Crossing the Finish Line

This was running across the Granville Street bridge... Nadia had run ahead of me at this point as I was having hip problems!

Me running on the Granville Bridge... by this point, the group of runners definatley had spread out more than it was earlier!

Crossing the finish line... I put the camera down for this as I really wanted to concentrate on running! Besides, there are professionals taking pictures that you can buy later... maybe mine will be good??? :)

Nadia and I both did awesome... our estimated times are 1hr 15 min for Nadia and 1 hr 20 minutes for me. We will find out tomorrow in the newspaper how we actually did because of the time chips we wore on our shoes!

It was a great day and alot of fun... I did so many things I would never do... I took public transit, hung out in a crowd bigger than I could imagine, drank water I know people put there fingers in and used an outhouse! Haha... But seriously, it was an awesome feeling to accomplish this goal... looking forward to the next run at the end of May... another 10km!!!

Time to go green...

A special thanks to mom for giving me a bunch of plants on Saturday. I brought a bag of soil and a couple pots over to Mom's so I could she could help me start some plants at our home in Langley since we are staying for another year! (We are making it more homey now) The landscaping in the yard is not done yet, but our deck definatly is. The picture above is looking out from our bedroom! I will post better pictures on a nicer day when we really have things set up as Brian's Dad gave us patio furniture also!

Birthday Knives

So I found out Aaron got his knife yesterday so I was able to post this!! Happy 28th Birthday Aaron by the way! Dad had been telling me about Jeanie's brother being able to make custom knives and I knew for a month or so now that Dad had planned on getting a knife made for Brian for his birthday. I just so happened that Huey had finished making it and brought it to Kamloops when we were visiting. Long story short, Dad decided to give Brian his knife early as it suited the weekend so well (the gun show, dinner with Huey, Carol and Wayne...) Anyhow, Brian absolutely loved his knife... he could not stop smiling and is showing it off to all his friends! Brian's has a Buffalo horn handle and Aaron's has the wooden handle with the engraving on the centre piece. I bet Aaron loves his just as much. What an awesome gift.

Bye Bye Kamloops House

Brian and I had the honour of being the last guests at Dad and Jeanie's house in Kamloops! They have sold their house and will be moving on down to their new river front trailer park (temporary of course!) later this week. We stayed from Thursday night till Sunday afternoon and had a great time! Highlights included Take Sushi! The Gun & Antique Show, Dinner with Jeanie's brother Huey, sister-in-law Carol and Dad's friend Wayne... and of course, the new and amazing 'beer' waffle breakfast! Thanks again for an awesome time Dad and Jeanie!!!

Hiking in Kamloops

When we were in Kamloops this weekend, Brian and I went for a hike on this mountain that is just covered in trails... the view was just amazing from higher up! ( We didnt get to the top!!)

Can I complain just a little?

So Nadia and I reached a huge milestone with our running on Sunday.... our running is MUCH longer now... we did 2 sets of 20 minutes!

On Tuesday I went for a run with Kristie (got in 20 min non stop) and then on Wednesday Nadia and I did our next session, 2 sets of 22 minutes... and then yesterday, I went running with Kristie again... just a quick run on our lunch break and got in over 18 minutes.

I am SOOOO sore this morning.... ugh, but it is muscle soreness in all the right places! I will rest today and I am going to go walking with Julie tomorrow and then on to my next 2 sets of 25 with Nadia Sunday!!!

Anyhow, all complaining aside about the soreness... I am super proud of how far I am coming with the running, I never thought I could really do what I am doing and I just want to keep going!!

Happy Easter and A Special Gift for Us

Brian and I got the most amazing Easter gift today... we were told by our landlord this morning that we can have Tag here with us in Langley! We are both thrilled, but we do have to wait a month or so until landscaping is done in the yard... still, its just great news!

We also went hiking today... picked up Tag in Abby and headed out to Mission. It was a perfect day for it... the picture above is our lunch break, we shared our Timmies sandwiches with Tag as I forgot to bring him anything to eat!!! Oops...

Cotton Candy Ice Cream!

I totally forgot to blog this! Was it last weekend? Or the weekend before?? Anyhow, Julie and I took Cali out for Ice Cream at the dairy farm... its just a cute picture!

Went too far. Going to die

(above) That was my text message to Brian when I was out on my first run of Week 9 Sun Run training. I went to a local park with horse trails which are awesome for running on... but I went way to far and there were 2 huge steep hills I had to contend with. Anyhow the run was supposed to be 63 minutes of run 7 walk 2 x 7 times. I am not going to run the steep hills, so I had to walk them and of course by the time I was done I think I was out for about an hour and 20 min or so. Runnings already hard enough but to add those hills in? Ugh! When I got home and started cooking dinner I felt so sick to my stomach, I could barely eat and ended up just rolling into bed. Still feeling terrible this morning, but I made it through Week 9 Session 1 yippie!

A run and a dog training session!

I picked up my new car this past Tuesday and on both Wednesday and Friday I headed out to Abby to go pick up Tag to do my runs with me. Can I just say, this car is amazing! I love so much how eady it is to put Tag in the back and go.... why didnt I do this sooner (yeah yeah, I hear all the "I told you so's") Anyhow, Tag is a good dog but has way too much energy sometimes and chooses not to listen at times. Last night, half way through my run I was sick of calling for him and him doing what he wanted. So I put him on his leash and tried the dog whisperer move of instant correction and the Brad from At the End of my Leash move of not talking to Tag. Check out the video!! All of a sudden I have the perfect jogging partner in Tag!

More Race Pictures!

I went online to try and find Nadia and my times from the race as we only know aproximately and I found they had posted more pictures with us in it! The first is from the start of the race and the bottom 2 are us arriving at the finish line!

St Paddy's Day Dash

After a few pretty lax weeks of running... (me due to the car accident and Nadia was in Hawaii) we did the St. Paddy's Day 5km race in Port Moody this morning! We had high hopes of doing much better than our last race but that was not to be! This whole race was done on pavement, our last one was a trail, so that made this much harder. After about 10min of running, I got hit hard with cramps in both the tops of my feet and up my shins. Since I have experienced this before, I knew I could work through it, but I told Nadia to go on ahead of me because I could barely lift my feet to run! Geez... I was so upset, I really wanted to do better. Nadia went across the finish line a few minutes ahead of me but she is not sure of the time and I came across at about 44 minutes. So, 5 min worse than last time... BUT!! Keep in mind I did this with cramps on pavement... OUCH! We have since decided to do more training on the road as the Sun Run is 10km on pavement!

Crossing the Finish Line

A couple pictures of us crossing the finish line! Nadia first and then me.... Thanks to Brian again for all his support and taking our pictures! (He took a video of me crossing the finish line, I will post it if I can get a copy!)

Park with Cali, Julie and Mom (Nana)

Mom, Julie and Cali came out to Langley for a visit yesterday... we played at the park, went for lunch and then came back to my place so I could give everyone my freshly made cinnamon buns!

More Pictures of my new Mazda 3 Sport GT

I Bought A New Car!!

Yesterday I took the day off work to go shopping for a new car with Brian. We looked through Langley the previous night and headed into White Rock yesterday morning as I saw a dealer that had alot of Mazda 3s. With no real success in White Rock we drove into Richmond... I remembered from all those years ago when I bought my Hyundai Scoupe, we did the insurance at that automall and it seemed big! Sure enough we hit the mother load of amazing Mazda 3s at Signature Mazda. The salesman wasted no time in handing us keys to a sedan and sport (hatchback) models so we could compare. I think we were both instantly in love with the sport as it felt like a little race car and was fully loaded with every feature imaginable. Just over 4 hours later... 3 different test drives and a bit of back and forth with the salesman... I bought a 2005 Mazda 3 Sport! I get to pick it up in a few days after a couple small issues get cleaned up as it was a lease return and it had only been on the lot a couple days. Brian is definitely feeling jealous right now as its the kind of car he has always wanted... lucky for him he gets my 2nd set of keys!

I tried to keep the color a secret and it proved to be toooo difficult!

Sun Run Training... Week 8 (delayed)

I have done 2 sessions of my week 8 of sun run training this week... they haven't been full sessions, but I can do them so I am happy!! I was scared I would be too sore from the car accident but my issues have cleared up very quickly! I need to get Nadia and I signed up for a race this coming weekend (it was dependant on my getting better and I know I can do it now!)... hopefully we will be more successful in this next 5km!

Goodbye to my Tiburon...

Well today marked the end of a painful week for me. ICBC was fair in the write off amount but I still would much prefer to have my car. Dad put it best - It was the car I always wanted and I still want it. I never pictured myself loving a 'Samba Red' car so much but from the moment I test drove it with Julie, I had to have it. It was a pretty exciting moment June 21, 2004 when I got to drive this car off the lot. The odometer read 35,222 kms... and I have taken it to almost 170,000. I will miss burning my back on the black leather in the middle of summer and those great seat warmers on cold days. It was always funny watching people struggle to get in and out of the car because it was so low... I had one excessive speeding ticket on the Abby Mission Highway (Mom and Julie will remember that!!), one scuff on the front left bumper from Brian's parking garage when we first met.... which was finally fixed when I got in my little fender bender just over a year ago on Halloween (new paint job on the front bumper!). I remember how shocked Julie was the first time Tag rode as a passenger, but he sure loved going for rides. Its been a great 6.5 years and I can't imagine ever feeling the same way about a car as I did about this one.