Friday, August 20, 2010

Going to see my niece!

I just want to squeeze those thighs! Love them!!

YouTube Video


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New freezer!!




This is our brand new 21 cubic foot upright freezer! Now, I'm sure most everyone else could care less, but I love it. And better yet, we got an amazing deal! It was marked down as a scratch and dent model. You can hardly tell and this is for our garage anyway, so who cares!! We pointed out a bunch of dents and asked for another $50 off. The same model new is $650 and we got this for $450!!!

I have so much room and no more digger through the chest freezer to find something! I've frozen a lot of stuff garden to cook with this winter. Yep, 9 gallons of tomatoes, 8 quarts of rhubarb, 9 quarts if zucchini, just to name a few things!

I love my new appliance!!

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Injured, Part 3: Why everything sucks (right now)

See previous posts in my saga at:
Part 1
Part 2

This post is several weeks late.  Why?  Well, I've been busy with my more than full time job, taking a masters class, and teaching an undergrad class.  Oh, and the more I think about it, the more sad I get.  You know how they say writing makes you feel better because you get it all out?  Not so much for me.

So, the verdict is in. No running. For at least 3 months.

Ticked. Pissed. Upset. Sad. Depressed. Let the countdown begin!!

That about sums it up in a few words. I was expecting the news, but at the same time, it was still shocking to hear. Going from 35 miles per week to 0 miles per week for the last month and a half has been horrible. Another two more months takes my breath away. Literally.

The good news is that there is no stress fracture.  The bad news is that I'm still injured.  While there are several things the MRI turned up and we'll watch, the biggest issue is tendinosis of the hamstring. Basically, I have a torn, battered, and barely hanging on hamstring in my left leg likely brought on by overuse.  Tendinosis is very different from tendinitis.  Tendinitis is inflammation of the tendon and it is easily treatable with a few days or weeks of rest.  However, tendinosis is actually damage to the tendon to the point where it cannot heal itself.  While I am usually not a fan of Wikipedia, the difference between tendinosis and tendinitis is explained well in layman's terms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendinosis.  There was some concern over torn cartilage where my femur bone comes into my hip bone, but after seeing another specialist, he is not worried about it right now.  I am not having any pain or symptoms from that, so it's just something to keep an eye on over time.  But the hamstring issue is still a big issue. 

I take pain pretty well - I don't complain much and tend to run through it.  No pain, no gain.  Right??  But, then there's just some pain you know is bad...very bad.  And, you can't run because it is so painful.  That's where I am.  And it sucks.  Besides no running, I also am banned from swimming, speed walking, etc., while the tendon heals and regenerates.  So, I'm pretty much a bump on a log this summer.  Right now, I am going twice per week for microcurrent and ART therapy to hopefully heal the tendon faster. 

We'll see.  Currently, it is looking like the next time I can run will be in late September or early October.  Thankfully, I had no big races planned for the fall.  I've been riding the exercise bike about 4-5 days per week and weight training (arms and abs) about 3 days per week.  But, I've lost most of my fitness at this point and am pretty much going to have to start over from scratch.  I just keep thinking about how frustrated I am right now and how even when I get out to run how it is going to be slow going and frustrating on a whole different level.  And that assuming it all heals without any issues.

(I feel like instead of filing these posts under running, it should be under lack of running...)

Monday, August 2, 2010

3 Birthdays, 1 Weekend

What do you do when you can't run and have a weekend free of races? Visit the family and eat cake, lots of cake.

We visited Todd's family in Iowa this past weekend to celebrate our niece's 4th birthday (a few weeks early). Todd's brother and grandmother also had birthdays this weekend. So, we did a lot of family meals and had every kind of cake possible. It was all good. Especially all the icing.

My grandma only lives 30 mins away, so I spent all Saturday afternoon with her. She was in the hospital last week and is now on oxygen. It was hard for me to see her labor in breath so much. So, hopefully she will get used to the oxygen even though she doesn't like it.

For the rest of the weekend, we had a great time playing with our nieces and nephews. Swimming, basketball, coloring, and all the other fun stuff. It is always relaxing to just play for awhile. When I was visiting my grandma, Todd went shopping for our niece's birthday gift. It was rather comical. First, Todd sent me a text asking if a 4-year-old could have a goldfish and tank. Then, he sent me a text saying that he bought her a dress instead. I about fell out of my chair laughing. I later found out that it really wasn't a dress, but a short set. It actually wasn't too bad, but definitely not a dress. I asked him if he got a gift bag, but he said it was already wrapped - because his mom wrapped it for him. LOL

Just in case, I stopped and bought he some school/art supplies I knew she would like, including a princess pencil bag. An "aunt" gift. It was a huge hit. She carried it around as a purse all weekend and slept with it. Too cute!

The weekend was not incident free.  After a family lunch with Todd's grandma in the nursing home for her birthday, we didn't have any water to wipe our niece's face, which was covered in icing.  Todd, in his infinite wisdom, decided to moisten a napkin with milk to get all the icing off.  It was rather funny.  Hopefully she didn't spell like spoiled milk later on.  I also inadvertantly gave my niece a fat bloody lip.  She ran into me while running around and fell on the wood floor before I could catch her.  I felt awful, especially when I saw the blood mix with tears!  But, she was fine and it appeared to be nothing serious.  Phew!  These are just a few of the incidents that happened.  Thankfully kids are resilient!!








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