Bandida Blog: A Long December

Oh yes, I love starting out a blog post with a nice cheesy title. I bet all of you 90's kids out there have The Counting Crows A Long December song stuck in your head now. Nice.

Well, it's been about a month since I last posted, but I’ll spare you guys the excuses on why I haven't been present on this blog. Chances are you probably already know why.

The good news is I passed level 2 of nursing school! Hooray!! I'm half way to being a nurse!!! This semester was supposed to be the hardest semester of our nursing school career, and I'm happy to report that I survived it. Phew! Nursing school is full of excitement and dread. It's almost like riding a roller coaster with no sort of safety restraints, but you turn out okay at the end.

Anyways, I have a month off before school starts up again and I plan on filling my break time with sipping warm tea, reading a book (not healthcare related), Christmas shopping, baking, hanging with family, and then heading to a long time friends wedding in Seattle. This is my first time being a bridesmaid in a wedding and I’m absolutely honored and thrilled to be a part of it all.

Running has been going well and I'm still doing the running streak. I've modified it a little bit and have allowed myself to walk a mile instead of run on a few days. I've taught myself to listen to my body and sometimes running is just not part of the plan that day. I've mixed up my routine and I've been going to hot yoga a couple of times a week. I'm attending a new studio in town that is donation based and offered a great Groupon rate. The coupon allows me to attend for an unlimited time for two months, and with the recent burst of cold air that just came through NM going to hot yoga has been a real treat. It's funny to think on December 1st of this year I was still running in a skirt! I've asked good ol' Saint Nick for a new pair of running shoes, as my current pair of Asics are feeling a bit worn. I'm thinking of switching my brand of shoe to maybe Brooks or Mizuno. I love my Asics, but they just haven't been as awesome as I remembered them to be in the past.

I think I remember reporting that I was going to do a turkey trot run. The run went okay. There were a lot of hills and I was not prepared for that. I did beat my pumpkin chase run by a few seconds, but boy was I beat up from that run. It definitely inspired me to add more hills to my running routine. Below are a few photos I took on my runs. The 1st was from this past weekend in which the weather was freezing, but the scenery was still gorgeous. The 2nd one was from early November after the turkey trot run, I was in the foothills getting my hills on.

It recently snowed her in Albuquerque and I've been excited about the possibility of actually going snowboarding this year. Also, it's nice to have the moisture here in the dry desert. It was seriously starting to freak me out how warm it was going into December. This afternoon we had a serious wind chill and my teeth were chattering during the first part of my run. I guess i'm going to have to start embracing the cold weather.

Enjoying the snow!

Anyways amigos! I hope you all are doing well and holidays haven't swallowed you whole yet. The Señor and I have a lot planned for the holidays. This year we are hosting Christmas Eve at our house for both our families. I plan on making a big pot of posole and making tamales for the occasion. This is our first Christmas as a married couple and we are enjoying the little things about the holiday. Such as getting Christmas cards addressed to us with my new last name....eek! My husband and I have been married 4 months and it has been amazing. We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us.