Sunday, March 4

I should warn you all, this post is once again about running. Although it's also about the rest of my life, so if you don't want to read about my runs, I recommend skipping to the second paragraph. :) I just finished the first month (and four days) of my half-marathon training and I am so proud of myself!!! I've already run farther and more than I would have thought I was capable and I still have so many miles to go! Today marked my longest run ever. It was 6.12 miles and I did it in 1:07:32 and I couldn't be happier!!! My goal was 11 minute miles and I did it!! I also had fun the whole time! I was with my good friend Heather and we were busy talking about life, so that certainly helped, but there was never a time today when I was miserable. Plus, when we finished, I FELT AWESOME!! It has put me in such a good mood for the rest of the day and has me excited for this next 48 days of training until The Garmin Marathon in the Land of Oz comes around! I also am happily working through this second (and last) semester of grad school. This Wednesday I will head off to a job placement conference where I will interview with lots of different schools and hopefully impress some of them enough to get another interview and then hopefully impress at least one of them enough to get a job! :) It has been a really fun adventure so far and I am loving all the opportunities that are popping up. It has also been great to talk with the other members in my cohort and hear all about the opportunities that they have as well. I guess we're all finally growing up! Two weeks from now will find me in the great state of Minnesota for spring break and I couldn't be more excited for it! Seeing my family, sleeping, relaxing, running familiar roads and eating so many homemade delicious meals is pretty much my idea of heaven! I CAN'T WAIT!! These next two weeks are bound to be crazy (hello job interviews, scholarship selections and 25 page paper) but I've got to say, overall I am one lucky girl!

Thursday, Feb. 2

Well, blame week one of 1/2 marathon training starting, but I've been spending lots of time reading running blogs and came upon these two quotes by John "The Penguin" Bingham. I read his book No Need For Speed last semester and it helped me out so much! I'm not a particularly fast runner and I'm working on learning to appreciate running just for the sake of running, not for doing it fast. Bingham focuses (in case you hadn't guessed it from his nickname) on running for the enjoyment of it, not the speed. He talks a lot about how to make sure you feel good and take care of yourself while running. He stresses how you should run a race because you want to be running, not because you want to beat everyone else (although if some PR's happen, that's awesome too). Reading almost anything he says always makes me feel really encouraged and proud of myself for starting to run. I leave you with two of my favorites from him. "If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." "Our running shoes are really erasers. Every step erases some past failure. Every mile brings us closer to a clean slate. Each foot strike rubs away a word, a look, or an event which led us to believe that sucess was beyond our grasp."

Tuesday, Jan. 31

Well, I restarted this blog just in time! Tuesday was A GREAT DAY!! Lots of little things just kept going right throughout the day! 1) It was day 3 of Week 1 of training for the 1/2 marathon I'm doing in April and since it was only 2 miles, I wanted to push myself extra hard and I sure did! I did my two miles in a little over 18 minutes! The last quarter mile was a little rough, but knowing that I had more than met my goal (under 10 minutes) made it super worth it! 2) My future is slowly, but surely starting to take shape and I found one heck of an awesome school that has a hall director opening. I heard about the school having an opening a few weeks ago, but for the first time yesterday I sat down and really took a look at everything it had to offer and I just about fell in love! The school is in Oregon (beautiful!) and is smaller (something I like) and lets you work in other offices (hello Disability Services)! Plus, they have a pet policy and as anyone who knows me is aware, adopting a dog is a big goal of mine for the near future! 3) The Law of Higher Education class that I'm taking is getting better and better each class and yesterday was no exception. We had great discussion and luckily the professor is happy to let class go in almost any direction, so they tend to be helpful and fun. The class is very different than any other higher education class I've taken and I think law is an area that sparks my interest, so it makes class pretty great. Hope you've found a reason that makes today great!

Monday, Jan. 30

Friends, I owe you all a great big apology! I started this blog with high hopes and good intentions of posting everyday and always finding something positive in each day. I have done well with the latter, I still am always finding a positive in each of the days, but I certainly have not been posting. Here's what I figured out during break; what made the day great, each day of break, was knowing that there really was nothing that I had to do. In general, I enjoyed posting to this blog, but I always liked doing what I wanted to do and not doing what I didn't want to do. With that reasoning in mind, I stopped posting and went through the rest of break. Then I came back to KU and started housing training and then classes started and while life hasn't exactly slowed down at all, I really do want to get back to this blog. So here's the new plan: I will absolutely still be keeping track of what makes each day great, but I won't be posting every day. With the semester being busy and job searching starting, I don't want to make a promise that I'll be to busy to keep in a few weeks. So I will post when I can and hopefully that will be enough for you all. For now, I leave you with a list, in no particular order, of why my days were great over the past few weeks. *Finalizing registration for a job conference in March. *Buying tickets and a hotel room for said conference. (The money part was not great, but making progress sure was.) *Receiving my first (hopefully of many) e-mail from a school interested in hiring me for next year. *Returning to KU and catching up with great friends. *Spending ridiculous amounts of time with family. *Starting my final semester of classes and enjoying them. *Running 4 miles with Trina. *Swimming LOTS after returning to KU. (I'm slowly, but surely getting better and faster!) *Having a wall in my bedroom that no longer leaks whenever it rains. *Being home for the installment of a new kitchen floor. *Seeing an old friend from undergrad and recognizing that some friendships really will make it through anything. *Starting my half marathon training! With that, receiving tremendous support from a good friend here at KU who helped me realize that I'm fully capable of running one! *Great conversations with friends about their futures and all the adventures that are soon to start. *Learning new recipes and introducing them to other people. What can I say, there are so many reasons that make today great! :)

Thursday, Dec. 29

Today was another great day for connecting with old friends. I saw a friend of mine who I went to both high school and college with, but we hadn't actually managed to see each other in over a year. He recently moved to Colorado and it was great fun to get to talk to him all about his new adventures. More than anything though (aside from reconnecting with a good friend) it makes me so excited for my own adventure next year when it comes to moving somewhere new, finding new places to explore, new people to meet and learning all about a whole new place! Yahoo!!

Wednesday, Dec. 28

Sometimes it really is the little things in life. As mentioned earlier, I love to swim and today found me back in the pool. Despite that I've been swimming for a lot of my life, I have never really perfected the art of switching sides when I come up to take a breath. I can handle four strokes in a row, but for some reason, rotating sides while breathing has been a challenge. While swimming today, I watched the person next to me and saw how flawlessly they were switching sides to breathe and just studied what they were doing that I wasn't. Turns out that if you want to switch sides that you breathe on, you have to do it every three strokes, not every four. (In hindsight, this seems obvious, but for whatever reason I never got that.) Once I figured that out I decided to just go for it and hope for the best. It worked great!! I'll admit, the first few strokes weren't pretty and there was definitely a lot of water up my nose, but after a lap or two, I was golden! I also don't get nearly as tired out or short of breath when I'm breathing every three, so I could do more laps in a row without taking a kicking break. Woo hoo!! :)

Tuesday, Dec. 27

Today Trina and I cooked dinner! I've been spending an awful lot of time on pinterest, looking at recipes in particular and I found one that sounded so delicious that I just had to try it out! It was Asparagus and Penne pasta and it turned out great!! I love being in the kitchen and while the kitchens in my halls at KU are fine, there's something about being home and being in a kitchen that is familiar to me and that I know well. Plus, having most of the ingredients provided for free by my parents doesn't hurt either, haha. Not only did the dish turn out GREAT (recipe at the bottom for those who are curious), but it's actually quite good for you! I used 100% whole wheat pasta and used 1/4 stick of butter, which is a 1/4 of what is called for, but the dish still tasted absolutely delicious! Not only did I get to be in the kitchen and cook away, but it was with Trina, which makes things even more fun! She's able to find humor in just about everything, so there was no shortage of laughing while we were working away! My parents loved the dish and appreciated the night off from the kitchen. I'm putting this in my recipe book with big plans to make again! Happy Cooking! Penne with roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter INGREDIENTS 1 pound asparagus 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar 1 pound penne 1/4 pound butter, cut into pieces (I used 1/4 of a stick) 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving Heat the oven to 400°. Snap the tough ends off the asparagus and discard them. Cut the spears into 1-inch pieces. Put the asparagus on a baking sheet and toss with the oil and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put the vinegar in a small saucepan. Simmer until 3 tablespoons remain. Stir in the brown sugar and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Remove from the heat. Cook the penne in a large pot of boiling, salted water until just done, about 13 minutes. Drain the pasta and toss with the butter, vinegar, asparagus, Parmesan, and the remaining 1 3/4 teaspoons salt. Serve with additional Parmesan.