Today... I Celebrated...

Yup..today is St. Patrick's Day, but today I did not celebrate being Irish and drinking green beer.

Today I didn't celebrate another year older or our next wedding anniversary...

Today I celebrated life! Today I celebrated strength... Happiness... A journey... A struggle... A prolongment to my life...

Today I celebrated my one year run-niversary!!

Two years ago, after my husband had completed his next half marathon and watching my friends cross the finish line at the same Rock N Roll USA Half, on our ride home on the metro, I told my husband that I wanted run a half marathon...but of course my first half would have to a Disney race of-course.

That was 2012...
 >>>>>Fast forward March 17, 2013 >>>>
One year later, I started my journey with my first race...St. Patrick's Day 5K Fun Run & Walk. (Hey...it said "fun," so how bad could it be?) Zero...I mean ZERO...training was put into the race. Sure, I had walked a couple of miles here and there on the treadmill but nothing like actual running. But like I said... the name of the race had "fun" in it!

We arrived at 7:30 at East Potomac Park, picked up our bibs, and waiting for the start. It was definitely intimidating, waiting around, looking at the tall, much thinner people around me. My husband and I started, and he really tried to get me motivated to run, measuring it out by light poles and other landmarks. By the end, I definitely wasn't first...but I wasn't last either!! The "fun" run/walk wasn't officially timed but I think we ended up finishing in 56 minutes. I even got a little gold medal on a green ribbon to commemorate my first ever 5K run....still smiling at the end. 

>>>> Fast forward again to March 17, 2014 >>>>

I just completed my 4th half marathon at the Rock 'n' Roll USA Half and I broke my personal best time by almost 5 minutes. In this year, I haven't become the fastest runner out there, but the fact that I am out there doing it and improving each time still amazing me today.

 Today I celebrate 4 half marathons, 1 10 Miler, 3 10Ks, and 2 5Ks (yes including my "fun" run/walk)

I have become a stronger person. I have lost 52 pounds to date (and still going) . I have meet a great group of friends who understand what I am going through and are encouraging every step of the way (POSSE OR DIE!!). I have a closer relationship with my husband, 'cause we are now going for runs and to the gym together. I have become more helpful to those who never though they could do it. I have become a motivator to encourage those along their journey.
 

March 17, 2013

March 15, 2014

Today I celebrate the new person who has always been there on the inside but didn't know how to come out and achieve her dreams.

Today I celebrated an anniversary....

Today, I celebrated the anniversary of ME!





 

New Add Ons from Kellybell Designs

This week, Kelly has so many amazing goodies to share with you. It's a long post so grab some coffee or a drink and get comfortable. There's lots of journal cards, alphas and cover story word art to see.

First up, journal cards. If you like the pocket style scrapping, you're going to love these cards. There's a set for each park at Walt Disney World. Each pack contains 6 journal cards, one pack for Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. There's some decorative cards as well as cards with lines to journal your trip notes.

Next up are 2 packs of word art titles that are perfect for the covers of your photo albums or for your introductory title page.

And lastly, here are the 2 alphas that were used to create those Cover Story word art titles. These are classic Disney alphas that you can use over and over again.

You can find all of Kelly's kits, alphas, word art, page starters and paper stacks at www.KellybellDesigns.com. These new items will be 25% off this weekend only so make sure you do your shopping now.

There's so many neat ways to scrap with these journal cards, word art titles and alphas. Here's a page that I made.

For your 3 freebies today, Kelly's Creative Team has some cool word art titles made with the 2 new alphas. You can find these freebies at Jenn's Blog, Julie's Blog and Roxana's Blog. Hope you enjoy your gifts. Have a great weekend and have fun scrapping!

Enter for a Chance to Win!

In exactly, 8 days I will be boarding a plane for a trip literally across the country to sunny City of Angels to run in my first half marathon of 2014.

I am so excited to be running the Tinkerbell Half Marathon and even more delighted to be running in honor of a memorable Air Force couple who passed away last April through the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS).

Because I am about a week away, I am asking all friends and family to consider donating to the TAPS charity. I am so close to reaching my goal, and it would be wonderful to exceed it beyond my imagination.Click on the logo for direct link to my personal TAPS donation site:

Every person who donates between now and Friday evening will be entered into a drawing for either a $25 Pampered Chef gift certificate from my lovely friend, Shann F. (her Pampered Chef website: Shann's Show) OR a $25 gift certificate for Origami Owl from the fabulous friend, Corrie H. (her website is: Origami Owl) .

Once you have placed your donation, please come back here and comment on this blog post to be entered in the drawing. I will do the drawing through Random Number Generator Saturday morning and contract the winners shortly after posting!
Every donation counts...no matter how big or small. I truly appreciate your help!

Thanks for everything and wish me luck! 

Enjoy Your Stay! New From Kellybell Designs

The holiday season is here and in full swing! Hope you and your family enjoyed a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving. Things move so fast this time of year! Just when you're done eating all that turkey and pie, then it's time to focus on shopping and scoring Black Friday deals. Next thing you know, it will be Christmas! Yikes!

Today, Kellybell Designs has a new collection focusing on that spooky and terrifying ride called Tower Of Terror. It really scares the pants off you! This new collection is filled with deep rich colors and lots of darling embellishments.

This fabulous new kit has 15 papers with amazing textures and patterns. For elements, you'll find gears, elevator doors, fence, flourish, key chain, lantern, clock, bellhop hat, lock, flowers, arrows, flairs, spider webs, lightning bolts, frames, palm tree, Fast Pass, swirls, Hollywood Tower lobby signs and much more.

Take a look at these gorgeous page starters, word art and paper stacks. The pre-mades make scrapping so easy!

Kelly also made a set of matching wallpapers. These colors are delicious! This new collection will be on sale this weekend only for 25% off.

To celebrate all the fun sales on Black Friday, Kelly is putting her store for sale at 60% off. Yup, you read that right - 60%. That's a HUGE discount. Go fill up your shopping cart at www.KellybellDesigns.com and grab as much as you can. This sale only lasts for one day and that's on Black Friday.

Now let's take a look at some eye candy inspiration with 'Drop Zone.

The colors and elements in this kit are not only fabulous for scrapping Tower of Terror photos, but can also be used for Halloween, Haunted Mansion and other spooky events. 

In October of this year, my husband and I ran our first runDisney race: the Tower of Terror 10 Miler! I had gotten a terrible sinus infection literally days before the race, but I was determined to start and finish! It was the proudest moment ever in my life! Can't wait for the next one. So here's my tribute to my first 10 Miler race: 

Make sure you hop around Kelly's Creative Team's blogs to pick up three wonderful freebies made with 'Drop Zone'. You can find them at Jenn's Blog, Julie's Blog and Roxana's Blog. Have fun shopping the Black Friday sale! Many wishes to you and your family during the holidays.

Week Four Complete! I DID IT!! Part 1...

After a week of doing my maintenance runs on the treadmill (mainly due to not wanting to get up early enough so I didn't die in the heat...), I completed week 4 on a high note!! (Well almost high note...but more about that later.)
On Saturday, we went to a USO event sponsored by Lowe's at Nationals Park. We really didn't know what to expect, but boy were we amazed! They had a battle of the branches grill off, tours of the stadium and an incredible lunch...all the hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, etc you could eat. And the food wasn't cheapy either...it was a really nice spread. I was incredibly honored to be able to be apart of it. Can't wait til next year. I told Craig that he will need to sign up for the grilling competition. And just in case you didn't notice my post on FB, we had a chance to meet Carson Daly from The Voice. He was one of the celebrity judges, and he was such an incredibly nice guy. Truly down to earth!

 

 (Sorry I just had to share my excitement AGAIN...He used to be a total teenage crush for me!)

So...on our drive to Nats Park, I told Craig that I wanted to run at East Potomac Park on Sunday. He thought that would be a good idea and I prayed for decent, non rainy weather. Saturday night, I do have to admit that I woke up in the middle of the night in slight panic attack mode. This isn't the first time either. I knew I had 4 miles....my longest run to date...that I had to complete and I really didn't know how I was going to do. Is this normal? Anyone else get super nervous like this? I honestly was terrified and didn't know what to expect!

6:30 AM Sunday morning....Are you kidding me??!?!?! Craig literally had to shake me awake! This princess needed her beauty sleep. I literally blind texted Craig (cuz I was still 80% ASLEEP!!) and asked him to bring me an energy drink, 5 Hour energy, caffeine, ice bucket of water....ANYTHING to wake me up. I knew it was do or die...and I wasn't in the mood to drop dead at that moment. :)

I think it ended up taking me almost an hour to get up, get ready, and get out the door...Holy Cow! I thought this stuff was suppose to get easier. We pulled into one of the parking lots and I was on my journey. 

It was honestly amazing!!! As I left the park, I saw Craig turning around, so I knew that I wasn't going the way I originally thought I was going...So I crossed the bridge between the Potomac River waterway and the Tidal Basin and began my trek. Now granted I had walked around the Tidal Basin before but it felt so different now....I ran through the FDR Memorial, pass the Washington Monument from every different angle, past the MLK Jr Memorial, and around the Jefferson Memorial. It was the coolest thing I have done so far. And since I am still doing run/walk intervals, I did manage to pull out iPhone and take pictures during my walk interval.

 

At the beginning, as I was coming out of the Roosevelt Memorial, there was a fox, dumpster diving. Yes, folks, you read that right. He was attempting to jump into the trash can as I ran by...He literally looked right at me and stared...Funny thing, I was staring right back and the only thing I was thinking is, "OMG! Please do not attack me!" haha...

At one point, I looked at my Garmin and was shocked and  frustrated at the same time!! I hadn't even hit 2 miles yet!! Are you kidding me?!?!? At that point, I was thinking I was almost done...well, not really, but I totally thought I was time for me to turn around. :)

SO because I wasn't at the 2 mile mark, I kept on going...and then another point of panic hit me again. I knew where I was...but did I know how to get back to where I started. Uh oh! So for a few seconds of my mind racing, I looked across the bridge I was on and knew that I started where the Jefferson Memorial was so I had to get back there. Once I crossed the bridge, I ended up running the walkway along the Tidal Basin...pass the Jefferson after dodging the the tourists (once again, are you kidding me?!?!?! What the heck are y'all doing up this early on a Sunday!!!)...I saw the initial bridge that I had crossed and made the left. Home stretch...but I think I still had about a mile and a half to go...No worries! I was just completely amazed at myself at being able to go this far without stopping...without complaining...and I actually wanted to keep on going. 

I literally hit mile 2 and started clapping for myself...and when I hit mile 3, I think I even started dancing and singing a bit...

Well...I didn't realize how late it was getting...I will get back tomorrow (or rather later today) to finish this experience. 

Till then...nighty night!

45 DAYS!!!

Today, I learned a VERY VERY valuable lesson!
If I ever take a week off from training, be prepared for the consequences!!!
YIKES! I totally did not think that by not fully doing my program for a week that it would be so hard to do once I started again.
I went to the gym tonight with the expectation of doing my 30 minute maintenance run. WOWZER!! Maybe it was the time off....or maybe it was because of the stupid treadmill...but it was seriously hard work today. I couldn't keep up with my 2/1 intervals. Now I am totally afraid for my run this weekend...4 miles...Holy Cow! I don't think I can make it!
I was able to get 2 1/4 miles done in 45 minutes....and even though the aches and pains in my knees and feet, I didn't feel too bad. 
So, now I am wondering how to get over the treadmill hump. I know that because of the crazy heat coming up in July and August, how the heck am I gonna make it through the summer and be ready in time for my 10 miler in October...Once again! What the heck was I thinking?!?!?!?
Well...I will just keep on going along and see what happens. As long as I believe and have faith in myself to get through this challenge, there is nothing that I can't do!

Well the next fact of the day...I opened my Dream Days app and realized that I have 45 DAYS til our 10th Wedding Anniversary trip to DISNEY WORLD!!
First of all...hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we were married...
Second, if anyone knows me....this trip was totally Craig's idea! I wanted to go on a cruise (a Disney cruise...but nonetheless...haha)
I am so excited! And to commensurate this day, I received my recent order the Disney Store which included my Duffy the Bear costume. However, the costume was not for a Duffy bear.
Quick history, for Valentine's Day, Craig got me a sock monkey from the Georgetown game. We had so much fun taking pictures and getting him the jumbo screen at the basketball games. Now we take me almost every where and document his travels...:)
Fast forward...I have been looking for Mickey ears for a while for my Sock Monkey and found the Duffy outfit...fingers crossed that it fit!!!

From the looks of it from the box, I wasn't very hopeful! 

IT FIT!!!!

He actually looked adorable in this Mickey Mouse Club outfit! The Mickey ears are ridiculous too big and seem a little out of place...but now Sock Monkey is ready to take on Walt Disney World!Boy, is Craig in for a surprise...haha!

So please bear with me for the next few days as I count down to the most magical trip ever!! 

Until next time....have a magical day!

Jessica

First Day of Summer and I Say Good Bye...

So I know I have posted in awhile....So I will start with today and back up a little...

Today is my first day of Summer Vacation!! Thank Goodness! I thought it would NEVER get here! The last 2 weeks have been crazy busy at work and at home. About a month ago, Craig decided to bite into a Tic-Tac...and VOILA!! Cracked tooth!! One problem, the first dentist didn't catch the crack and 2 weeks later of progressive pain, it started to abscess. He ended up with another dentist at Walter Reed Med Center and he had to have an emergency root canal. After further investigation, the crack was so deeply embedded in the canal of the tooth, the team decided to completely extract the tooth. UGH! All of a sudden he went from pain to intense pain...

Needless to say, here we are today, and I spent the day with my husband at the medical center for his post-op follow up. Honestly not a bad way to spend my first day of summer vacation. Moral of this story...DON'T CHEW HARD CANDY!! NO MATTER WHAT....I do find myself as well as Craig's co-workers being more cautious about how we chew what is in our mouth. Honestly, I have to say how bad I have felt for my husband...however, having a diet of soups, frozen yogurt, and milkshakes didn't sound bad after all...:)

Well, during this last 2 weeks, I have to admit publicly that I did NOT stick to the plan as planned...OMG!! What is wrong with me?!?!? No excuses! Honestly, I shouldn't use my husband's illness as my reason not to put myself first...but I am really not sure what I was thinking or doing....
I did manage to get my 2 mile run in last weekend...As I walked down the stairs knowing that I had to do this by myself...I couldn't help but get a little scared...Knowing that Craig would not be meeting up with me frightening me a bit...I have never done this by myself. Honestly...this is what I was thinking...

I still truly believe this...however, I think I need to frame it and say it every time I walk out the door. ugh! Either way, I made it out the door and completed my 2 mile run...It actually turned into an "about 3.5 mile run" because I actually ran a little farther than expected and walked the rest of the way back home.

And I did it in new shoes too... :)

 And I guess my app does time splits now...Check out those time splits at mile 2 and 3. WOW!! I totally never thought I would get to that point.

Of course you would think that this would motivate me to keep going...Not quite. While I was extremely excited, I still can't get motivated to do this on my own yet.

Once again, this brings me back to today...my first day of Summer Vacation. When this whole tooth thing started, Craig mentioned that he wanted to sit down and talk with a nutritionist. Now honestly, I cam not completely sold on the idea....so I will have to wait and see.What can it hurt...cuz honestly, I haven't been that faithful to any diet lately. 

So, after a interesting meeting with this lady, I am still open minded and interested in what she has to offer. Now, we only met with her and talked about recent eating habits, our goals, and next steps. Now I did disclose to her my weight (something I would never do to anyone...) and she did my BMI and body fat % with the hand held thingy....and I was not really surprised with the results but I was surprised at the fact that it wasn't where as bad as I thought it would be. 

After our meeting, we decided that we would have one last meal that we probably won't be doing for a while....so we ordered pizza and decided to say good bye to a friend that I have had for many years...

Coca-Cola has been like a best friend for many many years....through good and bad times. I have done it before...I have given up cokes before, and knowing that I have been able to give it up before, I figure I have to try this again.
As Craig and I walked out of the nutritionist's office, we both knew that by our next meeting she was going to expect a weight loss from what we told her where we are right now...With that said, we are starting our "make shift" dieting tomorrow, hopefully we can be successful and prove to ourselves more than anything that we are capable of doing this. Pretty interested to find where this will lead me and to see if I have enough will power to get through this....and especially now since Craig was given a "almost" clean bill of health with regards to his surgery.
One thing that the nutritionist mentioned that is on the list is Magnesium supplement. She said that magnesium has proven to curb the "sweet tooth" I am really interested to see if this works....off to Vitamin Shoppe tomorrow, in addition to well needed grocery shopping.
Any suggestions on healthy snacks or recipes that you've tried. Let me know...would love to hear what you are doing.

Well...I hope to be more regular. This is my first day of summer vacation...and I am ready to let it be the "Summer of ME!" I have already promised several people at work that once I return at the end of August I will be a totally new person...so here I go, keeping that promise to every one...but most importantly to myself.

Week One....COMPLETE!!

After what seemed like a LOOOOOONG day at work on Friday, I finished my work week with ZUMBA!! (Love ya Lo!! But that squat song...Holy Moly!!) I was finally really run down and tired by 3:45 that I really felt that I wasn't completely into it. But, I made it through, and I was super glad that I did.

Well, I was bummed earlier, though. We were suppose to go to the Nationals game that evening, but since it had literally been raining since Thursday evening, it was postponed until Sunday evening.

So, that night after dinner, I sat on my very-comfy couch, and it decided to sing me a lullaby. This is becoming a regular for me if we have nothing planned on Fridays....probably not a good thing. However, after working and working out all week, it is probably my body saying, "Rest up, lady!"

Saturday....I had to get up relatively early to take my PRAXIS exam. For those of you who don't know, I am a special ed teacher, and I have been for 13 years now. And I figured that I need to try a different path...so I am taking my PRAXIS in math to be certified as a middle school math teacher. I know right??? What the heck am I thinking? No matter what, I know I am definitely going to heaven. :) At the testing site, I just happen to be in the same testing room as my former Director of Schools. He is leaving to be a superintendent out of state, and I have worked closely with him for the last 2 and a half years through our intramural sports program. He made me feel really good by telling me how much he has seen me grow as a leader and really encouraged me to move on with my plans of becoming a school principal.

So, after sitting a testing for TWO HOURS and having a short and meaningful conversation with my former "boss," I walked out of the testing center on cloud 9! I was totally feeling good about the test AND I was totally feeling good about the choices that I have made in my life up to this point.
There have been many times that I have felt and wondered, "What the hell am I doing?" And, "How the heck did I end up here?" I have been lying to myself for years I believe that I was truly happy with my choices. Don't get me wrong...I have the best husband ever, and I don't regret a single choice that we have made together. But I now realize that I was probably fooling myself! And now I have finally decided that I am going to be truly happy...and not just tell myself that I am.

Well, from this feeling of realization, I was finishing up our Saturday chilling out night by surfing the Internet and found a 10K race in July...The Biggest Loser Run/Walk.

And guess what?? Yup!! I signed up for it!! OMG!! What am I thinking?!?!? Middle of July...in the heat and humidity!! I must really want to do this. Never in a million years would I ever be caught dead outside in the hear in the summer....much less actually running in it. HA!! Well, I am finally here to prove myself wrong!

So before bed, Craig and I agreed to run first thing Sunday morning. I had already decided not to work out on Saturday since I had gone to the gym every day this week, so I had to do my day three run...it was only a mile run...but I knew it was important to get it done before the end of the week.

Well, old Jessica would have told Craig to leave her alone when he asked her if she still wanted to go running first thing Sunday morning.....BUT NEW and IMPROVED Jessica got out of bed when Craig asked her. Now granted, I didn't jump right up when he asked me....I did get about 15 more minutes of sleep in...LOL!
Needless to day, with the weather we have been having here in DC, it was actually a beautiful morning.

SO I started my run/walk with a nice walking warm up, I have kinda conditioned myself to start to matter what after this slight hill on the trail. It is all psychological...I know...but it is just something that I have been doing since my first outside run in March. Anyways, I started running and low and behold, my ankle started killing me!! Seriously?? I was so annoyed! It was kinda giving me trouble during Zumba on Friday but that was 2 days ago. I worked through it for the first interval, and by the time I was on interval 3, the pain kinda magically disappeared.That's a good thing.

Have I to say....I was using my new Garmin watch. And I really liked the notifications letting me know that it was time to change up during my interval...What I didn't like is that I had set the intervals based on my 10 mile run in 17 weeks at Disney so I wasn't able to stop it after I was done with the first mile. Guess I need to read more on it before trying again. Plus, I wasn't able to upload data from today onto my computer. That is a job for Craig to help me with. He's been using his Garmin for years now....so he's an expert. Maybe??

Always as a back up, I do have my phone recording as well. And to make me feel even better, I realized that this Jeff Galloway program that I started on Monday, ACTUALLY WORKS!!! According to my RunKeeper app on my phone, I did a 12.01 min mile!! OMG!! Are you kidding me?!?!?

YAY ME!! 

To make a long story short....I ended up run/walk a mile but ended up putting in a total of 3.1 in 37 minutes. WOW!! YAY ME AGAIN!! My first 5K was on St Patrick's Day and I completed it with A LOT less running in 54 minutes. In 12 weeks, I have been able to take off 17 minutes off my time. Now I am really not worried about this 10K in July!!

To sum up the week....I ran/walked a total of 7 miles....worked out 6 days this week (I know too much...but I really enjoy going to Zumba on Wednesdays and Fridays)...and lost 3 pounds. (Now time to get my diet in check...) Not bad for my first week of making it real!

Off to bed to start Week 2!! Only 9 days left of school....I know I can do it!!!