Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sleet

Our major ice storm fizzled out a bit.  At least here in the OKC area and north.  Now south and west of here is a bit of a different story.  There are about 100,000 households without electricity, my parents included.  They do have heat and cell phones so I'm not worried about them.  My sister is in the city at the moment and my brother lives here so they are both fine.  As far as I know our friends in the area are okay as well.  Tomorrow we are expecting to get several inches of snow.  I hope so!  I want to play on my new snowboard!


This is sleet, not snow.  We didn't get nearly as much as they did west of here.

If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the ducks's eyes.
                            

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pride Before A Fall

In the past 10 days I have begun to work out again.  Not to have a "I'm better than you" attitude, but I Crossfit, not just work out.  Let me put that into a better perspective, first of all, I was never what Crossfit likes to refer to as a fire breather.  I'm slow, no matter how hard I work on stamina it just doesn't seem to come to me, and I have been trying to lose that last 15 pounds for two years now.  I am still a Crossfitter.  Secondly, Crossfit type work outs really do kick some butt!

Three years ago I began this journey.  During those three years I have had two, six month stretches of staying out of Crossfit because of my back.  One-third of my Crossfit time has been spent not doing Crossfit.  Oh how I missed it too.  This is coming from someone who never "liked" exercise, but I found my niche with Crossfit.  I even went and became a certified Crossfit trainer and Crossfit Kids trainer.

This week it has pained me, literally and figuratively, to get back into the swing of things.  Workouts that were somewhat easy before are now difficult at half the weight and 1/3 the reps.  My 5 k time, though always pathetic is now 9 minutes slower.  I've done two workouts this week with pull-ups.  I think my arms and traps are about to fall off.  For three days I could barely sit down because my legs hurt so much when I did.  Then I had to get back up at some point and that hurt too.  This however is not the worse thing to me.  It's looking back at what I was able to do before, and having to accept that I may never get back to that point.  It may be physically possible, but do I want another 6 months of not being able to do something I really love doing.  I even loved the recommended diet that Crossfit recommends for its clients.  That's been a struggle to get back into as well, although not quite so painful.  Looks like my pride went after the fall.

I am back however.  I may never do another workout with a barbell as it is written.  I will probably have to drop the weight for most of them.  Body weight WOD's will eventually come back to me, maybe not as good as before.  One thing I do hope to do better is run.  If I can improve in that area, I will be pretty happy.  So I may never again deadlift 200 pounds, or "Fran", but it's good to be back!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Spring Fever



Normally I really love each of the four seasons we have here in Oklahoma.  Each one brings its own beauty but also its own unique weather problems. 




Spring is beautiful around here.  The trees begin to bud and flower, daffodils and tulips poke through the brown grass to bring forth bright and wonderful color.  The winter wheat, which has been green all winter, begins to thicken and grow tall.  The occasional spring snowfall really only adds to the beauty of it all.  The birds are beginning to sing.  March has come in like a lion and out like a lamb.  This saying is so true here in Oklahoma.  But on occasion, the lion returns.  Thunderstorms and tornadoes are quite common.  We are in tornado alley after all.  If it weren't for the destruction that they bring, their sheer power would be awe inspiring.  I have to say though, I love a good thunderstorm.  The booming thunder, the beautiful lightning, even the hail, as long as my garden isn't already in.

 
Summers here can be wet or dry, more often than not it's the latter of the two. There is still a danger of supercell thunderstorms and they can be brutally hot.  So hot that the water at the lake feels like bathwater and isn't the least bit refreshing.  When it does rain then you have the humidity. Days so hot and humid, walking out onto your front porch gets you soaked with perspiration. Lots of bad hair days.  If it's a dry summer, wildfires are a constant danger. With winds that "come sweeping down the plains", and grass that has dried to a crisp, they are very hard to handle. If it's a wet summer, then the fire danger is usually put off until...






...autumn. In this part of Oklahoma we don't have the great changing leaves that eastern Oklahoma enjoys, but it's better than the dried up plains of western Oklahoma. Like all of our weather, fall has many faces. It can easily be in the upper 80's to low 90's into October. I've harvested tomatoes, peppers and okra, all hot weather plants, through the middle of October.I could have even longer, but I usually decide I've had enough and finally pull up the plants. It can also snow like crazy. My daughter was born November 5, 1991. That Halloween saw one of its worst snow storms in southern Kansas where she was born and Oklahoma got an ice storm. And like I mentioned before, if it's been a wet summer that makes for a lot of tinder to catch fire in the typically dry fall.

Finally there's winter. For the most part, winters are pretty mild with average highs in the 40's in January, our coldest month. December 24, 2009, brought Oklahoma City its greatest one day snow total since records have been kept. In two days we are expecting a storm that may be worse. Not that we are expecting that much snow necessarily, but we are expecting from 5-15 inches. What is worse is that we could be getting a significant amount of ice earlier in the day. One good thing with this storm is that the temperatures are not supposed to stay as cold as they did with the last storm for nearly as long. We went almost three weeks at below normal temperatures, many of those days it never got above freezing. We like to joke that if we get less than four inches of snow, it will be gone the next day because it will probably be 70 degrees. And it can do just that.




Will Rogers, an Okie, said, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, stick around a minute, it will change."
He was so right!



Like I said, I love all our season, but I really am ready for spring. More about that later!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Monday, Monday

AAH, Monday is here. 

It was a good weekend.  Went to church and heard some great things there, but that's nothing new.  Saturday evening we met some friends at a German restaurant in Moore, Royal Bavaria.  Drank beer from "das boot", or if you are Jeff and like to mix your cultures, it was "mas boot".  They brew their own beer and the food was really good.

On Sunday I went and did a little shopping.  I had a bridal shower to go to and of course I had yet to buy the gift.  It was a really nice shower.  Very happy for the couple to be.  They are awfully cute together.  We will miss the wedding though.  That's when we are going on our snow boarding date.  I imagine there will be a picture or two taken.

Today is supposed to be a nice day.  I think I will get out in the yard and clean up a little.  We are expecting snow and cold weather later in the week.  I guess if you are expecting snow you have to expect cold weather!  Anyway, better get it done early this week or it will be another week or two before it does get done.

AAAH, Monday!

Friday, January 22, 2010

5k

I ran a 5k yesterday!  First time I've run since last years OKC marathon.  Had a few couple of sprints here and there, but the first serious run.  It was ugly.  Worsted (I say it's a word) my worst time by over 6 minutes.  I'll not say what either was.  I guess I shouldn't complain, I mean it's been six months since I did any sort of working out and 9 since the marathon and I've been trying to recover from an injury.  My goal was to not re-injure myself-done! And to finish it-done as well!  I did almost fall once, I know, so pathetic, but I still don't have all the feeling back in my toes and that can make for awkward foot placement.  I'm also a bit of a klutz.



2009 OKC Memorial marathon

When you haven't done something in a while, you tend to forget things, some important, most just little things.  For instance, you don't like to run, you're bad and slow at running, you need to wear a different bra.....you can determine what is important and what isn't.  I did remember my iPod and glucose. 

Running right now is a bit a snowboarding preparation.  I need to get some cardio and endurance back, of course in a two week time period I'm not sure how much of that will happen.  After that I will start a little more in earnest to get ready to run the 1/2 marathon this year in OKC.  Looking forward to it!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Making Plans

In just over two weeks we are headed out for our two day snowboarding date!  Getting things in order before hand has been, well, not fun, but I am getting excited.  We've got the kids taken care of for the time we will be gone.  Gotta love grandparents! 



Keystone trip-2007

I did have some unusual preparations to make before the trip.  They will all be attending a wedding while we are gone.  It is a theme wedding and Tabitha needed a fascinator.  "What's that?", you ask.  A silly little feathery hairpiece worn mostly for formal occasions.  Since we don't just have these lying around, I made her one.  It turned out pretty cute I think.



Fascinating fasinator!

Other preparations that had to be made included buying a new coat.  Not because I wanted a new one.  There was nothing wrong with the one I had.  In fact, I really liked it.  So did someone else.  Last year Tabitha left it on a table and someone took off with it.  She wasn't away from it for 3 minutes, but that's all it took.  So this year I got a new one.  Since I was making a fresh start I decided it should match my snowboard boots-blue.  Then since my pants matched my old coat-green-I got some new pants too.  Black, that way they match any coat I might have in the future.  Gotta love Ebay and Craigslist.  Got the coat there, my pants at a wholesale place in OKC, some new gloves, a board (new), boots, and bindings.  Everything for around $200.  Not bad when you consider most new boards are well over $200 alone and I saw several coats I would have like for $250+.  Can't wait to try it out! (The resort has had 11" of new snow since yesterday and two more storms coming through before the week is out!)



Sipapu-2009

In March we are going again, this time with the kids.  Hopefully we'll have some friends along as well.  You know who you are!


Brugge, Belgium 2009

Thursday, January 14, 2010

SOOOO Long!

It's been awhile.  A while since I have really been able to workout without worrying about hurting my back, or just working out without my back hurting.  July to be precise.  Since July, I have done two workouts.  A pull-up ladder and the other a thruster/200m run couplet.  My back has been feeling so much better that I decided yesterday it is time to get back into my Crossfit-style WODs (workout of the day).  Of course now I am out of the habit and after I decided that's what I was going to do, I forgot and felt rushed to do something late yesterday evening.  I managed a whole 25 push-ups.   What's even more pathetic is that they were from my knees.  UGH!!!  And even more pathetic than that, I'm  sore.  My pecs, my lats, my bi's and tri's.  How did it get soooo bad?  Well,  I am confident that it is going to get soooo good.  I've done this Crossfit thing before.  I love it.  It has not been an issue of just getting out of the habit, it has been a period of recovery.  Now, I will never be what I was before the whole back issue.  I think I will have to give up PR's and max lifts, but I can still do the body weight stuff and light weight O-lifts.  I will sure miss them though. 



Inchworm sucks!

Looking forward, I have a half marathon to get ready for in April, and even closer than that I have a couple of snowboarding trips to prepare for.  Those things, if I will just get out there, will be easy to do.  I really am ready.  Next week is supposed to be warm, so I will get out and give my back a test run.  I think I'll start easy, just a mile.  If my back doesn't rebel on me, I'll add another mile to it the next week.  Then if I don't die snowboarding, I'll begin training for the 1/2 marathon in earnest when we get back-hope the weather cooperates for it.



Memorial Chairs


I'll also be getting back on a stricter eating routine.  I love The Zone by Barry Sears, but eating well has always been my weakness.  My dear hubby is getting back on it as well and I do much better when he is Zoning too.



Zone snack!

So, it's a new year to most people, but instead of making resolutions, just make a change!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Going to Texas

Normally I would be really excited to get to go to Texas.  Except for my parents, siblings, and one cousin, all of may family is in Texas.  This is why I am going tomorrow, family.  Unfortunately it is not a fun family get together, one of my favorite uncles has died.  Uncle Charlie is my mother's brother.  He is (was) the father to one of my closest cousins, Tammy.  At least we were close as kids and teenagers.  Life has a way of separating you as you grow up and have families of your own.  We've also never lived closer than a three hour drive to each other.  Now we basically IM on Facebook, which is more than we had before Facebook.  I hope tomorrow we can reconnect on a more personal level and actually start at least talking a little more often.  After all, I have free long distance on my cell phone, so it won't cost anything. 

We both have girls who will graduate from high school this year and she has a daughter who will be 21 in a few months.  She will be an empty nester and all I'll have left at home is my 7 year-old.  We will have to make some time together.  She's only an hour away from Dallas or Wichita Falls and it's only 2 or 3 hours for me to get to one or the other.  We may need a girl's weekend sometime soon.

While I look forward to seeing all my family who will be there, I do look forward to seeing her more.  She was my "cool, older" cousin.  Only about 18 months older, but that meant she could drive before me.  Now I'll just make sure she knows that she's still the older one. 

I hate that funerals are the only times we seem to get together anymore.  We don't even get together for weddings.  None of our children have ever really met.  Our granny would be so disappointed in us for that.  We have a lot of cousins who are the same age as our parents and we grew up with their kids.  They were more like first cousins to us than our first cousins were.  All of my cousins who are my age, I haven't seen their kids since they were babies, if at all, and now they are, for the most part, in their teens and some even have kids of their own.  I think I have the youngest one, and I'm one of the older ones.  (Ouch!)

Well, I've rambled enough.  I've got to get the house cleaned and the kid's ready for school for tomorrow.  It will be a long day, but I'm going home and then coming back home all in one day.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Such fun!

Had a great time on our date last night.  The Thunder lost though.  On our way to the game and after we talked about how much fun we have with each other.  We met when I was 17 and he was 19, then we married 11 months later.  He had turned 20 just four days earlier.  I think the key to us being together over twenty years later is the fact that we still have fun together.  We are, in many respects, still just two teenagers, even though the gray in our hair tells a much different story.  As does the fact that we have an18 year-old daughter, she likes to remind us of that as well.  If more couples today would just have fun with each other, maybe more people would stay together.  Do you think Tiger and Elin had fun together?  Probably not.

So what was so fun about our date?  Well, we went to American Pub before the game.  Before Thunder games, the first 100 people who come in get a free 1/2-pound burger.  We were 2 of those people.  With fries and cheese we spent $2.77 on food and it was a decent burger.  We spent way more on beer!  They had a free throw contest and Jeff won a free beer there, played a trivia game and then left for the game.  We didn't have tickets for the game.  We went with the plan to buy from scalpers.  Got two great seats for 1/2 the cost if we would have bought them online!  After the game, we walked in the freezing drizzle back to the car.  Scraped the ice of with our driver's licenses-someone has put my ice scraper in his truck-and headed off to IHOP!  MMM, biscuits and gravy at 10 p.m. 

He makes me laugh.  He is definitely a goofball.  He says that makes me a bigger goofball since I married him.  He's probably right.  For our next date I will have to wait about a month, but that's okay.  We are leaving the kids with grandparents and we are headed to New Mexico to snowboard!

Go and have fun with your spouse!  Just so you know, the burgers are regularly 99 cents at American Pub, they're nothing to write home about and it is a bar (smoky but no kids allowed) but it's a cheap date too.  Go have a cheap burger and a beer or two and make each other laugh!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

What a great dad!

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?lang=en&cl=17450262

This is really neat!

Dating



I had a great date with my daughter yesterday, after school.  She has a project due for photography class, so we went to Bricktown to get some photos.  It will be a silly project.  She took her stuffed alien (from Toy Story) and put him on some of the painted bison that are scattered through downtown and Bricktown.  The assignment is a photo essay, so it must tell a story.  What that story is, I'm not sure.  I don't think she is either.  Maybe, "Alien Visits Oklahoma to Find Missing Alien Bison".  These bison, not buffalo, are all painted in crazy ways, like Chicago's Cows on Parade. They are pretty fun.  Unfortunately her camera started freezing, literally, and we will have to go back Sunday to finish them up.



Here she is in Londaon, taking a picture of...


..this.



After walking around in the cold to get pictures we went to The Wedge Pizzeria.  We got their great spinach salad and "The Vedge" pizza, we added chicken to it.  YUM!  After that we went shopping for cute bras.  I'm not sure why she needs cute bras since no one else sees them, but anyway.

Tonight we are headed back to Bricktown.  We as in, Jeff and me.  We are going to eat and then buy a couple of Thunder tickets from scalpers.  We see them every time we go to a game and you can usually score some pretty decent tickets that way at a good price.  In OKC you can only scalp a ticket for 50 cents over face value.  Better than Ebay or Stubhub for a last minute ticket.  The Thunder are playing the Hornets, OKC first NBA team.  Okay, they were only our while New Orleans couldn't accommodate them due to Katrina, but we are still fans.  Kinda like the first crush you ever had.  They aren't your true love, but you never forget them.  Ought to be a fun game!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

All's Quiet on the Western Front

Not so bright but oh, so early this morning, 4 a.m. to be exact, Tabitha and I took Jessica to the airport so she could go back to Florida.  She got here the day after our record breaking blizzard and as she left this morning we still have quite a bit of snow on the ground.  For Oklahoma, that's very rare.  Hopefully she had a great time and the next time we see her maybe she'll be headed back here to attend college!



Jess and Tab

Jeff and Elijah will be heading home sometime today from their Arkansas camp out.  It's been cold!  I wonder how they fared at night.  I think it might have snowed on them last night.  That would not be fun.  Of course I'm not sure anything about camping in this weather would be fun.  I'll see what kind of stories Elijah has when he gets back.



In warm Brugge, Belgium

It sure is quiet around here this morning.  AAAHHHH!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Two great (grate) topics!

This is a great story.  We need more people like this in the world.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5979464n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

Here is another one, especially if you like cheese!  And I do!
 http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/13965/eat-cheese-to-stay-slim

We went to the Thunder game last night.  It was great as well.  It's the first time I've gone and they won.  The curse has been lifted!