I am done with . . . .

Invisalign trays and braces!
I started my Invisalign journey in April 2012.  What was suppose to take 8-9 months actually took 18 months and when I got rid of the Invisalign trays I was convinced by my Orthodontist to wear braces, something I said I never wanted to do . . . but in the end did!

I originally had a set of 10 trays. When I finished them at the end of last year, my teeth were still not where we wanted them, so I simply continued on with another round of 8 trays. At the beginning of September my Orthodontist said that the trays had did what they could, but it was obvious that we were not going to get the results we wanted.  BUT, if I would be willing to let him put braces on he was sure it could quickly pull the tooth, my left lateral incisor, down to align with my other teeth. While Invisalign did a good job straightening my teeth, the trays just weren't able to apply the pressure needed to pull the tooth down out of my gum line. We went back and forth about the braces, but I eventually gave in and said that I would give it a few months, but would have them removed before the end of the year.

As someone who did not have braces as a child, it sucks! It is nearly impossible to eat in front of people.  To those that I did eat in front of, I apologize for checking my teeth for leftover food particles while at the table or for not checking my teeth for leftover food particles.
I had the wires adjusted 3 different times and got them off this morning.  He was right, the braces were quickly able to pull the tooth down.  It really is amazing how quickly it worked.  I am so happy to be done. I still have metal retainers on the inside of both my uppers and lowers, but those are not bothersome.

Here is a "before" and 2 after pictures

Enjoy the moments!  

The Glo run was . . .

. . . OK. It was fun to run with friends, Scott and Kim - but I probably wouldn't do the Glo Run again. There were probably 400-500 people there, but it was a younger group. I was probably one of the older people attending and am probably past the "prime" audience! Maybe I am a running snob - I just don't get the point of events like this - again, I am not their audience!

Afterwards we met Todd at a local restaurant and had pizza and beer and watched the UW Badgers beat Illinois!

Fast forward 1 week! My weeks seem to continue to be split between work and sleep, repeated daily! This coming week is also going to be busy - of course there is work, every day work, early morning to evening! Also this week I have hair appointment and a Road Home board meeting on Monday evening, an eye exam first thing Tuesday morning and a church Endowment committee meeting in the evening and dinner at a friends house on Wednesday evening. Also on Wednesday I will be heading out of the office for a tour of one of our power plants where we are close to completing an installation of some new environmental control equipment. And then Halloween on Thursday. This is more things packed into a week than I like. Is it me, or do you also hate to leave the house once you get home in the evening? I sure do, even going to the grocery store - if I don't stop on the way home, there is usually no way I am heading back out.

Today started with a 10.2 mile run. It was beautiful weather, albeit a little windy, but beautiful for late October. About 8 miles into my run I stopped in the middle of the road as two Sandhill cranes strolled across the street. They were in no hurry - it took me a few seconds to decide to get my phone out and snap a few pictures. I swear they are almost 5 ft tall.

This afternoon we spent some time doing a few things outside, including mowing/leaf mulching and spraying the creeping charlie that is trying to take over our backyard and is trying to creep into my asperagus raised bed. Then we headed to a new dog park, well new to us. I think it has been officially open since spring, Capital Springs located just south of the city, near Lake Waubesa and the Capital City bike trail.

 

Brown dog, brown grass!

Blue sky, green field!

After the dog park we swung over to the boat launch at Lake Farm park. Such a beautiful setting - it has been years since we had been there.

Blue sky, blue water!

One fishing boat was coming in and one was heading out - it is Muskie season - but not much biting today.

Back home, making dinner, writing this post and watching the Packers!

Enjoy the moments!

 

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This week . . .

. . . has been devoted to work. Lots of late nights and little time for anything other than eat, sleep, work and repeat.

At my oncology appointment, my Dr asked me "how it was going?", my response: work is stressful and really busy. My semi annual check ups are pretty routine, but I never forget I am at an Oncology office. Not everyone is so lucky!!!! After my exam, we chat for almost an hour (I am his last appointment of the day and he is on call, so ample time to spend chatting) about running, biking and his decision to enter next years WI Ironman! I tease him, I am sure I am your favorite patient - he doesn't deny it! We have a lot in common, besides the obvious!

As of today, Saturday, I still haven't got my mid-week long run in. Oh wait, it's not even mid-week or late-week - it is the weekend! Well, I also didn't get my long run in for the weekend. I had great plans. Run 4 with Sophie and then drop her off and head back out for 5 more - but upon returning home my son and girlfriend were at the house and I decided to stick around and visit instead of heading back out. We raked leaves out of the flower beds while my husband ran over them with the mulching mower which created a great mulch layer for the lawn. My son thought that the chopped up leaves didn't look good in the yard - we assured him we didn't care and by next spring it would all be gone!

Tonight I am running in "The Glow Run" with a couple of friends. This isn't the kind of event I usually do - It isn't that I am a running snob(or at least I hope I am not) I just usually figure if I am going to run - I am going to run, not jump around for fun - but thought it would be fun to run with friends, Kim and Scott. I will be back with my assessment later. We had great temp's today (low 50's) for running, but a front just passed through with lots of wind and what feels like a 10 degree temperature drop! Brrrrrr

Ending with some random pictures from the week - every day I had hopes of posting something about the pictures but instead they just end up as color on a otherwise boring black and white post!

Early morning Pilates - outside lights are still on!

Rainy Thursday morning . . .

. . . did bring drier sky's throughout the day and a pretty evening sunset over Lake Mendota.

Leaves leaves and more leaves.

Enjoy the moments

PS: this post has been rewritten several times because

1. it was started earlier in the week and was no longer current
2. it was started later in the week and was no longer current
3. I was trying to delete a photo and somehow deleted everything I had typed! I couldn't figure out how to undo my delete! I am using Blogsy for myiPad.
4. this post still has formatting issues, but I am going with it!

 

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I need to . . .

remain flexible with planned work outs because life, more specifically work often gets in the way.

This morning started with rain. I should have gotten up and run, but laying in bed while hitting the snooze button was just too comfy. After a few clicks of the snooze button, I did get up and took Sophie out for a quick walk. Out we went in the wet, dark morning. At that point, I realized that it was really more of a drizzle than rain and I REALLY should have gotten up to run! Too late - now on to plan "b", which was to run after work. Well, that fell through because I didn't get home until 8pm and was hungry and tired and just didn't feel up to a run. So the new plan . . . well, I have no idea! I have a 7am Pilates class tomorrow morning, so no long run in the morning. . .

maybe I will run 5-7 miles after work tomorrow!

No photo from today, but I will include a photo of Nutmeg and Sophie from this weekend.

enjoy the moments

 

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Another Sunday . . .

. . . actually another beautiful Sunday. I just can not get over the beautiful weather we are experiencing in WI! We have had week after week of beautiful fall weather. Sunny days, more than I remember in Octobers past!

EXERCISE: I took advantage of the warm temp's and biked to work on Monday. I took Friday off and Todd and I biked to New Glarus on the Badger State and Sugar River Trail. I attended my first of 4 Yoga For Runners classes and a early morning Pilates class. I also managed to run 2 miles on Monday, 5 miles on Wednesday and am trying to get 12 miles in today. After today's final run, I will have 7.5 hrs of exercise for the week?

This morning while I was running - around 4.5 miles - I got a text from my friend Trix (normally a biking buddy) - but this morning she was signed up for Gilda's 5k run - she was wondering if I was doing the run? I called her back, because it is far easier to run and talk than run and text - When does it start? 11:00 - Sure. I had time to head home, grab my keys, explain to Todd, I am going to run a race with Trix and off I went. I got there about 10:20, registered and met up with Trix. This was her first 5k with a timing chip and she wanted to run the whole thing! No problem - she did great! We finished at 33:13.

So after this mornings run of 5 miles and the 3.1 mile race I have a total of 8 miles in and 4 more to go. As soon as the Packer game is done - I will be heading back out for 4 more miles. Strange way to get 12 miles in - but 12 miles will still be run today. (UPDATE: I finished 4.5 miles after the Packers win for a total of 12 1/2 miles)

As I mentioned above, I took Friday off and Todd and I biked to New Glarus. We stopped at Maple Leaf Cheese and Chocolate store for Fudge and then stopped at Fat Cat Coffee Works, where I enjoyed a latte and we ordered sandwiches to take to the brewery to enjoy with our beer.

When we got to the brewery - and were selecting our beer - the bartender took one look at us, "oh, it's you two again, how was your bike ride?" They know us! :-) I selected a Staghorn and Todd chose Spotted Cow. We sat outside and enjoyed our sandwiches and beer. We have yet to see the brewery bottling, but today they were filling 1/2 barrels, so we went inside and watched that for awhile. It was then time to head back.

The day was quite windy, with a S-SW wind at 15-17. We knew we would have the wind in our face biking to New Glarus, and figured that it would be at our backs coming home. But that didn't work out. New Glarus is south west of Madison, so our return trip was headed NE, which still allowed the wind to swirl around and ended up in our face, or at our side for much of the return trip. I am usually OK with the wind - but after biking 22 miles into the wind to get there, I was counting on putting it in cruise on the return trip, instead I was complaining, so much so, that Todd said he has never heard me complain that much! Oops! Be thankful to be out biking on such a beautiful day and keep the complaints to a minimum!

Enjoy the moments!

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A week has passed

. . . since my last post.

Last week I ended my post with a running update. Today lets start with a running update. Thanks to my friend Rachel, from Running in Real Life, for a mid-week 7 mile run. Add to that a couple of short runs and a 10.6 mile run on Saturday and I am a happy camper. While I had planned to follow a training plan - that didn't work out, so instead I am going to follow a mid week 7 or 8 mile run and another long run on the weekend to get ready for Tyranena Half Barrel run on Nov 2. I wasn't sure if I had it in me to hit double digits - but actually felt great on my long run - which so helped my confidence! Someday I will be too old for this - but not today - not this year!

The weather was beautiful for biking to work this week, but various obligations only allowed me to bike one day. I love to bike and especially enjoy my ride home - it is so stress releasing and I am usually in no hurry. I think this weeks forecast is for cooler temp's, but certainly still biking weather. I want to bike for as long as possible without freezing.

This morning started with a lovely walk around the neighborhood. The sky and water were so blue!

Could there be a more beautiful view of our little lake?

a golden path

Once home I made a batch of steel cut oats and mixed with a bunch of fresh fruit for my breakfast. I made enough oats for the week. While washing a few dishes, I noticed the activity in my flowering crab trees! The two trees are bursting with berries and the robins and cedar wax wings love these things.

Shy

There he is!

My son Charlie was home for the weekend. He hasn't been home for a couple months and I missed him. We didn't end up doing much over the weekend, but it sure was nice having him home. He took off mid day heading back to Eau Claire.

Hey, let me take a picture of you before you go!

Later in the day after watching the Packers beat the Lions we took Sophie to the dog park for some good runs. She was a tired dog. Todd and I walk thru the park separately and call for her and she runs back and forth!

The day ended with Todd mowing the lawn, while I finished up on dinner. I had started a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker earlier in the day - I love the aroma from the slow cooker - boy all day long you could smell the pork slowly cooking. I cooked some acorn squash and new potatoes and once the lawn was mowed, we enjoyed our dinner.

Enjoy the moments!

 

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