home free

I hope you all had great a Christmas/whatever holiday! I was glad to get away from ghost-town Norman to spend time with my family. I spent most of the weekend eating, drinking, and sleeping. Which, I mean, let's be honest: I'm in college, that's normally what I do on a daily basis. But it was great to do it in different company!

I've been working this week so I haven't had much time to play with all my new stuff but I'm already loving my new Kindle and my new Nike Frees.

Not a great picture but they're super bright orange (I know, I know) and dark pink. Can't wait to get out of this brace and try running in them!

As I said, Norman is so dead I've been calling it Bore-man. I hope they're having awesome breaks with their families, but I so can't wait for my roommates to get back. I feel way worse about sitting around watching TV if Jessi isn't doing it with me! My mom got us a movie night gift which I can't wait to bust out when they get back.

Other than that, I've just been walking, working, waiting for these next three weeks to be up and focusing on eating right.

Today's lunch!

 

 

 

 

Beside the movie night and holidays, my goal is to eat 5-6 small, healthful meals most every day this next year. Here's hoping!


I've got to go get ready for work. I've got a couple of friends and family tickets by the way so if anyone wants some, hollaa!

a christmas blog post

So this is probably going to end up being really goofy and sappy but ‘tis the season, right?

Last night was the annual Christmas Eve candlelight service at the good old First Christian Church. While sitting there, seriously considering drawing on a Piddle Pad*, I got to thinking about some things. First of all, when did I and all these people grow up? Agh!
Looking around the sanctuary that I grew up in, it’s hard to believe all the things that have transpired within my and my church family’s lives while I was there and since I’ve left. It’s almost like some weird space time continuum where the surroundings are completely the same (or very similar) but most of the people have drastically changed since the last time I saw them.
Seeing all these people again reminds me of how much they have made an impact on my life, though I may not see it every day. I know it was like pulling teeth for my mother to drag me out of bed and get me to church (especially in my high school years), but I’m glad she did. Whether or not it was in a religion-related way, I know the whole experience helped to make me the person that I am today. A good portion of my childhood occurred at that church or with people I attended it with and I’m grateful to have all the memories and stories that come from it.

Another thing I started to think about is regret. In a way, it’s sad that at the age of 21, I already have so many regrets. It also motivates me to continue to live my life in the way that I see fit and keep myself happy. Throughout my life, I’ve always succumbed to whatever everyone else wanted to do and sacrificed my happiness in order to keep all other parties happy. I’ve always been aware that I do this but I’m finally realizing at just how much it wears on my own happiness. I think I sacrifice what I want to do in order to hold on to friendships but I end up losing those relationships because I give up and get tired of it. In healthy relationships, there has got to be a balance. That’s why my only resolution for this coming year is to stop doing that and to start living my life like I want to instead of watching opportunities pass me by.

So on that note, it’s time to start weighing some pros and cons and deciding who I am and where I want to be. And what better way to kick that off than by watching It’s A Wonderful Life on Christmas afternoon? :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and beautiful, fattening, family-filled, fun holidays! 

*Piddle Pads are pieces of paper constructed to keep children entertained during a church service instead of disrupting it. On the contrary, I think they might have helped add to our disruptiveness.

pre post op

My 8-week post-op is on Monday and I am so ready for it. The feeling in my back is steadily coming back and I have little to no pain so I'm interested to see what the fusion looks like and what the doc says. I will be requesting copies of the x-rays and scanning them on to my computer. I'm actually about to search Pinterest for some ways to frame and commemorate the whole experience. :)
I've also been informed to just go ahead and talk to him about starting physical therapy. I'm not positive, but I'll probably just fold over at the middle if I take the brace off without strengthening my back.
I need to make a list of things to bring up so I'll just start it on here. Feel free to give me any suggestions if I miss something.

1. Physical therapy- when, where, how long.
2. X-rays- can I get some copies?
3. Brace- exactly when the crap can I get rid of this thing and if I have to keep it for much longer, can I get some replacement velcro straps? because mine are seriously disgusting at this point.
4. Exercising- how much can I lift at a time, when can I start running, can I start swimming, basically: let me start again, thanks.
5. Work- I feel pretty useless when it comes to moving stuff around at this point because I'm afraid to do too much. I need to figure out what I can do and what I absolutely cannot do.
6. Nerve damage: what is normal, will I ever get full feeling back, etc.

Uhh, that's all I can think of right now and I've got to go get ready for work. You would think with the broken back and school being over, I wouldn't be able to procrastinate but somehow I still manage it.

Oh, and speaking of school- I still have not heard from my professor about whether or not I passed Italian. Cross your fingers.

Hope you're all having great weekends!

passing

My life is like this right now:

Do anything and everything you can to pass Italian so you do not have to suffer through more confusion next semester. I've already finished my other 2 classes with A's so this class and language are my main focus right now. It is so ridiculously hard!

Other than that, I had a boy finish cutting my cookie sheet and finished the magnet board. The magnets I got are definitely not strong enough to hold up my makeup, so it's pretty much just framed scrapbook paper at this point. :)

I've still been keeping myself busy with trying random recipes I see on Pinterest.

S'mores cookies minus the Hershey's pieces! I skipped the Hershey's A.) because I'm lazy and B.) because the chocolate is my least favorite part of a s'more.

Roasted some sweet potatoes with cinnamon the other day. They were pretty freaking good! Might try sweet potato fries tonight.

I've been keeping up my walking and lifting pretty often. People at the Huff continue to stare at me like I'm terminal and about to fall over. At this point, I really don't care about people staring at me, I'm just ready to get back to normal!
I keep getting random pains that freak me out but I'm sure that's just part of recently having rods screwed into your spine. :) The brace is still an annoyance so I just keep reminding myself that I could be way worse off. Plus, if everything goes well, I only have 37 days left wearing it.

Back to studying Italian. I'll probably have some more interesting things to blog about after I get this final over with!

backbored

I'm a little over a month out of surgery and doing about as well as or better than can be expected, I think. I'm sure I actually do more than I should be at this point but I never have any pain and my back feels fine.

I had a great Thanksgiving with the fam. Walked the Edmond Turkey Trot that morning. My sister, Shylia, ran it and came back to walk the rest of the way with me. Throughout the beginning of this holiday season, I've been even more aware of how thankful I am for my family. They've all be incredibly supportive through this situation and I couldn't ask for a better one! :)

Speaking of the holidays, I'm really ready for them. School is not super stressful for me right now because of the dropped classes and I'm pretty much just bored. This is what I did this weekend with that boredom:

 

Credit to Kyle for the Keystone Light tree topper. He knows that the inhabitants of this apartment are classy enough to leave it on there.

Unfortunately, Riggins wanted to give his input in the decorations and it now looks like this:

 

I ignored and left it like that yesterday because, let's be real, I'm never gonna be bored enough to put a tree up 2 times. Instead, I went to Hobby Lobby after class and found this:

for just 10 bucks! That's like, a LOT of scrapbook paper and I'm pretty pumped about it. I've been pinning, of course, and definitely want to make this magnet make-up board. I've already started but I'm having trouble cutting a cookie sheet to make it fit the frame.

 Frame's painted and good to go.

Magnets are on the back of all my make-up. Really, just need the cookie sheet. Turns out cutting metal is not that easy.

Anyway, I'm off to my class and then I get to study Italian for the rest of the day. Hollaaa.

running matters

I would give 1 million dollars to be able to run right now. It has been over a month, probably the longest stretch of time I’ve gone without running in 2 years. I want to hear my feet hitting the pavement and my “Work it Out” playlist banging in my ears. I want so badly to be able to just put my headphones in, blast out the door, and get 6 miles in for the day.
As a “young adult,” entering college, the idea of running 5ks and marathons blew my mind. Never in my life did I believe that I would be able to pick my fat butt up and run 8 miles at a time. I’ve been so proud of myself in the last two years. I have NEVER been able to motivate myself to do anything like I have been able to motivate myself to run. It has been even more challenging to let that part of my life go for the time being.

The wind against you, you’re heart beating like crazy, hacking and heaving, brain pounding: it’s freaking beautiful. It’s as if all odds are against you and it’s just you and the sidewalk in front of you. You’re about to show that sidewalk who’s the boss of this 3 miles and that it can totally suck it. I would give everything I own to be able to go back to normal, walk out my front door, and go for a run.

Moral of the story? Please remember when you’re dreading that long run: you could be without the ability to take it on. Your (or anyone’s) situation could change in a second. You could be sitting on a couch somewhere but instead, you’re making a difference. It may not be a huge difference and you may not be changing the world but you’re making a difference in your own life. So go out there and get it done! Accomplish your goals however big or small they might be because there might come a day when you can no longer do the thing you wish to accomplish. <3

back aches and cupcakes

I was having a lot of pain yesterday and decided not to do any walking. I put my boredom and extra time to good use and learned how to make this recipe for a spinach, brown rice, and corn "cupcake." (Thanks again, Pinterest!) It's basically a frittata with all those ingredients but baked in a cupcake pan. They turned out pretty good (except I definitely need to add more cheese next time).

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I had to Google "how to saute" because I'm that kitchen-inept. I'm still not really sure what it means, but I just went with it.
 

I didn't so much "shred" the spinach like the directions say; more like I tore it into big chunks. I'm a big fan of spinach but I don't often use it outside of salad, so I've been looking around for recipes that call for it.

I never really learned to cook and I don't have the patience to make it a hobby but it's good to know I have a few healthy staples in my arsenal that I can at least somewhat pull off.

That was my big cooking adventure for the week. It's back to microwave soup cups and salad for now! :)