Going to try to run again!

Most people who know me know that I want to be a runner. It's always been a goal. I want to love running because I want to find a way to actually enjoy exercising. Unfortunately, when I run, my knee gives out on me and I'm back to walking. When my knee feels better, I run and it goes out again so I gave up on running. Well, I've been wearing the same Saucony shoes for many years. In fact, I think I went shopping with my Mother-in-Law for them before she was my mother-in-law. Just to give you an idea of how long that may have been, in December I'll have been married for 12 years.

So, I decided to go to Fleet Feet to get my shoes. They watch my walk and measure my feet to try and find the best shoes for me. Apparently, I have high arches so my ankles dip in, limiting the amount of weight put on the outside of my feet. So, I got these Mizunos! I also got inserts for high arches AND I was shown a way to tie my tennis shoes that supports my heel better. YAY! :)

When I got home, I decided to test it so I ran a mile. Only one. At the 3/4 mile marker, the outside of my foot felt tired from holding extra weight it wasn't used to supporting. Today, the muscle around the inner part of my knee is sore. It's not the 'my knee is out' type of sore but the muscle is sore. I was told I needed to build up the muscle on the inside of my knee and given exercises to strengthen it and foam roller exercises to do. So, feeling that muscle is strengthening makes me very happy. I am hoping I will be able to run now. My plan is to run on T, Th, and Sa and do X-Training (21 Day Fix) workouts on M, W, F, Su. I'm excited to try my new routine. I hope it works well for me. I'm also starting the 21 DF meal plan back. I'm super excited and hoping for some results!!! :)

Pre- Wood Badge Pt 2

As promised on Facebook, here is the blog about getting to Wood Badge. Well, we were told to be there at 7am. It's a 2 hour drive so I got up at 4:30 so I could get dressed, load the cooler and then load my car and pick up my friend Hannah (who was also doing Wood Badge) at 5am. Now, I have been to Hannah's house many, many times. I know exactly where she lives. Well, unless it's 5am.

I sent Hannah a text after I pulled into her driveway, "I'm here! Ready to head back to Gilwell?"
She sent me a text back saying, "You are not."
I was very confused at this point because I was obviously sitting in the driveway. I replied back, "I am. I turned my headlights off so I didn't wake anyone." Then I flashed my headlights.
Quickly Hannah replied, "You're at my neighbors."
I glanced to my right and there was Hannah in her driveway waving at me. haha!

That started us on a crazed giggle phase. Everything made us giggle as we drove down the road. Even the fact that a deer tried to jump out in front of us. Hannah tried pushing the breaks over on the passenger side as well. They didn't work too well. Luckily, the driver's side did so we didn't hit the deer. Hooray!

As continued driving (obviously). I had the cruise set but it as on back roads. We went around a curve that also went down a hill and I said, "Wow, I feel like we're going extra fast." Then, around the curve were railroad tracks with a bump. Yes, my mini-van caught air. We flew! It was kind of fun. I have no idea where we were, so I can't repeat the experience. We were just following the GPS.

The rest of the trip was spent in giggles. We arrived right at 7 and it was still a little dark. We had tons of fun as previous posts have shown. YAY!! Anyways, I promised to post this so here it is. :) I hope you had a good laugh at my expense. :)

Wood Badge Pt 2

If you would like to learn more about Wood Badge Pt 1 then click here. Wood Badge Pt 2 was even more fun than the first week. I loved it!

Day 4 (Days 1-3 were in Pt 1)

Day 4 was the day we used a compass and backpacked in to our campsites. It was really fun. As mentioned before, I had a great group. They showed me how to figure out pacing so I could figure out how many feet I've walked (25 paces/100' for me). They also showed me how to find the correct directions and everything. They had me lead a few times and we still managed to stay on course. Hooray!
We also did a Round Robin. Yikes! One of the least favorite team working games from my youth was the Spider Web. I hated it because I was never one of the strongest on my team so I couldn't just climb through. I had to rely on others to get me through which meant picking me up which meant realizing how heavy I am. They can probably tell anyways, but that doesn't mean I want to confirm it for them. haha! Oh well. It was still fun!

Brownsea Island -- this is where we all had to stand on a tarp and somehow end up flipping the tarp over and all of us stand on the underside of the tarp without stepping off the tarp. Did that sound confusing? Yeah.... This is a shot of the Owl Patrol but the Fox Patrol actually won this one. It was fun.

Spider-web.... see why this isn't my favorite thing? Oh... so not in my comfort zone. The Foxes also won this one.

Trolley Plank - so... this one was tough for me. I lack balance. LOL! Going forwards was won by... wait for it. Yeah, the Foxes. However, going backwards was won by the Bobwhites (that was my patrol). YAY!! This is a picture of the Eagle Patrol.

Wiggle Woggle -- There as a ring in the center with 6 long strings coming out. A ball went on the ring and then, working together, we had to get the ball from one bucket to the other. The Owls won this one. :)

Mafeking Challenge - Each person could have one PVC pipe/joint and get ping pong balls from one spot to the box. This is a shot of the Eagles but the Owls actually won this one.

Human Knot -- does this really need an explanation? The Eagles won this one. 

Traffic Jam -- there were 7 spots and 6 people. We could pass each other but only one person (sort of like checkers) and had to get all the people on the right to the left and on the left to the right. Sounds easy but it got a little confusing. Won by the Eagles. 

Nail Biters - So... we had to get all the nails to balance on one nail. BOBWHITES won this one too. This is a picture of the Owl Patrol though.

That night was a Campfire Program. We all had to do some fort of stick and song or cheer. Again, totally out of my comfort zone.


Day 5

This was our conservation project day. Here are a few shots.

That is me. :) 

Oooh! Look... that's me on the left! :D

Proof that I was working! :) It felt like post ice storm all over again. LOL!

This was also the patrol presentations. All the patrols had great presentations but I'll just show pictures of ours. It was on the EDGE Method. Let me say, the guys in my patrol totally surprised me. haha! We had it all planned out, and then the main person came out with the stereotype California Surfer Dude voice/accent. It was very cool, however I couldn't contain the giggles. He was soooo funny! At the end of the presentation, he removed the hat, and pointed to a strip of purple in his hair. Yeah, that was for me. haha! It was soooo funny!

The rest of that evening was spent on working on getting our ticket approved. Yay! :) So, that meant free time for most of us because all but one of our patrol was approved. He worked on it while the rest of us hung out. We also found out it was "Doc's" birthday. So... "Rainman" came up with a plan and visited all the other patrol camps. At 8pm, SAC the Ripper would yell and everyone would come and sing Happy Birthday. It was fabulous. The Eagles even brought a candle and muffin for him.

Day 6 was just a lot of closing stuff and awards. So, here are some random pics I have.

Hannah and I backpacking and giggling.

The Bobwhite Patrol! 

Hannah swinging from a vine during the Conservation Project.

Our awesome campsite with glow in the dark rings. 

Our flag.

Our patrol plus our Guide.

Hannah and me again. +

Embarrassment is coming

Okay.  I found Paul's backpack but it is definitely made for a full man frame.  Haha!  Paul said the frame along the top used to hit him in the head.  Well,  my head doesn't even reach it.  So,  it sticks up really high.  This little walk is going to be interesting.  Lol.  If I fall in a hole,  don't worry,  I'll fill everyone in on it when I get back.  ; ) from Wood Badge pt2.

Random Funnies

We have had interesting moments. My tomatoes keep disappearing and no one knows why, Collin continually loses his glasses, I straightened my hair (well, as straight as I could get it), and, just for fun, I threw in a pic of my girl scouts. My Co - leader who actually knows about girlscouts was a no show on Friday so I treated the girl scouts like cubscouts. I even taught them cub camp songs. Haha... Poor girls. They seemed to have fun though and they all wanted to sit on my lap and one girl didn't want to go home. She just wanted to stay with me. Haha! So fun!