6 Year Anniversary

Today is a big day for me and Lexi. Exactly six years ago today, I picked her up from the local SPCA. When I walked into the SPCA that day with my roommate at the time... we were just going to look around. But while just looking around, I saw a sweet scared black dog hovering in the corner of the cage while the other dog in the cage was barking and jumping around. I immediately felt something for that puppy and asked to take her out to see her. Upon spending a few minutes with that pup, I knew I had to take her home. She was so sweet and looked at me with those big eyes and looked so scared and nervous. After many phone calls with the parents and SPCA and with three anxious days of waiting... she was mine. 

Without even really planning for it, I had adopted a 6 month old black dog with big ears and long legs... soon after her arrival that sweet, scared puppy from the SPCA broke out of her shell and Lexi as we know her emerged. 

 

Over the years we have grown so much together. She's been there for everything... good times and bad. There's been many destroyed shoes, socks, reading glasses, consumed pork loins, chewed baseboards, and even walls... but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I couldn't imagine life without that little pup.

And now of course... photo montage of Lexi over the years!

 She looks so young!

 

 This was her favorite spot in Greenville... the backyard of the townhouse... can you count the number of stolen socks back there?

 She did go to puppy school... and graduated top of her class!

 At Barefoot on the Mall... awww.

Like I said... many destroyed belongings.

 

 

 We learned last year how much she loves snow!

Happy 6 Year Anniversary Lexi!

Butterfly Container Class

I have been lucky enough to work at a fantastic garden for the past three years. I work in the wedding department and for most of my hours at the garden I am in a windowless office dealing with stressed out brides, but some days I actually get out. They offer some awesome classes and finally after three years of working there, I decided to take one. It's a nice perk of the garden to be able to take them for free... just have to help check in people, clean up and whatnot... yay!

So I signed up to take the Butterfly Container Workshop where I would learn how to make a container garden that will attract butterflies. The Propagator at the garden taught the class... who is basically the coolest person that works at the garden... so I knew I would have fun.

The class started with a basic overview of the life cycle of the butterfly and what it takes to attract and keep butterflies around the garden. Like mama butterflies lay their eggs on host plants... so when the baby caterpillars hatch... BAM instant food. Crazy. So after the little overview, we had the chance to pick out the plants we wanted. I wish I knew the names of the plants I picked, but the only one I recognized was parsley, which is food for caterpillars.Really I was grabbing pretty flowers that she said would attract lots of butterflies!

Then came the really fun part... we all took a tram out to our butterfly house to have a personal talk with the gardener that designed the butterfly house. So cool! Now even though I work at the garden, I don't really get to see the gardeners (except for meetings and stuff) so I never get to actually talk to them about the work they do. So I was super interested to hear from her all the cool stuff behind the house.

While I was listening intently on the gardener... I really don't remember much of what she said. Doh! I was so in aw of the house and all the butterflies around. The main thing I took away was that butterflies drink (nectar from flowers) and caterpillars eat. There were some plants that were eaten to sticks from the caterpillars. And let me say... there were some BIG caterpillars in that house. Some really weird looking ones too.

After the tour we headed back to the classroom to put together our containers. After looking around the house I got some good ideas about how I wanted it to look. There were lots of containers in the butterfly house that were so well put together, I wanted to try and recreate it.

 

In the end, I decided to use red and purple colored flowers with lots of green from the parsley. The main thing with containers is to have the different heights for visual interest, so I had some that would grow up and some that would grow out and down. The final product ended up being very green, but I am really happy with it. Once the flowers start to bloom it will be so colorful. I'm excited to see how it develops.

Another perk is that I was able to snag a bunch of left over plants after the class was over. So I ended up coming home and making another butterfly container... plus a couple extra.

I really love how they turned out and am so excited to start attracting some butterflies. I'll be moving them to the front porch though... I want to attract butterflies and caterpillars, but don't want them wrecking havoc on my Mom's garden. So we will try to direct them to the front yard!!

My Forever DIY Project

So am coming clean, I am a wanna be DIY-er. I really like creating things and changing things to suit my needs... maybe a reason I studied art in college. I love making things pretty. However, sometimes I run into the problem of not actually finishing what I start. I have numerous art projects from college that I have yet to finish from glaze on pottery to making a chain for a pendant, I just never got around to finishing them. This also stems into projects around the house. I really love interior design and sometimes come up with ideas, that I start and never finish.

Case in point, the dresser I bought at a thrift store the summer before my senior year at ECU. I bought it for like $20 bucks and lugged the massive thing all the way from VB to Greenville. The finish on it was horrible (white chipped paint with crayon markings everywhere!) and it was obvious that there were many coats of paint on it. So I painstakingly started scraping off each layer at a time with a razor blade. I could have used some chemicals to help, but I was living in an apartment at the time and didn't want to kill myself or Lexi with fumes. So I scrapped and scrapped and scrapped. I remember finals week right before graduation, scrapping at the dresser thinking ... I should be studying instead of working on this stupid dresser! Still not finished, I lugged the thing back to VB where it stayed in the garage while I putzed around. Eventually I gave up and slapped a coat of white paint on it. I didn't even sand it, so to say it looked like crap is an understatement. But I called it shabby chic, so I could get away with it.

So fast forward to about around December when I had a  break from school... I decided to redo it again! But this would be the last time and I was going to do it right! So I started scraping away... using little wood carving tools. There are some pretty intricate spots, so the little knives worked well... they just took a really long time. There were also a lot of layer of paint! Not only the white paint I put on it, but there must have been about 4 other layers including gold, black, teal with speckles and more white.

It took quite a lot of effort to scrape it down to a relatively smooth surface, but it was worth it. After I finished the initial scraping, it sat for a few months bare while I made it through the semester. Finally about a month ago, I decided to get moving on it and I started the sanding!

 

After a lot of sanding it was onto the priming. During my first attempt of painting white was that I had a lot of bleeding through from the other layers and such. There were a lot of orange streaks in my original fix years ago. So this time around, I decided to use some Kilz on it to make sure it was protected! Well one thing I forgot to mention was that I did all of this work in my room. The dresser is very heavy, so moving it into the garage would have been a pain! So I did all of the scraping, sanding, and painting in my room. So using the Kilz inside was probably not to best idea, but I had to make it work. Luckily, it was pleasant weather outside, so I had all of the windows open. Although, I don't know how much that helped... I know I killed a lot of brain cells during this process.

Forgot to mention too, that in my first redo job, I had the bright idea to paint the inside of the drawers orange. I saw it on one of the blogs I read and thought it would be great for a pop of color. The only problem is that I didn't use orange anywhere else in my room. I ended up going with a different color scheme in my room... so the orange was totally out of place! So I had to get that covered up too... which was a bit annoying, but totally necessary!

So after all of that scraping and sanding and priming it was time to pick colors!! I knew I wanted to get away from the white, but was having a tough time picking what I wanted. I thought about a nice glossy black, but I already have a lot of black furniture, so I needed to mix things up. I ultimately decided on gray, but when I got to Home Depot... I realized the crazy number of grays there are in the world.

It took a few days to pick out the gray, but I finally picked the perfect one. Stay tuned for the final result...

I'm Back!

So I have fallen off the wagon with this blog... well with many things over the past few months. School took over my life through May and I am slowly getting back into the grove. Lots of things have happened over these past few months though.

First off, I am finally done with my actual graduate classes. Whew! And I made it through with a 4.0... quite an accomplishment I think... I am super proud of myself. All I have left is my student teaching in the fall (which is pass fail, hence the 4.0). That will be quite a challenge in itself... mainly the whole working for 3 1/2 months in the school for free, but is necessary. I'm looking forward to it... but more looking forward to getting it done and moving on to a real job!!

Second, I bought a new car! I had to say goodbye to my old Trooper and hello to my lovely brand new Mazda, named Rita. I had the Trooper for 7 years and I absolutely loved it, but it was slowly falling apart. Every month was a new repair, so it was time to move on.

Things just fell into place so perfectly that I ended up buying my Mazda. My new car just showed up in my driveway when I came home from work and I signed on the dotted line that night... no really. (I love having neighbors in the car business... takes a lot of the hard work out of car shopping!) Now I am super neurotic about this car... no eating in there... I wash and vacuum it way too much... trying to hang on to that new car smell! I am slowly starting to let Lexi in it more, but am still in search of the perfect car seat cover to protect my lovely interior from the hair and dog drool.

 

Lexi had to say goodbye... this was her last drive in Troops.  

I have also fallen off the wagon a bit too as far as my fitness goes. After Shamrock, I just didn't have time for any running or anything. Between school, work, and practicum... I was just swamped and that was the first thing to go. Now that the semester ended... I still had trouble getting into it. I was planning on doing my first triathlon in June... but when the semester ended in May, I felt totally unprepared to do a tri. In the past I have been know to just wing it and run a race even if I am not prepared... but a triathlon is a bit different. I decided to postpone it until I had the time to devote to training. I don't want to half ass things anymore!


Which brings me to today! I am slowly getting back on track as far as my fitness goes. I have started the Couch to 5k program over and am slowly getting back into the grove. The next race I am officially signed up for is the Wicked 10k in October, but am looking on adding on more. But I want to make sure I am back on track before I start signing up for things again.


There are lots of other bits and bobs going on, but I can't give it all away now! I have lots of DIY, cooking, frugalness and yes, work out posts to come. Get ready!

Shamrock 8k

To say I didn't want to do the Shamrock 8k last weekend would be an understatement. All week I was bitching and moaning about the race and trying to figure out ways to get out of doing it. Stomach ache? Leg strain? Paper cut? I would try anything. But with my sister running the marathon the day after my race... it was kinda hard to back out. So with a kick in the butt from the family, I did it.

After a long day of work on Friday I came home and the last thing I wanted to do was drive to the beach to get my packet. But the Momsters convinced me to go and went with me. The expo looked cool, but I was ravenous, so hanging around the expo did not interest me. So we went home, ate dinner, and all headed to bed for an early morning wake up call.
The morning of the race I was feeling better and getting in the mode of racing. I figured it was too late to back out now since the Mom, Jen and Scottie were all going with me. Traffic was horrendous and my oatmeal started to taste more and more like Elmer's glue with every bite, but we eventually made it. The start line was crowded and the spitting rain was not fun. Since we got there at the crack of dawn, there was lots of waiting around, which did not help my nerves.

I finally made it to my corral and waited to scoot to the start line. I ended up basically walking the whole way up to the start next to the family. Which provided great photo opportunities...
Finally at the start and we were off. I had a nice steady pace in the beginning since my past couple of races I found myself start off with too much umf.
I was almost at the 1st mile marker when I saw a friend from high school, so I slowed down to say hey. After a quick chat I took off because they were already walking and I was not trying to walk the whole thing. I did get a fun crown out of the chat because my friend did not like running with something on her head. I said I'm used to running with things on my head... think Wicked 10k.
The rest of the race was just a normal race, nothing odd or bad went wrong. No cramps, pain, nothing. I was super pleased. I ran with no ipod, so I had the chance to take in the scenery and interact with the people around me. There was a little girl who was running about the same pace as me, so jokingly I asked her Dad if she could be my pacer. He laughed and said sure and the rest of the race the little girl would look around to make sure I was near. She was super cute, but as I saw the finished I picked up the pace and had to leave them. I did thank her for pacing me and she smiled... what a cool kid. I always find the kids in any situation to hang out with.
As I was approaching the finish, I saw the family and kicked it into finish mode. It is amazing the juice your legs get when the finish line is near. Crossing the finish line felt great and I was super happy I ended up doing the race. My final time was 1:04:40. I was hoping to get a little closer to an hour, but I am still very happy with it. Especially since I didn't really train for it... like at all.
After the race we started to wait in line for the beer tent, but it was sooooo long and I was not ready to wait. So we ended up heading over to Pelon's for some breakfast burrito. Yes, now I remember why I run.
As usual, the race made me feel really good and now I want to sign up for another one. But I think I will stick to the 5k for now until I can get into a regular training routine. For now though, I will look forward to my first sprint triathlon in June. I promise I am really training for that one!

30 Day Challenge

I have had a problem making my bed in the morning for as long as I can remember. I am not a morning person, so I try to minimize what I have to do when I wake up. I would rather sleep 5 more minutes than make my bed. Plus I feel like in about 14 hours I am going to get back in it... so why make it in the first place?

I know it looks nice and neat or whatever, so I am going to try to get in the habit of doing it. Part of my 25 list is to make my bed everyday for a month. Well today is day one.

I changed over to my summer time bedding, so I am taking the opportunity to start off right! I'll take a picture everyday to document the bed making. (Don't worry I promise not to post a picture everyday of my made bed) But I'll definitely update about my progress.

Here's day one:

Lexi doesn't care if it is made or not... she just wants to sleep on it.

Travel Bucket List: Grand Canyon

As most know, I am getting my Masters in Education in hopes to become a teacher. There are many pros and cons to becoming a teacher, but in my mind, the pros definitely outweigh any con. I am basically a big kid, so hanging out with kids all day is awesome. However, one big pro is the idea of having summers off. I know in the future when I have some kiddos, it will be nice to have the same vacations off as them or whatever. But for now, I am really looking forward to the opportunity to travel. With around a month and a half (or two) off a year, my mind is already swirling with the ideas of what I could do and where I could go during my summers off.

Now this brings me to my new series, Stephanie’s Travel Bucket List. As a way to dream a little and put down into words where I would like to go in this World, I will highlight various locations on my Travel Bucket List. I know that some of the places on my list might never actually happen, but that is why it is a Bucket List, right? A girl can dream!

This brings me to my first location on my list, the Grand Canyon! I am currently observing in a 4^th grade class (which is awesome by the way) and they just started learning about the Southwest states. Their teacher read a book about the Grand Canyon and even showed pictures of her sister’s travels there, which got me thinking about visiting there. The photos she showed were simply amazing and I would love to experience that one day.

And I have never been an outdoorsy person, but I would love to camp there! Growing up I always wanted to go camping, but I only got as far as sleeping on my back deck with my neighbor friend. And if I recall, we actually came in after an hour because of the bugs! I think to hike and camp in the Grand Canyon would be simply an amazing experience.

So let this be my first entry onto my Travel Bucket List: The Grand Canyon!

*Photos from wikipedia

Loss for Words

I have been at a loss for words recently. Since my Frost 5k... nothing really has been going on. I feel like I am in the same routine of work, school, practicum, work, school... you get the point. So there is really nothing interesting going on! Whenever I think about what I could write in this blog... it is crickets... nothing... nada. Then while reading one of my favorite blogs it came to me as she discussed how she manages to have something to post everyday. It is not always about the big moments... it is about the little moments too. I don't run a race every weekend, nor do I even workout everyday... so why try to make my blog all about stuff like that??

So I have decided that I will now blog about... well... whatever! This will be a Smorgasbord of Stephanie. I'll admit, the posting will still be light for the next month while I try to figure out how to cram 100 more practicum hours somewhere in the middle of school and work, but after that get ready... there will be good stuff. Don't know about what... some days education topics, some days weddings, some sports talk, some days Lexi, whatever!

I will no longer focus solely on the big events, but the little things that actually make up my life. Will it be random? Yes. But that's me... so get ready!

And for now... cute Lexi picture! We are certainly counting down the days to Spring here at la Casa de James!

Paying Rent for the Year...

In December, I did something that was quite surprising to the Parentals… I took them out to a nice dinner. I am what some would call a tight wade (I prefer poor grad student/non-profit worker), so the rare occasion I treat my parents to Mexican or Dominos… they are shocked. Well with our three-year anniversary of me moving in with them sometime in December 2010 (ask my Dad, he knows the exact date I moved back in) I wanted to treat them to something fancy to show my appreciation.

I have pretty much the best parents ever… you can try to debate me on this, but you would lose. They have always supported me no matter what… even when I changed my major numerous times (only three official times, thank you!)… even when I said I am going to major in art and art history... even when I wanted to study theater and literature in London... even when I called from the SPCA begging to bring home the cutest little dog ever… even when I asked to move home with that little dog after graduation until I could find a job... they supported me wholeheartedly (even if they were cringing on the inside!).

Well it took about 6ish months to find a job out of college and of course, I wanted to work at a non-profit, which I quickly learned does not pay well and could not afford rent in the area. They still let me stay. Then I came to them and said “I am going to get my Masters degree!” They asked in what… I said Public Administration (I want to save the world!) and later changed to Education (Okay, I’ll just save the children!). Like I said, they are veryyyyy supportive!

Fast forward, it has now been three years that I have been occupying the future movie room aka the room over the garage. I figured it was about time I at least took them out to dinner… that’s worth three years of rent right?

So I surprised Mom and Dad (well had to tell him beforehand so he could drive) by taking them to dinner at 456 Fish in Norfolk. This place is seriously the bomb and thought it would be a perfect place to show my appreciation for putting up with my (and Lexi's) crap for the past three years. The food was seriously amazing… calamari with a basil dipping sauce… lobster hush puppies… and that was just appetizers! Dinner was even better with fresh fish and delicious accompaniments.

While the food was amazing, it was really about wining and dining the parents... take them out to a nice dinner to say thanks. Seriously, they are the amazing and I am so lucky they are my parents. Be jealous, they rock.

Watching my Weight...

This time last year, I made a huge stride to get control of my health… I joined Weight Watchers. I was spiraling out of control, gaining weight rapidly and it was only at my Grandpa’s funeral that I recognized what I was doing to my body. After I returned home from his funeral, I immediately made a promise to myself to get my weight under control, so I could have a chance at living a great long life, like he did. In the past, I had attempted many different diets to lose those pesky pounds, but nothing ever worked. I decided to join WW as a way to keep track of my food and keep it under control. Many times I would tell people I was on WW and they would say, “But you’re so young” or “You’re not that big”. But I decided to ignore those people (haters!) and keep on with what I felt would help me. Now that I am about a year into the program, I have lost about 28 pounds and counting. Woot woot!

Look at that decline... so pretty!

Looking back at my old eating habits… and putting it into the Points Calculator to see the equivalent… it is astonishing that I was not even worse off! Back in high school, I could polish off a whole box of macaroni and cheese (ah the good ole’ days). Given at the time I was playing soccer, field hockey and swimming… and a teenager, so calories burned off quicker than I could take them in. But after high school, my love of cheese continued and manifested into a love of Mexican food (who am I kidding, I have always loved Mexican food!). In the past couple years, I could easily down an entire Moe’s nachos… you don’t even want to know how many calories that is. Ouch.

Which brought me to WW. My view of food has changed and I have learned how to enjoy the foods I like without popping buttons off my pants. I still love my burritos, but now I take off the sour cream and cheese. I still love my nachos, but now I make them at home so I can control the calories. Don’t get me wrong… I still splurge (you gotta live right?). But I am now more aware of the food I eat and am conscious of the crap that is in a lot of food.

I decided to do the online version, which is perfect for my lifestyle (I’m too lazy to go to a meeting once a week). I still feel accountable because I am paying for it every month, so motivation is not an issue with me. I will definitely forever be a little spokesperson for WW and endorsing it for anyone trying to lose weight. It is seriously an awesome program to help with weight loss and healthy eating. Go Weight Watchers!!

Now I am going to go watch the Biggest Loser and eat some ice cream... it's WW ice cream, only 3 points... give me a break!

First 5k in the Books

I ran my first 5k this weekend! You might have noticed that I kinda do things backwards. I signed up for a 10k and did it with little training and figured I would do the 5k eventually. Well that time is now! A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to get things moving and start running again. I had taken time off of running since my hip was pretty bothersome and I was trying to finish the semester. I finally signed up for a 5k in January to get my year off to a good start!

So I woke up the morning of the race, not feeling so great. I was having, uh, well, let's say G.I. issues. I was a bit worried and was not ready to do a little 5k, having to stop every 5 minutes to go to the bathroom! Porta potties or not... ew. I ended up getting a later start just because I wanted to make sure I was all good before heading to the race.

Once I got on the road, I ended up zoning out and missing the turn to Mount. Trashmore... I think it was my subconscious trying to drive me to Target instead of this race. I finally make it to park about 45 minutes before the start and did not see the start or anyone that looked like they were there for a race. I had a mini panic moment that I missed the start time or got the location wrong. The packet pick up the night before was less then glamorous... it was in a local running shop and consisted about 5 old men who looked like they were taking a nice nap before I walked in. Must of been a slow packet pick up! I realized later, I could have picked up my stuff the day of which would have saved me a trip to the beach. O well!

Anyhoots, after driving around for 5 minutes, I finally spot a person with a race number and figured the start is around that general area. Then I had the image of like only 10 people racing and I come in last! I even came up with a plan that if it looked like I was last, I would just do a lap around the lake and then hop in my car and go home. Then I would just tell my mom (my personal cheerleader) that she got the location wrong and the race was actually at the beach and she missed it, o well. But thankfully, more people showed up.
The start was pretty uneventful... lots of people jumping around trying to stay warm while the main race guy made announcements no one could hear. Finally the horn went off and we started. The course was really boring because it was two loops around the lake at Mount Trashmore, I was just happy it wasn't up the hill. That would bring back nightmares from high school field hockey training, eck. I had a nice pace going during the first lap and only walked a couple times. My hip was still bothering me, but tried not to think about it. As I was coming around the corner to complete the first lap, I see my little Mom standing there obviously freezing, cheering for me. That was definitely the pick me up I needed, so I told her where the finish line was and that I had one more lap to go and trotted on my way. A little after that the first place dude wizzed by me to finish. That was a bummer to be lapped, but he was so flipping fast!

So I kept a nice pace for the second lap and tried to stay with the group of ladies around me. The last lap was tougher, but I was still feeling good. Once the finish line was in sight, I kicked it up a bit. It is amazing how even though you don't feel like you have any gas left you kick it up for the finish. As I was running to the finish I saw that it was within 37 minutes, so I wanted to make sure I got in under 38 minutes. That's when I saw Mom again too and definitely turned on the jets. The crowd at the finish line started cheering for me too since I was so close to under 38... or there was a celebrity sighting and I just didn't notice because I had my headphones on. Regardless, I'm going to continue to believe everyone was cheering for me!

And the final time was... drum roll.... 37 minutes and 55 seconds. Woot woot! I'm feeling good about that... my goal was to get under 40 minutes. Success!

All in all, I had a good time with this race. I still don't feel like I was 100% prepared, but feel like I did better in general than my 10k. This race I think I walked only about 25% of the time... I'm getting there!

My hip started hurting around mile one, which was annoying, but I dealt with it. I also had some major snot issues, since it was really cold I kinda expected it, but it was still annoying. I wore gloves just so I could blow my nose. Needless to say I threw those gloves away the moment I finished. I learned I need to perfect the art of blowing my nose while running. I had to stop a few times to blow my nose. Hott!

This was the inaugural Frosty 5k and it was pretty apparent, but they made up for it with enthusiasm! It was run by our local Lions club, who according to my mom, sell brooms and collect old reading glasses. Well, they also do races now too! They were cute... great little cheer sections throughout the loop, which was encouraging.
This was definitely a lot of fun and am ready for the next one. I always get nervous about these races and many times don't want to do them the morning of, but as soon as I finish I want to do it again. I'm feeling good (besides the nagging hip) and want to step up my weekly runs to actually prepare for the next one. Right now, I have an 8k in March, but we'll see what comes up between now and then. :)