Take a walk with me

The other morning it was so beautiful out (there was a crazy storm the night before) that I decided to take a walk after my run to take some pictures. Somehow I even made it to work on time even though I had to grab some breakfast on the way (CVS has shredded wheat!).

Anyway - first of all here it the lake that I jog around. It was chilly that morning after a long heat wave, so the lake was steaming. It looked better when I was running around it, a lot steamier, but when I went to take a picture the sun had come up and was burning off the fog.

I also saw this tree with the sun behind it and thought it was very pretty.


Unfortunately, a different tree, my favorite tree in the neighborhood did not make it through the stroms the other night unscathed. :(
I love this tree, it is HUGE. And in the fall it turns red, and in the spring it has flowers. It is so pretty.Here is the branch that broke off. It was 7 car spaces long. You can see others like it in the background here.

Luckily this branch is small compared to the tree so It should be fine.

And then here are some black-eyed Susan's that looked lovely in the sun.

And this is a rainbow from the other week, it is pretty faint, hope you can see it.

Other than that - not much is new. I strained a muscle in my leg the other day but it hurts less today. Oh oh! And I got my running skirt, I haven't tried it out but it looks cute when I tried it on. I hope it solves the "creep up" factor so I don't feel like I have to adjust my running attire all the time.

Monday Monday

Sigh. My weekends are never long enough. Are yours?

Anyway, Susan finally got her birthday package, so I can tell you what I made. I forgot to take more pictures of it once it was done, but here it is in the middle of the process:


I made her a little pencil case. I think she likes it like a mom likes a macaroni necklace. 99% the thought and 1% the item? Anyway that is me just assuming that is why she said she likes it. It's rather uneven and the red lining I put in is made with very uneven hand stitches. But that is okay. It'll hold some pens and pencils. :)

Other than that I have been keeping up with my running - although the difference between this weekend's run and last weekends was HUGE. Last weekend it was in the low to mid 80's with a nice breeze and low humidity. This weekend it was in the high 80's with high humidity and it was incredibly still. I could tell I felt a lot less peppy this past weekend.

Anyway I'm in the midst of week #4 out of 9 for training.

Then I think I have 2 or 3 weeks before i runt he 5-k, so that is good. A little room to maybe get a little faster and get used to the length.

Well that is all I have for right now - pretty boring this summer, mostly work! Oh and we saw Batman and we both loved it, It lives up to the hype!

Ye Olde Running Tymes

Ahhh,
So I decided to use the power of the web (very very few things are erased) to look up my old running times. It was so nice to see my old name. Miss you!

Anyway, I wanted to get my old times to have something to shoot for.
31 year old Jessica would like to kick 22 thru 24 year old Jessica's butt.
Maybe I'm getting more competitive in my old(er) age.

Here they are, at least the ones I can find. I am *almost 100% sure* that my fastest one was 36:35. Of course that is one of the races I can't seem to find online. But I guess this makes it that much easier to beat my old times, right?!

June 25, 2000
Run thru Hell 5-K
40:19

November 22. 2001
Manchester Road Race (4.748 miles)
72:16

January 6, 2002
Disney World Half Marathon (13.1 miles)
Official Time: 3:25:35
Chip Time: 3:16:21

February 10, 2002
Bank of America Gasparilla Distance Classic 5-k
Clock Time: 42:55
Chip Time: 40:07

I don't think it will actually be that hard to keep up with my old self. I guess we'll see how it goes. So far I am doing well keeping up with the training. I found a few fun websites for running.

One is the program I'm doing called the Couch to 5-k. They have some articles, the program and even some podcasts set to music to tell you when to run and when to walk. I'm currently on week 3.

Another website is Google Map's Pedometer which you can map out your run and it tells you how long your route its. Fun!

2 posts in One!

Well I have two posts to talk about today, one is about my "2nd birthday" and the second is about running. Sorry, I don't have any major knitting news this week!

1. 2nd birthday...
My birthday was really 2 weeks ago, but we didn't do much since it was on a Monday, and we both had to work. (I'm trying to save up my vaca time for before H. leaves).

I had a nice Monday birthday, H. cooked dinner and bought me flowers (the Wii is my actual birthday gifty even though we got in in May). I got a few cards and gifts in the mail including a cool new fountain pen from my inlaws. (you can see it here). I love fountain pens, but one of mine the cap doesn't stay on and all the others are just cheaper plastic ones. This one feels nice in the hand, has a screw on cap and writes beautifully. Now I need a couple of new pen pals to write to. :)

So that was the actual birthday - then yesterday we celebrated by going out to eat. We went to a really nice Italian Restaurant - Primi Piatti. Way more expensive than our normal going out to eat budget. Then afterward we realized we hadn't gone to a really nice place in a long time! Since we're always trying to save money we don't splurge very often. Like in years! Ha! One even funner thing is I received two birthday cards yesterday too - from Susan and from my Aunt Patty - so it really was like a 2nd birthday!! Who could ask for anything more than being celebrated for two days.

2. Running...
I have been keeping up the schedule - jog/walking every other day. In fact I even went this morning. it was a really nice morning to go to Burke Lake Park. It was in the mid 80's in the sun but cooler in the shade. I ran a total of 18 minutes today! (run 2 min walk 2.5 min). It was nice running on the dirt/gravel path instead of sidewalk and asphalt around here. I had a blister on my foot (actually a HUGE one) from my heels I wore yesterday. I don't understand how I used to wear those things all the time, I guess I had tougher feet back then. But MoleSkin saved my run. I highly reccomend it to any hikers or runners out there. I haven't developed any bad blisters while hiking before so I never used the piece that we carry with us. Of course, one evening in high heels and look at me.

As Harland says, "What price for beauty!!".

Happy 4th!

Well today is the 6th - so, as usual I am late!

We had a rather rainy 4th (and 5th and 6th) so really we didn't have much of a chance to do anything outside. Have I mentioned that Virginia is the new Florida? I can't remember the last weekend where it was sunny both days, and we have a thunderstorm almost every day at 5pm (always when I'm commuting home, it seems to wait when I work late).

We went to the National Air and Space Museum's new annex the Udvar-Hazy Museum on the 4th of July. I don't have any pictures because I forgot the memory card to the camera. D'oh! There is a lot of planes, plane engines, and the space shuttle and some missiles and things. It's a pretty new museum and they are still bringing in new things. It was nice to walk around, dry, inside.

One conversation we overheard was kinda funny, this little girl asked her dad what bombs were. His reply was "well they're kinda like big fireworks that the planes drop on bad people to hurt them". I guess Fourth of July was on this guy's mind.

Kristina of Yarnsticks just finished a 5-K race, and it is really making me wish I had stuck with my idea of starting to run. I had to stop and just walk for a while because I had injured myself and then I just kept walking (walking is very good for you, so I don't feel like I was totally a slacker!!).

Anyway it is time to get on the ball. I have found a couple of 5-K's in September and am trying to convince my Hubby to join me for one. Well at least join me for the end anyway... since he is super fast. He's so fast the one time in Auburn he did a 5-K for the Mutt Strut (a 5-k race that benefited the local animal shelter). The race started while he was in the port-a-potties (which were not really near the start line)... he came out, started running, ran the race and CAME IN THIRD.

He's so fast that one day we were talking and I asked him what his slow pace was, and he said "9" and I thought he meant 9 minute miles... so I had this image of us running together someday with him on a slow day and me on a super-fast day... but the bubble burst when I realized he meant "9" on the treadmill... which happens to be a 6:40 mile.

So really we'll just be attending the same race. Hahaha. It'll look a lot different in the slow category, I'm sure.

Anyway - a race in September is a good idea. I'm trying to think of ways to keep myself motivated for working out while Harland is in Iraq. He's my exercise cheerleader right now, and I'm super afraid of him leaving and me getting sad and sitting on a couch for 12 months. If I get back into running, at least I can find a few races to keep getting excited about.

Anyway - we'll see how it goes, I have a plan for this week all set up.

How does your Garden Grow?

So my parents asked me the other day how my garden was doing, and so I thought I would show you my little "garden" on my porch.

Here is the whole kit-and-caboodle. All the houseplants have "S" names.

On the ground (left to right) is:
Stanley (he's a houseplant)
Salazar (houseplant)
2 Brazilian pepper plant
a big planter of peppermint,spearmint, and lemon balm
another 2 Brazilian pepper plants
Silverstar (houseplant)
Sally (aloe plant)

In the box there is Thyme, Rosemary, Dill and Basil.
Spidey(a spiderplant) is hanging out on the porch too.


What else I have been up to?

(this is my very very old sewing machine)
Doing a little sewing. Can't tell you more until I get my butt to the post office to mail something out to Susan. hahaha.

I'm about a month late

Hey sorry for lack of blogging, Likely I'll have to e-mail everyone that I am actually up and running a blog again!

Remember - Click on any of the pictures to see them bigger!!

Anyway, It's been a whirlwind around here. H. got news that the Army is calling him back. They had given us 5 weeks notice, but we asked for a delay and now he'll be leaving in November. Personally, I don't understand how they think anyone can go from civilian life to Army if you aren't expecting to be called back in - in 5 weeks. Anyway, I digress.

So there was a lot of stress going around and I didn't feel like blogging. But now that is over and while there has been a lot of work to do at work, and some overtime hours logged (which doesn't look like it will change anytime soon)... I'm back to blogging.

Have I knit much? Eh... off and on. I started several projects, decided I hated them halfway through and stalled out. I'm not on a wee bit of a sewing bender, we'll see how long that lasts and if it produces anything, as while I'd love to be a great sewer and learn how to make some summer skirts... I am a pretty poor sewer and my sewing machine makes me nervous. It is rather old and I have no manual.

Okay... but you didn't come here to hear me whining - you came here to see pictures of what I have been up to.

So here is the last month and a half in pictures!!

We went hiking to see the Bluebells...



We went Camping on Assateague Island...



We went to Chincoteaque Island and climbed a lighthouse...


We went to Harland's Cousin Jessica's Wedding...


And we went to the WWII airshow in Reading (this picture courtesy of John Leckfor - since I forgot my camera).


Plus various walks at Burke lake park and other areas around here. So that is that!