New Beginnings

I know that I never mentioned it, but I changed jobs. I left AKT (public accounting) at the end of August and started my new job as a controller for a steel erection company in early September. I am now in my 3rd week and finally starting to settle into my new role. I was terrified to leave my old job because I had been there for 4 years (almost) and I felt comfortable there. Leaving meant giving up that comfort and possibly not liking my new job.

There were many reasons why I felt the need to leave public accounting. Let me first say that if I had wanted to stay in public accounting, I certainly would have stayed at AKT and can't imagine doing that kind of work anywhere else.
*The hours - Nick and I both had stressful jobs. We both had busy season. His busy season stretched from June - October, mine was January - April. Busy season on both counts consisted of 6 days a week, 12 hour + days. As you can see, that left us with November, December and May to have time to be with each other. It just wasn't working anymore.
*The hours in conjunction with wanting a family - While our family hasn't grow yet, we know that we want to expand it in the future. As noted above, neither one of us had much free time from some type of busy schedule. In an effort to decrease one of our busy schedules, it made sense that one of us would switch to something less stress filled. It naturally, made sense that it would be me.
*The work - Long term, I wasn't able to see myself doing the public accounting thing. I looked upward at the positions I would be promoted to and realized that I really wasn't all that interested in doing any of the jobs above me.
*The future - I feel like learning things that will benefit me in the future is a good idea. While public accounting provided me with invaluable skills and knowledge, long term, I didn't see myself doing that job or holding that career. I believe that the job I have now is filling in skills that will be adventageous in the future and that the job that I have now will also mold into my future plans in a more positive way.

So there you go, my new job - a big and very welcome change. So far, I really like it. I have so much variety in my day and I have so much more time. I feel like I can finally do many of the things that I want to do. Take a photography class, work on my house decorating and the like, learn how to cook better, have a nice yard, etc. It is very exciting.

Hood To Coast 2010

Another year, another hood to coast complete. This race is a fun one! 12 people, 2 vans, 197 miles (18 of which were mine) 1,000 feet of elevation gain - what more can a girl ask for? Team AKT ran in under 29 hours with an average pace of 8:49 miles. We had a whole lot of fun! We ended the race with sore muscles, blisters all over, and the need for serious massages - but it was awesome!

Nick pulled the airstream over and we stayed the night at the Cannon Beach RV resort. While it did not live up the the awesomeness that was Crown Villa in Bend, it was pretty ok.

Trooper had his first Ocean beach experience. He thought it was the greatest thing EVER. He loved spashing in the shallow river, rolling in the sand, chasing the birds and barking at people. I myself did not enjoy it as much as I might have wanted to, my foot began to hurt pretty bad throughout the day and walking in Sand just made it worse.

I saw Dr. Sandmeier at the Portland Clinic, an Ortho with an amazing bedside manner - how nice! He thinks it is a swollen tendon (beats the break I thought it was) and offered a boot or an MRI. I took the boot. If the MRI showed a tendon issue, I would have been booted anyway - so why not try the boot first, before I have to pay all kinds of money for an MRI? So, I can't run for a while. At least I can still spin, swim, lift and row.

Summer 2010

I find that it becomes easy to fall behind on blogging when you are busy. There are things that I certainly want and should spend the time to blog about because really, how will I remember that I did them if I don't take the time to jot things down? That's right, I won't. The danger of putting off blogging is that I end up with the condensed cliff's notes version of everything rather than the detail, which is much more entertaining. July 2010 went down as one of the worst months ever. I was so excited to welcome August. Actually, this summer has been the summer of really amazing ups and really horrible downs. It has been a crazy ride, that is for certain. It has been a summer of plans made, plans made, futures planned, then unplanned, joy and dissapointment. This summer has been about friendship, reflection and recurrent old thoughts. I am sure if you haven't been around me lately, this is all very confusing. And as badly as I want to write on here the ins and outs of my ups and downs, I still don't feel comfortable with journaling some of the more personal aspects of my life publically. There are some things I did want to jot down about this summer so far:

• We purchased an airstream trailer, a 2007 30 foot beauty with solid hickery cabinets, soft cream leather, solar panels...this is truly a home on wheels.
• We broke in said airstream with a trip to bend and stayed at Crown Villa (basically an amazing resort). I ran a 1/2 marathon, we swam in the river, we drove go-carts... it was a great trip. Nick forgot his wallet, so I got to be the sugar daddy for the weekend. Every airstream we drove by waved emphatically as we went by, apparantly, we have joined a new club, or cult - whatever you want to call it.
• We have been busy every weekend this summer. The weekends were booked before the summer even started. Between weddings, bachelor and bachelorettes, work, my 1/2 marathon, hood to coast, etc, there are no weekends left for nothingness. This has been wonderful and also not so wonderful. We have so much to get done on the house and yard and it all gets left for tomorrow when we are gone so much.
• Our garage door has decided that it wants to be up. Imagine our surprise coming home to an open garage door when we had been in Eugene all day. Lovely. Good thing we live in a safe neigborhood, we have a lot to steal in the garage.
• Trooper had his first ER vet visit when he ate slug bait. He did not like that trip at all!

The summer has seemed so much busier...and yet, when I try to recall, I can't - and that folks is why you blog frequently, not binge blog like me!

1/2 Marathon

I did it! I completed the Pacific Crest 1/2 marathon in Sunriver, Oregon with a time of 2:30. Hurray!

Run Times

At the risk of sounding like I am bragging - I need to record somewhere for the future when I am old and slow that, at one time, I was able to run much faster ... and, quite frankly, I am proud of myself.

I don't ever remember being able to run distance or distance fast back in high school. In fact, while I did do track, I got really nervous at the idea of actually racing in a running event. Jumping events were ok, but racing, it made my heart race even to think about it.

I always tried to run in college. I could never quite break that 2 to 3 mile hurdle. So I threw in the towel on running. Then I got the idea in my head that I was going to run a marathon. I think I was "training" for a marathon for like 5 years straight, but the actual running part wasn't being completed...just the saying that I was going to do it. It actually became somewhat of a family joke.

When I started at AKT 4 busy seasons ago, the sponsored us running the Shamrock run. I ran this is March each year. 2008 was the 8k, 2009 was the 5k and 2010 was the 8k again. I never trained for any of these, just showed up and ran with average mile pace of 9:30 minute miles. In 2008, I ran hood to coast. My legs included average of 6 miles 3 different times in a 24 hour period. I didnt train for this and I ran the worst ever, 11 minute miles on average.

So there you go, my spotty history with running.

This year, something has clicked with running. It is as if suddenly, everthing that I hated about running has gone away. I started running consistently in February. It was a struggle to run 1 mile (and I looked like I was in good shape, ha!). Pretty soon, I was running 3 miles (kind-of) comfortably. I ran pretty exclusively on the treadmill. Then, it happened, I made my magic discovery. I started running outside. What a difference. The treadmill stares at you, counts each second, you go nowhere. Outside, you breath the fresh air, get distracted by the scenery, enjoy running for running. I also dont listen to my ipod outside. I enjoy just being outside. It is wonderful. So earlier, I said that something clicked with running. Well - it did. I dont get sideaches anymore. I dont get tired like I used to. I can push my mileage up and up and it doesnt seem to bother my anymore.

So times:
I ran a 5 mile in 43 minutes (8:39 pace)
I ran a 3 mile in 24 minutes (8:00 pace)
and today, I ran 5.87 miles in 50 minutes (8:30 pace)

I am really impressed with my times. I feel like I can go faster, too. I feel like this is only the beginning to my running limits - which is something I never thought I would say. I love this, I love getting better and seeing changes in my running, my fitness and my body. Quite frankly, I love running. I never thought I would say that. And now, a little more than a month and a half until my first 1/2 marathon. Then, at the end of August, I will be doing Hood to Coast again, and you can bet I will not be post in 11 minute miles. No way, no how.

Crafting

While I so love Pottery Barn - and I am even lucky enough to own 3 (or 4 if you count the craigslist purchase) rugs and several random decorations - it can be so expensive to purchase things from there. I need to learn how to craft things on my own for decorations. We have lived in our house far too long for there to be blank walls!

White

I love the color white. It is crisp and clean. It is inspiring. I wish I could have all white bedding. A white couch. I could accent all this whiteness with rich wood and metal tones. A cherry coffee table, white couch, floral pillows. Blue and white nautical striping. Alas, I cannot have white things. I have a husband who seems to have dirt ground into every line on his hands, in his jeans and anywhere else that dirt might find its way to. And I have a dog, who forgets to read the sigh, wipe your paws. So, I can drool over the beautiful white ideas that designers come up with