Adventures in Running- Now Resuming!

I am finally nearing the end of my physical therapy training!

Gosh it feels good to say that. :) I went to see the sports doc on July 8th and my first PT on July 9. If all goes well this week my last will be next Monday October 6. I can't believe it's been 3 months! so how about an update:

The last 2 months of PT has been pretty much the same- working on strengthening and flexibility. We needed to get certain muscle groups to quit being such slackers and I think we've done that. Back at the end of July/early August I got assigned to Trainer Mark and that has been the best thing about PT. This guy really knows his stuff and got me doing a lot of different exercises that has really helped. I will admit that I could have done much better on my home exercises than I did but what really matters is that I can tell a huge difference in my knees, legs, core muscles, the way I walk, stand, etc over the last 3 months. Now what's really scary is that I'm almost done with PT, so I'm going to have to keep this up on my own.

New Goals:

will walk/run x 2 per week- sub goal here is to just get the heart pumping and get to running on a more regular basis. I will not be running for distance here but just time intervals for as long as I can keep a good running form. I will end up doing more damage to my knee if I over do it and and run too tired with bad form. I will be starting off at run 2 min/walk 2 min a total of 7-8 times (=28-32 min) and if towards the end I need to walk for 4 min between each run then that's fine. If after about 20 min I'm tired that's fine too. The point is I'll be actually running, even if it's just a little bit!

will do strength training/circuit training x 2 per week- This means I will cont. with the strengthening exercises I have been doing at PT and maybe adding a few min of some kind of cardio to the strength training. I'm going to take another look at some of the workout videos I have to see if I can do some sort of 15 min cardio leading into my usual exercises.  But it needs to be low impact and work muscles that may not get to do much work during running/walking. 

will cont. to do my stretches and roll my muscles every single day- even on days I work I must stretch and use a thingie to roll out the knots over my leg muscles. I have a leg thingie I'm going to order off the internet because the best thing I have here is a rolling pin and it's not as good, and also I hate the foam rollers. (the foam rollers are where you have a large cylindrical roll that you move your body over in order to work the knots out in large muscles groups in your legs such as the calf, hamstring, quad, etc. I look like I'm trying to have uncomfortable sex with this huge piece of foam. not my favorite thing.) For those of you in the know- the roller thingie I like and am going to order is called a "Tiger Tail" instead of those massage sticks. It does not have those little ringlet sections all down the stick like the massage sticks but is just a single bar with what looks like bicycle handles on each end. but the middle is what makes the difference- it's hard like there's a metal bar there but it's covered with something that is soft but not cushiony. I'm not sure what it's really made out of but I know I like it and I found it on sale for $20 at performbetter.com.

So more of an update on the Olsons- Life here has been good. :) I've been on vacation the past week. I will go back to work on Thursday but it's been good time off. Brian and I got a few projects done around the house. I had some time to be lazy too. I feel relaxed and ready to go back to the world of sick babies. I think I have finally come to terms with Fantasia's death and I'm ready to go back. I'll admit- I've been a little down on work for the last few months. and honestly it's not been all Fantasia.- there's just been a lot of things at work that's burned me out but I think I have finally had the chance to mentally reset. I just hope that this "reset" has the chance to stick for a while and I don't get burned out again quickly.

The birthday day last week was really good. Brian got me a digital picture frame. It's soooo cool! I love it! Brian has his birthday on Wednesday and I can't wait for him to get his present. I just hope he likes it all. :) We just got a package today from Bed Bath and Beyond and I think it's from Ron and Sue. I'm waiting from Brian to get home from work to open it.  But thanks to everyone for Birthday well wishes and for the presents. Oh- Mom gave Brian and I come $$ and I think that's going towards painting the living room. Which we will be doing...sometime...soon...I think. Thanks!!

Adventures in Cooking and Baking

Anna and I love to cook and bake.  We often choose food that we've never made before.  I personally like trying to make things from scratch, without the help of any prepackaged mixes.  

On Friday night we grilled stuffed pork chops.  We have made chops before and also have stuffed them before.  However, recently we saw a Good Eats episode on how to make them better.  We became easily enthused and decided to copy the recipe.  This time we brined them for a couple hours.  Also we used thick pork chops, about 1.5 inches.  Unfortunately we cooked them a little too long, and they were still dry.  They had great flavor, but definitely could be more juicy.  Next time we'll pull them off the grill earlier.

Saturday we made Angel Food cake.  I takes eggs... a lot of eggs, 12 to be exact.  Actually 12 egg whites, the yellows are useless.  The Betty Crocker cookbook recommended using the yellows in another recipe, such as Creme Brule.  Riiight, nothing completes a meal like Angel Food cake AND Creme Brule.  I have nothing against Creme Brule, but I'm thinking we don't need both at once.  I actually used 14 eggs, I broke two yolks.  You have to be extremely careful, the eggs won't foam if there is any yolk.  I was using an "isolation method" so the two egg whites that I did contaminate with yolk could just be thrown away without affecting the other whites.  We are very happy to have a kitchen-aid mixer.  It took several minutes on high speed to force the egg whites to foam.  I can't imagine doing this by hand with a wisk, and even using a hand mixer would have been tiring on the arm from holding it for an extended period of time.  I did make one mistake.  I completely forgot the 1/4 tsp of salt.  By the time I realized the cake was already in the oven.  I was really worried, in cooking salt is used to bring out flavor, but in baking salt is often required in some chemical process.  However even without salt the cake turned out extremely well.  Since it was extremely tasty and was relatively easy it has gone on the list of things we want to make again soon.  We may have messed up the whipped cream.  Whipped cream takes heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract, the ratios are whats important.  We had just finised watching another Good Eats show, this one on milk, specifically we watched him make Tres Leche Cake.  In it he made whipped cream to use as a frosting.  We were paying to much attention, but he used 2:1 cream-to-sugar ratio.  Our whipped cream turned out much more sweet than usual.  We are thinking he was making a whipped cream specifically to be used as a frosting, not necessarily one used for pies and angel food cake.  Oh well, it still was incredible.

Brian

another word on the Link to the Wedding Pictures

I don't know why you can't just click on the link in the post below but you can copy and paste it and it seems to work fine.

but I am going to try one more time:

http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=522242&emailFlag=true


I hope that works-
Anna

The Wedding Pictures are in

and they look fantastic!



I could post all 800something pictures here but that might take a while...
so here's a link and I really really hope it works:
http://www.pictage.com/client/event.do?event=522242&emailFlag=true

if this does not work then I will try something else.

Enjoy!

Yea!! He's finally here!!!!

Welcome to the family!

Alex Carter Smiley, born July 30, 2008 at around 9:20pm. He's 8 lbs 3 oz and approx 20.5 in. (Beth told me exact stuff but I didn't write it down).

Big Brother Max was showing us how it's done


Yea! I love babies!!
Brian being forced beyond his will to touch a baby. Apparently these things are contagious or something. Or Alex might poop on him.


In case anyone is wondering, the inspiration for Alex's middle name came from here. My sister met Brian's brother and his family at our wedding and decided they liked the name of their youngest. I guess by the time you get to your 3rd boy it gets harder to come up with stuff so you look to others who did a good job. :)


This is Beth and Brad the Friday before the baby was born. It was Beth's birthday on Saturday so we all met up for dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Grant and Max were loving the rocking chairs.
And to the reason I couldn't spend time with my sister on her actual birthday:

BEER FEST!! WOO HOO!!!
Brian with our good friends Josh and Chrissy
And... we just found out that Chrissy is pregnant!! She's about 4 weeks right now meaning she took her pregnancy test a day or so before going to beer fest. So this is Baby's 1st Beer Fest. Do you think they make scrapbooking stuff for that? Chrissy drank more water than anyone else there that day. And playing the pregnancy card got her free bottled water and a trip to the nice air conditioned clean potties inside the Hilton instead of having to use the hot nasty porta-potties. and Chrissy had the sheer joy of driving us around all evening. yea!



I'll hopefully have more pictures in the next week- Beth is going home tomorrow and I don't work again for a week. Plus!! I talked to the wedding photographer today and he said hopefully by Monday. I knew it was going to be a couple of months to get pictures back but I'm quite anxious to see how great they turned out. So I'm hoping to be posting some fancy wedding pictures soon.

It's been a while...

So I thought I'd say a few words.

The last week or 2 has been fairly eventful for the Olson household with some ups and downs. Brian had a very successful conference last week. He made a lot of good contacts and his work created a lot of buzz, he said. I'm so proud. :) He can tell more about all the good stuff that came from his conference in Tuscon, but I know so little about what he does. I think you need a PhD in EE to be able to understand because he really has to "dumb it down" when he tells me his work stuff. (he does get a bit green around the gills with baby stuff so it all works out) But he did bring me a home a tiny mp3 player for me to use if I ever get to run again. :) Yea!
My sweet girl I've been so attached to at work is finally with Jesus as of Friday July 11. That was very hard- I know it was what she needed but I miss her a lot. Work has not been quite the same without her. I guess for me it's a blessing right now that we have a below average number of babies, so people are being forced to stay at home. Well, for me, they aren't going to have to twist my arm very hard. I have plenty of vacation time, and I just don't want to be there. Fantasia isn't there. I just need a healthy happy baby I can hold and love on. So that means my sister Beth needs to get moving with the whole delivery thing. She's so close to having #3. I'm hoping by the end of the week. Really she needed to have it Wednesday so I could have called in sick and not felt guilty. Thursday will work too. But I'm off Friday and Saturday, and if my sister is going to give birth then I think I should get a day off for that. I think I really just need a few mental health days.
My Aunt Betty is still hanging on. I know my family with her are all hurting so much. In a recent email from another aunt, she said that Betty is asking "Is it time yet? Can I go? When will it be over?" The whole family is hurting. I always hate to pray for death. I feel so guilty, even though I know that death will be a release for the person hurting. No person should have to live through that. I felt that way with Fantasia. I know that she would have been saying the same thing that last night. I guess the guilt comes in knowing that the person is ready to go, but no matter what I don't want them to go. I don't want them to hurt, but I want to be selfish and keep the person I love around forever. These are not new emotions or thoughts, and maybe I should get a better grip on how I deal with death considering how often I deal with it at work. I think this time was harder considering how attached to Fantasia I was. And with Aunt Betty too. Maybe it's the double whammy that is making all this so much harder this time.
so if you can't tell, I've been a little down this week. Maybe it's why I painted our bathroom last week while Brian was gone. Did I do any laundry? nope. Did I clean up the kitty litter? nope! at least Brian did the kitty litter when he got home from Tuscon. and a little laundry has been done since then, but none of it's folded. oh and there's a pile of hand wash dishes that's probably attracted every ant in the neighborhood. I'm too scared to check at this point. I've been very glad that Brian is back at home. I think we were both a little surprised at how hard it was for us to be apart for a whole week. Considering I spend a few nights a week gone, there are times when works gets in full swing that we won't see each other for a day or so, but it's not the same as being a few states away, in another time zone. Yeah, it was a rough week.

Faulty

Tuesday I went to see a sports doc about the knee. diagnosed with IT band syndrome and patella/femoral pain (or the cartlidge in between those 2). Was told to get better arch support (which I did) and to start PT.

1st Physical Therapy session was today (Wednesday July9). I was then told they didn't think it was actually my IT Band but that the tendons attaching my hamstring to the knee area were weak, and my core muscles were too weak. So when I do things like walk or run up a hill, sit or stand, etc those weak muscles aren't doing enough and my hamstring begins to try to compensate. or something. We started off with the IT Band stretches and I thought this PT stuff was cake. I was going to breeze right through it. Then great discussions were had about what was actually wrong with me. I had a PT guy, but was dealing mostly with his special little helper (called himself an intern?). Special little helper and PT guy then proceeded to poke and prod. Turns out my right knee was swollen behind the knee (in the bend of the knee), and said there was a possibility of some fancy named cyst. If there was that, it would absorb and they usually don't drain those. Fantastic.... They starting looking at the hamstring. They push on it- everything is fine and then I have to resist against them as they push against the hamstring. That one makes me come off the table. So all that was to tell them that my hamstring wasn't sprained or strained but basically not working right and that was putting a strain on my knees. Then Special Little Helper starts in on the exercise I'm to do at home- I need to strengthen the hamstring and my core muscles but not so much the abs but the gluts. My ass just isn't strong enough apparently. That's just super.

So now I have exercises to do 2x a day and attend PT 2x a week. and PT guy laid down the law- no running for a month. A Month!! So Anna's original goals are on hold until further notice and to be sub'ed in are my new temporary goals of "Knee will no longer hurt" or "Will develop hot ass from exercises".
Brian said in his last post that he never thought he would have to get in shape to lose weight. Well I never thought I would have to rehab so that I can get in shape enough to start loosing weight. I'll admit that I'm pretty disappointed today. I'd been feeling so good running last week. Tuesday morning (before the doc visit) I attempted to run/walk for 30 min. I didn't get much running in because of the knee. I knew I could do more- I wasn't too tired but I couldn't push past the knee thing. I actually felt good that I knew I could do more. I knew that if I wanted to do this that the knee would have to be addressed, I'm just disappointed today that all of my planning and goals are on hold for so long. Brian and I were starting this together- he's going to be so much farther along than I am when I get to start back with the running. He had to run alone this morning and it was really hard watching him go alone. I really wanted to be there working hard with him.


So on to more news- I think that it must just be one of those days. It's even raining out right now. Last night we got the call that my Aunt Betty is in her final days. Mom wasn't sure she would make it through the night. She did but we are still "on alert". We are also on Baby Alert. Beth will be popping out #3 any minute which means any minute or next week.
We also got news from Brian's parents that the beloved Chablis passed away last night. She was more than just the family dog but a family member. We are all torn up over this, esp Brian. I haven't talked to Brian's parents but I know they are very torn up right now as well. With an empty nest, Chablis was their pride and joy.
And just to top it off- I got a call from work this morning that my sweet princess that I have been with for months has taken yet another turn for the worse. Each time I'm not sure she's going to make it and then she pulls through. How much can one child go through? I don't like seeing her suffer, but when she's doing well- then she looks amazing and will interact with you like a normal baby would... I work tomorrow night and I hope she's there when I get there.

Updates and complications

This weekend was my first time to be working since "The Program" started and I wasn't entirely sure how it would go. I knew that to keep my goal for 10 weeks, I am going to have to try to do something on the days that I work.

So this past Friday (July 4):
We ran for 2 min, walked for 1 for 15 min and then went back to run for 1 walk for 2 for 15 min. Total of 30 min. And I'm proud to say that we did great. I felt very proud that we did it. We ran for a total of 15 min. I didn't feel too bad after... well I felt like I had actually ran a marathon instead of just 15 min and more than likely about 1 mile. but I did my stretches, and had some cautionary icing of the shins/knees. I was exhausted that day and managed to sleep for most of the day. Good thing because Friday night was the first night back to work. Felt good that night- no problems but I stayed busy and thus was up a lot. By the time I got home (late), I was EXHAUSTED.

moving on to Saturday (July 5):
upon arriving home, late I might add, Saturday morning I was tired and hurting. My knees were not happy but I thought I could still do 30 min of walking and then crash for the day. I made it 20 min and I was limping horribly. My knees were not good, esp. the right one. Was it the running 2 days in a row? Was it the fact that I wore old shoes to work on Friday night? Did I do too much on my tired body? because I was limping all night Saturday night. I was pretty miserable. My knee didn't hurt when sitting or when standing but it felt very tight when sitting/standing/walking. It wasn't sharp pain, just a very uncomfortable tightness surrounding the knee cap area. I spent a good deal of time with my leg proped up getting other people to do my work. Sunday was a scheduled "rest" day and I slept like a rock.

Monday morning will be Brian's first day to it alone. Even if I was going to be doing something, I don't get home in time for Brian to run with me and make it to work at a reasonable hour. He's going to be running for 2, walking for 1 for the whole 30 min. Total run time=20 min. Pro- he won't have to slow himself down or shorten his stride in order to keep up with me. Con- he will have to get up on his own and run and be motivated on his own.

I think I am going to have to make all of my post work mornings "rest" days. Maybe once I get into better shape my body can handle 12 hrs of work to be followed up by 30 min of exercise. But where I am right now, I think I pushed myself too far when my body was tired. I should have listened to my body instead of going ahead. I really want to do this and I didn't want to be making excuses already. If I'm able, I need to do it. I think I am also going to consult a professional. I don't know sports injuries or ortho... I knew going into this that my knees were less than perfect. I don't want to ignore this and end up really hurting myself.

Let me know if you know any good sports/knee docs in Nashville.

Conquering Challenges

Us wanting to lose weight, isn't a recent development. There have been various attempts before, but none of them stuck. We've tried to stop drinking soda, but failed, we were able to compromise with ourselves and switch to "zero" versions. We've stopped having ice cream for desert, we've compromised with ourselves by switching to Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwhiches and some sort of frozen flavored ice (not popsicles, comes in a plastic cup). However, these diet changes haven't made impact because our diet is still dominated on other "unhealthy" food and beverage items that we are still unwillingly to change. Anna has worked on making her meal portions smaller. She had mild success before our wedding. However, it hasn't yet provided a significant sustained change in weight.

Obviously the other side to losing weight is exercise. A couple years ago we did Tae Kwon Doe. Unfortunately, we had to make a 20-30 minute commute to do so and weren't able to go on a consistent enough basis to see impact on our weights. We ended up quitting when wedding planning became too stressful. Now we are trying running. We can do it from home and on our own schedule, two big plusses. However it isn't nearly as entertaining, and provides many more physical and mental excuse options.

I'm sore, I hurt, I'm tired, I'm too exhausted to run for another minute, are obvious excuses that you'd expect to encounter.

One of the biggest challenges we're still fighting with is changing our sleep schedule. During the summer in Tennessee, the weather during the day is unbearable unless you are already in peak athletic condition. Heat and humidity are not a good combination. We have three options, run indoors, run in the late evening, or run in the morning. Running indoors means one of us would have to commute to Vandy since neither are there at the same time. Also running a small indoor track becomes very repetitious. Running in the evening doesn't really beat the heat during July and August, its still too hot and humid. So that leaves us running in the morning. It it really hard to set a new sleep routine. This past week we've woken at 6:30am and gone running at 6:45am. I'm so happy Anna has not worked this week, because she's been some of my only motivation I can find when I'm struggling to wake up. We are going to bed early, but the transition is still a work in progress. Half my body is dead tired when it gets to 10pm-10:30pm. However, there is still a part of me that is used to staying up longer and it hasn't gone away yet. I'll be much happier when we've successfully completed the routine change.

Unfortunately, running in the morning has made us more hungry in the time leading up to lunch. We haven't quite solve this one yet. Today, we ate eggs afterward for breakfast to fuel us with more protein than cereal. However, we also had bacon and a little mayo, and cheese (yummmm a tasty sandwich). This can't be a long term solution if our eventual goal is weight loss, maybe just eggs. Tomorrow we make our first true attempt at curbing the pre-lunch hunger. Our plan is to wake up even earlier, now at 6am. We'll have a piece of fruit 30 minutes before running, as the running plan actually suggests. Another bonus of waking up earlier we're also able to do a light walk before the workout to warm our legs up, also suggested by the running plan. I guess waking up earlier won't be too big of deal since our desired routine has yet to set.

Anna and I also face two difficult individual challenges in the upcoming weeks.

I will be going to a week-long conference the week after next. Will I be able to stay disciplined? It will require me to continue going to bed early, and waking up early. I'll be in a strange place, with different weather and different surroundings (Tuscon AZ in July... blah). I don't think it would be wise to not run that week. Not only would I lose a week of running, but I'd probably also have to repeat the previous week's workout just to regain the little running shape I had reached. Essentially I would push the 8 week goal to 10 weeks. Also, it will be the first time I've excused myself from running. To me, that first excuse is dangerous, because I know the next excuse will seem much more acceptable. It's a potential slippery slope I would like to avoid until exercising in the morning is second nature. How I handle this obstacle on our running goal is my first major obstacle.

Anna's obstacle is much more difficult, she works for the first time since we started running. If I don't run during the conference, I can still reach my goal. I may be 2 weeks behind my original target date and may have had to grapple with the excuse slippery slope early than I wanted, but I can still finish. For Anna, she will always work. For those who don't know, she works 12 hour night shifts. They are extremely exhausting especially when she's on her third in a row. The running plan we're working off of, has us doing some sort of exercise 6 of the 7 days of the week. That is not an option for Anna, because of work. We're already modifying it for her so she can finish in 9-10 weeks. Also, her schedule will always be different week to week, making it harder for her to set a routine. We know she'll be able to exercise in the morning before her first night of work. What we don't know is how much she's able to after a night of work. Exercising the morning after she gets off of work from the first night will be crucial if Anna's is going to complete her goal in any reasonable time frame. Exercising after she's worked two nights would be preferred if reaching a sustained 30 minute run goal is achievable in 10 weeks. However, this may not be possible. We've already accepted exercising after a third night of work is just not feasible. To successfully overcome this challenge, Anna will have to many times exercise on her own, accept that her sustained progress will be slower than we'd ideally like, not stay at a single workout schedule too long and continually push herself with tougher workouts each week. There isn't a running guide out there that Anna can use as a guide. With her negligible background of running she alone will have to keep setting small goals for improvement with no guide for advice. We'd be extremely happy if she's able to finish in 9-10 weeks, proud if she finishes within 12, and if it goes past that, we'll just have to keep working until she gets there. Regardless of how long, if we're still trying we'll make it to a sustained 30 minute run.

...then we can start setting weight loss goals.

I've never thought I'd have to get in shape in order to lose weight.

Onward!

Running update:

Yesterday (Wedensday, July 2) was a walking only day. It felt good to not have any running because my legs were quite sore. I had stretched on Tuesday after the run but it wasn't enough- my calf muscles were in mutiny Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today was an ok run day. We did a 1 min run and 2 min walk x 10 for a total of 30 min. This was the same as Tuesday. I think the thing that hurt me today was I didn't drink enough water before hand so I was hurting for some water during the run.

Tomorrow we are going to run again (2 days in a row!!... my calf muscles don't know what's up just yet). We are going to do a gradual increase in running time- run for 2 min, walk for 1 x5 for 15 min and then run for 1 min, walk for 2 x5= grand total of 30 min. This will bring our total time of running up to 15 min. In a way, that puts us half way to our goal of running for 30 min. It's just that the goal is really to run for 30 straight min with no stops for walking. So that means adding in that next 15 min will be quite difficult. But I got a little thrill when I realized that tomorrow I will be running for 15 minutes. That's not something I've ever been able to do before. I'm holding on to small victories.

Go For It!! Yeah!

This past weekend, while having dinner and a few drinks with some friends, the topic of recreational running came up. Our friends (Josh and Chrissy, Mary and Daniel) are all at various stages of running abilities and they were comparing running stories. Several drinks in, while they were talking about various marathons they were/have been training for, Brian and I began to say "Why aren't we doing something like this? We're so out of shape. We should do this to!"

The next day Josh says to us "You do realize you committed to running a half marathon this fall?"
umm.... maybe he doesn't realize that I get winded when I climb the stairs at my house?

But Brian and I need to do something, that much is very clear. I shouldn't get winded walking up the stairs. I'm not doing tae kwon do any longer for so many different reasons and I miss having that something for exercise. Brian was a runner in high school, and said this past year that he was going to start running again. But he never did, and now we are both quite out of shape.
So we really are going to start running. There are so many reasons for us to do this- we are out of shape, we need to lose weight, we need physical exercise, it's cheaper to do this than tae kwon do, our friends are doing it (peer pressure, right?), Brian's familiar with what all is involved in long distance running... I can keep going but the point is Brian and I have put together a running program. We're not thinking marathons, not even a 5K run. We're starting small and going to work our way up.

I found this on runnersworld.com and we are modifying it for my crazy night schedule. This is a program to get you to run for a full 30 min with no walking breaks in just 8 weeks. My goal is to do this in about 10 weeks. It gives you 1 day of rest each week, and there are some weeks where I'll need 2 because of my long shifts. It will be a work in progress and I'll be treading a fine line between an excuse of "I'm too tired!" and the safety concern of "I'm too tired". I don't want to fall off the sidewalk because I fell asleep while running.

We are trying to follow the pointers of this article- one thing we have done is to write out a schedule of when we are going to run. I know everyday I'm going to run from today to Labor Day (mostly...there could be some tweaking due to the aforementioned tiredness). The article also said that an easy 30 min run (approx 2 miles in 30 min) will maintain your weight, and maybe you'll start to loose. We know that motivation will be hard when we aren't going to be seeing many results weight wise until we have been running for 10 weeks. I'm hoping that by posting what we are doing that we will be held accountable for keeping up with the running.

So here goes:

Today we walked for 2 minutes and ran for 1, x 10 for a total of 30 mintues. I was proud that was able to do that but by the last 2 "runs" I was moving very very slow. I was moving my feet in such a way that I was "running" but could have been moving faster if I had still been walking still. It's progress!!

green stuff

I've been meaning to post for a while now but when I logged in I realized it's been over a month since the last post. We're such slackers.
I was going to post more wedding pictures but.... I've not gotten any more wedding pictures from anyone. So if you are reading this and you took pictures at our wedding, please send them our way. As soon as the photographer gets me the pictures, I will start posting those too. He warned us that it would be at least 2-3 months. I hope we hear from him by the end of July.

in other news.... there's not much new here. Brian and I have both been working a lot since we got home from the honeymoon. There's really nothing new. The most exciting thing that's happened- my aloe plant is blooming. For those of you who may not know, I like to play in the dirt and Brian supports this habit of mine. This year our garden is bigger and better than ever.

This the front of the house and our new planter there.




The large reddish plants are coleus and on each side of the planter are some black elephant ears I got from my mother. I had put some flower seeds in between each of the coleus but they grew so large so fast that the flower seedlings aren't getting much sun these days.
My basket o' petunias
The rest of the pictures are from all of the plants on the back patio. It's rather green out there right now.

The hanging basket is an asparagus fern and below is the schefflera that I got at Dad's funeral in 2003.

starting on the left:
elephant ears from Mom with Seema sniffing around
bell pepper that have just barely sprouted
mix of flowers- I'm not sure what all is going to bloom there
zucchini
Anaheim peppers
hummingbird vine and lilac bushes all in one pot
the famous blooming aloe


So the aloe plant- I have tried so many ways to kill this plant. It's been peed on by the cats, knocked over, over watered, under watered, repotted several times... This spring it was half out of the pot and it had turned a greyish brown. but this weird shoot came up out of it. Now we have it repotted (again) and it's in full bloom. Imagine my suprise. There are parts of it that's still kinda brown but the center of it is nice and green and a little spotty.
I had no idea that aloe plants bloomed. So I did some reading and found out that they will start blooming after about 4-5 years. I think it will now bloom every year (not sure tho). Last year this thing had so many babies that the aloe babies were pushing the main plant out of the pot- I think that was the precursor to blooming.

still kinda brownish but still kickin'



More views of the same plants from above




The tomato plants are in the large green tubs. If I remember correctly the one on the left was breed for container gardens. In front of the tomatoes are several herbs- chives, basil, parsley. I'm trying to grow green onions in a pot too. I 'm not sure those will get very big. The smaller terra cotta pot on the right has the "Wildflowers from our Wedding" seed pack.
This was our other large garden purchase this year- the plant stand. I've been wanting for a while now. I can bring this indoors this winter and hopefully we can have herbs/small flowers all winter. Or it will be a place to store dirt this winter.
There's so much on here- lots of cat nip on all shelves, amaryllis that has not bloomed in ages-it just gets green leaves and then dies over and over- and mint on the top shelf.
2nd shelf- zennias, bleeding heart
3rd- more catnip and another assorted flower seedlings

on the right next to the big plant stand is another Coleus. There are also sweet pea seeds that have sprouted underneath the coleus but it got so large so fast that it's not really letting the flowers do much growing.







And finally- in this very long post-
Anna's special little helpers. They help with the catnip and bugs. The LOVE the catnip and below they are shown enjoying small bits of it. They also monitor the bird situation. There is a bird feeder on the other side of the asparagus fern that sees a good bit of traffic. I also have a hummingbird feeder that has seen no traffic. Maybe I have the 2 feeders too close to each other... Maybe Sully is eating all of the hummingbirds...



That's all for now. I promise to do a better job with posting. I hope that in the coming months there are more exciting things to write about. And since we never do post- please pass along this blog to everyone you know and remind folks to look at our pictures!!!!! :)

Wedding pictures

I'm not sure all these links will work. I know you must sign into Snapfish to view the photos, but you don't for the kodak gallery.

from Lindsey Irwin Mitchell (Anna's cousin-in-law)
https://www1.snapfish.com/shareeloginsubmit/p=838291209521575319/l=371328157/g=26966635/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=838291209521575319/l=371328157/g=26966635/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

or maybe try this link for these pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=219336953/a=93239678_26966635/t_=93239678

from Anna's Aunt Ginnie: (has a lot of Anna's extended family)
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563386231hebveI

from Diana Turco (the best man's wife):
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=br92svh5.c7h50zil&Uy=-g3eikk&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=348664885360_999290584605&localeid=en_US

also from Diana Turco:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=br92svh5.bth60mgt&Uy=-65k7m7&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=921153020359_925311584605&localeid=en_US


Chrissy: I can't find the shutterfly album you send out. Can you resend it to me?

I really hope all these work, this blog thing won't let me click on these links to check and see if they will take you to the right spot.
Pass this blog along to anyone who might want to look at these pictures. I try to send the link on to as many people as possible but there' s no way I can get everyone.
Thanks!
Anna

back into the swing of things...

We've been back, safe and sound for a while now and I just haven't posted anything. We've been a bit busy. Brian's Mom (Sue) brought the sweet kitties back home on Mother's Day weekend. I think they missed us. Strangely there was quite a bit of cat nip all over the house when we got back. We did vacuum up the bulk of it but they still noticed. They didn't go crazy, but did appreciate the treat. It did feel good to know that the babies missed us and seemed very glad to be away from the big stinky dog at Brian's parents house. I wonder if the dog knows the kitties are gone?
Yesterday was Grant's 2nd birthday (my sister's youngest, soon to be middle child) and he had a grand time. We got him a bubble gun, looks like a water gun but will shoot 500 bubbles in 1 min. It was the hit of the party for about 15 minutes until he got bubbles in his eye. I'm sure he'll find comfort with the zillion other toys he and his brother have. :)
I'm going to attempt to post the links to the online picture galleries that folks have sent me from the wedding. I will also try in the next week to post an online gallery of honeymoon pictures, but there are so many that it's just going to take a while to pick and choose what to post. No one has time to look at 1500 pictures.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We are leaving Kauai today and are headed back home. :( This has been such an incredible trip. There is so much more that I want to see and do here. I already can't wait to come back. We leave Lihue at around 2pm and we will be leaving Honolulu at around 4pm local time. We will be landing in Chicago at around 630am central time. and getting back to Nashville at around 930am. Mike and Blair have are going to be picking us up from the airport. Now we just need to figure out a way to get our precious babies back from the Olson's. The proud grandparents have been babysitting all week. They said it took their old dog 3 whole days to realize there were 2 invaders in her house. :)

We have taken many many pictures on this trip. last count was nearing the 1400 mark. We are going to get an online gallery set for you to see the best of the pictures. We have so many good ones- we went to the National Botanical Gardens, a snorkling tour of the Napali coast, an ATV tour, and then a 70 min plane ride around the island. It was all quite awesome :)

so until we are in TN... safe travels to us all
Anna

Kaua'i Banyan Inn

A couple pictures from our room at the Bed & Breakfast in Kauai. It is absolutely beautiful here. It is a little hazy today, but you can see the ocean from our lanai (porch).

Brian

Pictures from an active volcano

We went to Volcanoes National Park on Tuesday, and here are a few select pictures. Trust me, there are many many more. :) It was a long drive to the volcano from the hotel, and we stopped by the black sand beaches on the way. You will also note that the skies are very hazy in most of our pictures. That is because the volcano we are standing in front of is active and is constantly blowing out smoke and ash. Much of the park was closed down due to very high levels of sulfur dioxide.



This is the smoke and ash of which I spoke- The active volcano!


extreme zoom of the opening spewing the smoke and ash-

This is the most recent lava flow from 2003-2004. This was a road that left the National park and eventually led into Hilo.
Apparently the road is now closed-

New Island

We made it to Kauai safely today, and are now at the Kauai Banyan Inn. Tomorrow (Friday)we will be going to the botanical gardens, and then a Luau in the evening. Sorry we haven't posted more pictures, but it's been taking a while for our pics to load into the blog. But thanks to everyone who has been emailing us pictures from the wedding. They have been great and keep them comming!
Anna

Mauna Lani to the Rescue

We had the first bump in our honeymoon plans today. We had scheduled a sunset cruise on the hotel's catamaran (sp?), however it did not sail because lack of booking. Technically it isn't the hotel's catamaran, but a nearby "company", so the hotel really doesn't have any control over the cruise.

Needless to say we were very distraught over this news. We went to the front desk since it was included in the price of the hotel's honeymoon package. We spoke with the guest relations manager, Roy Honjo, and he went out of his way to make it up to us. He comped a romantic dinner at the hotel's expensive restaurant. The restaurant's manager personally came up to us and poured us really nice glasses of champagne. This was our second time to the restaurant, significantly better than the first time. When we got back to our room we were surprised with a bottle of champagne cooling in a bucket of ice and rose petals in the shape of a heart on our bed. It was really touching. We did end up having our last romantic night on the Big Island.

Brian

Yay for Massages

Today was a very relaxing day. We had a fantastic breakfast buffet, walked around on the beach, and were lazy under a cabana. Before lunch we were ordering fruity beach drinks. Our resort makes them strong :-D.

The highlight of the day so far was the couples massage that was included in our honeymoon package. It was a Swedish massage, but I really don't know how that defines a massage. It was amazing. We were encouraged to take advantage of the saunas, steam baths, showers, and lotions pre and post massage. The massages themselves we're extremely relaxing. We both loved the hot towels.

We went snorkling later in the day. We saw a lot of colorful fish. I used up our waterproof disposable camera within the first 10 minutes. Hopefully some of the pictures turned out well.

Tonight we have $100 credit to the hotel fancy restaurant, Canoe House. We are both excited.

Brian

Pictures!

Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island near Kona
Views from our room









View from the Hotel in Nashville-

We're in Paradise

We are here at the hotel, safely and soundly, but very worn out. It has been an uneventful day of travel- no delays, no lost anything, and we found all the places we were supposed to be.
So now the happy couple is in Paradise and I feel relaxed for the first time in days. :) Our hotel room is amazing. It's got an ocean and pool view, and it's placed just below the nice suites. that gives our room the floor plan of a large suite, but with no dividing walls to give us 2 rooms. It's really nice.
We have some pictures of the view but I think I might load them later. The internet is moving slow and I need a shower.

Thank you all so much for making yesterday so perfect. It really was beautiful and everything ran so smoothly. Thanks for all the help with the details that made the day so nice.

Love,
Mrs. Olson :)

More Showers

I posted before I listed the folks in the pictures from the last post. The top picture is of both of my grandmothers sitting. Agnes Horner (Memaw), left and Hazel Stewart (Grandma Hazel), right. Also Agnes's 2 sisters- Mozella (far left) and Rudell (far right) were there too. My sister Beth is standing in the middle with me. My grandmothers are not in the best of health right now and we have all decided that they will not make the trip to Nashville for the wedding. It really did mean a lot to me and Brian that other family members were able to bring them to New Johnsonville for the shower.
The lady with the baby is my bridesmaid Jennifer May with her sweet girl Raegan. (I hope I spelled her name right).
The last picture is the family- from Left to Right- Brian's Mom Sue, sister Beth, me, my mother Jane.

and here is me and my Mom. :)

Both showers we wonderful and we both really appreciate all the goodies, and good food! I'm working on thank you notes.... soon. I promise.

Wedding Showers update

Brian and I have had 2 showers, one with each of our families. The shower in Rolla was on March 1 at Brian's parents house. The shower in New Johnsonville was on March 29 and that is where these pictures were taken. We had some nice group shots from that day.

Ice Skating

Last weekend we had free passes to go ice skating at Centennial Sportsplex. We went with our friends Josh (groomsman in our wedding) and Chrissy. A good time was had by all. It had been a very long time since any of us had been on ice skates, and it was Josh's first time.
As you can see from the pictures, we were really moving out there. :) Luckly for me, some of Brian's old hockey skates fit me just fine. It was my first time on hockey skates, and I really liked not being on figure skates. I always got tripped up on the toe pick thingie. Look out NHL, I'm hot stuff.