Rants, Recipes, and Running

Due to the fact that Ryan was going to be stuck in Syracuse for about 3 months, we decided it was a great opportunity to get us to New York City for the weekend. Syracuse is about a 4-5 hour drive, so we ended up meeting in NYC for President's Day weekend. I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking here. Miraculously we get to our hotel about 20 minutes of each other. Ryan had to take a bus (long story). And I obviously flew, and took the Subway. (FYI - Google maps was the best way of figuring out the subway system!!) We got freshened up, and headed out for some exploring. Our hotel was the Marriot Residence Inn - which was wedged between Times Square and Central Park. Great destination!! We walked around Times Square for a bit, bought broadway tickets for Saturday night, and asked our guy where a local goes for the best Thai food. Times Square is a lot like Vegas. Too people-y. But pretty cool to see. Once ;) Ha! We headed a few blocks north to ...

The marathon is complete. This is a story about the day I pushed my body to places I didn't know I could take it. As you know - I have trained hard. It wasn't just the 18-week training program. I've had Boston on my mind for about 2 years now. However, when I started training, I had a variety of health issues come about. From getting bumps all over my bones with joint pain to plantar fasciitis. I had my share of "road-blocks". I also trained for a marathon last year, and couldn't run it because of a training at work. So let's fast forward to the day before the race (as I gave plenty of training updates on this blog). No time to think about the race, as work was so stressful this week. But that's not to be discussed today ;) I did the race with some of my best girlfriends. In fact, they are some of the best girlfriends a girl could ever ask for. We hit up the expo 1st. We always really enjoy the expo as a time to just really soak it all in...

Recently I was put on a big project at work to help build the "nursing role" within my company. Since nurses working for insurance companies is a fairly "new" idea. I chuckled a bit when I was invited to participate on this committee...for this is my 3rd "RN Retention Committee" I've been asked to serve on in my short 6 1/2 years in this field. After serving on the committee, I got a phone call from a "Leadership Consultant" in my company (one of the perks of working for a big company....so many resources!!) -- who said she wanted to be my mentor. I was ecstatic about this. As every time I listen to her speak or lead a meeting, I always thought to myself "Wow, I want to be like her when I grow up." She is an incredible leader and communicator. She has given me several tasks to do, books to read, videos to watch on my own time, to grow me as a leader. But the most interesting task I was given was to take this "5 Strengths...

As I was writing about our trip to Syracuse , I made the statement " I don't think we would have visited this part of the country, if it weren't for Ryan's job.". And it dawned on me that there are a lot of beautiful, amazing places I wouldn't have explored...if it weren't for just that! "We will see how things play out" are words that come out of my mouth several times/week, in fact. When trying to make plans in advance. And I'm okay with that. We cannot control what we cannot control! So here are few gems we have found due to our situation: 1. Tucson !! When I look back at "me" 10 years ago, I would not have chose Tucson. In fact, if you gave me a map and said "Pick anywhere" -- I'd pick someone with more seasons. But, WOW, I can't picture life had we need found this place. Our adventures, the hobbies we've picked up, the friends we've made, the lifestyle we developed.... 2. Montgomery, Alabama ...

When we learned Ryan would be heading to Syracuse for a few months for work....we decided that we would take advantage of this time to visit NYC ( as neither of us have ever been there!). But I decided 3 months with only 1 visit was NOT enough. So I was able to score some tickets to visit Ryan in Syracuse with frequent flyer miles. That is the beauty of the military. It sometimes send them to random places. And those random places can be gems - and places I probably wouldn't have visited otherwise! Which a post about this is soon to come.... I fell in love with upstate NY. I think if you took a normal person that grew up in, say, AZ .... they wouldn't find this part of the country that thrilling. But for me -- I felt at home at times. Rolling hills, tons of trees, snow, farms, rivers, lakes....hmmmm sound familiar? Yes - it reminded me of Minnesota. My 2nd home. Now we visiting in the most undesirable time of the year. But I still just loved it there. Syracuse itsel...