It's show time!

so they're saying it's food poisoning

yesterday i was making a "to-do" list of everything i had to accomplish today and tomorrow. my days were filled to a brim: run, first day of school, study for comps, run, grocery shop, buy textbooks, buy parking passes, get health insurance figured out, attend more classes, study more, run.

well, the gods must be against me because very very early this morning i woke up with a fever, abdominal cramps, and nausea. lots and lots of nausea. i tried to tell myself i was ok, but that stopped once the dry heaving started (tmi, maybe??)

everything on the list for the day was cancelled. i laid in bed and laid on the bathroom floor for hours. seriously, every muscle in my body was aching and cramping.

and then i hear from some fellow classmates that 4 other people in my department are out sick today as well. 4 other people who attended the same back-to-school bbq that i attended on saturday evening. 4 other people who are also showing signs of food poisoning.

food poisoning = death

but, supposedly the symptoms should wear off in another 24 hours. i'm praying that that is actually the case.

end of summer blues

well, the last day of summer has finally come (and it's rainy! how lame!). man, those 3 weeks went by way too fast. i have been neglecting my blog lately mostly because i've been busy, but also because i have neglected to take many pictures this summer. what good is a post without pictures??! so, for the majority of this post, i will credit google images for the pictures. i'm not very good at taking pictures anyway.

so, let's rewind back to july and hopefully i can remember what happened! on july 30th, our good friends lauren emery and dustin hughes tied the knot. it was about time.... they have been together for almost 3 years! josh, lauren, and i all went to high school together (lauren and i were even co-editors of the yearbook together) and lauren and i spent 2 years studying together in our upper division classes. we had a study group called "the wall" (named for where we sat in our classroom) and that study group turned into a great group of friends. lauren just finished up her masters degree in speech pathology and is finally making her way into the real world! lauren (and dustin) looked beautiful on her wedding day and we wish them nothing but the best!

a few months back, my friend becky asked me if i would help her with the flowers for her wedding. i was excited at the thought to do another wedding and was even more excited when she told me her colors- orange, yellow, and turquoise blue. she wanted orchids and calla lilies (two of my favs) and that got me even more pumped up to help out! the wedding party was pretty big and i ended up making her bouquet, 5 bouquets for the bridesmaids, 16 boutonnieres, 5 corsages, 2 flower girl headbands, and we had just under 50 vases to fill with flower arrangements for the centerpieces of the tables. it was a lot of work, but i think everything turned out beautifully! the wedding was on july 31st and turned out to be a beautiful day. kannika looked like a stud and becky looked like a rockstar in her custom made wedding dress, fancy hairpiece, and those shoes.... to die for. she was so classy looking and was beaming from ear to ear all day. marcel (our manager at work) also does photography and took all of her pictures. they are awesome and you can check out more of his photography goodness at imagedesignbymarcel.com.

that night, josh and i headed up with mike and michelle to our ward campout. it was held at cinnamon creek, just above porcupine reservoir, and it ended up being a great evening! we weren't able to stay the night, but we had a great time hanging out by the fire, roasting marshmallows, and laughing with friends from our ward.

spencer came up one weekend and we all decided to float the oneida narrows river. it is one of my favorite things to do during the summer and i was so happy that we were able to squeeze it in to one of our afternoons.

i was able to go to the oquirrh mountain temple open house with my family one weekend (poor josh was stuck in logan working). it was a beautiful temple (like that's a surprise) and i especially loved being able to look out over the valley and see the draper temple and the jordan river temple. we really are so blessed to have so many temples so close to where we live.

one night, josh and i decided to take a random drive up logan canyon to bear lake. logan canyon is such a pretty canyon and we hadn't been through it all summer. once we were in bear lake, we drove around for a bit, got a bite to eat at cafe sabor (you'd think we'd be sick of that food by now), and topped the night off with some raspberry shakes. i love how close bear lake is to us and wish we could take little evening "getaways" more often to hang out up there.

another thing that has been taking up a lot of our time (scratch that, a lot of josh's time) is fishing. he is obsessed. spencer has come up a bunch of times just to go fishing. we went fishing on our last camping trip (which i will post about later) practically the entire time, and josh and spencer are currently fishing up at first dam even though it is pouring outside. i don't have the patience to fish that often so more times that not i opt to stay home and clean.

other than that, things have been pretty low key. my half marathon is in 6 days so this last month has been full of some really long runs. josh and i decided it would be a good idea for me to run the actual course a couple of times before the race so when it was time to do my 9, 10, and 11 mile runs, we've dropped off my car off at the finish line and have driven up the actual course and had me run back down. i think it will be a big advantage for me to have run the course at few times before the race so on race day, i will mentally know that i can do it. the course actually isn't too bad (i can't believe i am saying that)- the first 7 or so miles are all in the canyon and downhill. it's nice because it's shady and the wind is at your back. the next few miles are flat and a little more tedious. the last few miles are actually uphill (which i think is mean), but they aren't too bad either. the only problem is that i took all of last week off to go to lake powell with my family and i'm hoping that it doesn't end up biting me in the butt. but this week, i hope to have a few good runs and kind of take it easy before the big day. and really, even if saturday doesn't go well and i am having a terrible running day, i will still feel like i have accomplished a huge goal of mine that i didn't think was remotely possible 2 months ago.

i have more blogging to do about chana's bachelorette party, her wedding, our camping trip with the hankins family, and my trip to lake powell, but those will all have to come later this week. even though school doesn't start until tomorrow, i have comps on wednesday morning that i am nowhere near ready to take.

so, enough of my procrastination and i'll leave you in suspense for another fabulous (haha) post later this week.

so excited

our week at lake powell has finally come and i couldn't be more excited about it. i have heard from so many people how much fun this place is and i am finally ready to experience it for myself. i'm pretty sure my last week of summer could not be spent any better than lazying around on a houseboat, soaking up sun, and enjoying some fabulous company.

so... i'll see you all in a week!

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!