Updates 2012 My first Half-Marathon!

     I wonder how many blogs people start and forget about them? Is blogging even a thing anymore? Honestly I had sort of forgotten I had a blog until I was reading a friends blog and then I had a great idea to start another one and came across this one when I was signing in! So I'm going to update a bit. Last post was in June of 2012.... about couponing. (How boring!) So here is my plan, update weekly with major events from 2012 until present. That sounds like a reasonable goal. So here goes!

   

     June of 2012 Mike and I have been living in San Diego for a little more than a year. We are both training for a marathon and half-marathon (respectively) and currently still living with Mike's folks. The great news is that in June of 2012 we finally sold our house in Sacramento and now we are just saving up to get an apartment of our own.
     This half-marathon, which is officially called The San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon and Half-marathon,  will be my first! My training had been going well and most of my training runs were on my own. I finished it in just under 3 hours and Mike (who has run a marathon before and was in cross country in high school) finished in about 4 1/2 hours. I never thought I would run a half-marathon and actually like it!! There is a lesson there: never say never!

 Me at the start of the race. I'm ready to go, and hey I'm lapping everyone on the couch no matter how slow I go or how much walking I do. My goal is to finish at this point!

 Mike's finisher medal. He wasn't so sure if he was going to be able to complete the full because he had injured himself during training. We didn't see each other at the finish line because we didn't have a good plan, and I didn't know that he would do the full marathon because he wasn't sure. 

The half way point for me. 

     After taking this picture I saw a woman holding a sign above her head while running ahead of me. I thought, I wonder what that sign says, I want to know so I focused on the lady with the sign and dug deep to catch up to her.  I had started the race with the only expectation to finish it and I was half-way done!! A motivation thing I use is to pick someone ahead of me and try to catch that person, the sign lady she was my target!

     

     As I got closer I saw the sign said "Garmin official Pace Person 3:00:00". I thought OMG 3 hour pace person!!! I can beat 3 hours! It excited me and for the next 6 miles Garmin lady and I passed each other up a few times. It was very motivating to know I could finish my first half-marathon in under 3 hours. Especially considering I hadn't done any speed training or training to have a strong pace. I ended up finishing in 2:58:30, and I couldn't have been more thrilled!! Anyone who has ever run will tell you finishing your first is a memory you hold on to. 

     

     Finishing my first half-marathon was exciting and bitter sweet at the same time. I did not know where my husband was. I did not have someone waiting to celebrate with me as I crossed the finish line. :( It was sad I had to celebrate my achievement with strangers. (Don't worry I make up for this in 2013) I had no way to get a hold of Mike and we didn't really have a solid plan. I stayed around the finish area for about an hour then I started making my way back to our car. We had parked it at Qualcomm Stadium and took the trolley in to avoid getting stuck in traffic or fighting for a parking spot. Mike and I were finally reunited at the trolley station when he showed up 2 hours later, because he had run the full marathon. Don't worry he also didn't have anyone to celebrate with because I had left.  We discussed having a better plan next time :)

    

     Let me tell you, you don't know pain until you can't walk because your legs are like bricks. We even took ice baths to recover. For the next 2 days we slathered ourselves in icy hot and crawled everywhere we could. Mike's mom kept saying, "Why would you do this if it hurts?" We kept telling her its an accomplishment. I did not regret running 13.1 miles in any way and in doing this I discovered I really enjoy "working out" outside. Of course living in San Diego doesn't hurt either! 

Shopping with Coupons...sort of

About a year and a half ago there was a show on TLC called Extreme Couponing. I was curious so I set the DVR to record the first show, watched and thought well if they can do that I can do it too just not the extreme. I mean who needs 10 years worth of toilet paper and shampoo products that will expire and I probably won't use anyway. On a side note did you know toilet paper has an expiration date! I basically watched the show to learn how they do it and made it work for me. I'm not one of those crazy extreme couponing people who has shelves in their basement full of products, perhaps that might be nice during a zombie apocalypse, but I really don't see the need to buy stuff or "get it for free" if I'm not going to use it. I know totally against the whole American consumerism ideals but I'm just not one for all that extra stuff. Before you say I'm calling the kettle black (because maybe you helped me move once or twice) I have started on the long road of purging all that extra stuff I don't need!

Ok so in a recent shopping trip I was so excited with the savings Mike and I accumulated that I posted a picture of the bottom half of the receipt on Facebook.  Here is said picture:

A few people joked and said do my shopping some asked me how did you do that or what was the original total. So we bought 62 items and the original total was $213.34  we spent $123.22.  As you can see from the picture most of our savings come from card savings, then Just for U savings (which is Von's online coupon program) and then paper coupons. The paper coupons is actually $17.10 because the line right above that basket savings was a $10 off coupon we found in the paper. Von's, which is also known as Safeway in other places, is our main grocery shopping stop some other places we go to are a farmers market store that usually has a little better price on veggies and stuff but not the best quality and some other ethnic stores for specialty items.

Ok so what did we buy though? I sometimes hear people saying things like but the coupons you get are just for junk food. Not so! Here is what we bought:

1. Canned diced tomatoes      
2. Fiber one bars (if you do Weight watchers the 90 calorie ones are only 2 pts)!
3. Corn Tortiallas                    
4. Carnation instant breakfast                          
5. 3 Enchilada Sauce 
6. Natural Peanut butter             
7. 10 Smart Ones (for my lunches at work)        
8. Morning Star Burgers
9. Jello pudding packs               
10. 4 Weight Watchers various Ice Cream bars    
11. 2 Thomas English Muffins 
12. 2 Hilshire Farms lunch meat   
13. Chicken Apple Sausage                                 
14. 2 James Dean Turkey Patty
15. 2 Turkey Bacon                      
16. Bananas                                                       
17. Oranges
18. Broccoli                                
19. Celery                                                           
20. Gala Apples
21. Shallots                               
22. Sliced Almonds                                               
23. Pistachios
24. Mushrooms                         
25. Baby Carrots                                                  
26. Salad (in a box)
27. Basil                                   
28. Mini sweet peppers                                         
29. Feta Cheese
30. Mozzarella Ball                   
31. Hummus 

 Before I started doing any of this I mostly shopped at Albertson's. I thought to myself why do I need to have a stupid card to save more. Cards like that are a form of marketing for stores so they can see what you buy and put it all in a data base. Anyway I came to realize It really didn't matter that much to me that the store was collecting information on what I buy. They aren't trying to using my information in a malicious way. Plus they are using this information to give me savings on things I buy. 

Ok, so how do I do it. Well I do get the Sunday paper and I clip the coupons I think I'll use. On Tues or Wed the ads come out for that weeks grocery stores. I look through the ads and see whats on sale vs what I need. Simple enough. Then I log onto vons.com and sign in and look at what coupons I can add to my card. Also since they are collecting information on what I buy they offer me special prices on those items so I add them to my card as well. On top of those savings I can add the coupons I have and Von's usually makes the savings up to $1.00 off so if I have a $0.50 coupon they will make it a dollar. Different stores have different policies so you'll have to check. But really that's the trick, if something goes on sale and you have a coupon that's when you should buy it. 

I don't dumpster dive for coupons or buy extra coupons or extra Sunday papers. I'm sure I could probably save a bit more that way but I'm not willing to put in any extra time into this. I hope I answered some questions let me know if you have more. Another store that I shop at often is CVS I usually buy all my toiletry items here and they have good sales on candy (which I sneak into the movies sometimes).  I think the best thing about CVS is you earn CVS bucks which you can use to purchase things on your next trip. They usually don't scoff at you if you break a purchase down into two so you can use the bucks you earn on the first purchase to buy the things on the other. 

Happy shopping :)

Things I've discovered on Pinterest...

     About a month ago I kept seeing posts from my friends on Facebook about this website Pinterest.  I thought to myself Pinterest what is that?  Well I really don't want to know because it's probably just another site that will keep me glued to my computer.  I mean I'm already neglecting this blog, I haven't checked my e-mail in weeks, and I have a mile long list of sites to "check out".  I fell like I just spend so much time online and  I've been wanting to curtail my Internet time.  When I do go online it's to do things like check my bank account, pay my bills, and scan through my e-mail for important messages.  I feel like I need more real world time and less digital world time, I'm probably not alone.  We are so digital these days and granted it does make things easier but I sort of miss things like real letters and talking on the phone, only sort of though.  The other part of me realizes how convenient the Internet makes my life.
    
     I kept seeing the posts about Pinterest and decided OK I want to see what this is all about. Wow it is so cool!  It is all of the things I find on the Internet that I like but, I don't want to print them out, or write them down because overall I really want to reduce clutter!  Pinterest is so appealing to me because its my own board where I "pin" pictures from websites onto a neatly organized page and the pictures are actually a hyperlink that takes you back to the original site. How cool is that! I'm trying not to get carried away with the things I post but overall it's nice to have a little organization in my life. I'm not sure if there is a limit to the number of boards you can create but so far I have 11 boards. They are:

1. Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Workout ~ Pins of fitness related stuff and some inspirational quotes like "A one hour work out is 4% of your day no excuses". That would actually be something I might put on my mirror in the bathroom to help motivate (or guilt) me into working out. I'm not a workout freak but staying healthy is important to me because of some family health issues. Another quote I like is "No matter how slow you go you are still lapping everybody on the couch".

2. My geekyness ~ Just a board of things I geek out about, mostly Star Wars stuff :) and some crafty stuff.

3. Ideas for my next home ~ Self explanatory really. I'd like to have a beach themed house so this is place for those ideas to gather.

4. Getting Crafty ~ Things I'd like to make when I have some free time....

5. Eat, Drink and be Merry! ~ Recipes I want to try.

6. Style ~ I've been struggling with what is my style lately (clothing). This is where I post pictures of outfits or articles of clothing I actually like.

7. Girl Scout Days ~ Some songs and other things from when I was a Girl Scout. Someday when I have daughters I will be a Girl Scout Leader so I want to remember these things.

8. Tattoos ~ Designs I like but I will probably never get...

9. My Wedding 10/31/10 ~ A lot of the posts I saw about Pinterest were wedding ideas for some of my friends who are getting married this year. I wanted to share some pictures of my wedding because I don't mind if someone copies something I did. Most of my planning were things I discovered from other brides.

10. Make life easier! ~ Tips and techniques for everyday household things to make things easier.

11. Back to the Future ~ Fun baby things I've found. Not planning on having a kid soon but someday and these satisfy my urges for now :) This woman's clock it out of control!

All in all I'm glad I found Pinterest, no only if I could stop checking Facebook like 50 times a day!

Joining Weight Watchers

As far as weight gain goes there are many "milestones" in a woman's life. There is the freshman 15, which is basically the weight you gain when you move out from home for the first time. It's probably because you are eating out a lot more often eating things like pizza and more fast food then you really should. It's also because you really don't have time to cook and eat healthy things or even work out because usually you are taking a full class load and lets face it there is a lot more homework in college. Actually I think all of the school work you do is homework. Anyway I've taken classes but, I never actually went to college full time. Instead I joined the Military so instead of gaining the freshman 15 I actually lost weight in basic training and maintained a pretty healthy weight while in the military. I'm sure it was all the physical training I did.
The next milestone is the weight you gain when you are happy  with a significant other and then after that after you get married. It doesn't make sense for me because though because Mike and I lived together for years before we got married yet somehow I gained the weight. After that you have the baby weight, then some times menopause causes you to gain weight. Well I've finally reached that magic number that I never wanted to see so I did something about it. about 6 weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers and so far I've lost 8lbs!! I still have a lot more to go and I know I can do it. 

Turning 30!

So Tomorrow is my 30th birthday!!! Wow! I just don't feel 30, I mean I'm finally noticing the fine lines on my face around my smile and eyes makes me want to go back and tell myself WEAR SUNSCREEN!!!!! It used to be that pale white was in style but, when I was growing up being the west coast girl that I am having a nice bronze was in. I'm not promoting sun bathing because I totally believe in wearing sun block to prevent skin cancer. I am a sunblock Nazi now. Anyway I don't feel like I'm getting older except occasionally when stairs and I don't agree.
So what do I want for my 30s well I'd like to eventually start a family  but, that is still a few years out. Considering I just pulled up my roots only to lay them down again in San Diego, they aren't completely planted yet still in a pot so to speak. Lots of things to finish up in Sacramento, plus Mike needs to get down here. Hopefully things will even out and we'll  be on track to getting our lives started, I can't believe we've almost been married for a year! Some other things I'd like for my 30s are to get my professional life on track as well. I've been training for far to long at this point. Granted I did just move to a new facility so it will take some time to get rated. I'd also like to take some fabulous vacations to places like Italy, Turkey, Germany, France, England, Ireland, pretty much all of Europe. I'm thinking a country every year!! That will be my goal. I'm also hoping to learn a new skill and actually get good at it such as surfing or ocean kayaking. :) Anyway off to bed for me!!!
Happy Birthday to me!!

Driving to OKC day 1

 I'm getting ready to transfer to San Diego and I'm super excited about that. Ever since I visited Karrie and Kat in 2003 I have wanted to live there! Before all of that can happen I have to go to Oklahoma City, OK for some tower training. All of my Air Traffic experience is in RADAR so even though I took the training in the Air Force I wanted to (and had to) take the FAA's Tower course. Last time I went in 2007 it was only for 1 month so I suffered (yes suffered) without a car. I thought I'd be no problem when I was there last time, you know I'd just catch the bus and rent a car on 2 of the weekends to go and visit my very good friend Cristin in Dallas. Well the public transportation system in Oklahoma isn't as good as it is in other cities. I know I'm spoiled by living in CA where we have things like the BART and buses and the train and stuff. Not that I use them too often but I have, especially when going to San Fran.
    On to the drive. So yesterday I left Sacramento at 8AM and arrived in Flagstaff (aprox the half way point) at 10PM. Man was I tired! I'm very glad I felt I could make it to Flagstaff though because now the rest of my drives are going to be much shorter and I won't be travel exhausted when I get to Oklahoma. It was raining Sac when I left and it continued to rain until just after Bakersfield. Once I started heading SE the sky started to clear up and it got much warmer. Everyone had said the drive would be boring because there isn't anything to look at. I guess since I'm from the desert I thought it was very beautiful! the mountains were a very pretty purple color (no not at sunset) and there were lots of different kinds of plateaus and cliffs with lots of different warm colors. I wanted to take some pictures but maybe on the way back. Mike is driving back with me so I'll have him bring the big camera. We are also planning to go to the Grand Canyon so that's another reason to bring it! Oh and the roads in Arizona on Interstate 40 are very rough in a lot of places! Well off to breakfast and onto day two of driving I'm hoping to make it to Amarillo today. (should be no problem).

Flowers

I like to receive flowers, I like the way the smell, I am actually one of those people who will stop and smell the flowers, and flowers usually make me smile. The funny thing is I don't have a favorite type of flower. I didn't even know where to begin when I started looking at bouquets. I just knew that flowers out of season = expensive so I told the two flower shops I looked at that I wanted something in season. I began my search online. I dare you just type in flowers in season for (insert month), you won't come up with very much information. I'm thinking this is some secret squirrel stuff why wouldn't this information be available. All those wedding websites weren't helpful either; they just talked about different flower shops in the area. So to begin my search I just started looking through pictures of bouquets, I looked at a ton of pictures and eventually decided that the deep purple color I was looking for would probably best be displayed in calla lilies. I was a little hesitant about getting calla lilies because I had always heard that they were really expensive.
Florist # 1 meeting day comes along and I just crossed my fingers and told the florist what color I was looking for. They started talking about roses these were special roses from Mexico and they last longer and they don't cost extra because they grow them all year round blah blah blah. Granted roses are pretty I usually stop to smell the roses that grow at my house. In high school marching band I marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade....I just didn't really want roses. I just felt like they were so common I wanted something that wouldn't be so common. Plus flowers die and I knew I was going to be upset about my flowers dyeing.... (I was). Anyway I almost relinquished the whole flower thing and I probably should have, at least my bouquet part of it. I didn't really need a bouquet and the only time I held it was walking down the isle. It did double duty as a decoration after the ceremony, as well as the bridesmaids flowers. I digress so back to this florist they were cool but I clearly didn't know exactly what I wanted and they didn't have very many suggestions, I don't want to include their name because for other brides this might be what they want, it just wasn't what I wanted, the price for what I would have gotten from them was outstanding as well.
Florist # 2, Jackie's Flowers out of Elk Grove, was AWESOME!! She had great pictures her shop was full of different props I could rent to place flowers on or candles or whatever and she has some wonderful ideas!! She is truly an artist. While looking at her pictures I found this gorgeous bouquet of caramel colored roses and I knew that's what I wanted just modified a bit. So we talked it out and add the deep purple calla lilies to the caramel roses, the bridesmaids would carry a single calla lily with feathers (1920's theme). The backdrop to the ceremony would be a rustic/medieval candelabrum with flowers and candles on it.  Another thing that sold me was she hand picks her flowers at the flower market in San Fran!  Wait until you see the pics! If you have never been to The Firehouse Restaurant back patio you need to check it out. It is very beautiful back there and one of the reasons for picking it was we knew it would require very little decoration. I had some ideas about other things I wanted from Jackie but they were putting my flower budget out the window so I had to scale back. Jackie is awesome though (as I 've said) and the day of the wedding she surprised me with some of the things we had talked about that were out of my reach because of my budget.
Anyway some ideas that I had that didn't come to fruition were to have some carved pumpkins around with Mike and I initials and things like that, it was Halloween after all, but that was going to be too time consuming and was out of my budget.  I didn't want my bridesmaids and groomsmen sitting around carving pumpkins the night before the wedding (although that could have been fun). I also had ideas to have small pumpkins be part of the table centerpieces that were just scattered around. What we ended up doing instead was free and only took some time of some very good friends. I bought gold, silver, and ivory with various design's scrapbook paper, placed two wine bottles with white ostrich feathers, candle's and ivory rose petals on the table. This was very inexpensive and looked fabulous!
In closing flowers are beautiful but, not necessary and I really really had to twist Mike’s arm to get him to wear a boutonnière. I just knew that my grandma, mother and mother in-law would appreciate the touch of flowers so I bit that bullet instead of fighting it. I did see some pretty cool looking homemade flower ideas on etsy.com while browsing there so if you are against flowers then that’s the way to go!