because some things can't be concealed with powder and lipstick

Not sure what's going to end up on this page...

2011-02-15T21:29:00.003-06:00

My brain is in some sort of disarray.

What's that, you say? You think it's a common occurrence with me?

Eh, you're probably right :).

Mentally exhausted...it's been a common feeling of mine lately.

I have been thinking about writing...about blogging...about getting my thoughts "out" on "paper" or "a page" lately...and haven't really got around to it. Writing is typically pretty "therapeutic" for me. But lately, honestly, I've not really felt like writing. I am not sure why. I guess maybe because the thoughts I've been having don't make much sense even to me....so why would I expect them to make sense out in the open?

However...I just thought I'd give it a whirl tonight. Jeremy is out with a friend for dinner, and I'm sitting on the couch solo armed with a bowl of popcorn and my laptop. I was hoping to watch some mindless television, but our DVR isn't working for some reason. I am SOOO not technologically savvy, so I need to wait for Jeremy to get home to figure out how I can watch "my shows" that are on there ;). So...I decided to try blogging a bit. Why not?

A big theme in my life lately has been humility. It seems that just when I start to be confident...or even just comfortable...something happens to make that probably false confidence crumble down around me. I am plagued by self-doubt. It is definitely one of my biggest weaknesses. I know that about myself...and I know that "knowing" yourself and your faults is one of the first "steps" to improving upon things...but I am not really sure where to take it from there. I mean...I probably am too hard on myself as a general rule. I mean....humility is good, right? But you can probably have too much of a "good" thing...when that "humility" begins to morph into self-deprecation.

So...anyway....

I feel like I am in some sort of "limbo" right now...some sort of stagnant waiting period in my life....and I am not a big fan. I feel like there needs to be some sort of change. But I am not sure what.

some steps I've taken lately to try to stir things up a bit...

~applied for and got a PRN position as an SLP at a nursing home in Clinton, IL. Orientation is Friday. This will be way out of my comfort zone...my comfort zone is with the little kiddos. But, I truly am excited to try something new. It doesn't hurt that the pay is pretty awesome either ;).

~started changing up my fitness routine...by registering for and attending a 1x/week strength training class with Jeremy. I am by far the weakest person in the class. Definitely out of my comfort zone in a major way.

Honestly....I thought I'd have more illustrations than just those...but I guess I'm not doing as much as I thought I am.

Hm.

All around me, though, things are changing....

Friends are pregnant. People are moving into bigger and better homes. People are getting new, exciting job and career opportunities.

It is so hard not to compare. Not to feel inadequate. Not to feel like I don't measure up.

Truth is...I do like my job. I am generally happy with my life...I just feel unsettled. Like I am meant to do something "more"...I just don't know what that "more" is yet.

Time for a change

2011-01-07T11:37:00.004-06:00

Yeah, probably time for lots of changes ;).

It's a new year, after all...right?

In case you didn't realize it's a new year/time for "resolutions"...go to your nearest gym and check it out. Likely it's packed. January is my LEAST favorite time of the year to go to the gym. It's SO overwhelming with all of the well-meaning resolution-ers...loud, cramped...talk about a sensory overload. Am I an awful person because I look forward to a majority of them dropping off the resolution-bandwagon? Probably. I should be kinder, more patient...and hope that each and every one of them is successful in their quest to adopt a more healthy lifestyle.

But alas, I am just selfishly waiting for the day when the gym is less busy. What a jerk I am.

Just being honest!!

But, anyway....where was I? Change...

So, while there are MANY changes I should be making (sadly)....I think I'll start with a new blog title. I've been playing with different titles in my head for a few months (as if it REALLY matters!)...

As long as I'm jumping all over the place with my thoughts today, let's rewind...

The first "title" of my blog was: "Turns out not where but who you're with that really matters." Lyrics from a Dave Matthew's song, if you were wondering (yeah, I'm one of those irritating college or relatively shortly-post-college twenty-somethings who likes DMB a bit too much. Meh, what can I say? His lyrics speak to me. HA! ;)). I did kind of like that title...a reminder to myself to enjoy life wherever it took me and to remember that it is the people in my life and the relationships that I've been blessed with that matter far more than where I am ("where" both literally and figuratively).

On January 11, 2010, I posted...New Year, New Title and "announced" that I'd changed the title to "...becoming who I want to be"

Ok...now this is weird. Weird, weird, weird. As I was driving to work this morning, "This is Your Life" by Switchfoot came on the radio. The lyrics of that song really always resonate with me....

The lyrics have been in my head again all morning. And, just now, as I entered the words "new title" into the search bar on my blog and hit "enter"...and the "new year, new title" post came up...and as I clicked on it and read the short little entry...WHAT do you think inspired the title "...becoming who I want to be"?????

Uh, yeah. The very same song.

I had forgotten about that.

SO WEIRD!

Here are the lyrics...

"This Is Your Life"

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you've got now
Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes
Don't close your eyes

This is your life are you who you want to be?
This is your life are you who you want to be?

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose

Man.....

Anyway...what the heck will my new title be? Nerdy or not, "Some things can't be concealed with lipstick and powder" is it. (Inspired by Romo, of course. It has been swimming around in my head, just like the above lyrics, ever since he suggested it. Kinda saucy, blatant...still feminine (I do like being girly)...and gets to the point. Here I am! Take me or leave me! I may try to hide some things about myself...but really...I'm kinda just out there in all of my messed-up glory!)

How long will this title last? The last one stuck around for about a year. Who knows what 2011 will bring and what I'll be inspired by next!

yesterday is a wrinkle on my forehead...
hopefully TODAY is a great day :).

Thoughts...

2011-01-06T12:27:00.001-06:00

Lately I've been thinking.

(Scary right?)

I read something on a blog this morning that mirrored some of my own jumbled-up thoughts of late, and put into words what I've been thinking/feeling/struggling with....

HOW do I balance all of my passions/interests?

And...

HOW do I stop overcommitting, saying YES all of the time, stretching myself so thin, etc........even to/with things that can pretty much ALL be considered "good"??

Song lyrics have been running through my head lately...."everything to everybody"....and I CAN'T be "everything" to "everyone" that I feel like I "need" to be.

Truth is, I probably don't NEED to be.

And, isn't it pretty narcissistic of me to even CONSIDER that I should try?

Balance in 2011....that's the name of the game.

How will I get there?

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Hey Romo

2011-01-02T22:08:00.002-06:00

Random post for you, Romo....

First of all.......Thanks for your comment just now....I had a good laugh over it and shared it with Jeremy who was thoroughly entertained by it as well. (And I won't post it, per your request :))

So, thanks :). Once again, you kept me from doing something crazy.

Yeah...so I got the weird idea in my head to try that tonight...and was doing some reading on the topic...and was kind of intrigued by the whole thing and ready to jump right onto that bandwagon. Hey, it's a new year after all....I need a new year's resolution, right?

Maybe instead I'll try to do less processed foods, more fruits/veggies, etc....

Not that you REALLY care ;), but also wanted to let you know....things are slowly improving on the running front. Little to no ankle pain...no knee pain...I'm trying some new shoes (Adidas Marathon 10)....and keeping better tabs on cross training.

I'm hoping to have the half at the U of I marathon be my "come-back" event....and to do a marathon in June and October. I would really like to do the Marine Corps marathon at the end of October in DC. We'll see.

That whole Boston thing...I'm still kind of hung up on the idea of qualifying. I don't really know "why" it's so appealing to me...but it really is.

There's so much to do, though, before I can run with the big boys and girls...

I need to get more serious about a better diet (I use my gluten-free status as an unfortunate "excuse" to eat basically whatever else I want...since I can't do gluten...and sometimes tend to convince myself that that's enough of a "sacrifice")....and weight training...and get back in the pool.

Also...my lame-o, random blog needs a new title. Any suggestions? ;)

Thanks Romo...you're the best un-known, random friend :). Now for that Chinese tattoo.... ;)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:23:00.001-06:00

I've been a bit of a slacker with trying to keep up with my December Daily project! I've been taking a fair amount of photos each day; I've been carrying my camera in my purse and snapping pictures of "every-day" things like a big nerd (such as the heavy snow fall out my car windows as I sat in the Starbuck's drive-through yesterday! Ha!). Also, Ive been keeping a small collection of mementos from the month (movie ticket stubs, the bulletin from our church's Christmas Eve service, etc...). But, I haven't been doing very good about blogging/recording the little memories to add to the scrapbook. Speaking of which, I havent even started the book....at all! I hope to have a bit of time to devote to that this week :).

Here's a few highlights from the last few days...

Monday, December 20

I worked a somewhat long/busy day. The workday started at 7:30am with a meeting at High Road school, where I see 3 students. I got to learn a bit about a AAC app available on the iPad, which was kind of neat. I saw a bunch of kids throughout the day, and as usual didn't have enough time to quite get all of my documentation completed....and then actually left at 5:15 (a rare occurence for me!) to go finish up some Christmas shopping.

Later, I spoke with my friend Jillian....who was going in to the hospital to be induced at 9! Sooooo excited/anxious for her!

Tuesday, December 21

I waited on pins and needles for news of my friend Jillian's baby's birth! She called me at 9am...no baby yet, but she was in labor! That was the first time I spoke with a woman who was in labor! ;)

A little after 1:30, I received a text with adorable photo....Oliver Alexander McGriff had arrived safely at 12:24pm!

That night I went over to the McGriff's house to get a few things (Cheese-it crackers and the boppy pillow!) and then went to the hospital. I brought a balloon, gift (outfit from Old Navy), and some bright flowers. Tears came to my eyes as I hurried through the quiet hospital corridors.

He was beautiful.....and holding him felt amazing! Nothing in the world quite compares to the miracle of a newborn.

Jeremy and I met for dinner around 8 at Herradura, our favorite Mexican restaurant.

After dinner....we went home. I actually went to bed shortly after 9 because I was so exhausted and felt like the exhaustion might actually be making me physically sick as well. This time of year is just crazy with all of the hustle and bustle!

Wednesday, Dec 22

This was my LAST work day before eleven consecutive days off! It was a busy, but good, day.

We ordered Firehouse pizza for lunch....it is one of my favorites. They have some AWESOME gluten free pizza there!

Thursday, Dec 23.

Jeremy and I both had the day off and spent most of the day running separate Christmas errands.

Thursday night we went to Peoria to meet our good friend Aaron and Katie for dinner to celebrate Aaron's 29th birthday! It's always a lot of fun spening time with them :).

On the way back, we (just J and I) decided to stop at Starplex Cinemas and went to the 10:25 showing of Tron. It was AWFUL! I really didn't like it at all! I'm sure it didnt help matters that I was super tired....but man, was it BORING!!

Friday, December 24

We slept in to about 10! Since we'd gotten home late (thanks to that awful movie Tron!!), we didnt get to bed til close to 2. So, really, we didn't sleep a TON more than usual! ;)

We went to the gym in the afternoon...and then I went to the grocery store and Starbucks, while Jeremy went to Lowe's, Menard's, and Home Depot (he is working on finishing a few things in our basement).

I made a cheesy potato caserole to bring over to his parents' for dinner. After cleaning up from the gym, we headed over shortly after 5. It had snowed excessively, so the drive that usually takes 12 or so minutes took close to a half hour!

After a delicious dinner, we went to the 9pm candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church. It was great...and nice to see some of our friends

Saturday, December 25

Merry Christmas!

We started the day off "right" again by sleeping in until around 9. After getting ready for the day...we opened our presents to one another. As usual, Jeremy outdid me with his thoughtfulness :). He's a great gift-giver!

We headed over to his parents' house around 10 and ate some hors d'ovres and opened/exchanged more gifts.

Highlights include a digital camcorder to J and me from Jer's brother Jon (AWESOME!), and a large frame/shadow box with a bunch of my race medals displayed really nicely inside from J's parents! It was one of my favorite gifts, ever, and I can't wait to display it in our home!

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

december daily project, con't...

2010-12-18T22:11:00.002-06:00

Day 11--Saturday, December 11 through Day 14--Tuesday, December 14th...whoops! Should probably go back through my camera and see if I can scrounge up a few memories from these days ;).

Day 15--Wednesday, December 15

Today was Jillian's last day of work, pre-baby!! :)

Day 16--Thursday, December 16
I got up at 4:30 am to go to a spinning class at the gym...it had snowed a lot that past evening/early morning so I got to "blaze a trail" to the gym through unplowed streets!
a stop at Starbucks on my way to work helped jump-start my day
It was a busy day of lots of therapy sessions....but it went well
My 4pm kiddo was video-taped by WMBD for footage for an Easter Seals case statement DVD that is being produced for our upcoming 2011 Telethon...this was sprung on me very last-minute, so I somewhat panicked! I had worn some "scrubby-looking" clothes that day and didn't feel very "TV-ready"...but I made do!
I picked up Jillian's parents from the airport for her at 6:40...they flew into town to attend her Peoria Area Civic Chorale concerts this weekend (she and her husband were at a dress rehearsal and were unable to go pick them up...so I volunteered!)
I stopped by our friends Josh and Laura's home to drop off a Christmas card...and talked to them for a while. They were having a bit of a rough day due to a pipe exploding in their home. At 7:45pm when I was there, a cleaning company was there helping them out. Ugh!!
We got a late dinner at Chili's with our friends Steve and Jamie after Jeremy and Steve played racquetball together at the gym

Day 17--Friday, December 17

I went to Peoria with two co-workers/friends, Jamie and Kristin for the Ray LaHood Center for Cerebral Palsy grand opening at the Peoria Easter Seals center
Jamie and I got some yummy Chipotle for lunch on our way back to work
I went to see one kiddo in his home for a final evaluation before his third birthday
I taught a piano lesson and a kiddo's home
Jeremy and I went to a retirement party for his father at the home of his father's successor. It was actually a great time! I saw my friend/co-worker Dawn there (her husband Scott works in the law department at State Farm, which is where Jeremy's dad worked)
Jon (Jeremy's brother), Jeremy, and I went to Shoe Carnival after the party to shoe shop (Jeremy has two friends who work there...and they were having a "friends and family" sale)

Day 18--Saturday, December 18

Jeremy worked...he will get this coming Wednesday off in exchange for working today! (in addition to Thursday and Friday off for Christmas!)
I went to the gym and cleaned/did laundry
I picked Jeremy up at 1:30 and we went to Steak and Shake for lunch on his lunch break
I went Christmas shopping...the crowds were INSANE!!
We had dinner at Famous Dave's with our friends Paul and Lisa and sat and talked for 2 hours...Lisa and I "bonded" over apparently similar ideas about child-rearing someday (coming from two women who don't have kids yet ;))
Jeremy and I watched Toy Store 3 in the "man cave" :)

December rolls on!

2010-12-10T20:44:00.011-06:00

Oh, this December Daily project is exciting me so :).

I do so love the Christmas season...which you wouldn't know if you visited our home right now :). We have minimal Christmas decorations displayed...our powder room has a Christmas-y monogrammed 'B' hand towel, our stove has a snowman towel hanging from it (yeah, I'm partial to themed towels...one of my quirks. I buy many towels throughout the year. LOVE themed towels! HA!), and I put out my "12 Days of Christmas" scrapbook from last December (that still isn't completely finished).

Tree? Nope.
Stockings? Nah.
Snowmen? None in sight.
Wreath? What?!

Nativity? Not yet.

I told my good friend Brooke via text last weekend that I hadn't gotten my decorations out yet...her response?

YOU SCROOGE!

Harumph. Maybe so, Brookie. Sorry!!! ;)

Regardless...I DO kind of feel like a failure of a woman/wife right now since I haven't decorated our home all cutesy for the holidays yet...but Jeremy just looked at me as if I am truly crazy when I asked him if he cares. He doesn't. Ha!

So, this year, I just might not do it.

I have been looking for ways of cutting back on "unnecessary" stressors, and honestly right now the thought of decorating my home stresses me out. So, I am not going to deal with it. Today is December 10th. Christmas is 15 days away. If I decide at some point in the next 14 days or so that I really NEED some Christmas decorations...perhaps I'll put some out.

But again, maybe not. ;)

Now, when we have children...I will definitely decorate. I wouldn't deprive my children of the fun of a home full of Christmas cheer just because I don't FEEL like decorating. But at this point in our lives? Meh, we're good. HA!

Ok...all of that being said...let's carry on with the rest of my December Daily project!

Day 4-December 4th, 2010.

(Continued from previous post)
On Saturday night, Jeremy and I went to Chili's for dinner (one of our "standards") and then home for a movie. We put in "Law Abiding Citizen"...and I only lasted about 30 minutes. It was kind of disturbing...and made me feel sick (maybe I'm just a big wimp ;)). So, Jeremy and Izzy watched the movie with out me....

Day 5-Sunday, December 5th

I went up to Peoria with Jillian to help her teach her final scrapbooking class at Scrapadoodle....well, her final class before baby McG makes his grand debut, anyway! She asked me to go up to help her out...so I did! It was a lot of fun. The project today was a canvas tote bag. It was really cute!
Here she is in all of her teaching glory :). She is a great teacher :).
Me and the teacher :).
Oh, you're such a fun, cute pregnant gal Jillian!

Sunday evening after we helped out at the high school youth group Sunday fellowship (Jeremy and I are youth leaders), we vegged out a bit at home and got ready for the week.

We watched SNL on our DVR from the night before...and "What's up with that?" one of our FAVORITE re-curring skits was on. HA!

Jeremy polished some of his work shoes while we watched...

...and I worked on writing messages in our Christmas cards!

Jeremy made a pretty darn creative Christmas card for us to send out this year (not to everyone...clearly these weren't cheap! He made cd's with some of our favorite non-traditional Christmas songs, along with custom designed labels and album insterts. Love his creativity!

My contribution was writing personal messages in each :).

Christmas cards!

Jeremy decided to give our little Izzy a tuna treat :). She goes NUTS!

Here she is, all stretched out and anxious to get her treat!

YUM! ;)

Day 6-Monday, December 6

So my therapy room at Easter Seals is SO COLD!

Jillian lent me her awesome space heater...truly amazing :).

View from my therapy room window...snowy Bloomington, IL.

One view of my cluttered, too-full therapy room...lots of toys and books!

One of my Monday kiddos putting together a Mickey Mouse puzzle while we worked on his speech targets...clearly for privacy reasons, I cannot take a picture of kiddos' faces!

A common sight of mine....Raintree! Raintree is our electronic documentation system at Easter Seals. Many an hour is spent documenting therapy and evaluations in this system.

Day 7-Tuesday, December 7th

After work, we had our friends Steve and Jamie over to watch Inception! Inception was just released on DVD today, so Jeremy went to Blockbuster right after work to rent it. He had suggested yesterday that we start a Tuesday-night movie night...

I am not sure if we will really keep it up EVERY Tuesday night, but it was a great first "movie night" and it was fun to have Steve and Jamie as our first guests!

We had fun visiting, eating snacks, and watching an awesome movie. Steve and Jamie hadn't seen it before...and they loved it!

Jeremy and I had seen it a few months prior in the theater...and couldn't wait to see it again.

Ahhhh...my latest issue of Runner's World!

Day 8-Wednesday, December 8

After a very busy day at work...I headed to my favorite salon in town, Girl Friday!

The lovely Colleen hooked me up with a cut and color that I love.

Here I am under the dryer :).

Here's the lovely Col :).

Day 9-Thursday, December 9

Tonight after work, Jeremy and I attended a retirement party for his father at Biaggi's, hosted by Ed and Sally Rust (the CEO of State Farm and his wife). It was an awesome dinner and a great time.

Day 10--Friday, December 10

Here's my very messy therapy room table...where I often camp out to work on various work projects. It was looking extra-cluttered today! We're under the gun at Easter Seals. Surveyors from CARF, our accreditation agency, are coming on Monday and Tuesday of next week so we have to ensure that each and every one of our t's are crossed and i's are dotted!

I had a busy morning consisting of two kids and one meeting...and then a work lunch at Herradura that I helped organize. It was nice to sit down and relax over some yummy food with some of my fun co-workers! Christina, Veronica, Jamie, Kathi, Gretchen, Kristin, and Kristin's adorable 2-year-old daughter Ellie joined me. It was a great time!

After lunch, I headed over to Girl Friday for the second time this week! I had made an appointment for a pedicure and shellac manicure...my friends Jamie and Jillian had given me a gift card for my birthday that I was all too excited to use! It was relaxing and awesome...

I wore skinny jeans (my new obsession)...and got the darn jeans stuck over my calves! I had rolled them up (no easy feat...those puppies are TIGHT!) for the pedicure and had quite a bit of difficulty getting them down! I felt like a freak show!

Both Nikki (the nail tech) and Colleen had to work at them with me to get them down! Here is Colleen...I snapped this picture right as she got my second pant leg down FINALLY! haha!!!

After the pampering, I went to teach a piano lesson :). It was the second lesson for my newest student and went very well. After the lesson, I went back to work where I worked on getting my documentation up to date.

Jeremy picked me up at 7 and we headed across town to one of our favorite dinner spots..Moe's! We each got some delicious vegetarian nachos (our favorite).

The Bulls game was on...so naturally Jeremy tended to stare at the nearest TV screen ;).

Neither of us ever eats all of our nachos...so we combine the leftovers at the end, and Jeremy gets to have the big pile of goo sometime later during the week :).

Mmmmm....Moe's sweet tea is one of my favorite things in the entire world!

When we got home, we were SUPER pumped to find this in our mailbox....

One of the most anticipated parts of Christmas! The "Christmas card" from our friends, the Lentz's!

Here it is, hanging on our fridge...

This year they made an ADVENT CALENDAR! How cool is that?! We can't open the 1st door until Dec. 13th...can't wait!

December....so far, so great!

December Daily/Celebrating Every Day

2010-12-04T11:33:00.009-06:00

So, my good friend Jillian is a big fan of Ali Edwards. Basically, Ali is a scrapbooking goddess. Jillian is a pretty fantastic scrapper herself :). Me? I enjoy it, but I am a poser :). Not nearly as talented as my good friend Jillian!

However, this year...this December...I've decided to try a new project. For the past few years, Jillian has participated in making a December Daily scrapbook...inspired by Ali Edwards. Last year Jillian tried to convince me to do it with her...but I didn't. I did make a "12 Days of Christmas" album at a class Jillian taught last December...and ended up getting it mostly filled with pictures/mementos, but I still have a few things I need to add to it to have it really finished. Yeah, I'm kind of behind.

(seems to be a common theme for my life right now...but I digress...)

Speaking of behind (quick tangent)...I still haven't finished our wedding scrapbook. What, we've been married for almost 39 months you say?! Well...I've been busy. Ha!

Anyway....

Jillian and I hung out for a while last night....first working on a few things around their home to continue to get ready for Baby McG...then we went down to Uptown normal for dinner...and then to a movie. It will surely be one of her last nights out before her little one makes his appearance, which made it extra-special to share that night with her.

I made up my night last night, after seeing how excited she was for her December Daily scrapbook project, that I am going to participate this year :).

Never mind that yesterday was December third and I should've, therefore, been THREE days into the project. I'm starting from behind...but I'll catch up :). My camera battery is charging right now so I'll have it at the ready to capture the every-day-moments throughout this busy, bustling, beautiful December.

I decided that (since I do know myself, more or less!) I should blog as a way to keep track of everything...in case I don't have the time/interest/energy for scrapbooking every single day this month. I might just wait until later this month (when I have an entire, glorious WEEK off!) to put everything together...

So...here's just some basic "journaling" to get my mind on track for the project....

December Daily...Day 1
Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Today was a busy day at work. I arrived around 7:45 to get ready for an evaluation that was scheduled at 8am. Kathi, a developmental therapist, and I performed a re-evaluation on a little cutie that we've been seeing for approximately six months. It was so exciting to have objective data as evidence of all of the progress he has made over the past six months. This little 2 year old came to us six months ago with less than five words...and now his expressive vocabulary is over fifty words, plus he is starting to put some words into phrases. Talk about some quick, fun progress to note!

After that, I had a "free" hour of unscheduled time (a rare luxury!) during which I hurriedly typed up the evaluation report from the aforementioned evaluation. It's not often I have the time to write the report immediately following the evaluation, but it is absolutely WONDERFUL when I do! After I completed that, I hopped in my car to drive approximately 45 minutes away to an IEP meeting for a little one who is turning three soon and staring preschool next week. It was a very FULL meeting...many Early Intervention therapists were involved in this sweet little one's care, and all but one of us were able to attend. Many teachers and therapists from the school were present, in addition to his parents. This particular school was very accommodating and seems to have a good plan in place for this new student. I'm so excited to learn about the ways in which he will grow this year.

The afternoon was busy...but pretty good as far as an afternoon at work goes! I had appointments from 2-6 pm back-to-back.

Christina, one of the OT's at Easter Seals as well as a good friend of mine, and I co-treated from 3-4, 4-5, and from 5-6. Wednesday afternoons are a lot of fun...it's such a wonderful treat to be able to co-treat with Christina. She is a fabulous therapist who has a few more years of experience than I do and is great with the kids...she teaches me a lot! For some of our kiddos, co-treating speech and OT really seems to work well.

From 5-6 pm every other Wednesday, Christina and I have an OT/ST group comprised of 4 kiddos who are all working on social skills/goals among other things. This is truly one of the highlights of our job, we love it! This particular week, we only had 2 of our usual kiddos...so they were able to get a bit more individual attention. We were able to observe some wonderful conversations between the two kiddos who were there...it's so exciting to see them begin to carry over some of the skills we've been targeting!

I ended up staying at work until 8:45pm Wednesday night. I was hoping to go to the gym, but didn't make it. It was a very long day...I've been getting backed up with many reports/documentation/etc. that I need to complete and it's been somewhat stressing me out.

After I got home, I vegged in front of the tv for a little while...and then hit the sack around 11:30

December Daily...Day 2
Thursday, December 2, 2010

Today I woke up early...my alarm went off at 4:30am! Since I didn't work out last night, I felt like I really needed to get up and go to a 5:15am "hour of power" spinning class at Four Seasons 2. I've been going to this class on Tuesdays for the past couple of weeks. However, I am DEFINITELY not a morning person, and felt that ONE early morning a week was MORE than enough. When the alarm went off, I sat up in bed and just sat there for a few minutes pondering if I'd actually get up and go.

Well, I did.

It was a decent class...and it felt great to start off the day with a workout, as it always does (when the workout is OVER, at least!).

After the class, I showered/got ready for work at the gym...which is not really one of my favorite things to do, but it is a necessary evil as it really saves a lot of time. I went to Starbucks after getting ready and was to work by 7:20am.

Thursday was another fairly busy day...but I was able to meet Jeremy at one of our favorite restaurants, Meat Head's for a late lunch at 1:15. It is always nice to get together during the week to have lunch together. We try to do it once a week, but it doesn't always work out due to my crazy schedule.

Unfortunately, today was the second day I was at work until 8:45. Seriously. I think I might have a problem. I was the last person at the office 4 days this week and the first person to the office two days this week. Ugh.

December Daily...Day 3
Friday, December 3, 2010

I worked 8-1:30 today...which was somewhat of a Friday "record" of sorts for me. I am technically off at noon on Fridays, but never seem to be able to actually get out of there by that time. In fact, I usually end up being at work til closer to 4 or 5 on most Fridays.

Today, however, I had to get to a music store to buy some piano books and had to get home for a quick lunch...before going over to a kiddo's home to teach piano lessons :). I now officially have two students. This was the first lesson for my second student. It was a lot of fun, she is a sweet girl who has a sweet family. Teaching piano is something I truly love to do and would love to have more time for. It's a wonderful little outlet/hobby for me and I am thankful to now have two students!

At 3:30 I taught the lesson....and then afterwards, I pumped some gas (one of my least favorite things to do in the entire world) and then headed over to Jillian's.

We spent some time checking out the nursery (I hadn't seen it since it had been painted and the crib/changing table had been assembled! It is SO cute...they've chosen a really fun nautical theme. Love it!), organizing a few things, and then headed out for dinner and a movie.

When we walked out her front door...we were stunned to see SNOW..and lots of it! When I walked into her house at 6pm, it wasn't snowing at all. When we walked out around 6pm., it was snowing proFUSEly and there was already a lot of accumulation! Crazy, crazy!

We went to the Garlic Press in normal for some delicious food (I had some GF tomato/basil/goat cheese quiche, fruit salad, and hot spiced cider) and then went to Starplex Cinema to see Due Date! It was a pretty funny movie :).

Afterwards we braved the snow and un-plowed roads to go over to Easter Seals so Jillian could get her car (she had left it there the day before)...

First snow of the year!

Jillian's little Yaris was snowed in :). Here she is being all goofy while scraping off the car, in her pregnant glory!

Welcome, snow! Welcome, scraping windows!

When I got home around 10, I spent some time talking to Jeremy and watching him put together our awesome Christmas cards. So excited for the big reveal!

December Daily...Day 4
Saturday, December 4, 2010

Originally, we had made plans with our friends Paul and Lisa to go to Springfield today to visit the Lincoln Museum and hang out. We decided, though, that we needed a day at home today and that a full-day trip to Springfield wasn't the best plan. We have so much to do...Christmas cards (Jeremy is making a very special Christmas card surprise for us this year!), present planning/purchasing, decorating for the holidays, and I have work to get done as well for work. I was at the office over 55 hours this week and I am just plain exhausted. However, there is still more to get done before the new weeks begins. So, all things considered, we knew that today would be best spent at home.

Today we woke up to even MORE snow! Here's a view from our kitchen/patio door...lots of snow on our poor patio chairs and grill!

Oh summer...you seem so far away! As a comedian we saw back in November when we were up in Minnesota with our friends Rosalee and Bobby pointed out, though...since we made the choice to live in the midwest, we really have no right to complain about the snow/weather. It's the MIDWEST...snow is a fact of life here! We just have to deal...I guess he has a point!

Here's our little kitty Izzy in one of her typical poses :). Later this month, December 22, will mark the two-year anniversary of Izzy in our lives!

Jeremy had made a "racquetball date" with our friend Josh this morning. The two had planned to meet at Four Season's 1 at 9:30 to play. I said I'd go along with him to get my Saturday workout out of the way!

My husband puts up with so much! ;) He agreed, only moderately reluctantly, to take a photo of me on the eliptical at the gym toward the end of my workout this morning :).

Yeah, I sweat a bit when I work out, I am not ashamed :).

I am still battling a nasty case of Achilles tendinitis, which I gained following my third marathon on Sunday, September 26th. It's been TEN weeks since the marathon...and I haven't been able to really run since that time. It's been a struggle, frankly. Going from running daily, and running miles and miles and miles at once...to NOT being able to run is mentally strange, for lack of a better way of putting things.

When we got home, Jeremy took off his jacket, and put it on the couch. It promptly fell off...and Izzy claimed it. Whenever we put any sort of clothing item down on the ground or on some furniture, she typically takes it over. She LOVES to hide under coats, in particular.

Emerging from her cave...she heard some loud noises from the basement that were freaking her out (Jeremy was down there pounding around looking for some tools/drill/etc.). Jeremy has been working hard this morning on fixing our garage door. Somehow it has broken...hopefully he is successful in his feat!

Well...I'm sure Day 4 will need a continuation later, seeing as it's not even 1 in the afternoon :).

Oh December...I can't wait to see what other adventures you hold for us! :)

This week, by the numbers

2010-12-03T12:50:00.005-06:00

So, first of all...I am a major poser of a blogger :).
I do love to write, and love to go back and read old entries...but haven't written anything in almost a month.
Sigh.

Anyway....it has been...a WEEK!

This week, by the numbers.....

1-number of evenings I've made it to the gym (Monday)

1-number of evenings I've actually MADE dinner

1-number of evenings we went out for Mexican food in leiu of cooking/eating leftovers

1-number of kiddos I discharged from therapy services this week

2-number of mornings I was the FIRST person in the building at work

2-number of mornings I woke up at 4:30am to attend a 5:15 "hour of power" spinning class at the gym (Tuesday/Thursday)

2-number of evenings I was at work until 8:45pm (Wednesday/Thursday)

2-number of evenings I allowed myself to watch an hour of television

3-number of evaluations I conducted at work this week

3-number of evaluations waiting in my queue to be typed up

4-number of evenings this week I was the LAST person in the building at work

5-number of mornings I went to Starbucks. I am somewhat ashamed because that means I spent WAY too much money on overpriced coffee. Good thing I am getting a Keurig coffee maker from my parents for Christmas (oh wait, that's supposed to be a "surprise"!)

0.5-miles I have run outside. Seriously. Coming from the girl who did 26.2 THREE TIMES in one year. Ugh. This weekend marks TEN weeks post-last-marathon. Seriously, am I healthy yet?

0-visits to my PT. Yeah, I need to do better next week.

26-kiddos I saw for therapy this week

3-approximate number of times I came close to a nervous breakdown

1-number of times I had lunch with my husband (Thursday)

12-approximate number of times I listened to the new Christmas song, Boots, by the Killers ;)

Wordless Wednesday--An afternoon visiting my grandparents' farm

2010-11-10T07:59:00.008-06:00

(so much for "wordless"....here comes an explanation of the photos below :))...
Sunday my mom and I visited my grandfather, who is 96, on his farm. He and my grandmother have lived there for 60+ years.
My grandfather had just gotten out of a rehabilitation facility the previous Tuesday, he had been sick for a few weeks.
My grandmother has lived in a nursing home for the past couple of years. Someone (usually an aunt or uncle of mine) takes my grandfather to visit her practically each and every day (unless he is sick himself).
I hadn't been out to the farm in years....I'm sad to say.
It was a great visit...lots of reminiscing about my childhood...
but also a bit of melancholy sadness about the years that have passed and how things never stay the same for long...

Oh weekends...

2010-11-07T21:21:00.002-06:00

Why do you have to be so short??

This weekend, in particular, was one of my favorites :). But...as it always is with good, fun things...the end comes too quickly.

Friday I worked til 3:30. I gave an in-home eval on a little 2-year-old cutie and then headed home to cleancleanclean. I feel like my home is NEVER clean enough! It's the never-ending battle...

After cleaning, I went grocery shopping and then hurried home to get Jeremy and the two of us went to Chili's to have dinner with our friends Paul and Lisa. After dinner we headed back here to our house where we watched a movie (Batman Begins...my favorite EVER!! :)) and I took breaks to work on making cupcakes for a baby shower I was hosting the next morning. We actually didn't go to bed until 2 am Friday night! I am FAR too old for that kind of foolishness!!

Jeremy had to work Saturday (perhaps we should've gone to bed earlier!!) and I got up when he got up to get ready for work so that I could start finalizing shower things. I got the gifts put together (I had organized the group gifts and had a gift from her mother as well that had been shipped here). I went to Schnucks to get flowers and balloons and some fruit for sangria and to Friar Tuck's to get wine for the sangria. Then, I headed over to Jillian's to set up! :)

It was a reallly fun day. Jillian wrote about it on her blog here :). It was great to be a part of something so special.

Last night...we were exhausted. We did go to Meathead's for some burgers and fries with my brother Dan and his girlfriend Laura. It was great to spend time with them, as usual :). However...speaking of burgers and fries....and the milkshake Jer and I split there as well...and the cupcakes I mentioned above...man, I need to get my eating back under control. I've been reallllly bad about it lately and really need to get back on a healthy bandwagon. I've really been lax with myself lately and need to get things back under control, particularly because I haven't been able to work out to the extent that I would like because of my running injuries.

After dinner, we came home and watched some tv and really just layed around. We went to bed relatively early, which was great.

This morning I left home around 9am and stopped at Starbucks for a venti :). After filling up with gas, I hit the road for the quad cities. I drove home to my parents' where I dropped off my car with my dad...who changed my rear brakes for me (he had done my front brakes a few weeks ago when he was in town here). My mom and I then went to my friend Jen's for the birthday celebration for her son Jon's birthday. It was great to see so many people there!

After spending time at the party, we went down the road to my grandparents' home. My grandfather just got out of the hospital and a rehab facility on Tuesday. It was great to be able to visit him at home...and he seems to be doing really well. He was his usual joking self, so that was wonderful :).

Around 5 we headed back to my parents', where I had some soup and chatted for a bit before heading home around 6:30.

It was a great weekend...full of fun and friends and family :). I was hoping to get some work done tonight...but I'm exhausted and will probably just go to bed soon. We'll see :).

NOVEMBER?! Where the heck did you come from?!

2010-11-03T21:24:00.006-06:00

So...here we are...November!

November third!

When and how, exactly, this this year fly by?!

Wow.....

Well...anyway....

This weekend was amazing.....

First...

Thursday was my 28th birthday. Pretty crazy in and of itself. Twenty-eight?! When did I get old enough to be twenty-eight?!

Jeremy got me the most thoughtful and awesome gifts ever...a pair of cute yoga-y capri length pants from the Augustana bookstore (he picked them out and purchased them when we were there for Augie's homecoming earlier in October. I love them! I was surprised :). I love his ability to pick out clothing-type items for me :)), a new rechargable battery and battery charger for my camera (he had gotten me the camera three years ago as a wedding gift...and within the past two months it crapped out. Turns out it just needed a new rechargable battery :)), and an iPod adapter for my car! I need to still make an appointment to have it installed (it is the awesome hooks-directly-into-your-stereo-with-a-legitimate-cord kind of iPod adapter, not just the kind you plug into your cd player and tune to a radio station! I'm excited!). Thoughtful, awesome gifts! Little did I know...but the best, most thoughtful gift was still to come later that weekend :).

Jeremy and I went out to Famous Dave's for dinner on Thursday (my choice :). I was super-craving a baked potato loaded with lots o' calories in the form of butter/sour cream/cheese, as well as a ceasar salad).

Friday night I went to a friend and co-worker's home (Kristin) for a get-together of speech therapists. It was great! I do love those girls :). Lots of snacks, some wine, and hours of chatting :). Very nice unwinding time :).

Saturday...we had plans (OR SO I THOUGHT!) to go out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants with awesome GF options, Firehouse Pizza in Normal. We were meeting (again, so I thought) my friends Jillian/Lynden and Jamie/Steve.

Turns out Jeremy had a huge surprise party planned :).

It was...amazing.

Amazing doesn't really even fittingly describe how I felt that evening, though :).

Counting myself, there were 22 of us there. I posted a picture on my nerdy Thankfulness blog

Going around the table, let's see....we had:

Jen and Matt and baby Jackson...all the way from Fenton (3ish hours away).

My sister Megan and her husband Danny.....all the way from Davenport (2.5ish hours away...they actually met up with and rode with Jen/Matt/Jackson)

My grad school roommate, Brooke and her husband Jamie...all the way from Rockford (2ish hours away...AND they spent the night with us!!!! :) :) What an awesome surprise!!!).

Jon (my brother-in-law, Jeremy's older brother. Jon lives here in town :) ).

Aaron and Katie...all the way from Eldridge (2.5ish hours away!)

Dan and Laura...Dan came all the way from Purdue (2ish hours away) with his brand-new 2010 Mustang GT! ;) Laura goes to Weslyan here in town :).

Chuck....who resides here in B-town :).

Lisa and Paul...who reside just outside of B-town.

Ashley and Jason...all the way from Peoria about an hour away.

Jillian and Lynden...now townies with us as well :).

and...

last but DEFINITELY not least! Jamie and Steve (also from here!).

WOWSA!
It was SUCH an amazingly fun night :). I want to be able to do it again every weekend!! :) :) :)
Maybe I'll post more about the party later, who knows ;).

Brooke and Jamie spent the night (I was SO excited...even though I was a bit stressed about the "surprise" guests since my house wasn't quite as clean as I would've liked for hosting out-of-town overnight guests!! ;)) and left the next morning a bit after noon. We hung out, ate a leisurely breakfast (I experimented and baked a new-to-me-recipe of raspberry muffins...which actually turned out really yummily :)...along with some cheesy scrambled eggs :) ), and then went to a scrapbooking store :).

Sunday night we had dinner at our friends', Josh and Laura's. It was an awesome weekend full of lots of fun and lots of friends! The kind of weekend I didn't want to end. The kind of weekend that flew by too quickly. But, what a great way to usher in the month of November!

And, here we are....soon Thanksgiving will be here! And after that...Christmas!! And...after THAT...baby McG will be here! My good friend Jillian's due date is December 30th! I am SO excited to meet "Mini McG" (as she refers to him on her blog).

Ah...life is good :).

Speaking of good...we had dinner tonight at Flat Top (I had a free stir-fry coupon for my birthday since I joined their e-mail club!) with our friends Jamie and Steve. It was a great, impromptu dinner. Jamie and I were both leaving work around 6:30 and I suggested that she and Steve go out to dinner with Jeremy and myself! Jamie also happens to have a birthday next week...so she also had a free birthday stir-fry e-mail to use as well :). We had a yummy dinner and lots of silly, fun conversations (par for the course whenever Jeremy is around ;). HA! ;)). It was a great night.

So thankful for all of the amazing people in my life :). I'm definitely lucky/blessed.

:)

*Have a joyful day, all*

Oh dear...here comes the big 2-8!

2010-10-23T17:22:00.005-05:00

I'm going to be twenty-eight years old in just five days. That's some sort of craziness that I can barely comprehend! And, saying "where have the years gone?" makes me feel even older!

Since I tend to be pessimistic (yeah, working on that)...I'm tempted to make a list along the lines of: "Things-I-haven't-accomplished-yet-but-wish-I-had."

But...I am smart enough to know that will probably just put me in a funk. And, it's the weekend...no time for that funk-ness crap!

So, instead....perhaps I'll compile a list of accomplishments..

(in case you weren't aware, I have a penchant for lists and the process of making lists)

So...what, exactly, have I accomplished in my 28th year of life? In no particular order....here's some of the highlights............

~As of October 18, 2010....I survived my second year of gluten-free living (nope, no cheating! Not even once!)

~I ran two marathons...my second (June--Minneapolis) and third (September--Quad Cities)

~I fell apart in the Minneapolis marathon and questioned, at times, whether or not I'd actually finish. It was truly the hardest I've ever had to push myself in my entire life. Frustrating, eye-opening, humbling...and absolutely amazing all rolled into one.

~I got a PR in the Quad Cities (my 3rd marathon). Truly one of the proudest moments of my life

~I ran literally hundreds of miles. Maybe close to a thousand miles, actually, if I averaged around 20 per week...which is probably about right. Wowsa. I wrote about hundreds of those miles...here

~In December of 2009 I started re-visiting my musical side...I played my oboe in a trio in the Christmas Eve service in our church with my mother-in-law and another woman from our church. I really miss my musical side and wish I had more time for it...after playing nearly every day for years and years and years, I do feel a void without it

~We got a piano in March of 2010 and I started playing a bit more, and even started teaching lessons again to one student (the adorable daughter of a co-worker/friend)

~In June I stepped out of my comfort zone at work and applied for a position that I really, looking back, had no business applying for at this point in my life. But, it was probably good to put myself out there and get some "practice" with the interview process again

~Countless times over this year I wrestled with my identity...some that I blogged about...some that I vented about to good friends...and some that stayed locked inside. I've "joked" that I'm too messed up and have too many "vices", too many flaws to be a good mother yet, that I'm definitely not ready for kids because I wouldn't want to subject myself on anyone...etc., etc.... I think, though, I'm getting closer to being "ready". Heck if I know how I'll "know" for sure...but I'm getting there. Slowly. Surely. Will this be the year? Only God knows, I guess.

~I celebrated the birth of Jackson Raymond with my good friend Jen in May

~I celebrated the third anniversary of our marriage with Jer in September

~I attended a monthly book club with good friends, including Jillian, Jamie, and Ashley. Some months I completed the book...others I didn't. Each time I attended, though, I left feeling refreshed and thankful for being blessed with such a great group of girls to spend time with.

~We traveled to AZ in February with our friends Jillian and Lynden

~I've tried to be a good friend to the many people who have been such good friends to me...but so many times I know I fall short. I tried my best to be there for them (if not in geography, at least on the phone or via e-mail!), tried to remember to send cards to let them know I was thinking about them/thankful for them, etc. I wish there were more hours in a day, more days in a week. I shouldn't make "not having time" an excuse, though. NO excuse for not being a better friend. I want that to be a priority over this next year.

~I've done my best to be a faithful employee of Easter Seals...showing my support by attending fundraising events and giving my all to my kids/families. I planned a number of fun events (at least I thought they were fun ;) Hopefully others did, too! :)), including a summer picnic in August and a number of dinners and lunches. I'm so thankful to work with people that I actually look forward to spending time with outside of the 8-6 workday! :)

~We traveled to Hawaii in April with Jeremy's parents

~We celebrated my dear sister Megan's wedding to Danny in March...and added a new brother-in-law to our family

~I traveled to Washington DC with my parents, sister, and Dan's girlfriend Laura to support Dan as he graduated from Marine Corps Officer Candidacy School...definitely one of the times in my life that I have been the most proud of another person. This adventure brought many memories, which I blogged about here...and here...and here...and here...and here....and here.

~I tried to be a good wife...tried to keep up on cleaning, laundry, cooking, baking, giving back-rubs, etc :). Tried to be patient and loving (though I felt like a failure some days). Our house wasn't always clean and the laundry wasn't always done...but I put forth what I felt were valiant efforts...

~I tried my best to juggle what felt like many, many hats....wife, sister, daughter, friend, employee/speech-language pathologist/professional, listener, athlete/marathoner, house cleaner/cook, writer, musician, crafter, confidant (while I know I didn't successfully carry out the responsibilities of each of these titles each and every day, I feel as if I was fairly successful at most, all things considered)...

WOW

What a year it HAS been.

So much better to focus on what HAS been...as opposed to what HASN'T happened

:)

Sometimes, I surprise myself.

Here's to year 29 and hoping it's even better. Maybe later this week I'll post about "goals" for the next year. Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll just live and see what happens!

*Have a joyful day*

going nuts

2010-10-15T20:12:00.003-05:00

So, since I can't run...as I heal...my body feels like it is just this big ball of pent-up energy that needs a release. I NEED to run! I have energy to expend!

But...instead, I am following the doctor's orders and I am not running. Instead, I am inside...doing laundry.

WEEKS' worth of laundry...

I have this bad habit of throwing things in the washing machine and either hanging it to dry or putting it in the dryer...and then throwing the dry clothes in big piles on the guest room bed.

It looks like a pig sty most days. Sure, it's clean clothes...but it looks totally trashy.

So, here I am...on a Friday night...folding.

But...

I'm being creative (ok, maybe neurotic) about things...

I am folding the items one at a time and putting them away one at a time...so I at least am moving the entire time I am doing laundry. Yeah, it's taking forever...but it makes me feel like I am halfway doing something.

Nuts.

Yup, that's me!

Ok, back at it...

More things to fold!

Can't get it together

2010-10-13T10:15:00.002-05:00

I can't get my head on straight....

I have my much-anticipated doctor's appointment over at the Sports Enhancement Center this afternoon at 1:30.

I can't think about anything else.

Sorry, Easter Seals. I'm an awful employee today. I attended a meeting this morning, helped a co-worker with a few things, tried to work on a report...but really haven't done anything of consequence today.

I figure I'll more than make up for it later...not that that makes it 'okay' that I am sucking as an employee right now. Blah.

But, really, I can't think about anything else.

What will the plan be for my silly knee, my super-swollen achille's tendon, and my race schedule for the next weeks/months?

Ugh.

Well...I know, in the scheme of things, this is really no big deal.

But, today, it feels like a super huge mountain of a big deal!

Craziness/stream of consciousness while waiting at Kinko's....

2010-10-11T23:26:00.002-05:00

I think I'm going crazy.

Only, that statement implies that I wasn't already there.

And, if you know me, you probably have other opinions about my mental status.

Currently I'm standing at Kinko's with my friend Jamie looking super greasy and strung out. We're trying to get baby invitations printed out for our friend Jillian's upcoming baby shower, which we have scheduled for November 6. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, eh? Ugh.

I kinda feel like I'm in grad school again, rushing around to finish some random project....feeling as if whatever it is that I'm working on is incredibly important and if it isn't completed just-so the world may surely end.

Oh....the curse of a type-A personality.

We are, though, having some good silliness bonding with the Kinko's guy working right now. He seems just as loopy as we are just now. He just informed us that someone just texted him asking if the ink here uses iron oxide toner. Um....what? So, we're all cracking up because we have no idea what the heck that is or why anyone would care. Ohhh the things that one finds hilarious when silly/loopy.

In other news I've apparently got a mean case of achilles tendonitis.

Nice.

Apparently one's achilles shouldnt creak when you walk. Who knew??

I swear.....if I don't get to run again soon, I might snap. Well...if I'm not too careful, though, my Achilles may snap. So, it's some sort of vicious cycle.

But really. I need to run. Truly. May sound irrational, but I'm going crazy....craziER...here.

I mentioned to my husband at dinner that I am just feeling super disgusting lately.....I literally feel like I can focus in on one nasty body part at a time and feel how gross it feels because I haven't worked out to the best of my ability in what feels like an eternity. I'm totally intelligent enough to realize that likely sounds irrational and neurotic...but that's my life right now. Today, in particular, my arms felt like beefy flabby marshmallow/sausage hybrids. Not cool.

Ok....so if I don't get to run soon, I may surely lose my mind.

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

One year

2010-10-08T18:29:00.002-05:00

One year ago i was nervously counting down the hours, minutes, seconds to my first marathon. Sunday is the 2010 Chicago Marathon. I was hoping to register for and run this event....but it ended up closing long before i expected it to and i didnt get my registration in in time :(. I was pretty upset about it....but i think it worked out for the best. Don't things typically?

One year ago I was facing an unknown with excitement and trepidation. One year ago I was planning and re-planning my race-day routine. What to eat. What to wear. How to start the race. Etc. Etc.

And now, one year later, I'm three marathons in to my goal of fifty by the time I'm fifty years old :). Just 47 to go! :)

I love what running has done for me...the mental toughness. The physical toughness. The endurance, health....joy.

I have an appointment with a doctor at a sports clinic in town to evaluate my injured knee and achilles tendon on Wednesday. Making the appointment, as odd as it sounds, was painful. It sucks knowing something is wrong enough to warrant a professional's intervention. I can't wait, though, to get a plan in place....to get better, to get stronger, and to plan for number four!

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Wordless Wednesday...Marathon Three...CHECK!!

2010-09-29T09:29:00.002-05:00

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Almost to the big T-H-R-E-E!

2010-09-06T11:15:00.002-05:00

Three years of marriage, that is! :)

September 22, 2010 will be our third anniversary!

How are we planning to celebrate, you ask? Well, nothing too big is in the works....

I thought about taking the day off of work (it is a Wednesday), however that morning I am currently scheduled to do speech evaluations on TRIPLETS. Ha! That wouldn't be an easy one to reschedule, so I think I'll just go for it :).

We'll probably go out to dinner that night...either Biaggi's or Herradura ;). Biaggi's will always hold a special place in our hearts (we went there for our first Valentine's Day together in 2002 in Davenport; and we had our wedding rehearsal dinner there in 2007 in Davenport...and we typically go there when my family comes to Bloomingotn for visits. We all LOVE us some Biaggi's!). AND, Lord knows we LOVE dirty Mexican food! Herradura is our top pick for Mexican restaurants right now :).

The weekend prior we are going to Chicago with our good friends Aaron and Katie Van Lauwe to see Dave Matthew's Band at Wrigley field. That will be a fun trip :). We plan on sneaking off for a solo dinner or lunch in Chicago to celebrate our anniversary with something special.

The weekend after is the Quad Cities Marathon!

Our first anniversary, Jeremy went all out planning a special surprise for us. I posted about it here and here...and here!

(And THAT, my friends, is one of the top reasons for blogging! How fun to be able to go back and read about one of my favorite memories from our marriage thus far?!)

Here's one of our favorite wedding photos...we have a LARGE version on canvas (so it looks kind of like a big painting) hanging above our piano in our living room.

My biggest "picture request" was that we had one really neat print blown up and printed like a painting. My good friend Jen has one like that in their house from her wedding to Matt and I've always loved it!

I'll leave you with this quote that I discovered once on my friend Tarah's blog:

"Getting married wasn't about settling down or having stability; it was about joining forces for an adventure neither of us could have alone. It was like standing at the edge of a cliff with rushing water beneath us. We were happy, terrified — and against all expectations, we jumped. But we were holding hands, and even if we were falling fast, we were together. Are together."
-Elissa Schappell

Being married....it's one of the best things ever, and also one of the hardest things ever :). Throw two stubborn people together in house and you're bound to have issues!! ;)

But, I love you Jeremy Christopher! Here's to many more years!

(I am working on an "official" "anniversary post"...but this will suffice as a "teaser" until the big day! ;) )

introspection...yeah...again...

2010-09-03T16:21:00.004-05:00

“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”
~ Douglas H. Everett

I think a lot about the future...as in tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. It all qualifies as "the future," in one way or another.

Sometimes I need to be reminded to stay here, in this moment.

They are all a "gift," right...these moments? Each day, each tomorrow, each week, each month, each year...

Don't blink, right?

I'm going to be twenty-eight soon. In fifty-eight days. Whoa, I just realized something....it's my "GOLDEN" birthday this year! Twenty-eight years old on October twenty-eighth! Crazy, kinda cool :).

Twenty-eight.

Goodness...

Am I OLD enough to "be twenty-eight"??

Have I accomplished enough to be worthy of twenty-eight years on this earth? Have I done enough to have earned a twenty-nineth?

Can I really fathom the fact that I am now...pushing thirty?

I've never understood why "thirty" is such a scary thought for people...because, well, I guess because I've never been this close to it before!

So...I had my yearly performance review today with my boss, Kory. It went well, however awkward I may have felt. I really hate talking about myself and listening to other people talk about me. Even if it's good things.

Especially if it's good things.

I guess I just don't feel worthy.

Apparently, in the working world, I am a good employee. I can accept that. I do feel adequate. But, my boss even went so far as to call me an outstanding employee. That should make me feel good, right?

Maybe if I felt "outstanding"...

I'm smart enough (I think!) to know that hearing I am doing a good job should make me feel...good. To hear that I am valued by my employer...should be a good feeling.

Instead, though, I just feel...

Actually, I am not even sure HOW I feel.

Sort of lost, maybe? Like I wonder if I'm where I'm supposed to be? If I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing? If I'm doing enough?

Anyway...that was somewhat of a freaky tangent.

What I meant to do was write about how, in my performance review today, my boss asked me "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

I replied....I tend to answer this question differently every time it is asked of me.

I guess it's because I don't really KNOW....I guess because I dream too much and don't DO enough. Or something like that...

If you would've asked me this in 2005 when I was completing my undergrad degree and was soon to be setting off for grad school...I would've told you "Done with grad school. Married with two kids, maybe working part-time or not at all." Now? Um...it's been 5 years since then. I have my Master of Science degree. CHECK. I'm married. CHECK. Two kids? NONE.... Working part time or not at all? Uh....try working 50+ hours a week.

I love my job. I do. I just think I might be letting it define who I am a little too much.

How do you define a life, anyway? How do you decide if you've "done enough"?

To those that much has been given, much is expected....

But, what, exactly....is the definition of "much"...

My doctor, as I posted previously, commented to me on Wednesday that pregnancy is easier on the "younger" women. hint, hint...

September 22 will be our 3rd wedding anniversary. This was the "milestone" we had said we wanted to reach before starting a family. We've talked about it {starting a family} many times over the past three years.

Basically we don't know what we want.

My husband commented last night, laughing, "I love being a dink" (dual income, no kids...ha!). I agreed, laughing as well.

We do...we love it! We've done a lot together, have a lot of independence...and really enjoy being able to do whatever we want whenever we want to do it.

BUT....

Every now and then...I get this little longing.

For kids? Maybe. I mean...we DO want to be parents....someday. We just both feel as if we aren't ready. Not ready to be as selfless as you need to be as a parent....and, really, not ready to be GOOD parents. Do we have what it takes to raise a little person? Little people?

Last night, Jeremy commented (again) about all of the kids in the world...there's just SO MANY. So many who aren't loved, who don't have parents...etc.

Sure, I want "our" own child...I think.

But what about adoption? Do we start exploring options...now?

I think we could get on board with that...someday...but how long do we wait? We're not getting any younger! ;)

But heck if I know.

I'm too tired for "action" right now....

So, instead....I'll just sit here and dream.

OK...this was kind of a pathetic entry...I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that I haven't been able to "run off steam" as much as I'd like lately :). My leg/knee has been giving me grief the past few weeks (since my 80 miles in 8 days adventure a few weeks back...why I ever thought THAT was a good idea is just lost on me...)

Oh man....

I'm crazy, crazy, crazy....

This really got to me today

2010-09-01T20:55:00.002-05:00

The question we all ask.

Checking in with the doc

2010-09-01T10:25:00.005-05:00

So this morning I had my yearly physical with my doctor. I actually look forward to these appointments...weird, probably :). I had blood work done last week and had that information/results shared with me today as well as the other check-up'y stuff. Turns out I am Vitamin D deficient. Whoops. Apparently that's a pretty important vitamin for bones and such....so hook me up with some supplements, I guess! Apparently my pre-natal multivitamin doesn't have a whole lot of Vitamin D (just 400mg) and I need to take 1000mg more per day to get the levels up to a better place. Yahoo ;).

In all other areas, looks like I am healthy. I am very thankful for that. Apparently my "good" cholesterol is still really high...thank you, running! :)

It's now been 21 months of gluten free living...and I am doing great. THANKS, in huge part, to this doctor who was the one who got to the bottom of all of my issues.

He did "remind" me today that "pregnancy is easier on younger women"...and even said "that's how God designed our bodies." Sigh....I know, I know ;). I don't exactly have all of the time in the world to "put off" starting a family...but I am just not ready...yet.

September 22 is our third anniversary...we were talking about the other day how we had said after three years we would start to "entertain ideas" about starting our family. Well...honestly...we're really not there yet :). Right now, there are way too many things up in the air...including the fact that Jeremy just applied for a new job...near Nashville. Oh dear me...So, life could change significantly in the next few months. We'll see.

I try not to think about the possibility of moving TOO much...but I'd be lying if I said it didn't come to the forefront of my mind multiple times a day. I really hope we stick around Bloomington...but we did make a commitment to do what is best for Jeremy's career before we got married, and I do need to stand by that. I just hope that it ends up that being HERE is best for him/us....

Anyway...

I stopped home for some oatmeal, music (good for my mental health ;)), and vitamins (forgot to take them and didn't eat much breakfast on my way out), and am heading to work in a few minutes to see my 11:00 kiddo. Confident that today will be a good day. I've been working my tail off lately, and it paid off...this morning before my doctor appointment, I got my LAST report (for now!! ;)) finished up. It feels great!

Have a great day, all!

Be joyful :)

Wordless Wednesday....Whoooooops

2010-08-26T21:03:00.001-05:00

Posted by Rachelyn via Blogaway

Ping pong ball..

2010-08-23T14:06:00.004-05:00

Do you ever feel like one?! I DO!

So far today...

Alarm went off at 5:50am, I hit snooze for 20 minutes, hopped out of bed, showered, shaved legs (HATE doing that, takes forever...ha!), got ready for work, drove to the doctor and arrived as they were unlocking the front door at 7:30am, got blood drawn (for routine yearly blood work), hopped back in my car feeling as if I may surely pass out as I had to "fast" for the blood work, got to work, stuffed my face with a banana and a GF granola bar, saw one very active kiddo for an hour, called a car place to schedule an oil change/tire rotation for Wednesday, packed a bag with toys, drove to another kiddo's house, saw said kiddo for an hour and said goodbye (he is transitioning to school, so I will no longer see him!), drove to a jewelry store to pick up an earring I'd ordered (I lost one of the pair Jer gave me for Christmas...:( ) and get my wedding rings cleaned, went to Fresh Market to grab a few items, went to the mall to meet Jillian at the "rug hut" in the parking lot (a vendor was selling area rugs...and she had picked on out for her new home and wanted my opinion), drove to 2 body shops in the area to get my final 2 of 3 estimates to decide where to get my sideview mirror replaced, drove home and ate lunch (teff wrap/turkey/cheese, a few sips of leftover sweet tea, and water), packed a bag with running gear, hopped back in my car, drove to Fex Ex to drop off my broken cell phone to ship it back to Verizon, came back to work, organized stuff, saw a kid from 1-2...WHEW! Now I need to work on some documentation before seeing kids from 3-4, 4-5, and 5-6. Tonight? Not even sure what's on the agenda! It's been a wild Monday, so I am sure the evening will follow suit! I am very thankful that I work somewhere as flexible as Easter Seals...so I can do things like take a 2 hour "lunch" (when I ran all of those errands listed above!) in the middle of the day since lord knows I put in more than enough hours to make up for that on other days! :) Small joys :)

Allllllright.........off to work on some therapy notes/reports/call a body shop to schedule car repair! :)

Have a great day, all!

~Rachel

It is okay

2010-08-19T20:23:00.002-05:00

I'm SO not deserving....but I've been blessed with many good friends in my life. I am so grateful for what each one brings to my life and for the lessons each has taught me.

My good friend Jillian reminds me frequently....

It is okay.

It IS okay.

It is OKAY...

It is okay that I've fallen off the marathon training plan this week (I've been running more than I ever have before...and have somewhat jacked up my right leg...so some rest is good, right?).

It is okay that I have six evaluation reports to write for work right now (I've been billing a somewhat absurd number of hours lately).

It is okay that my house is not spotless....and is really seldom as clean as I'd like it to be (I'm really not home many hours of the day between work and working out...and when I am home, sometimes it IS nice to sit back for at leat a FEW minutes! We got an ad in the mail for a cleaning service today...man, that would be great!).

It is okay that I often go to work with still-wet hair (at least it means I showered, right?).

It is okay that I still haven't finished my wedding scrapbook and we've been married nearly three years (at least I printed out the pictures!).

It is okay that I eat too much sugar (ok, this one probably ISN'T really okay ;)...but it tastes good! HA! ).

It is ok that I really like my personal space and really don't like to be touched (hugs from friends are good...but I can't handle strangers touching me or getting too close. Freaks me the heck out in a major way).

It's ok not to have all of the answers when parents ask me about their kids...right?

It is okay that I sometimes feel like everything is slipping out of my control (we can't control everything....right?? I know...because I certainly try).

This isn't about making excuses.

This isn't about settling.

(Even though, I have to admit, I struggle with the concept and still sometimes feel like a failure)

Even when it doesn't feel like it....

....it is okay.

...right???

Summer Fun...and reflection on a friendship

2010-08-09T10:39:00.006-05:00

Oh, Summer...I love you so!

:)

Yesterday I was musing, again, over the question..."WHY do we live in the Midwest?!" I would love, love, love it if we lived somewhere that was warm year-round! :)

Currently we are driving home from a fun weekend with friends....

And, by "we", naturally I mean Jer ;).

I'm sitting in the passenger seat, playing around on my phone....reading blogs, responding to work e-mail, and reading up on my training plan for the week and deciding what I am going to do running-wise after a milestone week last week.

Milestone week, you say? Ah yes....I ran 80.6 miles in 8 days! I ran 53.6 miles in a week! Lots and lots of running.

And yes....my legs are d e f i n i t e l y still sore :). Cramping up a bit as I sit in this car, too. But it's a GOOD thing. I feel accomplished when I hurt.

Anyway....

We love Great America/riding roller coasters in a major way...but haven't been for years. We talk about going each summer, but for one reason or another never end up being able to go or finalizing a real plan to go. We decided that we HAD to go this summer and made some plans....with Dan/Laura, Megan/Danny (who, very unfortunately, ended up not being able to go due to Danny's dad undergoing an emergency triple bypass surgery on Friday!), Brooke/Jamie, and Marty/Kelly (some of Brooke/Jamie's friends).

So Saturday night when J got off of work, we drove to Stillman Valley to stay with our friends Brooke and Jamie. It had been sooo long since I had seen Brooke. Far TOO long!

Brooke and I went to undergrad together at Augie and weren't exactly what anyone would consider "friends" by any stretch of the imagination. We both laugh about this now, seeing as (sorry, Brooke ;)) we are basically two extensions of the same person.

During undergrad, Brooke was cool. Really cool. She was a Phi Ro, one of the sorority girls belonging to not-even-really- arguably the group of the prettiest/most popular girls on Augie's campus. If anyone said they weren't....they were lying.

Me? I was in the band. While I definitely credit my participation in Symphonic Band and various music activities on campus as being instrumental (no pun intended!! ;)) in shaping me into the person I am today....we all know that being in the band isn't really "cool" to anyone, except for other music-people :).

So, yeah, we definitely ran with opposite crowds.

Long story short, I began as a first-year at Augie as a music ed major. Sophomore year I was in "limbo" as a floundering, confused not-a-girl-not-quite-a-woman type and called myself a "pre-pharm" major (insert hysterical laughter here, if you know me). Junior year...I finally got it together (at least declaring-a-major-wise ;)) and joined the Communication Sciences and Disorders department.

That's when I met Brooke.

Pretty. Popular. Super smart. Intimidating. Brooke.

We didn't really interact a whole lot....

I was coming in to the department late...and it, quite frankly, was kinda clique-y. There were about 13 or so of us CSD majors. Most of my time in the department was spent interacting with Melissa, Rosalee (one of my still nearest-and-dearest friends), and Dan.

Brooke was out of my league.

Looking back...clearly this was as much my "issue" as hers. Sure, she didn't really talk to me....but I didn't talk to her either for goodness' sakes!! Communication, friendship...all of that. It's a two-way street! Who was I to be bitter that I didn't feel included? Um, excuse me...make an effort, Rachel! Looking back, I regret not being more friendly, more approachable. Sure, I was nervous, intimidated, etc....but grow up! If only I would've, and we could've started this whole friendship thing sooner.

I came in from the outside....I hadn't been nurturing years-old dreams of becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist. I barely even knew what one was/did. I barely knew the difference between "speech" and "language." I wasn't related to anyone in the field. I was never in speech therapy as a child. I'm not related to anyone with a speech or language disorder.

I had to cram my schedule full of classes in order to graduate on time. I spent time with both my class and the class below me playing "catch-up." I didn't get straight A's, but I worked hard. In my major, I ended up graduating with a 3.8 GPA. I balanced classes (extra classes!), band rehearsal, private piano/voice/oboe lessons, work (I was an assistant manager at the Moline Culver's as well as a research assistant for a CSD professor and worked in the cafeteria), and teaching private oboe and piano lessons. So, while I would love to say I got straight A's (because I tend to error on the side of perfectionism)...I daresay it's kind of understandable that I didn't.

Later, when the time came to take the GRE....and the scores came back...I became suddenly even less popular in the group. I had earned a very high, possibly the highest in the department, GRE score. How could this be? The outsider? The underdog? She's actually a smart one??

Talk about uncomfortable. I've never been a fan of "sticking out"....and now it seemed as if everyone was talking about me. I can't even remember who I told my score to...I think just Melissa, actually. Well....word got out.

Isn't it funny what people talk about/gossip about?

Grad school applications....a time of drama in the department. Brooke and I both applied to and were accepted at Purdue University. Purdue was #3 in the country at the time for SLP graduate programs. The top three were Iowa, Northwestern (in Chi) and Purdue....I think. Actually, I think Purdue was tied for #2 with one of those schools and the other was #1. Heck if I know/remember. I didn't apply to the other two. I don't even really know why I thought I had any business of applying to Purdue...but I did, spurred on by the nudging of a professor and my still-mentor, Dr. Kathy Jakielski.

Well....as I said before....Brooke and I were both accepted into Purdue's graduate program. Before we were accepted, though, we decided to visit together. I drove us one Friday in January or February of 2005 (our senior year). We had a lot of time to get to know each other during that 5-ish hour drive.

We ended up arriving an hour late for the prospective-grad-student information day. Indiana is on Eastern time? They are an hour ahead of IL there? Who knew?? ;)

We both interviewed with Dr. Lisa Goffman for assistantships in her motor speech development research lab.

We both loved Purdue.

We both seemed to hit it off with the professors and the program in general.

During the ride back to the Quad Cities, we had more time to bond....more things to talk about. Excitement. A common interest/passion/dreams/hopes.

We endured driving through a somewhat terrifying winter snow storm on the way back together. It was BAD! BAD BAD BAD!

My mother, actually, advised us not to make the trek...but like any head-strong college girl, I opted to follow my own judgement and make the trip back.

We endured wind, snow, frozen windshield wipers, etc.

But, more importantly, through that seemingly insignificant drive...we began to forge a friendship.

We got our acceptance letters in March and subsequently both independently decided to accept the invitations to study at Purdue.

By doing so...we would both be leaping into long-distance relationships with our then-boyfriends (now-husbands). We would be traveling far from our respective families and friends. Traveling to a school MUCH bigger than anything we'd ever known.

We both grew up in small towns. Neighboring towns, actually. She was from Stillman Valley; me--Winnebago. The towns are approximately 20 minutes from one another and are both in the Rockford area. We were in the same IHSA conference, but had not actually met one another until college.

Our first weeks living together were somewhat miserable.

Move-in day...emotions were high.

We couldn't stand each other, really.

Some mornings (we laugh about this now!) we would get up, use our shared apartment bathroom, get breakfast, pack lunches for the day, get in one of our cars, and drive to class....without ever even speaking a word to one another.

Not morning people?

Understatement of the YEAR.

But...after time...we became the closest of friends.

Crying, laughing. Drinking, laughing. Cooking, planning therapy, laughing. Loving. Planning weddings. Venting, crying more. Sharing secrets, hopes, dreams, ideas.

For approximately 21 months we shared lives with one another, living under the same roof. Studying in the same program. Working in the same research assistantship. Forming very similar (if not identical) philosophies on child speech and language development and the treatment of a variety of communication disorders. Working out together in the same gym. Running together on the same trails. Eating the same food. Cleaning the same apartment. Battling similar inner demons. Loving fiances who lived hours away. Planned social events for our classmates/colleagues. Watched Grey's Anatomy and Lost together. Attended aerobics classes together. Gorged ourselves on cheese puffs together. Drove home together to visit family/friends/fiances.

Together...we made it through some of the toughest and most formative years of our lives.

We made it through...together. And, without her...I would not have been able to do it.

We now share twin degrees....both a BA from Augustana and an MS from Purdue. Pretty good in the academic world.

But, even more valuable than those pieces of paper...I made a life-long friend.

I consider her to be an extension of myself. Someone I can count on to give me good advice, a shoulder to cry on. Someone who can tell the most hilarious stories.

Friend. Colleague. Sister, almost. Sounding board. Advice-giver. All-around beautiful person.

I am thankful to have Brooke in my life...

I just wish she lived CLOSER...and that we got to see each other more OFTEN! :)

This weekend was great...

Friends. Family. Roller coasters. Cheese puffs. Therapy talk. Laughter.

Joy.

Photos of Brooke and I over the past few years.....

~Brookie and me at Scotty's (a favorite restaurant in West Lafayette) one of our first nights in Indiana. Don't we look SO YOUNG and little?! And, by the way, I'd kill to fit into that shirt again ;).

~Brooke and I before going out one night during grad school. Trying to look all hard and bad. HA!

~We LOVED to entertain friends/colleagues in our apartment. Really, we did ;). We took this picture one evening shortly after a party that really wore us out. "Welcome Friends"?? As IF! ;) HAHA!!!

~Me with Brooke in front of our apartment :).

~August of 2007...Chicago Skyline! We were in Chicago for one of Brooke's bridal showers.

~This picture cracks me up...
It was taken before my wedding and totally looks like Brooke is giving me an earful of advice ;).

~Brooke with me before my wedding! I was honored to have her stand up with me during my wedding and to stand up with her during her wedding to Jamie one month prior! :)

So....thanks for everything, Brooke! Here's to many, many more years of friendship!! :)

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Mishap

2010-08-07T16:14:00.005-05:00

So....

After posting the previous post as I sat on the floor of my living room, stretching after a glorious run and waiting for my oatmeal....I got ready for work.

After I was ready, I stepped out into the garage, got into my car, started the car...backed out of the garage....

My mind was traveling to a million places...tasks waiting for me at work, what to do with some particularly puzzling kids I've been seeing lately, some friends who are in the hospital for various reasons, the weekend ahead, things I needed to do at home, etc., etc...

I was brought back to reality...quickly...by the sound of cracking, scratching, breaking...

Turns out I had run my passenger-side side-view mirror into the side of the garage...and ripped it completely from my car.

Nice.

I hopped out of my car and hurriedly picked up the pieces. In the process, I got black grease alllll over my bright green shirt.

I hurried to work, made it just in time to see my 9am patient....greasy shirt and all.

UGH!

I dreaded telling Jeremy...I just felt SO STUPID.

We met up for lunch at Chipotle and I told him, as we were waiting in line.

UGH!!!

I know, I know...everyone makes mistakes. BUT, mistakes that cost lots of $$ really suck.

Here's hoping the rest of the weekend is all UP from there! So far, so good :).

It's been a WEEK!

2010-08-06T08:18:00.002-05:00

Ah.

Just got in from a 10 mile run and am stretching on the living room floor while my oatmeal boils on the stove.

It's been a great day so far, but I've only been awake for about 2.5 hours of it so far! :)

I'm definitely NOT a morning person (just ask my husband, my grad school roomie Brooke, or anyone else who has had the "privilege" of living with me!)...but on the mornings that I can somehow dig deep and muster up the self discipline necessary to roll out of bed "early" to go for a run before work....somehow those days are some of the best ones.

So....I set my alarm for 5:45....and even after allowing myself a few hits of the snooze button, rolled out of my cozy bed next to my lovely husband, threw on some running clothes, strapped on my Garmin and iPod and headed out the door.

I'm so glad I did.

I got in 10 miles....and the morning weather was cool and gorgeous.

I did get hissed at by a "herd" of geese ;), but that was more entertaining than scary, really ;).

I put my iPod on shuffle to "rediscover" some old favorites that didnt make it onto my regular training playlist. I ran with the Counting Crows, Coldplay, U2, James Blunt, Gavin Degraw, and Dave Matthews. I said some morning prayers....particularly for the dear infant daughter, Lyla, of my sweet friend Abbey who has a fever and is being monitored in the hospital.

I'm glad I got up.

I feel as if I successfully hit my "reset" button and am ready, once again, to take on the world.

....or at least my corner of the world ;).

It's been a productive day....a great start to the last work day of what has been a long, stressful week.

The issues I've been struggling with, crying over, mulling over and over in my head no longer seem as daunting.

And that, my friends, brings me joy.

Starting today....with a joyful heart....

And, the energy to be a better wife, friend, co-worker, daughter, sister, therapist, and person.

(For today, at least ;) ).

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday....

2010-08-04T09:14:00.002-05:00

So, I'll begin by saying...if you know me...I am seldom "wordless" ;).
A long time ago (a year?) I used to do some wordless wednesday posts...where I would just post a picture on Wendesdays (an idea I had gotten from various other blogs I read...). Recently I have been seeing this idea pop up on more blogs, and thought I'd join in the fun. Wordless Wednesday, here I come!
However...I think I need to call mine...ALMOST Wordless Wednesday posts ;). I always feel as if my pictures need some sort of explanation.
Here's my first "ALMOST Wordless Wednesday" post of 2010 :)

This picture was taken by my brother-in-law, Danny, at Danny and Megan's house before Danny drove me, Jeremy,and Megan to the Bix 1 and a half weeks ago on one rainy Saturday morning! I insisted upon a photo...and my two running mates "humored" me by not exactly fully cooperating ;). Silly kids!!! ;) HA! It was a fun day, though, and I am glad I have at least one photo...albeit totally silly....to commemorate the fun day full of memories! :)
Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Hello August!

2010-08-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

So far it's been a good month...just three days in :).
Looking forward to all August has in store!

Happy Summer, all!

Why Do I Run?

2010-07-30T10:17:00.004-05:00

So.....in my previous post, I had written...

I have one other topic I want to write about, soon....the question I hear in a variety of ways from a variety of people....basically "why do you run?" (which is often followed up by, "I don't see the point!" "What can you possibly get out of running that many miles?!" "Don't you know that the first person who ran a marathon DIED!" "I'd like to run, but....(insert plethora of excuses here)." "How do you find the time?", or even sometimes more "loaded" comments which make me feel somewhat guilty...like "must be nice to have that kind of time!", etc.). Anyway, I hope to address all of that/my feelings....soon!

The time has come to begin to address those, and related questions.

Not that I really feel like I need to "answer" to anyone or like I truly need to "validate" why I do the things I do....but I find reflection useful and helpful to myself as I grow/change/(and hopefully) mature.

I don't expect people to "get" this...to really understand these reasons/justifications. But, here's me...being pure, raw, and honest.

Why I run.

10. Because I love it.

Why do we "love" the things, or people, that we do? It has to be something in the way we were created, in how we are put together. I truly feel as if I was made, created to run. There are days when I am running when I feel as if my face could crack off because I am smiling so huge-ly. I feel sheer joy when I run (ok, not on EVERY run ;)).

Yup, I'm a huge nerd. I'll be the first to admit THAT!

But...seriously. If you don't have something you love...find something! It's indescribable, really, how wonderful it is to have an outlet.

I realize that, sometimes, when I talk about running...it sounds as if I am talking about a boyfriend or something. An illegitimate love affair...of sorts.

Ha!

Well...my husband is aware of this so-called love affair, and he has given it his stamp of approval. He even participates in the enjoyment at times!
(**However, Jeremy would typically say he doesn't really even LIKE running, he just DOES it...because I love it and he knows it's good for him ;)**)

9. Because I enjoy pain.

I feel alive when I hurt. I realize this probably sounds somewhat psychotic....but I love it.

Really.

Two of the most memorable and "shaping" experiences of my life thus far have been the two marathons I have run. The Chicago Marathon last October of 2009 was amazing in many ways. It will always stand out in my mind because it was my first. We all remember our first...of whatever it may be.

First kiss.

First race in the rain.

First time to experience the ocean.

Whatever!!

Firsts...are memorable....and hold a special place in our hearts.

Still, the Minneapolis Marathon in June of 2010...my second marathon...was truly one of the best experiences of my somewhat-young life thus far. During that race I felt as if I had truly pushed my body exactly to the limit of what it could handle at that point in my life/training. I gave it everything I had...and left it all out there on the course. That was a big FIRST for me. After every other race I've run I've always felt as if I could've done something more....

NOT true as I crossed the finish line in Minneapolis.

The physical pain was truly excruciating...but the emotional joy was even greater. Let me tell you...there is NOTHING greater in my humble opinion than the feeling of pure exhaustion and accomplishment and knowing that your body had just been pushed by YOU to its limit. I can't truly fittingly put those feelings, emotions into words.

Pain really can create Joy.

8. Because I crave it.

Sure, I crave lots of things. Chocolate. Shopping. Coffee. Spending time with dear friends chatting away into the wee hours of the night. Mexican food. Some of these things are beneficial, some...not-so-much. Some, downright detrimental, really.

Running, least, I feel is a craving that is ok to indulge myself in. And, sometimes, experiencing indulgence just what needs to be done after a long day of give-give-giving to others, constantly putting yourself "out there," constantly being a "YES" girl...

7. Because I love the relationships I cultivate through running.

Running brings me joy...and it also brings joy to many of the people I am close to.

My sister, Megan, is the person I credit with "introducing" me to running. She is my first running buddy...and still my favorite. We don't live very close to one another...but when we do get to see each other, we typically go on at least one run together...if we aren't in a race together on that day.

My husband, Jeremy, began running...for me, really. See?

I've entered races with my friends Jillian, Jamie, and Jami.

I've had MANY a long conversation about life...love...and living with Jamie after long days at work.

Running offers the opportunity to share life with friends in a way that not much else can...

6. Because I want to be/remain healthy.

Don't shoot me, don't scoff at me...after all, the surgeon general does recommend that people participate in physical activity for many important reasons! Decreased chronic health problems, increased life expectancy...etc. Sign me right up for THAT!

AND, since I have gluten intolerance which may or may not be due to an auto-immune disease in my case...I feel like I am already a bit behind the boat as far as health goes...and need to do my best to do everything in my power to keep myself as healthy as I possibly can.

Sure....some of you may like to tease me and dramatically point out that the first person who ran a "marathon" died....

But I don't think anyone can REALLY convince me that running is anything but GOOD for my health!

5. Because I am at least a little vain.

This might sound strange or be weird/uncomfortable to read...but I'd by lying if I didn't include this/admit it. I do enjoy being thin/in shape. Is this something crucial to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness???...absolutely not. Am I perfect or have a "perfect body"? Heck no! There's TONS I'd love to improve. I definitely don't do enough in the way of toning/strength training/flexibility training/etc....I could stand to get to the weight room, to yoga class, to do a few more crunches....

Do I care or look down on others who aren't really "in shape"? AbsoLUTEly not. But...it is a priority of mine to "take care of my body" (what I feel is "taking care of it", at least) and maintain some level of physical fitness.

Vain, or otherwise.

4. Because I love to see new things.

Running is a fabulous way to experience new things, see new places, and see things you may see every day in a new and wonderful way.

Thanks to my Garmin running watch (again, something that is NOT necessary to life or even to running...but is pretty awesome) that I received as a birthday gift from my family and Jeremy last October...I can know HOW far I am running anywhere I go!

I've run on vacation in Arizona...in Hawaii...

I've run marathons in Chicago...in Minneapolis...

Let me tell you what, you experience life and places in a whole new...very e x c i t i n g way....when you experience it/them by yourself on your own two feet.

The smells...sights...feelings...

It's up-close-and-personal...and completely delightful.

3. Because it's easy.

Yes, I knowI know...running CAN be difficult. Running is NOT for everyone.

BUT...for me...running is easy. It's mindless. One foot in front of the other. Sometimes a bit faster, sometimes barely faster than walking. That's all there is too it, though...I put on my tattered, stained (from dirt, rain, blisters, berries, blood, dog poo, and more!) Asics and close the door behind me. I can run anywhere, any time. I'd be lying if I said I ran without some "comfort-bringing accessories" (my Garmin running watch that allows me to track distance...making it easy to RUN ANYWHERE, my iPod, sunglasses, RoadID, many times a good friend at my side, etc....)...but, really, ALL I need to run is my shoes. Although, according to the new trend of barefoot running...apparently I don't even really need those! No need for a gym membership, no need for a specific locale, no need for registering for a road race EVERY weekend...I can just open my front door, step outside...and GO for it.

2. Because it keeps me sane.

I truly believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that running is making me into a better person....

A better friend, wife, therapist, and, someday.......mother.

It is teaching me the importance of taking care of myself...my physical and emotional health. It is teaching me that it is not just OK to take time for myself, but that I really need that time to unwind and to not have to talk to someone or have someone talk at me every second of the day.

I am a pediatric speech-language pathologist. I am in the business of talking and listening. My day is full of talking, listening, interpreting, and talking some more. Do not be misled...I LOVE my career, LOVE my job. However, on most days I spend 10+ hours of my day talking and being talked to, being talked at. It is mentally taxing (again, please remember that I said...I LOVE my vocation).

There are many days when I want to sit in a dark room and scream/cry/pull my hair out/fall into a coma-like slumber.

Instead of doing that, though, I redirect those desires into a good run. I wrote previously in this list that during many runs I am filled with joy and have a smile that could rip a hole in my face. Well...likewise...there are many days that I do NOT have a smile on my face. I feel the "weight of the world on my shoulders" and need to escape, just for a bit. As a good friend told me the other day...some days there is nothing better than an angry run. I absolutely agree. An angry run...where I push myself to the brink, legs pounding on pavement, arms pumping at my sides, sweat pouring down my back and face and legs. Some days, a wonderful angry run is JUST what the hypothetical doctor ordered. Seldom is the run that I return from NOT feeling at least slightly better and with a more positive outlook than when I set out.

1. Because I can.

In my line of work...I see and work with children every day who cannot do many of the things that I can do, the so-called "little things" that so many of us take for granted.

INCLUDING MYSELF....

I can carry on a conversation with anyone I want to that (typically) can be easily understood.

I can get myself dressed in the morning.

I can smell the mustiness in the air right before it rains.

I can read a favorite book...over and over again.

I can feel the thickness of the humidity in the air on these sticky summer days.

I can hug my friends and family and share joy, share love.

I can stand...walk...run.

I want to use all of these gifts, all of these so-called, so-seemingly "little things" to the fullest extent that they are able to be enjoyed.

How?

Sure, I do enter some races that are created to raise awareness for various disabilities or charitable organizations...and do my best to spread the word to others, encouraging them to enter these events as well so that together we can do what we can, use our gifts, to help others.

More than anything, though, I just try to live my life in a way that shows I am grateful for what I have...and o try to have somewhat of a positive impact on others' lives.

In order to have an impact, in order to be around this place...I need to take care of myself, right? I need to stay healthy, stay "sane"...

Could I "do more"? Yeah.

Will I try to do more in the future? Most definitely.

And for those reasons...and more...I run.

Ahhhh....the weekend :)

2010-07-18T18:58:00.003-05:00

Well...it's almost over :)....but, weekends like this definitely energize me and prepare me for the week ahead :).

Here's a quick wrap-up:
Friday--

~Worked til about 2, then went to the POOL (a rare luxury!) with my good friend Jamie!

~Went grocery shopping

~Came home and cleaned/prepared dinner for some guests. It had been SO LONG since I got to play hostess...and it was great fun!

~We had Jeremy's co-worker and our "new friends", Lisa and Paul, over for dinner. It was great to spend time with a cute, fun couple! :)

Saturday--

~Woke up at 5:45 and ran 17 miles. Jamie, bless her heart, joined me for 9 of those miles! I was so grateful to have wonderful company! She is such a fabulous person, and such a wonderful running partner! I look forward to our conversations :)

~Cleaned/packed

~Ran to the mall with Jeremy to use some coupons that were "burning holes in our pockets" ;)

~Drove to the Quad Cities

~Had dinner at Chili's in Davenport with my parents, sister Megan and her husband Danny, and brother Dan and his girlfriend Laura. It was AWESOME. Having the 8 of us all together...I can't put into words how much fun that is. I could tell it meant a lot to my parents, as well. My dad, in particular, was in "rare form" ;). He was so happy he was practically giddy! Ha!! This is extra-funny if you happen to know my dad

~Drove Jeremy over to our friends Aaron and Katie's and met their new "addition", puppy Wilco! He was super cute! Jeremy spent the night there.

~Drove to my parents' in Geneseo, where I spent the night...I stayed up til after 1am finishing up a scrapbook for my friend Jen's new baby Jackson :)

Today (Sunday)

~Drove to Jen's church to watch Jackson's baptism :)

~Went to Jen's house to hang out with friends/family for a celebration luncheon

~Drove to Moline to pick up Jeremy

~grabbed a kiddie hot fudge sundae from Country Style (MMMM!)

~came home!

~And, I wrote about something running and life-in-general related, here....

I have one other topic I want to write about, soon....the question I hear in a variety of ways from a variety of people....basically "why do you run?" (which is often followed up by, "I don't see the point!" "What can you possibly get out of running that many miles?!" "Don't you know that the first person who ran a marathon DIED!" "I'd like to run, but....(insert plethora of excuses here)." "How do you find the time?", or even sometimes more "loaded" comments which make me feel somewhat guilty...like "must be nice to have that kind of time!", etc.). Anyway, I hope to address all of that/my feelings....soon!

But, for now....I need to head out on an 8 mile run....need to get some motivation, first :).

Have a wonderful day, all! :)

Happy Birthday, Dear Brother!

2010-07-10T09:28:00.006-05:00

This past friday, July 9, 2010, was my dear little baby brother Dan's 21st birthday!

Because apparently we hadn't gotten enough of each other during last week's east coast road trip adventure ;), Dan and Laura drove down to Bloomington Friday night for dinner and birthday festivities :). It was a great time! I'm glad they thought we were cool enough to hang out with ;).

Dan chose Herradura, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, for his birthday dinner.

Laura and Dan

Dan with his birthday margarita (and birthday "burrito gigante"!! :))

Dan being wayyyyy goofy. I love this picture; it totally cracks me up.

Dan taking his TWO complimentary birthday tequila shots like a champion. Makes a big sister proud ;). HA!

Stop #2 of the night: Destihl. Dan got a flight of 5 beers, per Jeremy's suggestion.

Laura and Dan, amazed by their dessert ;). "Chocolate three-ways" YUMMY!!

Me with Jer. I love this guy ;).

It was a great night and I am glad they were able to come down to allow us to celebrate with them!

While I'd clearly rather live even closer to my family, it's great not being TOO far away. Dan is only 2 hours away from me when he is at home or at school (2 hours in opposite directions...Bloomington is right in the middle!) and the rest of my immediate family and much of my extended family is 2-3 hours away. Not bad at all. Still, I'd rather see them all more often :). But, I will enjoy what I can get.

Hopefully Dan/Laura, Megan/Danny, and Jer and I will be planning a trip to Six Flags in Gurnee sometime before the summer is over. I hope we can fin a common date that will work! It would be an awesome time.

Allllll right...laundry is calling!
Have a wonderful day :)

(choose joy! ;))

HOME

2010-07-06T10:39:00.017-05:00

It's definitely one of my favorite places to be :).

I am catching up on laundry...and wasting time aimlessly reading blogs instead of cleaning or running ;)...before going in to work for a half day this afternoon. Feels good just to sit on my butt by myself. I haven't had a chance to be by myself since Wednesday...and it feels good. Nothing against people...my family, friends, etc....but I do just need some time to wind down. By myself. Does that make me strange/anti-social/psychotic? Probably not really. (I have plenty of other attributes that lend to my strange-ness, I am sure)

We had a great trip and I am very thankful for the time I was able to spend with my family. It would've been even better if my husband Jer and Megan's husband Danny were able to join us (they both had to work a lot over the holiday weekend)...but it was still a fantastic time. These memories, sorry to be completely cliche, will definitely last a lifetime.

I LOVE DC, and hope that Jer and I can return next summer! Dan will be at TBS (The Basic School) after graduating from Purdue...he will likely go out East again sometime in June and will be at TBS for six months. So, that would give us lots of time to visit! Maybe I see the Marine Corps Marathon in my future for October 2011! We'll see.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from our trip....

(Meg, Me, and Laura after the Family Day Orientation at Officer Candidacy School at Quantico)

(Meg, Dan, and Me after Dan and the other Marines were "released" to their families for a few hours of "liberty" on Friday. We went to Chili's :))

(Dan with his girlfriend Laura after the graduation parade)

(Dan and Meg)

(Dan and our proud parents)

(Me with my dear brother. Notice his huge smile...he smiled all day :). I had truly never seen him smile that much in my life :))

(Me with Christian at the World War II Memorial in DC. Christian and Dan recently moved to MD and took the metro down to hang out with me Saturday afternoon on July 3rd! It was soooo wonderful to see them :))

(Some nice girls offered to take our photo at the World War II Memorial...me, Christian, and Dan. I am so thankful we got to spend time together! :))

(My dad, Meg, and my mom on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial)

(Matyasse girls! ;) Meg, me, and our mom in front of the White House)

(Waiting for the fireworks! Meg, Me, and Laura...pink ladies! ;))

(The three of us girls with the Marine before the fireworks)

(Fireworks over the monuments in DC! Spectacular!)

(Dan was a little tired when we finally made it back to our hotel in VA after the DC fireworks!!!)

Sigh.

Have a great day, all!

Nearing the end of the journey....

2010-07-05T16:37:00.002-05:00

So we left our hotel in Triangle, VA at 7:30 this morning (Eastern time). It is around 5:30pm (Eastern time) now. We've been in the throes of travel for approximately 10 hours. We stopped for approximately 30 minutes after an hour of travel due to an accident on the interstate. Lucky for us, when we happened upon the traffic jam, we were right by a rest stop, so we got off there and got out of the car for a bit. Our only other stop so far has been to eat lunch....fast food per my insistance. As much as I really don't like filling my body with crap like McDonald's (which is where we ate lunch today, only our second McDonald's stop of the trip, surprisingly)....my desire to get home to my husband and my bed is that much greater :). That stop took 45ish minutes, and then we were back in the van.

It hasn't been the most fun day of my life ;), but it hasn't been pure torture either. Sometime long roadtrips are the necessary evil of a fun vacation. And, a fun vacation it truly has been :).

I've entertained myself and travel companions by reading aloud from my hilarious book, "what's your poo telling you?" Additionally, I worked on a report for work on my work laptop for approximately 90 minutes and spent approximately 45 minutes loading trip pictures onto facebook. I texted some friends...perused some favorite blogs....listed to some Jack Johnson, Ingrid Michaelson, and Regina Spektor on my iPod. Slept. Stared out the window. Not too shabby ;).

Ok, off to peruse the Internet to try to find a suitable restaurant for a hopefully quick dinner....

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

We've lost our minds.....

2010-07-03T21:32:00.004-05:00

Laura (at OCS graduation today as officers were chanting left/right cadences as the platoons were marching): "It sounds like they're saying 'lab coat!' "
*****************************
Dad (at dinner, as I was eating a bowl of hummus, carrots, and cucumbers): "What's that?"

Me: "Hummus."

Dad: "Pumice? That comes from volcanoes!"
*****************************
Dad (when Daniel said something obnoxious): "You know Laura, there's two ball bats in the basement. You have your choice of wood or aluminum. I think the wood would hurt more"
*****************************
Dad (when we were freaking out about how to pay in the parking ramp after returning to our car at the metro station after a day in DC): "Let not your hearts be troubled."
*****************************
Dan: "Oh! My nuts!" (Yelled in pain after dropping a gatorade bottle on himself in the van during the ride back to our hotel after a long day in DC Saturday)
*****************************
Me: "In six days God made heaven and earth." Explanation: I saw this on the back of an RV in large adhesive letters as we were somwewhere in West Virginia during our ride to Virginia....and found it funny....so I read it aloud in a loud, dramatic voice....only some people hadn't seen the message on the RV and simply thought i was off my rocker and randomly stating that ;).
*****************************
Dan (after we girls "misled" him by telling him we had seen a bear during our morning run): "I've always wanted to interact with a bear!" (spoken in a wistful tone. It was hysterical! He really believed us and was jealous!!)
*****************************
Me: "I think that's the Potowamac River!" Um.....a gross mispronunciation of "Potomac" ;)
*****************************
Mom: "Uh, you can't turn here."

Dad: "WATCH ME!!"
*****************************
Me: "Dad, calm down."

Dad: "Me? You guys are the ones who have been passing the crack pipe all day!"
*****************************

Oh, family fun! :)

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Marines

2010-07-02T16:50:00.003-05:00

Quote from this morning's family orientation at family day that i wanted to quickly record before I forgot.....

While discussing people who are late...

"There's always a rational excuse.....but it's always irrelevant"

And.....

As we were entering the base just now, waiting in the van in line for the ID check at the entrance, Dan says to my dad, gesturing toward the Marine at the checkpoint,

"Why dont you see if you can grab his gun before he does, Dad!"

Haha! Good call ;).

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

The travels continue...

2010-07-01T14:10:00.001-05:00

So far, so good.

We just crossed into West Virginia, where the following sights greeted us:

~a sign proclaiming "West Virginia: Wild and Wonderful

~a chain gang of inmates doing some sort of manual labor along the roadside

~deer (2 in the past mile...and yes, it's daylight) hanging out on the rocky ledges along the road. Laura saw them and warned, "look out, it looks like they can jump right onto the cars!" Haha!

I don't think I've ever been to West Virginia, not before today anyway. It honestly looks kind of pretty. Rolling hills. Lots of green. Pretty trees.

My good friend Jillian called me this morning, though, and spoke some words of warning regarding West Virginia. She called this morning at 9am, right after we had stopped at Starbucks (per my request! After my post and homage to Starbucks last night....there was really no way i could've started this day without a treat from my friends at S'bux! ;)) where I picked up a grande CDL and were pumping gas at a gas station. It was approximately 8am Illinois time, and she was driving to work. She used to live on the east coast....and informed me, "don't get out of your car in West Virginia if you like your car and your money!"

Not sure exactly what she meant by that....

Ooh, but no chance to get out of our car in West Virginnie now! We apparently just crossed over into Pennsylvania! It doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me, the way that just worked out, but then again I've never really been too good at maps and that geography stuff....

Whatever. Welcome to Pennsylvania, I guess! ;)

So, we stopped for lunch at a Chick Fil-A somewhere in middle Ohio. I haven't eaten at one of those restaurants in years....certainly it was looooong before the whole gluten intolerance diagnosis deal (which was October 18, 2008....yup, I'll certainly never forget that day. I still remember my first GF breakfast, too....weeks prior, I had scheduled a breakfast date with a former co-worker at Panera in Bloomington. Well, as we all know....Panera is gluten central. Bread all over that joint. In fact, my sister and I cracked up hard core once when we grabbed coffee at a Panera together....hanging on the wall was some sort of colorful "art" with a variety of bread-themed words written in script on it...and the word GLUTEN was prominently printed in the middle. Haha! Anyway, I thought about changing locations....but didn't want to complicate things. So, i brought a box of gluten free flax cereal...and purchased a coffee, and a cup of fresh fruit. Fresh fruit that I was convinced had somehow been contaminated by flying gluten crumbs...so my neurotic self RINSED the fruit in the cup....with the water in the soda fountain! Hahahaha! Can you imagine what people thought??!!)...

Anyway...

Where was I??

Oh, yes....Chick Fil-A. So, my family asked me as we drove around the town we were stopping in where I'd like to stop for lunch, since I am the "needy" one...honestly, I hatehatehate choosing all of the time and I REALLY hate being singled out, for anything (even when it's just people clearly being nice and thoughtful!). Since I truly wasn't very hungry, I told them to choose....and Chick Fil-A it was.

A quick glance over the ingredient lists revealed I wouldn't be eating there....even their grilled chicken breast has wheat in a flavoring coating on it! Sick! So, I went on a walk to a Target very closeby and picked up a few delicious things...2 string cheese sticks, some pop chips, some organic wild berry fruit strips, and an organic GF blueberry greek yogurt. YUM!

GF can be delicious, I swear!

So, I estimate that we've been driving for 5.5 hours now....should be over halfway there!

I completed TWO of my seven evaluation reports I brought along! I am very much looking forward to getting all of my documentation caught up before heading back to work Tuesday afternoon :). Dorky, maybe ;).

My work laptop has a shady battery life....which has prevented me from working on any more of the reports. Our hotel has free wifi (I called to check!) so I am making myself complete at LEAST one more report tonight at the hotel. That will feel good :).

I have taken some time to screw around on the internet on my phone, update facebook incessently (my loser trademark! Haha!), send an e-mail to my sand vb team to wish them luck on their tournament game(s) tonight (I am very sad I won't be able to participate!), and catch up on some celebrity drama, thanks to People magazine. I read up on Jake and Vienna's split (come ON!) and learned that Ryan Seacrest is dating Julieanne Hough (whhhaaaaat??? She is far too hot for him! ;)). You kow, the stuff a good vacation road trip is made of :).

More to come, for certain :)

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

and....the Matyasse Family Adventure Begins...

2010-06-30T22:16:00.002-05:00

I am currently sitting in the back of my parents' pale blue Sienna minivan, the faint smell of skunk wafting past my nostrils. We are headed east on 74...and are somewhere between Champaign, IL and the Indiana border. Seated in the middle of this packed vehicle are Laura, my brother's sweet girlfriend, and Megan...my saucy sister ;). My Dad is at the wheel....and my Mom is riding shotgun. We're a lively bunch, let me tell you what ;). It is absolutely silent. I think everyone is pretty tired from a long day at work...

The four of them arrived in Bloomington around 8pm tonight...Jer and I met them at a Steak and Shake for dinner, and then we headed out. As we packed my crapola into the van, i endured the predictable teasing about the quantity i had packed. Hey, packing light has never been a strength of mine. I like to be prepared, what can I say?? And...one (of the, uh, four) of my bags is my work laptop and a bunch of files I need to work on some kiddos' reports as we drive tomorrow. So, that doesnt really officially "count" toward my "packing," right?? Right. ;)

As we started out (we left the restaurant at 8:50 pm) we were pretty excitable and chatty...sharing goofy stories....however after about 45 minutes of that, silence fell.

We need beds. Sleep. A big burst of energy before traveling ~10 hours together tomorrow. I think I already hear Starbucks calling my name. Mmmm. What will it be tomorrow? I've been sadly addicted to Starbucks since graduate school. I go through phases with my personal "signature drinks"....first it was the pumpkin spice latte in the fall of 2005, during my first few months at Purdue. I "rationalized" the impractical cost and outrageous sugar and calorie content by thinking thoughts like, "I work hard! I need to stay awake in class! I work out almost daily...the calories don't really 'count.' I earned this! Etc., etc" In actuality, I truly believe Starbucks puts some sort of narcotics in their coffee. I am addicted. It's not even the caffeine, really. It's something about....Starbucks. Who knows? I sure don't get it....oh well ;). It is sure delicious.

After ODing on said pumpkin spice lattes this past "pumpkin spice latte season" (the fall of 2009)...I moved on to even more delicious pastures. Thank you, Jillian McGriff for introducing me to the wonder, the beauty that is.....the cinnamon dolce latte.

Yum.

I actually had an iced one this morning....sans whipped cream. Hey, i may have run 7 miles yesterday and 3.5 tonight....but I don't exactly feel as if I can get away with ignoring calorie counts completely as my darn metabolism slows down. I'm pushing 30, folks. I know my role. Gotta keep my physique or my husband may....lose interest ;).

Ok....I have to pee.

Darn sweet tea. I asked for a refill in a to-go cup as we left Steak and Shake....1 hour and 22 minutes ago. Sigh. There's no way we're stopping yet for a potty break. My sister informed me of such...she warned me against getting the refill, but it was so delicious that I couldn't resist.

Must...keep....my legs....crossed.....

Stop thinking about running water.....

Oh, thank you Lord for my absolutely unnecessary "smartphone"....allowing me to update facebook, twitter, and keep up with my silly blogging habit/addiction while on the go. Oh dear me.

Much more to come, I am sure of it.

Ever since I traveled to Minneapolis with 4 of my favorite co-workers in May for a three-day continuing ed conference....any significant amount of time spent in a car makes me think of Taco Bell Cheese Roll-Ups.

Not because I eat them (hello, Gluten!)....but because two individuals in particular (I will refer to them as "The Pregnant One" and "The Male One" ;) ) whined incessantly for me to stop (yup, I was the fearless driver for that grand adventure!) at Taco Bell establishments so they could indulge in their sub-dollar snacks....multiple times. Cheese. Tortilla. Roll Up. Add heat. Voila....cheese roll-up. I will say, they did smell great....but come on! At one point, as we were driving through some part of middle Wisconsin, The Male One informed me, "I am SURE there will be a Taco Bell off of this exit! Take this exit!"

Well, oh all-knowing Male......guess what.....you were WRONG, and you just added approximately thirty minutes onto our eight-ish hour trip. Fail.

But, that's the stuff memories are made of.

Speaking of which....

Do you have any chapstick?

.....because my lips hurt REAL BAD!!

Posted by Rachel Lynn via Blogaway

Joy

2010-06-29T14:30:00.005-05:00

Warning.

I am a huge dork.

But, if you really know me, you already knew that.

I've been thinking a lot lately. A lot...about many things...but in particular about joy.

Trusty ol' Dictionary.com tells us....
"JOY-noun
1. the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation: She felt the joy of seeing her son's success.
2. a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated: Her prose style is a pure joy.
3. the expression or display of glad feeling; festive gaiety.
4. a state of happiness or felicity."

Joy...delight...elation...felicity (ooh, like that one!).

Good stuff.

Try to follow my not-so-organized thought process...

So, I am really terrible at interior design. Really terrible. I am so not creative, and so do not have an eye for design/flair/fashion...and don't really have a consistent personal "style" (and that can be said for both my home and my personal clothing/style as well). I really admire my friends who DO have an eye for design, a strong "personal style", and just a fun "flair" about them.

One friend in particular, does an amazing job of putting her home together...and does a fabulous job of not spending a whole lot of money to do it, either. Whenever I go to her house...I think to myself, "now this place feels like a home." It is so warm, so inviting...so fabulous! She puts colors together well, places furniture in a comfortable way, and chooses fun things to hang on the walls and place on her mantle. She has an amazing personal flair and sense of style that is unique and inspiring. I look forward to going to her home, not just to visit, but to see what new exciting changes she has made to her already-adorable home. She inspires me.

Our house, on the other hand...well, I could do better :). Currently we live in a duplex that is fairly sizable...we have three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, and on the main level we have a powder room and a large "open" kitchen/dining/living room. We recently finished our basement, which consists of 2 storage closets, a "back room" with the furnace/etc., and a larger "theater" room/"man cave." So, it's not huge by any means...but it does give me lots of room to play around with decorating and style...and a lot of room to look, well, boring.

I'd have to describe our home's current state as a combination of dorm-room decor/utilitarian and something off of Hoarders: Buried Alive (ok, that may be a BIT of an exaggeration). We do have "things" hanging on the walls in all of the rooms (except for the basement bathroom and theater room/man cave). However, none of the "things" really "go together" or fit into any sort of "theme." It's all kind of...random... haphazard.

If I had to say something positive about our home decor...I'd say we did a fairly decent (not quite "good," though) job of staying within a color scheme that goes together fairly well. Our home is full of earth tones...deep reds, a variety of browns, silver/chrome (Jeremy spent what seemed like an eternity switching ALL of our door knobs and trim pieces to silver/chrome..aside from the powder room where the sink, doorknob, and towel hook are gold), and greens. I will say that I do enjoy these colors. Maybe they are boring. I don't know. But I do really like them...they make me feel good (again, remember, I did warn you that I am a huge nerd). I'd always wanted a RED room...and now I have TWO (our powder room and our office are both a lovely red).

I decided to try to grow up a bit this weekend and try my hand at incorporating some "adult" decorating schemes into our home. I picked up some glass vases in a variety of hues (mostly brown/green) and placed them in what I feel to be a "pleasing arrangement" on our fireplace mantle in the living room. I picked up a wrought iron easel on which to display our wedding photo album (the one that was professionally done...the one that cost an embarrassing amount of money...the one that has been sitting in its brown cardboard box under our coffee table in the living room for 99.9% of its existence). I also picked up an inexpensive wooden plaque that reads: "Start each day with a joyful heart"

And, thus, I adopted a new mantra.

One of the highlights? This little piece of "art" cost me just $2.99 plus tax. (Thank-you, Gordman's!)

I brought it home and placed it on the mantle, to the left at an angle.

I expected Jeremy to make fun of my efforts and the statement immediately (he thoroughly enjoys to tease me :)). He likes to poke fun at any displays of extra-girliness I portray...in a loving manner, naturally ;).

Much to my surprise, he didn't. He joined in the "decorating fun" and re-arranged the mantle (I will say...he actually does have a more artistic eye than I do (well, he WAS an art minor in college ;)). I daresay he was even a bit proud of himself for his efforts.

Now "Start each day with a joyful heart" is displayed prominently in the middle of the mantle.

I think it's cute (feel free to disagree if you visit ;))...and it appeals to my ever-expanding nerdy personality.

I think it's a great reminder to myself...start each day with a joyful heart.

I look at this message multiple times a day...as I am packing my husband's lunch in the morning, (what started as an expression of love...but I am ashamed to admit sometimes feels like just another chore), even though I am rushed and have to leave the house without drying my hair or applying makeup...again...be joyful.

As I walk in the house at 7pm after a long day at work because I have yet to discover ways of maintaining a good work-life balance...have joy.

When I return from an amazing run and am sitting on the floor, stretching under the ceiling fan...delight in life.

When I wake up late and need to rush around to get ready for work in 20 minutes in order to make it to my 7:30am appointment on time...breathe, and be elated by the promise of a new day.

I am sure it probably sounds strange...but it is helping me to internalize this joy, this often overlooked but amazing emotion.

Best $2.99 I've ever spent.

It's not much in the way of "decorating"/discovering a personal style for my home/making my home more inviting and "cute"....but it's a start :).

Joy...delight...elation...felicity.....

Start each day with a joyful heart.

Long day

2010-06-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

Long day. Seven kids. (no, not my own ;)...seven speech kiddos ;)). Coordinating projects for a volunteer. Not drinking enough water. Headache. Rush home for lunch. Surprised to hear Jer pulling into the garage. Ate with my handsome hubby for a bit. Rushed back to work. Worked on a report. Finished said report in the midst of post-work distractions. Run. Just 3.5 tonight (Hal Higdon plan called for 3...I hate just 3! ;)). I did do 14.25 yesterday ;), so I think it's ok. Jamie ran with me...so thankful for her sweet friendship :). Venting. Complaining. Guilt over venting ;). Dinner with Jer. The 'Dura. We're obsessed ;). Cub food. Cake mix/frosting. Time to bake cake for shower tomorrow....and put on the Bachelorette in the background ;). I know, I know...I don't really have that many brain cells to spare, I shouldn't let them be killed off with such entertainment ;). Oh well. I need some mindless "entertainment" after a day like today ;).

Thankful for....

an awesome job

awesome friends

awesome husband

RUNNING..........

Without these things, I'd surely be even more crazy ;).

Wasting time??

2010-06-27T16:54:00.003-05:00

Yeah...my afternoon can probably technically be categorized as a big ol' wasted chunk of time :). Sometimes, though, just sitting around doing "nothing" feels good. I'd like to think, even, that it IS good ;).

I ran 14.25 miles. That counts as something, right? (yes, folks, that does read fourteen)

When I completed that...I came inside, heated up some leftover yummy baked oatmeal (in a saucepan, I don't believe in microwaves)....and tossed that back, along with a few chunks of cheddar cheese, some water, some orange juice, some leftover salsa from chili's with some tostitos, and a chocolate chocolate-chip cookie.

Hey, just because I can't eat gluten and like to run doesn't exactly mean I am the healthiest of eaters.

I probably need to work on that.

Anyway, after cramming my face full of food (hey, I did run a lot and earned at least part of that right??), I took a LONG shower, finished up some laundry...and planted my rear end in our desk chair in front of the computer. AND, edited my blog layout. I am kind of excited by the fact that it now has PAGES at the top!

AND, I made myself a SIGNATURE! ;)

Nerd alert!

Ok, time to go be productive...aka, get dressed and get ready to go grab dinner with the hubby before watching his softball game tonight :). Then, it's back here to catch up on some documentation for work.

Have a wonderful day!

Faith

2010-06-25T15:20:00.001-05:00

I like this:

"When you come to the edge

of all the light you know,

and are about to step off

into the darkness of the unknown,

faith is knowing one of two things

will happen: There will be

something solid to stand on

or you will be taught to fly. "

Thanks

2010-06-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Mr. Anon....thanks for your latest comment. I accidently published it, but then took it off after I realized you had said "no need to post this" ;).

I will respond more later....but I am at work and I can see my next appointment arriving through the window.

But really...thanks :)

One Big, Happy Weekend :)

2010-06-20T20:42:00.009-05:00

What a great weekend!! :)
Friday was a good day at work...productive...with an interview in the afternoon for a new position at Easter Seals. I was very nervous going into it...I am not a fan of "talking up" myself, but it ended up being quite enjoyable. I really respect and enjoy the two people who interviewed me, and it was a really great opportunity to just sit and talk with them, learn more about them, and learn more about our organization. The longer I am at Easter Seals, the more passionate I become about that wonderful organization.

After work, Jer and I went to a happy hour at Killarney's in downtown Bloomington to say good-bye/good-luck to his friend and co-worker, Adam, who is moving to St. Louis for a new position with State Farm next weekend.

Saturday....was a big day :). In the morning Jer and I ran the Warrior Dash in Joliet with some friends....talk about a crazy, crazy race! It is a 3.17-mile race, complete with twelve crazy obstacles (including jumping over FIRE! Haha!!).

Here I am with my friend Ashley, pre-race:

Nice and clean, eh? ;)

Here I am with Jer, pre-race :)

Aaaannnnd....here I am with Ashley, POST-race! A bit different looking! Totally covered in mud! It was an absolute BLAST!!

Here I am with Jer, post-race. He is holding up 1 finger to remind everyone that HE beat ME and is indeed number one ;)

After driving back home and getting cleaned up...I headed to Peoria with my good friend Jamie and another co-worker (a sweet girl named Jill who just recently started working with us) for an Easter Seals fundraising event...Wines and Polo on the Prairie. It was AWESOME!

Here we are, look....I got all of that mud off of me! Well.....most of it, I'll say. Truth be told...my fingernails, feet, and knees were still pretty disgusting. And, you can't really tell in the photo...but I was sporting a streaky, nasty sunburn on my arms and neck! Ha!! As I posted on my facebook status that night..."Trying to be classy, but so far it's a train wreck!" HA!

Today we went to the 9am (EARLY! ;)) service at our church with Jeremy's parents and then came home....I went on a 5 mile run (I did five miles at a 8:40 pace in the HEAT, which I was pleased with :)) and then we met up with Jer's friend Aaron at Chipotle for lunch :). He had been camping and going to see Dave Matthew's Band in Indianapolis this weekend and was passing through Bloomington with his wife Katie, Katie's brother Matt (Kramit) and Kramit's girlfriend Mara. Kramit, Katie, and Mara wanted to eat at Flat Top...and we wanted Chipotle ;), so they dropped Aaron off at Chipotle and headed over to Flat Top! When we were done, we went over to Flat Top and hung out with them for a while there. It was great to see them :).

Tonight we went out to dinner to Destihl (one of my FAVORITE Bloomington restaurants) to celebrate Father's Day with Jer's parents and brother. I had an awesome spinach/orange/strawberry/goat cheese salad and a bison burger. YUM! AND, the best orange-ginger iced tea ever...DELICIOUS!

Happy Father's Day to all of the amazing fathers out there, and in particular to the amazing fathers I am blessed to have in my life. Here's my shout-out to the five top fathers in my life :): Thankfulness for fathers

Have a great week, all!

Rachel

Dan

2010-06-13T13:58:00.002-05:00

My brother is one of the best people I know. He is currently at Quantico in Virginia for six weeks of Marine Officer Candidacy School training. I couldn't be more proud of him. How many twenty-year-old boys (men? I guess I really should start referring to my baby brother as a man, as strange as that is to me...) do we really encounter who have the ability to think about something bigger than themselves...and to be prepared to sacrifice EVERYTHING for their country? For the freedom of people...many of whom will never fully understand or appreciate the sacrifice they are making. And some of whom will even ridicule our armed forces and voice feelings of not supporting the military.....

...ok....I need to finish these thoughts later...

oh, and PS

2010-06-12T10:10:00.003-05:00

Just so you know I've been gleaning some knowledge, Mr. Anon.....

What I've learned so far:

~Run More

~Sleep more

~Waste less time on meaningless crap

~Get a good running watch (I do have one: a garmin 350)

~get a coach (uh, haven't done that yet....honestly, I am freaked out to just go find a random coach at ISU or IWU as you suggested....why would they want to give advice to some random girl off the streets??)

Here's your sign!

2010-06-12T10:04:00.003-05:00

(To Mr. Anon :))

Thanks for all of your tips.....I thoroughly, thoroughly appreciate them :). I've been reading them all, pondering them all, publishing them all (except the 1 cryptic short one).

Sorry I hadn't responded until now....honestly, I took it easy this week! :) Weird! Good, bad, or otherwise....I committed to taking a week off (my husband "made" me ;)) of running/working out. Yup, for an entire week. So, today is day 6....and tomorrow I'll be rarin' to go! I recognize that won't really be taking quite an entire week off....close enough ;).

I am feeling pretty good :). I got more sleep this week than I typically do; I actually got a full 8 hours last night!

This is short because I have a lot to do today :).

Have a wonderful day.....and thanks a lot for all of your help. I still don't understand why you've chosen to help me, though :).

Thanks!

Rachel

Dear Mr. (Mrs.??) Anonymous :) :)

2010-06-07T21:11:00.003-05:00

Ok, so after my last post an Anonymous poster wrote the following comment:

"Well, if you're going to qualify for Boston you need to be a mile per minute faster. The only way that will happen is with some form of coaching. You're losing alot due to inefficiencies in how your body is moving when you run, specifically your stride and arm motion.

You do not realize this, but your stride is slapping you back every time. It is correctable. Also, you need to learn how to run faster and that is biomechanics AND training.

Just some more advice. Whether it's good or not is a choice I leave to you. And, there's no stalking going on, I promise. Again, a butt kicking from Jeremy is of no interest to me."

In my title I said "Mr." OR "Mrs."...but judging from the "butt kicking from Jeremy is of no interest to me" I would assume you are of the male variety, Mr. Anon ;). Forgive me if you are indeed female, but I will be referring to you as "Mr. Anon" until advised otherwise :).

First of all, THANK YOU. I have no idea who you are (really, zero idea) and no idea how you found my blog (it isn't private, but I haven't really told a lot of people that I have it...although I do have a link to my gluten free blog on facebook, so maybe you are a facebook friend of mine and found this blog through that blog? Just a thought ;))....and no idea why you decided to start offering me advice. I am pretty sure this isn't the first time you've posted a comment; I've had many anonymous comments over the past months....so they could be from more than 1 person, but I think that you have at least posted a few of the running related ones :). So, anyway, I don't know a whole lot about any of that....but I DO know that I am grateful for your advice, for whatever reason you may be posting it.

My questions for you:

1) Are you going to remain anonymous forever?

2) I agree, I need some sort of "coach" or "trainer" or something.....what do you suggest? Whom? I mean, clearly you have some knowledge about running....which makes me think you are either a runner or a trainer of some sort...or both.

You've clearly seen me run, which creeps me out a little (but then again, ask anyone who knows me...I am easily creeped out ;) HA!). You had details above about my stride, so clearly you've at least watched me on occasion. Someone in the Lake Run Club? Although, I haven't really run with any of those guys since last summer....

Anyway, I know I have a long way to go to be where I want to be.....and I am willing to work! So, lead me in some sort of direction, Mr. Anon! ;) (if you'd be so kind :) :))

Rachel Running Facts:

~I started running/working out recreationally in college in order to stay healthy (due mostly to the college girl vanity in me and my desire to stay thin, honestly)

~My first race was the Maple City 4 in Geneseo, IL on June 14, 2003 when I was twenty years old. I ran the race with my sister, Megan, who was a jr. high, high school, and college (St. Ambrose in Davenport) cross country runner. I had no idea how I did...so I just Googled it to see if there were results online...and there were! I am actually very surprised by how relatively well I did for my very first race: I got a time of 33:53, which breaks down to an 8:28 pace per mile. WOW!

~My second race was later that same summer, it was the Firecracker 5k in Moline on the 4th of July in 2003. I also ran this with my little sister (My inspiration!). I just Googled that race and found results (I LOVE THE INTERNET! HA!) and got a time of 25:46, which is a pace of 8:28

**These two Google searches just now have been very educational for me. Honestly, I used to never pay attention to my times and really care how I did. I just ran to run. I was never in the top of my division (well, actually....at the Maple City 4, I got second in my division....out of TWO! HAHAHA!!!) and really never cared. I never really pushed myself hard, either. And here I thought I was a much better runner than I was when I started...honestly....my pace isn't really any different for short races. The only things that have changed, really, are:

A) I know I can run the longer distances, as evidenced by four half marathons and two full marathons

B) My time/pace has improved in half marathons

~Later the next summer I ran the Bix 7 in Davenport, Iowa, which has since become a tradition for me and Jeremy (he ran it with me the next summer in 2005 and we've run it together every summer since). For a number of years after that, I think the Bix was my only race of the year.

My Bix times:

2004: 1:02:37; a pace of 8:56/mile

2005: 1:05:23; a pace of 9:20

2006: 1:09:02; a pace of 9:51

2007: 1:09:01; a pace of 9:51

2008: 1:10:25; a pace of 10:03

2009: 58:36; a pace of 8:22

WOW! That illustrated a lot! You could see that I kinda just went nice and easy (not that it ever felt easy... ;) )....but then last year in 2009 shaved a considerable amount of time from my pace and finishing time. It makes sense. 2009 was the year that I really started taking running seriously and I was smack dab in the middle of marathon training in late July last year when the Bix was run.

~2009 was my first REALLY big (for me) running year:

1) April 11, 2009: Illinois Marathon (my 1st half marathon!!)--1:57:25--8:57/mile pace

2) April 25, 2009: Race To Wrigley (5k)--27:32--8:51/mile pace

3) May 2, 2009: Lake Run (12k)-1:05:39--8:48/mile pace

4) June 13, 2009: State Farm 5k--25:26--8:11/mile pace

5) June 20, 2009: Steamboat Classic (15k)--1:25:03--9:07/mile pace

6) July 4, 2009: Park 2 Park (5 mi)--43:12:1--8:38/mile pace

7) July 25, 2009: Bix 7--58:36--8:22/mile pace

8) September 27, 2009: Quad Cities Half Marathon--1:52:09--8:33/mile pace

9) October 3, 2009: Easter Seals Run the Woods (5k)--26:12--8:26/mile pace (TRAIL run)

10) October 11, 2009: Chicago Marathon--4:01:04--9:11/mile pace

11) November 15, 2009: Jingle Bell Run (Blm, IL)--24:57:8--8:01/mile pace

THEN, this year so far I've done an indoor triathlon (In St. Louis in February), two half marathons, and the Minneapolis marathon:

1) April 3, 2010: Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon (Springfield, IL)--1:49:57--pace of 8:24

2) May 1, 2010: U of I Half Marathon (Champaign-Urbana, IL)--1:50:07--pace of 8:25

3) June 6, 2010: Minneapolis Marathon (Minneapolos, MN)--4:04:07--pace of 9:18

So, where do I go from here?

What I learned at the marathon on Sunday:

~I love to run :) (wait, already knew that one!)

~I love marathons (after my first last October, I was miserable. I was also miserable after this one....but I was also even more HIGH for some reason as well :). Even though I didn't perform anywhere really near where I had hoped to, I really felt as if I had left it all out there and ran the best race I could at that moment)

~I have a LOT OF WORK TO DO before I can be where I want to...before I can "run with the big kids"....before I qualify for the Boston Marathon

~that 8:24/mile pace is tough (for me!!)!! I ran with a pace group...and stayed with the 3:40 finish time-8:24/mile pace group for 8 miles. The two half marathons I ran this year were right at the 8:24/8:25 pace and I did a lot of training runs at a between 8 and 8:25/mile pace. I should add, though, that before Sunday I had not attempted any of my longer than 13.1 mile runs at that 8:24/mile pace.

AND, I am fully aware.....that maybe running a faster marathon isn't in my biomechanics :). Maybe I am just built to run a 4 hour-ish marathon :). Maybe it can't get any better than that. However....I would like to think that I can improve...and I'd like to see if I can. And, I'd like to see just how much I can!! :)

Anyway, again...thank you to whomever you are, Mr. Anon! For whatever reason you've been dispensing your advice to me...I am grateful :). Let me know if you have any additional thoughts, and I will humbly accept your advice! I know I have a lot of work to do and I am prepared to do it :).

Bring on the Quad Cities!

Marathon THREE: Quad Cities: September 26, 2010. 110 days! :)

Four More Sleeps!

2010-06-02T22:08:00.004-05:00

As one of my sweet little speech kiddoes would say, I have just four more sleeps until the big day! WOW! I went on a five mile run tonight (my training plan suggested four, but due to being sick I feel as if I have definitely been on the lower end of mileage lately....so I did five tonight...didn't want to go TOO crazy this close to the marathon, of course though ;)) and had so many thoughts running through my head, it really was insane. Psyching myself out, psyching myself up....wow. If anyone could've crawled into my brain and observed they would've had me committed somewhere for sure!!
I want to think positive....but that scares me! That probably sounds totally weird....but I am afraid if I start thinking, saying, "I've totally got this! I've trained hard! I'm prepared! This will be MY race! I am GOING to qualify!"...if I end up NOT getting it (my goal time of 3 hours, 40 minutes, 59 seconds or better)....I will look like and feel like a failure.
Ugh.
As if a marathon is super important and not doing well makes you a failure.
Wrong move: reading running blogs, running-magazine affiliated Tweets and facebook updates, and books this close to the marathon....everything I read is totally just psyching me out. Training tips I come across make me feel inadequate and make thoughts such as the following run through my head, "I should've done that! Darn it! Why didn't I think of that," etc., etc......UGH!
Advice from a friend tonight...."Just show up and run." I need to take his advice and just do that. Pure and simple. Short, sweet, and to the point.
I've trained for this.
I am in the best shape I've ever been.

Let the doubts roll away.....

In three weeks or so.....THEN I can start thinking about eating better for the next marathon, strength training more for the next marathon, doing more runs at my goal pace for the next marathon, getting more sleep and taking better care of my body in preparation for the next marathon....

There will always be another marathon :).

I just want IT to be this marathon!

I know it's only my second.....but I really, really want this.

And now I sound like a spoiled brat. "But I WANT this!"

UGH.

Ok, it's not like I haven't been working hard for it. I don't just expect it to be handed to me.

See what I mean about crazy thoughts going through my mind?!?!?!??! I really might be going crazy, and for what!? For a silly 26.2 mile run that many think I am crazy just to attempt, much less to do WELL in?!

*sigh*

Which begs the question....WHY?!

WHY....do I run?
WHY....does this mean so much?
WHY....do I think I need this?

And that, my friends, is for another post entirely!

I will say, for now,....I run because it truly makes me a better person. A better wife, friend, therapist. It centers me, keeps me sane. Keeps me challenged, keeps me strong. Keeps me healthy, keeps me working toward a goal (however meaningless some may interpret it to be).

Good night, world :).

Oh, and happy National Running Day! :)

~Rache

Weekending

2010-05-28T16:55:00.001-05:00

There isn't a whole lot better than sitting on the cusp of what you just KNOW will be an absolutely amazing weekend. :) Our friends Aaron and Katie are getting married tomorrow. Jeremy is the best man. Jeremy and Aaron met their freshman year at Augie and lived together for their final three years while there. They were basically inseperable during their college years and continue to keep in close contact....they talk multiple times a week on the phone and text daily (ah, I do so love the technology available at our fingertips nowadays :)). I am pretty pumped to hear Jer's best man speech tomorrow. The two of them have many..uh...colorful memories/stories from college (and in the years post-Augie as well).

In other news work has been going pretty well lately. All in all, i do truly love my place of employment....and I know most of the "issues" I've had regarding work over the past year or so has had more to do with me and my reactions to things than the actual work environment or people there. I tend to freak out/stress out over things that really aren't worth going crazy over. All I can do is all I can do...and I am really beginning to have a better grasp on that. That's not to say that I don't still go crazy every now and then ;). But...I am doing better. Basically, I have a lot of growing up to do....both professionally and personally.

My marathon is in eight days. One week from Sunday. Wow! I am getting very, very excited....but so nervous at times that I get a serious stomach-ache. I am not really quite sure why I have put so much pressure on myself to perform well in this race...but I have. I've truly been working hard...there's no doubt about that...but there's definitely a lot of room for improvement. And, my training was not without setbacks....like my little bout with illness this past week....

Sigh....

Ok, enough randomness for now ;)

stream of consciousness

2010-05-18T23:34:00.003-05:00

throat hurts...cough....need another cold eeze...hope I am not really getting sick...no time for that at all...wonder if it is really because my immune system has started going crazy due to my extra milage lately...I did start feeling nasty Sunday night after my 20 mile run Sunday afternoon...ugh...I have to drive a carful including myself and 4 co-workers to MN tomorrow for a continuing ed conference...hope I am not sick, and hope I don't share my nasty germs in close quarters if I am indeed sick!...I never get sick...haven't taken a sick day since Oct '08 and even then I wasn't really "sick"-sick, just mentally drained from the diagnosis of gluten intolerance and impending lifestyle change...music plays in the background...Jer is down in his man cave watching some sort of tv show...it is 11:36pm and I really need to finish packing for aforementioned trip...I have no idea what to wear to to this thing...ugh...this office is a mess...I really need to clean it, but where is the time?...I wish the day had 36 hours...or that I wasted less time...I start to feel guilty for "wasting" time, but then realize that I probably do need at least a bit of down time each day...or to sleep more...yeah, that would be a good start...why is my house never clean enough?...wish I was freaking rich, then I'd hire a cleaning lady ;)...except I'd really never trust anyone to clean my house the way I wanted it cleaned...except maybe my mother, and she lives two hours away ;)...I am STILL full from dinner...it was delicious...a good end to a crazy day...I saw my first kid this morning at 7:30 am, then followed that with a 9-10, then a 10:30-11:30, then an 11:30-12:30, and then a 1-2...after that my 2-3 kid no-showed and my 3-4 kid canceled...I used that time to get plans underway for tomorrow's travels...and then saw a kid from 4-5...and then ran a fast 4.5 mile training run at "marathon pace"...which is approx. 8:24 for me...which is freaking fast...
bed...

Ahhhhh

2010-05-08T00:38:00.001-05:00

Today.....was a good day :). Busy...but that, of course, is nothing new! ;)

I saw three kiddos this morning at work and then headed out the door at 12:30. It felt great! Jeremy met me at Meathead's for lunch where I dined upon a delicious chicken "sandwich" (sans bun, of course ;) ) with cheddar, mushrooms, lettuce, and avacado....along with a large order of cajun fries that we split. Double yum! Oh, so it's probably not such a good thing that I didn't work out today. Or yesterday, for that matter. Sigh. (Let it go, Rachel....)

After lunch and wonderful company :), I set out on a 2.5 hour trek to see my good friend Jen and her new baby (born Monday!).

During the drive, I was able to chat on the phone and catch up with two wonderful friends, Brooke and Jill. It was really great to catch up with them (sorry, I know talking on a cell while driving is controversial, but it was good for my sanity....and it was just highway driving so it was basically mindless anyway ;)).

The visit with Jen and her husband and their two boys was amazing. I love that family! They hold a very special place in my heart :). I am thankful I was able to visit with them all, and to see her little one when he was only four days old! Wow! Incredible. There's really nothing more beautiful than a newborn (which I posted on my facebook status as well earlier! ;)). I wish I felt ready for one of my own....but I digress. THAT is another story entirely, one for another time....and who knows if I will actually ever get the courage to post about that in detail on here! ;)

Ok.....enough rambling. Tomorrow is another day, indeed.

Read, only if you want to be grossed out ;)

2010-04-12T21:45:00.001-05:00

So....marathon training is definitely not easy, and is definitely not always pretty.....if you care to learn more, read on....

Brother!

2010-03-28T09:56:00.003-06:00

So the wedding was a success....and now I have a new brother (in-law) :).

Tomorrow

2010-03-26T22:12:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow is my little sister's wedding day! I am so excited for her and so proud of her. I just listened as she rehearsed the vows she wrote....they are beautiful :). Time to get some sleep! :) Sooooo excited to see what tomorrow brings :). Goodnight! :)

Wedding

2010-03-24T23:29:00.001-06:00

The wedding of my sis + her man Dan is less than 3 days away! Egads! Her friend, Melissa (a bridesmaid), flew in from Baton Rouge tonight....and they lost her luggage! Seriously. I feel awful for her. What an adventure....always something! ;) She has had a positive attitude, though, which is good :). It will all work out one way or another....at least her bridesmaid dress is here...it was at my parents' house already!! I need to get some sleep....another busy day awaits us tomorrow! :) :) It has been a wonderful day, though, all in all and I am so thankful for this time with family and friends :).

Job vs. Culture/Lifestyle

2010-03-20T00:31:00.001-06:00

I had some interesting conversations tonight about work.....my workplace/job in general and some of the drama that has been running rampant over the past year. I won't delve too deeply into it right now; I am posting from my phone before I go to sleep tonight (I am spending the night at my good friend Jillian's house tonight)....but I wanted to get a little something down at least to remind myself to re-visit this topic and continue to try to sort it out in my head, whether or not it be by writing about my feelings about all of it. Anyway, I've known for a while that I need to do something about the odd balance....or lack thereof as it may be....in my life right now. For some reason I have been pouring just about all of what and who I am into my job/work, and I need to figure out where to draw the line between simply wanting to do a good job and be a good therapist....and doing too much, making my job too big of a part of my identity,

I am really torn, really struggling with this right now. I feel like every day (many weekend days as well) I put myself out there for my job, my workplace, the kids/families/my co-workers....but am I going to far? There have been days when I struggle with bitterness, the feeling that I do more than some people there, yet have nothing more to show for it. I know there are days when I am not a pleasant person to be around, because of this unchecked bitterness. But how do I start to let go? How do I stop staying late, bringing work home on weekends/evenings, obsessing over productivity hours, comparing myself to others...??? Why does it matter so much to me? I guess it's really the biggest thing in my life, aside from my husband. I am sure once we have children, my focus will shift dramatically....but shouldn't I get all of these things figured out before we have kids??!

I don't know.....but I do know I need to go to bed as it is 1:30 :). I have just been thinking a lot about these issues of mine;)....particularly when a friend said to me tonight, "Easter Seals isn't just a job....it's a lifestyle"....she went on to make some specific comparisons and make specific illustrations....but in the interest of my sleep paired with the fact that this is the internet after all and I should not post anything I am not prepared for just anyone to read! ;)

Anyway....I have some thinking to do.....

Goodnight, all!

~Rachel

Her' did

2010-03-15T17:38:00.001-06:00

I am getting my hair cut/colored....and have no idea what it will come out like ;). I kind of tend to give my hair stylist free reign....because i am so not picky when it comes to these things ;)....and so never have good ideas or know what would "look good on me" ;). So, here i am, letting the highlights do their thing for a while. I left work at 5:10 today to get here.....and felt like some sort of rebel since I typically am there til 6:30 or so. But, here I am enjoying doing something for m y s e l f! It's a good feeling....though I do still feel somewhat guilty both about not getting some reports done at work that are waiting for me, and about spending $ on this frivolity....oh and the fact that I didn't run or go to the gym yesterday....UGH! Hopefully I will still have time for the gym after I am done here tonight....we will see! :)

Awesome class

2010-03-13T13:07:00.001-06:00

So i signed up for a class today....I'm currently on the lunch break blogging from my phone (have I mentioned lately how much I lovelovelove this phone?? Probably more than a person should love an inanimate object ;) haha!)....it's an Education Through Music class that I heard about from a friend who is a teacher in Champaign that I met while enrolled in the 13-month auditory/oral graduate program I completed at the end of last July. I wasn't really sure what to expect today....and signed up simply because it was free to first-time attendees...and last night was cursing myself for signing up since I have been sooooo busy lately and could REALLY use a day to sleep in/relax/unwind/de-stress, etc.....but let me take this opportunity to say....I AM SO THANKFUL I AM HERE! It is a fabulous class (google "education through music" for more information! It is some truly fabulous stuff). The man leading the class, Randy, is energetic and wonderful. He has a doctorate in music ed (little known fact about Rachel...I actually began undergrad as a music ed major....and have a music minor) and has done multiple post-doc studies in neuro stuff....love this man already and would love even more to just pick his brain! Some aspects of this class are totallytotally out of my comfort zone....singing, moving, dancing, being silly in front of a large group, touching, ignoring personal space (egads!!)....but it is wonderful and SO GOOD for me. I'm gleaning some really great things that I'll be able to take away to use with my speech/language kiddos...and am thinking about signing up for subsequent classes! My interest is most definitely piqued! More debriefing later, time to head back for more FUN! Happy weekending to you all!

I think I'll go to Boston...

2010-03-12T12:59:00.001-06:00

(love that song!)

Anyway, I guess I should word that.....I HOPE to go to Boston in 2011.....we'll see!

I feel like by putting it out there on the WWW I have to try my hardest to make it come true!! ;)

Here's hoping the Big Guy Upstairs has the same sorts of things in store for me ;). Ok, ok...I guess it would be ok if He didn't...He's known what he has been going so far with me ;)....but I reallyreallyreally want this....we'll see!!

Telethon in Review

2010-03-07T18:17:00.001-06:00

Last night was the 2010 Easter Seals Telethon....and it was most definitely a great night. It was my 3rd time being involved with the telethon and my 2nd time in Bloomington (in my first year of being employed at Easter Seals i worked at the Peoria office so i was at the Peoria telethon in March of 2008). This year i had to do two live interviews with two families that were being featured....the Klokkenga family and th Campbell family.

I have worked with Jenna Klokkenga since the fall of 2008; Jenna was diagnosed with Autism in the summer of 2008 and has made amazing progress since the time of her diagnosis. It has been such a wonderful...and humbling experience working with Jenna and her family. Jenna's family is fabulous...they work so hard with her at home and have been active participants in the therapy process from the beginning.

I have worked with Max Campbell for approximately six months. Max and his brother Jacob are both "Easter Seals kids". Their family has been wonderful to work with as well. Max and I have worked really hard on increasing his speech clarity so that he can be understood by his family and friends. Max is a hard~working little guy and his parents have worked hard with him at home as well, which has been an asset to his success.

Now participating in live interviews is not exactly something that i thoroughly enjoy, I am not going to lie....I am typically not what one would call a confident individual! Jeremy had dvr'ed the entire telethon, so we watched my interviews this morning before we even got out of bed! I did notice that I didn't sound nearly as bad as I thought i did last night! That was encouraging. Obviously I know the point of the whole thing was most definitely NOT how I looked on television...the focus is not me, but the kids/families! However, I am glad I didn't look like a complete fool at least!! ;)

The telethon is such an exciting event....it's so fun and rewarding to work closely with coworkers (many of whom I count among my nearest and dearest friends) and families toward a common goal. It's pretty fun, too, even though there is a LOT of hard work involved.

I was a "VIP" this year, as I was for the previous two years as well. This basically meant I had mad a committment to raising $500 or more for the telethon. This year, as part of that committment, I participated in the letter~writing campaign....and raised $760!! I was so touched by the generosity of my friends/family!

Of course all parts of my job as a Speech-Language Pathologist, working with kids, and working at Easter Seals are not necessarily glamorous....but i can truly say with confidence that I love what I do. It's so wonderful to make a very real, meaningful difference in the lives of children and their families.

testing, testing!

2010-03-03T22:51:00.001-06:00

So....jer and I bought new phones last Friday..."smartphones"...we both got the Motorola Droid (they were a buy one/get one deal). I am trying to see if I can upload to my blogs using my phone. Not like I really need another method in which to waste time or anything ;).

Long Day

2010-02-27T23:58:00.003-06:00

It was a long, long crazybusy but FUN day.

Consisting of...in a shuffled order...

Driving. (over six and a half hours)

Family. (I saw all of my family members, though not all in the same place/at the same time)

Facebook. (HA! I am addicted. Maybe I should give up Facebook for Lent ;)...a little late for that decision, I know)

Starbucks. (another addiction...I am realizing I have too many vices)

Friends. (I am so blessed!)

Love. (a bridal shower for Megs at my aunt Nancy's in Fulton, followed by a visit to a nursing home to see my grandparents...today is their SIXTY-NINETH wedding anniversary!)

Birthdays. (a party to celebrate Jeremy's upcoming birthday...Monday is his 28th)

Technology. (I got a new phone...the Motorola Droid...yesterday)

Ice cream. (I stopped at Whitey's in the QCA to pick up two Mississippi Mud pies, one of Jeremy's favorite things, for Jeremy's birthday celebration tonight...which is not GF...so I also picked up a pint of mint chocolate chip for me :)).

Pumping gas. (Hate that)

Cleaning. (Hurridly before I left this morning; in anticipation of Jeremy's birthday party)

Conversation. (some very meaningful ones, one in particular with a good friend who is going through something really tough right now)

Easter Seals. (well, ones job does always tend to influence ones day...even on the weekend!)

Plans for the future/Anticipation. (Megs' wedding is one month from today...)

Longing. (no time to work out today!)

Bed...and my husband :)

debriefing...

2010-02-22T15:20:00.005-06:00

Nothing compares to this splendor.

I knew the photos wouldn't do it justice.

But, here they are....a few of my favorites from the Grand Canyon.

It had ALWAYS been a dream of mine to see the Grand Canyon "in person".

We hiked this little hole in the ground on Friday, February 19, 2010.

Hiked through dirt, clay, mud, puddles, snow, and ice.

A new find: CRAMPONS saved us more than once as we slid around quite a bit on the rough terrain. A pretty good $13.99/a pair, considering the alternative....falling OFF of the canyon!

All-in-all...amazing....

We left on Wednesday the 17th and returned home today (Monday the 22nd). It was a nice, though short, vacation from the every-day.

I want to go back!

Truly one of the greatest experiences of my 27.33 years.

One of THOSE days

2010-02-10T12:51:00.004-06:00

Ugh.
Ever had "one of those days"? I feel like I've had a lot...TOO MANY...of those over the past few months.
I am trying really hard to keep myself in check....lots of mental reminders..."Don't become upset by things you can't control, all you can control is your own actions, smile/be happy/be kind/show love, everything you experience makes you a stronger person, you are totally blessed, you have awesome friends/family/etc., don't sweat the "small" stuff"....LOTS of positive thinking. I know everyone talks about the "power of positive thinking"...and I am TRYING...but some days I just get too weary.
Sorry to be dramatic.
Anyway, I am on my lunch break at work...and am going to spend a little time adding to/revising my previous entry...the Decade in Review! It's so much fun to reflect over where I came from....and to think about where I am going and where I hope to be at the end of the NEXT decade! :)

DECADE IN REVIEW

2010-02-04T22:23:00.005-06:00

Since all of the cool kids are doing it ;), I may as well too!!! (Tarah and Emily!)

***I still have some edits to make, but wanted to post what I have so far***

Decade in Review

2000

~Rang in the new year at home…because of the Y2K scare my parents were seriously freaked out that the world might end….really…and wanted me at home. So, home I stayed, and my then-boyfriend (the first guy I dated…we started dating right before my 16^th birthday) came over to my house too. Can't remember what we did that night...but it probably wasn't too exciting! Probably played some board games...who knows! ;)

~Was a junior in high school at Winnebago High School and your quintessential book worm (straight A's!) and band nerd (I played the oboe!).

~Broke up with my 1^st boyfriend (yeah, I was an ice queen apparently) and went all-too-soon into my second relationship

~In what I considered to be at the time a “serious relationship” with a guy who did turn out to be all wrong for me (we dated for about a year and a half I think). Went to junior prom with said guy. Bought my prom dress at the Jessica McClintock store in Woodfield Mall and felt SO incredibly grown up. I do still love that lavender dress….

~Worked at Culver’s (one of only two fast food restaurants in our little “village” of Winnebago, IL!) and worked “up the ranks” as a crew member, crew trainer, crew leader, and finally assistant manager

~Very active in my church’s youth group, including with my awesome small group…our leader, Char, and charter group members Sara, Sarah, Evangeline, and Katherine. Went to many youth group events....including my FAVORITE summer events...trips to Great America, and the annual Capture the Flag event at my youth pastor's home in Rockford!

~Began thinking about college…as the oldest of my parents' children, I would be their first to go off to college. This was new territory!!

~To fulfill an assignment for a Career Ed class at school, I shadowed a physician at Physician’s Immediate Care because I “ wanted to be a doctor when I grew up”…passed out cold on the floor when I saw a police officer whose hand had been smashed by a filing cabinet that fell on it….the doctor stitching him back up explained to me, as he worked, “Now here’s the layer of fatty tissue….” and I was OUT….they had to put me up on a bed in a room and everything! HA!

2001

~Visited Augustana College and Judson College with my mom in the spring. We loved Augie….but ended up leaving the Judson visit early. It just wasn’t for me.

~In May, graduated in the top 10% of my high school class….Number 3, actually. Still “bitter” about not being valedictorian or salutatorian. It’s quite a story; ask me sometime! ;) Seriously.

~In August, I began my freshman year at Augustana College as a music education major. Augie was the ONLY school I actually applied to….I had some sort of academic scholarship, and a music scholarship as well, requiring that I take private piano lessons throughout my time at Augie. I actually took piano the entire 4 years and oboe the entire 4 years…and voice for 2 semesters (really, though, DO NOT ask me to sing…)

~Auditioned for and MADE the Augustana Symphonic Band (really, only by the grace of God…I really wasn’t that good. Seriously!). This group was instrumental (pardon the pun…HAHA!!!) in my life for the 4 years of my college career. Much of who I am today is thanks to that group and the people in it.

~Had a roommate who was kicked out due to grade problems after 2 trimesters, and my friend Kari moved in with me for the 3^rd trimester. Good ol’ Andreen Hall….the only all-girls dorm at Augustana. My father INSISTED upon my living there my 1^st year at Augie J.

~During my 1^st week at Augustana, I was introduced to a boy who would later become my husband. At the time, he was too busy to really notice me, however I have been told that after our meeting in the Westerlin Hall cafeteria he did comment that I was “the hottest one at the table” ;).

~Worked at Culver’s of Davenport as a manager until Culver’s of Moline was opened (I think in early 2002…). Mitchell, the owner, was amazing to me throughout my time at Augie, allowing me to basically choose my hours (I worked 20-25 hours a week during the school year) and payed decently for a college student.

~Also worked part time in food service at Augustana. I remember some REALLY early mornings cutting like 1000 dessert bars and mixing up fruit dip with huge mixers….there was a really great woman in the kitchen that I worked with…I forgot her name (L), but other than this the job was really kinda less than desirable

~In December, said “boy” began to pursue me….mostly over AOL instant messenger. I declined his “advances”….which was really fine, because he was “conveniently” sick a lot too (turns out, he wasn’t really making it up! HA!)

~Began a friendship with Jill (fellow Rockford-area native...we grew up in neighboring small towns. Me in Winnebago, she in Pecatonica...we both ended up at Augie!)...a friendship that is sure to be one that will be life-long! In fact, I have Jill to thank for meeting Jeremy at all!! :) :)

2002

~Went on my 1^st date with my future husband on January 26^th, 2002. We went to Chili’s. We ordered mozzarella sticks as an appetizer and I ate 4 ½ of the 9 cheesesticks…exactly half of the order…and then went on to polish off my entire entrée (half turkey sandwich/half broccoli cheddar soup, and French Fries). Jeremy has brought this up many times, saying how IMPRESSED he was that I actually ATE (unlike many girls, apparently ;). AND, might I add, I weighed a whopping 118 lbs my freshman year of college! WOW…THOSE were the days! ;))

~Went on spring break band tour….to Colorado…

~Toward the end of the school year began to realize that music ed really wasn’t for me. I still loved music…but theory…mostly SIGHT SINGING…was going to be the death of me. SO, I had the grand idea of becoming a pre-pharmacy/chemistry major…

~Traveled to Bloomington for the 1^st time in my life to visit Jeremy (his home town!) and to meet his parents for the 1^st time.

~Started my sophomore year at Augie in August of 2002 as a pre-pharm major (**insert laughter here**)

2003

~Broke up with Jeremy in May of 2003. This was a ‘mutual’ break for a variety of reasons…but he claims that I did it. Regardless…we broke up…and it was horrible at the time…but it was wonderful in the long run.

~Received the first C of my entire life….in Organic Chemistry. Thus, recognizing my mortality…and that I was NOT, indeed, “cut out” to be a pharmacist. Enter downward spiral of “What do I do?!” emotions and questions…

~Respond to a campus-wide e-mail from Dr. Kathy Jakielski, a professor at Augie…she was looking for a piano teacher for her 9-year old son, Byron. She wanted someone who would come to her family’s home in Geneseo to teach lessons 1x/week. Since my parents lived in Geneseo, I thought I could use that as a way to visit them more…and to make a little more money.

~Began teaching piano lessons to Byron Jakielski in the summer of 2003. Had a number of conversations with Dr. J (as I began to know her as) regarding my future plans, what I was going to do with my jr/sr years at Augie as I had NO IDEA what to major in (uhhhhh, kinda late to be figuring out stuff like that!!). It turned out…Dr. J was a professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) department at Augustana (or, pre speech pathology)….and convinced me to give it a try.

~Changed around my entire schedule in August to become a CSD major. This is something that is typically begun in a student’s sophomore year (and I was, remember, a JUNIOR)…so I crammed in ALL of the speech path sophomore and many of the junior courses into my junior year….AND kept working at Culver’s…AND kept up in symphonic band…AND kept up taking private lessons (yeah, didn’t practice as much as I should have!)…AND kept up teaching a few private oboe lessons myself!

~Kept up an awkward friendship with Jeremy while being “technically” broken up.

2004

~Got back together with Jeremy in January of 2004 (so we spent eight months “apart”)

~Jeremy graduated with a business/marketing degree from Augustana in May of 2004

~Embarked on a “long distance relationship” which was really, really, really hard on both of us as individuals…and on us as a couple.

~Ran in the Bix 7 for the 1^st time

~Moved into a dirty house not far from campus…seniors could live off campus…with good friends Jill and Michelle…and a 4^th girl who ended up not exactly being the best person to live with (think, pet rat and general lack of personal cleanliness….)

~Applied to many, many speech pathology graduate programs in the fall/early winter of 2004

2005

~Jeremy and I broke up (his doing, this time) on Super Bowl Sunday on the phone....after many, many issues...

~began receiving acceptance...rejection...and wait list letters from graduate schools

~Visited Purdue with Brooke (my soon-to-be roommate) in the middle of some sort of winter storm.

~Found out I had been accepted into Purdue University's Speech Pathology Program...it was NUMBER THREE in the country....found out while I was on spring break band tour...I had given Jeremy my e-mail password so he could check for me (yeah...we were broken up...but still very close)...and he called me to give me the news. I remember crying in my hotel room.

~Accepted Purdue's offer...after also being offered a graduate research assistantship with Dr. Lisa Goffman...really, a dream come true

~Presented some research work at the Missouri Speech Language Hearing Association conference in the spring

~I graduated from Augustana in May of 2005 with a BS in Communication Sciences and Disorders...my GPA in my major was 3.8, which I am SUPER proud of, considering I packed 3 years worth of coursework into 2 years (usually people begin the major as a sophomore, after completing "gen eds" their freshman year...I began my junior year...and didn't take ANY extra time!!)

~Jeremy and I got back together in June of 2005 FOR GOOD…thus ending our madness-creating on-again-off-again college relationship! We knew we were on the road to marriage at this point...

~Ran in the Bix 7 for the 2^nd time…and Jeremy joined me for his 1^st of many years!! He actually HATED (and claims he still does) running…but trained for the race even before we had gotten back together because he wanted to run the Bix with me (FOR me) this summer!!

~Moved to West Lafayette, IN in August of 2005….and began one of the scariest time periods of my life….but also one of the most rewarding time periods of my life

~Lived with Brooke Bonne, a fellow Augie-grad. We lived with one another merely out of convenience…we weren’t friends in undergrad, Brooke was your sorority girl…and I was your band nerd. We laugh now, but when we started at Purdue, we didn’t even really LIKE one another. Seriously. Now, though, I count her among my dearest, closest friends and thank God for the time we were able to live together. We learned SO much from one another…and I love her dearly!

~Brooke and her then-boyfriend, Jamie, got engaged on my birthday…October 28, 2005…I remember getting the call (they were in West Lafayette, I was in Bloomington with Jeremy…actually shopping at Bergner’s at the time when I talked to her on my cell!)….I was totally jealous ;)…obviously very happy for her…but I am a bit ashamed to say, I was cat-ily jealous about it too!!

~Celebrated (long-distance! I was stuck in IN at grad school :)) as one of my closest friends, Jen, gave birth to her first child...a son she and her husband named Jon! I remember being scared out of my mind and praying SO HARD for them as there were some complications resulting in a necessary C-section. However, things went well...and Jonathan Donald Tegeler was born healthily :)

~Went home on break from graduate school to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family....and came back to school to meet Max, my roommate Brooke's new kitten she brought back! He was SUCH a sweet cat and part of many of my grad school memories! :)

2006

~July 15, 2006…Jeremy proposed at McGraw park here in Bloomington after a day FULL of fun…we went up to Chicago where he surprised me with tickets to Wicked (he had gotten them in March!), followed by dinner reservations at Maggiano’s (I had never eaten there, but had talked about wanting to try it). After he proposed, we went back to his parents’ house and celebrated with champagne J.

~Celebrated surviving one year of graduate school…and plunged forward into the second

~Called Easter Seals of Bloomington in November of 2006 and talked to Kory (my current boss!) to ask if there were any foreseeable openings for the next summer…he told me probably not in Bloomington…but maybe at the Peoria office…and to send in my resume

~My good friend Jill Moth married David Tartaglia in a small ceremony near their home in Poplar Grove, IL on December 26th after a short engagement :). Jill gained 3 step children as well as a husband!

2007

~Had a phone interview with Erin Rogers at Easter Seals in April. Sweat alllll the way through my shirt.

~Had an in-person interview with Erin and a bunch of therapists at the Peoria Easter Seals….accepted the job in June

~After completing just under 2 years of coursework for my MS, two externships, passing the Praxis (national exam for speech-language pathologists....our “boards” or whathaveyou), and passing 2 other tests, I began working at Easter Seals on Monday, July 16, 2007. This was my DREAM job, the FIRST job I applied for. I had actually applied for a bunch of other jobs, and had 3 other offers…but (at the time!) Easter Seals was the best fit for me. Began my “CF” (clinical fellowship) with an amazing mentor, Deb.

~Stood up as a bridesmaid in Brooke and Jamie’s wedding on August 24, 2007. Learned a lot from watching the wedding process that weekend that helped me out for my own wedding that was to come a month later!

~I married my best friend on September 22, 2007 at Ascension Chapel on Augustana College’s campus

~I stood up as a bridesmaid in my good friend from high school, Christian’s wedding the Saturday after our wedding, September 29. Christian married her long-time college sweeheart, Dan Roetert. Christian and I were absolute best friends in high school...we did EVERYTHING together, including getting suspended together my freshman year (YUP! SERIOUSLY! Again, ask for the story sometime if you are truly interested! HAHA!) :).

~We went on an amazing honeymoon at the Moon Palace Resort in the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

~Went back to Augustana's Homecoming in October, as we have done every year since we graduated (yup, we are those nerdy alumni!! :)). Spent time with good friends, Aaron and Katie.

~Celebrated Thanksgiving with Jeremy's family....our first holiday as a married couple...and the beginning of splitting holidays between the Quad Cities (with my family!) and Bloomington (with Jeremy's family!)

2008

~Returned to the Moon Palace in the Riviera Maya in April of 2008 (with Jeremy’s parents this time) for a week-long vacation.

~Got my C’s (CCC-Certificate of Clinical Competence) from ASHA (The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) in June, and Jeremy got a promotion right around the same time! We celebrated, naturally, with a Mexican-food dinner at Los Potrillo’s (our then-favorite Mexican restaurant in town)

~Started some post-grad work; began the Auditory Oral Specialist graduate certification program through ISU in July of 2008

~Began transitioning from the Peoria ES office to the Bloomington ES office by working part-time at each center in July/August

~Max, the beloved kitty Brooke and I shared grad school experiences with, passed away in August :( I wrote about it here. You definitely won't understand if you don't love animals...particularly cats....but this was a heart-wrenching experience!

~Hosted a Longaberger party that my soon-to-be-new-friend, Jillian, attended in September of 2008. It was our first of many hang-outs :) She had just started at Easter Seals...and had moved to Peoria from Washington D.C. I was intrigued and intimidated by her (she just seemed SO sophisticated and SO intelligent!!)...and now count her among my closest friends.

~Celebrated our first anniversary with a SUPRISE trip to Chicago planned by my amazing husband!! I wrote about it here...and here! :)

~In October, began working full-time at the Bloomington, IL Easter Seals office, a move I was VERY VERY excited about, but also VERY VERY nervous about. I was excited to FINALLY be closer to home (I had been commuting about an hour each way to Peoria...and the Bloomington center is just 10 minutes from my home!)...but I was also VERY nervous about not fitting in, etc., here in the Bloomington center. My fears turned out to be VERY unwarranted, as I now count many of the Bloomington ES employees among my closest friends. The SLPs at the time, Amy, Stacy, Kristin, Dawn, Abbey and Kelli were all FABULOUS and welcomming to me! I love each and every one of them!!

~Began a gluten free diet on October 18, 2008 after a crazy, crazy health-issue-ridden journey. Started a GF blog, which I have LOVED sharing with others I have met who are traveling the crazy GF road with me. I went through some reallyreally emotionally hard times after being diagnosed with gluten intolerance (which may or may not be Celiac Disease)....but with the support of family, friends (I vividly remember crying to my then-new-friend Amy at work one day...and worrying that I'd scared her away for good!), and Jeremy am doing great...and am the healthiest I've ever been :)

~Began working 4 10-hour days (mon-tues-wed-thurs) so I would still be full-time, but have Fridays off to fulfill requirements for the auditory-oral specialist training I was involved with through ISU. I spent most Fridays traveling to Peoria/Champaign or other areas to observe therapists and work on completing coursework. It was busybusybusy, but SO rewarding! One Saturday a month, I went to ISU or traveled to Chicago for seminars....oh boy! ;)

~Celebrated our second Thanksgiving together as a married Mr. and Mrs. :)...this year we traveled to the Quad Cities and had a Thanksgiving meal at my aunt and uncle, Jan and Arnie's, home with a bunch of relatives.

~Brought home our first pet together, a very scared kitten we named Izzy, on Saturday, December 22

~Celebrated our second Christmas together as a married Mr. and Mrs. :)

2009

~Observed a cochlear implant surgery in February 2009 at Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign, IL. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen

~Traveled to North Carolina for the 1^st time in my life to see Jeremy’s parents’ new house in Raleigh. Watched the Super Bowl on their new gigantic television.

~Ran my first half marathon at the U of I in April….in just under 2 hours. I was super proud of myself…and caught the long-distance running bug in a major way

~Traveled to MN 2x in one month (April) to attend my good friend Rosalee's bridal shower and bachelorette party, and then her wedding to Bobby

~Joined the Lake Run Club here in Bloomington, IL

~Began finishing our basement in July of 2009

~Completed the Auditory/Oral Graduate Certification Program at the end of July, 2009….now I have 15 college credits on top of my Master’s degree!

~Ran a total of eleven races in 2009

~Celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a fun purchase...new furniture! We picked out a new dining room table/chairs/buffet server which we absolutely LOVE! It was great to get a bigger dining room table...this one can seat 6 (the previous one seated 4 comfortably)...because I love having friends over and cooking for people! :)

~Ran in the Quad Cities Marathon…I just did the half, and it was a total last-minute decision…to support my sister who did the full marathon at this event (her first marathon!). This was just 2 weeks before I was scheduled to run in the Chicago Marathon!!

~Ran my first marathon, the Chicago Marathon, on Oct 11, 2009….my amazing husband and awesome friends, Steve, Jamie, and Jillian came to cheer me on!

~My sister began dating Danny Hankner in the summer of 2009….she told me she was going to marry him after about a month of dating.

~My good friend Jillian taught me how to knit!

~Danny proposed to Megan on Friday, November 27^th, 2009. I was in on the plans…it was great!!!

~Said good-bye to good friend and co-worker, Amy, who took an SLP job elsewhere (but we'll still be friends, of course!!). Amy has been an instrumental person in my personal growth as a clinician...and was so welcomming (as were all of the other girls here at Easter Seals!) to me when I transitioned from the Peoria ES office to the Bloomington ES office.

~Celebrated our THIRD Christmas together as a married Mr. and Mrs. with family and friends :) :)

~Rang in the New Year with Bloomington friends, Josh and Laura

~This is the year I really began to think of Bloomington, IL and our home....my and Jer's home...as truly MY home (as opposed to thinking of MY home as home with my parents). We're really married! I'm really an adult! I really have a "big girl" job that I (most of the time) love! I am so blessed :)

**********

Reflecting in this way was SO much fun...and probably somewhat therapeutic!! ;)
Can’t wait to see what is in store for the Brunners over the next decade! J

Maybe I'll write a post in the next few weeks about goals for the next decade :) :)

Obsessed

2010-02-03T21:15:00.002-06:00

Just got back from a "sit and stitch" at Village Stitches here in Blo-No.

My name is Rachel and I will unabashedly admit that I....love knitting.

Kinda sick and disturbing, eh?!

Ah, well, whatev ;).

I didn't even go work out tonight! Just went to work, went to dinner with Jer and his father, went to sit and stitch for 2ish hours, and am now back home perusing the web. Silly me.

Oh well.

Sometimes we need to...uh...debrief our minds or something.

Soon to come....
thoughts on adoption?
thoughts on Meg/Danny's upcoming nuptials (no, my sister is NOT marrying my brother Dan, she is marrying Danny Hankner...we call them "dan" and "danny", respectively, to keep them straight ;))??
more thoughts on knitting???
thoughts on married life, year THREE????
thoughts on living a more service-minded life?????
thoughts on getting back into marathon training FOR REAL...I have two in the works this year!??????

ALL too deep for tonight.

Off to knit! I have Jeremy's scarf to complete!

61 days

2010-01-23T22:56:00.002-06:00

Just sixty-one short days til my baby sister Megan gets MARRIED! I can hardly believe it! I came "home" this weekend to help with wedding preparations. Megan, her fiance Danny, my mom, my aunt Linday, and I all worked together this afternoon on putting together the wedding invitations (which will go out this week!) and favor boxes. It was a full day of "hard" work...but the fruits of our labor were pretty amazing! It is exciting to see everything come together...and in such a SHORT amount of time! Danny proposed just under 2 months ago, the day after Thanksgiving this past fall!
Bring on the excitement!!!

Haiti

2010-01-23T00:18:00.003-06:00

So all of the reports on the news about the devastation in Haiti are just awful (as if that word even BEGINS to describe the reality). I remember the day after the earthquake...I was at the gym in the evening and it was all over the news...and I saw an image that will forever be burned into my memory: a small child, dead, covered in some sort of white sheet. Perhaps 2-4 years old. His or her limbs were hanging limply. I couldn't believe they were showing such an image on the news. I mean, sure it's the reality of it, but it just seemed so WRONG to have that on television. Dead adults....tragic and awful and unspeakably horrid as well.....but the children...that really got me. I actually cried as I watched, while going through the motions of a half-hearted workout on an elliptical. I remember being grateful that the people working out on either side of me had headphones in their ears...because there were a couple of times, while watching, that I made some small crying noises...it was completely involuntary, there was no stopping it.

So, on a related note...this song has been in my head a lot lately, esp. in light of the "events" in Haiti...."Laughing With" by Regina Spektor...

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God
********************************
So, I am not going to pretend to be all smart and philosophical....again, this blog is just my somewhat airheaded rambling....but things like this (Haiti) happen...and I (sorry for the cliche) wonder WHY God "lets" things like this happen...
I wish there was something I could do...I want to just go wrap my arms around all of those little children who are hurting in Haiti and show them love....

Somewhat related...somewhat not....the topic of adoption has been heavy on my heart on and off for a while...and Jeremy and I actually talked a bit about that possibility the other day. I get so sad (again, "sad" isn't really quite the descriptor I am looking for) when I think about children growing up with out parents....without someone who LOVES them. There are SO MANY kids that are hurting...and I wish I could do something for ALL of them!!

****************************
Ok, it is 12:30...and I officially need to go to bed. That's enough pseudo-deepness for one night!

*sigh..........*

Um....

2010-01-21T21:54:00.003-06:00

So, I just was looking at my "blogger profile,"...quite frankly, I had no idea what I had on there....I noted that I have had 2,600 profile views. Um....

Who the heck reads my mindless rambling?! HA!

I mean, I don't really care....obviously I'd make my blogs private if I DID care....there was a time when I did get some harrassment via one of my blogs, so I did (at the request of my husband) make everything private....but I took the privacy stuff off a while ago thinking that if any long-lost person was trying to find me ;), they could do so. Actually, the main reason my stuff isn't private is because of my gluten-free blog...I've actually had a number of people randomly find that and e-mail me saying that they had derived some "useful info" from it....and, hey, the real reason I started that GF blog was to (hopefully!) help random strangers benefit from my GF trial and error! :)

All that being said...I'm still kinda shocked that I have had TWO THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED views to my profile. Kinda nuts!

Maybe I should think more carefully about what I post....and try to portray myself as a nicer person.

Aw, whatever ;)...it's my blog...and, if nothing else, it's real life. ;) (as pathetic, boring, or whatevertheheck else it may be!!)

I'll leave you with this....my day today was a freaking relay race. Honestly days like this kind of turn me on (for lack of a better, er, term).....
-rolled in to work about 8:15 (I don't do 8am well),
-saw a kid from 8:45-9:45,
-snatched up my big ol' therapy bag and drove over to High Road School where I saw kiddos til 12:15,
-went to get gas (I was on E and...um...it's FREEZING out. NOT a good idea! We "only" go to BP gas stations, which aren't the most conveniently located in Blo-no, so it's kind of annoying when I need gas),
-stopped at Fresh Market for some GF crackers (Mary's Gone Crackers Original....not the greatest...but not the worst), cheese (sharp cheddar, full fat of COURSE), yogurt (wallabey organic, one of my absolute favs...on sale for 69cents as well), and blueberries (got 2 large pkgs; on sale 2 for $5!).....
-drove back to work, dined on said crackers/cheese/yogurt and listened to some music (what I need to get my engine running...thanks to my OT friends for that terminology ;) How does YOUR engine run?!),
-read up on my next 2 kids,
-sent my car off for an oil change/tire rotation (thank you LORD for places that pick up/drop off your vehicle!),
-saw 2 new kids (one of whom screamed for at least 30 minutes, the other who uttered but MAYBE three words...but not til the end of the session),
-re-evaled another kid, packed my stuff,
-raced off to teach a piano lesson (!!!!!!),
-raced to the gym for a *short* 45 minute cardio session,
and THEN...
-finished the day off at Herradura for some delish Mexican with Jer and two of our good friends.
*WHEW*
Tomorrow....
More of the same.........

Happiness is...

2010-01-19T21:50:00.002-06:00

...a delicious run even if it is on a treadmill, and not outside in the sun
...some yummy garlic bread, even if it is gluten free and not REAL bread
...having some amazing co-workers, even if my job could have better "perks" (continuing ed, higher salary, etc., etc. ;))

ok, ok...I need to be grateful for my many blessings WITHOUT keeping track of the "even ifs" ;). WHOOPS....something to work on....

New year, new title

2010-01-11T22:16:00.003-06:00

Nerdy, maybe....but for the past few days the lyrics to Switchfoot's song, "This is Your Life" have been in my head....or at least the line "This is your life, are you who you want to be?"
I decided that this is going to be my "theme" for this year. My friend Jillian talked in her latest blog entry about the following: "I've also been thinking about my word for the year. For those of you that are confused about this concept, check out Ali Edwards' blog for details. In short it's a way to refocus your life with one single word. A small way to remind yourself how you personally want to move forward. I think my word for the year is: Contentment. I know, a little off the beaten path for me, but something I think I need to work toward." Jillian and I are good friends...and pretty similar in many ways. My first thought was simply to "steal" her word and make it my own as well...quite frankly, I could use a dose or two of contentment in my life! However, I decided instead to steal from Switchfoot ;) and make a "phrase for the year" instead of a word. ;). So, there you have it! My blog is now changing from its first title ("Turns out not where but who you're with that really matters") to a new title...."...becoming who I want to be...". Let's see if it sticks! AND, let's see if I am successful in becoming WHO I do want to be!
(maybe I should attempt to answer the question in a future post....just WHO exactly do I want to be?!)

New year!

2010-01-10T20:57:00.002-06:00

Happy 2010!

Another year is behind us! I need to write a year-in-review post...but I'll save that for another time. Later this week? Who knows? ;)

Already life in the Brunner home is a whirlwind of activity. We had dinner at our current favorite Mexican restaurant, Herradura, on New Year's Eve as our last meal of 2009 with our good friends, Adam and Jami Johnson.

After dinner, we headed over to our good friends, Josh and Laura Erickson's house to join in their New Year's Eve Party and ring in 2010 together....some pics from the party...

My husband likes to be dramatic ;). He really wasn't drunk....though he may be trying to look like he is!! ;)

Goodness gracious!!! ;)

Me with Laura....

Our lovely hosts, the Ericksons! :)

On New Year's Day, I traveled to Fulton, IL to spend time with our family for our traditional Tegeler Family (my mom's side of the family) Christmas Celebration (we have our extended family Christmas celebration on New Year's day each year). It was a great time with family and friends!

I had off from work December 24-January 4th, which was awesome! Easter Seals is closed each year Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. I can't even fully put into words how amazing those 11 days were this year. I had been getting really worn out from my job and various stressors that went along with it....and it was just so refreshing to have that time off. I honestly barely thought about work at all during that time period. Amazing. I can't say it enough. I am so thankful for that time. I can truly say that, without that respite, I could quite possible be going crazy right about now. Some aspects of my job have been less than desirable lately. I know I need to be thankful I have a job...and I am, I really am. However, I was getting pretty freakin' stressed out lately...we'll leave it at that.

This past Friday night (the 8th) we had dinner at Herradura with my brother, his girlfriend Laura, and our friends Jamie and Steve. YUM!! ;) Saturday night we had our friends, Jillian and Lynden over for dinner. I made a mexican-y pork roast in the crock pot and we made pork tacos (pork taco salad in the case of Jillian and myself; tacos in the case of the boys ;)) and a bunch of other yummy food. MMM! We ate well this weekend! ;)

I need to come up with some kind of New Year's resolution/"goal" post in addition to a 2009-year-in-review post...I'll try to do that this week :)

Have a wonderful day, all!

This is your life, are you who you want to be?

WOW

2009-11-22T21:03:00.004-06:00

Only a month til Christmas? Where has the time gone?! This will be our THIRD married Christmas! I can really hardly believe it. I am very much looking forward to a nice 3-day work week....and time with family and friends. 4 1/2 weeks left to finish Christmas shopping. I have a lot to do. I haven't even started shopping for Jeremy yet! ARGH!!!!

just breathe!!

Unsettled

2009-11-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

I need a new job.
Or a hobby.
Or something.....
Not sure.....

I just feel really unsettled lately....and I am not sure why

Not exactly a model blogger...or...Where in the World have the Brunners Been?!

2009-10-18T10:10:00.006-05:00

Yeah, life has been busy as of late! Apparently I haven't had much time to write since the last entry, May 22, 2009! :).

Perhaps I'll just break down some highlights of the past 5 months....

JUNE

~Other than a couple of races (that you can read about here)...I don't think there was a whole lot that was notable about June. At least not that I can remember right now ;).

JULY
~I finished the Auditory/Oral Specialist program at ISU that I worked hard on for over 13 months (countless observation hours, practicum hours, and classes/lectures, on top of working!) at the end of July. WHEW! The coursework was to prepare professionals to work with children who are deaf and hard of hearing. I learned a TON and am very thankful to have had this experience. Now I am officially at 15 credits post-master's degree! ;)

Here I am with the "central and southern IL" portion of the cohort enrolled in this coursework (there was another group a bit larger than us that met primarily in Chicago; we conducted many courses via polycom, a video conferencing system), along with 2 of our wonderful professors

~We ran the Bix 7 in the Quad Cities at the end of July...this was Jeremy's 5th Bix and my 6th. It's one of our favorite summer traditions. Here we are in Aaron's apartment in Davenport before heading out to run. I got my best time ever, and FINALLY finished in under an hour!!

AUGUST
~Izzy, our precious kitty, turned 1 in August! :) We have totally transformed into the nerdy cat owners. We love our cat!

~I visited with Brooke and Avanti for a mini grad school reunion at Avanti's new apartment in Chicago, in early August. Here we are in a bar we hung out in that night. It was great to catch up with my good friends and fellow SLPs!

~We accompanied Jillian and her hubby Lynden to Chicago to watch them complete the Chicago Triathlon together in late August. Jillian is a fellow Easter Seals employee; she has her doctorate in PT and is an awesome pediatric physical therapist. She and I have become close over the past year of working together. It was so amazing to share this awesome day with them, particularly to see Lynden's excitement as he finished his first triathlon. The day got me even more excited for the Chicago Marathon, which I was deep in the thick of training for...only a month and a half away at that point!

SEPTEMBER
~Over Labor Day weekend, we met my sister's new boyfriend, Danny....and apparently her soon-to-be fiance and husband!

~The two cousins I grew up with, Kristi and Michelle (sisters!), both gave birth to baby girls within the same week! Michelle gave birth to Kamryn on Monday, September 7 (her first!) and Kristi gave birth to Addison on Saturday, September 12 (she joins big brother, 4-year old Dawson at their home!).

~I found out my friend Jen is pregnant with her second baby....due on May 11!

~We saw the Cubs play at Wrigley (my FIRST game at Wrigley since early high school, believe it or not!) with a group of fun friends on September 12. We spent the night Friday night at our friend Laura's parents' home in a suburb, and then went to the game with Laura and her husband Josh on Saturday. We met up with a mutual Augie friend at the game, Rachel Annen. It was great to see her! I hadn't seen her since Josh and Laura's wedding in August of 2008! Rachel and I were Augustana band buddies...we both played the oboe and had fun sitting together in symphonic band and being generally silly together ;).
Here you can check out Jer and me at our first Cubs' game together (other than spring training, of course...this was our first Wrigley experience together...Jer, of course, has been there tons though ;)):

Me with Rachel and Laura, two fun and sweet girls :)

Our friends Reid and Kara, and another couple also met up with us at the game. It was a really fun day!

~We celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary on September 22, 2009. It was a Tuesday...we went out for Mexican food to our current favorite Mexican restaurant, Herradura, with Jeremy's parents and brother. Then, we went back to his parents' house where we enjoyed a delicious gluten free cake baked by Mrs. B and decorated by Jer's brother, Jon!

~after missing a year (last summer!), we carried on the Brunner/Van Lauwe family tradition ;) of attending a Dave Matthews Band Concert together on Friday, September 25. We went along with Aaron and his fiancee Katie up to Des Moines where we watched DMB perform a great show. What a great weekend we had!

Me with Jer, pre-show:

Jer with Aaron, his "brother" :) :

Katie and Aaron...just 8 months til their big day!!!!!

~We celebrated our anniversary (again!) just the 2 of us by going to Biaggi's in Davenport on Saturday the 26th...our rehearsal dinner was at this particular Biaggi's, as well as our first Valentine's Day date in 2002! Here we are at Aaron's apartment before heading out for dinner...

~On Sunday, September 27th I ran the Quad Cities Half Marathon...while my sister Megan ran the full marathon, her first marathon ever! It was so cool to be able to share that big day with her. I signed up on a whim about a week and a half prior to the event...when I realized that the courses overlapped and I'd be able to run 9 miles with Megan if I did the half marathon, while she did the full marathon. It was so much fun and I am SO proud of her! She finished in an incredible time for her first marathon...just over 3 hours and 52 minutes!
Here she is with the aforementioned Danny :)

Meg and me! This was after I finished the half marathon, and she finished the FULL marathon :).

OCTOBER
~I've enjoyed organizing a number of social events for co-workers at my workplace....including monthly "Fun Dinners" at a restaurant or colleague's home...and a running group that met for 2 months on Tuesday evenings to prepare a group to run Easter Seals' Run the Woods 5k (an awesome trail race at Timber Pointe, the Easter Seals camp and outdoor center) on Saturday, October 3.
Here is a group of us at the post-race party after Run the Woods. It was a rainy, muddy day...but SO much fun! I even got 2nd in my age group! Even more important, though, I was SO proud of my friends who finished their FIRST 5k!!

~I successfully trained for and completed the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009 (and many smaller races during the months of training)...follow my training trials and tribulations here. It was truly a dream come true for me...and one amazing day! I will blog about this adventure in my marathon training blog later (at the link previously shown).

Here I am before the race (it was a COLD day!!):

...and, here I am after the race with Jeremy. Our friend Steve took this picture; what a great shot of the skyline in the background!!

~We went back to Augie for homecoming this weekend...it was Jeremy's 5th anniversary year (he graduated in 2004!). WOW, time has flown! As he put it, he has been OUT of college now for longer than he was IN college. Craziness! We are just getting so old! ;)

~We started finishing our basement at the beginning of July...and are very close to being done at this point (the final furniture was delivered today!). It is so exciting to have some extra room...and Jeremy is in love with his "man cave" :). He has done a majority of the work himself, and it has been so neat to watch him hard at work. He has learned so much from this experience, and I am so proud of my handy husband!

Here's some of the beginning stages...Jeremy put the studs up himself. These two chairs are sitting where the couch is now positioned.

More early stages...the wall on the left side of the picture is where Jeremy's new large TV is hanging...

Here's some shots of the new couch that was delivered today...

I think it looks just so cozy and inviting!

The 2 end tables and coffee tables (Broyhill) are from Martin's Home Furnishings here in town...and I picked them out! I LOVE them! The chair is one that we've had for a long time (it used to be in the guest room upstairs), and the rug is from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (I also chose that!).

There are still some things that need to be done in the basement....wall decor, and more general decor for that matter...carpet and skirt boards on the stairs...tile the shower...paint the doors...install shelves in the closet...touch up some dings in the paint ...order and install a small counter top and cabinet for the mini-mini-bar area...finish up some trim...finish up the bathroom (choose towels, hardware, etc.)...etc, etc....

But, really, it's pretty functional now! All of the furniture is here and in place, the tv/surround sound/dish/blu ray are hooked up...so come on over and enjoy it with us! We love it!

...annnnndddd....

~TODAY is my Gluten Free Anniversary! It has officially been ONE YEAR...ONE ENTIRE YEAR...since I made the switch to living GF! If you have no idea what I am talking about...want more information....or are just a tad curious, check out My Gluten-Free Adventures

Whew! So that's us, in a nutshell, since the time of my last post....Maybe I'll be better about posting an occasional update over the next few months ;). We'll see! We're gearing up for a busy fall/holiday season full of visits from and to family and friends. And, we are getting very excited about 2010, which is basically just around the corner. Sorry, no baby news yet ;)...we're still far from ready for that new adventure at this point in our lives. However, there may be a Matyasse family wedding to look forward to next spring :)...as well as Dan's graduation from Marine Basic Training in West Virginia next summer (and a Matyasse family road trip to the East Coast!)...my "little brother" will turn 21...and we have a long weekend mini-vacation to AZ in the works for early next year with some good friends!

Hold on to your hats, friends, the best is yet to come!

New Friends

2009-05-22T23:13:00.003-05:00

Wow, I am a total slacker of a blogger ;). The past two nights have been a ton of fun...Jeremy and I had the opportunity to hang out with two "new" couples (new to us ;)). For a few months, I have been e-mailing a new friend, Kristin, back and forth...she found me via my gluten free blog and we've been sharing gluten free tips with one another. We decided a face-to-face meeting was in order :) and we made plans to meet, along with our husbands, last night at Biaggi's (one of my favorite restaurants!). We had a great time...they were so nice and we had a lot to talk about! Kristin's husband, Patrick, actually taught at St. Ambrose which is right across the river from Augustana where Jeremy and I went for undergrad. Also, Patrick took private piano lessons from Louise Nathansen, a phenomenal pianist who taught at Augie...MY teacher as well! Small world! ;) More fun yet, Jeremy and Kristin seemed to have similar senses of humor so that was entertaining ;). It's always fun when we are with someone who isn't afraid to dish it right back to him! HA! I think we'll definitely be seeing more of these two in the future. Kristin and I made plans to attend a gluten-free event being held at St. Joseph hospital here in town later in June.
Tonight we had fun with more "new" friends...Jamie and Steve. Jamie just completed her last clinical placement for PT school at Easter Seals and my good friend Jillian was her mentor/supervisor. She graduated a week or so ago from Bradley with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy degree...way to go, Jamie! Recently they bought a house that is just two houses down from our good friends, Josh and Laura, here in Bloomington. Exciting! We had the two of them over for dinner tonight and it was fun to get to know them a bit better. I can definitely foresee more hang-out sessions between the four of us...hopefully next time Josh and Laura can hang out too, so we can help them get to know their new neighbors better! ;) It was fun preparing for dinner...I love playing hostess :). Tonight we grilled (brats, chicken, and buffalo burgers with feta) and had a spinach salad. Jamie and Steve brought a huge delicious fruit salad, as well. In addition, I made one of Jeremy's favorites...taco dip...as an appetizer. OH, and I would be remiss if I forgot to mention dessert....gluten free homemade mint chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches!!! YUMMMMMMMMY!!!! :) They were pretty delicious, if I do say so myself! ;)
Jeremy is at the movies with a friend from work right now...the new Terminator movie came out and of course he needed to see it RIGHT away. Typically I do my best to be the supportive wife ;) and accompany him to his choice of movies...but this one just didn't appeal to me at all. In fact, it looked downright scary to my wimpy self ;). Since I don't really like sitting there being scared for a few hours straight I thought I'd sit this one out. So, here I am!
Today was a great day...I didn't get as much done as I hoped to, but it was a good day all in all. It was day 1 of my FOUR day weekend! Glorious! (Monday is Memorial Day and Easter Seals is closed!!) Here's hoping I continue to be productive....and get many things checked off of my own personal to-do list over the next three days! :)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T13:46:00.004-05:00

We went to church this morning...after almost sleeping through the 9am service ;). Our alarm went off around 7:30 and then we both fell back asleep and didn't wake up til 8:19. We needed to be in the car at 8:40 to make it to the 9am service. Well, we got ready quickly (even showered!) and made it there RIGHT as the service was starting. Our sanctuary is HUGE but was overflowing with the only-go-to-church-on-holidays people so we ended up sitting in the back of the balcony on extra chairs they had to bring in and put behind the sound booth guys! OOPS! Guess we need to be more punctual on holidays ;).

Anyway, though, the service was great...and I am glad we made it :). Our new (well, he's been there for about a year now) pastor, Chip, is great...and his sermons are very relevant to daily life, which is a nice change from some pastor's I've heard in my life.

After church we went to McDonad's (oh yummy! ;)) with Jeremy's parents and brother (I had a mocha, because I haven't really researched the gluten status of their breakfast items...I am sure the only thing that is a possibility is the fruit and yogurt parfait without the granola...but I didn't want to mess with anything today. I know their mochas are ok, though). After that we went to Lowe's to look at more things for our basement project (we are finishing our basement and beginning SOON). We bought some really fun light fixtures for the main room since there were only 3 left right now and we had a coupon that expires soon....picked out the slate tile we are going to (probably) get (we are tiling the entire basement and using area rugs on top) and picked out a bathroom vanity. Fun stuff! It is slowly becoming more of an exicting reality! I can't wait to start :). HA, I say like I will be the one doing most of the hard work ;). HAHA!!!

Well, I need to go do something constructive. Laundry? Clean? Work out? who knows....

I guess, technically, I EARNED a day off of working out as I ran a half marathon yesterday and am OBVIOUSLY pretty darn sore ;), but we'll see. Soon, too, we are heading over to the Brunners' for Easter dinner :). YUMMY!!

Have a wonderful Easter, everyone! He is risen...He is risen indeed!

It's been a while!

2009-04-08T19:37:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while...but I really don't have a whole lot to report ;). No new pets, not pregnant ;)...so nothing really all that news-worthy! :)

Jeremy is out with the guys tonight at Hooter's so I am enjoying a night of not really doing anything at all...well, nothing useful anyway ;). I did pop in one load of laundry and I did just get back from a 7 mile run (my first half marathon is Saturday!! Egads! Wish me luck! ;))....so I guess I am not a complete waste of space ;).

I do need to scrounge up some dinner. I feel like it should be something healthy...but I am not sure if I will actually follow through with that. I really do need to start eating more healthily...but I first need to go through a major attitude adjustment and I am not ready for that yet ;). I have been using the excuse...well, since I can't eat wheat/gluten/etc. and I am so deprived in that arena I should just eat anything else that I can, whatever I want because of it!! HA! Yeah, I am totally cognizant of the fact that this isn't really a good plan. But, that's where I am at right now. That's not to say I'm being completely terrible ;). I'm not completely fat yet or anyting like that ;). However, there is definitely room for improvement. Maybe tomorrow!! ;) HA!

Whew!

2009-03-18T19:39:00.006-06:00

We just returned from a vacation in Arizona...we left last Thursday March 12 and returned on Tuesday March 17th (yesterday; St. Patrick's day!). We had a great time! We stayed with some friends of Jeremy's parents' and went to two Cubs spring training games. We ate a lot...but we also ran a lot too! Over the four full days we were there, we ran 14 miles together (total) in the mornings. It was fantastic to run in the nice warm weather!
We saw three scorpions...YUCK! I had never seen one in real-life before and was thorougly disgusted!! This is a picture of the one that was hanging out outside on the wall of the guest house we stayed in; a few feet from the front door. This photo was actually taken after Jeremy smashed it with his sandal! Pretty nasty.

Us at the first game (Friday)....Cubs vs. Mariners (Cubs win!)

Us at the second game (Saturday) Cubs vs. Angels (Cubs lose...)

We had a GREAT vacation...and I loved my first AZ experience! So far I have been to TWO new states this year; and the year isn't even three months old yet!! NC in January...AZ in March....and soon it will be CA in June (for Scott and Katie's wedding!!). AND, I am going to MN twice in April (for Rosa's bachelorette party and wedding!). WOWSERS! That's a lot of traveling for one year!!!