august... bring it on!

so school just got out for me and i couldn't be more excited. i'm finally on summer vacation. well, that's what i thought until i started thinking about my august "to-do" list. and then i realized that it will hardly be a vacation.

on the agenda for the month:

- working on my capstone project. this is the research project i have to complete in order to receive my doctorate. i want to work on it now so it isn't hanging over my head over the next school year, but boy oh boy i have a lot to do for it

- working on another project for a grant i'm working on. this will require a good 40 more hours of work

- my best friend chana is getting married this month. that means multiple bridal showers as well as the wedding day itself.

- a week at lake powell. this will be my first trip ever to the lake and i'm so excited i can hardly stand it. so sad that josh has to work and can't join me

- comps. in my program we have to take competency exams the first week of school to make sure we retained all the information we learned over the past year. and we literally have to be prepared for anything and everything

- cafe sabor. oh yeah, i do have a job. i serve burritos and chimichangas for extra change. i should probably put in a few extra hours there before i get fired

- josh's surgery. we found out that josh's growth between his eyes was benign, but he does need to get it removed. so he has surgery set up for the 14th at huntsman

- camping. josh missed his family's backpacking trip this past weekend because he had to work so he's trying to schedule another backpacking trip. i'm not much of a camper, but i'll do my best to go and have a great attitude about it

- running. oh yeah. that 1/2 marathon is creeping up on me quickly. we've got exactly 4 weeks to get my running up to par. josh and i have scheduled my running distances everyday from now until the race and it looks like i'll be running over 80 miles in the next few weeks. i hope i survive

i was hoping this next month would be filled with pool days, leisurely reading, time to clean my house and get some extra things done that have been neglected over the last few months. i'm positive that i'll be able to schedule a few sun days here and there, but it definitely won't be the amount of laziness and relaxation that i would like.

oh well. i guess being lazy will only bite me in the butt in the end. i'm trying to have a good attitude about everything on my plate right now.

so august... bring it on!

how it's all "working out"

so, i figured it has been about a month since i did my last running post and i should probably let the blogging world know how it is going.

well, i am still alive. this is big!

i have been running just about every day for the last month. it's funny how when i first did my running post, i mentioned that i hate running. well, i'm still not a fan. i still have to drag myself out of bed at the butt crack of dawn to go running and i usually don't do it with a smile on my face. but i'm making progress and that's a big deal for me. also, when i first started running, i thought my 2-3 mile runs were tough and challenging and a major accomplishment. ha. my, how things have changed in a month.

so, what is keeping me going? my sweet husband has been helping me push myself further than i think is possible. bless his cute little heart- he gets up every morning with me around 6:00 (again, this is big... he is not a morning person). he doesn't run with me, but he is willing to get in the car, reset the odometer, and drive x amount of miles. and usually when i say 4, he says 4.5. i say 6 and he drives me 7.2. and what does he do? he drops me off, gives me a kiss, and says "i'll see ya when you get home". and i am left out in the middle of nowhere (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration. i'm out in the middle of a neighborhood way too far away from my house) and i am required to run all the way home in a reasonable amount of time so i can get showered up and make it to school by 8:30 or so. how sweet is that? poor josh has seen just about every sunrise with me for the last month or so, and although he is never thrilled to be getting up and doing this morning routine, he always does it and always tells me how proud he is of me when i get back.

he also sets the timer on his iphone to see how long it takes me to get home. right now, i am at just about (or even just under) a 10 minute mile. i know there are millions of people out there who can run faster than that, but 2 months ago there's no way i could run that fast, so i'm making improvements. and i've come to the conclusion that i'll never be a runner... but i can jog, and a darn good jogger i'll be.

i am also in the middle of making a good running mix (and i am totally willing to share it on my blog as soon as it's complete) and i appreciate the suggestions you fabulous runners have given me. josh has been so willing to download any and all songs that i tell him i want. he even uploads them on my ipod and then charges my ipod to make sure it's working perfectly for the next morning. again, what a dollface. one thing i have found that i absolutely love is listening to broadway musicals while i run. random, i know. but i love that they are usually fun and upbeat and they tell a story too. my all-time favorites are wicked and the little mermaid but i have also loved mama mia, the lion king, footloose, and legally blonde. beauty and the beast was no bueno. not upbeat enough for me. but seriously, i'm thinking broadway musicals are the way to go. they get me moving (sometimes i'm more-so dancing than running) and singing along. the only downside is that i'm usually singing the songs the entire day at school and work.

and last but not least, josh has decided to be my sponsor. haha, doesn't that sound so funny? well, last night after i came home from work, he gave me a gift card to al's sporting goods so i can go get some new running shoes, shirts, shorts, and anything else i need to be (or look like) a runner. i think it's great that even though he's not going to run a single mile with me, he's supporting me in every other way possible.

so today i ran 8 miles and it was long! seriously, who knew that hyrum to my house would be 8 miles?? but i was able to finish it in an hour and 20 minutes and i didn't stop and walk once. another huge accomplishment. if i can keep this pace up, hopefully i can finish this darn half marathon in under 2 1/2 hours. again, i'm not doing it to see how fast i can run (i just want to finish the darn thing), but i think it'd be nice to set a reasonable goal and hopefully stick to it.

the race is in one month from today and i still think i can do it. well, i have to do it because i am already registered for it and i'm not going to let that $30 go to waste. so hopefully this next month of training is as successful as this last month of training has been!

Finally!

My garden is popping with color!

becoming culturally enlightened

i am behind in my blogging and i apologize.

just over a week ago, josh's parents came to logan and took us to the opera! i have never been to the opera before, and lucky for us, the utah opera festival is located here in good old logan. we went to dinner at the beehive grill before it started and dave game me the run-down on the storyline of carmen (i guess he has seen it numerous times and it is one of his favs) since the whole thing was performed in french (i'm pretty sure it was french??) minus a few subtitles shown on a screen above the stage. anyway, i loved it. i loved the music, the costumes, their voices, the story. i seriously loved all of it. i was sad to see it end. i hope the next opera that i see is just as entertaining as this one was. thanks again to josh's parents for helping me step out of the box.

last weekend we had a fun night hanging out with our friends at the demolitian derby. we went to the beehive grill for dinner with stacie, mckade, and his sister and her hubby before the derby (yes, 2 trips to the restaurant in 3 days. so what) and then met up with aubree, riley, mike, michelle, and baby ray at the derby. i love any excuse to sit outside, enjoy good company, and be thoroughly entertained by watching the people around us. even though i took quite a few pictures of random people committing social suicide with their choice of hair, clothes, and actions (demo derbies are definitely white trash. all the crazies come out of the woodworks to watch cars smash into each other), i am going to refrain from posting any of them for fear that someone might be insulted (you can look at my rodeo pictures if you need some reminding). so, instead, i'll post some pictures of my cute hubby and my fabulous friends. so sad that mike, michelle, and ray didn't make it into any pictures. they really were there, i promise. after dinner, we hit up caspers for some yummy banana splits and then came over to our place to play some games. we taught the gang how to play jungle speed (if you haven't played the game, a game night with us is a must. it's fab) and laughed so hard i had a serious side ache by the end of the night.
i wish i could explain how awesome the lady in this band "heywire" was. i guess you'd just have to be there....

nothing else really exciting has happened since the derby. i am still in school and only have 2 more weeks left of my summer semester. then i actually get to enjoy some free time for 3 weeks before the fall semester starts up again! also, josh left me on wednesday to go to cali with his family for a family reunion. i'm sad i couldn't go... stupid school ruining all my fun... but i know that hankins clan knows how to party-hardy so i hope they all have fun (well, as much fun as they could have without me). anyway, i'm excited to have josh back home tomorrow night because i've finally watched all the chick flicks and reality tv shows that have been building up on our dvr so he's cleared to come home for at least a week or so!

Just Charlie and me

Eating his first snow cone. My fav.

Hmmm

Seeing if this works...

god bless america!

*beware! long post ahead*

so, this summer has definitely been a busy one with me in school pretty much full time and working at nights and josh putting in over 40 hours a week at work. but we have definitely found some time here and there to play and have a little bit of fun. a week ago, josh's brother spencer and his dad came up to go rock climbing and shooting with us (poor kristi wasn't feeling well that day and missed out on the fun). but we did lunch and headed up logan canyon to scale some rocks.

exhibit one... the rock we climbed...

it was one hot day so we didn't climb too much, but we had a great time. josh and i have really enjoyed going climbing lately and will probably continue to make it our one hobby of the summer :) oh, and if anyone talks to dave about this climbing trip and he tries to tell you i pushed him down the mountain, don't believe him. don't you think i would have come up with a better way to take my father-in-law out??

josh climbing

spencer climbing. notice how he's using his knee to make his way up the rocks?

yeah, not the smartest idea. it wasn't that bad, but spence is a wuss :)

yep, that's me climbing. dave was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures while we were climbing (like 150), but the close up shots were just my big ol' booty and i'm sure you're not interested in seeing that.

after climbing (and after heading to the gas station for some large powerades and water), we headed up blacksmith fork canyon to go shooting. dave and spencer brought up a 30-30, a 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and a 9mm pistol and plenty of ammo to shoot.

this is me holding the 30-30. that thing was a beast to shoot, but i kinda liked it!

we also had a competition to see who could shoot the most discs with the shotguns... and guess who beat out all the boys?? that's right... i did! none of those guys had ever seen me shoot a gun and they clearly didn't know what i was capable of! we had a great time that day (and were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day) and look forward to them coming up again.

so, here's an update on josh's health. he has had a couple of dr appts in the past few weeks with his oncologist here in logan and his surgical oncologist in murray. here in logan they did a cbc and everything looked good and normal and the dr didn't have any concerns. awesome! josh got an ultra sound of his lymph nodes (where they initially found the cancer) and they all looked great and none of them had changed in size (which would indicate that cancer was still located there and was growing). more great news. josh's dr in murray also did a full body check on him and didn't find anything abnormal. the only weird thing is a cyst (or something like that, they're not sure what it is) that has grown between josh's eyebrows. he was concerned about it, showed it to the dr, and the dr decided to take a biopsy of it and send it in to be tested. i'll spare you the gross details, but in the process of sticking a needle in it, it popped everywhere (fluid went everywhere) and the dr is no longer concerned about it (it is clearly not a tumor). josh will need to go to huntsman sometime soon to get it removed, but hopefully it is just a cyst and not something we need to be worried about.

the friday before the 4th of july was a school holiday so i decided to do something... ANYTHING... but homework. so i made these little beauties...

cupcake hamburgers! aren't they adorable?! made with white cupcakes buns, sugar sesame seeds, brownie hamburger patties, colored frosting for the ketchup and mustard, and green coconut lettuce! i saw this idea on bakerella and let me just say, i was dang proud of how they turned out (my photo skills aren't quite up to par, but know they looked a lot better in person). and believe it or not, they were quite scrumptious too!
friday night i had to work and ended up working later than planned, so sadly enough we missed watching the logan fireworks with our friends (why do they do them on the 3rd of july?? it's a mystery). we decided to load up the car and head to murray that night and just catch a glimpse of the fireworks in the rear view mirror. early the next morning, we hit up the murray parade. what a classic. josh isn't a big fan of parades, but i enjoy them. and my sister was dancing in this one (and was at the very end of the parade) so we stayed for the whole thing so we could cheer her on. i'm excited to have kids one day and take them to parades. maybe then josh will have fun. maybe.

my little sister katie is on the first row, furthest to the left. we always hoot and holler and try to distract her and make her smile. that's a big no-no in the world of spartonians.
(i was terrible at taking pictures so most of my 4th of july will be documented by words only)

after the parade we went over to the sponbecks' house for some fabulous sour dough pancakes. kent has some sort of secret, special recipe and they are seriously amazing. especially with a little whipped cream and a whole lot of fresh raspberries. it was also fun to catch up with collie and see her stinkin cute boy easton.

after breakfast, we picked up our new car. i don't have any pictures of it, but it's a crv that we purchased off my parents because my mom is all sorts of worried about me driving around in logan in the winter on icy streets in my light-weight civic. and lucky for her, by selling us her crv, she was able to get a brand new one. everyone wins! but we're definitely grateful to have a new, bigger car and i'm excited to not have to drive a stick shift anymore!

we then met up with our friends brett and amber and spent the afternoon at the pool. it was so fun to catch up with them (and catch up on my sun) and it was a much needed lazy afternoon.

after swimming, josh and i headed jaynann and adam's 1 year birthday party for their daughter emma. oh my goodness, that girl is adorable and it was so fun hanging out with our friends and their fun family. the bbq was fabulous and look how cute her birthday cake was?? jaynann impressed me with her cupcake decorating skills.

after the party, we got back together with brett and amber and headed up little cottonwood canyon to have a fire and roast marshmallows. (again, we caught a glimpse of fireworks in the rearview mirror). it was a fun filled day and we crashed out as soon as we got home.

the next day we met up with lindsay, ryan and their cute little boy reagan (who also turned 1 this past week... same day as emma) at murray park. i feel like i never get to see the cute bailey family and it was great to catch up with them. well, as lindsay and i caught up, the boys caught up on their bocce ball skills. chana and megan also met up with us at the park and we talked about wedding plans and about megan's big move to washington dc (she moved today to be with her loverboy and who knows when we'll see her next!) i'm sure going to miss that girl but i wish her the best in her new adventure and starting a new life across the country.

we finally headed back to logan late sunday night and neither of us were looking forward to school and work early monday morning. but we survived (barely) and have spent the last 2 nights being lazy and taking naps to catch up on our sleep!