5-K

Well... I have finally signed up for a race so actually have something to work for. I will be running the Windermere 5-k in Spokane. My friend Kristi inspired and pushed me (in a good way) to sign up so as of last weekend I am registered.

I started my training today. I had planned on starting tomorrow but it's so nice out today that I had to go out! I walked 2.3 miles in 31 minutes. I feel pretty good about that time. it is a 13.48 mile. I found that I definitely need to go get a light weigh and easy to hold water bottle. I think I would have run a little and gone a little further if I had some water with me.

I also need to find a light weight, long sleeve shirt, hopefully with a pocket as I need to carry my phone and key with me.

Anyway... Rambling...

Must...Get...Back

to the gym! It was a bad week for going to the gym compared to the last few weeks. I haven't been since last Monday. Now I'm not feeling that well and have a few busy work mornings ahead of me. I must make time for me though!

It was a busy and fun weekend. There was a celebration at Ross Point for John and Fay Batchelder's 10 year anniversary of being at Ross Point. I used to be really shy and unsure of them (not because of them but because of my own insecurity) but I have come to love and cherish them through the years. I now attend church where they do and usually sit with them and their family. I love seeing them on a weekly basis.

Anyway... It was also busy because my friend Ericka came to town for the celebration. We had a good time with other friends. Today was supposed to be my relaxing day but I ended up going to the Amend's to do laundry as our machines are not working properly. It was a nice time but now I need to get some sleep and hope to feel better tomorrow!

Hope you have a blessed week!!!!

1/17/11

Today I pushed myself a little. I think I ran a 5.5 for a minute or so and did my 1 minute running at a 5.0. I ended up doing 2 miles in 33 minutes. My legs were really hurting today. I think I had my new shoes tied to tight. I need to play with them to make them feel better. After my run/walk (1 minute-2 minutes) I rode the recumbent bike and went 3.37 miles in 20 minutes... I was not pushing myself on the bike for sure.

Anyway... Short update post. I like that I'll be able to look back on this and see my improvement as I have improvement everyday!

Be blessed!!!!

New Shoes

Yesterday I spend time with Kristi and Sarah shopping. My goal was to buy some good, high quality running shoes. I was able to purchase a pair from REI which I was pretty happy about because I have heard they have a great return policy. The guy there was very helpful and even taught me a new way to tie my shoes so I can create a kind of ratchet to make them tight so they will hold my heels down. It turns out that Kristi got the same exact shoes except in yellow. AND Sarah has the same ones too, or very similar :) We are a special trio. We had a great time together.

I am looking at joining a new gym for a few reasons. The first being that our work membership is possibly going to be eliminated. There are a couple of places near my house that I plan on checking out this week. Plan on is the key word. I think I would utilize it more if I was paying for the membership too.

I am not going to register for the Snake River half but am probably going to do the Race for the Cure in April. I know I need to commit to something so I actually have a goal.

Anyway... I'm off to get my computer looked at and go to Stamping club... Hope you have/had a great Sunday. I have been watching the Seahawks since I got home from church... Hope they turn the game around (they are down 0 - 28). Not that I'm a huge football fan but I do enjoy the "home team".

Update

Well... First I will say that I ended the fast on Monday. Not for any real reason except that I just did. I am proud of the week I gave it and now know that I can do it again and be successful. I was being really diligent about reading the bible but that has definitely slacked off this week. I need to get back to it.

I have been doing better and better on the treadmill at the gym. On Monday I did 1.75 miles in 45 minutes - all walking. Today I did 1.79 miles in 30 minutes and I RAN! I was so scared to run but I had 2 friends on either side of me and I did it. I mostly ran at 4.5 but for a minute maybe I ran at 5. I was really challenged by the Biggest Loser last night when Bob had the biggest guy running at a 5 for a short amount of time. I thought... why can't you do that. It turns out that I can and I won't fly off the treadmill and die. I wanted to pump my fists in the air. I was so proud of myself and can't wait to see what I do tomorrow or Friday.

You know that person I was choosing to love? Well I did talk to her about her e-mail and it didn't go so well but I know that I am in the right and am just doing my job (with confirmation from my boss). I'm going to chose to move on and work with her to the best of my ability. I know we will never be friends or really like each other but I will chose to be polite and try to love her like Jesus does. I found it funny though, that after that confrontation I had the best day of work in a long time. I made a phone call to the Orthodontist's office and the lady that I talked to said I made her day so much better just by calling. I love that office and I love that lady. She is a blessing to my life. I have met so many wonderful people with my job change and am really loving that I am fostering relationships and am seeing the fruits after a year and a half. That wasn't all that made my day good... it was just a good day!

I meant to keep this a short update but it turned out to be long. I hope you don't mind reading about my running progress because that's kinda my hobby right now. I plan to go shopping for some good running shoes this weekend with some friends. I also need to start on a baby blanket for my friend who had a baby yesterday (1/11/11). She had a little boy and I hope to meet him someday (they live in CT).

Hope you have a blessed day!!!!

Love

Love your neighbor as yourself... While worshiping at church today we were singing the words along the lines of I will love who you love or something like that. That is not something I always do very well. I am more aware of how I need to be loving those that hurt me or I feel like they don't respect me or what I do. I got a pretty annoying e-mail from someone at work in response to something I had said to her and I need to choose to love her. I will do my best to do that. I will still deal with the situation but I will deal with it in love instead of anger.

As for the fast... I have decided to add back into my diet whole wheat bread and chicken/turkey. This is still a big difference from what I was eating before the fast and I feel like I need a source of carbs and a better source of protein.

Yesterday I walked 1.5 miles in 30 minutes and rowed for 10 minutes and biked for 10 minutes. I hope to get to the Y today this afternoon or evening. I have decided to decide by Friday whether or not to register for the half-marathon that is in March. We shall see how I am feeling by Friday!

Yesterday

Yesterday I did almost 3 miles in 1 hour. I hit the wrong button on the treadmill so ended up with 2.92 miles in 55 minutes. I decided the Wii is definitely not accurate!!! I will hit the treadmill again on Saturday and hope to see some kind of gain!

I did end up breaking my fast yesterday evening to have a little bit of chicken noodle soup as I was not feeling well. I'm going to get back to it today even though the temptation is so big to just give up.

1/5/11

This morning I had an early dentist appointment for one of the girls. I hate having to leave campus before 8 in the morning as I really like being able to sleep in and take my time in the morning. This girl really needs to be in school as much as possible so I do 8 AM appointments for her dental work (she needs a lot). Anyway... It was good that I was up early this morning so I could drive to CDA to see my parents before they go back to MT in the next couple of days. I drove over and spent a few hours there. My grandma kept offering me food and I had to turn her down. I'm doing well so far on the food. I have even made some dishes that I think were pretty good. I made a wilted spinach salad tonight. My mom taught me this salad but you typically use bacon drippings for the dressing. I decided to use the juice from my can of mandarine oranges along with a little olive oil and balsamic and it turned out great. I sauteed mushrooms in that juice and just put it over the spinach and then added the mandarines as well as some craisins and sunflower seeds. I forgot to mention that I spent the afternoon sleeping! I don't know if it is the food detox or if I'm just fighting something off but I had a terrible headache and after my co-worker said I was extremely pale I decided to turn in for the day. I took a little nap and am catching up on a few missed episodes of Parenthood and The Office before going back to sleep. Tomorrow I must hit the gym and see what I can do on the treadmill. The race I would like to do caps at 500 runners so I should get registered but I'm a bit scared to as I don't want to waste the registration fee if I'm not ready. We shall see! Thanks for reading about my journey :)

Today

My fast has gone really well so far. I am really missing hot drinks :) I was really hungry yesterday and decided it was because of the lack of carbs. Today I am much better and am getting used to it. I ended up doing some running/walking today using my Wii Fit. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I said I did about 4 miles in 30 minutes. My friends son showed me that you can just shake the Wii Remote and it registers you moving... I didn't do that but don't know how much I really did. I also must keep in mind that running in place is not as hard as actually moving forward! Anyway... It's a start :)

Fasting

I have been going to Victory Faith Fellowship since the summer sometime. I have really enjoyed the great worship and awesome teaching. I love going to church. They start the year out with a whole church fast for 21 days. I knew that as I went to church but I did not know I would be participating. I have never really done a real fast before so it's a little bit scary. I went in to church asking God to let me know if I was supposed to and what I was supposed to do for a fast. Pastor Craig was speaking to the people that had been in the church for 2-3 years that had not participated before and basically told them to man up. That really spoke to me so I have decided to man up.

I am doing a Daniel fast as close as I can. This means I will eat only fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and drink only water and fruit and vegetable juice for 21 days. I decided to clean out my cupboards and put all of my non-fast food in a tub for 21 days. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on foods that I can eat. I had 2 brown rice cakes with crunchy Adams peanut butter and slice bananas and some apple juice for breakfast. Not to hard yet. The most important thing for me to remember is that it's not a fast if I'm not in prayer and in the bible, its just a diet then. This morning as I ate my breakfast I read the first few chapters of Daniel where the Daniel fast comes from.

Anyway... So I am putting this on here just to document what I am doing.

I am also going to attempt training for a half-marathon in March. Now... this is a pretty big feat as I haven't run a race since I was in 4th grade and we did the "Heart and Soul" run as a class. We shall see how I do. It's only through Christ that I will be successful. Luckily, the running plan I made on runnersworld.com has me resting today. Tomorrow it's 5 miles I think. I predict I will be doing a lot of walking tomorrow and not much running... We shall see. This is just an attempt. At least if I'm not feeling like I'm ready there are quite a few other races coming up in the area.

It's 2011 and it's off to a challenging start with these things God has placed on me. But I will seek Him and be blessed!

Happy New Year

I am glad it is 2011... Not for any big reason but just the fact that it's something new. I decided to make a few resolutions this year and thought I would just put them on here...

1. Send out birthday cards and give them at work

2. Be more intentional about writing thank you cards to those that don't expect them

3. Tithe as commanded (10%)

4. Buy a new car (not that this is really a resolution but a goal)

5. Simplify the things I have in storage. (I currently have boxes all over my living space and need to go through them and really decide what is important to me and why)

6. Clean my living space on more of a schedule.

That's quite a lot but I do hope to be successful. I guess we shall see :)

Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas 2010!!!!

I hope you each have some highlights of 2010. There has been rejoicing and sadness this year but I believe that God has a plan for each of those situations.

Highlights of MY year... 2 YOUNGER cousins got married, vacation to Omaha NE, trip to MT where we spent some time all together as a family, work trip to Portland OR, directed the Fall Youth Retreat at Ross Point... I could go on and on but that might be boring. I am still enjoying my job with its ups and even its downs. I do look forward to my weekend each week. In the coming year I am looking forward to a trip to MN for a college friend's wedding and am hoping to make a trip back to OR to do some camping and hiking. My 10 year high school reunion is this summer as well, which is quite hard to believe!

As we go into the New Year I pray that you would be blessed with abundance in each part of your life.

I'm Back???

Wow... I haven't posted since Christmas 2008... I used to like blogging... I still do I just have been busy... Well that's just an excuse... I guess I don't have a reason but maybe I'll try to be back. Not that anyone reads what I write anyway but I should be logging for myself and not anyone else. A random thought... Below this box where it say's labels for this post it suggests scooters... SCOOTERS? What in the world? How odd.

One of my friends just posed the question about favorite Christmas traditions. It got me thinking about writing and alas... Here I am! The next post could possibly be on that topic of traditions but for now I'll leave you with this totally random rambling :)

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas... Hope you are having a wonderful day with those that you love.

Notice I didn't title this December already? Well... I could have! I have some things to blog about and will do that one of these days... Look for...

"Love Never Fails" - Ross Point Fall Retreat 2008
"Church Merger" - What is my church group up to?
"Snow" - Snow in Spokane... lots and lots of snow
"The Tales of a Christmas Traveler" - Christmas travels 2008

I'll get to it sometime soon. I haven't even got my Christmas letter done so alas my cards are sitting in my apartment in Spokane waiting to be finished... One of these days...

November... Really...

Well... Guess what... It's November and I haven't written since August. Believe me that it has been a whirlwind of a fall. Right after I returned back to Spokane after being home in August I found out that my sister had a brain aneurysm. She found a surgeon in Seattle to do the operation and that happened September 26th. There were complications and she had a stroke. It's been a really hard couple of months for my family to say the least. Instead of Dawn being in the hospital for 10 days she was in the hospital for almost 2 months I think (I have kinda lost track of time). In those 2 months I was 2 and from Seattle 3 times. My mom was in Seattle most of that time and my sister Joy and our dad was back and forth a couple of times. Marc (Dawn's husband) took on full time dad duty and was able to spend some of that time in Seattle which was good as Dawn was able to see the kids some. Long story short... they are back in Montana now doing rehab in Billings. The largest problem for Dawn right now is her speech. Please be praying for a full recovery for her. I feel blessed that God didn't take her home yet but sad because of the complications that should not have happened.

What else have I been doing? Well I planned and hosted a bridal shower last weekend for my friend Irene. It was fun but lots of work. The wedding is in January so we have about a month till Wedding day.

I have also been planning a retreat for Ross Point. It's focus is relationships. I have found that directing camps is one of my biggest joys. If I could do that full time that would be a huge blessing. I love doing it! The retreat is in 2 weeks so I'm hoping I get everything done. I still need to find one more female counselor as we have had a lot of girls register which is awesome. Last year we didn't fill 4 cabin with girls but this year we need 5! I'm praying that it may turn into 6 but don't know. If so I'll need 3 more counselors. I'm also praying for boys to get registered as right now I only have 11! The ratio of girls to boys is pretty drastic right now.

After the retreat it becomes the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is coming and I love it. I'm actually doing a Christmas themed retreat as I love it so much. We have some work Christmas party's and than on the 19th I fly to Montana for Christmas. It will be so nice being with my family. I get back here on the 27th and the wedding is the 3rd of January. I guess that come January 4th I can maybe get a little rest. We will see!

Well... there you go... I've caught you up on my life these past months. I know I say this every time but I'll try to update more regularly.

Hope you have a blessed week!

August Already?

It has been an incredibly busy summer. With only having 3 hours off during each day and my weekends being packed I have not had much time to blog about all the activities going on. Work has been good yet extremely busy. I have had tons of fun with the girls this summer. My family has been over in the area some too which has made my weekends full. I think that during the whole time the kids were out of school this summer I was only home for 2 whole weekends. It's been crazy. The craziness started the first of July. My family was all over to the lake for the 4th and than I went to Omaha Nebraska. I went for a work trip but was also able to spend some time with one of my best friends Danielle. She got married last year so it was great to spend some time getting to know her husband and his daughter. We did some fun things including mini golf. I'm pretty sure I came in last. I'm not that good at mini golf :) We also did some maternity shopping for her as she is expecting a baby boy around Thanksgiving time. After I got back from that trip I was home again for a week before I left for my next adventure. I, along with 2 other Hutton staff, took 6 of our kids on a road trip service project. I will put those details in the next post with some pictures. Currently, I am sitting in my parents living room watching a movie with them and my cat and their dogs. It's nice being home and having some time with my sisters and nieces and nephews. We head to Billings tomorrow to spend some time with Dawn and the kids. I am pretty sure the only plans are to go to the Soup Place. It's the middle of summer but I sure do like soup so hope it's good! That's my update... long and boring but this summer has not been all that boring. I am certainly ready for school to start again though as I need some time to recover from the business of this summer :)

It's A Girl

Introducing...

Lauren Ashlee Wass

Born May 27, 2008 at 3:28 am

6 Pounds 2 Ounces, 18 Inches

Isn't she beautiful?

Big brother Jack holding baby sister Lauren

He thinks she's pretty wonderful :)

Just Because...

:) Pictures Just For Fun :)

Brad and Alyssa on an island in Seattle last summer.

Joy set the playpen up for Jack... Brad and Alyssa thought it would be fun for them and the dogs to lounge in. Silly kids!

Alyssa was baptized this Easter. Unfortunatly I was unable to come home for the occasion.

Isn't he the cuttest! He's going to be a great big brother :)

Brad is one smart kid! He got a cool award from the Air Force at the big science fair in Billings. He's going to be in Jr. High next year! Yikes! I remember at my 8th grade graduation he was walking around calling Aunt Traci. He was so little then and now he'll be graduating from Jr. High next year. I'm getting so old.

This is Jack at the Zoo in Seattle. I LOVED the gorillas and could have spent hours watching them. They are intersting creatures!

This is Nicole and I at the Blue Star coffee shop in Roundup. I miss her! I'm pretty sure she is the one the introduced me to the sweet nectar of coffee.

My sweet cat Tike... He lives with my parents.

Me and my sweet friends... Ericka (she lives in stupid Moscow, Jan, and Irene)

Last summer I got silly. Ericka has a whole album of beautiful straw pictures of me.

So tired...

I am so tired... I didn't get to sleep until after 12 am for some reason... it's annoying... hopefully I can get a small nap in this morning after the girls get off to school. It's day's like this I wish they all departed at the same time! As for a baby update... Last time I talked to home Dawn was in labor but not labor labor. Like she's not admitted to the hospital yet. If she was I wouldn't be right here typing this :0 I'm hoping I'm rested enough to drive 8 hours straight through. I'll be fine I'm sure. The adrenaline will keep me going.

Speaking of babies

... there is not a new baby in my family yet. I'm still hoping for a couple of weeks as I'm not really ready to drive 8 hours yet. I still need to pack my bag, get my oil changed, fill up with gas, and have enough money in the bank to make this trip with the stupid expensive gas! I'm so looking forward to going home for a few days though. I really love and miss my family.