First Day of Snowboarding

So I headed up to Mt. Hood today with Megan and Trevor for the first day of snowboarding. It was a great one. It was somewhat busy, which can be a little frustrating. But I got over that because it was an absolutely beautiful day for snowboarding. It went well, "kicking the tires" it was Trevor said. I only had a few major falls, but I definitely got used to snowboarding again as it has been two years. I caught my toe edge with a decent amount speed on a trail and had a major face plant. Thank goodness I had a helmet on. It was hard enough that I actually cracked my goggles. Whoops. All in all it was a great day and I'm looking forward to the next one. Bright and early on the road....a little tired. I'm definitely not a morning person.

Megan excited for the mountainMegan and I on the mountain
Swedeens at lunch

Sad goggles with a crack. It was my lucky day because I got a pretty good deal on some new ones. (I owe you a new pair of goggles dad :) )

picture from one our last runs...so beautiful

Mountain here I come...

So i'm going to the mountain tomorrow for the first time this season. I'm so excited. The weather looks good and it should be a good day.I'm no Leslee Olson, but i'm working on it.

I'm so excited, I don't know if i will be able to sleep. So i took some benadryl.

Now I am going to go and read some "Breaking Dawn" and hopefully get some sleep soon.

Pictures from the mountain to come later.

In other news, good workout at the gym. Hopefully it won't make me too sore for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas. I can't wait to get off work and start the trek down to Corvallis. Hopefully the roads aren't too bad.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sad Day...

So I had some downer news given to me yesterday...My mom called to tell me that they had decided to put down our cat Charlie. She has been in renal failure the last few days, and just not doing very well at all. My mom thought she might be able to make until Christmas, but that is just not the case. Plus, being a part of a family with a nurse and nursing student we just don't believe in letting someone/something suffer. So my cat died yesterday and it is a very sad thing. I think it is just hitting me now. She has been our cat for 13 years, that first day when she "followed me home," or more like I picked her up and rode her home on my bike. (That was probably the best lie I ever told).

I'll miss you Charlie.

(I might post some pictures later, but I don't have any with me at the moment.)

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas....

Cristina and I pulling our friend Katie on the tire....It is a great workout. So this has been a crazy week with this weather. Even more crazy today...I don't think I remember the last time it snowed like this in Oregon. I feel like I am back in Idaho. My little Honda Cr-V is holding up well in this weather. For the first time I put the chains on my car today. You will be proud of me I did it right Dad.

So just a little gym update that I am super excited about...I did 19 pullups today and they felt good. I probably could have done more, but my hands slipped off the bar (it was a little scary for a moment). Anyways, super excited, and also excited cause Cristina got 15 pullups too.

Alright, well I'm going to go and sip some hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies on tv. I hope this snow stays around until Christmas, but not bad enough that it I can't drive home. I'm definitely looking forward to going home.

Happy Birthday Devon!

So it is my friend, Devon's birthday. In true blogger fashion, it is only appropriate to post pictures up of her in honor of her birthday. Love you Devon, hope that you have a great birthday!

sexy lady

fun times dancing

remember that saying...."Good friends who workout together, wear matching shirts."

Elves of Recreate 2

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elves of Recreate

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Holiday decorations...

Cristina and I decorated our house with Christmas decorations on Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun and our house looks all festive and wonderful. We even started a fire and worked on a holiday puzzle (which still has yet to be finished).

I know these pictures are a little late. I had a big blonde moment on Sunday night and left my camera at Scooters (shout out to Katie). Thank goodness people are nice and didn't actually steal it. So here are the pictures.
This picture is kind of blurry, but you can see the lights better.

Yay for Christmas!

Merry Christmas

O Christmas Tree

Today was a great day for hunting....Hunting christmas trees that is. Cristina and I had a mission to get a Christmas tree. We decided to go to a farm where you can cut down your own tree. Being a child who grew up in a house with a fake Christmas tree (which now I understand why, it is so much work for a real tree) I have never had the experience of picking out a tree and cutting it down. Cristina and I headed out to Beaverton with Megan strolled around and finally found one. So of course I am going to have pictures to document this adventure.

I would say this was part two of our partner workout today. cristina started the sawing off

megan helping outmy turni'm almost done...i guess we should have timed ourselves to see how long it would have taken...i guess there is always next year

we did it...team double troublewatch out cristina....saws are dangerous

hmmm....new workout idea?....christmas tree around the block?

Tips from Nurse Tiff

So you have a bloody nose or in my case my patient has a bloody nose. I tried and tried to get it to stop. It would stop, then she would cough and start bleeding again. Unfortunately my patient wasn't able to hold their nose and try and make it stop. I had to go into another room. So what is a nurse to do? Be creative. Apparently that is what tampons are made for. Yet, I put a tampon up my patient's nose so that I could go attend to another patient's needs. I went back into the room five minutes later, and low and behold the bleeding had ceased. So if you ever have a bloody nose, just stick a tampon in it.

(Clearly i have not slept enough. Sorry for the sleep drunk blog, but I figure i have those blog stalkers out there (I know who you are) who say i don't blog enough. So this is what you get.)

Gym update....

I figured I would do a little update on what is going on at my "crazy gym" as my friends from home like to call it. The workouts have been very hard/intense. As much as I complain during the workout, I still like it.

I'm excited...Tonight i push pressed 115. I PR'd by 10 lbs. It felt great. I thought I might be able to pull 120, but not so much. Still trying to keep up with Melissa who did 130! She is crazy strong.

Last week, I did a benchmark workout Fran with Amanda and Devon. We missed it a few weeks ago, so we figured we might as well subject ourselves to that torture voluntarily. Fran is 21-15-9 of 65lb barbell thrusters paired with pullups. I was somewhat nervous, but just thought of it as another workout, so I wouldn't psych myself out. Well it turns out I did much better than my previous time in July. I went from 10:36 to 7:30. Three minutes off....I know kind of crazy. I was super excited about it. So I guess I am actually making progress.

I participated in the Kettlebell certification put on by Steve Maxwell. It was an entire day filled with lots of good information about movement paired with lifting the kettlebell. I have learned some great tricks and tips for others. My squat improved greatly after this cert too.

Finally, Tina created a video of a bunch of us women from the gym progressing in our pullups. I'm so proud of the girls I workout with and Tina for making this video. Hopefully, she won't be mad because I'm going to repost it, so people from home can see and maybe get motivated.

What have I been doing for the last month?

1. Working lots and lots, maybe too much.
2. Attended a Kettlebell certification with Steve Maxwell...Learned some good information and went through an intense workout.
3. Went to a beaver game with Ramy, Ryan, and Cristina. Fun times.
4. Went home for thanksgiving.
5. Fun times at ground control.
6. Fun times with friends, as always.
7. Recovered from a pretty bad sprained ankle.
8. Who knows what else, but I have apparently been too busy to blog. Sorry.


the ladies hanging out

cristina and i at the beaver game

it was a beautiful day for the game....cal vs. osu....we won this time

strike a pose ryan

mark's excited

ryan and ramy

the ladiesthis is my good left ankle

this is my bad right ankle....damn danskos....its pretty much fine now, but it was not pretty at first

Thanksgiving weekend...

So after working three tough nights in a row, I headed over to the gym for a morning Thanksgiving workout. Thanks to Nate and Tina for being flexible and accomodating client's request for certain aspects of the workout, i.e. (ball slams, wall ball, running..., it was a tough night at work). After that I was awake, packed up my things and headed down to Corvallis. The traffic was not too bad.

I took an afternoon nap, and then enjoyed thanksgiving dinner with my family. I love the holidays and being at home.

My sister, mom, and I braved the crowds on Black Friday, and did some Christmas shopping. It wasn't as bad as i expected. I came away with some good gifts too.

Saturday was of course the big day....game day. I was super excited. My friend Abby had a huge tailgate, and it was nice to see everyone from home/high school. I then met up with Katie at her tailgate and had fun there. I then picked up Jenna and went back my parents house where we watched the game at home with my Mom.

Let's just say it was a very sad loss, maybe even a little bit embarassing. But it is alright, I'm over it.
Sunday was fam time.
I headed back home today. It was sad to leave, but nice to back at my own house. Katie and I wore our matching shirts Thanksgiving morning.Siblings on game day Sisters...can you tell?

High school girlfriends....Amy, Abs, Caitlyn, and I Katie and I before the game....nice face paint, true beaver fanRyan and I

Gina and I

Gina and Bill

This was before the game, but I'm pretty sure this was Katie's face after the game. It's okay Katie, there is always next year. Go Beavers!