3 for 1

Since I've been neglecting my poor blog lately you get a 3 for 1 post. Lucky you (I think). Saturday I ran my first 1/2 marathon! I've been training with a friend from church and we ran it together. I'm glad I had someone to run with because I don't think I would've stuck to the training schedule without a running partner. I was excited to finish (that was the farthest I've ever run) and we even finished near our ideal goal time.

I haven't decided yet whether to shell out the $13 for a print or $30 to download the picture (can you say rip-off??) so for now you get the tiny, poor quality, watermarked version. That's probably best though since I found out I'm not a very photogenic runner (this is the only one I wasn't embarrassed to put online even though my hair appears to be growing out the side of my head).

Other than that it was a lazy weekend for me. When we were driving home from church on Sunday we decided to stop at a garage sale. That turned out to be a great idea! There was a sewing table up front for only $20!

The outside could use a little TLC, so I'm thinking about painting the whole thing. (Thankfully those spots on the front aren't bubbles in the finish, just discolored so I'm hoping I won't have to do very much sanding) What I like most about it is the storage on the inside!

Check out all of those drawers! I'll have to find some way to cover the hole because I'm planning to get a new sewing machine and a new sewing machine won't fit in the hole. I'm looking for a little painting advice though. I have no idea where this guy will reside after we move (and move again) later this year. So should I go with a neutral color in case it winds up in our bedroom again or go with a fun color for an office/craft room? (I won't necessarily go with any of these colors, but I am liking the teal right now)

I plan on painting one of the fold-out sides with some leftover chalkboard paint so I can jot down measurements during a project! (Can you tell I'm excited about that part because I am!) I always end up using a tiny scrap of paper that gets lost sometime in the 3 weeks days it takes me to finish a project.

In other news I got some labels from Uprinting.com last week. I won a giveaway from Mrs. Yellow Ribbon (thank you!!) and got to make 250 free labels. I went with Christmas tags and it was fun getting to come up with a design. You pretty much start from scratch and can upload images and add text to the label.

(Umm no, they don't really say hubs & susan, but I want hubs to remain anonymous so you'll just have to trust that they look better in real life without my computer coverup job)

I love how they turned out! The tools they give you to work with are very basic, but if you already have a design created on your computer you can just upload the image and you're ready to go. We wrap our presents in brown paper every year and usually I stamp the to/from info on the package. I was excited to find a font that's kind of close to the stamps I used. Hellooo less stamping and more free time around Christmas!

So what have you guys been up to this week? And what color should I paint my new table? And what...just kidding, I only had two questions. : )

Hiking is hard

Hiking is hard. I could stop there and leave the post at that, but what fun would that be? We went to Yosemite for the long weekend.  As I'm starting this post on Tuesday, I'm still so tired I can hardly think. Not sure how physical tiredness translates into mental tiredness, but somehow it does. Or at least that's what I'm going with.

Let me just give you a run down of our epic hike to the top of the highest waterfall in North America. First of all, when the little guide thing says "Strenuous to Very Strenuous" they are not joking around. At all. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape since I run 3-4 times a week and lift weights 2-3 times a week. Apparently that really doesn't translate into being in good shape for hiking.

The start of the trail is a bunch of zig-zags going up. Like a whole bunch. Then there's some not so zig-zaggy sections. Some of which have waterfalls going over them. I was wishing for some waterproof shoes, but with Hubs' help I managed to keep my feet dry by stepping on rocks that stuck out of the water.

Then more zig-zags, but this time with snow! At this point I'm realizing my narrative makes it sound much easier than it was. When I was desperately hoping to be done we were getting close to the top we asked some people how close we were and these people were NOT being totally honest. I don't even know how many almost there's I heard before we actually made it. Seriously people, one more hour does not qualify as "almost there"!

Hubs was euphoric over the scenery and snow while I was still thinking about the lady that passed out on the trail and hoping I wouldn't be like her. The snowy landscape was very pretty, although I wasn't enjoying it quite as much at the time since we'd just hiked for over 3 hours. Near the end of the trail you have to walk across a ledge with no outside rail to get to the overlook point. I wish we had taken a picture, but as you can imagine we were pretty focused on not falling off. I attempted to create a paint rendition of the scene, but my paint skillz are even worse than normal right now so you'll just have to imagine. Here's a view from the top of the falls - right before it goes off the edge.

We headed back down, which was easier than going up but still took a long time. 

By the time we finished we were completely out of food and water - yeah, didn't plan ahead very well. We headed to the little grocery in Yosemite village for some ridiculously overpriced snacks and water. Then we just had to find the car. And, oh yeah, it was completely dark outside by this point and we weren't 100% sure where we parked.

Maybe you can imagine my energy level at this point. Let's just say my tank was close to empty. Funny thing about that is, you can be totally revived with some good ole adrenaline. As we were walking to the car, Hubs noted that it was probably not the smartest choice to walk to the car in the dark with a bag full of food since bears like food and there are bears in the park. I think we could've won a power-walking race after that revelation.

Thankfully we didn't make any wrong turns and managed to find the car without a problem (or any bear attacks). We did pack multiple flashlights, so we weren't that unprepared.

Even though I almost died up there was really tired, it is really cool to be able to say I hiked to the top of the tallest waterfall in North America. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go update my resume...
Susan - expert hiker, totally owned the tallest waterfall in North America. Hiked uphill, in the snow (literally) both ways. Also skilled at avoiding bear attacks.


I have way too many pictures from the weekend to only share those, so here are a few more! And I can't take all of the credit for these, Hubs took some of them. : )

Weekend Recap

10,000 baby!! Yep, I ran a 10,000. Oh, make that a 10k...I guess the whole k=1,000 thing doesn't really work when the k is supposed to stand for kilometers, haha. (It's ok to roll your eyes, I know it was corny.) My running buddy and I ran a 10k on Saturday. So far, every time I've run with her it's the farthest I've ever gone, including race day. I think it's safe to say she pushes me!

It paid off though because we ran the whole way and she said we even came close to a personal best for her! Our final time was 1 hr, 58 seconds. We even had some supporters cheering us on at the finish line. A couple boys from church came with signs, isn't that sweet?!

Can you make out the two people running at the top of the sign? After our race they had a few short kids races, which were fun to watch. We were all standing around chatting after and they were calling out the top 3 finishers in each age category. I wish someone had taken a picture of my face when they called my name. I was shocked. Like jaw dropping to the floor shocked.

Somehow I placed first for the females in my age group. I was definitely excited! (Although still shocked and thinking there must've been only 3 people in my group for me to have placed). I was standing way too far away from the podium to make it up there before they started the next age group, so I went to the table to pick up my medal.

Unfortunately they accidentally gave it to someone else. So you'll just have to take my word for it that I won because there are no pictures. They said they'd call me and get me another one. Also, I have several witnesses that will tell you I really did win hehe.

I know you're pretty much at your excitement threshold after reading of my 10k victory, but I still have more. Because that was only Saturday! And Sunday was our 2nd anniversary! I didn't really think of this when planning the wedding, but having our anniversary near Memorial day was a really good idea : ) We're going to Yosemite next weekend for the long weekend. We've never been and we're excited!

For the actual day Hubs got me a great bouquet and a bunch of my favorite foods from TJ's. He also got me a big ruler for my new cutting mat aaaand a rotary cutter! And some smart wool socks (have you tried those? they're great!).  We also went out for dinner and a movie. It's always fun to hang out with Hubs and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!

Hope everybody had a good weekend!!