Turkanza 2012

TURKANZA!!

This past weekend, we celebrated our 5th annual Turkanza. Even thought this party can be a lot of work, it was so worth it. Over the past few years Turkanza has developed into a really awesome pot-luck style party in which our friends and family contribute some amazing dishes. Even though the celebration is mostly focused on the turkeys that we cook in the ground, we had a bit of a vegan/vegetarian twist this year. My favorite dish was the vegan tamales that my friend Cassy and her mom made.  You can check out her vegan tamales recipe at Healthy with Sass.  I added some fresh pico de gallo to the tamales and they were perfecto!

It was a great celebration with our lovely friends and family! Turkanza was definitely a nice break before I go into "studying hibernation." This blog post is my last attempt in avoiding the huge mounds of material I have to learn.

Running update:
I know in my previous post I mentioned I wasn't planning on running a Thanksgiving 5k. However, I signed up for the Hobbler Gobbler race with a friend from nursing school. She actually signed up for the 10k like a boss. I was throwing around the idea of running the 10k, but I wanted to see if I could improve on my 5k time from the Pumpkin Chase run.
Earlier this week I went on a run with my nursing school buddy after class, and she actually pushed me to run 8 miles. I was really hesitant at first, but It was great weather and I felt good. I guess it helps that NM nature/weather gives me a major runners high. I was only planning on doing 4-6 miles, but I ended up running eight and feeling great!!

I plan on doing short recap on my Turkey run and Thanksgiving, but afterwards I'm disconnecting myself till the end of the semester.

I hope you all are doing well and have some fun plans for the Thanksgiving holiday!
Happy Turkanza and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Great Pumpkin Chase Recap

I already know that I  haven't followed through on my once a week blog post.
I'm thinking I'll have more  luck with a biweekly blog post. We usually have an exam every two weeks in nursing school, and this is a good way to procrastinate studying. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about... How your house or apartment is the cleanest when you need to get something else done (e.g. studying or work project).

Even though life has been crazy busy as usual with school (I'm currently in the hardest semester in nursing school). I've actually managed to have a little bit of fun these past couple of weeks.
I'm happy to report to you BB readers that I have finally broken out of my running race slump. I honestly have not run a race since my half-marathon back in 2010...2010?!! Can you believe it?!

About a month ago my good friend Cassy (healthywithsass.blogspot.com) suggested we do a race with a fun theme. I was sort of hesitant because I didn't feel prepared to run a race. I hadn't trained at all except for some random 2-3 mile runs with Shed dog around the neighborhood.  However, I checked myself and concentrated on making the run FUN! That meant no Garmin on my run, and it meant wearing a silly costume. There was a point when the half marathoner in me crept out and tried to get me to do the 10k, but I wasn't having it. I was going to do The Great Pumpkin Chase 5k and I was going to love it!  The night before I laid out my "racing witch" race outfit and tied my Shwings (Shoe-wings) to my shoes and got my little witch hat out. I was ready for the race!

Shwings!

The next morning I got all dressed up  in my "running witch" outfit and we even dressed up Shed Dog for the occasion.  I bought her a cute skeleton outfit to wear for Halloween. Yes, I'm one of those dog owners. Anyways, we met up with Sassy Cassy at the race and did a little pre-race stretching. It was freezing cold out, but we did our best to warm up.

When the 5k started I felt good! However, I couldn't feel my feet. They were completely numb from the cold.  I did start to feel better once they warmed up around the 1.5 mile mark, but it was sort of weird running when you can't feel your feet. Anyways, the race was absolutely beautiful. It went through a historical downtown neighborhood (the neighborhood where Jesse Pinkman's house is for all you Breaking Bad fans out there), and along the river trail. Although it was freezing cold during the first part of the run, as I started to warm up it became perfect running weather.

As I ran by my husband around the 1 mile mark, I was happy to see him cheering me on! I loved it when he yelled "Good job, you're running so fast!!" I also heard our dog Shed losing her shit because I was running without her. I swear, if you could translate her dog fit it would have translated to: HOW DARE YOU GO RUNNING WITHOUT ME YOU BI***!  I got a pretty good chuckle out of that whole scenario in the middle of my run. On the last leg of the run, I was smiling and cheering on my fellow runners. I was able to give Cassy a high five on the trail and that propelled me to finish strong. I finished with a time of 25.28 and placed 28th overall and 3rd in my age group, and I got a MEDAL! I never thought I would be so happy to get one of those things. It was a little shocking to me because all I got after running my half marathon was a stupid pin.

I had so much fun running in the Great Pumpkin Chase event. I really can't wait to sign up for the next silly holiday themed race.  I think I'm going to skip out on a Thanksgiving run this year, but will try and sign up for a winter holiday themed race.  My plan is to stick with 5K's for now, but I think it's helping me build up my confidence for another 13.1 in 2013.  You gotta set goals!

I spent the rest of the weekend studying and catching up on errands, and just in case you were wondering, I wore my medal the whole time. :)

Click here to see Cassy's recap of the race and check out her yummy pumpkin oatmeal recipe!

**Crickets**

Hello...anyone out there?

Sorry for the lack of posts lately friends, but I promise you I'm going to try to get back to writing on this poor neglected blog at least once a week.  I do miss coming on to this blog and connecting with everyone.

This year has been crazy busy, with planning a wedding and nursing school it has really been a whirl wind of events. However, I feel like life is starting to calm down a little bit and nursing school is becoming manageable. It's amazing how much time you have when you are not planning a wedding.

I plan to update this blog soon and give the scoop on my beautiful wedding back in August, my running routine, my new obsession with hiking, and my journey as a born again cyclist!

In other news:
Please check out my dear friend Cassy's blog at: http://healthywithsass.blogspot.com/
She is a certified health coach and personal trainer and her blog is going to be a good one to follow. She is documenting her adventure with vegetarian cooking and is going to post easy to make recipes that even the domestically disabled can follow. Happy cooking!

I leave you guys with some photos from the fall hike we took on Monday. We went to the  4th of July Canyon Trail in the Manzano Mountains here in New Mexico. The trail is known for having beautiful fall colors and it did not disappoint. Next time I plan to bring a thermos of hot cider to sip on while we walk the trail.

Be back soon! Have a lovely week!

Wedding Countdown and Running Streak!

Hey everyone,

It's the wedding countdown!!
I was inspired by my amiga CindyLu who wrote about how she participated in the Runner's World running streak challenge on her blog Lotería Chicana.  The challenge was to run one mile a day for 38 days.  Our wedding isn't exactly 38 days away, but I'm going to start the challenge anyways. I guess we can call it a wedding running streak!
I found this challenge worked with my schedule really well. You see nursing school and wedding planning don't leave much room for much else these days. However, I find that if I set a goal or challenge myself I am more likely to stick to the routine. So the goal is to keep the running streak going up until the day of my wedding. Which I am super excited about. I just got to make sure nursing school doesn't drive me insane before my nuptials.
Anyways, I hope I can do it,  I'll try not to let you guys down!

I leave you guys with a photo from the night the amore and I first met. I really can't believe it's been 5 years since this photo was taken. I still remember how I felt when I first saw him..I would say it was love at first sight, but it was way better than that.

Cheers amigos!

Happy Breaking Bad Season 5 Premier Day!

Hello amigos!

 I started writing this blog at 5pm, but I got distracted because my cool mom decided to make an impromptu Breaking Bad Premier party at my house.  My family came over and I made a salmon dinner and we enjoyed the show. I actually enjoyed the premier of Breaking Bad and I am anxious to see what the season has in store for us.

I hope you all had a good weekend! Sorry for the short post, but it's time to read up about Diabetes.

pollos.

Hello out there!

Hello out there........echo.....echo......!

Hey everyone, it's been awhile!
I always knew that I would become extremely busy once nursing school started, but I didn't anticipate being so busy that I couldn't even update my blog every once in awhile. Well, I guess it's time for another update on life through few words and many photos.

So, it's been awhile, so for all of you who don't know already I have started my first semester of nursing school and I am loving it. We started our clinical rotation last week working with spinal cord injury patients and so far it has been a great experience. The first week of rotations was what I anticipated, I was nervous, but excited to get in there and work my skills and start learning. For the last two weeks has been filled with moments of wound dressing changes, health assessments,  and I've been testing out which jokes work best with patients. I still believe laughter is some of the best type of medicine. Yesterday we said goodbye to our first patient who will most likely be discharged before we return next week. He was very kind to say that he hopes we return to work with in the spinal cord unit as he has enjoyed having us as his nurses.  It's only been two weeks, but I've learned so much and feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn on the Spinal Cord Injury Unit.

WEDDING!!! Ahhhhhhh!! I can't believe it's coming up so fast! We are wrapping up the minor details to our fiesta and boy is it a lot. We have sent out our invitations and my dress is almost complete. The dress just needs a few minor adjustments, but it looks gorgeous and it's exactly what I imagined wearing on my wedding day. I love it! I have had a lot of help from my friends and family, but I still feel there is a lot of things that need to be done. One of my dear friends Sassy Cassy has been an amazing help through this all. She has had flower making parties and has made some amazing paper flowers for the wedding.  It's all coming up so fast, I really feel a bit anxious for it all to happen. The f-word and I can't stop talking about how excited we are to have our friends and family come together, but most of all we can't wait to be happily married. Honestly, the excitement of getting married to one another just makes all the little worries of minor things just go away.  More updates on this to come as well!

Well everyone I am off to clean our home as it has been neglected due to busy work schedules, nursing clincals, nursing exams, and just plain laziness.

Cheers!

Eclipse 2012

Yesterday we joined a bunch of enthusiastic people to catch a glimpse of the eclipse and it did not disappoint. It turns out Albuquerque was one of the best places to catch the eclipse. There was all sorts of people who came in from out of town just to see it.
  My mother and I went to the National Museum of Nuclear History and Science to check it out. They had the astronomical society there with their bad ass telescopes and a few stations set up with information on the eclipse. It was basically a huge nerd gathering and I loved it!
My mother and I were able to catch some pretty good photos with our iPhones and even snapped some photos of people watching the eclipse. Basically, it was hilarious to look at people staring at the sun so intensely.
I hope you all got to catch a glimpse of the eclipse where ever you are.
Here is a few photos of the eclipse that we caught. Also, a few photos of some extreme sun starers.

 

Have a great week!