Monday, December 27, 2010

December = no sleep + sad news for my running shoes

Between Liam's 1st birthday and Christmas plus my normal day job and a couple freelance projects sprinkled in between, I have been getting zero to little sleep.

James and Jen

Jerry and Pennie

Paul and Shonna

Tracy and Eric

Val and Andy
This Christmas, I decided to go the handmade route for a few people to save some $ and to try out a new painting style - similar to my pet paintings I did a couple years back, but more simplified and mainly black and white. I did 10 total, but I did not get photos of 2 of them before I wrapped them and the other 3 I have not yet given to the recipients. I plan to do a couple more, I just didn't have time to do them and I also have to figure out a way to send a 20" x 16" canvas across the country! I will post the others on a later blog entry.

The freelance projects I did were for a friend's coworker's family album. He asked me to design a cover for the album and a family tree for the back cover. I really like how the family tree turned out. It's nothing visually spectacular, but if you appreciate clean/neat layouts you would like it too! I may post it in a later blog, I just haven't gotten permission to post it yet.

I also made some snowflake cupcakes for Christmas (with my high school favorite cookie - Peanut butter kiss cookies), which turned out really nice as well. I piped some snowflakes made of melted white chocolate and placed some on the cupcakes. (P.S. I LOVE my Ikea dessert platter! Thanks Sharon!)

In other, unrelated news... On the fitness side of things, I finally weighed myself when we went down to Savannah the 2nd week of December. Turns out I lose 3 lbs. since we moved back up to MD! Woohoo! 3 lbs. in 2 months may not seem like a big deal, but after being at a plateau for the longest time, it is progress. Though, there has been very little fitness associated with that loss (due to no gym access). It was mainly diet changes.

Also, last week, I decided to get my knee checked out since it had been bothering me ever since the last time I ran last month. I didn't want to run any more until I got it checked out so I could start my 1/2 marathon training. Well, the good news is that my knees are perfect. The bad news is that the pain I am feeling is due to my f'ed up cartilage rubbing against itself. The doc said that my body is trying to tell me something: that I should not be running. He said that If I want to get surgery, that I should keep running. It crushed me when he told me that, and I felt like crying. Running had been something that I liked doing; I could always run even if we didn't have a gym. It was fun entering races and trying to beat my previous time. It gave me goals to strive for. It was something that Joel and I could do together (even though we never actually ran together - side-by-side, we at least ran at the same time and location, haha). *sigh* I don't know. I wanted the doc to tell me that my knee would get better with time, then I could start my training. Looks like I have to see if I can get someone to run in my place next year. I don't know. I really want to do the 1/2 marathon and then just quit my running career there. If not, it will be a weak end to my running life. I kind of want to go out with a bang.

2 comments:

Shonna said...

No going out with a bang! Not worth it!! Learn how to swim or take up biking instead! You could do those things without a gym membership and could still set goals! Don't be stubborn -- we gotta keep you healthy! BTW, cupcakes look awesome and the paintings are amazing! Love ya!

Peng-Peng said...

LOVED my painting! i may just be slightly biased but i'm just gonna throw it out there that i think our painting is the best of the bunch. ;P red IS my favorite color and all.
but pls don't screw up ur knee. bad knees ain't no joke. gotta keep goin to doctors to have a giant syringe suck out fluids like my dad. no buenos.