Marathon Recap and all that jazz

Here is the full recap of the full marathon..

I have also mentioned a lot recently that the hubs and I were running the Top of Utah marathon. I was super determined to run this race because I feel that I have been trying to accomplish running a marathon for about ½ a year now and things keep happening. So when we had a little snag in our training plan due to rolling our car, well that wasn’t going to stop us! Originally our farthest run before the race was going to be 23 miles (more than I had ever run)! We missed our 20 mile weekend so last weekend we opted to do 20 instead of 23 as not to injure ourselves. I had found in the past that drinking ZipFizz really helps keep my potassium in check since it has about 950 mg of potassium per serving. However, I kept forgetting to drink it the past few weeks and it wasn’t really bothering me so I didn’t bother with it. On Monday after the 20 mile run (this last Monday) I started getting muscle spasms in my chest and I knew it was due to a lack of potassium. I started downing the zipfizz like no other and almost went to the doc but decided not to. I was a little nervous for the race because I didn’t want anything bad to happen but the day before I felt pretty good (and like I said I was determined to run this race)!

The race was about an hour away from us so in an effort to save money we decided to get up at 3am on Saturday and head out so we could get there to pick up our packets before 4:30am. We had to park at the end spot and then we were going to get bussed up to the start. Both the hubs and I knew it was going to be cold so we purchased some cheap walmart sweats so that we could wear them that day and then shed them and not lose our nice stuff. I even sported my ear warmers and gloves because it was about 40-45 degrees…brrr! We got all squared away with our packets, changed into our racewear and got on the bus. As we were riding in the bus we passed our car and noticed that the light had been left on..oh no! I pointed it out to the hubs and he was like “oh well, I guess we will have to find someone to jump start us when we get back”. Um no! I knew that was the last thing either one of us would want to do once we were done with the race…we would just want to go home! However, I held my wifey tongue and then once we got close to the start destination the hubs had come up with a plan (he is very brilliant)! We ended up giving our keys to the bus driver who then returned down to where our car was and turned off the light, left the keys in the car and left one door unlocked. I was supper nervous the whole race that either our car or keys would be missing when we got done (but the driver was very nice and trustworthy)! Once we got up the top we had to wait about 45 minutes in before the race started and I was freezing so I convinced the hubs to go in the tent with the heaters and wait it out till the race started. It was supper cramped but totally worth it! Right before the race started we shed most of our sweats knowing that we would soon be getting warm.

Neither of us are really pre-race eaters but I was starving before it started. Luckily as we started to run my hunger decreased. I think I was getting a little overwhelmed at how many miles 26.2 actually is! We started out at a good pace and for the fist ½ there was a lot of gradual downhills with some up hills too (which helped our legs a lot). My goal was a sub 4 (less than 4 hours) and at the ½ way point we were at about a 8:50 average which was right on track. I was starting to really feel it though! At about mile 14 we had to stop to us the restroom (well I used the outhouse and the hubs used the side of the road)! The bad part is that once you pee it dehydrates you some..but it was coming out one way or another :) We then really started to take advantage of the aid stations and at least get water. I had a little bit of orange and a few bites of banana throughout because of the potassium thing. We didn’t use any gu’s even though they were provided (I don’t like them that much and didn’t really feel the need).

At mile 19 I was doing pretty good physically but the hubs was feeling dehydrated and not doing well. We stopped and walked some and it wasn’t getting better so he told me to go ahead. My time was slowly slipping away so I decided to press on. It was a hard decision because I really wanted to finish with him but I also wanted to see what I could truly run it in. By that time I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get a sub 4 but there was still a slight chance and if not I wanted to get as close to it as possible. Oh and one annoying part was that their mile markers were off about .2 of a mile the whole time so the whole course ended up being about 26.47 miles, not 26.2.

I did pretty well until I hit mile 20. I knew that as I pressed on from that point it was new territory and I was waiting to hit a wall. I think I psyched myself out because although I as feel okay physically (no major pains or cramps) I had a hard time pushing past the mental block. I ended up walking more than I would have like the last 5 miles. I was so happy to see the end! Since I knew the mile markers were off I decided to stop my watch when it hit 26.2 miles to see what my true time would be. I finished according to my watch time in 4 hours and 12 minutes. I crossed the final finish line in 4 hours and 17 minutes. I was happy just to completed it even though I didn’t make my goal..hey I was still standing!

From there I worried about the hubs till he crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 29 minutes! Way to go hubs! He did so amazing and I was so proud of him. After we found each other we drank some water and then headed to find our car. At that time I made the crucial mistake of not stretching..opps! We found our car (yay) and headed back down the hill. We stopped at the first McDonalds and got the largest diet coke they had and some food. About 30 minutes later we stopped at the sonic to get some more much needed diet DP.

We pretty much crashed the rest of the weekend. I can barely walk up the stairs right now and my legs will not stop twitching. I made another mistake yesterday and wore 4 inch heels to church..not good! By the time we were walking through costco my legs kept giving out. I have kept drinking the zipfizz and I am starting to do a little better! We are doing a light run today and I hope my legs hold out :) As we were running I kept thinking to myself..I am never doing this again! Yet as soon as we finished I started trying to figure out how I could do better next time. Yes, I know it’s a sickness! We looked at the local events last night and found some smaller ones (like 10k’s and 1/2s) to do in the next few months but the big event is going to be a sprint triathlon! I really hope we do because it sounds amazing, we just have to work out the logistics! Well that’s all..

Weekend in Review: A new job and my first Marathon..

As you probably have guessed (due to my lack of blogging and total fail of my 30 day goal) things have gotten quite busy as of late. Oh and before I forget I wanted to thank everyone for your encouragement and advice about going gluten free. Today actually starts my day 1 of 6 weeks gluten free. I was going to start last week when I posted but things got kind of crazy and I will get into it more as we go.

Let’s see…where to start. I have mentioned a couple of times that I have been looking for a job since we arrived in Utah. Since we all know how wonderful the job world is right now I wasn’t getting very far in my search. When we lived in NJ I had the most success landing a paycheck using staffing agencies. A few weeks ago I was getting desperate motivated and decided to check in with the local office of a staffing company that I had signed up for in NJ. I hadn’t had much luck with them in the past but hey it was worth a shot. I interviewed and the girl who I worked with was really nice.

Sidenote: I am learning that my best temp experiences come from the staffing companies where I like their associates (I know shocker but it took me a while).

Anyways, we really hit it off and she said that she has some good leads in mind for me. I really enjoy working in a bank environment and she had nothing but encouraging words for that. She also told me that if I didn’t hear from her in a week to call back and check in.

Fast forward to the next week..

I hadn’t heard anything and was planning on calling her the Friday of Labor day weekend. Well we all know how that weekend turned out for me :) So, since our plans were changed due to the accident and we were back home instead of in Bako, I went ahead and took the opportunity to call her. Just my luck the office had closed for the long weekend but I left a message with plans to call again on Tuesday. Tuesday morning I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from my new BFF staffing agent. She said a new job had opened up with the corporate center of a national bank dealing with the merger they were going through and she thought of me first. I thought the job sounded ideal and didn’t mind that it would make me have a 40 minute commute. I went through the whole background check process but still wasn’t sure if I had the job or not because in the past they have always wanted an interview. Originally I was told by my new BFF staffing agent that I could possibly start on Monday but when it was Friday and still no word I called her back. Long story short no interview needed and I ended up starting on Wednesday. This just added to my crazy week of new-ness considering that this weekend was my first marathon and I was extremely nervous! To make matters more interesting I have been struggling with my low potassium levels this last week (prob due to my amount of running but I am going to go to the doc) and so on my first day of work I almost fainted and kept praying “please don’t let me faint on my first day!”.

Luckily I didn’t and all was good :) So far my new job has been pretty uneventful. It is based on the amount of work that we receive for this one project and since it is towards the end of the project there really isn’t that much work (which is why I am writing this as work right now). We received some work my first day but the rest of the time I have spent internet shopping and doing anything else I please to pass the time! It may sound nice but I would really prefer some work to make the time go by faster…oh well at least I am getting paid. This is supposed to be a long term assignment so I am hoping that they find other work and don’t just end it.

I am finally getting used to working full time again though and even when not doing anything productive I am happy to be working! All the people that I work with are really nice and fun to talk to! So that’s that about work.

Moving right along…I completed my first marathon this weekend! Yes, I am stoked except for the fact that my legs will not stop twitching! Stupid potassium problems..booo! I won’t leave you hanging for too long but I am going to provide the full recap in the next post. Just know that both the hubs and I are still in working order!

Have a great Monday!

Saying goodbye to my friend Gluten – Day 18/19

For any of you who have read my blog you know by now that we have been struggling with infertility. We stopped treatments when we moved to Utah at the end of June. After our last bout of injections and IUI’s I decided I needed a break. With the move and getting settled and starting a new job, the hubs and I aren’t ready quite yet to jump back into treatments. However, my yearning for a baby as not diminished! We were in church yesterday and I felt like we were surrounded by little babies and all the sudden I got so sad because the thought struck me that we may never be one of those couples.

During our treatment break I have been doing a lot of research and basically trying more natural ways to maybe get pregnant without having to go back to the RE. One of my biggest frustrations since stopping the treatments has been the fact that my stomach has remained supper bloated, my face has broken out a ton and I am cramping all the time. Due to the PCOS I don’t really ovulate on my own and I hardly ever have a true period. Last month (the first month off treatment) I ended up having a period on my own which gave me hope that maybe we could do this naturally (not that going back is bad or anything). After that period I started to take mucus thinning meds and tried to chart my temp but I wasn’t very consistent. I also didn’t have any noticeable cervical mucus during the whole month so it was kind of hard to chart my ovulation (if I ovulated at all). One thing I found out from my last RE is that my follicles don’t like to release the egg..grrr!

Anyways, right before the accident I started spotting very lightly and it lasted off and on for a few days. I really thought I might be starting my period but it was around day 21 of my cycle so I thought that was a little soon. I never ended up having my period but I did take a pregnancy test just out of curiosity at day 28 which turned out negative. As of now it is around day 34 of my cycle with no AF. I was hoping maybe all the drugs pumped into me had straightened my body out but so far it seems to be going back to it’s old ways only worse because now I have the after affects of the treatment to deal with!

For those of you who have gone through treatments and then stopped without a pregnancy did you deal with any of this? Did your body ever go back to the way it was before treatments?

So all this to say that I was doing some research last night and found several studies that link gluten intolerance to infertility. I was shocked..I know most of you probably already know this :) You see, my sister has PCOS and she found out about a year ago that she is gluten intolerant. She deals with other health issues too so I really didn’t think anything of it in regards to me. The symptoms that lead her to her diagnosis weren’t ones that I was having. However in my research last night it said that sometimes infertility can be the only symptom of gluten intolerance. Also, I have had stomach problems for many years and was diagnosed with IBS about 5 years ago. My issues come and go so I never really do anything about them. But as I was reading last night it dawned on me that my severally bloated tummy might be caused by some sort of gluten intolerance. According to my family doc although there is a test for celiac disease it isn’t a for sure and you can test negative and still be gluten intolerant.

I don’t know if going off gluten will help but I am willing to give it a try. It is kind of helpful that my sis has already been going through this because I am more aware of what does and does not contain gluten. This is going to be very hard because I love most everything that contains gluten. Oh how I am going to miss bread, muffins, cookies, cupcakes and all that yummy baked goods! Luckily most fro yo is gluten free!!

Well I guess I will see how it goes and in a couple months if there is no change then bring on the gluten again :)

Wish me luck because I am going to need it!

20 Miles and Forever 21 – Day 16/17

I know that I am kind of cheating by combining days but yesterday I had no motivation to write and well I just didn’t.

I am very happy and proud to announce that the hubs and I made it through our 20 mile run today and are still alive to tell about it :) I really do think the forced and unplanned rest of last week helped our run go smoother this week (when we were suppose to run 20 last weekend but apparently after rolling a car you aren’t allowed to run for 3 days). We got up at 5:30am and headed out the door at about 6am. It was still dark outside and the stars were amazing! We planned to do 2 miles (2 laps) around our neighborhood and then stop back, shed our gloves and long sleeves and headed out for the final 18 miles. It was amazing to see the gorgeous sunrise! I was very tempted to keep my long sleeves on because it was still very cold but I also knew that I would warm up soon and then be stuck with them.

We had done this route one other time before and this time went a lot better because I knew what to expect. The hubs did amazing, I was so proud of him especially since he is still dealing with itchy staples in his head! We didn’t have to walk or even take a drink until about mile 15 and then my hip was killing me so I knew it would be smart to give it a short break and walk for a minute. That really seemed to help and although I was hurting for the last 7 miles it wasn’t unbearable and we finished in good spirits! The main things that I looked forward to while we ran was a hot shower, oatmeal and some of the hubs sausage egg and cheese biscuit when we got back! We have the marathon next weekend and I am getting very nervous!

After we semi-recovered from the mornings festivities we headed down the road (about an hour down the road) to a very yummy cupcake place because I had to get a gift for a friend and of course we needed sugar :) There is a huge Forever 21 right by it and since it is rather far away I asked the hubs if he minded if we stopped there. He had to go to Best Buy so it worked out well. He dropped me at Forever 21 and then did his guy thing at Best Buy. Since he ended up finding what he wanted and had to wait to get it installed I got some extra shopping time…dangerous!

I ended up getting 3 pairs of shoes (one was on clearance), a dress, a sweater, and a necklace. There were so many good things it was hard to decide but I was also trying not to spend too much! It’s funny because this is totally a store for me that sometimes I can find so many good things and other times I find nothing.

Here are some of the things I bought:

They have them in brown too which I totally love but they only had the black in my size.

These are so so comfy!

I got these is a darker brown.

I also got a necklace but I couldn’t find a picture of it!

Well that’s my weekend so far..how is yours?

ANTM Love – Day 15

I just watched the season premier of America’s Next Top Model. I totally love this show! I know it’s catty and way too much drama but I don’t care…it’s one of my all time favorite shows :)

This season the girls seem even stranger than ever but I am sure that it will make it good entertainment. Well I don’t have much more to say besides that I can’t wait for the rest of the season. Oh and I am so obsessed that I almost tried out for the season where you had to be 5’7 or under (i’m 5’4) but well there was no follow through on that :)

And what season can’t be complete without the Jay’s..

Have a great thursday!

I broke the cupcake curse and a sad farewell – Day 14

One thing that I have realized about myself and am trying to work on is that I live in the past. Meaning that I might not enjoy things as they are happening but ask me about them a few days, weeks or hours later and I will have the fondest of memories! I am trying to be a little less uptight about the way that I like things and just live and enjoy what is going on here and now. There are those instances though where all my efforts go out the window and I revert back to square one! This week was one of those times.

I had mentioned in my earlier posts that both my family and Josh’s parents came out to see us right after the accident. Since we don’t have our basement finished my parents stayed in a hotel but we had the rest of the group at our house. We had been wanting to get everyone out here for a while (especially since Josh’s folks live on the east coast) but these weren’t the circumstances we had planned to bring us all together. I felt totally unprepared to have house guests! We had planned to be out of town for the long weekend so we didn’t have that much food at the house and I hadn’t finished cleaning before we left. I found myself stressing out a lot about coordinating family schedules, meals, and entertainment (not that anyone was pushing me to be the party planner).

I am very lucky because both sides of the family get a long great and we really enjoy each other, but it was hard for me to break out of my stress funk and really enjoy almost everyone being out here at the same time. Especially since at the same time we are having to figure out the unexpected expenses that come with a car being totaled and I had a job interview thrown in too.

I don’t want to make it sound like I didn’t enjoy everyone but I was just thrown for a loop and had to break out of my routine of just the charles and I during the day (I have come to realize that I really don’t talk much during the day)! I have also realized that we lack seating space for a lot of people…these are things you don’t think of when it is just the two (or three) of you!

Anyway, everyone was set to leave tomorrow but my mom was having a lot of back issues so they decided to leave today so they could take more time to drive back. I kicked myself as it dawned on me how much I was going to miss having them around and that I really should have told myself to suck it up and enjoyed them while they were out here! I guess it’s a learning process! I really do love my family and love getting to share our life out here with them!

Do you ever deal with these feelings?

Oh and on a different note…

We went back to the cupcake place (so yummy) where the hubs and I had stopped on the way to California before the crash. I was so bummed after the crash when I realized that all of the cupcakes had ended up all over our car and stuff and we didn’t get to try any of them! This time we got another 1/2 dozen and I was a little nervous since you know what happened last time. But I am happy to report that we made it back safely and the cupcakes were supper yummy!!

Oh and please excuse my random post..it has been a long week!

Random episode of Try-em out Tuesday – Gap Edition – Day 13

I bet if you haven’t guessed by now…I am kind of obsessed with Gap. Except for the fact that I am too short for most of their pants (which is easily solved by wearing heals which makes my legs look longer) I love the way their pants fit. Oh and I do realize that you can get them hemmed to fit but I like feeling tall..totally worth the sore feet :)

I finally realized my obsession with Gap jeans and well jeans in general when about 1/2 of my closest is taken up by them and I am still always buying more! Moving right along…since I have been looking for a job I realized that I need more dress pants. Now those are hard to find for me! I am very picky on how they fit and they are also not very cheap for something that I don’t actually have a place to wear them yet so I have just kind of been “looking”. When we were at Gap a few weeks ago I saw that they had several new styles of dress pants. And yes, I had to try them all on even though I wasn’t planning on buying any. That is when I fell in love with the “Perfect trouser” pants. All I can say is soo cute and soo comfy! The have a two-way stretch that makes them very nice to wear.

I had a 30% off coupon (I know me and my coupons) and I really wanted a black pair but they didn’t have one in my size so I decided to get the gray pair. My plan before the accident was to go back when the next round of coupons were valid and get the black pair too..I mean when you find pants that work why not? Then I lost the coupons so yeah I was sad. But when we went this weekend because my brother in law wanted to go to JCrew I not only talked them into giving me new coupons but I also saw that the pants were on sale for $35! I really just wanted to black pair but again that didn’t have my size in black, just in the gray which I already had and blue. So what did I do? Get the blue of course!  But guess what I still have the coupons so I can totally get the black, but I am going to a different Gap because I am obviously having no luck!

If you are looking for quality dress pants you should totally check out the selection there! Here are the pants I love..

First we have to have the description:

Introducing our perfect trouser. Ready to work overtime, this pair is designed to flatter all shapes. A perfectly tailored silhouette gives way to a slightly flared leg. The end result: stylish, poised looks.

And now the picture:

I totally love them but like I said..gap has 7 new fits so if these don’t work for you then I am betting you will be able to find a fit that does!

A blowout drive (part 2) – Day 10/11/12

I am sad to say that I failed in my blogging for 30 days straight! Due to the unforeseen circumstances of the last few days my blogging sort of fell behind. But now I am here and bringing your the second half of that scary night (with hopefully some humor as well).

We were only in the hospital for about 4 hours. I was discharged fairly quickly and then was able to sit in the hubs room (thankfully after they had put in the staples) until he was discharged. When they determined that everything in the noggin was working okay for the hubs they decided to discharge him too. They let him take a shower at the hospital since he had blood all over him and they had me supervise the shower to make sure he didn’t pass out or anything. I really thought  I was going to pass out because I was so afraid that he was going to bust open his staples! I was also just so thankful that we were getting out so quickly.

While we were still in the hospital my brother in law came to our rescue! He lives about 6 hours away and as soon as he heard he jumped in the car and headed our direction. He had also booked us an hotel room for the night since he wouldn’t be getting there until after midnight. We were released from the hospital around 9pm or so and we called a cab to take us to the hotel. We defiantly looked like a pair, especially the hubs with his bloody head and bloody cut up jeans. That is when we realized it might be a good idea to make a stop at walmart for some much needed clothes and necessities and fill the hubs prescription. On a side-note it was funny because when the hubs asked the nurse in the hospital if they had any throw away pants he could wear out (apparently he wasn't too keen on showing off the thigh area) she brought him her own pants that we way too small…walmart here we come!

So there we were all bloody, walking around walmart at 9:30pm at night spending way too much money (apparently we don’t do cheap overnighters)! By the end of the walmart adventure I was in a lot of pain so all we both wanted to do was get to the hotel and lay down. We were planning on going to this amazing buffet in Las Vegas that night but instead we had come crackers and called it a night :)

The next morning my brother in law picked us up and once we figured out the insurance info on the phone we headed to go check out the damage on the explorer. The night before I had realized that we had gotten these really yummy cupcakes to take to bako that were still in the car. I told the hubs that if they were still intact I was totally going to eat them! However, they met their demise during the roll and were plastered all over our car and everything else in the car when we go there!

We were able to salvage most of the important stuff and were excited to see that our computers, ipods and other garmin watches survived the crash :) We gathered all that we could and then turned the beat up explorer over to USAA. It was a little scary to see the damage and brought it even more to our minds are truly lucky we were and how much God protected us! Oh and for those of you who were wondering..my favorite jeans survived too! We headed for breakfast and then back on the road headed home. At firs I think both the hubs and I were both a little shaky but we were in great hands!

This might sound weird but one of the hardest parts for me after this all happened was the fact that we were both suppose to take it easy for the next three days. I felt fine besides my foot hurting some and it was torture to see a Saturday pass without completing our scheduled run. However I tried to remind myself just how lucky we were! I also hated seeing the hubs suffer due to his injuries..I just wanted to do something to help him! He was sure a trooper though and didn’t complain at all!

We were able to go to the Gap too and get him new jeans and I scored myself some new coupons after telling the the circumstances of how my previous beloved coupons met their demise!

Thank you guys all so much for your kind words and prayers, we totally felt them!

Oh and shout-out to facebook because we kept getting random texts while in the hospital and we couldn’t figure out how people knew until I checked my facebook and saw that my sis had posted something about the accident…it still amazes me how fast news can travel via facebook!

Since we were now car-less (well missing one car) my in-laws in their amazing generosity decided to sell us their newer explorer and so they headed out for a three day drive to get to us. My parents also decided that since we weren't coming there anymore and my dad was on a 6-dayer (fireman talk for 6 days off) they decided to head up here too with the furniture that we were getting out there. Yay for family reunion! These aren’t the circumstances that we wanted to bring almost all the family together but we were glad to have them here! We are really missing the rest of the family though! God has been very good to us during all of this and all we can do is praise him!

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow :)

A blowout drive (part 1) – Day 9

Well I am happy to say that just as I stated…the start to this weekend didn’t disappoint (or at least it was very eventful).

When I left you guys yesterday we were headed out to Cali to pick up some furniture with a stop-over in Vegas for some yummy food and shopping. From our house to Vegas it takes about 7 hours and then from Vegas to Bako it is a little under 5 hours. We dropped the pup off at puppy camp and then headed out on the road. We had taken the Explorer due to the fact that we were picking up furniture at the rents. We had to make a stop at Walmart during our trip and decided to stop in Cedar City, UT because according to my droid it was the closest one to us.

About 11 miles from our exit the back driver’s side tire blew out. The next thing I know the car is fish-tailing back and forth. I remember looking over at Josh and trying not to freak-out. Then the back tire caught on the edge of the road and I knew the explorer was about to flip. Once we started rolling I know I should have been scared but all I could remember thinking is “Just stop, please stop”. Even in the midst of it though I felt calm because I know that God is in control of all this. Once the car finally stopped we are upside down. That’s when the fear hit, I asked Josh if he was okay and once he answered me the fear was gone. The next thing I thought was “why did I wear my favorite jeans today, I am going to be so upset if they are ruined!”.

Josh was able to unbuckle his seatbelt and and crawl out of the busted window. I unbuckled mine but I was still stuck in the seatbelt. There had been a semi-truck behind us when this all happened and luckily he was a fast thinker and was able to stop without hitting us and block the traffic behind us. He was also one of the first on-scene to help and with the use of Josh’s pocket knife that had been thrown from the car he cut me out of my seatbelt and then he helped pull me out of the car through the busted window on my side.

Josh was already sitting down on the side of the road and as soon as I saw him it dawned on me that he had blood coming down his face and the back of his head. That’s week I freaked a little. I don’t do well with seeing loved ones with injuries. They had me sit next to him and God surrounded us with many great people! One lady had an umbrella so she stood behind us and kept the sun off and when I started to faint she had me lay down on against her knees. There were also two off-duty Arizona Highway Patrol officers that were able to get on their radios and get help to us quickly. The bandaged up Josh’s head which had three pretty bad gashes.

When the EMT’s came they were very thorough and very nice. With the nature of the crash and the gashes on Josh’s head they had to take the precautions of spinal injuries and boarded us up and transported us to the hospital via ambulance. The female EMT’s were amazing and they made me happy by saying how small I was :) I know vanity! The were also laughing at me because I was really bummed that I lost my Gap coupons that I had just gotten, especially when they proceeded to cut off Josh’s favorite pair of Gap jeans (which are not cheap)! Through all these little things though I was overwhelmed by how lucky we were and how as long as I had Josh alive, nothing else mattered.

I also realized that I watch way to many doctor shows as I was freaking out about Josh really not being okay. You always see how they are fine at first but then they die, I think I was giving myself a panic attack! Once we got into the ER they checked me out and the only injury I had besides a bump on the head was some glass in my foot. They kept me under observation for a little bit and then I was discharged and allowed to go sit with the hubs. They didn’t do any x-ray’s because I could be pregnant (though I don’t think I am and more to come on that latter). While I was still in my room the took Josh to get a head CT and everything came back good. I could finally relax and believe that he was really going to be okay. The ended up giving 15 staples in the head. He was such a trooper and I am so proud of him!

He came into my room for a bit and we both realized how thankful we were that we had left the Charles at puppy camp because I really don’t think he would have survived the crash which would have crushed us both! Again we were overwhelmed with thankfulness towards God.

Okay, Since this is getting really long I am going to continue it tomorrow…but don’t worry we are both totally fine and at home now. Come back tomorrow to find out the rest!

Heading to Cali via Vegas – Day 8

In about two hours the hubs will be getting home from work, we will head out for our run, finish packing and then drop the Charles off at puppy camp!

Where are we going?? Well glad you asked…we are heading to Vegas tonight and then onto Bako the next day. I am so excited to get to see everyone and be there with the hubs (every trip I have taken there in the last year has been solo)! Since we are leaving later we didn’t want to do the whole 11.5 hour drive today so we decided to break it up and stay in Vegas overnight :)

Yay for yummy food and some shopping Vegas style! Since we are living within driving distance my parents decided it was time that I took all my crap lovely memories out of their house. The hubs gets an extra long weekend due to labor day so we decided this would be the perfect weekend.

On friday night we get to see this crew for a little magical neighborhood get together!

Then Saturday the hubs and I have to tackle our 20 mile run..yay for lower elevation :)

My brother in law is coming down too from Edwards AFB, it will be so nice to have most of the family in one place for the weekend :)

Stay tuned for bako happenings in the next few days…it shouldn't disappoint! Have a wonderful Thursday :)

Coach Love via the BX – Day 7

One of the great things about having access to the BX (base exchange) is that they carry Coach purses for discounted prices..oh and did I mention that we don’t have to pay sales tax there! So yeah, today when I was there looking for new running shoes on the strict order of the hubs (I guess my “old” ones have too many miles on them) and I just had to stop and look at the purse selection. I mean how could pass that up?

So there I was carrying a box of shoes, shorts, and a shirt with my wallet, keys and sunglasses, trying to navigate my way through all the fabulous purses. Yeah it takes talent..maybe I need a purse?? So I decided to take a browse. Oh and they also carry Dooney and Bourke so I had to drool over those too :) Although the Coach handbags are discounted they are still way over my price range so all I can do is drool :) But as I was standing there my eye caught the clearance rack sporting coach handbags..hummm.

That’s when I laid on this amazing handbag and fell in LOVE! It is totally the perfect size and the color will go with anything…and it’s Coach! Oh and well it’s on sale so it was meant for me right? I even tried it on and I knew we were meant to be together. We will not mention how while I was mesmerized by this fabulous purse I tripped over my supper high heals, fell into another woman and broke my new shoe..no we won’t mention that but it was totally worth it. Oh and a little supper glue will fix the said broken shoe.

Moving right along…here is a picture of one that was around the same style but the purse I loved was a tan/gold color and way hotter (I couldn’t find the actual picture but this is close without the shoulder strap)..

It is really amazing how you can start to rationalize prices when you are surrounded by such hefty price tags. Suddenly $150 doesn’t seem so bad compared to $250-300. I know, not good! I blame it on the new season of Rachel Zoe..I mean really, it brings out the shopping monster in me :) I was standing there thinking..this purse is bananas!

I even had to text my hubs and tell him about it…can I say birthday present ;) No really though, it is a good thing I am trying to be frugal while not working because I was totally tempted. I really need to go on a shopping hiatus but there are so many cute things out there and I have Gap coupons!

Oh well a girl can dream ..

PS I have already made the hubs promise me that when we ever get pregnant I can get a Coach baby bag :)