So much to celebrate, part 1!

What an amazing past few days!  There has been SO much to celebrate, especially with my wonderful sister getting married to Michael!

The progression went something like this....

December 21st-  Fun "end of the year" party- aka the world is still turning party at Bill's.  Oodles of fun, especially playing many rounds of Catch Phrase, lots of good conversation, and some tasty chili dip. Yumm

December 22nd-  Was able to get in a nice hour long stationary bike workout at the gym before heading into Newark for manicures with the bridesmaids! It was a lot of fun and we all got lovely french manicures.  We then headed to the church for the rehearsal which went quite well.  I drove with Molly, Brianne's roommate, who is a really sweet girl and I'm glad I had the opportunity to get to know her a little better.  Adrian was hanging out with a friend so, he met up with us for the rehearsal dinner.

It was an amazing rehearsal dinner- really well put together by Michael's parents! It was held at Deer Park Tavern in Newark and we were all super impressed with the food and how well it was decorated and put together.  Here's a few pretty pictures from the event...

The happy couple!

The family

Soon to be sisters!

December 23rd- WEDDING DAY!!!  It was simply amazing.  I could write several entries about this day but instead a quick summary....it was wonderful to see two people so genuinely and joyously in love proclaim their love publicly.  I'm so proud of both of them for putting this all together, it was such a beautiful wedding and I felt blessed to be a part of it as the matron of honor.   We started off the day with some great up-dos at a salon in Newark, and then had a blast getting all gussied up at the church and ready for the big moment when they would say I do.  Here are some pictures to better illustrate the day....

Everyone looks so lovely! :)

The kiss!

So happy!

She got him!

Cousin love!

With the happy couple!

With Jen C

With my mom and Suzie, Mike's mom

Dancing the night away!

So much family fun and dancing!

Adrian and I after all the festivities!

And since I've adequately photo bombed you for the night....I will update more later.

Hello from Long Island!

Hello again from another airport! This entry is from ISP, the Long Island, NY airport.  I'm trying to kill some time while I wait for my flight, which was delayed an hour this morning for some reason- probably weather related at a different airport.

The weather was really crazy this morning....wild wind and lots of rain.  Made the roads dangerous and us get started a bit late waiting for everyone to arrive.  But, the EXCEED session today in West Babylon went off without a hitch today, and even ended a few minutes early! I love when I can wrap it up early and still get the full impact.  It's nice for the associates attending but also me!

There has been lots of continued stress over the past 3 days....continued delays at each airport which involved waiting on the tarmac, some issues at each conference room, and a TON of driving.  I drove over 500 miles total between Wednesday and this moment.  Yeah, that's exhausting in case you weren't sure.

I can PROUDLY say that I did NOT turn to food to help cope with my stress.  I had tons of opportunities with all the trail mix and M&Ms that were abundant in my sessions.  But I left them in the trunk after I left each one and munched on fruits and veggies instead on my LONG drives.  My "dessert splurge" last night was a fiber one 90 bar, a little individual packet of peanut butter (less than 1 Tablespoon) and a 100 calorie pack of pistachios.  Delicious treat and healthy.  I had more opportunity to go crazy at each of my hotel breakfast lineups because they both had my Achilles heel when it comes to bread....biscuits....

Tasty devils

Biscuits aren't quite the same as stuffing for me....but I LOVE biscuits and they really provide little nutritional value and pack a lot of points in, so I try to stay away.  Like those yummy cheddar and garlic biscuits that a few restaurants serve....very tempting and hard to pass up. Yummm

Instead, for breakfast yesterday I had a couple tablespoons of oatmeal (it was kinda blah, I had to mix some walnuts in just to make it tolerable), a small scoop of scrambled eggs, and a banana.  Then today I had an egg white omelet with lots of veggies and no cheese (eek gad, crazy I know!) with salsa on top.  I love when hotel's have omelet stations- so awesome! I also went to town on some melon and pineapple.  Y'all know I love melons of all kinds! ;)

I also tried out the recumbent bike with my darn foot on Thursday morning.  Although it's still quite painful to walk in any type of sneaker, I was able to get through a 30 minute workout on the recumbent bike- thanks to a good book to keep me company.  I repeated that again for a 35 minute random hill workout this morning on the recumbent   Also did my progressive clamshell sets (make glute work) and some nice, hard ab work.  I always feel better after a good sweat.  It's vital for my sanity.

My foot this morning. Ouch!

Since the world has officially not ended....we are celebrating tonight with a formal party at a friend's house- I can't wait!  Now I just have to get my butt home and figure out which dress to wear....

Just breathe

I am sitting here at BWI airport feeling like I am about to come out of my skin in frustration.  So I thought maybe writing about it would be constructive and help me calm down.

So you know already about my stupid foot.  Which is presently being elevated on my suitcase.  My doctor would be so proud.... It's not very painful anymore but I am still limping a bit and am supposed to minimize impact on it for another 2 weeks.  Can I just- 2 WEEKS!?!?! REALLY?!?!

Ok, breathing.

Yesterday, on my way to an EXCEED (4 hour client experience workshop) session that I was facilitating in Germantown, MD (think DC area) I got into an accident on I-95.  It was minor, luckily nobody was hurt and it wasn't my fault.  There was heavy traffic, I had to slam on my brakes and the car behind me didn't stop and rear-ended me.  I actually did feel a jolt from the impact and there is a little damage on my bumper from it.  Her car though, looked pretty mangled. Yay for my Honda to the rescue!  Because of getting hit, I then hit the car in front of me.  Luckily the other two drivers, both women, were very nice and friendly and we quickly exchanged information.  Then one said that since the back car had to be towed, we would all need to wait because the police needed to be called and a report written up.  Fantastic.  So 45 minutes later we are finally all leaving.....and I am about 20 minutes late to my session and still have to set everything up because I'm the one leading it.  On a side note, I will say that Geico is really easy to work with around claims- I was very impressed with their speed and professionalism.

thanks Geico!

After the first 20 minutes or so of feeling guilty and upset for being so late (even though it wasn't my fault and I was all set to be there 30 minutes early actually), I got into a groove and started having fun like I always do during EXCEED.  This is no doubt my favorite training sessions to give and I know it like the back of my hand.  That makes me very good at it, too.  I'm not bragging- it's just the truth, and I've heard it from several associates that I've never met before in different markets.  I just facilitated two sessions in the NJ market and received several acknowledgement emails from the associates that attended which made me feel really special. :)

So....after the session I had a conference call, had to stop by a hospital to deliver some supplies (I won't have to do that again come January 1st!), and then picked up Ding to bring him to our local Banfield in White Marsh.  He has been scratching at his scar on his neck and has even opened up a new wound above it.  His fur is so thick that I just found it on Monday.  They did a fungal culture, shaved and cleaned the area, and gave him a depo shot to help with the itching.  He also needs antibiotics twice a day, which luckily can just be mixed in his food.  Poor Adrian has to take responsibility for that one since I will be gone from home in the NY market for 3 days.

Ding exploring in the exam room

In he goes! Glad he was having fun!

While I waited for him to get shaved and treated, I went to a weight watchers meeting since I won't have any time while in NY.  I was expecting a little gain because I had been sedentary for 2.5 days due to my foot.  What I wasn't expecting was a 3 LB GAIN!!!  I've been cutting down on my food to counteract my decreased activity so I was PISSED.   The meeting was ok, and I am glad I went because I need to stay accountable, but I was so frustrated the whole time it was hard to focus.

And now that brings us to today....My flight is now scheduled to leave at 11:10am as of the last update call I received.  It was supposed to leave at 9:30, arriving in NYC, LGA around 11:00am which gave me plenty of time to get my rental car, pick up snacks for the session, grab a quick lunch, and get all set up before the 1:00pm start at the location that is about 45 minutes from the airport.  Luckily, I just got a hold of the leader there who I am helping out by spending 3 days in her market delivering this training.  I will also be driving over 10 hours when all is said and done over the 3 days because I need to also deliver training near Ithaca, NY then come back to Long Island.  Basically- she owes me. Big.  She's a good friend and a great leader and I respect her greatly, so really she owes me nothing but maybe a strong drink. lol.

So, she is taking care of finding somebody that will be getting snacks there, I'm going to try to find some type of to-go lunch at this airport so it'll be ready to eat in the rental car on the drive to the location.  If you have ever flown into LGA you know it is a tiny, crappy airport with very little food.  And...we postponed the training to 2:00pm.  That means it will run 2:00-6:00pm.   Afterwards I need to drive nearly 4 hours to Ithaca. Fantastic, huh?  I'm so looking forward to checking into my hotel no earlier than 10:00pm tonight......Sarcasm people, sarcasm.

Understand perhaps why I am frustrated?  I will admit, that did really help to type it all out.  Just keep swimming....

Turn of events

I've been pretty much tearing it up the past couple weeks, as my last post indicated.  I continued to do so with a great elliptical workout on Thursday at the hotel gym.  I wanted to run as well but both treadmills were broken.  No bueno, hotel gym. 

Friday was a tough day....after hearing about the tragedy of the CT school massacre I really struggled to get into a mindset for a workout.  Like so many others, I felt like my heart was broken hearing about the tragedy of so many innocents losing their lives.  I hugged my husband and kitty extra tight when I got home, so grateful that those I love were safe.   My thoughts and prayers are with all those directly affecting by such an atrocity.

I eventually willed my unwilling heart to take a back seat to my need to get some relief in the form of a killer workout- Shaun T style.  I picked my favorite in hope that it would get me going.  I struggled through the first 3 minutes and almost turned it off, but once I decided to go past the first 1/3 of the warmup I was pulled into the sheer cardiac joy that is Insanity Pure Cardio.  There isn't much that I love more than working to my cardio threshold.  It just feels so good!

Saturday I killed it in another great spin class with Joe then after cooling down a little bit with some walking around the upstairs track, I did 10 solid minutes- aka a MILE on the treadmill in my Merrell's.  It felt great!

And then....Saturday afternoon....this happened....

Ouch!

This was after 20 minutes or so of icing pretty much immediately after it happened.  The long and short of it is- my big, beautiful, baby of a horse Indy Heir stepped right on the top of my foot.  It was the most excruciating and long lasting pain I can remember since I broke my rib falling off Tomecca.   This was actually more sharp because it was so pinpointed on one spot for so long.  When it initially happened I was in such shock that I pushed him away and nearly collapsed directly on the ground.  I somehow managed to keep my wits about me for the 30 seconds or so it took for me to move away from him and stumble painfully to the door of the stall.  My mom was there right away and helped me hobble over to the hay stack where I could sit down.  And that's where my hysterical sobbing and ugly tears commenced.  I saw Indy leaning his head over the stall door and breathing deeply towards me and trying to figure out what was going on, but I was in too much pain to reassure him. 

Mom helped me hobble back to the house- the whole time scolding me for not leaning on her at all.  Bonus of all my hard work- I can very effectively hop on one leg across the backyard even while cursing in pain under my breath.  Or perhaps cursing quite loudly at times... I elevated my leg and iced it until I stopped sniffling then finally took off my compression sock to survey the damage.  The great news was that I could wiggle my toes already so I had hopes that nothing was broken.  We went to Newark ER to get it x-rayed just to be sure- and we were correct- no breaks! PHEW!  I am very lucky it wasn't broken!

Foot now

The bruise has since grown considerably to cover over half my foot and change different colors as bruises do.  I have been diligent in utilizing the old R.I.C.E. rule:  Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  The doctor said elevation was the most important as well as icing so I have been doing both with ardent care.  I've also been wearing a light compression ace bandage which seems pointless but that's what the doctor said. 

Please don't missunderstand- I'm grateful that my foot isn't broken. It could be SO much worse. BUT THIS SUCKS!  It feels like every time I am in a really good groove something happens to derail me.  But I will keep going, because that's my only choice.  I love this life I have created for myself through hard work and dedication and I'm not about to let it slip away because I have a road block slammed in front of me.  I may have been set back again, but I will find the silver lining in this and come out stronger on the other side.... when I can walk without a limp again.....lol

I will press on!