Saturday, October 20, 2012

Crafty Time

I have been trying to figure out a cute way to display my race bibs for a couple of reasons, (1) I'm really proud that in 2012 I accomplished more distance runs than I have in my whole live, and (2) as motivation to keep going.

I've seen a couple race bib holders on esty that are super cute but kinda pricey for something I think I can make myself so I found this tutorial on Pinterest from Domestic Mess.


When my friend Alyssa texted and said "let's make a date to craft what you just pinned" I was in!  I hit up the craft store and decided since I can't paint perfect letters that I should get the raised wood ones, and paint those.  Also instead of just the plain one color we decided to do a chevron pattern. Check out the final product: 

And with bibs


Super simple project you'll need:
-Wood plaque
-Wood letters
-paint 
-hooks (you'll need two sets if you have bibs that are different sizes)

We painted our chevrons first and then did the outside of the plaque and letters...  Once everything was dry we glued the letters onto the plaque and screwed in the hooks.  

**It took us a while to compete because we decided to do a chevron pattern and we're perfectionists, plus we were talking the whole time...




Thursday, October 18, 2012

I've Moved! (2 months late)

I think that all of my friends are super talented and I love when I can take advantage of their talents to create something for me!  

Sara Beth and I have been friends since I can remember, probably 4-5 years old.  We used to run around at her house or my house or my grandmas when we moved away.  We made up a song that I remember to this day with our initials:

Best friends, you and me
HES and SBP
When we meet you will see
Best friends, you and me

I think that this was spawned from us getting one of those best friends necklaces, you know what I am talking about, the broken heart with the BE FRI on one heart and the ST ENDS on the other... I went to her wedding almost 2 years ago and it was amazing to see her so happy.  Here are some classic photos from our younger years... 
Girl Scout Camp 
My Birthday, probably 5th?  I know it's not my 4th birthday because for some reason SBP spent that entire party crying...
6th birthday probably, always right next to each other.

When I found out that I was moving back to Utah I knew that I needed her expertise.  On Pinterest, I'd found some super cute "I've Moved" post cards with your new address and information on them.  Sara Beth is an amazing graphic designer and artist and I knew anything she did for me would be perfect!  This blog post is insanely late because I've had these fantastic cards since I left Lake Placid, but just today got around to getting postcard stamps from the Post Office...  These are hitting the mail tomorrow but I couldn't help but post them today!


Front of the card


Back

SBP(C) will for sure be doing all the paper goods/invites for anything and everything in my life because I didn't give her much direction and these are exactly what I wanted!  I love the colors and the keys and especially the circle on the back with the mountains.  Check out her website Nimblee, she's also on Facebook.

Thanks SBP!  Love you!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

PINK Series Half Marathon


For my first half marathon I trained for about 6 months.  For this half marathon, I didn't sign up until a month an a half before, so needless to say the training for this guy was not as thorough as the first.  The longest run I did pre-race was 4 miles, which if you're good at math you'll know that's a little less than a third of the actual race distance.  The runs I did complete in my training plan did feel good but they were definitely insufficient for the race.  I created a plan to running 80% of the mile and walking 20%.  That plan came about in my utter honesty in knowing that I could not, with my lack of training and less than stellar weight loss over the past few months (I seem to have plateaued), run the whole way.


The morning started off ok, it was pretty cold and partly cloudy but it wasn't supposed to rain, cold I can deal with because I would be running for the next 2+ hours which makes you hot so you know no biggie on the low temperature.  The first 8 miles felt really good.  At around 8.5/9 miles it started raining and the wind was blowing so the measly 46 degrees that it was felt much much colder.  Then around mile 10.5/11 I started getting mild calf cramps in both legs, trying to push through because I really wanted to beat my time from 6 months ago.  My phone died at mile 12 and the calf cramps were getting worse, so I decided to walk until just before the finish line, which I did.  I could see the finish line so I started running, 5-10 steps in my calves seized tighter than they ever have in my life and it was excruciating.  I think this was the most disappointing thing to me, I really like running across the finish line.  My official time is off by at least 5 minutes because I took a small detour to my house since it was on the route to get some water.  I paused my phone during that time so that I could keep an accurate run time, but then my phone died.  So my time was officially 15 minutes faster than my time 6 months ago but I believe its probably about 20 minutes faster.  


These girls at mile 3, the best part of the race!  This is the synchronized skating team that I help coach, they manned the first water station of the race.  They were so excited and all made sure they had their signs when I ran by.  They gave me high fives and hugs and it definitely gave me a boost of energy!

Given all the conditions of the day, I am calling it a win.  I did discover that I do like 98% of the GU flavors, I tried three new flavors on the course (Mint Chocolate, Blackberry, and Orange).  My New Years Resolution this year was to complete one half marathon and now I have completed two!  I think that I will do one of these longer races every 6 months just to keep myself running and focused.  I know that I can do better but for now I am going to step down the running and step up some weights and yoga.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

I'll do this when...

I had a bit of an epiphany this week in yoga {that sounds so cliche, but it happened}.  As I was meditating in savasana I was thinking about big events in my life that have yet to happen and then I thought about my role in the non-action in these areas.  If you read this blog often you'll know that I am extremely Type A and I am always thinking about what to do next and what steps I need to take to get there.  Then I thought about one of my favorite exchanges from The Wedding Date:

Kat: So you say here "every woman has the exact love life that she wants."  That's a pretty broad generalization don't you think? Do you honestly believe I want to be single and miserable? Do you think I want to be hung up on a guy that lead me on for years and out of the blue shattered my heart?
Nick: First of all, there's not such thing as out of the blue.  And second, yeah, when you're ready to let go, to be un-single and un-miserable, you will, till then...

While I don't have a guy that broke my heart out of the blue, I do have a few things I think are holding me back from being completely available.  I have this picture in my head of what I will look like when I do certain life events, like I'll look like this when I meet the man of my dreams, I'll do so and so when I have achieved this in my career.  When I was thinking about that I thought, what in my life am I missing out on because I am waiting for the perfect time instead of letting life happen.  Don't get me wrong I think it is VERY important to set reasonably achievable goals and to work hard, otherwise I wouldn't be where I am now.  But this Type A-overacheiver is going to take some time with what is left in 2012 (and on the advice of a very important/always right person in my life) to say yes to things I would normally say no too!


Monday, October 8, 2012

I like you

I teach a Learn to Skate class on Tuesdays.  In my class are three little boys all under 4 years old.  Some people might think that this is the worst/hardest class to teach, but it is my absolute favorite.  The three kiddos in my class have the biggest imaginations and it makes the class go by so quickly.  I mean when your objectives for the 6-8 weeks of class are to fall down, stand up, and walk across the ice, you need some fun thrown in there.

Two weeks ago we had a particularly fun class where everyone did really well and made large strides in their ability to skate.  When class is over I make sure to go talk to all the parents (its only 3 sets of parents) before I go home.  When I was done talking to one parent his little boy, Haiden, said "Miss Haley, I like you!" It was the cutest and most genuine thing.  I love how little kids have no filter, the funniest and the sweetest things come out of their mouths!

All I could think was how easy it was for a little 4 year old to be completely honest in expressing his feelings and how great it would be if as we get older if we could only keep that complete honesty in our interaction with the opposite sex.  Wouldn't it be great if the relationships from our past didn't make us think twice about telling someone how we really feel?

Just something to think about on a Monday night :)

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Weekender

Jenny came up this weekend because we REALLY needed a laugh so we decided to go to dinner and a movie.  We hit up our favorite, Red Rock and then crossed the street to see this gem:

You guys, it was HILARIOUS! There were so many one liners that I was laughing my face off, it was the exact thing that I needed.

This morning I made chocolate chip waffles for breakfast so yummy

And then we worked off the waffles with a 3.5 mile hike up PC Mountain sat up there and had some great talks about life {its hard not to think about big things with a view like this}  

Now I have tomorrow to get my act together, thanks to Columbus for discovering America!

Happy Week Ya'll!