Days 207-214…life is busy, life is good!

I’ve been away from the blog for one whole week!  Everything has been happening all at once and life has been crazy!  But no complaints here (mainly because I have been complaining too much the past week to everyone else and I’m tired of it!)…I am taking a look at the positive side of everything and enjoying my life one day at a time!  To start off with, all these crazy happenings have just made the last week fly by, and that means it is that much sooner until hubby comes home!  Another plus is that dealing with household emergencies and a crazy work and internship and school schedule just reassures me that I am totally competent and in charge of my life right now, and that feels great!

A nice surprise pick me up came in the mail last week….cute gifts from E!  I love the random teddy bear with greetings from Afghanistan…matched my Kuwaitit camel from last deployment!  Also, I am a huge sucker for precious stones…forget gold and diamonds and bling, give this hippie girl lapis and jade and turquoise and I’m good to go!  I really loved my gifts and it felt nice to be thought of.  Good job, husband!

And now, a picture that totally sums up our two pups…Jack running for his life and Chloe with a crazy open mouth “im coming for you!” grin!

The past two weeks have been a total running party…speed workouts and all types of fun stuff (until my old injuries started acting up which I’ll talk about later…)

This was my first sub 30 5k in I don’t know how long!

Rocking my new necklace and loving my hippie hair getting longer and longer!

We got a surprise random blizzard on Friday…the dogs were NOT impressed.  “Mom…wtf???  Why is that white stuff back?!?!”

…guess we’ll just have to hide under the blankets all day!

Ok…everyone in the world is going to either judge me or secretly are also hiding their bad habit, but….

After giving it up almost all winter, minus going once or twice , I caved and went tanning again… the blizzard totally threw me and my SAD was like “oh HELL no, winter is supposed to be gone, this is horrible and the world is ending!” …so I jumped in the fake bake bed for 10 minutes…let the judging begin.  I wanted to share only because I know there are still closet tanners out there and I am doing so good at beating my tanning addiction, but as long as I live in New England there are going to be those winter days here and there that I just can’t get away from it!

I saw this on pinterest and about died laughing…this is SO me every deployment…but hey, let’s be honest, I’m not exactly in the smooth legs club all the time when hubby is home either.

Another sub 30 5k!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!  And a blurry picture because I was still running haha….mad skills at life.

Vicious pit bulls that have to sleep with their head directly on your chest so they can feel your heart beat….preciousness overload!

My friend sent me this and it is SO true.  I am totally that girl and proud of it….as evidenced by today’s completely random and in no way sporadic post haha!  Common themes that run through a post?  Who DOES that?

AAAaaaaannnndddddd…..SPRING IS BACK!  Let’s celebrate by laying in the grass happily!

I think I see a discrepancy in toy size to dog size ratio…

Somewhere in between all of these things was spring break…which wasn’t really a break for me, but I did have no class and there were no students on campus which made work a lot easier haha!

Then came the weekend…

I SOOOOO wish Eric was home to see the gem I discovered on SyFy network this weekend….a movie about military engineered camel spiders?!?!  Oh hell yes.

Sunday morning yoga was fun, and one of my friends came so it was great to have her come to her first Theresa-led yoga class.  Afterwards, her husband and our other friend helped me with some things around the house that I couldn’t figure out on my own.  Did I tell you in addition to all the structural problems we had last week, that our septic almost overflowed?  Yay…crazy murphy’s law of deployments…  So we drained the washer out to the garden and now there will be that many less gallons of water to cause sewage chaos in our back yard…aren’t you excited to read about sewage?  I know I sure am…lies…all lies…

Sunday afternoon it was time for a nice relaxing hike!

We found a random teepee in the woods so I of COURSE had to go inside!  Who wouldn’t?

And when you find a rusty old tire swing in the middle of no where who DOESNT swing on it?

…same with rusty old gates…

I was SO happy that the surprise baby shower I threw my boss on Monday went well!  It is SO hard to surprise her and we NAILED it.  She was almost mad that we got one over on her haha!  Everyone had a blast and she was so happy.  I made her two paintings…one for the baby’s room with inspirational quotes and one for her other daughter’s room with a cute quote about sisters on it since she will be a first time sister soon!

With Monday came structural repair week!

So….turns out I wasn’t paranoid and that big center beam that was sagging so bad?? …Yep…..it’s resting on  a TWO BY FOUR….someone TOOK OUT A WALL and rested the CENTER BEAM on a TWO BY FOUR…are you kidding?????

Totally safe….not.

To escape from the $7000 disaster that is my house, I took the pups for a nice hike…so much fun.

And at night I went for a lovely run!

I had to share my conversation with my best friend from home as she was trying to motivate me to go out for my run…I love that even 1000 miles apart we are still best friends.  By the way go check out her blog…. Eat well, Run hard, Love yourself…

Sadly, after my run, the old injuries I’ve been ignoring all started to rear their ugly heads again…old fractures, old achilles, old knees, and old ankles… all at once!  Not sure if it was the hills, the speedwork, the distance…or maybe everything combined, but crap…not good!  I am taking a few days off and I got a referral today to go see an orthopedist.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my horrible running form and really weird gate are the root cause of my injuries.  Running is the only thing that causes my injuries to flare up, which sucks because running is my favorite thing….but I’ve had a few people tell me, in the nicest way they could, that I run like a total weirdo.  This is the same reason I teach dance instead of perform…I have tibial torsion so my feet point outwards, which means to run normally, my feet either have to go out like I’m in first position in dance to keep my knees facing forward, which then torques my ankles and hips, OR my knees have to bow inward to keep my feet straight.  Yes, I’m aware I am a giant trainwreck…I’m just hoping that the doctors can figure it out…I don’t care if I have to wear Forrest Gump leg braces, I just want to be able to run again!!!!

My new favorite cold drink…honestly it is AMAZING go try it!  And no, they aren’t paying me to say this…although I wish they were…with a lifetime supply of these drinks haha!

I love taking the dogs with my to run errands…can you spot the pit bulls?

Since we cant go in our living room, I drug a recliner to our dining room to relax and watch tv.  The doggies of course KNEW it was for them too and decided we should all pile on there together…this was such a comfortable set up for all involved.  Just look at how snuggly we all look?  Five minutes later the recliner collapsed and scared us all half to death…fun night.

Days 166-169…yoga and wellness week!

Little brown monster got a bath this weekend!  Little blonde monster still needs to go to the groomers, but we haven’t had time to get him there yet…it will happen soon though!

January and February are CRAZY busy…I am SO happy to see January come to a close because it means classes and work and teaching will all be in full swing, and this crazy hectic calendar will be a thing of the past!

Found a new (or new to us) bakery in our neighborhood and everything looked AMAZING.  E is going to LOVE it when he gets home!  My old roomie and I went after yoga, and she went  back later for lunch!

I LOVE getting updates on my old fosters…especially little Kindle, since my mom and aunt adopted him!  He is having a blast during his first northern winter…he loves the snow!

And the little wolf dog who used to be too nervous to sit still now loves to SNUGGLE!  Melts my heart!

After yoga on Saturday, my old roomie and I had a craft day!  We make homemade dream catchers…it was such a fun project and goodness knows I need something to help me have nicer dreams!

I got to babysit for the kiddos I used to nanny for this weekend we had SUCH a blast!  I love keeping in touch with the kids I nanny for in the past, and how nice to be able to spend time with two of them!  I thought their cat’s obsession with their new wood stove was adorable!

I am finally getting happy with where my body is at again!  Having the energy to get back into lifting heavy and running as started to give me back the muscle and shape that I love!  I also am obsessed with shawls this winter!  In total me-style, I have been dressing like a gypsy, wearing my shawls as headwraps when it’s cold and shoulder wraps just to hang out.  Loving it!  Rocking my style on Sunday at yoga…

Even though I’m not a big winter person, this sunsets have been nice lately!

Speaking of cold winters, this weather has been perfect for an excuse to snuggle on the couch all the time!

I got a great deal on this yoga top at Macy’s …a total ripoff of a lululemon style, but like 1/4 the price!  I love that it’s nice and loose-fitting, but still is flattering.  Such a good shirt to just chill out or teach a relaxing class:)

I had a super busy Monday…we started our wellness program to help students get healthy for spring break through wellness coaching and workout plans, and I also got to LEAD my own yoga workshop on camps!  The theme was yoga and healthy intentions for the new year…we did yoga, meditation, art journaling, and made worry stones!  It went great…and 13 people showed up which is huge for a beginning of the semester program!

This morning, we slept in, and then little monster had to get rid of her excess energy by attacking her tree toy!

Days 163, 164, & 165…last semester begins!

This is the last first week of grad school!  I will be done in the spring!  Of course I’ll still have to get a few more credits for my licensing, but my master’s will officially be done as of June 2013! 

It was a bit of a stressful week getting everything ready for the students to retrun…finalizing the fitness schedule, going to meetings, getting back into the swing of things at my internship, and teaching yoga at my other studios…as well as going to my first classes of the semester, which I think are going to be great! 

The fun part is planning a big yoga workshop I will be leading Monday about setting healthy intentions for the new year, using yoga and art…these river rocks with reminders of our intentions are going to be one of the art projects, along with a nice journal to keep track of the healthy goals we make!  Not sure how many students will come, but I think it will be fun anyway!

My dogs are so bored with the cold weather lately, that they just sit on the couch and kiss each other all the time…Chloe looks so annoyed…

My mom sent us this cute card for Valentine’s day…I LOVE sappy Valentine’s cards haha.  Yes I am still 8.

My old roomies had a fun Texas roadtrip that I couldn’t get time or money for, but the other day in the mail, I got 4 postcards from their trip all at once…it felt nice that they were thinking of me even though I couldn’t be there!

With this frigid weather, I’ve gotten creative with my outfits.  Hubby bought me this scarf in Kuwait last deployment, and I’ve been using it as a shawl/head wrap to deal with the cold.  My friend from school called it my ‘babushka’ like old Russian ladies wear haha.  Her and our other friend were laughing at me, but tempered it with, “No no no…that’s totally your style…very unique..very Theresa…” …haha not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I’ll take it!

Last night I taught a great Yogalates class…7 people in our nice small studio…great workout and great energy!

Tonight was personal training…I forced my very running, functional training-oriented client to do a bunch of difficult yoga stuff just to change things up.  She enjoyed the challenge, but I don’t know if I have her completely hooked yet!

Since I’m trying to readjust to working til midnight again this semester, I have decided to get my mid range training runs in on these nights in preparation for the half in April!  It really helped the night go by and gave me energy so that I don’t even feel like it’s already 11pm!  (Might also be because I just ate blueberries and a sugar cookie…need to work on my post-run nutrition…I always just want SWEETS after I run…anyone else have that issue??)

All in all I was happy with my run…4 miles, but feeling great the whole time!  Started out slow because my hip had been bothering me for a few days, but it felt okay, so I was able to do some speed work, alternating between 10 min pace, 930 pace, and finally 830 pace…going to faster intervals as I neared 4 miles.  I don’t know jack about speed work and make up my own drills as I go, but it was fun to push myself to go faster as I got more tired!  All in all it was a great workout!