Oh I got some new shoes on...

I have a love hate relationship with shoes.  When I was in my shoe unit for college I absolutely hated shoes passionately!  Having to rip the insole out (making new insoles), rip the sole off, pull out nails, adding lifts, adding stablizers, putting them back together, and then starting all over again.  The smell of burnt rubber from the sole of a tennis shoe is not a nice thing to smell.  In fact it was because of my shoe unit that I almost quit my degree (thankfully I stuck it through and had a new love hate relationship with KAFO's).  As much as I complained about shoes during school it was all very interesting to learn that shoe making really hasn't changed since they were initially created.  Working in a store that sells different types of shoes I hear complaints all the time that they are being poorly put together with rubber cement in China, well to be honest that's actually how the soles of shoes are assembled with plain old rubber cement.


After I finished my Orthotic Technology degree I had to complete clinicals which I completed at the VA Medical Center.  I absolutely love that place.  The VA did a lot to help my uncle while he was there and I think it is a great place to honor those who have put their lives on the line for us.  Unfortunately there are non-veterans who have posed as veterans and made it much harder for actual veterans to receive the medical care that they deserve.  Anyway, I worked closely in the prosthetics part of the VA and got to meet many wonderful and talented people... and then I got to work with feet.

Feet now sort of creep me out a little bit.  They are somewhat disgusting.  I can no longer enjoy wearing high heels because I have seen what happens to your feet when you wear them too often.  Let me tell you hammer toe is not a pretty sight and gathering what I got from patients it is incredibly painful.  Don't believe me just look up hammer toe and you may be scared to wear heels the next time you want to.  I have since worn primarily tennis shoes and have come to love them!



My new Saucony running shoes!



Lately I've been thinking of trying to work my way up to running a 5K.  This is kind of a big deal for me since the last time I ran a mile was in 2nd grade, seriously 2nd grade.  I was really good at coming up with excuses to not run during gym class when it came to the mile run.  It is also a big deal because well I'm not sure I am supposed to run because it is bad on your bones and joints.  Crazy to think that healthy things can actually harm our bodies.  With my new goal of course I had to go on a shopping trip to buy proper running footwear and I must say I am very excited to start working on my goal next week.

Hopefully, in the later part of this year I will be able to complete running in my first 5K!  So if anybody wants to run a 5K let me know I can always use an excuse to have to go back to MN.  Or if anybody has any advise on how to develop a training plan (I've found a few by just looking online and through my many fitness magazines) I would love any and all the help I can get.

Introductions

Hello everybody!  My name is Missy and I wanted to create a little something that I could share my life and creations with others.  When you least expect it life happens is well a quote I heard at the end of a Grey's Anatomy episode but I felt that it was very fitting for me.  It always seems that throughout life we get road blocks or some sort of obstacle that people generally view as an unwanted inturruption; but I've learned to accept them as just another interesting part of making life worthwhile.
Take me and Derek for instance as we met while working together.  Now both of us had dated somebody that we have worked with before and knew that it just wasn't a good idea.  I had kind of given up on the dating thing (which I was never really big in to start out) and looking for the one as I felt that when the right one would come along I would have a feeling and just know.  Of course when I met Derek about two weeks after he started I knew I was in trouble because I had that feeling but was not wanting to date somebody I was working with.
Funny story of why it took him so long to ask me out is because there was another girl I worked with who some say we looked like we could be sisters.  Well Derek thought I was her and he worked with her ex and because he didn't fully know who I was he didn't want to start any trouble by asking out a coworkers ex-girlfriend.  We had our first date just shortly after Thanksgiving and almost three and a half years later are still together.

We have both since quit that job.  About a year and a half after we began dating we moved to Illinois where he got a new job.  I've been working in a few different places learning all sorts of new trades while I work on finishing up my Bachelor's degree.
In our spare time we enjoy hanging out together, movies, dinner with friends, and he always tries to get me to play his video games with him!  I enjoy trying to better my creativity skills whether it be my paintings, cross-stitch, or my baking skills.  My most recent experiment is this stacked white cake with Wilton Roses (one of my New Year's Resolutions was to FINALLY after 13+ years of cake decorating learn how to do the rose and leaves.  I did it!). 

I look forward to writing more and sharing photos of life and things that I just find beautiful!