A Little Busy Lately

I've been working like crazy lately and spent the first two weeks of my summer trying to get my desk to look like this so I could go on vacation:


I was only gone for two weeks, and now I have been working ridiculous long hours for the last month, but my desk still looks like this:


These days I'll consider 7 or 8 and early night. (There have even been a couple late nights/early mornings.) I'll sure be glad when next week is over and things will start to settle down!

I'm not totally complaining though, I guess its just what I get for touring Europe the last two weeks of the fiscal year! :)

Borderline Obsession

I can admit it. I love shoes! So maybe I buy a lot but...

1. They are always either on clearance or I use a coupon, so I get them for a really good deal.,
2. I pay cash for them - never put them on the credit card,
3. I can. I don't make apologies and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

So here a few of my more recent purchases:

I've actually had my eye on these since last summer. They didn't have any in my size and I've been on the lookout ever since.

I really wanted some casual snow boots, so when these went on clearance, I couldn't pass them up. They are so warm and comfy!

These ones have been calling my name for weeks, and I finally broke down and got them yesterday.

I had to get new running shoes a few months ago because my old ones were wore out and killing my knees. I love these ones. (unfortunately, I had to actually pay full price... and you don't want to know how much that was. But it was worth it and my knees love them too.)

I couldn't find the exact picture online. Mine are actually a black and white more trendy print, but you get the idea. :)

Fun huh??

My Latest Purchase

As soon as I found out that I would have a secure full-time job after college I knew that the first thing I was going to buy was a nice big bed. That was in October 2006..... 2 1/2 years later I'm now the proud owner of my very own 'adult size' bed!

I knew that Zeniff didn't really want to go mattress shopping with me, so I thought I was prepared to venture out on my own. I wasn't really sure how to go about buying a quality one, but I had a few questions in mind. One of my concerns was I wanted a bed that would have minimal partner movement. (Seems like a reasonable request since sometime in the not to distant future I would like to be sharing my bed with Mr. Right, on a fairly regular basis.) So picture this: I'm lying on this mattress, and I asked the sales man, how does it hold up with two people? Instead of just giving me an answer, (and before I have a chance to realize what he's doing), he just plops down on the mattress right next to me. And he wasn't a small man. I would say 200 lbs+ and yes there was spillage over onto my half. Totally AWKWARD!!!! and Gross!!!! I jumped up so fast, a little unsure about what just happened. I left the store pretty quickly after that and good deals or not, I wasn't about to go back there. After that, I made Zeniff come with me. Thankfully with him around no strange men tried to lay next to me.

So I still wanted to try out the mattress though. You know lay on it for awhile, it the positions that I sleep. Come to find out that's really hard to do when the sales man just sits and watches you sleep.... Creepy. Even with Zeniff sitting right there too, their old-man gazes never turned away, they just sat there, staring...

Finally after a ton of stores, and creepy sales men, I thought I'd try the RC Willey in Orem. I couldn't believe it... finally someone that answered my questions, then left and let me try them out. He was totally, professional, not pushy, and completely un-creepy. The mattresses were a little more that I was hoping to spend, but he gave me a pretty good deal and after a month of weirdos, I was more than happy to pay extra for some decent help!! So I decided to get rid of the old, worn out, twin, springs digging into my back, bought for $10 at a yard sale mattress, and traded it in for this:

And it was worth every penny!! I love it! My bedroom wasn't too big to begin with, and now my bed takes up most of the space. But I figured I don't really do much in there besides sleep anyways, so might as well be comfy!

My room before:

(Take special note of the hideousness of this dresser... more to come in another post)

After:

Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

I found out about this awesome video today. I really like Jon Schmidt and this a preview of his newest album. Check it out. It is an amazing arrangement of two of my most favorite songs.

Long Time

So I realize that it has been nearly a month since my last post. That isn't to say the nothing noteworthy has happened, but I think I have misplaced my camera. And lets face it posts with out pictures aren't nearly as fun to read. I think I left it in Moab over Easter and I'm heading down again this weekend. Hopefully I'll find it and be able to catch up....

Day Two - My First Half Marathon (Part II)

So after the race, besides being exhausted, I was feeling pretty good. I made sure to eat lots of bananas and food and stretch out a lot before driving home. I showered and ate another good meal as soon as I got home, but then I started to feel a little, okay a lot, sick to my stomach.

About an hour after finishing

I ended up putting my pajamas on and getting into bed. I slept for about and hour and I got up just before dinner when Nichole and her family came out. I was still in pajamas, no make-up, and hadn't even brushed through my hair after showering. Zeniff and I were sitting on the couch when Trentyn walked in the back door. He wasn't at the park earlier that day and so I said "Hey Trent! Guess what I did today?" Then before I could respond, Zeniff says "She hasn't done anything ALL DAY! Look, she's still in her pajamas and didn't even comb her hair! Can you believe how lazy she is?" I quickly tried to explain that I had actually ran 13 miles and slept for an hour because I felt sick, but alas, it was too late. Trentyn did not believe me! He sided with Zeniff!

Zeniff says it's because he's cooler but I think it was only because he called Trentyn T-dawg. None the less, I spent the rest of the weekend trying to convince my 6 year old nephew that I'm not completely lazy!

Trying to show Trentyn an picture of me running on my camera but he is rufusing to open his eyes!!

Day Two - My First Half Marathon (Part I)

So this was the real reason for even going down to Moab. I signed up last December to run it and have been training since the first of the year. Things had been going pretty good until about mid February when my knees started to hurt so bad while running that I couldn't get past 3 miles. I ended up buying new shoes, and taking a couple weeks off then the last week of February hit the training hard because the race was only 3 weeks away!

The weather in Moab was absolutely gorgeous last weekend! I was actually really nervous for the race and it was a little intimidating being surrounded by 3,500 other runners who all appeared to be in excellent physical condition, and looked super prepared to smoke me at the finish line! I hung toward the back of the pack and actually didn't even hear the starting gun go off. The mob just started moving and I followed.

The first 8 miles I was feeling great! I had tons of energy, and was moving along at about a 10:00 minute mile pace. (Maybe even a little quicker) But then starting the 9th mile my legs began to get really wobbly! I still felt like I had energy, thanks to the nasty cliff shots, but my muscles just weren't cooperating! About that time, I thought the long hike the day before probably wasn't the best idea. Anyway about mile 11 when I came out of the canyon, to my surprise Zeniff was waiting there with some water and Gatorade for me to drink. He was very encouraging and kept re-appearing two more times before the finish line to keep pushing me along. What a sweetheart! :) Well I finished in 2:21:45, with an average pace of 10:50. So all in all I guess I am happy with the way it turned out. For next time though, definitely no hikes the night before.

Mom, Valerie and me leaving for the race

(Mom and Valerie ran the 5 mile run)

Zeniff captured these pictures about Mile 11

Just crossed the finish line!

Almost my entire family was there at the finish line to cheer me on. It was great!