Running thru life....What would you grab

A couple of events have causes my brain to start turning...

The earth quake in Japan

The movie Leap Year

My friend who lives in Scottland joking with me the other day via email about how difficult it has been for her to live without simple things that she took for granted when she lived her like her face soap, and her favorite kind of tea.

So here is my question for you-

If for some reason you had to vacate my house- be it tornado, fire, earthquake-

What would you grab that you could not live with out if you only had 15 minutes? 

WOW- what a question? 

Just thinking about it gives me the chills. 

But here it is: (assuming I have my wedding band and engagement ring on)
1) My hubby
2) My Clemson
3) My purse (Obviously I would need my keys and my ID- this is the practical Laura)
4) My photobooks
5) If I had time my computer... because everything is on it! (Important documents, photos, etc)

That is it.  I COULD LIVE WITHOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. 

It is amazing what the people in Japan are having to go thru and my heart goes out to them. 

It is time like this when you realize what is important to you and what is just "gravy." 

As I reflected on this question I quickly realized that many things in my life are just "gravy."

What could you not live without?

Running thru life.... Effects on my Body

Over the past couple weeks I have started to increase the distances of my long runs and the speeds of my short runs.  In general, I have been happy with my performance. 

I have cut alcohol completely out of my diet, increased my water, increased my electrolytes and lean proteins. 

However, even with all of that I am feeling the effects of dehydration- dry mouth, nausea, exhaustion.

So I am having to change my game plan a little....

1) More sleep-  I have started getting in bed earlier than I normally do, which by most people standards is way early.  I am normally lights out by 9, so now I am in bed at 8 and lights out by 8:30. 
Remember I get up at 5 am....and do not get home till 5pm on a good day
I have also starting taking a nap on Saturday and Sunday after my long runs.

2) Hydration-  I am now carry around a 32 ounce Clemson Cup where ever I go!  I have to go thru three of these a day at minumum and at least 1 has to have my electrolye supplement in it.  I am bad during the day because I see patients all day but I have started bringing my water in with me while I see patients.  Most of my patients know that I am a runner and support me.  Also, I often have to counsel pregnant women on how important it is to stay hydrated when you are pregnant, so this way they can see that I am trying to do the same (even though there is no baby in my uterus)  =0). 

3)  Changing my workout schedule. 

My current schedule is as follows
Saturday-  Long run 10-13 miles
Sunday- Short run- 5-6 miles
Monday- Medium run  8 miles
Tuesday- Off
Wednesday- Short run  5-6 miles
Thursday Off
Friday-  Short run 5-6 miles

Last week I did not run on Sunday because I was dehyrdated so I took the day off and focused on hydration and rest.  It made my Monday run much more enjoyable.  So I am starting to think of taking sunday off and letting my body rest.

I am hoping my body will like these changes. 
Happy Running.

Running thru life.... Signs of Spring

Today I decided to post a happy blog because it is yucky outside....so here it is

Spring is one of my favorite seasons.

So I thought I would share how I try to remind myself of spring no matter how yucky it is outside.
By keeping flowers and plants
(Both real and fake in the house)

 

 

 Small real planter in the kitchen.

Real large "Palm" plant - purchased at costco.  

I am still looking for a decorative pot to fit better with the room.

Notice my Cute Clemson Puppy sitting on his chair!

 

Wooden Tulips Joe purchased for me while he was on a business trip in Amsterdam. 

 Spring arrangement in our sunroom.  I was given these flowers from someone for free.  

They add some nice color to the room. 

 

Hydrangea wreath purchased at Costco over our bedroom Dresser

 Small Orchid plant purchased at Homegoods.

Fake Orchid in our entry way

 

 Fake Orchid in the basement purchased at Homegoods.

Dried Hydrangea flowers in Our Clemson Pitcher in the basement.  I replace this every year with another dry hydrangea that I comes from our garden.  Hopefully I will have some beautiful hydrangea pictures to show you this spring. 

Real plant in our dining room.
 I love this plant so much!! We have now had it for 1 1/2 years and it is thriving!

Roses from Costco in our kitchen....  on week two!!!
I love Costco roses
1) They are cheap! 
2) They last forever
3) You get 18 roses so you can make a couple arrangements off of them. 

Poinsettia From Christmas- Also from Costco in our sun room.
 I bought this in novemeber and decided to transplant it into one of my pots after the holidays.
My mother in law makes fun of me that our poinsettia still looks amazing. 
I would love it get it to last until next Christmas

Decorative plant in the entry way

So it can spring all year long for me!!!

Running thru life.... Out with the old in with the old...

Two weeks ago I came home to Clemson Puppy sitting on the floor next to a half eaten couch cushion (not one of the pillows-the actual cushion).  At first I WAS FURIOUS!  He really has never done anything like this.  To make matters worse it was not something I could fix.  The cushion is destroyed!

The more I think about it I realized it was his way of acting out.  Joe had come home that day before class to play with him and put him back in his area.  We use a baby gate to keep him in the basement area. 

Joe and I knew this couch was on its last leg.  My parents bought it in 1993 so it lived thru my teenage years, my college years, my grad school years, and now our early marriage years.  Almost 17 years for a couch is by no means bad. 

I had to face reality- we need a new couch and soon!!!

Joe purchased a couch set which is now in our living room on our second floor.  We were dating at the time and I went with him to pick it out because I realize that this would be a couch we would have for a very long time.  When all was said and done- the couch, the sofa chair, the otteman, and the delivery fee- it come in around 1,000.00.

I was not looking forward to dishing out this kind of money especially since we have decided to do our patio, take some other trips, etc.   This is where I got lucky!!!

My parents have a couch that they absolutely hate because it was bought for their house in Florida, but moved up here and it just does not fit the house.  But it would fit our house perfectly!!

So I called up my Dad (because if I want something I have learned that Dad is the person I go thru) and asked if we could buy their couch from them.  I had done research on craigslist so I knew what people were asking.   5 mintues later and agreement of $75 dollars with an additional agreement that Joe and I would have to have it arranged to be moved.   Joe and I will have ourselves a new couch for the basement. 

My parents have a maching love chair and ottoman which they are using now but when they find a new set that they like... they are also ours. 

Now two things to figure out.....
1) Disposing of the old couch
2) Moving the new couch...

Stay tunned

Running thru life... updating my book collections

It is not very often that I actually spend money to buy a book but this month
I bit the bullet and bought TWO BOOKS!!!!

I am very selective in when I buy books.
But I am really looking forward to reading both of these.

Jodi Picoult-  Sing You Home

This is the new Jodi Picoult book and I have been waiting for March to hit for it to hit stores.

I love Jodi Picoult (she is probably one of my favorite writers.)

So March hit and I headed to the book store to make my purchase.

Barnes and Noble wanted $28 dollars which I refused to pay

so I went to Costo and 15.99 +tax  later had my book.

My second purchase was a book that NPR reviewed and spiked my interest.
Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

No I do not have kids and do not plan on having them any time soon.  But I was a girl that grew up with princess this and princess that, so I am curious on what it has to say.  Normally $25 dollars in the book store I got it on Amazon (with another purchase for my hubby's birthday) for around $15 dollars.


Happy Reading!!!

Running thru life... a new cleaning product

I was organizing under our kitchen sink a couple weeks ago and was amazed at the amount of cleaning products I used.

1) Windex for windows

2) Endust for dusting

3) Simple Green for Stainless Steel

4) Granite Cleaner

5) Costco Cleaning Wipes for everyday

6) Etc,

It is amazing how many products I have so I am always looking for ways to make cleaning an easier process for me (aka more economical and also more time efficient). 

That Sunday in the adds I recieved a coupon for Pledge MultiSurface.  It advertised that it is for Metal, Wood, Glass, and Electronics.  I figured it was worth a shot because it could help eliminate at least 4-5 cleaning products I currently use. 

So in Wegmans the following week I picked it up just to test it out.  

Two weeks later I am loving it.  

It cleans everything quite well and does not leave streaks which is a plus.  

I have used it on mirrors, granite countertops, stainless steel, and to dust my furniture.

The other nice thing is it comes in two scents- Rain and Lavender.

 

So goodbye lots of cleaning products and hello Pledge Multi Surface Cleaner!!!

Another house project Part 3- HOA

May I first start by saying I dislike our HOA. 
I understand what a HOA does but I feel like ours is not helpful at all and just dish out rules. 
With us redoing our backyard, I knew I would have to notified the HOA aware according to our stupid bylaws.  So I painfully got all the paperwork together... as follows


Step #1
Fill out application


Step #2
Get neighbor signatures.  Yes this is so stupid!!!! Especially since no one can see our patio.  So I quickly sent my husband to two of our neighbors to get signatures.  8 minutes later husband returned... success

Step #3
Pictures
We had to send in pictures of what our backyard looks like now and pictures of what is it going to look like.. PAIN IN THE BUTT

Step #4
Send our Plat with the area highlighted that we are going to change.
So what is a Plat you might ask?
It took me about 10 minutes to find ours.  I quickly googled it and found out it is basically the lay out of your house.  You are given a certified copy when you buy a house.  So I marched up to my room and pulled our our house file and there it was.  Copied it and was on to the next step.

Step #5
Dimensions and design
I had to send in a copy of the actually layout/design from the company we are going with.

So after approximately 25 minutes with the help of my copier/scanner/printer in 1 and my hubby- Everything got stuffed into an envelope!!!!!!

On to the next phase....

Another House Project Continued Part 2

My hubby and I decided for our back yard a simple patio would be the best.  We already have a deck that came with the house when we purchased it.  The bad thing about the deck is that is blocks almost all the sun in our backyard meaning that it is really hard to grow plants... but for some reason weeds have no problem growing. 

We sat down a short time ago just to design what we would like.  Ideally we decided the less lawn maintenance we have the better.  So we decided to cover approximately 340 sq feet leaving two areas (in two separate corners for planting).  The two areas are also the only space that gets sun- so it made the most sense. 

With that decided, we needed to think what we wanted out of a patio.  I started to research the different options- stone, brick, stamped concrete, etc.  My parents have a stone patio and their neighbors have a stamped concrete patio so I head over there just to look at them.  So both are equally as nice.

Then I started researching the price and I almost had a heart attack!!!  This is where the home garden show helped because I was able to obtain a decent amount of information and pricing in a short amount of time.)  Keep in mind our backyard is TINY!!!  I found stone can cost anywhere from 22-40$ a square foot!  The stamped concrete cost about 12-17$ a square foot.

I talked with my parents neighbors (who is a lawyer and researches everything with a fine tooth comb) regarding their decision to go with stamped concrete.   They told me about the pros, the cons, the maintenance (which is very low), the companies they looked at, the different estimates that got.
Basically, they made my job so easy for me. 

So I ended up call the Stamped Concrete company that they used called  Creteman Custom Hardscapes.

I have an appointment set for tomorrow- so we will see!!!

So what is stamped Concrete???

It is basically concrete laid in different colors- that is stamped with a pattern before it drys.  The Creteman lets you pick from 8 different shape designs and then has 15+ colors

Here are one picture below just so you can get an idea. 

This is not the color we would go with... Since our house is brick we are thinking of something along the brick color scheme, but we will see. 

So Tomorrow- I have an appointment with the Creteman.

Wish me luck!!