Running From My Spanx

House Update #2!

2013-01-31T20:56:00.003-06:00

Before:

In the process:

After!!! (still needing trim, crown molding, and new carpet)

We also did some minor work in the basement to "polish the turd"....
Got rid of the blue once and for all and plugged up the hole...

Before....

After (still dirty :-/ )

Still not finished, but getting closer! The ceiling is finished in the basement, the walls are painted in the basement, the ceilings and walls are painted in the living room, and we're starting to put the place back together. Super slow process but I'm ~~dealing~~ getting used to it :)

House Update!

2012-11-13T13:26:00.001-06:00

A few pictures of the house progress - We have a neighborhood cat that hangs around the house a lot, he's growing on me.... not so much on Craig. We had a weeny roast so we put some decorations up and cleaned the house last weekend. We are still barely making progress with the remodeling, but we now have the ceilings stomped!! :)

New House ("Before" pictures)

2012-09-24T14:31:00.002-05:00

We FINALLY get to move in to the new house!! Hoorayyy!! We have TONS of work to do in the house, so I'm sure it'll be a construction zone for the next few years, but more on that later :) for now, I'm just excited to be moving in!

Kitchen into dining/living room

Kitchen/Laundry

I thought I would hate these cabinets but I think I'm liking them!

Living room

Living room out to the patio

Just another view :)

Looking back at the front door. Garage to the right.

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Master bedroom

Balcony off the master

Master bath (tiny :( )

Bedroom #4 balcony off the front of the house

Another view of bedroom #4

"walk in" closet

upstairs bath

Skylight/window in upstairs bath

Our first night in the new house. Bottle of Champagne and some lawn chairs. :)

We technically haven't moved in yet, because when we got there we realized they had turned the water off to replace a pipe. That would have been nice to know. :( It is now 3 days later and the water is still off so we have been driving back living out of suitcases. Boo. I'm hoping it's fixed and on before the end of the week!

More before & after pics to come :)

Birthday Fun

2012-09-20T15:54:00.004-05:00

It seems like we never get to go out and do anything fun with everyone anymore, but we had a good excuse this time! Kayla's birthday! Definitely a reason to hit up Osaka for hibachi dinner and some martinis and head downtown for the night :) Craig of course came out with all of the girls .... I think he secretly liked it because of all the food. We met up with more friends later, but here are some pictures from dinner and early in the evening!

Just wanted to throw in a post to remember this night out! Love getting a chance to get together with friends :)

Waverly Picnic

2012-09-20T15:44:00.001-05:00

This year was my first experience with the Waverly picnic, and let me just say it will be an annual event for years to come! I kept laughing when Craig would mention it to me because it is such a small town, I thought it would definitely be a lame thing that only people who grew up there would enjoy. I was wrong. It was pretty fun! Here are some pictures-

Annual mud volleyball game

Katelyn, Heidi, and I

Craig and I didn't participate in the mud volleyball tournament, but we did get to see a couple of the games. It. was. a. mess. I don't know if i want to participate next year or not! Eeek!

Race Day!! (Finally)

2012-09-20T15:32:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of my first annual Abe's Amble 10K ... I plan to continue running it every year! It is supposed to be the "hard" race in Springfield. The course is fairly hilly for central Illinois :)

I had been slacking horribly on my running (I still am) so I was terrified of this race. Maddie had been training for a while and this was her first 10K. Our pace was fairly close so we decided to run it together. That was about the best thing that could have happened!! She definitely drug me through it and I did the same to her. The hills were a nightmare but the weather was perfect! I finished this 10K 6 minutes slower than my last 10K... which was fine by me considering my "training" ... or lack thereof. As always, Craig finished the race (he won 1st in his age group!) and came back and ran the last leg of it with us. He is always supportive :) I apparently didn't take pictures of my Abe's Amble 2012 shirt or my number by itself but oh well. Another thing to note - this was the first race I've ever ran with the shoe chip! (you can see it in the first picture). I know it's a stupid thing but I was excited about it. For some reason it felt official.

Short and sweet post :)

The drive through the "Fly Over States"

2012-09-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

I am WAY behind on my blogging! I am backing up all the way to my Texas trip in July! It'll be short and sweet.
I drove the entire 12 hours from South Dakota to Oklahoma where we met up with my family around 1am. It was the longest. drive. ever. I drove through most of the "fly over states" during this trip and I have no desire to do it again! We crashed on the couch for a couple of hours and then jumped in the car to continue on to Texas. Dad, Mom, Jana, Ashley, the girls, Katelyn and me were on the road all day and got into New Braunfels that afternoon. We headed straight to the hotel to get cleaned up and I dropped Katelyn off at her friend's house. The rest of the extended family were slowly but surely filtering in through the afternoon. That evening, we went to dinner on the River and then to happy hour at the winery where the rehearsal dinner was held. Here are some pics!

My brother and Craig had late flights getting into Texas, so they were arriving at the hotel right when we got back. To say the least, it was really nice to see Craig after 4 weeks of being gone! <3

My family of course went stayed up all night long outside by the pool - it was a blast! It was so good to have everyone together! The next day, we hung out by the pool and around the hotel, then started getting ready for the wedding. Here are a bunch of random pics...

Cole, Cade, Alexa Conboy

Presley

Jeffers girls <3

Groomsman boots

Bridesmaid boots

Awaiting his bride!

I do!

Happy couple :)

Mother/father of the groom

celebrating!

It was a fun, short trip and the wedding was beautiful! We had a very long drive Sunday and Monday Back to South Dakota. Well worth it :)

Life on the "Res": Rapid city day 2/Black Hills

2012-07-17T21:04:00.000-05:00

The second day in Rapid City was very busy. Our Game plan was to hike in Custer State Park and then sight see all the way home. We started at Sylvian Lake and hiked up to Harney Peak, which is the highest point in the Black Hills. I have a lot of pictures and not much to say - enjoy!
Here are a few pictures from the way up:

(ok I seriously have retyped that white blob up there 5 times and can't figure out why it's not showing up, but it just says that we hiked up from Sylvian Lake to Harney Peak - the highest point in the Black Hills)

In the clouds!

At the top:

Mountain Goats!

I'm the tiny pink speck on the edge

crawling up some rocks

Off the top!

So Pretty - the clouds started to clear

And back down:

We went back through town and stopped at Dinosaur Park before going to dinner.... it was pretty lame, but we took kid-like pictures of ourselves anyway! All of Katelyn's are on her phone, so I only have the ones of yours truly :-/

I spared you a few ;)
Next we went to dinner and then hit the road. Wall Drug was the next stop, but it was about an hour into the drive. Here are a few of many pictures we took there. Katelyn has most of those as well.

In the old time pharmacy

Pit stop at the photobooth! :)

The rest of the drive was a huge drag and we didn't get back until late. Luckily, we had absolutely nothing to do the next day besides sleep and do laundry! I snapped a pic of the sunset on the way home to pass the time. This was probably at 9:30 pm... the sun doesn't go down until really late out here!!

Back to Motel 6 for a week, and then TEXAS!! Yee-haw! :)

Life on the "Res": Rapid city day 1

2012-07-17T19:26:00.000-05:00

What do you think of when you hear "South Dakota"?
....Mt. Rushmore?
....Crazy Horse?
....The Badlands?
....Black Hills?
....Custer State Park?
....Wall Drug?
....Spelunking?
....Dinosaur Park?
....Wineries?
....Helicopter Tour?
....Wild West gun draw/shoot off?

.... Us too. :) and we did it all!
(okay, the last two fell through, but we did the rest)

After a short week with the holiday, we took off on Friday morning towards Rapid City. We had big plans for the weekend and no place to stay. I am getting nervous that we're turning into gypsies...

We wanted to accomplish tons of things without paying for most of them, so we did a lot of "drive bys". First up, the Badlands. We took the scenic route up to Rapid City and drove right through the Badlands National Park. It was definitely a change of scenery. Here are some photos:

Check that of the list....

We had a dilemma with the hotels, so that was the next thing on our list of things to do. We found a motel online that said $39 dollars for the night, which was a solid $60-70 cheaper than anywhere else. It had nothing but great reviews, but we we made this mistake before in New Orleans, so this time we decided to drive past the place before actually booking it. We stopped in to check it out, and turns out, the website was wrong and it was the same price as anywhere else. We bailed and decided we'd look for a Holiday Inn instead. Katelyn was on hotel duty, calling every number on every billboard we passed for hotels. Must have been a busy weekend there because 98% of the hotels were booked.
We drove on to the next stop - Mt. Rushmore. They have a little museum or something at the base of it, but you have to pay to even park in the parking lot, so we did another drive by. We saw the front, then as we continued towards Crazy Horse, we got the bonus profile view as well. I'd say we got our money's worth ;).

Next!

We drove another 20 miles or so to Crazy Horse. We tuned our radio into the informational station for it, which turned out to be a measly 30 second loop of some guy telling us when they started working on it again. LAME. We got close and as I was following signs, I realized I had gotten sucked into the line to pay and go in... And there was a median and a "No U turn" sign- shoot! Determined not to pay for a not-finished monument, I talked the guy into letting me drive through without paying so I could turn around. Whew. Bullet dodged, Money saved. :)
Katelyn was still calling places to stay with no luck, so we decided to stop and eat. We both felt touristy, so we ordered the buffalo burgers and a couple of local beers. Before we left, we decided we needed to get the hotel situation figured out. We called a hotel that previously had one room available, and of course, they had it all booked up when we called back. Wah. The lady from that hotel gave us a recommendation on another place to stay in Hill City. We called, they had a room, so we went for it. We didn't think twice about it being called the "lantern inn", because someone specifically recommended it....logical, right? Wrong. I'll get to that.

We had some time to kill, saw some billboards for a winery, so we pulled on in. We went through the wine tasting, which happened to be free (woo!), and continued on our day long road trip. Turned the corner, saw another winery, pulled in that one too. Partook in another free tasting (double woo!) and continued on. Here are some of the touristy wines we tasted!

Rhubarb Wine

Rushmore Red Wine

Buck Naked Wine

We were on a roll with these billboard festivities, so when we saw "helicopter tours", we got really excited. The sign also said $50, which we were more that willing to split, so we headed up a huge hill and got out to check it out. They got us with the fine print, apparently, because it was $50 per person... for 6 minutes. SIX MINUTES?! WHAT?! We bailed on that idea and found another billboard - Cave Tours. Specifically, Mt. Rushmore Cave. It was must cheaper and much more worth it. The pictures are terrible and you can't really tell what anything is, but it was pretty neat inside!

Chimney in the cave

Stalagmite/tite together

"Hallway" in the cave

Another Chimney

Outside looking over the Black Hills

We drove back through keystone and stopped to look at all of the shops. When we finally decided to leave, We saw two men dressed like old time cowboys who had whips/guns/chaps etc walking down the middle of the road. I saw later that they put on a show at certain times of the day but we missed the good part.
We were pretty worn out from the day and stuffed from lunch, so we headed back to the motel. As we pulled up, we realized that it was a nasty junky motel with a super-creep at the front desk. It looked like it came straight out of a scary movie, but we didn't really have many options at that point. We crashed early in preparation of the next day!!!

Life on the "Res": 4th of July Pow Wow

2012-07-17T19:25:00.002-05:00

So, I've pretty much been dreading this year's 4th of July since I found out I was going to be gone for it. I was bummed that all of my friends would have fun plans and I would be stuck out here doing nothing. Seriously, what do you do on a reservation to celebrate the 4th?!

I quickly found out what you do-- go to a pow wow!!
We really had no idea what all that involved, but everyone was talking about it, so we knew we had to go. We kept getting warned about being out after dark, driving on the back roads, etc because of all of the drinking and driving accidents that happen, so we were a little nervous about going to the pow wow by ourselves. Luckily for us, we had a new housemate move in a few days before the pow wow,so he went along with us. We were sporting our red, white, and blue attire and were fully prepared to stick out like sore thumbs. We headed to the casino, which is where the pow wow was held. It's around a 30 minute drive since we didn't take the back roads, but traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and we made pretty good time. We walked up towards the festivities and hesitantly took a seat. We were definitely in the minority to say the least. We climbed to the top of the stands and tried to snag a shaded seat..... And now we wait.
We went early so we could see the "Grand Entry". We had no idea what that even was, but we figured it was important enough to see. After a few minutes, they started calling out different names of groups who would one by one sing and all play one big drum.

The groups were sitting all around the circle, so once they went around once, they started the Grand Entry. They introduced each group as they came in. It was actually a pretty long entrance, and not as exciting as I thought. I videoed the whole thing- and of course, NONE of my videos will upload correctly! Hopefully I can get it figured out (rookie blogger!)

tiny tots dancer

After the Grand Entry, they introduced a few individuals (a few servicemen and some "pageant" queens and princesses) and then started the dances.

Teen "grass" dancer

They have different categories of dancing and different age groups. They started with the "tiny tots" and worked their way up. The boys and girls dance separately and have totally different styles of dance. I'm pretty certain that they have different names for the way they dance, which I believe depends on the beat of the song, but I didn't catch any of them. I do know some of the categories are the fancy dance, jingle dance, traditional, and one of them was called grass dance or something like that? The only difference between all of those (that I could tell) was what they wore. The dancers get judged on different things, none of which I really know. I'm assuming the costume is a part of it, and I also know that they get judged on if they stop on the last beat or not. They have to stop exactly with the last beat, or they get counted off. The only reason I know that is from another housemate who happens to be Native. He was telling me some inside info about the dancing - The men who play the drums and sing for the dancers apparently try to fake out the dancers with stopping/starting their songs.

REAL Eagle head on the stick

Traditional dancer (I think)

Teen Fancy dancer

Traditional dancer

The judging must be intense, because it seemed like EVERY dance had a tie, or a 3-way tie. They had dance-offs to break they tie, which made each dance take twice as long. We were hoping to see the adults dance, thinking they would be more interesting, but after 4 hours of watching the kids and teens, we decided we had had enough.

Fancy Dancers

They have a meal at the pow wow for everyone every day, and they seemed to be breaking for that. We didn't know if that was open to us, but we also didn't want to eat it, so it was a pretty good time to leave. We stayed for the prayer, which was spoken in Lakota, and then snuck out the back. Katelyn managed to purchase a dream catcher before we left!

More Fancy Dancers

The rest of our 4th of July was pretty eventful compared to every other night at Motel 6! We stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some food - turkey burgers, potatoes and veggies, and corn/black bean salsa fixings- and we had a feast with the roommates!

Life on the "Res" - Sioux Falls

2012-07-01T20:49:00.000-05:00

We got up early Saturday morning and headed to Sioux Falls. We met up with Katelyn's cousin and one of her fellow interns that she was working with. Our first stop was to go hiking in Blue Mounds State Park, which is actually in Minnesota (we have really been getting around). Blue Mounds has an open range that is full of bison, so we were on a mission to find them. It also has the biggest rock escarpment in Minnesota (I think). Here are some pictures from the hike!

We started below the rock "wall"

Panoramic-ish view

A cactus blooming! You don't see that every day!

Pictures from the top:

I know it's impossible to see, but these are bison!

Finally saw some!

After the buffalo sighting, we headed out of the park and back to South Dakota. Since we were in Sioux Falls for the night, we thought we should probably go see "the falls". They weren't very big, but they were pretty!

That was a quick stop, and next up was a winery. None of us had been here before, so we picked a random close winery and went for it. it was called Strawbale Winery, and it was definitely a winner! The owner quickly took a liking to us and gave us tons of samples of all the favorites. They had chalkboard paint on the counters so we got to write down the wines that we wanted to try on the bar... genius idea! It was so fun!

This was my list - yum!

Nick -the fellow vet student

The owner made us go behind the bar to take pictures with the giant wine glass - we look nasty and sweaty from the hike still :(

We decided to head outside and enjoy the view while drinking our wine. Katelyn spotted a friend behind her after we sat down. As I snapped a picture of them, the rooster sprinted away. When I say sprinted, I mean it. I had no idea roosters could move so fast..... I guess he was camera shy.

The owner came out to check on us, and decided that it would be beneficial for us to feed his chickens. He went to get some feed and poured some into each of our hands. Most of them were pretty gentle while pecking at our hands, but I had a couple mean ones that really got after it and bit me. I'm not sure how I've never fed chickens before in my life, but this was another first to cross off my bucket list.

We noticed that if you buy an entire case of wine (12 bottles), you get a discount per bottle. So, we all started deciding which three wines we wanted. I couldn't choose just three. The owner got wind of my situation and let me know that I, in fact, could get extra bottles for the same discounted price. Bingo. I wanted to bring three bottles home with me to share with my family, but I wanted to have a bottle while I was out on the res still. It all worked out, and almost $200 later, the four of us were on our way.
We freshened up at the the hotel and headed out for dinner. Some people at the winery recommended an Italian place, Johnny Carino's, so we ate there. It was delicious. After dinner, we headed downtown. We had no clue where to go, so we just started walking. There were outdoor street performers, a few local bands playing in small bars, and perfect weather to enjoy it in. We found a bar with a lot of locally brewed beers, had a couple of drinks there, watched a band in another bar, made a few more stops, and headed back to the hotel. We slept in, ate a hearty hotel breakfast the next morning, and hit the road. Before we got on the highway, we had to make a stop at Starbucks and Jimmy Johns. As I've hinted at, the Res is pretty scarce when it comes to Fine Dining ;)

On to another fun-filled week!

Life on the "Res": Weekend Getaway- Mitchell, SD

2012-07-01T19:09:00.003-05:00

Weekend number two on the Res... or should I say OFF the Res!!?

Along the drive

We couldn't get off the reservation fast enough. We originally planned to leave Saturday morning to head for Sioux Falls, but it's about a 4 hour drive, so we decided Friday morning that it would be awesome to leave a day early, get a cheap hotel somewhere on the way, and find a movie theater to see Magic Mike! I jumped in the shower while Katelyn booked a hotel in Mitchell, SD and we booked it out of here. Best. Decision. Ever. Mitchell was about 3 hours away, so the Saturday morning drive went from 4 hours to 1 hour. Whew. Another bonus of this idea - an extra night in a comfortable hotel bed! I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but our beds are mostly springs here. Definitely no Sleep Number bed. Instead of taking I-90 the whole way there, we took the scenic route which is supposedly faster. Here is the view...
There is some weird thing out here about saying "West River" or "East River", meaning west or east of the Missouri River. I think that people "West River" think it's better than being "East River"? or vice versa. I honestly can't remember which way it goes, but we decided to take a picture of the river to mark our transition "East River" for the weekend.


Missouri River

The city we stopped in, Mitchell, SD is famous for one thing--The Corn Palace. If you drive anywhere on I-90 you will see hundreds of billboards for it. So, being the month-long tourists that we are, we had to stop by and give it a looksie. Here it is-

The outside has corn husks and corn cobs making up the designs that you see. Inside, there was a picture of the very first Corn Palace design, where it was fully made of corn. Much cooler. They redesign the entire thing every year.

First Corn Palace

Corn cobs

Display inside

The Corn Palace is, besides a giant tourist trap, a venue for a lot of events. Sadly, there were none going on while we were in town, but we checked out the auditorium anyway. The walls were all designed with more corn, but it was pretty generic besides that. I wasn't impressed at all, but at least I can say I've been there!
they have concession stands in there open all day. They sell anything that has anything to do with corn and/or popcorn, so we got corn on the cob. I was HIGHLY disappointed in it. Illinois sweet corn is much better!
We walked around to a few shops after we left the Corn Palace, but unfortunately, they were ALL closed! It was only 5pm on a Friday! We did find a little Ice cream shop, so at least we got something worthwhile out of the trip :)

We headed to the hotel after our afternoon events, and decided to head downtown to walk around and do some shopping before our movie started. Every shop was closed. it was still only about 6pm on a Friday night. Apparently everyone has plans besides their jobs in this town. Anyway, I decided to try and be artistic and get this picture of the alley.

We headed to the movie early to make sure we got a good seat. We ate way too much popcorn, listened to a lot of ladies cackle, and went back to the hotel to get a luxurious night's sleep before the big day... here's my ticket stub (more tourist stuff)... I can't figure out how to turn it :-/
It was not the best night in the world, but DEFINITELY beats any night on the reservation.

Life on the "Res": Week 1

2012-07-01T17:55:00.002-05:00

The rest of the first week was pretty dreadful, so I'll make this post short and sweet.
We spent a couple of days in the Dialysis unit helping with medication reconciliation and medication counseling, which was pretty neat, but it quickly went downhill after that.
We also started Insanity this week (still determined to get fit), so the entire week we could barely walk around without groaning. But that was just the tip of the iceberg....
The big news of the week is that WE GOT ROBBED! We were planning on making a big night of our Friday night and go to the All Stop to get some wine, but as we were wrangling up some cash to go, we realized that neither of us had any of the cash that was in our purses/wallets.We lost about $200 between the two of us, so needless to say, we did NOT make it to the All Stop. Instead, we pouted in bed all night Friday night. After going through multiple federal employment applications, background tests, drug tests, fingerprinting, etc, we thought we could trust the employees at the facility... wrong-o. We even tried to be sneaky. Katelyn had the majority of the money in her purse hidden in a side pocket so that if someone stole her wallet or money out of her wallet, she would still have cash. I didn't even bring my purse. Instead, I brought my laptop bag and hid my wallet in the bottom of that. Our tricks didn't work, because they got all of it. Every. Last. Cent. :( The rest of the people at the pharmacy (including our preceptor) were AMAZING and pooled some of their own money together for us. They didn't even do anything wrong and they felt terrible about it. That made the week a little bit better!
We had a canoe trip planned before all of that happened, decided to cancel after we got robbed, but after we got some money back, we ended up going ahead with our plans.We headed to Valentine, Nebraska ("the city of hearts") to canoe down the Niobrara River. We planned to canoe for about 4 hours, which felt like forever. We stopped one time to hike up to the tallest falls in Nebraska, Smith Falls. We both got to stand under the falls and let the water pour on us- check that off the bucket list! Neither of us took our phones or cameras, so I have zero pictures for the day :(. Towards the end of the trip, I finally looked at a map and realized that it seemed super long for a reason. We canoed FIFTEEN MILES! Yikes. Talk about a workout! We treated ourselves to a nice sit down dinner --and a drink-- before we headed back... it was much needed!
After the rough first week, we decided one thing for sure. It has to get better from here. Crossing our fingers for the next 4 weeks!

Staple Food Items for the week:

Life on the "Res": Day 1

2012-06-25T21:14:00.002-05:00

Day 1 on the Reservation was pretty packed!!

Before I get into our day, I'll backtrack about the previous night. We arrived at Motel 6, and found ourselves presented with a "swapportunity". In our room (yes, we are sharing a room for the 5 week stent), there was one double bed and one twin bed. We were settled on who would get the big bed--I lost--but before we turned in for the night, our "neighbors"....the 2 people also living in motel 6.... mentioned that they both had rooms to themselves and that their rooms contained 2 double beds, one that was not being used in each room. They offered to switch us beds, but then we discovered the spare room was unlocked. We decided to swap the bed in the spare room with the twin bed in our room. We only took the box springs and mattress and left the frame in case we needed to move it back. We didn't hear of anyone else moving in, but you never know.
....But then you find out. Monday morning, probably about 30 minutes into our first day, our preceptor comes strolling in asking to take one of us back to motel 6 with him to move the beds back. Apparently, we caused some serious friction between the housing guy and our preceptor. No one thought it was a big deal besides the new "roommate"/"neighbor" and the housing guy, but they were not backing down. Everything was our fault and we were so out of line for touching that bed. To use their exact words, "It's like a hotel. You don't go stealing things from someone else's room!" Whoops. What a way to start off the week.
On to the rest of the morning....
We got to spend some time in the dialysis unit which was very interesting. We got to speak with a lot of the Natives and find out a lot about their culture. The healthcare team that was working decided to order some homemade "Indian tacos" for us for lunch! We didn't know what that entailed, so I took a picture to share - it is homemade "bread" on the bottom, with typical taco fixings on top. It was pretty good, but didn't necessarily agree with my stomach the rest of the day. :( Add that to the list of things that went wrong today.
That was really the only interesting part of the day, so I'll skip to after work.
Just to throw this out there, we are dead set on losing weight and getting fit out here. Mainly, because there's not much else to do. Really, there's nowhere to eat or drink anything safe, so we are living off tuna, granola bars, and bottled water. We brought our little friend Insanity to help us along the way. Today was Day 1, and between the out-of-shape bod and the churning stomach, it pretty much kicked my butt. But I did it. Well, most of it. We'll see how this goes. There's really no excuse to fall off the wagon out here, so that's a plus.
Another big goal for the trip was to go hiking a lot. Major problem with this plan- we had been warned numerous times about the not-so-friendly people, the rattle snakes, and the buffalo. I'm not sure how most people feel about that nice little trifecta, but it doesn't sit very well with me. I was definitely nervous.
We headed out and started our mission to find a hiking trail. We spotted a lake and slammed on the breaks. The weather could not have been more perfect. Here are a few pictures....

Looks like Heaven!

Ghost Hawk Lake

Our first adventure on the Res

Buffalo?

We decided to hike up the hill to get a good workout, but I think we walked too slow to burn any real calories. We were too afraid of snakes to look up from our feet most of the way up! We are so pathetic. It was pretty steep for the first 10 minutes, so we got a little workout in :) Both of us were huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top. But it was so rewarding! Beautiful views all around....

From the top!

Enjoying the weather and view from the top

My treasured items since I've arrived:

Life on the "Res": The Beginning

2012-06-25T20:36:00.000-05:00

Okay everyone, here goes the shortened version of the most shocking trip of my life....
I left for Rosebud, SD last Saturday.
It got interesting much faster than I thought it would.
Sidenote of the start to my day -I got major highlights in my hair right before we took off (this was a MAJOR change. I haven't had blonde in my hair in over 5 years. And no, I did not plan a hair appointment right before we left. We moved up our plans and left early..).
Back to the story :) - Most of the drive was pretty boring, it was corn fields the majority of the time. I made it somewhat interesting for myself, however, because I was on book 2 of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker!! It was my favorite of the three (I am now done with all of them). Poor Katelyn drove most of the way jamming out by herself. I'm such a rotten passenger. I plan to make it up to her on the way to Texas in a couple weeks, but more on that later.
We stopped in Lincoln, Nebraska for the night to break up the long drive. It was dark out by the time we arrived, but we were starving. There was a few places near the hotel, so we decided to just risk it and pick one. Big. Mistake. We tested out the hotel bar, called something along the lines of "Sky Bar" or something. They not only had no one working, but they also had no food. The two ~~creepers~~ nice men at the bar turned around and ~~gawked~~ informed us that they had chilli dogs earlier in the night, but that we were too late. Needless to say, we left rather quickly and tried another place. The next joint looked pretty promising from afar, but as we got closer, we noticed a man walking along the street towards the front door....wearing a kilt and tall leather boots. The name of the place was called "Lucky's" something or other, so we thought, "Oh, it must have an Irish theme"........WRONG. I'm still not sure where that guy came from, but he stuck out like a sore thumb. We met another man on the way in the door, Harlan, which was...less than enjoyable. They were having karaoke and he offered to sing us a song. He even told us that we could choose from his hundreds of songs, but we hesitated, so he picked "a beautiful woman", which I still think he made up. We hurried to the bar and got a drink. And a lot of food. Best part of the day hands down. We had a couple of beers, learned about the game "Keno", and headed back to the hotel.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and took off. We quickly left civilization and were back to the open road. It was just as dull as the day before, so there's not much to say about that.
Anywho, out of nowhere, we start to see new landscape emerging..... The Sandhills!!! HOORAY! Out of Corn Nation!! By this point, we only see another car every 45 minutes or so, so a change of scenery was more than welcome.We were a bit worried about being able to find a gas station when we needed to, so when we came upon this little treasure, we were sure to stop and fill up.The gas pumps were too old to be digital... I had my doubts that they actually worked, but we went with it.
Little did we know, people DO still pump your gas and wash your windows for you! It was very unexpected, and to be honest, a bit awkward. We had to get out of the car for our potty breaks anyway, so we may as well have filled up the car ourselves. Oh well. We headed inside and it was quite the site. It had a couple of booths for people to sit and eat (although I didn't see any hot food, just a few gas station snacks), and this wood burning stove...I think that's what this is?!

There were also some nicknacks that I am 90% sure were locally hand made. One of the things I saw that caught my eye was an "egg separator". In case you aren't aware, you pour the egg gently into the device, and then tip it to the side. The egg white slips out a small hole, while the yolk stays in the bottom. Who would have thought? I was feeling awfully touristy, so I decided to take pictures of it all.... You're welcome. :)

Egg separator in the back right

The girl that pumped our gas turned out to be a big sweetheart and gave us a lot of helpful information! She told us a few places to stop on the way as a last resort before we were REALLY in the boonies. She also told us about a few fun county fairs in Nebraska. Unfortunately, they are too far, because she mentioned rodeos and a tractor demolition derby! I would have loved to have witnessed that, but on to Rosebud it was. Before we left, I spotted this nice little booklet full of traveler's information, so being in the touristy mood, we signed it. :)

ONWARD! We were finally in the home stretch.......

There wasn't anything very exciting from there to Rosebud, so I'll spare the details. We did find a Subway/Ice cream place, so we made our very last pit stop before the final destination.

Drumroll please......

....
....
...

HOME SWEET HOME!!!!
This is our new house. For the next 5 weeks. They call it "Motel 6". More pictures to come....

"MOTEL 6"

Time to "size up"

2012-05-31T16:19:00.000-05:00

I heard the term "size up" a couple of years ago and it just came to my mind again while I was looking in the mirror getting ready. Unfortunately, it means (in case you haven't figured it out already) that your clothes are too small and you look horrible in them. The muffin top is back, the shirts seem to be shrunken, and I can see every lump and bump on me! AHH! Since I ran the half marathon I have completely fallen off the wagon! My body was pretty beat up so I took a week (or 3) off of running. And working out all together. And eating consciously. I have been bad bad bad!

I have gotten back on the wagon and I have decided to take it slow and steady. No crazy diets, no crazy workout regimens, no herbals/vitamins, etc. Good old moderate diet and exercise! I am trying to take small, easy steps to cut calories. Here are a few of my REALLY SIMPLE tricks:

1. Don't put cheese on something if you won't be able to taste it.
2. Instead of having something on a bun/wrap, put it over a bowl of lettuce.
3. Instead of condiments for flavor, use fruit and veggies (i.e. tomatoes, onions cilantro on a sandwich instead of ketchup, ranch, or mayo)
3. Sub water for soda/lemonade/etc
4. Sub black coffee + Splenda and skim milk instead of a latte! --> THIS IS A HUGE ONE FOR ME!

Along with my attempt at these diet modifications, I am back into working out. I have given up on work out partners and resorted to having my boyfriend be my "trainer". I have him make workouts for me and he asks me about them daily.... so, pretty much I have to do them or I'll feel super guilty having to tell him "no, I was too lazy today to work out". My knees have been giving me hell lately, so I've been doing some swimming instead of just running every day. He gives me a few strengthening exercises to do in the morning, and then a cardio workout in the evening. Here are a couple of examples..... you can join my regimen if you'd like!!

Yesterday Morning-

"Crazy Ivans" - ab exercise from Nike Training Club app
"Fire Hydrants" - I don't know where the name came from, but I think most people call it this? leg-lift sort of move
Mountain Climbers

Yesterday Evening-

Swimming 20 laps

This morning-

Burpees
Push-ups
Sit-ups

Tonight-

Nike Training Club workout (30 min calesthenics/cardio)

I have been back on my on again off again relationship with the My Fitness Pal app also. I have my calories set at 1000 per day, and I loosely go by that. As long as I'm under 1200 (net, so subtracting my workout calories burned) I am happy with it. Anything less than that is not very sustainable long term for me.

Anywhoo... that's all I have for now, I'm hoping to have some success and smaller love handles by my next post!

Cinco de Kentucky Derby!

2012-05-21T15:07:00.000-05:00

I am having a horrible time keeping up with my blogging, so although this was a really fun trip, it's going to be a short and swee post!

Craig recently bought a new tent (larger than the last two). He was pretty excited about it, but we didn't have a camping trip planned until late August (Wyoming!), so he wanted to plan a short weekend trip somewhere. He also was itching to go hiking, so I suggested southern Illinois. He hadn't been there, so we agreed to "book it". Slowly but surely, this trip went from a camping trip for the two of us to a fun filled camping/winery/Kentucky Derby/Cinco de Mayo trip with lots of friends and family!! I love it when things like this turn out amazing :)

The only campers we had Friday night were my parents, Jen's mom Julie, and Craig and me. It was a pretty good time, but the real fun started the following day. Craig and I got up early to go hike while the rest of the gang slept in. I only took a few pictures, but it was very pretty!

The rock structures were really cool. They created a lot of what I am going to call caves :) and some cliffs that were a little bit scary to look off of! The first "cave" that we came up to was of course calling Craig's name. He immediately started climbing up on the muddy rocks and going back deeper into these rocks. I ended up going up the other side, which was a little bit more open. As I started to climb up, we both heard this whooshing noise and alarmingly looked at each other. Neither of us saw anything, but both of us heard it. We weren't sure what it was, but we knew it was some kind of huge bird. I was hurrying him to get the heck out of there, but he kept looking around up there.
As soon as he decided to continue hiking, these little guys caught his eye. I'm not sure if you can tell, but in the center of this picture there are two little baby birds huddled up next to each other. They have HUGE beaks for such little birds!! We both realized that what we heard previously must have been momma! We also realized that momma was probably not very far away and most likely keeping an eye on us and her babies. Sure enough, we looked up to find this.
I tried to get a closer picture, but failed. In case you can't tell, it's a giant turkey vulture!!!!!!!! You know, those awful looking birds that always play the mean scary characters in kids movies!

EEEEKK!!

I was completely ready to move along at this point.

That was the most exciting part of the hike. The rest of the hike pretty much consisted of us realizing how out of shape we were!! We agreed to start training before we went to Wyoming.
Anywho, we headed back to camp to cook breakfast and start getting ready for the day.

I was navigator all day, so I of course had to look up all of the addresses before we got out of cell range. (what would we do without iphones?!!) We started with Von Jakob, which I don't have a picture of for some reason, but here are our other three stops!

I only have a few pictures of the day so far. If I remember, I will try and update it more later! It was such a fun day. Not only was it Cinco de Mayo, but the Kentucky Derby was also on this day! That meant major celebration!! Here are a few pics :)

The Punke & Jeffers girls at Von Jakob with out Kentucky Derby Hats on!

Without our mommas!

This last picture was pretty funny. The cutting boards for the cheese ended up becoming paddles and turned into a huge, hysterical, practical joke. It invovled betting people that they couldn't reach from one end of the table to the other without bending their knees (so they were bent forward at the waist). Just as they discovered it was a pretty easy task.... WHACK! Liz unfortunately got the brunt of it.... she ended up really hurting afterwards, but it was SO funny while it lasted. Sorry Liz!

Definitely a day to remember and to be repeated. It was such a big group of fun people!

Race Day!

2012-05-06T18:44:00.002-05:00

WARNING!!!! I LOOK HORRID IN EVERY ONE OF THESE PICTURES!!!!!

I realize most people don't look very cute when they are running, but for some reason I look very odd in these pictures! Maybe it was the cold/sleepy/exhausted mix I had going on, but I wasn't (I'm still not) very excited about how these turned out. Oh well.

We were running pretty late due to traffic, so we hurried and met up with my mom before the race to give her our bags/coats. To set the scene a bit, it was sort of spitting rain and it was in the low 40s. It was also 6:30am. We had to ditch Matthew (Katelyn's boyfriend) with the truck and run the last few blocks to the race start because of the traffic. Not the best start to the day.

Pre-race picture

The course ran around Urbana. We checked it out beforehand to pick spots we thought my mom would be able to beat us to and watch us run, but she ended up missing me the entire time. Whoops. She did see Craig and Katelyn, so I guess that's a plus! She got a picture of me running through the finish line...

HURTIN' FOR CERTAIN!

So happy it's over!

Craig finished the race in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. (Woohoo!) He is a huge sweetheart and came back through the race to find me. He ran with me for a little bit, but he was hurting pretty bad so he just met me after the race.

He closes his eyes in EVERY picture.

Katelyn and Matthew

This is the professional picture that I borrowed from the site :) Shh...

This is my FIRST EVER 1/2 marathon race bib and medal!

So, to sum up my first 1/2 marathon ever, it sucked. It was cold, crowded, I was out of shape, and my body pretty much fell apart. Both knees (one worse than the other) were killing me, my toes were cramping the entire time, and my quads were burning like a banshee! My goal time was 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I ended up finishing in 2:19:50. I wasn't very happy with the time, but the entire time I was running I was thinking I would be proud of myself just to finish, so whatever. I also swore that I wouldn't do it again, but of course, I've already changed my mind. I guess there's something addictive about it. I couldn't be happier that it's finally over, but I am already starting to plan my next training regimen :)

Jennifer's Birthday/Winery Trip

2012-05-06T18:23:00.000-05:00

It seems like everyone gets busier every year, but somehow most of us managed to meet up one random weekend! It started with Jen asking if I could come down for her birthday weekend. I happened to be free, so I told her Craig and I would plan on coming. Then she asked Kayla, Nikki, and Elise, and they all ended up being free, too!! (Kate and Cassie ended up coming, too!!) I still can't believe that we all ended up being there with such last minute plans!

Craig and I followed Elise and Cassie down to Carbondale Saturday morning and got there around 1pm. We all gathered our things and headed out!


First stop: Blue Sky Winery!

Blue Sky was so much fun! It is beautiful outside, but it was pretty chilly, so we snagged a table inside. It was pretty calm, we all split a few pitchers of their white sangria (DELISH!) and chatted for an hour or two. Nikki spilled her wine, which was super funny - it seemed like it happened in slow motion, but also ended up being a nice ice breaker with the table behind us! They ended up giving us some of their extra bread and oil when they left and joked around with us about cutting her off. Kayla was also a life saver and brought us food! We had cheese, pita chips and hummus, chips and salsa, etc. She's the best and always comes through with the food situations. :)

Stop #2: Owl Creek Winery

Owl Creek was pretty short and sweet. We got there about 30 minutes before they closed, so they couldn't sell us glasses of wine. They could sell us tastings and closed bottles of wine, so we did both! We snuck out to their back deck and secretly opened the bottle of wine that we bought and all shared it before we headed out. shh :)

Stop #3: Rustle Hill Winery

Rustle Hill is so cute outside! They have tons of outdoor seating in kind of an amphitheater feel. Again, we stayed inside for the most part because it was nippy out there! Here are some more pictures...

The only picture of us at the wineries - whoops!

FAVORITE PICTURE OF THE TRIP!! (thank. you. instagram.)

After the wineries, we headed back to Jen's to regroup. We all freshened up, got some food in us, and started preparing for the night! It was such a long day. Here are a few more pictures before we headed out...

The Birthday girl and me :) Love this one!

Silly...

I have to say, I'm a fan of this one too :)

The trip was so fun and I am SO glad I went! It may not have been such a good choice to eat and drink the weekend away when the 1/2 marathon was the following weekend, but it was worth it :) I miss those girls and really wish there was more free time in life. Sigh.

Fun Day With the Girls!

2012-05-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

I finally got to see my nieces!!! They are both perfect so I have to brag a bit!! I don't have much to say, just some pictures from our photo shoot :)

This is my fav!

Hadley being silly, as usual!

Ash actually sent me these next few, but I had to add them :)

Turned out funny because I took a screen shot on my phone :-/

Sisterly love!!

Chicken & Broccoli

2012-04-02T18:22:00.001-05:00

Chicken & Broccoli - 170cals

4 oz boneless skinless chicken

1 cup broccoli (I buy frozen)

1/8 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

(optional) 1 slice American cheese or 1/2 oz fat free cream cheese

So, I'm usually lazy and need a quick and healthy meal, so this is my standard dinner. I keep frozen broccoli and frozen chicken tenderloins in stock always, so I thaw out some chicken, throw it in a skillet with some garlic salt and pepper, throw the broccoli in the microwave, put the cheese on the broccoli, chicken on top of that, and mix it all together. It. Is. Delicious. So fast and so low in calories!! I must admit, I ~~usually~~ always double this. For an entire dinner, 170 calories isn't very much. 340 is more sustainable, and let's face it, I'm always starving for dinner.

New Kicks!

2012-04-02T17:08:00.000-05:00

I GOT NEW SHOES!!!! HOORAY!

Cross your fingers that these shoes work miracles and my knee pain goes away!! These have much much more support than my last pair did. I'm hoping this is the ticket. I've gone on a few walks with them on so far, but my first run with them will be 5 miles tonight. They have been feeling pretty good--hopefully running doesn't lead to any blisters :-/

Another fantastic thing that happened this weekend - I LOST weight! Ok, it may have only been 0.5 lbs, but still, usually it's a >2lb gain every weekend! :)

Another New Record!

2012-04-02T17:01:00.002-05:00

I ran 10 miles. TEN miles. I ran it. Did I dream that?? No, I really ran 10 miles!!!! AHHH!!! If you would have asked me a couple of weeks ago if I was able to run 10 miles, I would have said no without hesitation, but somehow... I did it! Thank God I have Craig or it probably wouldn't have happened.

It was amazing running weather. I had the cushy inserts in my shoes, so I knew I was asking for blisters. I had to put mole skin on my feet before I even attempted, and I am SO glad I did! I started to have a couple of hot spots while I was running, but they ended up being fine. I am blister-free! :) I also threw on a knee "sleeve" to see if that helped the knee pain at all.

I was feeling pretty good all the way through mile 7, but the last 3 were brutal. I felt like I was barely moving at the end. My kneecaps were about to pop off and I was walking like I was severely injured. Craig's knees were killing him, too, but we made it through! Hallelujah! I am feeling better and better about this 1/2 marathon every day!

Less than 4 weeks to go!

Italian Grilled Chicken Salad

2012-03-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

This has been my favorite lately!!

Italian Grilled Chicken Salad

1 serving = 180-200cal

1 C Baby Spinach

1 C Iceberg or Romaine Lettuce

3 oz Grilled Chicken --good for using up leftovers!

1/2 C Low Fat Cottage Cheese

1/4 C Feta Cheese Crumbles

1-2 Tbsp Fat Free Italian Dressing (I use Lonzerottis)

I love love love this salad. I feel like putting cottage cheese on a salad is a secret trick. It doesn't give it a different flavor, but it adds moisture and texture to the salad. I usually use less dressing if I have cottage cheese on it. I love spinach, but I like the crunch of lettuce, so I usually mix them.

Battle of the Inserts.

2012-03-28T10:06:00.002-05:00

I have terrible feet. Completely terrible. And I have been battling them for years. The latest issue is actually my knees, which I am told is because of my feet. I have flat feet and plantar fasciitis, which I believe is a pretty common combo, but it's also a double blow. Because of my flat feet, shoes with high arch supports are highly uncomfortable for me. They give me blisters in my arches. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but it's a terrible place to have blisters. There's not really a way to walk ... in any shoe... without stepping on the arch of your foot. So I have found my savior, my Nike Free running shoes. I have never had blisters from them, I haven't had any heel pain, I haven't worn holes in the back like shoes in the past, etc etc. They have been wonderful... so I thought. My heel pain was gone, but I had a new pain, and it wasn't just an annoying pain, it was an ice/heat/advil/by a knee brace/rest/rub/sit on the couch pain. Nothing worked to make it go away, so I finally went to the doctor. Turns out my knees are aligned and fine, but I am possibly missing some cartilage underneath my kneecap. For the record, there's not much you can do for that. I also found out that it's probably being caused by my terrible feet and "terrible shoes" (says a few PTs and runner friends I spoke with). I was told I needed shoes with good arch support (Wahh!!) to help correct it.

Let me just start this by saying I AM GETTING NEW SHOES THIS WEEK! I am going to The Running Center to get fitted (or whatever they call it).

In the mean time, I have been trying to figure out a temporary solution. I was given arch support inserts back during the heel pain days, so I have been slowly trying to put those in my shoes. As I said before, it is painful to wear them too long, and I get blisters in my arches, so it has been a slow process. I've gone on a few walks with them, but it feels like I'm walking on tennis balls, so I haven't dared run with them in. It's beginning to feel like more of a golf ball now, so I guess I'm making progress. My Nike Frees are very lightweight, so as expected, the sole is paper thin. They have virtually no cushion, so I decided to try another trick today. When I bought the shoes, I was talked into buying some really expensive, really cushy inserts as well. I thought, hey, they don't have huge arches, but they would provide a lot of cushion.... maybe I should run in these today!!!! I only had a 3 mile run scheduled, so even if it sucked, it wouldn't be that far to go in them.

Boy, was I wrong!!! My knees felt completely fine through the entire run (Hoorayyy!!!!! I can't remember the last time I said that!) BUT I GOT BLISTERS IN MY ARCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOO!! I'm still not sure how this happened, because they really don't have a lot of arch in them, but regardless, I'm back at square one. I have also realized that it's much harder to run through blister pain that my awful awful knee pain. I am hoping that the new shoes help the knee situation, but I have a bad feeling I'm in for some blisters in the process.