32 Hours and Some Odd Minutes

Josh bought a really cool game for his xbox a few weeks ago. It's called Knights of the Old Republic. I watched him play it for a few days and then he said I should start a game. For those of you who don't know, kotor is a role playing game. I'm not very into role playing so I wasn't as excited about the game as he was. I was however, very bored that day so he helped me start a game. This wasn't a very wise choice on my part because that was when the addiction began. I started playing during all of Isabella's naps and even when she was awake sometimes. Every night I would tell josh what I had done in the game that day. When I passed his game it was really hard to not tell him about things he would have to do and sometimes I would slip and spoil things for him (nothing big though so don't comment about anything specific from the game). Well, today I finally beat the game! It was harder than I thought. All in all it took me around 32.5 hours to beat the game. This may sound sad to some of you but I am darn proud of myself. I have never beaten a game before (not even Mario Brothers). Now what am I going to do while Isa sleeps?

Playing Catch Up

Josh lectured me the other day because I haven't updated in a while. He reminded me of several thing I need to talk about so here they are:

First, I ran me first race for the Distance Challenge on September 11th. It was another 5k and it went a little better. I got a playpen for Isa to sleep in and gave her some benadryl. She still woke up at 6:15 am but that was fine because so did we. We were almost late for the race and the had to let us skip in line to get our championchips ( the record your personal time exactly). Once the race started I was fine. We actually got to pass some people Which felt good. Around the 1.5 mile marker the regular runners start to pass you until the finish. Dad sped up in the end to pass another jogger but Terra and I stayed together. This course had a lot of hills so I got kind of sick and I couldn't stand up straight the next day because my calves hurt so bad but it was totally worth it. Isabella did great too. She loves the new stuff and looking at all the other babies.

Second is that we ordered something off of the kid's menu for Isabella when we were on our date last week. We haven't done that before so it was fun. I wish we had had the camera with us so you could see how excited she got when they gave her her won plate of food just for her. She loved it! It was pretty messy but at least I got to eat my food without her trying to grab it.

Lastly, Isabella saw Josh with his baseball hat on the other day and became obsessed with it. She loves to put it on and wear it around the house. It was really cute! She normally hates hats so I decided to take advantage of the situation and get her one of her won. Here she is wearing it while watching Monster's Inc. She picked it out herself. Pretty adorable.



She prefers to wear is backward but then she can lay her head back so it pops up.


She was kind of annoyed that I interrupted her movie but I think it is still cute.

It's All In The Stride

As most of you know I got good news from the Dr. and have started running again. It has been fun but I have been restricted in my weekly mileage and additional workouts. My sister Terra and Dad and I decided to run in a race last weekend. It was a 5k in downtown Charlotte. I thought this would be a fun bonding experience for all of us. It was a little more complicated than that though.

First came the fact that we (including Isabella, she rides in the stroller during the races) drove down to Charlotte on Friday night. Dad and I thought this would be a good idea so we wouldn't have to get up extra early race day to drive down. Isabella had plans of her own. She decided to stay up until at least midnight crying or whining or whatever. When she finally fell asleep Dad and I thought we could get some rest but we were wrong. Apparently Terra lives near a train station and much to my disappointment they do have trains at night. I woke up to train whistles at least five times as well as the drunken party on the porch below our window.

We then got up at 6 am to eat something before the race and we were off. Everyone told me how much easier it would be to run off the mountain since the oxygen level would increase. This would probably be true expect Charlotte is in danger of losing their governmental funding for roads because their air pollution is so bad. It is also a good 10 degrees hotter in the city than up here in Boone. If you add that to the fact that the humidity was very, very high it was like breathing in hot water out of the tail pipe of a car.

It seems on of the hardest things about the race was everyone passing me. I am ultra competitive and having people blow past me was really hard. I ran faster than I should have at first to try to catch up and I started to "crash" near the end. I did however finish with a pretty good time for my first race. I have another one next weekend so we'll see if it gets any easier.

Terra also convinced me and Dad to do something called the Distance Challenge. It sounds fun but totally insane. Perfect for us:) Check it out.

For A Little Laugh

I was chatting with my sister Terra today when she sent me what you see below. It made me laugh out loud More than once. Even if you don't like the trilogy, although I don't see how, I think you will find it amusing. Enjoy.

THINGS NOT TO DO DURING RETURN OF THE KING

1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, "Wait... where the hell is Harry Potter?"

2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" - After the movie, say "Lucas could have done it better."

3. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says: "The
Ring."

4. Point and laugh whenever someone dies.

5. Ask everyone around you if they think Gandalf went to Hogwarts.

6. Finish off every one of Elrond's lines with "Mr. Anderson."

7. When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing, "And I did it.... MY way...!"

8. Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone's finger and fall down the stairs.

9. Dress up as old ladies and reenact "The Battle of Helms Deep" Monty Python style.

10. When Denethor lights the fire, shout "Barbecue!"

11. In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout "RUN FOREST, RUN!"

12. Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: "That's what I'm Tolkien about!" See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre.

13. During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, "Where's Waldo?"

14. Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.

15. Start an Orc sing-a-long.

16. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.

17. When they go in the paths of the dead, wait for tense moment and shout, "I see dead people!"

18. Imitate what you think a conversation between Gollum, Dobby and Yoda would be like.

19. Release a jar of daddy-long-legs into the theater during the Shelob scene.

20. Wonder out loud if Aragorn is going to run for governor of California.

21. When Shelob comes on, exclaim, "Man! Charlotte's really let herself go!"

My Little Bear

Isabella and I were playing in her room before bed last night and she found, for the first time, her huge pile of stuffed animals. I thought she would go for the cute little colorful ones but instead she fell for this huge bear I stole form my brother when I was young (sorry Matt). Anyway, she kept laying him on the floor and cuddling with him and giggling. It was pretty cute but I thought she would forget about it. This morning she wouldn't go downstairs without him and then would only let my rock her to sleep if I rocked him too. It was really cute! When I put her down she opened her eyes briefly to make sure I hadn't taken him away and then smiled and squeezed him. Just so you can all understand why I thought this was so cute and funny, here are some pictures of just how big this bear is to her.

...He also made me fast.

For those of you who don't know, and most of you probably don't, the title is a line from Chariots of Fire( my all time favorite movie which everyone should see and own, I have it on VHS and DVD). I went to Boone orthopedic today to see about my knees. The good news is that he said I could start running again and that I don't need surgery (for now). The bad news is that he couldn't really tell exactly what the problem was since I wasn't in pain at the time and that I can only run 9 miles a week to start!:(

I went running this evening with my dad and it was soooooooo fun. I really missed it. Isabella on the other hand had not. She was pretty whinny but I didn't care, it felt so good to run again. I had run twice in the past three weeks and only for about 3/4 of a mile. It is amazing how much energy it can give me. I have been ready to crash after 5:30pm for the last three weeks. Hopefully everything will go well and I wont need surgery.

The doctor thought it might be several things. First was that due to my high arches I need a more padded shoe. Second was that since my right quads are smaller than my left quads it was making my right leg work harder thus hurting it, or just plain old, my body wasn't ready. Either way it should be fixable. YAY!!!!!

First Hair Cut

I finally cut Isabella's hair on Saturday evening for the first time. I had been using the excuse that I wanted to wait for her to be a year old when josh brought it up. I was secretly hoping he would forget and that would be the end of it but ever since her birthday he keeps asking if we can cut her hair. I really didn't want to because it was like that was the last thing that was still baby about her. It made me really sad to think that I had been in school for so long that I completely missed the infant stage! Of course I am exaggerating a bit. I have been able to home with her quite a bit. I just happen to have a lot of time now and I wanted to have a some of it be baby time. Anyway, I was really scared to do it because I have only cut one other person's hair and that was my dad when I was like 12 and he would've said it was great no matter what. Let me tell you, it is totally different trying to cut the hair on a moving target much less cut it straight. I was really afraid I would have to end up giving her a buzz cut before it was all said and done. I decided to blow dry her hair when I finished so if I messed up I would know right away. She really hated that. She tried to crawl all over the counter to get away from it but settled to sit in the sink and whimper. Here is a pic.


I think it ended up pretty cute:)

The World Is Run By C Students

I had the joy of taking Chemistry II this summer. It was probably the hardest class I have actually finished. I made the mistake of taking chem I not knowing I would have to take Chem II. Even though I thought at times I might go crazy, this has been the most faith building experience of my life. I think only josh can really know how hard this was on me because it was about that hard on him. I really thought I would never get my degree at times. When finals came around I averaged out my grade and I had a D+ in lecture and a C something in lab. I was so excited I started screaming and jumping up and down. Isa was looking at me like I was crazy. Later that night I checked my official grade and to my pleasant surprise my teacher was more than liberal in calculating my grade and I ended up with this:

INTROD CHEMISTRY II C
INTROD CHEMISTRY LAB II C+
GPA : Cumulative: THRU 2004 Summer2 3.00

so, it is official I am a college graduate!!!!!!!!!!!!
It hasn't really sunk in yet. I figure it will when everyone else is going back to school expect me. I am also getting sick. I usually do when I am coming down from a stressful situation. It just really wears me out. I guess this is a pretty good time to get sick though since I don't have to go anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Saturday Josh's parent's came up and we grilled. It was mostly an excuse to do this:


This is me burning my Chemistry notes in the grill


this is really where they belong I think:)

I wanted to burn them all but I had a huge stack and it would've taken a while and we were hungry. It was really more symbolic anyway. I ended up trashing the rest.

I Think I'm Cursed

Well, it looks like my plans for a marathon this year have been pretty much crushed.  as I mentioned in a previous post, I have been having knee pain.  The nurse thought it was tendonitis so I followed her instructions and it only got worse.  It started to be come excruciatingly painful to run as well as when I stopped. 
 
 I have been going to student health services about it because it's free and all.  there is only one doctor there that I like so I had to wait until he was back from vacation to go back again.  he was really great about me going on and on and listened to everything I said.  we ended up taking some x-rays of my knee and also discovered that my right quad muscles are quite a bit smaller than my left, he then referred me to the trainer there so I had to come back the next day.  the trainer found nothing wrong and said that my right knee probably hurt because the muscles were so much smaller and told me to tone them and sent me on my way. 
 
 so dad and I go running that night.  nothing out of the ordinary and I felt fine, well, it wasn't hurting more than usual.  after I iced it however I couldn't stand up.  this was a problem since I was home alone with Isa and she wanted to be held.  not only could I not stand but I couldn't really move and it hurt some bad I was having trouble breathing.  I was stuck like this for over an hour, not being able to straighten or move my knee at all without tears coming to my eyes.  poor Justin and Isabella.  Justin called me while I was crying and Isabella kept freaking out because I was crying. 
 
 the nest day after class I called josh and he said the doctor said there was something serious in my x-rays and to call him.  after I freaked out I called and he said I had a floating bone mass (not serious)  and a benign cyst on my femur but that the radiologist saw something on my tibia and I needed more x-rays so back to health services I went ( for the third day in a row).  I told the doctor what had happened the night before and I was referred to an orthopedic doctor, FOR SURGERY!!!!!  I have never had surgery and I don't really want to.  apparently I have a torn meniscus (cartilage)  and the flap that is getting caught in my joint (hence the pain)  needs to be trimmed off.  this probably wont be able to happen until next month and then when you factor in rehab I can pretty much kiss a 2004 marathon goodbye:(
 
maybe I'll get lucky and heal really fast.  it could happen.  it is kind of cruel twist of fate to have to watch josh (who isn't that crazy about running) run his little heart out while I( someone who really loves it) have to sit there. 

:(

I went to the doctor on Thursday and apparently my little half marathon helped me develop tendonitis in both of my knees. It isn't much of a problem while a run but when I stop and the next day it makes walking almost impossible. So, my marathon plans have temporarily been put on hold while my knees heal. I am pretty upset about it but I am determined to run one this year so I am not going to let a little knee pain get me down. Even if I cant move for about a week afterward. No, I'm not going to do anything stupid so nobody lecture me about taking care of my body or anything. I'll be careful.
If anything you should be worried about the side effects of my medicine. Vomiting,drowsiness,dizziness,swelling of hands and feet, sudden weight gain (oops I should call the Dr.), mental/mood changes(there is another one),vomit that looks like coffee grounds(eeewww), yellowish eyes and skin,fast or slow heartbeat, or seizures, just to name a few.
I would've hated to be the one in the test group who got the coffee grounds vomit or the yellow eyes or skin.

Air Anyone?

Josh, Isabella and I went out to eat at our favorite cheap restaurant on Thursday (macados). Normally we really enjoy eating here but that night was weird. First of all it was our date night and we had to take Isa with us. She hates sitting there in the high chair watching us eat. We have discovered that if we get her a booster seat and let her sit at the table with us she loves it. So that worked out. Next we realize that to have any type of a conversation we had to yell pretty loud. Normally the music in there is quite background music but tonight someone had turned it al the way up. Then next thing really got to me and for good reason I think. The smoking and non smoking sections in this particular establishment are separated by a
~3ft wall with a little railing on it. Well about half way through our meal I start to really smell smoke and I look up at the wall and was baffled by what I saw. There was a hand, hanging over the railing into the NON-SMOKING section with a lit cigarette in it. I'm sorry but if you don't want the smoke in your booth I sure as hell don't want it in mine!! (especially with my one year old daughter sitting there). I point out the hand to josh who then tries to get their attention to tell them to move but he can't. Why do you suppose that is? Yep, because the music was so loud no body could hear anything! I wish every restaurant would go to non-smoking or at least make then be in a completely different room with a door on it. That might sound mean but if they really want to sit with everyone else then they should quit smoking.

2 hours 15 minutes and 01 second!

I have been running with my dad lately. I like running with him because he pushes me to do what he knows I can do. Well, on Wednesday I called him to see about going running. He said he was doing a long run and I thought that meant six miles (that is what we usually do). I came to find out that he really meant a half marathon. I thought he was crazy but I wanted it bad. I had to take Isabella with me in the jogging stroller and my dad and I had no idea if she would last the whole time. We were thinking it would take around 2 and a half hours. Well, I thought at mile nine I was going to die and I was planning on stopping but just as we finished the 8th mile I got what I lovingly refer to as runners high. Not soon enough in my mind. I am just amazed that I did it but I pushed on and ran the whole 13.1 miles.

I would like to add that the farthest I have ever run was 6.2 miles and I had only ran that once in the past two years. Isabella did great. She got fussy around miles 4-6 but fell asleep the rest of the way.

Granted I was really nauseous and could barely walk to next day but it was worth it and I was off to my 8 am class the next morning.

It Seems So Long Ago

It is amazing what can happen in a year. This time last year Isa was just born. The whole day I was thinking that this time last year I was in this stage of labor an this year I'm doing this. Today I ran 6 miles with my dad and last year I was starting transition labor. It is weird to think about because when she was born I wanted her to grow up so she could do stuff and now I wish she was a baby again. Here are some pictures to show what I mean.


look how little she was. 6lbs 12oz, 21 in long.


smiling already. Well, actually she was gassy already.


Cool huh?


She is so goofy:)

Well, it is time for me to give myself a little gift and go to sleep.

My Little Buttercup

Josh and I went running last week and he brought that camera. Surprise, surprise. That thing is like his baby. Anyway, he wanted to stop and take pictures when we were done. He took some cool flower pictures but my favorites by far are the ones I asked him to take of Isa standing in this patch of buttercups. Even though she wasn't at her cutest she still looked adorable. She loves flowers, and picking them. She hates to wear shoe outside if she is walking on grass because she loves the feel of grass on her toes:)

Chilly

I few days before my summer classes stared Isabella decided to get up at 3:3:00am. I brought her to be with us to sleep thinking I could get a little more sleep. This was only a fantasy however because even though I managed to get her back to sleep she tossed and turned the whole time and kept hitting me. So I layed there and she was up bright and early at 6:00am. This gave me the perfect opportunity to visit with Josh before he left for work but I was soooo tired I could barely keep my eyes open. Needless to say, Isabella had a lot of fun with him before he left. As soon as he walked out the door she crashed. She did not sleep though. She just crawled over to her recliner and layed down. Once josh had left and the excitement died down I realized how cold it was at that hour of the morning (we had left a window open and it had rained). I went and got Isa a jacket so she wouldn't not get cold and I layed on the couch. She came over to me after a minute and pulled herself up and layed down with me, which I thought was pretty darn cute. She got bored with that after a while and climbed down so she could return to her chair. I was afraid she was still cold so I went and put her blanket in the dryer for a while and then put it on her and wrapped her in another blanket resulting in the contented look you see here.



She ended up laying there watching her movie for a long time which isn't really like her


all this relaxing resulted in the sleepy look seen here


all in all it was a very exhausting but fun morning. I just hope she doesn't do that all the time.

A Little Dangerous

Josh had a really busy weekend last weekend because of band and chorus concerts every day. On Sunday after the chorus concert (which was great!) we turned onto hwy 421 and something caught my eye on the side of the road. I turned to get a better look only to realize that it was one of the roadside memorials. You know the ones, they have the pastel floral crosses and pictures or candles or just little things that remind them of the person who died there. It suddenly hit me that I was staring and I had an epiphany. Those things are really dangerous and slightly ironic. It was a good thing i wasn't driving. I mean, this person's loved one died at that very place, so they decided to put a bunch of stuff right there in the same spot that is obviously dangerous so that you will look and remember their friend or family member. If the road is so dangerous there then why would they try to have you take your eyes of the road for even a second! It just seems to me that this should be illegal. What do you guys think?

One Day I Pooed the Biggest Poo I Ever Met

I just checked my email and I got a funny one. My friend lance is writing a book with funny quotes from three year olds and the title was one of them. The pint is to remind adults about the innocence of being a child. The funniest part about it was that it reminded me of another story me friend "sharlene" (name has been changed) told our group of friends one Sunday afternoon. I don't know why but we started talking about peoples regularity and "sharlene" decided to share with the group that "she had pooed such a big poo that it stuck out of the water" we all burst out laughing and picked on her about it for a while. The next Sunday she once again pipes up and says that "it wasn't that big, the water in her toilet bowl was just low". The damage had already been done though. We still pick on her about it (obviously). I guess the point is that just because you talk about your poo doesn't mean you are an innocent child.

I have decided to change the name of my blog every once in a while to liven things up. This particular title refers to a problem I had last week. I have been doing some work for my dad. He wants his driveway widened. This means using a shovel and a pickaxe (for the rocks) to dig into the hill by his driveway. This is super hard to do. I could barely lift my arms or grasp anything for a few days after working on this project. Well, when you try to break the boulders little pieces fly everywhere. I thought I would be fine if I wore safety goggles but apparently not. When I got home later that day I started to have pains in my chestal area when ever I picked up Isa or anything touched me. I was getting worried because I thought it might be something serious. I found out later when I was getting in the shower that it was nothing to be worried about, just some rocks in my bra form the shower of rock shards I had earlier.

I guess is has been a while. Life has been pretty hectic but I have survived:) Isabella has bee growing like a weed. She has started looking like a real little person instead of a baby which makes me kind of sad. I was sitting around the other day wondering what all this busyness has accomplished. So here are some products I am particularly proud of.

This shows land use/landclass for the basin

This shows the hillshade of the elevation in the basin

This is the slope in cool colors

This is the final model of the basin in 3D with the rivers, lakes, roads and buildings.
It took my 11 weeks and countless hours in the computer lab using weird equipment as well as several hours in the field to produce these maps. It is a map of the winkler creek drainage basin (a drainage basin is an area where all the streams flow into winkler creek or whatever stream you have chosen).
I guess this could be pretty boring for some people but I just wanted you guys to see what has been keeping me from posting for so long. hopefully that will change now:)

So I went to get some pictures mad of Isabella today. I thought this would be a fun mother daughter outing for spring break, and it was. It was just the waiting at the doctors office for 1.5 hours to see the doctor before hand and then waiting hours in line to have the pictures made, and then being sent home with the wrong child's pictures that wasn't fun. But in the end it was worth it to have these super cute pictures of my cutie. We left the house at 9:30 and got home at 1:30. Isabella did really well considering she had a lunch of graham crackers and she missed her morning nap. Poor thing. She fell asleep before I pulled out of my parking space ( no kidding! ). She was adorable while her pictures were being made :) I couldn't have asked for a sweeter little girl. At least not at that moment. I would be singing a different tune if you asked me right before bed. Anyway, here are some of the cutests pictures.





I think for her first professional portrait she did pretty well. maybe i should try and get her on the cover of some baby magazine cause she is way cuter than most of those babies:)

I have some extra time between my classes today so I thought I should probably update. I can't really think about anything but school right now so this is going to be a geography post.
I have to do a book report for my senior seminar class and I chose a book entitled, Geography of Nowhere: the Rise and Decline of the Man-Made Landscape. This is a really good book and would recommend it for recreational reading. It is about how sprawl (rapid growth) of our cities has led to us being a automobile dependent society and that everywhere looks like nowhere in particular. This is what I am going to rant about today.
it just baffles me that we have let our landscape turn into what it has. How many of you can walk to the grocery store? How many of you can walk to any store? Every time you want to run errands do you find yourself getting in the car? I don't know about you but this really bothers me. I would love to live in a pace where Isabella and I could walk to the park or grocery store. It seems like a dream when people describe towns where you can walk everywhere you need to go and you know your neighbors or have a garden. What happened to this town? People not wanting to share, that is what happened. People just can't stand not having their own space. Think about it, when you were a kid, did you want to share a room with your sibling? If people would just suck it up and share some stuff we wouldn't be stuck in the car all day. Did you know the average American spends four days stuck in traffic per year? Why are we so obsessed with cars? I hate driving because as you can imagine, people make me angry. I think I would be a lot more relaxed if there were n't so many cars around here, or anywhere for that t matter. Cars make you fatter too. I wrote a paper last semester and Studies actually show that people living in a town or city where they can't walk to run errands have a high body mass index.
anyway I'm rambling a little so here it is, SPRAWL SUCKS!!!!!!!!