Lifestyle

Hello Again

Hi There,

Whew! I think typing the title and getting started was the hardest part of this post! So again, Hi! I know, I know. It has been a long time. I appreciate everyone who has stuck around or visited for the first time in my absence. To those of you who found me via my guest posts that have popped up here and there, welcome!

It has been such a long time since I last posted, I am not sure where to start with giving you an update. I think the best strategy is to just keep typing and see what pops up but I will try hard to organize this as best I can.

Life in General Update: I last posted in October before Halloween so…since then I started a new job (more on that later). In November, we celebrated my sisters birthday and I celebrated a birthday where I turned 31! I celebrated with my family on the Saturday before  my birthday with dinner and a hockey game. The day of my birthday, which happened to fall on the day before Thanksgiving, was spent prepping for the holiday and enjoying a home cooked dinner. December was a blur of work and Christmas. January was celebrated by buying myself a new car, my first big adult purchase! February we celebrated my mothers birthday and D’s  (formerly known as my main squeeze but this is easier!) Birthday along with Valentine’s Day. D (the main squeeze) and I kept Valentine’s day low key this year and opted to eat dinner at home and watch a movie. I am not going to lie, I lucked out big time in finding a man who will happily cook for me!

Love Update: I am still happily in love with the man of my dreams. We will celebrate 2 years of this adventure we call life together on April 20th! Since October, D and I have been on a multitude of adventures. The biggest adventure we are planning for is our trip to San Antonio in May to attend D’s graduation! This will be my first plan excursion since I was a little kid so I am a little nervous but really excited!

Health Update: This one is a little odd to share but I figured since I am still currently dealing with this, I should share it. Asthma wise, I am doing well. Unfortunately, I am dealing with a bit of an enigma health wise. In February, I had a bacterial infection in my ear that I was put on antibiotics for and it cleared up within a few days. However, on the last day of treatment for that I broke out in a strange rash that was just on my shoulders, face and neck. I wound up at Urgent Care on Friday, March 2nd since I was concerned what might be causing it. Antibiotics cleared it up within 2 days. Or so I thought! Friday at work a co-worker mentioned to me that it looked like I was getting a flare up of the same rash. Her comment was correct and by Saturday morning I had a full on breakout going on. Since I had already paid for and planned on running a 5k on Saturday morning, I Chose to still attend since the rash does not cause me any discomfort. The race went well and I showered and tried some Aloe Vera on the rash after that. Since that had no affect and I felt that the rash was affecting my throat on the inside, I ventured back to Urgent care today to try and figure out what is going on. This doctor is/was a little baffled by exactly what is causing this rash. He chose to put me on a steroid (the third burst of it within 3 weeks!) to see if that will help it clear up. He is under the impression that the main culprit of this rash and its flare up seems to be stress. Which leads me to my next update, my job.

Career Update: I will admit, my job is awful and the amount of stress that I am under on a daily and weekly basis has been astronomical compared to other stress in my life.  I started this position at the beginning of November and in the beginning, I loved it. However, as the weeks went on, my boss quickly started showing their true colors and the experience has been less than wonderful. There have been many nights spent crying in D’s arms or in the shower after hard days. It has been a unique experience and not one that I have had at any of the previous jobs I have had and not something I feel I can continue to do for a long period of time. However, the thought of quitting is stressful in itself. But in the long run,my health is being effected and that scares me. This is something I do wonder about because honestly, I do not know what I want to do career wise. There are fleeting ideas but not anything concrete that sticks in my mind as something I WANT to do. Ideally, in a perfect world, I would blog full time and freelance on the side and/ or work as a virtual assistant. These are things I have looked into but it is scary to take the leap!

Running/ Working out/ Weight Loss Update: My relationship with running is so love/ hate these days. Working full time has had a definite impact on my running and working out. I know, I know…people who work longer hours and jobs that are more difficult still find the time. However, for me personally finding the correct balance of eating health has been hard. In October, I ran two 5k’s- The Corner Store Country Run and the Sparkys Challenge. Both were really fun events and I had a wonderful time getting out there. I am planning on doing reviews soon for both of those events. In November, I ran 3.1 miles on my birthday to commemorate turning 31. December, no races or running took place but I did go hiking a few times. January started with the best of intentions but soon fell off. February, a few hikes but nothing worth documenting specifically. This month I had to skip the MDA Walk , which made me extremely sad because that is a race/walk I have participated in for a few years now. Yesterday I participated in the Run To Fight Children’s Cancer 5k which was a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful! As for weight loss we are stuck on a plateau. However, I have spent today contemplating how I can effectively move on from here and adjusting my attitude to help meet my goals. With my big trip coming up in May to Texas, I am actively focusing on what I would ideally like to look and feel like while on that trip. It sounds weird I know but I am a visual person and this helps. One way I have been actively visualizing is that I picked a dress I would like to wear to D’s graduation. The visual of it helps me focus on the changes that I need to make in order to feel good about myself while wearing the dress of my choice.

I think that catches us up on the important things that have occurred and brings us current with life. What about you guys?

What have you been up to?

Any fun vacations planned?