Holiday Adventures!!!

Hello out there!!!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season :)       Usually during the holiday season, I like to bake, relax, shop, and travel.  Last year completing some of these task where difficult for me, I didn't really bake, shop, or travel  because I had my thyroid removed in late September and was still trying to adjust.     This year has been a completely different story  I shopped until I couldn't walk anymore (shopping counts as exercise right?),  I am in the process of baking all kinds of cookies, I am getting ready to leave to San Diego to go watch my beloved Texas Longhorns play in the Holiday bowl, and......     I finally applied to a Ph.D. program.   Applying to a Ph.D. program has been in the back of mind for some time I just hadn't worked up the nerve and of course the thought of possible rejection is never fun.   This year, though I thought, hey why not I am trying to live my life to it's fullest and do things to prove to myself that I can do this even if I am missing a vital part of my body.  So now I am sitting on edge, wondering will I or won't I get in???     Either way, I need to keep reminding myself that what is meant to be is meant to be.       In time I will find out and at least I can say I tried!!         

As for my running adventure, and training for the hot chocolate run I still haven't been able to maintain a consistent running schedule.  The holiday's and getting in my application kind of derailed me.  However, I have been doing a lot of walking with my dogs and of course holiday shopping walking.   I know I need to train more intensely and I hope to get to that soon.   I also hope the weather gets a little better it's been raining, cold, and just yuck to be able to run outside and I don't want to go run on a treadmill, but if I come back from  my San Diego Trip and it's still like this then the treadmill it will be.         

As for my weight loss adventure, my mom and I have been trying to watch what we it as much as we can.  I don't think I have gained weight, but I don't think I have lost weight.  Isn't dieting during the holidays so difficult???  Especially, when you are baking :)         I am proud of my mom and I though for trying to watch our Weight Watchers Points that I think is an goal accomplished in itself!!!    

Well I am off to go shop some more and with that I ask..  Does anyone out there have any plans of actions or adventures  for the holiday season???    

Couch to 5k

I am tired of beign a couch potato.  I am tired of gaining weight. I am tired of being of track.  I am just tired :)

 A  couple weeks ago I signed myself up for a 5k (3.1 milles)  that is called the Hot Chocolate run.    I have been so off  track with running it is ridiculous, and I can tell that my body is just inflating from all the bad food I have been eating and from my lack of movement.    In the back of my mind I keep telling myself I need to get off this couch and get back to running.  So now that I have signed up for this run, I have to get serious.    In the past I would just get out there and start running and give myself a couple weeks and be good to go, but now that I have had my thyroid removed I somehow convinced myself that running is way to difficult.    It is time for me to step up to the plate and get running!!!!!      As much as I want to just get up and run, I decided that I needed to work myself back into it.   I downloaded the couch 2 5k program on my iphone, and started it today.  It wasn't to bad, and I am now motivated to complete this program and prepare for my upcoming run!!   Unfortuatly, I forgot to turn my GPS tracker on so I don't know how far I went, but I got at there and it's a good start!         Has anyone out there every down this program???    If so let me know if you like it.     

I am a warrior!!!!!

GEEZ ,  I have been so busy with work that I haven't had a chance to update my blog :(    But better late then never.      

Well I did it, I completed the warrior dash and I am officially a warrior!!!!!     It was tough and very challenging,  I did it slow but my goal was to complete it and that is what I did!!!     Now I am not  going to lie, I did have to "cheat"  on a couple of the obstacles but I just didn't have the strength to get myself through certain obstacles, but I made it to the end and for a thyroidless girl like me.. that is a major accomplishment.     I am definitely proud of myself, and  I think I just might try it again next year.  There were some obstacles that where kind of scary, but the volunteers would give us clues and hints and that seemed to help.     One of the first obstacles was a mud pit that I tried to avoid but slipped and fell right into it and of course lost my shoe.  I was able to retrieve my shoe, but after the last obstacle another mud pit  I lost it again, but I guess a true warrior doesn't mind losing a shoe ha ha!     I hope that one day, some of you are inspired to try something like this!!! I am not going to lie, I probably should have trained harder for this, and luckily I had been going to boot camp because if not, I would have been in serious trouble I think.   It is also a mental thing, so if you can convince yourself that you are strong enough, then this is possible.      Here are some pics!!    I don't have pictures of all the obstacles, because it would have been difficult to carry a camera.  Luckily, my dad got some shots of me on some of the obstacles towards the end.


This is me before the race!!!!          My friend and I before the race!!

We had no idea what we where getting into, well we kind of had an idea but not really ha ha!!!

My dad was able to get some pictures of me!!!  The fireman's pole, you had to climb up some barricade type thing and then slide down!! That was kind of fun but scary but it was a steep fall!!  The other one is a rope climb that was high also kind of scary!!

My dad also got a picture of me on the tight rope!! I was nervous about that one, but it turned out to be my favorite obstacle ha ha!!!!  The last obstacle was the mud pit, we had to swim through it, the muddy water was nice and cold and felt good, since here in Texas it was still hot!! I even got sunburn :(

This is me getting out of the mud pit and believe me that was a slippery mess, and this is where I lost my shoe at the end.    This is how I looked when it was all done!!!!     I was a muddy mess!!  Oh, and I hate how the mud sticks to your clothes so much, it makes all your fat show.. but it also has motivated me to get back on track with my eating plan which is a whole other story I will need to blog about soon.

After the race you get hosed down, and they have a pile for you to donate your shoes.  They power wash them, and send them to the needy.  Unfortunately, I was not able to donate my shoes because I lost one, so the other one went in the trash :(   I had taken extra shoes with me because I had planned to donate mine.     

The race took me a little over an hour, which I had kind of expected.  So I was starving, so my parents took me to eat at one my favorite places in Austin!!!  I was so hungry I ate all my food, and even asked for extra "vegetables.  This particular restaurant counts anything that does have meat in it as a vegetable, and you can have all the "vegetables you want!!!!!!!     The portions are huge and best of all it's home cooking type of food!!  It was delicious!!!

I hope that some day, many of you will be inspired to challenge yourselves in way that you never thought you would!!  I also hope, that if you have the opportunity to attempt something like this to go for it, and you too can be a Warrior!!!! 

Ready to be a Warrior!!??

A couple weeks ago, I got it into my head that I too wanted to be a warrior  :)    You know, prove a point to people and myself, and say hey just because I don't have a thyroid doesn't mean I can't be a warrior!!!  So what did I do I signed up for the Warrior Dash!!!     The Warrior Dash is a run/obstacle course and at the end you get to claim that you are a Warrior!   You have to crawl through mud, jump over stuff, clumb stuff, and whatever else they decide to throw at you.   I unfortunatly, haven't had much time to train, and even bootcamp has been on the backburner thanks to a super busy work schedule, but I am looking forward to the experience either way.      When I signed up, a couple weeks ago I thought to myself  I am not going to do this for a time, I am going to do this for fun, for me and to prove that I am a warrior!    The race is next weekend and I do feel slighly nervous since I haven't been able to train like I would have liked.  This week, I am going to try and get some work-outs in starting with a bike ride today, bootcamp tomorrow, bootcamp wednesday, and hopefully some light walking or running on Tuesday or Thursday.     I am going to try and stick to the plan as much as a I can, but unfortunatly this week is going to be stressfull to infinity and beyond.  Somewhere between all this I also decided to try a new brand of medication, I was noticing that the Synthroid was giving me some really bad headaches, one day I tried the other brand that doctor gave me and no headache so  I just kept with it.    My energy has been a little low on some days, but I have also be under a ridicoulus amount of stress so it's hard for me to say where my lack of energy is coming from.     So wish me luck in my becoming a Warrior Adventure!!!  I can't wait to update my blog with some pictures!!!     In case you are curious about the Warrior Dash here is the link:

http://www.warriordash.com/

Alumni Band adventure was awesome

This past weekend was Alumni Band Weekend at the University of Texas!!! I had a blast!  We spent the whole day Saturday practicing, but the performance turned out well!!  I was also surprised at how much of the music I remembered!!!   I also can't believe, I foorgot how much physical activity is required when marching up and down a field!!  Man, no wonder why I stayed thin in college !!!    Here are some pictures!!!

This is me with Big Bertha!! Big Bertha is the largest drum in the world!!!   Big Bertha belongs to the University of Texas Longhorn Band, and makes appearances during each half time show!!! 

This is me with Hook 'Em the Mascot and with some friends that where in LHB with me.  We are all piccolo players!

This is me with Bevo!!! Yes we have a live animal that comes to the football games!!  Bevo got his name from one of our many rivals.  Texas A&M apparently a long time ago, some Aggies decided to brand him with 13-0   so the University of Texas changed it to Bevo and the rest is history..

The Longhorn Alumni band is given seats at the top of the stadium, so how do we get up there??? We marched up the ramps!!!  Ten very long ramps!!!   To top it off we played music as we marched up there!!

The Longhorn Band Takes the Field they were awesome as always!!!!!!!!!     
















My parents took some pictures from their seats of when the Alumni band came out on the field!!  As soon as I can upload them I will!!!! 

Is it time for a job adventure aka career change???

Just an FYI: this is a totally random blog .. it's just basically a compilation of my thoughts for the past couple of months ha ha so sorry if it's kind of well random ha ha


First of all I would like to say I am so excited about my upcoming band adventure!! It's this weekend, and I am happy to say that I have been practicing my piccolo and I am impressed with my self and my memory skills!!!             


Now for the other adventure, the job adventure.     I currently work as a Speech Pathologist, and I have my days with my job.   Lately, I have had more and more days where I just feel bored in a sense.   Now when I say bored I don't mean bored because I am not busy, I mean bored of the same old routine.    Testing, providing therapy, paperwork, not being appreciated and well the list goes on.   For a while now actually I have been trying to figure out what to do???   Don't get my wrong, the field of Speech Pathology is in no way shape or form boring or easy, I am just ready for a change.     I have considered making a complete career change but I have no idea what to do because I have so many interest.  I know I have a love for science, and obviously I enjoy working and helping people, but I am just so burnt out!!!!   I have thought about going back to school to become a Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, Dietitian, Physicians Assistant, Audiologist, going to get a PH.D, going to Law School, computer science and the list goes on and on and on.    Luckily I have most of the prerequisites to apply to this types of programs except for maybe a class but, I just can't focus in on one thing.  I guess my lack of focus is what has kept me from trying to apply for any other type of program.      I know we all go through our ups and downs with our jobs and our professions, but this is something that I have been considering for years, and year after year I just fall back into the same routine!!!  So,  it's time to get serious and make a change, if only I could figure out what change to make ha ha.      If anyone out there in blog world has any ideas then please let me know ha ha.   
Here is my plan of action:
I have already researched a lot of these careers and a lot of them a very closely related to my profession so I wouldn't be making a completely random switch
1) This spring enroll in the second half of anatomy and physiology (I have so many science classes you would think one of my graduate school courses would count but you know how that goes)
2)Just start filling out applications and applying ( I have already kind of started)
3) Get some of the observation hours I need to apply to some of these programs.  I have observed OT's and PT's on many occasions since I work so closely with them but b/c I have never documented any of it I would need to get some hours of observation in.
4)Look for jobs in my field that are in a different area:  One of the awesome things about speech therapy is that there are so many different areas to focus on.  Because of where I work the primary focus is on language and articulation, but maybe I can find a hospital or clinic that focuses on voice disorders, swallowing disorders, brain injury recovery etc.
5) WIN THE LOTTO and GO on VACATION!!!!!!!!!  

My upcoming band Adventure!!!!!

Well,  I finally decided to take the plunge!!!!  When I was in college, I had the great honor of making it into one of the best known college bands here in Texas.  The Longhorn Band!!! As a matter of fact, they where just recently selected as on of the Top Ten College Bands in the Nation and they were number 1.       Every year the University Of Texas Longhorn Alumni Band performs at one of the Texas football games.   Year after year, I think about doing it but chicken out.  This year,  I ran into a friend (a fellow former bandmate) and she mentioned it.. She said you should do it it's so fun!!! So I said well, I always think about doing it but I always forget,  I then said so remind me.  Well, she reminded me, she posted on my facebook that it was time to register.   So after thinking about  it, I decided why not, I mean what do I have to lose.  How many people get to say that they where once a part of the Longhorn Band AKA the Showband of the Southwest!!!    There are a lot of us out there, but not everyone realizes the level of difficulty  there is to get into the band.     So, here I go, I decided it was time to have an adventure, and I did it I signed up to come out in the Alumni Band performance.    So what does this mean??????   Well  I have to get out my piccolo, start practicing the music, and start exercising and walking for the next two weeks to get myself into shape so I can march up and down that field without passing out!!!     I think I will also feel so accomplished if I am able to complete this task and then say, hey and this time I did it without my thryoid!!!!    
Here is a picture of  them!!!   I can't wait to post one from my performance ha ha