this is my niece eli (pronounced 'ellie,' short for 'elizabeth'), exhausted and still cute as ever after swimming. she's one of the best chunks around. the only time she gets fussy is when she's tired, in which case you case lay her on your shoulder, slowly sway back and forth, and hum lightly. she'll usually sing right along to whatever you're humming until she falls asleep. presh.
I used to make goals pretty consistently, but I had a hard time actually following through with them. I plan to really push myself this time and get through everything I'm setting out to accomplish. since its already half way through september, I'm just going to start all my goals today and have a little extra time to get where I want to be.
1. now that I have the asthma under [more] control, I've started running again today. I started on week 2 of the program, so from today, 9/19/11 through 10/30/11, my goal is not to miss a single run! 4 days a week, preferrably before work because it is so much easier to not skip a work out.
2. along with running 4 days a week, the program I'm doing requires strength training/weights 2 days a week. the program actually tells me exactly what exercises to do on what days, for how many reps. I'm not a fan of this. something about doing a move, then having to stop to figure out what the next move is completely distracts me from the task at hand and then I don't finish. conveniently enough, about a month before I got married, I purchased a package of 10 classes at a pilates studio called K Pilates. my plan was to go twice a week, but between work, school, and planning a wedding, I went the one time that I bought the package, and that's it! so now, on my weight training days, my plan is to go to the morning pilates classes on tuesdays and thursdays. that will last me 5 weeks, up until I finally hit my first 30 minute run :)
3. finish the Hunger Games. I've tried to read this book twice, and each time I got busy with other stuff and just forgot about it. well, with 2 years before I get back into school, I have no reason to not read it! I'm starting it tonight, right after I post this.
4. consistently get enough sleep. this one is hard! weekends always throw me off track, but I've been trying to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night. last week was terrible, because we did a million and one things with the house that required us to start working right when we got home from work, til about midnight, with about 3-4 trips to home depot in between. but I know how important sleep is, and I don't plan on jipping myself.
5. find a bridesmaid dress! one of my dearest friends natalie is getting married on November 18. knowing me, I probably won't start looking for a dress until around November 1. ideally, I would have one ready long before then, which is what I had planned for kandyce's wedding. well, I didn't have that dress until 3 days before... so this is my 5th and final goal.
and my reward if I get through this checklist? well, if I really do follow through, I'll be in much better shape in a month and a half from running and pilates, I'll feel more rested and mayyyybe get rid of some under-eye bags from sleeping enough, and I won't be stressed when natalie's wedding comes around. if all goes as planned, the rewards kind of work themselves in.
and maybe I'll treat myself to some sushi and a new outfit... or something :)
1. now that I have the asthma under [more] control, I've started running again today. I started on week 2 of the program, so from today, 9/19/11 through 10/30/11, my goal is not to miss a single run! 4 days a week, preferrably before work because it is so much easier to not skip a work out.
2. along with running 4 days a week, the program I'm doing requires strength training/weights 2 days a week. the program actually tells me exactly what exercises to do on what days, for how many reps. I'm not a fan of this. something about doing a move, then having to stop to figure out what the next move is completely distracts me from the task at hand and then I don't finish. conveniently enough, about a month before I got married, I purchased a package of 10 classes at a pilates studio called K Pilates. my plan was to go twice a week, but between work, school, and planning a wedding, I went the one time that I bought the package, and that's it! so now, on my weight training days, my plan is to go to the morning pilates classes on tuesdays and thursdays. that will last me 5 weeks, up until I finally hit my first 30 minute run :)
3. finish the Hunger Games. I've tried to read this book twice, and each time I got busy with other stuff and just forgot about it. well, with 2 years before I get back into school, I have no reason to not read it! I'm starting it tonight, right after I post this.
4. consistently get enough sleep. this one is hard! weekends always throw me off track, but I've been trying to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night. last week was terrible, because we did a million and one things with the house that required us to start working right when we got home from work, til about midnight, with about 3-4 trips to home depot in between. but I know how important sleep is, and I don't plan on jipping myself.
5. find a bridesmaid dress! one of my dearest friends natalie is getting married on November 18. knowing me, I probably won't start looking for a dress until around November 1. ideally, I would have one ready long before then, which is what I had planned for kandyce's wedding. well, I didn't have that dress until 3 days before... so this is my 5th and final goal.
and my reward if I get through this checklist? well, if I really do follow through, I'll be in much better shape in a month and a half from running and pilates, I'll feel more rested and mayyyybe get rid of some under-eye bags from sleeping enough, and I won't be stressed when natalie's wedding comes around. if all goes as planned, the rewards kind of work themselves in.
and maybe I'll treat myself to some sushi and a new outfit... or something :)
yyyyep. take a gander at this... with particular attention to "Lung Age"...
so today I went to the doctor because I've been running quite a bit for the last two weeks and my exercise induced ashtma has been kicking in. I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal, figured I would just have to get an albuterol inhaler to puff on a little before I ran to prevent the symptoms before they kicked in. welp, I was wrong. very wrong.
let me give you a little run down. I am not a runner, not in the least. in jr high when we were forced to run a mile once a week, I was lucky enough to use a chronic ankle injury to get out of it. but as I grew older, I became envious of the people that could run a mile straight without stopping, then I became jealous of the people that could run 3 miles nonstop, and then my sister ran a marathon, and I became jealous of her. so I decided that I would build up to where I wanted to be. I knew it wasn't impossible, it was just a sucky process. I got a program from women's health magazine that built you up to running 30 minutes straight in six weeks with interval training; it requires you to run 4 days a week and do strength training two days a week, with one rest day per week. I started this about two weeks ago, and a week and a half into it, on a Wednesday, my asthma kicked in enough to stop me from finishing my intervals. not that I was full blown coughing and wheezing and on the ground, I just wasn't able to breath in deep enough to continue running without getting light-headed. that was when I decided I would take a break until I got an inhaler, and I made an appointment the following monday, which is today.
as standard procedure dictates, I took a spirometry test, which is where you take as deep a breath as you can, then blow all the air out of your lungs into this machine that measures things like full lung capacity. before I started, I thought to myself, "well this won't do any good, I have EXERCISE-INDUCED ashtma silly medical tech, not all-the-time asthma. this test won't show a thangg." well, I did this three times and the machine chose my best round. my best round only got 69% of what the full lung capacity should be for a non-smoking 22-year-old. that nasty little number puts my lungs in the same shape as a 75 year old.
"farealzz?!" well, as dr. patterson explained to me, if exercise-induced asthma flares go untreated consistantly this long (2 weeks), then it makes my lungs and airways constantly irritated, lowering my lung capacity and making each flare worst, until I either treat it or just stop the activity that's causing the flares. he said that if I had gone running yesterday, had a flare up, and had come in today, they would just give me a rescue inhaler to use whenever I went running. but because I waited two weeks to come in, they have to give me a stronger dosage of all the asthma treating stuff, which includes a pill that I have to take for 10 days, an inhaler to puff twice a day, and a rescue inhaler in case I still get a flare while on the daily inhaler.
moral of the story is: don't put off going to the doctor when you know you should. good news is that once my lungs are back in shape, all I have to do is maintain it by using an inhaler when I run. for now, if you hear me wheezing, don't be alarmed! I'm on the right track to nursing these babies back to 22-year-old health.
so today I went to the doctor because I've been running quite a bit for the last two weeks and my exercise induced ashtma has been kicking in. I really didn't think it would be that big of a deal, figured I would just have to get an albuterol inhaler to puff on a little before I ran to prevent the symptoms before they kicked in. welp, I was wrong. very wrong.
let me give you a little run down. I am not a runner, not in the least. in jr high when we were forced to run a mile once a week, I was lucky enough to use a chronic ankle injury to get out of it. but as I grew older, I became envious of the people that could run a mile straight without stopping, then I became jealous of the people that could run 3 miles nonstop, and then my sister ran a marathon, and I became jealous of her. so I decided that I would build up to where I wanted to be. I knew it wasn't impossible, it was just a sucky process. I got a program from women's health magazine that built you up to running 30 minutes straight in six weeks with interval training; it requires you to run 4 days a week and do strength training two days a week, with one rest day per week. I started this about two weeks ago, and a week and a half into it, on a Wednesday, my asthma kicked in enough to stop me from finishing my intervals. not that I was full blown coughing and wheezing and on the ground, I just wasn't able to breath in deep enough to continue running without getting light-headed. that was when I decided I would take a break until I got an inhaler, and I made an appointment the following monday, which is today.
as standard procedure dictates, I took a spirometry test, which is where you take as deep a breath as you can, then blow all the air out of your lungs into this machine that measures things like full lung capacity. before I started, I thought to myself, "well this won't do any good, I have EXERCISE-INDUCED ashtma silly medical tech, not all-the-time asthma. this test won't show a thangg." well, I did this three times and the machine chose my best round. my best round only got 69% of what the full lung capacity should be for a non-smoking 22-year-old. that nasty little number puts my lungs in the same shape as a 75 year old.
"farealzz?!" well, as dr. patterson explained to me, if exercise-induced asthma flares go untreated consistantly this long (2 weeks), then it makes my lungs and airways constantly irritated, lowering my lung capacity and making each flare worst, until I either treat it or just stop the activity that's causing the flares. he said that if I had gone running yesterday, had a flare up, and had come in today, they would just give me a rescue inhaler to use whenever I went running. but because I waited two weeks to come in, they have to give me a stronger dosage of all the asthma treating stuff, which includes a pill that I have to take for 10 days, an inhaler to puff twice a day, and a rescue inhaler in case I still get a flare while on the daily inhaler.
moral of the story is: don't put off going to the doctor when you know you should. good news is that once my lungs are back in shape, all I have to do is maintain it by using an inhaler when I run. for now, if you hear me wheezing, don't be alarmed! I'm on the right track to nursing these babies back to 22-year-old health.
I turned 22 in may, and mat surprised me with a trip to disneyland! now for those of you that don't know mat, this is a big deal. not the whole "surprise" thing, he's actually quite good at surprises. but the whole disneyland thing. he hates disneyland! I've been asking him to go to disneyland for as long as I can remember, and he always shuts the idea down for two reasons. 1, its a rip off, and 2, there aren't very many thrilling rides, which are his favorite kind. so I was completely caught off guard when mat woke me up early on the saturday before my birthday and showed me the hotel we'd be staying at, and told me to pack up for a weekend in california. unfortunately, I babysat my niece the night before we left, and she had a pretty nasty stomach virus, which I ended up getting on the day we had to go to disneyland. we got to disneyland, but weren't able to go on very many rides. mat's mom made us dinner reservations at Ariel's Grotto, which was delicious!
in june, mat turned 24! we both had requested the day off work, so I woke him up much earlier than he wanted to be, brought him a los betos breakfast burrito (the best!), and had plans to take out the jetskis to the lake with kacey and karl, but one of the jetskis weren't working. so after much deliberation, we decided to wait for garrison to get home from football practice, and bring him and jake to big surf for the day. so much fun! for the record, mat and I did not plan on matching.
in august, I went to utah for a family reunion, and when I got back, mat surprised me (homeboy is good with surprises!) by starting to paint our cabinets. don't have pictures of that yet, but it was a treat. the cabinets are mostly done, except the trim on the top, some wood panels, and new hardware.
the weekend after my family reunion, I got my wisdom teeth out. not fun! we would have pictures, if I didn't make mat delete them all. took me a good week and a half to get 100% back into shape.
mat became famous during the first couple weeks in august, painting hashtags on his belly at diamondback games with all of his friends. since the first game they went to, they've filmed promos for fox sports, and been on the 12 news morning show twice. I've got a local celebrity on my hands!
over labor day weekend, the shaker/mckinnon family decided to do their "kristi trip". its a trip they take every few years in remembrance of their sister, Kristi, who passed away from breast cancer a few years ago. this year, they decided to do a stay-cation at the arizona grand resort. it was a lot of fun! the hotel had a huge water park with two 8 story slides. I went down one, got the worst wedgie of my life and I'm pretty sure an enema, and stuck to the lazy river after that. it was good to spend time with family though.
on september 5th, mat and I celebrated our 6 month! that sounds like such a mile stone, but in the broad scheme of things, 6 months is such a short period of time. mat planned out our night, taking me to the art gallery he proposed at to see if there was anything we wanted to buy for our house, then taking me to benihana, the restaurant that we ate lunch at before he proposed. unfortunately, the art gallery was closed, so we improvised and went to see super 8 at the dollar theaters. movie for two for $4? not bad!
and for the final piece of news! today, I turned in my dental hygiene application. hallelujah! the bad news of it, rio salado has decided to close their program for the 2012 cycle in order to build new facilities for the program. now, mcc takes 20 students, phoenix college takes 22, and rio salado typically takes 36. with rio salado closing next year, there are 36 students ahead of me on the waiting list that could've started there, leaving an open spot at either mcc or phoenix for me. now, those students will be taking up the spots at mcc and phoenix, leaving me on the waiting list until 2013. bummer! the counselor said that weird things have happened, and maybe I could get into 2012, but with the number of applications he's seen, I'm most likely looking at 2013.
I'm disappointed. but on the brighter side, this lets mat and I get even more set to live off of only his income, we'll have more of a savings to sit back on in case something happens while I'm playing full time student. but until then, I'm going to try to find a job in a dental office to pass the time. so, here's to the next couples years and crossing my fingers that I get in 2012!
in june, mat turned 24! we both had requested the day off work, so I woke him up much earlier than he wanted to be, brought him a los betos breakfast burrito (the best!), and had plans to take out the jetskis to the lake with kacey and karl, but one of the jetskis weren't working. so after much deliberation, we decided to wait for garrison to get home from football practice, and bring him and jake to big surf for the day. so much fun! for the record, mat and I did not plan on matching.
in august, I went to utah for a family reunion, and when I got back, mat surprised me (homeboy is good with surprises!) by starting to paint our cabinets. don't have pictures of that yet, but it was a treat. the cabinets are mostly done, except the trim on the top, some wood panels, and new hardware.
the weekend after my family reunion, I got my wisdom teeth out. not fun! we would have pictures, if I didn't make mat delete them all. took me a good week and a half to get 100% back into shape.
mat became famous during the first couple weeks in august, painting hashtags on his belly at diamondback games with all of his friends. since the first game they went to, they've filmed promos for fox sports, and been on the 12 news morning show twice. I've got a local celebrity on my hands!
over labor day weekend, the shaker/mckinnon family decided to do their "kristi trip". its a trip they take every few years in remembrance of their sister, Kristi, who passed away from breast cancer a few years ago. this year, they decided to do a stay-cation at the arizona grand resort. it was a lot of fun! the hotel had a huge water park with two 8 story slides. I went down one, got the worst wedgie of my life and I'm pretty sure an enema, and stuck to the lazy river after that. it was good to spend time with family though.
on september 5th, mat and I celebrated our 6 month! that sounds like such a mile stone, but in the broad scheme of things, 6 months is such a short period of time. mat planned out our night, taking me to the art gallery he proposed at to see if there was anything we wanted to buy for our house, then taking me to benihana, the restaurant that we ate lunch at before he proposed. unfortunately, the art gallery was closed, so we improvised and went to see super 8 at the dollar theaters. movie for two for $4? not bad!
and for the final piece of news! today, I turned in my dental hygiene application. hallelujah! the bad news of it, rio salado has decided to close their program for the 2012 cycle in order to build new facilities for the program. now, mcc takes 20 students, phoenix college takes 22, and rio salado typically takes 36. with rio salado closing next year, there are 36 students ahead of me on the waiting list that could've started there, leaving an open spot at either mcc or phoenix for me. now, those students will be taking up the spots at mcc and phoenix, leaving me on the waiting list until 2013. bummer! the counselor said that weird things have happened, and maybe I could get into 2012, but with the number of applications he's seen, I'm most likely looking at 2013.
I'm disappointed. but on the brighter side, this lets mat and I get even more set to live off of only his income, we'll have more of a savings to sit back on in case something happens while I'm playing full time student. but until then, I'm going to try to find a job in a dental office to pass the time. so, here's to the next couples years and crossing my fingers that I get in 2012!
