Hey, its my birthday...

Yesterday was a special day for me, my birthday! I turned the big 2-6 and caught myself on more than 1 occasion saying, "I can do this, it's my birthday".

Now by no means am I an angel when it comes to food, drinks, and shopping, but I broke a few rules yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed each rule breaking.

Last night over dinner with the hubby, I enjoyed my favorite alcohol beverage, a margarita on the rocks with salt.

On Sunday, he took me shopping. Mostly to find a dress for his brother's upcoming wedding. I made two mistakes yesterday, first, walking into my favorite store Black House White Market. I use to shop here all of the time when I brought home the bacon (not the "bacon spray" like now according to my husband, haha) and worked a "big girl job". And my second mistake, silly me tried on a dress without looking at the price tag. I fell in love and $168 later, I brought her home.

In exciting news, the bakery who made the cupcakes for our wedding, opened up a shop in our current town. I big puffy heart cupcakes. And yesterday after lunch, he took me to the bakery to indulge in my favorite dessert.

Finally, I hang my head in shame. I gave up diet soda completely about a year and a half ago. I really do not miss it, but every once in a great while (like my birthday), I'll get one of these:

I had a wonderful birthday full of lots of love from my amazing friends and family. Not to mention full of some of my favorite vices, now that's a good day :)

My Guardian Angel.

Three weeks ago, I ran in the Women's Half Marathon. It was a beautiful day, just uploaded a bunch of great music on my I-Pod and felt ready to go. When I hit Mile 1, it felt like I was running a pretty fast pace. I looked down at my watch, 7:30.




Yes, I wrote that correctly and yes, if I went outside to sprint a mile, I do not think I would run at that pace again. FAIL. As a result, my first 6 miles, were MISERABLE. I really thought I might stop and find a nice volunteer, borrow their phone and call my husband to come pick me up at the next mile marker. I knew exactly what he would tell me, suck it up, buttercup. I realized I have never worn a watch in any race or worried about my time. My best running technique, take your mind somewhere else.





So I continued to run. And then said a little prayer to his grandfather (who the night before took a awful turn for the worse). My next 7 miles, I felt great. Even at mile 12 which was all uphill (not fun at all). I ran my best time at 2 hours and 8 minutes.

Saying the past few months, career wise, have been nothing short of miserable would be an understatement. Every night from July to the beginning of October, I tossed, turned, cried, made myself sick, etc.

Now...I decided to take a new job as a personal trainer. They are incredibly short on trainers and want me to start training asap and make double what I use to make. I am also on interview #3 for a Yoga Instructor.

And finally, I attended an amazing fitness convention and fell in love with one of my workshops I attended. I spoke with their CEO afterwards and she talked with me about possibly opening up my own fitness license through her company.

The past few days, I have researched and researched and researched some more. I spent hours on the phone with their CEO, other licensees, my wonderful F-I-L who is a CPA accountant, not to mention making sure the hubby is on board. I have an entire legal pad filled with notes and their leal documentaion in front of me.

The last piece, money.

We are currently trying to refinance, fix our roof, and AC. Not to mention, I cut back my hours nearly a month ago so I am not making nearly what I use to. Last night, we thought about possibly holding off on this new business because of funds. My husband was mid-sentence when his phone rang.

His father called to let us know that Grandpa, in his will, set aside money for the two of us. The money will more than cover our set-up costs.

And now? I am still nervous about this next chapter, but also more than ready to jump in to these new adventures.

Kindle

My wonderful mother-in-law handed me my birthday present a week early since I was in town this past weekend. She bought me an Amazon Kindle! This is why I love her, I've been secretly wanting one and haven't told a soul yet. Her and I are the only ones in the family who read and always talk about what good, new book is out.

The best part? She put me on her account and said buy whatever book, since she'll probably want to read it as well.

And I get it at the perfect time, in 16 days we are heading to beautiful Mexico for a week for his brother's wedding and I go through so many books on vacation. I was worried about carrying an extra bag just for books.

Right now I am planning on "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", I read the previous two and put off the third until I completed my Yoga Certification.

Any other suggestions?

Mr. Right not Mr. Mom

So for the second day in a row, our puppies found mischief. The hubby called me to tell me they chewed up two of my favorite wooden spoons, a coffee filter, his favorite Hawks hat, and his sunglasses.

He swears up and down, he put everything away. He is convinced Daisy, with her long legs, somehow reached the back of the counter to knock everything down.

Two years we've been leaving them out in the kitchen with baby gates and never have they chewed up something I put out of their reach.

This makes me laugh. I wish he would just admit that he misses me picking up after him and putting everything away.

Cha Cha Change

On Monday I put in my two week notice at work...

And I felt a million pounds lifted off my shoulders. My last day will be on my 26th birthday so I have a feeling 26 is going to be a great year. In the past 2 weeks I dropped off my resume at four different gyms/fitness facilities and received 3 interviews.

I am torn between two job offers right now and feel incredibly blessed to have two options, but really want to make the right decision. I am sure it will all fall into place in the next week.

Do we want more good news?

Today I received my Yoga Fundamentals Instructor Speciality Certificate (say that a few times). I took a workshop with about 50 other women and men. Most of them have been practicing yoga for about 5-10 years. And me? 3-4 months. However, I have fallen in love with it since it has helped tremoundously with my headaches.

It feels good to have the pieces finally fall into place slowly. I have three more days of workshops and continuing education so I hope to soak up as much information as possible.

The conference is in Chi-town, so I left the hubby and the girls back home. Since we moved in together two years ago, this is the longest I have left him. Of course he leaves me all of the time, but I have yet to leave him for more than 2 days. He already texted me a picture of Daisy, who chewed up a blue pen today, with bright blue paws, haha.

Cross your fingers for a clean house!

Your way of thinking...

On our 12 hour drive back from PA, I thought a lot about his grandfather. My husband calls him, "One of the last true great Americans" and we also joked and called him the medical miracle.

It truly makes me wonder, how did a 94 year old who has only 17% of his heart working (1 artery = 100% blocked), cancer, and kindey failure get stronger as the weekend went on?! You heard me right, his grandfather is now set to leave the hospital. The doctors continued to say, "He is making liars out of all of us". This same man was blown up in WWII, stayed in a hospital for over a year, still has shrapnel from the bomb in his body.

I just keep shaking my head in amazement.

Makes me think I am weak. I complain about all kinds of stuff...aches, pains, work, etc. Maybe Grandpa tells himself he is going to be ok and he ends up being just fine. I thought in the car, I need to start thinking more positively and stop worrying so darn much.

After 26 hours of traveling in 3 short days, the trip was well worth it. I learned a valuable lesson from him, I just need to change my way of thinking.

Emotion Overload

One of his closest friends has hit rock bottom. His girlfriend of 8 years moved out of their house last week and this just devasted him. So much so, he asked to come stay with us to avoid being alone. Along with him, came his dog, Rowdy. This dog is eating us out of house and home. My Dakota has not been too pleased with this.

His friend cannot snap out of it. My heart just breaks for him.

Speaking of heart breaking, his grandfather took a turn for the worse. The doctors lost him twice in his recent surgery and he went into a coma.

Yesterday morning (it seems like 15 years ago) around 5:30am, my hubby finished packing for his 30 day training trip. We were about to walk out the door when I saw Rowdy head for Dakota's food. I tried to pull him away while Dakota growled. Next thing I knew, Rowdy lunged at Dakota and Dakota did NOT back down. I started screaming. The hubby tried to grab Rowdy and I tried to grab Dakota. I saw blood going everywhere.

Scariest thing I've ever seen. I could not stop shaking.

Afterwards we realized most of the blood was my husbands. His hand looked awful. I told him several of his cuts needed stitches. Typical male, he assured me, he would be just fine and needed to AMC this cross-country flight. I dropped him off at 6:30am and headed to work. I received a phone call after 30 minutes that the flight surgeon wanted him to get stiches.

On our way to the hospital, we received a call from my father-in-law. The family decided to take him off his life support and gave him 2-24 hours.

One short hour of a hospital visit later, we headed straight home and packed up for ? amount of days. Which I can say, is not an easy task. I am a planner and now I know why. I just threw every kind of outfit in my suitcase and sat on it until it closed.

12 hours later, we made it to small town USA in PA.

His grandfather, in typical Grandpa style, is again proving us all wrong. The doctors say he's stronger, but a lot of his organs aren't functioning the way they should and will probably never recover.

It's been a long day and I am sure its the first of many long days ahead.