!!

• Less than one month until the wedding. ONE month.  My "To Do" list has gotten much shorter in the past two weeks.  My awesome mom has helped me get all sorts of projects knocked off the list.  Things are coming together!

Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon

Way back in February or March, I signed up for the 35th Anniversary running of the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon.  I set out at the beginning of the summer with a pretty decent training program.  I was running about four days a week and was sticking to somewhat of a long run every other week plan.

By mid-July I was pretty burned out on running though.  I wasn't waking up to get my short distance running in, at least consistently.  But I still managed to get in a ten mile run about two weeks before the race.  My taper time wasn't really a taper.  It was two weeks of almost nothing.  I ran a few short distances early last week just to get my legs back to moving again.

I got down to Lakewood on Friday night and was in bed by 9:30 but I couldn't get to sleep.  I may have finally dozed off about 11.  The 4 a.m. wake-up call was pretty brutal.  We had to meet up with some other runners before heading up to Idaho Springs.  Then we had to catch the shuttle to get us to the start line.

I think we were hanging out by Georgetown Lake but I'm not sure.  And I'm too lazy to Google.  It was pretty darn chilly.  And I swear next time I'll be prepared (I say this every darn time).  I'm going to stock up on thrift store sweatshirts and sweatpants.



There were more runners than I thought there would be.  It really got tight as we all lined up for the start.  I moved towards the back of the pack so that I wouldn't get run over or demoralized by a few hundred people pacing me in the first few miles.


The first mile was pretty tight with people but by the time we had looped around Georgetown and were headed towards Idaho Springs things were perfect.  I settled in behind these three ladies who were carrying the 2:35 pace flag.  I had absolutely no goal set before hand but it's always nice to improve on previous races.  2:35 was wishful thinking but I figured if I could just keep them in my sights and not get passed by the person with the 2:45 flag then I would be in the ballpark of PR territory.


At one point we passed a cemetery.  I will definitely have to go back some day to check it out.  I could tell it was a good one!  And some clever person put a sign outside that said, "You are not dead, keep running!"  I think this was around three miles.  I was feeling pretty good for the most part but the sun was starting beat down on me pretty good.



For a short distance we ran on a dirt road and trail.  I wanted to take pictures but the sun was blinding me and the road was rough so I used a lot of energy focusing on not killing myself on the rocks and tree roots.

From about mile 8 to mile 12, we were all in the open on a road with very little shade.  This was brutal.  I knew it was only 60 some degrees out but just the brightness of it all just killed me.  I wanted so badly to close my eyes and even tried to run with my eyes closed for a bit.  It was hot.  And as much I was trying to keep myself hydrated and fueled with Sport Beans and gels, I could tell my energy levels were depleting rapidly.  I lost sight of the 2:35 flag on a downhill portion and finally caved at mile 10 to stop and stretch things out just a bit.

There was a pretty rough little hill towards the end of the race upon entering Idaho Springs.  We crested a hill and I was expecting to see the finish line and it wasn't there.  We took a few turns and I took off my headphones so I could hear people.  Someone screamed at me "that is was all downhill to the end just around the corner."  And then someone shouted, "Keep going 61, you're almost there!"  I must have looked like death warmed over.

I almost burst into tears when I crossed the finish line.  And I may have if I could have caught my breath.  I stretched things out and wandered around to collect all of my goodies - tech shirt, pint glass, and gold pan medal!



Once the whole gang had finished running, we decided to stick around and eat lunch in Idaho Springs at a local restaurant called Tommyknockers.  I had a chicken and waffle sandwich and some sweet potato nuggets.  And a Tommyknockers root beer.  Everything was delicious!!!  I'm going to have to figure out how to maple glaze a piece of chicken because the chicken waffle sandwich was amazing.



So, what about my time?!  I had to wait a while to check to see the official posting.  My chip time was a 2:36:05 - a personal best!!!

It will be a good long while before I run another half marathon so I'm glad to end on a good note for now.

Disney World 2006 - 2:40:10

Disney World 2013 - 2:46:03

Colorado Half Marathon 2013 - 2:43:02

Idaho Springs to Georgetown 2013 - 2:36:05

Not too shabby.  Not too shabby, at all.  Taking ten minutes off my half marathon time in one year...not sure if that's luck, practice, dedication, training, environment...who cares.  I'll take it!