Thursday, July 19, 2012

The big day!

We finally got the keys to our new place! After months of house shopping and seeing houses fly off the market in record time we've finally reached the point where we can move in. Over 6 weeks ago, we sold our first home and moved back downstate to live with my parents while we waited for the prior owners to move out.

Surprisingly, I don't miss the old home. I think that our old home served it's purpose as a learning experience and was a great place for us at the time. I think we had just outgrew the town that we lived in. It was a great community, but being a college town it felt like things never really changed and there were some limited opportunities. I miss the people around there, especially my old co-workers, but little else from the town. Maybe everything is just over shadowed right now by the excitement of moving to a new place. The new town we are moving to offers so much more and is so much closer to family. The home we left is the one we bought when we were engaged, we were married while living in that house and finished our college careers. I just feel as though our time was finished there and it was time to move on to somewhere new and fit with us more.

I never thought that I would be moving back to my hometown area. I always had it in my head that I'd adventure out to the West Coast or a larger city. As time went on though I realized that I'd really miss all the things that I've grown so accustomed to. I especially realize the importance of family now as I've grown older. I've always grown up surrounded by family and can't imagine not providing that to our family (in the future). This new home puts us in much closer proximity to family, jobs and so much more.

I really can't wait to finally be moved in. As I said earlier, we've been living with my parents for the last 6 weeks. I had lots of reservations about doing so at first (it's been 10 years since living at home) it went extraordinarily well. My parents don't have a large home so we've spent the last month and half in a camper...in the driveway. Our stuff has been stored their huge garage. Needless, to say, we've had no idea where most of our stuff has been the last few weeks. I'm so grateful that my parent's have been so gracious and accommodating for our move. It would have been stressful to find a place to live for a short period with a dog and our large amount of items that needed to be moved. This interim period has allowed us to save money, spend time with family and prepare for the work ahead. I really can't say enough how thankful I am for their help.

Goodbye Mount Pleasant....


And hello Fenton....
We're looking forward to another new and exciting adventure. There will be lots of pictures and updates to come. I'm hoping that before too long we'll be settled and back to our normal schedule/lives.

 Do you live near or far from family? If you could move anywhere where would you move?

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Bump in the road, or root in the trail...injury time!


It's been over three weeks and I feel like I'm slowly going crazy. Three weeks ago I was running in this beautiful place:

...when a tree root decided to grab hold of my foot and give it a wicked twist. Immediately I knew that I was going to be out of the running game for a while. I had been in the middle of a jump (over some overgrown brush) when I came down so there was lots of extra force and torque on it. I heard a pop! and immediately dropped to the ground. A string of expletives stammered out of my mouth as I yelled ahead at Ryan (my hubby) to stop/help. I knew that it wouldn't be long before I wouldn't be able to walk on it at all, so together we hobbled back off the trail and to a spot where I could wait for Ryan to come back with the car because there was no way I was walking back. 

I tried my best to get it raised right away. I sat there about 20 minutes waiting for Ryan to get back. 

Maybe cried a bit (frustration along with radiating pain)

And did a lot of this (plus ice) the next few days.

It didn't bruise a lot...at first, but after about 5 days it turned lovely shades of blue, green and yellow. I never went to the docs to have it checked because our insurance sucks and I was 99% sure it was a mid-foot sprain (this is only about the 100th sprained foot in my life, although it's usually my ankle). Three weeks later and I'm regaining a lot more strength and almost all the swelling is gone.

This time off has really made me realize how I much I really began to love (yes love, not just like) running. It's been a tough few weeks to take off and I feel the frustration mounting. I'm more than eager to get running again, but am reluctant because I don't want to start up too soon and re-injure. Lately it's been lots of stretching, walking and toe raises. I'm hoping to start back up next week, but very slowly. I had plans to run a 10k later this summer, but we'll see if that happens depending on how quickly I can build up strength/endurance again. 

I feel like that last few weeks have taken forever to go by. Whether that's due to the injury or the fact that were in transition from moving from our old home, to my parent's home, and waiting to move into our new home, I have no idea. One things for sure, I miss the solace and time spent getting away from it all on my runs. 

Have you had an injury that knocked you out of the fitness game for awhile? 
Did it take you long to get back to your normal routine and endurance once you healed?