Party into the New Year

Hey 4 day weekend.  I haven't seen you since June, and I've missed you dearly in the last 6+ months.  I  may have been a little giddy when my PTO was approved for tomorrow, and now I'm giddy with excitement for the usual New Year's weekend full of junk food and sweatpants.  The nice sweatpants, not the pair with the holes in them- we do try to keep it a little classy.

Backtracking though... my photographer husband and his wife, with an entourage of photography equipment, managed to take approximately zero photos over Christmas weekend.  To prove we weren't just grinches at home all of Christmas weekend...

Helping the nephew with his gifts.  Happy 1st Christmas!

Obviously no gift is better than a cardboard box and empty water bottle- score!

Will be preoccupied with lazying it up for the next few days... so I'll wish you all a happy healthy new year now!

Question of the Day: Any NYE plans?  Low key or partying it up?

Also, please tell me I'm not the only person who's gotten NSync's "Kiss Me at Midnight" stuck in their head at least once this week.  Just me?

Doesn't share well with others

Welcome to Monday morning... the "Christmas Aftermath".  I kind of love it.

I joked that if 2 adults can do that on Christmas, well, watch out once there are kiddos around!  Don't get too excited, we don't foresee that being any Christmas soon.  We're totally not good enough at sharing our toys yet.

Speaking of toys, Santa Hubs left an awesome new little toy under the tree for me.  A few months ago, not long after signing up for my first marathon, I dropped the hint to the hubs that I was lusting after a GPS watch.  I trust his consumer research way more than my own, and I knew he'd pull through with something fantastic.

This time he certainly didn't disappoint and I've been playing with this pretty little thing since Sunday morning. 

My Motoactv and I are already really good friends... and we'll be besties as soon as I can start running again.


Workouts: 
Monday: 2 x10' elliptical, situps on ball x20, Single limb bridge on ball 3 x20" R/L, SLing hip ABD 2 x15 R/L, ADD w/ ball 3 x10 w/ 3" hold, Pigeon pose, supine ITB stretch, standing ITB
Tuesday (@PT): 4" SLR w/ VMO stim 5', SAQ 5# w/ biofeedback 5', adductor 3 x10, single limb leg press 3 x10 plus 3 x10 w/ dynadisc, TKE 3 x10, Bosu squats 3 x10, L LE extension 3 x10 isometric, manual stretching (my favorite part!)

Question of the Day: Favorite new Christmas toy?

Truffle Fest 2011

It's been a festive weekend.  After feeling like I was dying (and calling off sick for the first time in a LONG time) on Thursday, I was finally feeling somewhat human again by Friday afternoon and decided I should take advantage.  So off I went to do some Christmas shopping.  Costco, Target, and last week's online shopping bonanza knocked off 95% of my list almost painlessly!

 

Wrapping presents is pretty much my favorite thing about Christmas

Saturday morning brought lots of yummy holiday calories.  Instead of baking the usual 1000ish cookies, I opted to stick with just one recipe this year.  Special indulgence of Christmas 2011: Oreo Truffles.  They were another Pinterest find, and an awesome one at that.  The technique took me a little practice but they are super-dumbproof simple with only 3 ingredients (plus all the toppings your little hungry heart desires).

 I totaled exactly 90 truffles yesterday, 90ish last weekend, and I need to squeeze out about 100 more sometime this week!  Thankfully they're so rich that I don't end up eating them myself, ok, not more than 1 at a time at least!

Yesterday's Truffle Fest was followed by a Christmas party at a friend/coworkers house last night and an ornament and gingerbread house making party with my family today.  The disastrous results of that to come later.


In non-food related news.  I have my 6 week follow up with the ortho tomorrow.  Unfortunately, this nasty cold has kept me from attempting any real workouts for the last week.  No pain with everyday activity though and no pain with strength training either... and suffice to say that my "everyday activity" as a pediatric PT (intern) is pretty physical.  I swear I spend half my work day squatting and crawling on the floor.  So if I can handle that in one piece, I think I'm ready to start my marathon training in a few weeks!

137 and counting

This is a picture of exactly where this post is coming to you from this evening.  Just add in a heated blanket, cocoa, Kleenex, and Nyquil.

PS- We do have real furniture now instead of Rubbermaid totes; we do go classy on occasion.

 I'm on a 2-day streak of being in bed at 7pm which will unfortunately come to an end when I actually work until 7pm tomorrow. 

Despite this nasty head cold, this week has brought a wave of positivity.  Now that I'm all nestled into bed, without any pressing matters that need tended to, I feel like I can finally relax and see the light at the end of the tunnel that has been grad school.  Up until last week, the end still felt so very far away.  A nearing but still out of sight goal, despite being less than 5 months away.

I tied up some loose ends last week though.  I set a date to meet with my Clinical Instructor to review my 3rd quarter evaluation in January.  This past Saturday morning, my project group presented our data from the first 1/2 of our intern year (and it went fabulously!).  Saturday also brought a class meeting to discuss graduation details, licensure exam prep, and the process for applying for state licensing.  I am registered for my last semester, and it's the 2nd year class that is left waiting for their internship placement news.

My insides did a little happy dance.  Ok, so maybe my outsides did a little happy dance too.  I feel like the end is finally within reach.  Too soon to start a countdown to graduation?

I think not.  137 days until Dr. Zesty Nerd, PT, DPT

PS- I will likely never actually use the Dr title, but reserve the right to use when referring to the hubs and I as "Dr and Mr" because I know he'll love it.  Could that be why he's suddenly talking about a PhD?

Minty Mocha Sunshine

Three very important things happened today, as well as many unimportant things.  You can choose which category the next three fall:

1. I started out the morning with Mint Chocolate soy milk in my coffee.  Yum.

2. I walked out the door in shorts this morning, and didn't even get chilled.  Shorts in December; I may have closed my eyes and pretended I was somewhere else for a few minutes.  Mother Nature better get it in gear and give me my white Christmas though!

3. I followed up my morning PT appointment with an iced peppermint mocha.  Emphasis on the mocha; it was like straight liquid chocolate spiked with coffee and a touch of mint.  Not such a bad way to start a Monday.

PS- I wish Blogger let me rotate images.

PPS- I may have spoken too soon on Saturday.  My IT Band wasn't agreeing with me by Sunday evening, and even less so today.  My PT had to remind me that even though I feel fine most of the time... it will be a long road before I am back to everything I want to be able to do.  For now though, 20 minutes at level 3 on the elliptical is apparently out of my league.  I did start Bosu squats today though and didn't even fall; no shame that I needed ModA to stay up at times either!

To the chapel

It has been the best kind of weekend.  Friends, family, productivity, accomplishment, and lots of extra sleep!  I did drag myself out of bed at the early hour of 10 this morning though so I could meet up with my mom and sissers at David's Bridal.

Have I mentioned that the older of the younger sissers is engaged?  The hubs, the stellar photographer that he is, took some super cute engagement pics of them a few weeks ago.  All photo credit to Hodnick Photography @ www.hodnick.net.  I on the the other hand can only take credit for carrying equipment and barking orders ;)

And on that note, we went to try on bridesmaids dresses today.  With only myself and my 12 year old sister to dress- it was a pretty quick and easy process.  Plus, that lovely sales lady kept telling both of us how beautiful and skinny we were and how we looked great in everything; she does her job well, hah.

We tried this one first, which was incredibly flattering and just fantastic on, but it was voted a little lightweight for an October wedding.  I tried it in black and would wear it in a heartbeat for some sort of formal occasion, if I were the formal-occasion-going type.

The 2nd dress was voted out as fast as we put it on.

The 3rd try was a winner: satin, classy, elegant, flattering.  Dare I say we even rock it better than the website model?  We won't be in black by the way...

And now that the second most important aspect is taken care of.  Time to focus on priority numero uno... bachelorette party!  Less than 11 months to go- I better get on it!

Question of the Day:  How many times have you walked down aisle at a wedding?  Too many or few enough that you still get excited about the details?

Me, once as a flowergirl, once as  "jr" bridesmaid, twice (going on 3 times) as a bridesmaid.... and once as a bride ;)

I'm a Pigeon

Good news of the day is that I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and I'm still pain and soreness free a few hours later.  It felt so good to sweat too!  I am trying to be really patient with this whole ITB/knee/hip/my body is just shaped funny "injury"ish thing I've got going on.  I want need to get serious with my marathon training plan in January, and that isn't going to happen if I don't get rid of the nagging pain.  So, patience it is; better to protect my body now than regret it later.

I haven't done any cardio since mid-late October in lieu of strengthening, stretching, and foam rolling like crazy, and to curb any irritation and inflammation I may have been causing.  I had the go ahead to try out the elliptical this week so I decided to play it safe with 20 minutes. If no problems, I can step it up from there.  Hopefully the knee will still be feeling good tomorrow and I'll give it another go.

In the meantime, I've also been making a weekly visit to a PT.  Some people find it funny that I'm a PT intern and still go to someone else when I have an injury.  But let's be honest, how many people really have the self-control to stop themselves from running and working out when they want to and shouldn't?  I need that other person telling me what I can and can not be doing.

Even more importantly, a good PT is going to get their hands on you.  I've now had my hips stretched in ways I never even knew existed, and it's the most awesome painful wonderful thing.  He actually prefaced these stretches with "You haven't seen this in your books and I'm sure you didn't learn it in school."  I'm tempted to teach the hubs so I can just be manually stretched every day!

Speaking of stretching:  I thought I was being really creative coming up with a novel way to stretch my hip flexors when the conventional ways just weren't cutting it.  Turns out that my novel idea is actually a yoga pose.  Pigeon, and it feels so good!

credit to womenshealthmag.com

Questions of the Day: What is your favorite muscle or group to stretch?  Favorite way to stretch it?