Rants, Recipes, and Running

Happy Friday!!! Finally!!! This week dragged for me. So much stuff to get done around the house. I feel like I need 12 hours to just "regroup". The high of my week was I'm going to jump ahead and say that my high is going to be Friday night's date night! I have been in dire need of a date with Ryan, and Friday night after I get off work -- he is taking me out! :) The low of my week was dealing with some "difficult" personalities. That's all I'm going to say. That can really put a "damper" on one's mood! My favorite outfit was Wednesday's outfit. I get a deal of criticism from a coworker about my choice of attire. They choose to wear scrubs, and I choose to wear business attire. (other people throughout my hospital with my same role wear business attire, as well.)  At my old job, I would wear pencil skirts about 3 days/week. They've sat in my closet since I started this new job out of feeling self conscious. But this w...

If you have been following this blog over the years, you may remember that I have had some "cake fails" in the past. Like 6 years ago, when my husband requested an ice cream cake ...and we ended up with a cake engulfed in cookies-and-cream-ice-cream. Last year for Ryan's birthday, I attempted a dark-chocolate layer cake. The cake collapsed in the middle. So my fix was, I made out of those "coffee mug cakes", cut out the collapsed goo, and put the "mug cake" in the hole. Ryan thought it was a "special layer" cake - and it was a win-win! So as you can see, cake baking maybe isn't my strongest? But I like to think I'm good at it. Because I love to cook and bake. So there I was Thursday night. I was at a HH for work, and ran into one of my girlfriends. We were planning a surprise 40th bday party for our friend Amber. I asked if she needed help with any last minute details, and she asked if I'd be able to take care of the cake! ...

I'm stealing this idea from my sister, because I think it's a fun way to wrap up and reflect the week! And sometimes I'm not so creative about blogging ;) The high of my week was attending a going away party to a friend of mine who is moving to Germany Monday. She will be dearly missed. But it was so much fun to celebrate new beginnings. And I got to reconnect with the nurses and doctors from my old job - and I have to say my heart is heavy ! I miss them so much! I've worked with this guys since I started my career in nursing, and they've all played integral parts in who I am - and have become great friends along the way. The low of my week was paying all my bills from the multiple doctor's appointments I had 2 weeks ago! I had a massive sinus infection, so am very pleased I'm feeling better. But I really do not enjoy spending my hard-earned money on that. The book I’m reading is ....... I really don't think I could even say I'm readi...

We are officially "Certified Padi Scuba Divers". This weekend we took a 6 hour drive south to San Carlos, Mexico with another couple, and a local dive shop to get our open-water scuba certification. Let's just say we are now " hooked ". We are already working towards getting our "Advanced " certification, so we can go deeper than 60 feet when we travel to Hawaii in August! There is something so amazing, envigorating, peaceful, breathtaking (literally), and inspiring about exploring a whole new world! I can confidently say that this weekend was probably one of the best weekends I've ever had! And let me tell you...there was not a single dull moment ;) Friday: We were awake at 4:30 am, to get an early start. As we had to complete our 1st dive on Friday, so we were on a race against time! It's a good thing we got an early start, as we were dead-stopped in traffic for 2 hours somewhere north of Hermosillo, Mexico from the worst semi-truc...

What have I been up to in the world of "training" lately? Having fun! I have no races on the horizon, which kind of makes me crazy. This probably won't last long. But I do have to say it's really nice. Especially since for the past couple of years, I've always had something - marathon in January 2014, many half marathons last spring, my half ironman, 3 Ragnars this past year..... My new job gives me a lot of flexibility with my workouts. I only have to be into the office early on Tuesday and Thursday, so other days of the week I don't have to be in until 8:30-9am. I feel like I have so much extra time!  My workout plan changes every week, but I have goals I like to maintain weekly and that is: 2-3 weight training sessions 3 runs (1 speed workout, 1 longer run) 1 cross training day 1 rest day I have been doing this plan since November, and I feel like it's the perfect balance to keep me healthy, injury-free, and engaged! Always changing it up -...

As you may or may not know, I have recently changed jobs. I feel like I've done a complete career change, to be completely honest. I've gone from Case Manager (aka Medicare-guidelines-follower/glorified social worker) to "Nurse Coordinator for Pulmonary and Interstitial Lung Disease". Talk about a mouthful, right?! Actually the term for my position is "Nurse Navigator". But I find that to sound silly. And bring to mind images of this:   So what exactly is a nurse navigator ? I get this question a lot. In fact, while going through "general company orientation", I was asked this a lot by people that work for the organization...and I didn't really have an answer. All I knew upon taking this position was my job was to "better" patient care, and keep patients out of the hospital.   Basically I am clinic coordinator for 3 sub-specialty clinics: Asthma Clinic, COPD clinic, and Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic (which takes up th...

Last Saturday I raced in the Catalina State Park Trail race, which happens to be my favorite race that Tucson holds. It's not a huge race. There are about 300 people total. But it has breath-taking views, great support, and it's quite the challenge! The route is a 10.2 10.5 miles ( according to MY Garmin ) race. There are 2 loops that you complete. Within the loop, there is a 92 stair climb. While running on trail, you're pretty much running on sand the entire time. Which is not easy! You pretty much suck wind the while 10+ miles. The views are just incredible, though! I did this race last year, and happened to place 1st in my age group, so I felt pretty serious about "defending my title". (another perk to a smaller race. Placing!!) I'm not elitist. After I did last year's race, I got motivated to become a better trail runner. So I really started incorporating it into my workout plans. And I definitely beat my time, but didn't do as well ...