Mid Week Random

Normal stuff going on here.

I made taquitos and mexican rice Monday night. It was way yummy!! I was surprised at how easy the rice was to make, i'll definitely be making this all again!

Just some random stuff from this week:

- I've been called Russian twice here. Not sure what to do with that.

- I'm still addicted to LOST

- I put a lot of milk in my coffee to make up for the lack of coffee creamer and calcium in my life

- I'm thinking of doing a real "day in the life" post that shows everything I do in a normal day. Don't worry, it will be riveting.

- I was borderline attacked by a stray dog when running on Monday. I'm fine, but I came home and cried about it, even though the dog didn't bite me (because the MUZZLE he was wearing stopped him.)

- I've won two competitions in one of my language classes and the teacher gives chocolate as a prize.

- I'm supposed to run 8 miles this Saturday

- Ethan, my nephew who's 2 (almost 3) made Grant (4) and Sarah play church with him. He got out the Bible and taught them that God tells us "no more monkeys jumping on the bed."  I have high hopes for that kid.

Anything random in ya'lls week??

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

Friday morning I ran before class because Thursday got away from me.

After class, we ate noodles and I went shopping! I bought some frames to go in our dining room because for the love it's time for us to put something on the walls. For the dining room, I'm thinking a collage of frames with family pics.

I know what I want for the living room, but it's going to take saving some $ and a little time. So I'll just have to wait.

I hope to get the pics picked out and the frames hung this week. I'll post a before and after, don't worry :)

Friday night was spent on the couch watching LOST. Seriously, I can't get enough! Any LOST fans out there???

Saturday we had a slow morning, but a very busy afternoon. I'm going on a last minute trip the end of October with a friend, and most of the day was spent on the phone, sending/waiting for emails, and filling out my visa application. I'm on a huge time crunch to get my visa in time for the trip, so lots of prayers!!

Saturday night we had dinner with blog friend/real life friend, who I steal lots of tips and recipes from :)

Sunday I did everything that I was supposed to on Saturday: homework! My Monday morning class is the hardest and if I don't prepare ahead of time, I'm totally lost. But we did still manage to sneak in 2 more episodes of LOST, so I wasn't completely swamped!

I ran this morning, we just mailed my visa application, and tonight's dinner is Taquitos and Spanish Rice......it's my first time to make it, but I'm excited!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

It's a little late, but our Saturday looked nothing like we thought it would, sooooo......

Daniel and I recently started watching LOST. He has already seen the first 5 seasons and a few of season 6. We're only a few episodes in the first season and I'm completely hooked!!! This is such a good show! But I'm also glad I didn't watch it when it was on TV, bc now I can just watch several episodes at a time. (Translation: huge time waster!)

So anyways, we stayed up too late last night watching LOST. This morning it was really hard to get up, but yet I did at 8:30. I wanted a slow morning so we made eggs, drank coffee, and were just lazying around.

But then a lot of stuff suddenly came up that we needed to take care of, so our day was spent a lot on the phone and checking emails. We ended up having dinner with friends tonight, which was so yummy, and it's always a treat to not have to cook :)

Anyways...... running...

This week was Week 3 and it went well. My total for the week was 16.9 miles, and my "long" run ended up being 6.5 bc I'm still learning how far things are here :)  I feel like I'm still keeping a good pace, so that makes me happy.

Also, today was the day I got the scale back. I was the EXACT same weight as 10 days ago. It's just funny at this point. I was hoping for something lower, but I baked a few desserts this week so I'm not too shocked, ha!

I didn't get a lot of stuff done today that I needed to, but what can ya do? It will all be done at some point!

love

Laura

Life Update

Do you see how close I am to the 300 mile mark on my YTD?!?!?! AGHHHH if I'd known when I ran today, I totally would've run the extra 3/10ths! I knew I was close, but didn't check before I ran.

Tomorrow, I will for sure cross that 300 mark!!!! That is 30,000 calories burned, woo hoo!!!

Also in life news, I took a realllly long hot shower this afternoon. Why? Because Monday afternoon I got home from my run, started the shower and realized there was no hot water. We have a gas water heater, and the gas in the stove worked, but no hot water.

While Daniel was figuring out who to call and who can fix it, I boiled water to take a bath, bc I was gross from running, it had already been a few days since I showered, and I needed to get ready to go meet a local friend. So.....I was impatient and barely filled up the bathtub. I tried to lay down to wet my hair, and the water wasn't high enough! So I ended up taking an ice cold shower. No fun.

So the water heater is fixed now and we're all much happier! So I took a way long shower today to make up for any hot water lost on Monday :)

Daniel and I are working on ways to streamline our life here so to speak. After last Friday, I keep trying to focus on learning language being my priority. And also reminding myself that being busy is not always a bad thing. Our lives are busy. That's not changing any time soon, so I need to remember that just because our days are full, I can still enjoy the things that are on my plate for that day.

If I feel stress starting to creep in because I feel overwhelmed with our schedules, I just tell myself that it's okay. Business is not always a bad thing.

In family news, Sarah & Mike are moving this week, and so are my parents. It's way weird. Sarah is only moving 10 minutes north, so not a huge life changer (for me). But my parents are moving to a house, state, and church I've never visited, other than quickly driving thru or making a stop at the airport.

It will be weird for a bit, but I'm pretty excited for them too. Change can be a really fun thing.

School is good. One day I feel really confident and feel like I'm somewhat learning, some days I feel like I have never heard or spoken the language before! But I think that's how most languages go, so I know I just need to press on.

Have I mentioned that it's cold here??? Barely in the 50's and 60's, but it is a COLLLDDDDD 60 degrees! We've already broken out the jackets and long sleeves. I'm telling myself it is not okay to turn on the heater yet, because I KNOW I have a long way to go before it really gets cold!

That's my update......

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

It's just now Sunday afternoon, but we don't have big plans for the rest of the day, other than lounging and eating, so I figured it was okay to do our weekend post.

Friday morning I went to class, talked with BFF's Amy and Caroline on the phone, and got my haircut. Daniel also gave me these. They smell SO good!!!

(i'm not good with flowers, does anyone know what these are called?)

The haircut was interesting. It only cost $3, so I certainly can't have high expectations. But I have gotten my hair cut twice before here and it turned out great. It wasn't completely tragic this time, but there was definitely a language barrier.

When I first went in to the haircut place, they took me back to wash my hair and got out the saran wrap. I was looking at the saran wrap, wondering what they thought they were doing to my hair. They ended up putting saran wrap on my back and tucked it into my T-shirt. I THINK this was supposed to keep me dry.....still not sure.

They washed my hair 3 times, then took me to the guy to cut my hair. I said everything I wanted in the local language, and even pointed to a picture and to a few people who worked there that had the bangs I wanted. Side-swept bangs are really in here, so I wasn't too worried. (ha)

The guy was cutting my hair and he was barely taking anything off, maybe 1/4th an inch. I didn't mind too much because less is always more in my book. But then he cut this top layer, several inches shorter than the bottom layer. Of course, he did it quickly and then what can you do.

Then, oh and then......he cut my bangs!! They had grown out and were pretty long. He cut them really short, and all the exact same length. I kept trying to tell him and show him that I wanted them at an angle. He kept cutting and make them straight. By then it was too late, and I just asked him to stop.

So I paid my $3 and left with my mullet and child sized bangs.

Saturday, I was going to get up and run my 5 miles, but it was pouring, so I did stuff around the house till the weather cleared up. I made homemade bread, and yum yum yum it's so good!

Daniel and I went out on a date Saturday nite. We ate Indian food, then Dairy Queen for dessert.

(this is my new Zara's knock-off cardi  that I bought for about $7)

As you can tell, the food was good!

We walked home from DQ, watched a few episodes of The Office, then called it a night. All in all, it's been a really good weekend!!!

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

As of today, I finished Week 2 of my half marathon training. 8 more weeks to go!

I ran about 15.5 miles this week. I'm still running in the afternoons, because that's just when I have time. My "long" run was only 5 miles today. I honestly didn't think I was going to do it. It poured almost the whole day, and I just don't like running in the rain. Maybe if it was 3 miles, and I was a fast runner.....but running an hour in pouring rain in questionable looking puddles is not my idea of fun.

So I waited, and it finally cleared up for me to run by 3 this afternoon. The run went really well. I felt good the whole time!!!

I'm not able to check on if I've lost weight because of the scale issue. But next week I'll know, and hoping for good things!

I think the training is going well. It's hard to make it a priority with the business of school and other things, but I am glad that I haven't missed a single day of training!

Not much to say on the stats, but it's been a good weekend, so stayed tune for the Weekend Rewind post tomorrow!

love

Laura

Rough Times

I'm not sure if I should be blogging right now, because I'm emotional. And I want to be careful about what I share.

For about the past 3 months, I've been struggling with guilt. It's been this heavy weight on me that I couldn't seem to get rid of. There were moments of respite, but the guilt could sneak up on me in a second. I felt like it was taking over.

I feel guilt about lots of things: for not being the perfect susie-homemaker, for not wanting to clean my house 24/7 with joy, for feeling like I'm not catching on or studying the language enough, for feeling tired at the end of a long day that mostly entailed everyday chores, for feeling like I wasn't meeting the expectations of those around me, and for not "doing" enough for the Father.

I was constantly looking at the people around me, thinking they had everything figured out and under control. While I was left feeling helpless and guilty because of it. I was putting huge expectations on myself. I kept wanting to "do" more because then it would be okay, I would be able to measure my success. But then I'd still compare myself to those around me, and feel like a failure. Spending any time resting or doing something for fun was out of the question. I had told myself it wasn't okay. And if I did spend time resting or reading or watching a movie, the guilt would be there the whole time.

I've never gone through a time like this. Sure, I've definitely had things to work through and harder times, but nothing like this. I know it's the enemy. I kept believing his lies.

Which brings me to this morning.

My sister gave me a book several months ago written for people who live overseas. I started the book this morning.

The first chapter was spot on for me. It talked about expectations and how we will never be able to do it all. It was all things I knew logically, but for the first time I allowed my heart to believe too.

One of the questions at the end of the chapter asked us to write down the expectations we were putting on ourselves and believed others had for us as well. Then it asked us which ones had actually been fulfilled.

I realized none of mine had been met. And I was thinking, seriously, I can't do one thing well?!?!? But then I really looked at them, and had basically written perfection. I realized I was trying to not only meet my own expectations but excel in all of them.

(I've noticed that when my life seems out of control I run more. It's something I can control and measure. This should not be my focus)

We've lived here 3 months, and I want to be perfect at the language. I want others to think I have it all together. I so don't. I don't even come close.

I've been struggling thru this a lot. And I want to be free from it. I know that Father does not want us to live in chains and feel enslaved to the world. I don't want to live in the flesh. I want to be free and enjoy the Father without feeling guilty that I didn't "do" more for Him that day.

I want my focus to be living my life with joy and out of love and obedience to the Father. I want Him to be my focus above ALL else....

P.R.

You probably won't notice anything about this picture. But something is missing.

Can you guess??

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

It's our bathroom scale.

I realized I was in the habit of weighing myself 2-3 times a day. That's probably not healthy. I was noticing every 10th of a pound, up or down. I was weighing myself when I got up in the morning, before my run, after my run, and sometimes just randomly during the day.   Psycho!!!

So yesterday when I got back from my run, I asked Daniel to hide the scale for me. And he did a good job, I actually don't know where it is! I get it back the 24th. I thought 10 days was a good stretch to go without the scale. It's kind of driving me a little crazy, I'll think "oh today I feel a little thinner, I wonder...." But I can't weigh myself so life just goes on.

It's better this way.

In relevant news, I had my own PR today. It wasn't a chip timed race by any means, but I did 3, 11 minute miles. I know that's walking to some of ya'll, but considering I used to be a very consistent 12 minute-miler, I'll totally take it!!!

I found a local website that is similar to mapmyrun.com, but way easier and very accurate to my neighborhood. It actually had the stoplights and information about the stores on the street. I had been guessing this whole time where I thought each mile was. Come to find out, my first mile was a lot sooner than I thought. Which explains why I was killing myself trying to run a 12 minute mile....my distancing was pretty off.

Anyways, I wouldn't be able to keep up an 11 minute pace for much longer than a 5K. At the end of the run I was breathing so hard. And call me lazy, but most runs I finish and barely out of breath. Which should probably be my clue that I'm running too slow. Eh.....

I'm going to get my haircut tomorrow. I'm actually just walking into a random hair place that is near our house. I know a few words to tell them I want long layers and not too short. Here is my before picture from tonight.

If things don't turn out too tragically, I'll post an 'after' pic tomorrow.

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

I totally forgot to do a Weekend post. Lame.

We didn't have the most eventful weekend ever, but it was laid back and fun.

Class update: I ended up choosing to go to both levels at school. From 8:30-10:10 I go to the "hard" class. Then I go the level below from 10:20-11:50. I really think this is the best decision. It means I have to go Mon-Fri, which I'm not a fan of, but again, I think it's what needed to be done.

(Even though this past Friday when I was getting ready to leave for class and Daniel was at home, I second guessed myself, ha!)

My teachers are both really good, and I'm learning a lot. I can actually read a good 150 words now. It doesn't seem like a lot, considering there are thousands. But it's SO better than the zero I was at before.

Anyways...our weekend.....

Friday I had class, spent the afternoon cleaning, studied, caught up on admin and life stuff.  Daniel cooked dinner, which he self-named "Ugly Plate." It actually tasted delicious, but I'll admit it wasn't going to win an award for presentation, ha! We had pan fried tilapia, cauliflower, rice, and zucchini. It was really good!

Saturday, I had the long run, this you know. Saturday was another catch up day. We ended up having dinner with friends last minute, then went to see Captain America, in english again! It's so rare that we go to movies, but funny that we've gone to 2 these past few weeks. They're a little "spendy" as my Grandma would say, but you just can't pass up a new movie in English. You never know when the opportunity will come a knockin again.

Sunday we had a rest day and I read a lot. I just finished The Summons by John Grisham. I really enjoy his books-I'm not that into fiction over all, but his really draw me in.

Monday was a holiday here, so we didn't have class. woo to the hoo!!!!! I "slept in" and we were both up at 6:45. That's AM people.

Monday was pretty busy. I went grocery shopping, ran errands, studied, made granola bars, brownies, and met with friends.

Sidenote: I keep tweaking the granola bar recipe. I added a lot more PB this time and used almonds, cashews, PB chips, and a few chocolate chips. I think they taste pretty good! I also made homemade brownies and put PB chips in those too. (PB chips are cheaper here than CC, and I found the PB chips on sale, so again, woo to the hoo for me)

And again, no real pics. But a while ago, I saw this and thought of TPG!

AND, in good news.....word on the street is that there is a marathon (half, 5k,) about an hour or so by train from my city in the spring. So my plan is to train and run my own half in November, take a break for about a month, then either retrain for the spring half or OMG possibly do a full. We'll see.

love

Laura

Random Culture

• I didn't run yesterday. If you're stalking me, you'd realize that yesterday was Week 2, Day 1 of Half marathon training. But Sunday I decided to wear shoes that weren't my tennies or my flops, so I got massive blisters on my toes. I gave it a day to let them heal and ran today. Don't worry, i'm back in the saddle.
• It is common to see animals, esp cats in restaurants here. They walk around the tables, in the kitchen, on the counters.... More the rule than the exception. If I dwell on this, it makes me sick and I don't want to eat. But the food here is just way too good, so I get over it quickly.
• I'm exhausted. Langauge school is getting the best of me. I know there are people who are "gifted" in this area or it "comes naturally." I'm just not one of those people. I think I'm okay for my level, but full time language study is just tiring.
• I like living here. I could easily make you a list of things that are "hard" here, but still. I like it. It's very hard to imagine being anywhere else.
• Running here is not good for my anger issues. I get pretty angry VERY quickly when I run here. I need to a. get over it, and b. for the love find some patience.
• I made brownies from scratch yesterday. They turned out ok at first. But if I eat them straight out of the fridge, they are SO good.
• We've been having amazing weather. And by amazing, I mean not 110. It maybe cloudy and rainy, but with the temp's in the 60's, that equals amazing. I've worn long sleeves the last 3 days.
• I miss my nephews.

Also, big side note.....I think there are people out there that read my blog, have their own blog, and I have no clue who you are. Leave a comment with your blog so I can read yours too!!

Sorry no pics....i haven't taken any in forever. I'll try harder.

love

Laura

Saturday Stats

(I think i'm going to do a weekly stat update each Saturday for my training)

It's officially the end of Week 1 of training! Only 9 more to go....which seems forever away!

The week went well. I had to run during the afternoons during the week. I don't mind it, but i'd much prefer to run in the morning and get it over with. But with class, it's just too hard. And it's been a very exhausting week. But I enjoyed a delightful iced coffee after my run this morning, that I'd been looking forward to all week!

My "long" run for this week was 4 miles. Next week it's 5. I won't get nervous until it's 8.
8 miles is always my big marker. I'm pretty good up until then, but then each run over 8 is always hard. More prep goes into those runs: hiding a water bottle to pick up half way through, eating before-having time to digest, carrying Gu with me, making time, etc.....

Running long is going to be interesting here. I have a few thoughts that i'll share when we get closer.

I haven't lost any weight, but didn't gain. Again, it's week 1 so not a big deal.

I did realize how much my pride is a part of running, especially long runs. I'm going to be honest....I enjoy when someone asks me what I did today and I get to say " well i ran my 10 miles, then blah blah blah." It's such a good feeling to have a really good long run. But I need to work on the pride. :)

Like most of ya'll, our temps here dropped a lot too. Sunday it was about 110 (or felt like it), but this week it's been mostly in the 70's. I think it was in the high 60's when i ran this morning. I LOVE running in cooler weather!

A few of ya'll asked about the fam.....my parents are moving to South Illinois, i think closer to the Missouri  border (where dad's family is). They are actually there right now house hunting.

We don't have class on Monday because it's a Holiday here. Which makes me feel better about going to class this past Monday when I had to see everyone's tweets and fb updates about them enjoying their Labor Day, ha!

Oh and this week on the menu:

Sat night/Sun nite: Chicken Broccoli casserole (need to find a recipe!)
Mon nite/ Tues nite: Chili
Wed: Local Dishes
Thurs/ Fri: Creamy Garlic Crockpot chicken
Sat: Out-western food

Have a great weekend!!

love

Laura

Calzones and Class

I tried a new recipe tonight. You can find it at my friend's blog here. This was my first time to make calzones. I was pretty excited because i'd heard it was pretty easy. It was.

(the dark spots are the flax seed that didn't quite blend)

You seriously just make the dough, roll it out and put in the toppings. The part that took the longest was just shredding the cheese and prepping the veggies.

Our toppings were:

Pepperoni

Mozzarella

Red Pepper

Green Pepper

Tomatoes

Black Olives (for me)

These were SOO good! I actually couldn't eat all of mine, but i wanted to. Because you don't have to wait for the dough to rise, it's so much faster than making pizza, and it adds a nice twist to our dinner menu. We also just used canned spaghetti sauce to dip them in, because that's what we had. :)

So. Class.

We're still in the deciding stage right now. Daniel is pretty sure what class he will go to, and I'm still deciding. I tried a new class today, that left me more confused on what to do than before. We still have 2 more classes to make our decision. But I am thankful that we get the ability to choose. So that's something.

In other news....2010 was the year of the runner. 2011 is the year of the move. We moved.

BFF Amy moved (to a new apartment but still), BFF Caroline moved to Arkansas, Sarah, Mike and the boys are moving this week, and now my parents are moving! (if i've left you out i'm sorry!)

My dad is a pastor and accepted a new job in Illinois. They currently live in Ft. Worth. I know very little about Illinois, other than Chicago is there and I've always wanted to visit. Any readers from Illinois?!

It will be weird when Daniel and I do go back to the States to visit, to go see my parents in a completely different state, new house, new church, everything. But i'm excited for them  and i'm sure they'll love it!

It's been such a long week already. Seriously, is it friday yet???

love

Laura

Many Firsts

Today was the first day of school. I realized on the way, that this was the first time ever for me to ride my bike to school. I've never lived close enough to school to ride a bike, so I was pretty excited about it. ( I also ran into a motorbike on the way, yes, it was my fault)

Here we are using the self-timer:

So we rode almost 2 miles to school in the insane heat and humidity. I was drenched by the time we got there, and of course, no a/c.So instead of running i'm just going to sweat off these last few pounds, hhahaah kidding.

I'm going to be honest....class was hard. The first week you try out the different levels of class and next week 'commit' to the class you want to go to. I went to a class that I thought would be a challenge for me, but it was actually just hard. I didn't understand a lot of what was being said, and I can't read the language yet, so that made it much more difficult. I'm going to try the class below to see if it's a better fit. It's hard because I want a challenge, but also don't want to be confused the whole semester. I'm thinking a lot about this.

Also, today was the FIRST day of half-marathon training!!! Woo hoo!!! I ran this afternoon and i ran fast! Knowing I was only doing 3 miles I brought my A game, and felt really good! Again, sweating off the weight is my strategy, hhaah!

The first bit of training is always easier and more enjoyable because you start off so slow. I know when i'm hitting the 10 mile+ mark I'm going to be wanting the 3 miles again.

Are you training for anything?? A tri, marathon, 5K? Let me know, I'd love to hear!

love

Laura

Weekend Rewind

Friday ended up being busier than we expected. We found out that our paperwork was ready to get our student visas, so we took a last minute trip to the visa office to file everything. It just happened to be close to a McDonald's and we decided we just couldn't pass it up. But don't worry I got the chicken nuggets and drank water. So it wasn't a complete splurge :)

Friday afternoon I grocery shopped, and FINALLY found chocolate chips! They only had 2 bags so I bought them both. It's so easy to become a 'hoarder' here. You never know when or what the import stores will have, and just because they have something one week doesn't mean it's guaranteed to be there the next. And I consider chocolate chips a surival food.

Saturday we slept in (8 am ha!), and just did things around the house. I baked a bit for visitors we were having over today. I attempted to make homemade donut holes, and it didn't go so well. I made the dough, but had problems getting the oil the right temp and actually getting the dough into the shape of a ball. So we had weird looking shaped donuts. They still tasted good and that's really all that matters!

Saturday afternoon we went to see Cars 2 3D in ENGLISH!! I was pretty excited. It was our first movie to see here. There were only 7 of us in the theatre and we all sat really close to each other. You actually buy a specific seat here instead of sitting just anywhere. It's actually nice because most of the time you don't have to get to the theatre as early.

After the movie we went to eat at a Western restaurant, complete with hamburgers, fries, and pie! We don't go out for Western very often, so it's pretty exciting when we do. Well exciting for us.....not sure if ya'll are really holding your breath to find out what we eat, hahah!

This afternoon is pretty laid back. Tomorrow we start school and will find out how often our classes meet, times, and all that. It's been a while since I've had a first day of school. I'm hoping for a good awkward moments to tell ya'll about later.

But speaking of.....these two little cuties started "school" this week too.

Ethan is in MDO twice a week and Grant is in Pre-K. Sarah and Mike are also moving this week. They're just moving about 15 minutes North of where they are now. I've been on to this girl to start a blog. Selfishly I want her to start one so I can get more regular updates on the boys. She keeps saying she's busy.........

ALSO, my bike is here now. I biked yesterday for the first time in our city. If I thought running was hard, i was dead wrong. Biking here is insane. I'm always talking while I bike, in English, things like "watch out I'm going to hit you!" or "I can't stop.. oh no oh ummmm"  I'll keep you posted.

And in running news, I'm DEFINITELY starting my half marathon training tomorrow. It's a whopping 3 miles, but i'm excited to be committed to the training!!! I might do a weekly recap of the miles and how the training is going.

love

Laura

Get it Together

I am a person who loves having goals. I thrive on them.

So far I've met all my weight and exercise goals for 2011, so I set new ones to keep me going. But they're a little too vague. And vague goals don't get accomplished in my book.

I took 2 weeks of from running bc of being in the mountains and just being really tired and busy after we got back. I ran 3.2 miles on Thursday and felt pretty good. But today I didn't run because I honestly just didn't feel motivated. I'm currently at the lowest weight of my adult life. And when I see some small improvements in the weight area I tend to slack off. I know I shouldn't, but I do.

I want more.

After reading TPGs post today, I became motivated. I have got to just get out there and do it. I need to run whether I feel like it or not. I need to be disciplined again. Which is hard when I'm not training for anything. They have races in this country, but they're all far away and way expensive to go to.

So I've decided to train for a half marathon, even if I never race it. I'm going to be using this training program that I used for my first one. And who knows, maybe I'll do my own personal half and call it a day. (I'll just need a shirt and a medal to feel legit, ha!).

If all goes well, it will put me right at our 2 year anniversary mark. And I've already decided if I lose 5 more lbs, I'm going to let myself have a Smores Poptart. I know you should never reward weight loss with food, but I just can't bring myself to eat these without knowing i've lost more weight. It's a mental thing.

I'm a little nervous about committing to a training program, because school starts on Monday and i'll be getting up on a normal day around 6:15. And that's without running. So I know i'll have to get up about 5ish a few mornings. And that doesn't sound like fun to me. Hopefully when/if the weather cools down I can run in the afternoons. But that probably won't happen  for a while.

Anyways, wish me luck. I need it. I'll take any motivation I can get!

love

Laura