Mind over Matter

Have you ever heard someone tell you, "it's just mind over matter?" This phrase is very true-which I found out over the weekend. It is amazing that your mind can tell your body to do something, and your body will obey. The stronger the message is, the more you can do-beyond all expectation.

Our hood to coast team finished in 31 hours-which, while not the fastest in the world (the fastest team finished in 15 hours) was pretty darn okay. My first leg was HOT! It was at 4pm, up and down hills, and I admit, I walked-twice. Once van 2 was done with the first legs, we went back to Luke and Sarah's condo in Portland. I was unable to choke down the pizza that we got-let me tell you something-the body does CRAZY things when you run far. If you have never run distance, you would not know-but- and don't read this if you get grossed out easily...
*Warning zone*
Running has got to be one of the fastest ways to lose weight. Let's just say that a lot of the vans had jokes written on them....things like "Honey Bucket or Bust" (Honey bucket is the portable toilets outfit) or "outta our way, we've got the runs!" or "pepto bismo!" and on, and on, and on...
You look at the vans and can't help laughing-then your stomach does a flip flop-and wowee, you're-a-runnin' to the buckets. My thought is, anything that makes your body do this can't be good for you-but heck-it is an experience...
*Warning zone ended*
So-we go to sleep at 11pm, alarm goes off a 1am-and my first words were "brutal" I was the first runner at 3am. My stomach hurt like heck. Get to the exchange, get the band from Eric, and off I go-into the darkness, with a vest and headlamp up a back country road-up hill. Let me tell you, the best thing about running in the dark at 3am...well, several things. 1. It is cool (temperature). 2. It is dark, you can only see to the end of your headlamp, therefore, you have no clue how long or how steep you are climbing, you just take it one step at a time. I had a "runners moment" I connected with the pavement, if you will. It was the coolest most amazing running exerience ever. It was hard, but really neat. I stopped running with music, and there is something kind of relaxing about hearing yourself run.

So we finish our second round, go to a school in the middle of nowhere, and eat breakfast-choke down eggs, and something else. Drive to the next exchange, no sleep. Get the bracelet from Eric when he comes in, go off running. By this point, my hip flexers, ankles, and knees are protesting. Nooooo, will you just STOP??? Not to mention the blister on my toe that feels like it is going to make my nail fall off, gross. The last 1/2 mile, a hill. I walked, again. Round the bend, hand off to Chad-hurray! I'm done!

I think I told a few people I would never do that again...however, I think that I would-I would just train next time. That, and maybe get faster so that I could get through the legs faster. I am less sore now than I thought I would be-it is crazy how fast I am healing. What an experience! Crazy, but neat-and now I can say...I DID IT! Pictures to follow!

Good Intentions

Have you ever had good intentions of doing something but it never got done, but you still had to live with the consiquences of not doing said thing? I am in that exact spot, only, this is very extreme-as far as consiquences for not doing my job.

I am running in hood to coast. Here is a blerb from the website:


As the Largest Running Relay Race in the World, and Mother of All Relays, The Nike Hood To Coast Relay stretches 197 miles near the top of Oregon's majestic Mt. Hood down to the beautiful Pacific Ocean beach in Seaside, Oregon. Over 12,000 Hood to Coast runners and 4,800 walkers in The OfficeMax Portland To Coast Walk, share in the experience of this annual event now in its 27th year! Join the excitement this August 22nd and 23rd, 2008!

It is a relay race, each team has 12 runners, 2 vans and basically, we leapfrog eachother to the finish. I am in van 2 and run legs 7 (5.65 mile Hard leg) over rolling hills along highway 26 on paved shoulder and country roads and 6pm Friday, leg 19 (5.89 miles very hard) long leg over challenging uup an down hills on paved back country roads at 3am, and finally leg 31 (4 miles moderate) on gradual hills on narrow paved back country road at 2:30pm on Saturday.

The Hard, very hard and moderate designations are made by race officials. Yes, it is true, I will be doing this-and I have NOT been training. Shame shame on me.

I will begin the "mother of all relays" tomorrow-wish me luck, on my 15.54 up and down running journey!

Have I ever mentioned that I am in LOVE with what Nick does for a living?

Nick is teaching me how to weld!

Starting small.

And here is the real pro, on the job site.

I only wish I could be that cool.

And, a picture of George, doing what he does best!

We really did go to Hawaii in May...

I lost at air hockey, to Nick, who torched me. And wouldn't give it up.

Hike to see the tallest waterfall in Kona. I totally own the place!

Nick at the volcano, wielder of the smoke-oh yeah!

Having a nice dinner on the water.

So, the story behind this picture-my family HATES these cars and we lovingly refer to them as Weasel cars. They are named as such because in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" the weasels drive a car that is a lot like the PT cruiser. So, when Nick and I went to Pennsylvania to visit my little sister, we rented a car to drive from Philly to Lewisberg. We get to the car rental shop and see a TON of Weasel cars. Nick and I both look at eachother and say, at the same time, it's all good as long as we don't get a WEASEL. We check in and get directed to stall "23" where not only sits a WEASEL, but it is *gasp* BRIGHT BRIGHT BLUE, just like the one above. The only cool thing about the Weasel was how funny Heidi's reaction was to it. OH, and speaking of WEASELS-I swear, weasel owners are like SOOO proud of their own weasels. It is like a WEASEL CULT. You drive down the road and all the other fellow weasels wave emphatically at you, like "hey, nice choice on the weasel! were like bro's!" *ACK!* I am not a part of your little weasel club, you can keep it! So there you go, the story of the weasel, and the story of the picture-in case you were dying to know what the deal was. If you are family, you already know this and no doubt are dying of laughter.

Wonderful Weekend

This was a great weekend. I got to see Nick for 2 whole days which is the longest I have seen him since the 4th of July.

I was so excited to see him-unfortunately, he ended up getting stuck at the coast on Friday and my excitement became more like frustration and a small pitty party. I get so little time with Nick and I have found that this summer, in particular, when he finally has a moment to come and spend with me-it is often taken up with doing more work that keeps him away. Call me selfish-but having him work out of town 100% of the time makes me a little possessive of his time-

I don't write about my feelings related to him being gone a lot on this blog, because at times, the feelings are not exactly positive. The hardest part is the fact that our first year of marriage has been spent largely separate. While I do try to keep a positive outlook and I know that we have opportunites that other people don't have due to the incentives of him working out of town-I won't lie, it gets hard.

What I find is the most difficult is not him leaving, no-it is the adjustment of his coming and going. I get used to him being with me for a day, he leaves and it is an adjustment having him gone-then later, when he returns, it is an adjustment having him come home.

The other difficult issue is the "real" things one has to deal with in marriage. There are discussions that have to be had, finances to be dealt with, big decisions to be made with the house-all of which have to happen in our small amount of time together, which can really drag you down-because who wants to discuss these things when you have few moments together anyway?

So back to the weekend-
Nick taught me how to run a bead with the weldor. I have a long way to go but I am learing. I have pictures, I will post them. We worked around the house, went to dinner with his dad, went to lunch with his mom, went to Hancock-which was just okay-and managed to have time to discuss some more important things, like the house and such. We are still without a kitchen, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We also talked more about our plans to move to McCall, eventually. I cannot wait for that day to come-no more Portland rat race...that would make me so happy!

Spreadsheets

I dream in spreadsheets. You heard me right, I dream about the problems I have to work out at work to get things to work properly, and many of these problems stem from Spreadsheets. Thus, I dream in spreadsheets.

I came home on Sunday night after almost a month of traveling to find that my house is "that house." You know, the one in the nice neigborhood that everyone drives by and says...what is the deal, don't those people care about their yard? Don't get me wrong, I love having acreage, I LOVE it! I cherish and am thankful for my home. Nick is gone a lot, and I have been traveling a lot. This does not make having property easy! Our choice is to either be "that house" or to hire help, a thought that I shudder at because why should I work hard at my job so that I can pay someone to do the things that I do not have time to do at my own house. That is like working your butt off to earn a living and pay for childcare so then your child spends all day away from you, and you are working to keep them in childcare, and on and on. I can imagine what the conversation was like if I went to part time to take care of the house...

WORK: So you want to go to part time?
ME: Yes
WORK: Are you pregnant?
ME: No
WORK: Well then, why would you like to go to part time?
ME: To work on my house and do yard work.

Yeah, that would go over well! =)

A change in Vacation Plans

It smells like gravy and turkey in the office I am working in today...the cafeteria has them every once in a while here and I guess it is special cuz everyone has gotten some.

Nick and I have been go go go, traveling, being out of town-all for work. We were going to go to Orlando and spend a week at Disneyworld...the key word here is "were." We have decided that with such a busy summer and no time to even sit and ponder the more wonderful things in life, we don't want a busy vacation. We have canceled the trip and will instead be going to McCall, Idaho to stay at the cabin, low stress, low activity leve (if we so choose) and no plane rides! I think this is a better choice for us at this point. We didn't know we would be traveling this much when we decided to book the trip. I miss McCall anyway.