Where's Derek?

It's been a hot minute since I've posted, partially because absolutely nothing has happened in regards to the renovating of our home, and partially because a LOT has happened outside of the renovations.

I officially hit my one year mark as an insurance adjuster. In some ways it feels like it's been an eternity and in others it feels like I was teaching yesterday. In one year, I was sent to Boston twice, I got a bonus, I got 2 raises, I got promoted, and I made $840 in prizes. In 5 years of teaching, I got a crummy key chain flashlight.  The corporate life is pretty rad.

I've also recently joined the board of the Orlando Runner's Club. It's been great having an influence on the direction of the club, and helping to make the club better. I also became the official tent person, so I'm at just about every race in existence. If you're doing a race, feel free to stop by and say hello!

Since I have to wake up early and go to these races, I've been running them too.

So.... basically all I do now is work, run, and do stuff for the runner's club.

With 46 days until Christmas, I've also done a little "home improvement."

But wait! Where is Derek's logic and practicality keeping you from decorating before Black Friday? And, hey! All those running photos are selfies. Where is Derek??

 Hmmmmm......

Not here

Not here either

Not here

 So where is Derek? Who knows! Derek is on a new adventure, and this is how he's getting around...

Yup! Derek is a truck driver! He works for a truck owner that is contracted with FedEx Custom Critical. He doesn't deliver your mail. Custom Critical handles high priority loads that require special handling and quick delivery. And he's also not in Orlando. Heck, he's not even in Florida! He delivers all across the country and in Canada.

I generally know what state he's in, or which state he's headed to, but I don't always know where he is. So the next time I show up stag, and you ask, "Where's Derek?" Don't be surprised if I don't know, or if it takes me a few minutes to think about my answer.

Next blog (and I swear it won't be forever until it's posted, because it's already started): Trucker FAQs Answered by Everybody's Favorite Trucker, (that you didn't even know was a trucker until you read this) Derek Goodfriend! If you have a question you want answered, feel free to let me know so I can add it to the blog before it's finished.

Wallpaper Free Zone

It's official, we live in a wallpaper free home, and it only took 2 years and 3 months to do it! Most of the wallpaper removal took place in the first few months of owning our home, but the pesky polka dotted elephants did not want to vacate the premises.

The brilliant previous owners decided that instead of removing their elephant friends, they should put another, indistinguishable, wall paper border over them, and then, when tired of said indistinguishable border, paint over both layers of wallpaper. Brute force removed about 75% of this wallpaper. I basically discovered that if I jab the scraper below the paint, I can peel back the paint and both layers of wallpaper all the way down to the original wall texture. Unfortunately though, this did not work for all of it, and the remaining 25% was widdled away miniscule bit by minuscule bit. Now I am a woman who is motivated by progress and results, and this, having extremely slow progress and small results, lead to extremely low motivation, and thus, it remained 75% done for a very, very long time. That's where this comes in...

This beauty is a clothes steamer a friend purchased for $5 at a garage sale and no longer wanted. It was suggested that perhaps this would help us, and boy did it! That sucker got so hot the paint turned to a weird elastic-like putty that could be peeled off, making the wallpaper below much easier to remove. In just a few days, the two of us took those polka dotted elephants from the endangered species list to the extinct list. Say hello to the Dodo Bird polka dotted elephants!

Since then, Derek took it a step further and smoothed out the walls to prepare them for texture and paint...

With step one of one major project completed, we got to thinking about our other projects. You see, Derek can be a little bit... unfocused. He comes home and if he's got time and is feeling well, he just picks a project and gets to work. That's all fine and dandy, except sometimes the projects he picks aren't really the projects that should have priority. For example, we bought paint 2 years ago, but have only painted the living room, and we still have bare drywall ceilings after scraping off the popcorn. These are priority projects. Derek's latest project is custom closets... not exactly the top of the priority list. So, we decided to sit down and make a list of everything that needed to be done. We used the home inspection report, and a walk around the house as a guide. Then we took all those things and prioritized it. The result, is the most expensive and exhausting list in the history of the world...

Needless to say, our foreclosure home is far from making the cover of Better Homes and Gardens. Little by little, though, it will get there. I may be 97 before it happens, but one day, this list will be complete.

The Post You've Been Waiting (Forever) For

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't blogged in
forever. We got super busy doing all sorts of blog worthy stuff, and
the more blog worthy stuff we did, the longer the next post had to
be. And the longer the next post had to be, the less I wanted to do it,
and the more excuses I came up with for not doing it. It has gotten
ridiculous. I haven't even blogged about my amazeballs Christmas party
yet. So, because it's been so long, and I'm rather lazy, here is a
semi-condensed version of life since my last blog post. Hopefully, catching
up will get me back on track.

December:

Our 2nd Annual Christmas Brunch was awesome, although the child to adult
ratio was seriously off. Next year I may put that kids are welcome to
come in a smaller font than the one that says the mimosas will be flowing.

Just in time for the party, Derek spruced up our guest bathroom. He repaired the holes in the wall, sanded and retextured the walls, painted, put in a new light fixture, a new medicine cabinet, and built a new cabinet complete with a new sink, counter top and faucet! The plan is to sand down and stain the original doors, but that project is still in the works.

Before- Don't you just love those
hand painted cabinets?

After

Christmas was great. We celebrated with family early, and got to see my
sister graduate from UM. I am ridiculously proud. It goes to show you
that as long as you believe in yourself, everyone else can shove it.

Christmas with Derek's family was especially special this year because
it was our niece's first Christmas. She's too young to get it all this
year, but having a child around for Christmas makes everything more
magical and special. Because we celebrated early, we were home for
Christmas, and decided to take our Christmas present to each other out
for a test ride. It was awesome!

 

 

January: 

My sister in law and brother in law went to Vegas and left me with my niece for 5 days. It was epically fabulous. 

While I was gone, Derek put up heavy duty shelves in the garage and got a good 70% of the junk off of the floor. We're no where near being able to fit a car in the garage yet, but I can now get through the garage while holding a load of groceries without knocking anything over, so I consider this major progress.

Before

After

I ran my second (and my last)  marathon with my best friend. It was such
an incredible experience to do such a difficult thing with such
a great friend. Unfortunately, I unknowingly pushed it a bit too far,
and that I'm combination with the fact that I slacked on strength
training and lost important core muscles, led to a pinched nerve that
causes my foot to go numb. Joy!

February: 

My sister visited in February, and she got a puppy while she
was up here. It was then that I decided that (1) I  would never get a
puppy-they're a ridiculous amount of work, and (2) I would never get
anything other than a shelter dog. Don't get me wrong, my sister's dog
is super cute, but I just couldn't dump that much money on a dog, when I
could save the life of a dog for way cheaper.

This was her puppy's 4th bath in the same day.
FYI- Puppies poop all over themselves.

In February I also took the sweet little boy I mentor to
Chuckie Cheese. I hadn't been there since I was an excited child, and I
knew it would suck, but damn, that place is hell. As you look around,
you see kids with looks of pure joy on their face. They're so excited
and so happy. And the you look up. There was not a single smiling adult
in the place. I'm pretty sure Chuckie was even frowning under his big
costume head. Even the adults there celebrating their child's birthday
looked like all the life and joy had been sucked out of them. I'm pretty
sure Chuckie Cheese is the 7th layer of hell. In the end, a day of pure
misery was worth it because my little love muffin exclaimed, "This was
the bestest day of my whole life!"

You're not fooling me Chuck

March:

March is always a busy and awesome month, and it started out with
the most important day of the year... my birthday! As is to be expected, I
wore a glittery dress and got hammered. Some things never change.

My birthday was, however, only the appetizer for the awesomeness to come in March.

In March I also got my first ever raise, and my first ever bonus! There
is no comparison to the awesomeness of corporate life. To top it all
off, they sent me to Boston for a week for training. It was the best
trip ever. Why you ask? Was it the free flight, room, food and corporate
card? Was it the fact that you got to visit a place you've never been?
Was it the in-freaking-credble training facility where you learned just
how awesome your company is? Nope. The best part of my trip was SNOW!!!
It was my first snow ever and I literally squealed with joy every time I
saw it. Everyone else saw it and groaned in disgust, as I stared out
the window, wide-eyed like a fat kid at an all you can eat buffet. From what I'm told,
none of what I played with was "real snow," it was just icy slush. But
that icy slush made me the happiest girl in the world. I made a snow
man, a snow angel, and had a snowball fight. The only snow related items
on my bucket list are to go sledding/tubing, and to see snow as it
falls.

When I got back from Boston, I missed my love muffin tons, so I took him
to the zoo. He's an animal expert and lover, so it was an awesome time.

 

After being home 6 days, I was off again! Derek and I went to Louisiana
to visit one of my best friends. It was awesome. I always love going
there. Louisiana is so laid back and not at all pretentious. While
there, I ran the Zydeco half marathon. Since my injuries from the full,
I've barely run at all, so I was scared that it wouldn't be pretty. I
half considered starting it with my friend, and a mile in having the
boys pick me up and then drop me off at mile 12. But I did it, and
shockingly enough, I didn't have to walk at all, and I felt pretty good
after.

 
After a few care free days in Louisiana we celebrated our anniversary
early at my favorite place in the world, Seaside, Florida.

If you've never been, put it on your list. It's a beautiful little beach town in the panhandle where they shot the movie The Truman Show. It was a relaxing little get away for us, which we enjoyed greatly. If you do go; however, I wouldn't suggest March. Apparently that's when the Spring Breakers take over. September-November, and May (with the exception of the last week) it is beautiful and quaint (and much cheaper).

April:

After only 2 days home, we were off again! Our niece Aliyah turned 1, and had the best party ever! We were so excited to celebrate with her, especially since her mom lifted the dreadful "No Hair, No Hair Accessories," ban for the day. ;)

It's been a great few months chock full of blog-worthynes, and, as always, there is more blog-worthyness to come! It's officially been 2 years since we became foreclosure homeowners, and, while I can't say we loved every minute of it, I can surely say it's been an adventure.

TWENTY SIX POINT FREAKING TWO

It's hard for me to completely comprehend the fact that it's true, but it is. I completed my first marathon. Here's how it went down:

The night before I laid out all my gear in sheer disbelief that the day had finally arrived.

I was really excited the morning of, but I still couldn't believe that I was actually about do to my first marathon. For some reason, even though I had been signed up for 10 months, and had been counting down the days since, I just couldn't believe that it was actually happening.

Pre-Race meet up with the ultimate marathon man- Seth

Mile 1: Everyone says that your first marathon is emotionally overwhelming, and I was waiting to be overwhelmed and start crying or something, but it still hadn't clicked that I was actually doing it.

The fact that it hadn't hit me that I was actually about to run 26.2 miles, my longest run by 4.2 miles, didn't initially bode well for me. I was feeling rather cocky, and was suddenly concerned about my time, which, I had decided before, would be a non-factor. In my cockiness, I decided that I wanted to finish in under 5 hours, preferably around 4:30 (which shows I suck at math, because my average half is 2:20+). So I started with the 4:30 pace group.

Where's Waldo? I don't know, but Simone is the
one with the sexy knee braces.

6 miles in I was tired, and it finally dawned on me that I'm doing a marathon not a 5k, and that the 4:30 pace group was not for me. I decided to stop struggling to keep up, and go at my comfortable pace because, ultimately, finishing was my goal.

Half way through it once again hit me that I'm doing a full marathon, and I instantly regretted my poor life choices. What the hell was I thinking?!? I could be finishing right now! But, the course for the Space Coast Marathon was my saving grace. The course is essentially a figure 8, so the half way point is a place for friends and family to give you a mid race boost.  

Thumbs up!

Mile 15: My first full blown wave of fatigue hit me, and I walked for the first time. I knew I would have to walk at some point, even though I really didn't want to. I was disappointed, but I was happy that I didn't have to walk until after the half-way point. I didn't walk much though because walking doesn't get you to the finish any quicker.

Mile 16: I poured water over my head in a futile attempt to cool off, and my right headphone, which clearly didn't agree with my cool down technique, stopped working. At least I had good 'ol lefty because without music, I cannot run! Having one headphone allowed me to hear the tell tale squishing in my shoes meaning that I was blister bound.

Mile 17: I started to get a little dizzy, and my stomach was a little sour. I attempted to remedy my fatigue with shot blocks and powerade, and I think that did my stomach in. But, I had to suck it up because I still had 9.2 miles to go.

Mile 18: In the blink of an eye, I went from being so hot that I was stopping at every water stop and pouring water over my head to uncomfortably cold. I had made my final turn and was heading to the finish. In honor of the runner's version of Murphy's Law, the turn lead to a head wind, which had picked up it's speed.

Mile 20: "Shit! I'm signed up to do this awfulness again in January!"

Mile 23: "Holy crap! Only 3 miles left! You've totally got this! There's only a 5k left, no more walking, finish strong, you can do it..."

Mile 23.1: "I can see the light. This is what death feels like. The Grim Reaper is next to me ready to take me with him. Screw this, I'm walking"

Mile 24: "This is great! Only 2 miles to go! No more walking! You can do this!"

Mile 24.1: "Ok, maybe I'll just walk once per mile for a little bit. That's not too bad. Plus the 4:45 pace group hasn't passed me yet. ...crap. There they go."

Mile 24.8: "Once per mile, twice per mile, I'm not doing this for time right?!?"

Mile 26: "I can see them, but they can't see me yet, so I'm walking until they can."

Mile 26.05: I started running again. I saw Derek. I was so close. I was so excited. And my Garmin died. Lame.

Mile 26.1: The last 0.1 of the Space Cost Marathon is on pavers and goes around the park where the race festivities take place. This is where it hit me. HOLY SHIT, I'm actually going to finish this. I'm really going to be able to say that I did a marathon. I mean, it's not like I didn't think I was going to finish before, because lord knows I would have crawled to the finish if I had to. But for whatever reason, it didn't hit me that I was actually going to finish until I hit those pavers. It was extremely overwhelming and I felt myself welling up.

The finish, 26.2 miles, 5 hours, 3 minutes, 17 seconds: Right before the finish I saw that Rose had come all the way to surprise me with a fancy, sparkly, wine decorated poster, and that, on top of the fact that I was actually finishing, did it for me. I cried tears of joy. I did it. I completed my first marathon.

Am I the only one who hates when the clock is in
my pic because it isn't my net time and makes me
look slower than I already am?

 

I was officially delirious. I had eaten 330 calories, plus 5 shot blocks, and a bunch of watered down powerade, but I had burned nearly 3,000 calories. On top of that I was freezing. I literally walked right into the lady giving out the medals, didn't even notice that she gave me my medal, and asked her about 4 times if she was the person who gave out towels because I was cold. I'm pretty sure she responded each time, but I was so delirious that I didn't hear or understand her, so she found the guy giving out the towels and wrapped one around me.

The ORC's post race after party is always my favorite part of the Space Coast Half, but I was so tired and hungry and delirious, I couldn't have cared less about the mimosas (yes, you read that right). I woofed down my french toast, had one mimosa, yes ONE mimosa, and then fought to keep my eyes open for some post race conversation.

Completing the Space Coast Marathon has been my greatest accomplishment. In the last 5 years I've gone from not even owning a pair of sneakers and never having seen the inside of a gym, to being 30 lbs lighter and having completed what I once thought was the impossible.

I signed up for this race as a "birthday present," to myself (Cruel really). Since my birthday, I'm on my 3rd pair of shoes, I've had several injuries and set backs, I've doubted myself millions of times, and I have run exactly 510 miles.