I’m not sure how I feel about these pants. I liked them when I first bought them but now wonder if they are a little too “out there.” Oh well, it isn’t like too many people saw me running this morning at 5:45 a.m. Although, the time the sun rises has a direct correlation to the number of people out-and-about. If it would have been a dark winter day, I may have seen a total of two cars but now when it is already light when I go out for a run (The sunrise is at 5:11 a.m. right now.) I see ten times more people out-and-about.

Distance: 5 miles

Time: 43 minutes

Weather: Chilly, 38*F, rising sun, no wind

I spoke too soon about my favorite Essie nail polish. I claimed it stays on much longer than the rest, but it is already starting to chip—and has been for a couple of days. I don’t know why it didn’t stay on that well this time. Does our dry air have something to do with it? However, the last couple of times I’ve gone to get a manicure, they’ve rubbed nail polish remover over the nail to really dry it out before applying the polish because apparently it helps the nail polish stay on longer. Hmm. . . . .

Tonight for dinner I had a delicious salad with some Triscuit Rosemary and Olive Oil crackers. You must try this flavor of Triscuits, they are phenomenal.

I wanted to check in and give an update and an overview on life in general. I know I give snip-its here and there, but I wanted to consolidate all my thoughts into one post.

Work

As you may remember, last spring I quit teaching, took the summer off, and since August have been working in the home mortgage industry. I had absolutely no experience going into this job, but thankfully it was an entry-level job and they were willing to teach me everything!

Since starting, I have learned a TON about mortgages. Before I had this job, I didn’t even know what an escrow account meant and thought a second mortgage meant you own a second home—not that you had a second loan against the same house.

(The house that we stayed at while in Boston. It was the only house picture I had.)

I am fortunate to have made some good friends at work that keep it fun and interesting. We have fun sharing stories and bouncing ideas off each other.

But with all that, I took a HUGE pay cut from teaching. Thankfully Craig got a promotion at work so our income stayed about the same. However, it is hard not to imagine what we could do with a little extra dough. We are pretty savvy with our money so we are by no means hurting but of course it is hard not to want more. I am going to do a whole post on this topic later this week, so stay tuned.

And as much as I’ve learned, mortgages are not my passion. My passion has—and will always be—health/fitness/nutrition, etc. I hate being strapped to a desk all day pushing papers. I also feel like I am capable of much more!!

Running

All winter long I dealt with chronic glute pain. After several physical therapy sessions, I was able to get almost all the pain gone. I was given daily strengthening exercises to do and would go in for sessions of dry needling on a regular basis. Thankfully after about five months the pain finally went away. I am still doing the glute strengthening exercises because I do not want the pain to come back.

However, as that glute pain was starting to heal, my hamstring pain (which is located near the origin of the muscle—a.k.a. my horizontal butt crack) started to flare up. I experienced both right after I completed my week of running 105 miles. The hamstring pain came and went and now is more prominent than the glute pain. I am hoping to heal this hamstring pain with some strength training, icing, and stretching, but if it doesn’t clear up in a couple of weeks, I might have to go back to the physical therapist.

This is by far the longest I have ever been injured. I am so thankful I have not had to give up running completely, but I sure hope things clear up soon, so I can get back to running crazy 80/90/100 mile weeks.

I have a lot of races that I would love to run this summer, but I have only officially signed up for two since I don’t know how much my body will be able to tolerate.

Other than the hamstring pain, my body has been recovering very quickly since the Boston Marathon. I was incredibly sore for about 5 days following the marathon, but after that, I have been feeling great. The first week after the marathon I ran 22 miles, then 31 miles last week. This week I am hoping to run about 36 miles. From here on out, I should be able to quickly get back up to some higher mileage. I would love to be able to hit 100 miles again this summer, but I’m not holding my breath.

Life in General

As I’ve said multiple times, I am not a fan of living in Alaska. I was okay living here for about the first 13 months, but when that snow started to fly at the end of September/beginning of October, I was not a fan. At first everything was so new about Alaska. I was taking it all in and everyone kept telling me that I just had to experience my first summer here and then I would love it. Well, if you were here during the “summer” of 2008, you know how cold, wet, rainy, cloudy, and absolutely miserable that summer was! People often complain about last summer or the two summers before that, but the summer of 2008 will always be the worst in my mind. But then again maybe this is because I had such high expectations and didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Now I know I can’t expecting temps over 70*F and sunny days are few and far between.

For almost five years now, I have wanted to move but Craig has not. Craig was born and raised here, loves it here, and wants to stay the rest of his life. Plus he likes his job, makes okay money, and doesn’t want to move without a job because of the poor economy in the “Lower 48.” (Alaska wasn’t impacted by the bad economy like most states.) Our goal has always been for Craig to be the primary breadwinner and be able to support us so that I can be a stay-at-home mom, so his job is really important. We have tried—and tried again—to apply for jobs out of stated but we have not had any luck.

So we are kind of stuck. We briefly started looking for a house, but then I got cold feet and didn’t want to commit to living here. Although, I know eventually we have to move on and decide what to do instead of being in limbo-land forever.

It is hard, and I think about it and pray about it a lot. I am torn in many directions and want to make a good choice but also want both of us to be happy.

And now that we’ve ended on a depressing note, here’s a goofy picture from Boston to lighten the mood.