First Week of Training

I know I said I was excited about the Half Marathon but this week I got a little nervous about it.  What if I can't maintain the 16:00 minute mile that is required to complete the race?  What if I get injured?  What if it is super hot?  What if?  What if?

I decided that I need to think positively.  I can do this.  I can walk a 15:00 minute mile so I should be fine.  My training is going great.  Besides it has only been one week.  I have until August 31st. 

I chose to do Jeff Galloway's Run Walk Run method for my training.  I love it.  You complete 4 days of Run/Walks, 2 days of 30 minutes, 1 day easy walk and the 4th day is a long run/walk that increases in mileage each week.  The other days you do cross training.

Day 1 --- 2.65 miles 26:24 min
Day 2 --- 2.06 miles 31:36 min
Day 3 --- 1.29 miles 20:02 min
Day 4 --- 3.31 miles 51:18 min

I did a little extra light walking on my cross training days.  I need to figure out some good cross training exercising to do on my non run days.  As far as my health goes I am feeling great.  I have a little more energy and I am starting to sleep better at night.  Next week I need to focus on eating better.

January Update

January has come and gone.  I seriously meant to write each week but January just flew by.  It was a busy month for me.  Work has been super busy with new goals for the year and trying to complete a few goals that were left over from last year that I did not accomplish. 

The most exciting thing that happened in the month of January was deciding to make another of my dreams a reality.  I registered to be a part of the Disneyland Half Marathon in August.  This may sound like a crazy dream to most people but it is something I have wanted to do for the past 5 years.  I started training on January 26th and so far I feel great about everything.  I am planning to blog about my training and the journey.  It is going to be quite the journey!

40 before 40 Update

Well I am 40 now! I don't feel different at all.  I pulled out my 40 Before 40 list to see what I accomplished.  I didn't get everything completed but I sure tried.  I finished 24 items on the list.  I decided to work on the others over the next year and still count them.  So what did I accomplish. I already posted about some of the things I accomplished in July.  Here are the rest.

Item #4 Learn to make mom's rolls.  I completed this on Thanksgiving Day. 

Item # 5 Learn to make 7 family dinners.  Okay I basically already knew this but I tried out a couple of new things and my family actually enjoyed them.

Item #23 Go on a date.  I actually went on 3 dates with 3 different guys.

Item #28 Cook something with an ingredient I have never used before.  Quinoa was my new ingredient.  I am still working on finding a good recipe for quinoa.  The one I made did not have much flavor. 

Item #37 Do something that is not on the list but should have been.  I did a couple things that could have fulfilled this item but I chose ride an scary roller coaster.  This would be The Hulk Coaster at Islands of Adventure in Universal Florida. 

Item #16 Attend a Jazz Game.  I went to my very first Jazz game ever on 12/4/13.  We sat on the third row behind one of the baskets. It was awesome.

 

 



 Item #29 Read 40 books.  Does it count if I listened to most of them?

 

Item #30 Photograph something from my life at least once a week. This was an easy one for me since I love to take pictures.

 

Item #32  Watch a sunrise.  I did this on Thanksgiving morning.

 

Item #33 Watch a sunset.  I love capturing sunsets in photos. 

 

 

Items #3, 25 and 13  Spend a few days in Park City.  Visit Zermatt resort in Midway.  Staycation in Utah.  I spend a weekend up in Park City and Midway with a friend.  We went to the spa at the Zermatt resort and soaked in the Crater at the Homestead, then we went shopping in Park City.  We decided to make it an annual trip. 

 

Item # 39 Buy myself something special to celebrate my 40th birthday.  My sister in law and I went to a dinner while we were in Walt Disney World.  It was Be Our Guest at Beast's castle and I bought myself the most wonderful dessert.  "Try the grey stuff it's delicious."

 

 

Item #40 Have a party to celebrate my 40th birthday. See the post about my trip to Walt Disney World with my family to celebrate my birthday.  It was quite the party!!!!

 

Item #38 Write about each 40 before 40 item on my blog.  Done!  I meant to do this on the days I completed each item but I am not great at this blogging thing.  I am getting better though.

 

 

So far that is what I accomplished.  I am going to continue to work on the list and complete it before my 41st birthday. 

 

 



More birthday celebrations.

This is what my room and hallway looked like when I came home from vacation. My sweet niece decorated it for me.  My brother told me that she had it all planned out when he brought over.  She said, "Lisa is going to walk up to her room and she will see this sign and then she will walk into her living room and then into the bathroom and brush her teeth.  They she will go into her bedroom and see the balloon and colored streamers and say Oh my goodness."  She knows me so well.  I actually walked into my bedroom first but I did say "Oh my goodness, everyone come look."

Disney really knows how to celebrate!

Yesterday was my 40th birthday and I celebrated with Disney.  We went to Walt Disney World the week before Christmas.  It has always been a dream of mine to spend one of my birthday's in a Disney park.  It is difficult though because my birthday is 3 days before Christmas which is the busiest time at Disney.  This year was a big birthday for me and I decided this was going to be the year to celebrate. After a lot of sweet talking my parents decided to make it happen.  I was super excited.  We left on December 16th and spent 8 wonderful days in Florida. We stayed at the All Star Music Resort which was perfect for this music lover.  We ended up in the Broadway section of the resort.  Again perfect! Here is a short summary of the trip.

We spent a day at Universal Studios to check out The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  I felt like I had walked right into Hogsmeade.  They did a great job building the land of Harry Potter.  Hogwarts was amazing and I took a wonderful ride on a broomstick where I played Quidditch and got chased by a dragon. My favorite part of the day was riding The Hulk Coaster, not in Harry Potter world obviously.  I was very nervous since this coaster is crazy.  My brother rode it with me and made sure I was in the front row.  After the ride I was shaking.  It was the best roller coaster I have ever been on.  I was ready to go again but we didn't want to wait in line again. We finished the day with a wonderful dinner in Hogshead/Three Broomsticks and drank some butterbeer which was fabulous.

 

 

The next 7 days were spent at Walt Disney World.  Magic Kingdom was first and I will admit I was a little disappointed that they did not decorate for Christmas like Disneyland does.  It was decorated but not as much as they do in Disneyland.  The castle lighting made up for the lack of décor though.  At night it was lit up and sparkled.  You can't tell but in the picture below I was crying.  I had seen pictures of Cinderella castle at Christmas time but they did not prepare me for how I would feel when I really there.  It was amazing.  We spent the next couple days at Epcot, Animal Kingom and Hollywood Studios.  This is where the other parks made up for the lack of Christmas décor in Magic Kingdom.  Epcot had décor for each of the different countries and Hollywood Studios had a spectacular light show. You haven't seen Christmas lights until you have seen The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  (By the way they are not related to Ozzy and Sharon Osborne. It is a different family.) Oh my goodness there were lights covering every inch of the buildings on the Streets of America.  It was pretty crowed in the parks but not as bad as we expected.  We took advantage of Fast Passes and had fun chatting with each other when we were in line. 

Now we are to my birthday.  We spent the day in Magic Kingdom.    I wanted to be in front of the castle for the fireworks to celebrate my 40th. The day turned out exactly as I had hoped.  We found the perfect spot for the show.  It started with the Electric Light Parade and then they did an awesome show of illusions on the castle.  Finally the fireworks started and it was a great show.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful birthday.  The day wasn't over though.  The park stayed open until 3:00am just for me.  Ok not really but it sure felt like it.  My brothers, sister in law and I decided to stay as long as we could.  We walked on to several rides without a wait.  We made it to 2:30am and just couldn't go anymore so we headed back to our hotel.   

 

We had a fabulous time in Walt Disney World and it turned out to be the best birthday and best Christmas ever.

October Julep Review

Julep is one of my subscription boxes.  It is mainly nail polish and tools for manicure's and pedicure's but they also have beauty products. I chose Classic with a Twist as my maven subscription box.  I have received three boxes so far and I absolutely love the products.  In the October box I received two nail polishes, a lip gloss and a sample of skin serum.

 

The nail polish colors are beautiful and perfect for Fall.  The one on the left in the photo is called Cynthia and it is a light beige with glitter.  It is a very neutral color and would be perfect for a party.  The other shade is called Sheila.  It is an orange red.  It matches the red on Arrowhead water bottles exactly.  (I just happened to have a water bottle on my desk.)

 

The lip gloss color is called Glowing.  The formula is smooth not sticky like most lip glosses.  It smells like cotton candy.  It is the perfect shade for me.

 

The serum is really oily so I am not sure how it will work on my skin type.  I used to have really oily skin but now it is combination and has been very dry on my cheeks.  The serum is supposed to deliver deep hydration and essential nutrients to help rebuild skin structure from inside out.  I applied some tonight so we will see how my skin feels in the morning. 

 

 I love this month's Julep box!

Weekly Update (November 11-17)

Again I am way behind on my weekly updates.  I am making a change for the positive.   I have designated Monday’s as blogging day.  Some of my favorite bloggers have designated days for posting.  Since I like to do a weekly update I thought Monday would be perfect.  I am also going to add some fun posts similar to a couple of my favorite bloggers and youtube personalities.  See links below.  I am not trying to copy them but I love the ideas they present so they will be very similar.  So today I will have several posts that I will be uploading.  For now the weekly update.

Health, Happiness and a Hug

We have had a lot of sickness at our home the last two months well actually the last two years to be exact.  I am sending the sickness vibes to someone else because we do not want them at our house anymore.  We would like several years of health for a change.

My niece Ella gives the best hugs.  On Sunday I was having a really tough day and they just happened to stop by after church.  She came running up to me and gave me a huge hug.  It was exactly what I needed.  She is just full of sunshine and happiness. 

Lisa’s Top 10 List

I ran across a fun blog post the other day on www.morganizewithme.com. She has a post about organizing your life and the 10 things you should do.  I am trying to get my life in order right now because the clutter and stress has taken over.  It is time for me to gain control again.  Thankfully there are several wonderful women out there that have fabulous websites that have been helping me. This is my top 10 list inspired by the list on the blog above.

1.       Simplify

2.       Exercise and eat clean

3.       Learn to say no

4.       Routines are my friend

5.       Everything in its place

6.       An attitude of gratitude

7.       The Secret

8.       Keep one calendar ( I borrowed that one from the list)

9.       Daily Scripture study

10.   Pray everyday