Haircut!

I got my hair cut last night, and I'm super excited.  I've been wanting to cut it much shorter again for a while.  It just gets so obnoxious while running when it's long; plus it gets pretty heavy.

Anyway, we were planning to go to "manna" last night (where we get free groceries and I get my hair cut), but we hadn't been in a while.  We were talking on the way over realizing that there was a possibility that they might be closed tonight without us knowing since we hadn't been there in a while.  We got there and it definitely was closed.  Boo.  We made a whole trip there and it wasn't open.  I still wanted to get my hair cut, though, so we drove around and looked for a salon.  We found a place that seemed fairly cheap (I've only paid for a haircut once since we got married prior to last night!), and decided to go for it.

When we were leaving, Jake said "You should have become a hair stylist."  I asked why, and he said "You just sit around and talk to people all day.  You'd be really good at that."

He must have forgotten that I just got my degree in counseling, where I DO sit around and talk to people all day.  And I don't have to learn how to do hair.  What a weirdo.

But I still love him for the sentiment. :)

It's hard to believe...

1. that just a week ago I thought my flowers were going to die.  I think they might be on round #2 of dying and re-blooming, but I'm still excited I have some petunias.  Hurrah!

2. that these bananas have gone from "too green" to "too many spots" without passing through an in between stage.  Seriously; look at them!  They skipped my eating stage!

3. that my husband can be rented out for only $5 each half hour and $12 max.  I tend to think he's worth more than $12.

4. that I really had to say goodbye to the Durkin family.  They're headed back to NJ now that Chris is done with school and has officially been offered and accepted a head pastor job.  I'm going to miss them and their beautiful children!  Abigail is such an awesome snuggle buddy and Ethan's constant turbo-speed is super fun to be around.

5. that I have halved my jeans size since beginning to lose weight.  I have lost 38 pounds to date, and apparently my body is still going.  I'd like it to stop though because yesterday I did another clothes update and realized that I no longer have dress pants that are my size- I didn't save anything smaller than that size.  I don't want to sound obnoxious, but I'm not really sure what I need to do to stop losing weight when I'm training for a marathon.  At least it's slowed down some.  I just can't afford new clothes!

6. that we are over 25% done with our official training program and 68% done with everything (pre-training included).  That's more than 2/3 done in total.  Jeesh!

7. that Sarah Loan and Sarah Soldner are so weird.  Ok, it's not hard to believe.  There will probably be more pictures of our visit with the Sarahs at some point and in some form.

The end.

Batting practice

It's really too bad for any horsefly that makes it into our apartment.  Jake and I have a habit of torturing them.  How you say?

We find a way to get them into our bedroom (smaller room) and shut all the other doors in there.  Then we take turns running around taking swings at it.  It's pretty funny to watch it get more and more "drunk" in behavior the more we make contact.

It's fair to say we love this game.  In fact, I emailed Jake earlier today to tell him that there was a horsefly in our apartment waiting for a Jake-and-Elizabeth rendezvous.

Yes, I am the same lady that talked about how it's great to have organizations that work toward the fair treatment of animals.

I just like torturing flies.  It's good for hand-eye coordination.

Bring it.

So I was just sitting on the couch with my planner and another book strewn across my lap.  Jake looked at me, laughed, and said "You've got your security blanket."

So I like my planner.  A lot.  And I look at it.  A lot.  I can look at it for a long time and it makes me feel better as I organize and plan in my head.

So maybe it is a security blanket to me.  :-}

Birthday Shout-Out 'N Stuff

My brother had a birthday last week.  He's pretty great.  He's got the sweetest heart and he's super funny.  Jake and I always have a blast when he's around and continue to laugh about things he's said when we're apart.  Sure, we have our arguments and we certainly don't agree on everything, but who does?  I'm so happy to have him as my big brother and I miss him like crazy.  Love you, Clay!

Randomness: My petunias are blooming like crazy again.  I'm really excited because I thought I killed them.  Not yet at least!  Phew.

I think I officially have an injury.  It sucks.  I'm limping around a lot and I think I am going to skip today's run, which was supposed to be 5 miles.  I don't like the idea of skipping, but I suppose if it makes me heal faster so that I can actually run later this week then that's good.  Saturday's run was absolutely horrible (long saga story there) and yesterday was pretty awful too since I was in pain and basically gimping all over the place.  Anyway, I hope it gets better quickly because I don't want to lose too much momentum mentally.  I really wish I could just skip working this week because being on my feet for 8 hours at a time doesn't exactly help (by the way, I work in apparel now instead of cashier... moving up in the world!).  I did change my availability though primarily so that I could have the weekends free for my counseling job, but it will also help for the long runs.

I'm really excited that we're going to a Rockies game tonight.  They're playing the Red Sox, which is a team I absolutely despise.  So it should be great fun- except that Jimenez is not expected to pitch tonight, so we can't exactly count on a win for the Rockies.  Cross our fingers!

Google guessing games

So, Jake just showed me a way to entertain myself.

Go to google and start typing a phrase and let it guess what you are going to type.  Here are some of my results of my search.

"When will..."
-the world end. (as if google knows the answer)
-I die quiz. (since there is a quiz out there that could accurately predict my death)

"Who should..."
-say I love you first. (Um, me.  I held his hand first even when he nervously declined my invitation.)
-I follow on twitter. (A reputable source to ask about these things)

"Why does..."
-my belly button smell. (Ew)
-my poop float. (Dude, not all of them are going to be sinkers.)

I realize that google tries to make guesses based on things you have searched for previously.  However, I can personally guarantee you that I have not ever typed those things into google.  There were also a ton of guesses that were related to pregnancy.  I guess there are a lot of people out there who have pregnancy questions they'd rather not ask their doctor.  That's a bit amusing to me.

Anyway, it's fun.  You should play too.

Adventures in the Rohde household

Jake: "I just farted and it's probably going to smell like sausage pizza."

Gross.  It did, too.

He only knew cuz he farted earlier with the same results.

Still disgusting, though.

PETA

So, I didn't get the job.  I was pretty upset about it since I had decided I wanted it pretty badly.  After quite a few tears, Jake and I decided to do a little food-comforting.  Where do I go when I want some food comfort?

Chicken nuggets.  From McDonald's.  Mmmmm.  I know a lot of people probably think they're gross, but I have a huge love for their chicken nuggets.  I don't really know why.  Speaking of McDonald's and chicken, did anyone outside Denver hear about what PETA was trying to do here?  They wanted to put a statue of the below image outside of McDonald's on the 16th street pedestrian mall (they didn't succeed).  The picture I found is actually KFC, since apparently they have a problem with how KFC treats chickens too, but this was the clearest picture I could find.

I just have to say that I am not a fan of PETA.  I think it's great that they want to make sure animals are treated well, but most of the time they do really stupid stuff.  Here's another example.

Last fall PETA found out that there was a Swiss restaraunt who was going to substitute human breast milk for 75% of cow's milk.  PETA apparently liked that idea, so they followed up by saying:

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

Wow.  Unless we've heard incorrectly, I'm pretty sure there is not a shortage of baby cows getting milk.  Jake also pointed out that by taking nursing mother's milk (and using the same logic as PETA), you are then creating a shortage of milk for human babies.  Good call on that one.  

Again, I really applaud the idea that we should care how animals are treated.  I just don't understand where PETA gets some of their completely erratic ideas.

The end of my ranting for the day.

Now I'm going to go run 6 miles.  Well, soon we will; it's raining outside and is like 52 degrees.  That's cold weather for running.  At least for me. :)

Mixed bag

I still really like the weather in Colorado.  Even when it's hot outside, it's not really that hot!  It's pretty fab-o!

Boo for clothes needing to be hand washed.  I just bought a couple things that apparently need to be hand-washed, and I didn't realize it until after I had purchased them and worn them.  I still would have bought them, but hand washing things is sad.

So boo to that.

I'm anxiously awaiting a phone call about a full-time job.  Not very patiently I might add.

We called to have someone come check on our dishwasher.  As soon as the dude came in, he was like "Man, what are you guys cooking?  I can smell it all the way outside and it smells the bomb!"  Too bad it wasn't ready to eat cuz we would have given him some.  I'm very excited to eat our chicken soup tonight.  It really does smell the bomb!

TMI

... so if you can't handle gross stuff, don't read this.

I think one of the worst feelings in the world is needing to go #2 while running.  I mean seriously; it's AWFUL.  I felt that way for the last 2 miles of my run, but the last 1/2 mile was by far the worst.  I just kept counting down the time till I was done running to encourage myself to make it through the discomfort.

My sunburn is still obnoxious.  My left thigh got burnt pretty badly and it started to blister- it's been peeling sporadically and actually feels really uncomfortable while running.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to remember to put sunscreen on my legs next time I'm outside for an extended period of time.

Yep, TMI.  But I had to say it.  Sorry.

Rafting

I indicated that there would be a rafting trip report... so here it is!

It was fantastic!  We had a great time.  Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from the actual rafting portion of the day because you have to buy a CD of pictures from the photographer and it was REALLY expensive.  Too bad you can't buy one picture- there just weren't that many stellar photos that stood out.  We did have a great time though and the wetsuit really made the cold water tolerable.  We certainly looked goofy, but we had fun.

We did go to lunch at the on-site restaurant after we went rafting.  Here is my aunt Jean, cousin Shannon, and my cousin Corey's half-sister, Gentry.

And the other side of the table.  Here's my uncle Bryan and cousin Tommy (who apparently doesn't like pictures... or maybe was just hungry- I'm not sure).

After lunch we headed back to their campsite and went swimming for a while (where I proceeded to get extremely sunburnt on my legs because I was a doof and forgot to put sunscreen there).  To get out of  the sun for a while, we headed back to their RV and hung out for a bit (in case any of you readers don't know, my uncle is part-owner of an RV business- so this one is just one of many that he simply "borrows"). :)

We had some yummy sloppy joe's for dinner and shortly thereafter Jake and I made the trek back home.  But not before we got a few goodbye pictures, of course.

By the way, it still weirds me out how much older my cousins are.  I vaguely remember throwing them around all the time a few years ago.  Weird!  Anyway, it was a great trip and we had a fantastic time.  Now if only my legs would recover from this darn sunburn.  Oh well; it was my fault.

Early

I'm real tired.  Why am I blogging at 4:30am then you ask?

Cuz I accidentally changed our alarm clock time forward one hour when I was setting it last night.  I was pretty tired.  So instead of waking up at 4:45 which was already ridiculous, we woke up at 3:45, even though the clock said it was 4:45.  Jake realized what time it was AFTER I got out of the shower.  Whoops.  It was probably a good thing though cuz we might not have had enough time to finish getting ready to go without being super rushed, since today, we are going...........

Rafting!  My aunt and uncle and a few of my cousins are out here for vacation so they invited us to go rafting with them for the day.  It's a half-day trip which starts at 9am (need to be there 45 min early), and it should take us about a couple hours to get there.  Hence why we're up early.

Pray that I don't die today.  Assuming I don't, I'll try to update you about my experience when we get back!

Snakes and flowers- a lovely combination

Today I saw some kind of bullsnake on my run.  Kinda freaked me out, but it also intrigued me.  Ok, so it was pretty cool- mostly because it didn't try to attack me.  I think it looked something like this:

I didn't see its head though so I'm not totally sure.

In other news, my parents bought me a pot of flowers for graduation.  They've been on my porch, and I'm worried that they aren't going to make it.  It's my first plant I've had to take care of, so I hope I don't blow it.  I know it could just be that they get more sun than that type of flower can handle, but we'll just have to see.  They got a good dosage of miracle grow today so I hope it helps.