Feeling the burn ...

Me and the nutty buddy on the way to Santa Cruz

Well, it's my favorite time.  The day 2.  Huh?  The day 2 after starting an exercise program.  I was sore on day 2 after my first run here in CA.  That quickly went away.  I haven't been sore from swimming, interestingly.  I thought my shoulders would hurt but no, they've been good.  I went Insane yesterday ... and I am SORE today.

I'm starting the new program by Insanity's founder Shaun T, T25.  It's an exercise program that's like a scaled down version of Insanity, but as effective.  It's 5 days a week vs 6 (I hate to have to "work out" on the weekends.  I'm perfectly happy to go on a long walk or a hike or something, but I don't want to have to 'work out'), and it's 25 minutes a day.  Even month 1 in the Insanity program is a MINIMUM of 39 minutes.  Now granted, that 39 minutes includes a warm up, stretch, and cool down, but still ... when you're lazy by nature, it's hard to get motivated to sweat for 39 minutes (minimum).  T25 starts you out with a low impact exercise, gradually working you up to higher impact ... and you never stop moving.  For 25 minutes, your body is moving.  WOW!  I loved it.  I sweated hard core, I breathed hard, and I loved it.  Today ... I am sore in every muscle of my body.  I didn't even do a single push up/plank exercise at all, and my arms/back/shoulders are screaming at me today.  Not looking forward to day 2 because of the soreness, but I learned and will head straight to the pool once I'm finished!  I will swim probably half what I've been swimming (700 yards) for today, then soak in the hot tub for my poor muscles.  Tomorrow, I will do my workout, then do a walk/run for 3 miles.  I'll work back up to running 3 miles + plus doing the T25; since I've been so lazy I don't want to overdo things and hurt myself, so I'll work up gradually.  I've only done day 1 of the T25, and so far, 2 thumbs up!

In other fitness news, I'm feeling ever so slightly stronger swimming.  I've estimated my pool to be roughly 14 yards long, so to do my 700 yard sets, I have to do 4 sets of 7 laps, take a break, 4 sets of 4 laps, break, then 4 sets of 2 laps.  By lap 5, second set ... I feel like I'm drowning!  My butt starts to sink, I inhale water as I breathe, and my head comes way too far out of the water.  The short break allows me to recoup a little bit, then I'm good until about lap 5 again.  I'm comfortable for the 4 laps in a row, but laps 5-7 are really tough.  I'm pushing through, though, and I'm sure that doing the T25 will really help me, just like Insanity did with my running.

In running news, it is a HUGE struggle to run 2 1/2 miles straight.  I don't know if it's the fact that most of the running is flat, or on sidewalk, or what.  My neighborhood had hills, which means UP, but it also meant DOWN, which was awesome.  My new track around the apartment here is all flat, which means there's no downhill relief ... maybe that's it?  I need to find some new shoes as well, I think.  My issue isn't that I'm breathing too hard, like it used to be.  My cardio is FINE; it's my feet and legs that start to really hurt after about 1 1/2 miles.  My right shoe keeps trying to rub a hole in the side of my big toe, and it is just flat out uncomfortable.  I have another pair of running shoes I could use again to run in (I've been wearing them just "out and about"), but the problem with THOSE is that my middle toe on my left foot goes numb when I run in them, which is why I demoted them from being my 'running' shoes.  So, I don't know.  My goal is a sprint triathalon THIS year, before January.  My sis and I are going to do the Lavaman tri in Hawaii in 2015, and that is Olympic length, so I need to get in at least 3 sprint length tris before then.  The run is typically 5K length, and the swim is 750m, which I can DO; not comfortably right now, but it's doable.  So, I will continue to train, I will get a bike once employment is settled and begin THAT part of the training.  Right now I can concentrate on running and swimming, which is enough :)

Useful stuff!

Edit:  I don't know why, but in order to see the posted links, you have to hover your cursor over the empty space in the blog.  I have tried to change that to just SHOW the links, but I'm too dumb to figure out how to do that, so just hover your mouse down the page, and the links will show up.  Weird!

So, we all Pinterest, right?  I mean, I don't tweet or Instagram, but I absolutely Pinterest!  I'm convinced it has helped me to gain some motivation to keep my apartment CLEAN.  My house, when we left it, was a bit of a ... wreck.  A nasty, dirty wreck.  I'm ashamed at how bad it looked.  I TRY to keep things clean, but I'm just not a neat freak, I never have been.  I don't have the patience to try and scrub things to keep them shiny and sparkly, much as I wish it always looked that way!  I've always been the type that in order to have a clean house, I would need a maid.

Now, I wasn't ALWAYS like that.  When my husband and I got married, we lived in a 2b/2ba duplex about the size of this apartment.  I kept it pretty neat, for the most part, which was a Big Deal, because the room in my parent's house ... was NOT neat.  Yes, I was THAT girl with a mountain of clothes covering my floor (not quite sure what color my carpet was), torn out calendar horse pictures wall papering my walls, and cat hairballs in very strange places.

Fast forward to now.  I am DETERMINED to turn myself into a better person all the way around than I was.  More organized, more fit, more healthy, more kind, more smart, and more clean.  I've found that the key to staying on top of everyday tasks is to ... well, do them every day!  Imagine that.  It's hard, though, when you allow things to get so far gone that just to catch up is a Herculean task.  I'm bad at organizing.  Really bad.  My brain just doesn't think in an organized fashion (unless it's horse related, then it's a whole different story!).  In this regard, Pinterest is a life saver!  HERE are my 10 real life Pinterest pins I've used, and swear by.

1.  A dishwasher wand filled 1/2 with white vinegar, and 1/2 Dawn dishwashing detergent to keep in the shower.  Use it after every shower.  I've done this from day 1 since moving in, and it's AMAZING.  The tub is lily white and clean as a whistle.  Though I cleaned my bathroom once a week(ish) in my house, the tub was NASTY gross.  Soap scum so thick, you could barely scratch it off with a fingernail.  Black stuff permanently embedded between the grippy pebbles in the floor.  I TRIED to clean that thing; I used the everyday shower spray, scrubbed with a scrub brush, used a Magic Eraser, dumped bleach in there ... it just didn't come clean and that was frustrating.  Now, I'm not giving it the chance to GET dirty, I'm keeping it clean.

2.  This blog post on how to organize my bathroom:  http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2013/01/my-bathroom-organized/  I tried to organize it exactly like that, but size constraints limited me, so I have the baskets holding all my STUFF, and organized it like she said; a space for hair and a space for body.  I can actually find stuff now, and sort of know what all I have.  Lifesaver!

3.  How to organize my plastic grocery bags.  I keep them.  It's a sickness.  You can never have too many plastic grocery bags, especially when you have dogs and kids.  But they can be hard and bulky to store.  I found this pin that changed my life!  http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/07/summer-social-guest-project-make_21.html  Now, I draw the line at doing arts and crafts on a Clorox jar, so I just put my handy dandy rolled up bags in a quart sized plastic bag to keep them contained.  This really works great!

4.  A cute decorative thing for the bathroom with travel sized soaps.  I bought an inexpensive glass jar from Hobby Lobby (like this:  http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/clear-square-canister-with-lid-592659/)  and I unwrapped my travel sized soaps from all the hotels we've been in on our last few trips.  It's a cool thing to have, and a great way to remember your trip without spending any money on trashy souvenirs you'll end up tossing on a future move, anyway!  This is the actual pin I pinned:  http://www.hometalk.com/518941/making-toiletries-part-of-your-bathroom-decor/photo/99807

5.  A great way to organize my favorite horse show ribbons.  My husband vetoed the idea of the string hang method, and I'm too cheap to pay someone to make a quilt out of them.  I might could have made a wreath out of them, but again ... where are you going to hang something like that?  So I bought 2 huge clear vases (like this:  http://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.H195147.html?item=H195147&ref=GAS&tpl=detail&cm_ven=GOOGLESHOPPINGFEED&cm_cat=For%20the%20Home&cm_pla=Decorative%20Accents&cm_ite=H195147-000-000&adtype=pla), and just shoved all the ribbons in there!  I put 1-3 in one vase, and 4-6 in the other.  I played around with them to show the buttons on some, the streamers on others, etc.  They sit on a big shelf next to my bed.  This one is an example of what I did:  http://ourlifetastesgood.blogspot.com/2012/05/great-way-to-display-horse-show-ribbons.html

6.  Remember when I said every day tasks have to be done ... every day?  Here's the pin that is helping me stay on track with that:  http://thegaddisfamilyadventure.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-always-have-clean-housewell.html

7.  Who doesn't like a wreath for the front door?  Mine were all SO old.  Eew.  So I made me a cute one with my last name initial in it.  It doesn't look exactly like this one, but I got the idea from it.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/121741614/chevron-burlap-white-wildflower-buds-and?ref=sr_gallery_40&ga_search_query=chevron&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all

8.  How to cook the perfect baked potato.  I've made them like this now a dozen times since finding this pin.  I never knew!  http://creatingnaturally.com/the-perfect-baked-potato/

9.  Motivational pics.  This one is one of my favorites, and one that's literally helped me on my quest to become a runner.  "You don't have to go fast.  You just have to go"  http://www.womensadventuremagazine.com/blog/musings/just-get-out-there/

10.  The recipes!  Oh heavens, the recipes!  I've pinned so many of them.  Lots I haven't made yet; I'm not a gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination.  My sister is, though!  I pin things that look yummy, but when I see an ingredient list 15 lines long ... my ADD kicks in, and I go on to one that's more simple.  A few of them have been bombs, sadly.  But a few I've made a ton of times already!  Here's a few of my favorite recipes that get the Bishop family stamp of approval:
Black bean lasagna:  http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Black-Bean-Lasagna-Rolls-MyRecipes-245124?columns=1
Pot roast:  http://youretoocrafty.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-pot-roastever.html
Mexican chicken casserole (making this tonight, as a matter of fact!):  http://www.mjandhungryman.com/mexican-chicken-and-quinoa-bake/

So there ya go.  10 real life useful Pinterest pins I've actually used.  I pin a lot of cool pictures of interesting looking places to visit some day.  It's a great website!

Positivity

Land's End Park, San Francisco

The ruins of Sutro Baths

Heading up to an upper trail

Jacey and Kody have their happy faces on!

The sheer bliss of being truly free

So, I follow a lady on facebook called One Fabulous Mama.  She has a blog, and advocates living frugally, planning your meals carefully, etc.  She posts a few daily posts about living your life, and only accepting the GOOD.  She's awesome.  I LOVE to read her daily inspirational posts, because how many of us sometimes get down on ourselves/lives?  She does too, but it's all about snapping out of it!  Realize you're being negative, then let it go!  We can all afford to be more positive:)

I'm dealing with all the usual moving stuff.  I can't find really ANY important documents, which honestly isn't a huge surprise.  I'm the most disorganized person, it's really pathetic.  I have vowed to turn over a new leaf here in my new life in California.  So far, I'm doing great, but it definitely is a pain in the rear to deal with the aftermath of my GA disorganization.  Also, job searching is HARD.  My husband (and I) are desperately holding out for something different, but the time is nearing to GET SOMETHING NOW.  So, it may be that we do what we know until something different comes along.  Unless of course, I win the lottery this week, which of course I'm trying to do!  There's SO many places around me, I KNOW there's a secret dream job in there somewhere, but I've done the same thing for so darn long, I just don't even know how to go about getting it!  And I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, I've never known.  I guess that's why I'm 34 years old with about 10 years worth of college courses, but no degree.  Some may call me a loser, but I'm holding out for ... I don't know.  Following my heart?  It's honestly overwhelming to try and figure out WHAT to do, then go about getting it.  I used to have people come up to me while I was at Patchwork, desperate to work at the barn, and I was always smug and secure in my position, knowing Janet doesn't hire people she doesn't know.  Well, the tables have turned and now I'm the person nobody knows, and that's a daunting fact.  Faith; the patience to wait for the right thing to happen, but the "get out there and pound the pavement looking".  Hard for a habitual procrastinator!  But the procrastination never goes away if you always give into it; you have to PUSH that habit away, aggressively.

We're still finding out so many things about this new community we live in.  Some neighbors told us about a great dog park just down the street, MAYBE 2 miles or so?  We hopped in the truck yesterday, drove around, and found the park.  It's GREAT!  2 fully fenced in runs, one just for "big" dogs, lots of benches, doggie water fountains, and the big dog area is humongous.  You could put at LEAST 4 horses out there comfortably.  There's an area in the middle that's dirt/hard pack for them to run on, and it's surrounded by nice grass.  It cracked me up when we first let Peytan off her leash; she was like, "WHAT??!!"  She TOOK off, running free and happy.  Timbre used to be able to run with us off leash; we used to take him to my in-law's deer camp, and let him run with us while we rode our 4 wheelers, but Pey will run off.  She has 100% no recall, so she always has to be on leash, no matter what.  So for her, it's been something like 2-3 years since she's been allowed to really run free; we used to take her over to our neighbor's house and let her go in their back yard when they walked away from their house, but when the new neighbor moved in, that stopped of course.  And still, the back yard was small.  I took Jacey to the small dog area, and she was happy to roam free, socializing with all the other small dogs, but she doesn't run after balls, it's not her thing.  Peytan resorted to taking huge, floating trot strides around the area, and finally realized there were other dogs in there with her, and she met a few new friends.  It made me so happy.  Where we lived had a dog park, but it was about 50 minutes away from us, so guess who never went.

Anyway, just wanted to drop a line and update what's going on here.  We went to San Francisco this past Saturday, and it was great.  We ate at the Hollywood Cafe for the 4th time, and I think it's finally time to move on and try a new spot.  It was good, but it's become BTDT.  We found the area of SF that seems to be where the locals really live.  Wider streets, and NOTHING but apartments and town homes.  It was very gray and chilly, but that honestly was a nice change because sunny and dry gets boring, lol!  We drove through Japan Town, and will try to walk through that area next time; we spent a bit of time at Land's End Park, and that was SO cool!  It was cold and windy, but steep cliff trails, ruins of old bath houses, beach, and rocks.  It was awesome.  MILES of trails to traverse, but all the way in SF, so not somewhere I can go on a daily or even weekly basis.  David really loves SF and would live there in a heart beat, but it's not my style.  I'm much more comfortable here in Sac, and would live in Redding in a heart beat.  We're so similar, but we're definitely different in our tastes as well.  Too many people make me CRAZY.  I hate shopping in a store so crowded people run into you, and SF is pretty much always that way.

All for now!  Y'all say a little prayer for us that the job thing falls in line pretty quickly:)  We KNOW it will all be fine, but I'm trying to be a little less last minute, so ... ;)

Back at the fitness routine

Why is it that good habits are three times more difficult to stay with?  And the bad ones are SO easy to fall back into??  I went to go for a run a few days ago, and my Nike app told me it had been 9 weeks since I'd run.  9 WEEKS???  Really?  I guess that's the truth!  I vaguely remember some sort of horse related injury that precluded me from running before we left, and in moving our stuff from the house to the van, I literally dropped my bed on my foot and cut open my foot right below my big toe, so I haven't been able to run since we got here to Cali.  Now, it's finally all healed up and I'm READY to get back at it.  Set myself up for success and shot for just a 2 mile run around the scenic little pond across the street from our complex.  Wow ... I was SORE!  My abs, back, thighs, and calves all ached:)  I was glad for that!  The following day, I swam laps in the pool.  Wow ... I felt like I was drowning, lol!  I honestly can't even RECALL when I would have last swum laps.  Maybe when I was like, 10?  It was harder than I thought it would be!  One little trip to the other side of the pool, and I was huffing and puffing.  Goes to show that even if you can run 2 miles and not be breathing hard, that does NOT mean you're fit to swim.  I struggled through 9 more laps, my butt sinking in the water lower and lower each time, but I DID it :)

Next evening about 9ish, I went for another run.  It was actually really hard to run endless laps around the tiny pond the other day, so I hit the sidewalks and ran up the road.  I LOVED my road run, it felt great.  I ran a little bit on the slow side because I was still sore and achy from my first one, but the last 1/4 mile or so, I kicked it up and really ran ON.  Not nearly as much soreness from that one.  Then last night, I hit the laps again, this time doing 12 laps instead of 10.  I "walked off" the length of the pool, and found it to be approximately 14 yards long, so 10 laps I did 140 yards.  Not too terrible, I suppose.  I felt SO much better with the swimming last night, I really concentrated on taking slow, measured strokes, and breathing every 4 strokes or so.  My butt didn't sink;)

I plan to squeeze in a run tonight.  So You Think You Can Dance comes on tonight at 8, so I need to run in between dinner and that.  Or maybe even soon, in the next hour or so.  The air is still so nice and cool, but when that sun comes out it will fry you.  Planning to add on another 1/2 mile and do 2 1/2 miles today.  I'd like to get to running 3 miles 3-4x per week, and alternating that with swimming 2-300 yards per time.  Do that until it feels "easy" (does exercise EVER really feel EASY?) and then kick it up a little.  Sacramento has this awesome road track called the "American River Trail" that's paved, and for walkers/bikers that goes from Sac all the way to Folsom.  I plan to do my biking there once I save up and get a bike.  Spending money on a bike right now isn't a priority, since I have 2 other phases I can focus on for the time being.

Now, I have to get back to eating clean.  Le sigh ...

We're here!!

Metropolis, home of Superman!

Viva Las Vegas!  This is all 6 of us:)

Somewhere in a desert ...

Home, sweet home!

It is hard to believe I'm officially LIVING in the big, beautiful state of California!  The days have been sunny and blue, the weather has been DIVINE, and amazingly enough, I'm loving apartment living.  I really was unsure whether or not I would like it.  Lack of privacy, lots of noise, living somewhere other people had lived previously ... it just seemed like a great big step backwards from owning a house.  But ... it's pretty cool.  First of all, the place was SPOTLESS when we moved in.  Not a blemish on a wall, not a cobweb to be seen, sparkling bathrooms ... when we rented a house years ago right after I got married, it was GROSS.  I mean, we were cleaning while we were trying to move in, and it was AWFUL.  Now, here we were trying to stuff 10lbs of mud in a 3lb bag, but at least we weren't having to paint/dust/fix stuff while we were at it!

The good thing is I got rid of a LOT of stuff.  I mean, we threw away tons of crap before we even left, and as I was unpacking here, threw away MORE crap:)  When we started loading up the moving van, the hubs was seriously worried everything wouldn't fit.  Like, he was really freaking out about it!  But, because he is a wizard at the game of Tetris, it all fit, and we made our way west!  What an experience.  My in-laws went with us and drove our truck.  We pulled the car behind the moving van.  Little dog rode in the van, big hairy dog rode tethered in the back of the truck.  She did GREAT until we hit Nevada with the literal 121 degree temps.  At that point, we pulled her big, furry butt into the truck with us, and squeezed her into the floorboards with all of us 4 people and all our stuff.  It was NUTS how cramped we were the entire time!  But we made it happen:):)

I was honestly surprised that the Vegas heat didn't go away at night.  I truly thought the temps would go down to the 60's or so.  Not there!  It got down to around 95.  Wow.  I have never experienced that kind of heat, and I don't care to experience it again!  Next time we head there, it will NOT be in the dead of summer.  Rifle, Colorado was a little hidden treasure that I would LOVE to see again.  It's just outside of Vail, and is so raw and beautiful, but not as touristy as some of the other places.  Gorgeous!  The Rockies would have been fun to drive had it NOT been for that danged moving van.  That thing was affected by the altitude, and the weight.  It was driving so badly, David had to unload the car, and I had to drive the car through the mountains.  We STILL had to chug along at about 30 mph, but at least we didn't blow an engine, phew!  Speaking of blowing an engine, I was definitely worried about tires.  God was with us, though, and we actually made it 2800 miles with OUT blowing any tires.  Thanks to the hub's vigilance, though, we ALMOST did blow 2 on the trailer.  We had stopped in St. Louis Missouri to sightsee at the arch, and he glanced down at the back trailer tires.  Both back tires were in seriously bad shape.  One had a huge flat spot, and the other seemed to be separating, so we called Penske, they sent a mobile repair unit within an hour, and they were quickly and with no hassle replaced.  Even though the van was loud, cumbersome, and had a crap engine when it came to "pulling the mountains", I would recommend the company again.  Great price, great customer service!  We took time to stop at all the rest areas in each state to get pictures with Piney the pine cone, as well as some cool family pics.  We never plan to make that trek again, so we had to document for sure!  It was exhausting, it was stressful, but at times it was pretty cool.

It's now Thursday, we REALLY began to unload boxes last Saturday.  We arrived late Tuesday evening, unloaded the van, then returned the van Wednesday morning.  We then took day trips to the Avenue of the Giants, Lake Tahoe, and San Francisco.  The in-laws had never been west of Alabama before, so we tried to squeeze in as MUCH as possible on this trip!  It was exhausting to drive 5 hours one way after we'd spent 5 days driving across the country, but hindsight is 20/20.  In the end, I think it was worth it!  It was great to see the sights again, and to witness the in-laws' shock and awe.  Saturday morning, we took them to the airport, and then came back home and began to demolish the towering stack of boxes.  AND to put back together every little dinky piece of furniture we'd had to take apart.  Wow.  What a task!  I'm proud though, by Monday things were a little less chaotic, and by today things are 100% done, finished.  All that's left to do is hang a few more pictures here and there, but it's ALL DONE.  And I'm happy!  The apartment in many ways is nicer than my house was.  WAY cleaner (guess that's my fault!).  Nicer counter tops.  Better walls.  Crown moulding.  Better (and cleaner!  and no holes in it) carpet.  Better tub.  Bigger bathrooms.  Bigger 2nd bedroom.  Better washer/dryer.  WAY worse fridge though, that's a bummer:(  I loved my double door/ice and water in the door combo and we traded that for an el cheapo basic model.  Oh well, I will get over that!  We have de-junked so much that everything feels so much cleaner and fresher.  We tend towards clutter, so trying to get away from that.  We HAVE to with our limited space!

I will post some more stuff later.  This is already a novel!  I only just now today turned on my computer for the first time which is why you're seeing this blog post:)  I will get back into the swing of things, it just takes time!  Trying out having no cable TV for the first time ever ... we bought an antennae, and will be using Hulu and Net Flix.  I will let y'all know how that works for us.  So far so good ... Just grateful and thankful we're here!  Not sure why yet, but I know this is where we're supposed to be.  We will go enjoy the pool/hot tub after dinner and say our thanks as we fall into bed:)  This is an exciting adventure so far, I will keep y'all posted.  Night night you east coasters!!