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.

The Damage Up Close

Brian and I went down to the claim centre to get my things from the car and the adjuster who too us into the yard said to take everything as its most likely a write off. They haven't assessed it yet... but it doesn't look good. I think this is it for my Tiburon. :(

My poor car...

It was a sad day for my car today. I was on my way to work taking an alternate route to avoid an accident on the Port Mann and ended up in an accident of my own. An ambulance was going against a red light and the truck in front of me stopped for it. I had more than enough time to stop, however the slick roads had another plan for me and I hydroplaned right into the back of the truck. I had police, firetruck and even a traffic helicopter! Don't worry, other than a little bit of stiffness, I am fine! Unfortunately the whole thing is deemed my fault and I did get a ticket. I am now waiting to find out what insurance decides as to repairing or writing off the car. Again, a very sad day for my car as everyone knows how much I love it and this was the last thing I could possibly want. Brian made the drive out to come get me and has taken care of everything I have needed (I have been a bit upset to day for obvious reasons!)

A Cool Honor...

Lately I have been seeing my photography come out in the coolest ways... Nadia is doing a slide show telling a story about her life that includes so much of my family portraits I have done for her and her family... and now Katie shows me these awesome pants she made for Aaron with a pictures I took of Lucca years ago (that I recently found and mailed to her). Keep up the creativity Katie! I looks awesome!!

More time with Tag

Brian wanted to spend some time with Tag and I this morning so we went for breakfast at McD's and then picked up Tag in Abby and headed back out to the same trail as yesterday. We walked out to the Rod & Gun club thats part way down the trail. The guys shooting skeet invited us in to watch... Tag did well, he seemed a tiny bit nervous, but he may have just wanted to continue running down the trails. We took Tag back to Mom's and then had to rush back to Langley as I needed to meet Nadia in Ft Langley for our Sunday run... ouch! Let me tell you it was tough today, but I did it! Week 7 Session 2 done! I am going to sleep well tonight!

Week 7 Session 1 (2nd attempt!)

After Cali's birthday party and being sick all week, I really needed to get a run in. I went and got Tag and headed to the park. I had done half of my Week7 Session 1 run on Thursday at one of my workout sessions with my co-workers. I had to laugh because one of the girls decided to join me thinking that 4 minutes running would be easy. She didnt continue on after the first rotation! Anyhow, it was a great run, Tag had lots of fun and I wore him out as we did 40 min of running and 20 min walking in total.

Cali's Birthday Party

Me and the birthday girl! Look at that smile! I think she was having a super fun time.

Two party princesses with the Princess & the Frog Cake... Lilah is so smart, she even told me there was a Princess & the Frog movie out!

Declan enjoying Cali's new Iggle Piggle doll.

The party papparatzi!! Cali and Lilah were in front of them!!

Happy Birthday's!

I just realized it has been quite the busy week and I have missed blogging on a few things... I will blame my really bad cold (its almost gone now thankfully)!

Happy 30th birthday Julie... welcome to the best years of your life... so far I am enjoying them and I think you will too! I was too sick to come out and make a cake or cupcakes on Wednesday night, so I will have to make that up sometime soon!

Happy 2nd birthday to Cali! She is growing up so quickly and I feel lucky to see it all happen, she is such a sweet little thing. I didnt see her on her actual birthday as I was busy getting the cake ready for the party the next moring (took me 5 hours that night and then another 1/2hr the next moring to finish up the details).

End of Week 6...

I finished week 6 of Sun Run training tonight with the head cold! Why am I doing this to myself? Haha... dont know! I got a fun shin cramp for the 2nd time, worked through it and kept going. I found a great area close to home to go running, its a sand/gravel soccer field. It was great as I was able to keep a tally as I was running on my rotations!! I am soooo scared of Wednesday! I start Week 7 which means run 4min, walk 2min rotations!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day & Happy 1st Birthday Declan

Happy 1st Birthday to my youngest nephew Declan! I would go see him today but unfortunately I got hit with a cold after freezing for an hour in the rain to see the torch last Thursday!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!
Brian was off to Saskatchewan first thing this morning and will be back Wednesday (he was not happy about leaving me on V-day) so currently I am watching the Notebook and then will be off to lunch and shopping with a friend and then I am going to come back and allow myself to try and get over this head cold!

The Torch

The girls from the office and I went to see the torch today for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics just before lunch time down the street from work! We did pre plan wearing all our Olympic gear!To my surprise, I actually recognized one of the officer's directing traffic!! It's Bob! (I tried to get a better picture but it was difficult with the rain!)

There were tonnes of kids and people everywhere (there are a few schools in the area), it was quite the turn out! We actually stood in the middle of an intersection on the crosswalk blocking traffic, these kids were across the street on the other crosswalk!

Crowd control... instead of telling people to move back, they just drove through forcing people back revving engines and honking horns (kind of unnecessary I thought)

An hour in the rain for a few seconds of torch time! Anyone know who she is?? Anyhow, it was a cool experience and fun to see a piece of Canadian history!

Go Canada Go!