Family weight loss challenge

So, I am a horrible blogger!  Since my last entry I have finished three courses at Capella University and so far I have a 4.0 GPA.  I'm hoping that through the rest of my classes I am able to maintain straight A's and graduate with honors Spring 2013.  The last two weeks I have been enjoying a nice break between classes and have started working on Christmas presents for family.  I have also had more time to work out which has been wonderful!  Now I just need to pick up the pace and get into it more than I am currently.

From my last visit home I decided to create a weight loss challenge with my family.  My mom, brother, sister, Derek, and myself are all participating in weekly challenges created by my mom in order to try eating healthier and getting to the gym on a regular basis.  I think this challenge has been overdue for a while but I am excited that we are actually doing it now.  None of us are badly overweight but we could each lose some weight, tone up, and begin leading a healthier lifestyle.

I feel bad sometimes in thinking of how much I love my family and how frustrating our genes are sometimes.  It is sometimes hard to admit that you come from a line of what is viewed as unhealthy genes.  Now I'm not just talking about obesity but in my family we have nearly everything going on.  There is obesity/morbid obesity, diabetes, cancer of multiple kinds, heart problems, back problems, Arthritis, Alzheimer's and I could go on but I won't.  Don't get be wrong I love each and every single one of my family members unconditionally I'm just not sure why it took me so long to want to take care of myself the way I should have for years.

Years ago I had a falling out with church that I've never talked about and I'm not sure I am ready to.  Recently though I've been trying to get back to being more spiritual and trying to discover what I really believe in.  Well, I purchased a book called, The Confident Woman Devotional 365 Daily Inspirations by Joyce Meyer.  I haven't stayed quite up to date with reading every single day and I don't quite believe in everything that Joyce Meyer believes but I've been trying to keep up with the daily readings.

September 25 the entry is called, Run Your Race.  The reading goes like this:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete,but [only] one receives the prize?  So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours.  Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things.... We [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.  -1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Paul said that we are each running a race and that we should run it to win.  Winning requires preparation, training, sacrifice, and a will to press past opposition.  It often requires failing many times but continuing, always keeping on, despite any opposition we may encounter along the way.  Cowards quit, but confidence and courage finish.

When we make decisions that we know inside our heart aren't the conscience.  We may try to ignore the voice of conscience, but it whispers to us that we have not done our best.  So when you are faced with decisions that plague or wear you down, be confident in your ability that you will see success.  Say "It shall be done!"

Are you tempted to give up on something right now?  Don't!  Finishing your race will build your confidence.  You will trust yourself more, and that is important.  Winners don't always take first place, but they must finish the race (Meyer, 2011, p. 268).

This is one time I felt I could really relate my life to a reading from the book.  While life is not a short race, we have to live it to our fullest and face challenges or in my case poor genes and not taking care of myself head on.  I feel that in order for me to win my battle that it will take preparation, training, and sacrifice as Joyce mentions.  Failure is something I have dealt with before and I'm sure that I will fail at some point in the future.  Through my failures I am able to learn what I have done wrong and what I need to improve upon in the future.

Something I would love to be able to do physically is run a 5k and this is something I have said before.  Unfortunately, due to my back surgery and having half of my nerves cut in my torso every single time that I run is painful in the sense it feels all my insides are bouncing around.  I just keep hoping that with developing a better training plan I will one day be able to run a few times a week.

Speaking of 5k's!  I did something completely out of character for myself yesterday, signed up for a 5k walk (this is normal) that I will be doing by myself!  I'm not one to venture out on my own especially when it has to do with the city but Derek has to work and I thought it might be fun to do another 5k walk.  Wish me luck for my venture to the city by myself on Sunday!  I will try to take photos of the event to post as I am not sure of what I should expect.

As far as the weight loss challenge goes so far I am down only about 5lbs but through amping up my work outs and watching what I have been eating I am hoping that my hard work will begin to pay off a little bit more!  I will try to do a monthly update of my successes and challenges I have faced.  And to my mom, brother, sister, and Derek best of luck in the challenge!

My bag!

Okay so since I bought my sewing machine a few months ago I have been sewing as much as possible!  While Derek and I were at the Salvation Army today a lady behind me in line poked my back with a hanger to compliment me on my bag.  Now I didn't do the best job on this bag but I love it because it holds a ton of stuff and I primarily use it for groceries.  Here it is!

Size reference it fits 2-gallon sized cartons of milk and then a whole bunch of other stuff.  It also has four outside pockets.  Next time I'm definitely adding more pockets!

2 years later...

July 2009 Packing day!  We hadn't seen each other in over a month!

          

             I have been thinking a lot about the future lately as well as how much has changed in the last two years.  Derek and I are coming up on being Illinois residents for two years at the end of July.  I love Derek and am forever grateful for the life he has created for us.  He is in his final stages of training for his job before he becomes a fully rated air traffic controller.  That means once he has worked as a fully rated ATC for a while he is eligible to put in for a transfer so we can move again!!!!  We are both extremely excited to leave where we are currently living.  This has got me thinking as to what I want for the next five years…

            Obviously, I want to get married!  I would also like to be able to enjoy the first year of marriage before Derek and I start talking about having kids.  In 2013, which might seem far away from now I will have finally completed my Bachelor’s Degree to which I hope to be able to put to good use.  Derek and I would both like to live a healthier lifestyle, which will be much easier to do once we move elsewhere that has more opportunities for outdoor activities.  The only question that I have is where we should live.

Missing my brother and now nephew!  And pay no attention to the complete awkwardness from my turtle shell!

            I have always envisioned myself living in Minnesota where I can be close to my family.  The thought of keeping close to my family was always important because I wanted my kids to grow up to be close with their cousins, as I did.  The two years in Illinois has been difficult being away from family but it has also taught me that it is possible.  As long as I make a trip home to see family every few months I do pretty well at not being too homesick.  I do feel that I have missed out on some things and miss relatives that I would normally see around the holidays but I have learned to make due with what I have.

North Carolina, 2011

            Derek has always talked about moving somewhere else other than Minnesota and how exciting it might be.  He understands why I want to go to my true home but he has got me into thinking, “What would it be like to start a life away from my true home?”  During our vacation we took to in the beginning of April to North Carolina, Derek told me he wanted to move there if we didn’t move to Minnesota.  We both fell in love with North Carolina itself as the people were very welcoming, the weather was wonderful, it has gorgeous scenery, it has a ton of things to do, and well it was kind of cool being that close to the beach/ocean.  To be honest while we were on vacation in a way it felt like we were home.
            Basically, I think I have a lot of the next five years planned out pretty well and am comfortable with those plans.  The biggest question is, “Do Derek and I take the comfortable route and move back to everything I have always known; or, do we take the risk of living the life unknown?

            After all that I’m curious as to what everybody else thinks!

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Last night Derek and I went out with some friends to a hot air balloon festival, which was lacking in the entertainment department but was pretty cool with all the balloons.  Here are some of my favorite shots of the balloons!  (Some where taken from my iPhone and others with my camera).

A few photos that make me smile!

                 Since I don't have a really exciting life right now and nothing very interesting has happened in the last week I thought I would share some photos that I love.

Wishing Derek and I were back in North Carolina!

We very rarely get a nice photo of the two of us but I absolutely love this one.

I took this of Chisago Lake on Derek's  birthday in 2008.  I miss going out on boat with his dad and step-mom!

While I may not love or even like living in Illinois all the time I must admit that the Riverfront is kind of cool.  Anything and pretty much everything that goes on in town is down at the Riverfront.

My folks are amazing!

My brother, sister, and me from our most recent cruise.  We rarely take serious pictures because well why would we?!

Even though he is much bigger now I love this picture of my nephew.  He is such a happy little guy and  I can't imagine  our family without him in it!

Workout Wednesday

In Junior High School every Wednesday in gym class was known as 'Workout Wednesday'.  The gymnasium was set up with a different workout at each station with running in the center.  I hated workout Wednesday passionately!  It isn't that I didn't like the stations and I didn't even really mind the running but at that time I liked sports with friends rather than gym class without my friends.  Looking back now I almost wish that my high school required us to do Workout Wednesday each week instead of one quarter physical education and one quarter of health education.

Derek and I signed up for a relay race in August for St. Jude Runs in honor of one of my friends who is a cancer survivor.  Well... we have yet to start training and are having a hard time finding the motivation to start training at least I am.  So today I decided I was going to search for inspirational photos to help me get going and this is what I found!

I love the saying on this photo!  When I run I typically have all my hair up but some of the time it is just nice to have it all down for a fun run.  Plus I have this sports bra and it is the MOST comfortable one I have ever purchased!

Anybody who has tried plank pose knows that it is a fantastic workout!  It is one of my top 5 yoga poses.

This one is just for fun because throughout high school and after if I was bored I would just do this to entertain myself and to stretch out my legs!

The handstand!  It has been years since I was in gymnastics but I always LOVED doing handstands.  Ever since my back surgery I've been a little apprehensive of doing certain things and the handstand is one of them.  It is one of my goals to work up the strength to do this again!

This is a photo of Jamie Eason a fitness model/writer.  I believe one of her friends created this "ad" with a wonderful and inspiring saying.  She is a true to heart person and wants her fans to know that she is real.  Jamie is a breast cancer survivor and is often featured in Oxygen Magazine, she also has a Facebook page where she sometimes posts healthy recipes such as her Cinnamon Swirl Protein Bread.

After finding some inspiration I'm off to create a training plan to hang on my front door and do some yoga!

A House Isn't Clean Until...

Something I  learned from my mom growing up (by just watching) is that a house is never fully clean until there are fresh cut flowers on the kitchen counter or dinner table.  Now my mom has a great green thumb so she is able to go out to her garden and cut fresh tulips, peonies, lilacs, and irises which I miss greatly.  Since Derek and I moved in with each other this is something that I have found very comforting and calming.  Unfortunately, I don't have a garden to get my fresh cut flowersso I get semi-fresh cut flowers from Wal*Mart or Sam's Club.  I have found that for the price they generally last a week to two weeks with changing the water regularly and adding the flower food.  The pictures below are just some of the beautiful flowers that have adorned my kitchen counters (and my moms)!

I just bought these today to complete our clean house! (Half price too!)

Derek picked this beautiful peony from his neighbors garden for me.

Birthday flowers!

I gave Derek a hard time for never buying me flowers and  he then had some delivered with a card, "Missy, You deserve flowers!  I love you!!! Derek".

I loved these birthday flowers from Derek's Dad and Barbara!

Halloween flowers at our old place.

Valentine's Day flowers anticipating Derek's return to Illinois from Oklahoma!

North Carolina

So back in March Derek and I went on our first vacation as just the two of us without visiting family.  We ended up in New Bern, NC and even though we had freezing cold weather we had a great time and I thought that I would just share a few of our photos (late I know but I just got my computer back and back online recently).



We drove straight to New Bern and had issues
with our GPS telling us an incorrect arrival
time so we are exhausted but I still like this photo.







I have a similar picture from Myrtle Beach, SC
but I LOVE the underside of piers. 
Their architecture makes for a great photo!





One of my favorite shots of Emerald Isle, NC.  Our one day of sun
we decided to head an hour away to the beach!

We will definitely be heading back to NC again but next time we will be checking out Hatteras!

The End Where I Begin

Tomorrow marks the five year anniversary of having major reconstructive back surgery.  My surgery cost me most of my friendships and previous to it all the pain medication cost me about six years of my memory which include high school a time of your life that is supposed to be amazing.  Even with all that I wouldn't change a thing.  Coincidentally as I was going through my e-mails today I ran across a paper I had wrote for a college English class in 2006.  It goes like this:

            Eight years ago I was diagnosed with excessive lumbar lordosis thorasic kyphosis, a major deformity in the spine.  This evolved to also having slight scoliosis, degenerative bones, consistent sciatica, and three partially herniated discs.  I was twenty-one years old when I had to make the biggest decision of my life.  The decision whether or not to have surgery was made after two years of weighing out the pros and cons with my surgeon and parents. 
            For three years I lived in constant pain not counting the six prior years.  Visiting the emergency room had become a frequent occasion for me: as often as two or three times a month.  When I wasn’t in the emergency room, I could be found sitting in a doctor’s office to receive a stronger pain medication and new orders for more rounds of physical therapy.  After trying a genre of narcotics to ease the pain they became sugar pills to me as my body got used to them.  I began getting cortisone shots in my back every two weeks for a month and a half.  Every attempt of healing the pain only brought more pain physically and emotionally.
            I had become a stranger to myself and alienated those around me.  It was hard for me to deal with my pain and I didn’t want others to suffer because of my own state of mind.  It was difficult for others to understand what I was going though because I was so young and well bad things aren’t supposed to happen to young people.
            The way I was living life wasn’t a life at all, it had completely drained me of everything that I had.  Before I would leave the house in the mornings to go to school I would take a cocktail of pain killers.  The drive to school slowly became unbearable as my leg would go numb down to my toes that felt like they were being pricked with hundreds of tiny needles.  During school I had a set schedule for taking cocktails to bring my pain level down slightly.  Days when I could not get any relief of pain from medicine I was found sleeping in my car instead of attending my classes.  Once I was home from school I would rest until it was time to go to work and of course take more pain meds.
            I spent hours researching information on spinal fusions.  Everything that I read had positive outcomes with patients that were happy with their decision to have surgery. The doctors gave a somewhat promising outcome if I were to have the surgery, though they hesitated to paint a complete recovery outcome for me. The doctors insisted that with every surgery there are always chances of complications.  In fact, the first doctor that began treating me thought that surgery was a last effort, he wanted to try more pain pills and back exercises. 

            Gruesome stories of the surgery and doctors who were not convinced that I should have the surgery made me think that surgery was not the right course of action to take. On the other hand, just the very chances of being free of back and leg pain made me think I should have the surgery.  After comparing the items listed as pros and the items listed as cons I decided I could live with minimal back pain if I had to, I just needed to try something, and I could no longer travel this non-ending road of pain.
            Three months before my twenty-second birthday I arrived at the hospital ready to change my life.  I changed into a hospital gown and robe.  I placed my personal garments in the plastic bag provided by the hospital.  The room was cold and dark.  I sat alone for what seemed to be an eternity waiting for my parents to join me before my surgeon would brief us on the procedure.  I woke up six hours later.
            For four and a half months I wore a plastic back brace also known as a ‘turtle shell’ as I gained my strength back.  It is now six months after my surgery and I couldn’t be happier with the decision I had made. Having surgery, I knew I had to face all of the consequences that came with it.  I faced the danger and the unknown fears to gain my life back.  Making a major decision such as having reconstructive back surgery has taught me that in order to be happy you sometimes have to give up a little to gain happiness into your life.  I also learned that you can’t just count the number of pros and cons; you need to weigh them out.  It was the best decision of my life.

*Five years post op I'm doing great!  I have a huge scar (12") that is incredibly sensitive to touch as the nerves crossing from my navel around to the bottom of my shoulder blade were all cut.  There are times that the rib where the doctors took my bone grafts from gets a sharp pain but I look as it as a reminder of how far I have come.  As far as life in general goes I'm able to do almost anything everybody else can do.  I am so blessed to have had such a wonderful surgeon and his assistant.  I am even more blessed for my family who didn't kill me when I gave them plenty of reasons to want to but most of all for supporting me in getting my life back and getting the old me back!

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!