So tired!

Let's see, last week was spring "break." I put break in quotes because it was anything but a break! Maybe from work, but my parents were here and we just went went went. They flew in on Tuesday and that night was a laser tag fundraiser I had organized-- which made over $800! That was split between me and another guy. It was a lot of fun and clearly a huge success. Wednesday we went to a Cubs-Rangers spring training game and laid out at the pool. Jeff made dinner that night, oh and he made french toast that morning since this has become a staple for my out of town guests to experience! Thursday we went to Sedona which was a good time. The red rocks are beautiful and the shops were neat.

Side note: all over up there is this little Indian character for sale, as decoration, just everywhere. So all say I was in search of the right thing with him on it, his name is Kokopelli. I finally find something. We get in the car to leave and I look up the story on Kokopelli since he is obviously such a big deal...turns out there are multiple meanings for him. The most prominent is that he's a fertility god!!!!!! Whoops! I spent my whole day searching out a fertility god! Luckily there are more meanings such as that he chases away winter and brings spring. (More Kokopelli stories to come).

Friday I arranged with a friend of mine to go out to Luke Air Force Base since my dad was in the AF years ago and thought it might be cool. It was awesome. I've been out there on a tour before but for some reason it's just always so cool. I guess because we civilians cannot get to it regularly maybe? Anyway, my friend Todd is an F-16 pilot and showed us around his squadron and told us all about the jets, and we got to look inside them and everything. It was interesting. After that we went to the White Tanks, which is a park here with trails into the mountains. We walked out there for a bit and got some cactus pictures.

Another side note: Just 2.5 hours after we left Luke AFB (which is an F-16 pilot training base) a jet went down. Luckily it wasn't Todd, but the 26 year old pilot did not eject and the wreckage, although very little left of the jet, was found later that day in the mountains.

Saturday we went to Apache Junction. There is is this whole "trail" you can drive and has all these little shops and restaurants through the mountains and around some lakes. Our first stop was a little museum and a church that used to be used in Western movies all the time. Turns out there were tons of movies filmed in Apache Junction. After that we went to a ghost town called Goldfield. Everything there was exactly what the original settlers had left behind. It was kinda cool if you could really imagine what it had been like. They had the stores & restaurant (saloon) set up and working as gift shops and things. I would have preferred it to be more like museum quality where you just saw how they left it, but either way it was cool and made me wish, like I always have, that I was living in the late 1800's or early 1900's. We also went on a mine tour. You walk down these stairs and onto a simple elevator and our guide just walked us through and told us what the people did down there and how their tools worked etc. It was cool. Oh-- time for the other Kokopelli story-- so a woman in the shop there told us the "real" story. Kokopelli was a trader who came up through the west from South America trading feathers. He would always play his flute to let the tribes know he was coming in peace (all the pictures & figures have him playing a flute). The story is that if the men of the tribes weren't there he would sleep with the women! And that he was also very well endowed! Obviously as time went on and the story was passed around he evolved into a fertility god that brought women babies, when in reality he was just a slut who gave women babies by knocking them up! Nowadays though he is pretty much just a symbol of the southwest. So that's that. Eases the mind on the whole fertility thing, but now I just have a slutty south american on some pottery in my bedroom! hah

Sunday we went to eat Margaritaville for lunch and went to Cabella's (sporting/hunting store). That night we went out to eat again and they left Monday morning, only for me to return to work (yuck). So, as I was saying, I'm exhausted!

Saturday night my mom & I also cleaned Jeff's apartment. Long story short-- Jeff is helping me with my math class (he's a math teacher) and in return I clean his apartment. Also his daughter has been sick-- high fevers, not eating, took her to the ER a couple times, after a week they finally admitted her to the hospital with pneumonia, 80% of her lung filled with fluid, surgery to get that fluid out, on oxygen--just crazy stuff, SO we thought it would be nice to clean the place up and do all the laundry. So we did. She's still in the hospital, will be for a good couple of weeks but finally started eating and her lungs have been looking ok.

Tuesday night is our bowling night and Ivan had an awesome night!! First let me say, we are not good bowlers! We bowl for fun and have been in last place the entire year (since August). Not anymore! We arrived Tuesday to find that we had moved up to places! And we were playing a VERY good team, who we ended up beating 2 of 3 games...which means we will move up again most likely next week! AND, Ivan bowled a 232! He did awesome. It was so fun. And the team we played was just a really fun team as well.

Last night (Wednesday) I had to go take a test to get a food handler's card so I can work the beer tent at a spring training game for a fundraiser some of us TNT folk are doing. After that I went to the hospital to see Jeff & his daughter, which was just sad! She's doing alright but children's hospitals in general are just kinda sad. Nobody wants to see sick kids, plus you could just see how weak she was, but she's on her way :)

Side note: Fundraising is going A-M-A-Z-I-N-G-L-Y well! I have had a wonderful response to the letters I sent out (THANK YOU EVERYONE!), laser tag was a huge success, and most importantly, Schmid Electic (my sister & brother-in-law's company) provided me with a corporate sponsorship! BIG BIG BIG THANKS TO SCHMID ELECTRIC for supporting LLS!!! So I don't have much fundraising left that is required and I will be able to focus on the training.

Today (Thursday) my friend Becky is flying in for the weekend. She's a HUGE Cubs fan so she bought tickets to a spring training game on Saturday. So we'll be hanging out, drinking, and watching baseball all weekend. Sunday right when she flies out I'll be heading over to another game to serve beer to raise money (which just MIGHT meet my minimum requirement of $4200...I will let you know!).

After that...I plan on sleeping!!!!!! And getting back to training hard core. With my parents here & Becky coming I've missed some practices and haven't been on the bike much. Can we say shooting self in foot? I'll get there though. This is not the end of the world :)

What else...geez I feel like I've been typing for weeks already... today I found out that my flight to Africa will have outlets so I can plug in my computer on flight! You have NO idea how happy that makes me! Normally I could barely get through a movie without the battery dying so knowing that I can plug in on flight eases my mind SOOOOOO much. I'll be able to watch movies (although the plane has TV screens in the seats already) and work on homework (yes I'll be finishing up a class my first 2 weeks in Africa, boo! And they start back up THE day I get back, yuck!) I can only take 4 weeks off before it starts messing with financial aid. And the thing I bought to charge with will let me charge my IPod while I'm on the computer. Handy stuff! I also ordered new headphones with a microphone so while I'm in Africa I can talk to everyone back home for free through my computer. Very excited about that. Only 79 days til I leave I think!

Alrighty I'm out.

You're so Swayze!!!

Hahahaha! The other night we decided to have Swayze Night, to honor Patrick Swayze since he's battling pancreatic cancer (in case you didn't know, and he's doing well), and he kicks ass, and who doesn't love some Swayze?!

Jeff made fajitas which we called Dirty Fajitas (like Dirty Dancing) and we planned on some "Sway-Tini's." We rented Ghost (man I forgot how good that movie was), Red Dawn and Roadhouse, and of course I already own Dirty Dancing. Ivan fell sleep and Johnathan bailed, but Jeff and I had a damn good time and ejoyed Swayze night to the fullest.

When Jeff left he said, "Merry Swayze!" I nearly peed myself. We had gotten pretty Swayze crazy by this point!

Send Swayze some happy thoughts (I kinda just like to say Swayze...did you notice?!)

I Got My Passport!!!!

Progress in Leukemia Treatment!

Here's a link to an article about some new developments in the treatment of one form of leukemia (CLL), a vaccine!

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080217-9999-1m17leukemia.html

30 miles down...

So I got my new bike and rode it last weekend about 14 miles. I was having a super hard time getting on it and stopping. I felt like it was too high and I had to reach so far I could barely touch the brakes. The problem is, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel like that and I'd just get used to it, or if there was something seriously wrong with my bike! So I continued to practice but it was still a bit scary. Friday night I drove an hour and a half to meet this guy who did bike fittings for everyone on our team. Wow! I was there for 2 hours while he tweacked my bike, gave me tons of advice, new handlebars (so I wouldn't be reaching so much) and got to practice riding on the rack (so I didn't have to worry about balance too). Saturday was our long ride, 30 miles! It wasn't too bad, until maybe a few miles left. My leg cramped up so I had to stop for a minute and stretch out. Then with only about 1/2 mile left probably (all uphill) I had to stop for a few minutes. Partly because my ass was killing me! I could barely get through a pedal stroke because I was just so uncomfortable and I think I had just psyched myself out about the hills. But then we carried on, finished & it was wonderful! I guess the only way to build up my butt's tolerance is riding, so while it will never feel great it will get better, my butt will just start hurting later and later. After the practice was our honored teammate picnic where all of the people we're riding for come out and tell us their story, thank us, and encourage us. So that's nice.

When I got home I was exhausted and normally I'll take a nap or something but everyone was down at the pool. So we all spent the afternoon in the pool drinking and hanging out. It was fun. Oh we were in the pool Friday night too. Forgot about that. It's so nice to be able to be in the pool in February!!! Have I mentioned that I love it here?

After all day in the pool Ivan & I went to a hockey game-- the Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames. It was fun, and I think I might be a hockey fan!? I enjoy those games more than any other games I've gone to. But the game itself kinda sucked because Phoenix did not do well.

Only one more week before spring break! yay! Looking forward to the time off and showing my parents around. The night they fly in I'm doing another laser tag event so we'll be doing that, and I think we're going to a Cubs-Rangers spring training game, the field is only like a mile from our apt. I don't know what else we're going to do, I would like to take them to the White Tank Mountains on some trails, possibly Sedona, Tombstone, and the Grand Canyon. We'll see!

How old am I?

I had a kinda funny moment earlier. I was on the phone with my sister right after work, and I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk. Then I said, "Well I'll let you go, I gotta eat this peanut butter & jelly sandwich I made and then I'm gonna go ride my bike." Did that not sound like something a 6 year old would say? Not someone going on 26? haha And as I thought about that I thought about what else I was going to do tonight after riding my bike...play with the dogs and do my homework...again, a 6 year old. I just thought it was funny. I guess I've achieved the goal so far of not getting old. Ivan and I are convinced that if we don't get married, don't buy a house, don't have kids, and don't settle down anywhere that we won't get old...so far so good :) We'll just outrun the respsonsibility and aging as long as we can. Until we wake up someday feeling old and behind as everyone else already settled down! haha Oh well. Right now it's all good.

So, I got my road bike!! Well I ordered one anyway. I got an 07 model off ebay for like $270, instead of the $650 it would have normally been! So I am on my way now. I've still been practicing on my beach crusier, which is a joke for the mileage we've been doing but that'll make it all that much easier when I get my road bike delivered (hopefully Friday!)

What else...this past weekend at practice everyone else did 24 miles I think, I just did 14 again since I was still on the beach cruiser. And I had a low tire. Talk about the most unprepared biker...ever :) Ah well. It's fun and the team is awesome.

Ivan & I went "mountain biking" and "hiking" Monday because we were both off for President's day. We took my beach cruiser and Ivan's mountain bike on the trails at the "White Tanks," which is a little mountain/park close by. Note to everyone: beach cruisers are NOT mountain bikes. That was such a bad idea. Oh well. I survived, although gritting my teeth the whole way and getting my fat tires stuck between rocks. It was an experience. So when we got back to the car we parked the bikes and walked a trail, which was so much better than beach cruising a mountain!!!!!!! And really pretty too.

I'm done with my second job. No it didn't last very long. It would have been fine if I hadn't decided to train for the century ride but I need time to ride so I had to quit. It was a good experience but I'm relieved it's over. I get to just come home after work! YAY!

Ivan got me bowling shoes for Valentine's Day. He's an awesome gift giver; always surprises me with stuff I wouldn't think to buy myself. They are white and hav pink flames on them! haha I'm definitely the coolest bowler ever now.... :) Still have no skills, but I look good! haha

I guess that's about it. I'm ready for spring break (only 2 weeks away after this week!!!) Who doesn't love time off work? And my parents are coming so that'll be nice too.
Alrighty, later!!!!

South African Glossary

So South Africa is an English speaking country (although they actually have 11 national languages) but of course they have their slang or common phrases like anywhere else. Here's some of them...:

Arvie - short for 'afternoon'Baai - Afrikaans for 'Bay', as in Gansbaai (Goose Bay)
Bakkie - A pick up truck with an open back or canopy.
Berg - Mountain
Bergie -A vagrant that lives on the slopes of Table Mountain
Biltong - Very tasty sun-dried strips of spiced meat available in beef, kudu, springbok, ostrich etc
Boerekos - Describes Afrikaans farm food which typically cosists of meat and vegetables cooked using large quantities of sugar and butter, not good for a diet!
Boerewors - Spicy coils of coarse sausage, common fare at most braais!Braai - A South African BBQ, and probably more central to South African culture than the BBQ is to Australians!
Bredie - Meat & vegetable stew
Cape Doctor - The strong south easterly wind that blows warm air from False Bay over Table Mountain to form the famous 'Tablecloth'
Cape Dutch - White-washed, Gabled style of architecture from the 19th Century, fine examples of which can be seen around Cape Town and the Cape Winelands
Circle - A roundabout
Dagga - Marijuana
Dankie - Afrikaans for 'Thank you'
Dassie - The Hyrax, a rabbit sized rodent common on Table Mountain which is the closest living relative of the elephant!
Dof - A derogatory term that describes someone who is a little dim-witted
Dorp - A small town or village
Drankwinkel - A liquor shop
Egoli - The Zulu name for Johannesburg hich means 'city of gold'
Fynbos - Meaning 'fine-leaved bush' and refers to the unique variety of Proteas, ericas and grasses found in the Cape Peninsula's Floral Kingdom
Geen ingang - No entry
Gevaar - Danger
Howzit! - A common greeting which can mean 'How are you?'. 'How are things?', 'What's up!' and so on!
Ingang - Entry
Is it? - Confusing for non-South Africans as this is a common reply to many sentences which means 'really!?'
Jol - A party or a good time on the town!
Just now - If someone tells you they will be with you 'just now', they actually mean 'in a while'!
Karoo - Arid, desert like plateau that occupies a large proportion of South Africa's interior
Kerk - Church
Kloof - A ravine or gorge
Koeksister - A very syrupy deep-fried plaited doughnut, delicious!
Koppie - A small hill
Kraal - An enclosure of huts
Lekker - Great, really good, as in 'thanks for a lekker braai!'
Links - Left
Lughawe - Airport
Mealie - Maize
Naartjie - A tangarine
Nek - A saddle between two mountains
Nkosi Sikelel 'i Afrika - 'God bless Africa' The national anthem of South Africa
Now now - When someone tells you they will be with you 'now now', they do mean to be with you as soon as they can! See Just now above
Plakkies - Flip-flops
Poskantoor - Post Office
Protea - The national flower of South Africa
Regs - Right
Robot - A traffic light
Rondavel - A circular building based on traditional African huts
Rooibos - 'Red bush', an indigenous herbal tea that is low in tannins and is reputed to have medicinal properties
Sentrum - CentreSingel -
Crescent Snoek - Large white-fleshed fish common in local waters and recipes
Stad - City, as in Kaap Stad (Cape Town)
Stasie - Station
Stoep - A verandah
Straat - Street
Strand - Beach
Tackies - Training shoes, sneakers or plimsolls
Toegang - Admission
Verbode - Prohibited
Verkeer - Traffic
Vlei - Lake, wetland, swamp or valley
Weg - Way or road

I bought the ticket!!!!!!!!!

Magically today when I went to look for tickets there was a price & itinerary that weren't there yesterday!! It happily meets in the middle on everything.

The price was $1900, so more than the cheapest but less than the expensive. The total time traveled is 28 hours, and gets me there on Sunday instead of Monday, no long layovers anywhere and a ton of different airports. Which normally I like direct flights, but with this I wanted a lot of different changes so I was never trapped anywhere too long!

I'm a happy camper. I'm sure a better price could have rolled around if I waited...but I prefer to just have the peace of mind knowing it's all taken care of. Although it's a little scary as well...now I'm REALLY going, and that's a chunk of change to drop on just getting somewhere.

So that's it... I'll be leaving Saturday, June 7th at 7 a.m. (stopping in Atlanta, Dakar, and Johannesburg before getting to Cape Town!)

I'll head back on Monday, July 21st at 5:45 p.m. (stopping in Dakar, New York, and then Phoenix!!)

Now I need to hurry up and wait... it's 4 months to the day by the way... :) Lucky 7?!

Travel Arrangements ?!?!

Ok, so what would you do??

So I'm looking at plane tickets to South Africa and don't know really what to do...here's the ups & downs of the tix I'm looking at. What do you think? The overall total travel time is only 4 hours less with the more expensive ticket, BUT I get there almost a whole day sooner...I'm torn between getting there sooner/quicker and saving $600. And I'm worried about my mental ability to have a 9 hour layover, and then sit on TWO 8+ hour flights in a row....

1-- $1479, arrive in CPT 3:55 p.m. on Monday
Good: Cheap
Bad: 9 hour layover at JFk
TOTAL travel time: 32 hour 20 min


2-- $2139, arrive in CPT 8:15 p.m. on Sunday
Good: arriving Sunday, no long layovers, shorter total travel time
Bad: cost about $600 more
TOTAL travel time: 28 hr 10 min.

I went and got my passport photos done, I have an appointment to actually do the passport paperwork next week, I made the appointment for my immunizations...looks like it's really happening!!

Hola!
I'm just so excited. I have a lot to be looking forward to. On the small side, we have a day off school in a couple weeks, then Spring Break. On the big side, fundraising has already started off with a bang for the century ride and I have a lot of ideas right now on how to raise a good amount of money. I'm pumped to get started on those and and start training this coming weekend. Which means this week I need to get a road bike and whatever equipment I need.

Another big side, the trip to South Africa. I have gone back and forth about if I should wait one more year or stick to the plan and go this year and all of that. Right now it's looking like this year is a go. So last night I could hardly sleep because I was on the internet finding all the things I want to be sure and do while I'm there. Super fun, very exciting stuff. You will finally have something interesting to read about!

I've been looking around for grad schools for a couple years from now. The one that looks like the one I would most like is in Chicago. Which is great because I'd be back close to everyone. BUT it's cold there! That's the first time I kind of realized I don't know if I want to go back to cold weather. It's so nice here to be able to ride your bike in January and just be outside...might have to try & find a school around here. The problem is that I think it's going to be so hard to get into the field I want to get into. At least, I think I'll have to start at the bottom (a.k.a make NO money) and work my way up...I just don't know where to start with all of that. I think I would like to get into international aid/relief/development, whatever you want to call it. All the jobs I see obviously call for years of experience in program development and/or supervising and all this stuff, but of course at the same time, even the local jobs of that nature call for experience...so it always comes back to that question of how do you get experience if everything requires experience?? I dunno. I'll just keep trying to get into some volunteer work and meet people and everything and see where I end up...

Hello everyone!! I’m so excited (and a little scared!) to be posting this (and you might be just as scared to be reading it!!) I have committed once again to training for a crazy endurance event and raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I got through the Los Angeles Marathon last year and just this month I finished a ½ marathon in Phoenix with Team In Training. This time around I will be training for America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride on June 1st. Sounds great right? This is a 100 mile bike ride at Lake Tahoe!! AHH! I have also increased my goal to raise $5,000 this time. Why do you ask? Because we have not cured blood cancers yet! Here are some scary facts for you to consider:

• An estimated 747,465 Americans have blood cancers.
• Every 5 minutes, someone is diagnosed.
• Every 10 minutes someone dies from blood cancers
• This year 35,070 people will be diagnosed with leukemia
• Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under 20

There have been some amazing breakthroughs with medications which take some forms of leukemia from being a death sentence, to being a chronic disease. This has been made possible by the support and research provided by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and more importantly, by donations from YOU! There is still so much to be done by all of us, which is why I am asking you to donate generously to this amazing cause! As you know, everything you donate is tax deductible, 75% of every dollar goes directly to the mission of patient care and research (which is working!!)
Please follow the link below to make your donation. I greatly appreciate it, as do the millions fighting blood cancers right now!! Thanks in advance everyone!

http://www.active.com/donate/tntdms/chelsbels

If you would rather write a check, you can make it to “The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society” and ask me for my address :)

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

**Pass this along to everyone you know they can help in finding a cure too!

No News

Hey All! Not much to say really. I was going to write a blog last week about something, and now I have no idea what that would have been about...

Let's see...last weekend was a 3 day weekend...but what the hell did I do? Saturday me & Jeff went to an information meeting about the Century Ride, so I'm 99% sure we're going to be doing that. There's only a sliver of a doubt because it's a big fundraising amount we need to get, $4200! So Jeff & I talked about working on that together thinking maybe it'd be easier to raise that much.

What else? This weekend was a really quiet weekend. Some people came over Friday night. Yesterday Ivan & I put a deposit on some furniture! Yes we're growing up and slowing down the moving pace by buying furniture. We just put it on layaway until our lease is up; we're thinking about moving into a house in July, so if we do that we'll just have the furniture moved straight into a house, and if we don't, then the rented furniture can be picked up and the new stuff moved here. The couch is AMAZING! haha It's a big L shaped one, and the pillows and cusions are filled with down! Oh it's so cozy. And the ottoman is gigantic. We love big ottomans...does that sound weird? Anyway, we're excited. And it would be exciting to live in a house too. (With a pool of course!)

Work's good. No news there really. I told my company I want to stay with this district, assuming they still need a contract next year. Which I have no doubts that they will. It's a growing district and I'm sure some of the contractors, at least 1 I think, won't be back next year. We'll see. Worst case scenario is that I have to work in a nearby district. Obviously I hope that's not the case, but I'm used to change so it won't be the end of the world.

I think I can say that Charlie is officially housetrained and it happened really quickly. In the 3 weeks we've doing this hardcore she's only had 1 accident. It's pretty nice actually.

So I guess not much more to say. I'm excited for people to start visiting-- Breigh is coming in a couple weeks (Breigh who I worked with in California), my parents will be here in early March, Becky is coming at the end of March for a weekend, and my penpal Cathy is coming the first week of June. Then I will be heading home for a couple weeks. I'm just really excited for summer!!! I'm going to be able to take the smmer off for the first time and I am just SOOOOO excited to do nothing, or whatever I want!! I've been thinking about taking golf lessons. There is a place where I can get 6 lessons for $250, I'd pay that. I'd like to just take some lessons and see if it's something I could get into. I mean we live in a place where you can golf year round and there are millions of golf courses so I figure I should try it out. There's also cheap tennis lessons at the courts near us, thought that would be fun too. I've played before but taking lessons would be fun and a good way to meet people too.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just enjoying a rainy day watching movies in bed. Ivan is volunteering at a Super Bowl event all day. Later.

Heath Ledger

Is it weird that I am that upset about someone dying who I don't know personally? Because I am genuinely upset and disturbed by him dying. I was a huge fan of his...in fact years ago I swore I was going to name my kids Heath & Gabriel (Gabriel after his character in The Patriot). I think it's just so sad I guess because he's so young, talented, and has a young child. I dunno. And I keep reading all the updates about the stories rolling in, they had a press release from his family, and they had talked to Michelle Williams (ex, and mother of the child) and ya know, everyone is just distraught obviously. They did say he'd had pneumonia and trouble sleeping, and it was ruled accidental. I guess that's why it's so sad, he wasn't trying to do this. Can you imagine? Just so sad.

Pics from the 1/2

Just follow this link if you want to see pics from the 1/2 marathon. You can search by my last name or by bib #45145.

http://www.asiorders.com/view_event.asp?EVENTID=29137

Enjoy!

1/2 Marathon Finisher!

Whew, no getting scooped up in a van for me :) Sunday was the 1/2 marathon in Phoenix which I "trained" for with Team In Training again, this time as a mentor. Which is why I wasn't filling up your inboxes begging for money! As a mentor, you have the option of not fundraising, I think it's every other season. So you got this season off everyone, but just wait until my next one, I'll expect some donations again, although I'll try not get mean about it this time :) haha

So anyway, Saturday night was the pasta party where we all go carb load and listen to people make us cry. You get the standard motivational person, and then we get a survivor, or someone still in treatment telling us all these crazy things, all the while making you feel wonderful and horrible. Walking into the dinner is the "red carpet" where all the coaches, coordinators, and mentors make all this noise & cheer & blow whistles in your face and all this stuff. This year I was doing the cheering. I remember last year being a bit traumatized because you don't know it's coming and it's so loud, and so many people, and you just want to cry a little bit! So it was kinda of fun to watch it happen to other people! haha

They had some crazy numbers to tell us too. Let's see if I can remember--this year is TNT's 20th anniversary...in that 20 years, there have been over 340,000 participants just like me, who have raised..............$800,000 million dollars for research!!! Can you believe that number? Wow! I'm trying to remember some of the other things they said...something like 61% of money used to go directly to research, now it's 95%!! Anyway, there were some crazy numbers, to be VERY proud of, but there is still so much work to be done. There's no cure!!! Although there has been wonderful progress with the medication, Gleevac, which these people will have to take everyday for the rest of their lives, and within I think 10 years or less they hope to have like 11 more medications available...(Still no cure you guys!)

Anyway, the race itself was good. A nice flat course, perfect 65 degree weather, a band at every mile, plenty of sports drinks & water offered along the way. Can't really complain. The miles seemed to just tick by...until like mile 9 that is. Then they got a little slower...but I'm only having minor aches & pains, nothing too major. I finished in just at 4 hours, since I walked the whole thing, which I'm content with.

This whole season was a weird one for me. I feel like I wasn't committed for some reason. I think because I came into the season late maybe?? Anyway, as every race, pasta party, or any TNT event will do, it reminds me of why I sign up in the first place. And I'm completely re motivated. So, I still have visions of the triple crown (which means I need to complete a 100 mile bike ride and a triathlon!), and a Hike (they have a newer program called Hike For Discovery), and I really want to get up to the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, which is a TNT event (and there are SF firemen in tuxes waiting at the finish line with Tiffany necklaces!) AND there is a completely non-TNT related goal that would be so cool to accomplish-- there are a series of 1/2 & full marathons across the country called the "Rock-n-Roll" series (this one in Phoenix was one of them) and they have different medals for completing the races-- for example, you get a 26.2 rock star medal for a full or two halves, a 39.3 medal for a full & half or 3 halves, and so on, a gold musical note for completing back to back marathons in 5 weeks! (WOW!), and if you do at least 5 of their races (all of this in the same calendar year) you get a GIANT gold medal that says "ROCK STAR" on it. It's just amazing. There is a guy on our team this year who did this and we saw all his medals, which were awesome.

So I've got some decisions to make...what do I do first??? I need a break...I need my Saturdays to sleep in on for awhile, but I don't know what to do first. Obviously there's no rush, these events will be here for years and years...but what to do......

P.S.-- I'll need your help :)

Back to Life, bah!

So it's back to life as usual now.

I flew back to AZ on Wednesday the 2nd, with an hour delay in Denver, 40 minutes of sitting on a non-moving plane, and then only to land to find my luggage didn't make the trip with me!!! Finally got back to Surprise at about 2 a.m. My luggage, although torn open!, was delivered to me about 6 o'clock Thursday evening.

On Thursday Ivan took the day off work to hang out with me. We went out to lunch (Red Robin is wonderful) and to the movies to see Juno, which was good. A funny, witty movie about teen pregnancy...because teen pregnancy is so funny right? haha

Friday I rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned the heck out of our carpet. See....when we got Charlie, we got lazy. My intention was for Lucy to housetrain Charlie. I thought she might just pick up on what Lucy was doing...for everyone's reference: this is not the case. One well trained dog will not teach another dog to pee on a pad. So it's time to step in and give Lucy a break. So anyway, I cleaned the carpet and we've been taking them outside to pee like every 2 hours, while watching Charlie like a hawk. It's been 6 days and we've had only one occurrence of peeing on the carpet, which she was locked up for awhile for that one. I just hope she gets it eventually. Right now she's just not getting the opportunity to pee on the carpet, but I hope it actually clicks with her to NOT pee on the carpet, by choice that is :) We'll see.

What else...Saturday I had my last practice before the half-marathon... I'm sooo not ready. But oh well. I've done it before, I'll do it again, and if I'm so slow I get scooped up in a van and carried to the finish line, I actually won't really care! I've got nothing left to prove to myself and I just didn't put any effort really into training this season. So, I'm ready for it just be over with I guess.

That day I also did a little shopping with my gift cards and got a shelf, and a wall hanging. Nice little additions to the place I think. That night was Johnathan's birthday so we played this card game called "Skit Skat." Which was super fun. And drank of course. Drank too much. And Jeff came back from visiting people in Utah & Vegas. I ended up in bed sick most of Sunday. Why this always happens to me I don't know! Ok, I do know why, but I swear I always think I've stopped in time and I never do apparently.

Back to work on Monday. Which I sat there thinking...is there anyway at all that I can work part time? I really don't want to go back to work! So on the one hand it's nice to be back in a routine and everything, and on the other I could have used about another week off work! I'm so looking forward to this summer. The plan is to actually take the summer off. 12 whole weeks! Can you imagine? I would think maybe I'd be ready to get back to work then right...? We'll see. The most I've ever had off at one time was 6 weeks. Which was nice, but sucked because I hadn't planned for 6 weeks. This will be different because I'm planning on no income. Or at least very little income. I might see some home kids. At this moment I'm thinking I wouldn't want to see more than 5. Which means I could work like 1 hour a day, or 1 day a week, or just 2 days a week each day a couple of hours. Sounds magical to me. haha

This week some mutual friends of Johnathan & mine are coming to visit. Although it's a horrible weekend because I'll be busy with Team In Training and the marathon & all of that jazz. They are going to Vegas on Saturday night, which is probably good so I don't have the distractions before the race and be tempted to like drink all night and skip the race all together. hah....not a bad idea necessarily :)

So I guess that's about it... I've probably wasted enough time and should do some work...huh?

Snow snow everywhere!

It's snowing! I haven't really seen snow in like 3 years because whenever I am home it doesn't really snow...and right now it is snowing like nobody's business. It's pretty. However, it started snowing while I was driving in Bloomington. I really didn't know if I should drive slow, was it slick? I couldn't remember. But everyone else on the roads started driving like snails imediately. So I did too. I think they were being a little over precautious, but I also thought it wouldn't be good to be cocky and end up in the ditch either. Now the wind is picking up too!

So anyway, my trip home ends in a couple of days. This has been my laziest trip home ever! I saw almost everyone I normally see, just not as much as usual. I was content just sitting at home, being on vacation, and just taking a break from everything. Is that bad? Oh well. Tonight I'm opting to hang with my family and play board games instead of drinking..I need a break from drinking! I've only drank a couple times while I was home, so it's more like I need a break from it because of all the drinking & late hours in Arizona. Maybe that's the difference. When I would come home to visit from California I was socially starved, and now when I come home from Arizona I want a break from being social!!

So, yet again, I've been thinking a lot about South Africa. I go so much back and forth about this-- about whether I should go this year or wait until next year. On the one hand I've been waiting long enough I think. On the other, I know how good I will feel if I pay off all my debt! I dunno. I'm just going to have to wait & see how the saving/bill paying goes. Seems like I write about this all the time, but it's always on my mind. So today I woke up and thought, well if everything is going well and I decide to go, I need a passport. My plan was to get a passport today. Which I didn't. The post office closed early & Walgreens was going to take forever to get a picture done. I might try again on Wednesday. Besides, you need them for even going to Mexico now, so I should just have one.

Well anyway, as I was looking through my 'memory box' to get my birth certificate I looked through all my stuff from my internship in Florida...what a great time that was! It just made me think I needed to get to South Africa even quicker though! Who freakin' knows. I'm so wishy washy. I know I want to go and will go, I just can't figure out when. AHH!

2008 is Gonna Be Great

Yes, yes 2008 is gonna be great! 2007 wasn't a bad year by any means, but I really feel good about 2008. Ivan & I have finally got our money under control, are making headway, and have big plans. Our first year out of college we moved to California and lived like we were on a year long vacation. Our second year in California we got rid of credit cards and struggled for a long while to recover from our 6 weeks off work... we didn't plan well enough for that 'summer break' because I didn't expect it to be that long. And adjusting to living with only the money you make is well, it's really hard. This year in Arizona things have been so much better! It was a rocky start because I had a lot of car troubles but being able to pay for those in cash without any real difficulties is pretty awesome in itself. So, we are now firmly on our feet, 'off' credit cards (because yes, I would say we, as most people are, were addicted, or at the very least dependant on them for some time), and paying off bills, BIG TIME! Financially, 2008 is going to be OUR year!!

So I am just going to look at what I'd like to improve upon in 2008. I refuse to call them resolutions. I don't plan to just magically change my life 3 days from now. These are things I want to change, work towards, learn more about etc. in 2008. And I am completely confident that I will.

1. Obviously number 1 is to pay off old debt and majorly save some money. This should be no problem at all if I just focus. And hell, even if I don't focus 100%, this should still be very feasible now that the holidays are over, I have started my second job, credit cards are out, we already 'binged' on our new TV's and entertainment center, and we're ready to committ to our financial goals. I'm super psyched about this. And it helps that I am at home right now and everywhere I turn everyone is obsessed with Dave Ramsy, this financial guru, and they appear to be doing very well. Anyway, it's great motivation and I really have no excuses left. This is OUR year.

2. As usual I need to get my health in check. I have been on a yo yo weight thing for years and once again I have packed on some pounds. I just need to get more active. I need to find something I enjoy. Ivan just bought me a bike so I do think that will help. I'm not saying I'm going to lose a ton of weight or anything like that, I just need to put more effort into being active and healthy (and ENJOYING being active and healthy).

3. I want to learn more about Buddhism...am I going to be a "Buddhist?" Doubtful! But I think the Buddhist way of life is something that anyone should be trying to live. I think it's a positive way of life...and at the very least, I just want to learn about it. Even more than that I just want to focus on positive thinking. I have 2 Buddhist books right now I'm reading so I can see what it's really all about. I even found a Buddhist group in Surprise. I'm scared of it though...We'll see. Like I said, I just want to learn about it. ***And for those of you worrying and questioning this, I'd just like to lay out the disclaimer that Buddhism really IS NOT a religion.

Those are my biggies for 08, finances, health, and positive thinking. Can't hurt anyone.

My goal had been to get to South Africa this year and I don't know if that is going to happen or not. Seeing as how I'm trying to eliminate my old debt I think I should do that first and next year be able to go to South Africa with complete financial freedom! haha On the other hand I SOOOOO want to go and talk South Africa into the living right & positive thinking category very easily. We shall see. Maybe money will be amazingingly great... :) haha...

Anyway, I'm very excited about 2008 and am sure it will be a fantastic year!

Checked Out!

Dude I am so checked out! I'm at work and I cannot focus on anything. I don't have many kids on Friday mornings anyway, and they are only in school a half day today, so it's going to be a long day! Yes, I have stuff I need to do. But I'm so tired, and just checked out! I'm ready for a break from work. I'm ready to come home. Mostly I am just ready to be done for today!! SOOOOO Ready!!!!!!!!

Our New Entertainment Center

So this was long overdue. This weekend I finally got an entertainment center. Before our stuff was just sitting on a coffee table and just looked sloppy!! I'm so happy! Next we need somewhere else to put the computer. This'll do for now though.

Me & my bike!!

I Am Legend

So, I started my second job, and it's good. At the moment I'm just seeing one kid because I have to wait for more information on the other kids. I have to tell you though, I am not really looking forward to more kids ya know? Ah well. It won't kill me.

Ivan gave me my Christmas present Friday...well he was going to give it to me Friday and then I walked in while he was hiding it and so I got it a few hours early :) He got me a bike!! I've been wanting one and he got me a better one than I would have bought myself. So it's a beach cruiser---think old school looking bike with a big seat, fenders, and it's all pink. I'm so excited! When I got it I felt like I was 5 years old again. It was awesome.
Friday night we had a Christmas party at my coworkers house, Karen & Bob. Karen is a hearing impaired teacher that I share an office with and Bob is the school psychologist at my school. It was a good time. Our first adult party I guess. Bob, Karen, their kids, and a lot of the friends are musical, so they sang & played the guitar & drums all night. They were good too. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday morning I had to get up for practice. This week was the longest practice of the season before we taper down, 20 miles for the people doing the full marathon, and 10 miles for the people doing the half marathon. I didn't run, instead I hlped set up the fuel stations (orange slices, PB&J, gatorade) and cheer everyone else on. It was fun because it wasn't just our team, we practiced with the East Valley as well. I met the director for Team in Training here who also was the cycle coach for 6 years. She just about has me convinced to sign up for the century ride, which is a 100 mile bike ride. Eventually I'd like to do the century ride & a triathlon with them to earn the "triple crown" award. So, we'll see :)

All day Saturday Ivan was in a charity golf tournament (which his team placed 2nd by the way) so I went out to lunch with Jeff & his girlfriend Janice who was in town from Vegas. Then we went & saw "I Am Legend." Which I thought was awesome!!! It's weird because all the guys (Jeff, Johnathan & our neighbor Jared) didn't like it nearly as well as me & Janice did. Either way, it was good, and worth seeing. Not to mention, Will Smith is getting better & better looking the older he gets, and his body is outta control!!!

I'll be home in a week, on the 23rd!! YAY! See ya soon!

New Tattoo!

Hey there! Been awhile I guess. Let's re-cap.

I'm starting my second job doing home therapy this week. Right now I'm starting with just two kids. I'm scared! These kids might be more severe that I've been working with, probably more work!, and having the parents there can be an added stress you know? Normally I don't care but when I'm getting to know a child then yes, I would rather work with them one on one to get to know them. Oh well. I will survive. And the money will be nice too.

I'll be home in 3 weeks! I can't believe Christmas is only 3 weeks away. It's gone soooo fast. Time is just flying.

Ivan & I went and looked at furniture so I think we might be buying our own before next year! (you know my furniture is provided right now through the travel company). It's pretty dang exciting actually.
And now the fun stuff. Holly came out to visit for the weekend. We had such a great time. It was so nice to have a girl around! And someone from home! Friday night we went out to dinner and then just drank here with Katie from downstairs. Saturday we went & got tattoos!!! It was a good time. I've wanted another one for like two years so I finally got it. It's another small one on my left wrist. The definition/description is:

"The home to the Akan is a special place. A home which has a fence around it is considered to be an ideal residence.The fence symbolically separates and secures the family from the outside. Because of the security and the protection that a fence affords, the symbol is also associated with the security and safety one finds in love."

I'm very happy with it. Holly's is pretty awesome. It's a good sized one but the picture makes it look bigger than it really is. So that was super fun.

That night we went out for eat & drinks at the Yard House, which as usually was flipping fabulous. The food was awesome and they make a bomb ass appletini!!!

After that we went to this bar in Surprise called Coyote Alley. We danced there all night. I have not danced in forever! It was so much fun and like old times.

This morning Holly had requested Jeff's french toast since I talked it up so much. (It is almost a religious experience I think...haha...I asked Holly if for her first time she would like to be along with the french toast :)
Then it was time for Holly to go. It was so good to have here here! And next time she will come for longer!!

So I guess that's it. Head over to my pics to check out the tats.
Later

My Boys

So I ended up not going with Ivan to L.A. nor did I go to Vegas with Johnathan & Jeff. It just wasn't a good weekend for me to do either thing. I do however want to go to Vegas sometime in the near future. Ivan & I had already decided we wanted to go once we got our tax returns so we could do it right, although I suppose there is still a possibility of going before then.

So I was really looking forward to my time alone. This might sound crazy...but I really needed to clean the carpet! Yes I could have done this when the boys were here but it was easier with them gone. Plus when they are here I just chill with them instead of doing what I need to do. Plus, I don't really like cleaning with people just watching me when they could be helping!! Anyway, I feel so much better now that the carpet is clean :) And I've been listening to the radio station I want to listen to! Watching the TV I want to. Playing the Wii games I want to. I also went shopping, when I wanted to :) Ate lunch when & where I wanted to. Didn't have to consult with someone or think I should probably pick something up for anyone else! Then I went to the movies (yes you guessed it, when & what I wanted to!) I finally saw The Comebacks. Overall it was ok, but my main focus was on the audience scenes. Of course I didn't see us or anything but it was still cool. I also rented some movies that I want to see. So it's been good.

And now I'm ready for the boys to get home!! I have enjoyed myself, but now I miss them :) I've talked to Ivan a few times. He went out last night in Rancho Cucamonga, where we lived our first year in CA! I bet that was fun. I've talked to Johnathan several times--- he's super drunk, so every time he calls he tells me that repeatedly :) They are having a good time too. He keeps telling me I missed out... but they were doing this scavenger hunt, which I do bet was awesome, but you have to drink a ton in it and I really don't think I could hang! Really! Ah well, I will be going soon :)
Alrighty well I will get going. Gonna watch my movies ad the boys will be back tomorrow!!

Vegas, no Vegas, Vegas, No Vegas...

Hey all! So before I get to this coming weekend let me re-cap.
Last weekend we didn't do much really. I fell asleep at 8:30 Friday night. Which I think I needed, obviously. Saturday morning I had marathon practice. That is going ok too. Jeff made us his fantastic french toast that morning. Good God that stuff is amazing. That night he made ranch burgers (again, AMAZING!) and then people came over to hang out. But I had a headache and fell asleep at like 10:30. Sunday....nothing eventful again. I had Monday off work because of Veteran's Day. Went to breakfast with Jeff & the kids, then worked on my homework and played the Wii all day. Like I said, very uneventful.

So this coming weekend I have a decision to make. Ivan will be going to L.A. for a conference so I could go with him, hang out with Cali friends or just go to the beach or something while he's at the conference. That night one of our friends is having a pre-Thanksgiving party in Malibu so then we'd go to that and come home on Sunday.

OR, Jeff is seeing this girl in Vegas so he is going there this weekend and asked if Johnathan & I would like to go with him. At first I was all excited but now I'm starting to think it would be kinda nice to have the place to myself and get some things done while Ivan, Johnathan & Jeff are all out of town. Just me & the dogs. I dunno. I figure if Jeff keeps seeing this girl I will have plenty of opportunities to go to Vegas with a place to stay you know? Plus, they are all doing this scavenger hunt and they already have all the team members, so if I went I wouldn't even be doing that. I would be hanging out in a casino or something by myself. Which don't get me wrong, could be a ton of fun! But I'm thinking why not just wait and go again when we can all hang out you know? Plus I'd have to do something with the dogs. They would probably be okay for two nights by themselves but I would feel bad anyway.

I dunno. Obviously Vegas would be a ton of fun. And Ivan has some co-workers going with him to CA so I don't really wanna go if they are going just because I haven't met them before and I just would rather not.
So that's that. I'm going to be buying my plane ticket home for Christmas this week. I will be flying in on either the 22nd or 23rd and leaving back to AZ on Jan 2nd. I'm excited! Seems like it has been awhile I guess.
Alright, I need to make some scotcharoo's for bowling tonight. A friend of ours on another team always brings snacks and stuff and I promised I'd bring something this week so she is taking the week off. YUM!

Picture Updates!

Here's some pictures of Charlie's haircut & the pumkpins we carved:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5ZLQ


The weekend before last we had a bunch of people over to party at that was a good time as always. Here are pics from that:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5ZKU

Saturday night we had a Halloween party with the usuals. It was a great time!! We made punch...it had 3 bottles of flavored Vodka in it, with orange juice and a splash of Sprite (YUM!) Here's pics:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5ZJY

Not much else going on. Enjoy the pictures!

This Week

Hey! So not much new going on lately. Chuck (oh yeah, we call Charlie Chuck most of the time now) got her first real haircut and it's adorable, and I love it! Let's see, last week seemed really busy but I can't think why right now. Tuesday night at bowling we won all our games!! That has never happened before. We have only won one game before that night so that was awesome. I got a turkey in the 10th frame too so that was cool...

Thursday night Jeff got hockey tickets through his school so him & his kids, Ivan, me, Johnathan & Katie all went to the Phoenix Coyotes hockey game. It was fun. I could really get into hockey I think because it's so fast paced and it's kinda cool to seem them fight all the time too! haha
Friday night all the neighbors came over which as usual was a great time. I'll post some pictures of that. Unfortunately I had to spend all day Saturday recovering. It was bad. I was in bed until about 2:30, moved to the couch but was still sick. Then last night me & Ivan, Johnathan & Katie all went out to eat. We rented "Fantastic 4" (the second one) and "1408." Which I was a little disappointed with but oh well.

Today it's like super windy here so we opened up all the windows in ours & Jeff's apartment and his door and our door, put the gate up at the top of our stairs and just let the dogs run back and forth. I sat on the patio between our apts. pretty much all day, the guys were back and forth watching football. It was fun. Here in a minute we're gonna carve pumpkins. I'll post pics of that too.

So that's about it. Talk soon!

Hola!

Hey! So, another new & exciting venture. I will be starting a second job here in the next couple of weeks. I'll be contracting through a company providing therapy to children in their homes. The company will send me info about a child and then I will basically call up the parents and set up a time to come see them. I'm pretty excited about it. At first I was like...why are you doing this to yourself? Now is really not the time to get a second job, but I really don't see it so much as a job, although it does pay very well, which is a bonus. I think it will be fun and it will be so nice to see kids in their homes. Working in the schools you only see so much of what the kid's life is about, you don't get the opportunity to have contact with the parents sometimes but like once a year, and sometimes the relationship is hard anyway because the parents aren't always happy with the school system. I've always been jealous of home therapists when we're all sitting in meetings together because the parents always love them more! haha I think I'll get more of a chance to really do what I want to do with a little less restraints and things. We'll see, who knows, I might be complaining about it soon! But I will be starting slow and only picking up one or two kids, which is just a couple hours a week. Hopefully it'll be good. Plus I'm just trying to plan ahead to what I'm going to do this summer, and so I will be able to pick up more kids then and still have a lot of time to myself.

What else...tomorrow is Ivan's birthday!! The big 2-5. He's flying home for a long weekend to celebrate and go to Illinois College's homecoming. He hasn't been home since last summer so he's due for a visit. It'll be weird to have him gone but I have a lot to do so it's probably for the best.

Team In Training is going well. I have 14 mentees now!! So that's fun. Each week I just send them an email or phone call to see how things are going. The thing that is really different from my team in L.A is that there are a lot of people here who don't come to practices, they just train on their own. I'm really trying to get them out to practice though because to me that's the best part, obviously aside from curing cancer :)

What else...class is good. My 4th class just started this week. It goes so fast. They're a lot of work though but I've got it down to more of a pattern now so it's easier and I know what to expect. Every week there is typically an individual paper due and in each 5 week class there is also usually 2-3 team projects. I do great working with the team, which at first I didn't like the team projects, but I always leave my individual stuff to the last minute and scramble. Oh well.

I still haven't heard anything about a refugee family because there are more volunteers than refugees available. Which at this point is FINE! I'm thinking even if they do call I will have to tell them to move me to the bottom of the list until TNT is done in January. I know my limits! I really want to do it but I'll wait.

I guess not much else to say. Still having an awesome time here and everything. I had Monday off work so Sunday night was a drunken fest with our neighbor who also had Monday off for Columbus day. We were up until 4:30 a.m drinking and playing the Wii---we decided we better stop when we heard Ivan getting up for work! haha Good times though.

Oh yeah, reading a new, fabulous book-- it was featured on Oprah-- "Eat Pray Love." I love it!!!!!!!! Go get it.

My poor car...

Remember how I said it was making a very unhealthy noise? Well then last week it just wouldn't start a few different times I tried. Turns out my car is a lot sicker than I thought. I took it in on Friday and the guy called me with a list a mile long of things my car needed. He prioritized it for me because there is just no way I could afford everything. So, last week I got a new starter and belts (hefty chunk-o-change!) Friday we're going back for new breaks and break fluid (yet another, although not quite as hefty-chunk-o-change). And then there will be a list of "small" things that I can survive without but need to be done. Poor thing. Oh yeah, poor me too :) And poor Lucy! She needs her shots and they keep getting pushed off because random expenses like this keep coming up. Ah well. Soon, I see the light very soon...although if you ever feel like donating to a worthy cause (my car & Lucy's health :) feel free! haha We were joking that we should have a kegger or something to raise money for my car...but we don't know enough people to really make that worth it, but it would be a dang good time. I should be happy though because my car is a '96 and I've never had to put any money into it except tires and oil changes. So hopefully after this it'll last me as long as I need it to. Which would be...hmmm...maybe until '09 when the Prius comes out that gets 99 miles per gallon!! Does everyone get as excited about good gas mileage as I do? Probably not.

What else...this weekend we didn't do much, and you can expect to hear that for awhile until the car expenses are taken care of :) Jeff & the kids came over and made us french toast & bacon. Can I just say this was the best french toast I've ever had in my life!! I'm not even a fan of french toast really but this was heavenly. So good. Last night he shared stroganoff with us too, yum! Jeff says he likes to cook for people, and well, we like to eat...so it all works out. We agreed he should just give us a grocery list and then he can just make dinner every night. Totally fine with me. While we're on the subject, when we grilled out with him a few weeks ago, he made ranch burgers-- I guess you just put a packet of ranch mixed in with the hamburger...unbelievable! Try it.

So aside from food...not much else to say I guess. Just keeping busy with TNT and school work. I'm coming into the last week of my 3rd class. They're going fast!! YAY!

Not Much Up

Hey there! Not much to say I guess but I felt like I should say something...um, my car is making some very weird noises. It has been for awhile and today they have multiplied a lot...I think it has something to do with my breaks. Whatever it is it's very unhealthy sounding.

I finally got some mentees with TNT. I was supposed to just get any new people, well then something fell through with one of the other mentors so I just got all of her mentees. I'm excited though. We went to a TNT fundraiser the other night-- me, Ivan, Johnathan & our neighbors Katie & Jeff. (Also our bowling team) I really need to get some pics up of these people so you all can put a face with a name. Anyway, it was a poker fundraiser, Jeff won. He's like a poker fiend or something.

The weather this last few days has been amazing. Only the low 90's, which actually feels cool. Kinda like fall weather really. It's amazing I guess how fast your body adjusts to the heat. The other day I was going to take the dogs to the park but I wondered if it was too hot out, Ivan said "It's only 101" I was like oh, well let's go then...at home we'd have died!

Speaking of Ivan, he's involved in a new business venture with his mom. It's something called "Your Travel Business." Basically if you buy your plane tickets, book hotels, anything like that, through his website he makes money off it, and the prices are pretty much the same as Travelocity. So keep that in mind if you're ever booking in the future. The website is www.ytb.com/nicholsi

Alrighty, well I guess that's all. Talk to you later

Charlie's Hairdo

So I took Charlie to get her hair cut and they told me on her first time they won't do anything major because they just want to break her in, they just cleaned up her face, tummy, and booty for her first time. So here's a pic in case anyone was wondering what her face actually looked like :)

Doesn't the one look like Charlie is telling Lucy something funny and Lucy's cracking up or surprised??! She's like "Oh my God!"

Charlie's first trip to the dog park...

Charlie made her first trip to the dog park Saturday. Unfortunately only Charlie, Lucy & I were there :( It was exciting because she got to run but not meet any other dogs.

So we went back tonight and there were tons of dogs! At first she just sat under my feet so I got up & walked around and she followed me everywhere and eventually ran around. Whenever she would see Lucy she'd run for her but most of the time Lucy was too busy playing with other dogs. This was one of the first times she's really been around other dogs besides Lucy. Overall she did really well. I was worried she'd snap but I think she's come out of her shell quite a bit being around Lucy.

She goes to get her first haircut tomorrow! I'll post pictures, I'm thinking it will be funny.

TNT I'm back!

I decided to join Team In Training for another wonderful season. This time I'm back as a mentor. So I will have a small group of teammates as my mentees and I will basically help them through the process-- if they have questions, giving them advice, helping/encouraging with fundraising etc. I'm excited to be back as a mentor because it makes me be more accountable and I'll be way more involved with the team. There's some paperwork and requirements for mentors, which is a little more work than I ever knew they did, but at the same time it's manageable, and worth it I think. One of my teammates from last year is a mentor now and she loves it. It's a little intimidating too because it's a new team to me as well...so they might do things a little differently, and I don't know anyone either so it will push a bit to step up and get to know people and take somewhat of a leadership role. Their season has already started so I'm coming into late and will start my training on Saturday! I didn't expect that already but the race is in January so it's time. I'm thinking this time I'm only going to to the half marathon. I will do a full sometime again in my life, but I'm not ready, plus, I'm joining late so I don't want to set the bar too high. I'd rather be a good mentor and enjoy myself.

With all that said, being a mentor I don't have the required fundraising, but I am still going to try and raise some money, maybe $500 because it still is a wonderful cause, and I can share that money with my mentees, as we all know, raising $2200 is HARD! But it can be done! So I won't have any mentees right away, which is nice so I can get to know their team first, but we will be doing a big recruiting event in a couple of weeks and basically whoever comes in off of that will be mine! Scary! Exciting!

Hmm...oustide of that, boot camp is getting better each day. It kinda stinks that I won't have Saturday's to sleep in now because that is when TNT practice is, but I will survive, I did it last year and this season is even shorter.

Well I'll get going...I'll probably hassle for donations in the near future, but not nearly as much as I did last year! haha

GO TEAM!

Pics

Here's a link to some new pictures of the dogs, one of me & Ivan at the Cardinals-Diamondbacks game last weekend, and of grilling out. The picture where Johnathan is blowing up that big ball, the stairs in the background are the stairs that go to our apt. Oh, and the ones of Charlie laying on the couch--she fell asleep that way, and stayed that way for a good hour before I took the picture!!

Enjoy!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IZMWbVw5Y_c

I'm sore!!

I started boot camp on Monday...I am having mixed feelings about this. I need to do it. I haven't even moved really since the day the marathon was done...that was in March! And I've gained SO much weight. I need to do this! But because I haven't moved since March and have gained so much weight, boot camp is extremely difficult! I had to stop with about 5 minutes left on Monday because I thought I was going to hurl...or pass out. There are 2 other contributing factors I think, it's about 30 degrees or more warmer here than in CA at 5:30 in the morning. In Cali we'd be wearing gloves & hats and everything, here, it's already warm, not hot, but warm. Also, I think this woman has a lot more cardio in hers than lifting weights. Maybe that will change a bit but for now it's freakin' killing me. I sooo wanted to quit on Monday. I am a quitter you know :) But, my neighbor Katie is doing it with me so I can't. I know it will get better as I get more active, but all I kept thinking was man, I don't want to do this. This is not fun for me. Who knows, I may only do it this one month to kinda get me started. I don't know. I just know I really don't want to go back in the morning! I'm not as sore as I thought I would be, but I am. I'm walking kinda funny I think so I can't imagine running and doing more weight training with my legs feeling this way! UGGH! I was thinking, "man I don't want to be uncomfortable." Because really, that's what it gets down to when we're tired or sore or whatever, it's just a degree of uncomfortable. It stuck in my head because when we were at the starting line for the marathon our coach told us "I don't want anyone here thinking 'just as long as I'm comfortable I'll be ok'...it was funny because that's always what I was thinking when we did those long runs, I could get through it as long as I wasn't too uncomfortable...he wanted us to not think that because we should have been thinking about the chemo patients who are in pain and completely uncomfortable...he wanted us to feel everything just for one day. Anyway, I did! And for several days after. But I'm not curing cancer right now so dangit, I don't want to be uncomfortable!!!!

So Charlie escaped from the apartment this morning. Scary! My neighbor Jeff came over for a second and I was standing in the doorway holding Lucy, and Charlie kinda wandered out the door...no biggie...she got to the stairs and I swear she kinda looked back at us like...here I go! And away she went. Jeff took off faster than I've seen anyone move probably, chasing her, I threw Lucy down and took off barefoot...keep in mind this is like 7:30 in the morning. So Jeff goes one way yelling and I go the other way across some rocks (did I mention I was barefoot?) I was thinking she'd come around that side but she didn't, Jeff & I end up in the same place with no Charlie. So he goes another way and I go another calling for and she just runs out of the parking lot outta nowhere...well as soon as I head for her she turns, so I stopped and just called to her and she came to me. Can I tell you how scary this was?! She didn't have her collar on so if we didn't find her she'd have been gone for good. She was roaming the parking lot so I thought she was done for good already. When I picked her up she was super calm, I think she scared herself a bit too. Good. Brat.

I was going to try and come home the first weekend of October because we have a fall break here but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Flight prices went up and so did the travel time. I'm not going to spend 8 hours in airports and switching planes if I'm only going to be there for a few days...so that sucks a bit. I'll keep you posted.

Life Is Good

So, life is good! It's amazing how happy I am here. I think it's a combination of things-- it's so nice to be around normal people, as a group they are probably the nicest people I have ever met, I'm really happy with our apartment and the complex as a whole, my job really couldn't be any better...

And I'm finally starting to volunteer instead of just talking about it or reading about it. Did anyone see Oprah last week when Bill Clinton was on there? (Quite possibly my 2 favorite people in the world.) Well, Bill just wrote a new book called "Giving." Of course I went and got about 2 hours after watching the show. In the book he talks about all these ways you can give--he breaks it down by chapter if you want to give money, give your time, give a skill. He tells about all these organizations that have been proven to be really great ones to give to or copycat. At the end of the book there are all the websites for the places so you can find them. What I really loved about the book is that he was just trying to say, no matter how little you can give, it WILL make a difference. That's something I have struggled with a little and has probably kept me from volunteering sooner, I have this 'go big or don't go at all' mentality and you can't always go big! It helped when I was raising money last year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I really saw how even the littlest amount ended up helping me out so much. Those little amounts really do add up.

One of the organizations featured on the show & in the book was Kiva.org. Basically you can go on there and pick someone who needs a small loan to get their business going, once you donate you can watch their business grow. It's amazing how little some of these people need to really make a difference in their lives. So, last night I went to the website, and guess what? After being in the book and on Oprah, all the loans had been fulfilled!!! Kiva is now working to find more small businesses who need help. I can only imagine how much all the other organizations will benefit just from getting exposure. Pretty amazing.

So of course, I'm going to tell you to check out the book. That saying "Many hands makes light work" comes to mind. If everyone gave just a little it would a HUGE difference. I'm trying!!

Ok, enough about that. I'm also really excited because I found a masters program that I would love to go into. Yes, I just started my bachelor's but there is nothing wrong with thinking ahead. And, keep in mind, I change my mind pretty frequently...but anyway, there are 2 degrees I saw, international development or public service. I've been saying for about 6 months to year I guess that it's be awesome to get into international development or crisis relief-- meaning working with third world countries to help develop or working with people after a natural disaster or something like that. I just didn't know there were actual degrees for it, I just sat here always thinking, how the hell do you get into that stuff? So, my volunteering I'm starting and my trip to Africa will hopefully really help me see if that's what I really want to do, although I can't imagine why I wouldn't...we'll see :)

Other than that stuff not much going on. Busy with classes, although I just started a new class and it is MUCH better, not nearly the amount of work needed. We're in a bowling league with a couple neighbors and that is always something to look forward to. Pretty much every weekend we're grilling out and swimming with our neighbors and it's just fun. We have great neighbors :)

Ok well I will get going. Go buy the book, donate some time or money... :)

International Rescue Committee

I went for the orientation for the volunteer stuff I want to do. It's with a place called the "International Rescue Committee (IRC)." Basically they provide all kinds of relief to refugees, both abroad and by bringing people to the U.S. Learned some interesting facts: there are 14.5 million refugees in the world, and only about 1% of them will ever get resettled, and half of those are in the U.S!! That's a lot of people, living in bad conditions, and a lot of them coming to the U.S. Good for us right, but kinda makes you think, what the hell is the rest of the world doing? I guess that number is going down every year because it's getting so much harder to get into the U.S.

Anyway, this organization is exactly the kind of place I would love to work for someday after my degree is done. It'll be great for me to get that volunteer experience for the future, but also just because it's something I'm really interested in.

So, as a volunteer I will be paired with a family who has just been brought to the Phoenix area. IRC picks them up from the airport and provides them with a fully furnished apartment, clothes, all of that stuff for 6 months. They get them job training and help them get started and the expectation is that within 6 months of being here they should be self sufficient, and 86% of them are! That's probably better than some of our own citizens do. Anyway, my part as a volunteer is to be an "American Friend." I will meet with them once a week and help them with whatever they need help with-- learning English, finding the library, finding a park, teaching them about American culture, really whatever they need. It's a little scary to think about because normally these people don't know a word of English! She said in the orientation, that it's a lot of gesturing and everything with the people...so it could be pretty awkward at times. Although after my internship in Florida working with European families and after being with a lot of families in Southern California who don't speak English, I know it's possible to create a bond without language, what will be hard is teaching them how to do stuff! And keep in mind a lot of these people have been living in refugee camps for years and some don't even know what electricity is or a toilet!!??! So it could be really basic stuff they need to learn. I'm excited. I should be paired with my family within a month hopefully.

Aside from that, life is good. Work is keeping me really busy which I really enjoy. My schedule has worked out so that I can help with the Special Olympics on Fridays during the workday. The district I'm working for sets aside every Friday to take their special ed kids bowling and then at the end of the semester there is a competition and everything, so I'm excited to go with my kids for that.

Alrighty well we're having people over later so I'll get going.

The Girls

Here they are in Lucy's bed. Charlie fell asleep in it last night and Lucy joined her, I think just to stake claim on her bed :)

Busy Bees

I have never felt so busy in my life! Really. I think it's just because of starting my new job. You know when you start a new job you are meeting all new people and learning their system & stuff. I mean, I love their system & the people are good, but you know, it still turns the old brain to mush. Plus I'm actually working full days. Last year my contract was only 35 hours a week, and on top of that I was always done with my stuff & would just go home. Really makes a difference when you actually have stuff to do, and truly spend a full day there. Makes the night much shorter. I think the other thing is that since Johnathan is here it feels like we're always doing something I guess, just because we're all hanging out all the time. Whereas if it was just me & Ivan it doesn't feel as much like that, you know? That's been going pretty well too. I get frustrated with them both, but that's normal. I'd get frustrated with just Ivan so you know, what's new.

Also, this class I'm in right now is ridiculous. There is so much work to do in it and I just never want to do it! In fact right now I am avoiding writing a paper, doing text exercises, and responding to discussion questions. Yuck.

Oh, I also am starting boot camp again in a few weeks. I don't know how I feel about that yet. I really enjoy being a lazy ass, but I've let that go on too long. I just really don't want to get up at 5:00 in the morning. But Ivan's already up so I guess that will help.

And, I signed up to volunteer at this place. I haven't started yet but I go for orientation next week. The volunteering I will be doing is called being an "American Friend." So basically, when a refugee family comes to the area, I will be paired with one it's kinda like a big-brothers big-sisters kind of thing only for a refugee family. You like help them get adjusted to America, walk them through things like if they need to get a drivers license I would help them figure out how to do that, and just hang out and do stuff with them to teach them about American culture. You know eventually I want to either work with refugees or international stuff, so I thought, once I finish up this degree it would be perfect experience to have. They ask you to commit 2-3 hours a week. Sounds like a lot, but I'm willing to try out this whole "being busy" thing hahaha. I'm sure I will be pulling my hair out at some point. I really think once work gets rolling I won't feel as busy at all.

Hmm, oh, the 3 of us are joining a bowling league, cool right? haha It was hard for me to commit to that because it's like every week until basically the end of the school year! But I thought, ok, I said I really want to meet people and everything...we'll see. It was my idea and I'll probably be the one that quits. I am a quitter you know :)

So really everything's been good. The neighbors are good, we met a few more. I kinda feel like I live in a college dorm but that's cool I guess cuz I never did haha.

Ok well I really need to do this paper...although I'll probably fold some laundry or something instead of actually working now :)

First day!

Today was my first day of my new job. It went remarkably well! Maybe third time is a charm? (It's my third contract). I think it has been so good for me to be a traveler because I have been in both ends of the spectrum as far as OT departments go, where first I was in a kinda large department that was pretty well off, and last year I was the OT dept, and it was chaos! This district is more like the first, but from first glance, it appears that everyone gets along a little better, a more cohesive team environment. Not to say there won't be bumps, but you really can tell a lot from first meetings with people.

1. The first wonderful thing is that there are a ton of COTA's! (That's me!) My first contract there was only one other, and for some reason I tend to let myself be intimidtaed by OTR's (supervising therapists), although I am getting much better with that with more experience. I am just happy to feel like more of an equal with people than beneath people, although again, I am the only one making me feel that way, the OTR's I've worked with have always been great. Sometimes I feel like I am always apologizing for being just a COTA...when there's no need for it, and so it is nice to be amongh COTA's. And last year there was only me & an OTR, so it's just nice to be among people period!
2. These people are oragnized! This is similar to my first contract, but MUCH different than last year. I walked into a mess last year, and thank God for my first year's experience to get me through it. But anyway, there was an agenda for the meeting with all the occupational & physical therapy staff (called the motor team). They already had OTR's paired with COTA's, and the schools divided up among those smaller teams.
3. My team of myself, my OTR, and another COTA, get along great. There are 5 schools, and it worked out that the other COTA requested two schools close to her home, the other 2 are the closest to me, and the last school for the OTR is the one she wanted anyway!
4. My schools are close to me and super close to each other. No more than about 3 miles from my house, and probably a mile apart from each other. Also, the district office is probably less than a mile from me too. The schools are NEW & NICE! My district last year was old...and kinda poor. You just feel better when you're among nice things ya know? So on top of that, each school has a room for the O.T to work in! You may not know that this is quite a big deal, as typically I would be in a hallway or cafeteria or something like that. Nope, I have rooms with supplies in them already. Sweet. Oh, and only having 2 schools is awesome! My first year at one point I had 17 schools spread over like 5 different cities, last year I had about 8 schools although they were close together. It's just so nice to think I won't have to travel much and will be able to stay at one school for an entire day?!??! So exciting.
5. Hmmm what else...everyone is super friendly. Oh yeah, about the schools again, they are indoors with hallways & everything. In California when you walk out of a classroom you walk outside, because the temperatures tend not to get too unbearable either way & stuff it's all outdoors. I'm sorry though, it does get hot! So here it's wonderful to just be inside all the time. And good thing I won't have to get in my car all the time because it's a freakin' oven when you do. Whew. It was around 110 today...yeah.

So anyway, that's all my excitement. I think it will be good. Let's hope it stays on a positive note for awhile :)

Lucy & Charlie meet

The meeting of Lucy & Charlie went well I guess. Let me back up.

Charlie did great on the flight & car rides. Never even made a sound until we were off the plane.

I left Charlie with Ivan outside and I came in to see Lucy...she's huge!!!!!! I'm sure it's just because I have been with Charlie who weighs 2 pounds, but when I saw her I was like whoah!! She's just big! Definitely changes my opinion of where she stands in the food chain at the dog park. Also...she's hyper. I will never know if Charlie really is just super laid back and Lucy is normal, or if Lucy is crazy...oh well, but their energy levels are very different! And I always thought Lucy was just spunky & friendly...now I'm not so sure!

So Lucy just wants to play with her and Charlie isn't the least bit interested. But they aren't fighting or anything. Charlie will snap at times. Like right now they are both chewing on bones laying right next to each other. Lucy will share and doesn't mind at all, Charlie nearly bit Lucy's head off when she tried to take the bone.

I'm not sure if Lucy remembers me or not. Charlie just follows me around, so in turn, Lucy just follows me around! Ivan said yesterday when he picked us up he feels like a step-parent or something! I do too, like I'm in charge of Charlie and he is of Lucy. It's weird.

The bad thing is that Lucy is the one who knows to stop when we yell & stuff like that so we find ourselves yelling at her more even if it's not her fault just because we know Charlie doesn't know yet. We're working on it.

OK, well I'm gonna go. I can't believe I just wrote this long of a blog about some dogs?!!!

Back to AZ!

I'm leaving for the airport in about an hour to head back to AZ! Mixed feelings about that...I'm excited to see Ivan & Lucy. But as usual, after a few days home I get really comfortable here. And it's just so nice to see everyone and hang out & everything. Thanks for a wonderful trip home!! If I didn't see you this trip I'll try again on the next one!

Home

I'm home! I have to say, it did take me a few days to adjust. Each time it gets a little longer to adjust really. It's strange. I'm always excited about coming home and then there's this time period where I'm ready to leave after I see everyone. But that time has passed and now I'm so happy to be here again :) I flew in on Monday the 23rd. Megan & Becky came to get me and that night I went and saw all the kids and saw Johnathan too. Tuesday I went to Kentucky to get the new puppy, Charlie. Wednesday I went to my Grandma's for dinner with family, then over to Jon's for awhile. Thursday I went to the pool with Jyll, Heidi, my mom & all the kids and that night went to Schooner's which is where I basically saw everyone else I hadn't seen yet...Friday Becky & I went to see the Lindsey Lohan movie...it was ok. Saturday I went to Jacksonville to see Holly and go to a bachelorette party. Yes, there was a stripper...and I wasn't impressed, yet thankful I wasn't the bride who got raped basically! haha Sunday my bro & sis and all the kids came over so that is always a good time...and after that Megan, Jon, & Johnathan came over to watch "Waiting." It was funny. Hmm..what else...ooh Monday I finally went to see Celeeste. And then Johnathan came over to play Nintendo, yes the original Nintendo. He sucks and I'm fabulous. Last night me, Jon, Johnathan, Jamie & Curtis all went to see "Chuck & Larry," gotta tell ya, I was unimpressed. I love Kevin James & Adam Sandler, but it just wasn't as good as I expected. Today I'm going to see my cousin & then my nephews are coming to swim. Later in the week I'm going to dinner with old co-workers, then out at Pit Row (getting sloppy then swimming, yay!), Saturday will be another sloppy night at Celeeste's with Kristen in the hot tub, and Sunday I'm having a cookout, which I am so excited about!!! I just thought it up yesterday and I'm just pumped. Next week will be dinner with the girls and then I'm flying back to AZ on Thursday. All in all, it's been a really great trip home.

I wish Ivan could be here for this stuff too, but at the same time, I probably do more when he's not here because if he is I'm just content to hang out with him you know? And I'm sure he's having more fun than he should be without me there :) Living like a slob and doing whatever he wants! Every time I talk to him he's either with or was with or will be with the neighbors. Which is great since we didn't even know our neighbors in CA, but sucks because I'm such a jealous person, so I'm mad that I'm not there too!! Ah well. He's really enjoying & excited about his new job so that's good.

Oh, Charlie. She's polar opposite of Lucy! I was worried at first because she didn't have much of a personality really. But she has warmed up to me and is really sweet. She's just not nearly as social as Lucy is though. Which could be a nice balance I guess. And she's TINY! I hope the meeting with Lucy goes well.
Alright well I gotta get ready to go see my cousin. Peace