Unspeakable tragedy

At about 4:30pm this afternoon I had just finished several hours slaving over a big project for work.  I resurfaced for a few minutes and logged onto Facebook....where every single post was about this...

’Pandemonium’: Witness accounts of the Boston Marathon bombing

I'm sure there isn't a single person at this point that hasn't heard about the tragedy that befell the poor people participating and supporting runners at the Boston Marathon.  First off, it's so tragic because of what happened- the lives lost, the numerous people injured, people changed forever after witnessing such graphic tragedy.  And then there is the secondary pain that every runner or fitness lover is experiencing who understands what the Boston Marathon really means to those competing.  You can't just sign up for Boston- you have to qualify.  Many people train for years to qualify then even more time to prepare for Boston and it's challenging and legendary course.  What should have been a time for celebration of a great accomplishment turned into a nightmare for so many.  The bombs went off around the 4 hour mark- what many would consider a good time for completing 26.2 miles.  Meaning there were still thousands of runners on the course, initially ignorant to what awaited them at the finish line.

When I first started watching the coverage, what had been a productive day quickly halted and there seemed to be nothing else more important then trying to make sense of what happened.  But, there is no making sense of such a terrible act.  All I wanted to do was curl up under a fuzzy blanket, hold my running shoes and cry for all those in Boston.

And then I saw a great interview that brought me to full blown tears.  It was a local interview of the Loyola College cross country coach talking about how running is accessible to everyone regardless of sex, age, ability, etc.  How it brings people together from all walks of life- joined by their mutual love of running.  The freedom, the wind in your hair, the glorious endorphin high.  It really had me appreciating everything that I have and that I CAN RUN.

So, that's exactly what I did.  I laced up my running shoes, and headed to the gym with Adrian and we ran.  Even though my whole body told me it didn't want to run- my heart was screaming that it was the only thing I could do.  And now that I pounded out a quick, easy run on the treadmill I am reminded again of the joy of running.  I am so grateful that I was able to enjoy it and think about all the people affected by the tragedy in Boston. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected.

New fruit find!!

O my goodness....this weekend I discovered one of my new favorite fruits- kiwiberries!  On a whim, I saw these in my grocery store, and thought- why not, I love kiwi, and these are marketed as an easy to eat version!

Kiwiberry!

After just one bite, I knew I was sunk- it just exploded in delicious, juicy flavor in my mouth!  They are sweeter then kiwis, and you can just pop them in your mouth like grapes! So, none of the annoying peeling that you have to do with a kiwi.  Unfortunately, they are expensive....this tiny little container with maybe 10 little kiwiberries was $4.99 (I think, either that or $3.99).  You might be reading that and think I'm totally bonkers for even purchasing....but then you might not fully understand my fruit obsession.  At any time, these are some of the must have fruits in my kitchen....

I love all melons, honeydew and cantaloupe are staples to me!

Berries are a great natural antioxidant!  Strawberries are a non-negotiable.

Grapes are such an easy and filling snack- my favorite is green!

Bananas are my favorite just woke up snack and post workout.  Brain food!

I love all apples, except Red Delicious. Not so delicious...

So yeah....and I didn't even mention the other fruit I have most of the time- pears, nectarines, and watermelon.  I also get mangos, clementines, and kiwis sometimes- maybe 1-2 a month.

My name is Colleen, and I have a fruit addiction.  The first step is admitting, right?  Well, I don't want to fix this particular ailment because it's great to be a fruit addict, just a bit expensive....


What's your favorite fruit?  Tried something lately? Share!

Settling back in

Ok, enough house talk for a while, sorry if I bored you guys with all that! It's been a really exciting couple months house hunting, then buying, and now all the work on the house itself.  I can't help but be consumed by it all!

It's starting to settle down a bit now that we are unpacking and most of our furniture has arrived.  We have some little projects left but as many people suggested- we need to remember to take baby steps!  It's hard to remember to take things slow when all I want to do is get everything done immediately.

This week has been a good workout week.  I've been alternating between elliptical and running for cardio, and my legs and lungs seem to like the variation.  I'm working on building up my mileage while wearing my Marrell Dash Gloves, which means my calves are super tight and I've been focusing on recovery almost as much as running. As I've learned over this journey, when I take things out of my routine that I know are important, like recovery, I quickly regret it.  I've been stretching not just at the end of my workout like usual but also after a quick warm up, which I hope will help with. I've also been adding in my three favorite/hated recovery tools:

Foam Roller

Massage Stick

Rumble Roller

I've been using both my high density foam roller and the rumble roller on different areas.  My IT bands can't quite handle the rumble yet- I'm working my way up to it, so I have been also including the massage stick on that area, and both the front and back of my calves.  But, my glutes- they LOVE the rumble.  I have been quite careful about foam rolling, though, because many of the rolling moves require me to hold myself up by my arms- which of course is challenging and can be painful.  Hence the extra massage sticking I have been doing for certain areas.  But, my glutes can never get enough foam/rumble rolling, they are always tight and in knots.

I also need to figure out a better schedule, that I can stick to consistently, concerning my strength training.  I've been trying to fit it in more, but it's been about once a week instead of the preferred 2-3 times a week.  I   know how important it is for not just my fitness, but my running training and ability to keep injuries at bay.  I will make it happen!

What is your recovery routine?

We've done a lot!

As we get settled into the new house, I've still been feeling quite overwhelmed by everything left to do.  I've really appreciated the comments and emails with advice on new home ownership, so thank you!  I have been trying to keep in mind the resounding theme- take it slow with repairs and don't do too much at once.

The big things that we have accomplished (aka our we rock list):

1. Changed all the outlets (except 3 in the basement, I will get to that this weekend).  In case you are ever thinking to yourself as you are painting....I can just paint over the outlets- DON'T!  These dummies painted over EVER SINGLE outlet in the house, some multiple times.  This is dangerous because paint is a conductor, so a simple spark can start a fire. The other giant pain is that the paint acts like glue on and around the outlet, so taking the plates off is a PAIN.  Yeah, imagine hours of razoring off paint and getting really frustrated....and that's just to take the plates off, then you have to replace all the conduits.  Kevin taught me how to replace the conduits which was awesome, but I would say overall we spent somewhere between 8-10 hours fully replacing 20 outlets on the main floor. Wowsers!  But they are no safe to use

It's a mess

2. Scrubbed the walls with TSP cleaner to get the tobacco streaks off it and prepped for painting.  O the challenges of buying a house from somebody who smoked... I'm grateful we had my Uncle John who answered all the MANY painting questions we had and guided us to this magical cleaner.



3. Painted. A lot.  2 coats of paint in the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallways, entryway, and master bedroom.  Aka the first floor minus 2 bedrooms and the bathroom.  The master was a lavender purple that Adrian hated (I love purple, but I get why he didn't like it- you can see it a little below) and the rest of the area was this seafoam green that definitely looked very dated.  We were work horses and did this in three shifts- a Tuesday evening (after work) for the first coat on the master bedroom, then all day Saturday and Sunday (with help from my brother!).  I am seriously impressed with Adrian and I for getting this done!

Adrian rocking the roller in the Master

4. Had the air ducts professionally cleaned and carpets scrubbed.  Wow, the difference in the smell afterwards has been profound.  I'm so glad we did it, even though it cost us a pretty penny.

5. Changed the locks. We still have 2 more doors to do, because we had some issues with the backdoor when we tried to change it on day 1.

6. Cleaned. And then some more....


Now that I've listed it out a bit, wow....we've done a lot!  Feeling better about how much we've done so far- we are awesome!

In fitness news, I haven't been able to fit in as many workouts as I like over the past 2 weeks, and I can feel the difference.  I gained a few lbs and it's down right annoying me because I keep making decisions that aren't the best, which just makes it worse.  My nighttime snacking has amped back up and I am having trouble controlling my snacking throughout the day.  I'm thinking of going off maintenance mode on WW and dropping my points back into losing mode to get myself back into the tighter control that I prefer.  I am all about the flexibility of maintenance, and part of that is going back into losing mode for a little if I need to.  Breath and reboot!


What great thing have you accomplished this week?

Moved in!

Wow, what a smooth move yesterday!

We ended up having a great group helping us- 8 people including my husband and I!  Totally incredible! My mom and brother came, plus 4 friends.  Unlike our last move which had lots of hiccups around our moving truck specifically, picking up the truck this time was easier.  For our last move- from Gettysburg to Middle River- we rented with UHaul and if you've ever rented with them you know that they don't guarantee a location and pickup time for their trucks.  Well, they don't tell you that before hand....so we ended up having to drive 50+miles to pick up a truck, and had to move back our move a couple hours as well.  That was after I pulled out some serious powers of persuasion and insisted that they would not only find us a truck but if we had to drive, they would also be reimbursing us.  Which they did....duh.  Since we were moving a bit far, we actually had two shifts of helpers- some in Gettysburg and then some from DE to help us in Middle River. Talk about a coordination nightmare!

Back to this weekend..... we went with Budget (and even found a coupon- score!), where you book a location and a truck along with pickup/drop off times.  Much more my speed and MUCH better customer service.  I was willing to pay more for a truck if it was guaranteed, but it ended up being cheaper then the uhaul I quoted- double score!  I did have to wait 30 minutes, though, because lots of other people were picking up, but it all worked out.  So, it was good that we planned for some wiggle room and asked everyone to come at 10:00 am, with the pickup having been at 9:00am.

So we ended up starting right about 10:00am and with Kevin's master packing techniques (he is very handy to have around for anything homeowner related, he's helped us so much), the truck was packed and we were on the road to our new place by a little after 11am! Amazing!  I'm not sure exactly when we left the old house for the quick 15 minute drive to our new place, but everything was in the house by 12:10am!



Seriously, I don't even think there was a moment where I felt stressed.  Perhaps for a few seconds when I wasn't sure if everything would fit on the truck, but it all worked out.  Everyone even chipped in with a few other things that we needed some help on after we finished the move.  My mom herded the boys outside to rip up the old carpet in the porch because it was REALLY nasty, while I stole Kevin to help figure out why we had two flipped breakers after changing a bunch of outlets.  With some research and checking, we got it all figured out- wahoo!  And the yucky carpet is now rolled and ready to be taken away.  Now we just have to scrub the floors and paint the disgusting siding and walls out there.  The screened in porch is where the previous home owner did the majority of his smoking and wow.....it's gross.  The walls are yellow from the tobacco and the carpet was smelly and badly stained all over.

We were able to get to the old house yesterday by 3:30pm ish and were all cleaned and out of there in less than 2 hours!  What a busy and productive day!  We enjoyed a nice celebratory dinner out before we unpacked a little of the bedroom.  We unpacked a bit more today and I feel like we made a good amount of progress! The best thing about unpacking this time....this is it! We are really unpacking for real, not just for a year or two, but we are settling in! It's really exciting to be able to know that, :)

And since I can't just skip over the importance of today for those that celebrate it, including myself- Happy Easter!  I checked out a new church today that my OT (hand therapist) recommended, and I really liked it! It's a nondenominational church and I really enjoyed the very contemporary and casual service.  I also felt very welcomed and an instant part of the congregation, which I haven't felt in years.  I've tried a couple of different churches over the years, but have never felt connected or particularly welcomed.  I don't know if this will be the one, but I am hopeful.  And as if that wasn't enough- it's a block from the gym.  Definitely a sign, lol!  So, of course, I headed to the gym for a workout after church.  A perfect morning before oodles of unpacking!  And much more unpacking to come.....

Busy week

Wow....this week has been Insane with a capital I.  And unfortunately not the kind of Insanity with Mr. Hotness himself, Shaun T.

The early part of the week was planned out to be smooth and organized....until we got a random spring snow storm that dumped 3-4 inches of snow on Baltimore in one foul swoop on Monday morning....then was melted by the next day in a soupy mess.  Tuesday I had so much going on all day- lots of appointments and errands, and tons of work on top of it to prepare for two big, back to back workshops on Wednesday and Thursday.

Luckily, the most important thing that needed to happen before we moved in, did- we got the air ducts and carpets cleaned!  Although it is done, it didn't go as smoothly as I was expecting.  As the tech walked through the house with me to inspect the vents and carpets he noticed one thing throughout- MOLD.



Yeah, just hearing that word set me into a panic in record time.  He pointed out mold all around the air conditioner unit, which is an air duct system.  He explained how since it was at the entrance, it was throughout all the air ducts and could be contributing to the stale smell.  Fanfreakingtastic!   Then he also pointed out some stains on the carpet throughout the house that looked suspiciously like mold.  He wasn't certain, but explained that if the stains did not come out, then it was in fact mold.  The more he walked through the house and inspected the carpets to decide on chemicals and scrubbing, the more I heard dollar signs.  What I thought would be a $200 visit quickly because over $800!!  But, he said he could guarantee that the smell would be gone with the microbial chemicals he recommended in the air ducts.  I know it might seem like madness, but having that assurance that the smell would be gone was worth the extra money in my mind.  And then, he finished and I came back to inspect it.....and it smelled so clean! Like a new, freshly cleaned house!!  The real test will be tomorrow when we go back and smell it after the carpets have dried and the chemicals are aired out a bit.


So, having that completed, yesterday and today I co-facilitated an 8 hour workshop each day with a colleague of mine from Virginia.  If that sounds exhausting to you- I assure you, it is!  That much time not just on your feet and teaching, but being on point is taxing on your body physically and mentally.  My boss was there for my session today, after having flown in from Portland, OR!  This added some extra pressure to perform to the best of my ability, but I feel fortunate that I have a good relationship with her already.  We connected last night after my first workshop.  What I thought was going to be just a quick dinner after the workshop, turned into getting manicures then having a leisurely dinner and walking around the Arundel Mills mall. Yeah, I didn't get home till after 10:15pm!!! And I had left the house at 8:30am that morning.  Long day!  I wasn't expecting to be out so late, so I had planned on working out after dinner with her, which obviously wasn't an option that late.  Having said that, it is rare that you get to spend that much one on one time with your line manager, especially in such a casual setting, so I jumped at the opportunity and really enjoyed myself. I had fun!

Today was the big session in my main market, with the teams that I've been working with for the past 3 years.  I DOMINATED it!  I received some very helpful constructive feedback and some incredibly uplifting positive feedback about my facilitation skills.  I'm really proud of myself for doing my best today and showing my boss one of my true strengths of a job I love. I LOVE facilitating.  I get a high from doing it well, and really enjoy seeing others get that "light bulb moment" when something really clicks.  :)  It feels good!



After tearing everything down from the workshops, and hoarding some more boxes that we could use to pack, I took my boss to the inner harbor and we had a delicious, truly Baltimore dinner- at Phillip's.  It was delicious food, good company, and I managed to get home a little earlier- 8:30pm.  I had my workout clothes in my car again, but I was having trouble staying awake long enough to drive safely home so opted to get home asap and give my exhausted body a break.  Although I feel weird having skipped two workouts in a row, and unplanned to boot, it was a rare situation and I will kick my butt tomorrow- no doubt.  I'm thinking a run, some elliptical, and legs and abs strength training.  Good times indeedy :)


So, with that I bid adieu because tomorrow I have so much work to do after my big workshop and then, we have to finish....packing!!  And somehow I WILL fit in a long and killer workout in there.  I can't believe we are moving on Saturday!!  Excited and nervous, but so ready to move into our new home!


What tips and tricks do you use while moving to make the day run smoothly?

New House!!

This year so far has been down right madness!  This year already, we've vacationed in Disney, gone to NYC and seen Tom Hank's Broadway debut (Lucky Guy), I've reached lifetime with Weight Watchers, and last but certainly not least....


WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!



I can hardly believe that is OUR house!  We settled on March 15th, just a week ago!  Leading up to it, we were so consumed with making sure everything closed on time and properly that it was hard to believe when it actually happened and we had the keys in our hand.  There was some small hiccups along the way, but overall it was a very smooth process- especially when compared with some friends' bad experiences.  The major issues we are dealing with now are because the previous home owners....well, they kinda sucked in some ways. lol.  They were smokers, who luckily didn't seem to smoke much inside (thank goodness).  The smell is concentrated in the porch, but the whole house also just smells stale and faintly smokey.  We cleaned the walls with TSP to get the minor tobacco streaks off and painted the majority of the main floor.  I'm praying that will make a difference, because we didn't paint the 2 other bedrooms.  We can obviously always double back and paint them as well, but we would rather not if we don't have to.

The other majorly annoying thing they did was paint over every single outlet.....yeah.  Not just the cover but the entire outlet juncture, making them unsafe to use and in need or replacement.  Kevin came over with Cibelle Saturday and showed us how to change them, thank goodness!  It helps to have handy friends!  It's not too bad once you get the covers off, but that is easier said then done because the paint acts like glue to the outlets, and it took many hours to cut off the covers.  I unfortunately blew two fuses on the breaker box so I need to figure out which outlets I did wrong and fix them, and then figure out how to replace the fuse.  Yeah, Colleen is still learning, people!

I am so proud of us, because we have accomplished SO much so far- and have some hand sores, destroyed fingernails (holy in need of manicure, it's insane), and achy bodies to prove it.  David, my brother, helped us paint today which was amazing!  Not only was it great having an extra pair of hands helping, but he is also great company and it was good catching up with him.  I can't believe how many awesome people are lending a helping hand next weekend with our move as well- I hope that means it will go quickly, smoothly, and I won't have to lift anything and make my arms worse.  According to my doctor, I need to only be directing people and lifting no more than 10 lbs at the max- but preferably not anything.  I can say after Saturday's day full of painting, wow was I in pain, I need to take the doctor's advice.   I'm so grateful that today I didn't have to paint nearly as much- I don't know if I could handle another painful night like last night.

It's also amazing how many calories painting burns! I didn't have time to workout Saturday or today, but my handy Active Link told me I earned 6 activity points Saturday and 3 today! Sweet!


What awesome words of wisdom can you give a first time home owner?