Thankful Day 2

Today I'm thankful that I get to experience an actual fall.  The trees in Texas change colors but nothing compared to what takes place up here.  I've never seen such bright yellows, reds, and oranges.  If I could figure out how to transfer pictures from my phone to my mac, I would.  Believe me!  Maybe someday I'll figure it out.  Until then, if you want to see what fall looks like, you'll just have to google some pictures :)

Thankful...Day 1

Oops,   November 1st snuck up on me!

I am thankful that the Lord isn't finished with me yet.  "And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."  Phil 1:6

I love this song.

Getting Fit

The last few months I have not been good to my body.  Before April- Mayish, I was running 3-5 days a week and doing hot yoga 5-7 days a week. Once I learned that we would be moving out of God's Country, I decided that it would be a fantastic idea to stock up on Mexican food and more drinks with my girlfriends.  That wasn't a very good idea.  We ate out a lot in June.  I thought that once we got moved in and settled, I would start back to meal planning and cooking more but we continued with the eating out plan.  What better way to explore the new city than by the restaurants.  So, no exercise, no healthy foods plus being on prednisone  for 3 weeks and doubling all of my steroids has resulted in some weight gain and a pudgy belly.   Boo.
I gained A LOT of weight in college and I promised myself that I would never let myself get like that again.  I am just a few pounds shy of my fat fatty weight and that's depressing.  So, Matthew and I decided to invest in a Withings Body Analyzer Scale because I don't want to just focus on my weight, I'm really wanting my body fat percentage to be at a normal range.
The scale arrived yesterday afternoon and I'm so excited that we have it!  I enjoy weighing myself throughout the day.  Weird, huh?
Here are my stats.  I don't know why I feel that I think it's okay for me to put this on the internet.  If the Extreme weight loss folks and biggest loser folks can weigh in on national tv, then I think I can weigh in on my little blog.

As of this morning:
Weight: 137.3
BMI:  25.3
Fat Mass 33.5%

Here's the normal range for women my height and age
Weight: 118- 132
BMI:18.5 - 24.9
Fat Mass: Average: 25%-31% Fit: 21-24%


Here's to getting hot and fit! :)

Breakdown at the Grocery Store

A month ago today I stepped on a plane and headed up here to WA.  The first 2 weeks or so felt like a vacation and then reality set in.  I'm incredibly lonely.  Today the lady at the grocery store asked me how long I've lived here and if I liked it.  I practically broke down in tears at the counter.  Yep, that's where I'm at.

Crossfit

Lately I have been really discouraged about my weight and how I look and feel.  I've been injured and haven't been able to run as much as I would like to, the past 2 months of school were the crazies and busies months of my life and I didn't make the time to go to yoga.  With all the stress and my love for wine, well, I had wine way too often.  The last month, we have been eating out like crazy.  All that equals Kristen gained some weight!!

There's a Crossfit about 1/2 mile down from our place.  Matthew and I had been talking about it since we moved here and we finally tried it out!  It kicked out butts!!  For the record, matthew did 2 1/2 sets of the entire workout and I did all 5.  Granted, he used heavier weights. . . 

I really enjoyed it and it showed me that I wasn't as out of shape as I thought it was.  I think Matthew enjoyed it, he hasn't been to work out in a loooong time so I think he was a little discouraged.  I know it won't take him long to build back up to the strength and endurance that he would like to have.  

I found a deal on yelp that will give us the first month for half off!!  I can't wait to go back on Monday.  

Good-bye flabby belly, hellooooo 6-pack!  (In my dreams, ha!)

Settled In

The past 2-3 weeks have been crazy!!  I still can't believe I don't live in Texas anymore.  Here's a recap of how we got here and what we've been up to.

June 13-My car was loaded onto a moving truck.  That was hard to watch.  I was afraid the guy was going to drive my car off the truck.

June 14-  The moving van came, I cleaned the town home cleaner than it was when we moved in, and my parents arrived late that afternoon.

June 15 -  Matthew and his friend Rob started the 3 day car ride to Seattle.  I had my last eye-brow waxing by the best lady ever, and I stayed in a hotel with Joey and my parents for the rest of the long weekend.

June 18 - I had one last haircut by Kelly :(  I won't be able to replace her, and late that afternoon my parents dropped me off at the airport.  My dad tried really hard not to cry, my mom was a mess, and I had blurry eyes.  Of course, I had the dog and the plane was late.  Not cool.  Dallas Love used to have a dog area but after all of the renovations, they forgot to add in a new one.  So, Joey and I spent 1 1/2 hours outside in the Texas sun to make sure his little bladder was empty and I wanted to wear him out before we got on the plane.

June 19- Matthew and I spent the day looking at apartments.

June 20- We signed a lease

June 21- The moving van was supposed to arrive but it took them 2 days to unload another man's stuff. He clearly had a lot more than we did.  We spent the afternoon getting to know the town.

June 22-  Moved in!  Our town home wasn't big but it was a lot bigger than this little apartment.  We got rid of a lot of stuff in Dallas but not enough stuff.  We are currently trying to sell the washer/dryer, grill, kitchen tables and chairs, coffee table, and Matthew's desk and chair.

Matthew didn't start his job until July 1st so we had an entire week get settled in and explore.  We've eaten way too much food.  The food here is delicious and I have gained some weight.  I'll be working on losing those extra pounds asap.  We walked around downtown, did the duck tour, shopped in Bellevue, spent a lot of time in our downtown, gone to the beach, and took Joey to the dog park on the beach.  Last Sunday we tried a church here in our town but I think we're going to keep on looking.  Hopefully we will find a church soon.  I hate being without a church home and I need some friends.

Last Wednesday, I met with a running club.  The leader of the group told me that it would be an easy run because so many of their runners did the Rock-n-Roll over the weekend.  It was not an easy run.  They ran 8-9 minute miles and included speedwork.  That was after the warm up that kicked my butt.  I was in pain for several days.  I wanted to run with them on Saturday but my legs were still feeling Wednesday's "recovery" run.

Yesterday for July 4th I ran in the local 5k and it was by far the hardest and slowest 5k I've ever done.  I was slower in this 5k than I was in my first 5k before I started training with Run On!  I knew I was out of shape but dang!  The entire first 1.2 miles was ALL UP HILL.  Yep.  I walked half of that hill.  It was horrible.  I wish I could say the rest of the race was flat or downhill but nope.  We went uphill, then rolling hills, then a long downhill (down the hill we started up), 10 yards of flat then it was back up hill and the last 1/4 miles was somewhat flat.  I know that if I stick with it, I'll be a stronger runner but man are those hills tough.  I have definitely been humbled.

Girls on the Run

Today was the Girls on the Run 5k!  The weather was perfect, our tutus were the best, the girls did fantastic, and we all had a lot of fun.  This year I have really enjoyed being a coach for Girls on the Run at school.  We have some amazing girlies that I know will soon become exceptional young women.  I hope to have the opportunity to be a coach in Seattle.
What exactly is Girls on the Run?  Find out here!

Getting Ready . . .

I haven't taken the time to blog.  I wanted to blog about the Rock-n-Roll Half with my bestie and then the Willie McCool 5k with the family but I haven't time.  The only thing on my mind right now is school.   Lately, school has been a near nightmare.   It is draining every last bit of energy that I have.  This year has been a rough year.  Once I'm not employed I might share some stories.  Right now, I'm just thankful that I've learned to become queen of documentation :)  Add on the Boston Marathon bombing and West explosion hitting way too close for home.  I had friends run in Boston (they're okay) and a friend's family lives in West and were devastated by the bomb, physically they're okay.  

I've really struggled focusing on the positives in my life and our new adventures of moving out of God's country.  When I was in Lubbock for the 5-k, my dad mentioned that he wanted a coffee mug with all of our pictures of our move to Seattle on it.  So now I really have to make sure I document, or at least just take pictures of us from now until whenever I need to order the mug for christmas  :)

I'm really excited about moving to Seattle but I just get overwhelmed when I think of the cost and energy of moving.  I mean really, who enjoys packing and unpacking their crap, err belongings. 

Our first step in moving... we hired a moving company a couple of days ago for way too much money.

Yesterday, they delivered the moving boxes!!  Guess I know what I'll be up to on the weekends.  

  Grrrr. . .   My photos won't upload. . . .

  

M-o-o-o-o-o-ving!

It is official!  We are moving to Seattle!  Matthew starts his new job on July 1st.  This is a really great opportunity for Matthew and he's so excited to start his new job.  I'm a little jealous, his office overlooks Pike's Market.  I'm expecting fresh flowers once a week :)  I'm excited too but I'm also nervous.  I've never moved this far before, my parents still live in the same house that I was born in and I've never lived more than 5 hours away from any of my family members.  Matthew on the other hand, has lived all over the place and isn't as close to his family.  I currently don't have a job yet but I've been looking.  Over the weekend I had to look up the location of every single school district in the Washington area to see which ones were in the areas that we're thinking about living.  This process of finding a new job and figuring out how we're going to get all of our stuff up there is very overwhelming but the excitement usually puts my worries to ease.  

This afternoon as I started the car, the very first thing I heard from the radio was "Fear of the future never comes from God."  The perfect thing that I needed to be reminded of.  

The Fiscal Cliff

This morning we called our US Representative, Pete Sessions, to encourage him no to vote on the fiscal cliff deal.  Our phone calls didn't work magic :(
This deal is all about increasing taxes.  For every $1 in proposed cuts, there will be $41 in taxes, $600 billion in new taxes.
I hope that isn't true.  Hopefully I'm reading all of the wrong news columns and political blogs.

I hate that its so hard to really figures out what's going on in our governments.