Remembering 9/11 5K

Here are the results from my second 5k.  For the record I have no idea what I was thinking or what I was looking at in the picture. lol

Wickenburg, AZ

Sevrine and I had  fun day out in Wickenburg taking pictures.  It was a little hot and we didn't take as many as we would have liked, but I think we got some good ones, and more importantly, we had fun. So here are a few pictures so show you what we did.

Update

Well, here is the update.  There is a little bit of progress on my "take care of me" goals.  Sevrine and I have been walking a few nights a week (depending on whether or not she got her homework done), I'm taking more pictures and I'm running a 5k on the 12th.  I'll also be heading out today to go and take some pictures to see what I come up with.  I did find a really cool editing program online that can do some cool things. So, off to a decent start so far.

New Beginnings

I feel like it's time to make some new goals. I think it goes in cycles for me. I start to take time to work on myself and start to feel really happy, then I get into a relationship and neglect myself a little bit. Not as much this time, but I do know that I started to give up more and more of the things that make me happy. So, it's back to working on me, and hopefully when/if I meet someone, I'll continue to make myself a priority. So, here are the things that I would like to do:

1. Run a 5K every other month (or every month if I can swing it).

2. Take more pictures

3. Go hiking with Sevrine twice a month

I'm sure there will be more things, but those are just a few that I want to do. In light of that, the picture I'm posting is not one that I took, but I did do the editing on it, and was really happy with the way it came out.

I'm kind of a big deal

Or at least my boyfriend thinks so. We live about 3 hours away from eachother so when we see eachother it means one of us spent 6 hours round trip in the car.Next week its my turn to make the drive. Yep, true love. :)

Mesa Temple

Here are a couple of pictures I took while walking around the Mesa Temple on Saturday.

When you least expect it

If you had asked me 2 months ago if I thought I'd be in a serious relationship I would have said no, because at that time I had figured I was going to take a break from dating for a while. But, I am in a serious relationship which feels comfortable and unbelievable at the same time. The best part is that he feels the exact same way.

Not all sweat is created equal

I've done the gym thing, the Aerobics DVDs, Yoga, Pilates, and other various fitness activities, but nothing beats running. I know that sounds weird, and if you know me, it sounds even weirder coming from me. However, the one thing that I've found is that through all those activities running actually makes me feel like I've earned that sweat. Yes, I know that sounds disgusting. I hate sweating at the gym, and more often than not, I don't really think I worked hard enough to sweat much at all. Running is completely different, I totally worked hard enough to sweat, and I don't mind it, because I think it reminds me how hard I worked. lol I know this is totally crazy, but oh well. :)

Boycott Pure Fitness

Last week I got an email from Pure Fitness stating my monthly dues were delinquent and that I needed to contact the club to remedy the problem. Here's the problem, my member had cancelled in January and I've not had any further charges since then. I called to club to remedy the situation, and when I got done explaining that I had cancelled this membership and my last payment came out in January they stated they would "fix" the error in billing. Well, they fixed it alright. They reinstated my membership and subsequently charged my account $138. Funny, I don't remember signing a contract. Isn't that what is supposed to happen after you've cancelled a previous contract, sign a new one? Hmmm, maybe I'm missing something. Yesterday when I noticed the charge I contacted the number on my bank statement and they confirmed with the Gym that my account had in fact terminated my membership as stated and that they would refund the money they fraudulently removed from my account. I was told by ABC Financial that they would contact accounting to expedite the matter and get me a reference number that would allow my bank to release the money into my account, as I didn't really want to wait 5 business days to get my stolen money back. I was told to call back later that afternoon at which time I was put on hold for more than 30 minutes. I was finally transferred to a Supervisor at 3:02 my time (5:02 CST), at which time I was informed that the accounting office was closed and I would need to call back tomorrow. So, I called back this morning to talk to that Supervisor (she said she would be there) to find that she was not in that day. I asked to be transferred to another supervisor who told me that they would also try and contact accounting department to acquire the necessary reference number and was told to call back at 11am my time, to find out (surprise, surprise) that this representative was not in the office. I contact another supervisor who told me that they would also try and contact accounting, and was later told that I would have to wait for another tomorrow. They wouldn't transfer me to accounting as "they aren't capable of getting incoming calls". I looked up the company, called their main line and was transferred to their Accounts Receivable office. What? They can receive incoming calls? I was told at that point I would have to wait for their credit card department to receive the paperwork in the morning. Hmmmm, who really handles this? Everyone keeps pointing the finger at someone else. So, I keep waiting to get back money that they had no right to anyway. Everyone agrees that it was in error, but no one seems in hurry to refund my money.

Moral of the story? If you join a gym, go month to month. Pay a little extra to avoid auto draft. Once they have your account information, it's over. They'll charge you indiscriminately for made up fees, etc. Also, if you are joining a gym and still want to do auto draft, make sure their Third-party billing company is NOT ABC Financial.

5k pictures

First 5K

I ran my first 5K today. It was different than I expected, but also better. I was worried that I'd be the only one walking, and as it turned out I didn't walk more than 100 yards of it, but kept a little bit slower pace. I'm really tired, but not as sore as I thought I'd be and was really happy to see my family in the stands when I crossed the finish line. At the beginning my parents were standing with Sevrine at the start of the race and I stayed to the side so I could give Sevrine a high 5 as I passed. Apparently she liked that because she asked me on the way home if I remembered giving her the high 5. Gotta love that kid. I'll be putting pictures up shortly, but here are my results.

Photos

Ok, well I know that I already posted today, but I wanted to attach some pictures I took. Some turned out good and others not as well as I'd hoped, but....... here are a few of my favorites.

I wish I were better....

at a lot of things, including updating this. I wish that I were more consistent with my running instead of letting life and worries get in the way. I wish I were better at telling people how I feel. I wish I were better at a lot of things, but all I can do is I work on those things little by little. So, today, I go running. I will start writing my feelings down. I will webcam with Sevrine tonight and tell her how I much I love and miss her. Today, I will send emails to some of my friends telling them how much I appreciate them.

Getting back

Well, after 11 days off I went walking today. Did about 3 miles and feel pretty good. I hate that I've been so tired lately, but I'm determined to be consistent. I have it set up so Wednesday and Friday are my off days and all of the other days I'll either do 2.5 miles or 3.1 miles. I still want to do 5k this year, but think that I tried to bite off a little bit more than I could chew and have been dealing with shin splints and some foot pain as a result. Gonna just walk for a while and then get back into running more. I want this to be something that I do for a long time, not just for a little while, so will ease into it. :) So, off to get ready for Church now.

Still running

I really wanted to run every day, but was starting to get a little burned out and was starting to realize that even though it's good for me, my body was telling me that I was over-doing it a little. I think that as my body starts to get used to it, I will eventually be able to run everyday, but for now I'm going to make sure that I allow myself some recovery time too. I like being able to get out on the road and just enjoy the quiet. It's time to myself that I can reflect on the day and start to figure things out. I'm a visual person, and if I can't see results, then I typically will lose interest, but with my nike+ kit, I can synch my miles to the nike site and actually see my progress. I've joined challenges on their and can see where I stand with other runners. Since I'm new, my expectations are super high, but I like to see where I compare. Now I'm just waiting to see some results in my body from adding all this running. :)

Nike+

Gotta love technology. I think that I've gotten a little off track when it comes to my goals this year, so am finding new motivation to run. I recently purchased the Nike+ sport kit to go with my ipod and really like that it tracks my miles, pace, time and calories burned. I really think this is going to keep me on track. I would really like to do a 5k this year and am following the couch to 5k program as well. I just get to check my ipod to see how far I've run as well as listening to the podcast. I'll keep tracking my progress here and let you all know how I'm doing. :)

Okay

I think that slowly but surely I'm becoming okay with being alone (not in a relationship). I went to an engagement party today for one of my best friends and while there was a small amount of awkwardness, my being the only unattached person there (Sevrine doesn't count as a date), I didn't want to cry on the way home for my lack of a partner. Don't get me wrong, I was still a little sad that I don't have a partner right now, but for the first time in a while, it didn't make me want to cry. I felt a little bit more awkward there because even though I'm not much older than my friends, in maturity and our places in life, I'm way older. They are still fairly free to do the things they want without much planning, while I have to take several factors into account before I can even go to the grocery store. Part of me is jealous or their unfettered lifestyles, and part of me feels sorry for them because they don't have the experiences that having kids brings you. I guess I'm just feeling the divide between us get larger and larger the more time goes by. None of them are going through any of the same things that I am going through solely because I have a child. Maybe that's me isolating myself a little, but I find it harder and harder to relate sometimes because of it.

starting over

Well, its time to start fresh. A week into this new year I'm officially single and trying to focus on myself. Gonna take things slow as far as dating goes, but will actually be blogging my dating experiences since it seems that they are so entertaining. I seem to be a magnet for guys that are just a little off the wall, so I'll just have to write about them just so you can get a sense of what I mean. I don't think I'll be posting those things on this particular blog, just to try and keeps things separate, but we'll see. I'm sure there will be some spill over.

Entertaining but unproductive

I had a mostly unproductive day today. I got sucked into the crack that is a forum (actually a few of them) on a popular LDS networking site. It's so addictive. I can't get away from it for very long before I have to know what's going on. lol Some of the threads, to which I was a participant had me laughing most of the afternoon. I may have to ration myself. lol

Clean slate

Okay, since this is a new year, I think we can say that now is a good time to start over, clean the slate as it were. I want to keep my goals this year simple. I could make a huge list of things that I want to accomplish this year as I've done in year's past, but I think that it's hard to look back and see what you've yet to accomplish sometimes. I already stated before that one of my main goals this year is to be selfish, but I think that to make that goal sound slightly less....selfish, I'll say that this year I'm going to focus on my own happiness. If you currently rely on me for your happiness, I apologize, you're on your own, unless of course it's directly linked with my own happiness. So yeah, main goal is to be happy. I may start up my photo blog again, but the pressure of having to do it every day was too much. I will just hope for a few per week at this point. Hmmm, I may have to set a goal to keep you more informed as to the happy aspects of my life. We'll start with this.......

I bought a new point & shoot today. My old camera was about 3 years old and will no longer take a charge, so after much shopping around, I settled on a Samsung with 5x optical zoom. If it weren't for the much anticipated football game on Monday, I may have postponed this purchase for a little while, but alas, I really want to get some pictures of Jeff and I at the game so I had to buy it. :) It does have some pretty cool features, so stay tuned. If I can figure them out, they'll be really cool.

So, to you all.... Happy New Year and may it be everything you hope for. :)