Puppy love.

Meet my new best friend, Maggie Mae!

She's a.) the love of my life, b.) she's full black lab, and c.) she's already 9 weeks old!

I got her at the beginning of the month as just a baby 5 week old.

Now she's almost 13 pounds, started on her shots, crate-and-leash-training, and learning all sorts of new tricks. She can sit, shake, and lay down though we haven't quite figured out "stay."

So since a pictures worth a thousand words, I'll post a thousand of them :).

First day on the leash. She was not excited.

I see Paris, I see France...

So I've been keeping pretty busy since my last blog!

In early August, my dad, step-mom and I took a trip overseas to see my oldest sister. We stopped by Paris for three days to avoid the craziness of the Olympics (and because Paris isn't too shabby) then spent the rest of the time in London. Tons of food, family, and fun. 

Arc de Triomphe. Studied this in my sculpture class, then actually got to run by it!

Tower Bridge with the Olympic rings.

St. Paul's.

Got to see the Crown Jewels. Crazy incredible.

I won't be jumping to move over the pond anytime soon like my adventurous older sister but I did enjoy it. I would definitely go back to either place. Literally everything in Paris is gorgeous, down to the streets. London is super busy, crazy, and fun. Everything is so old in both places, it's totally amazing.

We had a bit of stress getting back home and I started school just about one day after. So that was depressing but I'm back into the swing of things now.

I also got an awesome new friend that you'll meet in my next post. :)

Oh, this is my new favorite bar spot in London :). Leadenhall Market.

 

she will be free

Oh, and this is what I do when I'm icing my back. Guess that Public Relations Publications class isn't completely going to waste? Yeah, no - it might be. :)
Someone buy Adobe inDesign for me. It's only like $700, you know, totally reasonable. Not.

Overdue

So I suck at blogging.

Updates:

Went to Florida for spring break and it was tons of fun. More amazingly, we all made it back in one piece.

 The rooms and I have had some good times with many many more to come in our last semester together. We have already planned some fun trips and will hopefully be kayaking the Illinois soon.

I can do stadiums again! Not that I have been much in this freakin' heat but I can do them with little to no pain.

 This happened to my foot about a week before the half.

But it wasn't my back so I sucked it up and ran anyway. My entire left leg seized up at about mile 9, when it conveniently started raining. I rationalized that there was no way I could possibly be more miserable, so I just kept running. This half had kind of been my mile marker after my surgery. I was pretty determined to show myself that I could still set goals for myself.

 I think I'm super crafty now. Sadly, I'm not a handyman because most of the things I make are just propped up against the wall or lying around my apartment. I have no clue how to hang them without tearing up the walls.

I've gotten to run at Lake Hefner a couple of mornings this summer.

 One time I met this guy after a run. Obviously, I didn't get to keep him but I did name him 'Hank'. I hope Hank is doing okay.

 I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life and just made it to the Memorial. My mom's side of the family and I went to check it out while they were up here for the 4th of July. As an Oklahoman, I feel like it's something that everyone should see. I'll definitely have a different perspective while running the marathon next year!

 I turned 22. I doubt I need to say much more about that. :)

 Oh, except that I still act like an 8-year-old.

 I grew a freaking plant! Like on my own. Well, ish. It's probably gonna die soon but we'll see.

 We ran the Color Me Rad 5k and I looked like a clown for a couple of days after, but whatever. It was super hot, super messy and pretty fun. It definitely made me want to do a Warrior Dash and/or Dirty 30 kind of run.

Preston from Josh Abbott Band.

Brian Burke!

I'm pretty obsessed with Texas Country concerts right now. Okay, well I always have been but even more so now. I'm ready to get to Turnpike Troubadours at the Wormy Dog this Saturday!

Aaand I got my hair done the other day! Clearly, this is Kourtney Kardashian - not me. But this is the picture I brought in and it looks a lot like it. I've never gone darker but I really wanted a change so I went for it. Once I actually go out and take pictures, I'll put those up.

In summary, I'm doing great. :) About a week ago, I finally hit the realization that I may never be able to ride another roller coaster or bungee jump but, of course, there are still millions of things that I CAN do. And I'm ready to get out there and do them!

Have a good day y'all!

un-brace yourself

I don't know why I love waking up early on Saturday mornings so much. I think it has to do with training for the half last year and waking up early to run before it got too warm. And probably the fact that I haven't seen many Saturday mornings before 10 in my life. :)

Anyway, life without the brace is great. Wearing an obnoxious piece of plastic for 12 weeks will you really make you appreciate every day that you don't have to wear it.
I started physical therapy yesterday, after about a week and a half of not really wearing the brace. In that week and a half, I was still walking and exercising as I had been and didn't experience any pain or soreness. After about an hour straight of engaging my back muscles during PT, I was pretty freaking sore. I'm pain free now but I'm definitely going to have to keep an ice pack and some Ibuprofen on hand for Monday's sesh.

I seriously plan on writing a blog post that's worthwhile in the next week, I've just been so crazy busy with medical appointments, school, and work. Bring on the real world, I guess?

Speaking of busy, if you or anyone you know is interested in a sort-of-paid marketing internship, let me know! We need more help at the games, possibly more help in the office, and I need more time at the gym. And they're super careful now, promise they won't break your back. :)

Alright, see yaaaa.

"back" in no time :)

My 12 week post-op appointment was yesterday and it went great. Everything looks good; the bones are straight, my incision is healed and the scar is not as gross as it could be, and I'm getting around really well. Most importantly, I'm weening off this brace!
And by weening, I mean, I straight up have not worn it since the appointment yesterday. I also haven't really done anything since then so I'm not having any pain or weakness. I'm going to the Huff after one of my classes just to do some light stuff and see how I do after that.
Shylia came with me and put her big sister foot down and got physical therapy prescribed. So hopefully with that, I'll be even closer to getting back to where I was before everything happened!

I've been signed up to run the OKC Memorial Half Marathon since like September. It's not until April 29 but I don't know if I will be able to run it all since I won't be able to train very effectively for a while. My goal is to go ahead and attempt it and hopefully finish in under 3 hours.

Oh, also- I am good to use my backpack again. Definitely a good thing since I have class pretty much all day today.

I'm going to try to have a better, more specific post tomorrow. Good day!

updates

So blogging is hard. Especially when you've been doing absolutely nothing with your life all Christmas break. :)
Anyway, I'll just do a few quick updates and go get ready for work.

1. My 12 week post-op is on Wednesday! That means I get to start weening off the brace. :) Finally! I'm ready to be done with the weird looks and getting asked what it is/what happened to me every 5 minutes. I'm thankful that it wasn't a body cast or something worse but I'm SO glad to finally be getting it off.

2. School starts on Tuesday. Weird to think that this would have been my last semester of college had I not had the accident or surgery. I'm old! My classes are all from 9 am - 9pm on Tuesday and Thursday. I didn't plan it that way, and while it gives me a 4-day weekend, it's still probably going to suck. I'll be going into the office a lot of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's from 10-4 so I'm basically going to be grown up. What a bummer!

3. I really want a puppy.

4. Kindles make reading super easy, Temple Run is an awesome game, I can't wait to catch up on Caged and for The Challenge to start back on MTV. So maybe it's a good thing that I'll be super busy this semester.

5. In the next couple of weeks I want to try and replicate this race bib holder. I'm sure it will be a disaster but hopefully it will work.


Alright, see ya.!