Thanksgiving Feast

(Carly left, Lisa right)

Our Thanksgiving feast turned out wonderful. Lisa and I prepared Mr. Bird the night before so that we could just pop him in the oven when we finished our race and got back to my house.

Carly arrived around 1:30 on Thanksgiving Day from NYC and jumped right into food preparation. We made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and heated rolls. (Jello salad was made the night before but it was forgotten in the fridge for the meal. Whoops!)

Here is our group, minus Lisa, and me and Carly clearly love each other more than everyone else in the group.

Have you seen the Miley Cyrus Movie? No? That's alright, you can watch THIS: Lisa happens to be a certified Miley Cyrus "Hoedown, Throwdown" Instructor. She taught us the dance:





We were so full after we ate that for some reason it more comfortable to sit on the floor.

Thanksgiving was surprisingly great. I had fun cooking lots of food for lots of people. We had fun dancing and playing games.

But overall, I'm thankful for all the things and people that bless and enrich my life.

Qualifying Time

So, I'm flirting with the idea of running a Half Marathon in March and needed to run a race to qualify for it. To use a 10k to qualify you need to run it in 1:05:00. That's approximately a 10:27 minute mile.

As I ran the 10k on Thursday I thought, I gotta run this fast so I can qualify just in case I want to do it in March! But, because I decided to run it so last minute I hadn't trained or anything, making the race pretty difficult. I started having a really hard time running as we hit long gradual slopes and realizing that the course wasn't as flat as I had hoped. I slowed down. Waaaay down a couple of times, but I kept going. And I kept thinking to myself, "I just want to finish. I just want to be done. Qualifying doesn't matter anymore, just finish the race."

When I got to the finish line, Lisa was there waiting for me and I was so relieved to see her, and to be done.

Today I looked up the finishing times, to see if I even qualified. I ran the race in 1:05:01. I ran a 10:28 minute mile.

I don't qualify.

I don't qualify by ONE MEASLY SECOND.

But I finished and that's what matters. Right??

I RAN A 10K!

Lisa and I ran the Turkey Chase yesterday morning.

BEFORE:



Right before we started running. All that was going through my mind was, "WHAT were we THINKING??"


Pictures of the starting line, and running action shots. Lisa looks beautiful in the running picture and I'm already overheated. (Pretty sure that's the most unflattering picture of me ever...) I think we were some where between mile 3 and 4. And about to run up a hill...

AFTER:

I'm looking sweet. I'm looking red. I had to take off my jacket because I was so hot by the end.



It wasn't the easiest 10k. There were lots of hills and I wasn't completely in shape for it. A 5k would have been pretty easy, but by mile 4 I was starting to get tired. Perhaps it was because at mile 4 we also were running up a hill...

But, all in all, I was so happy I ran it so I could eat more sweet potatoes and not feel quite so glutenous.

Thanks Lisa for being my running buddy! It was fabulous!

(Stay tuned for pictures of Lisa's great turkey, the dinner spread, the dinner company, pies and Hannah Montana dancing...)

Thankgiving Week! (4)

I'm thankful for God and my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for His gospel.
I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon.
I'm thankful for the Plan of Salvation.
I'm thankful for prophets.

I'm thankful for a loving God who has provided a way for me to find joy and happiness.

(I forgot to post this yesterday. Pictures from my 10k and Thanksgiving dinner to come!)

Thanksgiving Week! (3)

I'm thankful for my body.

And that I can run, and walk, and run, and skip, and run, and gallop, and run, and jump, and run and dance, and run. I don't particularly like running, but for some reason my sanity lapsed for about five minutes this morning and I signed up for the Turkey Chase. And if you clicked on that link, you'll notice that there are three options.

1. 10k
2. 2 mile
3. 50 meter kids fun

We signed up for the 10k. WHAT??

I know.

I'm crazy.

Last time I did a 10k I was in 7th grade, in cross country, and had training everyday after school. I've decided I need to make sure there are no lapses in sanity again.

But, I am grateful for all the things I'm able to do. I'm thankful that I'm not even close to being a contestant for The Biggest Loser. And that I can move. That I can do everything I want. I don't have anything holding me back.

And even though I'm nervous about doing a 10k, it's not something impossible, and I know I can do it, and I know I will feel good about eating that extra piece of pie, or that extra helping of Sweet Potatoes tomorrow.

Huzzah!

Thanksgiving Week! (2)

I'm thankful for my friends!

Eugene friends:


Mission friends:


Longtime BYU friends:


Devonshire friends:


Jerusalem friends:


Gossip Girl friends:


Cousin friends:


Current roommate friends:


All my friends have served different purposes in my life and I'm grateful for them all!
Thank you! Love you all!

(And if you're not in any of the pictures but fit into a category, be assured that I love you too, Facebook was just limited in it's pictures.)

Thanksgiving Week!

I'm thankful for my family.

Photos taken October 2008 right before Jess left for her mission.

Football

I like football. If you read my blog last year you would know I had an intramural team that I used to update you on. If you didn't, you can read about it HERE. Yesterday was our ward's "Turkey Bowl". We played football in the morning and had a Ward Thanksgiving Dinner that evening.

So, it was the first (and probably only) football game of the season that I played in, and I am having a hard time moving today. Perhaps I need to sprint more. Perhaps I shouldn't get roped into playing blocker against guys who are really pushy. (One got an entire handful of boob when he accidentally pushed off my chest. Whoops! He told me today at church that he has since repented. Ha!) But I'm sore. My legs are sore. My butt is sore. My back is sore. My abs are sore. My arm is sore. And for some reason I have a headache. (Ok that's unrelated, but it still hurts!) It hurts to sit. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to walk or stand. I shouldn't be this sore! I've been running! I've been working out at the gym! I need to use my sprinting muscles more I guess!

So for now I'm moving around like a little old granny, slow and calculated.

And, I'm making Butternut Squash and Apple soup. Yum!

And, playing football yesterday made me miss my intramural team and my sisters, and my adopted teammate sisters, and all our cheerleaders. Kind of makes me want to do it all over again...

Lifetime to do (Post 2)

Number 2: Write my personal history

Today while browsing on my computer I found my preliminary 10-page personal history that I wrote for a Family History class I took at BYU. Here are a few short stories I found that I had already written down for that:

(Preschool) For the Joy School Christmas Nativity, I had to be a shepherd and I remember being really disappointed because Kara got to be Mary and Angie was the angel (the only pretty costumes). I wanted to be something pretty. My mom made my costume and I had a pink head covering and the band to keep it on was gold and sparkly.

(Kindergarten) Once I remember talking on the phone and being asked if I liked new kids on the block. Thinking of course, "Yeah, I like it when new kids move in on our street," I said yes. Then she started playing me a song and I realized that it was a band called New Kids on the Block.

(1st or 2nd Grade) One night as we were running down the street playing, one of the boys teased me. I got upset and called him a "butthead". My mom heard and next thing I know, I am being called back into the house and not allowed to play for the rest of the night. And it was summer and it was still light out.

(7th Grade) I couldn't relate to them. All the black kids were thugs and talked a lot about how their cousins or friends back in the states were in gangs. I remember people crying when Tupac died and I had no idea who he was. They were all listening to rap music and I loved the Beatles.

I got as far as 7th grade before I hit my required 10 pages. I have a lot more to write. I have more to write about what I already wrote, I don't like how it's written either. So, someday I will edit it, or rewrite it and have a great personal history.

Um...

I want to live in New York

Created by Mark Weinberg
(who I don't know, but might someday...)

Adventures on the Metro

I like riding the Metro to work, there is always something interesting happening if you're paying attention. It may not be the quickest way to get to work and it may not be the most spacious, but it gets me there. I like living somewhere with public transportation that is easily accessible. Also, the Metro in DC is really pretty clean, and quiet too. It reminds me of the U-Bahn in Vienna or the Metro in Warsaw. It's just nice. It may not be as extensive as the Subway in New York, or the Metro in Paris, or the Tube in London, but I can get almost anywhere without hassle. But the best part about riding the Metro is for people watching, and I love people watching.

Here are some of my favorite Metro moments from the past few months.

• Watching two people from inside the train pull and one person from the outside push a bag into the train that was caught in the doors. Eventually the doors opened up and two more people jumped on the train.
• Running onto the train only to hear a girl talking into the emergency phone about someone being sick on the train. I turn around to see newspapers all over the floor and some lady wiping her mouth and looking sick. I quickly hop off the train and move to the next. The "sick car" was cleared out and the train got ready to leave the platform when some person ran to beat the doors and got stuck in the "sick car".
• Getting pushed from behind to get onto the train by a lady who held a box in front of her, so I was actually being pushed by the box.
• Watching a tiny spider crawl along the collar of the person in front of me on another crowded train and trying to decide if I should pinch it between my fingers or just let it wander. I let it wander.
• Getting onto a relatively empty train only to realize that it only looked crowded because someone was in a wheelchair. Then, having to navigate around the chair to get out.
• Listening to people's extra loud music coming from their headphones and thinking, "They don't look like they'd be listening to that."
• Squishing onto a crowded train on the way home from work and then having three more people squish on behind me. The guy standing directly next to me found the urge to sing about the crowded train for a bit and then whisper into my ear with his alcohol laced breath, "You have nice skin."

I'll keep looking out for more funny things that happen but I always enjoy watching people run to the train, jump onto a train, get their bags stuck in the doors, and all the other little delights that happen daily. It's just funny to me. And because there's always someone to watch, I like the Metro. And besides, I feel like taking public transportation helps the environment. I mean, that's part of the reason why its there right?

Lifetime to do

Today I'm starting my lifetime-to-do-list that I have over on my side bar. I'm going to blog about something and then add to the list. These are in no particular order, these are just things that come to my head as I think of them.

Number 1: Visit China

(Image courtesy of wikipedia)

Friday the 13th

Dun dun duuunnnnn!

On Monday I tripped while running up the stairs and spilled my running clothes and purse with lunch on the floor. But that was Monday the 9th.

On Tuesday I spilled post Institute snack all down my sleeve. (How that happens I don't know.) But that was Tuesday the 10th.

On Wednesday I burned the apples for my Butternut Squash and Parsnip Soup. But that was Wednesday the 11th.

On Thursday I dropped my water bottle in the bathroom, the lid popped off and rolled towards the toilets, and the water spilled all over the floor. Then I had to go back into the break room to thoroughly clean and refill the water bottle. But that was Thursday the 12th.

Today on this Friday the 13th I was super busy at work, which makes the day go faster, I knew the answers to questions, and worked longer than usual but was still able to make my normal bus because I hit every train right and then hit the bus just right. I came home to a toasty room thanks to the heat having been repaired that morning. So, Friday the 13th is just a stupid, silly superstition.

(Knock on wood.)

Burrr!

Our house is really cold. Our heat isn't working-- well, it's heated in some strange way that I don't totally understand, something having to do with oil. But what I do understand is that I'M COLD! And I have to sleep with socks on. And I don't like sleeping with socks. And, I'll have to sleep with a sweatshirt on and I don't like how it gets twisted around when I sleep.

I took a loooong hot shower this evening after work to warm myself up. It was heaven. You would have thought I had the water on really hot by the amount of steam in the room but it was just normal, the bathroom is just really cold!

We baked cookies tonight with all of us kind of crowded around the oven, and Katie putting her hands as close to the door every time it was opened. And then after they were all made, we left the oven on and open for a while. It warmed up the kitchen. But that soon went away after the oven was turned off.

My nose is cold. But, we can't see our breath yet.

I'm glad we still have hot water. My first weekend in Poland we had no hot water. We boiled water to wash our hair.

It's supposed to get fixed tomorrow. Wish us all luck!

Intercourse is a town in Pennsylvania

Saturday we went up to Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Amish country. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there which didn't seem to bad for a day trip. Perhaps it's because I'm from the West coast and everything takes longer to get somewhere, so the fact that we'd be in a different state in 2 1/2 hours seemed like a great deal to me! The highlight of the trip seemed to be the petting zoo and feeding the animals there. Who would have thought that five 20-somethings would have gotten as excited as we did about feeding animals?



We also made plenty of jokes about the town names in the area and then found these little town signs at Good and Plenty (where we ate lunch/dinner) . So of course we had to buy them and have a photo shoot!



(Unfortunately the appearance of Katie in these photos is slim because I looked bad in all the pictures she was in and I'm not going to post a picture of myself mid word. It just looks funny. So, rest assured, Katie was there with us. And thanks to Holly, again, for the pictures!)

Halloween

We're off to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Tinwoman (Katie); Scarecrow (Andrea); Cowardly Lion (Erin)

(And, a special thanks to Holly for the pictures!)

Be here now

I woke up this morning with Be Here Now, by Mason Jennings stuck in my head and an overwhelming desire to go here:

Slovenia. I wish you were closer.

But I'll have to be content with Amish Country for now. And listen to Mason's words and "be here now" and someday, be there later.

Back with pictures and a full belly from Lancaster County soon!