2009 in Review.

I saw this on someone else blog and I'm totally stealing the idea! This is my year in review- pictures and everything =)

January 2009- I lied. I don't have any pictures for January. I can barely remember January. I know it was busy busy busy with wedding stuff. We were finishing up the final touches for our Feb 7 wedding. Oh, I have some pictures... My bachelorette party was in January. My sister Stacey threw it for me. We went to Houlihans for dinner (I don't recommed it. The service was slow, and the food was half assed for how expensive it was)



February 2009- Our wedding of course. Amazing day! We got married at Sand Key Park in Clearwater Florida. The week before our wedding was "Freezing" by Florida standards. I was a little worried that we would be cold standing out on the beach on our wedding day. The weather turned out to be perfect! It was a beautiful day. The sky was clear, the water was calm. It was amazing! We could not have asked for a better day!

 March 2009: Ohh March. In March we went to Georgia a few times to visit our friends Kelly & Casey.. We liked it to much we thought about moving. We looked at rental houses, and looked for jobs. We were in GA the first wknd of March and it snowed, hard. The first snow they'd had in quite a few years. It was really fun, and pretty exciting. But really cold....We decided to stay in FL. Ha Ha Ha!

JK, the snow is not what made us decide to stay in FL. We went fishing one weekend over in Ft. Desoto- we were driving across the causeway and we just looked at each other and decided we couldn't leave the beach. We are beach bums. We love the ocean & the beach. We were meant to Florida.

April 2009 : Hmm, April. What was exciting about April? Well, it was Kailyn's 5th birthday. It was the 4 year anniversary of Chris' breaking his ankle. We went on our 2nd "mini-moon" .... Due to the economy taking a crap and Chris' job not being all that busy we weren't able to go on our original honeymoon to Costa Rica. We stayed in Orlando at a hotel after our wedding. Then we took a few days off the week of our original honeymoon. We went camping on Shell Key in Ft Desoto, FL. It was actually really fun. The island has nothing on it. We loaded up our jon boat with everything that we thought we would need and headed to the island for a 3 day camping adventure. http://harneytoadsprincess.blogspot.com/2009/05/camping-at-shell-key-preserve.html (see that post for a recap of our adventure)

May 2009:  We fished alot in May. We went on our first fishing charter, and on the same day we drove to the other side of the state and fished the other coast. We clearly love to fish. http://harneytoadsprincess.blogspot.com/2009/05/for-love-of-fishing.html


My friend Sherry & I also started walking/jogging/bike riding this month to get ready for our July vacation. We also laid out every chance we got to work on our tans for vacation! =)

June 2009:  Aidyn turned 1!! Stacey turned 22!! & Chris turned 28!!!  It rained alot in June. We also got the newest edition to our family in June. Meet Wyatt!






July 2009: I changed my hair color from blonde to light brown to dark dark brown...  We went on a week long fishing trip in Englewood with some friends of ours. We had a great time. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach. We fished every day. We slept on the beach more then we did our hotel room- literally. We fished all night and slept very little during the day in our room. Sherry & I had sleeping on the beach down to a science by the end of the week. We knew exactly what to take to be "comfortable" staying on the beach all night. It was alot of fun!

August 2009:  I can't think of anything about August. My Mom's bday is in August- I won't tell you how old she turned, she'll kill me. My dad's bday is in August, my step moms bday is in August, My step dad's bday, and my Grandma Bonnie's bday is in August.. That gets alot of b-days out of the way huh? I really can't think of anything exciting about August.

September 2009:  In September we took Carly on her first fishing extravaganza for Labor Day Weekend! She also got married the next weekend! Exciting month!

October 2009:  This was a big month for me. I signed up, trained for, and completed my first 5k.  I ran in the Community In Pink 5k . My time was 31:07, which i was pretty pleased with considering it was my very first race.

November 2009:  I ran my second 5k. I ran in the Bartow Turkey Chase. It was alot of fun. I PR'd. My finish time was 26:30, and I placed first in my age group!

We also decided to start looking for a house to buy. The time is right for us. We encountered a set back, but we got it all cleared up and we are on the go for a house.







December 2009:  December was a busy month for us. We are still house hunting. We have some stuff in the works. I will update on that later when I have some more permanent information.

I also ran my 3rd 5k in December. I ran in the Santa Sprint 5k. It was a good race. It was cold. The course was in a shopping plaza, not my favorite, nothing to look at, and pretty boring, but all in all it was a good race. I PR'd, 25:40. I placed first in my age group.

I decided that I am going to start training for a 10k & a half-marathon. Happy New Year!

RoadID- I NEED one!

When I worked in the ER- Downtown ORlando- We saw WAY to many people come in with out any ID on them. The one that I most remember was a young 20something year old male (20-22) that was in a motorcycle accident. No helmet. No ID that we were able to find immediatly. As a registration person for the ER/Trauma center we were responsible for looking for Id's when a patient comes in that is unable to talk to us... The only thing the man had was his cell phone...that kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. He died before we ever found out what his name was. The Chaplain handles phone calls like this... the chaplain answered the man phone and told who was calling that she needed to contact the patients parents and have them call our chaplain.

I NEVER want my family to have to go through that! I was there when the coroner came and wheeled the body bag to the medical examiner. I don't want to die on a table a nameless person.

My point for this blog is that as a runner there are ways we can protect our selves from becoming a nameless body, or a nameless patient in a ER somewhere.

While I mostly run on sidewalks, or a track around the local college i can still get hit by a car. We all know that people do not pay attention when they drive. There is nothing stopping someone from driving up on the sidewalk that I am running on.

I am not a morbid person and I hate talking, or even thinking about death. I refuse to talk about it with Chris. I just can't stand the thought. But let's be real, it's always a possiblity.

RoadID is a perfect way to save ourselves from being a nameless somebody. I am entereing a give-away for a RoadID. If you are a runner/cyclist/walker....etc. You could also enter to win a RoadID.

http://thefitbride.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/roadid-review-and-giveaway/#comment-1008- enter here.

http://roadid.com/Common/default.aspx - learn more about RoadID here.

Katelyn's Black Bean Soup-

I got this recipe from my "Fix it and Forget it Cookbook".

It was a last minute thing. I was going to make something else, but realized I wasn't going to have enough time. So I started flipping through this cook book and found this delish recipe.

Katelyn's Black Bean Soup:

1/3 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove, minced
1-2 Tbsp. oil
(2) 15.5 oz cans of black beans undrained
(1) chicken bouillon cube
1/2 cup diced, cooked, smoked ham
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 dash, or more cayenne pepper
1-2 drops, o more, Tabasco sauce
sour cream

Instructions:

1. Saute onion and garlic in oil in sauce pan (i didn't have fresh garlic, but I did have minced garlic in the fridge so i just used some of that, it turned out fine)

2. Puree or mash contents of one can of black beans (i put the beans in my food processor and mashed them till they were in liquid form)

3. Combine all ingredients expect sour cream in slow cooker.

4. Cover. Cook on Low 6-8 hrs.

5. Add dollop of sour cream to each individual bowl before serving.

This turned out to be a really easy and yummy soup. I added light red kidney beans (drained) as well to this soup, just one can. Next time I plan on adding some turkey sausage. I think it needed some more meat.

Embracing my scardey-catness.

I went running yesterday when I got off work at 5. I started out at Lake Silver in Winter Haven and then ran down First Street. I ran down first street to Ave K, hung a right on Ave K and ran back up 6th street towards downtown. I ran the trail through downtown back to my car. When I was passing the bus station a guy on a bike started to ride next to me. Normally this would scare me, it was dark, and i was by myself. Instead I embraced the opportunity and started a conversation with the guy. Starting with the weather, and how it was perfect for a run, not to hot, not to cold once you got moving. He said he rides his bike 15-20 miles a day (i'm going to guess that he is homeless, and stays in a shelter at night somewhere). He told me he used to be in the Marines and he used to run but old age got to him- he wasn't really *that* old. It was pretty neat. --- I am not the type of person that will strike up a conversation with someone I do not know. It is an awkward experience, what do you say? The quiet when the conversation runs out is just awkward, it's just not something I do.

5k Santa Sprint.

"Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt"- Special Olympics Oath

I don't know why but the Special Olympics Oath really reaches out to me, and I really like it. Today I did a Santa Sprint 5k that was put on by a local running store and the Special Olympics of our county. It was really neat.

They did the Pledge of Allegiance before the race started. I haven't said the Pledge since highschool, 6yrs ago, and even then I didn't "appreciate" the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. I got kinda teary as we were saying it.  I mean, think of all our military men & women who serve to keep our country free, so that we can fly our flag, and have our Nation UNDER GOD. I think the Pledge is important. I appreciate it.

On to the race. A cold front came through last night so it was pretty chilly this morning, 44 when I got up. Yes, I know, that is not cold if you are reading this and you are from anywhere north of Florida. I know some of you raced in snow today, or couldn't race because of the snow... I originally wore shorts & a long sleeve shirt but it was to cold for shorts. I went to the kohls next door to the running store and bought some Fila tights...not the best, but they got the job done.

I've been battling a cough for about 2 wks so I wasn't sure how I would run. I only ran twice last week, 3 miles one day, and 1 mile another day. I ran a pretty steady pace. The whole entire race i was looking ahead at all the women ahead of me thinking "how many of them are in my age group?" "Who do I need to get ahead of".. apparently i'm much more competitive then I thought.  At mile 2 a girl started to run by me, and she looked my age, so this really got my competitiveness flowing.. I sped up but then leveled back out. I finished in 25:40, which is a little faster then my previous 5k which was 26:30.

I plan to start upping my mileage and hopefully run a 10k in February.

Day 3 of 30 Day Shred.

Today was day 3. Some of the stuff is getting easier, but other aspects are not. I HATE the 1 minute ab workouts. I just feel so stupid doing them. I don't feel like i'm doing them right at all. I think i'm going to find another AB work out and not worry so much about the 30DS Abs. Other then that I really like the work outs. I sweat hardcore.....that makes me feel like i'm actually accomplishing something.

I have my 3rd 5k on Saturday. I don't feel like i'm going to do that well. I haven't been running as much as I could. Wednesday I only ran 1 mile bc i had this side pain that wouldn't give, and i thought it was going to rain. I was in downtown Winter Haven and I really don't love running in the rain... i didnt want to get stranded so I guess I gave up. stupid.

Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

30 day Shred with Jillian Michaels.

Last week I discovered that BrightHouse has exercise on-demand. I've been wanting to add something new to my excercising. Running is great, but I want more. So i decided to try out some work outs.

The first one I tried way weird. It was called back.2.bollywood. It was an Indian Lady and you did some Indian dance moves, it was fun, but not my cup of tea. I was sweating, but I didn't feel like I got to much out of.

So the next day I did Biggest Loser Cardio Max- OMG. I didn't stretch before or after- bad, bad, bad idea. I was so sore for the next 3 days I could literally barely move. I was also coming down with a sore throat and a cough, throw it all together and i was extremely miserable. Nothing helped my muscles. I took muscle relaxers, IBuprofen, and soaked in an epsom salt filled bath, nothing helped. I just had to let my muscles do their thing.

So this Sunday (Dec 13th), I decided to start Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I've read alot about it on a Health & Fitness board that I frequent. I googled results, and saw some good results. I don't want to necessarily lose alot of weight, but I want to gain strength and tone.

The workouts are based on 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of ABS. She goes through the cycle 3 times, and thats the entire workout. There are 3 different levels. From what i've read, you do each level for 10 days, and then move to the next level- hence the "30" day shred.

Tuesday I did a 3.13 mile run, and today, Wednesday, I did the 2nd day of 30 Day Shred.  Tomorrow i'll be out after work getting in another 3 miles.

I have my 3rd 5k this weekend in Lakeland. The Santa Sprint 5k. Hoping to PR, but 26:30 is a pretty good time, i'm not sure if I can beat that.

Gotta go study.